Maybe it's because I've held a Top Secret security clearance once...

[JDPriestly]

135. Nothing in that post changes the fact that the government is

spying on some or all of the citizens and in so doing is making a mockery of the concept of government of the people, for the people and by the people. You cannot govern an entity that is spying on the records of your communications. That is just impossible.

And the excerpts that you posted are examples of the kinds of things that people communicate trusting that they will remain either private or only public to a select group they call family and friends.

What a pity that we no longer have privacy.

If people think all this spying is such a great idea, they should just take all the curtains and shades off their windows and let the world watch their most intimate moments. Most of us would not want to do that. But that is what you are basically allowing when you allow someone to look at the records of all the e-mails you receive and send and all the telephone calls you receive and send.

And I am wondering whether the government has a record of every contact you have with your bank or an overseas bank. If so, it would seem to me that this problem with identifying which people are cheating on their taxes by holding money overseas should be easily solved.

By the way, are you suggesting that the company that hired Snowden did not properly vet him, did not properly make sure that he was trustworthy? Doesn't that cause you concern about how careless the company is in performing its contract? And doesn't that cause you to question whether that company and its employees or any company or anyone should have the scope and quantity of information that they have?