Self Preservation and Irreversible Decline [was: Electronic Freedom Foundation selective in support of freedom]

coderman coderman at gmail.com
Mon Feb 8 10:15:28 PST 2016


On 2/8/16, Sean Lynch <seanl at literati.org> wrote:
>  ... During WWII it was not permissible
> to speak out against the war; you'd be considered to be aiding the enemy. I
> think it was worse in Europe than in the US, but still. There was a time
> when a majority of American men in a certain age range were veterans. Now
> they're a tiny minority. It allows a much greater diversity of thought.

true!  last week i got back FOIA documents from DHS. it was the first
page of every classification guide they authored within the
department, guides which explain to those working with sensitive
information (even TS/SA, TS/ECI :) how that sensitivity should be
determined.

the front page also contains a list of superseded classification
guides and other deprecated materials - in turn useful for tracking
the lineage of surveillance and military programs within the
intelligence community.

and, the courts slapped down the FBI's refusal to hand over processing
notes for FOIA requests. this fabricated denial through a creative
interpretation was soundly rejected by the judge as outside scope of
FOIA statute itself. the Meta-FOIA lives on!

funny that FOIA restores faith in humanity, if ever so briefly... (^_^;)



> ... revolutions seem to happen when they are closest to being
> unnecessary, otherwise they wouldn't be possible. So I think the answer is
> that for corruption to spread that far, it must be pervasive throughout
> society, not through some separate thing called "the State." Which means if
> the State is really that corrupt, revolution may well be impossible, and
> the only solution may be war by other states.

first to global netwar win retains ever-after dominance?  perhaps an
ever more empowered individual gives world time; need only wait for
fight by the right watermeatbag to fill the role demanded...



> ... Instead, revolution will
> happen not because the State is extremely corrupt, since that would require
> a corrupt society, but because it is weak and the people perceive it as
> corrupt.

i get what you're laying down.  i'm voting for Bernie too...  *grin*



> Hmm. I think the notion that the State and the public are not truly
> separate applies here as well. So it's not so much that it wouldn't be
> detected as that the corruption would encompass all of society.

there was a recent FOP leak, showing how union contract agreements
with municipalities and states force destruction of records indicative
of police misconduct.

certainly undetected corruption in rampant - who watches the watchers
conveniently empowered fully outside the legal constraints facing
every other citizen?



> This is kind of my worst nightmare; that my optimism has been misguided all
> this time. I wrote a post on liberty.me about how to deal with an
> invincible adversary that may be relevant here:
> https://undergroundeconomist.liberty.me/dealing-with-an-invincible-adversary/


"Fighting a far more powerful adversary requires a completely
different way of thinking than dealing with one who has similar
capabilities to yours. "
 ^- this is also true!  however, you don't continue with a full
explanation of how to resolve this complication...  :)



> In the forward of an obscure book I've started reading, The Omega Seed by
> Paolo Soleri, the forward author talks about how the Christians, instead
> of continually trying to fight ineffectual revolts against the Romans as
> their Jewish forebears had, instead focused on building communities. I
> think we need to focus not only on building communities where we're
> connected to one another, but where we're strongly connected to people
> around us who may not share our exact beliefs.

indeed. i've enjoyed great conversation with people across every
corner of the political spectrum. there's more than enough common
ground to go around, if we can get past the habit forming narcotic of
outrage pr0n on media propaganda lambdas...

one side effect of such ideological purity purges in intelligence
community is the erosion of technical talent and capability. drunk
twice over on offensive suites too sweet for non-discreet, now is
reckoning with interest past due!


best regards,


[ maybe the forthcoming DoJ leak will shed more sunshine? ]



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