Baby Brother, the Big Chill and Lesson 19 Dear Friend and Reader: Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor now living in exile in Moscow, has done something that few people have done: he made the American government and much of American society let out a little squeak. Compared to the roar of the national security state, it was a modest sound. Yet it has resulted in an act of Congress and the revision of a few portions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the law passed in a hurry mere weeks after the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Anyway, here in the midst of Mercury retrograde in Gemini, we had some interesting news this week: a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act expired at 12:01 am Monday, and was replaced two days later by the equally Orwellian-sounding USA FREEDOM Act. As a result, the government will allegedly no longer be allowed to directly collect data from the American people without a warrant. Instead, corporations such as Verizon and Google will collect the data, and the government will have to get a warrant to look up the specifics. They will allegedly need a good reason. We are still being spied on, but now the Chinese wall has moved a few centimeters, and these massive companies who have sold us out so many times in the past will keep the data for the government. From what I've read, this change only applies to new investigations; the old ones are grandfathered in, though Pres. Obama has promised not to use that provision of the law. In most ways this is a token development. The operative fact is that we now have a clue what is happening. I will say this another way. We are still being spied on. It's just that thanks to Snowden, we have some notion as to the extent of that program. The truth is, we don't really know what's in the USA FREEDOM Act. Just like with the PATRIOT Act, it's going to take a while to figure out. Mass Collection of Telephone Data Two years ago, Snowden revealed the existence of the mass collection of telephone data by the United States government. Few people understand how powerful that data is, such as what can be determined just from who you call and when you call them. Two federal organizations are involved, and it was the first time most people had ever heard their names: the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.
I know about the FISA court because I was assigned to write an article about the court for Covert Action Quarterly (CAQ), the only publication devoted to covering the CIA and related organizations. Too spooked to write the piece myself (yes, at the time, it was that scary), I passed the assignment to my friend and colleague Philip Colangelo. To my knowledge, this article was the only published look at the FISA court up to that time. Colangelo wrote in the November 2000 edition of CAQ, "Since its founding in 1978, a secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has received 7,539 applications to authorize electronic surveillance within the U.S. In the name of national security, the court has approved all but one of these requests from the Justice Department on behalf of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency." He continued, "Each of these decisions was reached in secret, with no published orders, opinions, or public record. The people, organizations, or embassies spied on were not notified of either the hearing or the surveillance itself." Despite the FISA court's extremely generous rubber-stamp approach to issuing warrants, when the Cheney-Bush administration wanted to do still more spying, even that record was not dependable enough. So the government had the FISA court issue a blanket order that allowed warrantless collection of data. Until Snowden released a copy of that court order two years ago, along with a cache of classified NSA documents to several media outlets, all details of the FISA court existed behind the scenes.
Founded in 1952, the NSA's original purpose was to intercept and decrypt international communications during the Cold War, such as between Cuba and the USSR. In other words, its role was to spy on our supposed enemies and keep the military informed what they were up to. After Sept. 11, the NSA was turned against the American people and tapped into basically everything that could be monitored. It was Edward Snowden who informed us of this fact. Snowden also informed us of the reality of the USA PATRIOT Act's Section 215, also known as the "library records provision." This broad section of law supposedly allowed spying on the communications of all Americans, under the guise of stopping terrorism. In particular, Snowden revealed that the NSA was directly collecting the records of all phone calls, and could query any information at any time. This was the "warrantless data collection" issue that we've heard about over and over again. We can infer from these developments that the collection of data goes far beyond what has actually come out. Bamford has documented that the NSA routinely listens to phone calls placed by American citizens.
Revelations by Julian Assange and WikiLeaks had revealed the wholesale interception of the Internet in the infamous AT&T Room 641A, the location of the "splitter" -- the device that sent a copy of all Internet traffic directly to the NSA. [For my coverage of WikiLeaks, see Clearing the Smog of War and The Most Wanted Man in the World. For my original coverage of Snowden, please see Father Knows Best.] Thanks to the USA FREEDOM Act, once again the only thing between the government and the records held by corporations is the sign-anything FISA court. And for its part, the NSA pretty much has carte blanche: it operates outside any oversight, and it has the power to do anything. Now we know. We also know that these provisions of law have not stopped terrorism. That is merely an excuse, proving James Madison's words that, "If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." And more than 200 years ago, Madison also said, "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." The Chilling Effect We live surrounded by surveillance. We sit and type into surveillance machines all day. We are surrounded by cameras, which photograph our faces, our license plates and our naked bodies (such as at airports). Our phone calls are indexed, listened to and recorded. The index includes "metadata" such as the phone numbers involved, the length of the call and the GPS positions of the parties. Therefore, who you associate with and where you go are fully transparent to government entities. As far as I can tell, the Internet and the cellular telephone system are synonymous with the NSA.
There is something in U.S. law called the Chilling Effect. Think of this as a deterrent effect on the freedom of expression. For example, people would be less likely to go to a protest if they knew the police were going to photograph and make video images of everyone who is there. Therefore, those activities by the police are said to have a chilling effect on the right to protest. Now we live with this every day, everywhere. Those who are sensitive to changes in temperature have noticed that society is growing colder; that most people are more afraid to express themselves. Those who do not remember warmer times, when it was possible to openly express a bit of heat and passion without cringing, or wondering who is watching, or looking over your shoulder, are unlikely to notice this colder social climate. The thing about the chilling effect is that it's not an actual prohibition on expression. Rather, expression is gradually smothered in fear. All of our social interactions are involved. The feeling that all Internet and telephone and communication is documented specifically to be used against us affects all encounters between people. The effect is control. Lesson 19: No Private Thoughts This confronts us with a question that is both practical and spiritual: how to remain human in this environment. Most spiritual philosophy addresses the issue of what to do about fear. We now have a real situation on our hands -- the mass broadcast spraying of paranoia.
I think that one problem with these revelations is how many people process them below the level of full awareness, such as looking with their eyes closed. I think it's essential to bring these revelations to full consciousness, and to embrace that there is no longer any such thing as privacy. This is actually an early lesson in the rigorous training of A Course in Miracles, where in Lesson 19 (of 365) the teaching is, "I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts." "The idea for today is obviously the reason why your seeing does not affect you alone. You will notice that at times the ideas related to thinking precede those related to perceiving, while at other times the order is reversed. The reason is that the order does not matter. Thinking and its results are really simultaneous, for cause and effect are never separate."
As for the transparency of thoughts, by now most people have experienced some version of telepathy or mind reading, or have reached into the inner reality of another person (such as by what is revealed in a dream). The Course continues, "Today we are again emphasizing the fact that minds are joined. This is rarely a wholly welcome idea at first, since it seems to carry with it an enormous sense of responsibility, and may even be regarded as an 'invasion of privacy'. Yet it is a fact that there are no private thoughts." OK, so this is a spiritual teaching; a work of philosophy. Its stated purpose is to connect us with the soul-level of awareness, or what you might call your true inner reality. The notion of private thoughts can act like a barrier to connecting with one another. In fact what spirituality describes as 'the ego' is made entirely of little barricades that we think of as privacy. Often people live in a private little prison of their secrets, both hoping and terrified that someone might come along and see through them, or expose them. If you're afraid of revealing something about yourself, you will be less likely to want to be close to others. But now this is no longer a spiritual theory. It's a reality. We spend our days turning our lives inside-out via Facebook, Twitter, photo sharing and email. Our phones are subject to inspection not merely by the police and the NSA but by intimate people in our lives who so often take it upon themselves to sift through our communications. It's not just the government doing this. We are doing it to ourselves and to one another. And I believe that part of why we don't seem to mind so much is that it fulfills some deep longing to be known. So, I ask you this: What would it be like to live as if everything about you were known to everyone? How would you feel if you had nothing at all to hide? What then would be possible? Lovingly,  PS -- I will have more to say about the astrology of the USA FREEDOM Act once we have a firm time when Obama signed it into law on Tuesday evening. If you've seen that information please send it my way. Thank you. -- efc Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon in Kingston, New York, by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual basic subscription rate: $97/year. Core community membership: $197/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Office Manager: Lauren Gdovin. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Astrology Fact Checker: Len Wallick. Copy Editor and Fact Checker: Jessica Keet. Client Services: Amy Elliott, Lisa Gatto. Media Consultant: Andrew Marshall McLuhan. Research, Writing and Editing: In addition to those listed above, Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Judith Gayle, Kelly Janes, Amanda Moreno, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick, Lizanne Webb and Chad Woodward.
  "Did you prune them?" "I prune everything." Trust me: paired with the visual, this statement says more than Aunt Marg intended. You'll just have to watch the video; it's short. Image: video still from "Sisters"
Shifted SistersBy Amanda Painter With one week left of Mercury retrograde in Gemini, sometimes you just need a reminder to laugh. Whether communication has gotten wonky, items have gone missing (including, seemingly, your mind), or your honeymoon plans result in an emergency underwear purchase thanks to plane delays and lost luggage (a true story for a friend of mine this week), a moment of levity can work magic. Even simple, silly things can fit the bill -- such as this video from comedy group The Kloons. Nik Kazoura of The Kloons recorded his sixty-something mother and aunt engaging in light conversation. Then he and fellow Kloon Mitch Lewis filmed themselves lip-syncing the ladies' words. It's a simple but often sublimely effective device to juxtapose audio and visual. Sometimes the result is dramatic cognitive dissonance; other times you may experience a subtle shift in layers of understanding. In fact, that's all part of the mission. According to their website, The Kloons aspire to be "a viral network of engaged participants collaborating to inspire a positive shift in how people experience the world around them." Kind of like what Mercury retrograde does, if you're open to it.   Bob Dylan, with treble clef inlays on his guitar.
The Gemini Soul, Sagittarius Full Moon & Bob DylanIn this week's edition of Planet Waves FM, I consider the Sagittarius Full Moon, which blends the signs Gemini and Sagittarius. This sets the theme of the program -- the resolutions of opposites, dualism and Gemini's meaning in this context. I walk through a number of theories of dualism, non-dualism and "logic" (which is less logical than it seems) and then convey that into a theory of astrology. My musical guest is Bob Dylan (a tradition this time of year for Planet Waves). I play live versions of Chimes of Freedom and Memphis Blues, and read the lyrics to both.  This week, I returned to Planet Waves TV with a new video installment. In today's edition, I have information about Venus in Leo, and Mercury stationing direct. You can watch it here.  Your Monthly Horoscopes -- and our Publishing Schedule Notes Your extended monthly horoscopes for June were published Thursday, May 21. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for May Thursday, April 23. Your Moonshine horoscopes for the Sagittarius Full Moon were published Tuesday, May 26. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.  Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, June 4, 2015 #1052 | By Eric Francis   Expert Astrology for When You Need an Expert Dear Gemini Sun, Moon or Rising: Your birthday reading has published -- and as you know, we're in a very interesting, even strange, Gemini sky right now. This is an excellent time to have the insight and understanding that Eric delivers in his unique style. But don't take my word for it; Eric has created a short audio preview to give you a taste. You may listen to the preview here (it's the gray audio player at the top of the page).  As one Planet Waves client recently wrote in: "I cannot tell you enough how Planet Waves has helped me through so many events in my life.” As for the astrology: Mercury is retrograde, Mars is in your sign, and Neptune is adding a touch of mystery to the picture. This will influence you for the next four seasons, at least. Saturn will be spending two years in Sagittarius, your relationship house. What does this add up to? The result will be an amazing year of getting to know yourself. This means going beyond all the typical concepts of Gemini and into a phase of true integration. Think of this as mind-body integration; as soul-personality integration; or that between self and other. There are many other messages from your charts, delivered in clear language. You also get one of Eric's unique tarot readings using the Voyager Tarot by James Wanless; access to last year's reading; and the opportunity to participate in a live call-in session with Eric. Although we've advertised the full published price as $39.95, we know how challenging Mercury retrogrades can be -- so we've decided to offer it to you for $29.97 for a little while longer. It also makes a fun and thoughtful gift for any of your Gemini loved ones. Yours & truly,  Amanda Painter           To unsubscribe, click here e Wiki | Friends | Editors | Contact Us Copyright © 2015 by Planet Waves, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Other copyrights may apply. >> Some images used under Fair Use or Creative Commons attribution. |
