# 29 - Is "Big Brother" Making Us Safer?
Many people believe that Edward Snowden and other like him that have leaked classified information about the National Security Agency (NSA), and others within the intelligence community spying on American citizens are traitors and should be put to death.
Most people have no idea of the extent that the intelligence community spies on American citizens. More likely they refuse to believe that our government would actively spy on them because they have the mistaken belief that they would need a search warrant to collect that information.
Since the Snowden incident, the NSA is no longer even attempts to hide the fact that they are actively spying in us. Here is what they openly show on their Utah Data Center website:
What Data We Collect
Every day, people leave a digital trail of electronic breadcrumbs as they go about their daily routine. They go to work using electronic fare cards; drive through intersections with traffic cameras; walk down the street past security cameras; surf the internet; pay for purchases with credit/debit cards; text or call their friends; and on and on.
There is no way to predict in advance which crucial piece of data will be the key to revealing a potential plot. The standard operating procedure for the Domestic Surveillance Directorate is to "collect all available information from all available sources all the time, every time, always".
In the spirit of openness and transparency, here is a partial list of current and planned future data collection targets:
internet searches
websites visited
emails sent and received
social media activity (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
blogging activity including posts read, written, and commented on
videos watched and/or uploaded online
photos viewed and/or uploaded online
mobile phone GPS-location data
mobile phone apps downloaded
phone call records
text messages sent and received
Skype video calls
online purchases and auction transactions
credit card/ debit card transactions
financial information
legal documents
travel documents
health records
cable television shows watched and recorded
commuter toll records
electronic bus and subway passes / Smartpasses
facial recognition data from surveillance cameras
educational records
arrest records
driver license information
This clearly shows that the NSA is openly spying on every aspect of every single American citizens lives every day, They are storing the massive amount of data they collect on us every day in their new Utah Data Center.
They are spying on me as I write this post, and they are watching you as you read it.
Unless you take protective measures to actively guard against it, the NSA is monitoring and recording everything that you do on a daily basis, and they do not have a warrant to access or collect that information which is required by the Fourth Amendment.
To get a warrant to access and collect the information they would have to show a judge that you are a suspected of a crime, and that they need this information to prosecute you for the suspected crime. There is no crime that you are suspected of.
The government is now treating every single American citizen as a criminal or terrorist and has circumvented our rights protected by the Constitution under the Patriot Act and the promise of "safety".
Remember the words of Benjamin Franklin when he said "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
The Patriot Act, and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security have done nothing to make this country any safer. One thing it has done is severely erode our liberties and freedoms. The first ten amendments to the Constitution, also known as the Bill of Rights, contain rights that we have that are not given to us by the government. They are inalienable rights which were endowed by our Creator. The word inalienable means that they can not be taken away,
Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable (i.e., rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws).
The Fourth Amendment is quite clear on this subject. It states "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized".
We have a right to privacy, without the government spying on us and treating us as criminals. Yet factions within our government have used The Patriot Act against us, finding loopholes that they can exploit to track everything that every citizen does throughout their daily lives.
The government treats us as subjects under their control, yet that is not the roll of the government. The citizens are the ones who control the government. The government has forgotten who the master is and who works for whom.
I for one do not feel that Snowden is a traitor. In fact, I believe he is a true patriot that has risked his freedom and even his life to bring to light the outrageous violations that those in our government are committing against its own citizens.
Our government has gotten too big and is completely out of control. They have no regard for civil rights or the Constitution any more.
I fear that its growth and further expansion of power and control will not stop until enough true patriots take a stand and force them to return to their rightful role and position under the citizens authority.
It only took a handful of patriots to stand up to the King of England and defeat his troops and drive them back to England. We need a similar act of patriotism today.
Until such a time, as you continue in your preparations to ensure the safety of your families, remember that "Big Brother" is watching everything that you do.
73
RC
WH6FQE
Previous Episode:
Coming Episodes:
In upcoming episodes we will also take a look at "Water Purification & Sanitization" as well as "Vacuum Sealed vs. Mylar Bagged Food Storage". We will also take a look at the shelf-life of "Home Canned Foods" and the viability of using them in our emergency supplies. We will also have future episodes on Emergency Communications or EmComms.
Also we will have an episode on the need for a Wilderness First Aid training even if you live in a city. We will also take a look at the need for "Sanitation After A Disaster".
