WOW !!! - This Political Cartoon From 20 Years Ago Was Disturbingly Prescient - Tom Tomorrow

[WillyT]

This Political Cartoon From 20 Years Ago Was Disturbingly Prescient
By Will Oremus - Slate
12/27/13



<snip>

Dan Perkins, aka Tom Tomorrow, penned the cartoon above in 1994 for Spin magazine.

At the time, the cartoon might have seemed a little hysterical. Remember, this was pre-warrantless-wiretapping, pre-Guantánamo, pre-Snowden, and pre-Obama-assassinating-American-citizens-with-drones, sans trial. Rather, the context for the cartoon was a new NSA gadget called the “Clipper chip” that would have made it easier for government officials to listen in on phone conversations, provided they had the legal authority to do so. (The technology was never widely adopted, and the NSA soon abandoned it.)

Now? Not so hysterical. But hey, at least the third panel isn't strictly accurate, yet.

The funny thing is that you could never print this cartoon today—not because it’s too subversive, but because it’s too obvious. It no longer reads as satire.

<snip>

Link: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/12/26/tom_tomorrow_spin_cartoon_from_1994_predicted_patriot_act_nsa_surveillance.html

[BlueStreak]

1. The sad thing is that it was all very predictable.

This stuff has been going on for 100 years. Some of the jargon (e.g. FISA Court) has changed, but it is basically the same stuff J. Edgar Hoover was doing 70 years earlier.

[Nevernose]

2. My mother taught 1984 from the 60s to the 90s

And I teach it now. The difference is, she was always teaching the kids about possibilities, and I teach about realities. One of the assignments I use is "go find me three articles less than 12 months old reflecting themes or events of the novel."

And then they google their answers, and if they ask too many uncomfortable questions, the NSA opens a file on them.

[BlueStreak]

3. Well, they can't manage a file on everybody

The enemies-of-the-state list only really works when there are 100 -- or maybe 1000 on it. When there are 20 million "subversives" they can't keep up with it no matter how powerful their computers are.

What they will do is to try to pick off individuals and make examples of them. This is exactly what they are trying to do with Snowden, but it is backfiring on them.

[Nevernose]

5. You'd be truly frightened if you knew what they knew

When I worked in court records, part of my job was entering criminal charges into the record and occasionally running various background checks on people involved on the case (it was family court, so there were often questions about parents of criminals and parents of child abuse victims).

Before being given access to the FBI database, the Feds came out, fingerprinted me, and let me run myself through their database.

Now, granted, some people came up with nothing. Me, on the other hand? They knew everything. Everywhere I'd ever lived, bank and credit card information, even hotels I'd stayed at.

Privacy is a total illusion. You're right though, that with 7 billion people to monitor, it's highly unlikely that our lack of privacy actually means anything.

[hfojvt]

4. apparently this was before he stole the penguin idea

from Berke Breathed.

Dang, 1993, I had hardly even heard of the internet.

[SCVDem]

6. It's time to modify the National Anthem

"O'er the land of the FREE(?) Seriously? We have the highest incarceration rate in the world. Also see NSA!

And the home of the brave. Again, have you seen our Defense (Offense) budget? And, BOO! it's terrorists gonna git ya!

Be afraid!

[AzDar]

7. K & R

[Auggie]

8. Makes me miss the "good old days" of the early '90s

[Demo_Chris]

9. Why do you want the terrorists to win?!?!

From the dawn of the internet the government has been trying to get their talons into it. First it was the drug war and criminals, then scary child predators, now it's terrorists. But always, they have claimed that they need to spy on non-criminals, they need an online police apparatus to catch the sinister bad guys.

[L0oniX]

10. Banksters have already won.

[DallasNE]

11. Last Night My Daughter Saw This In Action First Hand

Last edited Fri Dec 27, 2013, 10:55 PM - Edit history (1)

Early last night my daughter and her roommates were startled when someone started kicking on their door. When it didn't open they decided to turn the knob on the unlocked door and the people declared "police" and ordered everybody to raise their hands then ordered the male that was there to exit the unit backwards and they immediately cuffed him -- so tight the marks were still visible on his wrists 3 hours later. It seems there was a robbery several blocks away and this was some kind of police dragnet. After several minutes the person robbed said "absolutely not" concerning the cuffed male but that did not stop the police. They wanted to know if any children lived there but the 16 month old (not my granddaughter) was at her grandma's so they now were concerned with hazardous materials (Drano, bleach, stuff like that). Since they were unsecured under the sink the police then threatened to bring in child protective services to remove the child. They also went through every room in the unit looking for drugs and weapons (none were there) and ranted about the place not being tidy enough for their tastes, clearly threatening further action. No search warrant, guns were drawn though not pointed at anybody. The police indicated that they would be back to file a report. Oh, my daughter's roommates are black and that is likely why their unit was targeted and of course the police officers were all white. My daughter is bi-polar and suffers from anxiety problems and was so distraught that she had breathing problems for awhile. No attention was paid to that, not when the Drano wasn't locked up, but a roommate was allowed to try and console her and she is fine now.

As for the original robbery, the suspect they had a lead on was thought to be holed up in a 3rd floor unit on 172nd Street and my daughter lives in a 1st floor unit on 127th Street. I guess this is close enough for police work. And instead of an apology there are threats of unrelated charges and placing a child in protective services. All stemming from a botched police raid where the response is to double down. Update: The police did not return and since they only took the name of the person they cuffed and did not inquire as to the owner of the unit so there may not even be a police report on this raid that broke about every rule in the book.

So when I see Tom Tomorrow's cartoon I am not laughing because it is far too real to be a laughing matter. All the more so when one of the parties is black.

[Quantess]

13. Awful...

That sounds extremely stressful.

[WillyT]

12. Evening Kick... In Case You Missed This..

Last edited Fri Dec 27, 2013, 09:21 PM - Edit history (3)

[WillyT]

14. Test !!!

1, 2, 3... TEST ???