Friday Morning: Get Smart
If yesterday was all about the stupid, today is smart -- as in Get Smart. I usually explore a jazz genre on Fridays, but this morning's theme took over and found its own -- well, what else! -- theme music.
This is the entirety of the piece…
While It Is Reauthorizing FISA Amendments Act, Congress Should Reform Section 704
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee had a public hearing on FISA Amendments Act reauthorization, which will take place in the next year. The hearing was treated as solely the reauthorization of Section 702 of FAA. But in fact, all of…
Thursday Not-Morning: Stupid
Jeepers. I need hip waders. There is just so damned much stupid over the last 24 hours. It's a veritable flood.
The Future is here, and it's stupid
Law firm "hires" first artificially intelligent lawyer (Futurism) -- Oh how nice. Treat…
Illiberal Hollywood: Unchanged or Worse One Year Later
On May 12, 2015, the ACLU sent a letter to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asking the EEOC to look into the disparity of women directors hired to produce big-budget film and episodic television.
In October last year, the…
Wednesday Morning: Wandering
This music video is the result of an insomniac walkabout. I went looking for something mellow I hadn't heard before and tripped on this lovely little indie folk artistry. Not certain why I haven't heard Radical Face before given how popular…
James Clapper's Latest Effort To Fearmonger about Snowden's Damage
In addition to getting him to admit the US can't fix the Middle East but we have to stay because our "leadership" is needed there, in this column David Ignatius asked James Clapper, again, about how much damage Edward Snowden has caused.
Clapper…
The US Person Back Door Search Number DOJ Could Publish Immediately
The Senate Judiciary Committee had a first public hearing on Section 702 today, about which I'll have several posts.
One piece of good news, however, is that both some of the witnesses (Liza Goitein and David Medine; Ken Wainstein, Matt…
Tuesday Morning: Garbage in, Garbage out [UPDATE]
Why'd I pick this music video, besides the fact I like the tune? Oh, no reason at all other than it's trash day again.
Speaking of trash...
Facebook furor just frothy foam?
I didn't add yesterday's Gizmodo piece on Facebook's news curation…
DOJ Confirms One or More Agencies Acted Consistent with John Yoo's Crummy Opinion
There's a whiff of panic in DOJ's response to ACLU's latest brief in the common commercial services OLC memo, which was submitted last Thursday. They really don't want to release this memo.
As you recall, this is a memo Ron Wyden has been…
Monday Morning: Scattered
That's how I feel this morning -- my head feels like a bunch of scattered pictures lying on my bedroom floor. Can't tell how much of this sensation is work hangover from a too-busy weekend, or a result of a themeless news morning.
Often as…
Long-Serving Intelligence Executive: Sure, Government Has Been Thoroughly Pawned But What about Ordinary Citizens?
Three months after Obama rolled out a cybersecurity initiative backed by a piece in the WSJ, former Deputy Director of Defense Intelligence David Shedd has decided to critique it (the 3 month delay might have something to do with the fact…
Happy Mother's Day!
Photo: Migrant agricultural worker's family. Seven children without food. Mother aged thirty-two. Father is a native Californian. Nipomo, California
Taken by Dorothea Lange, Feb/Mar 1936
Library of Congress
Not the most famous of Lange's…
The Intelligence Community Casts Its Vote for Hillary Clinton
Since Donald Trump all-but sealed the nomination the other day, there has been a bit of a tizzy because he'll receive intelligence briefing(s). Several spooks and former spooks complained to the Daily Beast that Trump might run his mouth and…
Friday Morning: Gypsy Caravan
TIME, you old gipsy man,
Will you not stay,
Put up your caravan
Just for one day?
-- excerpt, Time, You Old Gipsy Man by Ralph Hodgson
If last week's Friday chamber jazz was most like me, this genre is next to it. Gypsy jazz is what…
Thursday Morning: Burning Bright
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare…
Empirical Test of Piketty's r > g Theory Coming
Bernie Sanders forced the issue of wealth inequality into the presidential campaign, which presented a real problem for neoliberals of the Democratic persuasion. They want us to believe that the market rewards people in accordance with their…
Wednesday Morning: Woe, Nelly, Woe
I meant woe, not whoa. I do know the difference.
It's woe I was thinking of when I wrote this next bit.
What would you do if you were told you wouldn't be paid for last 2 months of a 9-month job?
Let's say you have kids to feed, a mortgage/car…
The IC Can't Even Decide What Is Classified in Hillary's Emails But They're Attempting To Do Same on the Internet
Yesterday, Steven Aftergood noted that, rather than prosecute leakers, the Intelligence Community is instead taking administrative measures against people who leak information. We've know they were moving in that direction for some time (largely…
Tuesday Morning: Brittle, Two
Yesterday I talked about the shift toward mobile computing centered on smartphones, moving from PCs. Behind that transition, out of sight of the public, is the cloud which supports this shift. Content and applications are increasingly stored…
The Theory of Business Enterprise Part 3: Business Principles
By principles, Veblen means the overarching habits of mind that enable one to participate effectively in a society or a subset of society. Before the machine age, the age of the industrial process, people thought about themselves and the…