Police in this country are poorly designed. They work for the Mayor, and he works for the largest campaign contributions (money is #1 factor in determining elections, from what I've read). So, they work for the wealthiest locals and corporations. The ideal of "protect and serve" only came out because of abuses and has never really been true. Police will tell you that. Of course, internal auditing/oversight (internal affairs) is never the best idea. (Boeing 737 is a great (or horrid) example, depending on how you see the phrase).

They exist with inherent conflict of interest because of the aforementioned. Civil Forfeiture, is one example of this but you will find loads of uncontested misdemeanor arrest that weren't within the law, but people don't have the money and/or time to fight the arrest; so most will just accept a guilty plea because it's faster, easier, and cheaper.

The routers found with the issues so far...drum-roll...."mainly Cisco and Netgear devices that had reached their end of life"....

Meanwhile Netgear was the first company to clear the ban?...... Netgear says: Welcome to your requested the backdoor NSA ... ;P

Thanks for responding. I shouldn't have posted that on this thread but I was in the middle of trying to deal with it and very frustrated. The truth is the internet is more and more locked down by companies every year. Also, I feel like I'm fighting on all fronts. I think that's just the U.S. now, at least were I am. Also, I don't do things like they want. Partly, just because I'm older, and another part is that I shouldn't have to. I don't use an app. I don't use windows and/or mac (linux). I do sometimes use a VPN. Very rarely on the computer I was trying to post on but it still blows things up. My VPN is probably too legit for them too, as they say you need a legitimate vpn, by they mean one that sells it's users, data in all likelyhood i.e. One that works with them, not me

Companies, have been outsourcing both to other countries, and importing foreign workers for U.S. jobs. Before 2016, there were bi-partisan attempts to fix H1-B because it has been used to replace American IT workers with workers at a lower pay/benefits for 20+ years. It was "specifically", never meant to do this. Minimum pay 60k was set in 1989 to prevent this but it was never raised. Fraudulent Indian companies took over H1-B for IT. (they commit lots of fraud). IT became effectively the first professional gig work, as contract with low benefits and short term, is more normal than not

Exorbitant executive pay, and short tenures are the norm, so executives don't care about long term anything, especially workers. Our government and both parties have failed American's in regard to job stability/benefits... Too little too late... Lastly, most companies that people think of as American, really are just more international/multinational, even if they originated in the U.S.; so the U.S. doesn't have the leverage it once had

America quit caring about American's...

.

This is where I post the most too. I never got into social media as a means for keeping/making friends.. I only use it as a replacement for old style forums, when I want to know more on subjects or try to ask about issues.

I think, I'm shadow banned on reddit. I can barely post anything on any reddit/sub. My karma is only about 500. I'm guessing my CQS is low "r/WhatIsMyCQS" but that too won't post, so I don't know. Does anyone know if that's a equivalent to a company kissass score ;P ...cause, in the past, I have tried to call companies out on bad practices.

I don't actually like or use social media much, but when I have questions and/or try to call attention to something I see as taking advantage of people, I have tried to call them out.

I do occasionally use mulvad (VPN) but not much on the computer I post with and it's off when I try reddit. I get all kinds of error messages on reddit from generic server errors to rate limit errors, I can't messages mods or modboxes (just a generic can't message that user). Anyone else effectively banned from using reddit, like me?

RIP The one celeb that I would have wanted to meet (excepting those that I just found hot ;P )

There is no check and/or balance to replace empathy and compassion. You can't make people 'good', but the believe that "I deserve what I have, and others deserve much less" does seem to make them more evil. 'Do I deserve what I have', shouldn't require an answer, but actually asking yourself the question probably helps.

Companies don't actually exist, they are a legal "entity", but we insist on anthropomorphising them. If we do that, they would be sociopaths, greed without empathy or compassion. Apple doesn't "care", it doesn't even exist.

Your really trusting in the leadership and owners, but not all the owners because it's not a democracy; in reality only the largest stakeholders actually have a say. Leadership changes e.g. CEOs in most companies are there what 5-7 years. Apple has been an exception here, but they still answer to the same owners of most big companies i.e. "Institutional investors" = billionaire hedge funds i.e. BlackRock, Vanguard, and a some smaller ones. Those two seem to have large shares in most of these large companies. So you are basically trusting billionaires in the end. Hopefully, they are not completely bereft of humanity but it would be fair to say, they don't live in the same world as the rest of us.

I'm sure your right. My brain probably short circuited "free and fair"... to free...

The EU goal is to protect it's citizens. The U.S. doesn't care about it's citizens, only the Rich and Big corporate campaign donors. Otherwise we would be enforcing fraud laws, and pushing for standards like the EU.

Like the U.S. used to e.g. NEMA, Edison socket, bios. More and more companies are using proprietary standards, which destroys the free market and generates waste (at high consumer cost). One example modern UEFI implementations suck; especially if you actually want to use them.

U.S. citizens are less free, less happy, less stable than real democracies in Europe, and the trend continues downward. Our Healthcare cost/benefit wise is horrible and it's only getting worse every year. Just like the wealth gap. If your not in the 1%, it's getting harder and harder to maintain a decent lifestyle

It wasn't all for profit...

Remember he wanted dirt on Biden's son even if it needed to be made up i.e. falsified, in return or aid as well ;P

Can't say he's not well versed in extortion :o

I honestly think it would be best if we weren't solely in charge, as we basically were. As an example, WHO did a ranking of health care systems by country but only once, and never again. My guess is that it embarrassed the U.S. too much, but you can't fix what you don't acknowledge. I forget exactly when but thinking 2000-2010 i.e. one year in there..

Our presidents/agencies aren't perfect, even before the current one e.g. we know that there weren't weapons of mass destruction in Iran.

I was raised on America is the greatest country and it was never true, at least in the 'per capita' stuff. We had or have (I'm not sure if China has surpassed us yet) the greatest military force, but we weren't the best in any one area for the citizens. Our trajectory isn't upward either.

I'm guessing this is something we just won't agree on. Again if any facts are in dispute, please provide links to legitimate sources, so that I can re-evaluate. I'm thinking this is more opinion than fact based disagreement.

I said nothing about starting wars. They didn't meet the 2% of GDP contribution and didn't have the military force individually, to protect themselves or altogether when The Soviet Union was in power or now against China, if necessary. I'm confident I'm right on the 2% for most of European countries historically. If the facts are contrary, please provide links. I have read and do read, but my memory is not infallible. If there are multiple legitimate sources, I would have to re-evaluate.