The answer is "No," but we are getting ever closer.
If 50 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum,
Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc,
that embryos would be conceived in test-tubes, DNA would identify humans in a way fingerprints never could, and scientists would map the brain, all of them would have said such a person was "pixelated;" yet, here we are.
If 45 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum,
Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc,
that the government would be able to track citizens with electronic devices without a warrant, all of them would have said that such a person was "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!" Yet, here we are.
If 40 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum,
Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc,
that public schools would monitor students' activities outside of school furtively through disseminated laptops using remote access, all of them would have said, "Absolute rubbish!" Yet, here we are.
If 35 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum,
Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc,
that the Federal government would - without warrants - monitor the electronic communications of citizens and store copies of emails, tweets, and postings in massive storage banks in West Virginia and Utah, all of them would have done their best Hattie McDaniel eyeroll; yet, here we are.
If 30 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum,
Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc,
that Federal employees could access to the tax, financial, medical, educational and other records of every citizen without warrants and often in real-time, all of them would have screamed "Tinfoil hat alert!" Yet, here we are.
If
25 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum,
Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc,
that Federal employees would have used military equipment and opened
fire on a compound with where dozens of innocent women and children were
located, all of them would have said such a person was batshit crazy;
yet, here we are.
If 20 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc, that Federal employees wearing snazzy uniforms would be going through the colonoscopy bags of 80 year-olds and feeling up toddlers before allowing them to board a plane, all of them would have said that such a person was stalk-raving mad; yet, here we are.
If 15 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc, that the Home Office and councils in the UK have been using drones to monitor fly-posting, fly-tipping, abandoned vehicles,abnormal loads, waste management in the UK, all of them would have said that such a person was a Mad Hatter; yet, here we are.
If 10 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc, that there would be 1 CCTV camera in the UK for every 32 people in 2011, all of them would have asked "What is she smoking?" Yet, here we are.
If 20 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc, that Federal employees wearing snazzy uniforms would be going through the colonoscopy bags of 80 year-olds and feeling up toddlers before allowing them to board a plane, all of them would have said that such a person was stalk-raving mad; yet, here we are.
If 15 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc, that the Home Office and councils in the UK have been using drones to monitor fly-posting, fly-tipping, abandoned vehicles,abnormal loads, waste management in the UK, all of them would have said that such a person was a Mad Hatter; yet, here we are.
If 10 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc, that there would be 1 CCTV camera in the UK for every 32 people in 2011, all of them would have asked "What is she smoking?" Yet, here we are.
If 5 years ago, someone would have told John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Andrew McCarthy, David Frum,
Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, etc, that there are councils in the UK that have been busted for using drones to check on whether employees, who had called in sick, were really at
home or had just taken the day off to do other things, every single one
of them would have said to "Drop the Kool-aid and step away from the
crazy train!" Yet, here we are.
Is it really so crazy to ask of your government - a government that interned over 110,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II simply for the sin of having the same national origin of one of its declared enemies and conducted secret syphilis tests on rural black men at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama - this simple question:
"Can you kill me because you think that I 'might' be guilty of a crime or 'may' be planning to commit an act of terrorism on US soil in the imminent, but not immediate, future?"
Is it really so crazy to ask of your government - a government that interned over 110,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II simply for the sin of having the same national origin of one of its declared enemies and conducted secret syphilis tests on rural black men at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama - this simple question:
"Can you kill me because you think that I 'might' be guilty of a crime or 'may' be planning to commit an act of terrorism on US soil in the imminent, but not immediate, future?"
If the government has the ability to kill Americans here or abroad because they 'might' do something, why is it a tinfoil question to ask "What 'might' the government do in the future?"
* I use the term "neo-con" in the least abusive manner, but one most used to describe the foreign policy/national security positions of the above. In NO way do I intend that "neo-con" be "code" for Jew or Israel or Israel-Firster, as many on the Left, far-far Right, or Paulistinian Planet do.
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