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AmericanBardo's avatar

How preposterous that Americans are labeled security threats (and sometimes "terrorists") for speaking out to oppose data centers and ridiculously intrusive surveillance systems. DHS is growing more and more fraudulent as an entity. It acts as a vehicle of intimidation on behalf of political and corporate/financial interests.

When you look at DHS salaries, there are long lists of employees paid over $200K per year. There are also thousands of highly-paid jobs for contractors. While people struggle to afford food, DHS is paying people nicely to participate in violating their fellow citizens and our Constitution. Unfortunately, those who accept these positions (and salaries) help to facilitate a violent, abusive totalitarian environment in the US.

I can't help but think of Eastern Europe under the Soviets. In 1991, I visited Slovakia while it was still run by Soviet-style communists (locally). The most well-paid people in town were party bootlickers. (As a side note....to be accurate about Slovakia, there were somewhat positive things under communism as well. There was little to no homelessness, for example. People had access to state run healthcare, to mixed reviews)

In the city where I stayed, the local communist party functionaries had higher salaries, homes with nice yards, swimming pools, nicer clothes, cars. Their kids participated in educational opportunities, had tennis lessons, etc. The rest of the residents in the city lived in little apartments in cement complexes or in crumbling old buildings in town. Families with multiple kids were crammed into apartments with room for maybe two people. The well-paid party bootlickers oversaw the (more analog) social surveillance system. It banned certain books and music and restricted political speech to non-existence. What you could study was controlled. You could be blacklisted for listening to folk singers who criticized the government or reading banned books. Those well-paid sycophants profited from destroying the culture of their own country and restricting opportunities for their own people.

This reminds me of DHS.

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