On June 1st the authorization for the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans expires. Congress is scrambling to reauthorize the massive spying that was revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013 for another 5 years. This spying is a violation of religious freedom, privacy, free speech, and is fundamentally a crime against humanity.
The spying started in 2001 after the 9/11 attack. Congress in their haste to protect America passed the “Patriot Act” that created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court commonly referred to as the FISA court. Unlike other courts FISA is a secret court under the control of the Supreme Court and supposedly reports to Congress on it’s activities. This court is a kind of emergency court structure that operates outside of constitutional authority for the purpose of dealing with issues of national secrecy in times of war. FISA is best described as a Black Ops court for covert operations.
Black Ops courts don’t have the same rules as regular constitutional courts that have rules and operate openly in the light of day. They can literally do anything they want and you can’t challenge what they do because any case against them is dismissed on the grounds that national security secrets would be revealed if a challenge were heard in public courts.
Under the authority of the FISA court the Bush Administration initiated a massive spying campaign against the american people. They track our phone calls, read our emails, track where we go, who we associate with, and how we spend our money. Everything about us is tracked by the government. Think of it as a freinds and family plan if it were run by Adolf Hitler.
When Obama took over he greatly expanded the spying after he ran on the platform to end it. Only after Edward Snowden revealed what was really happening did the general public become aware of the abuses. In fact apparently Congress, who was supposedly overseeing the operation, had no idea what was going on. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted lying to Congress about what was going on.
I was raised barely Jewish. Most of the Judaism didn’t stick but I do remember when I was a child seeing people with numbers tattooed on their arm from when they were in concentration camps. I remember the story of Anne Frank who lived in her family in hiding for years until they were eventually found and executed by the Nazis in the early 1940s. So the idea of the government rounding up people for execution was a concept I was raised with as a child. I can just imagine what rounding up people would be like if Hitler had the technology we have today.
America was founded as a free society where the government was “of the people, by the people, and for the people”. The government isn’t supposed to spy on the people, the people are supposed to spy on the government. We are a constitutional form of government with 3 branches forming a checks and balance system so that if one branch does something they aren’t supposed to do then the other branches would put them in their place. But if a mere six people conspire to undermine our freedoms then we become a nation of secret courts and secret laws. And those six people are, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Senate minority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House John Boehnor, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts. 3 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
Under the Patriot Act the government can send me a national security letter to turn over information and I am required by law to lie about it. A nation that requires lying and prohibits the truth, as Edward Snowden has revealed, is morally offensive to not only all religions, but atheists as well. As a Realist it goes against the very core of what I believe in.
We would like to think that our government isn’t going become Nasis but if they were going to do that gathering this kind of information is the first step. I can imagine George Orwell (Author of Animal Farm, Big Brother is watching you) is spinning in his grave. And who would we round up? It could be the Muslims, the Christians, the Jews, the Mormons, the Atheists, or Seventh Day Adventists. Or they could round up intellectuals and activists. If the Patriot Act is extended then Osama bin Laden wins.
Would this actually happen? I hope not. But if it’s not then why should the government be getting the information to do it in the first place? We are not a nation of secret courts and secret laws. If we are a free nation, that has to mean something. Freedom can not be just a marketing label, it has to be real. This land is your land, this land is my land. From Occupy Wall Street to the Tea Party Patriots. From the Christian Conservatives to the Hard Core Atheists. This land was made for you and me.
It is another in a long list of Obama broken promises to the middle class reform the NSA, to make our government more transparent….
The question I have: was Obama always this dishonest; or is it because, he is now President and doesn’t trust the middle class that he feels he has to lie?
Yeah. he learned so much from the Bush administration..
Every administration is less transparent than the one before, the next one will be even less so than Obama. As presidents grab more power, it just gets worse as we go down the line. Nobody is willing to give up the power abuses of their predecessors and they’re all going to grab more if they get the chance.
That’s the way the U.S. government works unless American voters are willing to work to change it.
The sheeple will flock to re-hire D/Rs at the next national election. The electorate is responsible in entirety for shitting in their own nest.
Back when the country was new, the only people who voted were those smart enuff to have become land owners. A small minority.
We’ve reached a point where most voters are too uneducated or stupid to be responsible for their own governance. There needs to be qualifying requirements. Besides passing some sort of test, anyone in jail or on welfare is disqualified. Among other things.
Just so we don’t start another revolution, the 1st un-revocable requirement, if you pay taxes of any kind you get to vote!
Remember “No taxation without representation”, the 1750s and 1760s slogan that summarized a primary grievance of the colonists in the Thirteen Colonies, and was one of the major causes of the American Revolution!
One main point to voting and the American Revolution is to be allowed vote your own interest.
Being smart has never been a requirement. I’ve seen plenty “smart” people get or be screwed. It’s not hard to do!
What is most needed for a functioning democracy/republic is an informed and well educated citizenry.
Transparent and honest sharing of information (freedom to gain honest governmental information, free education, the press,…) is what checks the harm governments, corporation, criminals can do Americans!
I have often wondered whether our various leaders during their campaigns honestly believe that they are going to change things…
Until they are briefed after they are elected… then they know something that is not public, and they change their tune.
Hmmmm
The President & Congress doesn’t run America, it’s those that select, parse, shape and color governmental briefings are the ones who really run America!
Our last couple presidents have been IVY LEAGUE brats, who only listen to the presentation quality of argument and not its middle class implications. Stuck in their privileged lives, they have no idea the harm they are inflicting on America; it’s ideals of providing truth, justice, transparency and citizenry empowerment.
The 1% and their IVY LEAGUE brats have declared war on truth, justice, transparency and American citizenry empowerment!
The attitude of the 1% and their IVY LEAGUE brats is they own justice, truth, people and this country to dispense their new found riches Americans foolishly handed over, dispensed only at their pleasure.
I don’t see America lasting many more decades sustaining these increasing levels of misery for more and more people.
“Miniature paintings and the impossible warehouses
Both Caden and Adele are artists, and the scale on which both of them work becomes increasingly relevant to the story as the film progresses. Adele works on an extremely small scale, while Caden works on an impossibly large scale, constructing a full-size replica of New York City in a warehouse, and eventually a warehouse within that warehouse, and so on, continuing in this impossible cycle. Adele’s name is almost a mondegreen for “a delicate art” (Adele Lack Cotard). Commenting on the scale of the paintings (actually the miniaturized paintings of artist Alex Kanevsky),[11] Kaufman said, “In [Adele’s] studio at the beginning of the movie you can see some small but regular-sized paintings that you could see without a magnifying glass … ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche,_New_York
Government’s getting bigger and culture is getting smaller. We had wealth, abundance and security. Now we have debt, shortages and crime. With more crime and shortages we’ll need a bigger agency. With more debt the city can sell off the art in the museum to keep city hall funded. More $200K political speeches will save us. Make talk expensive because the talk is cheap idea didn’t cut the mustard.
Bull shit there is more crime now!
Crime rates have actually declined dramatically since the early 1990s; only uniformed ignorant people believe common crime has elevated.
Republican Corporate crime is what has dramatically climbed; gone mostly unpunished and improvised almost everyone except the 1%!
Spying is good for the economy and helps create jobs.
And the people most inconvenienced by the spying are the ones that have the most free time to be pursuing unproductive activities.
So spying both creates jobs and entertains and occupies the time of people who are spending their time wrong.
Amen. With the smaller paintings people will need a spyglass to see them.
Comm with whistles
R2-D2 is a well-known whistler from the Star Wars series of films who uses modulated whistles to communicate with other droids and express emotion. The emotions articulated in the film are understood by the human audience without the aid of facial expressions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistled_language
Da Vinci and the Drone
In the installation Da Vinci and the Drone, I contrast the idealism of Leonardo Da Vinci’s concept of a flying machine (motivated by beauty and curiosity) with a real 7 ft. wing span flying scale model of a CIA spy drone. Even though this is a model, it in fact is fully functional and capable of flying 20 miles and spying. http://formandcontent.org/vesna-kittelson-sculpture/
They have spy drone the size of a rolled up magazine, so the drones are getting smaller to match the economy. Bloggs and Amazon are demolishing the superstores.
“R2-D2 is a well-known whistler from the Star Wars” Haha!
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The program was started by Bush and expanded by Obama. And we wonder why some people feel that voting is a waste of time since it doesn’t really change anything.
“Meet the new boss…Same as the old boss.”
-The Who
Good news, now when you take money out of your savings the gooberment wants to know why. You should never pay for anything with cash because those flaming fucking assholes can’t track it. (Their retarded reasoning.)
As I’ve said before and I’ll say again,
Vote for the candidate that won’t lie to you.
If they think so little of you common people to lie to you, and you still vote for them, you deserve what you get.
Excellent, Marc.
In Wisconsin, a local DA sent cops to raid houses and told the people whose property was seized, that they may not contact an attorney, and may not talk about the investigation.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/417155/wisconsins-shame-i-thought-it-was-home-invasion-david-french?target=author&tid=1048
General response of silence from Democrats, with the exception of Salon.
“if one branch does something they aren’t supposed to do then the other branches would put them in their place.”
Says the guy who posted it is treason for Republicans to not pass the budget Obama demanded.
Talk of violating the Constitution is irrelevant from soeone who supports Obama’s immigration actions.
Mitch McConnell supported the immigration unconstitutionality, and he is supporting this as well. No doubt Elizabeth Warren will put up a big show of opposition, and Hillary will suggest she is kind of against it, like Obama said he would be against it, then voted for it, and announced that he was going to monitor things to make sure the Constitution was fully adhered to.
That’s a wonderful rant. And it’s not like any of us haven’t heard it before. But rather than rail against a system of secret courts and spying on free citizens, what the FUCK would you propose we DO about it? Vote?! That’s a good one.
Oh! That’s right. This is the (lazy) American public we’re talking about. The very same public that thinks it’s OK for cops to gun down citizens who are technically innocent (until proven guilty) and allow corporate greed to go unchecked by purchasing more of their crap. (Apple users, I’m looking right at you assholes! But you’re not alone. There are entire industries like the fashion industry that are just as bad, if not worse.)
This isn’t turning into Nazi Germany. We’ve PAST that point. The only difference between Nazi Germany and the USA is the fact that no one with a uniform is being systematically rounded up and executed on home soil (yet). The USA is no doubt trying to impose it’s will on the world or did you forget that the USA is already at war with everyone and everything like drugs, terror, poverty, etc.?
Just what allows these government Nazi’s to do the things they do is because they know it is better to keep their (citizen) subjects in a work program that diverts all or most of their attention away from these atrocities, like FISA, spying, war, etc. Either that or barely conscious at home watching empty news stories and cheering for the latest American Idol contestant. YOU MORON!
America won’t do a damned thing until enough of them are inconvenienced enough to MOVE! That’s their Achilles heel — “The only thing that evil needs to win is for good men to do NOTHING!” Sound familiar?!
Marc, I know it is off of your point, but you mention the Anne Frank Diary. It is a total fabrication. Google “Anne Frank diary fabrication lawsuit” (without the quotation marks) and you will see. Ignore all of the sites who have museums to the book or Anne Frank or who otherwise stand to lose when the truth becomes common knowledge.
“It is a total fabrication”
Did you perform the examinations to make this conclusion?
Or are you trusting a 3rd party’s conclusion?
If you are a trusting a 3rd party’s conclusion …
why is it that there are some 3rd parties that you trust and then others that you don’t and how are you making these determinations?
The FISA court was not created by the Patriot Act but by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA).
The USA Patriot Act ( “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”) modified FISA as well as “Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA), the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), as well as the Immigration and Nationality Act.” (per Wikipedia).
“NSA spying violates the Constitution and Religious Freedom”
//////////////////
Gee….the actual challenge before the American People is that the NSA spying program is COMPLETELY CONSTITUTIONAL. Just read what you posted: “Unlike other courts FISA is a secret court under the control of the Supreme Court and supposedly reports to Congress on it’s activities.”
……….and being morally offensive to religion has never been unconstitutional…… in fact, its the very essence of freedom.
As usual….good first draft, just hone your understanding of what “being constitutional” means. It doesn’t mean: anything you don’t like. Thats a good start for most issues requiring judgment.
Yes. Perkel apparently wasn’t satisfied with calling it a bad idea, so he throws in violates the Constitution, then he throws in religious freedom. Then he went hunting for the argument to back up his headline.
Scared at all we are of such like mind?
…..quibble: I think Marc found the article and then embellished it. Too much a snipe hunt as you lay it out.
I don’t know why reality has to be emblessihed so often as the truth presents enough issues. In one degree further removed, what we have here is the “outrage” of what is actually legal…..as opposed to what is illegal which is to be universally denied.
Here….. as you say…. just a lot of bad ideas.
In my view, more bad because the money and time could be spent with better results……. relying on human resources instead of million dollar investments in computers. Like Clinton, success is trying to be measured in input rather than results.
All too often, its the way of the world.
“The burning house
Early in the film, Hazel purchases a house that is eternally on fire. At first showing reluctance to buy it, Hazel remarks to the real estate agent, “I like it, I do. But I’m really concerned about dying in the fire,” which prompts the response “It’s a big decision, how one prefers to die.” In an interview with Michael Guillén, Kaufman stated, “Well, she made the choice to live there. In fact, she says in the scene just before she dies that the end is built into the beginning. That’s exactly what happens there. She chooses to live in this house. She’s afraid it’s going to kill her but she stays there and it does. That is the truth about any choice that we make. We make choices that resonate throughout our lives.”[9] The burning house has been compared to the Tennessee Williams quote: “We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.””
You know I had it made in the shade, thinkin’ that it’s not so bad after all
That’s when I woke up, smelled the coffee, I’m back where I started again, yes
And now it’s pourin’ rain on my parade
No there’s nothin’ like the real world to get me down, no
One is there to lift you up, one to drag you down
Now, don’t you see that we’re heading down a one-way, dead-end street
They’re killing the trees to make more streets and paving paradise to put up more parking lots.
“Robot Archie’s adventures started off as conventional action-thrillers, with Archie and his friends battling criminals and jungle creatures, but over time, he began to fight more fantastic and dangerous villains and aliens, including The Sludge, a monster that had previously had its own strip in Lion.
Initially, Archie could not speak, but around 1966, he gained a voice box, revealing a boastful, yet charming, personality.
When Robot Archie re-appeared in the pages of Grant Morrison’s Zenith as “Acid Archie”, he was part of a team of heroes called “Black Flag”; there, he helped Zenith fight the evil, supernatural race known as the Lloigor. Archie was apparently destroyed by Ruby Fox, a.k.a. “Voltage”, in Phase IV, when she short-circuited him whilst he was trying to rip off her head. But later, that was revealed to have been a copy of Archie within the Chimera pocket universe, as he is seen partying with Zenith and Peter St. John, a.k.a. “Mandala” during the Epilogue.
Archie also surfaced in zzzenith.com, in the special Prog 2001 edition of 2000AD, where Zenith explained that rust in the brain-pan had caused Archie’s personality to switch from anarchist Acid-House aficionado, to vigilante, hunting down sex-offenders with a lethal vigour. He was last seen in the story wearing a false beard, as he escaped on a bus after sexually assaulting popstar Britney Spears.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Archie
He was last spotted roaming the Rust Belt via bus. Maybe Rolling Stone made up the whole sexual assault story and Archie didn’t do it.
If you’re really going to claim Judaism here, perhaps rather than worry about NSA, you should discuss Iran’s plans to wipe Israel off the map, or Obama’s childhood poem comparing Jews to apes and pigs.
Washingtons New Cold War
http://foreignaffairs.com/articles/48754/leon-t-hadar/what-green-peril
Foreign Affairs
Like the Red Menace of the Cold War era, the Green Peril–green being the color of Islam–is described as a cancer spreading around the globe, undermining …
We’ve got robots!
China’s Communist Party is passing around a memo from senior leaders, referred to as Document No. 9, warning of the seven perils
US solution
Seven turns on the highway,
Seven rivers to cross.
Sometimes, you feel like you could fly away,
Sometimes, you get lost.
And sometimes, in the darkened night,
You see the crossroad sign.
One way is the mornin light,
You got to make up your mind.
Somebody’s callin your name.
Somebody’s waiting for you.
Love is all that remains the same,
That’s what it’s all comin to.
Hey, yeah.
The mailman got lost and all our letters ended up at the US Capitol.
Got me a hidin’ in the bushes,
Peekin’ in the window pane,
Shadow moves along the wall,
I know you’re in there with another man,
Tried to get in the front door,
Went around to the back door too,
I believe you’ve got a side track man in there,
Making my sweet love to you.
The NSA wants front door access. Maybe side door might help.
“It is hardly surprising that children should enthusiastically start their education at an early age with the Absolute Knowledge of computer science; while they are unable to read, for reading demands making judgments at every line…. Conversation is almost dead, and soon so too will be those who knew how to speak. ”
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guy_Debord
Snowden is great at computer science, not so good at judgment. We’re going to have to resort to whistle language to get anything done.
The Sage of Toronto … spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.
Of Marshall McLuhan’s notion of the “global village.”
Helps to explain the current presidential race.
“Our perennial airpower adherents base their calls for distant punishment on a myth, which in turn is based on long-debunked “scientific conclusions” that are close to a century old–the equivalent of basing your space program on the flat earth theory. Thus it is time to drive a stake through the heart of this myth and bury it once and for all. The basic concept is about as morally, scientifically, and politically sound as claiming that you can police New York City with cruise missiles.”
http://killology.com/art_bomb_death.htm
The drone strategy isn’t working unless you are trying to recruit terrorists.
Penguin B being launched using car top launcher (CTL).
http://airforce-technology.com/projects/penguin-b-unmanned-aerial-vehicle/penguin-b-unmanned-aerial-vehicle3.html
No more high speed chases. Have Penguin B on roof of patrol car. They run and the drone follows.
Play within a play
The film is meta-referential in that it portrays a play within a play, sometimes also referred to as mise en abyme.
This theme has been compared to the William Shakespeare line “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”[17][18]
It has also been compared to the music video for Icelandic singer Björk’s song “Bachelorette”.[18][19] The video portrays a woman who finds an autobiographical book about her that writes itself. The book is then adapted into a play, which features a play within itself. The video was directed by Michel Gondry, who also directed Kaufman’s films Human Nature and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In an interview, Kaufman responded to the comparison, saying “Yeah, I heard that comparison before. The reason Michel and I found each other is because we have similar sort of ideas.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche,_New_York
They can have an NSA inside an NSA and write your biography before you know what you are going to do. People can get in for no money down and buy and sell burned out houses with GSE backed mortgages. You can have a mortgage in a mortgage and get a tax credit. Give $200K speeches to decide who gets to drive people bankrupt with a campaign in a campaign.
State media showed an interview with Tehran’s police chief, calling the video a vulgar clip which hurt public chastity.
But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s official Twitter account posted a message in support of the group on Wednesday: “Happiness is our people’s right. We shouldn’t be too hard on behaviours caused by joy.”
http://aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/05/iran-frees-happy-dancers-from-custody-201452118826955556.html
WHCD! Get everybody Happy dancing and tweeting for free journalists. The Iran police chiefs might not like it, being killjoys and all.
WHCD: Apr 14, 2015 – Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent imprisoned for nearly … Op-Ed | Pamela Druckerman: Eat Up. You’ll Be Happier.
Get Down on the dance floor.
Didn’t listen to the video beyond the first minute. The balloon head talking lacked any credibility.
Anyway, the real problem is:
Given that consumer available technology now allows any unstable lowlife to execute “instant terrorism”, how proactive do you want the government to be when it comes to protecting law-biding citizens?
A defense-only position with no offense is pathetically passive, while the right to break the law without advance detection is a wonderful …and expensive liberty.
What to do?
Tom why should anyone listen to your undigested continual fear mongering?
Well, what to do? Let’s start with known facts of what works and what doesn’t; instead of your undigested regurgitated continual fear mongering!
Obviously your jaundiced point of view about Americans must be financially based!
1st, there is no evidence NSA’s un-American and unconstitutional advance detection and protection of all American citizens works, period!
If you feel such a need for advance detection and protection, go where your mind and heart is, Russia!
You must be a naive little boy, uneducated, or both.
Am I right?
You right, never; don’t make me laugh!
Your obviously ignorant, backwards and afraid!
Go back to hiding and cowarding under that rock you came from.
If you feel such a need for advance detection and protection, go where your mind and heart is, Russia!
The USA has the largest offense. Pre-crime only works in Hollywood.
Have you read or are you aware that just about every “terror threat” thwarted by the feds was funded and or coached by the feds. It’s all just a make work program for the supposed homeland defenders.
Wake up Tom…your liberty has been sold out.
Where is that trickle down theory?
Where are the jobs?
Where are the “job creators?”
DHS
Marc, nothing about the snaking stream of MRAP’s flowing through the streets of Baltimore. There must be thirty million dollars of military machines roaming north Baltimore.
Your Tax $ at work!
Better to spend the people monies on keeping American under her thumb then on public investments and improvements.
The 1% need to be assured (with less public transparency) our government is not for the people but to protect and enhance their profits and investments!
Public monies should only be used to militarize America and bail out Wall Street, period.
Average Americans be damned!
Unfortunately the people who are trapped under the thumb of poverty are now seeing the full reality of being born brown and poor.
Initially I was confused why would anyone burn down a CVS newly built. I’m sure many people were going to pick up their meds that day or the next.
Anger makes good people into angry mobs capable of burning down a city.
Are you sure it was “good” people burning down the CVS, homes, and cars?
Could it have been a few bad people hell-bent on destruction?
A few bad people and a few bad cops can make it miserable for the majority of good people and the majority of good cops.
Well said otoh.
Hey bobbo, this site has really changed gears, not to the best gear for sure. Marc seems to be pimping products he may hold stocks in, while Uncle Dave is on the level.
How have you been? I’m good, although if you ask some others they’ll call me this or that.
I have a question for you, I was punked by a numbnut that indirectly asked me if I had, not including my home, 200K, then asked if I had 1 million. How about you? Do you have. Or are you a have not. Don’t answer, just kidding with a paragraph that may be read by the numbnut. Man the rich ARE douchebag hoomans.
Gotta tell ya the world and some people are just off kilter.
It’s good to see people in the streets objecting to the unlawful killing of suspects in and out of custody.
Talking about the NSA or the intelligentsia spying on civilians why didn’t the intelligentsia have prior knowledge that Baltimore would erupt into violence and flames.
I’ve been to Baltimore many time to see the Yanks play at Camden yards. I did see the poverty, drug stricken area by accident the first time down there. We took a “shortcut” which led us through neighborhoods that were filled with boarded up homes and shuttered businesses scared to stay open past 5:00pm. The looks we got were double takes at us from the street corners from the men hanging out. We had no trouble.