Posts Tagged ‘politics’
I have to admit that given the current political climate the matter of the government using The NSA to compile all of our phone records and the collection of all of our credit card transactions, our internet activity, and the impending governmentalization of our medical records, I have to admit the matter is chilling.
But I think it would be unwise to disregard the same behavior by corporations, those corporations that place “cookies” and viruses on your computer to track your internet activity, those companies that monitor your cell phone activity, the trading of information regarding your purchases, and all of your other public activity, all of it, whatever it may be. It is spying, espionage, corporate espionage. As a country we are naturally concerned about what our government has The NSA doing yet we seem almost apathetic about corporations that are doing essentially exactly the same thing.
I believe such behavior by corporations can or may be just as dangerous to the public’s well-being, especially when there are no restrictions on how such information is traded from one business desirous of that information to the next. Some corporations have annual budgets in the multiples of states and small countries. Naturally, they will do anything in their power to maintain those annual revenues. Those corporations are governed and run by people, and so we must not forget human nature.
What the government has directed The NSA to do really requires a blanket search warrant, something The Constitution says is illegal. What corporations are doing is no different. Again, we are concerned about how the government has tasked The NSA, yet we allow corporations to do the same thing with no such legal requirement as a search warrant. And this is why I think this episode may have something to do with being a bit of a diversion. For a long time most of us have known the government was compiling our communications records under provisions of The Patriot Act. Then, just a couple of months ago the country was in the throes of a discussion about how private entities, corporations and businesses were tracking our internet activity, our credit card transactions, you name it, and even selling that information on the open market. What, I ask you, is more dangerous to your liberty?
So, while we are debating the government programs with the stated intent of preventing terrorism we must not forget that there are other powerful entities out there with unbridled interests and with power in a public sense equal at least to substantial segments of our government.
In fact the thought occurred to me that this entire episode and public debate about what the government is doing through the auspices of The NSA may be a diversion meant to halt or quell the debate which was recently invigorated about just that, that corporations are trading information about the citizen and their internet activity and cell phone activity wholesale and nobody seems to care. Or do they care yet some don’t want us to care and they are changing the subject. Shall I add a question mark to the previous sentence or shall we just leave it at that?
Copyright © William Thien 2013
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Pattern Recognition Part III: On The Recent Revelation That The US Government is Compiling All of Our Telephone Records
Posted on: June 18, 2013
A while back I added to this blog a favorable recommendation for a book written by Charles Adams titled Those Dirty Rotten Taxes, The TAX REVOLTS that BUILT AMERICA.
I wanted to include here an excerpt from the book where Mr. Adams quotes Lao Tsu, the revered founder of Taoism (A Chinese philosophy and system of religion. In the quote we may see one unspoken reason for the government’s implementation of the blanket search of all of our communications using the NSA (National Security Agency).
Mr. Adams quites Lao Tsu:
“The more one governs, the less one achieves the desired result….The more restrictions and prohibitions there are in the world, the poorer the people will be….The more laws are promulgated, the more thieves and bandits there will be.
When taxes are too high, people go hungry.
When government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit.
Act in the people’s benefit. Trust them, leave them alone.”
I placed the crucial part of the quote in bold letters in order to provide what may be the justification for such massive and intrusive spying on the American public by our own government other than the stated goal of preventing acts of terrorism, which has always been the responsibility of our government, even prior to 9/11. Perhaps the real reason the government is spying so thoroughly on the public is due to the desire to tap the spirit of the citizen so that the citizen will accept any type of governmental behavior.
Copyright © William Thien 2013
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Pattern Recognition Part II:On The Recent Revelation That The US Government is Compiling All of Our Telephone Records
Posted on: June 14, 2013
I blogged recently about what I believe is happening with regard to The NSA’s program to surveil the telephone records of all Americans. I concluded that due to the success of the 9/11 attackers and that of The Boston Bombers, even though our intelligence analysts had advanced information on both events, the fact that both attacks were still successful indicated that the focus of the surveillance (collection of telephone records) by The NSA on all Americans may not be couched entirely in a desire to prevent further terrorist activity. Such flags as a heads up from a foreign intelligence agency (from Russia on The Boston Bombers) or the report about a pilot not wanting to learn how to land a jetliner (regarding the 9/11 attackers) only to fly the jetliner, such reports and information are the holy grail of the intelligence business. If someone looked the other way it was because they were told to do so. When you discover something like that while working in the intelligence business, it often merits a promotion. There are accolades and back slapping. And why not? Look what can be prevented with such knowledge? But more importantly in those cases, look what wasn’t.
Now, let me add that I have worked for The NSA (See my “About Page”) while on assignment from The US Army. In my experience, The NSA doesn’t simply just start collecting information on particular targets and the thought that they should start wiretapping or collecting information on all US Citizens on their own accord is absurd. These along with all of the other recent developments, The I.R.S. scandal, all have political origins, I am certain.
In fact my experience with such matters leads me to recall a situation where a number of us, all analysts, were asked if we should re-direct the focus of a multi-capability surveillance satellite over the country’s border to collect information on drug activity of a particular type. Of the ten or so of us sitting in the secure facility, all said we should not do so. With the technology we had at the command of what was basically a joystick, we could have easily done so, I must tell you. There were members of all US Armed forces present and members of several agencies as well. Not one person voted to turn the satellite in the direction of The United States. That tells you something about the very highest caliber of members of The US Armed Forces, then. This was in the early nineties. Instead, the information about the targets was given to the state police of said state and forwarded to domestic agencies.
That sentiment, that we should not surveil our own country due to the charter of The NSA may have changed since 9/11. But I doubt it. Why? The screening process to become an employee of The NSA or work in my capacity at the time in The US Army on assignment there at an NSA post is very thorough and involves numerous and lengthy questionnaires with cross-referenced questions, often a series of polygraph examinations with members of The Department of Defense visiting your neighbors, former employers, and going to schools you attended. The process frequently takes months, sometimes more than a year. My Top Secret SCSI Clearance took seven or eight months to complete. The older you are, the longer it takes because there is more footwork for the investigators to do.
Getting back to the point though, I believe that there is a political component to The NSA’s surveillance of all US Telephone records. I believe this because information obtained by said surveillance is transferred to local authorities. The federal government can’t be everywhere in a physical sense if it can in fact be everywhere in an electronic sense, which is what all of the databases, the telephone records, the credit card transaction records, the internet activity records, it is what all of the records allow, a sort of electronic omniscience. But since the federal government can’t be everywhere, they must utilize local resources to accomplish certain activities. Whoa! Where are you going with this?
The answer to the question that is forming in your minds is a definite, “yes.”
What is happening at a certain level is that the federal government is tasking local authorities with the responsibility to collect information on your physical activities if you make “the list” you could say.
But even more importantly, The Patriot Act, that legislation which authorized the expansion of wiretapping and such activities as you have now become aware of, also allows something much more insidious, the “sneak-and-peek” (entry) of your residence, with a warrant but unannounced (they do it when you are not there). Who knows when they will decide to tell you or how often they enter? In other words, someone deemed to be suitable to the task (may even be someone who is duly deputized due to a certain skill set such as a locksmith), someone deemed suitable is authorized to enter your dwelling in your absence and search it. But does it stop there? Do they sabotage your things during the search? Do they take things? You will never know unless you notice something yourself, because The Patriot Act authorizes such governmental intrusion.
The real problem in my estimation with such activity though is that anyone with a badge or any type of governmental authority can probably get away with doing what I’ve just described and you would never know and with no authority from the federal government. Your neighbors may even be aware, and you wouldn’t have a clue if they didn’t tell you. Things get bumped during such searches. Perhaps you noticed something was disturbed. Do your neighbors have a key to your apartment? What is happening here?! See what I’m talking about? I’ve blogged in the past about putting an end to The Patriot Act. Why? Not only does the Patriot Act undermine The Constitution (which may have been temporarily necessary, but that is unlikely), The Patriot Act also undermines the social well being of the country.
Just as importantly, The Patriot Act makes no real distinction between foreign and domestic terrorism and that is the catch (Read the link I’ve included from The ACLU further on).
Are you an outspoken conservative that wants to downsize government (maybe you went on the “possible terrorist” list)? 2nd Amendment Activist (possible terrorist)? Who knows how long the list is and who or what defines it? Did you recently buy some ammunition online? How about a firearm? Do you blog as I do? Do you like to read blogs like mine? Do you write to your elected officials with your suggestions (this is a crucial one because it immediately becomes a national security matter, almost certainly if you express any disgruntlement and dissatisfaction with their performance)? Isn’t everyone disgruntled about the performance of the government? Hold it, isn’t just about everyone disgruntled?
Lo and behold, suddenly we discover we are all under surveillance.
Enough said.
But don’t take my word for it. And I’m not the greatest fan of these people, but read this http://www.aclu.org/national-security/surveillance-under-usa-patriot-act
Note: the only other reason I can offer for the oversight which missed the obvious regarding The Boston Bombers is that now that the US Government has tasked intelligence agencies to monitor all of our activities, search old ladies and children at the airport, what have you, there is so much information coming in that the intelligence agencies are overwhelmed with a sort of white noise of information and unable to completely function or focus on certain threats. There is essentially information overload at the intelligence agencies. But to me the prior scenario seems more likely. Nevertheless, our intelligence agencies don’t just start spying (as our elected would have us believe), they don’t just start spying on us en masse without direction from our elected, Congress in particular. And this is why I’ve written to the effect that we should once again start profiling and leads to the title of that essay on profiling, Welcome to Post 9/11 America: The United States of Police States. An Argument for Profiling.
Copyright © William Thien 2013
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Restraint
Posted on: June 14, 2013
While listening to my favorite conservative talk show hosts throughout the day yesterday they all in a line brought up the matter of The NSA (National Security Agency) programs that surveil Americans to locate terrorist activity. The hosts were flabbergasted, and rightfully so, that the NSA has been tasked to spy on all Americans, even old ladies and adolescents, everyone essentially, while Mosques have received a seeming exemption from such surveillance.
It’s an indication of the country’s desire to show respect for organized religion, even when the majority of the terrorists have originated from said religion.
What it shows more significantly other than anything else though is that if America is one thing America is a civilized country.
It should be a lesson in civility to all “over there” who apparently are preaching hate for this country from behind the cloth of religion.
Even a civilized country has limits to its restraint.
Copyright © William Thien 2013
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Pattern Recognition: On The Recent Revelation That The US Government is Compiling Telephone Records
Posted on: June 7, 2013
- In: IRS Scandals | Lois Lerner | Police State | Politics | Rep. Issa | Taxes
- Leave a Comment
I had a surprising discussion with someone at a local newspaper’s web site regarding the collection of the telephone records of US Citizens. The person mentioned that he supported the collection of phone records to prevent terrorism. There is a serious flaw in his logic as you will see. His main supporting point was that it was good to collect phone records of US Citizens in order to catch terrorists such as The Boston Bomber.
The problem with his position is that the system, even with advanced warning about The Boston Bombers (the F.B.I. and other intelligence agencies had knowledge of the bombers, were put on the trail by Russian Intelligence), didn’t prevent The Boston Bombings. That fact reminded me of 9/11, by the way. The F.B.I. was on to one of the terrorists from 9/11, a pilot in training, but the terrorist plot was successful nevertheless. Recognize a pattern?
To me the mere fact that the bombers were already on the US Intelligence Radar and still had the ability to enact such an effective terrorist event indicates that the program in question that collects all of the telephone calls and internet traffic of US Citizens may not be entirely focused on terrorists, if you get my drift.
In other words, the mere fact that there was such an obvious foreknowledge of the bombers and the bombers were still successful indicates to me that the focus of the program is on another subject entirely, us, the U.S. population in general, and with the I.R.S. scandal not even a week or two old, more specifically, those who are conservative and want to address the matter of big, expensive, overbearing, overreaching, INTRUSIVE GOVERNMENT!
Of course this could all be a big conspiracy theory. I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
Copyright © William Thien 2013
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I think it is likely were there some way to qualify a politician using a number system with the numbers indicating that a politician was in fact a Republican or a Democrat we would find that even the most conservative of today’s Republicans are really indistinguishable from Democrats of perhaps the post World War II era and that a lot of today’s Democrats are really Socialists or Communists with members of both the Republican and Democratic parties merely trying to get elected by promising money in some way or another, whether it be an entitlement check or a tax break, a re-distribution of wealth to whomever.
In other words, I see American politics as having taken a dramatic “phase shift” to the left over the last seventy years so that even conservatism has shifted to the left, kept its name but changed its shape, and liberalism has actually taken control of the leftist/socialist/communist agenda for some time, now.
But that “phase shift” phenomenon is not geographically universal. Liberalism and left leaning policy is far more prevalent in urban areas. As you move to the suburbs, the population becomes more conservative, and as you approach completely rural segments of the country, the vote is almost predominantly conservative.
A resurgence of conservatism has come with the advent of the internet age. Yet, in my opinion the left has used the internet more effectively to expand its foothold into the American household.
Copyright © William Thien 2013
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How to Deal With Ilegal Immigration
Posted on: June 1, 2013
A co-worker of mine asked me rather indirectly to address the matter of illegal immigration in the United States. I’ve been putting it off.
So I’ll get right to the point. We only have two choices really. Either seal off the border and do it right…or we will have to implement a European Union type solution.
Already with NAFTA (North American Free Tree Agreement) were are trading amongst North American countries for all practical purposes tariff free. Because of NAFTA, which of course devastated the job market in The United States, the framework is already there for a North American Union of some type. Our industry profits from the close proximity of foreign countries but the citizenry pays thoroughly in the form of taxes for benefits obtained by illegal immigrants while industry covers none of those costs, AND at the same time our citizenry endures loss of employment as jobs leave for both our southern and northern borders yet the citizen still pays in the form of taxes for the benefits obtained by illegals. Again, industry gets off scott-free.
Let me say right now I see no reason why industry should benefit from such an arrangement while the citizenry should suffer so drastically, both in terms of high taxes to cover the cost of benefits for illegals or a loss of jobs.
Therefor I believe there are really only two solutions. Either seal of the border completely, do it right, and leave it at that. Or, create a North American multi-country government much like The European Union. Perhaps all of the countries who are governed or chartered within NAFTA could be members of The North American Union. The one sticking point with that is that the dollar is worth so much more than all of the other currencies and backs so much more in terms of value, capital, and liquidity, that in order to have a North American Union, you would have to have a North American currency. You could call it “The Americana” instead of the dollar, or something to that effect. But I don’t know if that is advisable.
England joined the EU but kept its currency, which has turned out to be a wise choice as it has not seen such a devaluation as the Euro nor has it suffered continual, repeated and spasmodic economic crises.
So there you have it. That’s the way I see it. To date estimates to man the border range from $100 Billion dollars to $250 Billion dollars. In 2011 the average annual salary of a Customs and Border Patrol Officer was $75,000. In 2012 there were an estimated 21,394 agents. They of course have support teams and there are most certainly office staff to perhaps a larger extent. Just the cost of manning the border with little or no effect is tremendous. The logistical costs must be incredible. I could find not information as to that expense. So, not only is the issue one of taxation to pay for the benefits of illegal immigrants and the loss of jobs due to NAFTA, there is a tremendous cost to man the border.
We really only have two choices. To leave the matter without a solution much longer would of course be typical of Washington.
Without a solution our southern border is just a sieve for terrorism, illicit trafficking, and a wound bleeding tax dollars to the south. So, a North American Union type solution would mean no more costs to maintain a so-called “secure border.”
Of course there is one other solution which I believe is not advisable at this time. You can guess what that is and we will just leave it at that.
Copyright © William Thien 2013
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With Washington’s constant effort to sabotage the American household via the often misguided implementation of a liberal feel-good agenda, special light bulbs, reformulated gasoline, sometimes it is good to know there are still ways to maintain your way of life unencumbered. Recently I read that reformulated gasoline (part ethanol, which is an energy-deficit fuel source–it takes more energy to make ethanol than it provides), recently I read that ethanol was hard on car engines, motorcycles, and power equipment. I discovered this website http://pure-gas.org which lists gas stations by state that still offer pure gasoline for sale. I thought you might be interested.
Copyright © William Thien 2013
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On Taking DNA Upon Arrest Rather Than Conviction
Posted by: William Thien on: June 19, 2013
Where I reside the state legislature is scheduled to vote on a budget package that includes a provision authorizing law enforcement to take DNA from someone upon arrest. I telephoned my local legislator expressing my concern about taking DNA upon arrest rather than conviction. The budget is structured as a package and the provision with regard to taking DNA upon arrest cannot be removed from the budget as it is written.
Upon the advent of fingerprinting as a forensic tool there was a corresponding decrease in crime as investigators were able to make connections between criminal events and arrest the correct suspect. That is likely to be the case with the implementation of a DNA database. We would like to see that law enforcement has every tool at its disposal to solve crimes and DNA extraction is one of the most effective methods.
My problem though with extracting DNA upon arrest is that the DNA is going to the government. Unlike fingerprints, which are an external characteristic of a person, DNA is internal and the grand structure or design of a person. With today’s technology DNA can be altered, replicated, and manipulated for any number of reasons.
There is a sort of “creational,” theological value to DNA in a sense because it is believed by some that within the complexities of the DNA may lie the engine or source of the soul. To me, a theologian might find that the matter of DNA extraction by the government is a matter of the separation of church and state. Honestly, at this time I am not certain as to who, whom, or what I would choose, church or state, as the arbiter of such matters. Both choices concern me.
So, perhaps it is better to wait for a conviction before taking a person’s DNA. This may be one time the acquisition of evidence should occur later rather than sooner. The less time the government has your DNA, the less time it has to manipulate the DNA if it so chooses. My concern does not lie with the fear that the police themselves will somehow adulterate the DNA evidence but rather that the DNA will get into the wrong hands somehow once a database is constructed.
With your DNA material in the hands of the government, there is no telling what will be done.
Governments have been known to become monsters with such power and so too have religions.
Copyright © William Thien 2013
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So there is a sort of “creational,” theological value to DNA in a sense because it is believed by some that within the complexities of the DNA may lie the “soul.” To me, a theologian might find that the matter of DNA extraction by the government may be one of the separation of church and state. Honestly, at this time I am not certain as to who or what I would choose, church or state, as the arbiter of such matters.