Category Archives: another perspective

Things left out.

Putin (replying to previous question): That could be a first step, and we can also extend it. Options abound, and they all can be found in an appropriate legal framework.

Mason: President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?

Putin: Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russian relationship back to normal.

However, the White House transcript, um, abbreviated the exchange as follows:

Putin: That could be a first step, and we can also extend it. Options abound, and they all can be found in an appropriate legal framework.

Mason: And did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?

Putin: Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.–Russia relationship back to normal.

Rod Rosenstein on Cybercrime

It is a bit long-winded but informative. The only quibble I have is with the word “threat.” It is a weak word and insubstantial. I suspect the authors of these remarks used it out of habit and in the interest of familiarity. However, as Rosenstein specifies later on, the DOJ does not act on vague accusations, but on credible evidence. In that regard, I would have liked to see reference to the complaint as the instrument that gets the agency investigating.
In a sense, cyberwarfare is to military aggression as abuse is to murder. When we recognize that the goal is control, rather than elimination or eradication, it becomes obvious that military aggression is outdated and abusive actions require a more forceful response.

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21 st Century Human Husbandry

Instead of doling out acreage for homesteaders, miners, ranchers and drillers, Capitol Hill disburses dollars to “secure the nation.” National security is big business. Dollars make it easier to follow the trail. Paragon Systems Inc. is one of the leadeds.

Paragon Systems Inc.

Are dollars for guards better spent than dollars for bullets?

Human husbandry comes in many flavors. The husbanded are all restrained, though not necessarily caged.

Thinking about authoritarianism

Capitalism is, like authoritarianism, perverse. In the beginning, capital designated the surplus that woukd be saved for future use, rather than going to waste. Waste avoidance. That’s the ticket! However, capital mental concept, an idea, a figment of the imagination and, like many ideas, it has assumed an importance that has nothing to do with the reality to which it originally applied. The triumph of ideology. Humans assigning more importance to what they think than the reality they perceive. That is how they arrive at the notion of destroying a village in order to save it.
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Not a Tragedy, a stinking Mess

Dear Mr. Leavy and Mr. Hall:

In his July 3rd front page story in the Brunswick News about Cory Sasser’s last days in and around Glynn County, Larry Hobbs, a seasoned reporter, wrote that “the wheels of justice were still trying to determine if Sasser had violated his bond when violent tragedy struck.” Note how that sentence ignores any mention of the humans who failed to lock Cory Sasser up for his own good and that of the public, and how Sasser is left out of the process “when violent tragedy struck”. What struck and killed three people last week was not “violent tragedy” but bullets fired by Cory Sasser.
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In the matter of Caroline Small

Three innocent people are dead and the guilty party has removed himself. However, while individuals benefit from the presumption of probity and innocence until proven guilty, an agent of the state ought to be held to a higher standard and should not be considered immune from the consequences of his actions. Much less should associates participate in a cover-up.

Why might they be tempted to do so? Well, a shared sense of guilt forges a tight bond that looks to be cost free. And that is why the cost of public exposure needs to be imposed.

Finally, it would not hurt for public officials to learn that “tabling” a matter does not get rid of it. Nancy Pelosi tabled the impeachment of George W. Bush. Think of all the agony we would have been saved if he and his cohort had been called to account. For what? For the illegal allocation of dollars slated for action in Afghanistan to planning the invasion of innocent Iraq.

Maybe the presumption of probity does not apply to public servants because their propensity to lie is well known.
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An Open Letter

It is rather difficult to copy and/or link to newspaper ads. The url is curtailed so it returns an error message. Four image files can be extracted, but that results in the message not being contiguous. Of course, I could have just copied the mock-up the editor sent out, but it is not the same as what shows up in the paper.
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