So much for privacy on the Whole Wide World (Ed on TED)

[AceHigh]

Because I would bother flying all the way from Norway to Moscow just to steal his laptop which will probably self-destruct if he doesn't input a password every 12 hours? Oh wait, that was Xbox one, not his laptop.

[sawakosadako]

Because I would bother flying all the way from Norway to Moscow just to steal his laptop which will probably self-destruct if he doesn't input a password every 12 hours? Oh wait, that was Xbox one, not his laptop.

Oh, I thought you're from Russia. I misunderstood you then. It's still worth a try though. Anybody?

[AceHigh]

Been here for many years, but can't remember any member who was living in Russia. I guess they have their own anime sub groups and trackers.

[Xycolian2332]

Been here for many years, but can't remember any member who was living in Russia. I guess they have their own anime sub groups and trackers.

Pretty sure Al_sleeper is from Russia

[jaybug]

A message I received in my email from my congressman, that I thought you may wish to read.

Dear Mr. VanOrman jaybug:
 
Thanks for your message expressing alarm about the disclosure that the National Security Agency (NSA) is actively collecting data on U.S. citizens. I too am outraged by this highly questionable data collection and I voted for the Amash/Conyers amendment to strip this power away from the federal government.
 
As you know, the NSA has been collecting millions of phone records from Americans, including the time and duration of phone calls and the phone numbers involved. The NSA has claimed they do not collect the content of calls. I do not believe that the phone records of millions upon millions of innocent Americans cannot all be relevant to a terrorism investigation.
 
According to the Director of National Intelligence, the government may not sift through this data indiscriminately, but may query the data when "there is a reasonable suspicion, based on specific facts, that the particular basis for the query is associated with a foreign terrorist organization." While I appreciate that the government has a standard to meet before sifting though the data, it's up to the secret FISA court to determine if the government met the standard and those decisions are also secret. In other words, we have no way of knowing what the government is doing with the data or even what legal limits - if any - the FISA court has placed on the government.
 
I'm very concerned that this is basically a continuation of the policies of the Bush administration and the abuses of the Patriot Act. I'd like to see better out of this administration. The bottom line is that it is possible to fully and quickly spy on terrorists while still protecting the privacy and freedom of American citizens, complying with the Constitution, and preserving adequate congressional and judicial oversight. 
 
I am pleased that the Amash/Conyers amendment to curtail Section 215 of the Patriot Act received 207 votes. While it did not pass, the amendment only failed by seven votes, suggesting Congress is taking civil liberty issues much more seriously than it did when the original "PATRIOT Act" was approved in 2001. Of the 535 members of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, I was one of 67 to vote against the Patriot Act.
 
I voted against the Patriot Act and its extension in 2008 and 2011 because I feared it gave the federal government too much unchecked power over the rights of law abiding citizens and lacked effective oversight tools for Congress. The revelations of NSA spying on Americans further confirmed my fear. 
 
I am also a cosponsor of the Limiting Internet and Blanket Electronic Review of Telecommunications and Email "LIBERT-E" Act. This bill would require the government to provide "specific and articulable facts" to connect the records with illicit activities and to show they pertain only to individuals under investigation. The bill would also make declassified summaries of "significant" opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court available to the public.
 
As I have said before, we must ensure that law enforcement officials have the tools they need to assess, detect, and prevent future terrorist attacks. However, I don't believe we have to shred the Constitution and Bill of Rights in order to fight terrorism. You can count on my continued support for Patriot Act reform and the defense of our constitutional rights.
 
Again, thanks for your message. Please continue to keep in touch.
 
 
 

Sincerely,
U.S. Representative PETER DEFAZIO
Fourth Congressional District, Oregon

[megido-rev.M]

Edward Snowden's father says FBI asked him to fly to Moscow

[sawakosadako]

I also got two mail from two senators even though I'm not US citizen, they think I'm a New Yorker I guess it's because I joined the petition on stopwatching.us

[megido-rev.M]

Apparently he got a one-year temporary asylum in Russia today.

[Nikkoru]

Apparently he got a one-year temporary asylum in Russia today.

He has to pay subscription fees after that I assume.

[AceHigh]

Apparently he got a one-year temporary asylum in Russia today.

The way it was explained in an article I read, it is a standard procedure in Russia:

All asylum refugees get a one year permit to stay in country. After that one year they have to apply for an extended permit, which will be 5 years and give him the right to get employed. After those 5 years, they can apply for permanent citizenship.

That means that Snowden just like all other immigrants will live in Russia for 6 years before becoming a Russian citizen. That also means that he will be an American citizen for another 6 years unless USA prematurely revokes his citizenship.

[sawakosadako]

Apparently he got a one-year temporary asylum in Russia today.

The way it was explained in an article I read, it is a standard procedure in Russia:

All asylum refugees get a one year permit to stay in country. After that one year they have to apply for an extended permit, which will be 5 years and give him the right to get employed. After those 5 years, they can apply for permanent citizenship.

That means that Snowden just like all other immigrants will live in Russia for 6 years before becoming a Russian citizen. That also means that he will be an American citizen for another 6 years unless USA prematurely revokes his citizenship.

Isn't he planing to go to South America? He won't be able to leak any more if he stays there.

[AceHigh]

Probably, but then he has to figure a way to get their without getting intercepted by USA. The fact that USA had the influence to force a presidential plane to land in an attempt to intercept him, shows that there is no risk-free way to get him to south America over either Atlantic or Pacific ocean.

Heh, maybe he will earn some favour to get a ride on the Russian fleet next time it visits South America, but I doubt it, since Russians seem to not give a fuck about him in the first place.

EDIT:
Ha! Things really go fast for him, huh? He already received shitload of job offers with some notable one being for the social network site Vkontakte which is like a Russian version of Facebook or something like that. So basically he is already secured in that area. Now lets see how long it takes before USA sends an assassin after him.

[sawakosadako]

Probably, but then he has to figure a way to get their without getting intercepted by USA. The fact that USA had the influence to force a presidential plane to land in an attempt to intercept him, shows that there is no risk-free way to get him to south America over either Atlantic or Pacific ocean.

Heh, maybe he will earn some favour to get a ride on the Russian fleet next time it visits South America, but I doubt it, since Russians seem to not give a fuck about him in the first place.

EDIT:
Ha! Things really go fast for him, huh? He already received shitload of job offers with some notable one being for the social network site Vkontakte which is like a Russian version of Facebook or something like that. So basically he is already secured in that area. Now lets see how long it takes before USA sends an assassin after him.

They should boost him in to a celebrity, that will make it harder for them to assassinate him.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/02/208203558/snowden-has-job-offers-place-to-live-russian-lawyer-says
Read the comment, there's a lot of stupid American(no offence intended for the American here) there.

[VicViper573]

Probably, but then he has to figure a way to get their without getting intercepted by USA. The fact that USA had the influence to force a presidential plane to land in an attempt to intercept him, shows that there is no risk-free way to get him to south America over either Atlantic or Pacific ocean.

Heh, maybe he will earn some favour to get a ride on the Russian fleet next time it visits South America, but I doubt it, since Russians seem to not give a fuck about him in the first place.

If Russia really wanted to yank the US's chain, Putin could give Snowden a diplomatic passport.  If the US tried to get Snowden when he's on a plane, he could simply flash his diplomatic passport and go, "Diplomatic Immunity.  You can't touch me."

[AceHigh]

Yeah, because USA would give a shit about a piece of paper. Ever heard the phrase "might makes right"? And USA isn't called a superpower for nothing.

[lololitas]

It's only called a superpower because it's the only nation that has ever used nuclear bombs in a conflict. Now if the US starts throwing around their bombs again I might acknowledge them as a super power, but right now even india and israel have enough armament to destroy the world. When it comes to that russia is the bigger superpower.

[Tiffanys]

I think it's moreso because of our geopolitical influence (not to mention the size of our military)... which is strongly evident here.

Before you go around saying nonsense like Russia is a bigger superpower... take a look at military budgets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget

The USA dwarfs the next eleven combined.

[lololitas]

I don't see where the geopolitical influence came from really. Well the US kinda hogged the glory for WW2, and was the first to have nukes. Now it has a declining economy, plastic houses and a paranoid intelligence agency. There is this joke going around the arab community recently:

(click to show/hide)

An old arab, that's been living for over 40years in chicago, wants to plant potatoes in his garden, but he is to old and weak. So he writes to his son, who studies in paris: "Dear Ahmed, I'm sad that I can't plant potatoes. I'm sure if you were here you would help me dig the garden. Your dad"
Soon the old man receives an answer: "Dear dad, don't touch anything in the garden, because I hid "the thing" there. Your Ahmed." 6 hours later FBI, CIA and NSA surround the old arabs house and start searching the garde, digging through it's entirety. Without finding anything they leave dissapointed. A short while later the old man receives another mail from his son: "Dear Father, I assume that your garden is now ready to plant the potatoes. I'm sorry that I couldn't do more for you. In love Ahmad"

Now in all seriousness, a country that touts equality of men in it's constitution that want's to enforce it all over the world (especially in oil rich areas) can't treat other countries as shit. In that sense the UN doing as the US likes in most cases is any even worse fail than it's predecessor the league of nations.

Also what do you need that huge military spending for, a couple of nukes and all that is gone. Instead that money should go into something like the scrubbers I saw in an anime (I think GITS SAC3) to clean radiation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons The US has more active warheads (despite disarmement promises), but russia has mor warheads in total. Not that it'd matter, a fraction of these two countries bombs is enough to destroy the world (should start building me a vault and buying some nuke-a-cola bottles!) It's been proven in the past that not the size of the military matters, but instead the training and equipment. With that huge military I'm surprised the US has so many troubles in afghanistan (that both the UK and russia declared uncolonizable during imperialist times already) In WW2 the french had the bigger and better army (in the beginning), but still lost.

[AceHigh]

It's neither nukes, usage of nukes, nor the budget.

The superpower by a common definition is a country that exercises influence over other nations. An empire by the older semantic definition.

What makes USA a superpower?
1. Global economic dominance, US dollars is a de-facto international currency controlled by USA.
2. Geopolitical dominance. USA has major influence with EU, Arab League, South America, Asia, BRIC, AU and international entities like UN, WTO, etc...
3. Military dominance, not through a budget which is just an index of bloat and inefficiency, but through military alliances, oversea military bases and intelligence gathering through allies.
4. Culture export. The whole world knows about America, even when stupid Americans can't place 90% of other countries on a map.
5. Corporate/private entrepreneurship dominance. No country has ever conquered entire Russia, but McDonalds did.

So what is Russia then? It was a contest for superpower title during the cold war, but lost. Still it is a major power.
1. Regional economic dominance. Those neighbour countries don't really stand a chance.
2. Geopolitical influence limited mostly to neigbours. is a leader of some military and political blocks.
3. Military might enough to deter attacks, including from a superpower.


In fact USA demonstrated to be a superpower because it made it's allied countries to intercept a presidential plane.

[VicViper573]

Yeah, because USA would give a shit about a piece of paper. Ever heard the phrase "might makes right"? And USA isn't called a superpower for nothing.

It's generally accepted by all nations not to mess with another country's diplomats.  If the USA did it to Snowden, other countries could easily do the same thing to US diplomats stationed there.

It's kinda similar to Assange being stuck in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.  The English threatened to go into that embassy, but realized the repercussions to British embassies in other countries.

Again, the US could still choose to disregard that, but it would set a very bad precedent from a diplomatic standpoint.