Obummer's speech today.

Of course, he usually does a good speech. He may have a lot of faults, but honesty is not one of them. What he is actually saying is that there will be change in perception only. He will review, there are laws, spooks are people too, blah, blah, blah...
He will review means that he will do whatever the fuck he wants to.
There ARE laws, but we have two standards of law in this country: the high law for the rich and powerful, which may be disobeyed at convenience, and the law for the ruled classes, which can be used to counter the protections of the constitution. Clapper can lie to congress with impunity. Any overreach can be slugged top secret. They can make specious claims that surveillance has stopped huge numbers of attacks, but unfortunately they are all top secret. The ones we hear about are fabricated sting setups and successful attacks.
Like most of his speeches, it's total bullshit.

~decision-tree(s) one would ponder--if serious about actually capturing/illuminating the decision-points which are either most likely to escape scrutiny or are,
simply, not well-understood.

To me this 'nexus' should be diagrammed much like those neat graphics of OS-Wars, the useful arrows (whose color/thickness--á lá Tufte--could show at a glance such attributes as granularity (!), severity, maybe even some time-scales, etc.)
--could present huge amounts of interrelated "confirmed-Information"--as simply + completely as is possible/while pointedly evading some..
idiot-Power-Punt obfuscation which merely masquerades as a well-thought out Model does Not-masquerade.
(Such a graphical creation is another huge topic, obviously; but I think it suggests-itself when you read what here is undeniably a clear /necessarily only-verbal summary.
'Summary' of Too Much! for one medium IMO.)

It is easy to criticize some of the vagueness--though in some examples it can be seen that: likely No One has yet any 'perfect' comprehension of more than
a fraction of the interrelations which must occur in some chain from IDing a 'need for better data', on through the processing, stat-analysis, cross-checking and
n-more facets of what we lump-together and call ,,, 'demonstrable-Facts'?

From my POV, even were there to be created this 'graphic', see its refinement/correction and some clever testing of deductions it purports to illustrate,
we might well discover that: no 'committe' (of other than the professionally-immersed) might be able to Use that diagram to any new and superior Results.

It might even serve to demonstrate that 'More Security' ... may be as hollow/bogus? a concept as, the Bizness fantasy-mantra of 'Perpetual Growth'
(as if that were possible on a planet with finite surface area and already-convoluted problems of over-population/energy/thermodynamics Emergencies.)

I did not 'detect' evidence of cynical mind-fucking dissembling nor of patently fuzzy-thinking/speaking; I deemed it an honest overall-assessment of the Stakes
..should the 'Certainty'-driven ideologues ever be given carte blanche to go with their obsessions.
[Such a thing Could-not be spoken, bald-faced! I think is obvious; maybe I imagine its tacit implication? I think he IS 'that smart'.]

I doubt that he could have enhanced 'explaining' of the core of this enigma.. with any more words. (It could have been a much less-clear mish-mash of Patriotic Slogans
and a plea for a Trust-US...Because! melange of [referent-less] Liberty/Freedom/Murican Exceptionalism.

In the end though, this Very Topic is looking more like an Insoluble Problem ie. one whose 'solution' is beyond what our learned oft-imagined algorithms
prove not merely elusive but flat-unWorkable. The complexity of 'facts'-vs-infinite human capacity to misunderstand is larger than our ability to circumvent, IME.

And ... THIS (and now, so many Other huge Topics)--daily deflect worldwide Attention away-from the #1 Issue of Planetary Maintenance as a Crash Program Across All Nations.
Are We yet smart-enough to digest our predicament? It seems daily that, We Are Not.

Post #385,452 by Another Scott 1/17/14 7:23:58 PM Reply	Obummer's speech today. Transcript and video - http://www.nytimes.c...illance.html?_r=0 It's a good read. Cheers, Scott.
Post #385,463 by hnick 1/18/14 8:26:59 AM Reply	Good speech Of course, he usually does a good speech. He may have a lot of faults, but honesty is not one of them. What he is actually saying is that there will be change in perception only. He will review, there are laws, spooks are people too, blah, blah, blah... He will review means that he will do whatever the fuck he wants to. There ARE laws, but we have two standards of law in this country: the high law for the rich and powerful, which may be disobeyed at convenience, and the law for the ruled classes, which can be used to counter the protections of the constitution. Clapper can lie to congress with impunity. Any overreach can be slugged top secret. They can make specious claims that surveillance has stopped huge numbers of attacks, but unfortunately they are all top secret. The ones we hear about are fabricated sting setups and successful attacks. Like most of his speeches, it's total bullshit.
Post #385,486 by Ashton 1/19/14 4:26:24 AM Reply	This may be one of the clearer outlines of the nested ~decision-tree(s) one would ponder--if serious about actually capturing/illuminating the decision-points which are either most likely to escape scrutiny or are, simply, not well-understood. To me this 'nexus' should be diagrammed much like those neat graphics of OS-Wars, the useful arrows (whose color/thickness--á lá Tufte--could show at a glance such attributes as granularity (!), severity, maybe even some time-scales, etc.) --could present huge amounts of interrelated "confirmed-Information"--as simply + completely as is possible/while pointedly evading some.. idiot-Power-Punt obfuscation which merely masquerades as a well-thought out Model does Not-masquerade. (Such a graphical creation is another huge topic, obviously; but I think it suggests-itself when you read what here is undeniably a clear /necessarily only-verbal summary. 'Summary' of Too Much! for one medium IMO.) It is easy to criticize some of the vagueness--though in some examples it can be seen that: likely No One has yet any 'perfect' comprehension of more than a fraction of the interrelations which must occur in some chain from IDing a 'need for better data', on through the processing, stat-analysis, cross-checking and n-more facets of what we lump-together and call ,,, 'demonstrable-Facts'? From my POV, even were there to be created this 'graphic', see its refinement/correction and some clever testing of deductions it purports to illustrate, we might well discover that: no 'committe' (of other than the professionally-immersed) might be able to Use that diagram to any new and superior Results. It might even serve to demonstrate that 'More Security' ... may be as hollow/bogus? a concept as, the Bizness fantasy-mantra of 'Perpetual Growth' (as if that were possible on a planet with finite surface area and already-convoluted problems of over-population/energy/thermodynamics Emergencies.) I did not 'detect' evidence of cynical mind-fucking dissembling nor of patently fuzzy-thinking/speaking; I deemed it an honest overall-assessment of the Stakes ..should the 'Certainty'-driven ideologues ever be given carte blanche to go with their obsessions. [Such a thing Could-not be spoken, bald-faced! I think is obvious; maybe I imagine its tacit implication? I think he IS 'that smart'.] I doubt that he could have enhanced 'explaining' of the core of this enigma.. with any more words. (It could have been a much less-clear mish-mash of Patriotic Slogans and a plea for a Trust-US...Because! melange of [referent-less] Liberty/Freedom/Murican Exceptionalism. In the end though, this Very Topic is looking more like an Insoluble Problem ie. one whose 'solution' is beyond what our learned oft-imagined algorithms prove not merely elusive but flat-unWorkable. The complexity of 'facts'-vs-infinite human capacity to misunderstand is larger than our ability to circumvent, IME. And ... THIS (and now, so many Other huge Topics)--daily deflect worldwide Attention away-from the #1 Issue of Planetary Maintenance as a Crash Program Across All Nations. Are We yet smart-enough to digest our predicament? It seems daily that, We Are Not. Without that communal priority well-and-truly Established, we are rearranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic. Still. The SCALE of this Change-of-Mindset is/would be: Unprecedented, Ergo: Time is wasting as we continue to conceal/dissemble amidst each-other as. if. we were all in some std. perpetual hot&cold war.

Welcome to IWETHEY!