This comes as no surprise, of course, given that the feebs have always had it in for anyone left of Attila the Hun. But it is good to see someone with relatively deep pockets push back a little. From Billboard:
These would be searches of various electronic items in spy and terrorism cases.
When you mention revolution, most people’s thoughts tend to scenarios that begin with pitchforks, proceed to guillotines, and end up in the Gulag. No doubt there are revolutions that have ended badly, betraying the people for whom they were putatively staged and directing violence at them rather than the overseers of the regime that made revolution necessary.
I'm slowly bringing some of my old articles over to post here on C99. This is one that I originally published Jun 21, 2013. Now that we are in the midst of FBI vs. Apple wherein the FBI is attempting to compel Apple to become an arm of the surveillance state, some of this seems pretty current in a way.
The US government works closely with thousands of corporations to bring you everything from national security to the drivers of climate change. The connections between these entities are diverse and often quite opaque making it difficult for citizens to tell who is really in charge. Is it the corporations with their ultimate responsibility to make a profit for their owners and shareholders, or is it the government with its ultimate responsibility to the electorate that is in charge? Do the principles of government or business apply to joint decision making processes when government invests in businesses and sits on their boards, or when government agencies have representatives of business sit on task forces and decision making structures?
The economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith wrote, “people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
What happens when the interests of business and government so align, that they are fundamentally, "in the same business?"
"The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard."
George Orwell, 1984
This evening's music features blues, r&b, rock and soul saxophonist King Curtis.
