Why 80% of Americans Distrust Government and Why They're Lined Up to Buy More Guns and Ammo

The most recent poll by the Pew Research Center found 80% of Americans don't trust the government. Their conclusions and those of The Atlantic focused on traditional economic and political stuff including a deep recession, high unemployment and polarized Congress. All very 'liberal', very non-controversial, very shallow. None mentioned torture, drone warfare, indefinite detainment, warrant less wiretapping of citizens, secret black' prisons, lying to declare war, secret military units or the many other unconstitutional secret powers the government says it needs to protect our 'freedom'.

The current situation didn't start with the recent acceleration of tyranny. Everybody my age - 65 - remembers the Gulf of Tonkin lies used by Johnson, remembers Watergate, remembers Clinton's cigar, remembers Colin Powell's lies about WMD in Iraq [informed by Egyptian torture victims] and probably has read all about the Pearl Harbor Conspiracy that convinced our parents to fight in WW2. Consequently many, if not most, Americans my age at least question the government's story about 9/11 too.

None in the lamestream media are willing to talk about the escalating un-authorized state surveillance. Most Americans understand that the reason for state authoritarianism is to preserve the worker-exploiting, planet destroying, corporate profit-making system. Things would be a lot easier for the state 'security' organizations if people would just hurry up and agree to mandatory RFID chip implants. But for now the FBI probably isn't monitoring you totally without permission. Remember the Terms and Conditions for that major website that you accepted without reading? Smile for the camera.

Here's a few links to some recent examples of why my fellow Americans distrust the government and why they're lined up to buy more guns and more ammo:

The NDAA and the Death of the Democratic State by Chris Hedges - Hedges and others are in court fighting Barack Obama's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Section 1021(b)(2), which permits the military to detain anyone, including U.S. citizens, can be imprisoned indefinitely by the military and denied due process until 'the end of hostilities.” In an age of permanent war this is probably a lifetime. Anyone detained under the NDAA can be sent, according to Section (c)(4), to any “foreign country or entity.” This is, in essence, extraordinary rendition of U.S. citizens.

Google Report Shows 'Disturbing Growth in Government Surveillance' - Most recent Transparency Report from web giant reveals 136% increase in user data requests from US since 2009  Right now it's legal for the US government to access almost anything that you have online without a warrant and at anytime.

What the FBI Doesn't Want You To Know About Its "Secret" Surveillance Techniques

Obama Granted Sweeping Power in 'Secret' Cyber-Wars - U.S. President Barack Obama has been granted sweeping powers to order preemptive cyber-strikes on any given country, anonymous officials involved in a "secret legal review" of U.S. cyber warfare rules, told the New York Times. Obama now 'proverbial judge, jury and executioner’ of cyber-strikes.

Only the Whistleblower Goes to Prison - Former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in prison for revealing in 2007 interviews that that Abu Zubaydah and other terrorism suspects were being waterboarded, making him the first CIA insider to confirm reports of torture during interrogation. He later spoke out forcefully against what he had witnessed: "There are things we should not do...One of them, I now firmly believe, is torture." Kiriakou, who did not take part in any torture, thus becomes the only former U.S. official to go to jail for torture.

More tomorrow on Kemosabe Obama, The Drone Ranger [Gary Larsen translation of Kemosabe - "an Apache expression for a horse's rear end."]