Snowden Gets Asylum

Russia just gave NSA Whistleblower Snowden asylum for a year:

Russia granted Edward J. Snowden temporary asylum and allowed him to walk free out of a Moscow airport transit zone on Thursday, ending his legal limbo there after more than five weeks.

Wikileaks posted a thank you note.

What does this say about the United States and a former superpower under the USSR, notorious for torture, murder and of course wiretaps, protecting an American while the United States goes hunting for the guy?

Yesterday the details of spying on U.S. citizens is so severe the NSA pretty much collects everything anyone does on the Internet.

A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet.

We wondered how this is possible that the NSA has access to every byte transmitted via http protocols.  Extreme tech is asking if https has been breached, for many processes use SSL these days.

If HTTPS, PGP, and VPNs have been compromised, and if the NSA really has its insidious tentacles hooked into fiber-optic cables, microwave links, and foreign satellite links, there is almost no way of using the internet or any other communications network without the American and other Western governments snooping on you.

Welcome to the Matrix and you are the Borg, your thoughts are being monitored.

meta: 

Comments

Amazon CEO Bozos just bought the Washington Post

There is something freaky about a guy who started selling books online to now buy the newspaper which broke Watergate, but it is true.

He did not buy WaPo through Amazon, but as an individual. Regardless, the guy is clearly moving into the content business and frankly, online infrastructure, which Amazon is with their cloud services, probably can transition the traditional press into back in the black profits.

Still, what a sign of the times to see a dot con, who survived the crash, turn around and buy one of America's most recognized newspapers and right there inside the beltway.

Considering the spin machine, sure hope integrity survives in Journalism as profits continue to slide to bankruptcy for the traditional press.

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So the WaPo will cover Kindles being made by FoxConn? Hmmm...

Oh, just like Murdoch buying The WSJ had no effect on editorial policies (ha ha ha ha!), I'm sure this won't affect the WaPo either. Don't really care about the WaPo or its writers appearing on MSNBC and kissing political ass (seriously, just have some integrity and stop padding paychecks with endless selling out to whichever party will pay for appearances and "guest hosting"); this is just another symptom. Consolidation by the oligarchs and consolidation of all opinions in a false 2 party system that serves the puppetmasters. All hail the $ and the puppets in the media, government, and international organizations! All hail! Lights out on the West within a decade.

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WaPo already littered with lobbyist plant stories

Our MSM is to the dogs already, I don't know much about Bozos politics beyond keeping Internet sales tax free and wanting to sell cheap goods from China and offshore outsource.

Could be worse, Bill Gates and his lies of evil could have bought it.

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1 in 5 CIA applicants have terrorist connections

This is just shocking. Another Snowden leak reveals 1 in 5 job applicants, this is to get a job with the CIA, have terrorist ties.

Wow. A couple of things, obviously the CIA should loosen up the U.S. requirements, such as rejecting applicants based on their "credit score" and "did you smoke marijuana" and other (mostly legal) behaviors that have absolutely nothing to do with keeping one's mouth shut and other capabilities.

But think about it, if 1 in 5 is trying to get into the CIA, can you imagine, what goes completely unscreened, in other sensitive jobs in the U.S.? Any security screenings for foreign guest workers as an example? Nah.

Gez, CIA loosen up your U.S. standards and Military, hire some damn old people, for that is scary as hell.

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And the US Govt. arms our "allies" until they are "enemies"

Who cares anymore, it's all bullsh*t. Guess what? Nazis were the lowest form of scum until the US government needed some rocket scientists and didn't want the USSR to have them. But wasn't the USSR our ally against the very same Nazis? Wait, what's that? Cognitive dissonance? Don't ask questions.

The USSR sucked in Afghanistan, so we had to arm Al-Qaeda. Until the USSR left and Al-Qaeda wasn't all that cool anymore (yeah, shocking, who could have known, especially tens of thousands of GS-15s, 14s, 13s, and anyone else in federal and state governments who should have known and raised endless red flags). Shhh, forget about it, don't read, think, write, or ask questions. Because if you had a freaking brain, you weren't getting hired in the first place. Shut up, kiss ass, write endless memos, attend millions of useless meetings that achieve nothing, and collect that paycheck. How many "lessons learned" have been written about in useless government memos that achieve NOTHING while people with some brains and integrity wound up homeless?

Paine and Hamilton would be so proud, no doubt. How about Sophie Scholl, how high would she rise in the USG or the UN or WTO or Microsoft? Hmm, food for thought. A young unarmed woman and her family and friends had more balls than most of the people in our government and corporations and international organizations. Who knows, she actually fought Nazis and died for her stand. I guess she missed the "profit rules all," "shut up and earn that cash," "the government in any country is the bestest ever" bull. Guess she was too far before Facebook and cell phones to realize the important things in life! Guess she wasn't thinking about her bank account or the number of "friends" she had. She must have been mighty unpopular, eh? No Davos or conferences or prizes for her.

Qaddafi was evil as proven in Lockerbie. Until he wasn't and trade ties were needed. And then his son got a special visa to visit the US through Hillary's State. But then he was evil again and he had to go. And then. . . Saddam Hussein was good because he fought Iran. Rumsfeld in photos proves it. But then he was bad. And then Rumsfeld said we had to fight him. Assad is evil. Or not? Wait, Pelosi visited him. He was a buffer or something. But now he's evil again. And we have to oust him. But to do that we have to help Al-Qaeda or its proxies. Wait, what?

Myanmar is evil, it butchers the Karen people and uses slave labor. But wait, corporations want contracts in Burma. So now it's good. No more sanctions. No war crimes. No crimes against humanity. No international tribunals. Huh? Drug cartels and terrorists are bad, unless banksters that control the Fed are aiding and abetting them by laundering $. Money laundering is bad, unless the TBTF do it. "Rule of law" is important, unless big corporations don't like it. Where does this joke end? This sick, deadly global joke? The UN and US stop atrocities ASAP. Just not in Rwanda. Or here or there. "The buck stops here"? Not if you are a CEO or politician that doesn't want any blame or responsibility, just $ and perks. Got that?

More importantly, who's lobbying who in DC? Is Guiliani taking $ to say this group is no longer a threat? How about Howard Dean? The Clintons and their lobbying companies?

IT'S ALL BULLSH*T. No integrity, no honor, no patriotism. And we, the average Americans that believed in truth, honor, hard work, and education, are the laughing stock of all these d*cks in high places globally! USA 2013, what's to believe in anymore? Honestly, what? It's endless lies and corruption at our expense and the people like us across the globe. F the elites, f them all.

Name this country or that one. It doesn't matter. For those who care, keep the faith, remember the heroes of the past and present. What we are witnessing is the same crap that's gone on throughout history.

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Nazis

Uh, the rocket scientists were also kind of captured and the Nazis were true evil, but if you are referring to Syria and what's going on at the moment, ya know, we are an economics site, I have no idea anymore than Joe Blow on the street on what is going on here.

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Yeah, but remember the USG cares about bombs, not jobs

Yup, but simply remember this, while Corzine escapes justice for year 2 or 3 now, and Obama focuses like a "laser" for year 4 or 5 or 6 now, they can get a war going within weeks of meeting with Congress. Within WEEKS. Jobs have been disappearing for decades now. That's the economic vs. political/corruption reality. They want a war or invasion or to protect one of the corrupt elite, they can do it. They want jobs to disappear for decades, they can do it. That's the reality. They want $1 trillion for a war against [fill-in-the-blank], it's done. Well, solving outsourcing and stopping Apple from using Foxconn and watching the labor participation rate drop to decades' lows and fix that? Well, don't cry corruption. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Nope, this will take decades of study and reports and meetings and lobbyist dinners and more meetings and more donations and more meetings and more hearings, etc. etc. See, corruption is easy, so so easy. War is easy. The average American and giving a crap about his economic reality, oh, that's so very complicated. So so hard to figure out. Gotta wait and collect billions more while millions more go homeless and thousands more die.

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they don't care about the U.S. worker

Congress and past administrations have been doing everything in their power to wipe out the U.S. worker.

I have no idea what Syria is all about and who are the "bad guys" or if this is another wag the dog as Iraq seems to be, but it is bothersome than the entire globe is not up in arms and here goes the U.S., acting alone.

But we have agendas in Congress to destroy the U.S. worker and the latest absurdity is to cut food stamps to the most vulnerable.

The problem is there are no politicians these days who are not corporate controlled, corrupt. Maybe 3 in the House and 0.5 in the Senate, that would be Bernie Sanders but he just recently voted to increase more foreign guest workers and he knows better than that, so I think he was bought off.

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Jon Corzine absolved - WTF? But we need another war?

Just read somewhere that the DOJ absolved or will absolve Corzine "MFing Global" of any wrongdoing. I'm sure his buddy Dimon goes along with that. Because thousands of people working for six figures inside the DOJ and US Attorneys Office nationally that will soon work for Corzine and Dimon and Wall Street and big law firms simply couldn't find any wrongdoing. Mind you, there is actually a law that says lying to any federal agent is a crime. Laundering a dime is a crime. Lying to Congress is a crime. And on, and on, and on. But screw those farmers, those MF customers and clients and their families and friends, they matter not.

Seriously? It's so ridiculous it's exhausting. Dudes steal billions break commingling rules left and right, perjure themselves, basically bribe Congress (or is it "lobbying), fire people that try to enforce compliance rules internally, etc., etc. Honestly, again, what do people tell kids or their spouses nowadays? Be good? Work hard and you'll be rewarded? Education matters? Unless you're a complete scumbag and/or born into connections and/or are willing to steal and crush others, the USA is just a barren wasteland. Don't bother, it's a joke. "Rule of law," the "Golden Rule"? Whatever, only for suckers. Why should we follow laws or pay a dime in taxes when scum doesn't follow any of the same rules. No answer is satisfactory at this point, not one. It truly is Versailles vs. us.

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I think all of America is disgusted

But it seems nothing changes and I think that disgusts people more.

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Why even bother anymore?

I agree with you 100%. It's all an insiders game.

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