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It's alarming to see the term "liberal" has become a pejorative in multiple languages. "Conservative," too, has become a meaningless epithet.
People now hiss at philosophies they can't even describe, collapsing flexible systems of belief into rigid markers of identity.
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The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks twitter.com/financialjuice…
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A major case: twitter.com/ACLU/status/15…
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Since learning of the NSA's mass surveillance program, the EU's top court has repeatedly ruled that the "data-sharing agreements" which feed the beast are unlawful end-runs around our human rights.
But each time, the US just stamps another agreement:
politico.eu/article/us-exp…
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In a decade or two, this won't require bulky cameras and high-friction QR-code scanning.
Everyone, everywhere, always.
It's closer than you think. twitter.com/EP_Lawrence/st…
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You're the @washingtonpost. Blowing open the government's unconstitutional mass surveillance program, you win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
A few years later, you invite those who committed what *the courts ruled a crime* to rewrite history.
taibbi.substack.com/p/the-washingt…
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“They who can treat secretly of the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority; and as they plot against the enemy in time of war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace.”
― Baruch Spinoza
edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/americas-ope…
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After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our SONS.
After two years of waiting and nearly ten years of exile, a little stability will make a difference for my family. I pray for privacy for them—and for us all. twitter.com/Snowden/status…
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For what reason do we aspire to maintain—or achieve—a nation of laws, if not to establish justice?
edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/americas-ope…
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The primary result of the classification system is not an increase in national security, but a decrease in transparency. Without meaningful transparency, there is no accountability, and without accountability, there is no learning.
edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/americas-ope…
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This is the unvarnished truth: the establishment of an institution charged with breaking the law within a nation of laws has mortally wounded its founding precept.
edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/americas-ope…
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“For some time I have been disturbed by the way CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble."
― President Harry Truman, who created the CIA
edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/americas-ope…
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“What’s happening in our country,” the President said, “is not normal.”
If only that were true.
edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/americas-ope…
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Did you know that whistleblowers are sentenced to more time in prison than corrupt officials who trade secrets for sex—more time than even actual spies?
The government has made *telling* the truth a greater crime than *selling* it.
#PardonRealityWinner
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“It is my wish that none of the letters written by me during my lifetime shall be published.”
Hemingway—and so many others—in the days before every action and utterance was irrevocably appended to the Permanent Record.
us.macmillan.com/books/97812502…
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Each of us has a Creator.
call your mother
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It doesn't really matter how you feel about the Jan. 6th stuff: bureaucrats destroying government records to keep them out of the public's hands should land every single person involved in jail. It is a crime against the public's right to know.
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I designed a core backup system for the NSA (EPICSHELTER), and managed others at the CIA. They could survive war.
That the Secret Service's records disappeared the instant they became potential evidence is no accident, and no less criminal than the CIA destroying torture tapes.
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Look, I'm just going to say it:
At a certain point, our corrupt and moribund political culture has no hope of solving humanity's problems. You either bet on science and technology, or you bet on extinction.
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oh for sure, man twitter.com/LiveSquawk/sta…
You can find me on #nostr @ pubkey: #npub1sn0wdenkukak0d9dfczzeacvhkrgz92ak56egt7vdgzn8pv2wfqqhrjdv9. (use Damus on iOS, Amethyst on Android, or snort.social)