Israel isn't what I'd call "A Good Neighbor"

Of Course Israel Was Spying On U.S. Negotiations With Iran

Well - - here is another imported posting I just had to share here.  It speaks for itself.  Read it and shudder!

It is – rightfully – front-page news that Israel was caught spying on the closed-door negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.  And the Obama administration is particularly outraged that Israel allegedly shared that information with Republican congressmen who want to stop any peaceful deal with Iran.  This is certainly outrageous … but small, in the grand scheme of things.  Why?  Because Israeli spying on America is so rampant that U.S. officials have labeled it “alarming, even terrifying”.  And because the U.S. has only half-heartedly asked Israel to stop … Israel has told the U.S. to pound sand.   As if that isn’t bad enough, the NSA voluntarily shares the raw data it collects on American citizens with Israel.  This includes raw data on U.S. government officials.   This not only raises major privacy concerns for American citizens, but it might mean that Israel is spying on the American Congress and other high-level politicians.  Indeed, leaked NSA documents show that U.S. intelligence officials are concerned that the NSA may beputting Israel’s security needs ahead of America’s.  Moreover, top NSA officials have told Washington’s Blog that mass surveillance by the NSA is really aimed at blackmail. And see this.  Indeed, 5,000 years of history shows that spying on one’s own people is always aimed at crushing dissent.  (Incidentally, opposing unnecessary, costly wars – such as war against Iran – is treated asterrorism and unacceptable dissent.)  But it’s not just Americans … America’s spy apparatus also helps foreign governments – like Israel – crush dissent by citizens in their countries.  Indeed, spying is really a power grab.  As Snowden accurately said:

These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power.

There is a blog that says “Instead of Protect and Serve as the Law Enforcement motto, it should actually be Comply or Die”.   In 2014 eleven hundred citizens were killed by police in the United States.  That’s multiple times more than combat deaths in Afghanistan the same year.  Of course now President Obama is keeping the remaining 9800 troops in Afghanistan indefinitely after conferring with leaders expressing concerns about security.  This President brags so much about “getting and keeping us out of wars” but it’s all so much PR.   The police article states that often total compliance won’t guarantee that you are “safe”.  You could still get tased or shot based on something going on in the officer’s own mind about you- -perhaps obsessing on the look in your eye or “reaching for your driver’s license aggressively”, whatever that means.

No matter what path you follow, it will be fraught with peril. America is in the midst of a nervous breakdown, brought about by prolonged exposure to the American police state, and there are few places that are safe anymore.  A good test is this: if you live in a community that has welcomed the trappings of the police state with open arms (surveillance cameras, forced DNA extractions, Stingray devices, red light cameras, private prisons, etc.), all the while allowing its police forces to militarize, weaponize and operate beyond the reach of the Constitution, then you don’t live in a democratic republic—you live in a microcosm of the American police state.  If you have no real say in how your local law enforcement operates, if the only oversight of police actions is carried out by fellow officers, if any attempt to criticize the police is edited out or not covered by your local newspaper or TV station, drowned out by your fellow citizens, or intimidated into silence by your local police, then you have no recourse when it comes to police abuses.  Finally, if, despite having done nothing wrong, you feel nervous during a police encounter, you fear doing or saying the wrong thing in front of an officer will get you shot, and your local police dress and act like extensions of the military and treat you like a suspect, then it’s safe to say that you are not the one holding the upper hand in the master-servant relationship anymore.   And that’s something to think about in your more reflective moments.

 Computers have alltogether too much control over our lives.  One fine day some bright boy is going to figure out that maybe land lines for phones wasn't so bad, because at least you don't have to fear cell phone hacking.  We don't need these computerized "energy saving" controls for our heat and lights in our house as though we were so helpless we couldn't get up to turn something on or off.  Now of course they have these auto-piloted computerized cars.  I'm really not sure what to think of those.  I'm looking for the first major traffic accident that was caused by a computer malfunction.  Government data miners search gigantic data bases that it wouldn't be humanly possible to read the old fashioned way and look for stuff.  So they have to go for key words and phrases to "place someone under suspicion".  I've never used computerized dating because I just feel doing it the old fashioned way makes a lot more sense.  Believe it or not you really learn a lot more in a lot less time then filling out a long list of "pre-fab" plastic questions that may end up telling you little.  The potential for a computer malfunction in any of these areas is rising exponentially.  But now today with this new German "Air Bus" disaster we again see highlight the perils of handing control of our lives and the lives of others over to computers.  I listened to Sean Hannity over the noon hour.  There is a German “Air Bus” that crashed into the Alps.  The flight began in Barcelona and went to Disseldorf, Germany and spent eight minutes in a “steep descent”.  The computer would not relinquish control of the plane back to the pilot to pull out of the nose dive.  That’s supposed to be progress.  Sean Hannity was disturbed by that news and saying “We know it wasn’t terrorism”.  We don’t know much of anything- - and I couldn’t rule out some elaborate form of sabotage here. 

This is Tuesday March 24, 2015 after dinner, the 39^th anniversary of my officially becoming a born again Christian.  I watched Days of our Lives and I'm beginning to suspect that this whole Hillbilly act of Clyde Weston may be just a ruse to put people at ease and not suspect that he's a studied man and knows a lot more about a lot of things than anyone would suspect.  Now [name withheld] began calling names and I listened for mine but never heard it.  I never heard any name past M for that matter, which indicates I was in some remote area of the building where the PA wasn't in evidence.   The bottom line is I knew I didn't have money coming, though I wasn't too eager to let my cigarette creditors know this.  I went down for a cup and a half of coffee from Dora in the afternoon in the courtyard.  I walked past [name withheld] door a couple of times but never initiated conversation.  When you think about it, I’ve only had twelve additional dollars of expenditures this month as opposed to December, and yet I’ve “saved” $25.00 already in the past eight days if you figure thusly.  That would be if I bought the cheapest pack of cigarettes they sell once a day and alternated between large and small coffees.  But it would still be twenty if you say that I shorten that by two and a half packs.  That would be fifty cigarettes, not smoked, which sounds like a lot.  This is the eighth evening of Bill not being here but in the hospital.  So whatever Bill had, they have sure stretched it out into a major thing.  I got in the line to see Dr Saran, but first went to the room to get the letter.  I showed Dr Saran the letter involving that drug they’ve been warning will no longer be funded.  Dr Saran wasn’t all that forthright in saying that drug would not be off the medication list.  He’d say things like “Just don’t take it” or “You won’t be charged for it”.  My BP was 110 over 70 and that Daniel guy had the same numbers.  I felt unsettled as I left the doctor’s office.  No promised blood test was ordered.   I’ve only had one cigarette since then and that was from Paul Evans.  I had Norman Goldman on.  Ted Cruz just signed up for Obama Care because his wife just dropped out of employment with Goldman Sachs as a high paid official.   I guess he thought it looked too elite on his political resume.  We had turkey tetrazzini for dinner with spinach and a green salad with Italian dressing.  I had strawberry ice cream.  Teresa had raspberry and Connie had vanilla.