Ted Rall for April 18, 2022

I have comforted myself about the fact that I’m under constant surveillance by thinking that there’s no WAY they can pay attention to everybody… so I just have to seem to act normal and I’m invisible. (Which, by the way, includes making posts here). So finding out that the surveillance tools are also broken? That’s not scary, that’s GREAT!

I do realize that “attention” can be automated, and that will be happening over the next few years. I used to think that was sort of ok, because humans have learned to be social over centuries of living in one-room houses in small communities where there basically WAS no privacy. But in those days, the people around you were no more powerful than you. NOW, the ones who know everything also own a significant fraction of everything and everybody. THAT’s different…

Fortunately, everyone was tracked by the microchips put into the vaccines by George Soros. Unless it was Bill Gates.

More like “Big Bother.” But isn’t that like some intimidating big brothers? “I’m not touching you! I’m not touching you!”

This system is broken…and you know what you can do with the cameras…

I grew up in NYC and before I was old enough to drive the subways and buses was my only transportation, sort of my life blood and seeing a police officer on the train or station was not uncommon. In the zeal to cut expenses and keep fares artificially low tokens booths and policing were eliminated. The New York subway system had their own police force which specialized in policing only the subways but it was merged into the NYPD and it wasn’t long before you didn’t see a single police officer in the entire system. Couple that with the lack of care for those with mental problems and the rise in the number of the homeless people things like this are bound to happen. No amount of working cameras are going to stop things like this from happening. BTW they caught the person that did this crime.

I am not worried by constant surveillance because people break the cameras as fast as they are mounted.

I knew a guy who worked for NYC maintenance. The paperwork to change a lightbulb in the subway was unreal. Then you also needed two people to actually do it once the paperwork was approved. Something like a camera would need all of NASA to accomplish, I imagine.

Nice one. Whenever a conspiracy theory is based on near-perfect execution from poorly funded and/or mismanaged government or private entities agencies, it’s probably wrong.

Big Brother’s not watching you. Nobody is. You’re BORING!

heeeeee

Get with the times Ted! Everyone is voluntarily carrying a tracking device everywhere they go, at all times. And they keep their records and most of their economic transactions on the same device. Big brother don’t need no stinkin cameras.

Current worst is the demand for retina scans for use by TSA, state drivers licenses and passports. Why do we need them? And since we have them so will every little country’s airport security.

This is why Brazil is more realistic than 1984.

Evil will take advantage of your weak spots, just look at lying traitor Trump.

All will be resolved with AI….and the robots

Ted— if you are watching (hee hee) Im interested in your thoughts on Ukraine. Fly humanitarian flights into the country? Call Putty-poots bluf and control the Ukrain airspace to make it “even”…thoughts?

Interesting that the NYPD budget is bigger than Ukraine’s military budget, and not only did cops NOT stop the crime, but they insist they need more money to stop the next one(s). It’s quite a racket they got going, and such a sympathetic mayor who will probably double what they’re asking for just because Black and Brown people might get harassed for no reason again.

It almost seems like the subway cameras work the same way as cops’ body cameras.

What’s scary is where the money to maintain those things does go. I’m just guessing but “to things that benefit politicians” sounds like a good starting point.

Sounds like Big Brother has the same IT department my old company had.

In spite of the broken or neglected surveillance cameras, the apparent perpetrator of the subway shootings was apprehended within a day. Of course, the plethora of clues he left at the scene were most helpful, as was the tip he called in on himself. He must have had a subconscious, or not so subconscious, wish to be caught. Whatever, the police were still able to do their work efficiently without the aid of the surveillance cameras.

Did some of the same people who complain about Big Brother intrusiveness also those who complained of the MTA’s neglect of the maintenance of the surveillance cameras? Will those same folks complain when the MTA has to raise the fares to cover the cost of that maintenance?

I don’t know the answers to these questions or to the larger question of the balance of safety versus privacy. I’m happy to listen to thoughtful discussion of this issue.

Big Brother is watching you where the government cares enough to spend money on the maintenance.

It’s comforting to know this cartoon and these comments are categorized and stored in a data warehouse somewhere, maybe in our dystopian future an AI will study them and learn how to laugh.

Or we were not supposed to see.