The Government Controls the Horizontal and the Vertical

Feel Free to Panic Now

Welcome to today’s proof that the government “controls the horizontal and the vertical,” as the old TV show, the Outer Limits, used to say. I have all of this crap turned off. They pushed it through to everyone in the country anyway.

Take this as a reminder that every place you go, every text you send, every phone call you make, every email you send or receive, every web site you visit, every social media post, every thing you purchase by credit card… it’s all tracked and recorded. All someone in the bowels of the FBI or CIA has to do is put your name into a web app, and they can see it all, no warrant required. Edward Snowden told us about these systems a decade ago, and nothing has changed, except that he now has to spend the rest of his life in hiding.

White House urges reauthorization of Section 702 spy powers

While there may be only three cases of intentional misconduct reported, the briefing does seem to gloss over the hundreds of thousands of instances of FBI misuse between 2020 and early 2021 alone — as well as the time and effort it takes to declassify these top-secret disclosures to give the public any insight into how these surveillance powers are being abused.

Source: White House urges reauthorization of Section 702 spy powers

Once and yet again, the UK press is doing the job the American press won’t or can’t do.