« Mid-Morning Art Thread | Main

The Morning Rant: The United States Senate: Theater Of The Absurd

The klown kar that is the United States Senate regularly belches forth a gaggle of meticulously coiffed morons in $2,000 suits who spout carefully crafted non sequiturs and focus-group-tested punch lines about the topic de jour. Then, without another word they pile back into the kar to be driven to a corporate cocktail party to drink $300 bourbon and try to f*ck the hottest lobbyist.

The Senate has always believed its own press, but the current group of sub-wits we have might be the least impressive in history. At least as far as intellectual heft and the ability to craft and pass good legislation. At fund raising and graft they are without peer!

Senate Leadership In Both Parties Dragging Feet On Using Force Of Law To Rein In Flock

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley opened an investigation into Flock cameras and held a hearing on the mass surveillance technologies. None of the technology CEOs, including Langley, appeared for the hearing.

Hawley did not respond to the DCNF's question about whether he was frustrated with leadership's lack of response to Flock cameras.

He did not respond because he has no interest in doing anything substantive, because he is a hack, whose motivation is pecuniary, not legislative. His popular reputation as a fierce questioner at hearings is true, but that ferocity does not extend to anything else! He is the Republican equivalent of Chuck Schumer, but without the clout!

I wonder whether his reticence about Flock is connected to their large lobbying budget?

Flock tracks your license plate. We tracked the $2M it spent on lobbying.

The company spent nearly $1.3 million between January 2025 and July 2026 on federal lobbying and at least another $1 million in statehouses across the U.S., according to OpenSecrets’ federal lobbying data and an analysis of lobbying disclosures across all 50 states. Flock has hired lobbyists in dozens of states – often former government employees passing through the political “revolving door” – including in places where weak disclosure laws mean spending totals are not publicly reported.

This is why Flock seems to be a juggernaut, barrelling down the road, destroying what is left of our civil liberties. Their lobbying efforts are bearing fruit...even with Republicans who pay lip service to the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.

I wonder if Senator Hawley recalls the text of the 4th Amendment? You know...something about protection against searches?

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

It's adorably anachronistic in this world of total surveillance, but it is an anachronism that needs to return to the forefront of our lives. Our politicians are of course venal and grifting in the extreme, but the plain text of our governing document needs to be thrust in their faces...they need to be reminded of it when they scurry back into their offices and cash those lobbyist checks.

So forgive me if I am wholeheartedly in support of anyone who feels like taking the law into their own hands and cutting down those Flock cameras, and short-circuiting the burgeoning police/surveillance state that is being created around us!

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. And if you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow me it would be much appreciated!