Vacation Sucky Blogging Schedule
Alright all you lugnuts that frequent the Emptywheel blog, as you may know, blogging gets a bit inconsistent Christmas week. And so it is again this year. Marcy is traveling, I am in New York City with my wife and daughter, and Jim is in Hawaii…
Real Housewives Trash Talk
Here I was thinking I had better put this belated Trash thread up for the Las Vegas bowl pitting Utah against BYU -- but by the time I started I saw Utah was 35-0 still in the first quarter. Oops.
Before launching into pro gridiron, two…
The San Bernardino Complaint
After some conflicting reports today about what would happen to Enrique Marquez -- the long time friend of San Bernardino killer Syed Rizwan Farook, who purchased two guns used in the attack -- DOJ charged Marquez on a 3-count complaint,…
So-Called Oversight in OmniCISA
I did a working thread of the surveillance portion of the version of CISA in the omnibus funding bill here. The short version: it is worse even than CISA was on most counts, although there are a few changes -- such as swapping "person" in all…
Richard Burr Just Told ISIS USAF Phone Program Gets Internet Phone Data
Richard Burr has apparently stated publicly that he's looking into not Marco Rubio's serial leaking of classified information, but Ted Cruz's alleged disclosure of classified information at least night's debate. That's particularly curious given…
Working Thread, Cybersecurity Act
As I've been reporting, Paul Ryan added a version of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act to the omnibus. It starts on page 1728. This will be my working thread.
(1745) They've changed what gets stripped from "person" to "individual,"…
On Intent, Mental Health, and Terrorism
In thoroughly unsurprising news, Joshua Ryne Goldberg was declared unfit to stand trial yesterday.
Goldberg is the Jewish guy who pretended to be a lot of things online, many of them anti-Jewish, but who had a role in the incitement of the…
What a Social Media Check for Visas Would Require
There's a bunch of fevered commentary arising out of the report that Tashfeen Malik, one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino attack, espoused extremism on Facebook before she entered the country. Otherwise sane members of Congress are…
NSA Propagandist John Schindler Suggests Boston Marathon Terrorist Attack Not "Major Jihadist Attack"
NSA propagandist John Schindler has used the San Bernardino attack as an opportunity to blame Edward Snowden for the spy world's diminished effectiveness, again.
Perhaps the most interesting detail in his column is his claim that 80% of…
Marco Rubio Explains the Dragnet
A penny dropped for me, earlier this week, when Marco Rubio revealed that authorities are asking "a large number of companies" for "phone records." Then, yesterday, he made it clear that these companies don't fall under FCC's definition of "phone"…
Marco Rubio Leaks Classified Information for Political Gain Again
Last week, Marco Rubio leaked the classified detail that the new metadata program authorized by USA Freedom Act obtains records from "a large number" of companies. Yesterday, he leaked more classified details about the program, revealing that…
The Great Transformation Part 9: The Rise of Fascism and Conclusion
Previous posts in this series:
The Great Transformation: Mainstream Economics and an Introduction to a New Series
The Great Transformation Part 1: The Market
The Great Transformation Part 2: More on Markets
The Great Transformation…
Fat Al Gore's Sunday NFL Trash Talk
Was a little hard to get too gigged up over the Army/Navy game, and that was about it for football and/or other interesting sports yesterday. So Trash Talk is a Sunday affair this weekend and it is brought to you be the weird weather of Fat…
Obama's Terrorism Cancer Speech, Carter's Malaise Speech
The right wingers who insist on calling any attack by a Muslim "terrorism" -- who insist on tying the San Bernardino attack to ISIS, even in the absence of evidence -- do it to prioritize the fight against Islamic terrorists over all the other…
"Encryption" Is Just Intel Code for "Failure to Achieve Omniscience"
After receiving a briefing on the San Bernardino attack, Richard Burr went out and made two contradictory claims. First, Burr -- and or other sources for The Hill -- said that there was no evidence the Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook…
"Is Our Congressmens Learning?
George Bush once famously asked whether "our children is learning," demonstrating that those setting policy for education might be least suited for measuring the efficacy of education.
Two different members of Congress in the last day suggest…
Jim Comey Makes Bogus Claims about Privacy Impact of Electronic Communications Trasaction Record Requests
On November 30, Nicholas Merrill was permitted to unseal the NSL he received back in 2004 for the first time. That request asked for:
the names, addresses, lengths of service and electronic communication transaction records [ECTR], to include…
The Great Transformation Part 8: Money as a Fictitious Commodity
Previous posts in this series:
The Great Transformation: Mainstream Economics and an Introduction to a New Series
The Great Transformation Part 1: The Market
The Great Transformation Part 2: More on Markets
The Great Transformation…
Dianne Feinstein's Encrypted Playstation Nightmare
I've complained about Dianne Feinstein's inconsistency on cybersecurity, specifically as it relates to Sony, before. The week before the attack on Paris, cybersecurity was the biggest threat, according to her. And Sony was one of the top targets,…
To Hide Why Its State Secrets Invocation Is Bogus, Government Declares Public Information Top Secret
My profuse apologies to Preston Burton.
Back before it was clear why FISA Judge Michael Mosman appointed him to serve as amicus addressing the issue of retention of phone dragnet data, I suggested it might have been an effort to undermine…