Category: government

Edward Snowden – Man of the Year

On By Rick McIn Apple, ethics, Google, government, things getting betterLeave a comment

We can’t trust corporations.

We can’t trust governments.

We can’t trust Obama.

The only way for the general public to get the truth is whistleblowing. We’ll see more like Snowden over the coming years.

Edward Snowden, who leaked an estimated 200,000 files that exposed the extensive and intrusive nature of phone and internet surveillance and intelligence gathering by the US and its western allies, was the overwhelming choice of more than 2,000 people who voted. …

Edward Snowden voted Guardian person of the year 2013

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I’m sorry for the innocent hurt by these leaks, but the greater good for society is served.

One more thing …

We can’t trust the media. Including the Guardian.

Ed Bott – The real story in the NSA scandal is the collapse of journalism (June 2013)

related – Time magazine – Edward Snowden, The Dark Prophet

Time had Snowden a runner-up, naming the new Pope as Person of the Year.

Double Down: Game Change 2012

On By Rick McIn books, ethics, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

Ezra Klein:

“a joyous romp through the seedy underbelly of presidential campaigning“.

Though not nearly as good as Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime (2008), I still enjoyed hearing insider anecdotes of the dirty dealings.

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Double Down: Game Change 2012 is a book written by political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin about the 2012 United States presidential election, in which Barack Obama was re-elected as President of the United States, defeating Mitt Romney. …

… a behind-the-scenes narrative of the Obama and Romney campaigns.

The book relies on over 400 sources, most of whom are anonymous. The authors treated their interview subjects with alcohol in a private suite or restaurant to get them to open up …

… Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s belief that as a “branier” Sarah Palin she could win the nomination, only to suffer horrible stage fright and a series of gaffes …

Herman Cain‘s initial appeal deflated by charges of sexual harassment and a poor understanding of U.S. foreign policy

Jon Huntsman‘s campaign collapse due to poor organization and attacks by both the Romney campaign and the Obama White House, each viewing the ambassador as a turncoat …

Gov. Rick Perry‘s gaffe-ridden campaign, apparently the result of painkiller use. …

… Karl Rove‘s role in the primaries, pushing Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee to enter the race, only to have both decline over issues of finance. …

Biggest idiot of all — as usual — was Donald Trump.

ROMNEY trump planeRomney was criticized for being an out-of-touch fat cat, beholding to the very rich. I feel that charge was fair. Like George W, if elected, he would have had to do everything he could to make the rich richer.

Chris Christie comes out looking best of the many who might have got the nomination instead of Romney. I do hope he runs in 2016. He’s a heavy weight legit candidate. Smart enough and tough enough to do the job. Sadly, skeletons in the closet could derail.

Paul Ryan was a gutsy choice for VP. He kept arguing to put forward alternative policies to Obama — but Mitt’s people wanted to make few specific promises, sticking with anti-Obama rhetoric. Of the Republicans covered, Ryan’s to my mind the closest to a fiscal conservative. His budget was Micky Mouse, hardly better than Obama. But I was hoping it was a first step in the right direction. For example, this week he defended cuts to military retiree benefits. Ryan’s got balls.

Mitt Romney is a good man. He might have been a good President. Might have been better than a term 2 Obama. We’ll never know.

I supported Romney when he first got the nod, hoping that a business man might better manage the nation. Unfortunately he voiced no platform. Weaseled or flip-flopped out of every question. It was embarrassing to listen to him interviewed.

His best moment was in the 1st presidential debate, Wednesday, October 3rd. Romney was good. Obama was terrible.

There are no scandalous reveals in the book regarding Mitt. He’s just as boring in real life as he was on the campaign trail.

HBO Films, which produced Game Change, the film version of the book, has optioned the rights to Double Down. When asked about casting, Halperin suggested Will Smith or Giancarlo Esposito would be his choices for Obama, while George Clooney or Jon Hamm could play Romney.

I’d love to see Clooney playing a Republican. 🙂

In some ways the respective National Conventions symbolize the respective Presidential campaigns.

The Democrats tightly scripted. Disciplined.

Their celebrity loose cannon the biggest hit of the event. Read the transcript of Bill Clinton’s Speech to the Democratic National Convention.

Obama Clinton

The Republicans. … Not so good.

No need to read Clint Eastwood‘s GOP convention speech: Full transcript. It was a mess, though I still like Clint personally.

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2016?

I can’t see any Republican beating Hillary.

They’ll have to take a shellacking before finally turning to fiscal conservatism, abandoning Tea Party trivialities.

Most Tea Party candidates are no more competent to govern than Occupy Wall Street extremists.

PalinIf you are interested in what’s really happening in the campaign war rooms, read this book. You’ll never again believe a word an American politician says.

NSA highly unlikely to read your email

On By Rick McIn ethics, Google, government, internet, product complaints, things getting worseLeave a comment

A former employee of the National Security Agency, Loren Sands-Ramshaw, weighs the benefits / risks of the U.S.A. collecting all your online data:

Many are concerned about the NSA listening to their phone calls and reading their email messages. I believe that most should not be very concerned because most are not sending email to intelligence targets. Email that isn’t related to intelligence is rarely viewed, and it’s even less often viewed if it’s from a US citizen. …

I do believe that the safeguards against unauthorized data retrieval by Agency employees can and should be improved.

I do not believe that their information-gathering powers should be curtailed. Such restriction would not only hinder the Agency’s ability to gather intelligence, but also impede its ability to wage cyberwarfare.*

The NSA is our best hope in this war. In my mind, the Agency’s continued dominance of the Internet is absolutely worth the once-a-year one-in-three-hundred-million chance that your private data will be purposefully viewed by an NSA employee. …

read more …

NSA

Verge – Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others launch campaign for NSA reform

Zero Dark Thirty

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, government, moviesLeave a comment

Zero Dark Thirty is a 2012 American war thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. Billed as “the story of history’s greatest manhunt for the world’s most dangerous man”, the film dramatizes the decade-long manhunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Zero Dark Thirty has received some criticism for significant historical inaccuracy. Former assistant secretary of Defense Graham T. Allison has opined that the film is inaccurate in three important regards: the overstatement of the positive role of enhanced interrogation methods, the understatement of the role of the Obama administration, and the portrayal of the efforts as being driven by one agent battling against the CIA “system”. …

For a Hollywood movie, that’s not bad.

I did not find it at all pro-torture. The message I took away was that to defend the USA American troops should be brought home. To ensure homeland security troops should be in the homeland.

Taking action in Islamic nations inspires more terrorists than it defeats.

If they’d shut down the embassies in Yemen, Egypt and Libya, for example, those big targets would not have been attacked.

In the age of the internet, why do diplomats need to live in those expensive fortresses?

Everything Is Amazing and Nobody Is Happy*

On By Rick McIn economics, government, things getting betterLeave a comment

Things are not as bad in the USA as we might think. Check this excellent article by Morgan Housel:

… If I say the average family earns less today than it did in 2000, it sounds depressing. If I say the average family earns more today than it did in 1995, you get a much different view. …

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Go ahead, argue that 18 years of near-stagnant real incomes is a failure. I hear you. Just realize that 2.8 billion people around the world earn less than $2 a day, and you’re upset that we aren’t richer than we were when we were already rich and felt like kings. “First-world problems,” as they say. …

I’m not arguing that inefficiencies, injustices, and inequalities don’t exist today. Of course, they do. But they always have, and by comparison, we are living in one of the most prosperous times in the history of this world.

We have a lot to be thankful for.

read the entire article – Motley Fool – Everything Is Amazing and Nobody Is Happy

title credited to Comedian Louis C.K.

___

China’s Gross Domestic Product might surpass the USA before 2020. But the “influence” of the USA will surpass China’s for decades longer.

Economist – Keeping watch – Economic success has given China greater weight, but not nearly enough to tip the balance

economist chart

Sooner or later the vast inefficiencies and corruption of the totalitarian Chinese State are going to become evident.

Explaining the Imperial Measurement System

On By Rick McIn economics, government, humourLeave a comment

Or is it the United States Customary System?

The USA (mostly) keeps the old British Imperial system, I assume, because the American KING put it in the Constitution. 🙂

And the Constitution is sacred.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

delayed in Nepal

On By Rick McIn government, hiking, travelLeave a comment

We’d planned to start trekking the Manasul Circuit (11 days) on Nov. 4th at latest.

Unfortunately government offices are closed for 3 days due to National holidays in Nepal.

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Even the dogs are off work.

dog Nepal

The city is lit up like Christmas in Canada.

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So … our new start date is Nov 7th.

We’re doing the lightest, fastest trek allowed under Nepali law. Two hikers, one guide. Total cost is about $500ea.

The big news in Nepal is the upcoming election:

As the country goes to the polls on November 19, tussles among contesting political parties and election candidates could pose a bigger security threat than underground outfits or poll-opposing parties in the central Tarai, police have said. …

Clash among candidates worries cops

We’ll likely still be in the mountains during the election.

China and India …

On By Rick McIn economics, friends, good news, government, hiking, things getting betterLeave a comment

China and India sounded a new optimistic tone in their relationship … as they signed an agreement to boost meetings between their militaries to avoid any repeat of this year’s tense standoff along their disputed Himalayan border.

The accord followed a meeting in Beijing between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also had trade ties on the agenda as India seeks to gain greater access to Chinese markets and readjust a trade balance tilted heavily toward China. …

China, India Sign Border Cooperation Agreement

India China