the peril referred to extends far beyond the boundaries of the NSA mass
surveillance program to numerous other issues. For example, bankers and financiers such
as Jamie Dimon have engaged in the greatest larcenies in all of human history, and have
not only walked away completely unscathed, but have actually been consulted
respectfully by the executive branch. To this day, they remain tethered in place, well-
positioned to commit acts of like gravity another day. (Congress has failed to restore
Glass-Steagall, and bankers have worked assiduously to weaken the already weak reforms
that were put in place.)
This atmosphere of complete lawlessness (for bankers and financiers), and this double
standard of “justice,” are undoubtedly contributory to our current crises. (The standard
of complete lawlessness for bankers stands in the bleakest possible contrast to the
arbitrary use of lethal force against American citizens by militarized police.) We’ve also
seen not one, but three Supreme Court coups d’etat: the appointment of George Bush to
the Presidency; the Citizen’s United v. FEC, decision, opening the door to nearly unlimited
corporate bribery (euphemistically described as “corporate free speech”); and the more
recent McCutcheon decision. A number of others high court decisions are also of
extremely dubious intent, and of certainly pernicious consequences.
Nevertheless, the NSA program remains the most dangerous of the gauntlets that have
been flung in the face of American democracy to date
