(quote)Instead, all it shows is him getting angry in a manner that displays his near total ignorance of the topic at hand(unquote)
I really doubt that ignorance had anything to do with it at all. I think he is fully aware of the situation and simply wants to curry favor from some special people - maybe in preparation for a nice cushy executive office somewhere when he retires.
Politicians are NEVER as ignorant as they appear to be. It is however, their favourite pre-emptive excuse for lying.
To be honest, I am utterly astounded that the Digest contained so much actual information and in fact, that it was released at all.
While it may mean little, I really would love to shake the hands of everyone that had a part in the release of this Digest of the Torture Report, since I am sure the rest of the report will never be exposed to public scrutiny.
While I would love to see the Panetta Review released into the hands of the public as well, I am not holding my breathe in anticipation.
From all appearances, this thing seems to be a runaway train, with absolutely nobody at the controls.
Every government wants to spy on their population and therefor none are truly willing to do anything but pay lip service to privacy rights while enacting more laws that enable further and deeper surveillance activity.
The apparent lack of usable intel simply means that the "intel" they are collecting is being used for things other than catching bad guys, or they'd be bragging from the roof tops about how effective the programs are.
It should be patently obvious by now that none of this has anything to do with terrorism and everything to do with controlling populations through blackmail and cointelpro.
As was pointed out above, the (*1)real terrorists are pleased as punch with all this public surveillance as it completely obliterates any ability to carry out effective and (*2)specific investigation of real terrorist activities - (*)if either actually exists.
Since no effort is actually being taken to prevent terrorist activity by the agencies charged with that work, I have to assume that all terrorism currently existent on earth is manufactured and orchestrated by the Five Eyes, specifically to create the kind of environment where such public spying seems feasible and necessary.
Until something truly awful occurs that can be directly linked to the CIA, NSA, FBI public spy programs, such as a nuke going off in the Bronx that they were all aware of but ignored, this "thing of theirs" is guaranteed to escalate and cause nothing but greater grief for everyone going forward.
More-over, even if all the public surveillance programs were completely shut down tomorrow, the spooks have collected enough dirt on everyone to date, that they can continue to extort cash and compliance globally, well into the future, unimpeded.
Torture DOES NOT WORK. This has been proven time and again but everyone who wants to punish via torture ignores that fact time and time again.
When you torture someone, you make that person your mortal enemy, and they will thereafter use whatever means might be at their disposal to get revenge for your cruelty - this is why the information wrested from torture victims is always tainted and usually designed by the victim of your cruelty to hurt you as much as possible and help you as little as possible. The only thing a torture victim has at his disposal is the fact that his torturers want him to tell them things that will help them, so his only weapon is his words.
It is increasingly amazing that nobody seems to understand this simple principle even though it has been seen repeatedly in every single case of torture world wide.
I have to assume that this fact is ignored because torturers simply want to inflict as much pain on someone as possible and do not really care who their victims are.
However, this simple fact renders your scenario about the child into simplicity.
You may torture the captured kidnapper as much as you want and all you will get is misinformation designed to fuck you around as much as possible as payback for your cruelty and the pain you have caused your victim. Since most torture victims assume they will be killed to keep the torture secret, they have little left to lose and great satisfaction to gain from screwing over their torturers in every way possible.
Your child's health does not even come into the equation since the victim of your dark-age horror punishments will never aid you in any fashion. You will have exactly the same factual information you had before you tortured the kidnapper -
- None
So the correct answer to your pathetic question:
"Do you draw a line in the sand and watch your child die?"
is:
You try and convince the kidnapper that his help will be used to lower the charges against him and hope to hell to tells you something that will save your child, because torturing him will only get you false information and insure that your kid dies.
Since the other 5500 unexposed pages are obviously more damning than those that were allowed to be exposed, I'd say that any sense of disgust one might feel in reading the Official Digest, would be nothing compared to the nausea that the full report would cause.
Yet, astoundingly, nobody will be punished for these crimes against humanity, and many among the people who did these things will instead, be promoted.
It is indeed a Brutal New World we have allowed to be made.
What is saddest though is that this kind of activity at the hands of the official Crooks in White Hats, will only escalate as the entire process of redress of grievances has been replaced with a kangaroo court, jester judges, and thugs in uniform, who are itching to pummel any who might complain.
"There needs to be meaningful punishments handed down."
Absolutely not gonna happen. Never. No way. Uh uh!
Why.
Precedent.
(A random thought funnelled from someone in the white house via the Thought Stealing Device of Peabody (TM)...)
"We let these guys suffer legal punishments for their crimes, and the public will expect similar or greater punishments for the rest of us should we be caught. Moreover, the very notion that federal agents could be held responsible for their criminal actions would enable public and legal scrutiny into agency activities like never before due to the belief that it would be worth the effort to root out the bad guys. Much better that the public continues to believe that there is no-one they can turn to and that apathy is the best effort they can summon to deal with their disgust and lack of hope."
(The little meter on the side of the Device says its likely not anyone in the White House with the initials B.O..)
The threat of dealing out punishment to the traditionally protected tri-letter agency members would hamper the ability of such tri-letter agencies' to steal from, lie to and murder anyone they desired with impunity, far into the future and make it far more difficult to attract the necessary criminal types essential to so many of the officially sanctioned and extremely lucrative criminal activities currently underway.
While the Most Transparent Administration In American History might eventually hang a single individual (guaranteed to be someone they don't like, who did not actually do any wrong) out to dry in the winds of public opinion, that individual will suffer no more than that - public disgrace and a slapped wrist.
Of course, the $250,000 deposited into the off shore account in payment and the beach-side villa in Puerto Rico with Hot and Cold running bimbos and the freezer full of cocaine, should more than compensate for that disgrace.
One might begin to believe that those who have accomplished all of these things so perfectly, must actually be oath-sworn enemies of the United States.
They must be Enemies Inside The Gates.
One must also entertain the notion that those now speaking out in favor of these actions that have so resoundingly ruined the reputation of the USA, and those doing their level best to prevent the United States Public from learning who exactly did these things, must also be oath-sworn enemies of the USA, because they approve of the damage done to the USA.
The enemy inside the gates is always deadlier than those beating against your walls.
I find it truly amazing that nobody in the CIA realized, or realizes, that by torturing a person and letting them live, you have made a mortal enemy of that person, who will there-after be more than willing to do absolutely anything to exact revenge.
Not only does this officially sanctioned, childish punishment process create real future terrorists from those who likely would never have considered doing such a thing, but it is the reason why so many torture victims manufacture totally false, but real-sounding intel and deliver it as if it were of extreme importance to their hated interrogators.
Simple revenge.
Perhaps it is time to begin a mandatory intelligence test for intelligence operatives, executives and managerial staff, that will hopefully eliminate the employment of morons, idiots, and semi-retarded abusive jerks such as those currently making up the lion's share of the CIA leadership, managerial staff and field personnel roster.
It is patently obvious that the only test currently being used is the "Tie your shoes and whistle at the same time" test. Would love to see how many wanna-be spies actually failed that test each year.
My Solution:
I would disband the entire organization, (after putting its upper echelon in prison for thirty years without parole,) and then start fresh with a Real Mandate and some Real Oversight language, written up in a crowd-sourced public-created document with the force of law behind it and extreme punishments laid out in plain english, for all and any wrong-doing or cover-up.
Boy, you can sure tell I'm not a member of the Ownership Society eh!
"Brett Glass has no clue what the vast majority of consumers have to go through in this country with their internet access."
I think you will eventually learn that Brett Glass and all the other spokes-persons of his ilk, know precisely to 9 decimal places, "what the vast majority of consumers have to go through in this country with their internet access", and that he and they are hoping to triple and quadruple the number of hoops that the vast majority must jump through to successfully negotiate the use of their internet connection, with a cash register on the far side of each hoop.
The apparent ignorance is a planned blissful defense, but it is as utterly false as that of every politician and businessman before him, who has ever used the same ploy as a defense.
Such pretend ignorance allows lying with impunity, because everyone thinks you simply do not know any better.
Actually, methinks we have much less of a population problem and far more of space usage problem on earth.
I'm certain someone out there can ascertain the numbers - how much land is currently going unused due to climate and agricultural negatives.
Due to the simple fact that energy making methods are still pretty much stuck in the Industrial Revolution Stage, folks have to stay away from all the land that is inhospitable to life because the technology needed to make it all very hospitable to life needs a much cheaper energy source.
It is the very last thing that the powers that be desire - cheap energy would allow the captive labor forces held in cities to dissipate into the wilderness and stop buying the expensive energy they offer. People would be able to set up small factories and small production industries anywhere, competing hugely with the city based production facilities still strapped to the super expensive city power grid, which would become even more expensive as people fled the cities and the power brokers raised their costs to compensate for the lost revenues.
Methinks our world could easily support 150-200 billion, if we simply were not all gathered together in the same old cities, which have not grown in number to accommodate a growing population.
And you should realize that our cities grew up where the best farm land was found, and as the cities grew, they covered that farm land with concrete, tar, steel and glass. That's why we pretty much stopped building new cities - no super rich farm lands left.
Were we to actually create new cities to house our ever growing population, the apparent over-population problem would disappear.
Once again, humanity's leaders chose the least viable path, because it was the most lucrative path for a small number of people - those very same leaders.
When your leaders talk about over population they are actually talking about the difficulty large numbers add to the control of a work force - too many people creates great difficulty for efficient exploitation and poses a threat to centralized control.
That is the only "over population problem" they see.
I assume you're thinking that Wyden has a chance at becoming POTUS because of his apparent honesty and apparent willingness to reign in the over-reach of the surveillance state - thus making him the people's choice.
Snowflake.
Hell.
Reason:
He has no corporate sponsor and thus does not have the necessary permission to campaign for the position of POTUS in a fixed election. The public has very little to do with the selection of POTUS, as the vote is now completely controlled by corporate interests and is primarily a public relations placebo used to keep US citizens from realizing they are powerless, just like the citizens of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Sadly, even if he did have corporate permission to run and was indeed selected by the corporate bosses to be POTUS, he could never actually do anything about the surveillance state that was in any way detrimental to the income of his masters or that might in any way expose their operations to the public.
Only Whistle Blowers can fulfill that function once the state has been infiltrated by corporatists and their minions. And Whistle Blowers will soon be classified as "shoot on sight" terrorists.
I think that in this case especially - The Public Surveillance Program - the Government Snoop Forces are reacting very badly because they really did not expect to be caught.
It is the natural attitude of criminals to believe they will not be caught - the notion of "if/when they are caught" does not compute.
With the Snoop Force, they have the world's greatest cover - the USG - and the world's best Get Out Of Jail Card - the USG - and can use the data they collect to blackmail any official into dropping any charges that might have accrued had any of them been caught with a finger in the wrong jar.
The idea that consequences might follow their actions simply never occurred to them. They felt they were immune to justice.
I believe that this is the main reason why they are using - as you mentioned - the obviously incriminating massive redaction of documents and outright lies and trickery to hide as best as they can the details of their wrong doing, and why they are so vehement in their hatred of Snowden and so vocal about their fear of other whistle blowers.
"...social media allows falsehoods and outrage to spread far and wide with no accountability or consequences."
Exactly the same as the newspapers and TV, albeit these only produce officially manufactured bullshit.
But unlike the newspapers and TV, you can surf about and gather all the real information necessary to disclose the lie and post the data collected to point out the fallacy of the lie to others.
"...no accountability or consequences."
Ever heard of the Streisand Effect? It is only relevant to the internet and thus social media.
It does not matter what the media is, or its means of dissemination - it is always your responsibility to prove the information valid before acceptance. If you shirk this responsibility, their is none but yourself to blame.
At least the web, better than any other media to date, allows and promotes this process.
If the nut-job wacko conspiracy theorists are right about the global fascist depopulation pogrom, it would behoove the powers that be to maintain an apparently steadily rising population growth scenario, until they reached at least a goodly percent - say 50-60% - of their goal.
Sorry about that. Its always been a habit, since I was a kid, to ponder the unthinkable, at least once a day. :)
Since that is obviously the inevitable end result, maybe it is indeed, the actual desired goal of the surveillance program.
Maybe terrorism is simply the means by which criminals can scam the world into opening Pandora's Box and making life easy as pie for the whole of organized crime.
The other explanation seems to be that nobody in government has more than three brain cells and cannot extrapolate facts directly in front of them, worth shit. Since they are, almost without exception, wealthy business-men and business-women, that explanation - while repeatedly offered - seems rather hard to swallow.
Re: Re: ...and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out...
Happy to see you use the word interesting rather than the more commonly used terms like "odd", or "strange", as it is no longer either strange or unexpected. Historically speaking, its more than common.
One might also note that while murder is effective - "dead men tell no tales" - coercion via threats of harm to loved ones, threats of losing occupation/income, and threats of public exposure of sexual or other "immoral" activities, usually works well enough to make murder an exceptional action of last resort only, and thus rare, even when orchestrated accidents are easily manufactured.
Once accustomed to life above the law, most people are more than willing to do whatever it takes to continue on in that life style. Great wealth almost always eliminates morality altogether and induces a sort of unique cowardice because the rich believe they have more to live for.
Given those aspects of the game, the true number of highly placed persons currently under coercive control can be better estimated.
Blackmail in some circumstances, also carries the added bonus of victim assistance - that is, once someone has capitulated to blackmail to prevent exposure of some crime or immoral act, they become your patsy for life and can aid in carrying out all sorts of clandestine operations from whatever position of power they occupy.
While the use of the term "interesting" does not truly describe the import of any of the standard tactics of fascist take-over, at least it does show that some folks are paying attention.
Because of the social programming of Partisan Groupie-hood mentality - akin to having a favourite beer or baseball team - most fascist takeovers succeed without the public ever realizing they have been conquered until the rot has been fully established and the fascists are already planning their escape and selecting their next target host.
I understand a recent study by an American University also shows that the carrot used to keep American peasants from hanging millionaires on tree branches for their continuous stream of criminal acts, is actually something the wealthy invented specifically to make themselves look good and to keep the common man from ever reaching the upper braches of the food chain.
I am of course, referring to the very common notion of Rags To Riches Success, we hear about almost daily from media, that explains in tiny words how we the peasants can some day also become wealthy as God, if we just mind our business and work extra hard every day, without complaint.
Apparently, the endless stream of Rags To Riches stories are just that - manufactured carrots to fool the general public into staying on the job an extra hour, and never discussing the criminal actions of their employers and dreaming of that day "their ship comes in".
The near religious belief in this American Myth of eventual wealth, is what allows the rich to abuse everyone beneath them in the food chain and get nothing in response but continuous admiration and respect from the very peasants they abuse.
As John Oliver might put it. "Of course the game is rigged. But that just makes it so much more awesome for the day when I get mine."
The vast majority of wealth is either inherited, or stolen (if you don't get caught AND convicted, its normally called "earned profits"), and the number of real rags to riches stories can be counted on one hand - and they usually have some near miraculous twist that make them unique events and unlikely to happen twice in a millenia.
The true lesson here is simple - if you're not born to wealth, the only way you're going to have even the chance of a snowflake in hell of becoming rich, is to become a criminal and become really good at stealing wealth from the working, capital-generating poor, like the majority of the members of the Ownership Society do - a task which is quite easy to accomplish, since the peasants are trained to assist willingly.
Those working regular honest jobs (that usually aid in the destruction of the planet in one fashion or another) have absolutely zero chance to become anything more than middle class - the support layer for the mega wealthy. Being in the middle class is the reward peasants get for successfully aiding in some unique way, their billionaire employers, in their never-ending quest for more wealth - a reward for being an essential peasant.
The real American Dream is to become rich enough to be beyond the law, and thus be able to enjoy the privilege of unrestrained self aggrandizement without fear of consequences.
I still think that the addiction to wealth should bear a medical title, like mammonism, or perhaps, capitalism. :)
On the post: Senator Whitehouse Is Very Angry About A Made Up Google Search And A Made Up Pirate Bay
Ignorance is also a verb.
I really doubt that ignorance had anything to do with it at all. I think he is fully aware of the situation and simply wants to curry favor from some special people - maybe in preparation for a nice cushy executive office somewhere when he retires.
Politicians are NEVER as ignorant as they appear to be. It is however, their favourite pre-emptive excuse for lying.
---
On the post: Mark Udall Wants To Release CIA Internal Review Of Torture Program
Congratulations!
While it may mean little, I really would love to shake the hands of everyone that had a part in the release of this Digest of the Torture Report, since I am sure the rest of the report will never be exposed to public scrutiny.
While I would love to see the Panetta Review released into the hands of the public as well, I am not holding my breathe in anticipation.
---
On the post: European Commissioner For Human Rights And Key EU Privacy Committee Strongly Condemn Mass Surveillance And Bulk Data Retention
All of your future are belong to us!
Every government wants to spy on their population and therefor none are truly willing to do anything but pay lip service to privacy rights while enacting more laws that enable further and deeper surveillance activity.
The apparent lack of usable intel simply means that the "intel" they are collecting is being used for things other than catching bad guys, or they'd be bragging from the roof tops about how effective the programs are.
It should be patently obvious by now that none of this has anything to do with terrorism and everything to do with controlling populations through blackmail and cointelpro.
As was pointed out above, the (*1)real terrorists are pleased as punch with all this public surveillance as it completely obliterates any ability to carry out effective and (*2)specific investigation of real terrorist activities - (*)if either actually exists.
Since no effort is actually being taken to prevent terrorist activity by the agencies charged with that work, I have to assume that all terrorism currently existent on earth is manufactured and orchestrated by the Five Eyes, specifically to create the kind of environment where such public spying seems feasible and necessary.
Until something truly awful occurs that can be directly linked to the CIA, NSA, FBI public spy programs, such as a nuke going off in the Bronx that they were all aware of but ignored, this "thing of theirs" is guaranteed to escalate and cause nothing but greater grief for everyone going forward.
More-over, even if all the public surveillance programs were completely shut down tomorrow, the spooks have collected enough dirt on everyone to date, that they can continue to extort cash and compliance globally, well into the future, unimpeded.
---
On the post: Ridiculous: John Kerry Asks Dianne Feinstein Not To Release CIA Torture Report After Agreement Was Reached To Release On Monday
Re:
Considering the hurdles involved, the summary is excellent.
On the post: Profiting Massively From Torture: Designers Of CIA Torture Program Raked In $81 Million (And Are Still Getting Money)
Walking backwards into the future...
Torture DOES NOT WORK. This has been proven time and again but everyone who wants to punish via torture ignores that fact time and time again.
When you torture someone, you make that person your mortal enemy, and they will thereafter use whatever means might be at their disposal to get revenge for your cruelty - this is why the information wrested from torture victims is always tainted and usually designed by the victim of your cruelty to hurt you as much as possible and help you as little as possible. The only thing a torture victim has at his disposal is the fact that his torturers want him to tell them things that will help them, so his only weapon is his words.
It is increasingly amazing that nobody seems to understand this simple principle even though it has been seen repeatedly in every single case of torture world wide.
I have to assume that this fact is ignored because torturers simply want to inflict as much pain on someone as possible and do not really care who their victims are.
However, this simple fact renders your scenario about the child into simplicity.
You may torture the captured kidnapper as much as you want and all you will get is misinformation designed to fuck you around as much as possible as payback for your cruelty and the pain you have caused your victim. Since most torture victims assume they will be killed to keep the torture secret, they have little left to lose and great satisfaction to gain from screwing over their torturers in every way possible.
Your child's health does not even come into the equation since the victim of your dark-age horror punishments will never aid you in any fashion. You will have exactly the same factual information you had before you tortured the kidnapper -
- None
So the correct answer to your pathetic question:
"Do you draw a line in the sand and watch your child die?"
is:
You try and convince the kidnapper that his help will be used to lower the charges against him and hope to hell to tells you something that will save your child, because torturing him will only get you false information and insure that your kid dies.
---
On the post: Profiting Massively From Torture: Designers Of CIA Torture Program Raked In $81 Million (And Are Still Getting Money)
The day the music died...
Yet, astoundingly, nobody will be punished for these crimes against humanity, and many among the people who did these things will instead, be promoted.
It is indeed a Brutal New World we have allowed to be made.
What is saddest though is that this kind of activity at the hands of the official Crooks in White Hats, will only escalate as the entire process of redress of grievances has been replaced with a kangaroo court, jester judges, and thugs in uniform, who are itching to pummel any who might complain.
---
On the post: Feinstein's Summary Paper On CIA's 'Interrogation Program' Report Contains Plenty Of Torture
Snowflake - Hell
Absolutely not gonna happen. Never. No way. Uh uh!
Why.
Precedent.
(A random thought funnelled from someone in the white house via the Thought Stealing Device of Peabody (TM)...)
"We let these guys suffer legal punishments for their crimes, and the public will expect similar or greater punishments for the rest of us should we be caught. Moreover, the very notion that federal agents could be held responsible for their criminal actions would enable public and legal scrutiny into agency activities like never before due to the belief that it would be worth the effort to root out the bad guys. Much better that the public continues to believe that there is no-one they can turn to and that apathy is the best effort they can summon to deal with their disgust and lack of hope."
(The little meter on the side of the Device says its likely not anyone in the White House with the initials B.O..)
The threat of dealing out punishment to the traditionally protected tri-letter agency members would hamper the ability of such tri-letter agencies' to steal from, lie to and murder anyone they desired with impunity, far into the future and make it far more difficult to attract the necessary criminal types essential to so many of the officially sanctioned and extremely lucrative criminal activities currently underway.
While the Most Transparent Administration In American History might eventually hang a single individual (guaranteed to be someone they don't like, who did not actually do any wrong) out to dry in the winds of public opinion, that individual will suffer no more than that - public disgrace and a slapped wrist.
Of course, the $250,000 deposited into the off shore account in payment and the beach-side villa in Puerto Rico with Hot and Cold running bimbos and the freezer full of cocaine, should more than compensate for that disgrace.
---
On the post: CIA Program Tortured Dozens To Produce Nearly Nothing In The Way Of Useful Intelligence
Re:
They must be Enemies Inside The Gates.
One must also entertain the notion that those now speaking out in favor of these actions that have so resoundingly ruined the reputation of the USA, and those doing their level best to prevent the United States Public from learning who exactly did these things, must also be oath-sworn enemies of the USA, because they approve of the damage done to the USA.
The enemy inside the gates is always deadlier than those beating against your walls.
---
On the post: CIA Program Tortured Dozens To Produce Nearly Nothing In The Way Of Useful Intelligence
If at first you don't succeed, repeat.
Not only does this officially sanctioned, childish punishment process create real future terrorists from those who likely would never have considered doing such a thing, but it is the reason why so many torture victims manufacture totally false, but real-sounding intel and deliver it as if it were of extreme importance to their hated interrogators.
Simple revenge.
Perhaps it is time to begin a mandatory intelligence test for intelligence operatives, executives and managerial staff, that will hopefully eliminate the employment of morons, idiots, and semi-retarded abusive jerks such as those currently making up the lion's share of the CIA leadership, managerial staff and field personnel roster.
It is patently obvious that the only test currently being used is the "Tie your shoes and whistle at the same time" test. Would love to see how many wanna-be spies actually failed that test each year.
My Solution:
I would disband the entire organization, (after putting its upper echelon in prison for thirty years without parole,) and then start fresh with a Real Mandate and some Real Oversight language, written up in a crowd-sourced public-created document with the force of law behind it and extreme punishments laid out in plain english, for all and any wrong-doing or cover-up.
Boy, you can sure tell I'm not a member of the Ownership Society eh!
---
On the post: Internet Provider Sonic's CEO: Title II Is Only A Regulatory Burden If You're Doing Something Bad
Re: It needs to be said...
I think you will eventually learn that Brett Glass and all the other spokes-persons of his ilk, know precisely to 9 decimal places, "what the vast majority of consumers have to go through in this country with their internet access", and that he and they are hoping to triple and quadruple the number of hoops that the vast majority must jump through to successfully negotiate the use of their internet connection, with a cash register on the far side of each hoop.
The apparent ignorance is a planned blissful defense, but it is as utterly false as that of every politician and businessman before him, who has ever used the same ploy as a defense.
Such pretend ignorance allows lying with impunity, because everyone thinks you simply do not know any better.
---
On the post: The OTHER Government Revolving Door: Sheriff's Departments, State Troopers Provide New Homes For Bad Cops
Re: The rags-to-riches myth
It pretty much boils down to:
"Never give a sucker an even break."
There is a lot more to social engineering than meets the eye. The poor are a manufactured resource.
On the post: Apparently We Need Porn Filters To Safeguard The Healthy Erections Of Young Men
Re:
I'm certain someone out there can ascertain the numbers - how much land is currently going unused due to climate and agricultural negatives.
Due to the simple fact that energy making methods are still pretty much stuck in the Industrial Revolution Stage, folks have to stay away from all the land that is inhospitable to life because the technology needed to make it all very hospitable to life needs a much cheaper energy source.
It is the very last thing that the powers that be desire - cheap energy would allow the captive labor forces held in cities to dissipate into the wilderness and stop buying the expensive energy they offer. People would be able to set up small factories and small production industries anywhere, competing hugely with the city based production facilities still strapped to the super expensive city power grid, which would become even more expensive as people fled the cities and the power brokers raised their costs to compensate for the lost revenues.
Methinks our world could easily support 150-200 billion, if we simply were not all gathered together in the same old cities, which have not grown in number to accommodate a growing population.
And you should realize that our cities grew up where the best farm land was found, and as the cities grew, they covered that farm land with concrete, tar, steel and glass. That's why we pretty much stopped building new cities - no super rich farm lands left.
Were we to actually create new cities to house our ever growing population, the apparent over-population problem would disappear.
Once again, humanity's leaders chose the least viable path, because it was the most lucrative path for a small number of people - those very same leaders.
When your leaders talk about over population they are actually talking about the difficulty large numbers add to the control of a work force - too many people creates great difficulty for efficient exploitation and poses a threat to centralized control.
That is the only "over population problem" they see.
----
On the post: Ron Wyden Introduces Legislation Aimed At Preventing FBI-Mandated Backdoors In Cellphones And Computers
Re: Re: Re:
I assume you're thinking that Wyden has a chance at becoming POTUS because of his apparent honesty and apparent willingness to reign in the over-reach of the surveillance state - thus making him the people's choice.
Snowflake.
Hell.
Reason:
He has no corporate sponsor and thus does not have the necessary permission to campaign for the position of POTUS in a fixed election. The public has very little to do with the selection of POTUS, as the vote is now completely controlled by corporate interests and is primarily a public relations placebo used to keep US citizens from realizing they are powerless, just like the citizens of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Sadly, even if he did have corporate permission to run and was indeed selected by the corporate bosses to be POTUS, he could never actually do anything about the surveillance state that was in any way detrimental to the income of his masters or that might in any way expose their operations to the public.
Only Whistle Blowers can fulfill that function once the state has been infiltrated by corporatists and their minions. And Whistle Blowers will soon be classified as "shoot on sight" terrorists.
Welcome to the United Banks of America. :)
---
On the post: Ridiculous: John Kerry Asks Dianne Feinstein Not To Release CIA Torture Report After Agreement Was Reached To Release On Monday
Getting Caught
It is the natural attitude of criminals to believe they will not be caught - the notion of "if/when they are caught" does not compute.
With the Snoop Force, they have the world's greatest cover - the USG - and the world's best Get Out Of Jail Card - the USG - and can use the data they collect to blackmail any official into dropping any charges that might have accrued had any of them been caught with a finger in the wrong jar.
The idea that consequences might follow their actions simply never occurred to them. They felt they were immune to justice.
I believe that this is the main reason why they are using - as you mentioned - the obviously incriminating massive redaction of documents and outright lies and trickery to hide as best as they can the details of their wrong doing, and why they are so vehement in their hatred of Snowden and so vocal about their fear of other whistle blowers.
They got caught.
They're still in shock.
---
On the post: Prosecutor Lays The Blame For The Ferguson Debacle At The Feet Of 'Social Media'
Re:
Exactly the same as the newspapers and TV, albeit these only produce officially manufactured bullshit.
But unlike the newspapers and TV, you can surf about and gather all the real information necessary to disclose the lie and post the data collected to point out the fallacy of the lie to others.
"...no accountability or consequences."
Ever heard of the Streisand Effect? It is only relevant to the internet and thus social media.
It does not matter what the media is, or its means of dissemination - it is always your responsibility to prove the information valid before acceptance. If you shirk this responsibility, their is none but yourself to blame.
At least the web, better than any other media to date, allows and promotes this process.
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On the post: Apparently We Need Porn Filters To Safeguard The Healthy Erections Of Young Men
Re: Re:
Are you absolutely sure?
Do you really still trust the accountant?
Who is doing the head-count these days anyway?
If the nut-job wacko conspiracy theorists are right about the global fascist depopulation pogrom, it would behoove the powers that be to maintain an apparently steadily rising population growth scenario, until they reached at least a goodly percent - say 50-60% - of their goal.
Sorry about that. Its always been a habit, since I was a kid, to ponder the unthinkable, at least once a day. :)
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On the post: Apparently We Need Porn Filters To Safeguard The Healthy Erections Of Young Men
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: vajazzled?
Ok. I really did not need to know that.
But thanks.
Point taken and granted.
Vajazzled, based on "bedazzled" by use of the Bedlazzler(tm), it is then.
Its a Barbie thing - all growed up...
Leah McLaren is, apparently, just another Anita Bryant reincarnation...
Gawds! That's just sad.
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On the post: Ron Wyden Introduces Legislation Aimed At Preventing FBI-Mandated Backdoors In Cellphones And Computers
Re:
Maybe terrorism is simply the means by which criminals can scam the world into opening Pandora's Box and making life easy as pie for the whole of organized crime.
The other explanation seems to be that nobody in government has more than three brain cells and cannot extrapolate facts directly in front of them, worth shit. Since they are, almost without exception, wealthy business-men and business-women, that explanation - while repeatedly offered - seems rather hard to swallow.
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On the post: Ridiculous: John Kerry Asks Dianne Feinstein Not To Release CIA Torture Report After Agreement Was Reached To Release On Monday
Re: Re: ...and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out...
One might also note that while murder is effective - "dead men tell no tales" - coercion via threats of harm to loved ones, threats of losing occupation/income, and threats of public exposure of sexual or other "immoral" activities, usually works well enough to make murder an exceptional action of last resort only, and thus rare, even when orchestrated accidents are easily manufactured.
Once accustomed to life above the law, most people are more than willing to do whatever it takes to continue on in that life style. Great wealth almost always eliminates morality altogether and induces a sort of unique cowardice because the rich believe they have more to live for.
Given those aspects of the game, the true number of highly placed persons currently under coercive control can be better estimated.
Blackmail in some circumstances, also carries the added bonus of victim assistance - that is, once someone has capitulated to blackmail to prevent exposure of some crime or immoral act, they become your patsy for life and can aid in carrying out all sorts of clandestine operations from whatever position of power they occupy.
While the use of the term "interesting" does not truly describe the import of any of the standard tactics of fascist take-over, at least it does show that some folks are paying attention.
Because of the social programming of Partisan Groupie-hood mentality - akin to having a favourite beer or baseball team - most fascist takeovers succeed without the public ever realizing they have been conquered until the rot has been fully established and the fascists are already planning their escape and selecting their next target host.
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On the post: The OTHER Government Revolving Door: Sheriff's Departments, State Troopers Provide New Homes For Bad Cops
Re: This once wasn't ironic.
I am of course, referring to the very common notion of Rags To Riches Success, we hear about almost daily from media, that explains in tiny words how we the peasants can some day also become wealthy as God, if we just mind our business and work extra hard every day, without complaint.
Apparently, the endless stream of Rags To Riches stories are just that - manufactured carrots to fool the general public into staying on the job an extra hour, and never discussing the criminal actions of their employers and dreaming of that day "their ship comes in".
The near religious belief in this American Myth of eventual wealth, is what allows the rich to abuse everyone beneath them in the food chain and get nothing in response but continuous admiration and respect from the very peasants they abuse.
As John Oliver might put it. "Of course the game is rigged. But that just makes it so much more awesome for the day when I get mine."
The vast majority of wealth is either inherited, or stolen (if you don't get caught AND convicted, its normally called "earned profits"), and the number of real rags to riches stories can be counted on one hand - and they usually have some near miraculous twist that make them unique events and unlikely to happen twice in a millenia.
The true lesson here is simple - if you're not born to wealth, the only way you're going to have even the chance of a snowflake in hell of becoming rich, is to become a criminal and become really good at stealing wealth from the working, capital-generating poor, like the majority of the members of the Ownership Society do - a task which is quite easy to accomplish, since the peasants are trained to assist willingly.
Those working regular honest jobs (that usually aid in the destruction of the planet in one fashion or another) have absolutely zero chance to become anything more than middle class - the support layer for the mega wealthy. Being in the middle class is the reward peasants get for successfully aiding in some unique way, their billionaire employers, in their never-ending quest for more wealth - a reward for being an essential peasant.
The real American Dream is to become rich enough to be beyond the law, and thus be able to enjoy the privilege of unrestrained self aggrandizement without fear of consequences.
I still think that the addiction to wealth should bear a medical title, like mammonism, or perhaps, capitalism. :)
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