IN THE NEWS

The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest till it has gained a hearing.

-Sigmund Freud

‘No regrets,’ says Edward Snowden, after 10 years in exile

Ewen MacAskill, © The Guardian
June 8, 2023

‘No regrets,’ says Edward Snowden, after 10 years in exile
But whistleblower says 2013 surveillance ‘child’s play’ compared to technology today

Ewen MacAskill
Thu 8 Jun 2023 02.00 EDT
Edward Snowden has warned that surveillance technology is so much more advanced and intrusive today it makes that used by US and British intelligence agencies he revealed in 2013 look like child’s play.

In an interview on the 10th anniversary of his revelations about the scale of surveillance – some of it illegal – by the US National Security Agency and its British counterpart, GCHQ, he said he had no regrets about what he had done and cited positive changes.

... full article

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.

-Sigmund Freud (in a letter to Wilhelm Fliess)

US in Throes of Unexceptional Imperial Decline

By William J. Astore © Consortiumnews
June 7, 2023

All around the U.S. things are falling apart. Collectively, Americans are experiencing national and imperial decline. Can America save itself? Is the country, as presently constituted, even worth saving?

For me, that last question is radical indeed. From my early years, I believed deeply in the idea of America. I knew this country wasn’t perfect, of course, not even close. Long before the 1619 Project, I was aware of the “original sin” of slavery and how central it was to our history. I also knew about the genocide of Native Americans. (As a teenager, my favorite movie — and so it remains — was Little Big Man, which pulled no punches when it came to the white man and his insatiably murderous greed.)

... full article

The most confused you will ever get is when you try to convince your heart and spirit of something your mind knows is a lie.

-Shannon L. Alder

“Enough Is Enough”: Australian PM Throws Support Behind Movement to Free Julian Assange

© Democracy Now
June 6, 2023

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/6/6/julian_assange_wikileaks?jwsource=cl

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

-Lao Tzu

Françoise Gilot, French painter who inspired then left Picasso, dead at 101

BY JOCELYN NOVECK © The Los Angeles Times
June 6, 2023

Françoise Gilot, a prolific and acclaimed painter who produced art for more than a half-century but was nonetheless more famous for her turbulent relationship with Pablo Picasso — and for leaving him — died Tuesday in New York City, where she had lived for decades. She was 101.

... full article