[jessaustin]

There really is a difference between NSA staff and the average American. For that matter, there is also a difference between a federal judge and the average American. This "well next time be sure to vote for a good candidate!" horseshit is tiresome.

[EDIT:] Apparently this is not clear to everyone, but there is a logical difference between the proposition that two sets differ in some salient respect (e.g. that only those in the NSA may "illegally" spy on other Americans, with impunity), and the proposition that they differ in every respect. A careful reading of the previous paragraph will reveal that I have claimed the former.

[irishcoffee]

> There really is a difference between NSA staff and the average American.

What a terribly silly thing to say.

"there is a difference between people who work at X and the average American."

You are claiming that every single employee that works at NSA can in no way, shape, or form be considered an average American. All 30-50k or however many of them there are, they just can't be average Americans?

I mean, I totally agree. I bet they don't have lives outside of work. Probably none of them have kids. I bet they've never been married, or divorced. I'm sure they all rent under pseudonyms, none of them actually buy a house.

Hobbies, pshaw, all they care about is their job, and breaking the law as often as they can. Every single one, a zealot to the cause, insanely loyal to their employer. They don't have bad days at work, or don't feel like going in, because damn it, they're different than the average American.

I mean, there's no way that they just need to put food on the table, or can't leave the area because they have joint custody of their children. That kind of thing only happens to the average American, not NSA employees. By gosh, the horror of even considering that most of them are in fact average Americans, I'm getting tremors down my spine just thinking about it.

[monochromatic]

There is also a difference between NSA staff and federal judges.

[bediger4000]

How so? From my perspective, it looks like the DC appeals court in particular is a slave to the "intelligence committee", and patent lawyers.

That is, it's compromised in some way, and therefore rules in favor of Deep State type things all the time.

[monochromatic]

You lose credibility when you don't realize that the DC Circuit (the one in this story) and the CAFC (the target of your misplaced jab about patents) are completely different courts.

[sillygeese]

Nice to see someone thinking for himself. These might still make things clearer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngpsJKQR_ZE http://spot.colorado.edu/~huemer/Contents.pdf

[tedunangst]

I apologize for telling you how to vote.

[jessaustin]

If you have a new flavor of this hoary "blame the people" pablum, then don't keep it to yourself!

[Karunamon]

Am I the only one that finds it ironic that everyone refuses to vote for anyone but the lesser of two evils, and then people are shocked and appalled that an evil of any kind got elected?