Disappeared News

This is the best example of why the domestic spying program is so dangerous. President Obama, Supreme Court Justices to the entire Congress could be under J. Edger Hoover type blackmail from the NSA.
 

Thanks for taking the time to share these things, Larry. I am appalled at how many people are going along with the campaign to demonize Snowden rather than direct their hostility to the surveillance state apparatus. I like Stice's term "light police state," though I might tweak it to "Police State Lite."

I thought Stice's statement that this appeared to be coming from then Vice-President Dick Cheney's office was also suggestive. The Iran-Contra scandals pulled back the cover on the workings of the "public-private partnership" which controls the "military-industrial-intelligence" complex. which is running foreign policy as well as the internal security apparatus. (I almost wrote "internal security agencies," but that language is misleading and reinforces the conception these activities are being done by the government. Real power appears to straddle the government-"private sector" divide. Is it corporations who are running the government, the government who is running the corporations? Or is it a hybrid?

We see the same thing in other crucial areas like the "regulation" of the economy, where Wall Street operatives are put in charge of setting and enforcing the rules. The Marxist concept of "state power" is more nuanced than the two-dimensional concept of "government." The people running this country, the highest echelons of "the ruling class," are not necessarily in "government" positions. And the idea we can "clean things up" by electing a different politician is off-base. Though sometimes, certain politicians who have not been trained well-enough to keep their mouths shut and "go along to get along" do make trouble. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are two obvious examples. But their route to office was not the normal one, where candidates are filtered through successive elections before they prove they are reliable enough, trustworthy enough to be allowed to advance.

I thanks Stice and Snowden for the service they have performed. And thank you for taking the time to emphasize the importance of their exposures. Since I am writing this on a Mac, I guess I have fewer concerns than you and your Microsoft products?

;)