You Think What

Judging by the U.S. government’s actions with regard to Glenn Greenwald publishing documents revealing the depth and breadth of the  National Security Agency, (NSA,) surveillance programs, both foreign and domestic, we’d say President Obama’s initial statements of disinterest in the activities of the principles in the scandal wasn’t entirely truthful.

“A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know.”  ~ Judge Murray Gurfein, Pentagon Papers case, June 17, 1971

The U.S. leader and all the alphabet agencies, including those not directly involved in the intelligence (??) camflamma, are on the look out for new ways to try to intimidate journalist and constitutional law expert Glenn Greenwald, as well as David Miranda, Greenwald’s partner; documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, former NSA contractor turned whistle blower Ed Snowden,  encrypted email service companies or nearly anyone who has had even cursory contact with the disclosures causing public disgrace for the Obama administration.

We imagined during our staff meeting, what the government’s representatives would say if they were to have a candid conversation with Glenn Greenwald, the American political commentator, lawyer, columnist, blogger, and author caught up in the drama.

We think the government would ask the question:  “Why can’t you be more like Harvey Levin?” – the owner and creator of TMZ. We imagine hearing someone like the Repuglican Representative Peter T. King of New York, the former chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, still a member of the body,  asking plaintively, “Why can’t you be more like Harvey? He’s the kinda gay Jew we like.” (more…)

When  our staff at YouThink What heard about the bravery exhibited by Ed Snowden, the former National Security Agency, (NSA), intelligence analyst cum whistleblower who is currently reported as living under temporary political asylum  somewhere in Russia,  we concluded his valiant actions could only bring “heat” on anyone who had a relationship, either business, social or romantic with him; we believed from the start such persons or businesses should  expect to be the subject of investigation,  extremely close scrutiny by one or several of those government alphabet agencies.

From published reports we know the NSA has “reached out and touched” Snowden’s parents, his girlfriend and now the company reported to have been assisting Snowden in getting his encrypted email messages to Glenn Greenwald, the American constitutional legal expert who is also a journalist who writes for the British news online site The Guardian; family,  friends, and loved ones from secret locations around the world has abruptly shutdown.

Lavabit is was an an email service that claims claimed to provide better privacy and security than favored free, web-based email services like Yahoo, or Gmail and others.

The owner-operator of the service, Ladar Levison has chosen to suspend service (more…)

“Phone customers’ names, addresses and other personal information are not being collected as part of this program. The agency, however, has the means to assemble that sort of information, if it so chooses. ” ~ Questions and answers about the NSA phone record collection program, as published May 11, 2006, USA TODAY

President Obama is not telling the truth about the domestic spying programs run by the National Security Agency (NSA) in conjunction with the short arm of the federal government, the telephone companies and the Internet service providers (ISP). The category of ISP includes cable companies and telephone companies.

We are uncertain why he is telling what we believe to be  the “least untruthful” story;  the term is one we like. it was coined by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper when, in his response to congress, he told Senator Ron Wyden in March 2013, the NSA does not wittingly “collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.” As we now know, the NSA does precisely that — metadata, (we are told by politicians and others, not content), from pretty much every phone call made in America is collected and stored.

Maybe he doesn’t understand how it is possible in this digital age to store copious amounts of data on each and every living breathing person in the United States. It is possible. As the saying goes “We Have the Technology!” Every year the digital storage capacity grows larger and larger. Today, right now, the government has the capability of storing all phone transactions, complete with conversation/content. Likewise videos of Your activities can be archived as well. Why do you think Google gives so much space in its email accounts? (more…)

We at YouThinkWhat say to  President Barack Obama, “No Sale!” on the idea Big Brother surveillance powers are necessary to keep us safe from terror…both foreign and domestic. (more…)

“Sanford’s got the Smell. The Smell of the South.” ~ a 1946 description of the town Sanford, Florida in a published account of the maltreatment given to Jackie Robinson, the very first black athlete to play Major League Baseball in the United States.

As the momentum builds for the trial of the wannabe copper who confessed to murdering the unarmed black male teenager, Trayvon Martin, all over the Internet numerous bloggers are predicting violent riots instigated by disgruntled blacks will occur should the white killer be found not guilty.

As if this is what they want to happen, as if those uppity black Niggers are going to finally revolt and things are going to get out of control for us decent indecent white folks.

This one blogger, early on in April 2012, published his opinion in the Yahoo contributor network giving massive exposure to an idea and opinion likely widely held today by some racist whites. As if racist whites, unhappy with the outcome should the confessed murderer be found guilty as charged and sentenced to a long time behind bars, are incapable of rioting to express their displeasure.

Using the words of media attention whore and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, to bolster his argument, the writer sides with the defendant in the case. Some people will go to any lengths to defend the indefensible.

White people as you read this article ask yourself how you’d feel if you were the parent in the situation? Ask yourself how you’d react to being callously treated by the bureaucracy in place in this nether world of Sanford, Florida. Florida, sometimes called Flawda is the land that time forgot. Steeped in antebellum tradition, it is a place in which modern day, educated blacks of African descent find extremely challenging to live.

How can you side with a shooter who kills an unarmed man?

How can you side with a shooter who stalked his victim? (more…)

“Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security” ~ Benjamin Franklin

We recently listed those things about which U.S. citizens are fearful, among them the security process travelers must endure before boarding flights in the United States.

^^"How early do we have to be there for the frisking?"

The following is a recent video of student activist Ashley Jessica, and her mother, recorded as they prepare to board a flight from San Diego to Toronto, to show what more often than not does happen when one of the two non-options is selected in order to travel via air in the United States. (more…)

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ~ Lao Tzu

Congratulations are in order to journeyman National Basketball Association, (NBA), player Jason Collins. After months of hints from sports reporters, social commentators and others, along with sly suggestions from professional athletes in other sports of the possibility there may be an active professional athlete in the National Football League, (NFL),  Major League Baseball, (MLB), or the NBA who may one day in the near future courageously disclose his sexual preference for other men.

Jason Collins, who is nearly seven feet tall, plays center and made public his choice of lifestyle in the current issue, May 6, 2013, of Sports Illustrated Magazine. He’s the cover story. It’s a very interesting read of how he wishes to be “to be genuine and authentic and truthful.”

“Though I’m coming out to the world, I intend to guard my privacy. I’m making this blanket statement in part to keep rumors and misunderstandings at bay. I hope fans will respect me for raising my hand. And I hope teammates will remember that I’ve never been an in-your-face kind of guy. All you need to know is that I’m single. I see no need to delve into specifics.” ~ Jason Collins, NBA professional player on announcing he’s homosexual.

Personal choices, public discussions…of who and what a person prefers for the most intimate of relationships/acts is somehow to us out of order. We believe what is private should remain private. (more…)

“I saw the Village as a place to escape to in order to express yourself.”  ~ Richie Havens in his 2008 biography.

Richie Havens, the very first musician to perform during the 1969 Woodstock music festival held on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in the town of Bethel, New York, near White Lake, New York, has died of a sudden heart attack at his home. The beloved American folk singer, songwriter, guitarist, and activist passed away on Earth Day.

“Say not in grief, ‘he is no more’, but live in thankfulness that he was.” ~ Unknown

The event, also known as the Woodstock Music Festival; An Aquarian Exposition: Three Days of Peace and Music, was a turning point in his career.

One of the four festival producers, Michael Lang said in his book  “The Road to Woodstock”, he’d selected Havens to open what would become a historic event, “because of his calm but powerful demeanor.”

Havens sang for several hours due to travel delays affecting the arrival of the next act. He sang for nearly three hours. Basically, Richie Havens had to kill time as the opening act during this seminal event.

“So I’d go back and sing three more. This happened six times. So I sung every song I knew.” ~ Richie Havens in a 2006 interview with NPR.

The most amazing point of his performance was his ability to improvise a song based on the Negro spiritual, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,”; as a consequence the improvisation, known as “Freedom” became an anthem for the times. It is one song for which Havens became famous.

Richie Havens was well known for his versions of tunes made popular by such varied group and artists such as The Beatles, “Here Comes the Sun”; the Bee Gees, “I Started A Joke”; 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love”.  He covered tunes like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”;  James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain”;  “Tightrope,” written by Leon Russell;  Van Morrison’s  composition”Tupelo Honey”, as well as  Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” and another Dylan creation “Just Like A Woman “.

“I really sing songs that move me. I’m not in show business; I’m in the communications business. That’s what it’s about for me.” ~ Richie Havens, singer, songwriter, activist, humanitarian in an interview with The Denver Post (more…)

Opening day of the 2013 season of Major League Baseball, (MLB), as the entry of the first Negro player, (read that African American or black), Jackie Robinson, into the sport is celebrated, we find there are fewer black minorities, to be precise American blacks of African heritage, than ever before.

Corporations in the Untied States when asked to tabulate minority numbers, especially when it comes to black  people of African descent, tend to wash over and count everyone, even Latin Americans of dark complexion as blacks. That’s why there are disputed figures on the number/percentage of black African Americans, not of Hispanic heritage, when it comes to who plays professional baseball.

Most inner city black kids today seek scholarships and professional contracts from what they consider to be more exciting sports, like football and basketball. There aren’t many black youths playing baseball in the public schools or on the streets, nor are there nearly as many scholarships for college being awarded to blacks for baseball as there are big dollars for football and basketball at the major colleges and universities. (more…)

We have received news of at least one judge in Florida who is handling the adjudication of cases involving banks and home owners with the use of common sense  as well as the law.

In the matter of Dimitri Jansen, a local schoolteacher whose former home in North Port is in foreclosure a circuit court judge found one of the largest banks in the country in contempt of court on Friday over a foreclosure case that has dragged through the system for several years.

Attorneys who represent the Sarasota educator say the contempt order against Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank, is “unprecedented.”

Jansen says his mother’s name was mistakenly added to the mortgage he obtained in 2006, that the bank has ignored requests to remove her name from the foreclosure documents and thus wrecked her credit history, and that the bank held up a pending short sale.

Another Sarasota judge, apparently frustrated with U.S. Bank, had ordered the bank’s president to be present in court on Friday. The bank instead sent a senior representative. (more…)