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Forum Post: Look at the rats scurrying to explain themselves regarding NSA getting daily info on all calls in U.S. by Verizon customers

Posted 10 years ago on June 6, 2013, 2:36 p.m. EST by therising (6643)
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36 Comments


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[-] 3 points by OTP (-203) from Tampa, FL 10 years ago

I managed to find this from over a year ago. I posted on it then, might as well bring it back:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/us-twitter-occupy-idUSBRE86119O20120702

[-] 2 points by JesseHeffran (3903) 10 years ago

I' m going to go ahead and be my devicive self, and say telephone records should be secured by the 4 th amendment, whereas twitter records should find no security from government confiscation. How do you feel about it?

[-] 2 points by OTP (-203) from Tampa, FL 10 years ago

I think the thing with twitter is that its run by a private company, so they have the ability to censor if they wish.

But for the government to demand that they hand over information doesnt sit well with me. Its kind of the same thing as the government demanding the phone companies hand over records.

imo...

[-] 1 points by JesseHeffran (3903) 10 years ago

That makes sense. I was just looking at it from the angle of what type of communication each one was. I believe twitters to be a type of publication whereas phone conversations are private conversations. Once you print something, it is in the public domain, but telephone conversations are never meant for public consumption. In the twitter case, I guess it should be up to whether the private company feels compelled to release the info. But as to the phone records, the company should only be compelled with a warrant obtained through due process.

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

Yyyyep

[-] 2 points by shadz66 (19985) 10 years ago

As JFK said : ''Those who make non-violent revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable'' :

The 'Security State' knows the deep truth of that and endeavours to reassure itself of its primacy through ever more paranoid and repressive measures such as The Patriot Act but this oppression can not abide.

veritas vos liberabit ...

[-] 2 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

Breaking News Washington Post http://wapo.st/1888aNq . This should be the revelation that brings down the whole house of cards.

We Americans need to wake up and realize that our freedoms have been systematically stolen from us. Republicans and Democrats are all in on it Along with their corporate puppet masters. The whole house of cards needs to come down.

Out there listening NSA? Suck this into your data vacuum: We're not afraid of you anymore. There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. And you can't put us all in jail. You can't evict or jail an idea.

Once citizens wake up and realize they're all being screwed, once they speak with one loud and clear voice outside their government's headquarters and say simply: we don't believe in you anymore, the whole thing comes crashing down. Look to history. The walls that seemed so solid, the powers that seemed unstoppable all came tumbling down.

Once we realize that we have more in common than we have separating us, we can begin to make decisions from a position of unified strength rather than making complaints and demands from a position of divided weakness.

"Truth crushed to earth rises up." - MLK Jr.

"The moral arc of the universe bends towards justice." - MLK

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history". ~ Gandhi

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” - Gandhi

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead

Breyton Breytonbach said this just before he was sentenced to prison in South Africa for his protest activities:. "With confidence, we lay our case before the whole world. Whether we live, or whether we die, freedom will rise here like the sun through the morning clouds."

"No lie can live forever." - MLK

And then there's this by the Rastafarian poet, Bongo Jerry: "Sooner or later but mus' the dam is going to bus' What force can stop them, this river of people who know their course?"

And this from Stevie Wonder: "You better tell your story fast, 'cause it won't be too long."

"Sooner or later it'll all come down 'cause you can't. . push. . . people around." - unknown jazz musician

Bob Marley - "They would do anything to materialize your ev-er-y wish."

Bob Marley - "We refused to be. . . what you wanted us to be. We are what we are. That's the way it's going to be."

Bob Marley - "There's a natural mystic flowing' through the air. If you listen carefully now you will hear."

"And I am talking about getting ready because it is coming." Because there are those of us and yourselves out there who are dedicated to the proposition that it is going to happen." - CORNEL WEST from Prophetic Thought in Postmodern Times

AND THIS from P.B. Shelley: 'Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you - Ye are many - they are few."

And this from JAMES BALDWIN's "No Name in the Street": "The representatives of the status quo are sickened and divided, and dread looking into the eyes of their young; while the excluded begin to realize, having endured everything, that they CAN endure everything. They do not know the precise shape of their future, but they know that the future belongs to them. They realize this -- paradoxically -- by the failure of moral energy of their oppressors and begin, almost instinctively, to forge a new morality, to create the principles on which a new world will be built."

Quote from John O'Donohue essay:

"Sometimes when we look out, the world seems so dark. War, violence, hunger and misery seem to abound. This makes us anxious and helpless. What can I do in my private little corner of life that could have any effect on the march of world events? The usual answer is: nothing. We then decide to do what we can for our own, and leave the great events to their domain. Thus, we opt out, and join the largest majority in the world : those who acquiesce. Believing ourselves to be helpless, we hand over all our power to forces and systems outside us that then act in our names; they go on to put their beliefs into action; and ironically these actions are often sinister and destructive.

We live in times when the call of full and critically aware citizenship could not be more urgent. We need to rediscover the careless courage, yet devastating simplicity, of the little boy who, in the middle of the numbered multitude, in naive Socratic fashion, blurts out; " But the emperor has no clothes." When spoken, the word of truth can bring down citadels of falsity.

Real presence is the ideal of all true individuation. When we yield to helplessness, we strengthen the hand of those who would destroy. When we choose indifference, we betray our world. Yet the world is not decided by action alone. It is decided more by consciousness and spirit; they are the secret sources of all action and behavior. The spirit of a time is an incredibly subtle, yet hugely powerful force. And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals together. Therefore, the way you look at things is not simply a private matter. Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on. When you give in to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it. When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in the world. In this way, even in your own hidden life, you can become a powerful agent of transformation in a broken, darkened world. There is a huge force field that opens when intention focuses and directs itself toward transformation."

Dostoevsky wrote the following in the Brothers Karamazov that illuminates the power and value of unity and community:

"Today, everyone asserts his own personality and strives to live a full life as an individual. But these efforts lead not to a full life but to suicide, because instead of realizing his personality, man only slips into total isolation. For in our age, man has been broken up into self-contained individuals, each of whom retreats into his lair, trying to stay away from the rest, hiding himself and his belongings from the rest of mankind, and finally isolating himself from people and people from him. And while he accumulates material wealth in his isolation, he thinks with satisfaction how mighty and secure he has become, because he is mad and cannot see that the more goods he accumulates, the deeper he sinks into suicidal impotence. The reason for this is that he has become accustomed to relying only on himself; he has split off from the whole and become an isolated unit; he has trained his soul not to rely on human help, not to believe in man and mankind, and only to worry that the wealth and privileges he has accumulated may get lost.

Everywhere men today are turning scornfully away from the truth that the security of the individual cannot be achieved by his isolated efforts but only by mankind as a whole.

BUT AN END to this fearful isolation is bound to come and all men will understand how unnatural it was for them to have isolated themselves from one another. This will be the spirit of the new era and people will look in amazement at the past when they sat in darkness and refused to see the light. . . . . . Until that day, we must keep hope alive, and now and then a man must set an example, even if only an isolated one, by trying to lift his soul out of its isolation and offering it up in an act of brotherly communion, even if he is taken for one of God's fools. This is necessary to keep the great idea alive."

Albert Einstein said this: “A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way: "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. We are, all of us, inextricably linked."

[-] 2 points by shadz66 (19985) 10 years ago

''Americans need to wake up and realize that our freedoms have been systematically stolen from us. Republicans and Democrats are all in on it Along with their corporate puppet masters. The whole house of cards needs to come down.'' (therising) & ''The moral arc of the universe bends towards justice." (MLK) and also :

''Did the FBI FBI execute Ibragim Todashev? He appears to have been shot seven times while being interviewed at home in Orlando, Florida, about his connection to one of the Boston bombing suspects. Among the shots was the assassin's hallmark: a bullet to the back of the head. What kind of an interview was it?

''An irregular one. There was no lawyer present. It was not recorded. By the time Todashev was shot, he had apparently been interrogated by three agents for five hours. And then? Who knows? First, we were told, he lunged at them with a knife. How he acquired it, five hours into a police interview, was not explained. How he posed such a threat while recovering from a knee operation also remains perplexing.

''The President made his rejection of habeas corpus and his assumption of a godlike capacity for judgement explicit later in the speech, while discussing another matter. How, he wondered, should the US deal with detainees in Guantánamo Bay "who we know have participated in dangerous plots or attacks, but who cannot be prosecuted – for example because the evidence against them has been compromised or is inadmissible in a court of law"? If the evidence has been compromised or is inadmissible, how can he know that they have participated? He can suspect, he can allege, but he cannot know until his suspicion has been tested in a court of law.

''Global powers have an antisocial habit of bringing their work back home. The British government imported some of the methods it used against its colonial subjects to suppress domestic protests and strikes. Once an administrative class becomes accustomed to treating foreigners as if they have no rights, and once the domestic population broadly accepts their justifications, it is almost inevitable that the habit migrates from one arena into another. If hundreds of people living abroad can be executed by American agents on no more than suspicion, should we be surprised if residents of the United States began to be treated the same way?''

Finally because all these things are so clearly connected to your post, imo - please also consider :

Per MLK : ''Truth crushed to earth rises up" !!! Thanx for your exhaustive post 'tr' !! Solidaridad Siempre !

dum spiro, spero ...

[-] 4 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

Thanks so much for all your solidarity and info. The question about the killing of Todashev is incredibly disturbing. Man, if I'm ever interviewed and 5 hours into the interview they shoot me seven times and one of them is in the back of the head, I hope people ask a whole lotta questions.

Is this going anywhere. Is it all mopped up or is there a way to get at the truth of this. Because the implications, if the FBI executed this witness (for giving the wrong answers?) then .... Ugh

There is an otherworldliness to the state of things at this moment in our nation. Black is white and white is black. The first African American president of whom we expected so much has let us down in countless ways... especially after having made it seemingly plain that he was sensible on privacy.

I think the video attached to the wall st journal article I posted (5 articles every American should read) says something really true and disturbing: people in the know realize quite clearly that all this surveillance isn't helping to fight terrorism. Terrorism, fortunately, doesn't happen often enough to develop patterns. So all this surveillance is for something else. It appears to simply be an elite clinging to power in whatever way they can, using our fucking tax dollars to build them a mountain of security to protect THEIR interests and track resistance.

People are still out there, doing the things we people do on a Friday. Man, it all appears so normal and yet beneath the surface, something is different. A line has been crossed.... I know full well it was crossed years ago but now it is out there in the open in all its ugliness. And the ugly defense of it is eerie. Creepy in its matter of fact tone.

The weak explanations feigning confidence.... They are a disturbing as the fact that many are nodding their heads in agreement. You can almost hear a chunk of America out there saying "Gosh, but what can we do. That's the world we live in."

Common sheeple! The world is largely what we make it, how we approach it and relate to it. The news isn't like the weather. It doesn't just happen to us. We MAKE the news through our resistance or our complicity. Not deciding, not pursuing answers is a decision.

I can hear Rage Against the Machine's lead singer now: "WWWWWAAAKKKKE UP!!! Wwwwwwake up!! Wake up!!!!!!"

What's it going to take. This can't end with a murmur and a sigh of resignation. Life regenerates. It is self correcting. I'm just looking ahead, looking forward to those rays of sun, that awakening, that consciousness and aliveness that I know is in us.... That hunger for freedom and creation, that will to rise!!!!!! !!!!!! Rise people...... Rise!!!!!!!!

Breyton Breytonbach said this just before he was sentenced to prison in South Africa for his protest activities:

. "With confidence, we lay our case before the whole world. Whether we live, or whether we die, freedom will rise here like the sun through the morning clouds."

Come on people.... Let's rise!

ARE YOU AS PISSED OFF AS I AM? http://www.occupywallst.org/forum/are-you-as-pissed-off-as-i-am-tired-of-the-stagnat/

WE CAN DO THIS THE EASY WAY OR THE HARD WAY. http://occupywallst.org/forum/we-could-do-this-the-easy-way-or-the-hard-way/

[-] 3 points by Renneye (3874) 10 years ago

So very well said, 'therising'!!

Take heart...many who had no clue of the insidiousness of the surveillance state, have had their eyes opened for good in the last few days. I'm willing to bet, traffic here will 'rise', in the ensuing thirst for answers that people will have.

[-] 2 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

Thanks Renneye. I hope you're right. What you describe is exactly the way it ought to unfold...

[-] 2 points by quantumystic (1710) from Memphis, TN 10 years ago

it is just more and more every day. the end game is here. we have to force their hand to expose them completely as the one world government globalists they are.

[-] 2 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

Beautiful timing isn't it :). Thanks for pointing that out.

[-] 1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 10 years ago

Our right to privacy being taken away. 1984 advances


This is big. And positively frightening.

The Obama administration is spying on all calls millions of Verizon customers make each day to any phone number inside or outside the United States.

Tell President Obama: Don’t Spy on Me

The news broke when the Guardian1 unveiled the top secret court order2 that authorized the government’s shocking mass surveillance program.

This comes just weeks after we learned the Justice Department has been spying on journalists, and threatening them with criminal prosecution, just for doing their jobs.3

They’re watching the rest of us, too — and none of us can be silent about these outrageous government intrusions any longer.

Act Now: Stop the Mass Surveillance of Americans

This story is a decade in the making. In 2006, we learned that the Bush administration was using the Patriot Act to collect the phone records of tens of millions of Americans.4 The National Security Agency's goal at the time, according to sources, was "to create a database of every call ever made." The biggest phone companies were willing accomplices.

But this latest chapter is worse than almost anyone could have imagined. The newly exposed secret court order could give spy agencies access to data on every call Verizon customers make every day.

Verizon serves at least 100 million customers across the country. We don't know yet if this is the first time a court order like this has been made or whether the government is using the Patriot Act to track calls made by customers of every all phone companies.

Although we haven’t had evidence this clear before, some civil liberties advocates and surveillance experts think this type of order has become "routine."5

It shouldn’t be. We must act now.

Don’t Let the Obama Administration Track Every Phone Call You Make

Whatever law enforcement and national security aims the White House might claim, monitoring the activities of millions of innocent people for no good reason threatens our basic liberties and our freedom to connect.

It’s time to take a stand, and to tell the Obama administration to stop these extreme — and extremely dangerous — spying programs.

Thanks,

Matt, Craig, Josh, Lindsy, Tim and everyone else on the Free Press team

  1. Glenn Greenwald, "NSA Collecting Phone Records of Millions of Verizon Customers Daily," Guardian, June 5, 2013: http://act.freepress.net/go/14651?t=6&akid=4283.10012075._hbGps

  2. "Verizon Forced to Hand Over Telephone Data — Full Court Ruling," Guardian, June 5, 2013: http://act.freepress.net/go/14652?t=8&akid=4283.10012075._hbGps

  3. “DoJ Calls Fox News Reporter James Rosen ‘Co-Conspirator’ in Leak Case; Journalists Outraged,” Huffington Post, May 20, 2013: http://act.freepress.net/go/14655?t=10&akid=4283.10012075._hbGps

  4. Leslie Cauley, "NSA Has Massive Database of Americans’ Phone Calls,” USA Today, May 11, 2006: http://act.freepress.net/go/14653?t=12&akid=4283.10012075._hbGps

  5. Ellen Nakashima, “Report: Verizon Providing All Call Records to U.S. Under Court Order,” Washington Post, June 5, 2013: http://act.freepress.net/go/14654?t=14&akid=4283.10012075._hbGps

Free Press is a nonpartisan organization building a nationwide movement for media that serve the public interest. Learn more at www.freepress.net.

Join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

[-] 0 points by GirlFriday (17435) 10 years ago

I'm not even reading where they are even bothering to legitimately explain themselves.

[-] 0 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

Yep. It's come that far.

[-] 1 points by GirlFriday (17435) 10 years ago

Well, to be honest, it has been that far. There have been issues with ATT since as far back as the 90s.

[-] 0 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

True. I just meant that its come that far that they're not even bothering to legitimately explain themselves. It will be interesting if the spin in mainstream America around the water coolers and diners becomes that it's all about Obama. Certainly Obama is one of the villains here...but I hope we Americans don't miss the larger point -- it's republicans, democrats, Congress, president, Supreme Court... They're all guilty. I hope this newest "revelation" about privacy invasion helps people get the big picture and gets them asking good questions about how their government is bought and paid for... Rather than them just saying "Obama bad" even though he is.

[-] 1 points by GirlFriday (17435) 10 years ago

They didn't bother to explain themselves then either.
Don't expect the right to do anything more than blame Obama. Which means that they have no intention of doing anything about it. In fact, they are trying to figure out if Ted Cruz could make a run for the Oval Office. Mr. McCarthy reincarnated. Two weeks ago Google was in the headlines. I said yesterday that it was coming down the pipeline.

So, the question is, what are you (general you) going to do about it? Move from one fear to the next? Since this has been an ongoing battle and the response is all-of-a-sudden-shock then it would be best to find a legitimate solution and to take a real damn good look at what is going on in Congress currently.

[-] 2 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

Well, there are obviously hundreds of things we (the collective we) could do. A few examples to start:

  • anyone who gets all this who is in a position to run for office can make a heck of a lot of noise even if they lose -- I don't care how conservative the district, you have a megaphone. And if this "real" person somehow wins (unlikely but possible), they can make even more noise while in office -- because they got elected without special interest $. It can happen. I'm not betting the whole revolution on it but certainly one component in the larger arsenal.

  • And those who get this who are not in a position to run for office can make a hell of a lot of noise too. One might think these are small things but they add up (every hammer blow at the dam holding back the water helps:

GROUP ONE - the easy stuff that still makes a difference: A). Citizens can write, call & visit their members of house and senate B). Citizens can write letters to the editor C). Citizens can vote with their wallets and stop buying from corporations that are corrupting the system, stealing our freedoms or harming our environment D). There are all sorts of organizations that are truly in the struggle that citizens can support with their time, energy or $.

GROUP TWO - the harder stuff where more risk is involved but greater progress is made

  • We can organize our own groups and participate in all forms of nonviolent resistance (always nonviolent) and civil disobedience. One could insert the entire range of Gene Sharp's, Gamdhi's and Martin King's tactics here.

I think it helps to have people pushing from the inside and the outside. That's how the walls will eventually come tumbling down.

Everything I've mentioned above is admittedly only enough to start the ball rolling. But momentum is a powerful thing. Once you're rolling, movements have a way of picking up speed.

I, as you may recall, would like to see hundreds of thousands of us / millions of us surround congress and block entrances. I would like us to "take our country back" from the banks and their political puppets the way the citizens of Iceland did. There is much that could come of such an uprising, but a hundred or a thousand checkboxes would need to be checked off before such an effort could come together.

I don't claim that the list above is enough. Just some examples of beginnings of the rumbling that eventually brings the dam down and releases the massive amount of water that's been building for a long long time.

The surveillance state can't hold that water back forever.

I chuckle when some in the general public think Occupy movement somehow ended. The communications and coalitions that have been built and are being built since the fall of 2011 are like nothing that's ever been seen in America. One might loosely say that 2011-2012 was wave one -- an amazingly strong first wave. People have no idea what that accomplished in terms of building revolutionary "infrastructure" and momentum.

Admittedly, many were already in the trenches long before. I'm well aware of that. And they laid the groundwork for these new waves.

I'm excited for the future because I believe that the foundation of this house of cards is terribly unstable -- the beams are hollowed out by termites. And no matter how mighty the house seems now, a good gust could bring the whole thing down. What it's replaced with is obviously the elephant in the room here. I haven't studied enough on that but am intrigued by the possibilities I've read about on this site and elsewhere.

As the great James Baldwin once wrote in "No Name in the Street":

"The representatives of the status quo are sickened and divided, and dread looking into the eyes of their young; while the excluded begin to realize, having endured everything, that they CAN endure everything. They do not know the precise shape of their future, but they know that the future belongs to them. They realize this -- paradoxically -- by the failure of moral energy of their oppressors and begin, almost instinctively, to forge a new morality, to create the principles on which a new world will be built."

[-] 1 points by GirlFriday (17435) 10 years ago

The banks have been busy with the "scandals".

I haven't seen too much of that discussed on the forum.

Further, running someone for office is no guarantee that the law will be altered.

Edited for the following: You cannot run someone on one issue.

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

I agree. No guarantees. But we gotta push in every way we can that makes a difference.

[-] -1 points by Tragedy (-56) 10 years ago

There's a lot of either Obama bad or Bush started it responses. Partisan bs

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

I'm afraid you're right.

[-] 0 points by quantumystic (1710) from Memphis, TN 10 years ago

it is painfully obvious the police state was never meant for the terrorists, just as i feared it was always meant for us. i can't be more clear on this. rex 84 protocol is in effect. we have been controlled by this shadow government since at least the death of roosevelt.

[-] 1 points by Nevada1 (5843) 10 years ago

Some info on rex84.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84

For us malcontents.

[-] 2 points by quantumystic (1710) from Memphis, TN 10 years ago

i know all about it. i was a dead head when i was younger all these old hippies filled me in on this stuff in the first half of the 90s. remember when the old hippies were just paranoid wack jobs who ate too much lsd, turns out they weren't paranoid wack jobs.

[-] 2 points by grapes (5232) 10 years ago

Or American "Bantus" who clamored for homeland protection and may end up in a FEMA trailer, not by Mother Nature's furies.

[-] 2 points by Nevada1 (5843) 10 years ago

Agree.

[Removed]

[-] 1 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

This should be the revelation that brings down the whole house of cards. We Americans need to wake up and realize that our freedoms have been systematically stolen from us. Republicans and Democrats are all in on it Along with their corporate puppet masters. The whole house of cards needs to come down.

Out there listening NSA? Suck this into your data vacuum: We're not afraid of you anymore. There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. And you can't put us all in jail. You can't evict or jail an idea.

Once citizens wake up and realize they're all being screwed, once they speak with one loud and clear voice outside their government's headquarters and say simply: we don't believe in you anymore, the whole thing comes crashing down. Look to history. The walls that seemed so solid, the powers that seemed unstoppable all came tumbling down.

Once we realize that we have more in common than we have separating us, we can begin to make decisions from a position of unified strength rather than making complaints and demands from a position of divided weakness.

"Truth crushed to earth rises up." - MLK Jr.

"The moral arc of the universe bends towards justice." - MLK

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history".

~ Gandhi

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” - Gandhi

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead

Breyton Breytonbach said this just before he was sentenced to prison in South Africa for his protest activities:. "With confidence, we lay our case before the whole world. Whether we live, or whether we die, freedom will rise here like the sun through the morning clouds."

"No lie can live forever." - MLK

And then there's this by the Rastafarian poet, Bongo Jerry:

"Sooner or later but mus'

the dam is going to bus'

What force can stop them,

this river of people who know their course?"

And this from Stevie Wonder: "You better tell your story fast, 'cause it won't be too long."

"Sooner or later it'll all come down 'cause you can't. . push. . . people around." - unknown jazz musician

Bob Marley - "They would do anything to materialize your ev-er-y wish."

Bob Marley - "We refused to be. . . what you wanted us to be. We are what we are. That's the way it's going to be."

Bob Marley - "There's a natural mystic flowing' through the air. If you listen carefully now you will hear."

"And I am talking about getting ready because it is coming." Because there are those of us and yourselves out there who are dedicated to the proposition that it is going to happen." - CORNEL WEST from Prophetic Thought in Postmodern Times

AND THIS from P.B. Shelley:

'Rise like Lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number,

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you -

Ye are many - they are few."

And this from JAMES BALDWIN's "No Name in the Street": "The representatives of the status quo are sickened and divided, and dread looking into the eyes of their young; while the excluded begin to realize, having endured everything, that they CAN endure everything. They do not know the precise shape of their future, but they know that the future belongs to them. They realize this -- paradoxically -- by the failure of moral energy of their oppressors and begin, almost instinctively, to forge a new morality, to create the principles on which a new world will be built."

Quote from John O'Donohue essay:

"Sometimes when we look out, the world seems so dark. War, violence, hunger and misery seem to abound. This makes us anxious and helpless. What can I do in my private little corner of life that could have any effect on the march of world events? The usual answer is: nothing. We then decide to do what we can for our own, and leave the great events to their domain. Thus, we opt out, and join the largest majority in the world : those who acquiesce. Believing ourselves to be helpless, we hand over all our power to forces and systems outside us that then act in our names; they go on to put their beliefs into action; and ironically these actions are often sinister and destructive.

We live in times when the call of full and critically aware citizenship could not be more urgent. We need to rediscover the careless courage, yet devastating simplicity, of the little boy who, in the middle of the numbered multitude, in naive Socratic fashion, blurts out; " But the emperor has no clothes." When spoken, the word of truth can bring down citadels of falsity.

Real presence is the ideal of all true individuation. When we yield to helplessness, we strengthen the hand of those who would destroy. When we choose indifference, we betray our world. Yet the world is not decided by action alone. It is decided more by consciousness and spirit; they are the secret sources of all action and behavior. The spirit of a time is an incredibly subtle, yet hugely powerful force. And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals together. Therefore, the way you look at things is not simply a private matter. Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on. When you give in to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it.

When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in the world. In this way, even in your own hidden life, you can become a powerful agent of transformation in a broken, darkened world. There is a huge force field that opens when intention focuses and directs itself toward transformation."

Dostoevsky wrote the following in the Brothers Karamazov:

"Today, everyone asserts his own personality and strives to live a full life as an individual. But these efforts lead not to a full life but to suicide, because instead of realizing his personality, man only slips into total isolation. For in our age, man has been broken up into self-contained individuals, each of whom retreats into his lair, trying to stay away from the rest, hiding himself and his belongings from the rest of mankind, and finally isolating himself from people and people from him.

And while he accumulates material wealth in his isolation, he thinks with satisfaction how mighty and secure he has become, because he is mad and cannot see that the more goods he accumulates, the deeper he sinks into suicidal impotence. The reason for this is that he has become accustomed to relying only on himself; he has split off from the whole and become an isolated unit; he has trained his soul not to rely on human help, not to believe in man and mankind, and only to worry that the wealth and privileges he has accumulated may get lost.

Everywhere men today are turning scornfully away from the truth that the security of the individual cannot be achieved by his isolated efforts but only by mankind as a whole.

BUT AN END to this fearful isolation is bound to come and all men will understand how unnatural it was for them to have isolated themselves from one another. This will be the spirit of the new era and people will look in amazement at the past when they sat in darkness and refused to see the light. . . . . . Until that day, we must keep hope alive, and now and then a man must set an example, even if only an isolated one, by trying to lift his soul out of its isolation and offering it up in an act of brotherly communion, even if he is taken for one of God's fools.

This is necessary to keep the great idea alive."

Albert Einstein said this:

“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way: "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. We are, all of us, inextricably linked."

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 10 years ago

Everything is physical. N.S.A. cannot suck this into data vacuum. It is Utah you want and to understanding eyes it holds the crown jewel of all intelligence.

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[-] 0 points by quantumystic (1710) from Memphis, TN 10 years ago

this is the beginning of the beginning of the end.

[-] 2 points by therising (6643) 10 years ago

I agree!!

Breaking News Washington Post http://wapo.st/1888aNq . This should be the revelation that brings down the whole house of cards.

We Americans need to wake up and realize that our freedoms have been systematically stolen from us. Republicans and Democrats are all in on it Along with their corporate puppet masters. The whole house of cards needs to come down.

Out there listening NSA? Suck this into your data vacuum: We're not afraid of you anymore. There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. And you can't put us all in jail. You can't evict or jail an idea.

Once citizens wake up and realize they're all being screwed, once they speak with one loud and clear voice outside their government's headquarters and say simply: we don't believe in you anymore, the whole thing comes crashing down. Look to history. The walls that seemed so solid, the powers that seemed unstoppable all came tumbling down.

Once we realize that we have more in common than we have separating us, we can begin to make decisions from a position of unified strength rather than making complaints and demands from a position of divided weakness.

"Truth crushed to earth rises up." - MLK Jr.

[-] 1 points by quantumystic (1710) from Memphis, TN 10 years ago

there is nothing separating us it is only an illusion that we are separate when in fact we are all part of the whole. this is the fundamental core of the insanity. if i lived your life and had all your experiences i would be you. so really we are all one in the same just experiencing this finite life through different points of view to me it is as if we are here so that the universe is aware of itself.