I'm not familiar with that game, but this story does remind me of Missile Command.

Look, you didn't get the memo. Stay on message. It's the democrat governor.

You're overthinking this.

The top of the blame flowchart starts with: "If state has democrat governor: blame democrat governor; Goto end."

"Blame the environmentalists" is several layers down in the other branches of the flowchart.

You don't need a full audit to find out why the software is doing something weird, nor all companies need to do it.

Some companies care about their mission-critical software so they will be monitoring it carefully. If some very popular package is doing malicious things, the chances that it will be caught are quite high. And if the software is FLOSS it's way easier for the company to fix it themselves, release the fix upstream and warn the world about the fishy nature of the provider. So no, I don't believe all computers are owned either by the CIA or other world powers.

This was (and still is) the #1 reason why open source software became the basis for the internet and corporate world. Being free of charge gained home users and small companies, but what made it grow was corporate adoption pouring money into it to make it viable.

People forgetting history makes them repeat all again, I guess.

Give give your comment its due, we agree there are powers no state should ever have.

And, if one isn't careful, it isn't hard to creep up on a mode where it seems like giving the state this little bit more power is no biggie. My guy is running the show, it fixes a real problem and it isn't a big deal, right? And at some point you've crossed a line.

However.

Here we are. The barbarians are not at the gate; they are literally redecorating the White House. And you're worried about fantasy commies.

Perhaps we can compromise. "No ubiquitous surveillance for anyone, inclusive of fascists, commies, AND Unitarians."

And you remain free to test your water for fluoride before drinking it (at your own expense).

How's that?

Yep. Municipal power is a natural thing to do - it is a situation where the locals are about as close to fully aligned with one another as they get - everyone wants reliable, cheap power and responsive service when you need it. So you make a captive company with a charter that keeps it aligned with its customers instead of Wall St. You don't take silly risks because you're not chasing infinite growth, customers gets decent rates, the area gets some decent local jobs out of it. Everyone except the predators are happy. If only other all local problems had such great solutions.

But, ohhh, booga-booga, that's communism. (Please just ignore Trump seizing the means of production.)

Learn to read.

There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public. Cell phones are different because they're considered private communications despite using public airwaves.

There have been attempts to get precedent that automated, continuous monitoring is qualitatively different than a cop standing outside watching you, with unfortunately mixed results.

Mostly correct. I'd just add the average LEO doesn't care about catching criminals, either, if it takes too much effort.

Going beyond today, this is a long-running theme in US constitutional law. Before the colonial rebellion, King George was a big fan of "writs of assistance". These were effectively licenses for thugs to search or interrogate anyone at any time in pursuit of a crime (or "crime"), and of course anyone subject to such abuse hated it. So that's where the 4th Amendment came from - we do warrants, but you have to name with specificity what/who you want to investigate as well as why and under what authority, and get a judge to agree.

Authoritarians, thugs and control freaks have been trying to reinvent them ever since.

One famous case from before the digital era was Stanford v. Texas (1965). Texas, being extremely Texan, passed the Suppression Act, which made writings, photos, etc. "concerned with" the Texas Communist Party contraband subject to 20 year prison terms. The Supreme Court unanimously held the warrant was an unconstitutional general warrant.

Opposing general warrants is as American as apple pie, opposing kings and displaying amazing senses of entitlement.

The democrats crying is pure bullshit here. They wanted this to

A. This is nonsense on stilts. Name one elected Dem who promoted this.

B. Even shitbags like Cruz are saying this is illegal.

This benefits everyone's donors.

C. You seem to believe only elected politicians matter. What about the actual, you know, citizens who pay these government workers?

where they'll defend all the anti-human rights shit that happened to no end

Weird how selective you are about which humans and which rights.

Can we finally know whether or not there is beer on the sun?!