No wonder George Orwell never amounted to anything. He didn’t have any imagination!
As I have read various accounts, including Roger’s concise analysis, of the highly sophisticated and exotic programs our government has developed to surveil the world’s “bad guys” as well as American citizens, I’ve become even more cynical and suspicious of our government and its leadership.
Some who know me wonder how any increase in my cynicism could be accommodated without a massive cranial explosion.
Assuming, however, that even a fraction of what we are hearing about the ‘beyond-Orwellian” capabilities of our various super secret federal law enforcement agencies, how can we have any faith whatever in their denials that Americans’ slender “rights to privacy’ are under attack?
In the current flurry of revelations, “assurances”, denials, etc, it occurs to me that maybe the once serious drama of government spying on and control over every aspect of its citizens’ lives has become so pervasive and so irreversible that it has slipped into official comic behavior.
Anybody recall the big controversy over the iPhone once the property of Islamist San Bernardino mass murderer, Syed Farook?
Once respected FBI Director James Comey made a big deal over Apple’s alleged refusal to unlock Mr. Farook’s cell phone. Apple was adamant in its refusal to “compromise” its “security system” and allow authorities to rummage around in its customers’ “telephonic histories”!
Why they even claimed that in surrendering to the FBI’s demands, Apple’s gadgets could “no longer be trusted” to safeguard “how we drive, when we’re home, and whether the door is locked”!
But then, just as the legal case aimed at protecting Americans’ privacy from the prying eyes of the feds was proceeding, wouldn’t you know, Mr. Comey announced that lo and behold, they’d found “an outside party” who had shown them “a potential way to crack Syed Farook’s phone”!!!
How about that?! Apparently, some geek walking by FBI headquarters noticed all the fuss and volunteered to give the G-Men a hand.
See…the government wouldn’t know how to spy on you even if they wanted to!
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We’ve just emerged from a presidency which oversaw a “court-packing” of incredible dimensions, intended to put in place far left ideologues masquerading as civic and civil rights “guardians” whose mission for the next 2 or even 3 decades is to reshape and distort out of all recognition the US Constitution and our nation’s fabled “rule of law”.
An outgoing president equipped ‘civil servants’ throughout the federal bureaucracy to leak information to a compliant press intended to undermine the incoming chief executive and make the nation under his watch “ungovernable”.
We’re learning that an average citizen’s most intimate moments may be recorded by their home appliances.
Our cars record every travel destination and routes we take to each and even our driving habits.
Our phone conversations and cyber communications are recorded and stored by the government, just in case it has a need or desire to rummage through them some time.
As Roger noted, in greater detail, all this and more is now commonplace and generally accepted by an increasingly unwary and gullible public.
I knew that poor old George Orwell would never amount to anything.
The poor guy just didn’t have any imagination. DLH
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Reference The Guardian:
FBI may have found way to unlock San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone without Apple
Federal authorities have cancelled Tuesday’s court hearing with Apple, saying an ‘outside party’ has shown a potential way to crack Syed Farook’s phone
