US Politics Mega-thread - Page 3307

On March 15 2016 01:10 xDaunt wrote:
Good god. WTF is Kasich doing with these absurd statements on illegal immigration? This is pandering at its worst.

On March 15 2016 00:30 KwarK wrote:

Did you even read my post? Come on! Buses, stores etc are private institutions. That isn't the state spying on you, that is the store not wanting you to steal shit.

My post explained that the vast, vast majority of CCTV is privately operated public spaces where other people can observe you anyway and that the surveillance you should actually be worried about is the state surveillance into the private sphere of your phone etc which is identical in the US and the UK, thus disproving the American myth that the UK is some kind of strange totalitarian nightmare to be avoided. You counter this by ignoring that CCTV is not state operated, agreeing with me about the phones and then missing the entire point of what I said by agreeing with me that it's the same in both countries. Learn to fucking read. I'll try and break this down really simply for you.

Most video surveillance is in public spaces where you have no presumed privacy and is operated by private entities attempting to protect their own property. They have the right to do so, it is a thing you accept when you enter the store. It is not state operated or controlled, it is not part of the state surveillance apparatus. This is the case both in the UK and the US.

State surveillance into the private sphere comes in the form of reading google searches, listening in on phone calls, reading texts/emails etc. These are presumed private activities and is therefore actual intrusion, unlike the CCTV cameras in McDonalds. Again, this is the case in both the UK and the US.

Therefore the argument that the existence of CCTV in the UK makes the UK a totalitarian state fails for four reasons.
Firstly, CCTV isn't exclusive to the UK, it exists in both.
Secondly, CCTV isn't part of the state surveillance apparatus in either country, it is by and large privately owned and operated within private establishments. This is the same in both the UK and the US.
Thirdly, CCTV aren't telescreens spying in your bedroom, they exist only in public spaces in which their is no assumption of privacy. Again, this is the same in both the UK and the US.
Fourthly, the state surveillance that exists is the intrusion into personal devices which are part of the private sphere of the individual. This is the same in both the UK and the US.

Therefore the argument "there are CCTV cameras in the UK and therefore it is a totalitarian nightmare, unlike the US" fails because it's a fucking retarded argument. You were responding to something completely other than what I wrote including bringing up Obama's drone strikes in Yemen as evidence of how CCTV in London makes the UK a totalitarian state completely unlike the US.

On March 14 2016 23:10 oneofthem wrote:
at some point id just say the elites deserve sanders and trump and be at peace with it. problem is their populist politics has no easy reverse gear. it sould also be harmful to the poor.

trchnocratic administrative state needs popular trust or repression. it is a perilous path towards building that. given the hard to repair sstems at risk it really might be a brave new world in ten years time.

On March 15 2016 02:40 Plansix wrote:
(...) I would say that my ability to stop the government is far less limited, as they are front facing.

On March 15 2016 02:59 xDaunt wrote:
Well this is interesting: Russia is pulling out of Syria claiming "mission accomplished."

On March 15 2016 02:59 xDaunt wrote:
Well this is interesting: Russia is pulling out of Syria claiming "mission accomplished."

On March 15 2016 02:55 Evotroid wrote:


I am sorry, but don't understand, what do you mean by that the government is front facing?

On March 15 2016 02:59 xDaunt wrote:
Well this is interesting: Russia is pulling out of Syria claiming "mission accomplished."

On March 15 2016 02:48 IgnE wrote:


We must protect the people from themselves. Same logic in Vietnam. Same logic in Iran. Same logic in America 2016.

On March 15 2016 03:14 oneofthem wrote:

like it or not at the very minimum under the sanders plan, the poor will face very severe inflation of basic necessities, energy will be way more expensive, and the deficit ballooning will put the most vulnerable groups at risk of fiscal cuts.

these are not some joke concerns. estimates of increased purchasing power for the poor is above 50%, and middle class above 25%. CEA

sanders wants to cut coal and end nuclear plants license renewals, a spectacularly dumb idea already found to increase price of energy for consumers sharply.

if you really truly care about people then it's irresponsible not to address the consequences of ideologically tasty ideas.

On March 15 2016 03:14 oneofthem wrote:

like it or not at the very minimum under the sanders plan, the poor will face very severe inflation of basic necessities, energy will be way more expensive, and the deficit ballooning will put the most vulnerable groups at risk of fiscal cuts.

February smashed a century of global temperature records by “stunning” margin, according to data released by Nasa.

The unprecedented leap led scientists, usually wary of highlighting a single month’s temperature, to label the new record a “shocker” and warn of a “climate emergency”.

[. . .]

Fossil fuel-burning and the strong El Niño pushed CO2 levels up by 3.05 parts per million (ppm) to 402.6 ppm compared to 2014. “CO2 levels are increasing faster than they have in hundreds of thousands of years,” said Pieter Tans, lead scientist at Noaa’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. “It’s explosive compared to natural processes.”