The NSA and Mass Surveillance

Of course, I am one hundred opposed to the NSA's practice of mass surveillance, and I'm glad Snowden revealed it.

However, I want to focus on the NSA's use of the information, specifically using it on people of heterodox political persuasion. The National Security Agency has actually made it official strategy to publicly embarrass such people by revealing their internet histories to the public, under the guise of fighting against "extremism".

So far, it has mostly been Tea-Party conservatives and other such reprehensible people that fell victim to such tactics, but it is no longer a stretch of the imagination that folks like us at Socialist Phalanx could end up getting the same treatment should any of us get into politics and end up becoming a "threat" according to the NSA.

Your opinions on this and the NSA/Mass Surveillance in general?

It's complete crap. The more I think about it, the more disgusted I get.

I've also thought about any future political activity being subject to things being dug up by the NSA or whatever force that seeks to unhinge people like us. It's really unfortunate, to say the least. I think the days of naivete for all of us in regards to this mass spying should be in the past. These sorts of invasions of privacy happen all the time, regardless. I read some statistic that stated we are captured by security cameras close to 200 times a day. In many states, it's not illegal to have cameras in commercial dressing rooms. Oh, and spy planes can see you lounging in your undies from 17,000 ft. So it's not hard to imagine that the NSA, funded by billions and billions of dollars, can be doing some serious snooping. Their claims of merely harvesting 'metadata' has already been disproved, so god knows what they have their sticky fingers on. I hope they enjoy my phone calls to my mother about carrot souffle on rainy Sundays in between my conversations on revolutionary politics.

It's upsetting, to put it lightly.

The only person they aren't spying on is Slavoj Zizek, because who needs to.

This is bothersome, among many other aspects of the NSA spying:

http://rt.com/usa/klayman-nsa-lawsuit-surveillance-388/

"Judge Leon wrote in his decision that during a November 18 preliminary injunction hearing, he asked Klayman if he or any of his co-plaintiffs had any “basis to believe that the NSA has done any queries” involving their phone numbers.

"I think they are messing with me,” Klayman told the court, according to Judge Leon’s memorandum from Monday.

Klayman told the court that “he and his clients had received inexplicable text message and emails, not to mention a disk containing a spyware program,” Leon wrote (page 39 below) transcript of that court hearing will not be made publically available until next year, according to the PACER electronic legal records database. Speaking to the website WND this week, however, Klayman opened up about the type of harassment he claims he was subjected to soon after taking the NSA to court.

“People began receiving from me emails that I had never sent,” the attorney told WND, or World News Daily — a right-leaning website based out of Washington, DC that Klayman has previously contributed to.

“The government just wanted me to know they were watching me,” Klayman claimed.

Judge Leon said he didn’t take those allegations into considering while making his decision this week, writing instead in his memorandum that “none of these unusual occurrences or instances of being ‘messed with’ have anything to do with the quester of whether the NSA has ever queried or analyzed their telephony metadata,” and therefore don’t give standing to Klayman or any of his co-plaintiffs."

So, the judge ruled it was likely a violation of his personal privacy with the collection of metadata, yet he, nor any other group or agency seems to be able to give direction, with regard to the above level of intrusiveness.

Will this be reduced to whether or not one has enough funds or connections, to hire a lawyer in seeking recompense?

http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2013/09/truth-revealed-nsa-has-been-abusing-its-power-for-a-long-time/

It seems the only entities receiving compensation from the NSA are corporations, and not individuals. But this makes sense - the government is providing for its spouse.

http://fightgangstalking.com/

"The documents - part of the data taken by NSA-whistle blower Edward Snowden - show some of the ways the NSA hacks computers and phones. Newly-revealed capabilities and methods include such things as hacking Wi-Fi signals from as far away as 8 miles, creating fake cell phone towers to spy on phone calls and text messages, and intercepting computers and phones during their shipment to customers so the NSA can implant hardware which enables the NSA to simply bypass normal security measures."