The surveillance state exists to serve the corporate state.

[kpete]

How to turn a democracy into a STASI authoritarian state in 10 easy steps:

1. Misuse the concept of a Top Secret government document (say, the date of D-Day) and extend classification to trillions of mundane documents a year.

2. Classify all government crimes and violations of the Constitution as secret

3. Create a class of 4.5 million privileged individuals, many of them corporate employees, with access to classified documents but allege it is illegal for public to see leaked classified documents

4. Spy on the public in violation of the Constitution

5. Classify environmental activists as terrorists while allowing Big Coal and Big Oil to pollute and destroy the planet

6. Share info gained from NSA spying on public with DEA, FBI, local law enforcement to protect pharmaceuticals & liquor industry from competition from pot, or to protect polluters from activists

7. Falsify to judges and defense attorneys how allegedly incriminating info was discovered

8. Lie and deny to Congress you are spying on the public.

9. Criminalize the revelation of government crimes and spying as Espionage

10. Further criminalize whistleblowing as “Terrorism”, have compradors arrest innocent people, detain them, and confiscate personal effects with no cause or warrant (i.e. David Miranda, partner of Glenn Greenwald)

Presto, what looks like a democracy is really an authoritarian state ruling on its own behalf and that of 2000 corporations, databasing the activities of 312 million innocent citizens and actively helping destroy the planet while forestalling climate activism.

http://www.juancole.com/2013/08/greenwald-terrorist-dictatorship.html

[silverweb]

1. Bingo.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]And a corporate state = a fascist state.

Corporations have been lusting after this for many decades.

[DJ13]

2. Thats right

And its no coincidence that as it grew after 9/11 our politicians have become increasingly timid in reigning in corporate excess.

Its like the pols are scared by something.

[truedelphi]

5. It is not fear so much as good ol' fashioned GREED.

Follow the money. The hundreds snd thousands of dollars, (if not millions of dollars) that the Big Time Pols get once aboard the gravy train of the Big Corporate State-Sponsored Surveillance Programs helps them ignore whatever little bit of a conscience that they still possess.

[Art_from_Ark]

19. It's probably a carrot-and-stick approach

[99th_Monkey]

3. Jay Gould redux: "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."

19th Century Railroad tycoon's "answer" to workers organizing unions.

[Orrex]

13. Screw him AND his panda's thumb!

[bemildred]

4. Precisely. nt

[moondust]

6. Plutocracy Gone Wild!

(You didn't really think they'd prosecute those banksters, did you? And risk losing Wall Street's campaign cash? Pshaw!)

[bvar22]

7. Step 11

Sit around at the exclusive club with the other 1%ers,
and laugh about How EASY it all was.

[font size=4]Hang on to your Memories, suckers!
Cause WE are taking everything else!
Hahahahahahahahaha[/font]

[stupidicus]

8. yep, I posted that hours ago

eom

[Zorra]

9. I suspect that President Obama and most of Congress are in the dark about

80-90% of what is going on in the intelligence community, the NSA in particular.

The Carlyle Group BOD, and other transnational corporate elites, and some select compromised military corporatists at the Pentagon, probably know way more than the President and Congress know about what intelligence is actually doing, which is, effectively, plying their trade in service of wealthy private interests.

[Bully Taw]

14. that is very naive of you...

the politicians know everything that is going on. Those at the highest levels know the most.

[dreamnightwind]

20. How do you know?

I think there is plenty of room for debate on this topic.

It seems that the surveillance state advances regardless of which politicians are in office. Odd that the two parties, who agree on so little, apparently share so much agreement when it comes to tracking every activity of the American people (and people all over this planet).

One theory would be that people who are in agreement with the surveillance policies tend to be more connected in the power structure, so they get promoted, elected, appointed. I'm sure there is some truth to that, and maybe that fits with your point of view.

Another possibility would be that the politicians are told just enough to make them advocates for the surveillance policies, without knowing the full extent of what goes on. Another aspect of this possibility is that politicians, journalists, activists, etc., who don't accept the thing at face value and want more in-depth knowledge or more oversight of surveillance are targeted, through primary opponents, funding their opponents in a general election, through threats, detention and even murder, and most likely of all through extortion/blackmail.

Seems to me there are a lot of career people in positions of power at JCOS, NSA, CIA, etc., not to mention in the private corporations that these organizations hire to conduct the data acquisition. These people don't come and go with elections, they are in the background, with a lot of power, and are not accountable to the electorate. Deep state.

Nothing naive about that.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. Waiting for someone to get busted for calling in sick and turning up on CCTV.

[leftstreet]

11. DURec

[Fire Walk With Me]

12. In this country, it's illegal to reveal illegal spying.

In Soviet Russia, spy...oh, I got nothin'.

[cantbeserious]

15. Kick and Recommend

eom

[nashville_brook]

16. k and r

[Cleita]

17. Our military too. We think they are supposed to be protecting us but in

fact they are protecting the interests of our industrialists and mining corporations overseas.

[dreamnightwind]

18. That's right

and yet they are regarded as heros. I regard them as people with jobs in the military. Some are true believers, many are victims of an economic "draft".

The Egyptian military is showing us what happens when a country's people go against the wishes of the corporatists. We'll eventually see similar things here, either at the hands of the military or at the hands of a militarized police.

[Enthusiast]

21. This is why "they"

allowed 911 to happen. It was to facilitate this transfer of power. It's right in your face if you are willing to see it.

[snappyturtle]

27. After years of reading and coping with this atrocity and trying

to get my head wrapped around it, I find what you say as 'key' to
understanding the last thirteen years and all that has come down
on us.

[KharmaTrain]

22. Now...

...how do you reverse this? It's one thing to describe the problem...and I doubt there are any here, no matter how partisan they are, that doesn't accept we have problems with the government AND corporate entities prying into our private lives. Every day data is gathered on every American that is bought and sold with consequences far greater than the fear that Officer Mike is listen to your phone calls. Try fixing a messed up credit report...or fight identity theft.

That said, all the outrage does nothing if there isn't pressure to demand government action. They created this monster...and we, as in we the people, can and must demand accountability. It doesn't happen in some dacha in Moscow, it starts in pushing legislators...our elected representatives...to investigate and then act to prosecute and prevent abuses. Turn the anger into something pro-active...push congresscritters to take a stand on government spying and don't let up. These are the people who opened the gates, they are the ones who can close them...and those who won't need to be exposed and replaced.

I'm starting to see an endless loop here...every new "revelation" is followed by more outrage but little else. Once one outrage fades another pops up then fades...lather, rinse, repeat...

[Blue_Tires]

24. That's why I'm in favor of a mass data dump

Name names of everyone involved and all the secret shady alliances...

[KharmaTrain]

26. I'm Right There With You...

...this Snowden/Greenwald saga has been long on speculation, short on specifics. If there's criminal activities...expose it...present it to lawmakers and constitutional lawyers who can do something constructive with it. If our privacy is so compromised, you'd thing a full disclosure here would be a priority...rather than dripping and trying to milk it for website hits and future book profits...

[Blue_Tires]

23. Thanks for this...

Sad how many DUers, pundits, activist groups and bloggers of all political stripes have completely ignored the corporate/economic angle in all of this (or even worse, are floating the memes that the megacorps are innocent, powerless victims under NSA coercion)...

And it's Juan fuckin' Cole of all people pointing this out...

[Little Star]

25. k&r

[woo me with science]

28. Indeed it does. nt