The military network that later combined with other networks to “make the Internet” was started out with an interesting purpose: to establish a communication system that could withstand nuclear strikes.
What if the United States were hit by multiple nuclear bombardments? How would survivors communicate? The protocols of the Internet allow for radical decentralization, which allows communications to get around nuked hubs.
Now, around the world, governments are trying to control this decentralized Net, taking down or otherwise preventing citizen access to Web services and sites (China, Britain, Australia, for example), and (most resolutely in China and the United States) preventing communication that cannot be “listened in” upon.
It’s almost as if governments are “nuking the Internet.”
The latest case? Lavabit. This Internet company has specialized in encrypted communications. Last week its owner and operator, Ladar Levison, made a public statement:
I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on — the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise.
In an interview with Democracy Now, Levison hazarded that, “if the American public knew what the government was doing,” the government “wouldn’t be allowed to do it any more.” But so far, he’s speaking very carefully and not elaborating on what the government wanted him to do with his company.
It’s almost as if Congress nuked the Constitution.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
5 replies on “Nuking the Net?”
Nuked the Constitution? No. Something so immediate and dramatic would have brought the American people out of their slumber. This has been a slow, deliberate shift in governance over many administrations and Congressional sessions.
Much like the parable of “how to boil a frog”, the Constitution has slowly been cooked to the point of expiring in its own juices.
“If they only knew…” is old way thinking. The new paradigm is that the government is coming right out and telling the people and the media controls and limits any public outcry by creating the perception that what the government is doing is ok. It matters little what the public knows as long as the public stays divided on principle, a significant faction is bought and dependent with giveaways, and there is no risk that the same-party Senate would ever convict.
…. Its almost as if Congress nuked the Constitution ….
Good joke.
Except it’s not.
As an institution, congress has shown its contempt for the united States’ Constitution for ages and its almost absolute contempt since the time of the effectively Soviet-agent-operated, definitively-fascistic, traitor, Roosevelt.
But there has been a progression and although pikers by comparison with the traitorous Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon, Cartah, the loathsome and fearsome Cli’ton’s and Sayyid Soetoro and the rule-by-fiat activist-wretches on the “courts” have all played their parts in a sustained assault upon our beloved fraternal republic’s only real protection against their subversive ilk.
Once again, I agree with what everyone has said here. Paul, I wish you had a larger voice on the American punditry trail. Most people do not get this stuff which is so obvious to your readers. I like Rob’s analogy of “boiling a frog,” this subversion of our rights has been gradually building. No one objected, including myself, when the Patriot Act was passed because I felt I had nothing to hide. Now, I feel that I have nothing that is private; not my emails, my medical records, phone calls, what I buy, how I drive, etc. & Paul, I don’t know what to do or how to stop this frightening course.
the hastings assassination is why lavanet is keeping quiet. if you have info for the american people that would force the govt to act before they have scheduled to, you will be eliminated. you may die from a car accident, a heart attack, stroke, armed robbery, whatever it takes to maintain the illusion there is nothing to see here folks. people, who have got to trust that deep down instainct or you will be toast when this thing kicks off. consitution died years ago. the only help the people have is each other. washington is not your friend and will soon come out into the open as your oppressor. the one world govt is no theory, simply fact. the feds plan to steamroller over any who are not prepared so my advice to to get prepared. we are talking the worst form of communist takeover. think millions dead and millions more forced behind wire. the police in this country are receiving tanks, drones, automatic weapons, huge amounts of ammo, for no other reason than to put you done facen up in the street, which as many holes as they can possibly riddle throughout your body. in case you don’t know it yet, america is the last nation on the planet where any sort of freedom now exists. we are it. soon we will be crushed. you can go quietly to the camps, they are banking on this by the way, or you can muster everything you have inside you and fight back. do not beleive the naysayers that say we have no chance. with the help of a group of good people and God Almighty there is always a chance. most americans will fight they are only looking to those who will stand to do so and to set the example. you must all decide here and now if what you have is worth laying low so that your children and grandchildren will be forced into slavery.