Thom's on the air right now. Call him and ask him, I wanna hear what he says.

Why does Hartmann have to flat out lie about the taxes on capital gains, dividends, and estates? Capital gains, and dividends went from 15% to 20% and estate taxes went from 35% to 40%. Does he think everybody is a stupid drone or does he just not care about the facts as they are and would prefer to make them up to push his agenda?

Thanks for the good advice. I've heard the same recommendations from others as well and plan to do just that when I can afford it. I've also had dummy cameras recommended. They have the advantage of looking real and costing less. An installer said that together with a warning sign they can cause the same effect.

It seems we are fighting a brick wall.

I have a couple of friends that seem sorely misguided concerning current events. They both love Thom Hartmann. I now see the source of their ignorance. Yeah, keep beating that dead horse. You really think these guys only friends are in the Republican party?

The only problem is they can put you on a "no fly" list or prosecute on some new "anti terror" laws or not even prosecute you, just hold you without charge under NDAA or what. Anyway, they shouldn't be able to spy on American citizens. The purpose of the rights of the accused or the rights of the suspected (the "innocent 'til proven guilty") is not to aid and abett the guilty but to protect the INNOCENT from unwarranted harrassment by the authorities.

Flat taxing Reaganite lawmakers from both parties, bought with the promise of retirement jobs that will pay them millions a year, just passed a tax bill with top marginal rates of only 20% on capital gains and a permanent cut from 55% to 40% on estates; - so the redistribution of wealth from the majority of Americans to the ultra-rich that Reagan started 30 years ago will continue.

Quote DAnneMarc: " I've never seen any scheme that worked against an informed electorate."

They obviously are not all that informed...they fell for the old vote for the least of two evils...again!

Quote DAnneMarc: "You have failed to mention why any Company would allow the Government to tamper with their products and risk the consequences on the marketplace?"

Why has all of the telecoms and internet social media companies like Twitter and Facebook acted like a front end to the CIA? And yes, there has been some attempted hesitation to cooperate by some but others has just fallen right in line to take orders from the government. All for a good cause, you know...fighting terrorism! Right!

Quote ZDNET: "The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency on a daily basis, out of an "anonymous industrial park in Virginia", follows over 5 million tweets by users on the ground. " " also trawls other social networking sites like Facebook, along with Internet chat rooms; all the way down to newspapers and anything that anyone can contribute to openly."

Quote the ONION: "The CIA's invention of Facebook has saved the government millions of dollars."

Quote Examiner: "We all know that “he who pays the check, calls the shots,” therefore; whoever controls the purse strings controls the whole project. When it had less than a million or so participants, Facebook demonstrated the potential to do even more than IAO, TIA and TIPS combined. Facebook really exploded after its second round of funding—$12.7 million from the venture capital firm Accel Partners. Its manager, James Breyer, was formerly chairman of the National Venture Capital Association and served on the board with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital front established by the CIA in 1999. In-Q-Tel is the same outfit that funds Google and other technological powerhouses. One of its specialties is “data mining technologies.”

Point well made.

I'm aware of most of the technologies you've mentioned except the Great Seal Bug. Now that's nasty. Concerning the other technologies, once again I have to ask, so what? Is the information gathered going to justify the investment? Really?

You overlook one other little fact. We control the power outlet plug. WE THE PEOPLE also control what we buy. You have failed to mention why any Company would allow the Government to tamper with their products and risk the consequences on the marketplace?

Sure the internet, cell phones, land lines and individuals deemed important, dangerous, or interesting enough to risk being listened to with high tech listening devices. But what are you so worried about them hearing? These citizens pose no threat to the US Government. Using these devices are expensive and once again have to be cost justified. And besides, most conversations between average citizens are boring and innocent. The flags that those surveillance computers pick up are probably overloaded with tripe from our nations huge population of uneducated and unhappy juveniles who make up the biggest group who use those devices.

Everyone has political opinions. If the government is so concerned about political opinions that they eves drop on us, that is certainly despicable and illegal; and yet, its also nice that they are finally doing their job--listening to the people.

Personally, I really don't think the Government cares one bit about what we think. I think all that missing money was skimmed right into corrupt politicians and their cronies pockets. I think high tech surveillance equipment is a fancy toy for the 'intelligence' community that they haven't figured out how to properly or legally use and that nothing the Government does is going to prevent the inevitable title wave of karma that's headed its way.

I think life is too short to waste time and miss out on happiness over things you have no control over.

I also believe that intelligent dissenters will always find a way around anything the Feds throw at them. I've never seen any scheme that worked against an informed electorate.

That's just my opinion. With that! I bid you a Good Night!

Quote Aliceinwonderland:"We can learn to identify the spy devices in these products and dismantle them.... or we can learn sign language! - Aliceinwonderland"

That's funny! Sign language! I suppose it wouldn't be very long before people found out how to recognize and disable them. It's kind of like proprietary software compared to open source software.

The idea with open source software is that it is open..(and usually free by the way) .ie: the code is open for viewing and analysis by anyone who can and chooses to. There are millions of people who can, and often do, peek inside and analyze it...finding bugs and/or malware. They are usually quick to publish their findings. And updates are often more frequent than Proprietary software updates.

Proprietary software (software you usually have to pay for) tries to keep prying eyes out and only the creators of the software can fix problems. But savvy hackers can often hack the code and install malware. Proprietary software usually has update cycles..oftentimes they won't even fix things they know are there until they are embarrassed to do so.

How many people have deactivated the RFID chips in their Debit or Credit cards? The only time it is useful is when you pay for something by waving it close to a reader. The card also has a magnetic strip and you have to swipe that through the reader.

It is possible for someone to have an RFID reader on their person while walking past someone with one of these cards and they can actually debit your account...just as if you had paid for your Starbucks Coffee.

The little square RFID chip, on the cards that have them, is barely visibly detectable..a raised square bump about 1/4-3/8" square. Around the edges of the card is an antenna that is not visible or detectable.

Some people disable the RFID chip by cutting it out with an exacto knife or other blade. Try not to penetrate tnhe front side of the card...do it carefully from the back..where it is visible. It is not even necessary to totally remove tnhe chip...just damage it.

The card's magnetic strip will still function for normal usage but it will no longer work by waving it in front of a detector and no one will be able to pick up the signal by walking by. I don't know if it is legal or not to do this...I am not a lawyer. So, if you do this to your cards it is all your responsibility. Do a search on this topic if you are thinking about doing it. ☮

Quote DAnneMarc:"Seriously though Palindromedary, let me calm your fears. I happen to work in the high tech industry on state of the art equipment by a number of well known company's.

Well, gee, that's really impressive...and I have worked my whole life in electronics, with various test instruments, with schematic and logic diagrams, troubleshooting all the way from radar systems, communication systems, to computer systems, and then to robotics, lasers (interferometer and high powered), image recognition systems, and nano photo-lithographic equipment that is one step in manufacturing integrated circuit chips, thin film disc drive heads and nano tech devices..like accelerometers.

I agree that such spying devices in kitchen appliances would add to the cost...but, really, not that much when you compare it to multi-billion dollar spy centers like the one the NSA is building in Utah. It is slated to be ready by Sept 2013. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/ And besides, they always pass the costs on to the customer anyway.

And as for the government not having enough people to spy on everyone at once...is also true...but have you never heard of Echelon where they use dictionary computers that listen on every form of communication in the world... that listens for the key words that analysts deem important to pay attention to. All communications are stored in massive data spy centers and can be accessed by analysts anytime later. They also can listen to flagged words real time and can connect and listen to those conversations real-time.

I'm not really freaked out about all of this...I just think it is prudent that we know what our government is doing that can harm us in the future. Right now, they want us to believe that they are doing all this to protect us. Maybe...maybe not...but once they have this all in place, privacy will be a thing of the past.

Here's a schematic for you..you did know that it is possible to aim a laser beam at a window and the conversation inside the room causes the window to vibrate causing the returning laser beam, now modulated with the audio, and then demodulated so that someone doing this from a distance can actually monitor the conversation. http://servv89pn0aj.sn.sourcedns.com/~gbpprorg/mil/laserl/index.html

What about the Great Seal Bug way back in the 40s and early 50s..finally revealed to the public by Averell Harriman in 1960? The Soviets presented a gift to Ambassador Averell Harriman of a copy of the Great Seal which contained a bug consisting of a capacitive chamber that would vibrate when people spoke. The Soviets beamed a radio wave into the room from outside and the capacitive chamber modulated the returning radio wave.
http://www.spybusters.com/Great_Seal_Bug.html

Most kitchen devices now already have microprocessors. All it would need is a few more chips..perhaps only one if the chip was all inclusive.

And instead of a microphone element, they could even have a tiny laser component beaming a laser beam to the inside of the wall of, say, the refrigerator. Voice in the room would vibrate the wall and the returning modulated beam would then be demodulated, digitized, and broadcast wirelessly just like on an iphone. It would even be assigned it's own ipv6 IP number.

Science and technology to many would be like magic. They would chastise or denigrate their fellow beings who are merely trying to be messengers and prognosticators.
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