Recent comments

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    According to Julian Assange lawyer and member of TheRealNews.com the NSA now has a new saying: 'we track 'em...you wack 'em'!

    The NSA uses SIM cards in cell phones to track and reports that to the JSOC guys who direct the drones to "wack" people. So now the "enemy"..knowing this.. has everyone in their group meetings remove their sim cards, put them in a bag, then reach in and take one. Then they also often give those phones to unsuspecting people...kids...to use. The results would be that the drones zero in on civilians and kill them.

    "Some [high value targets] have as many as 16 different SIM cards associated with their identity within the High Value Target system. Others, unaware that their mobile phone is being targeted, lend their phone, with the SIM card in it, to friends, children, spouses and family members."

    "Based on his [a former drone operator] experience, he has come to believe that the drone program amounts to little more than death by unreliable metadata."

    “People get hung up that there’s a targeted list of people,” he says. “It’s really like we’re targeting a cell phone. We’re not going after people – we’re going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy.”

    "In fact, as the former JSOC drone operator recounts, tracking people by metadata and then killing them by SIM card is inherently flawed. The NSA “will develop a pattern,” he says, “where they understand that this is what this person’s voice sounds like, this is who his friends are, this is who his commander is, this is who his subordinates are. And they put them into a matrix. But it’s not always correct. There’s a lot of human error in that.”

    ".. the NSA doesn’t just locate the cell phones of terror suspects by intercepting communications from cell phone towers and Internet service providers. The agency also equips drones and other aircraft with devices known as “virtual base-tower transceivers” – creating, in effect, a fake cell phone tower that can force a targeted person’s device to lock onto the NSA’s receiver without their knowledge.

    That, in turn, allows the military to track the cell phone to within 30 feet of its actual location, feeding the real-time data to teams of drone operators who conduct missile strikes or facilitate night raids.

    The NSA geolocation system used by JSOC is known by the code name GILGAMESH."

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YBR6p27vDw
    https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/10/the-nsas-secret-role/

    Do you really think you can turn off your geolocation function on your iPhones? ha! They got you whenever they want you...unless your little child or little grandchild is playing with your iPhone one day when you are away. When the fascist pigs begin their drone programs in the US...you'd better hope they haven't labeled you as an enemy combatant just for expressing yourself against the ruling elite. As a matter of fact, there's another report by Snowden on how the NSA is tracking you... if you have ever gone to Wikileaks website to see what all the fuss is about. Even if you don't agree with Wikileaks...if you have gone to their web site...or any other anti-official government web site...they got your number, know who you (we) are, and may be spying on you (us) right now.

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    Most of the supposed problems with Social Security are caused by the presumption made by Congress that everything stays the same. For example, though most congressmen know a little about the invlation rate, they never index anything to it. The cap on Social Seckuirty, FICA, tax rates has been the same for a long time. If they had indexed it to the inflation rate or to the CPI, the cap would be somewhere arouind $250,000 (I havent't calculated it but I think it would be in that order of magnitukde). The allow the Social Security Trust Fund, incrased by Ronald Reagan, to be depleted by the Social Securirty payments being increased by the COLA but not the limits on FICA!

    Richard D. Wolff talks about the minimum wage problem. If the minimum wage had been indexed correctly since it was started in 1968, the minimum wage wuld be at least $11.00 per hour now. This would not solve the provblem of poverty, but it would help.

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    double post deleted.

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    I agree, DHBranski! The Democrat party is not our friend. Some within the Democrat party may actually be working for us but the majority are owned by the ruling elite. The Dems will make a lot of promises, or at least obfuscate on them like politicians all do, and then they will stab us in our backs.

    It's time we do what was done in Seattle...oust the good ole' boy, entrenched Dems and put in, if not Socialists like Kshama Sawant, then anyone but Republicans or Democrats. It's the only relatively peaceful way of shaking up the criminals currently in power. I am afraid that it is going to take a lot more than that which is non-peaceful. And, perhaps, one day masses of fed-up USians will take to the streets as they are in say...Kiev and other places in the Ukraine. Although, the role is really reversed in the Ukraine...the violent protestors are being backed by the US and Europe in order to get the Ukraine suckered into a failed Euro system that will entrap them as they have entrapped Greece and Spain and other countries. And just listen to our government officials berate the Ukraine government while the Ukrainian police just stand there behind their shields...using way less force ..if any at all... against the protestors who are hurling fire bombs at the police. The US is such a hypocrite.

    I sometimes wonder if the US isn't trying really hard to recreate the cold war between Russian and the US. Back in those times...50s..60s..70s.. the US government had everyone paranoid against Socialism and Communism... they even had witch hunts...McCarthyism...HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) hearings against anyone who didn't tow the Capitalist-pig line.

    Maybe, they see that, due to their piggish, greedy nature, they are turning people back to Socialism... or at least against their piggish example they set. They need a new excuse to crack down on anyone who opposes them. Since more and more people are coming to realize that the US is the world's biggest terrorist (Seig Heil!!!) nation, really bent on world domination (just as Nazi Germany was), the claims of terrorist threats ring hollow and they need a new bogey man to scare us and threaten us with.

    What better way of scaring people than the nuclear threat? And Russia still has their bombs...some of them anyway...at least the ones that they didn't sell to other countries. But it may not be ICBMs that carry them...our new potential, self-created enemies might just have suitcase nukes already planted in key US cities. Who knows? All empires fall one way or another...eventually.

  • Now They Want to Track Our Daily Travel.   11 years 17 weeks ago
    ;-)

    ;-)

  • The FCC Won't Stand Up for Internet Freedom.   11 years 17 weeks ago

    Gator Girl, I've felt your pain. As I've mentioned many times here already, we disconnected from cable TV seven years ago. Haven't looked back, nor have I suffered one twinge of withdrawal. Ahhh... silence is golden! When the choice is between corporate fascist drivel and nothing at all, we're better off with nothing. - AIW

  • Now They Want to Track Our Daily Travel.   11 years 17 weeks ago

    Perfect, PD. That's the mature, adult way to deal with these clueless intruders. - AIW

  • The FCC Won't Stand Up for Internet Freedom.   11 years 17 weeks ago

    That's why my Kindle is so full and I keep my XM radio on a lot. There are only a few programs worth watching anymore - Bill Maher and Newsroom are the only 2 reasons I keep HBO. Have Cocks here in this area and until recently was only kid on the block other that DirecTV and did NOT want that. Now CenturyLink has run its lines out our way and have Prism - don't know anyone else who has it but am pretty sure that their service would not be much better than what we have now - except for the "introductory period" when they are trying to such you in.

    My son has Comcast in Tallahassee, FL and has absolutely nothing but problems. His security system is linked to that and when Comcast is down that is, too - a real difficulty since he is disabled. But, general consensus is that they ALL SUCH! and those who have the power will do whatever's pocke they are in - not interested in us and our cries for net neutrality. I don't usually give in but we have been fighting this for so long and I am not sure that we have many ways left to fight. But, I will still continue to write, email, sign petitions in the hope that just maybe SOMEONE in power will side with us. Other than that, I am ready to disconnect and just get a decent ISP, use my cell phone and screw TV. Getting more disgusted daily with this whole thing.

  • Now They Want to Track Our Daily Travel.   11 years 17 weeks ago

    AIW: maybe if we don't feed "her", he will go back to playing with his thingibot or go back to fantasizing with IATE12G.

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    Willie W., Social Security has been targeted for years, but done incrementally, the way welfare was ended (one piece at a time). As you know, we pay into Social Security retirement and disability, and Democrats have repeatedly targeted the disabled. With each budget season, the alarm goes out that Republicans are targeting Social Security, and the public responds. While they're busy shouting about protecting retirement, govt quietly cuts away at disability. Lib media/Dems then declare victory, claiming they've "saved Social Security." Presumably because it was Clinton and the Democrats who began the agenda against the disabled, lib media has (with very rare exception) ignored this issue.

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    Yep! Calcutta, USA. Murder by deprivation and starvation. Who needs death camps anyway?!

    As these so-called public servants keep slashing and cutting the last traces of our public safety net, and as our roads, bridges and sewers keep crumblng all around us, Tax Season 2014 looms near. Taxation without representation!! Wheee! - AIW

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    With very rare exception, progressives and Dems have only been interested in protecting Social Security retirement. We pay into Social Security retirement AND disability. Since Clinton, Dems have repeatedly targeted the disabled, seriously ill and dying. In fact, they became the fastest-growing group of homeless people by the end of the Clinton admin. A while back, low-income retirees and the disabled were enrolled in food stamps in place of several annual COLAs, only to have the food stamp benefits promptly targeted. They were significantly cut a few weeks ago (November), and cut yet again this month. 89 Democrats, including those labelled as "bold progressives" (Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, John Dingell, Tammy Duckworth, etc.) voted for these cuts. Interestingly, most of the "progressive" media has ignored this issue throughout, presumably because their target audience is middle class consumers and campaign donors.

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    When you been down this long it looks like up.

  • Now They Want to Track Our Daily Travel.   11 years 17 weeks ago

    PD -- She's baaaack!

  • Now They Want to Track Our Daily Travel.   11 years 17 weeks ago

    I've heard nothing much other than praise from Canadians about their system - not raves but praise, nonetheless. Even Kend, when he didn't have an ulterior motive to start an argument, spoke well of it and said we should adopt something like that.

    Any complaining about it is, I think, a new phenomenon, probably the result of some propaganda campaign about it or some cuts or sabotage of it by conservative politicians.

    I'll research that again.

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    I agree with Mark, Willie and Gator Girl. This feels like a flimsy victory at best. The predators are persistant; they won't give up until we've got Calcutta, USA, where once again, the most common cause of death in old age is hypothermia. - AIW

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    I wouldn't call it a victory, we've staved off another defeat for now. We've been playing defense for a LONG time. Even when we have a MAJORITY we're playing defense.

    Must remember, people vote with dollar bills now.

  • The FCC Won't Stand Up for Internet Freedom.   11 years 17 weeks ago

    I hear you Mr. Brannon, and wholeheartedly agree. We are in deep do-do.

    - AIW

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    Social Security never made it into the Lock Box.

    One thing that needs to get out of the box is XL Energy Pipeline is the Keystone to the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. What else is going to fuel those new factories and jobs overseas.

    We have always had a global economy. We have not always had a global stock exchange (1950's) now coupled with corporate tax law changes (i.e., Bush lowering the 30 percent tax on overseas profits to 2 percent) and ever more trade agreements.

    Lone Tree Oil is suing Canada under NAFTA for not allowing it (because of Provincial law and regulations) to drill (frack) under the St. Lawrence. This is now in the court in Ottawa.

    The Trans-Pacific Partnership establishes its own court to handle internation/corporate disputes. For example, the Polymet Mine proposal in Northern Minnesota would not be having public hearings. The Chilean mining company, Polymet, would simply site the phonebook thick Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, and their strip mining could go on next to Boundary Waters unimpeded by U.S. Law, the EPA and certainly Minnesota law.

    A county in Nebraska halting a pipeline? Never again with the TPP.

    spintimes.us

  • Should large states like California be divided into smaller states?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    I say NO.

    But more importantly, State governments should ALL be unicameral like Nebraska. There is NO need what so ever for state government to have a two body legislature.

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    Now that social security is "out of the box", it will never be safe again.

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    Let's do more like this. The wealthy should pay their share and be happy to do so, it's this country that gave them the opportunity to accumulate wealth along with the sweat of the brow of working people. Step Up!!!!!!!!!!

  • Should large states like California be divided into smaller states?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    This is a republican idea?

    seems instead of representing, their constituents, as they have forgotten, what representatives are suppose to do, they just keep chacing their own tails. They have shown the world one thing for such.....they are just worthless, and a burden on all taxpayers.

    they are all about waste.

  • Is Social Security Safe For Now?   11 years 17 weeks ago

    So Social Security is same for now? Stand by because this is just the first round and could change at any time. Just because it has apparently (?) been taken off of the table right now does not mean that it could not rear its ugly head again in the near future.

    We are told too many things which have started out to be a good thing only to have someone slip a change into some bill/legislation during a late night session and all of a sudden - we are toast. Am I happy about this news? Yes - for now! Do I trust it will remain this way and not be offered up for sacrifice at a later date? Not on your life.

  • Daily Topics - Thursday February 20th, 2014   11 years 17 weeks ago

    I'm not sure, since your question runs on a bit. However, I read that Al Roker felt it necessary to point out that the term "polar vortex" had been in use for at least 50 years, and therefore is not a propaganda term invented by climate scientists to scare people. The polar vortex by itself is not a shutdown of the Gulf Stream, nor would it cause such a shutdown so far as I know. It might even delay it, by cooling Greenland.

    Hurricanes, typhoons and polar vortices are all just types of cyclones. Hurricanes occur in the north Atlantic, typhoons in the north Pacific and polar vortices are centered in the Arctic.

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