Back in the Stone Age, when I didn't mind working 18-hour days, sleeping on a bus and using a calendar instead of a map to figure where I was, I toured with a magician named Doug Henning. While working on that gig, I learned a thing or two about misdirection. People's eyes will automatically look at something flashy, allowing other things to pass unnoticed if they are subtle enough.
Sure, this Snowden guy is in the grand tradition of Daniel Ellsberg and Julian Assange, but something just doesn't smell right here. A 29-year-old man with top secret credentials who worked at the CIA and the NSA and once applied to the Special Forces runs off to Hong Kong before dropping a paper bomb on his former employers. Nope, don't buy it. Either his conditioning didn't take, or he was 'allowed' to do what he did, which we remember is blowing the lid off of the most massive and sophisticated spy and surveillance operation in history.
And here I thought they had machines to read people's minds and manipulate their dreams. Yet, Snowden waltzed out the door with a pile of top secret papers, which we assume he copied and didn't take the originals.
Oh sure, I'm overjoyed that the spooks had their pants yanked down. Way too much power piled up in one place, as far as I'm concerned. But my spidey-sense is tingling. I feel like I do when I watch great magicians - suspicious of what I just saw, or thought I did.
There's an agenda at play here, and not just that of a hero exposing the evil government sneaking into our lives. It feels like some level higher even than government has put a plan into play. That it happened at the same time as the Bilderberger meeting only further tweaks my hackles. There's a bigger picture here.
Some questions: What are the Chinese allowing him to stay in Hong Kong? Why did the Russians so quickly offer asylum when they couldn't have bothered with Assange? And why Hong Kong? I know places in Wyoming where even satellites, bloodhounds and the LA police couldn't find him. Yet, he runs to one of the most densely populated islands in the world while his photo is being plastered all over global TeeVee?
As Assange noted, I hope he has a backup plan, because so far he's looking a little sloppy.
Even more to the point, doesn't anyone read history - even fairly recent history? What about J. Edgar Hoover? What about Nixon's enemies list? Did we already forget about that? And what about the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798? Or Lincoln's General Order 100 or the suspension of Writ of Habeas Corpus? In fact, Lincoln did more to undermine the Constitution than any president since, and he's a HERO!
So all this hubbub and surprise is really unwarranted. None of this is new or even surprising. Both the spying and the laws that authorized it have been around for a while. Bush and Obama have both said that they would do as much and trotted out their Attorneys General to read off the justifications to bleary eyed press and public.
All this commotion over Snowden can only be distraction. There is no other explanation. We should all be looking in every direction but Snowden trying to find the 'trick', because I guarantee while we've been watching him, something has changed that is far more important and subversive.
Now's our chance to start the shunning campaign I have long advocated. We should all completely ignore the whole Snowden matter, turn off the babbling heads and start digging deep into whatever the other hand was doing while all this went on. If we refuse to be led down the path by manufactured news stories such as this and doggedly keep looking the other way, it will have a devastating effect on those who deign to rule us. By following this story, we only feed into the insanity which is the uberklassen.
Turn off the TeeVee. Don't click on any Snowden stories. Avoid the topic of domestic spying altogether. And for God's sake, make Congress do some work instead of sitting around like a bunch of nellies gasping and feigning for the cameras (that includes Rand Paul).
I'm all googly and giddy for Snowden, but don't let the messenger steal the message. You have work to do. You have laws to repeal, pols to throw in jail and a country to take back. Sounds like your plate is rather full.
So why are you still sitting there?
By the way, have you noticed that every single photo of Snowden is from the left side? Doesn't that strike you as a bit odd? Even famous movie stars can't control things that much.
