War, Politics, and Life by Bruce Maulden
Yesterday afternoon, two kids from my town introduced President Obama at a White House reception for LGBT Pride Month, and they nailed it, even outshining the president. Twin sisters and third-graders Zea and Luna Weiss-Wynne of Mckinleyville Elementary School are seen at left with Obama and VP Joe Biden — Zea and Luna are daughters…
Americans’ view of Congress would be laughable if the national situation didn’t suck so bad. And Americans know it: Americans’ confidence in Congress as an institution is down to 10 percent, ranking the legislative body last on a list of 16 societal institutions for the fourth straight year. This is the lowest level of confidence Gallup…
Another dark, gloomy and overcast morning here on California’s north coast, though, as a Thursday, we’re much closer to the weekend than we were yesterday. Which does say something, but what? And as times passes, Americans view NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in a different light: Roughly one in three Americans say the former security contractor…
Another overcast early morning here on California’s north coast, this the mid-week edition of life as society goes semi-berserk, or something. Blowback: An intelligence term for adverse, unintended consequences of secret operations. The CIA first used it in a report on the 1953 operation that overthrew the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. During the…
Overcast and quiet this early Tuesday on California’s coast, and despite some breaks in the cloud cover, there’s no view of the mysterious Gamma Delphinid meteor shower expected to pass earth this morning. Somebody will shoot it with a camera, for sure. And in the midst of all that NSA travail this week, a horrible shooting…
High overcast with a slightly-chilled wind this way-early Monday as we carrom into another new work week, leaving behind the rat-tailed dump of private-first-class droppings — or what’s now called, ‘Boundless Informant.’ Apparently, there’s no bottom to the data suck. On Saturday, the UK’s Guardian revealed the NSA whistleblower as American citizen Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old…
A little overcast, and a bit more chilly this Sunday morning on California’s north coast, and already I’ve been drinking in enough InterWeb-shit on leaking bad stuff and whistleblowers in general, making the pointing out of a crime, worse than the crime itself. And right-off the bat (via HuffPost): Confirmation that the NSA filed a…
Crystal-clear and really, really warm this Saturday afternoon on California’s north coast, and with a temperature right now of 74-degrees, this is the ultimate in summer — yet with summer still a couple of weeks away. So warm, I worked a couple of hours in my little back patio/yard area — cleared some weeks, dug-up…
“Fort Meade has 18 acres of mainframe computers underground. You’re talking to your wife on the phone and you use the word ‘bomb,’ ‘president,’ ‘Allah,’ any of a hundred keywords, the computer recognizes it, automatically records it, red-flags it for analysis. That was 20 years ago.” — Former CIA Agent Brill, ‘Enemy of the State‘…
High overcast again this early Thursday on California’s north coast and life continues impeded by all kinds of nefarious workings unseen for the most part — or heard. This morning, the InterWebs are chunked-full of miniscule details of the cellphone party-line established by our government to keep tabs on terror. Another legacy from George Jr.,…
