Saturday, May 31, 2014

The Switch is Nearly Complete


Washington's Blog reported:

"Now, we have a system of pervasive, pre-criminal surveillance where the government wants to watch what you’re doing just to see what you’re up to, to see what you’re thinking, even behind closed doors."
It's the freedom to be a rat in a surveillance maze.  Facial recognition, financial information, domestic military mobilization, and declining middle class.  Once upon a time a signature characteristic of democracies was a growing middle class.  Secretary of State Condi Rice once lectured the world in this regard.

Update 6-11-14:  Government lawyers say the NSA is "too big to comply" with a court order.

Update 6-19-14:  A Gallup poll shows U.S. Congressional approval at a historic low.  A mere 7% said they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Congress, down from last year's 10 percent.

Update 8-24-14:  Harvard's Cornell West weighs in the Obama Wall Street presidency, drone presidency, national surveillance, national security presidency.

Update 10-24-14:  2014 midterm elections are expected to be the most expensive in history. That’s right. The price tag will be just shy of $4 billion, according to projections released Wednesday by the Center for Responsive Politics. That’s about $13 million a day from Jan. 1 through the Nov. 4 Election Day.  Democracy for sale!

Update 6-10-15:  The Obama administration has asked a secret surveillance court to ignore a federal court that found bulk surveillance illegal and to once again grant the National Security Agency the power to collect the phone records of millions of Americans for six months. (The Guardian)