Comment by GiorgioG
3 days ago
Let's not pretend this started with this administration. I'm not pointing any fingers at any one party or politician, but this is nothing new:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_surveillance_disclosure...
'By the late 1990s ECHELON was reportedly capable of monitoring up to 90% of all internet traffic. According to the BBC in May 2001, however, "The US Government still refused to admit that Echelon even exists."'
This.
You could also say that this is what the people have wanted for decades.
Remember the PATRIOT Act? Voted in by a vote of 99 to 1 in the senate. (And the 1 who voted against it? Yeah, we got rid of him for a more "law and order" type guy.)
What we're seeing is just the people getting more of what they're demanding. You get the government you deserve. And you deserve to get that government good and hard as often as possible.
After the shock of 9/11 and I believe it was only meant to be temporary
Specific programs and laws be temporary - the PATRIOT act is mostly expired now - but the status quo established is meant to be permanent. It's called "shock doctrine" for a reason[0]. The current administration is trying the same thing by presenting "Chinese interference" and "illegal immigration" as being equally existential threats as 9/11.
And some of the uglier implementations may be repealed, ICE may be "reformed," there may be "hearings" and "committees" and that may give the illusion of "returning to normal" but we will never go back to the reality of power before Trump any more than we can go back to the reality of power before 9/11. Absent revolution and civil war, it's simply impossible.
[0]https://medium.com/@s-blog/a-history-of-disaster-capitalism-...
I don't think it started with this administration, but the normalization of corruption sure did.
On the plus side, the current administration isn't obscuring the corruption like previous administrations, which is somewhat refreshing.
I don't think that's refreshing at all.
We're talking about unprecedented levels of corruption and nepotism.
Remember when MAGA went crazy when it was claimed that Nancy Pelosi made 130 million in stocks since 1987[0] - over the course of 30 years of investing.
Or when Hunter Biden worked with some Ukrainian company, for which he was, apparently, qualified - way more qualified then a lot of the current positions in the government.
Now let's compare it to the alleged 1.4 billion Trump made in a few months[1], and this doesn't count how much the family and friends could have made with inside trading.
How can it be refreshing when there's no comparison?
[0]https://abc45.com/news/nation-world/report-shares-nancy-pelo...
[1]https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/20/opinion/edito...