deathgrips

The examples you included do not show that Americans have their rights deprived without legal oversight. The exception is drone striking Americans who are overseas plotting imminent terrorist attacks.

Ah, I also failed to consider that Egypt had an agency named NSA. I feel dumb now.

It's basically the idea of dialectical materialism. The very popular book White Fragility is a great example of this thought process.

How did she know he worked for NSA? Did she have any way to verify he was an American or worked for the NSA? Do you think the NSA hires people who specialize in HUMINT? Why would he tell her he works for the NSA?

Too many unanswered questions. It's more likely she made it up because it gets people angry and that's what activists need to do.

If you have problems with other parts of our government, by all means criticize them and be an activist. Speak your mind and vote. Making up stuff about the NSA is intellectually lazy.

Do you think the NSA gives the orders on who to kill and who to kidnap?

>independent review by board or committee

Their spying on Americans is reviewed by judges and courts. They get warrants for every american they spy on.

The senate intelligence committee may (behind closed doors and under the oath of secrecy) inquire about just about anything the intelligence community does.

The president may at his or her sole discretion declassify any information.

Haven't you heard, the first rule of conflict is "all warfare is deception"? Try running a state with zero secrets and see how far you get.

They don't need a court order to sniff packets and do bulk collection. All that data goes into huge data centers. If they want to query that collected data for an American's information, they get a warrant. No human looks at an American's data before getting a warrant. You'd do well to familiarize yourself with their process, which is highly publicized.

No...

>"According to U.S. government officials, as well as being a senior recruiter and motivator, he was centrally involved in planning terrorist operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda"

We are better off with him dead. He was American, but his allegiance was to al Qaeda and he was planning to murder civilians.

Companies regularly monitor employee activities on corporate networks and computers. They have a responsibility to make sure employees aren't using the company's assets to break the law, steal corporate information, leak private information, or irresponsibly download and run malware. If you tell employees exactly what the company is monitoring and the exact methods they use to monitor activity, the monitoring becomes useless because people will subvert it.

So only crimes are wrong? The coffin confessor does mention that he offers to confess crimes after someone dies.

Because if that information were released it would cause significant damage to the country. Why on earth is my company's TLS private key kept a secret from all the employees?

So in the end they only convict people based on legally permissible evidence that shows they are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? How horrible.

When you find a way for a country to exist with 0 enemies, please let us all know.

So you just have the word of one activist? Sorry, that's not enough evidence for me to believe it. If the NSA wanted to unlock a random journalist's phone, they would be able to hack it.

No court order was necessary because AT&T consented to the NSA presence. Just like how your employer can hand over your corporate laptop to the police without needing a warrant. If you don't like it, consider dealing with another business and encrypting your traffic with a full tunnel VPN.

Yes. Secret courts are reasonable due process. Do you have an alternative method that wouldn't release damaging information?

Are you interested in talking about surveillance specifically or every talking point of the usual anti-American tirades?

Oh, I see. Yes. In America you are free to use whatever VPN you pay for, regardless of what country it's hosted in. The NSA won't prohibit it and cannot break it if it's using the right algorithms. If they wanted to intentionally examine your network traffic, that would require a court order. If they wanted to get past your VPN encryption, that would require targeted hacking of a US citizen, which is typically handled by regular law enforcement. The NSA doesn't primarily concern itself with US citizens because investigating them is, in short, a huge pain in the ass. If you have any evidence to the contrary I'd gladly read it.

Refusing to answer the question would be interpreted the same as saying "yes".

If we were like China, Joe Biden would be in jail. It's a different level entirely. Also please use some judgment when seeing America through the lens of our news media. They have every incentive to exaggerate stories so they can get more clicks and sell more ads. The police brutality at the protests is bad, but it's in a different ballpark than the Hong Kong protests. Here protesters don't have a reasonable fear of getting sent to mainland China to be imprisoned for decades, gang raped by cops in jail, and murdered while cops fake your suicide.

Why on earth would it be a good idea to reveal highly classified information to the entire planet during a televised hearing?

This is some wack logic. If I murdered you and stole your car, would you mind if I got away with the crime? What's that, you'd be upset? Doesn't matter, you're dead.

It's not a strawman since it is exactly that which is stated by many influential leftist writers.

>What about 'Not in America'?

Same advice, buy a VPN if you want the services that it provides.

>Because they have 'No logs' policy? Come on, don't be naive.

Contract with a VPN that is audited and resides in a legally favorable country. I hesitate to endorse any particular company, but they're out there. Maybe privacy just isn't convenient enough for you.

>So you do agree that the Amercian VPN companies or any American company have double standards when it comes to China?

What are you talking about?

>very outsider in China installs a VPN to access content outside Great Firewall once they arrive

You are allowed to do this at their law enforcement's mercy.

> several U.S. services work without a VPN

Surveillance wouldn't work very well if it made people quit using the services and network.

> I have heard of targeted deportation/arrests at airport, but never heard of random phone seizures at Airports.

I wonder why they don't feel the need to seize phones at airports. As an aside, I recall reading that the PRC forces Uighurs to install spying apps directly to their phones. That is, all the Uighurs who aren't in "Vocational Educational Camps" and have yet to flee to America, where the supposedly oppressive American surveillance state is a breath of fresh air.

I'm very sure that you're wrong. Do you have any evidence that the NSA kidnaps and tortures people?

The difference is that here we have the freedom to criticize and organize against it. One of the presidential candidates wants to tear down all the stuff you pointed out.

I can say that the surveillance doesn't affect me because it's almost unheard of for Americans to get arrested with evidence that the NSA collected. The NSA is not a law enforcement agency. In China arresting people based on data from surveillance is the norm.

In America you can buy privacy if you really want it. Buy a laptop here, install linux on it, and use a VPN. The NSA can't stop you if you really want privacy. This is illegal in China, where every VPN must be state sponsored and monitored.

America won't arrest you on your vacation here just because you criticized the country on social media. I'd take American hegemony over Chinese hegemony any day of the week.

I also don't think that a fishing pole is useful, but that's because I don't like to fish. With a gun I could

* defend myself

* rob you

* murder you very effectively

* enjoy target shooting

* hunt wild game

* provide peace of mind in troubled times when law and order break down

The fewer guns there are per capita, the more useful they become for criminals. They are so useful, in fact, that people will spend a lot of money and subject themselves to costly and invasive regulations just to buy one gun. If no one found them useful, no one would find it necessary to ban them.

>Can you really blame the academy though?

Yes... Don't give in to people who want to cheapen awards for political points. Let talented diverse crews win on the merits of their art.

It's not diverse. That word is code for "fewer white and Asian people". The same people who profess diversity think that Black Panther and Moonlight had diverse casts.

It's an unspoken foundation of far leftist thought that people don't have beliefs, they have influences. Any art you make is merely an expression of your race, sex, sexual orientation, et cetera. For decades academics have been saying that all white people are subconsciously, inescapably racist. This is the result of that foundational belief.