1.1 Trillion?

Oh if I could have the overnight interest on that!

It takes that kind of money to run our government?

I can’t help feeling like I’ve been the recipient of BAD TOUCH!

After this, I think we need a President and a Congress that has never been politicians. Some reports suggest that the Omnibus is loaded with so much pork it’s bacon scented.

Sarah Palin’s quip about the GOP made me blow coffee out my nose this morning.

They did it again. But like a battered wife, we keep going back because every four years they bring us flowers, beg our forgiveness, and swear they’ll never hit us again.
– via Breitbart

I don’t know that I agree with all Mrs. Palin’s points, but I do think that this Omnibus should have been ONLY about funding the actual government. The other porky stuff should have been debated individually and each item decided on it’s own merit.

Mrs Palin makes another comment that stuck out.

Basically, everything commonsense conservatives despise – and Republicans promised to put an end to if elected – was funded by this omnibus.
– via Breitbart

I guess that’s why I feel dirty this morning.

Trump!

Donald_Trump_by_Gage_SkidmoreI’m still highly unlikely to vote for Donald Trump.

But I gotta hand it to him, he’s turning things upside down and doing his country a service by exposing the true colors of candidates, both Republican and Democrat.

He’s also ripping away the masks of smug progressive newspeople.

Almost makes me wish I’d watched the debates… Almost.

I think I still prefer reading about them the day after. By that time the left has managed to spin themselves into a self righteous santorum froth.

One thing I can say is that even if Trump is a complete buffoon, (and I’m not saying he is, that jury is still out.) he’s got to be causing some consternation among the enemies of this country.

syrian-refugees-turkey.jpg_736776827Lets look at some of the things he’s been taken to task over.

Close our borders to Middle Eastern refugees until we know what is happening and our vetting process works.

This seems to be a logical and reasonable approach, since it’s become obvious our vetting process isn’t weeding out jihadists even with the cooperation of so called “Friendly” Middle Eastern countries.

The media and other candidates practically lost their minds about this Trump suggestion.

Some called this plan unconstitutional, others called it racist. I call it neither.

Every Sovereign Nation on the planet has the right to protect itself and it’s people from threats. Our constitution conveys, codifies, and supposedly insures certain rights to the citizens of our country. International law, treaties, and agreements apply to non-citizens.

In many cases our constitution and international law parallel each other.

However, our constitution doesn’t guarantee that any foreign born person will be allowed to enter our country, or given citizenship.

Saudi-Prince-Alwaleed-bin-Talal-370x231The fact that a Saudi Prince, ISIS and CAIR all condemned Trump’s suggestion could indicate he’s on the right track.

Then Trump suggested shutting down part of the internet, particularly those parts of the internet that service the Middle East which are under control of ISIS or other radical well known groups that have stated directly that they want to destroy America specifically or the West in general.

This is WAR 101.

Deny your enemies command, communication, coordination, and supplies.

I personally ave never understood why we didn’t plant C-4 on every cell tower our troops encountered in Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Deny communication.
Thereby denying command and coordination.

Extending this philosophy to the internet makes damn good sense and it’s technically possible. But it’s better.

internet_1By killing internet connections into and out of Jihadi, ISIS, Terrorists areas.

You deny their ability to easily recruit, send money, (As Bitcoin or other e-currencies ) or communicate their agenda.

Wth the internet gone these groups lose their ability to brag about their successes in battle.  You deprive folks like ISIS the grandstanding moments of executing their enemies or destroying monuments on worldwide tv.

SanbernardiLets face it ISIS is a media whore. They want, and need the attention afforded them by distribution of shock videos. They need to romanticize themselves as the feisty righteous underdog on social media sites to attract young recruits.

If we were to cut those lines of communication, then we have a much easier time of controlling their message and we can follow their couriers back to bases of operation.

We know that the videos will still be made. We know that ISIS will try to distribute these videos. By narrowing the channels to Al Jezera, Satellite uplinks, or refugees, we make it really easy to identify sympathizers from whom we may get information. We can target the bases uplinks originate from, and easily vet refugees. (If a refugee is carrying a video, they don’t get refugee status, ever!)

So Trump’s suggestion about the internet is technically possible, easily implemented with changes to settings in routers, and no-one gets shot by doing it. Cheap & easy!

I like the minimum effort —> maximum result equation.

We own and control the technology, why let our self-declared enemies use it to potentially harm us?

Cutting ISIS off from the rest of the world is step one in containment.

Who cares if some people will call it censorship? Back in the bad ‘ol days reporters would send film or magnetic tape to their editors from Viet Nam.

Yeah, remember that? Without the instantaneous communication the internet provides, reporters turned in thoughtful well written articles. Their competition wasn’t confined solely to who could report an event the fastest, but also who reported an event correctly.

Trump’s suggestion simply takes the area back to the 1960’s. Messages written on paper, videos on physical media instead of youtube. If you think about it, It’s not actually censorship, it’s just slowing information down.

19n04planes-483393I’d bet President Putin would be agreeable to a little phone and internet silence.

After all, It’s a lot safer to fly your planes when you don’t have spotters sending info about the planes, to anti-aircraft guns all along the flight path.

I’d love to see the entire area cut off. I’d love to see what happened next.

No Surprise

These guys in Congress have no clue.

 

CISA Security Bill Passes Senate With Privacy Flaws Unfixed

Once again the people making the laws are exactly the wrong people to do it. In addition to them not listening to the professionals that actually know this stuff, they’re doing everything in their power to make sure we have no privacy anymore.

Time to find an EU company that can provide a secure VPN service that I can have online all the time.

I’m sure that even that won’t help for long. The really sad part is that I don’t have anything to hide, but I do value my privacy. A VPN service would also be handy if I’m likely to spend any time in coffee shops or should I end up commuting on a train.

CISA has faced opposition from the security community, which has largely objected to claims that information-sharing effectively stops cyberattacks.

This is yet another situation where congress is just waving their hands over the problem so that they look like they’re actually doing something constructive.

Read this today and feel like it’s a Red Pill Blue Pill situation

Salem Witch Trial

Funny, when I typed the title, I just now got the metaphor.

Hey, when I’m watching SciFi I’m watching the story, not looking for deep political meaning. Hell, I don’t even remember which pill Neo took to escape the Matrix.

I’d sign up for the Mars Colony mission if I could avoid all the political bullshit.

Mars One

Unfortunately, when you think about it, the Mars Colony mission is fraught with political issues and since the mission is one way and everyone is expected to die on Mars…

Well… just imagine having a political disagreement and having to worry about being “Spaced” on the way there, or getting tossed out on the Martian surface without a suit.

Hillary Clinton


Anyhooo…

The Conservatives are saying that Trey Gowdy’s committee “won” because they got Hillary Clinton to sorta admit that there was some illegality in her dealings as Secretary of State.

Salon, on the other hand likens the hearings to McCarthyism or the Salem Witch Trials. The Author goes so far as to say that Hillary Trounced the evil Republicans.

To some extent I agree that the Hearings have gone well beyond Benghazi.

Benghazi

To Sum up what I think we know.

  1. The unrest in Benghazi was not the result of a YouTube Video
  2. The “Embassy” was not secure
  3. The Ambassador requested additional security and his request was either denied or ignored.
  4. The British and several other embassy missions had already left Benghazi due to local unrest and Libyan inability to protect diplomatic personnel and those missions.
  5. Hillary Clinton has repeatedly lied about the events in Benghazi, as has the White House, and State Department.
  6. The Ambassador and security people were killed during a coordinated attack – NOT A PROTEST, on a US embassy.

What we don’t know is; What Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and the State Department were/are covering up.

Not directly related to Benghazi, we know that Hillary has also broken laws and ignored White House guidance, regarding her email server.  We also know that Hillary has lied about this and other things too.

Romulan Commander

It’s human nature to keep picking at a lie. I think in the case of a lawyer, that nature is magnified by a factor of at least 100.  Trey Gowdy is a lawyer, and former prosecutor. As long as Hillary keeps lying, his nature won’t let it go.

It’s not about destroying Hillary it’s about Hillary looking him in the face, smiling and lying.

She knows she’s going to get away with whatever the hell she’s done. As a prosecutor, Gowdy’s nature is to run the bullshit to ground, expose the crime in all it’s hideous detail and demand justice.

You can’t blame a leopard for having spots, or for not being able to change them.

I personally think that Hillary Clinton is guilty as sin for any number of things. I think she should be in prison and I believe that Hillary Clinton is not fit to be President. Were she anyone else, her career, campaign, and life in the public eye would already be over.

Scandals follow her like dark clouds. She has repeatedly behaved as though she was above the law. The implosion of her career and campaign should it happen, will not be due to the Republicans, or Trey Gowdy, it will be by Hillary Clinton’s own doing.

Mikandynothem 2015 Oct 24

My beliefs however, are irrelevant, the facts are not. It is the facts that Gowdy’s committee is trying to get at, it is the right of the American people to have those facts.

As the writer in Salon points out. The side benefit for the evil Republicans, is that Hillary gets knocked out of the running for the Presidency.

I think that would be best for the Country but I’m only one voice. I don’t believe these hearings are about destroying Hillary.

I do believe there is more than enough smoke surrounding these hearings to justify investigation into every single lousy transaction, donation, and donor to The Clintons and their foundation.

As I read through the contradictory reports on Hillary’s Benghazi appearance, I found myself asking, “isn’t it the best interests of both the Democrat and Republican parties to put this to bed? Instead of the Democrat leaders rallying around Hillary shouldn’t they instead be rallying around the truth? ”

ElijaCummings

Every time I see or hear Elijah Cummings I want to grab him, shake him, and ask if the truth is important to him then why does he obfuscate and waste time in every hearing?

Why not, instead become a champion for expeditiously getting to the bottom of all the allegations?

Why isn’t HE asking Hillary Clinton questions like, “WHY does it take an FBI investigation to get the information that this Committee requested two years ago? WHY, Mrs. Clinton have you been hiding material and wasting the tax payer’s money by confounding and drawing this hearing out? WHY Mrs. Clinton are we STILL here having to tease the facts out of you, your staff, and even the State Department?”

Both parties should be asking those kinds of questions, not playing partisan politics.

It shouldn’t matter which color pill you’re taking, truth and reality should trump either of them.

Can’t take it anymore…

IBM PC XT

I’ve been pointedly ignoring all the bullshit about Trump, the billion or so goofball Republican candidates, Megan Kelly (Who the hell is she?) And Hillary freakin Clinton.

I can’t remain silent anymore.

Hillary Clinton should be in Leavenworth, in a deep dark hole of a cell, shackled and awaiting trial. The FBI should have picked her happy ass up wherever the hell she was on the campaign trail the moment it was discovered that she had sent classified material over her private little server.

Hillarys Email Server

I’m not talking about material that has since been classified, or material that has been declassified, because there is no distinction. The business of the State department of the United States of America, should by default be considered Confidential if not Classified from the get-go. That’s why the United States has a whole bunch of Operational Security specialists, and requires employees and contractors to be re-certified in Operational Security every six months to a year, (Depending on the materials employees are handling,) just to keep it straight. And the rule of thumb is ASSUME a document is Classified and you’ll never go wrong. 

Classified

Which means this private email server should never have been allowed to exist. Innumerable agencies within the government who are charged with maintaining the security of the United States had to know about this server, its location, and its security status. They were told to “ignore it” because… why?

If I’d done what Hillary did… I’d be lucky to be sitting in Leavenworth. I think it’s more likely I’d have been sent someplace really nasty, provided the government didn’t put me on trial for treason then shoot me.

Leavenworth Penitentiary

I don’t think treason can be proven but the government tends to “over charge” in this kind of litigation because they want to make sure you don’t get off on a technicality.

One only has to look at the case of Aaron Swartz as example.  

Aaron Swartz

Swartz was simply making academic articles available via a P2P network from JSTOR and the issue had been settled between JSTOR and Swartz when the Federal Government stepped in.  Once involved, the Feds slapped Swartz with 13 criminal charges carrying a potential 35 years in prison and 1 million in fines. The case was pending when Swartz killed himself. By the way, most if not all, of the information Swartz distributed, was free, and still is today. I think the majority of Swartz’s crime was that he used the P2P distribution system to bypass JSTOR’s requirement for you to be a registered subscriber. I’m not clear on if he was costing JSTOR money.

So here we have a guy who’s maybe costing someone a little cash.

Hillary Clinton

Then we have Hillary who, for her own convenience hired a company that appears to have been unvetted by the US government, whose employees were apparently not subject to background security checks, to set up a server outside the control of the US government, handling Classified material and emails from one of the highest levels of the US government.

As the onion got peeled Hillary denied that classified emails were on the server. (Turns out there were classified emails on the server.) Hillary then said SHE decided what was important to turn over to the government, and deleted the rest of the information. Uhh that’s not how this works ma’am.  Now we’re finding out that the security of the server is in question. (Was there encryption? Who had physical access to the machine?)

Hillary Clinton

Hummm. IS IT JUST ME?

I thought rules and the law were supposed to apply equally to everyone. Yet here we have a clear example of someone who is not only above the law and social constructs, but they are still running a campaign to become President!

For God’s sake people, we’ve burned other politicians down for far less.

It’s well past time to force Hillary out of the Presidential Race.

This is not the kind of elitism we need in our government. We don’t need another liar in the White House. We don’t need yet another person in office who doesn’t understand and obey the rules.

I admit, I look forward to Hillary’s arrest for Contempt of Congress. That will be a day to be watching CSPAN.