We have long discussed the erosion of civil liberties in the United States, including the attacks on privacy and other rights by the Obama Administration. It appears that we are not alone in those concerns. A new Gallup poll shows a record drop in the satisfaction of Americans over their freedoms. The massive drop is matched in such countries as Egypt, Pakistan, and Venezuela.
Seventy-nine percent of US residents are satisfied with their level of freedom. That is down from 91 percent in 2006 — a 12 point drop. We were once the highest country in the world on such polls. We have now dropped to 36th place.
That mirrors other studies showing the United States dropping to the same low levels on press freedoms, Internet speech, and other rights.
The White House has been adept in deflecting such criticism with a host of commentators and bloggers who deflect criticism with references to Republicans and the “red menace” or “things could be worse” spin or simply change the subject. However, the expansion of the internal security network in the United States and police powers is obviously having an impact on how Americans now view their rights. Years ago, I wrote a column entitled “10 Reasons Why The United States Is No Longer The Land of The Free.” Things have only grown worse since that column ran. The Obama Administration’s recent effort to strip citizens of privacy protections over their cellphones and records illustrates the extremism of some of these positions. That argument failed to secure a single vote on the Supreme Court for the Administration’s effort to blow a hole in American privacy protections.
The poll on the eve of the Fourth of July captures the dire condition of American civil liberties today. As I wrote years ago, Obama has been a disaster for the American civil liberties movement and the damage done under his tenure will be felt for decades. What is most distressing is that citizens see the decline but feel virtually powerless to do anything about it due to the duopoly of power in this country. Even with universal calls for change, the two parties are again recycling many of the same figures and same policies as prior years. Polls of this kind show a deep sense of dissatisfaction among Americans but also a complete lack of expression of those views through political channels. That is a dangerous situation for any political system when such widespread feelings are left unexpressed and unvented in politics. The political system seems to be operating in an increasingly unconnected and unresponsive fashion vis-a-vis the public at large. There is a sense among many that I speak to that there is a ruling elite and a vast body of the ruled — a modern equivalent to the helot class of ancient Sparta.
I am still amazed that we have come to this point of rapidly declining feelings of freedom and widespread dissociation with our political system. It is not the failure of our constitutional system and only partially the failure of our leaders. It is largely a failure in ourselves that we have become such grumbling drones — powerless, passive, and frankly a bit pathetic. Our government is openly trying to strip away core privacy protections and increase police powers at every level. Yet, we have fallen victim to the “blue state” and “red state” mentality — allowing politicians to constantly deflect criticism by referring to the other side as the greater evil. The result is predictable and, as with this poll, incredibly depressing.
Saucy, As I said, libertarians have the widest breadth of people. And, not all libertarians even believe in less taxes. As I said, my former beloved Senator Feingold is a libertarian who believes in government. He is in the big libertarian tent. People who are informed know there are libertarians who are almost exclusively civil libertarians, like Feingold and JT. Although, JT is not as tax and spendy as Feingold, they are equally strong on civil liberties. What confounds me about you is that while not a duopoly cultist like many of the ignoramuses here who can’t think out of the box, you don’t seem to get libertarianism. If you truly understood it you might find a home in our big tent. Some people here who deride libertarians are ignorant of what it means. They use Middle School epithets. I think you are educable, they are not, stuck in the duopoly mindset and Middle School.
AZ,
VPN is the acronym for Virtual Private Network. I am using one myself. It is a tunneling protocol for my communications that need to remain secure.
OpSec refers to Operational Security
OPSEC can also mean “Operations Security” depending on the context it’s used
VPN = Virtual Private Network
OPSEC = Open Platform for Security
Greenwald and Snowden work hand in hand don’t they?
What is a VPN or an OpSec?
Neo, The information from Greenwald’s book which I quoted from was a Snowden document.
Darren, In the comments column it says Neo made a comment. It won’t show up in the actual comments section.
The Conspiracy Theory Is True: Agents Infiltrate Websites Intending To “Manipulate, Deceive, And Destroy Reputations”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-24/conspiracy-theory-true-agents-infiltrate-websites-intending-manipulate-deceive-and-d
Paul, I will be interested to read your information and appreciate you taking the time to put things together. That speaks well of you!
The interesting thing about Obama is that for a long while, and even to some extent now, members of the right and left believe he is a socialist. That was one way to see how much propaganda surrounds him. Both groups believed this fervently.
This from a man who was largely employed in the FIRE industry and who has never wavered in putting forward a corporate agenda.
on 1, July 3, 2014 at 6:51 pmrafflaw
Paul,
Please provide some evidence of the wild claim that Obama is part of a socialist/communist cabal that was started during the cold war.
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I almost posted Dylan’s John Birch Society Blues. Any more crazy commie talk and I just might be forced to.
I do saucy, I do.
Neo wrote “Every once in a while I change my IP addresses to preserve anonymity.”
If you do not use a VPN, your OpSec is all for naught.
I don’t think we should call every criticism of the president an attack. If something is occurring, it is occurring. Speaking the truth is not an attack, it is delineating reality. We must not shrink from confronting reality because it is one of the only ways we will get out of the mess we are in. Speaking truth to power, about power, is important.
Mindless attacks, attacks made for the sake of grandstanding or obscuring reality are wrong and usually waged by propagandists or their dupes in the population.
Paul,
Please provide some evidence of the wild claim that Obama is part of a socialist/communist cabal that was started during the cold war.
rafflaw – I am not ignoring you, but it will be tomorrow before I can put it all together.
Saucy, Marlene Dietrich also sang the lovely wartime favorite, Lili Marlene.
Paul:
I don’t know how you can draw inferences about a group from the actions of some of its members. People are too varied and hold allegiances to differing degrees. I look to a group’s leaders or their statements of purpose. I can think of many Repubs that I think would be good Dems and vice-versa based on what they do.
mespo – I think I prefaced the statement with ‘as a group’
The #1, officially-endorsed Paul wrote “I’m #1!!! I’m #1!!! I’m #1!!!”
I thought you’d like that.
“the old Soviets are back in and operating along the same lines as they did during the Cold War”
I’d go farther back. In 1938, the Soviets started to usurp Eastern Europe, first with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, then the Winter War, then the song-and-dance they played in “convincing” the Baltic States to join the USSR, then delaying its entry into Poland in 1944 until the Nazis killed all of the troublemakers in Warsaw, etc. This is Putin’s game.
I said this before, but I will say it again. Reagan did not win the Cold War. We did not spend the USSR into the ground (I realize you disagree, but the literature from Eastern Europe is more relevant). If Andropov would have lived until the middle 1990s, he would have been able to pass control to Putin, with the Soviet Union still being intact.
As I wrote in “The guerrilla solution to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats to invade Finland if it joins NATO and U.S. President Barack Obama’s JFK moment,” Obama is proving to be his usual unimaginative self in not assisting Finland in joining NATO. Crimea was former Russian territory, but so was Finland.
Saucy, I am rather puzzled why it is so important for Finland to join NATO now. Back during the Cold War they never felt the need to join, and they were not swallowed up by the Soviets when they were supposedly plotting to take over the world. If the Soviets had invaded Finland back then, the US and NATO would have done nothing at all since they were not members. So please inform us why it is SO important now. There are lots of countries in Europe who are not part of NATO, and they are doing quite well. In fact, Austria was under Soviet occupation after WWII, and they LEFT! So why the need now?
You also need to know more about WWII and the FACT that the Russian let the Nazis kill off the Home Army in Poland. The FACT is that the London Poles were the regime that was NOT freely elected, and was so stupid as to reject Stalin’s proposed alliance against Nazi Germany. Not only that, but the London Poles were telling their people to shoot the Red Army troops at the first opportune time. This of course was known to Stalin, so I suggest that those nut cases were a problem because they were simply nuts. You cannot urge the Red Army to help and then propose to shoot them in the back when they drive the Nazis out. Try telling the whole story.
The pre-war Polish dictatorship thought that being an ally of Hitler was just great when he moved to take over the rest of Czechoslovakia and grabbed a good part of it for themselves. Then they get outraged when Stalin became an ally of Hitler. Give us all a Break!
Max-1 and Neo,
I do think it is abundantly clear that elite politicians work for corporate paymasters or, if they are like Cheney, are corporate paymasters. The sooner we see this, the better chance that citizens have of uniting to face down wrongdoing. Elite controllers must keep propagandizing people to “see” the wrong things. It’s essential for them to do so, so they remain in control.
I am somewhat reluctant to quote from a site that many here will not like, but I think the information contained in this article is stunning and tells us a lot about the real structure of our corporate government, so here goes:
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/06/18/bfp-exclusive-report-a-distillation-of-dod-funding-priorities-for-may-2014/