The American Police State: Get Ready For The Next Stage

[kpete]

Let's cut through the confusion, the subterfuge, the smokescreen, lies, and misinformation: The total information awareness surveillance police state's main function is to control and subjugate the citizenry at the behest of supranational corporations.

It was built for that purpose under the guise of national security and protecting the country against terrorism.

As the implications of the reporting by The Guardian and a few other news media outlets, based on whistle-blower Edward Snowden, begin to sink in, dissenting voices are finally beginning to be raised. The problem is that those voices are ten-plus years too late. The minute the United States of America started torturing people, conducted illegal rendition (kidnapping), trampled on the legal principle of Habeas Corpus, demanded we give up our constitutional rights, and set the proto-fascist legal framework in the form of the Orwellian-named, so-called PATRIOT ACT, that's when those voices needed to be raised.

the rest:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/21/1232700/-The-American-Police-State-Get-Ready-For-The-Next-Stage

....................

New Details Show Broader NSA Surveillance Reach
Programs Cover 75% of Nation's Traffic, Can Snare Emails
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324108204579022874091732470.html

The Journal reporting demonstrates that the NSA, in conjunction with telecommunications companies, has built a system that can reach deep into the U.S. Internet backbone and cover 75% of traffic in the country, including not only metadata but the content of online communications. The report also explains how the NSA relies on probabilities, algorithms and filtering techniques to sift through the data and find information related to foreign intelligence investigations...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324108204579025222244858490.html?mod=us_most_pop_newsreel

[leveymg]

1. Getting closer, but even this doesn't quite get to the point: we've all been profiled, and that

is the very heart of the way the NSA-FBI-CIA profiling system operates.

So, until they remove not only the algorithms that sort through all those billions of bits of data, but have also wiped clean the records of the ongoing scoring system that makes sense of it, we will still have a giant machine that assigns each and every one of us -- regardless of whether we've been indicted or convicted of any crime -- a score.

According to Laura Poitras, the U.S, Government assigns people a score on a 400 point scale with several factors, an IQ score of a sort that determines whether we can fly, obtain many types of employment, or when it comes down to it, are allowed to live or die. See, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/magazine/laura-poitras-snowden.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

In June 2006, her tickets on domestic flights were marked “SSSS” — Secondary Security Screening Selection — which means the bearer faces extra scrutiny beyond the usual measures. She was detained for the first time at Newark International Airport before boarding a flight to Israel, where she was showing her film. On her return flight, she was held for two hours before being allowed to re-enter the country. The next month, she traveled to Bosnia to show the film at a festival there. When she flew out of Sarajevo and landed in Vienna, she was paged on the airport loudspeaker and told to go to a security desk; from there she was led to a van and driven to another part of the airport, then taken into a room where luggage was examined.

“They took my bags and checked them,” Poitras said. “They asked me what I was doing, and I said I was showing a movie in Sarajevo about the Iraq war. And then I sort of befriended the security guy. I asked what was going on. He said: ‘You’re flagged. You have a threat score that is off the Richter scale. You are at 400 out of 400.’ I said, ‘Is this a scoring system that works throughout all of Europe, or is this an American scoring system?’ He said. ‘No, this is your government that has this and has told us to stop you.’ ”

After 9/11, the U.S. government began compiling a terrorist watch list that was at one point estimated to contain nearly a million names. There are at least two subsidiary lists that relate to air travel. The no-fly list contains the names of tens of thousands of people who are not allowed to fly into or out of the country. The selectee list, which is larger than the no-fly list, subjects people to extra airport inspections and questioning. These lists have been criticized by civil rights groups for being too broad and arbitrary and for violating the rights of Americans who are on them.

[woo me with science]

4. "So, until they remove not only the algorithms...

... that sort through all those billions of bits of data, but have also wiped clean the records of the ongoing scoring system that makes sense of it, we will still have a giant machine that assigns each and every one of us -- regardless of whether we've been indicted or convicted of any crime -- a score."

Thank you. This is the problem. It *all* has to go, and that is not even in their consciousness at this point. Even those talking about "reforms" are working pointlessly around the edges.

Where we are is truly frightening.

[gtar100]

8. And why is there such a push to destroy the powers of government at the same time?

Why such an urge to privatize everything the government does? Because when all this information is in the hands of private corporations, there is no recourse, nothing to compel them to use it "properly". It becomes private property and nothing short of a government could compel them to do the right thing. Would they erase such a mass of data, or just disappear it into the hands of private enterprise?

I fear government control only as much as I fear who controls government.

[leftstreet]

16. What an excellent point

Our overlord politicians demand that we LOVE government when it's 'national security,' but HATE government when it's healthcare or education

[Ed Suspicious]

18. And that is 180 degrees from where I traditionally sit.

The world has been co-opted by republican ideology.

[Quantess]

24. Hell, the democratic party has been co-opted by republican ideology.

Some of it, anyway.

[MisterP]

37. AND it drives a lot of Dems into defending the state within a state

if the only anti-NSA argument is "this is what happens when the gub'mint is big enough to regulate drinking water and feed the poor," it only further serves the corpo cause from both "sides"

[winter is coming]

40. Interesting that they want to "protect" us from comparatively rare terrorist attacks

but aren't concerned about fracking, oil spills, crumbling infrastructure, lack of good jobs, etc., etc.

If it can make money for the 1% or be used to put/keep the 99% in its place, it's a priority. Otherwise, die quickly.

[theHandpuppet]

41. Bingo!

You nailed it. Your post says it all.

[Enthusiast]

45. Noticed that, too, did ya?

We could probably reduce that rare terrorist attack to zero if we would just get the fuck out of their countries and stop trying to steal their resources.

[Enthusiast]

20. Thank you.

"I fear government control only as much as I fear who controls government."

[sarcasmo]

44. "who monitors the monitors"

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Exactly, exactly, exactly. I fear for the country and the world. n/t

[Catherina]

3. So what's NSA's excuse for illegally wiretapping all of Salt Lake City for 6 months?

Input error code again?

[drhobo]

5. they were trying to finally figure out what Mormonism means

Yeah something like that....

[SamReynolds]

6. Snakebite spitting spiders eyes

They swallowed up the night
Cried "meltdown zero marsh of lava"
With supersonic sight.
And barriers of you and me piled 1500 high
Spread here to here in smoking cans
They blackened out the sky

King met king we heard the bell
They kicked away the board
Flew headfirst to the bunkers
Then they started out once more.

You and me were born again
As iron-plated pawns
We scorched our way through libraries
We shredded all the lawns

Til everything was rust and powder
Every stone was turned
And random programs re-arranged the areas to burn.....


The enemy is years ahead,
He's tapped into the phone.
He hides beneath the furniture,
Knows all the special codes.
The enemy's our destiny
He's pulling on the cord
He spits a line I spastic dive
And sell him his reward
Hyperform.

[nashville_brook]

7. what's this from?

love the last three lines.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. It is from an album

called The Last Man to Fly, by The Tear Garden, lyrics to the cut "Hyperform".

I demand a Gold Star for knowing this....

[nashville_brook]

10. holy crap -- gold star bestowed.

that's an obscure reference!

[Quantess]

34. That's esoteric

I looked it up on youtube, and this came up as related entry:

[SamReynolds]

46. "Last Man to Fly".... as you've been apprised I see.

If you listen to it, please use headphones only. Good ones.

[L0oniX]

11. I need to change my DU nickname to Suspect101. n/t

[Enthusiast]

21. There ain't no doubt,

you are on the list. You can join me on the Group W Bench. Lots of us on there now, millions.

We just have to get our heads right. Then we will be allowed to play with the other children.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. and yet, when you say you think 911, which allowed all of this to happen

with out hardly a wimper from "we the people" was an inside job, they call you nuts. Go figure.

[truebrit71]

13. ^^this^^

BTW I love your sig line!!

[Enthusiast]

22. That sig is a masterpiece!

Never noticed it before.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. It did not have to be an inside job

Too many People in the mix. Too many risks of a leak. But letting it happen accomplishes the same thing, the same exact thing, and far less risky security wise.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

17. Well, if they knew it was going to happen and did nothing on purpose

that's an inside job in my book.

[truebrit71]

23. Agreed...

....LIHOP...MIHOP required too many working parts imho...

[Enthusiast]

25. I believe

they might have nurtured the operation along the way. Then ignored the warnings as it unfolded.

I always remember Condi Rice on the witness stand. She visibly squirmed with anxiety. And she lied, bold faced lied. And Dick and Bush testified together with no oath. WTF?

They might not have actually done the deed but it was the same thing. Traitors.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Yeah, but from an OpSec perspective

How many people needed to know? 10 worst case.

Why I contend they just let it happen. That is the moment we crossed the rubicon. And like the 1930s we knew, the Plan for a New American Century called for a new Pearl Harbor.

[truebrit71]

28. Yup.

[Enthusiast]

29. Oh, yeah.

Very few needed to know. I'm not sure the Chimpster even knew.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. The surprised face tells me he did not

I suspect Rummy, rice and Chenney did...that is your core with Wolfie maybe.

Distracted distant managers, Bush's style and all the rage in modern day American business, are easy to do a run around.

[bvar22]

38. They knew "something" was going to happen,

and they knew it would be big enough to use as the "Pearl Harbor" incident needed by PNAC, and they KNEW it would happen on the East Coast in a "Blue" state.
That is WHY they stashed Bush-the-Lesser safely in Florida with brother Jeb until the dust settled.

I don't believe they knew exactly WHAT was scheduled,
or how BIG it really was.
THAT explains the "OMG, My ass is grass NOW" look on Bush's face.

Just my opinion after 50 years of watching these assholes.

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. I know

And it matters little is he knew before or not...it is still treason. That is if we lived in a normal country with a functioning legal system.

[bvar22]

42. Exactly!

[PowerToThePeople]

30. I always thought LIHOP

But, that was a lifetime ago. Many people on DU now have no recollection of the goings on during that time. For me, it was the time in my life that I followed the political scene the most. 9/11, Patriot Act, Propaganda & Invasion of Iraq, and now the continuation of those policies are what have defined the majority of my political stances.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. The Patriot Act was ready to roll

That was telling to me

[PowerToThePeople]

33. PNAC - "absent some catastrophic catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor."

"The PNAC program, in a nutshell: America’s military must rule out even the possibility of a serious global or regional challenger anywhere in the world. The regime of Saddam Hussein must be toppled immediately, by U.S. force if necessary. And the entire Middle East must be reordered according to an American plan. PNAC’s most important study notes that selling this plan to the American people will likely take a long time, "absent some catastrophic catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor." (PNAC, Rebuilding America’s Defenses (1997), p.51)"

http://www.911truth.org/

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. Yup.

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. K&R We've been fighting the same war for over a century and fascism has been

winning almost every battle for that whole time.

When/If we figure that out, we might stand a chance.

[WillyT]

19. K & R !!!

[blackspade]

26. Big K&R!

[Hydra]

36. It's more than 10 years too late

But you can't say we didn't try. Too many people said "It can't happen here!"

Well...it did.

[Kennah]

43. When I read, "unless we rise up in massive (peaceful) opposition and resistance" I thought ...

Remember, Remember, the fifth of November.

I cannot foresee a peaceful outcome, ultimately. Proto-fascism will not go away peacefully.