General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: NOW It IS About Snowden. [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I lived not far from the watchtowers on the border between East and West Europe.
Our paranoia about immigration is an excuse to put up the equivalent of towers here. Our Homeland Security -- checks you on the way out, not on the way in. That is a bad sign.
Plus, now we learn about the surveillance. The East German STASI dreamed of the kind of surveillance that our government does on every American with a phone or a computer or a cell.
We have gone right up to the edge.
It's not paranoia. It is reality.
The secrecy of the FISA court would be fine were it exercised only to issue warrants or subpoenas in specific cases based on specific probably cause. But our FISA court is issuing blanket orders to electronic communications companies. We saw one of the orders. There is no denying this reality.
Paranoia /ˌpærəˈnɔɪə/ (adjective: paranoid /ˈpærənɔɪd/) is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. (e.g. "Everyone is out to get me."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia
I am not talking about delusions. I am not spouting irrational thoughts. I am looking at the reality of what our government is doing at our borders, in our airports and with regard to our communications. I am not the paranoid one. The folks in D.C. who put these programs in place are the irrational ones, the people with paranoia.
There are better ways to identify the criminals or terrorists among us than spending millions to set up an electronic eavesdropping system.
As I pointed out yesterday, I personally think that Snowden went to Hong Kong and has told what he know after reading my e-mail account. Mixed with a few e-mails from family and friends, often forwarding news items, I get a couple of e-mails from gardening and knitting companies and then, thousands of e-mails from politicians asking for campaign donations. It's enough to make anyone sick and tired of it all.
So we are spending millions and millions and hiring thousands of people primarily to collect and review the trivia of our lives. This system was set up in order to find that needle in the haystack -- a terrorist. It is the least sensible way to go about this.
Meanwhile we know what the real dangers are in America -- the environmental disaster that awaits us, the Sandy Hook crazy guys, and the Boston bombers who plot their crimes totally out of the reach of our ever present surveillance and police state.