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Has the US government intercepted your phone calls and/or text messages? You don’t know, which is why the surveillance state is so evil. Instead of assuming your privacy is protected by the US Constitution, you must assume that the US government is listening in to your communications. The difference between these is the difference between freedom and tyranny. The ultimate triumph of totalitarian states was not to punish citizens for opposing its tyranny, but to successfully cause them to censor themselves before even expressing “subversive” thoughts.
We cannot celebrate our freedom or call ourselves an exceptional nation as long as we are under control of the kind of surveillance that would have turned the East German Stasi green with envy. We know the East German secret police relied on millions of informants, eager to ingratiate themselves with their totalitarian rulers by reporting on their friends, neighbors, even relatives. It was a messy system but it served the purpose of preventing any “unwelcome” political views from taking hold. No one was allowed to criticize the policies of the government without facing reprisals.
Sadly, that is where we are headed.
Our advanced technological age provides opportunities for surveillance that even the most enthusiastic East German intelligence operative could not have dreamed of. No longer does the government need to rely on nosy neighbors as informants. The NSA has cut out the middleman, intercepting our communications – our very thoughts – at the source. No one who calls himself an American patriot can be happy about this development.
Not even the President is safe from the surveillance state he presides over! According to a news report last week, federal investigators monitored the phone lines of President Trump‘s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, even when he was speaking to his client – the president!
An all-powerful state that intercepts its citizens’ communications and stores them indefinitely to use against them in the future does not deserve to be called the leader of the free world. It is more the high-tech equivalent of a Third World despotism, where we all exist subject to the whim of those currently in political power.
Edward Snowden did us all an enormous favor by risking it all to let us know that our government had come to view us as the enemy to be spied on and monitored. If we are to regain the liberty that our Founders recognized was granted to us not by government, but by our Creator, we must redouble our efforts to fight against the surveillance state!
I was educated by the USAF Security Service at Karamursel, Turkey. Their claim to fame as reported in Newsweek Magazine, is they listened to Khrushchev on his car phone in Moscow. From an antenna big enough to be an elephant cage for dozens of pachyderms; situated in a natural geologic bowl in Turkey.
“The United States Air Force Security Service (often abbreviated USAFSS) was the United States Air Force’s cryptographic intelligence/Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) branch; with its motto being Freedom through Vigilance. It was created in October 1948 and operated until 1979, when the branch was re-designated as the Electronic Security Command. It was re-designated again as Air Force Intelligence Command, Air Intelligence Agency, the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, and is currently designated as the Twenty-Fifth Air Force (25 AF).” WIKI
I was all on board with monitoring of phone conversations before 9 11. I had nothing to hide. In fact I relied on them to track me as I explored interesting situations having to do with national security in my little sphere of operations. I liked to string words together in phone conversation almost guaranteed to flag the call for the computer watchdogs. Post September 11, I was even more so approving. To catch the dastardly evil doers and prevent future attacks. With evidence since weighed by me, implicating powers inside our government as source for heinous crimes, I still am in support of monitoring. Snowden’s revelations came as zero surprise to me. I see his actions as not one of a hero. If good came out of it, it was to establish how deep the compromised beast has infiltrated, to the average person.
I just wonder how it was all subverted. By who and for what motive. And now the evidences coming forward gives reasons for the treasons of actors of the government. It comes in drips and drabs. From non traditional sources. And is commanding the narrative of the news. At least of the news I believe and follow.
“Power corrupts” comes to mind. Also skull and bones, and the CIA. And of course the joos and bankers. Islam is the boogey man of choice to rail against and blame. While China plays stalking horse.
Vigilance with ethics is difficult. And political, subject to those who believe truly in a cause. I work to understand the causes of events prevalent today. And seek relief and safety while preparing for an uncertain future. Trust and verify is wise advice imo.
“Islam is the boogey man of choice to rail against and blame”
More than a “boogey man of choice” I’d say.
At least for the last 1400 or so years.
Being a rather simple guy, IMO:
Snowden
Assange
Aaron Swartz
All Whistleblowers in US
Assad
Putin
Citizens of Syria
Others I don’t immediately recall
……………are all Heroes
Speak truth to power. Cowards cringe at the thought of surveillance. A true man stands proud of his commitment. Dangerous freedom or temporary safety-check your sack and make a call.
The personal stories of signatories to the Constitution were horrific. But are the reason America became the place it is/was. We could use a few brave men today.