A spinning Government is a Lying Government

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Wed Aug 14, 2013, 02:08 AM - Edit history (15)

Scope and Scale of NSA Collection

According to figures published by a major tech provider, the Internet carries 1,826 Petabytes of information per day. In its foreign intelligence mission, NSA touches about 1.6% of that. However, of the 1.6% of the data, only 0.025% is actually selected for review. The net effect is that NSA analysts look at 0.00004% of the world's traffic in conducting their mission -- that's less than one part in a million. Put another way, if a standard basketball court represented the global collection would be represented by an area smaller than a dime on that basketball court.

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/speeches_testimonies/2013_08_09_the_nsa_story.pdf

Is this NSA-issued set of claims accurate? Let's assume yes.

Is the argument being made true? No, it is a string of words offered with the intent of deceiving the reader as to a reality and that is a lie where I come from.

"Lying" is more a human communications concept than a legal concept. The preceding NSA spin would not be perjury if offered under oath, but it is a straight-up lie in any human relationship involving trust.

Secrecy is often necessary. Saying nothing may be acceptable. Even lying might be okay sometimes if the only alternative is some authentic calamity.

But c'mon... this doesn't even have the dignity of a straight-forward lie. It is bamboolzement... what the President calls, "the okey-doke."

Nobody much cares what percentage of total bandwidth usage the NSA touches. The 1,826 Petabytes of information cited by the NSA is mostly media.

Watching "Chipmunks 2: the Squeakuel" online from netflix transfers more information than the text of every email and text message you have ever sent, and every email and text everyone you know has ever sent, and maybe everyone everyone you know knows has ever sent.

Nobody cares if the NSA is monitoring 1,000 netflix streams of the same movie. (Bruce Willis turns out to be dead every single time you watch The Sixth Sense so there is no need to watch it a thousand times.)

What we care is about human communications traffic.

Starting the argument with "the Internet carries 1,826 Petabytes of information per day," is intended to deceive. What percentage of online communications does the NSA "touch"? We don't know the figure, but it is is indisputably a larger percentage than 1.6%.

So why claim 1.6%? Does that in any way inform the public?

It's like a global warming denier downplaying concern over rising CO2 by showing that CO2 is still only a small percentage of our atmosphere. (It is indeed a small percentage compared to, say, nitrogen... a factoid which means nothing.)

It's willfully dishonest.

The NSA states that NSA analysts actually look at (pull for review and actually have an analyst read or look at) material representing 0.00004% of all bandwidth use. It is designed to sound small but when you consider how small text is, versus media, that statement could be "true" even if NSA had live analysts read every line of a *wow* sized number of emails and texts. (They say this is all foreign, and how they define foreign is a whole 'nother topic.)

This post was inspired by a Guardian article, but I wanted to dig into the ethical dimension more than fretting about the true percentage. I don't care what the number is. I care about the effort to deceive.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/13/nsa-internet-traffic-surveillance

[snappyturtle]

1. I think it's part of the plan. Spin, spin, twist, contort the rhetorical

merry-go-round and the people will tire and be numb by the time in
the midst of the holiday advertising blitzkrieg the Clapper or not Clapper
committee comes out with it's report to the President.

[rhett o rick]

2. We've reached an impasse. The Powers To Be are not going to give up

any of the power they have carved out. I think they are ready to go to the mat over this.

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." - Frederick Douglass

We are in the tolerance test phase, now.

[G_j]

11. Truer words were never spoken.. nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. An absolutely brilliant man whose words are commonly ignored or forgotten. n/t

[G_j]

16. That Douglass quote often reminds me

of Mario Savio's quote:

"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"

[MuseRider]

28. I have always loved that.

How true.

[Egalitarian Thug]

38. Beautiful and so sad. Every time I read it, I'm reminded of all those that have made

that sacrifice time and again, all so that we can forget it and have to do it all over again.

[woo me with science]

19. "We are in the tolerance test phase, now."

That's *exactly* where we are.

You are exactly right.

[Egalitarian Thug]

23. If twenty years ago, you'd told me that we would tolerate as much as we have already,

I would have called you crazy. Now, I'm just hoping we have another twenty years before we reach Douglass' limit of tyranny, because when we reach our limit I believe it's not going to be anything a geezer like me wants to be involved with.

Selfish I know, but I tried and failed for decades to help change this course. Now, I just want to make my own peace and enjoy what I have left.

[MuseRider]

29. Not at all selfish.

We all have our limit. We push past it many times but there comes a time when we are too tired or overcome to be effective. I am in the same spot. I will continue to work in my own organization but that is about all I have left in me. I just want to enjoy what time I have left.

We did our parts. Maybe it is time to just be old, wise advisers.

[woo me with science]

36. I never, ever thought

I would see America come to this.

Never. I hear you.

[rhett o rick]

21. I think you are quoting my signature line. nm

[Egalitarian Thug]

33. That's certainly what it looks like. He was brilliant man who could not help but to see what is. n/t

[Enthusiast]

37. That is why they constructed the NSA surveillance mechanism in the first place,

to protect this power Douglass speaks of.

That is a brilliant quote.

[uponit7771]

3. An ODS patient and a fuck up should be trusted less than a spinning government

[cthulu2016]

6. So the NSA didn't say all that?

Good to know.

[tiny elvis]

20. i do not know what that means

you guys are becoming insulated and your one liners make no sense to an outsider like me
on its face, your comment is debatable

[bobduca]

32. Insulting everyone's intelligence is hard work

They had best just leave it to the The Pros

[bvar22]

5. The TRUTH is...

.."they" LIE.

The CIA LIES.
The NSA LIES.
The Government Leadership LIES.

They say they have permission to LIE to protect "National Security",

but they LIE just to cover their own ass,

they LIE for MONEY,

they LIE to protect their Gravy Train,

they LIE to cover their incompetence,

they LIE to cover their War Crimes,

they LIE because THAT is WHO they ARE,

they LIE because that is what our government has become,

they LIE because the Peasants are easy to fool,

they LIE because they believe YOU don't have a right to know the truth,

they LIE because that amuses them,

they LIE because WE let them.


The LIE because IF the American Working Class and The Poor ever realize how much they have been LIED to over the last 30 years,
there will be HELL to pay.

[truebluegreen]

24. This.

[MuseRider]

30. ^^^^^^^^^

Exactly.

[Egalitarian Thug]

31. What MuseRider said.

They lie because they maintain power through the appearance of overwhelming force, but it is a bluff and every single one of these parasites knows it is a bluff. The rest of us are the true meaning of overwhelming (at best, the parasite class consists of six hundred thousandths of one percent). They are completely dependant on us for their existence and we don't need them at all.

OTOH, in the sense of the collective, we are a pretty dim-witted and gullible bunch, so there's no guarantee that we will ever figure it out.

[woo me with science]

35. [phone]

[Rex]

7. True, even these guys agree

A top can spin fast and for a long period, but will eventually topple over for lack of momentum.

[obxhead]

8. well done.

I don't need the math that lies intentionally.

[warrprayer]

9. strange simularity

...

[Th1onein]

17. Verrry strange.

[warrprayer]

18. he is no doubt

a master of disguise

[quinnox]

10. the NSA spooks have been lying their asses off ever since these survelliance programs were revealed

That is pretty obvious to all but the most foregone kool-aid drinkers by now.

[Scuba]

12. Accurate and insightful technically; also correct as to the lies violating the spirit of our laws.

[woo me with science]

13. + 10000000000

Thank you.

[Taitertots]

15. Context is everything. Send an email and watch a netflix video....

The .00004% figure becomes all the private information that you put on the internet.

[avaistheone1]

22. True.

We will know them by their spinning.

k&r

[ProSense]

25. Every government "spins"

"Secrecy is often necessary. Saying nothing may be acceptable. "

No, in this instance, that would not be "acceptable."

The fact that this is about classified information puts the government in a position of walking a fine line.

You say "secrecy is often necessary." Well, there is a way to balance that necessity with some level of transparency.

What happens during a leak like this is that hyperbole and misinformation cloud the debate.

Those who hate government, those who fear and distrust government and those who seek to inflict political damage will have the advantage of whipping people into a frenzy.

Those who seek to debate reform based on the facts, and understanding that "secrecy is often necessary," will push for more transparency, balance.

"We are not supposed to have to treat our government like a hostile witness being deposed under oath, and government should be purged of anyone who thinks that psy-ops against America for the purpose of protecting programs and agencies has a place in a Democracy. "

True, and given the pronoucements that the government is spying on every single American, maybe the statement at the top of the OP was to add perspective.

It was after all part of a release of more information to the public.

[Egalitarian Thug]

34. Which is still no justification. A lesson most people learned in Kindergarten. n/t

[bravenak]

26. All governments are full of it.

Just like most individuals.

[cantbeserious]

27. Kick And Recommend

eom

[woo me with science]

39. kick