Good News

There really isn't any good news this week. The Supremes in their infinite wisdom trashed the Voting Rights Act. If i was President Obama i would send a bill to Congress today with the replacement plan the court said Congress needs to vote upon to protect blacks and other minorities in places where discrimination still exists. When that bill hits Congress and the Republicans vote against it the entire nation will know why those justices yesterday trashed the Voting Rights Act.

Oh maybe there is some good news...President Obama yesterday said he is ordering the EPA to set standards for emissions from power producing plants and to expand renewable energy projects on public land. Maybe the VI could tap into the later by immediately presenting ideas for renewable energy projects here. We could become a test model showing the nation how an island municipality can become energy independent through the use of renewable resources.

Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has introduced legislation that would force consideration of the FISA act two years earlier to 2015. It would also restrict NSA's collection of data from phones... again starting in 2015. I'm not thrilled about this but at least its a first step.

If you haven't already re-read the fourth amendment it pretty plainly lays out its intent.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

But..... and this is a big but....... court cases since the amendment was enacted have changed the scope and meaning of the above. Courts have been chipping away at protections guaranteed by the fourth so that today we find ourselves the enemy instead of civilians of a democratic society.

Today everything you put on line goes into a big data dump and is suspect. According to some interpretations once you hit send, post or talk on a cell phone you have lost your right to privacy. You don't own your content any more, you don't control it and the government and corporations working together and separately can do what ever the hell they want with it.

Maybe that's where we should start...making new laws about what we own and what we don't.

The good news is your government will protect you against terrorists. i'm sure all those at the Boston Marathon that died or were maimed are really grateful that our surveillance network is scooping up data on all of us instead of focusing on the job at hand.

Gore Vidal used to say, quite often, that the United States has two governments. There is the public, "show" government, designed to convince the gullible that this is a democracy; and there is the real government, the one that exists in the shadows, cloaked in secrecy, doing the work of the monied class, and the people be damned. i wonder what he would say today.

People forget that this nation was founded by traitors. King George passed the laws they rebelled against. Today we have become cowed by the propaganda machine that pumps out articles saying you are naive if you didn't already know you were being watched. Accept it sucker its been going on so long you can't protest any more. It's approved, its legal.

Don't ever doubt the power of an individual who lives by a set of moral values that impels him or her to fight for everyone to create change, even when the odds of success are against them. Remember, just because something is legal it doesn't make it right.

See Ya Next Week.

Tidbit day

Today is a tidbit day...mostly my takes on things happening around the world and photos of course!

St. Croix...it's raining cats and dogs here. This morning after the swim a friend said it felt like a soup day but another friend said eat oatmeal for breakfast because it will be 85 degrees by the time the soup is done.

Syria...do we really want the US to arm more terrorists? There are elements in Syria that could turn out worse than Assad.

Guantanamo...44 of the prisoners are being force fed...104 out of 166 have stopped eating. Wouldn't you want to kill yourself if there was no hope of a fair trial combined with a future of indefinite detentions? 86 of the prisoners have been cleared of the charges brought against them but are still incarcerated. It's way past time to close it down.

Brazil...middle class protesting a 10 cent increase in transit fares while blaming the billions in public funds spent on hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 for the rise. Over 200,000 people have taken to the streets. It's not really about the 10 cents, its more about corruption, lies, and financial raping of the population.

Turkey...people are on the streets to make the judicial system work. The silent man started a protest using peace instead of the violent opposition that had kicked in after frustration over the failure of government to hear the pleas of the protestors. The passive protest he inspired has been called “pleasing to the eye” by the Deputy Prime Minister today.

Nuclear arsenal...President Obama in Berlin renewed his call to the US and Russia to reduce our stockpiles by 1/3. Putin asked that other nations also reduce their arsenals. Sounds like a great idea.

Climate change...The President also acknowledged the need for the US to step up and act more upon the issues of climate change. He stated that Germany and the EU were leading the way but we needed to do more. Darn right says i...we should be leading not following.

The leader of the World Bank today also said that its time to stop arguing about whether climate change is real or not, its real he said. So the money men are agreeing do you think we will see some action now?

St. Croix...it is raining so hard here i've got all the windows closed up tight as a drum and i still feel minute speckles of water getting through the jalousie windows. Its a white out and the thunder is very loud!

PS...the Yellow-crowned Night Heron looks to be eating real food today.

See ya next week

Surveillance

****Photos at bottom******

Surveillance...what exactly does that mean in terms of government collecting data on their citizens?

In the USSR surveillance was used to manufacture fear in the populace. It was used to prevent the daily exchange of ideas that might subvert the status quo. Surveillance was a form of control that was used to

erode trust between individuals and divide society. It was used to humiliate and create areas of life that just were not discussed in public. 

Everyone was expected to conduct their lives according to proscribed rules of behavior that were much more limiting than what we have in the US today. Surveillance helped keep the population in line.

A citizen of any country overseen by the Republic could be brought up on trumped up charges for even discussing topics that independent thinkers may be contemplating and that we today may view as harmless, but that the government there considered subversive. Any data pertaining to non-political activities, personal matters and embarrassing details would be collected and could be used against you.

Going into the archives to get the dirt so to speak was performed routinely. Any thing implied could be used against you or to manipulate you into revealing things about other people. Everyone was targeted for speaking their minds.

For many in the USA the use of surveillance has taken on the patina of acceptance. What is wrong with collecting phone records if you haven't done anything wrong, say so many? Or storing e-mails? i'm innocent, i haven't done anything wrong, i don't care if they collect data on me.

Well read the above again. Fear was used in the USSR to manipulate entire populations. Collecting private information was a necessary part of keeping the citizenry in line.

Fear of “terrorists” is just one tool in our governments arsenal that is used to collect everything it can about you. It is used in a way that is all out of proportion to the actual threat.  More people have been killed by guns and cars than by “terrorist” incidents.  i'll bet you didn't give up any of your privacy to prevent gun deaths or car accidents happening to you.

If you were targeted as a potential threat even though you think of yourself as innocent all those phone records and internet searches could be used against you. They could be used against me right now to trump up some case and put me away so i won't write about privacy and why it is important to keep it private. You may not think this could happen but i do.

Did every American citizen and permanent resident in the USA check “agree” to be spied upon. To have data collected about us and stored for who knows how long doesn't seem wrong to any of you? Is that what we all want? To sign away all our rights to privacy without ever having a debate about it?

Edward Snowden is neither a traitor nor a hero. His leaks were done to start a debate about what our government is compiling on all of us. Already details are coming out that most of the population was unaware of. This man has sacrificed his entire life to defend our right to free speech and privacy from the government.

My mom crammed it into me as a child to always question authority. She believed that another complacent citizenry could lead us to the same place all totalitarian countries found them selves in. Russia, Germany, China, Cuba....

As Benjamin Franklin once said: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Is the fear of terrorism worth losing all your liberty for?

i believe Edward Snowden has started the debate. Government propagandists will be hard at it trying to convince the American population that giving up their privacy is no big deal. Think long and hard about where you see this country in the future.

See ya next week. A few pics below from the past few weeks.

People watching while waiting in Manhattan

Raining while waiting in Manhattan

Foggy morning in the neighborhood.

The flower section of Stew Lenards.

The counter at the Mexican restaurant.

The Killdeers having at it while i'm on my walk

Home to Sir Edgar who lives by our pool.

i think this Yellow-crowned Night Heron is carrying a piece of coral...but for what?