You Think What

On Wednesday 09 October 2013,  the website  WikiLeaks published the first letter from Julian Assange, Australian activist, journalist, to Benedict Cumberbatch, English television and film actor who portrays Assange in  “The Fifth Estate”. It’s a Dreamworks movie about WikiLeaks set to open in the United Kingdom on Friday 11 October, and later in the United States on Friday 18 October, 2013.

As you may have guessed or recall, Assange was not selected as Time Magazine’s person of the year 2010. The honor (?) went to American computer programmer, Internet entrepreneur and FaceBook co- creator Mark Zuckerberg. For a weekly news mag Time was, and likely still is, tardy in covering current cultural and political events!

According to the site, and its attendant news release, the letter was sent to decline the meeting invitation from Benedict Cumberbatch after he made overtures to contact Julian Assange in January 2013, just prior to the commencement of principal photography.

YouThinkWhat presents the full text of the open letter in order to provide our readers, as well as the general public with informed insight as to who Julian Assange is, what WikiLeaks is and why, when viewing the film, the audience need view what they see on screen with willful disbelief.

After all it is from Dreamworks/Disney, and we know how they are purveyors of faerie tales and such. Think “Toy Story” and “Shrek”; not to mention the  fact the actor, in the role of a still living, real person Julian Assange, is known for his part as the fictitious villain in the recent sci-fi film, “Star Trek Into Darkness”. Despite the fact we find the film less interesting than its previous Star Trek franchise productions it is reported as of  September 2013, the film has earned over $228 million in North America and over $466 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of the franchise.

Ladies and gentlemen…Julian Assange, in his own words: (more…)

“The government today announced it is changing its national symbol to a condom because it more accurately reflects the government’s political policies.

A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys future generations, protects a bunch of pricks and provides a sense of security while you’re being screwed, and often breaks down just when you need it most.” ~ Joke found on the Internet, posted September 2007

Although irreverent we think the joke is a funny one. (more…)

Sunday evening’s MTV Video Music Award, (VMAs) program for 2013 provided a place for lots of rump shakin’ and bare butt exposure.  It was Kelly Clarkson, winner in 2002 of  the first season of the American Idol singing competition, who said she saw the performances of a couple of “#pitchystrippers” .

Opening the show was the internationally known entertainer Lady Ga-gah. During her opening number  for the annual awards show she joined the ranks of other female entertainers, Madonna, Toni Braxton who have taken to showin’ their assets during live public performances. (more…)

You may want to bring your breakfast or luncheon to work on this  Thursday. If you choose to go to your regular fast food franchise chain restaurant to purchase your breakfast or lunch you may have to wait longer than usual, or you may receive no service at all.

A national strike by fast-food employees is set to take place on August 29 2013. Since last year when walk-outs in individual fast-food restaurants began the movement has grown from a local protest to a national one.

According to the Census Bureau, the income threshold level for a family of four to be in poverty is $23,000. The  median pay for a fast-food worker is about $18,500, based on a $9 per hour pay. That amount is $4,000 less than the government's established poverty level amount. (more…)

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…)

News of famous backsides: Earlier in the summer, while performing her world tour in Copenhagen, entertainer Beyonce, Mrs. Shawn Carter, was touched on the derriere by an over exuberant male fan.

Toni Braxton, who is the eldest child of the family featured in the cable teevee reality show ” Braxton Family Values”, was recently performing in New Jersey when she began to show her a$$. Watch the video…btw the TMZ folks have the best jokes describing Braxton, and her skimpy costume.

We are very happy and glad to know President Obama is on vacation. Judging from all the pre-vacation blabbing talking he’s been doing, it’s clear he needs some time off to collect himself; he especially needs to compose himself in order to present himself as an orderly post-vacation American president for the big Washington DeeCee commemoration of the 1963 march on the national capital for jobs and freedom!

President Obama has been speaking on so many frivolous topics we pause to wonder when did President Obama become a female teenager, an executive version of gossip-girl? The topics range  from commenting about celebrity relationships including,  his reversal of his initial expressed disinterest in the activities or whereabouts of former NSA analyst Ed Snowden; to  his major discourteous critique of how Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, sits in a chair, a fellow leader.

This last bit, rude words for Putin, this behavior makes President Obama appear petty and childish; childishly passive aggressive, a way of expressing his anger with the representatives of the Russian government for providing a safe haven for a brave young American man; one who the president says he does not consider a patriot, nor does he have any interest in his whereabouts or his activities. (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…)

During her performance of ‘Irreplaceable’ in June at Copenhagen’s Forum venue, Beyonce – clad in a blue bedazzled bodysuit – approached the front of the stage to share the microphone with her fans so they could sing along to her hit song. (We really do not like when music artists share the microphone with the audience unless the artist is Jeffrey Osborne, ‘member him– he’s still kickin’ it, and we’re singing “The Woo-Woo-Woo Song”.)

However, one audacious male audience member became rambunctious when he reached out to pat the superstar’s ‘Bootylicious’ backside.

The fierce feminist, Mrs Carter, clearly wasn’t about to allow any other than her husband Jay-Z touch ”this jelly”, wheeling around to scold the lecherous concert-goer.

The moment, caught on camera and subsequently posted on YouTube, sees her announce, ”I will have you escorted out right now, alright?”, before swiftly resuming her performance.

When we heard the reports of an overzealous fan touching Beyonce’s posterior during a recent performance of her Mrs. Carter World Tour, we admittedly began to imagine what this anonymous man would say if we were fortunate to nab an exclusive interview with the chap.

We imagine it would go something like this: (more…)

Among the fourteen hundred or so families in the western Pennsylvania town of McMurray  a community in Peters Township, Washington County, there is now one family prohibited by gag order, a court ordered agreement,  from speaking about fracking.

Free speech advocates, as well as, environmental campaigners are outraged by the ruling from the court.

We’re outraged, too.

The activists say the secrecy has helped the industry resist more stringent environmental and health controls – by concealing evidence of water contamination and health problems associated with natural gas operations. In other words more obfuscation of corporate malfeasance.

Peter Villari, lawyer for the Hallowichs,  told the court during the hearing he had never seen a gag order imposed on children in his 30 years of practicing law. He stated his own research has turned up no case law to support placing gag orders on children.

Lead defendant, Range Resources, was one of the initial developers of the Marcellus Shale, an area widely believed to be one of the largest natural gas reserves in the United States. (more…)