There is a setting in the Windows Update action center that allows you to stop updates from automatically installing without your explicit permission. It pops up the nice little dialog you are requesting. So I would be careful about who you are calling stupid or rude.

Exactly. The US has a perfect anti-satellite weapon and none of the other major powers have said anything about it.

There are no "shitty languages and implementations" only shitty developers and those trying to implement the shitty applications creations by those developers.

Exactly who are they racing? Putting men or satellites in orbit has become quite pedestrian. Private companies offering launch services are only possible because of the money spent and the R&D generated by 50+ years worth of government sponsored missions and supporting technologies. That is the way things should work. And until the government actually comes up with a realistic destination the unmanned probes flying around the solar system gathering information will have to suffice. Spending shit loads of money for a "plant the flag" mission to Mars seems like a tremendous waste of money.If a private company wants to take on a manned Mars mission more power to them.

The NSA will never be shutdown. The only possible scenario that has the NSA being shutdown is the simultaneous shutdown of every foreign intelligence agency in the world. Scream and stamp your feet if you have to but the NSA is not going away. The spotlight on the NSA over the past couple of years has only resulted in them taking steps to further compartmentalize their operations and beefing up the level of scrutiny they put into their employees when granting security clearances.

It may be a fun site but they are also show casing their new Oxford API which does tie in to their business model.

The oil wells and related facilities ISIS was using to raise cash were taken out shortly after the bombing campaign began.

Who do you think was providing the NSA with the data collected in the various European countries? And it is not illegal (in the US) for the NSA to spy on and collect any information they want on any foreign country. If Snowden had only released information about the US domestic related programs he might have been able to get a slap on the wrist. But he released information on NSA programs that targeted foreign countries. Programs that had nothing to do with US citizens. The type of programs that foreign intelligence services are supposed to be conducting. And unless every state security agency in the world disbands don't expect the US to stand down any of their foreign intelligence agencies.

So you are saying the US only produces intellectual property that translates to new products of all sorts and China just builds the products? And what are "typical" Americans? There is not one single country on the planet as diverse in race, culture, or religion as the US population. The US ranks in the top 3 manufactures in the world depending on how the figures are calculated. China is increasingly having to compete against other nations in South East Asia. China's economy has been built on low labor costs and currency manipulations which help lower the prices on their exports. Now there are other countries that can offer the same low labor cost and they are attracting manufacturers. In order for China to continue growing they need to establish a healthy domestic economy so they are not totally dependent on their exports. To do this the workers need to make more money to spend domestically and this is causing a rise in the labor costs China has had to depend on to make their exports attractive.

If they go to MIT or any other University or College a sizable percentage stay in the US to work. And if China has developed some super cool gizmo that puts them 10 years ahead of the US in developing new technologies they are sure keeping quite about it. Maybe they are sitting on a warp drive, anti-gravity generator, an inertial dampener system, or maybe a cure for cancer?
By the way I go to China on business about 3 times a year and the people I meet there are very friendly and courteous unlike the pricks I run into in Europe now and then. For some reason everyone seems to think the President of the US calls me personally asking for advice on government policies.

"decades ahead of the US in renewable energy tech" Can you source this grandiose claim? The only Chinese renewable energy advances were flooding the market with cheap solar panels which were copies of the solar panels designed and manufactured in the US. I am not sure this puts China a decade ahead of the US.

Abraham Lincoln also suspended Habeas Corpus and jailed reporters during the Civil War. And the Emancipation Proclamation was pretty much just words because it included no enforcement mechanisms even after the Constitutional amendments were made. Presidents can over step their authority and get away with it if the results are politically palatable to the general public. Roosevelt made a blatant end run around the Neutrality Act before the US entered WW2 with the Lend Lease program. The US by law could not "sell" war materials to England but the wording of the Act left open a small crack for "Leasing" the equipment. The US immediately "leased" 50 mothballed destroyers to England with the lease paid for with some British land rights. Roosevelt also petitioned Congress for permission to wire tap suspected German infiltrators before the US entered the war and was rebuked with no room for misinterpretation. Less than an hour after the Congressional vote Roosevelt issued an order to have the wire taps put in place. Roosevelt also unilaterally extended the US maritime borders further into the Atlantic so US ships could escort shipping to England a little further and narrow the intercept window for German sub attacks. Of course that move also increased the risk that the Germans might attack a US ship and give Roosevelt the excuse he needed to officially enter the war way before Pearl Harbor. Had the US lost the war, and Roosevelt had not died of course, he would have been vilified and scorned instead of being remembered as one of the best leaders the US has ever had.

The Presidents authority and power is explicitly spelled out and the Congressional and Judicial branches are also clearly codified in law. A President can look strong or weak depending on how he uses his authority and power.

Just like sometime in the future the last human words heard will be "Wonder what happens if you push this button?".

The problem in finding balance with security measures is that no one really knows if any of the current programs, laws, and actions are actually preventing any attacks. I tend to believe that the US foreign intelligence services have their hands full dealing with problems in other countries and have very little time or reason to waste resources on the domestic side of things. Their attempts to automate and electronically compile data to detect security threats has been a failure and that is most likely why no one is really that upset with stopping programs such as the metadata collection effort. The only ones making a big deal over the issue is the feckless politicians looking to score points "fighting for homeland security" or "fighting for privacy rights". The problem the US faces is that the NSA, CIA, FBI, DIA, and all the other law enforcement and security agencies still do not play well with one another. Each agency has their own programs and priorities that sometimes overlap but each agency still guard their turf a little too much. The government attempts to correct this has resulted in jurisdiction issues and possible 4th Amendment violations when one agency collects information under one set of evidentiary rules and then shares that information with another agency who did not meet the evidentiary requirements to legally possess the information and then used it to prosecute a crime.