Earlier today I spoke with a neighbor of mine. Just chit-chatting, nothing important. Then I recalled something I saw on my way to work one day: Apparently next to a new factory that was built in my town there’s a sign w/ some propaganda from the Department of Commerce, complete w/ Bush’s name on it. I made a throwaway joke about it — “wtf, he think he’s Trump now or somethin’? We gonna see Bush Towers?”, then segued into roughly the following exchange:

Me: “speaking of Bush, you heard any of that stuff about him wire-tappin people without a warrant?”
Him: “…I, uh…huh? Naw I hadn’t”
Me: “shortly after 9/11 he signed an order creatin this surveillance program, where they tap domestic communications that go out of the country. They don’t bother to get warrants for it”
Him: “Well, damn…”
Me: “Based on how him & his folks been defendin’ the program, it sounds like the reason they didn’t get warrants is that rather than spy how the average Joe might think of it — you suspect someone of something & tap THAT person — they’re doing a broad, largely random sweep for info, sayin ‘eh, we’ll sort through this later’.
Him: “that don’t sound right”
Me: “not only is it illegal, it’s unconstitutional to wire-tap citizens without a warrant. They just ignored it”

Just as we were finishing up, someone nearby who was listening in, who far as I could tell was probably a “conservative” (this one was a middle-aged white guy, & I live in a very-red area of a red-state: odds are that guy voted for Bush) said “I didn’t know that either, that’s a shock” in a tone of voice like he felt betrayed.

There are people out there that could turn the tide….if they only knew what was in the water.

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