Can Government Spying Lead to Peace?

Duncan Trussell asks for examples of the state spying on it's own taxpayers.....and everything turning up peachy.

*From the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast

*Hear more from Duncan here.

Humpday Humor: NSA Spying

Dan Carlin talks about "the line" on NSA spying...

If you are interested in history you'll want to check out Dan's "Hardcore History".

*clip from The Joe Rogan Podcast

Humpday Humor: How to Evade a Phone Tap

Dick Gregory provides some helpful tips when dealing with a government who is spying on you.

13 Critical Issues You Are Forbidden From Voting On

The voting privileges granted by the political class during the civil rights movement have pacified nearly every American.  It’s a shame as to this day the very act of casting your ballot on meaningful issues is actively suppressed in the United States. 

 Here are 13 critical issues you are forbidden from voting on:

1. Which foreign lands the U.S. military should occupy
2. Taxpayer bailouts for the banks 
3. The definition of “torture”
4. Interest rates and monetary policy of the Federal Reserve
5. Military grade weapons supplied to your local police employees
6. TSA screening procedure at the airports
7. Nuclear weapons production, storage locations and usage
8. Number of field agents employed by the FBI
9. Medicare tax rates
10. The Supreme Court justices
11. Limits to NSA spying
12. Who is sentenced to death by drone strike
13. The enforcement of the “Bill of Rights”  

Clearly citizens of the United States of America were never given the vote. 

It’s been five decades since the last voting rights movement in America and no one has thought to ask “On What are we getting the right to vote”?

Take The Power Back

"Government attracts the worst elements of society to it.

Take away from them the power to tax our incomes... snoop into our bank accounts and monitor our emails."

-Harry Browne


Watch this 2 minute clip from the 2000 presidential debate for Mr. Browne's dire warning.

"Everything That Human Beings Do Is Political"

Check out this video from way back in 1998.  It's John Perry Barlow speaking about creating the first political commons that all of humanity could occupy.  I think they call it the internet.  

Learn more about Barlow and his organization's fight against NSA spying at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 

What We Knew About the NSA Before Snowden

National Security Agency headquarters in Fort Meade, MD
(Saul Loeb/AFP Getty Images)

It's been twelve months since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the United States global spy network.  His released documents shined a brighter light on the depth of the activities by the National Security Agency.

Snowden shared the previously closely held information with Glenn Greenwald, a journalist for The Guardian.  It is well worth going through Greenwald's reporting "On Security and Liberty".

What was interesting about the Snowden leaks to longtime observers of state spying activities is that much of the information that Greenwald reported on was already public information.  

Published in 1982

James Bamford wrote “The Puzzle Palace: A Report on N.S.A., America’s Most Secret Agency” in 1982.  In a recent piece for The New Yorker, Alexander Nazaryan outlines some major themes from the book:   

...the NSA has tested the bounds of the Fourth Amendment before. Project Shamrock, carried out after the Second World War, compelled companies like Western Union to hand over, on a daily basis, all telegraphs entering and leaving the United States. A younger sibling, Project Minaret, born in 1969, collected information on “individuals or organizations, involved in civil disturbances, antiwar movements/demonstrations and Military deserters involved in the antiwar movement.”  

Fast forward to 2005 and we find this report from The New York Times titled "Bush Let's U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts".  In it James Risen and Eric Lichtblau reported:

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the [National Security Agency] has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. 

NSA employee Russell Tice came out publicly in 2006 and suggested that millions of Americans could be subject to NSA spying.  Tice spoke in-depth with James Corbett on The Corbett Report a few weeks after the first round of Snowden revelations. 

Published in 2009

James Bamford gained more popularity six years ago after publishing "The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America".  When promoting the book on PBS the author participated in a Q&A in February of 2009.  Thomas Nelms asked:    

Q: Do you see the scope and breadth of eavesdropping on communications in the U.S. expanding as time goes on, and if so, propelled by what circumstances?

Bamford: Unless tamed by the Obama administration, the natural tendency is for NSA to continue expanding its coverage area within the U.S. If another domestic terrorist incident takes place, the pace of that expansion will grow exponentially.   

We could list even more sources of information about NSA dragnet operations which were reported in the press well before Edward Snowden came forward but you get the picture. Snowden breaking his silence last June was a cherry on top of a decade long expanding pie.      

NSA Not Welcome, Says California Senate

The California Senate overwhelmingly passed the 4th Amendment Protection Act earlier this month.  The bill forces California to withdraw material support for federal agencies attempting to collect electronic date without a valid warrant.  This support includes the partnerships between the NSA and six state universities.  

If signed into state law the NSA would have a really hard time getting water and electricity to power their operations in the largest state in The Union.

The Tenth Amendment Center has more details.

Is the 'Internet Bill of Rights' a Red Herring?

Should People Look to the State for Protection? (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

The President of the people calling themselves "Brazil" has signed legislation that acts as an internet bill of rights.  The measure is popular among internet users because it is supposed to protect online privacy.  Specifically it states that email can only be read by senders and recipients.

The state of Brazil is making it clear to other states that they cannot spy on Brazilian citizens.  Of course the biggest repeat offender of internet spying is the U.S. military (NSA).

The internet bill of rights is fine and good but when it is originated and enforced by the state there is bound to be conflict.  Brazil claims it still has authority, under court order, to obtain a users computer files & internet records.  Brazil claims that it still has authority over ISP's and that these companies must play by the rules laid down by the state.

So now that Brazil will stop other states from spying on the people of Brazil who is stopping the state of Brazil from spying on the people of Brazil?