@tilllindemann said in [Politics Super Thread \- keep it all in here](/post/1400498) said:
The NSA Tucker Carlson story should be a way bigger story than it is.
If he had any sort of corroborating evidence to back it up it might be.
NSA whistleblowers tend to not have happy lives after they leak information.
The sole reason the story is being ignored (or joked about, doubted etc) is because he is a politically divisive figure. And we live in such partisan times that very few people who dislike Carlson politically would care about the story (and vice versa if it was his equivalent on the left).
The story is absolutely credible and not surprising in the least, given what we know about what the NSA gets up to, via courageous people like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, William Binney etc.
Sources?
On NSA leaks? Well, here's a start
https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/01/snowden-nsa-files-surveillance-revelations-decoded#section/2
What's Carlson got to do with it?
He said the following:
"Yesterday we heard from a whistleblower within the US government, who reached out to warn us that the NSA (National Security Agency) has been monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air,"
"The whistleblower, who is in a position to know, repeated back to us information about a story that we are working on, that could have only come directly from my texts and emails. There's no other possible source for that information, period. The NSA captured that information without our knowledge, and did it for political reasons."
And the NSA issued a well-spun, weasel-worded denial along the lines of 'we don't spy on Americans', as if Snowden never happened.
Hmmmm. I'd say it's a fair bet they are both lying.
Id say that Carlson is 100% telling the truth........that someone ***told him*** that they were spying on him. Chances are that person could be full of it.
Tucker Carlson would be one of the few people in the USA less trustworthy than D.Trump, who is a convicted Rapist and Felon.His show is based on opinion and not factual evidence.It is probable he is being monitored just as i hope all the lunatic fringe on both sides of American society are being monitored.
It is a real concern when over 50% of the people who voted for Trump, who is a convicted Rapist and Felon believe that the result was stolen in an election he lost by 7 million votes.Democracy in the USA is under a real threat because it is almost impossible to reason with somebody with a closed mind.
This is exactly the attitude I was referring to where a polarised, tribal political atmosphere allows abuses of power to foster. If something happens to the other team, we don't care, in fact we celebrate it.
It *shouldn't matter* if you think Carlson is untrustworthy and politically repulsive.
In a free society government should not be spying on journalists. End of story.
That applies equally to the recent targeting of journalists in Australia.
I have little issue when people are being monitored for radical thinking but i do disagree with any action being taken by authority against them unless active sedition or violence is going to be involved. It is always hard to see where the line needs to be drawn especially when you think upon the old adage "One mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist".
It is a very difficult world we live but the rise of extreme thoughts/political parties can never be a good thing.As far as the freedom of the press is concerned it is a cornerstone of democracy and unfortunately the control on much of it by one man is terrible for us as a nation.
