A Supreme Court justice on Tuesday expressed major concerns that the government would engage in round-the-clock surveillance reminiscent of the totalitarian world of the George Orwell novel 1984 if the court ruled in the government's favor. The court heard oral arguments in the Jones case, in which the outcome will determine whether warrantless GPS tracking by law enforcement is an invasion of Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure. Justice Stephen Breyer questioned what a democratic society would look like if people believed the government was tracking them for days at a time. "If you win this case, then there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from monitoring 24 hours a day the public movement of every citizen of the United States," Breyer said. "So if you win, you suddenly produce what sounds like 1984 from their brief." – UK Telegraph

Dominant Social Theme: This great and free country might be lessened if this sort of electronic surveillance takes place.

Free-Market Analysis: You see? We've warned about this. They're all on crack and sometimes one or another of them lets go with a windy whistle of a statement that reveals how mindless they actually are. In this case, it's Justice Stephen Breyer opining that the US is in danger of severe authoritarianism if the government is allowed to engage in warrantless GPS tracking. Drug abuse is horrible thing.

OK, maybe we're kidding. Not all of them are on crack, or even crank, but we have our suspicions about Breyer. He's worried about totalitarianism coming to America? Where's he been the last 50 years? Oh, that's right, probably sitting on a "bench" somewhere. He hasn't noticed that the US has turned into USSR-Lite on his watch …

This is the problem with lawyering in general. It's an industry like any other, only it's an industry that ruins people's lives and inflicts grave injustices on them and their families every day. It's aided and abetted by the US law-enforcement industry and the penal industry.

Put it all together and you've got what we call the penitentiary-industrial complex. It's a huge business dealing in false accusations, occasional capital punishment and, increasingly, in slave labor. The billions and billions of dollars involved are blood-drenched. The goal:increased US centralization for purposes of slotting into the larger (pending) mural of world government.

Naturally, those who work in the business have their justifications. They are supporting "law and order." They are the "thin blue line" that society musters against the forces of anarchism. They are the reasonable men in black robes figuring out how to reasonably apply the increasingly insane, arbitrary and dangerous rulings that come down from the fedgov and Congress.

Breyer doesn't seem to realize that on his watch a kind of totalitarianism has already befallen the US. Or maybe (more likely) he does deep down, but he has the sense not to say it. It's part of a larger elite dominant social theme, of course. We're STILL free but we have to "watch out" or we'll lose those precious freedoms we've all got, not just in America but around the world. This is supposed to make people feel better.

But increasingly it doesn't. It's getting so bad that people are overcoming their fear and speaking up. Representatives of the US tourism industry, for instance, recently pointed out that US tourism was down about US$600 billion in the past decade. People have simply ceased to come to the US. They don't want to be intimidated, groped, questioned and perhaps incarcerated for further questioning. Bad way to start your day much less your vacation.

But that's TOURISTS. The citizens of the good ol' US don't have the option. Increasingly, when they travel somewhere – whether by plane or car – they're likely (at some point) going to end up in the hands of the authorities, being questioned. It's not quite the same routine as, "Where're your papers?" but it might as well be.

Even debtors prison is back. Don't pay your taxes, your alimony or even in some cases back bills and you can end up in prison. The justifications may be different but the result is the same. End up in jail. And keep your mouth shut while you're inside or you'll end up tasered or worse.

And as for snooping – well, the US is employing so many spooks in DC that the Washington Post ran an article not long ago claiming that the bureaucracy had no idea how many overlapping domestic and foreign spy agencies and spies it actually had. Phone tapping is rampant. Computers are spied upon routinely. Warrants are honored only in the breach.

People's ability to assemble is increasingly restricted. And now there's the Homeland Securities campaign, "See something, say something." This is where all authoritarian societies eventually arrive. Each individual spies on the other. No one knows whom to trust. Anybody and everybody can be a government operative.

It's part of a larger Orwellian evolution, of course, one that has to do with the phony war on terror itself. Al Qaeda was likely a creation of the CIA; meanwhile, there are considerable doubts that Osama bin Laden was killed in early May 2011. He is said to have died years ago.

And what about 9/11 itself? The Committee that looked into it has, in part, dissociated itself from its conclusions, claiming it was lied to serially by the CIA, FBI, Pentagon and the Bush administration. And speaking of the Bush administration, there's still no single good reason why the US invaded Iraq. All the justifications turned out to be lies.

These days there are more and more reports in the alternative 'Net media (the parts that haven't been penetrated) that the various Draconian events that are turning the US into a Gulag-Lite were in the planning stages BEFORE 9/11. And of course, then there's the not-ever-referred-to issue of why armed men were patrolling the halls of Congress during the initial vote for the Patriot Act. Seems a bit intimidating, no?

And so, Justice Breyer, we ask this question: What would you call a society where people have to present their "papers" when they move about from place to place, or where they will surely end up in jail if they don't pay their taxes, their bills or their alimony?

Where an unholy and unaccountable blizzard of federal regs make it increasingly impossible for one to start or own a business. Where a triple-layer of local, state and federal supervision makes it almost impossible for one to undertake ANY significant activity without a license.

Where people who say the wrong thing or mention the wrong word are likely to be fired from their jobs, or worse. Where justice is increasingly arbitrary. Where the police seem to be making it up as they go along. Where wealth buys "justice" and poverty spells incarceration.

Where the fear-based promotions of self-appointed elites are rampant, and if one doesn't subscribe to them one is apt to find himself or herself without a job, colleagues or even friends. Where the public schools are filled with the same lies and the children are made to recite them by rote before they can move ahead.

Where gold and silver are increasingly difficult to circulate and one is basically compelled to use money that has depreciated by 99 percent in the past century.

Where so much economic power has been centralized via laws and regulations that a handful of businesspeople and politicians can basically rule an entire country.

Where countless illegal wars are now being fought overseas that have claimed the lives of literally millions with more apparently being planned.

Where more and more young men and women join the armed forces because they have no employment opportunities and being in a shooting war seems a better option than a slow death of hope, going hungry on the street.

Where the president himself has been elected despite evidence that he is not the person he claims to be. (He won't open any of his records, so it is impossible to say, for sure.)

After Thoughts

What would you call this place, Justice Breyer? You are worried about a totalitarian state now? Now? NOW?