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July 2 2007
With the release of historical documents from the CIA, discussion of warrantless wiretapping in the united $tates has vastly improved. For over a year, discussion happened in a sterile fact-less environment in which monarchists pounded liberals with their fears about terrorists and liberals knew nothing concrete to reply with. The basic problem is that liberals themselves do not face repression and therefore know nothing in practice. Today, July 2nd, Senator Lieberman is in the news backing domestic surveillance because of the Glascow news.
Repression supported by Amerikans
There is a category of things that the U.$. government does that gains at least ambiguous support from the U.$. public. A president can come along and force through these measures. In general, we notice that the majority of the public is not able to compare the united $tates and social-fascist China and know what is similar and what is different.
So, we believe the following things done in the united $tates have support:
1. Email, phone and mail opening
2. Video camera surveillance
3. Credit card and business surveillance
4. Following scapegoats
5. Living with scapegoats in their buildings and surrounding buildings
6. Threatening scapegoats with deportation or prison including Guantanamo Bay
7. Telling scapegoats they have six months to live
The fact is that Amerikans do have a scape-goatist view of "terrorism" and only 10% would be able to name anything about the history of the U.$. government's relations with the Taliban for instance.
Amerikans generally being a fearful people; even though there is no armed struggle in over 26 years of Maoism in the united $tates, Amerikans support these measures at least ambiguously. There would be some argument, but a president could get his way.
On these points, MIM fights with the assumption of a wrong-way majority. It means we have to fight with tactics of the minority. Our overall orientation is to fight with the tactics of the minority and count on that support for reaction.
Repression Amerikans would not support
There are also categories of repression that Amerikans would not support if they knew about them. They fit under the category of monarchist cronyism--how federal money is spent to benefit the king's political power.
1. Biased spending of federal money means that if the feds spy on Martin Luther King and report his having an affair, as explained on NPR today, it is fair if the same thing happens to all political leaders. If only enemies of the White House have their affairs disclosed, it is the use of federal money for monarchist cronyism. It's the same issue in the attorney firings case, whether prosecutors have to go after parties that are not in the White House.
2. Feudal feuding happens when Romeo dates Juliet. The Capulets object to the politics and the modern day equivalent of ethnicity of only one ethnicity, the Montagues. So in addition to surveillance of Romeo listed above, the Capulets dish on Romeo from state power, again using federal money.
Feudal feuding can also heat up if after a long period of no feuding a third family comes along to reheat the feud. We do not believe the Amerikan people would approve of that either.
3. Selective declassification--if there is spying on all political leaders, but still declassification is only selective, we again have monarchist cronyism. So if Bush, Clinton and Martin Luther King families face spying, but if there is declassification of all, then it should be complete declassification, equally. So if Martin Luther King shoved his wife against the wall, but his wife also hit him with a rolling pin just a minute before, then the declassification should contain the bit about the rolling pin.
4. Third party provocations--not everyone out of state power is a Martin Luther King. So if in order to discredit a scapegoat, the monarchists tie in third parties or declassify information on third parties, the monarchists probably face majority disapproval for that.
5. Ineptitude caused by mixing--if feds are busy repressing scapegoats with international interests, decades of federal undercover agent-years may go down the toilet if a new king decides the international work is not relevant anymore and domestic political issues are more important. The feuding or change of directions may also reveal the nature of repression in the process.
There are also other aspects of spying that would have a vast majority opposed to them that others have already addressed. In the main, MIM has only sought restitution where there is such a clear overreaching that there is a class reason to suspect that the status quo could be restored.