Just stop for minute, take a deep breath, and process the following:
We have more people in prison than Russia or China, or any other nation in the world.
Our Government is spying on us, our every move. We are the most spied on people in the history of the world. We have less privacy than citizenS in Stalin’s Russia, East Germany, North Korea, Cuba, Nazi Germany, and every other tyrannical, fascist, communist, socialist, or dictatorial state in the history of the world. We are all potential terrorists, agitators, and can be sent away without charges or grounds. Obama can murder us as he pleases, without cause or reason.
What happened to this country? Somebody please tell me…
Americans Are The Most Spied On People In World History
Submitted by George Washington on 12/05/2012
TechDirt notes:
In a radio interview, Wall Street Journal reporter Julia Angwin (who’s been one of the best at covering the surveillance state in the US) made a simple observation that puts much of this into context: the US surveillance regime has more data on the average American than the Stasi ever did on East Germans.
Indeed, the American government has more information on the average American than Stalin had on Russians, Hitler had on German citizens, or any other government has ever had on its people.
The American government is collecting and storing virtually every phone call, purchases, email, text message, internet searches, social media communications, health information, employment history, travel and student records, and virtually all other information of every American.
Some also claim that the government is also using facial recognition software and surveillance cameras to track where everyone is going. And – given that your smartphone routinely sends you location information back to Apple or Google – it would be child’s play for the government to track your location that way.
As the top spy chief at the U.S. National Security Agency explained this week, the American government is collecting some 100 billion 1,000-character emails per day, and 20 trillion communications of all types per year.
He says that the government has collected all of the communications of congressional leaders, generals and everyone else in the U.S. for the last 10 years.
He further explains that he set up the NSA’s system so that all of the information would automatically be encrypted, so that the government had to obtain a search warrant based upon probably cause before a particular suspect’s communications could be decrypted. But the NSA now collects all data in an unencrypted form, so that no probable cause is needed to view any citizen’s information. He says that it is actually cheaper and easier to store the data in an encrypted format: so the government’s current system is being done for political – not practical – purposes.
He says that if anyone gets on the government’s “enemies list”, then the stored information will be used to target them. Specifically, he notes that if the government decides it doesn’t like someone, it analyzes all of the data it has collected on that person and his or her associates over the last 10 years to build a case against him.
As we’ve previously documented, the spying isn’t being done to keep us safe … but to crush dissent and to smear people who uncover unflattering this about the government … and to help the too big to fail businesses compete against smaller businesses.
And as we point out at every opportunity, this is not some “post-9/11 reality”. Spying on Americans – and most of the other attacks on liberty – started before 9/11.
Senator Frank Church – who chaired the famous “Church Committee” into the unlawful FBI Cointel program, and who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – said in 1975:
The {National Security Agency’s] capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. [If a dictator ever took over, the N.S.A.] could enable it to impose total tyranny ….
We can debate whether or not dictators are running Washington. But one thing is clear: the capacity is already here.
TechDirt points out:
While the Stasi likely wanted more info and would have loved to have been able to tap into a digitally connected world like we have today, that just wasn’t possible.
That’s true. The tyrants in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Stasi Eastern Europe would have liked to easedrop on every communication and every transaction of every citizen. But in the world before the internet, smart phones, electronic medical records and digital credit card transactions, much of what happened behind closed doors remained private.
(And modern tin pot dictators don’t have the tens of billions of dollars necessary to set up a sophisticated electronic spying system).
In modern America, a much higher percentage of your communications and transactions are being recorded and stored by the government.
And, of course, the spying is not just on citizens, Obama recently labeled government employees and contractors as “Insider threats“, and are monitoring them as well:
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
SUBJECT:National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs
This Presidential Memorandum transmits the National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs (Minimum Standards) to provide direction and guidance to promote the development of effective insider threat programs within departments and agencies to deter, detect, and mitigate actions by employees who may represent a threat to national security. These threats encompass potential espionage, violent acts against the Government or the Nation, and unauthorized disclosure of classified information, including the vast amounts of classified data available on interconnected United States Government computer networks and systems.
The Minimum Standards provide departments and agencies with the minimum elements necessary to establish effective insider threat programs. These elements include the capability to gather, integrate, and centrally analyze and respond to key threat-related information; monitor employee use of classified networks; provide the workforce with insider threat awareness training; and protect the civil liberties and privacy of all personnel.
The resulting insider threat capabilities will strengthen the protection of classified information across the executive branch and reinforce our defenses against both adversaries and insiders who misuse their access and endanger our national security.
BARACK OBAMA
What is Obama trying to hide or keep from getting out?
Eddie says:
“He says that if anyone gets on the government’s “enemies list”, then the stored information will be used to target them. Specifically, he notes that if the government decides it doesn’t like someone, it analyzes all of the data it has collected on that person and his or her associates over the last 10 years to build a case against him”
I knew I should have never started using email. I knew it. It just sounded too good to be true. I hope I go to a white collar prison.
Admin, it’s a good thing you’re so squeaky clean, or you’d be in beeeg trouble. Of course, innocence is no excuse.
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5th December 2012 at 5:28 pm
Stucky says:
Steal a coat …… go to jail. Go to jail ……… make coats!
Half a million in jail for mere possession of pot … and those prisoners compete against genuine American businesses.
Prison Labor: The New American Business Model
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5th December 2012 at 5:31 pm
AWD says:
Eddie, it’s okay, FEMA camps are nice this time of year, especially the one’s in North Dakota.
“unofficial” map of FEMA camps nationwide. Always causes a shit-storm when I post it.
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5th December 2012 at 5:31 pm
AWD says:
Eddie’s the guy with the goatee. I’m the guy without the goatee
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5th December 2012 at 5:33 pm
Davos says:
Last night over dinner the discussion was precisely this.
We [the USA] has 5 percent of the world’s population.
We have 25 percent of the world’s prison population.
Yesterday I read that Verizon was developing a new cable TV box that will monitor homes, if the box sense yelling it’ll advertise marriage counseling. How long before the government collects that data too?
We got here because douchebag, inept, clueless fucking morons say, “Well, I have nothing to hide, my life is boring, let them look at me all they want.” Fuck that noise. You don’t let 19 people destroy a republic by taking our rights. “Democracy” doesn’t equal a fucking nanny state where big government is supposed to protect you from everything from Medicare to Social Security to terrorism.
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5th December 2012 at 5:33 pm
sangell says:
Years ago there was TV sci fi show called the OUTER LIMITS. They didn’t have a lot of special effects back in the days of B&W TV so they had to hire good writers instead. One episode I remember was about a machine the government ‘developed’ called OBIT which was both an acronym standing for Observation Intelligence Technology and a play on the word obituary.
The device allowed the operator to ‘tune in’ on any person and observe what they were doing. Naturally people started using it to spy on one another or their spouses. Bosses could listen to their employees bad mouth them and vice versa. Soon everyone hated everyone else and fights and killings broke out between those using the machines. Then someone noticed not everybody was visible on the machines display. The aliens who had built the devices were invisible and the machines were made to cause mankind to destroy themselves.
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5th December 2012 at 5:53 pm
llpoh says:
Lots of prisoners = multiculturalism at work.
Look at the make-up of the population: Hispanics. Blacks. That is about it. The melting pot sure is a winner.
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5th December 2012 at 6:02 pm
prtrb'd says:
we need more pogo around here
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5th December 2012 at 10:07 pm
teset says:
How does the U.S. compare with the British? I’ve read that they have the most CCTV cameras per person and they also have some sort of Internet monitoring.
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5th December 2012 at 2:07 am
TeresaE says:
Only criminals need worry about this stuff, don’t ya’ know.
Too bad the sheeple don’t realize that odds are good they have committed numerous felonies without even trying.
I wish I could figure out how to get through to people, but until the day they find themselves facing prison over failure to file a tax form they didn’t even know existed, you can’t wake them up.
This makes me wish for one helluva horrific solar storm to wipe us out for a few years. Maybe going back to the old ways would wake some people up. I even doubt that though.
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5th December 2012 at 1:10 pm
ecliptix543 says:
Teresa, a solar storm wouldn’t be enough. Unless it could mimic the EMP of a tactical nuke at numerous certain key locations, COG wouldn’t be affected in the least. Doesn’t mean that millions of the peasantry wouldn’t get killed off, just that the top level shitsucking thugs running this bitch would be fine.
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5th December 2012 at 7:21 pm
SSS says:
“Half a million in jail for mere possession of pot …”
—-Stucky
Total bullshit. Details, please. How much pot? 1 ounce or 1 ton? Is there a long rap sheet behind the arrestee for violent or property offenses? What ELSE, if anything, led to the pot possessor’s arrest? And so on and so forth.
More unsubstantiated statements on Mary Jane from the unwashed masses on this site. 100 bucks says Stucky has ZERO to back up his statement. Zero. See above questions. There are more, many more.
Your move, Sticky. Remember, the bet is based on YOU defending your statement with details. I welcome charts. Bring it, big guy. Please head for the NORML website. I have a lot of fun blowing up their lies and bullshit.
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5th December 2012 at 12:25 am
Stucky says:
SSS
I am going to hand your ass to you on a Silver Platter. But first some preliminaries.
You are correct. I did not “research” the 500k number. I do not research every single thing I post. Neither do you. It was a guess-timate from memory. You know my style …. I always post links and always give credit when I do do research.
Secondly, I’ll pass on the NORML invite. I don’t have time or a desire to post on other sites other than TBP and Indiana.rivals.com (Hoosier basketball). Now …. Let’s get down to business.
========================================================== =
How about statistics from the F.B.I. ? I trust, you, of all people, won’t denigrate THAT source. The following stats come directly from the following link;
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/persons-arrested
.
The following is a DIRECT quote from the above link, the section titled “Overview”
———- 1) “The highest number of arrests were for drug abuse violations (estimated at 1,638,846 arrests)”
.
The following stat comes DIRECTLY from the FBI Link … the section titled …. Arrests Table, Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations, Percent Distribution by Region, 2010 …. and then the specific category in column 1, “Possession”, … and then column 2 “Marijuana”
———-2) “45.8%”
.
Therefore,
———- 3) 1,638,846 drug arrests … multiplied by 45.8% for mere marijuana possession …. Equals 750,591
.
And since,
———- 4) 750,591 is a helluva lot GREATER than 500,000
.
It is CLEAR that ………………… YOU LOSE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.
Pay up, son.
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5th December 2012 at 1:40 am
Stucky says:
************************* ATTENTION ALL TBP READERS *************************
******************************** YOU BE DA JUDGE ********************************
1) I, Stucky (PBUM), initially posted that 500,000 are in prison for pot possession.
2) SSS (DHTH), said “Bullshit”
3) I have provided FBI data to validate my assertion.
4) SSS is irrational when it comes to pot, the Heavenly Nectar. He will attempt to discredit the FBI numbers.
THEREFORE,
5) I am asking ALL TBP READERS to judge this debate. Review the arguments, verify the data, if you want.
6) Then Vote.
———— Vote Thumbs Up if you believe I, Stucky (PBUM) …… won.
———— Vote Thumbs Up if you believe I, Stucky (PBUM) …… lost..
.
Thank You.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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5th December 2012 at 1:49 am
Stucky says:
I think I’ll celebrate that epic beatdown with a tribute to my Noble Foe, SSS.
One toke over the line, Sweet Jesus.
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5th December 2012 at 1:56 am
Stucky says:
THE song ……. ONLY for SSS. Please, no one else click on the link. It’s only for SSS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql0IB1zv2MA
.
Let’s see .. SSS gets up at 10:30AM … fucks around the house till 1PM …. plays golf at 2PM … he’ll be home by 6PM … then he’ll take a nap. Therefore, I calculate that around 7PM, his head will explode after listening to the song. If you all are really quiet, I’ll bet you even hear it explode.
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5th December 2012 at 2:06 am
AKAnon says:
Stuck-Bite me, you can’t post exclusive links here. This is a free country, right? Right? Right? Shit, now I’m on the “watch list”. And I don’t even toke-I just like the song. Me & Lawrence Welk, Eh?
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5th December 2012 at 3:08 am
Leobeer says:
Sorry Stucky, I don’t think so. As I read it 45.8% were arrested. It doesn’t say convicted or jailed.
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5th December 2012 at 8:26 am
Eddie says:
From what I read there were roughly 45,000 people in prison for pot in 2004, which is the latest info I ran across. That’s plenty, and 45,000 too many. That’s enough people to populate a small city.
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5th December 2012 at 8:49 am
sangell says:
I read the probable cause affidavits in my area as they are posted on line. You get a sense of what is going on and how law enforcement operates. Most male criminals have pot on them or in their car. A cop pulls over a car full of young men ( of any color) and odds are good somebody is going to be holding or its in the car. With women around here its going to be a pill, a xanax or pain killer in their purse. Don’t ask me why these people are so stupid but they are. They keep their dope near so you get all kind of girls arrested for petty theft, shoplifting, then when their belongings are searched the pills are found so they now have a felony charge. Same thing with the guys in their car. The cop will detect the odor or marijuana then find the 9mm under the seat and someone is going to go down for that.
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5th December 2012 at 9:09 am
Eddie says:
I have had employees who did jail time for simple possession. Young, but not criminals in any sense I understand. Traffic stops with drug sniffing dogs. Probable cause ain’t what it used to be in this country.
What most people don’t realize is that after getting out of jail, these folks (who are already flat broke and probably just getting by even if they’re working) are bilked by the criminal justice system for money for months and years after the fact, making sure they have a hard time getting back on their feet. It’s all about the revenue.
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5th December 2012 at 9:26 am
sangell says:
There were small town police departments all along our interstates that lived on drug forfeiture revenue. Put a 30mph zone through your hick town and do speeding stops with a K-9 unit to search the car and drivers money. Confiscate the cash. Not much the driver can do about it. To get his $500 or $1000 back he is going to have to spend far more on legal fees and the local county courts aren’t going to be sympathetic as they live off the same revenue.
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5th December 2012 at 9:36 am
Stucky says:
“Sorry Stucky, I don’t think so. As I read it 45.8% were arrested. It doesn’t say convicted or jailed.” —- Leobeer
Pfffft. Minor detail.
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5th December 2012 at 10:06 am
AWD says:
Thinking and writing about Marijuana has been deemed a thought crime, and may result in immediate deportation to the nearest FEMA camp. Don’t worry, Stuck, somebody will come visit you.
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5th December 2012 at 10:11 am
Stucky says:
AWD
I hope YOU would visit. We’d have a blast. You could make fun of my moobs, and then you examine my sore butt-fucked asshole and give advice on that. lol
.
Listen … regarding your insanely large pics …
When you right click on a picture and click on “Properties” you will see this;
——— Dimensions: 1024 x 1024
The FIRST number is how WIDE the pic will be. That’s the imortant number, Your pic above is 1,024. Generally, the widest a pic can be before it overflows is 500.
The SECOND number is how LONG the pic will be. Doesn’t really matter, in terms of overflowing.
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5th December 2012 at 10:49 am
Stucky says:
OK. OK!!! I wrote the damn post at three in the fuckin morning — after I got a distubing phone call from my son in Michigan. I was distraught, I tell ya.
Yet, somehow I am still winning the debate, as judged by YOU, the people. ve-r-r-r-y interesting!
I’m sober now. I got the real facts. Here they are;
==========================================================
SESFTTLTRTFD (Stucky Executive Summary For Those Too Lazy To Read The Fucking Details);
—— 1) TOTAL (fed and state) Prisoners —– 1,414,846
——- 2) Total for ALL drug violations ———– 720,183
——- 3) Total for ONLY marijuana ————– 44,816
.
DETAILS (verbatim from the Sources linked below):
15.(State and Federal Marijuana Prisoners)
Total Federal Prisoners 2004 = 170,535
Total State Prisoners 2004 = 1,244,311
Percent of federal prisoners held for drug law violations = 55%
Percent of state prisoners held for drug law violations = 21%
Marijuana/hashish, Percent of federal drug offenders, 2004 = 12.4%
Marijuana/hashish, Percent of state drug offenders, 2004 = 12.7%
(Total prisoners x percent drug law) x percent marijuana = “marijuana prisoners”
Federal marijuana prisoners in 2004 = 11,630
State marijuana prisoners in 2004 = 33,186
Total federal and state marijuana prisoners in 2004 = 44,816
Note: These data only address people in prisons and thus exclude the 700,000+ offenders who may be in local jails because of a marijuana conviction.
=======
Sources:
Mumola , Christopher J. and Karberg, Jennifer C., “Drug Use and Dependence, State and Federal Prisoners, 2004,” Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, January 2007) NCJ 213530, p. 4. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/dudsfp04.pdf
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Marijuana#Share
========
CONCLUSION.
I was wrong regarding how many are in prison for marijuana. As I said to SSS above, when I wrote the 500k number I was just going from memory. As it turns out, the 500K (actually, 700k) is for ALL drug related offenses. Therein was my mistake. Not rationalizing here … like I said, I was wrong. SSS can keep his fuckin hundred bucks … I was just gonna buy pot with it anyway. Lol
========
OBSERVATIONS
1)- Incarceration 44,816 people for marijuana is an absolute TRAVESTY of justice.
2)- Having a police record, loss of drivers license, loss of job, loss of family and all the other various punishments doled out by the government FAR EXCEEDS the nature of the “crime”. The punishments cause FAR MORE damage than the actual act. That’s the very definition of “injustice”.
3) These draconian laws have NOTHING to do with helping the individual or society. It is ALL about enriching the Prison Industry, and all the hangers-on associated with it.
4) Wiki states the average cost nationally to incarcerate one prisoner is $30,600. Therefore, the cost to you taxpayers to imprison just marijuana users is $1.3 Billion dollars ($1,371,369,600).
YOUR money. Again, another travesty.
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5th December 2012 at 10:53 am
Stucky says:
Big Dog, SSS, gloats excessively at his victory.
Stucky wonders … “how the fuck did that happen?” … and contemplates whether or not to break in half Big Dog’s paw.
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5th December 2012 at 11:13 am
TeresaE says:
Eddie nailed it.
It isn’t just the INCARCERATED pot (& other morality) heads, it is the thousands and thousands and thousands that are “accidentally” busted.
These people are thrown into a corrupted “help” system, that serves to punish them further for arbitrary “crimes” which all together equates to thousands and thousands of jobs at the local, county, state and federal levels.
Drugs, prostitution and alternative health “crimes” are a fucking bonanza for the police state. They fund and justify ALL the other shit the bastards are in process of strangling us with.
People are just SO convinced that you can “fix” behavior at the point of gun. Even though throughout history human nature has proven this a completely false paradigm.
Convincing puritans that “we” collectively have the “right” and fucking obligation to force people to behave a certain way, depending on the collective mores (and paid for lobbyists), is insanity. Even in the animal kingdom you see this “aberrant” behavior. To think hurting someone “fixes” societies problems is insanity. Holding one man down, never lifts another. Ever. Not economically, not politically, not in business, not in your home, not ever.
I’m so very sick of the insanity. And sick that people can’t, won’t, absolutely refuse, to admit that it exists.
So it goes. FFF
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5th December 2012 at 11:45 am