jeffrey toobin’s sad and silly piece for the new yorker in which he proceeds to analyze and slander edward snowden with nary a discussion about privacy and what ellsberg calls an “executive coup against the US constitution.” toobin proclaims: “These were legally authorized programs; in the case of Verizon Business’s phone records, Snowden certainly knew this, because he leaked the very court order that approved the continuation of the project. So he wasn’t blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he was exposing something that failed to meet his own standards of propriety. The question, of course, is whether the government can function when all of its employees (and contractors) can take it upon themselves to sabotage the programs they don’t like. That’s what Snowden has done.” it’s fascinating how quickly human beings can become inured to fascist control – perhaps that will enlighten us about pre-glasnost russia or francoist spain or even nazi germany. it doesn’t take much for people to accept orwellian thought control and toe the govt line. when asked by greenwald about his greatest fear, snowden didn’t mention the safety of his own person. he said that his greatest fear was that after all this, nothing will change. more of toobin’s piece here.