WHO ARE THE REAL TRAITORS?

“I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American.”Edward Snowden

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”  – Samuel Adams

 

There are weeks that change the course of human history. There are weeks when people must choose sides. There are weeks that expose the real American traitors. There is no middle ground in this debate. You are either on the side of freedom, liberty, truth, transparency and the U.S. Constitution or you are on the side of mindless obedience, oppression, deception, corruption and tyranny. A courageous young Millennial named Edward Snowden has risked his life and his future to expose the illegal, surreptitious surveillance programs being conducted by the United States government in clear violation of the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The NSA, with the full knowledge of Barack Obama and Congress, has been covertly collecting phone and internet records on millions of Americans with the full cooperation of Verizon and other mega media/data corporations. Our owners have been using the U.S. Constitution to wipe their asses. The 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is so unambiguous that any intelligent politician, bright journalist or fifth grader in Miss Sabatini’s history class could interpret its meaning and intention. Our founding fathers believed in truth, clarity and simplicity. The traitorous sociopaths in control of our government today believe in obfuscation, ambiguity and complexity.

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Living Constitution?

Do you believe the mass collection of metadata information from millions of Americans with no probable cause is an unreasonable search as defined by the 4th Amendment? Do you believe the complete lockdown of one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the country and the door to door search by heavily armed government security thugs for one wounded teenager, without warrants or probable cause, was a violation of the 4th Amendment? Do you believe secretive governmental agencies have the right to partner with the biggest internet/communications/mass media corporations in the world to record your phone calls, read your emails, and monitor your internet communications under the bogus justification of the War on Terror (you are more likely to be struck by lightning twice than to be killed by a terrorist)?  Do you believe that government agencies tasked with revenue collection can be used to create an enemies list based upon whether you donated to the Ron Paul campaign, believe in liberty, or belong to a Tea Party organization? Do you believe allowing minimum wage government drones to molest little old ladies, paraplegics and three year old children, while conducting full body scans on all airline passengers really makes you safer from phantom terrorists? Do you believe having 30,000 high tech surveillance drones that can see you picking your nose in your driveway from 25,000 feet are not a violation of your privacy rights?

Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

If you answered in the affirmative to any or all of the questions above you are either a government apparatchik, someone dependent upon the surveillance state for your paycheck, a victim of decades of mind control through corporate mass media propaganda, or one of the willfully ignorant masses. Of course the ignorant masses will not be reading these questions as they are focused on the inbred royal family saga, Kim Kardashian’s bastard child pregnancy, and the upcoming episodes of Honey Boo Boo, Teen Mom, I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant, Duck Dynasty, Real Housewives of Idiocracy or paying $200 on their plastic debt accumulator to watch multi-millionaire freaks of nature play children’s games. Those who argue the U.S. Constitution is a living document open to interpretation by the interchangeable corporate fascist parties that control the reins of power at Versailles on the Potomac are nothing but apologists for the corrupt status quo. The American people are provided the illusion of choice by their owners, but the major policies are kept intact – never ending war, never ending currency debasement, and never ending screwing of the middle class.

The revelations by Millennial martyr, Edward Snowden, about the PRISM program and the fact that the NSA harvests data directly from the servers of Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo and other corporate co-conspirators came just days after disclosure that our Orwellian trained keepers had been shredding the 1st Amendment. The Obama administration has continuously flaunted the Bill of Rights when they interfere with their mission to create a centrally planned welfare/warfare state. Republicans don’t resist Obama’s efforts on Constitutional grounds, as they have no love for its constraints either. The seizure of AP reporter phone records in an effort to uncover leaks and to intimidate the free press, monitoring of reporter James Rosen using false information to obtain a warrant, and the computer hacking of lead Benghazi CBS reporter Cheryl Attkisson are clearly violations of the 1st Amendment.

There has been faux outrage among those in the establishment. It’s nothing but a game to entertain their rabid disciples. There is virtually no difference between the pretend parties who alternately operate as figurehead leadership in Washington D.C. Both parties cooperated to crush the peaceable assembly of young people exercising their right to petition the government about the blatant criminality of Wall Street bankers. The supposed Soros inspired OWS movement was subdued by Democratic mayors using their local military police hooligans, supported by the Federal surveillance state, in cooperation with the very same criminal Wall Street banks who had destroyed the worldwide financial system in their ransacking of the nation’s wealth through a well planned and executed control fraud.

The cheerleading of this disgusting display of fascist tactics by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and the likes of CNN, MSNBC, and Bloomberg News told me everything I needed to know. Those within the status quo will circle the wagons whenever there is a threat to their wealth, power and control. If you make it onto the establishment’s enemies list, the Constitution will not protect you. The only true free speech is being exercised on the internet, for now. The plutocracy of wealthy corporate elite and their captured puppet politicians are attempting to crush dissent and free speech by restricting access to anti-establishment websites, introducing legislation to control the internet and as we now know hacking into sites considered enemies of the state. The guarantee of 1st Amendment protection has increasingly becoming a quaint old fashion notion in this fascist state.

First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Constitution has been increasingly treated as an optional instructional manual by what passes for leadership in this country. An all-out assault has been waged on the 2nd Amendment by the control freaks who want to create a national gun registry so they know where to send their military assault teams when the time comes. Every assault on our liberties, rights and freedoms is done on behalf of the children. Sinclair Lewis once declared:

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

He was wrong. Fascism has come to America, wrapped in fiat currency, carrying a child as a prop, in the name of the War on Terrorism. Presidents have been flaunting their disdain for Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution since World War II. The Imperial American Empire has been militarily enforcing its hegemony over the world since the 1950’s without Congress ever declaring war, as required by the Constitution. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now Syria are just the latest victims of our hypocritical interventionist state. Our predator drones roam the skies above foreign countries murdering suspected bad guys at the whim of PS3 trained gutless techno geeks sipping a decaf on their 9 to 5 shift.  The corrupt spineless swine in Congress expose themselves as nothing more than bought off acolytes of the military industrial complex warned about by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961:

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

The citizens of this country have failed to heed his warning. We have not been alert and to describe the narcissistic, delusional, math challenged, willfully ignorant sheep, bleating for their safety and security as knowledgeable is beyond laughable. Security and liberty have not prospered together. The arms dealers formed an unholy alliance with the Too Big To Trust Wall Street banks, their sugar daddy Federal Reserve, easily bought off feckless political class, and sociopathic government bureaucrats to create this corporate fascist welfare/warfare state that has subverted our liberty while obscenely enriching the .1% who have used their unwarranted influence in a traitorous manner. The disastrous consequences for the world continue to build like the dome of a volcano before it detonates and destroys everything in a fiery swath of lava.

New Boss Same As The Old Boss

“If people can’t trust not only the executive branch, but also don’t trust Congress and don’t trust federal judges to make sure that we’re abiding by the Constitution, due process and rule of law, then we’re going to have some problems here.” – Barack Obama

 

The nattering classes who dominate the boob tube spin the storylines of their corporate clients on a daily basis, but the uncovering of the deceitful activities of the ruling establishment by Edward Snowden have exposed the truth about who runs this country. Republicans, Democrats, neo-cons, ultra-liberals, Fox News, MSNBC, the New York Times, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, military generals, and the government drones who monitor our phone calls, texts, emails and internet postings have all shown their true colors in the last week. They don’t care about truth, justice, or the American people. James Clapper lied during sworn testimony before Congress about spying on millions of Americans because he didn’t think he’d be caught. He was caught red handed. And no one is calling for his apprehension and imprisonment.

We are lied to, misled, misinformed, and inundated with falsehoods and propaganda on a daily basis by our leaders. The proof that we live in a plutocracy dominated by two corrupt political parties (with 250 millionaires in Congress), six Wall Street banks (JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley), six mass media companies (Comcast, Google, Walt Disney, News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom), seven arm dealers (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, L-3 Communications, United Technologies), a few politically connected mega-corporations (Exxon, General Electric, Verizon, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, General Motors, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, IBM), and a few hundred shadowy billionaires is how they have unequivocally declared that Edward Snowden is a filthy high school dropout traitor. He has revealed secrets about how the lords of the manor keep the serfs and peasants under surveillance. Here is a smattering of the vitriol spewed about this American patriot:

“America is now a less safe place. The world is a less safe place because of what Mr. Snowden unilaterally did. He deserves to be prosecuted. I hope they find him in the hole that he’s hiding in in Hong Kong and bring him home and try him.” – Karl Rove

“I hope we follow Mr. Snowden to the ends of the earth to bring him to justice.” – Lindsey Graham

“For this, some, including my colleague John Cassidy, are hailing him as a hero and a whistle-blower. He is neither. He is, rather, a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison.”Jeffrey Toobin – The New Yorker

“What he did was an act of treason.”Diane Feinstein

“He’s a traitor.” – John Boehner

“I think he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I consider him right now to be a defector.” – Peter King

“There is an obligation both moral, but also legal, I believe, against a reporter disclosing something which would so severely compromise national security.” – Peter King

“I can assure you, this is not about spying on the American people.” – Al Franken

“For me it is literally, not figuratively, literally, gut-wrenching to see this happen, because of the huge, grave damage it does to our intelligence capabilities.”James Clapper (Perjurer)

“We do not see a tradeoff between security and liberty.” – Keith Alexander – NSA Director

“The national security of the United States has been damaged as a result those leaks. The safety of the American people and the safety of people who reside in allied nations have been put at risk as a result of these leaks.” – Eric Holder

“I think he’s a traitor. I’m suspicious because he went to China. That’s not a place where you would ordinarily want to go if you are interested in freedom, liberty and so forth. It raises questions whether or not he had that kind of connection before he did this.” Dick Cheney – The Dark Lord

“And I hope that he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” – Mitch McConnell

“Now you’ve got this 29-year-old high school dropout whistleblower making foreign policy for our country, our security policy. It’s sad, Brian. We’ve made treason cool. Betraying your country is kind of a fashion statement. He wants to be the national security Kim Kardashian. He cites Bradley Manning as a hero. I mean, we need to get very, very serious about treason. And oh by the way, for treason — as in the case of Bradley Manning or Edwards Snowden — you bring back the death penalty.”Fox and Friends

“Can intelligence operate effectively if every starry-eyed analyst feels entitled to be a self-appointed whistle-blower?” – Gary RosenThe Wall Street Journal

“Edward Snowden should go to jail, as quickly and for as long as possible.” – John Yoo – The National Review.

“I think on three scores—that is leaking the Patriot Act section 215, FISA 702, and the president’s classified cyber operations’ directive—on the strength of leaking that, yes, that would be a prosecutable offense. I think that he should be prosecuted.” – Nancy Pelosi

“Who is a journalist is a question we need to ask ourselves. Is any blogger out there saying anything – do they deserve First Amendment protection? These are the issues of our times.” – Lindsey Graham

“This lens makes you more likely to share the distinct strands of libertarianism that are blossoming in this fragmenting age: the deep suspicion of authority, the strong belief that hierarchies and organizations are suspect, the fervent devotion to transparency, the assumption that individual preference should be supreme. You’re more likely to donate to the Ron Paul for president campaign, as Snowden did. But Big Brother is not the only danger facing the country. Another is the rising tide of distrust, the corrosive spread of cynicism, the fraying of the social fabric and the rise of people who are so individualistic in their outlook that they have no real understanding of how to knit others together and look after the common good.” – David Brooks

It seems the ruling oligarchs, their mouthpieces in the mainstream media (both conservative & liberal), Machiavellian politicians on both sides of the aisle, unscrupulous military commanders and deceitful government bureaucrats have all rallied to shield their existing perverted surveillance state. These people actually believe that what is best for their own personal interests is best for the citizens of this country. There is only one Party – the Establishment Party. The smear campaign against Edward Snowden began immediately. The vitriolic accusations, venomous scorn, malicious ridicule and pathetic attempts to discredit Edward Snowden for sacrificing everything on behalf of the country he loves has revealed more truth about how the real world operates than the thousands of articles written by supposed “conspiracy theorists” over the last decade. Anyone with their eyes open and mind not controlled by the regime know the real criminals in this tragedy. Leon Trotsky, who also participated in a brutal fascist surveillance state, put it best:

“The real criminals hide under the cloak of the accusers.”

In a country where those in power encourage and participate in the plundering of people’s bank accounts by billionaires, the largest financial control fraud in world history by the biggest Wall Street banks, treating every citizen as a suspect until proven otherwise under the auspices of the ironically named Patriot Act, creating an Orwellian surveillance state of cameras, drones and snitches, torturing suspected enemies, conducting military exercises in the skies above our cities, seizing reporters’ personal records, using government agencies to harass political opponents, listening to our phone calls with warrantless wiretaps, reading our emails and texts, brutally crushing peaceful protests, attempting to disarm us, locking down an entire city and kicking doors down while searching for a hapless wounded teenager, appropriating our DNA, detaining us without charges, assassinating suspected dissidents, regulating what we can eat, drink or smoke, passing 2,500 page corporate lobbyist written bills that no one has read, using laws to enhance the wealth of the .1%, creating a tax code designed to minimize the burden on the .1%, the feeding of economic information by the Fed and Federal government to connected crony banks minutes before the public so they can pre-program their HFT computers to profit at the expense of the muppets, conducting cyber-attacks on sovereign countries and then feigning outrage when the favor is returned, and militarily intervening around the world under the false guise of strategic interests, we are supposed to trust the establishment? As we descend further into tyranny, I don’t know which is sadder – the pure evil of these men or the apathy and complacent acquiescence of the willfully ignorant masses to the methods employed by their owners. The numerous laws passed by those in power are just more proof of how corrupt our society has become.

 “The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” – Tacitus

The threat of tyranny was still raw in 1975, after the Watergate cover-up, when Senator Frank Church warned about the National Security Agency:

“I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.”

Again, we failed to heed his warning. We’ve crossed over the abyss and the vision of our future will be the boot of a DHS thug stomping on the face of an American citizen – forever.

True Ruling Power of Our Country

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson

  

Whenever I would use the term oligarchs, ruling elite, powers that be, owners, .1%, or ruling class, it always sounded too conspiratorial. But after years of reading the writings of Edward Bernays, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Ron Paul, George Carlin and a number of other “crazy” bloggers, while witnessing with my own two eyes what is happening in this country, I’ve come to the conclusion that our country is run by an invisible government consisting of a small cadre of rich powerful men who manipulate, obfuscate, eliminate and fabricate in their insatiable greed for glory, riches, power and control. They thought they had perfected the art of propaganda:

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” – Edward Bernays

The disclosure of the unholy alliance of corporations and the government to secretly spy on millions of Americans, while attempting to intimidate journalists and crush dissent from political opponents, is throwing the master plan of the ruling elite into disarray. The conspiracy of silence and denial is fraying at the edges as the truth continues to leak out:

“The contents of a phone call could be accessed simply based on an analyst deciding that. If the NSA wants to listen to the phone, an analyst’s decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required.” – Democratic Rep Jerrold Nadler

There have been a few lone voices in the wilderness warning about the rise of this corporate fascist surveillance one party state, but they have been scorned, ridiculed, marginalized and ignored. It seems the libertarian minded men and women of this country have been right all along.

“We’ve slipped away from a true republic. Now we’re slipping into a fascist system where it’s a combination of government, big business and authoritarian rule, and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen. When it comes to any significant differences on foreign policy, economic intervention, the Federal Reserve, a strong executive branch, a welfarism mixed with corporatism, both parties are very much alike.  The major arguments in hotly contested presidential races are mostly for public consumption to convince the people they actually have a choice.” – Ron Paul

True liberty minded Americans and those who value freedom and the Constitution have rallied to the defense of a true patriot. “We the People” must reclaim this country from the unelected .1% who has conducted a silent coup while we were pre-occupied with our techno-narcissism and consumed by the urge to consume. We have an omnipotent outlaw government with concentrated overwhelming power. The out of control bureaucracy devouring treasure, the blood of our young, civil rights, and the Constitution will not yield of its own volition. When the government tyrants classify all of us as enemies of the state, it is time to dismantle the state and water the tree of liberty with some blood, if that is what is required.

“Perfect safety is not the purpose of government. What we want from government is to enforce the law to protect our liberties. The government does not need to know more about what we are doing. We need to know more about what the government is doing. We need to turn the cameras on the police and on the government, not the other way around. We should be thankful for writers like Glenn Greenwald, who broke last week’s story, for taking risks to let us know what the government is doing. There are calls for the persecution of Greenwald and the other whistle-blowers and reporters. They should be defended, as their work defends our freedom.” Ron Paul

The country is being run like a mafia crime family. The Don and his lieutenants operate in secrecy, eliminating their opponents, buying off the press, bribing the police for protection, running the rackets, and collecting their tribute from those that want to do business with them. They go to war against the other families whenever they want to expand their turf. The country has been captured by an organized crime syndicate and it will require an Elliot Ness type character with many strident Constitutionalists to rid the land of these evil, lawless, egocentric men. One of those evil men slithered out of his lair onto the neo-con network – Fox News – to declare Edward Snowden a traitor and spy. Mr. Snowden responded to chicken-hawk Dick “Deferment” Cheney during another freedom of the press in a foreign country event:

“Further, it’s important to bear in mind I’m being called a traitor by men like former Vice President Dick Cheney. This is a man who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a kind of atrocity warm-up on the way to deceitfully engineering a conflict that has killed over 4,400 and maimed nearly 32,000 Americans, as well as leaving over 100,000 Iraqis dead. Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him, Feinstein, and King, the better off we all are. If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.

Who has done more to shred the Constitution and strip us of rights, liberties and freedoms in the last thirteen years – Cheney or Snowden?

This brings us to the question of our times. Who are the patriots and who are the traitors? Those in power have been using the Bernaysian propaganda technique of conscious and intelligent manipulation of the public mind by using the corporate media to convince the distracted ignorant masses that Edward Snowden has committed treason against his country and should be punished for his crime. Interestingly enough, treason is addressed in Article III Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. 

At the same time it would make sense to define the term patriot:

A person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.

Does Edward Snowden fit the definition of a traitor as described in the Constitution? The shallow vacuous pundits in the corporate mainstream media complex blather on about treason while focusing their in-depth journalism on pictures of Snowden’s girlfriend from her Facebook page. This is what passes for journalism in America today. A man uncovers the largest spying conspiracy in human history and highly paid mouthpieces for the establishment focus on pole dancing. The last time I checked, Congress hadn’t declared war on anyone, so Snowden isn’t a traitor under that clause. He must be providing aid and comfort to our enemies. Who are the enemies today? They seem to change on a daily basis. I guess since we are considered potential enemies of the state, his revelations were giving the citizens of the United States aid and comfort.

On the other hand, a patriot is someone who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice on its behalf against those who would damage or hurt that country. The government of the United States (President, Congress, Judiciary), in conjunction with their corporate, banking and media co-conspirators have knowingly and willingly subverted the Constitution of the United States and have therefore committed treasonous acts that have endangered the rights, freedoms and liberties of the people. A corrupt regime will use their thousands of laws to ensnare anyone in some violation of those laws. But at the end of the day a critical thinking individual knows right from wrong without being told by a government bureaucrat. Edward Snowden is a patriot of the highest order. His act of heroism, knowing he would be despised, attacked and hunted down by the American Thugocracy, is on par with the actions of our Founding Fathers who knew they would be hung if their Revolution failed. A true patriot must be ready to defend his country against a tyrannical government. Edward Snowden just dumped the tea into the Boston Harbor.

Edward Snowden is standing up to the autocratic powers that have seized control of our Constitutional Republic. Other patriots (Thomas Drake, William Binney, J. Kirk Wiebe, Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, Aaron Swartz, Daniel Ellsberg) have sacrificed their careers and lives to reveal the truth about government corruption and malfeasance.  Ben Franklin pondered whether we could keep the Republic they had given us. He understood human nature and the likelihood that we as a people would become corrupted, vote for people who promised us the most, and would willingly sacrifice our independence, freedom, liberty and rights for the presumed safety and security of a despotic government:

“In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults; if they are such; because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and I believe, further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.”

Words of a Traitor?

“…I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.”Edward Snowden

The key terms are “good conscience” and “secretly”. Doing what is right does not mean doing what the authorities declare to be the law. Edward Snowden has a conscience. Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, James Clapper, John McCain, Diane Feinstein, Ben Bernanke, Jon Corzine, Jamie Dimon and the rest of the sociopathic criminal governing class have no conscience. Their souls are blackened with their crimes and misdeeds. In our Bizarro world, Nobel Peace Prize winners slaughter Muslim children indiscriminately with their squadrons of killer drones. Those in power are allowed to operate in the shadows, hiding anything that might incriminate them and secretly spying on millions of citizens without probable cause, while we the people have no right to privacy or freedom from surveillance in this plutocracy. We are all suspects in the eyes of the state and can be terminated at the whim of a government apparatchik:

“Because even if you’re not doing anything wrong you’re being watched and recorded. And the storage capability of these systems increases every year consistently by orders of magnitude … to where it’s getting to the point where you don’t have to have done anything wrong. You simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody – even by a wrong call. And then they can use this system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you’ve ever made, every friend you’ve ever discussed something with. And attack you on that basis to sort to derive suspicion from an innocent life and paint anyone in the context of a wrongdoer.” – Edward Snowden

Our greatest fear at this point in history is the continued apathy, ignorance, slothfulness, and delusional thinking of our narcissistic populace regarding the most important issue of our time – freedom or tyranny? Will enough people stand and fight the encroaching surveillance state and the evil men pulling the levers? Change will not happen through the ballots box, as the system is rigged and the democratic process has been subverted. It will require patriots taking to the streets and more people like Edward Snowden stepping forward to lead us back out of the abyss into which we have fallen. Time is growing short. Will we rise to the occasion or will we cower and wait until the satanic Eye of Sauron turns in our direction?

“The great fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. [People] won’t be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things… And in the months ahead, the years ahead, it’s only going to get worse. [The NSA will] say that… because of the crisis, the dangers that we face in the world, some new and unpredicted threat, we need more authority, we need more power, and there will be nothing the people can do at that point to oppose it. And it will be turnkey tyranny.” Edward Snowden

 

“I do not expect to see home again.” Edward Snowden

Over the course of decades we have allowed ourselves to be corrupted by the love of material possessions, the lure of a debt based faux wealth, the money for nothing entitlement promises of dishonorable politicians, the evil of currency debasement, the effectiveness of mass media propaganda, and the belief that we could sacrifice freedom and liberty for promises of safety and security made by a cabal of powerful rich men. Power has been concentrated into the hands of the few, who operate in secrecy and despise the people. They don’t want transparency or open debate. Freedom of speech is nothing but a thorn in their side. They believe they are smarter than the serfs and have no morality when it comes to committing illegal acts and disregarding the Constitution. They are not acting in the public interest. Their abuse of power and looting of the national wealth have put us on a path towards a bloody revolution. This is not a time for conformity, obedience or submission. It’s time to stand up and expose the evil doers. It’s time to rally around those who care about this country. Who are the real traitors? You know the answer. What are you going to do about it?

“The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are being looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care? When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media? Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.” – Ron Paul

 

WARNING: The National Security Agency is likely recording and storing this communication as part of its unlawful spying programs on all Americans … and people worldwide. The people who created the NSA spying program say that this communication – and any responses – can and will be used against the American people at any time in the future should folks in government decide to go after us for political reasons. And private information in digital communications may be given to big companies by the government.

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147 Comments
Thinker
Thinker
June 19, 2013 11:25 am

Jim

Only if you think the possibility of “them” targeting you is stronger than the effects of peak oil + inflation.

daddysteve
daddysteve
June 19, 2013 11:38 am

That Mercedes went up in flames like an old Pinto. Yeah sure , I believe the official story.

Sensetti
Sensetti
June 19, 2013 11:45 am

I was awaken from a deep sleep with a sense of foreboding, I made my way to the window and peered into the cloudy mist. A chorus of thundering voices talked over each other somewhere just out of sight. Being hungover from the Kool-Aid I had been provided since childhood made decrement of the world outside almost impossible. What’s real and whats an illusion? Who’s speaking truth and who’s telling lies? Who are the patriots and who are the traitors?
For all the question I have……. of this I am certain.
Sacrifice and blood will be the price of our negligence and time will be the final arbiter of all.

Thanks JIm for the light in a dark place.

Sensetti

JJ3 The Liberty Bard
JJ3 The Liberty Bard
June 19, 2013 12:10 pm

Great article man, that may have been the best one yet. Inspired me to write this song.

Three hundred million people
With three hundred million thoughts
On how to run a system that’s already been bought,
By the bankers I mean gangsters
And one tenth of one percent,
Of the people on this planet,
Who use the government:
To tell us who to hate,
To tell us what to think,
To spy on every action,
To take us to the brink,
Of tyranny, oppression,
Authoritarian,
Ruling oligarchy,
Enriching all their friends
Should we try to stop them and fight for liberty?
Or should we just accept their turnkey tyranny?

Three hundred million people who look the other way,
A country apathetic, to what the critics say,
Whistleblowers whistle, politicians cry,
They can’t expose our secrets, and no one wonders why,
The government can watch us but we cannot watch them,
They’ll label you a traitor if you commit the sin,
Of showing what their up to, exposing what they do,
Pulling back the curtain, so we can all see who
Tells us who to hate,
Tells us what to think,
Spies on every action,
Takes us to the brink,
Of tyranny, oppression,
Authoritarian,
Ruling oligarchy,
Enriching all their friends
Should we try to stop them and fight for liberty?
Or should we just accept their turnkey tyranny?

Three hundred million people who all should be ashamed
For being apathetic, while the statist go insane,
And destroy the fourth amendment, Eviscerate the first,
It’s just a piece of paper, our founding father’s curse.
The thing you must remember, when they wrote the bill of rights,
The world was run by tyrants, that our founders chose to fight,
They tried to make a system, that was structured to prevent,
Tyranny emerging, within our government,
They warned us not to trade an ounce of liberty,
For the comfort of the promise of false security,
Collectivist would rule us, every day and every where
The question we must ask, is simply do we care?

Tell us who to hate,
Tell us what to think,
Spy on every action,
Take us to the brink,
Of tyranny, oppression,
Authoritarian,
Ruling oligarchy,
Enriching all their friends
Should we try to stop them and fight for liberty?
Or should we just accept their turnkey tyranny?

Cynical30
Cynical30
June 19, 2013 12:36 pm

Revolution, or likely civil war. Kind of like the first time around which we weren’t really taught about in great detail back in public school. Great article admin. I’ll repost on my facebook page so it makes it easier for the NSA to figure out who I am.

Cynical30
Cynical30
June 19, 2013 12:37 pm

Ha! I’ll dig up some beats and see what I can come up with!

AWD
AWD
June 19, 2013 12:44 pm

Great story, you pulled out all the stops.

It’s truly amazing how bad things are, and truly amazing how little anybody cares.

Some off the cuff comparisons:

We have more people in jail than Stalinist Russia
We have more lawyers than any other country in history
We have a gestapo/police state larger than Nazi Germany
We have more surveillance than Stasi E. Germany
We have more people on welfare than the entire population of Germany
We have more debt than any country in history
The Nazis and Stalin could only dream of the spying being done here
The Nazis and Stalin created “enemies of the state”, so has Obama: conservatives and tea party members, and soon to be any citizen that disagrees with Obama.

Instead of coming after Jews, they will come after conservatives, libertarians, and freedom minded people.

Instead of killing Jews, our government, the media, Wall Street, Banks, Billionaires, and many corporations are owned and controlled by Jews, who are liberal progressives, love Obama and are afraid of patriots.

The masses won’t revolt, not until the economy collapses and they can’t get their SNAP steaks, pork rinds and cases of Coke any longer. When the direct deposit cash stops flowing to 110 million welfare and disability recipients, then something might happen.

The government has bought off the masses, the majority, the unions, the government employee party members. The people that work for a living are getting fewer and fewer every year. It’s so much like Rome, just like Rome, the endless wars, the wasting, selling off, and destroying productive people and assets, the corruption, the fascism, the controlling elites that milk the people until they are dead. The hate mongers that use fear to control and surveille the masses.

It really is amazing how far down the socialist fascist rabbit hole we have gone, and it’s just getting started. As you said, the battle lines have been drawn. And now the criminal politicians are cornered, and will start WW3 as a distraction. One step over the line, and mankind is finished. It will be the biggest folly yet of our evil criminal leaders. They’ll be in their bunkers, watching what they have wrought.

Anonymous
Anonymous
June 19, 2013 12:55 pm

such commentaries should be published on a daily basis ,standing bySnowden

howard in nyc
howard in nyc
June 19, 2013 1:07 pm

Jim, above wrote:

“They have won; you have lost.”

RE, and others have countered that statement.

I agree with Jim; however, I do not disagree with RE. I seek to reconcile their consecutive posts with a small, but significant addition, which I think fairly describes the current reality.

They have won. We have lost. But, IT AIN’T FUCKING OVER!!!

Jim is 100% correct. The They have fucking won. Not winning, won. They have the power. As Professor Goebbels suggest, they are the fucking nation.

But it ain’t over.

That formulation, as to who is the nation, is a useful one. A free nation, based on democratic principles, is responsive to the voice, needs, will of the people. Other nations, respond to the needs and will of a much smaller constituency. You pick a description for what we are today, and tell me who the current winners and losers are.

As a metaphor, it ain’t one game. A seven game series. The Miami Heat have won game six, but it ain’t over. Or a metaphor of the battles/campaigns (of multiple battles) in a war. The Confederacy won McClellan’s campaign(s) to conquer Northern Virginia. But it wasn’t fucking over. Richmond/Jeff Davis/The Confederacy were the rulers of Virginia, late summer 1862, and ready to launch an invasion of the Union.

Do not easily dismiss Jim’s point that ‘they have won’. Because although it indicates finality, it also indicates the reality of the overwhelming position of the forces of the them, and the impotence of the mass of americans. A self-imposed impotence, but the passive surrender of all power and control to the them, literally over a span of decades, is a harsh fact that can be quite succinctly captured with that phrase, ‘they have won, we have lost’.

For now. Cause it ain’t over. (until, well, you know when. Like Yogi sed.)

GW
GW
June 19, 2013 1:08 pm

The burden of maintaining a Democracy is just that – a burden – and it is not an easy one – circumventing the Constitution thru secrecy and backdoor deals in the dead of night have no place now or ever!

Just to be clear on this – History will prove that Snowden is a true patriot and the current oligarchs will be disgraced in the history books!

TeresaE
TeresaE
June 19, 2013 2:38 pm

GW says: “… to be clear on this – History will prove that Snowden is a true patriot and the current oligarchs will be disgraced in the history books!”

Sadly GW, history will only “prove” this if right win. Never forget that history, at least the history taught in public schools by the department of education, is written by the winners.

If the status quo “wins,” he’ll go down as a traitor in the taught and published history books.

It will be people like us that will still whisper his story as a true Patriot in the dead of night.

More than likely not online though. Cause if Snowden loses, we more than likely will lose places like this right along with his life/freedom.

AWD
AWD
June 19, 2013 3:08 pm

Who are the real traitors?

30 million union government drone parasites making $125,000 per year (on average, with benefits) to warm a desk

[img]http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples_resource/image/23266[/img]

JJ3
JJ3
June 19, 2013 3:26 pm

Cynical and admin, I can’t wait to hear what you come up with Cyn, please do have fun with it and create a vid to accompany it. I’m working on ways to actually make money with my writing, if you help me out and I can get some funding you will be rewarded. I can make no promises, but I’m doing to to somehow make money at it and share with any and all who helped.

Calamity
Calamity
June 19, 2013 3:55 pm

I don’t just distrust those that are in favor of the NSA. My biggest concern are ignorant people with that much access to the NSA information. It is dangerous to be internet stalked like this. It is even more dangerous for your information to be in the hands of stupid people. It is a skill to be able to look at information and make sense of it. That is why Edward Snowden got the best of the government. They thought he was an uneducated high school drop out that wouldn’t know how valuable the information he was looking at. Oh how wrong they were. My greatest concern are those looking at my information that jump to conclusions. Like some bad 70’s sitcom misdirection episode.

Right now through what I have recently researched for articles to write I could be portrayed as a Islamist militant, libertartian Ron Paul fan, who has a knowledge of weapons (I barely know the differences of rifles in real life) that looks up Nazi information, hates Obama, wants to blow up the Federal Reserve, and an Anonymous hacker that follows banking and economics. Based on my own search history and new visits I could be put in jail today for some type on conspiracy. That is what is scary. Having your internet history wrongly interrupted.

What we all should be more scared that anybody on the internet could look guilty about anything with the NSA keeping files on us.

Reverse Engineer
Reverse Engineer
June 19, 2013 5:39 pm

“Do you think I should trade my Honda Insight in for a bullet proof Hummer?”-Admin

Not sure about the Hummer, but I would stay away from Small Planes and Hunting Trips with Dick Cheney.

[imgcomment image[/img]

RE

AWD
AWD
June 19, 2013 7:29 pm

I just gotta post this again. Shows what a lying sack of shit Obama is. He’s now “doubling down” on spying, and the fucking MSM is tripping over themselves to show the benefits of NSA spying. It’s unbelievable. The bought and paid for mouthpieces will never give up the propaganda, the brainwashing and lies.

[imgcomment image[/img]

crazyivan
crazyivan
June 19, 2013 8:12 pm

Ya wanna know what’s going to happen with the whole Snowden deal?

Soon, after much ado, the CIA is going to be confronted by the NSA in regards to Agent Snowden.

So…. we all throw up our arms in disgust and yell “What the fuck is this? CIA vs. NSA? ”

Well yes it is.

[img]http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS0oz5_UC-2qjQnAXhkx73GWlmGf4S9wYaxgICc4M6XfE9uesBn[/img]

platoplubius
platoplubius
June 19, 2013 9:01 pm

Good call Ivan,

I was watching PBS the other day and was watching an interview from some douche from the CIA bashing the NSA because of its leaks! This was before Snowden came out as the leak! I was thinking to myself as I watched this guy continue to trash the NSA that what I was witnessing was the beginning of a war between two factions, both found within the NSA and CIA! An internal coup perhaps?! Survival of the fittest or most backstabbing organization will prevail! Although neither should!

soul_searcher
soul_searcher
June 19, 2013 10:02 pm

Most of us are not stupid enough to do what Snowden did. He’s fucked, and the media white-washed it just as JQ said. It’s easy for us to go about our daily lives and admire his self-destruction. His action will be forgotten before the summer is over. That’s why JQ is using his free speech rights which haven’t been taken away yet, rather than ruin his family’s lives. Bloggers like JQ, who are encouraging us to vote for free-thinking guys who care about rights and freedom are what’s needed. The information age is being used effectively against us in ways most people don’t understand. Will citizens of this country win or lose against the powerful? Time will tell whether or not the masses wake up before it’s too late, and put the right people into positions of power.

Novista
Novista
June 19, 2013 11:05 pm

I am an American and I approve of this message.

Novista
Novista
June 19, 2013 11:12 pm

howard in nyc beat me to it with the baseball analogy.

Last evening, my neighbor the Frenchman, an admirer of our Constitution, said ruefully, “~They~ have won.”

Not so, I replied. Winning, yes, but (he discovered the joys of baseball a few years ago) think of it as one of those baseball games that turns as fast as a New York minute in the 9th inning. And then the underdog wins the day.

Gubmint Cheese
Gubmint Cheese
June 19, 2013 11:48 pm

Admin;
Transportation should be no problem for you as long as a Kennedy isn’t driving of the vehicle (plane, boat or car)

Harvey Coathanger
Harvey Coathanger
June 20, 2013 12:30 am

The United Snakes of America.

Every possible advantage.

Have completely forgotten the act of genocide that it took to create the place.

WON’T allow themselves to be adequately compensated for tripling their GDP in the
last forty years.

WILL allow themselves to be polluted to death.

WILL allow their law enforcement to be randomly shot at BECAUSE

*GUNS made us GREAT
*Discussion of population control is a SIN
*LAWS are for the little people

ooooooo…..ain’t we special

What bunch of goddamn pussies.

Game Over
Game Over
June 20, 2013 6:37 pm

We may appear to be underground for the time being, but we are by no means gone.

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

Mike Moskos
Mike Moskos
June 21, 2013 1:36 am

A lot of this would have stopped dead in its tracks had the American people stopping flying en masse when they began the boarding searches. That would have been the foot in the sand.

It’s much like needing a license to get married. Think about that, the state (read: your master) determines who you spend your life with.

Novista
Novista
June 21, 2013 7:24 am

T4C

The ‘thumbs’ are a game. Some people whine and rail about the downs, and sometimes they get them not because of their message but … just because.

Once, not long ago, a former Big Dog, self-assessed, who contributed much, let his hubris overtake his common sense, and departed in a huff. (Not a German sports car.) Falling on your sword for the wrong reason is a waste.

J. S.
J. S.
June 21, 2013 8:38 pm

It Appears that Snowden only Uncovered the Tip of the Iceburg – The Rest is Totally Unbelievable!

Corporate Surveillance and the Intelligence Community
Submitted by testosteronepit on 06/21/2013 13:14 -0400

Wolf Richter http://www.testosteronepit.com

Surveillance of billions of people around the world, grabbing their data, all their data, every last bit, where they went to dinner, who they met there, what they ate, and who they ended up spending the night with – if both have a smartphone – is hard work. But it’s the bread and butter of an entire US industry, a vibrant one that is hiring and creating jobs, with lots of startups, and with companies like Google and Facebook that are loaded with money and can buy some of these startups for eye-popping amounts, in cool laid-back places like San Francisco and Silicon Valley, or in Boston, or anywhere.

These companies are developing technologies to grab more data, make sense of it, combine it, analyze it, “mine” it, and monetize it. Because in the end, data is money. People who aren’t psychotically careful about communications and internet activities, or people who have a smartphone, no longer have any privacy. Instead, their privacy has been transferred to a new asset class that is now swelling up corporate balance sheets [here is my tongue-in-cheek take…. Google Spy Drones For Street View?]

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-06-21/corporate-surveillance-and-intelligence-community

SSS
SSS
June 21, 2013 9:09 pm

“Those who argue the U.S. Constitution is a living document open to interpretation by the interchangeable corporate fascist parties that control the reins of power at Versailles on the Potomac are nothing but apologists for the corrupt status quo.”
—-Admin, from his article

And that would be people like Al Gore, whose entire family was totally captive to Occidental Oil.

SSS
SSS
June 21, 2013 11:21 pm

This is perhaps one of the most thoughtful articles and threads ever posted on TBP. As a full-fledged member of the Society of Government Drones, I thought it best to post my comments on a Friday night, where they will be quickly forgotten, buried and ignored by Monday morning.

As a rank amateur of constitutional law, I have sad news. The Constitution CAN be argued as a “living document.” Now for the good news. Nearly EVERY single decision of the Supreme Court that has reflected the “will of society” reflecting the living document theory has turned out to be a total disaster.

Poster Child #1. The Dred Scott decision in 1855, which affirmed slaves as property of their owners. All to placate the overwhelming will of nearly all citizens of southern states and quite a few in the border and northern states. Delayed the Civil War by 6 years. Meh.

Poster Child #2. Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896. Established the “separate but equal” doctrine to placate nearly 100% of the white population of the country in keeping themselves and their children away from “those people.” That includes everyone in Boston, not just Birmingham. The Supreme Court gave the people exactly what they wanted. A living interpretation of the Constitution. Overturned later in 1954 by Brown vs. the Board of Education. Chaos follows.

Poster Child #3. The 1942 Japanese-American internment program of WWII. At the time, nearly EVERY American hated the evil Japs, citizen or not. The Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, and the President turned their backs on nearly 100,000 American citizens, solely based on their ancestry. These innocent citizens were rounded up, deprived of liberty and property, and sent off to dozens of internment camps from California to Arkansas. It took over 2 years before the Supreme Court found its backbone.

So what is the relevance of the above to the article, which quoted the 4th Amendment, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized?”

Well, there is no relevance if you’re looking for security and cannot connect the dots in what I’ve said. But there is relevance if you’re looking for liberty. So watch carefully on the way these scandals of the IRS (1st Amendment), the DOJ (1st Amendment), and NSA (4th Amendment) play out. All have the potential to be landmark Supreme Court decisions. And all have the potential to be decided badly.

TheCynic
TheCynic
June 22, 2013 12:17 am

Mike M.

Most Americans are so self-absorbed it is unthinkable for them do something for the common good like protesting the TSA or DHS en-mass.

Look, the Feds and big business actually conned them into wearing a tracking and listening device 7x24x365 a year – it’s called a cell phone and paying for it as well. Now the f**kers can’t live without them.

Business conned them into spilling their collective guts on Facebook and other social media sites.

Everyday we’re getting more like England” with cameras omnipresentl a thuggish and violent police force that is the enemy of the people and the Bill of Rights; our schools have declared war against White male children for showing the even the slightest bit of aggression; a government whose elites and agenda run counter to the well being of the people and the nation.

Novista
Novista
June 22, 2013 7:17 am

SSS

I have a hard time wrapping my head around #1 because only 5% of Southrons owned slaves. The rest didn’t have skin in the game.

As for #3, maybe I can give a pass to the Supremes because of Fahy:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-japanese-americans-20110525,0,3517138.story

and

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2011/05/31/the-japanese-internment-and-the-betrayal-of-the-progressives/

Novista
Novista
June 22, 2013 7:14 pm

flash

” I’d really like to see the results of that vetting.” Huh. So Jon requires a high standard for WaPo and the Guardian. I have my own standard, which doesn’t include Jon _telling_ me what someone else said. Where are the cites, the links to verifiable direct quotes? After all, Jon can make reference to another who supports his agenda, albeit without links but easily found.

Then you have speculation built atop hypothesis, all generated from experts ‘on the outside’ who know exactly how secret organizations work. The frosting on the cake, the cute G20 scenario.

Mulder was right: Trust no one. Heh.

SSS
SSS
June 22, 2013 8:05 pm

“I have a hard time wrapping my head around #1 (Dred Scott decision) because only 5% of Southrons owned slaves. The rest didn’t have skin in the game.”
—-Novista @ SSS

I did some math, Novista. The population of the South (includes KY, MD, and MO) in 1860 was 10,140,000, of which nearly 4,000,000 (!!!!) were slaves. That leaves 6,140,000 mostly whites because many of the southern Indian tribes (the census of 1860 also included Indians) had been forcefully relocated to Oklahoma.

Let’s go with your 5% figure, which means 307,000 people owned an average of nearly 11 slaves. Now, who do think owned those slaves and called the shots in state politics, including who got into elective office? Slave owners, pure and simple. It costs MONEY to both buy and maintain a slave, who will require food and shelter for life. Not to mention offspring.

Slave owners were not just plantation owners, but wealthy or well-to-do merchants and businessmen who not only owned slaves, but provided hundreds of thousands of jobs to those whites of lesser means. So your “5%” probably translated into 80-90% in terms of political power.

The Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision addressed that reality. It was NOT based on the Constitution, but rather a flaw in 18th Century American society that was never addressed during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, nor any subsequent Congress or presidency. A flaw that cost nearly 600,000 citizens their lives.

Novista
Novista
June 23, 2013 7:07 am

SSS

Well reasoned, good math. Thanks.

I had to go look at some numbers, too. 1860 census, roughly works out to about 21 million damnyankees, including 450,000 abolitionists, vs 307 thousand slave owner bloc. That’s a helluva concentrated power to get a bad decision.

Praxeology would suggest another influence was also in play. Thoughts?

Anonymous
Anonymous
June 23, 2013 7:11 pm

Kim Kardashian and reality TV is part of the beard and circuses our plutocracy doles out to keep us distracted from what is happening to Edward Snowden. Ad hominem attacks against children are wrong.

SSS
SSS
June 23, 2013 7:43 pm

“Praxeology would suggest another influence was also in play (in the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision). Thoughts?”
—-Novista @ SSS

Holy shit. Another homework assignment. I don’t even know what praxeology means and had to look it up. I hate homework!!!! Here’s a def from Wiki.

“Coinage of the word praxeology is often credited to Louis Bourdeaux, the French author of a classification of the sciences, which he published in his Plan de Science intégrale in 1882.

On account of their dual natures of specialty and generality, these functions should be the subject of a separate science. Some of its parts have been studied for a long time, because this kind of research, in which man could be the main subject, has always presented the greatest interest. Physiology, hygiene, medicine, psychology, animal history, human history, political economy, morality, etc. represent fragments of a science that we would like to establish, but as fragments scattered and uncoordinated have remained until now only parts of particular sciences. They should be joined together and made whole in order to highlight the order of the whole and its unity. Now you have a science, so far unnamed, which we propose to call Praxeology.”

I STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IT IS, MAINLY BECAUSE SOME FRENCHMAN MADE IT UP. Nobody can understand the French anyway, but I’ll take a stab at answering Novi’s question.

Yes, something else was at play. States rights as defined under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.

Slavery was not prohibited by the Constitution. Ergo, Southern states argued that they had every right to own slaves. The Abolitionists in the North said otherwise, and many Northern states had outlawed slavery. Both sides were correct. Under the Constitution as written before the Civil War, you could pick sides and be constitutionally correct.

The defeated South stuck with their hardline “States Rights” doctrine right up to and including opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and on through to today on many issues. For many decades, this opposition was racially based, but today the South is fighting a losing battle against overreaching federalism and the absolute shredding of the 10th Amendment by the Supreme Court, which began shortly after the Civil War, btw (see “The Slaughterhouse Cases” in the 1870s).

Hope that answers your question, Novi.

flash
flash
June 23, 2013 8:43 pm

Speaking of Southrons and sparks that flicker about the cranium..

Tragedy and Farce

Fleshing out a Twitter thought from last night. I have a killer idea for a television series. Radical congressmen and a radical administration declare martial law on the heartland of the nation, most of whose citizens have been deemed “the enemy.” Federal shock troops fan out to almost every town. The first four Amendments are curtailed. Freedom of speech is subdued. Gun ownership is discouraged. Troops are quartered in citizens’ homes. Illegal searches and seizures are rampant. Property is confiscated.

Most of the humble, Tea Party type citizenry are stripped of their right to vote, and to run for office. A smaller group, who are for the most part illiterate, and ignorant of American history, vote themselves into office, there to plunder federal coffers with the radical congressmen. Those citizens who dare to strike back, usually under cover of darkness for protection, are labeled terrorists, and hunted down. The reign of terror lasts for 12 years.

I’m setting it in 1867. And I’m calling it Reconstruction.

http://www.velociworld.com/

Novista
Novista
June 23, 2013 9:44 pm

SSS

I admire your pursuit of the discussion and thank you.

platoplubius
platoplubius
June 24, 2013 12:42 am

I was just reading something for my psych class and it made me think. A study found that individuals’ consumption patterns (what they buy) often dictate whether they have something in common with each other rather than political or religious ideology…This makes sense as to why the government and private companies want you to have their “rewards cards” so that they can track and categorize people into groups of “consumers”…

`sam
`sam
June 25, 2013 11:58 pm

The real traitors ? The “Supreme” court, congress, and the executive branch…

Andy
Andy
June 26, 2013 4:09 am

The only way to take this country back now is by force,as that is all that the Establishment understands,but it is not quite time yet.We need to let them “show their cards first”,then we react,with full intentions of refreshing the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants.It was only 3% that fought the British,and only 10% that supported them.But they succeeded in bringing about the Republic.The bill of rights tells us what we,the Patriots must do to return the Republic.I know a lot of ya’ll will say what can we do against the big bad establishment?Well a lot of countries have been forced out of countries they are fighting to take over,by guerrilla warfare,as a matter of fact our country went through this in Vietnam.Once something like this is kicked off,I feel that a lot of the military will leave and join the resistance as they will not obey Unconstitutional orders.The alphabet agencies will fight back along with NATO,and UN troops being called in,for a National Emergency.But this is our home,they don’t live here,and who knows our territory better than us?The reason I write this,is because I don’t know how ya’ll feel but I am not going to die a slave,and that is just what they are pushing for us to become,that is the real reason for the push on gun control,to disarm us so we can’t fight back.Ya’ll know the reason why gun control was not passed?Because there was so much uproar,that insurrection could have started then,but they don’t want it to look like they are the bad guys,they want to be able to pin it on the Patriots,to where they can throw everything they have at us!But it will be a tough fight,but 200 million gun owners is a formidable army to deal with.Yes there will be a lot killed on both sides but like I said I don’t want to be a slave,do ya’ll?Be prepared and ready.Keep your powder dry.

Novista
Novista
June 26, 2013 7:13 am

Andy, I don’t know there are 200 million gun owners, nor does it matter. There is definitely a formidable number who have learned that a domestic insurgency can prevail.

I can see a shock and awe move when push comes to shove, with plenty of media coverage, and many will be cowed — but the people have the numbers. Maybe one million active duty military within the U.S. (Stratfor’s estimate) and even some of those will remember their oath when it’s the government against the people. The alphabet agencies will add some number and some of those will opt outm too.

As for the LEOs, we already see a divide, doesn’t matter. When things get worse, some of those who side with the government will remember family comes first and act accordingly. It will be chaotic.

That shock and awe I fully expect will be the government’s biggest blunder. It will be like the many mistakes rolled into one, when they took the wrong tack in Iraq. Brute force thuggery only empowered the insurgency there.

Government is force, in the end, it’s all they know. But when it starts in the ‘homeland’, it will be a whole new ballgame and we’re the home teams.

Truthout
Truthout
June 26, 2013 10:15 am

When all the flags come out for 4th of July outside the homes of citizens, they should be flown upside down to indicate the state of crisis our nation is currently in.

Take Notice
Take Notice
June 26, 2013 10:48 am

TheCynic said to Mike M: “Most Americans are so self-absorbed it is unthinkable for them do something for the common good like protesting the TSA or DHS en-mass.”

We see comments like this constantly–lamenting that everyone is a couch potato and won’t “do anything” or protest the current state of affairs. My belief is that Americans are far too fractured as a culture to band together in any form of mass protest. With all the different nationalities that now make up America, there is hardly any “common consensus” that would bring a majority together. We are not like Brazil or Turkey or Greece with respect to likemindedness.

The government prefers this situation, I’m sure.

Thinker
Thinker
June 26, 2013 10:00 pm

Steve Wozniak: Snowden ‘Is a Hero Because This Came From His Heart’
by Lloyd Grove Jun 26, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
The Apple co-founder tells Lloyd Grove why he supports the NSA leaker, how the agency hasn’t ‘done one thing valuable for us’ in regard to Prism—and why the Internet wasn’t supposed to be this way.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/26/steve-wozniak-snowden-is-a-hero-because-this-came-from-his-heart.html

MacBeth51
MacBeth51
June 27, 2013 3:37 am

“Do you believe the mass collection of metadata information from millions of Americans with no probable cause is an unreasonable search as defined by the 4th Amendment?…..
If you answered in the affirmative to any or all of the questions above you are either a government apparatchik, someone dependent upon the surveillance state for your paycheck, a victim of decades of mind control through corporate mass media propaganda, or one of the willfully ignorant masses. ”

Huh??? So if you believe this collecting of data is an unreasonable search, your a government lackey. Think you need to reread what you wrote there

Novista
Novista
June 27, 2013 6:49 am

MacBeth51

Who the fuck are you, anyway?

Kevin Beck
Kevin Beck
June 29, 2013 9:13 am

The concept that the sheep being led to the slaughter fail to comprehend is this: The nation is NOT the same as the government.

We are a nation of, by, and for the people. Government is a tool of, by, and for the political class. The political class is never the same as the country class.

Every time we rely upon the political class for solutions, all we get is more disasters. And for any sheep that are still reading, I have one final question for you to ponder:

If government is the source of solutions, then why has every proposed government solution to the current recession not worked?

And to any sheep that got past the last question, you have one more to answer: If any government solution HAS worked, then why is a new one always being proposed by government apparatchiks to solve the same problem?