No, congress.
And they would know and never lie to us. Would they?

Oh, I agree with you.
I worked on aspects of the US PAT act. As such, I became aware of some of capabilities (snowden released more than I knew, but has missed other things; thank god). NSA having them is not a fear to me, BUT, I always thought that they needed a LOT OF OVERSIGHT. Sadly, once the act went through, the GOP pretty much removed CONgressional oversight of the NSA. That was their way of disavowing responsibility for their actions. But, I have no doubt that many terrorists actions were caught. In fact, I suspect that this is one of those, though others claim that it is not likely.

BUT, the idea that ANY of this equipment could be turned over to police, FBI, DEA, etc is just TERRIFYING. Oddly, a number of the GOP have called for just that, which I can not image a worst situation. We would have a true police state (which in many aspects, I think that we can argue that we already are in one).

As to the Dutch sitation, if that data is limited to say another intelligence group and not a local police group, it makes good sense. After all, the goal of groups like NSA and GCHQ is not to go after local citizens, but to find others from outside of the nation that are threats to their nations.

Those states were gerrymandered by the GOP. Impossible to vote out the GOP until the courts shoot that down (and yes, it meandering in the courts, though it is possible that it is only about federal).

Bullshit. In many enterprises that I've done work with there is 802.1x in place. You do *not* have the ability to just plug in anywhere.

Southwest has never had assigned seating. It's first come first served.

They have a set limit. There's a little metal basket that if your bag can't fit in you're not supposed to take it on the plane. The fault lies largely with the airlines for not enforcing it, but also partially with passengers who don't give a fuck because the rules don't apply to them.

Which is really not all that bad.
I would rather NSA, who has no powers, spy on me, than FBI, or even worse, the local police.
Taking it further, I have less issues with say GCHQ spying on me. Why? Because not only do they not have any powers, but, they have no INTEREST in me, unless I am up to something that will be seriously detrimental to UK, or other western nations.

Dutch citizens? I doubt it. BUT, Dutch government is probably ignored by the US government.

NSA to spy. Of course, I doubt that Germany KNEW that we were listening in on their gov officials, to which they absolutely should be mad. But, I suspect that NSA is still allowed to spy all over Europe. I would not be surprised though, if we have a few new treaties.

Actually, I would agree, except for where you claim that SpaceX has done nothing new.
For starters, NOBODY has taken anything as large as the first stage to space and landed it under power on earth. This is absolutely a first.
Secondly, they have the cheapest launches going. Why? Because they automated heavily. That has not been done.
Thirdly, no escape system has been a pusher system ever before (though boeing is attempting it as well).
Fourth, no capsule has landed under power on earth. If he succeeds at that, it will be a first.
Fifth. nobody has successfully launched a rocket with 28 engines. If Falcon heavy succeeds, it will be a first.
Sixth, nobody has built a full-flow staged combustion engine using methane. SpaceX is working on just that, with raptor.

Now, do not get me wrong. I support NASA, as does most ppl from SpaceX. BUT, to claim that SpaceX is not doing anything innovative, is just as wrong as those that knock NASA.

Unfortunately that cat has long escaped the bag. As a security professional I think that BYOD and the like is a horrible idea, but most organizations have shortsightedly embraced it because a) it's cheaper (no need to pay for mobile devices) and b) they got sick of the bitching and moaning. So now we have a bunch of people running around on the enterprise network with their own devices that they have full control of.

I'm glad you posted this. I started playing in '76 when I was 9 or 10. By the time I was in high school games included beer and weed. We found plenty of time to go out and party, screw hot chicks, etc. Most of us played sports or did other activities that do not fit the stereotype as well.

If somebody attacks USA, such as say China, then it is already too late to make use of anti-sats. anti-sats are a first strike system.

Nearly all of it. THey have interia guidance systems for dealing with this. By the time that an ICBM is in space, they are no longer using GPS.

Now as to conventional stuff, we have multiple ways of triangulating and controlling locations. If GPS is taken out, then the battle field will still be OK. Where GPS really helps is if you want to change a cruise missile, etc in-route to a different target and you do not have an active targeting system.

The route that they are going, is NOT defensive. It is OFFENSIVE. Look, lets say that the west decides to launch against China. By the time that China realizes this, the ICBMs are on their way and have already switched off from sats and are working with intertia systems.

Where anti-sat systems come into play, from a military pov, is knocking out the enemies eyes and communications PRIOR to your launching first strike.
China is busy developing a first strike set-up, that is useless for defense.

In addition, it is now known by the general public that China has active nuclear work going on. They can claim only 300 warheads, but, why hide a nuke facility underground and by a lake then? There was no reason for it, UNLESS you are up to things that get around treaties.