Gosh, another day and another “Putin is evil" story.
Lots of “information” floating around and not a lot of knowledge. I’ve been watching this story trying to discern knowledge.
Right now I don’t see the “proof” of crimes. Lots of accusations flying and for the liberals they want to protect Hillary and attack Putin. For the right, anything that implicates Hillary in something evil is good news.
This is the most complete information I’ve seen so far.
More is surely to follow.…
This is an amazing three part series. All three parts are linked below.
When the Cold War ended, America stood at a cross roads. Many hailed the resultant “peace dividend”. The notion was that with the end of high defense spending during the Cold War, we could use that money for other internal purposes (of course no politician put forth the notion of giving the money back to the taxpayers).
Aside from economic changes, the US faced no major military threats for the first time in a long time. What an opportunity.
Of course the opportunity was turned into America becoming an empire, just like the old British empire. It’s ending the same way.
We had a long period where we could impose our way pretty much at will. In the absence of an economic or military adversary, we become the bullies of the world. Then Russia and China caught up.
We stood a good chance of becoming one of the three “super powers”, sharing influence with the Russians and the Chinese. Right now we face the very real possibility of falling behind China and Russia.
This is a very sobering series.…
As the US continues is preoccupation with old school wars, the rest of the world embraces economic “war” through the notions of trade and profit.
Enemies don’t become friends, but they learn to get along when they realize that there are profits to be made. For political leaders, profits translate into a happy population, with jobs, healthcare, food and other creature comforts readily available.
Iraq, the Kurds, Turkey and the various factions just negotiated a solution to fighting in Kirkuk. Despite the protestations of the super Neos like John Bolton, and the US military, clever tribal leaders negotiated a peaceful end to what could have been a very bloody battle.
They all decided not to kill each other because Kirkuk is an oil rich area and they all need the money. …
I’m loving watching the NFL disintegrate before my eyes.
Professional sports in my lifetime has followed the same path that teachers, cops and the military have. Once you increase the salaries, you end up getting some employees who are in it for the money, not for the love of the vocation.
Teachers used to be respected. Salaries were low and you really had to want to be a teacher to do it. Now with increased compensation, folks choose the career for the money and benefits.
You see this transition over and over again in many career fields. When I was a kid, NFL players had real jobs in the off-season. People respected their skills on the field, not their social conscience.
The funny thing is that I don’t miss them. …
Google’s larger mission to make the world’s information “universally accessible and useful.
“I want to use the best technology we have at our disposal to begin to take on trolling and other nefarious tactics that give hostile voices disproportionate weight,” says Jigsaw founder and president Jared Cohen. “To do everything we can to level the playing field.”
Google’s effort, Jigsaw is the new name for what used to be called Google Ideas. At first glance, their mission seems all sweet and wonderful. They want to stop the “bad” things in social media. An enlightened censorship for the common good.
It’s scary when the elites come up with a plan to censor speech that they and they alone determine is “harmful”. Let’s remember for a second that they are a for-profit corporation. They don’t do things to be nice. They obviously are creating a product that is for sale, and for sale to the highest bidder.
Even if trolling and other harassment on the internet is harmful, does the prior censorship of it make our country better? Does eliminating this harmful internet speech eliminate the real harmful thoughts? Encouraging discourse of any type is almost always better.
As an aside, this kind of smells of some sort of “new world order” operation. Meddling in foreign affairs by a corporate entity won’t come out well in the end and is against every National and International law that exists. But I guess it’s ok if you are well-intentioned.…
I’ve shared these thoughts with friends and on this blog for a long time. Stop thinking that Facebook, Google, Twitter and all of the other social media outlets are somehow some sort of good guys who exist only for the furthering of an educated and intelligent populous.
They are a business. A business that wants to make a lot of money for it’s stockholders. Whatever they do or don’t do is designed to maximize profits.
It’s kind of like CNN that everyone seems to hate. Well, everyone except the viewers that they have and the advertisers that want to influence the buying decisions of their viewers.
We need to drop the notion that they are something special who somehow ascribe to some sort of code of ethics that makes them do socially responsible things. People are quick to organize to hold other corporations ethically responsible. It’s time to recognize the social media for what it is.…
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is the authority under which the US Government routinely collect and searches the online communications of innocent Americans with a warrant.
It expires at the end of this year.
As you might expect, the deep state doesn’t want it to just go away. Congress is taking up the issue. The USA Liberty Act has been introduced to fix it before it expires. It falls far short of addressing the worst abuses of the NSA’s Internet surveillance.
The actual bill is posted below as a link.
Contact your representatives to demand real changes and real protections. It’s time to reel in the surveillance state.…
