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"It's making itself vulnerable." It's not vulnerable, it's more dangerous. It's just that more people are finally see the men behind the curtains and realizin

"It's making itself vulnerable." It's not vulnerable, it's more dangerous. It's just that more people are finally see the men behind the curtains and realizing that they are just as petty and human as the rest of us, but have insane amounts of power. And are not willing to give up any of that power or even display any true global leadership or responsibility. Realize that "these people" have absolute power. And as time goes on, don't need as much as the population around to maintain their status or luxuries. What would you do in their place if faced with a angry populous?

dageshi 13y ago
No, this morning they just look incompetent. When was the last time you ever heard of any presidential plane ever being stopped and searched in transit through a foreign airport? Or passage through airspace being denied? I can't remember it ever happening. Dictators can fly around the world with impunity but they'll contrive to ground the plane of a democratically elected president and search it, for some guy who published a bunch of powerpoint presentations? And they did all this... with all the consequences it's going to have and they didn't even get Snowden!
- graedus 13y ago
  Well put, really puts into perspective how incredibly out of proportion and punitive this measure was.
- jbooth 13y ago
  Rather than incompetent, it looks brazen to me. They don't do this unless they know they can get away with it, and that makes it scary.
PavlovsCat 13y ago
What would you do in their place if faced with a angry populous? I would behave so much better than when faced with an apathetic one. To me this is like the argument that "prostitution avoids rape", it's blackmail.
- flyinRyan 13y ago
  "prostitution avoids rape" isn't blackmail, it's just ignorance since rape is about power, not someone desperate for a lay.
rapind 13y ago
Let me preface this by stating I'm not a big fan of guns personally, but let's modify that question a bit to say: "What would you do in their place if faced with an angry and ridiculously armed populous?"... well I'd probably do my best to stay off their radar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_c... Sometimes I think the powers that be are poking an enormous sleeping dog with a stick just for giggles.
- xradionut 13y ago
  Personal firearms are worthless against NBC weapons. And I wouldn't be surprised to know genetic weapons are being developed...
  - GVIrish 13y ago
    Yes, but that's assuming there are people in the government with the will to deploy those weapons against the public. At best they'd only achieve pyrrhic victory.
  - shabble 13y ago
    Not in an insurgency, low-intensity warfare sort of way. Not unless you can somehow make them very targeted. "We had to destroy the [village] in order to save it" doesn't really apply if you consider, say, New York City. As https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002 (and, of course, successful terrorist acts over the last decade) demonstrated, low tech is still Good Enough for a lot of purposes.
    - rapind 13y ago
      Exactly. It's guerilla warfare. The military would be next to useless in a situation like that. Not to mention morale issues.
- Dewie 13y ago
  It's funny that the US has twice the amount of guns per capita compared to Switzerland, when Switzerland is the country that demands that all conscpripts in their militia keep a gun at their home.
flyinRyan 13y ago
But where does this power come from? Now that other countries (and their citizens) see the "men behind the curtains", they will likely start taking steps to limit their exposure to this country and hopefully begin weakening its power. The US gets away with much of what it does because of the enormous US market. But at some point other countries will realize that the cost of that market has gotten too high and then a large chunk of the the US' power will dissolve.

dageshi 13y ago

No, this morning they just look incompetent. When was the last time you ever heard of any presidential plane ever being stopped and searched in transit through a foreign airport? Or passage through airspace being denied? I can't remember it ever happening. Dictators can fly around the world with impunity but they'll contrive to ground the plane of a democratically elected president and search it, for some guy who published a bunch of powerpoint presentations? And they did all this... with all the consequences it's going to have and they didn't even get Snowden!

graedus 13y ago
Well put, really puts into perspective how incredibly out of proportion and punitive this measure was.
jbooth 13y ago
Rather than incompetent, it looks brazen to me. They don't do this unless they know they can get away with it, and that makes it scary.

PavlovsCat 13y ago

What would you do in their place if faced with a angry populous? I would behave so much better than when faced with an apathetic one. To me this is like the argument that "prostitution avoids rape", it's blackmail.

flyinRyan 13y ago
"prostitution avoids rape" isn't blackmail, it's just ignorance since rape is about power, not someone desperate for a lay.

rapind 13y ago

Let me preface this by stating I'm not a big fan of guns personally, but let's modify that question a bit to say: "What would you do in their place if faced with an angry and ridiculously armed populous?"... well I'd probably do my best to stay off their radar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_c... Sometimes I think the powers that be are poking an enormous sleeping dog with a stick just for giggles.

xradionut 13y ago
Personal firearms are worthless against NBC weapons. And I wouldn't be surprised to know genetic weapons are being developed...
- GVIrish 13y ago
  Yes, but that's assuming there are people in the government with the will to deploy those weapons against the public. At best they'd only achieve pyrrhic victory.
- shabble 13y ago
  Not in an insurgency, low-intensity warfare sort of way. Not unless you can somehow make them very targeted. "We had to destroy the [village] in order to save it" doesn't really apply if you consider, say, New York City. As https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002 (and, of course, successful terrorist acts over the last decade) demonstrated, low tech is still Good Enough for a lot of purposes.
  - rapind 13y ago
    Exactly. It's guerilla warfare. The military would be next to useless in a situation like that. Not to mention morale issues.
Dewie 13y ago
It's funny that the US has twice the amount of guns per capita compared to Switzerland, when Switzerland is the country that demands that all conscpripts in their militia keep a gun at their home.

flyinRyan 13y ago

But where does this power come from? Now that other countries (and their citizens) see the "men behind the curtains", they will likely start taking steps to limit their exposure to this country and hopefully begin weakening its power. The US gets away with much of what it does because of the enormous US market. But at some point other countries will realize that the cost of that market has gotten too high and then a large chunk of the the US' power will dissolve.