Politics

I've never been a fan of Jimmy Carter, but he's right when he says the US has no functioning democracy. Of course it had no such thing when he was elected or when FDR was elected. The US hasn't had a functioning democracy in a century, if ever. This is no big news.

"The FISA court isn’t really a court in the Western tradition: it is more like something that might have existed in the old Soviet Union, where everything was done in secret and there was no pretense of democratic oversight. The court meets in a special sealed-off soundproof bug-proof chamber, there are only government lawyers present making their case, and there is no public record of the court’s decisions, let alone transcripts of the proceedings. All very Soviet: all that’s lacking is a portrait of Lenin staring down on the participants in this "legal" farce."

A good description of how much the US has become like the Soviet Union.

"For every Snowden – and potential Snowden – there are probably dozens, if not more, NSA "analysts" who have spied on their ex-girlfriends (or ex-boyfriends), pulled a prank or two, or listened in on a few phone conversations they shouldn’t have. Like every bureaucratic monstrosity, the NSA keeps records on everything and there are no doubt internal reports of "abuse": Just wait until that comes to light! How do I know this? The general principle regarding political institutions, and, indeed, all human institutions, which goes double in the age of the Internet: dirt always floats to the surface of the toilet bowl. "

Power corrupts.

"No, the United States isn’t any longer a free country, and one of the ways we can gauge that is the sudden emergence of a category of Americans who formerly were the rare exception rather than the increasingly common rule: political prisoners such as John Kiriakou, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake (who fought them and won), all of whom have been targeted by the American government for exposing and trying to stop the biggest power grab in our history."

No it isn't.

"The key ingredient in bringing tyranny to America is a left-right coalition that will institutionalize the Surveillance State, and destroy the last remnants of the Bill of Rights. United on the need to continue America’s wars of aggression in the Middle East and elsewhere, this left-right coalition is closing ranks in Congress and in the hawkish wings of both parties in defense of the Surveillance State. Why do you care if the government has a record of all your emails – what do you have to hide? This is the rallying cry of a real authoritarian movement in this country, one that – like its opposition – transcends the traditional left-right paradigm."

I often describe our political system as a ladder with freedom at the bottom and tyranny at the top. Power might switch from left to right, and our rulers and the media focus on the minor left-right division, but both parties keep marching up the ladder toward tyranny.