I don't think political reform is likely to succeed. [Senators Tom] Udall and [Ron] Wyden, on the intelligence committee, have been sounding the alarm, but they are a minority.

We've got crazy little sites going up against established media behemoths.

The question for us is not what new story will come out next. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

People in both parties from the congressional intelligence committees - all these co-opted officials who play cheerleader for spy agencies - go on these Sunday shows and they say: "Snowden was a traitor. He works against Americans. He works for the Chinese. Oh, wait, he left Hong Kong - he works for the Russians."

I don't think there's anything, any threat out there today that anyone can point to, that justifies placing an entire population under mass surveillance.

We are no longer citizens, we no longer have leaders. We're subjects, and we have rulers.

When you think about the abolition of slavery for example, for the ruling class with the rich white people owning plantations and states, and things like that, slavery was to their benefit. To oppose it didn't make any sense at all on a rational basis. But on a rights basis, on a principle basis, it made obvious, overwhelming sense.