America Eating Itself...Speeds Up! It Not Sorf at All!

Quote:This three week spurt of repressive action is the destructive icing on a cake of years of neglect and sadistic myopia that has ignored the country’s joblessness, alienation of its youth, continuing erosion of women’s rights, escalating violence, increasingly blatant racism and demonization of its working people and their right to self-protection and the militarization of the police. The Congress, with the acquiesence of the Administration, refuses to launch a major public works program that might at least stem our social collapse if not reverse it and then actually attacks the rights of elders and seniors to retrieve the social security we have paid into. In a vicious version of a comedy skit, the Congress has tried 37 times to repeal the only health coverage program all citizens have ever had — before it comes into effect. They cite the need to cut spending while they continue waste 50 cents of every tax dollar on the military, a tax-funded “social works program” that lacks the social productivity and usefulness of most other works programs and actually makes killing easier and more alluring.

Quote:All the while, the government’s cozy relationship with the mainstream media means that we can’t expect any decent information from that institution.
Our government isn’t representing us. The Constitution is effectively being ignored. We are in big trouble and the criminal behavior of our “leaders” isn’t going to save us.
All of this has gone on with very little popular resistance. So when Jay-Z “dropped” his album using a phone App that actually enhanced the intrusiveness cell phone companies have become infamous for, it’s not surprising that many didn’t care. But it’s noteworthy that many did. Polls are showing that, contrary to what pols and pundits protest, citizens in this country are very concerned about this surveillance. It may be that these latest surveillance revelations, painting a picture of a society that makes “Big Brother” look like a younger sibling, have brought us to some kind of critical mass.

Quote:That’s not happening, though, because we have become a society of cynics. Nobody expects the Congress to do anything about a country that has unemployed its people, wasted most of their money on useless war and eroded the rights of all citizens. Nobody was surprised when Congressional leaders, rather than express the outrage at the government blanket surveillance Edward Snowden revealed, called for that hero’s head.
This fortnight of outrageous malfeasance saw the Supreme Court (the supposed “protector” of the Constitution) trash the rights of voters and spit at the entire history of the Civil Rights movement (and its achievements) by calling sections of the Voter Rights law unconstitutional, using the brazenly disdainful argument that racial discrimination is no longer a major factor in voter rights denial. As if on cue (because it probably was), several state legislatures moved on measures to make it harder for people of color to vote.
Finally, it was revealed that the Post Office (the one government agency everyone seemed to trust) was taking and storing a snapshot of the intended and return address of every single piece of mail it handles as part of the government’s surveillance program. Those who eschew email, claiming that “snail mail” is slower but more secure, can’t even make that argument anymore.