Government Spying and You

By Nick Hodge | Wednesday, June 12th, 2013

It's all true.

Everything you've suspected.

Those of us on the Outside have wondered for years just how far down the tyrannical road the government had gone. And now we're beginning to understand the scope with which "public officials" have wantonly ignored and abused your Constitutional rights...

We now know that the executive branch, aided and abetted by the legislative and judicial branches, has:

• Conspired to identify those with opposing belief and harass them via tax law with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as the enforcer;
• Collected search history, emails, file transfer data, and live chats "directly from the servers" of Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, Skype, AOL, Hotmail, and more;
• Collected phone records of all Verizon customers under approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that gave government "unlimited authority" to obtain data; and
• Secretly obtained month's of phone records of reporters and editors at The Associated Press.

And those were just the jaw-dropping tyrannical acts that recently made the press, thanks to a growing number of people choosing to be on the Outside and blowing the whistle on unjust abuses of power by the government...

"Lesser" events that hit the wire recently include:

• A biometric database of all U.S. adults being buried in the immigration bill now being debated by Congress;
• The Department of Homeland Security refusing to answer questions about its purchase of 1.6 billion rounds of hollow point ammunition that are illegal in international warfare;
• The Treasury Department giving all spy agencies full access to raw financial data of American citizens; and
• Numerous schools beginning to scan the irises of students without parental permission.

I don't know what to say at this point...

Most of us assumed these kind of activities were happening, but now we have the hard proof.

You should be outraged. You should be calling every public official that represents you. And you should vote them all out in favor of Libertarian candidates in the next election.

But what else can you do? What happens now?

Hey, Look Over There...

Now comes the obfuscation and the red herrings.

You'll be told this was in your best interest. You'll be told this was to prevent terrorism. You'll be told you're safer because of these actions.

All of that is bullshit.

Here's the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

That's pretty cut-and-dried. Without a warrant to collect personal data, the Constitution is being violated. No amount of justification can change that.

If the government isn't held accountable by its citizens for breaking the Constitution, the entire document, by logical extension, is moot.

Once a part of the Constitution has been violated without consequence, all its other provisions are defunct.

Let's try a fill-in-the-blank:

If the the government can violate the Fourth Amendment without penalty, what's to stop them from violating _____ Amendment?

See how that works? You can fill in any law or Constitutional Amendment you want.

No matter what you fill in, the answer, of course, is nothing. The executive branch controls the judicial branch.

The government has become the fox, the rest of the country the hen house.

So don't expect any admission of wrongdoing, apology, or accountability. Don't expect the government to be tried by the press, which it controls. All of these major scandals have been broken by non-U.S. media outlets.

Instead, expect a barrage of obfuscation and red herrings.

Already, the attention has been turned to the former CIA operative who released the information instead of focusing on the real issue at hand.

The tyranny won't end. The rights abuses won't stop. As with what happened with the major banking scandals of the past few years, no one will be prosecuted (except the whistle-blower).

The $1.2 billion data center in the Utah desert that will harvest all your emails, calls, text messages, and other data will still be up and running.

Let this serve as your official welcome to the Surveillance State.

Sign of the Times

The most recent proof of a tyrannical government is nothing new, of course. This type of stuff has been going on for decades. Only today, in the age of information, we know more about it sooner. But it was never intended to be this way...

As founding father Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1775: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." But he also said, "...only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

And this opens up a broader, more interesting question: Is the U.S. currently capable of freedom?

That is, are we virtuous?

Let's start with a recent analysis of poll results from a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey showing how an average American adult spends 24 hours:

• 8.71 hours sleeping (36%)
• 5.21 hours for leisure (22%)
• 3.57 hours working (15%)
• 1.77 hours on household activities (7%)
• 1.24 hours eating and drinking (5%)
• 0.73 hours shopping (3%)

Education, in case you're wondering, takes up only 0.47 hours per day.

Is that virtuous?

Is a collective nation that spends 61% of its day sleeping, pursing leisure, and shopping capable of freedom? Or is it simply too busy watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians to notice or care that it's being taken away?

What's more, many Americans have already given up their sovereignty to the state. Over 47 million Americans (one out of every six!) are on food stamps. That number has quadrupled in a decade. Over 54 million Americans are on Medicaid, up 60% since 2000. And nearly 9 million Americans are on disability insurance, up 70% since 2000.

In total, over 100 million Americans — one in three! — are on some form welfare program administered by the Federal Government.

Not only does the government spend $1 trillion on these programs annually, but it actively promotes the programs an encourages people to sign up for them.

The problem, as foretold by Franklin, is that people have come to think of benefits (see: handouts) as rights. And while they're busy loading up on benefits from the front door, they're rights are being slowly walked out the back.

It's been a gift horse all along...

We the Government

What's happened is "We the People" has been transformed into "We the Government."

Indeed, a third of the population wouldn't be able to exist without it (more if you count government employees).

If the government is providing your shelter, food, and medical care, the thinking goes, why can't it have a little look-see at your "private" data? They may even be subsidizing your cell phone bill.

What we need to do is get back to a place where the people control the government, not the other way around.

And let me be clear: This is NOT the goal of either major political party, which has each done its part to get us where we are today.

I won't go off on a political rant, but only the Libertarian party includes a section like this in its platform:

Personal Privacy:

Libertarians support the rights recognized by the Fourth Amendment to be secure in our persons, homes, and property. Protection from unreasonable search and seizure should include records held by third parties, such as email, medical, and library records. Only actions that infringe on the rights of others can properly be termed crimes. We favor the repeal of all laws creating "crimes" without victims...

At the end of the day, we've elected the officials who continue to carry out the very acts we purport to despise (perhaps because we only spend 1.9% of the day educating ourselves).

Something's going to have to give.

A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll last month found 29% of registered voters think an armed revolution might be necessary in the next few years. I certainly hope that's not the case... but given the happenings in Turkey, Syria, and even Spain and Greece, it's impossible to rule out.

You should prepare for all scenarios.

But more importantly, you should immerse yourself in what's happening now. Get involved. Discuss your views with family and friends. Contact your representatives. Get involved in groups that share your beliefs. And seek out candidates who support your causes.

I fully believe an awakening is underway. The willingness of young CIA agents to spread the truth is a symptom of that — and an encouraging sign.

Outsiders are growing in number.

Do your part to support the cause and spread the message.

Call it like you see it,

Nick Hodge

@nickchodge on Twitter