Category: Government

Government, Politics

Remain Calm, All Is Well

Well that was an unexpected news filled weekend. I would not have had attempted assassination on my bingo card when I woke up Saturday morning. As information slowly starts leaking out, as a registered contrarian, I have to say something doesn’t seem right. I’m reminded of a great scene in the movie Casino. Ace the casino manager confronts Don the slots supervisor after three machines in a row hit a jackpot:

Ace Rothstein : Listen, if you didn’t know you were being scammed you’re too fuckin’ dumb to keep this job, if you did know, you were in on it. Either way, YOU’RE OUT!

Look, I’ve never been in the military or been a police officer, but I was a Boy Scout and a lifeguard which is close enough to have an informed opinion about this. How this shooting occurred is stretching the lines of credulity. So what you want me to believe is that some 20 year old dorky dungeons and dragons player who apparently has zero social media footprint, and lives in his mom’s basement, pulled this off all by himself? That he cased out the location beforehand, knew where the stage and podium would be and the exact time Trump would start speaking? So you’re saying he managed to get to the location carrying a ladder and a rifle a handful of minutes beforehand and there wasn’t one element of security positioned to spot him? Or, maybe that the ladder was prepositioned and there wasn’t any sort of security sweep to notice it? We’re to believe that a sniper team was clearly observing a dude with a rifle on a roof and they did nothing?

Just like the Casino movie quote – either someone else was involved in this, or this is one of the biggest displays of security incompetence we’ve ever witnessed. Knowing that the Biden administration values DEI over merit, I’d like to believe it’s just massive incompetence.

We’re hearing that most of the protective personnel were DHS security and not secret service due to lack of resources. Watching some of the female agents on the stage, well… let’s just say they didn’t appear to be operating as a well oiled machine. I can accept that maybe the secret service resources were stretched thin and this was the B or C team that was deployed to protect Trump. Apparently the secret service is now claiming that perimeter security was the responsibility of local PD. If folks are already starting to cover their butts and point fingers, then yes maybe this was all just due to incompetence. We have untold billions to send to Ukraine, but can’t afford to protect a former president? Yeah, ok.

But… but even the most small town yokel Barney Fife police officer would probably guess that securing rooftops might be a good idea. Or at the bare minimum that maybe an officer or a rent-a-cop security guy should be placed so that someone can’t just walk up to unsecured areas around the former president without being noticed. I have a very hard time believing that not a single person thought about this. Maybe if this was a spur of the moment visit and nobody had time to scope out the area, but this wasn’t a last minute visit. It was a rally planned well in advance. Could the US Secret Service really have screwed up that badly?

The other option is that this was intentional. We’ve done it before. The FBI (who’s now in charge of the investigation) HATES Trump. The CIA would be happy to have Kamala in charge. There’s plenty of motivation for various agencies to make a move to prevent a change to the status quo. Had it been successful, the DOJ and FBI certainly would have slow walked any sort of investigation so Biden or Kamala could be put in place for another term.

I don’t know. I don’t want to believe either scenario. Sadly, I wouldn’t be shocked at either one being true. Government incompetence grows at an exponential rate (feel safe flying these days?) One nutjob getting lucky that the C team benchwarmers happened to be in charge during this trip isn’t completely crazy. However, the deep state hates Trump with the power of a thousand suns. All things being equal, with Biden’s DNC support collapsing last week a Trump win looked more likely which presents an existential crisis for the government power machine. If they thought they could get away with it, I wouldn’t put it past them.

Either way, it’s not a good look for us as a country. Would we rather be completely incompetent or admit to planning hit jobs? We’ll never know the answer because we no longer have a press/media that’s willing to do actual journalism and search for the truth.

If Trump was smart he’d call up Erik Prince today (former CEO of Blackwater) and hire him out to provide private security for himself, family, and whomever his new VP pick will be. It’s clear that the government can no longer be trusted to provide reliable security.

How in the world did we ever get to this point? Indeed, The Fourth Turning is rapidly picking up speed. I don’t think there’s much to do at this point other than grab your popcorn and watch the chaos unfold.

Government, Politics

Remember The Doomsday Clock?

I’m old enough to remember practicing ‘duck and cover’ drills in elementary school. I’m not sure how diving under my desk with my hands over my head was going to protect me from a nuclear blast, but I was ready. We all knew about the Doomsday Clock that had been created in 1947 in the aftermath of the manhattan project. The closer the hands got to midnight, the closer we were to all out nuclear war and global armageddon. The hands have been moved forward and backwards 25 times since its creation. The hands are currently the closest to midnight they’ve ever been. The clock was set to 90 seconds last year. That’s an even more dire risk assessment than during the Cold War. I don’t give the clock much credence (they now include global warming in the calculation), but it is a proxy for the current world-wide unrest. Thinking about the Doomsday Clock made me change my mind about our current political crisis.

It hasn’t been a secret that Biden is not running the country. It’s not clear who the final decision maker is or even if there is one. Perhaps everything is run by committee. Realistically I don’t think it matters who the democratic candidate is. Biden, Harris, Newsom, etc… if they win nothing changes. The same committee will still be running the country. Up until yesterday’s NATO press conference I was content to keep Biden in the running as I think he’s the best chance Trump has to win. Not that I think Trump is a great choice, but he’d be lightyears better than the current administration. But listening to the NATO speeches about global expansion and Biden’s disastrous big boy press conference, I believe for the safety of the country the president needs to be removed from office.

As I have been saying for a long time, the president clearly has Parkinsons and some level of dementia. Up until the campaign started in ernest, they’ve managed to mostly keep him out of sight and the press was happy to play along. Watching the press conference it was even more clear for me that the man is unable to maintain a train of thought, forgets names, and is word searching. The disease is progressing rapidly and even if he were to win (which is not out of the question), I guarantee that he’d have to be removed from office within six months.

I was an RN on a neuro floor for years and spent plenty of time with Parkinson’s patients. Several of the lesser known side effects of the disease are paranoia and hallucinations. That’s a scary thought. The leader of the free world, the man with the nuclear codes, might be experiencing wild mood swings and paranoia stemming from an inability to distinguish between reality and hallucinations. If you watched the press conference, towards the end he had a weird shouting outburst after randomly talking about guns. That’s the Parkinsons in action. Who knows what else will set him off when he’s behind closed doors?

I’d like to believe there’s enough people and systems in place that Biden can’t just willy nilly start launching missiles, or order a carrier strike group to provoke China, but I don’t have a lot of faith in this administration. I think the real worry is that the rest of the world sees with crystal clear clarity that the president is incapacitated. That increases the odds of bad actors out there doing something serious in an already unstable world. I absolutely do not trust this administration to make smart decisions and keep from starting WWIII. I think everyone from Iran, China, North Korea, to Islamic sleeper cells in our country are currently evaluating making a move now prior to the election. We’re in a pretty vulnerable and frightening spot at the moment.

I never thought I’d say this, but at this moment I’d rather have Biden step down (or be removed) and have Harris as president for the next six months. I don’t think she’d be any more competent than the dementia patient, but at least she wouldn’t be suffering from hallucinations. As long as she can keep from cackling she’d at least be able to read the teleprompter and “look” semi-presidential. That might be enough to keep the world at status quo.

My god, how did we get to this place? The cabal, the committee, whoever’s been running things, are some truly evil people. People who are willing to put the country and the world at risk so they can maintain power and keep the military industrial complex running. They’ve been happy to keep an actual dementia patient propped up as a figurehead so they can achieve their goals. It’s insane when you think about it.

So even though removing Biden reduces Trumps chances to 50/50 at best, I still think it’s the right thing to do. We’re at a scary inflection point.

I think the Doomsday Clock is closer to 30 seconds now.

Government, Politics

The Real Debate Takeaway

It was obvious going way back to the 2020 election. The DNC kept Biden in the basement under the pretext of Covid. They didn’t let him answer press questions, he had virtually zero rallies, and wasn’t allowed to interact with the public other than to offer commentary on ice cream. From day one it was obvious to EVERYONE that Joe Biden was a doddering old man incapable of a quick trip to the grocery store, let alone running the country. If you didn’t think so, you’re lying. As his term progressed, Captain Applesauce’s decline has accelerated. It’s been impossible to ignore. Trump derangement syndrome may have prevented you from saying it out loud, but deep down you knew. Joseph Biden has not been the one running the country. So the frightening takeaway from the debate is the complicity of the media.

For three and a half years the mainstream media has ignored, hidden, and otherwise looked the other way as Biden’s Parkinson’s and dementia rapidly advanced. Literally every other day there’s been a new video of Biden walking like a robot, freezing up, mumbling incoherently, and getting lost on stage. It’s been impossible to ignore. Yet the media chose to pretend it wasn’t happening. Again as a reminder, Trump walked gingerly down a ramp after giving a speech and the media en masse contemplated for days if he was still fit enough to remain president. The difference in media coverage couldn’t be more stark.

Following the debate I tuned into the CNN panel to see what the reaction would be. To watch the phony shock at suddenly seeing Biden’s condition for the first time was performance art at its finest. Every single panelist pretended like they had no idea Biden’s cognitive state was so bad. Van Jones was practically in tears. HOW COME NOBODY TOLD US THE PRESIDENT WASN’T FUNCTIONAL?!?!

These people in the media are scum. They knew damn well what the state of his condition was and happily obfuscated it while it served their allegiance to the DNC. Now that the bat signal has gone out, everyone clutches their pearls and says he can no longer remain the candidate… and maybe needs to step down now. How do these “journalists” look at themselves in the mirror each morning? Just evil.

So the question you have to ask yourself, if the media is perfectly fine with actively hiding the mental and physical condition of the president of the United States while it supports their political leaning… what else are they willing to hide? Why should I trust anything the media reports on? (hint, you shouldn’t)

So as we move forward with the removal of the assisted living patient from the Oval Office, remember what the media did. They lied and actively obscured the physical and mental state of the president for years because of party loyalty. Anything they say about the president or whomever is selected as the new candidate will be nothing more than talking points handed down from the party apparatchiks.

However much you hate the media, it’s not enough.

Confirmation bias, Government, Politics

Which Tribe Are You?

Quite a while ago I wrote a little missive on tribes. I remembered it this morning as I watched all the left-leaning talking heads desperately try to spin the latest videos of Captain Applesauce (our commander in chief) as nothing more than deceptive editing and fake news. The problem is that there’s a new video (or two) virtually every day. The leader of the free world has to be led around so he doesn’t get lost or wander off. His hands are often in some weird frozen state. He experiences frequent “statue” moments where he’s gazing off into space with a slack jawed vacant look on his face. He frequently falls asleep. He spouts unintelligible sentences and has random angry outbursts. It’s actually sad to see. The man has Parkinsons and onset dementia. It’s clear and obvious to everyone who chooses to be honest about what they’re seeing. This is what fascinates me – the liberal media as a whole chooses not to broadcast those images or discuss them. They’ll go out of their way to attack anyone who accuses the president of not being of sound mind. Why?

Remember when Trump was president and he walked gingerly down a ramp after giving a speech at West Point? There was an avalanche of press reports “raising new health concerns” at the time. Clearly the press can question the president’s health when they choose to. It’s not any surprise that the media is left-leaning. That’s the tribe they identify with. Politics are possibly the most tribal part of the human condition, even more so than sports. The confirmation bias that happens within political tribes is a spectacular thing to see.

Watching the left twist themselves into pretzels trying to ignore Biden’s health issues, inflation, or explain that the border really is shut down, is comical. But the right is just as bad. To the Trump crowd, the man walks on water. He made disastrous personnel choices, gave us Fauci and Birx, a vaccine that didn’t work, implemented nationwide lockdowns, didn’t build the wall, and added $8 trillion to the national debt. Mention any of those things and the MAGA crowd will shout you down like the Nancy Pelosi lover you must be. You don’t disparage the leader of the tribe.

So the question I have – is tribalism worse today? A number of people have floated the theory that the advent of social media, and especially X/Twitter, has fostered an environment of toxic tribalism that is the worst we’ve ever seen. We’re all so busy electronically shouting at each other, have we created a chasm so large that it can’t be crossed? Could the country come together and share some common ground if we had the right leadership? Or are we headed towards a civil war?

I’m not sure. Certainly X/Twitter has made it easier than ever to fling poo at the other side like a deranged howler monkey. And the advent of podcasts and alternative news/media options has made it easier for tribes to retreat to the information sources that feed their particular narrative. But does that mean we feel more allegiance to whatever tribe we belong to than people did in the past? I’m not sure about that. I suspect that you would have had a pretty hard time convincing an auto worker in the 70’s to listen to anything a Republican had to say and visa versa.

I’d like to think my conclusion from the piece I wrote years ago still holds true. Tribalism is magnified by economics. A middle class that is prosperous and expanding is less interested in tribes. You’ll be a lot more open to other ideas when your refrigerator is full, you can afford a home, jobs are plentiful, and you can take a vacation from time to time. Take those things away and people tend to withdraw to their tribe and get territorial.

I’m not sure I believe that any more. Economically the country was in demonstrably better shape during the previous administration (pre-pandemic). Everyone was benefiting. Yet the Trump derangement syndrome never dissipated for the left after the election. They hate that man with a white hot fury. The left spent his entire presidency doing everything in their power to destroy him, despite the country prospering. That’s a level of tribalism we haven’t seen before and it certainly hasn’t gone away. The idea that the bad orange man is the candidate again, and appears to be on a path to win, is making the left insane.

Sadly, I think we’re at a level of tribalism that’s dangerous. I suspect the left will do anything to prevent Trump from taking office again. And should he win… whoo boy, that’s going to make them big mad. The riots and protests we saw last go around will be nothing compared to what’s coming.

I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re asking the wrong question. It’s not, is tribalism worse. It’s who stands to benefit from increased tribalism? Of course, it’s our old friend the Deep State. The Enterprise. The Military Industrial Complex. Whatever you want to call it, I suspect years from now history will show that the intelligence agencies have had a hand in fomenting unrest here in the US. Creating a toxic environment in which neither party can be effective. Why? To maintain the status quo. To keep the spending going. To keep the forever wars going. As long as we’re busy bickering amongst ourselves, there’s little room to affect any meaningful change in Washington.

The CIA and DIA have been fomenting revolutions and civil unrest in country after country from their inception. The FBI has been actively interfering in US politics for years. The intelligence agencies have had their hands all over the levers of US news censorship in the past and massively in the present day. You’d be foolish to not think they’d be trying to influence the direction of this country for their own self-interests (which is a scary topic all on its own).

So what can be done about it? I’m not sure we can do anything. The cynical side of me says that it’s too late. I fear that the spending and warmongering monster that is Washington has grown too powerful to limit, regardless of who we elect.

But if there is a chance, that inflection point is this election. If the evil orange man gets elected, AND he picks a powerful VP who can succeed him… maybe we can slow down the deep state. I’m not optimistic. There’s about a thousand things that can still derail Trump at this point, elected or not.

I keep repeating myself, I know… but I need to say it again. Regardless of the outcome of this election there’s going to be some spicy chaos going on. Neither side will be happy and they’re going to find someone to take it out on. I’m happy I live in a mountainous enclave that’s far away from big cities. If you’re unlucky enough to live in one of those big cities – now’s the time to prepare for the unrest that coming.

Government

I Need To Stop Reading

I’ve come to the realization that I need to stop reading. And watching podcasts. It makes me angry and probably isn’t good for my blood pressure. I’ll give you an example. I started out my week by reading the book “The only plane in the sky“. It’s an oral history of the 9/11 attacks. Minute by minute recounts of the events of that day by everyone from survivors, police, fire, and government officials. Excellent book that at times was hard to read. Going through the transcripts of peoples last phone calls to their loved ones is heart wrenching. It rekindled the anger we all felt after that day. I’d forgotten how big and devastating the attack was. Hard to believe that was more than twenty years ago now.

After finishing the book, a long-form interview popped up from Shawn Ryan. He interviews Sarah Adams who is an ex CIA targeting officer who specialized in Libya and Pakistan. This is her second interview with Shawn. It’s basically a masterclass in how we managed the end of GWOT and what the Islamic armies are up to now. Want to be angry at your government? Go watch this.

In a nutshell our government is corrupt, incompetent, and so driven by politics we’ve dumped everything we did since 9/11 into the wastebasket. Al Qaida is now more powerful than they were pre-9/11. And the best part? We’re funding them. Yep, we fund the Taliban to the tune of $40-87 million dollars… A WEEK. Yes you read that right. A plane with pallets of cash land every 7-10 days. Ostensibly it’s for humanitarian work, but it’s all siphoned off by the Taliban, to terror leaders, by ISIS, and the bin Laden group. We’re funding everyone we’ve been at war with. Isn’t that special?

It’s hard to comprehend the magnitude of the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle. Two decades of fighting and untold loss, blood spilled, and trillions spent – for what? We’ve now rearmed the Taliban, funded them, and Afghanistan is once again the terror training capital of the world. In a previous post I described how we developed our biometric monitoring systems over there during the long GWOT. Massive databases containing biometric data on virtually everyone in the country. The Taliban now has those systems and in the last six months, with the help of the Chinese and Iranians, have gotten it all back up and running. Every poor soul the US paid or was a member of the Afghan army, the Taliban now knows exactly who they are. Tens upon tens of thousands of people have already been “disappeared”. It’s simply disgusting what we’ve done.

Here’s an even better one – the United States Government pays a monthly stipend to the families of Taliban members who were killed… fighting against us! It’s hard to believe it’s real. It makes your head spin it’s so outrageous.

I don’t understand how anyone involved can think this is ok? Where are the whistleblowers at the State Department? The CIA, the FBI, DOD, there isn’t anyone who raises their hand and says this is not right? Where are our elected officials whose job is providing oversight of all this? Isn’t there anyone willing to put party politics aside and be an American first? Never mind, don’t answer that. There’s a reason the deep state exists and exerts the power it does.

I can’t imagine what it must feel like to have served during the GWOT and now see this. What a punch to the gut. What a waste of blood, lives, and trillions of dollars.

So that’s it. Until my blood pressure returns to normal, no more reading unless it’s weight loss or gardening books. And definitely no more podcasts. Or Twitter. I was much happier with my head in the sand. At this point I wish I could take the blue pill and go back to blissful ignorance.

Government, Politics

Will There Be A Debate?

There’s some 3D chess going on over at the DNC right now that I can’t stop thinking about. I was genuinely surprised when the Biden campaign agreed to debate the bad orange man. The first debate, hosted by CNN, will be on June 27. The entire planet sees that Biden is not the same person he was four years ago. The man has rapidly advancing dementia and at this point struggles to read a teleprompter. He can barely form a coherent sentence and his handlers prevent him from answering any press questions. When he does interact with the press he has a pre-printed card with his answers to the carefully screened questions. I do not believe Biden is capable of standing up for an hour and speaking extemporaneously in response to debate questions – even if he has the questions in advance. The mans mental faculties are simply too far gone at this point to handle this sort of challenge. So the million dollar question… why would the DNC risk putting him on the stage? It makes no sense.

One possibility is that they want him to fail spectacularly and use that as the excuse to give his delegates to Gavin Newsom at the convention. Or, maybe the thought is that his stage performance will be so alarming, they’ll invoke the 25th amendment to make Kamala the first female president. If she was already the sitting president that would at least give her a chance at being reelected.

Maybe they never intended to actually debate? It could be that there was always a planned reason to reject the debate. Could Trump being found guilty yesterday be the reason? Biden can claim that he has no interest in debating a convicted felon and will therefore skip the debate.

Who knows – maybe all these trips to the beach in Delaware have actually been debate prep and Biden will come out and surprise us all. Maybe.

These are certainly strange times. I predicted long ago that Biden will not be the nominee. I still think that’s the case… but I’ll admit that I’m puzzled at what’s going on. I was sure Biden would have dropped out by now to give Gavin or Kamala plenty of time to campaign. I guess in reality people don’t actually pay attention until the last few months so changing candidates at the convention in August may not be that big of a deal.

It’s just hard to imagine that the DNC would risk the presidency by keeping Biden as the candidate. Unless all along the plan was to assume that at least one of the many Trump trials would either imprison him or so severely cripple his campaign he wouldn’t have a chance. Biden is reelected and steps down shortly after so Kamala can take the helm. The Obama regime can have their first woman president and another useful stooge to do their bidding.

This game of thrones is getting interesting for sure. No matter which way it turns out, I think things are going to get spicy for the country. Good for the oligarchs, not so good for the regular people.

Keep your head on a swivel my friends.

Daily Life, Government

Is Privacy Important?

If you’ve been following along at home, I recently went on a conspiracy theory reading binge (is it still conspiracy if it’s true?). But that’s nothing new as I’ve been espousing about our security state for quite some time now. Lately it seems like daily you find out something new that either the government or big tech is doing to spy on you. 99% of us just shrug our shoulders. Meh, it’s the price of having the fancy new iPhone so we can FaceTime and share all our data between devices via the cloud, right?

This morning I listened to an interview with Erik Prince, the founder of the Blackwater private security company. Fascinating guy for many reasons, but one of them is that he’s just recently created a smart phone that’s “unplugged”. In theory it can’t be traced by the government and it allows you to use most common apps without the tech companies (or government) scooping up all your usage and location data. While we probably all have a sense of what’s happening, it’s still shocking to hear the degree of spying that’s being done on us via our phones.

As is usually the case when I see or hear things like this I immediately vow to get off all social media platforms, wipe everything off my phone, and switch to using cash for all transactions. But then the more I think about it I realize “they” already have everything there is to know about me. I’m sure I have a very well established profile filed away somewhere. So what good would unplugging do at this point? If, as Mr Prince alleges (and I believe to be true), multiple apps, Google, and Apple can turn on/off your phone camera and microphone at will… and that data is recorded and stored for all eternity, then a hostile actor could already blackmail, embarrass, or threaten me. What good would shutting it off now do?

I suppose the only reason to have an unplugged phone would be if I planned on someday communicating with others or researching things that the government would like to know about and track. I don’t see that happening. I guess it’s accepting the “if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear” mentality. It would take effort and sacrifice to try and unplug from our tech overlords. Is it really worth it?

But here’s the thing – it makes me mad that we even have to contemplate this. How did we let this happen? As Mr Prince says, it’s the frog in the slowly boiling water phenomenon. Little by little, with promises about how cool it will be when every device in your world is interconnected. I’m just as guilty as everyone else. I have Alexa, Siri, a smart refrigerator, online cameras and heating systems. On top of everything else that our phones do, I share my location online for Mrs Troutdog when riding the motorcycle and happily post photos everywhere I go embedded with location data. Like I said, I bought into the whole interconnected thing. Hell, I even worked for the evil empire (Microsoft back when Google’s slogan was still “don’t be evil“) and was part of their data collection division via your TV and set top box way back in the day. We collected everything about your viewing habits – what channels you watched, how long, and how you surfed through the guide. All so we could sell that data to advertisers. Well, technically not us but the cable providers who used our system. So I suppose I was part of the problem way back then.

But now… now the genie is out of the box and I’m not sure we’ll be able to put it back. The Borg has metastasized and has grown out of control. I don’t think the vast majority of people grasp the fact that we live in a full on police/security state. Monitored at all times. What our government and the tech companies currently do would be the envy of the old East German Stasi. Take a close look at how China monitors and controls its population, because that is our future very soon.

It makes me angry that we gave up everything for the convenience of some fancy tech and the promise of keeping us secure from terrorists and stopping the drug cartels. We did it to ourselves and there’s no going back – without drastic measures. I’m not sure we have the will as a nation to push back anymore.

The funny thing is that just the other day I agreed with Mrs Troutdog that I’d fully switch over to the Apple ecosystem and get an iPhone so we could more easily share calendars and FaceTime. Now I’m not so sure I want to. Maybe I should get an unplugged phone and start purging all the data collection apps and social media I use. Maybe I should start using cash for everything so my purchase habits and locations can’t be tracked.

Maybe.

But then again, that’s inconvenient. And I like fancy new technology. Besides, I’m not doing anything wrong. At the end of the day why do I care if someone’s watching me?

Man I hate being a lazy conspiracy theorist.

Government

They’re Watching

I spent the last week on a beach outside of the USA. Good food, too many margaritas, and plenty of time by the pool. With nothing but time on my hands I consumed a number of books. One was about the United States biometric data collection practices and another was Edward Snowdens book. Both were fascinating and frightening. The allegations Snowden makes about US surveillance capabilities almost seem made up… and then we experienced it firsthand crossing back across the border.

Mrs Troutdog and I both enrolled in the Global Entry program so we wouldn’t have to stand in the passport line coming back from vacation. This trip was our first time using it. We walked up to a handful of empty kiosks and a customs agent. He instructed us to look into a camera. In under five seconds a green light came on and we were done and on our way. Instant facial recognition indexed against a database of god knows what information about us. (also used by the Clear airport security program) It was creepy, especially knowing that this technology is probably being used on us daily as we walk around minding our own business.

If you weren’t aware, the NSA/CIA/DIA invested heavily in biometric harvesting and analysis during the global war on terror, primarily in Afghanistan. One of the offshoots of that is a company called Palantir founded by billionaire Peter Thiel. They created AI that takes biometrics and metadata, indexes that against intelligence data, and creates predictive behavior models – basically tracking your movements and predicting that you’re very likely to plant an IED or attack soldiers in the future. That battlefield program has now been turned over to police departments under the auspices of “predictive policing”. A number of big departments, LA, New York, New Orleans, have been experimenting with it to target gang activity. It’s unclear at this point to what degree it’s been implemented beyond trials.

Another fun company, also funded by Peter Thiel, is Clearview AI. They’ve scraped billions upon billions of images from Facebook and other social media sites to build a massive neural network of facial and location recognition. Give the algorithm a face and it will spit back all known locations that person visited and their associates/friends. It’s currently being used by law enforcement and private companies. Wonder why you didn’t get that job? Maybe one of your friends is too controversial. Maybe they know you visited that seedy massage parlor or attended a protest of some sort several years ago.

But where does the government get this data about you? Besides companies like Clearview AI, thanks to Mr Snowden we now know that the NSA is intercepting all internet traffic. There is a series of servers sitting at all major US telecom sites that internet traffic is routed through. The first is called TURMOIL and it intercepts your web request and makes a copy. The second is called TURBINE which parses through your data looking for keywords, metadata, and flagged web sites. If you trip the algorithm, the TURBINE server can insert malware which is then downloaded to your device and voila, the NSA is now actively monitoring you.

The NSA and CIA are monitoring and collecting every single bit of data you produce and storing it at a massive data center south of Salt Lake City (reportedly capable of storing yottabytes of data). Internet searches, phone calls, location data… basically anything that makes contact electronically with the outside world is harvested. Add on top of that facial recognition data and license plate readers from a sea of cameras planted throughout your city and it’s fair to say you are being tracked and monitored most of your waking moments. All in the name of “security”.

Going into Snowdens book, I wasn’t sure how I felt. I love my country and after 9/11, of course I want to ensure the terror tactics seen in Europe or on the battlefield don’t spread here. Snowden signed the NDA’s and swore an oath – you don’t then get to just violate that because you think you’re being righteous.

The problem is that our country lied. James Clapper, director of national Intelligence, sat in front of congress and swore we did not collect data on Americans. But they do. They collect all of it. Everything. The justification they now give is that they collect and store it, but they don’t use it unless there’s a reason. Uhm, yeah right.

When you see the overreach and abuses we’re currently witnessing from the FBI, the weaponization of the DOJ, the illegal FISA searches, NSA monitoring and leaking info about journalists, and the alphabet agencies partnering with social media to censor news… my trust level for the government is about as close to zero as you can get. So as far as Snowden goes, I went from ambivalent to firmly on team Snowden.

We have a minor little thing called the fourth amendment in this country. The government does not have the right to spy and collect data about you without due process. The people have the right to understand what information is being harvested about them and how it’s used.

While the founding fathers may appreciate that pithy little paragraph, it’s meaningless. We’ve already crossed the point of no return. This genie isn’t going back in the bottle. We officially live in a big brother state. You are going to be watched, monitored, and have predictive AI make decisions about your life from the moment of birth until your death. It’s Orwellian stuff of science fiction novels. It’s all fine and dandy I suppose, as long as it’s used against bad guys. But what’s that old quote? “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely“

It wouldn’t take much for an administration to decide some segment of the population was getting a bit too subversive and to take action. Write the wrong thing in a blog post, say something about the government in your living room with Alexa listening, order a flagged item from Amazon – you’re going to get a knock on your door from the feds. Good luck booking airline travel or applying for a job when you’re on an enhanced watch list.

Can you honestly say we’re very far away from that reality? What makes you think we’re not already there?

So yeah, I approve of what Snowden did. We need more of that. More sunlight. More details. More exposure. Because I like quotes, here’s another one for you: “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” Those in power do not want this and will fight it tooth and nail, in the name of security. Understand this and reject any and all attempts to expand the security state.

Now excuse me, I’m off to feed the Facebook algorithm false information to confuse the feds. Just kidding. I watch cute Vizsla videos and mountain bike crashes.

Or that’s what I want you to think.

Government, Politics

What Comes Next?

I’ll admit, I’m a little worried at the current state of world affairs. My unease was made worse by a book I just finished. It’s called “Nuclear War: A Scenario” by investigative reporter Annie Jacobsen. I highly recommend it. It describes step by step exactly what happens in a nuclear exchange, from how the nuclear football works, to what the blast damage looks like. The TLDR is… your best bet is to be at ground zero and have it all over instantly. Anything else is just prolonged suffering. Nobody wins.

My bigger takeaway from the book is how fragile the entire system is. It’s truly frightening how little of a misjudgment it would take to kick the whole thing off. If we (or Russia or China) detect what we think is a nuclear warhead being launched, the president has six minutes to decide what to do. SIX MINUTES. And when you look at the shuffling dementia patient who currently holds the keys… I’m not filled with confidence at the decision making ability.

Now fast forward to today. Iran launched a massive strike against Israel. Fortunately all except seven of the missiles and drones were shot down. But now we face the million dollar question – now what?

Was this just stupid chest thumping by Iran so they can reclaim their manhood after their general was liquified by an Israeli missile in retaliation for Oct 7? It sort of looks like that since what they launched was old, slow, and we’ve known it was coming for a week now. If that was the case, shouldn’t both sides simply retreat back to their corners and maintain the status quo? Is it worth kicking off a full scale regional war that has the potential of escalating to something much worse?

But what if it was something else? What if it was a probe to judge the response? The US/UK/Israel basically just showed Iran (and anyone else watching) exactly what our response times are, how we respond, where each defensive launch point is, and how effective the anti-missile defense is. How many more iron dome and arrow missiles do we and Israel have remaining? Seems like a worthwhile exercise to go through if you don’t fear any real retaliation.

Let’s be real. The goal is to drive the Jews into the sea. Always has been, always will. The players may change, but the desire to eradicate Israel never ends. There is no amount of appeasement that is going to fix this. October 7th was a stark reminder. The moment Israel lets its guard down, even for a moment, the invading hoards will swarm intent on massacre. You know it, and I know it. If Iran thinks it can get away with an even bigger strike with minimal consequences, they’ll do it and you know it to be true. So what do we do?

My gut says it’s time to have a joint US/UK/Israel strike against Iran to completely devastate their infrastructure and economy. Ensure their nuclear weapon development programs are destroyed. Make sure they have zero economic power. It’s not like they’re going to hate us any more than they already do. While we’re at it, let’s wrest control back of the Red Sea shipping lanes. Oh, and how about we put some pressure on our “allies” like Qatar to stop harboring Hamas leadership? Help Israel finish cleaning out Hamas and start building bigger and better walls around Gaza and the West Bank. While we’re at it, southern Lebanon and Hezbollah should probably get a taste of real retribution. No more firing rockets into civilian homes with impunity.

Sometimes, a good ass kicking is the only way to stop a bully.

All fine and dandy, except… I’m not sure we can put that genie back in the bottle once it’s out. And color me skeptical, but I have zero faith in our “leaders” to make good decisions. Would Russia step in? Would China take this opportunity to take Taiwan? Do we really want to be mired in another forever war in the Middle East? What a mess.

It’s clear that our “experts”, both past and present, pretty much don’t know doodly-squat. Their ability to predict outcomes and consequences leave much to be desired. Like I said in the beginning, it wouldn’t take much for things to go horribly wrong. After all, WWI was started after some archduke was assassinated. The wrong missile flys over the wrong airspace and… boom. The end.

It’s a sobering thought. It’s a very scary time. Do we encourage everyone to step back, or do we go thump some heads before things get worse? Glad I’m not making the decisions. I just wish I had more faith in those who are.

Elections have consequences.

Government, Politics

The Adults Are Back In Charge

The level of incompetence found in this administration is breathtaking. Or it’s calculated evil. I can’t decide which. Before you start shouting about the Illuminati partnering with the WEF to create a new global world order… it’s not. This is a case of snotty, condescending, east coast elites who all went to the best Ivy League schools and are sure they’re the smartest kids in the class. Suddenly they find themselves in power and discover that the cockamamie ideas they bantered about in their dorm rooms when they were making fun of Dan Quayle spelling potato, aren’t working in real life. But just like Disney, rather than admit they were wrong, they decide to double down. And that scares the hell out of me.

Yesterday Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed that Ukraine will join NATO. National security advisor Jake Sullivan said the same thing last July. So not only are we doing everything humanly possible to prolong the war in Ukraine, we’ve decided that our foreign policy objective is to cross the red line that Putin specifically declared as a path to war. Why?

Why do we continue to push a war that Ukraine has no chance of winning? None. Zero. If you disagree, please explain how Ukraine is going to defeat the entire Russian army – and not just defeat them, but destroy them to the point that Russia will pull back to the original border and Putin will simply apologize and promise to never do it again. Do you really, honestly, think that’s going to happen? Of course not and you know it. So what exactly then is our objective?

At some point, Putin will tire of the stalemate and choose to take decisive action. And then what do we do? This brinksmanship is beyond frightening because of how fast it could escalate to something really bad. Meanwhile, we’re going to vote to send Ukraine another 60 billion dollars (that we don’t have) next week. And, as confirmed by representative Massie, not a single congressperson nor the state department even has the slightest idea how many Ukrainians have been killed in this war. It’s disgusting.

The disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. The unintended consequences of the open border. Loss of the strategic petroleum reserve. Near total depletion of our military ammunition stockpiles. Nord Stream. China spy balloons. The fragile beginnings of Middle East peace are gone. Iran. Threatening Israel while Hamas still holds US hostages. Red Sea shipping shut down by the Houthis. The hits just keep on coming.

I’m not sure I can come up with anything that looks like foreign police success for this administration. It’s pretty bad when your track record is literally zero after almost four years. At this point, I think you could randomly pick people out of the phone book and they’d do a better job. This administration, and the “deep state” for that matter, has become the living embodiment of the Peter Principle – “people in a hierarchy tend to rise to a level of respective incompetence”. We’re living with a governmental bureaucracy ushered in by the Obama administration. Flotillas of idealistic “hope and change” Ivy League college kids who went straight from school to the Washington machine without any real world experience. Now years later, they’ve risen to the top and are leading us to disaster. At this point I think I’d prefer the evil Klaus Schwab Illuminati scenario – at least it’s explainable.

As Obama famously said, “elections have consequences”. He was more right than he could have imagined. We need to take the sharp objects away from the “adults in charge” soon, before things go really bad.