G+_George Kozi Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Originally shared by George Kozi What Snowden Did - For Dummies It's very simple. Picture this: you are minding your own business, and you are quite content doing it. Not too happy, but not too unhappy either. Out of the blue, along comes a stranger. He yells "hey, look behind you", and points his finger at something. Because humans are curious, you can't resist the urge to turn around and look. What Edward Snowden is pointing at, is this: your personal bodyguard whom you have charged with keeping you safe, has hired a camera crew, and he is filming everything that you and everyone around you does. The bodyguard thinks that this is okay, because it is what you asked him to do. Mr Snowden has shattered our illusions. That's what he did. Many were initially angry at him for taking away this comfortable, dreamy state we were living in. But then again, maybe the illusion needed to be pulverized. For that, Edward Snowden gets my "man of the year" award. Like him or loath him, he made a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jeff Wheatley Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Kenneth Smith i dont see this as a common sense issue. There is a difference between knowing everything is monitorable and finding out the nearly everything is being monitored. Knowing that the computers, switches, routers, servers, etc know everything I have done online, and that this info is subpeona-able doesnt bother me. Knowing that the U.S. government has been actively accessing the info wholesale... rather than with court direction for specific cases... That is against the spirit and letter of the law! Do we have God-given, constitutionally-protected rights or do we not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 I didn't realize we were fighting WW3 currently..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 You're right. We may be fighting WW3 at the moment and it might be a civil war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Damian Mongru Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Kenneth Smith I have no problem with investigating targets, but taking everyone's data in hope that they stop criminal activity is assuming everyone is guilty - I'm not sure where I stand on that. As you say everything you do is monitored online, it's common sense, and I think the potential criminals are aware of this too. So you shouldn't get any good data from them, you're only stopping the stupid criminals. Gavin Gordon Dangerously close to invoking Godwin's Law. :-) Wherever you stand on this issue, the full extent of the governments surveillance was not known, and Edward Snowden gave up his way of life to expose something he thought was wrong, and important to understand. For this, I agree with George Kozi and think that he is man of the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 If you give up privacy for safety, you've given up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Kevin Liddle Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 I refuse to take the bait,I refuse to take the bait,I refuse to take the bait,I refuse to take the bait, Oh crap here I go. If you couldn't figure out that after 9/11 you weren't being monitored then it's time to crawl back in the cave you been dwelling in for the last twelve years. Snowden accepted stolen documents and did just what was done by the terrorists did years ago. He disrupted our sense of security. I call him a traitor because he worked for the CIA and knew that this was happening. But this is America and you are entitled to your opinion. Thanks in part to the people who were exposed by him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 This country was founded by a bunch of traitors. When they do the right thing for the well being of the citizens, we call them patriots. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Kevin Liddle Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Curt Steege A group of men who consulted with the people. Not one individual who knew he was going to be persecuted for what he did and went to another country to hide and threaten to release more documents. This country was built on a basis of the people being treated unjustly but openly by a country that was across a whole ocean. If it wasn't for the "spies" who provided information to Washington and the other generals many of battles would of been lost and we very well could still be under a British flag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Sounds like the same arguments for justification that Joseph McCarthy used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Kevin Liddle Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Everyone is crying about a loss of privacy now. But where were they when the NSA foiled the fail attacks on Time square, or Portland, OR? Where were your out cries when they failed to stop the bombing in Boston? After the bombing the public wanted to know why it didn't work then. But now it's how dare you spy on ME I'm not the ones who are doing bad. I'm sorry Mister Steege and Kozi it seems to me that you are jumping on the band wagon of the NOW. Just wait until the next crisis and see how you yell. I'm out of here. My BP is high enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 I'm not jumping on any bandwagon. I was against the Patriot Act in the first place. Seems to me a lot of people jumped on that bandwagon years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/23/obama-cant-point-to-a-single-time-the-nsa-call-records-program-prevented-a-terrorist-attack/ Also, the inability to stop the bombing in Boston is more proof it doesn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 The point is that if give up your rights for false sense of security, then powers that are trying to control you ARE controlling you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Uncle Joe (Uncle Joe Hi Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Replace "recording your phone calls" with "recording you on video" and this whole idea the NSA recording you is good is pretty much killed. Not to mention that this data could, and may be, easily used to quell dissent. The IRS data is so what makes anyone think NSA data isn't/can't be either? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Uncle Joe (Uncle Joe Hi Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Kevin Liddle I don't care what it foiled. That's not the point. Don't drive a car and you'll "foil" any chance of being in an accident. A few thousand lives that might otherwise be saved with good, Constitutional police work aren't worth our liberties; liberties that countless thousands died trying to protect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 You know what really makes America unsafe, probably more than anything? Blindly accepting what the government tells you what is good for you without any checks and balances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Uncle Joe (Uncle Joe Hi Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Lou Gagliardi That has little to do with the fact that the NSA is collecting hoards of data on all of us. Shoot the messenger but the message remains. I would much rather Snowden had gone to an American journalist. However, given how cozy our media is with the government I don't exactly blame him that much. Perhaps they have exposed secrets but in the end they've also exposed a lot of wrong-doing. For their misdeeds I won't defend them but for the great work of exposing illegal monitoring of Americans I support them. Keep in mind, this went further than anyone thought. We were told only international traffic would be monitored now we find ALL traffic is being monitored. If it was Constitutional, why wasn't disclosed before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Because ignorance is bliss, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Uncle Joe (Uncle Joe Hi Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Lou Gagliardi Interesting way to put it. Is not letting the NSA spy on us because of a 9/11 essentially letting terror institute change? You may be fine with letting the NSA record all Americans but its wrong. Period. The data shouldn't exist in government because it can be used against nearly anyone. Again, look at the IRS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Uncle Joe (Uncle Joe Hi Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Lou Gagliardi Likely home, working, point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Lou Gagliardi It's interesting that you come up with a name like Osama bin Greenwald. Because under NSA's authority, without anyone checking up on them, if they can't find a target to pick on, they will invent one. Maybe even invent a threat whose modus operandi is someone who makes up terrorist names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Curt Steege Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 I complained constantly but it fell on deaf ears. People were too enamored with the cool, shiny name "Patriot Act". ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Damian Mongru Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Thanks, Lou Gagliardi, 'he deserves a trial then death' did make me chuckle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Damian Mongru Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Lou Gagliardi What do you think are the options if you are working ( or outsourced by) the government and are asked to do something which is wrong. Obviously, you can simply not do your job, or just leave - but that would probably just mean that someone else would do it. For you, is there no way to expose government wrong doings? Obviously this relates to Snowden, but I ask the question in a general non-specific way. Also, saying things like, things were only complained about because of a 'biracial democrat', or people don't deserve trials, or calling people peons sound very prejudiced and dictatorial. You, I even the US government do not know exactly what Snowden knows, and therefore a trial to determine the extent of his crimes, or if it is just whistleblowing is essential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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