... of America dropping deeper and deeper into the abyss of absolute fascism

I feel sad that you choose to limit it within the very narrow context of 'action of NYPD'

The sad fact is that the United States of America, thanks to NYPD and all other local / state / federal law enforcement agencies is becoming more and more like what the Stasi did in Eastern Germany, or the secret police of the Nicolae Ceausescu regime of Romania, or under the CCP in China, or the Kim's secret police in North Korea, ...
 
If the sentence 'uprooting terrorist plots, tracking "political activity"' fails to alarm any of the Americans, the future of United States of America is bleak

I mean, please read that sentence again

They actually use the term "terrorist plots" and the term "political activity" in the same fucking sentence!

What kind of America is _that_ ?

Aren't Americans supposed to be free to associate or join with any political activity, especially in the Land of the FREE??

What the fuck has happened to the freedom of association?

Or has America turned into a place where local law enforcement agencies such as NYPD, and all other agencies from the States as well as from the Federal level, get to dictate who can mix with whom now??

What is more important ... schooling, or learning?

Not all the learning happen within the context of a 'school', no matter if it is home school, private school or public school. In fact, most of the learning average kids had/have were/are from OUTSIDE of the schools

Nowadays parents seem to forget that. They seem to think that once they throw their children into a school, it's the responsibility of the teachers in the school to teach their kids

NO !!

I have met people from public school backgrounds who are, while not very technically savvy, they are super streets smart, able to detect troubles before the troubles actually begin

On the other hand, some of those who were home schooled might know a lot of stuffs, but unfortunately they lack many of the skills to successfully interact with others, particularly strangers, and often fall pray to scams because they are not aware of the darker side of humanity

No matter which school you send your kids in, you, as the parents, have to know that your kids learn from you more than they ever could learn from their teachers

Learning is not schooling, and no amount of schooling can equip your children if they do not have the opportunity to learn OUTSIDE of the school

No matter if the American government has carried out this 'car plate scanning' thing for decades, this announcement by itself is a PSY-OP and this mark the beginning of the government of the United States of America launching PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE on the Citizens of the United States of America

In other words, the government of the United States of America is no longer a government of the People, by the People and from the People --- The government of the United States of America has become a government AGAINST the People

How can NSA not loving this feature?

I mean, the two way encrypted channels between userA and serverA, if NSA would like to crack it, they would need to invest some crunch time just to take a peek

With this new protocol all NSA needs to do is to perform a MITM act ... get the info needed and then tell the user (and the server) to update keys and such

Mission accomplished !

Without Steve Jobs Apple is just like Microsoft

No matter how you hate Steve Jobs, that guy is the one with the radical views

The world already got its walkmans for decades but it was Steve Jobs who knew he could do much better than the Sony Walkman (and all the copycats) and iPod was the answer

There were already smartphones (actually what was available before iPhone should not be categorized as smartphones, they were more like featurephones than smartphones) with the a-z keyboard on the keypad

It was Steve Jobs who moved the keyboard from the keypad to the screen

Let's compare Bill Gates with Steve Jobs

Bill Gates is from a very wealthy family, with a mother who knows people in high places

Steve Jobs is adopted. His birth dad is from Lebanon, and after knocking up his birth mother, abandoned his birth mother and went back alone to the Middle East

That is why Steve was put up for adoption because his birth mother couldn't bring up a son on her own

Steve Job's adopted parents are middle class people. Financially stable, but in no way can be compared to the wealth of Bill Gates' family

Bill Gates was enrolled into the first class university, and dropped out - he dropped out because he has no fear, after all, he got his wealthy family to fall back on

Steve Jobs didn't make it to first class university - there wasn't enough $$$ anyway. His 'university' is Reed College in Portland, Oregon

When Steve Jobs dropped out, he did not have a $$$ filled family to support him, he needed to find the money himself

When Bill Gates created Microsoft he could afford to rent comfortable office space and hire people --- Bill Gates got so much money that he could even afford to buy a program, called QDOS, from Tim Paterson

On the other hand, Steve Jobs started Apple with his pal, Wozniak, in a garage

Bill Gates' successful break was from his mom's link to IBM's hotshot

Steve Jobs' break is based on his ingenuity and determination

Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple once - and without Steve Jobs around, Apple Inc turned into a pool of Apple jam - they actually brought out a dud - the Apple Newton

Only when the Apple Inc was in rock bottom that they brought Steve Jobs back --- and promptly with Steve's Macintosh Apple rebound

Microsoft ? With or without Bill Gates Microsoft will still be Microsoft, because Bill Gates, unlike Steve Jobs, has little or no vision

On the other hand, Apple with Steve Jobs is a jar of Apple jam

Since the departure of Steve Jobs, Apple Inc hasn't come up with any new stuff that make sense - all it got is iteration of the same-old-shit, iPad and iPhone, that's all

IBM is repeating what General Motors has been doing, putting out junks, after junks, after junks

Decades ago it didn't matter if you bought Pontiac or Chevrolet or Buick, you bought the same fucking junk

Nowadays it doesn't matter if it is Informix or WebsSphere or AIX or DB2 ... they simply don't worth their sticker price

So what do you call them?

By any other name the sheeples are still acting like sheeps

They do not like to think, they do not like to think so much that they let others to do all the thinking for themselves

And when that happens, someone else do come out and does the thinking for them ... that someone is nothing but the authority

So the authority tells the sheeples that what they are doing --- that BLANKET SNOOPING THING is "good for them" because it will "protect them from the baddies", you know, them "terrorists", them "pedophiles", them with "bad intentions"

And the sheeples bought that shit wholesale --- with line and hook and barrel and everything in between

You want your democracy, so be it, but do not tell me that calling a spade a spade is undemocratic

We can call the "Sheeples" a "Rose", or a "Tulip", or even "Alfalfa", but that name change ain't gonna change their character, not even a bit, Sir !

Sir,

I do agree with you that we do need hope, but we must *NOT* forget the fact that 'hoping' ain't gonna do us, or anybody else, any good, especially when what is happening now, from top down (well, the governments are *ON THE TOP* of the people, no matter which government, no matter which nation)

Nowadays governments treat their citizens with contemp

They suspect their citizens so much that they actually take steps to ensure that every single thing their own citizen does must be checked, categorized, and actions must be taken on whoever they suspect (for whatever reason)

Hope in itself is no longer sufficient to fight those fascist, my friend

We no longer live in the 1960's, Sir

We no longer live in a world where the government listens to the people

No man. We are living in the world where the governments DEMAND to be respected, or else

That's the reality all of us are living in, no matter if you live in Canada or China or Saudi Arabia or America or Great Britain, it's all the same --- you, a citizen, better be a sheeple, or we will mark you, we will follow you, we will watch your every single move

Dear Sir,

I may have been thinking too much. In fact, you may even say that I am paranoid - but at the stage that we are in today, that the blanket snooping activities into almost everything that we do online and off, we do need to question why the authority's need to do it, rather than accept what they are telling us by default

Yes, they tell us they are 'looking for terrorists' but is that true?

I mean, if they are 'looking for terrorists' the obvious target for those 'terrorists' are those from a particular religion (that peaceful one, to boot)

But is the authority looking into that group only?

Far from that. They are snooping in on ALL OF US, on our email, on our surfing pattern, on the site we go to, on what we download, on our phone conversation, on everything everybody is doing

Then why are they doing it?

Surely the 'looking for terrorists' excuse ain't gonna cut it no more, there gotta be more than what they are telling us

Yes, I am paranoid, I admit it. But you can't blame me from being paranoid

I am from China, a country which is being ruled by some really despicable regime. At the point when I left China the entire society was in turmoil. People were being pulled out on to the street and beaten, sometimes killed, just because they were labeled as 'anti-revolutionary'

I have had that kind of experiences. Most of you do not. I know what the authority is capable of doing, and what they will do to maintain their control over us, the peons

The more I look at what's happening in the so-called "Western countries" the more it resembles that despicable regime that is controlling China

Yes, I am have been 'overthinking', as you put it, but I rather be paranoid and right and be well prepared (as well as knowing what preventive actions to take before the shit hits the fan), than be totally unprepared and suffered the consequences

But it's all up to you guys. What I am telling you is what I, and many millions of older generation of Chinese had gone through --- we do not trust the authority, we do not trust anyone but ourselves

If you guys insist that the authority is to be trusted, that they are doing what they are doing for 'the good of the people', then that's your right to do what ever you want to do

But when the shit hits the fan (which I fervently hope it will never come true) don't blame me for not forewarning you guys

It happened in China, it could happen, and I repeat, it could happen elsewhere, including the Western countries

You said:

Actually their target is further than that
 
To illustrate what I mean, let's look at what TFA says ...

Are they truly looking for "extremist plots and suspects"?

No

Then what they are looking for?

They are looking for potential targets that they deem "dangerous". No, not terrorists but those amongst the people who are NOT sheeples!

You see, those fascists (to put them in a milder term will be an injustice, they are fascists afterall) are not afraid of sheeples. In fact, they WANT all the people to become sheeples so that they can get absolute control over them

What the fascists are afraid, very afraid of, is those amongst us who steadfastly REFUSE to become a sheeple, who instead will use our own brain to think, rather than delegate the thinking to "somebody else", ie, the authority

That is what makes those fucking fascists antsy --- they can't have that, but current laws still do not allow them to pull out all the non-sheeples to the street and shoot them

So they do the next best ... to identify the non-sheeples so that, when it comes the day they can pull people out to the street and carry out summary execution, they would know who to shoot

That is ultimately WHAT they are doing today ... identifying us, closely monitoring us, categorizing us, ... and ultimately, know who they need to eliminate, and where to get those 'trouble makers'