John Oliver went to Russia to talk with Edward Snowden, and explained the issue of domestic surveillance by bringing it down to a level Americans could understand by making it about who is seeing our dick pix.
Snowden explained that the fact that those working in “intelligence” regularly pass around America’s dick pix “is not actually seen as a big deal.” So much for that American exceptionalism!
I played some clips from last night’s episode of Last Week Tonight before bringing on the actual expert on these things, Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel.net. (By these things, I mean the Patriot Act and other governmental rules and regulations that aren’t necessarily in our best interests, not dicks — about which Marcy may or may not be an expert.)
Marcy Wheeler explained on the show and, in greater detail on her blog about “Section 215’s Multiple Programs and Where They Might Hide after June 1” and that, “Yes, Section 215 Might Be Used to Get Dick Pics — or Porn Searches and Dick Uploads.”
With all this talk about dick pix, I couldn’t resist sharing my favorites. The one above (that is Dick Van Dyke, in case you couldn’t tell). Then there’s this one. We all knew Dick Cheney was a dick, but I must say, I didn’t realize he was literally a dick head!
And some leftover dick pizza from last week too….
On to more serious matters… Tomorrow is the runoff in Chicago’s mayoral race in which the corporate shill, Rahm Emmanuel, will hopefully be defeated by the progressive populist Chuy Garcia!
My friend Joel Silberman is a consultant, strategist and media trainer, and just returned from six days in Chicago, working with Chuy Garcia, and he told us this morning on the show that Chuy is the real deal.
If you’re in Chicago, please make this count!! More tomorrow, as David Sirota joins in to tell us about some of the reasons Rahm Emmanuel shouldn’t be mayor of Chicago, and whatever else the day brings us, radio or not…
I thought John Oliver asked some tough questions, which is why I’m glad, like Jon Stewart, he has a tough serious side as an interviewer, and occasionally shows it, when he drops out of “doing comedy”. The dick pix stuff was funny. The tough question about the info Snowden released was more tricky. And yes, I don’t get why some folk (like at DU) seemed to be denying he asked Snowden some tough questions — that is the job of a good interviewer, at least one who has … gravitas.
I watched Citizen Four. Snowden behaved very strangely. I thought he showed symptoms of clinical paranoia.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/06/have-we-all-been-fooled-by-edward-snowden/
He was gung-ho for it (wireless wiretapping) when Bush was president. Which brings up an interesting point: his opinion of such programs abruptly changed when Barack Obama took office.
[snip]
Snowden revealed that he was a Ron Paul supporter and championed a return to the gold standard along with short selling stocks. Social issues also reveal a Libertarian bent when it came to personal freedoms. He also bought into Obama conspiracy theories such as the one that said Obama was going to devalue U.S. currency, leading to higher unemployment, something he saw as a “correction” and “a necessary part of capitalism.”
[snip]
Very interesting. Snowden is a gun nut as well as an Obama hater. He also has been an outspoken advocate of the very thing he has become famous for revealing, cheering the security state network and insisting that it needed funding, even in the face of draconian budget cuts. He was particularly upset by Obama’s choice for the head of the CIA…
[snip][end]
Everything mentioned here is documented via posts Snowden made.
I have a Dick Van Dyke pic too, but have no idea how to embed it here. Phooey.