tqk 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: AT&T Might Agree To Adhere To Neutrality Rules To Seal Its $49 Billion DirecTV Purchase, But Probably Not

    tqk ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2015 @ 02:31pm

    Re: How about Zero Rated electric appliances

    * please ignore the ever increasing hidden cost of your appliances

    Yes, and too bad you won't be able to afford to wash your clothes next year when your washing machine mfgr can't make an affordable deal with your electrical utility. Stop crying you big baby! Lots of people in the world wash their clothes in the nearest river.

  • On the post: Documents Show DEA Running Ever-Increasing Number Of Wiretap Applications Through Friendlier Local Courts

    tqk ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2015 @ 02:03pm

    Re:

    what are the odds they are blackmailing these local courts with info they have acquired through their illegal wiretapping

    You're more than welcome to try to come up with evidence to prove it, but Occum's Razor says you're just being a conspiracy theorist by suggesting it. It's far more likely that judges believe they're just upholding the law and are diligently doing their part in the legal process.

    As for why the police get away with not needing a warrant to find out who anyone's used their phone to contact, blame the dog's breakfast of mish-mash laws the USA has managed to concoct beyond strict Constitutional limits. How can police armed robbery (civil forfeiture) be considered legal? Same SNAFU BS there. Why is lying to a federal officer a felony? Ditto. Why are there no consequences for prosecutors who treat the law like a game of whack a mole? Ditto. Sue the DoJ if you don't like it, but they've likely made that illegal too.

  • On the post: Lawyer Stupidly Sues EFF For Defamation After It Called His Stupid Patent Stupid

    tqk ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2015 @ 09:13am

    Re: Need some serious research here...

    What "law" school is turning out these lawyers?

    What law schools are failing to stop letting these lawyers be turned out? Why aren't the good lawyers all doing the Ken "Popehat" White thing and hunting these jerks down? How can good lawyers stand it that their hard work and dedication has to fight uphill against the horrible reputation all the ambulance chasers have given their profession?

    Why did it take so long for the judges' righteous indignation to finally well up and focus on Prenda?

    Why aren't the good lawyers declaring open season on these bums and cleaning up the mess? It happens in just about every other profession. Why not in the legal profession?

  • On the post: Study: The TSA's Security Theater Troupes Missed 95% Of Smuggled Weapons And Explosives

    tqk ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2015 @ 08:52am

    Re: Re: "a society based around small town values"

    To me, "small town values" is a code phrase indicating all kinds of terrible things, probably because most of the time that I hear it, it comes from the lips of people who are defending terrible things.

    You've got to wonder about the sort of ignorance that lets those people get away with it.

    The guy on the squeaky clean TV show espousing family values? Molesting female family members just a few years ago. The guy who got the World Cup to Africa? Millions in bribes changing hands for almost two decades. John Gotti was a neighborhood hero until the feds caught up to him.

    We are really lousy at judging integrity and honesty.

  • On the post: Study: The TSA's Security Theater Troupes Missed 95% Of Smuggled Weapons And Explosives

    tqk ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2015 @ 08:40am

    Re: "a society based around small town values"

    The Devil's in the details. I see what you mean and agree that's ugly stuff, but when I use it it's intended to convey such ideas as live and let live, mind your own business, honesty is the best policy, & etc. I see little value in conformity. I prefer people to know what's right because it's objectively right, not because peers or overlords say it's right.

    The people I imagine would know the value of education so they'd be educated. They'd realize children and young people are still growing and learning so they deserve enough slack to do that at the same time that they still need supervision to stay out of trouble, and we should accept the fact that they are going to get into trouble because they're still learning and growing.

    I don't think any of this is dependant upon small town population. Even big city neighborhoods can work this way. Don Corleone and John Gotti lived in tightly controlled neighborhoods within big cities.

  • On the post: USA Freedom Act Passes As All Of Mitch McConnell's Bad Amendments Fail

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 08:10pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    So what, in your view, is "the ailment"?

    I'll go with rampant aspirations of tyranny.

    It's also a bit humorous to imagine from afar all those expectant petty tyrants trying to shoulder each other out of the way trying to get to the top of the heap without finding an unexpected knife in their backs.

    I was expecting much better from this century. It's pathetic that we still suffer from BS like this, yet we elected these twits to represent us.

  • On the post: AP Uncovers More Than 100 FBI Spy Plane Flights, Originating From Shell Companies Located In Virginia

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 07:28pm

    Re:

    ... this type of situation would be described as the beginnings of a coup.

    I suspect that coup happened around the time of Truman or FDR. What we're seeing now is their attempts to herd us into our designated holding pens. Moo. Baah.

  • On the post: AP Uncovers More Than 100 FBI Spy Plane Flights, Originating From Shell Companies Located In Virginia

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 07:18pm

    Re: Simple question

    ... those of you worried about foreign terrorists, it might occur to you that the FBI seems to spend a lot of time watching United States citizens and not much time at all watching foreign terrorists.

    Psst: "Drug War".

  • On the post: AP Uncovers More Than 100 FBI Spy Plane Flights, Originating From Shell Companies Located In Virginia

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 07:14pm

    Re: FCC License

    I suspect if you look into it, you'll find a LEO friendly exception clause at work.

  • On the post: AP Uncovers More Than 100 FBI Spy Plane Flights, Originating From Shell Companies Located In Virginia

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 07:01pm

    Re: You've spoiled the suprise...

    ... any metadata they collect was freely given to the (allegedly) third-party aircraft operating as cell tower spoofers, and as we all know any data given to a third party freely has no right to privacy collection from the government (at least according to them).

    We don't yet really understand what Stingrays really can do. We know they force any phone which connects to them into 2G mode which is hackable.

    Are they also hoovering off all the logs and metadata, personally identifying information, messages sent or received, and GPS data? We don't know 'cause they aren't talking. They leave it to us to speculate. I expect the worst, and hope for the best.

  • On the post: AP Uncovers More Than 100 FBI Spy Plane Flights, Originating From Shell Companies Located In Virginia

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 06:48pm

    Re: Re: Re: Not terribly bright...

    I think you're making the common mistake of assuming they give a rat's ass what you or we think. They don't need this to be secret. It's just more convenient for them if it takes the like of AP or Tim to drag it out into the open.

    Somebody needs to come up with an analog to that "minutes until nuclear winter" clock the atomic scientists have. Minutes until "1984" is in place and functioning; I put it at five, now that Congress let Sec. 215 lapse. It's heartening, but we're not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination.

  • On the post: AP Uncovers More Than 100 FBI Spy Plane Flights, Originating From Shell Companies Located In Virginia

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 06:37pm

    Re:

    so I guess the FBI wouldn't mind if a citizen circled their buildings with a drone and a few stingrays attached.

    Yeah, sure. Try lieing to a federal officer. They can lie. You can't. Cf. Dennis Hastert.

  • On the post: Elected Officials Grudgingly Admit Snowden Forced This Debate On Surveillance… As White House Insists He Belongs In Jail

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 06:24pm

    Re: Re: Whistleblowing vs self defense

    Once we understand all that, it's really puzzling why we all still put up with these nation state sized gangs who herd us about and ignore us as long as we're paying our share of the vig. We have got to get over our obeisance to nationalism and tribalism if humanity really wants to survive. These jerks are going to kill us all if we let them continue this way.

  • On the post: White House Refuses To Say If We're 'Less Safe' After PATRIOT Act Provisions Expired

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 06:03pm

    Re: One Further Question

    Perhaps that would give him pause to reflect that the will of the people is being put forth here.

    Haaa, ha, ha, ha, ... Good one. It's hard for me to believe that any of those involved in this mess could give a rat's ass for that "will of the people" stuff. Modern politicians tolerate these four year election cycle things, just hoping to get it quickly out of the way so they can get back to the serious business of raping the treasury, self-aggrandizement, and personal empire building.

    "We The People" are just sheep waiting to be sheered, resources they can play with or torment at their will.

  • On the post: White House Refuses To Say If We're 'Less Safe' After PATRIOT Act Provisions Expired

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 05:42pm

    Re: Re:

    My guess is that they simply came up with a different justification for it somehow that has yet to be uncovered.

    The cynic in me says this (Patriot Act sunset) was all a big show put on by the spies and their supporters about stuff they didn't really much care about. This gave Congress something to foam at the mouth about and kept them busy (doing nothing of any real value to anyone but themselves).

    Meanwhile, Five Eyes carries on as usual. Britain's GCHQ and Canada's CSIS and Germany's BND (well, maybe not that last one) will happily spy on the USA and hand over anything the NSA desires; business as usual.

    I hate being cynical.

  • On the post: Study: The TSA's Security Theater Troupes Missed 95% Of Smuggled Weapons And Explosives

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 04:27pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: What would be better?

    And by all that, I mean I can easily see nation of anarchists building a society based around small town values, populated by Atticus Finch's who watch out for rabid dogs, watch each others' property (or children) when they're away, and keep an eye on unknown strangers ambling through town.

    I can't believe that anyone gains with monsters like DC (or Ottawa) siphoning off billions or trillions of dollars to build abominations like the CIA or 17 overlapping spy agencies, or crapfests like Wall St.

    The gov'ts we have built are hardly better than the sort of thing the Don Corleones were valued for, nor much different than what the Medicis came up with.

  • On the post: Study: The TSA's Security Theater Troupes Missed 95% Of Smuggled Weapons And Explosives

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 04:03pm

    Re: Re: Re: What would be better?

    It's that a government is the inevitable consequence of human beings working together.

    I think it's more a combination of two things. One, people are notoriously bad at judging character. LEOs still believe in lie detectors despite evidence which screams against their validity. This should be fixable by just doing decent research of a person's past and interviews with people who know the subject in question.

    Two, and it may be a corollary of the first, there's always going to be creepy grasping jerks drawn to concentrations of money and power. Because of "One", the Bernie Madoffs and Sepp Blatters can go for decades skimming from the till before it finally blows up in our faces. The only fix for that is eternal vigilance, question everything, don't get lazy, and don't get suckered. Especially, don't get lazy!

    It should be simple to design a gov't which is small, only does what we all need it to do, doesn't allow itself to get corrupted or captured, and keeps itself honest and out of reach of those who'd try to co-opt it or muscle in to get at the goodies.

    Laziness and apathy on our part lets them get away with it.

  • On the post: USA Freedom Act Passes As All Of Mitch McConnell's Bad Amendments Fail

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 07:36pm

    McConnell.

    In Imperial Rome, anyone who failed as miserably as McConnell has would have been expected to fall on their sword for the good of the empire.

    What a pathetic twerp. Who put that dipshit in charge of things?

  • On the post: White House Refuses To Say If We're 'Less Safe' After PATRIOT Act Provisions Expired

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 05:29pm

    Call the administration's bluff?

    But no one seems to be willing to flat out call the administration's bluff here.

    Just from reading this story, it does appear that reporter after reporter did exactly that. Mr. Earnest appears to be doing little more than reiterating Obama's fear mongering talking points from the weekend.

    I'd like to offer my congratulations. You didn't fall for it, Congress didn't fall for it, the surveillance society has received a well deserved slap in the face, and tyrants have been forced to scurry back into their holes for now. There's hope for us yet. Keep on 'em. The beast is a bit more on the ropes now.

  • On the post: Elected Officials Grudgingly Admit Snowden Forced This Debate On Surveillance… As White House Insists He Belongs In Jail

    tqk ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2015 @ 09:30am

    Re:

    Like Manning?

    Jeffrey Sterling? David Drake? "No, no, no, silly. Like Panetta and Petraeus. See, the system works as expected." The system stinks all the way to the moon. I think Snowden is either going to grow old outside the USA or be extraordinarily renditioned back to face a Virginian kangaroo court populated by spooks and other useful idiots. Even in the senate's Patriot Act sunset debate, the surveillance state's champions mumble sotto voce about all the other sooper-seekrit programs that Snowden stole information on and spilled the beans to unauthorized foreign entities.

    Gawd forbid they should turn around and take a suspicious look at some of the crap the CIA pulls daily (and has done since its inception).

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