The Big Answer

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" . . . no foreign terrorist shredded the Constitution. Nor did we, as citizens, bankrupt the nation. Powerful forces inside the country did. And worse than that: they intend to keep doing it. They have yet to be stopped. This is the real reason to be afraid: the rise of the Corporate Security State." So says Beatrice Edwards, one of the most courageous patriots who have ever tried to protect the U.S. from going down the drain. She is protecting our rights and our privacy and our safety—and even our national integrity and reputation. See Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is A Fundamental Human Right'.

Fly #353242252 reporting: Citizen #312,756,972 doesn't seem to be hiding a thing—my conclusion is that she's clean; but just to be sure I think I'll hang around a bit longer!

Beatrice Edwards is one of the most courageous patriots who have ever tried to protect the U.S. from going down the drain

Edwards says that we seem to be helpless before the rise of the Corporate Security State. Our presidents give speeches about America and its greatness and periodically run for re-election in what is now a grotesque pageant of clowns. The "greatness" is no longer about what our country does or what our soldiers do or how the government is filling the needs of the citizens. It's about the great quantity of our media's hype about our nation and it's about the great size of our budget and the great size of our debt and the great number of our brave men and women whose bodies and lives got wrecked in Bush's and Obama's illicit, immoral, illegal wars. It's about the great size of the whoppers that come out of our leaders' mouthes—and we do not mean Burger King. It's about the great size of our government—especially the NSA, which pretends to "protect" us by doing a great amount of spying on our every move, email, search, purchase, and call.

Edwards says that our presidents give speeches about America and its greatness and periodically run for re-election in what is now a grotesque pageant of clowns

Obama as Pinocchio—apparently he's not much of a truth teller

She tells us that " . . . one poll taken during the 2013 government shutdown showed that we preferred cockroaches, zombies, and dog doo to Congress."

One poll taken during the 2013 government shutdown showed that we preferred cockroaches, zombies, and dog doo to Congress

Cockroach

Zombie

Edwards says Average citizens are subject to ever-expanding NSA surveillance; control of information by classifying it as secret is expanding; rights are evaporating; the Constitution is ignored; reporting a crime may be a crime; informing the public of the truth is "treason"—ask Snowden; financial reforms are inoperable; systemic corruption is rampant; we're submerged in wars that we never wanted and that never end, and income and wealth inequality is appalling. According to her, "Such a country can only be maintained with greater repression of dissent and suppression of the truth. This is why the government is into deeper and broader surveillance. Instead of funding education and health care, clean air, and water, our taxes are paying for intrusive electronic monitoring—of us."

The oligarchs are robbing the Middle Class and keeping the money for themselves

She tells us about the totalitarian infrastructure at the heart of the pseudo-democratic government of the USA. The press highlighted the fact that the Defense Department’s statement in August, denying that the NSA engaged in industrial espionage, was a lie, and Snowden proved it. We're not talking about espionage against enemies, but against allies. According to the Washington Post, "the National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents."

Here we see one of the American Corporate Security State oligarchs burying our precious democracy—are we going to take this lying down, folks?

Without the Bill of Rights, there is no more freedom of expression, and without citizens having the right of freedom of expression, there is no safe dissent. And without dissent, there can be no democracy. We now have a democracy in name only, with dissenters treated like criminals even though they're the true patriots and the jack-booted NSA/FBI thugs that trample their First Amendment rights and freedoms are patriotic only to the American Corporate Security State, not to the U.S. democracy our Founders created. Sieg Heil! (along with upraised arm, palm forward) So if this is a true democracy with Constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms, why is it starting to seem more like an oppressive totalitarian state? The hollow claims of national security and "it's for our own protection" are being exposed more and more for what they are: rhetoric and propaganda from the Shadow Government.

Neocon nutjobs tell us that dumping our Bill of Rights and our Constitution was a prerequisite for our safety, which no intelligent citizen could possibly buy

NSA burning the Constitution (it's 'for our own protection'—it's for 'national security'!)

Never forget: we need the NSA/FBI agencies to keep us safe from criminals and terrorists, NOT to oppress and threaten patriotic whistleblowers that expose government corruption and excesses. Edwards's book tells many stories of these illegal and repressive actions from our so-called security apparatus. It makes you want to help save democracy before it's merely a fond memory.

Beatrice Edwards' The Rise of the American Corporate Security State is a milestone in truth telling that no truly patriotic American should fail to read. She is brave, honest, and patriotic to a fault. Bea Edwards is Executive Director of the Government Accountability Project (GAP). Her book focuses on the implications of whistleblowers’ disclosures from the private and public sector. Daniel Ellsberg, commenting on the book, said, “A must-read for those who love this country and wish to preserve its fast-fading democracy.” Amen. During Edwards' rein, GAP represented the heroic patriot Edward Snowden from the National Security Agency and it defended Eileen Foster, the head of fraud investigations at Countrywide Financial. Both whistleblowers won the prestigious Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize in 2014 and 2013, respectively. (Source:https://www.whistleblower.org/press/bea-edwards-executive-director-gap-announces-she-will-step-down-june)

Heroic NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has demonstrated the type of courage and wisdom we all need to aspire to

The warmongering neocon elites' policies of unafordable empire building have led to actions that threaten to break the army and bankrupt the treasury; we citizens object, but no one listens—welcome to the rise of the Corporate Security State

U.S. neocons' imperialism and warmongering is out of control yet the Congress tasked with stopping such abuses is mute—something smells rotten in Washington! The game is rigged. Bailouts? The biggest companies got help while the little guy got the finger.

• Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World
• When Corporations Rule the World
• The Rise of the American Corporate Security State
• The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption
• Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America
• The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It
• The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government
• National Security and Double Government
• A Game As Old As Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption
• Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the Global Economy IMPLODED -- and How to Fix It

Various authors see the shadow government from various perspectives—like the blind men and the elephant, but the overall gist is creepily similar