Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[UMStan White]

"On the other end the spectrum, keep those two fuckwads out of the country WOULD HAVE STOPPED the San Bernardino murders.

Speaking of but-for causation Talent, Jeff you do know don't you that Farook was a US citizen, born in the US.

[UMStan White]

"Putin in his 60s. Although his arms are a little soft looking, he's got a great mid-section for all the Vodka he probably consumes. But, yeah, good looking horse."

God you old geezer left behind have you ever heard of photoshop?

[entropy]

For citizens to help and be the eyes and ears like Israel those who cry wolf have to face harsh punishment. A friend of mine who is Muslim posted a story from the sister of a 12 boy who was taken out of school and held in Juvenal detention without anyone contacting his parents because some kids thought it would be funny to tell the principle their Muslim classmate was talking about bombing the school.


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[Jeff Buchanan]

....... Speaking of but-for causation Talent, Jeff you do know don't you that Farook was a US citizen, born in the US.

I do. Perhaps I wasn't clear. Farook is of Pakistani decent. He made several trips to the ME from the US. He is believed to have had contact via social media with multiple suspects on the FBI's terror watch list.

During his last trip to Saudi, he brought back a Pakastani, Malik, his wife at the time of the killings. Her nickname was "The Saudi Girl" for her connection to that country.

Dots.

The disturbing thing is that his Facebook activities along with his travels to the ME did not raise red flags when, on a US Passport, he re-entered the country with Malik who was traveling on a K1 visa. Not sure if the Saudi's new anything about Malik and even if they did, I would not trust those bastards to share it with US intelligence or Immigration officials.

My point is that Immigration officials in cooperation with the TSA need to be suspicious of, when there is reason to, and there was in this case, the movement of select groups of Muslims, US citizens or not, back and forth from the ME. In hindsight, Farook, even though he was a US citizen, because of his movements and social media contacts should have been in that select group I speak of here. It might have saved the lives of 14 innocent people.

[Ghengis Jon]

I would suspect a data overload. They collect so much stuff they can't keep track of it. Look at that giant facility in Utah for the NSA. Built to suck up and process worldwide internet and cell phone data. The responsible parties can't/don't know how to prioritize the data, much less the data hits. They just haven't come to realize that they're reaching the point where too much of a good thing is bad. The surveilence capabilities of our govt is staggering. They've buried themselves in data. Might be a good time not to collect data on Americans citizens who do not have 'bad' associations or have not done or said anything that would indicate nefarious intent.

[Wild Hoss]

I would suspect a data overload. They collect so much stuff they can't keep track of it. Look at that giant facility in Utah for the NSA. Built to suck up and process worldwide internet and cell phone data. The responsible parties can't/don't know how to prioritize the data, much less the data hits. They just haven't come to realize that they're reaching the point where too much of a good thing is bad. The surveilence capabilities of our govt is staggering. They've buried themselves in data. Might be a good time not to collect data on Americans citizens who do not have 'bad' associations or have not done or said anything that would indicate nefarious intent.

I suspect there is also a lengthy waiting list for red flags to actually get checked out. Think about all the cold cases there are in this country despite the stupendous money and resources we apply to law enforcement.

[hack]

Good post, GJ. Forget the rights and wrongs -- the nuts and bolts of letting the secrecy regime expand like it has is that you can't tell what's important and what's not, even if you had time to sift through all of it. And doing so means giving so many people clearance that you get the leaks there have been recently. You can't abuse a secrecy regime because you end up not having an effective one pretty quickly as a result.

[WingsFan]

On the other end the spectrum, keep those two fuckwads out of the country WOULD HAVE STOPPED the San Bernardino murders. And being jihadist muslim wasn't "a" reason for it, it was THE reason for it. As we lawyers say, proximate cause vs "but-for" causation. Religion=proximate cause.

Keep her out of the country. He was an American citizen - born and raised in the good old USA.

[lineygoblue]

I think one day soon, the Native Americans are going to rise up and kick all of us the #### out ...

[CGVT]

Hell, they have no right. They came from Asia. We're all descendants of immigrants. ;)

[WingsFan]

[Mike]

That said, a ?cleansed? GOP, free of its evangelicals and Tea Party nuts, might be a nightmare for the Democrats.

That would get me back in the fold for the R's. The hijacking of the party by the religious right and Tea Party moved the party further right than I was comfortable with. Once it looked like a litmus test for party affiliation would be the belief that humans coexisted with dinosaurs, I was out of there. I considered voting against the 2008 GOP ticket a civic duty. That was the first time I ever voted for a democrat and I've patiently been waiting for the R's to get their shit together and stop being "the party of stupid" as Bobby Jindahl would say.

[UMStan White]

"In hindsight, Farook, even though he was a US citizen, because of his movements and social media contacts should have been in that select group I speak of here. It might have saved the lives of 14 innocent people. "

Amen! Bring back the Red Squads of the 60's and 70's. Where's John Mitchel when you really need him!

[iam416]

Heh.

And look, if the Bourne Trilogy has taught us anything it's that huge amounts of data can easily be sifted. I don't know why hack insists on living in the past, man.

Re Farook, yeah, I know he's a citizen. My point still stands! If the wasn't allowed back into the country, it doesn't happen! Not quite as strong a point.

Re "Terror Watch Lists" and other Maoist stuff, I have a real, real problem with those to the extent they're used to infringe upon rights IF there's no due process mechanism. Then it's just a list. They named names, Jerry.

[hack]

239 years of beautiful tradition from Thomas Hamilton to Bernie Sanders? You're goddamned right I'm living in the past!

(Bottom line: when you massage the definition of secrecy to include things that really aren't secrets, you need so many people managing the system that you're gonna have Snowdens and Mannings, and then you don't actually have secrecy. So other than more chances to transfer wealth to your friends in defense contracting, what's the point?)