In this meta argument, I'm going to leapfrog to what I believe is the final application of the scandalous and unconstitutional NSA phone records collection program. I'm not exactly sure why all of the sudden there is such an outcry about the revelations in the article by Glenn Greenwald, "NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily," published by theguardian.
Many, many people have been warning about this issue for a long time, but somehow the public has remained apathetic. As to myself, I don't know how many times I've used the term "total-information-awareness police state" in many of my diaries to describe what's happening. And again, there are many others that have been doing the same, at many levels, including US senators like Ron Wyden and Mark Udall.
Here are the implications...
Who Controls The Government
The first thing you have to get out of the way is the absurd notion that the legal and technological security infrastructure that has been put in place during the last 12+ years is meant to protect you from terrorists. Yes, there are some ancillary effects in that respect (protecting you from so-called terrorists), but the primary purpose of the total-information-awareness police state is not to provide for the general security; its primary purpose (and effect) is the establishment of a corporatist proto-fascist state meant to repress any attempt by the population to rise against the imposition of increased levels of oppression and exploitation.
Part of the reason for this is because as the predatory and rapacious needs of capitalism reaches its limits (both, environmentally and human productivity), the Global Corporatist Junta will be inclined to squeeze the last drop of productivity from people in order to keep "economic growth" at a point that will prevent the capitalist house of cards (pyramid scam) from collapsing (I tackled this issue in another diary).
This need necessitates for the system to become increasingly oppressive, stripping away all kinds of civil, human, and constitutional rights that get in the way of extracting the maximum amount of productivity and profit from workers.
The fascist legal and technological framework that has been dutifully put in place during the last several years came as the result of long-term planning by the corporatist cartels that have taken over the government.
The anti-terrorist apparatus that the U.S. government established after 9/11 has now been turned against law-abiding citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. This apparatus consists not only of advanced surveillance technologies but also of “fusion centers” in state after state that coordinate the efforts of law enforcement up and down the line and collaborate with leading members of the private sector.
Often, the work they do in the name of national security advances the interests of some of the largest corporations in America
rather than focusing on protecting the United States from actual threats or attacks, such as the one at the Boston Marathon on April 15.
In a diary I wrote on May 21st, I mentioned a report released by
The Center for Media and Democracy
When one reads the report, one becomes painfully aware about how these public-private partnerships set the stage for corporations to be able to basically buy off the entire security apparatus of the nation. In another example of soft bribery, they find a way to transfer huge amounts of money to agencies, and to individuals (hence, buying their loyalty, and turning the security apparatus into corporate goons).
Some of the findings, include:
- How corporations have become part of the homeland security “information sharing environment” with law enforcement/intelligence agencies through various public-private intelligence sharing partnerships. The report examines multiple instances in which the counter terrorism/homeland security apparatus was used to gather intelligence relating to activists for the benefit of corporate interests that were the subject of protests.
- How private groups and individuals, such as Charles Koch,
Chase Koch (Charles' son and a Koch Industries executive), Koch
Industries, and the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council
have hired off-duty police officers -- sometimes still armed and in
police uniforms -- to perform the private security functions of keeping
undesirables (reporters and activists) at bay.
Finally, on the question of who controls our government, nobody can answer it better than Chris Hedges:
Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform—the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions—we are left defenseless against corporate power.
The emphasis is mine
What Do Oppressive Fascist/Police States Do With Their Security Apparatus
In this video, which I first saw today in the diary written by Jesselyn Radack, William Binney, who worked for decades at the NSA, warns us about it... "The danger here is that we fall into something like a totalitarian state like East Germany."
So for those who can't still quite get the concept as to the dangers of this type of totally outrageous and unconstitutional imposition of a total-information-awareness police state, here's your answer.
As the theguardian story makes the its rounds in the current media cycle, we see the usual common misunderstanding as to the actual real implications of permitting the government to do these things.
I argue the reason is because there remains a very large segment of the population that (for some unknown reason) have not realized yet that the entire system of government is in the hands of what is essentially a ruthless Corporatist Junta.
Their (potential) ruthlessness has not been manifested yet because thus far they have been able to control much of the population (as if were with a remote control) through the mind-numbing U.S. media, which is a powerful propaganda apparatus.
But this control is very tenuous. As the harsh realities of the imposition of a fascist corporatist order becomes more apparent to people, there will uprising attempts (as it happened with Occupy Wall Street), and the fascistic total information awareness police state that has been put in place is the answer to that.
The question is: What is going to be our answer?