You Think What

Three days ago Lauryn Hill, award winning singer, rapper, performer, producer, actress, and soon to be inmate number blankety-blank-blank  as the result of charges filed against her by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, (the  IRS), for failing to pay taxes on earnings of nearly two million dollars; Ms Hill, was found guilty as charged and sentenced to three months for the infraction.posted her thoughts here.  She is set to begin serving her sentence on July 8, 2013.

We think the government’s charges against citizens for failing to pay taxes is pure federal irony, especially when we think of all those tax refund checks the IRS sent to “unauthorized alien workers” at the same Atlanta, Georgia address during the 2011 tax season…Over $46 million dollars worth of refunds were sent to addresses in Oxnard, California; Raleigh, North Carolina; Phoenix, Arizona; Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; San Jose, California; Arvin, California.

“The IRS sent 11,284 refunds worth a combined $2,164,976 to unauthorized alien workers at a second Atlanta address; 3,608 worth $2,691,448 to a third; and 2,386 worth $1,232,943 to a fourth.” ~ according to the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)

You’d think with all the snooping, spying invasion of our personal information the government agents would know  six thousand plus tax refund checks going to the same address in a town with a population of 16, 000, would raise a red flag! That’s more than 30 percent of the town living in one house. We’ve read the IRS does not encourage whistle blowers among its ranks. The feds offer myriad examples of absurdity in its contradictory actions  in all three branches of government.

Whenever the government goes after celebrated people for tax evasion we wonder when will the evil banksters get their comeuppance? What about the heads of the companies we love, Google, Apple, FaceBook, Walmart?? We know their means of evading taxes, paying less than their fair share is not always ethical. That is what Ms Hill speaks of when she talks about the “abuses of Imperialist selfishness, misunderstanding, ignorance and greed.”

As a public service to our readers we are re-publishing Ms Hills remarks.

We do this as a tribute to her courage to speak her mind, to share with all of us what she thinks.

Ladies and gentlemen, MLH On Racism:

“The concept of reverse racism is flawed, if not absolutely ridiculous. Most, if not all of the negative responses from people of color toward white people, are reactions to the hatred, violence, cruelty and brutality that they were shown by white people for centuries. Much of the foundation of the modern world was built on the forced free labor of black peoples. The African Slave Trade, the institution of slavery, colonialism, its derivative systems, and the multiple holocausts throughout history, where whites used race as the defining reason to justify their oppression, conquest, and brutal treatment of non-white peoples, are how race became such a factor to begin with. (more…)

“Perhaps the topic of surveillance may just be the thing to unite people and, if we are lucky, even resolve our American race issues.”

Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial. Kafka’s story centers around a man who is arrested and not informed why. He desperately tries to find out what triggered his arrest and what’s planned for him. He discovers  a mysterious court system has a dossier on him and is investigating him; he’s unable to learn much more. The Trial depicts a bureaucracy with inscrutable purposes. It uses people’s information to make important decisions about them,while denying the people the ability to participate in how their information is used.

This is the world we may be living in sometime in the very near future.

A world of information processing—the aggregation, the storage, the use, the analysis of data and of information collection. A world where often no care is taken to be accurate in any of the stages of the process including the collection.

This secret information analysis affects and contaminates the power relationships between people and the institutions of the modern state. It creates a sense of helplessness, powerlessness. It alters the kind of relationships people have with the institutions that make important decisions about their lives.

Typically: THE HIGHEST COURT IN THE LAND HAS THE LOWEST ETHICAL STANDARDS! The courts, not being people, are amoral.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed on Thursday that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of any (or very) phone call could be accessed “simply based on an analyst deciding that.”

Who is this analyst who “decides”?

If the NSA wants “to listen to the phone,” an analyst’s decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required, Nadler said he learned. “I was rather startled,” said Nadler, an attorney and congressman who serves on the House Judiciary committee.

This saga of citizen spying, of decisions being made behind closed doors, actions for which the public has no input, is ongoing.

We have recently been informed the government has made secret interpretations of the laws in existence.

These laws actually began under the administration of President Bush, President Obama’s predecessor and the policies continue being implemented even more tyrannically through the administration of President Barack Obama. (more…)

President Barack Obama, currently leader for the 1%, is *still* telling lies. He lies about what he says he understands about these programs, how they work, whom is involved in the work and at what levels.

President Obama pretends* to reassure us all; as consumers, and he sees us as consumers not citizens, to continue as consumers of digital goods, solely concerned with the convenience of the device, with no care of how they can be misused, there is no reason to worry.

In the following video we see the incumbent POTUS speaking while a U.S. Senator two years before his campaign for the presidency explaining his views on so-called entitlement programs…@ 1:41 he begins to address solutions for the 21st Century.

We are not listening to your phone calls (or if we are don't worry). We are not compiling data about you for use at a later date (we are simply compiling data, which is not about you, yet). Sadly many people believe him. (more…)

We last wrote about John McAfee in March of 2013, because he’d received news coverage due to his status as a “person of interest” to law enforcement organizations such as the  Gang Suppression Unit, (GSU), a special unit of the Belize Police Department organized in April 2010, as a solution to the rising crime rate in Belize which was according to Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow to have reached crisis proportions.

We have the latest video from McAfee. We may be unable to determine if he’s crazy; we can assure you the man has a very good sense of the funny. Be sure to watch the following video, especially if you’re one of the many who wish to uninstall the program…

Recently Bob Schieffer, of CBS News broadcast his opinion of Ed Snowden, the  former NSA subcontractor BoozAllen employee turned whistle blower; saying he’s  no hero because he exposed certain policies and common practices implemented by government officials.

We say why not?

He took note of activities, he saw the law being broken. He did the ethical thing. He may go to jail or be killed for it. As of Friday, June 20, 2013 the U.S. government charged Ed Snowden with espionage. We think Ed Snowden should charge the U.S. government, along with all its subcontractors and clandestine associates, with espionage.

If it were not for the leaked disclosures We, The People, would not know anything.

“The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr Snowden’s rights and protecting him as a person. What is being done to Mr Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange – for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest – is an assault against the people”. ~ Former Spanish Judge Mr Baltasar Garzon, legal director of Wikileaks and lawyer for Julian Assange

Mark Fiore’s animated political cartoon addresses the topic with the character “Snuggly the Security Bear”.

During our staff meeting we discussed reasons why we need privacy. We concluded it’s not that we have anything to hide; that there’s been some devastating evil deed in our past we wish to keep hidden that upon disclosure we will find embarrassing or cause us to be discredited.  (Everyone deserves privacy. Even You!)

Our reason is we do not necessarily wish to share our private lives with the government, or you. We have the right to remain private if we wish to. Aside from the fact we’re living in a society where nothing is private; many people are revealing far Too Much Information (TMI) about themselves, and others. There is always the distinct possibility what is private can be misconstrued. (more…)

In a series of games over a two week period the Miami Heat professional basketball team has won again. This time they vanquished the Texas team from San Antonio by inning four games out of seven to become champions.

LeBron James scores 37 as Miami outlasts San Antonio 95-88 in Game 7  in Miami, Florida. It was a pretty big deal for James and his team mates to win the title…again! (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…)

One of our staffers found this item at Truthout. It’s from Thom Hartmann:

“…Last week, residents of Augusta, Georgia began experiencing strange issues with their garage doors. Almost 500 residents complained to the Overhead Door Company that their garages would no longer open or close by remote. (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…)