Big Brother vs the First Amendment | Establishing Secure Communications - Part 1/4

» The electronics revolution [.. a vital precursor to our own digital revolution of non-physical, non-atomic bits-n-bytes ] .. began with the invention of the triode vacuum tube in 1906 .. about the same time that Einstein discovered E=mc2 .. and some three years after George Orwell was born.

First transistor (1947)The solid-state transistor [ widely recognized as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century ..

.. and an even more vital precursor to our digital revolution ] was invented in 1947 ..

.. same year that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Brooklyn .. and three years before Orwell died.

So George was there .. when it began. In other words, he was in position to see it coming. (Certainly he could feel it coming.)

Another, really-big, pre-digital-revolution invention came a decade later in 1959, with the microchip .. the integrated circuit. Unfortunately, George didnt live long enough to see that.

Another big invention came in 1971 with the Intel 4004, world's first (commercially available) microprocessor, which led directly to the CPUs you and I use today.

Speaking of CPUs .. you may be interested, by the way, to learn that today's processors from Intel contain 2.5 billion transistors ..

.. while graphics chips from nVidia contain 7 billion transistors. And you can be certain that tomorrow's processors will contain even more.

How big is 7 billion? Answer » if you start counting right now [ "One, two, three..." ], one number per second, it would take 222 years to reach 7 billion (.. counting 24 hours a day, with no sleep).

» Tubes Superseded by Transistors

Speaking of vacuum tubes and the solid-state transistor .. I had a friend growing up who purchased an old, used tube-based McIntosh receiver.

Vacuum tube[ His real name was Bob, but his Italian skin was such a dark shade of olive that everybody called him 'Julio' { 'WHOO-lee-oh } .. a popular Puerto Rican name. "Hey, Julio!"

Some audio enthusiasts feel that digital music loses 'warmth' that is present in analog recording. ]

McIntosh receivers [ not to be confused with the Macintosh computer, which we will touch upon later ] were never very stylish, but they still manufacturer some of the world's finest consumer audio electronics gear.

Julio cut off the metal top of his retro receiver and replaced it with a plexiglass cover .. so you could look down into the electronic guts and see the TUBES glowing.

It took a minute to warm up but produced marvelous audio fidelity. Very cool, specially for the vintage audiophile.

» Flexing Orwell's Muscles

George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (pub 1949) and his novella Animal Farm (1945) together "have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th-century author."

Nineteen Eighty-Four is ranked #13 on Modern Library's list of the Hundred Greatest English Language Novels of the Twentieth Century. (Yes, of the entire century.) Animal Farm is ranked #31.

On the Reader's List, Nineteen Eighty-Four is ranked even higher at #6 and Animal Farm moves up eleven notches to #20.

Le Monde, which includes languages other than English, ranks Nineteen Eighty-Four at #22.

Big Brother looking over your shoulderNineteen Eighty-Four is even found on the list of the 100 Greatest Novels of All Tme. (In any language.) Ever.

Tho these titles are not listed numerically.

But who really cares about seating arrangements .. when you get to be in the same room with the likes of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Hemingway, Kafka.

Even today, more than 60 years after its publication, Nineteen Eighty-Four is still selling like crazy .. bouncing around Amazon's Top-100 Best Sellers list. Remarkable, no?

» The CIA, the FBI, the NSA & Establishing Secure Communications

Moving on to more current issues .. do you remember six months ago, when David Petraeus, then director of the CIA .. was discovered by the FBI to be engaged in an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell?

Now, you might think that the head of the CIA would know a thing or two about how to establish secure communications.

Paula and her baby pythonsMy understanding is that they opened a web-based email account together .. but never actually sent any mail to or from this account.

They merely saved their composed messages as drafts ..

.. and each secret lover read what the other had written by logging into the account and opening the drafts saved there.

"Meet me at the love shack at sunset. Bring snorkel gear and pretzels. We shouldnt need much more."

[ If you have more details, such as which email service they used, let me know. ]

It wasnt until Paula sent a nastigram to that socialite-lady in Florida [ .. "Find your OWN general, b**ch. This one is mine. Don't make me unleash these baby pythons on your froufrou ass. Don't make me bust-open a can of military-grade whup-ass." ] ..

.. who knew somebody in/at the FBI .. who was able to trace the email. That's how they got caught. [ My sources tell me. =) ]

Whatever the gory details .. my point is » the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency was NOT ABLE to keep his most intimate and damning communications secure (private, confidential, secret, on the down-low).

[ I do not judge these people. No, sir. Who among us has not done scandalous things to our regret?

Honestly now .. what 60-year-old man (general or otherwise) would not be absolutely thrilled (tickled pink) to discover he is desired by a 39-year-old hard-body? ..

.. that he is found physically attractive .. by a former homecoming queen and valedictorian, no less? (Not just another pretty face.)

So we need to cut the General some slack. Have mercy, child. He's only human.

Paula was so attracted that she was willing to risk and put up her marriage .. as earnest of her flaring passions. (Guess we could say the same about him.) ]

Now, we also know that it was Paula who sent off the email(s) that led to the former general getting caught (.. with his 4-star fingers in Paula's impressively muscular cookie jar). A mitigating circumstance?

<ignore this intentional body-text marker>>

••• today's entry continues here below •••

Indian Point Nuclear plant, New York, Hudson River» Establishing Secure Communications

Back in the days before cell phones became ubiquitous, I had a boss who sent me a brief CAPS-lock email » CALL ME.

So I call. "What's up?"

He says, "Are you at a secure line?"

We did not have secure lines. What he meant was » "Can you talk freely without being overheard?" (This was not the first time he had asked that question.)

I looked around at the three or four other dudes sitting there in the general foreman's office and simply said, "No."

"Go to a secure line," he says, in a calm, soothing tone, "and call me back."

Secure-line talk was always juicy shit. There is something about being in-the-loop that makes you feel important. That you matter, professionally speaking (.. no matter the level of your significance). That your opinion matters. (Unlike the way our government makes us feel.)

Cone of Silence» The Cone of Silence

Another one of my bosses (I seemed to have many at that job) would say, "Meet me in the Cone-of-Silence in 5 minutes. You want a Coke?"

The Cone-of-Silence was a small locked conference room to which he held the key.

Paper had been taped over the window in the door, so nobody walking down the hallway could see inside. Chambers. Same principle.

The freedom to discuss freely those things the general public probably ought not hear. Usually how you will address some problem that has arisen or 'mindmeld' to decide on a strategy.

Anyway, back to my secure line call. I went out into the hallway and picked up one of the site phones mounted on the wall there.

"Okay," I said, "we're secure."

I'll return to our establishing of secure communications, but first ..

United States Capitol» Eternal Vigilance & Stupid Shit

.. you've probably heard the saying » "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom."

Note that the word vigilance is defined as » alert watchfulness.

But what are we supposed to be watching for? What are we supposed to be looking for? (as the price we-citizens pay for freedom)

Answer » stupid shit. Stupid shit that our government does.

Sure, they claim to have our best interests at heart, but their actions say (repeatedly & consistently) that they cater to the highest bidder (.. the minute the election is over). And here the US is not alone.

Speaking of stupid shit .. I hope our government has the sense to sit down and draw up contingency plans .. should $funding become an issue in September (.. just a few months away).

Just in case. You guys seem to be having trouble seeing eye-to-eye on things that affect us-the-people and our children's generation. So, it's probably best to exercise prudence.

[ Bill Gross says that we should be stimulating investment instead of consumption. He seems like a smart guy. ]

If we don't need the contingency plans .. then they can easily be shelved where they might come in handy later down the road. [ You need to start thinking beyond your myopic prospects for re-election. ]

Just make sure that you mail out the Social Security checks BEFORE you mail out the checks to the banks. You guys for too long have been giving preferential treatment to the banks while fucking over the people.

By the way, how is the regulation of derivatives coming? You know .. those things that took down the whole economy back in 2008.

A derivative is financial instrument that derives it$ value from the value of SOMETHING ELSE.

Boot to the Face Orwellian Style 1984In the case of derivatives, opportunistic fucks ..

.. take good shit and do bad shit with them (.. for their own personal gain).

And if their derivative house-of-cards collapses, guess who loses.

We hear that you are not interested in regulating derivatives because the Banks (the Overlords, your bosses ..

.. there on Wall Street) are making way too much money, so they don't want you to (regulate them).

Speaking of the banks .. are you not concerned that the housing market would dry up and blow away were it not for government support?

Should the government be the sole supporter of the housing market? It has been 5 years since the bottom fell out in 2008.

Wouldnt it be healthier for the Private Markets to cater to the housing market? Why are they reluctant to do so? When are we going to start to transition back to a normal housing finance model? Ever?

Do not these mortgages represent a credit risk? .. to our children's generation? Havent we asked enough of our children's generation? Havent we asked then to take on enough?

Shouldnt we, the most prosperous nation on earth, try instead, to leave our kids a trust fund? (.. just like the wealthy leave for their kids?)

This is your lame-ass answer to the mortgage meltdown of 2008? .. to the biggest economic collapse since the Great Depression? .. to artificially re-inflate the housing market .. back to where it was before the collapse?

Peter & his infant son fast asleepDont our kids deserve better? .. than just more-of-the-same? More of the same that got us here.

Is is me .. or do our leaders seem to have a one-track mind? [ » debt for our kids, profits for the wealthy ]

» Bosses, Nostalgia & the Joy of Running Amuck

All this talk of bosses and the establishing of secure communications is making me reminisce about this boss I had .. the first one I mentioned above (» CALL ME.).

He actually had a heart of gold, but you would never know it, cuz he came off as crusty. Sometimes very crusty. [ Remind me to tell you the story about the hammer he kept in his top desk drawer, which he used like a gavel. ]

We had between 50 and 100 techs that we handled. Actually my boss dealt with up to 400 at a time. But only 50-100 fell into my bailiwick (Senior techs). We got up to 110 once. Kept me hopping.

They gave me 4 guys to handle 100. Plus they gave a clone of myself on night-shift .. a very capable dude .. so that when I went home, I did not worry. At all. A good guy on the backshift makes all the difference.

Every 12 hours we would turn over with/from each other. We came in a half-hour ahead of the rest of the crew .. to try to stay one step ahead any problems that might arise. I remember that he drank a lot of diet cokes.

Six days a week. Twelve hours a day. (Half the crew on dayshift, the other half on nights.) Month after month. Out with the old fuel, in with the new. Kla-CHING went the cash register.

Indian Point Nuclear plant, New York, Hudson RiverA well-oiled machine. Nuclear grade lubrication. A beautiful thing (technologically speaking).

[ I worked six-twelves [6x12=72 hrs/week] for a whole year straight once. Just after New Years to right before Christmas. Kla-CHANG!

Heck, I would've worked more if they let me. ]

It is beyond the scope of today's entry, but remind me to tell you the story ..

.. that ends with my boss cracking the hammer on his desk .. so loudly that everybody in the office jumped ..

.. and saying, "Son, I dont know why your still talking, because you dont work for me anymore." [ One of my duties was to escort bad people out to his office for ass-chewings.]

My boss absolutely hated it .. when techs tried to argue that they did nothing wrong.

After that, I started coaching the guys .. on the (10 minute) walk out to his office.

"Dude, this how we're gonna play it. Keep your head down, eyes low, and take responsibility. Say you fucked up, you're sorry. You;ll never be so stupid ever again. And we'll try to get out of there in 10 minutes ..

.. It drives him into a frenzy when people make excuses. If you see the vein in the side of his neck start to bulge out, you'll know you're in trouble." 

God, could he chew ass. A true master of the art. A craftsman of the highest order. A thing to behold. He would prepare for an ass-chewing session by carefully filing his teeth to fine points.

Guys would come back from a trip to his office saying things like, "Look back here, bro, and tell me if I got any ass left. Or is it just a bloody stump?"

Nuclear reactor fuel cell of spent uranium glowing underwater with Cherenkov radiationAnyway, my boss .. the one who handed me my paycheck (your real boss) .. he would say stuff like » "Mr. Joe, Have you noticed how wonderfully all my beautiful children have been performing lately? People have been calling [ gestures to the the phone sitting right in front of him there on his desk ] .. telling me how happy they are with the quality of the technicians we have provided for them this outage. I like when my phone rings with calls like that. Our customers have been calling to say they are pleased with the product. When I took the invoice up for the man to sign [ lifts and drops a fat package of billing sheets sitting beside the phone ] the man said that he heard from his people that we did good this time."

[ .. after I had spent a week or two orientating & indoctrinating them, so they all knew the deal at this particular plant ..

.. cuz every nuclear plant does things a little differently. Everybody has their own way of accomplishing the same task.

"Here's what's important here," I would tell them. Stuff I myself would want to know when I arrived at a new plant.

Typical Migrant Nuclear Worker » "Tell me what you want me to do and make sure my paycheck arrives on time. Oh! And can you give me the same day off as Billy-Bob? He's my mate from the last plant we worked."

In many ways these migrant nuclear techs were the Ultimate Nuclear Warriors .. cuz they had seen it done at so many different plants (.. cuz they were the ones doing it) .. so they knew what worked well, and what didnt work so well (.. and they could tell you why).

As you might expect, temporary contract technicians (Rad ho's) were always assgned to the nastiest, hardest, sweatiest, most highly radiological jobs. (The jobs no one else wanted.) They showed up (like magic) when utlities needed help with big projects, especially reactor refueling.

So they knew their shit. Usually better than the utility itself who ran the plant. "Ultimate Warriors" we called them. Tho a tinge of primadonnadom was not uncommon. (A function of supply & demand.)

You cannot very well anticipate their questions and concerns and needs if you have never walked a mile in their shoes.

Danger: Radiation AreaI worked the road for a while, but life-on-the-road takes a toll .. no matter how good the paychecks get. (The Rolling Stones look that way for a reason.)

Heck, I remember walking down the hall/corridor of a mall once ..

.. and I COULD NOT (for the life of me) RECALL what state I was in. I mean, I had been living there for months (.. in a hotel room).

You can't right well walk up to a complete stranger (.. yes, I considered it) and say, "Um, 'scuse me, Sir. Could you please tell me what state we are in?" =)

They will call the men to come get you. "Wouldnt you like to try on this pretty white jacket here?" (The 'I-love-me' jacket.)

I finally retraced my steps from the time I left home at 18. "Let's see .. first I went there, and then I went there [.. this took a while ]. "Oh, that's right!" I thought. "I'm in Pennsylvania!"

Very weird feeling .. to feel lost in broad daylight .. amid a mass of blissfully engaged consumers. Disorienting. How can you not know what state you're in? ]

Not that my boss didnt give me credit; he did. He was actually pretty good at that. E$pecially where it counted.

But the minute one of his "beautiful children" screwed up, he would bark » "Sir! Your assholes are running amuck in there!"

When I protested that "Just last week, they were all YOUR beautiful children," he told me that I was forgetting the First Law of Thermodynamics.

He must have noticed the perplexed look on my face as I wondered what the hell he was talking about .. when my poet-warrior boss illuminated my mind and said » "Shit rolls downhill."

Nuclear Fuel PelletsYou can't make up this stuff, folks. =) The imagery. Nuclear grade imagery.

Other times, he would say (wisely) » "We're not gonna make any decisions until we do a full investigation ..

.. I may have to fire this man. But if I can get away with giving him a week or two off .. that would be better for everybody."

Me » "Okay."

In other words, he came off as a bad-ass and did indeed have a nasty temper (.. especially when he was in a bad mood). But he also had a soft spot that few were aware of.

One time, I must say, he dressed me down quite nicely. Told me I "didnt know what side my bread was buttered on." I had never heard that colloquialism before.

He was from the South, so he had many such colorful colloquialisms, which was something that I loved about the job.

Anyway .. I got the message .. which was something along the lines of »

» "Son, dont forget who's handing you those remarkably fat paychecks every Friday .. because it's not those ya-hoos who you run around with in there."

See, all these positions were new. In other words, they had never existed before.

So when he had offered me the position, I wax'ed all Peter Drucker-like on him and requested an official description of what my new job's official duties and responsibilities would be.

He said (paraphrasing) » "Son, I cant give you any of that Peter Drucker bullshit. Just go in there tomorrow morning and do your best to help that man."

RadioactiveAnd he named the name of a guy who worked for the Utility, as a general foreman, with a handful of supervisors under him.

This guy was in charge of scheduling a few hurdred people, both Utility and contract-workers. (It was a nightmare.)

A guy (who I soon learned) that he and I had LIVED WITH THE SAME GUY (.. he had lived with him a few years before I had) ..

.. in Idaho, at the reactor training prototype there. Real live, operating reactors. In the desert, far away from population centers.

My soon-to-be-boss had been an instructor there. You had to be top-fucking-shelf to get picked up as a Staff instructor .. instead of going to sea (which pretty much sucks after a few years).

And to get picked up as staff (only a few, out of hundreds) you also had to jibe (politically) with the current staff. So I was not surprised that they laughed at my request. (Hey, it was worth a shot.)

So basically, I knew that this guy, who I was going to help tomorrow, both knew his shit and was not-easily-rattled .. what you might call » a wheel.

[ I just didnt yet know that we had both live with the same guy in the same house, named Paul. Small world, no?

I did however, stay on there in Idaho, for another coool school, after my class left .. to go to sea, with the fleet.

So I need a place to stay, and I dont even remember how I found out about this guy. Cuz he worked at a different plant, as an instructor there.

We must have had a friend in common, because I knew other people who worked there. ]

Anyway, my boss concluded by saying » "Take whatever load off of him you can .. because he's overloaded."

Glowing-hot Ceramic Nuclear Fuel Pellet (small)"That I can do," I said.

My point » I thought it was MY JOB to make "those ya-hoos" happy. My primary focus. But I could see that I had taken it a bit too far .. and he let me know. =)

Yes he was clear, but not nasty or demeaning. Something I both appreciated and respected in his management style.

He sometimes came off as unsophisticated (non-Navy-nuclear) .. but I learned a lot from him. Especially in the more subtle aspects. He knew how the gears turned.

He saw into "the human" aspects. Beyond political. I might even say 'gifted,' or maybe just experienced. He was old enough to be my dad.

The WORST time .. was when I got a job for the girlfriend of a friend. He (my boss) did not like that one bit. No, sir. Even after I promised never again to do such a stupid thing, he kept chewing on my ass .. almost as tho he couldnt stop himself. =)

I didnt know .. that this was such a stupid thing to do .. that those jobs, those positions, to him, represented bargaining chips. Powerful bargaining chips. (To me they meant nothing.)

He was trying to maintain composure, but I could see that he was furious. I mean, it got funny after a while. Like he was gnawing on my ass-bone ..

.. because that was all that was left of my ass. And even then he was not satisfied. =)

So this is why I had so many bosses. This in-plant guy's boss was also my boss (3rd level up) and I had to deal with him in another aspect of my ever-expanding job.

But he was not Navy nuclear, so I would try to make him look good, where I could. And he seemed to appreciated it. He is the one who I went bike-riding with every Saturday morning.

This guy was very competitive, naturally. That was his personality. On these Saturday-morning bike-rides, he would kick my ass so thoroughly that I would sometimes come home and go straight to bed .. Saturday afternoon. Completely spent. 25 miles.

And fall sound asleep .. such that I would be disoriented upon waking "Huh? What state am I in?" (But feeling good, physically.)

He was an animal. Type-A. He had to quit drinking coffee, I recall. To say he was "highly motivated" would be an understatement.

This is also the guy who laughed out loud when I expressed my concerns that I had heard certain people were talking-ugly about me.

"Welcome to the club, dawg." ]

Big Brother is Watching You» Big Brother vs The First Amendment

If we-the-people are to remain vigilant and keep out a watchful eye for stupid shit that our government does ..

.. then we need to feel comfortable contacting the press and saying, "You won't believe the crazy shit that Obama is up to."

You neednt be a pundit to see that we-the-people are getting our asses handed to us by a monied elite who control our government.

A monied elite [ code named: Operation Hedgefund ] who seem to care about only one thing. (And that one thing aint you, my friend.) The beatings will continue until moral improves.

Did Big Brother not foresee the chilling effect that their secret wiretaps would have on the ability of the Press to do its job? Or do they just not give much of a fuck about the First Amendment?

This tells me that our government is either stupid or malicious. (Take your pick as to which would be less dismaying.)

[ The fact that the Justice Dept is going to INVESTIGATE ITSELF .. only serves to bolster my point. Because everybody knows that no one can investigate his-own-ass with any degree of objectivity.

Can you say, "Conflict of interest"?

"Sure we at the Justice Dept want the truth, but we only want our version of it."

Heck, while you're at it, why don't you just have the Wall Street Banks investigate themseves, too? (Or isnt that what they pay you for??)

The next time the IRS man shows up on your doorstep with an audit form, just tell him, "Don't worry, hoss. I'll complete the audit myself and send you the report. This way they can fire your ass and save us taxpayers some money."

And here's what I predict from 'Justice' » a report that says, "Our trampling of the First Amendment was entirely understandable, given the extenuating circumstances. We rock. We obviously deserve a raise and an extra month of vacation for doing such an outstanding fucking job in thwarting the evil Fox News reporter."

As a citizen I hereby exercise my right provided by the Bill of Rights [ you guys are still honoring that, right? ] and publically express my disapproval. For reasons already mentioned.

This says to me that » "Our 'Justice' department has become such an ugly Constitutional mess that we dare not let anyone peek inside."

Louis Freeh delivers his report to Penn State UniversityYou need to call Louis if you hope for any degree of credibility.

We're talking about the First Amendment. (The First Amendment is first for a reason.)

Actions speak louder. ]

This is why the Press needs to become masters of secure communications.

They need to pay a visit to some wizardly geeks, masters of the Crafty arts ..

.. and digest the mojo about how to stay one step ahead of both Big Brother and his Right-Hand Man with the secret First Amendment-trampling boots (subpoenas).

And the Press needs to rise up [.. on behalf of the First Amendment ] .. and strike .. with venom sufficient to convey the message (clearly & pointedly) that » this shit WILL NOT DO.

Not for a democratic republic, anyway. "This is a crock o' shit."

This trampling of the First Amendment by Big Brother's secret subpoenaed boots in the name of State Secrets will not stand .. not on our watch.

If you guys want or need assistance crafting your message, I'm sure the wizards at Anonymous can help. They seem to have a knack for crafting unambiguous messages.

You must admit that the sentence » "This time there will be change or there will be chaos" is difficult to misunderstand .. even for a clueless government official.

Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte (1995)Everybody has secrets. The walls have ears. You know. The touch of a button anywhere on the planet ..

.. now sends bits from one side of the globe to the other. In a flash. That's why papa's got a brand new bag.

The Press, for the most part, dropped the ball with Bush & Iraq. (The Dixie Chicks did a better job at calling bullshit there.)

A fumble for which our nation and our kids will be paying dearly for many years to come.

One of the reasons I feel compelled to speak out .. on a subject of such importance .. as the First Amendment is .. is because I no longer feel confident (.. sad to say) in the ability of the Press ..

.. to accurately convey the Voice-of-the-People (.. who continue to get trick-fucked on a regular basis).

No, not all. But not nearly enough. Because misfortune has come to many as a result. (It's no secret.) And most unnecessarily.

War is about » killing. Killing is about » taking lives. Taking lives gets you into » tall grass .. of all kinds. None of it very appealing .. none of it very promising.

War. What's it good for? Which is why We-the-People are against it .. as anything but a last resort.

Where can wisdom be found? Well, I know one place where you won't find it.

"The world is a better place without Saddam." I'll give 'em that. But at what cost?

Dixie Chicks 2013 | Emily, Natalie & MartieYou must admit that .. the perspective offered by the distance of a decade ..

.. makes things remarkably clear. Frighteningly clear.

"By their fruit shall ye know them."

I think the Country Music Assn should call the Dixie Chicks and invite them over for a beer ..

.. and hug their necks real tight and apologize for they way they were treated. (Let the healing begin.)

America needs MORE people .. who have the cojones to speak out for what is right, and against obvious bullshit. (Not less.)

We Americans frequently chide the Germans .. for NOT SPEAKING OUT against Hitler. I would wager that Natalie feels that Hitler is no longer the political aberration that he used to seem. Confidently wager.

Ya think?

"My-country-can-do-no-wrong" is NOT an American tradition. [ Read our history. ]

They are far from fucking perfect. Closer to snakes in the grass.

Which is why they need adult supervision. Because they cant help themselves. [ Think crackhead. ]

If a person cannot (for whatever reason) muster the courage necessary to speak out .. against unrighteous bullshit .. I do not condemn them. No, sir. Because everybody knows that this it is not an easy thing to do.

Heil Hitler! (with exuberant enthusiasm)But to criticize the person who does ..

.. this seems to me .. the most unAmerican thing a person can do.

Downright insidious.

To try to stifle dissent by the people ..

.. when their government is obviously running amok.

It's heartbreaking.

"Hey y'all, I just want you to know that we're from Texas and we don't agree with the (state-sponsored) stupid shit that Hitler's doin'. Uh, what do you mean that I should shut up? And why are you burning my records?"

Having the clarifying perspective of history on your side, Natalie, is a wonderful thing .. is it not?

Nobody is calling her unpatriotic today.

[ Recall that, few nations in history were deemed as 'patriotic' .. as the Germans under Hitler. Sing those songs .. those inspiring songs of the motherland. ]

Country Music should be damn proud of the Dixie Chicks. Because they are true Americans.

Sometimes calling bullshit costs you everything .. so the reluctance is certainly understandable. Most understandable. And *that* is why we celebrate them.

Call your biggest stars. Find out who is willing to stand up on the stage with you when you pin the Medal of Freedom on their chests. (You will be surprised.)

So we-the-people need you-the-Press to ask the hard questions [.. such as » "Are you out of your fucking mind?" ] and call bullshit on unrighteous bullshit.

[ If this is something you cannot do, then you are probably in the wrong profession, certainly in the wrong vocation, and most obviously in the wrong calling. ]

» Not Afraid to Get Dirty

Angelina Jolie speaks to United Nations about wartime rape | June 25, 2013Speak truth to power .. in a way they cannot misunderstand.

[ You may be over-estimating them.

Notice how slowly Angelina Jolie speaks to them here ..

.. at the United Nations. With short sentences. "Rape is a tool of war."

They got it. (I saw them nodding their heads.)

I like her. She makes a difference. And she's not afraid to get dirty.

Note she was in that movie Hackers, long before most people even knew what a hacker was. [ I had to see that film as part of a Computer Science class. ]

And she has been good for Brad, it's obvious.

"But he cheated on Jenn," my friend said, on our way to the movie.

Of course, I had to defend Brad (just like I did the General) by saying. "Few virile men could resist .. if Angelina Jolie were rolling around on top of them, all sweaty-like." =) ]

It seems that our government does not get subtleties. Even ridicule rolls off them like water off a duck's back.

Unfortunately, they only get the message if you hand them a fat check (make a "campaign contribution") .. or kick 'em in the balls (.. where it hurts).

Otherwise they promise the world but deliver only what the Overlords authorize.

One of my most wizardly nuclear bosses once said, "You get what you inspect, not what you expect." (Actually, he said that more than once.)

So you need a mechanism to INSPECT (.. what you expect). Does that not seem obvious?

You folks in the press should read Stendhal's » Le Rouge et Le Noir. There is a line (on page 398) that reads » "There is a war to the death between the liberty of the press and our existence as gentlemen."

War to the death. [ In chapter XXII, titled » The Discussion. ]

Dear Mr. Washington Man, the Founders of our nation made the First Amendment first .. cuz they didnt want you to get confused .. and cuz they knew how badly you would try to fuck things up for us.

A young Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) on his motorcycle at a bluff along the coastlineI don't know how they knew .. but they knew.

Dude, you guys are being compared to Nixon.

[ No, that's NOT a good thing. Not a good sign. Think legacy. "I'm not a crook." ]

The first paragraph of this article, for example, calls Nixon a "disgraced" president.

You are, right now, closer to Nixon than you are to Lincoln. (Much closer.)

The South Africans say, "At first we were excited, but now we see that he is no different than other US presidents."

[The Germans say the same thing.]

I must say, we Americans can certainly relate to those South African sentiments.

Because, dude, come 'on .. you came after eight years of George Bush. So uh, it's not like the bar was set very high. (Feel me, dawg?)

It's not like we-the-people had much of an alternative, either. You are merely the product of a system .. that most voters feel is LESS_BAD .. than the other. But a SYSTEM, nonetheless.

And my experience has been, for what it's worth .. that » systems suk. Generally speaking. The bigger, the worse (.. the worse they suk). Not always, of course, but as a rule of thumb. Has that been your experience, too?

To be honest, your trajectory reminds me of (eerily so) Darth Vader (.. from Anakin Skywalker).

[ You should have the NSA make an audio recording of your voice [ we hear they are very good at making quality recordings ] ..

.. saying, "You have failed me for the last time, Snowden" .. and post it on the White House web site. ]

You can't think that .. you can give us-the-people Health Care, and then turn around and fuck us with PRISM.

Jerry SanduskyThat is what the Jerry Sandusky's of the world do.

"Here's an expensive toy that your single-mom could never afford to buy for you ..

.. now bend over and pick up that soap I dropped."

But Homie don't play dat song no mo'. Homie dont play dat game, either. He dont play » hide-the-PRISM-in-the-People's-butt game.

Not here. (You will see what I mean.)

» Gonzo!

And Nixon makes me think of » Hunter Thompson. Gonzo himself!

[ The slide continues .. does it not? (Yes, it does.) But hey, the stock market continues to set new highs, and that's all that really matters, right?

Okay, the reflating of the stock market is complete. We get it » first things first. Now, how about the people's economy? What are your plans for that? ]

Hunter Thompson authored the first book I read after letting go of mom's apron strings [ liberation! ] and heading out with the military.

I remember thinking, "Oh my god. This guy is crazy" [.. a Kentucky boy ] "but he's right, and he's honest" .. in a way I had never been exposed to before ..

.. something I call the insanity of disillusionment.

I do not know .. but would imagine that .. a President must feel rather naked .. looking back at history. [ "What the fuck was I thinking?" ]

Nothing wrong, of course, with a little nakedness now-n-then. So, if I were king .. I would act like the walls have ears (cuz they do) and that every thing I said and did was going into a book.

Because it is.

Walter cometh with his flashlight and his tweezers and his little black notebook and his illuminating pen. (Think » proctology.)

If he can get to the heart of and capture the essence of the greatest mind of the Twentieth century, then he can capture the essence of your ass, too.

Do you really want to go down in history as the only Nobelist with a {[(secret KILL LIST)]}? .. which includes American citizens. Wasnt that prize supposed to be for Peace?

Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968)[ Your fellow Peace Prize recipient, Martin Luther King, must be rolling over in his grave.

Nixon is downright gidy, saying, "Told ya. Didnt I?"

Stalin slapped himself upside the head and said, "Vladimir, think of all the work this could have saved us!"

You seem to have more in common with known bad guys than with Nobel Peace Prize winners.

Maybe you should consider returning the prize, claiming that you don't want to tarnish its prestige for those who really deserve it. ]

With all due respect, does that not smack of hypocrisy? [def'n] More examples I could cite .. such as your stated desire to run the most transparent government ever.

Yes, of course, we expect s.o.m.e hypocrisy from our politicians. It goes with the territory. (Yes, we expect our leaders to possess some Machiavellian smarts.)

But I'm talking about the MAGNITUDE of that hypocrisy .. and the things around which these hypocrisies revolve (enshrined Amendment rights).

The fact that these tramplings of our (supposedly 'inalienable') rights are coming from Obama (.. rights for which our nation's Founders shed blood) .. carries an air of betrayal. (Beyond mere disappointment.)

Do these glaring contradictions (these heartbreaking hypocrises) merely reveal poor- or premature judgment on the part of the Nobel committee? (Or were they simply prescient enough to know .. that you would be_needing the moral encouragement?)

Obama at the Door of No Return June 27, 2013, Dakar, Senegal (Goree Island)Yes, this may have occurred before the KILL LIST .. but you did accept the prize.

I'll have to go back and review the video, but you seem to be confusing the effects of a swat-team with those of a drone.

While it may be true that swat-teams make few friends, drones make enemies. [More. Malala concurs. War crimes? Amnesty International.]

If bombs started dropping in your own backyard on a regular basis, you would quickly become resentul of whoever it was dropping them. Perhaps even angry.

I hope you're not forgetting that Pakistan has the bomb. They are a nuclear-capable nation. (Big boom. So chill.)

Politics being what they are in Pakistan, you might wanna reconsider .. might wanna try another approach .. seeing that people dont soon forget when you kill members of their families & blow up their friends.

"The drone-attacks will continue until you stop hating our freedom." Cant you even see the catch-22 that you've created?

Drones only increase .. the number of militants. (Or were you planning to kill every last Muslim?)

[ They could give a fuck about our freedom, Rather it's the BOMBS .. blowing up in their backyards .. and soldiers shooting their kids for no good reason .. that pisses them off. ]

Gandhi 1869-1948Gandhi was a peaceful man.

Martin Luther King was a peaceful man.

Einstein was a peaceful man.

JFK was a peaceful man.

Aaron Swartz was a peaceful man.

Are you a peaceful man?

If not, you should probably return the prize ..

.. and say, "Sorry about that. I dont deserve this thing. Would love to stay and chat but I gotta run ..

.. gotta go kill some more people who hate our freedom. War is the new peace. God bless America and all that. Ciao!"

But you should hurry .. because they are coming.

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This page contains a single entry by Rad published on May 23, 2013 5:23 AM.

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