On August 1, Edward Snowden left the transit zone in the Moscow airport and officially entered Russia and left for parts unknown. The administration is ticked off that Putin defied their requests for extradition and apparently ignored their assurance that Snowden wouldn’t be tortured (that’s illegal in the U.S., attorney general Holder told Russian authorities) and would be tried in a civil court, without threat of the death penalty.
All of this is rather ironic in light of the fact that Bradley Manning, who admitted leaking classified documents to Wikileaks and Julian Assange, has been sentenced to 100+ years in prison. If I were Snowden, would I board a plane to return to the U.S.?
Are you kidding?
If I were Snowden, I would keep running, moving, doing whatever I could to stay well ahead of the U.S. We’ve become worldwide bullies. For some reason, this country seems to believe it has the right and might to spy on whoever they please, when they please, to gather records on our phone calls, emails, what we do on the internet, the doctors and dentists we consult, what we earn, how much we pay in taxes, how we vote, who we marry and…well, you get the picture.
In short, the United States – through its various spy agencies like the NSA – has become Orwell’s 1984. Like many visionaries, Orwell got the big picture correctly, but was off on timing.
Or was he?
The other day at the gym, I was talking to Wild Bill, a guy Rob and I have known, through gyms, for probably ten years. He and I first realized we were on the same page when, in our former gym, he got into an argument with a Republican about Bush. And I, unable to keep my mouth shut, chimed in. Wild Bill, it turned out, is a musician who is also well-informed about politics. When he realized Rob and I are on his page politically, he started attending Rob’s yoga and meditation classes. Periodically, he and I still talk politics.
“Things are so screwed up, Trish.”
“I blame Bush.” Of course, I blame Bush for everything that gone wrong in this country since the 2000 election. It wasn’t just Bush, though, but his entire team – Cheney, Wolfowitz, Gonzalez, John Yoo, Rice, et al – and not a single one of them has been charged with war crimes or done a day of time. Cheney, in fact, even got a new heart – and it wasn’t the heart of a liberal!
“It goes back to Reagan,” Wild Bill said with a shake of his head. “I started then. We aren’t a democracy. We’re run by corporations and lobbyists.”
Reagan. Sigh. There are two things in Reagan’s favor in my book – he allegedly saw a UFO and his wife, Nancy, was into astrology and tried to use it to protect him. Bottom line, in 2013, we seem to be living in a version of reality that sometimes feels like Blade Runner, one of Harrison Ford’s first movies.
Is there a Rick Deckherd who is going to save us from ourselves? A Hans Solo who will save us from – well, universal threats? An Indiana Jones who will get the bad guys in the end?
Probably not. But whistleblowers like Snowden and Manning and Assange may form some weird archetype triad of the hero – Assange, holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in England; Manning recently sentenced to 100 plus years; and Snowden, hiding out somewhere in the country of Dr. Zwivago. The three of them: what did they do?
They exposed the extent to which the U.S. government spies on its citizens and its allies all in the name of we’re keeping you safe, we’re keeping you secure, we’re allowing you to enjoy your Lattes, to enjoy walking your kids to school, and to appreciate how volunteer citizen watchdogs like George Zimmerman can gun you down if they feels threatened. Not to worry. We have a system of checks and balances in this country, a great judicial system…and yes, the best military on the entire planet. Ha-ha. We are the world cop.
To Assange, Manning, and Snowden I say, Thank you. These three are the public, collective face of an emerging political paradigm, the one that says, If we are to survive as a planet, a human collective, we must be transparent, honest, forthright.
The synchro, I think, is that Snowden sought refuge in a country not known for its adherence to human rights, to freedom of anything. Yet, its main guy, Putin, refused to cave to pressure from the U.S. to extradite Snowden.
“We’re run by corporations and lobbyists” – yes, so is the UK and “In short, the United States – through its various spy agencies like the NSA – has become Orwell’s 1984” – just substitute UK for United States.
You blame Bush, I blame Blair – he ruined the UK in so many ways, though those gone before started the rot. At times, I’m not too sure we can ever recover.
Melissa, I couldn’t agree more! Reptilian. There are times when I look at him and his reptilian features “overlay” the hunam facade of his face. Same with Barbara Bush, much more than either her husband or either of her sons. She is the female Queen Reptilian: as dangerous as a Florida rattlenake. Regarding all this, does anyone else besides me think this current closing down of twenty foreign embassies all over the place due to a “credible and imminent terrorist threat more vicious that 9-11” is a
false flag event being staged to try to cover for the secrets revealed by Snowden….trying to justify the snooping into all our lives?? It’s as if the gov’t is saying, “Lookie, lookie what we found! A planned terrosrist attack that is REAL, and we wouldn’t have found it if we haven’t snooped!” Hooey. BOOOOO!
That was my first thought about the Embassy closings!
I always thought the Bush’s were reptilian even before I read about that. I used to point to the TV and tell my husband “watch Bush, his face changes!”
I used to say the same thing about bush!
Trish,
Rob,
Actually you would have to go back to Nixon, and those that were working with him. Cheney, Atwater, Rumsfeld, the whole group of Bush / skull and bones folks. What we have now is a revenge play for ousting Nixon. 40 house votes to repeal Obama care and not one jobs plan. We are tied to some very extremist tea partiers that can and do vote.
As for Snowden et al, most folks think that he did some thing wrong, that he did not up hold his vows. When an agency commits illegal acts, it no longer has the protection of vows by its employees. It has lost its right to serve notice or punish those who they say broke the vows of integrity. Agencies and the heads of agencies can not demand protection of vows when they themselves think that the only rule of law is the one they make up to keep us ( most american citizens) down.
I can not stress this enough. If you think the NSA is evil, they have nothing on what facebook has on you.
I digress, but i will say this with the strongest terms possible, stop using facebook, stop posting on instagram, watch what you do with google. I have not and will not use facebook, i used instagram before facebook bought it and stopped immediately after. Thieving silicon valley types are no different then the Agencies we are appalled at for privacy invasions.
Sorry for my rant.
Be well,
Laurence
Actually, you’re right, it does go back to Nixon and the thugs who worked for him. I also completely agree with you about the NSA and these other agencies.
I use facebook, but not much, mostly for publicity stuff. Why instagram? I don’t use it, so am not familiar with it.
Politicts! Its just smoke & mirrors,divide & rule,bread & circuses! It keeps us distracted and busy endlessly debating whilst the real stuff is hidden from us.Trillions are spent on black ops,accountable to no one.Bradley Manning is from a town near me here in Wales & I currently support the campaign for him to receive the Nobel peace prize,he is way more deserving of it than Obama ever was.
Manning for a Nobel…that would certainly be a game changer.
TRUE THAT!!!
Obama, regardless whether he is a Trojan Horse (You wanted a black president? You wanted someone with a middle name such as Hussein? Enjoy it, liberals, while you are watching Osama bin Laden (a retired CIA agent) being killed in his bedroom.) or just a spineless scumbag like a typical politician of yours, is about to do and support some really disgusting things. Guess who will win the next elections in America. It won’t even matter at that point. I totally agree with that sentence about survival and sustainability.
Just to provide some reading material for CIA agents or however it works.
Perhaps congress is comprised of trojan horses, all of them.
Three heroes, indeed! Hopefully there will be more of them, and that they will elude capture.
Regarding Cheney’s heart, something to consider: he had his first heart attack in his thirties. By middle-age, he had no cardiac function of his own heart. So, he didn’t receive the traditional “heart transplant” as we recognize organ transplants.
He was given an “artificial, mechanical, external heart” that keeps his body functioning normally. How may patients do any of us know or of whom we have heard, receive such a mechanical heart? This brings to my mind the possibility and probability that Cheney is not truly human, but is rather one of “Them”…..a semi-robotic entity whose “body”, similar to the bodies of R2D2 in Star Wars, can be repaired with mechanical organs. We have pace-makers, and we have defibillators, etc, which are devices that assist our organic hearts to do their jobs. But a fully mechanical heart such as Cheney has and has had for years, which does the work of a normal human heart? This speaks to me of Alien technology. In any case, that was off-subject. I cheer Snowden and hope he’ll be safe!
Cheney never struck me as a human being, other than the fact that he looks human…two legs, two arms etc.
He is a lizard person. I’m sure of it. Or Darth Vader as Jon Stewart likes to allude.
Reptilian!