Law enforcement is just helping itself to our personal data.
And they're not collecting it and sifting it because they suspected you did
something. They're just running your data through their filters and
algorithms... because they can.
Once again this story was hardly a surprise but where's the
outrage? Are these people going to be held to account? I seriously doubt it. Members
of Congress will make some noise and then the story fades away (it already has)
and the practices become accepted, normalised and within a few years they will
cease to be controversial. And if it's made it into the mainstream media, then
it's probably just the tip of the iceberg. Someday we'll find out just how
widespread these practices really are but by then it will be way too late.
There were revelations made under the Bush administration
regarding mass surveillance and the collection of personal data. There were
certainly hints of larger programmes being developed that would collate and
organise the data. After a brief scandal it disappeared until Edward Snowden
and Julian Assange came along and revealed more about what the government was
doing.
But now, the once outraged and invigorated media has turned
against Assange. In good McCarthy-ite fashion Assange has been labeled an agent
of Moscow. He's been demonised and of course Snowden has become irrelevant.
Even The Intercept which was formed in the wake of the Snowden revelations has
now all but succumbed to the mainstream media impulse. Often echoing the
talking points of the Democratic Party, the news outlet has now (quietly) shut
down the Snowden archive and has effectively turned against Assange. Perhaps
Glenn Greenwald wasn't the intrepid independent reporter many thought he was.
Perhaps the doubts and aspersions cast on the project by its connection to a DNC-friendly
Silicon Valley titan were in the end well founded.
Even after a Federal Court ruled against the Democratic Party
in July 2019 and argued that there was no evidence of Assange colluding with
Moscow... the conclusions and perceptions remain. The story which should have
been a headline, especially given the media buzz around the Mueller testimony
before Congress, was all but ignored.
Politicians, media outlets, reporters, academics and
bureaucrats are bought and sold. The Democrats scream about Trump but then pass
his military budget. They rail against his immigration policies but then
compromise with his administration and agree to fund his wall and increase the budget
for the anti-immigration bureaucracies. We have self-proclaimed 'socialists' in
the Democratic Party but they too support the military budget, the wars of
empire and in the end the direction of the Wall Street Establishment. It's all
smoke and mirrors.
When exposed in the 1970's the Deep State (most poignantly
represented by the CIA) accepted a slap on the wrist and then went about its
previous illegal and outrageous activities. They simply found better ways to
hide things. Through outsourcing, privatisation and proxies they continued to
run a Deep State government and effect policies that had nothing to do with
laws on the books, the Constitution or the will of the people... for the people
had little to no idea of what was actually happening. The idea that our nation
is a democracy or even democratic is a simple but atrocious farce.
By 2001, these same elements were able to fully emerge from
the shadows and are now operating at levels in excess of their heyday... the
1950's and 1960's. And now they have technology that the previous generation
couldn't have even imagined. Even organisations like the KGB and the Stasi
couldn't have dreamed of such tools.
On the basis of my Christian convictions I no longer vote. I
will not be party to the system. I will not choose a lesser of the evils. And
while I once falsely believed that an abstention removed the right to speak
out, I know realise that abstention is a means to maintain integrity and to be
able to bear witness from a place of moral standing. To vote is to acquiesce.
It's to give some sort of sanction and approval for the system and the false
philosophical ideas which undergird it. The idea that your candidate stands for
your values or that he's going to change something is fiction. The system
reigns supreme and I won't validate it by going through the phony motions.
If I did want to bring about change apart from revolution,
abstention is really the only hope. If the non-conformity reaches a crisis
level the 'elected' government cannot claim legitimacy. It cannot claim a
mandate. With roughly 50% participation in general elections (and thus no
candidate receiving more than about 30%) we're really already there but the
collusive media continues to weave the mists of deception and pretend that
America is a bastion of democracy. It really is an obscene joke.
But even if I was inclined or convicted to vote... who would
I vote for? If I thought the Constitution was of importance or that it somehow
represented something to do with Christian values and morality how could I vote
for any candidate from the major parties? These parties both represent Right-wing
rejections of the very principles of the Constitution.
As Christians we must reject the Enlightenment Liberalism of
the Constitution and thus in many ways we are wholly outside the spectrum of
political debate. We can't even accept
the premise let alone enter into the larger debate.
But again, just for the sake of integrity how could I vote
for anyone who pretends to pay homage to the Constitution, who would treat it
as authoritative and yet embrace the so-called Patriot Act and the myriad of
provisions it has generated and the various innovations and permutations of
so-called law enforcement it has
provided a cover for?
The system is a lie, a travesty. Realise this and even on a
practical level the calls to rally behind parties and political candidates
become absurd. Not a one is who they pretend to be. None of them are genuine
outsiders, none are genuinely interested in reform or in challenging the
present criminal and immoral order.
Realise this and it changes how you think about society,
about the law, about status, success, respectability and riches.
Even now there are calls to drug test all adults... to check
for addictions of course. Soon they'll have our biometric data, our DNA and
already most of the population is voluntarily providing data about their
movements, daily habits, thoughts, hobbies, quirks, secrets, fetishes, buying
habits, friends, sleep patterns and even more intimate bits of information.
It's all being collected. Stop for a moment and give some serious thought to
how much has changed in terms of technology since 2001. All it will take is
another 9/11 type event and we're all going to wake up in a very different
world.... where all this info is part of mandatory reporting, monitoring and
review.
What will people do when their Internet is suspended for
seven days while their online activity is reviewed, when their employer is
notified of what sites they visit, when agents knock at their door to question
them about a comment they made or something they read? What about when their
kids are removed or forced into counseling because of something said or a
website visited?
My guess is nothing. Maybe there's a reason behind the zombie
craze of recent years. Maybe it's real. Maybe we're already surrounded by
zombies staring at screens, people who are no longer alive, who no longer
possess a will of their own, people who have sold their souls.
If one understands the political and social trajectory one
must realise the idea that some kind of change is going to be made through the
ballot box or by alignment with some political party... is absurd.
When politicians cry out about the Constitution, laugh at
them. When they appeal to American values, turn off the television. When they
worry aloud about the rule of law, turn away. These people are charlatans,
whores. They have sold out the American public. This happened decades ago but
the public is so far gone... they don't even have to hide it anymore. They must
laugh at all the fools who get bent out of shape over football players 'taking
a knee' even while the very leaders of the country (and the military and law
enforcement sell-outs who back them up) spit on the graves of the Founders and
trample the very Constitution they pretend to venerate.
America has always been a lie but there were once those who
believed an earlier time could be recaptured or that perhaps better days were
ahead. Now, the ruling class holds society in contempt and lie to their
faces... with impunity. It has become such a travesty that even someone like me
who tries to follow the news and the political process as a means of keeping
tabs on what's happening... finds it hard to stomach anymore. The exercise has
become insufferable.
And professing Christians who ought to know better are often
among the worst of the lot. Compromised and corrupt their Balaam teachers have
lulled them into a state of hypnosis. The 2nd Amendment, regardless
of what it meant to those who drafted it, has become a religious rallying cry.
Surpassing Scripture in its veneration and importance, the worship of the
state, war, violence, mammon and selfish pride have become the substitutes for
New Testament Christianity. And that's in the conservative Bible-believing
churches.
It will all blow up in their faces and the coming dystopia
will be in no small part a result of their meddlings and manipulations. I'm
sorry to say it but it must be said. In some cases they have it coming.
What is the state of the Church when Christians cannot get
motivated to study the Bible but they'll shell out their money, time and energy
to fight for their guns and to fight for the military and police... the very
institutions which are at the tip of the spear... at the leading edge of the
forces that would and certainly someday will enslave and exploit them.
There's a real irony at work. You can't make this stuff up.
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