01.31.14
Posted in Crazy Weapons, Culture of Lickspittle, Cyberterrorism at 12:28 pm by George Smith
A fair career summary.
Straight from the NSA:
The ongoing cyber-thefts [by China] from the networks of public and private organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, represent the greatest transfer of wealth in human history.
The 60 Minutes public relations tour:
John Miller: Could a foreign country tomorrow topple our financial system?
Gen. Keith Alexander: I believe that a foreign nation could impact and destroy major portions of our financial system, yes.
John Miller: How much of it could we stop?
Gen. Keith Alexander: Well, right now it would be difficult to stop it because our ability to see it is limited.
One they did see coming was called the BIOS Plot. It could have been catastrophic for the United States. While the NSA would not name the country behind it, cyber security experts briefed on the operation told us it was China. Debora Plunkett directs cyber defense for the NSA and for the first time, discusses the agency’s role in discovering the plot.
Spying on the paupers and piss ants:
“Well, my concern on that is specially what’s going on in the Middle East, what you see going on in Syria, what we see going on– Egypt, Libya, Iraq, it’s much more unstable, the probability that a terrorist attack will occur is going up. And this is precisely the time that we should not step back from the tools that we’ve given our analysts to detect these types of attacks.???
So here’s a partial summary of the NSA’s great achievements:
1. Infiltrating World of Warcraft because they think terrorists use it.
2. ‘Stopped’ imaginary Chinese destroy the world by BIOS kill plot.
3. Snooping on the calls of Somali pirates and making relational plots of them.
4. Employs people who can solve Rubik’s cubes in 95 seconds.
From here:
Most of the country, at my level certainly, is still struggling with the economic deprivation and outright calamity of the Great Recession. Although corporate America has rebounded nicely, there has been no recovery for most.
And for Keith Alexander and the NSA, as well as the rest of the defense infrastructure, they saw only expansion. How unfortunate for them that Edward Snowden has spoiled it a bit.
Keith Alexander lives in the world of the plutocracy. Cash money for the day isn’t an issue. Bare bones survival isn’t on the menu. Instead, he and the structure have spent much of their time expanding operations and dreaming up threatening stories and messages to be delivered by the shoeshine men in the press, digging around in their big data suck for things which they, in encapsulated isolated delusion, believe threaten the existence of the country.
At DefCon 2012, Keith Alexander, a tech chicken-head biter just like you, delivering the call to national security corporate stooge-ism to save our futures and the American economy from Chinese cyberwar.
From the wires, reposted here:
The annual Defcon hacking convention has asked the federal government to stay away this year for the first time in its 21-year history, saying Edward Snowden’s revelations have made some in the community uncomfortable about having feds there.
“It would be best for everyone involved if the feds call a ‘time-out’ and not attend Defcon this year,??? Defcon founder Jeff Moss said in an announcement posted Wednesday night on the convention’s website …
In defense of national security corporate stooge-ism, General Keith was there, anyway. He was heckled.
Meet the new boss, Mike Rogers, same as the old boss.
From The Predator State, by James K. Galbraith, 2008:
“[The] practice is clear: We live under government that as a matter of principle does what it wants.”
And General Keith Alexander of the National Security Agency was a soldier in the cause.
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01.30.14
Posted in Crazy Weapons, Culture of Lickspittle, Fiat money fear and loathers, WhiteManistan at 12:17 pm by George Smith
Plastic 3D gun maker and wanna-be BitCoin wallet developer Cody Wilson has been given a quarter of a million dollar book deal by Simon & Schuster for his story:
“The whole point to me is to add to the hacker mythology and to have a very, very accurate and contentious portrayal of what we think about the current political situation, our attitude and political orientation, a lasting remark,??? he says. “It won’t be a manifesto. But culturally I hope to leave a couple of zingers…a touchstone for the young, disaffected radical towards his own political and social development, that kind of thing.???
Wilson says his proposal received highly mixed reactions from publishers, some of whom saw his attempts to create new ways to circumvent gun control laws as immoral.
The proposed title is Negative Liberty. At Forbes, Wilson claims that soon the government will be trying to jail him.
Cody Wilson — from the archives.
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11.05.13
Posted in Crazy Weapons, Culture of Lickspittle, Cyberterrorism, Extremism at 12:01 pm by George Smith
The probability that any predicted national security catastrophe, or doomsday scenario, will occur is inversely proportional to its appearance in entertainments, movies, television dramas and series, novels, non-fiction books, magazines and news.
Or, put another way, the probability that something bad will happen, as described or predicted by experts or any government, intelligence or quasi-corporate/government assessment agency, asymptotically approaches zero as it attains widespread use in popular entertainments. (And that’s usually very early in the development cycle.)
Originally, here.
The all-encompassing blackout causing the country to lapse into barbarism and chaos is a national meme, albeit one that is only a grail for a very particular demographic: Paranoid right-wing WhiteManistan. (Include the Tea Party.)
Here’s another segment that encapsulates the odious nature of it: The well-prepared white father figure in Army man clothes defending his perimeter from someone crummy-looking who comes looking for help.
National Geogrpahic television caters strongly to it.
Starting with Doomsday Preppers, the network has regularly pandered to the audience that believes the country is about to meet an end, usually revolving around the sudden loss of all electricity. It supports a significant industry, one that peddles supplies, bug-out bunker building materials and home combat training on how to shoot or maim interlopers coming for your stuff after the collapse.
Has anyone seen this? I missed it and don’t get cable. (It does appear to have been posted to YouTube.)
I invite comments. Leave a review or an opinion below.
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10.29.13
Posted in Crazy Weapons, Culture of Lickspittle at 8:10 am by George Smith
Fixing mass un and underployment, no can do. Preventing cuts to food stamp/anti-hunger programs, no can do.
But terrifying? Yes, we can really do that.
The Zumwalt, a perfect name, for a giant destroyer, like none other in the world. Six hundred ten feet long, it’s 2/3 the size of the old Iowa class battleships, so where the idea that it might be stealthy came from must be in the minds of the overlords.
“It’s absolutely massive. It’s higher than the tree line on the other side. It’s an absolutely huge ship …” said someone about its trip from dry dock into the water in Bath, Maine. The water rose an inch and a half in the bay. It “features a 155mm ‘Advanced Gun System’ that fires rocket-propelled warheads that have a range of nearly 100 miles.”
And who is it to smite? Somali pirates? That dog won’t hunt, just look at the box office for the Tom Hanks movie about the brave captain. Sail it into port cities in the US to intimidate the locals if social unrest breaks out? Make port calls in nations where the leaders want an impressive tour that will cement their desire to keep buying US arms? It can’t be to cow China because we need them to make all our smartphones and stuff and Apple and Walmart wouldn’t have it.
Behold Zumwalt!
Original.
I have it figured out. Someone in the Pentagon secretly wanted a modern American take on the Bismarck.
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10.02.13
Posted in Crazy Weapons, WhiteManistan at 9:05 am by George Smith
Tom Clancy has died, astonishingly, at 66.
I was a very much younger man when I bought the first hardback edition of The Hunt for Red October from the Naval Institute Press. It quickly became a best-seller, propelled by blurb furnished by Ronald Reagan.
The rest of the story is known to everyone.
Clancy became the leading author of the techno-military thriller genre — he almost invented it single-handedly — essentially, bodice-ripper fiction for men where the romance is in the story of the military supremacy of the US, always struck low in the beginning of a usually not less then 400-page tale, then rising on the shoulders of brave and resourceful officers and enlisted men, or spies, to crush the enemy.
There were blockbuster movies, computer games, probably even a television show, an empire created.
I haven’t read any of it in decades and now might only have the Red October book, somewhere in a hidden pile.
Frankly, it was always pretty much crap but shite that was very appealing to a emotionally stunted but large young to middle-aged white male audience, jingo dudes who got erections over loving technical descriptions of advanced American weapons of war as they were in the process of destroying “the bad guys.” (The latter of which Dave Barry lampooned in an hilarious column a long time ago).
Another way of putting it: Tom Clancy was very dear to the beating heart of WhiteManistan.
I outgrew it and got rid the books, even those of the coat-tailing authors, of which there were and are still way too many.
Still respect must be paid to the achievement and regret shown over his passing too soon. Clancy’s millions of books made people happy, including me, for a bit. And just a day ago I noticed a newer title by the man in the one place where many Americans are still most likely to buy an occasional book — the grocery store.
Clancy was the original. Rest in Peace.
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09.20.13
Posted in Crazy Weapons, Culture of Lickspittle, WhiteManistan at 1:56 pm by George Smith
Fiore. You gotta see it.
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09.18.13
Posted in Crazy Weapons, WhiteManistan at 1:58 pm by George Smith
The damaged tribesmen of WhiteManistan are incapable of seeing their mental trouble.
They can be counted on to do the wrong thing, always.
Open carry of guns to Starbucks in Newtown, Connecticut, was an idea and action by people who need to be ostracized from society.
And the “I Love Guns and Coffee (at Starbucks)” campaign to take your guns to the franchise has just been … killed.
From Starbucks, today:
Few topics in America generate a more polarized and emotional debate than guns. In recent months, Starbucks stores and our partners (employees) who work in our stores have been thrust unwillingly into the middle of this debate. That’s why I am writing today with a respectful request that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas …
Our company’s longstanding approach to “open carry??? has been to follow local laws: we permit it in states where allowed and we prohibit it in states where these laws don’t exist. We have chosen this approach because we believe our store partners should not be put in the uncomfortable position of requiring customers to disarm or leave our stores. We believe that gun policy should be addressed by government and law enforcement—not by Starbucks and our store partners.
Recently, however, we’ve seen the “open carry??? debate become increasingly uncivil and, in some cases, even threatening. Pro-gun activists have used our stores as a political stage for media events misleadingly called “Starbucks Appreciation Days??? that disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of “open carry.??? To be clear: we do not want these events in our stores. Some anti-gun activists have also played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction, including soliciting and confronting our customers and partners …
I would like to clarify two points. First, this is a request and not an outright ban. Why? Because we want to give responsible gun owners the chance to respect our request—and also because enforcing a ban would potentially require our partners to confront armed customers, and that is not a role I am comfortable asking Starbucks partners to take on…
Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, told newspapers: “The presence of a weapon in our stores is unsettling and upsetting for many of our customers.”
And this points again to the dark heart of the gun-crazy in America. They have made a big thing out of open carry in restaurants, shopping centers, snack shops and on the streets of cities because it is about intimidation, a form of low level mental terrorism.
Their’s is a dark joy in unsettling those they see as enemies all around.
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Posted in Crazy Weapons, Culture of Lickspittle, WhiteManistan at 10:27 am by George Smith
Taken by the New York Times a week ago in Missouri and used as the leading photo for a post-Navy Yard massacre piece on gun control, it’s a photo that, coincidentally, powerfully illustrates a central social problem in this country. And so it requires emphasis and republication.
The photo is WhiteManistan and the need to escape it, perfectly captured.
With hands over hearts the people are not heart-warming. Quite the opposite. In their desire for an unbridled gun culture, they provoke fear and loathing, having brought on the convincing reality that when they get any of their way worse inevitably follows. Nothing can be done and nothing will be done about gun violence because more guns must be bought, they save lives. Everyone is made prisoner to gun hoarding manias, paranoia and regular gun bloodbaths as normal in American civilization.
Mind-numbing, it’s a tableau of the old, irrational and anti-civilization, a collection of my mentally troubled tribe in Jefferson City, Missouri, hoping — of all things to hope for — legislation to nullify federal gun control.
It’s a damaged group, perhaps successful in their lives with grown children, loving pets and all the possessions of American middle class life. But there is something very wrong inside and it can’t be fixed by reason, only endured. Worse, these broken people cannot recognize their mental trouble.
When I see these pictures, now commonplace, I see people the same color, who look the same as my parents, who looked like the people with which I grew up. But we share nothing.
Massacres will continue until morale improves.
From Der Spiegel: America’s unhindered gun mania.
Hat tip to Frank at Pine View Farm.
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09.17.13
Posted in Crazy Weapons, Culture of Lickspittle, WhiteManistan at 11:02 am by George Smith
Most impressive, at the top of the Google winner-takes-all list, WaPost blog wisdom on gun control, furnished by “charticle.”
And what is it, precisely, that anyone wouldn’t get about this?
Fuck you, idiot! We’re gonna keep buying guns and ammo! Yeah!
It’s straightforward enough.
A comment on Aaron Alexis and the faux controversy over his clearances and medals.
The war on terror national security boom guaranteed it.
The explosive growth in national security clearances has never been a secret, nor the employment of thousands of individuals who, statistically, would expected to be unfit. The great sucking in by the business of the war on terror would have, by definition, been expected to bring fallout.
And when one individual blows up and produces a massacre, it is not surprising to anyone who has followed along. The vetting process was never going to be what people thought it was.
And as the BBC noted yesterday, among the shooter’s commendations: “Global War on Terrorism Service medal.”
Such medals were given out like candy. The only qualification was you had to serve in support of Iraqi Freedom or be military personnel involved in homeland security operations. It’s a meaningless citation with no more real importance than a pin for perfect attendance.
It would be a paradox only if it weren’t so ludicrous and sickening.
Unintentional black humor
One day before the Navy Yard massacre, ThinkProgress ran a note on two boobs, just like those in WhiteManistan Vacation, detained by police for carrying their assault rifles to a farmer’s market in Wisconsin.
Why, in Heaven’s name, would people get nervous about that?
It’s just patriotism!
Actually, it’s about bullying and intimidation. They wouldn’t be doing it if they didn’t think it would put the fear into their neighbors.
Their are laws prohibiting masturbating in public and other free-will anti-social antics that generally stand to unreasonably upset your neighbors, a point I and many others have made.
On the necessity of escape from the clutches of WhiteManistan
After Newtown, I thought there might be some change. What wasn’t quite expected was an historic explosion in gun buys and then almost total inaction except at some state levels.
Now I’ve come to see the error in my thinking. Gun control isn’t possible in the US, which is currently an ungovernable country.
More bloodbaths will occur. The question is how many can be stomached before igniting real social unrest?
WhiteManistan in Jefferson City, Missouri, last week — hoping for legislation that would nullify federal gun law in the state. It didn’t happen, falling short by just one vote.
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08.30.13
Posted in Bombing Paupers, Crazy Weapons, Culture of Lickspittle at 3:18 pm by George Smith
You would be right if you think Americans lack character, empathy and the ability to think things through.
From the BBC, citing a Quinnipiac Poll, it is determined that Half of Americans don’t want war with Syria but half said they’re “open” to it if it means pushing a button and shoving 200 remote-controlled guided bombs into a barrel willy-nilly:
This option is more palatable to the US public than the deployment of ground troops … Indeed, remotely controlled attacks such as air strikes have been called ‘the American way of war’ by the authors of an article in Foreign Affairs magazine.
More palatable, yes, if you can be cooking hot dogs over the weekend and getting revved up for college football.
Foreign Affairs?
“Foreign affairs” implies a foreign policy and a state department.
The state department hasn’t done anything for decades except say “OK!” when someone suggests unleashing the bombers.
Here’s the American way of war, from over a decade ago.
If you recall, the opening round of the Iraq War involved much publicity surrounding a midnight strike on “Dora Farms,” a place where Saddam Hussein was said to have a command hideout.
The hope was, in flattening it, that he could be buried in the rubble, bringing a quick end to things.
Dora Farms turned out to be another American technological gaffe. The missiles and bombers hit an empty field.
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