Thursday Morning: It's Still Morning Somewhere
Fried. I am totally brain-fried after spending the night reading about flavivirus, rubivirus, arbovirus. So a morning post was not in the cards right away today in my time zone.
Things are fried elsewhere, too, as you can see from the global…
FBI Has Been Not Counting Encryption's Impact on Investigations for Over a Decade
During the first of a series of hearings in the last year in which Jim Comey (at this particular hearing, backed by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates) pushed for back doors, they were forced to admit they didn't actually have numbers proving…
CDC: Zika Virus Confirmed as a Cause of Microcephaly
CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden confirmed Wednesday that the flavivirus known as Zika is a cause of microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects.
The confirmation is based on an evaluation of available data for potential teratogenic effects.…
Who Are The Non-Celebrities In The Panama Papers?
In the first stories about the Panama Papers, we got the names of a bunch of politicians, a few criminals, sports and other celebrities and one or two names of rich people. But in focusing solely on this kind of person, we miss the major point…
FBI's Latest Story about the Hack of Farook's Phone
There's a lot that doesn't quite make sense in Ellen Nakashima's explanation for how FBI broke into Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone.
The FBI cracked a San Bernardino terrorist’s phone with the help of professional hackers who discovered and brought…
Wednesday Morning: A Whiter Shade
She said, 'There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
-- excerpt, Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum
cover here by Annie Lennox
I've been on an Annie Lennox…
The 28 Pages
On Sunday, President Obama said this about about Hillary's email scandal: "There's classified & then there's classified."
Perhaps that's what has led him to decide, after 15 years, the 28 pages on the Saudis' role in 9/11 can finally…
Military Keynsianism, American Exceptionalism, and Trump
This Chas Freeman piece, The End of the American Empire, has gotten a lot of attention since it got posted yesterday. He talks about several key issues, starting with how counterproductive our "sphere of influence" Empire, which brings an…
Tuesday Morning: Toivo's Tango
Did you know the tango evolved into a Finnish subgenre? Me neither, and I'm part Finn on my mother's side of the family. Both my grandmother and great-grandmother spoke Finn at home after their immigration to the U.S., but apparently never passed…
DOJ Places David Barron's Anwar Awlaki Memos on the "Not Selected for Publication"
Sometime between March 27 and April 15 of last year, the Office of Legal Counsel posted the two memos David Barron wrote authorizing the execution of Anwar al-Awlaki (February 19, 2010; July 16, 2010) on its list of memos "Not selected for publication"…
CIA Officers Didn't Carry Out Waterboarding
A lot of people are pointing to John Brennan's assurances that CIA won't ever torture again as if it means anything (usually ignoring Brennan's motivation from institutional preservation, not efficacy or morality or legality).
CIA Director…
Monday Morning: The Urge to Merge
In my eyes, indisposed
In disguises no one knows
Hides the face, lies the snake
The sun in my disgrace
-- excerpt, Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden
Looks like this week is all about mergers. Enjoy this simulation on replay several times…
The Origins of Totalitarianism: Conclusion
The point of this series was to examine the conditions which led to the rise of Fascism in the 1930s to see if there are useful insights that might guide our understanding of conditions in the US today. In introduction to this series, I suggested…
The Obama Administration Almost Doubled Down on Yoo's Illegality
Over at JustSecurity the other day, ACLU's Patrick Toomey argued that the Administration's current interpretation of FISA -- especially its embrace of upstream surveillance -- means the Obama Administration has gone beyond John Yoo's thinking…
Friday Morning: Far Over Yonder
It was rough road this week, but we made it to Friday again for more jazz. Today's genre is ska jazz, which will feel like an old friend to many of you.
The artist Tommy McCook was one of the earliest artists in this genre. Just listen to…
Richard Burr's Encryption (AKA Cuckoo) Bill, Working Thread
A version of Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein's ill-considered encryption bill has been released here. They're calling it the "Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016," but I think I'll refer to it as the Cuckoo bill. This will be a working…
Thursday Morning: Eye in the Sky
I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
-- excerpt, Eye in the Sky by Alan Parsons Project
It's not like I wanted to haul out all my high school…
John Yoo's Two Justifications for Stellar Wind
Because I'm a hopeless geek, I want to compare the what we can discern of the November 2, 2001 memo John Yoo wrote to authorized Stellar Wind with the letter he showed FISA Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on May 17, 2002. The former is…
Wednesday Morning: Whip It Good
When a problem comes along you must whip it
Before the cream sits out too long you must whip it
When something's going wrong you must whip it
-- excerpt, Whip It by Devo
Can't tell you how many times I've thought of this song in the…
Tuesday Morning: What's News, Tiwes?
It's the day belonging to Tiwes, the Norse god of single combat. What will we engage in battle about today? Looks like sketchy news coverage is a good reason, after taking a peek at Newsmap this morning to check global media coverage of the…