No You Can't Fire The Electoral College

The recent election has left those on the left/progressive end quite butthurt and trapped in an alternate reality of delusion.

Nowhere more is this evidenced by - than the recent propaganda piece published by the ACLU on their own site. So I will offer a tear-down of the piece and refutation of each and every point.

"Hillary Clinton — won the larger number of votes by several million."

Yes, but if you back out California alone - Trump won the popular vote.  California is a terribly overbalanced state in favor of the Democrats.  So if one examines the electoral college - it functioned appropriately and balanced out the heavy population concentration in the state - just as the system was designed to do!

"The ACLU has opposed the Electoral College since 1969 for non-partisan reasons. By now — everyone, Republicans, Democrats, and none-of-the-aboves — should be fed up with its undemocratic and unpredictable nature."

Lots of propaganda here.  First the ACLU is not non-partisan - so anything it does is ideologically driven - the only honest thing in that first sentence is the date.  Second, the propagandist use of undemocratic. The United States of America is a Constitutional Republic and not a democracy.  Words have meaning and a democracy is not simply a government that is voted for.  We vote for representatives and we have many forms of checks and balances that make us uniquely a republic and one unique upon this earth.  Being undemocratic in this case is meant to be deliberately confusing to the reader - who may be under the illusion of living in a democracy.  It is virtually gas-lighting.  It is accurate in the strict sense that the United States isn't a democracy...so nothing we do on a national scale and very few things on a state scale (aside from ballot referendums) are actually democratic.

People like this often try and confuse the language or insist on the term being in the vernacular as a way to muddy the water - but they know better and should be called out on it.

Unpredictable? That is an ambiguous and also propagandist term.  The author is projecting his or his own organizations perspective without any facts to back it up.  It is entirely predictable - get 270+ electoral votes and you're in!  What is unpredictable about that?  Nothing! There are further checks in place in case of a tie or other electoral issues.  The author is a propagandist and fails to even once cite the constitution itself.  The entire premise is a fraud.  Moving on...as if one needs to...

"Alexander Hamilton, the current darling of Broadway, promoted the Electoral College in
“Federalist 68” for deeply elitist reasons — he did not trust the common people to select the president. Notes of the Constitutional Convention show that the Electoral College’s unequal distribution of voting power was chosen as part of a sordid bargain: Along with the 3/5 Clause, the Electoral College was part of a compromise over slavery. States like Virginia wanted political influence commensurate with their total population even though they did not allow a large percentage of their population — slaves — to vote."

Deeply elitist reasons? You mean because the majority of the population wasn't even literate? Yes you are correct - but not for the right reasons.  One must read Plato's "The Republic" among other works and realize that our Founders had studied the history of previous democracies in Greece and elsewhere and realized that they had all ended in revolt and cities burnt down by mobs.  The Electoral College was a counter to the larger population of the southern states at the time - it was not something that went hand-in-hand with the 3/5ths Compromise as is suggested.  Additionally the only evidence provided is some professor's thesis paper - they didn't even bother to cite the widely available primary documents...y'know the Federalist 68 that they introduced to you without exploring in the first sentence.  Again - propaganda. The accurate description is found HERE and has nothing to do with slavery.  I mean it has as much to do with it as any other piece of the constitution does - in that they are in the same document - but the EC served to LIMIT the power of the slave states not to enhance it.

The final sentence is just rubbish in that it still conflates the 3/5ths compromise with the EC.  Utter trash.

"Even if, like Hamilton, we wanted an oligarchy to choose our president, today’s Electoral College is not a deliberative body."

Uhhh - well you are correct.  It isn't a deliberative body like the House of Representatives or the Senate.  It isn't supposed to be so this statement is also propaganda and meant to confuse the reader.  More trash.

"Whether an elector is permitted to exercise any independent judgment at all is hotly debated."

No it isn't. You are contradicting your previous statements!

"Although the Constitution does not require either of these approaches, most states have chosen to adopt laws requiring electors to cast their votes for whoever wins the state’s popular vote; 48 states decided on a winner take all system."

Yes They literally wrote that right before talking about the so-called 'hot-debate'.  Just because different states do things differently doesn't mean that its debatable or *gasp* controversial...I know try on logic for a change.  What is meant is that there is no Constitutional mandate and since the elections are actually held by the states - it is left up to them how to decide.  It isn't confusing - unless you deliberately set it up your argument to be confusing.

"The Electoral College thwarts the fundamental principle of one person, one vote by awarding each state a number of electoral votes equal to its allocation of representatives plus its two senators."

There is no such principle in the Constitution.  This is simply a statement based on a lie.  It thwarts nothing and is plainly set out to do exactly what it did in this election and all others prior to it. This is a huge lie - and one that should be obvious to anyone graduating from High School.  The fact that they try it out shows them to be subversive.  Why subversive and not simply ignorant/unknowing? Because its the ACLU - a group of highly educated lawyers who have the time and money to research basic fucking facts.  It is a deliberate lie - just like calling the USA a democracy.  Neither are true in any sense of the actual words.

"A voter in Wyoming thus has over three times as much influence on the presidential election as a voter in more densely populated California."

This sounds promising but wait...Wyoming has 3 Electors to California's 55.  Big scary Wyoming! Oh Wyoming why must you oppress the nation with your 3 uber votes! WAAAAAHHH. The author (at the ACLU no less) is proposing via this statement that Wyoming should have even fewer votes! He's actually advocating disenfranchising Wyoming voters as a consequence of his proposal to get rid of the EC.  

"And there are still racial and ethnic disparities in voting power."

Hrm - well that isn't connected to the EC in any way but go on...lets play this scenario out.

"One recent study calculated that Asian-Americans have barely more than half the voting power of white Americans because they tend to live in “safe” states — like Democratic-leaning New York and California and Republican-leaning Texas." 

That makes no sense that people living in states with the same other people...have less of a vote.  They have the exact same 1 vote that everyone else has.  There's no racial weighting...WTF is this even? Safe states? Oh they mean states that reliably go one way or the other politically.  This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with geography and the overall political/cultural climate of a region.  The author here unknowingly makes the case FOR the EC not against. The EC enables small shifts in any one of these states to have big national impacts.  This is also be design.  Swing states change every election - evidence? Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were swing states this year - states that had gone to President Obama previously and especially PA was new.  No one expected that outcome...no one. Author is full of hot air.

"Furthermore, the number of representatives each state receives, the baseline for Electoral College representation, is determined by the census. But the census consistently undercounts minorities. The Census Bureau itself calculated that the 2010 census missed 1.5 million minorities, including 2.1 percent of African-Americans and 1.5 percent of Hispanics. The marginalization of minority voters in many states is compounded by state voter suppression laws."

Sentence 1: True(mostly) - does not require a furthermore - and its not a baseline - there is no modifier that can make it go up - no circumstance.  The author manages to lie within a truth.  Amazing. So the census bureau misses some people (1.5M out of 330M  and somehow they are ALL minorities?) and so of course the entire system is declared by the author and his organization to be invalid! Yes more hints at subversiveness. Well hints as in outright statements of it.

Marginalization? Its an error - not a deliberate attempt NOT to count them.  The author imputes a purposefulness where there is none and then references voter suppression laws (ID laws) based on the false idea that minorities simply don't have them and its too hard to get one.  Of course it is a bald faced lie.  Go ahead - walk around some area filled with non-whites and try and find someone who doesn't have or cannot get an ID.  It won't work because its bullshit.

"The smaller states argue that they will be ignored if they do not have more than their proportionate share of voting power. But the Electoral College system makes wallflowers of most states, including the most populous, and therefore of most of the American people."

Definitely a lawyer that wrote this - and a shameful one. States argue that the EC gives them a necessary voice in government.  Yes this is true. The Author then follows up with a lie. The EC does not make smaller states into wallflowers at all!  It gives them disproportionate power!  I mean that's the whole crux of the argument in every statement the author makes prior to this...and now contradicts himself or tries to minimize it.  Blatant chicanery.  Then he tries to indicate that California and Texas are wallflowers...despite admitting the contrary earlier and advocating for MORE power in those states by getting rid of the EC. 

"Less populous states already get to put several fingers on the scales in the Senate and in the constitutional amendments process."

No they don't.  They get the exact right amount of power based on their population and senate seats.  The Senate is the States House.  They used to be appointed by state legislatures - hence the longer terms of office since they deal with more foreign policy (treaties and the like) and must consider the interests of the states as entities themselves and not simply a collection of peoples.  The states as entities are to have equal representation as equals among fellows in the Union.  Yes now they are directly elected - but the long term view philosophy at least still stands as well as that sense of egalitarianism and being a more reasoned, deliberative and less raucous legislative body than the House of Representatives.  Author is still a knob.

"Why give them another undue advantage when our government is supposed to be run by “we, the people,” not “we, the states”?"

It isn't an advantage - it is a feature of two legislative bodies checking and balancing each other.  It is why we have two legislative bodies and not just one.  I don't have time to explain the entirety of the ideas behind bicameral legislatures...needless to say the author here is subtly implying that we should consider abolishing the Senate altogether.  Yes quite subversive and glib at the same time.  The jerk raises a question like that without providing any research - suggesting that there is no merit...since the author apparently hasn't taken time to find any!  Its a sneering question and meant to be rhetorical.

How subversive is the author and the ACLU? Well lets take a gander at the whopper coming up!

"The National Popular Vote Act Solution

Even without a constitutional amendment, the states have the power to fix the main problem of the Electoral College. If enough states enact the National Popular Vote Act (NPVA), the winner of the national popular vote would become the winner of the presidential election.

Under the NPVA plan, states enact a law requiring their electors to vote for the winner of the national popular vote (rather than the state’s own popular vote). The act becomes effective only after states with electoral votes totaling at least 270 have passed the legislation. Eleven states (CA, D.C., HI, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, RI, VT, WA) with a total of 165 electoral votes have already passed the NPVA. If states with electoral votes totaling 105 more votes pass the act, the winner of the next presidential election will be selected by popular choice.

This state-based approach is consistent with the framers’ decision in Article II to authorize the states to control the appointment of electors. If it is constitutionally permissible for states to instruct their electors to vote for the winner of the state’s popular vote (the prevailing practice today), the states must also have the power to choose a different benchmark.  

Dozens of pro and con arguments — more than can be explored here — have been made about the constitutionality of the NPVA approach. It is probably true that the Electoral College cannot be wholly eliminated without a constitutional amendment. The NPVA would not eliminate the Electoral College but simply place it under new management — the American people’s.  The ACLU supports the NPVA because we believe that the responses to the range of opposing arguments are more persuasive. 

Although the states adopting the NPVA so far tend to be blue states, the movement has been bipartisan — as it should be. In February, the Arizona House became the third majority-Republican state legislative chamber to approve the act (following the New York and Oklahoma Senates) in a bipartisan 40-16 vote. If state legislatures refuse to go along, voters should take matters into their own hands with ballot initiatives to require that their states adopt the NPVA.

The Electoral College has been a predictable rubber stamp so far, but there is always the chance of a December surprise from so-called “faithless electors” who don’t vote as expected. Why should we tolerate this degree of unpredictability from a group we don’t actually want or expect to be exercising their own judgment? Even if we can’t agree on results, we should all be ready to agree on principle that our president should be chosen, like all of our other elected officials, by the straightforward popular vote."

I hope you read all that garbage.  The idea is that your state would assign electors to vote the way that the majority votes...so that anyone who gets to 270 - gets everything else.  So Wyoming - regardless of who you voted for - would not have the ability to assign electors to the candidate that your state's people supported.  Yes the author is again advocating disenfranchising you.  The author also lies about the NPVA Plan itself.  The effect that it has is that it puts CA in the drivers seat of even every other state that passes this law.  So lets play this out - hypothetically let us say that we go to the 2004 Election where GWB won the popular vote and the Electoral vote - that means that even if CA went 70% Democrat...their electors would be forced to vote Republican... *entering Bizarro World*  

You will note that in this election that Arizona's EC votes didn't go to the Democrats - BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T GET TO THE CONSTITUTIONALLY REQUIRED 270 EC VOTES.  Not all states have ballot initiatives - but clearly a program of targeting is under weigh. Your state should assign its electors in accordance with the will of the voters of that state.  Anything else is tantamount to the greatest disenfranchisement scheme the nation has ever seen - affecting more people than slavery or Jim Crow laws ever did. No that is not hyperbole - it is fact and would affect roughly 60 million citizens who do not live within 62 miles of the coast but give dominion over all elections to states that have large and condensed populations mainly on the coasts.  That is by-the-way a larger amount than the total black population of the entire nation in modern times (~37.6M). The author is trying to invalidate the votes of almost TWICE that number. You could back out every single Hispanic and Latino (50M) and still not get to the numbers of people that he is advocating essentially give up the right to vote!

This is how you get riots - this is how to make a country into a democracy - politics by mob rule - and this is how you kill a society.  Moves like this can only end in bloodshed eventually and has the hallmark of a tyrant.  It is a cynical attempt to force the rural states to heel and even to bend Texas and Florida to the will of California.  Nothing about this enfranchises anyone or offers any value except to totalitarians.

The 'faithless electors' amounted to 2 on the republican side (ooooh big scary 2/306) and 6 of the Democrat electors went off the rails - a couple of whom weren't allowed to vote and were replaced with alternates! Yes we have alternates in case of sickness, or inability to cast their vote as required by law!  It isn't unpredictable - it is about the electors having a sense of what is moral and being a defensive ward against a tyrant.  The author is advocating for a tyrannical system under false pretenses.  

We should all agree? Why is that? No we should not agree that the President should be chosen by a popular vote!  That is projection and propaganda and just a falsity of the highest order.  We should not all think alike nor be joined in a tyrannical system as proposed!  This is subversion under the guise of patriotism.  This is the kind of thing that needs to be argued over and have the lies and propaganda exposed.

People get paid to put out crap like this...And they are dangerous; because to many people they will seem reasonable and have a valid point.  They will seem this way because of various logical fallacies like the appeal to authority and the appeal to expertise.  They will abuse this natural trust and twist it like a knife in your mind. They will as shown - create false assumptions and false premises and then base whole arguments around a central lie.  Please do your own research - examine the sources and beware those who come peddling a new grand plan to save you from yourself.

Daredevil Season 2 - Mid Point Review

SPOILERS!

Frank Castle AKA "The Punisher" has been captured and now subject to trial by jury.  The conspiracy involving him appears to concern a DA whose own mini-mystery has yet to be revealed.  The majority of the gross corruption of season 1 appears to have been stamped out at least from the temptation side of things.

Meanwhile Matt has met up with Elektra Nachios, his college flame, heir to a criminal empire and whom he is actually aiding in that takeover...albeit somewhat unknowingly.  The excitement of the romance with Paige is counterbalanced by the excitement of Elektra's high energy rogue-ishness. 

Elektra - She is where Matt was in season .  She is beginning to come into her own.  She is cowgirling around in PJ's and we haven't seen her signature sais yet.  Matt isn't getting quite as injured as frequently and  he gets a suit upgrade fairly early on after a headshot leaves him with a concussion - which he battles through admirably if not unrealistically.

She's also his nemesis.  She is a bigger danger to him than any of the people he actually fights.  He is weak to her because he is like her.  She likes adventure and so does he.  He doesn't trust Paige but he should and he won't learn the lessons until he gets hurt by them.  Mixed in all this is his best friend who is being torn up by prior knowledge, loyalty and te fact that h e is a little bit fascinated to  be on the edge of events witnessing them and to his own credit is becoming a fine lawyer despite Matt's inattention as his second life begins to overtake his first one.  And with Elektra other mysteries deepen.  Will Stick make a return?  The Chaste vs the Hand?  Will the Hand reveal itself?

The Funny Thing About Nuclear Haters

Nuclear Power - In the USA it has been a bogey man ever since Three-mile island (TMI).  Never mind that TMI's accident was entirely a human fault.  The mere whiff of something bad maybe happening scared people unreasonably.  This is something special to nuclear power.

For example a gas turbine plant in Middletown CT exploded because of human error in purging some of the pipes and a malfunction in the safety system that happened prior to the safety valve.  It went off like a giant bomb but we don't talk about not building them because they *might* and *have* exploded in populated areas.

What happened at TMI was the result of mainly human error.  The system that did fail gave notice that it was failing and there was plenty of time for the engineers to act.  However they were ill trained and made mistakes.  Even so there was not a full meltdown of the core and only a small amount of coolant was leaked.  The coolant was water.  People under many guises of 'expertise' have somehow used human error as a reason why the technology itself is flawed.  Which of course is a red herring.  One must be careful to spot hidden agendas.

In the book 'Nuclear Roulette' (co written by Jerry Mander and Gar Smith) the authors mix fact, fiction and opinion.  Let us get some examples.

In regards to their preferred tech (solar power) they cite the Olmedilla de Alarcon solar plant in Alarcon, Spain.

Stated:  Build Cost of $350,000,000
Actual:  Build Cost of €385,000,000 ($530,000,000)
Error: Basic fact checking
Bias:  wishful thinking

Stated:  62MW capacity, 85 MWh Generation
Actual: 9.7MW/85MWh generation
Error: Lie of Omission
Bias:  Being intentionally obscure

The 60MW capacity is only achieving 16% of its generation capacity or 9.7/60MW
SOURCE

The reality is that it does have a potential of 60MW but many factors from dust to clouds to jet contrails and other obscure things prevent it from ever achieving anything even close to peak.  The authors of Nuclear Roulette decided that solar had to look good even though it is terrible.  Every square meter of the Olmedilla PV park generates 9 Watts of power.

To compare that to a similar sized gas turbine power plant of something under 100MW in capacity we get 4-5,000 watts of power per square meter.  The solar energy might seem attractive but the energy density is obscenely low.  Assuming 4,000W/M-sq that leaves a solar panel generating 0.00225 as much energy per square meter as the gas turbine. That is 0.225%.

Others spout much the same in terms of lies.  They then talk about doing with less.  De-industrializing.  These are the population control people, the ones who tell you that YOU will have to do without for the good of the planet.

The reality is that we have a solar system full of bounty.  We are doing a poor job of leveraging our early energy stores to gain access to greater stores and ignoring greater potential energies here on earth out of fear, ignorance and juvenile attention spans.

In their section describing the various alternative nuclear (Gen IV+) reactors some are described accurately and others are not.

Their molten salt reactor description is vague and filled with falsehoods.

"THE MOLTEN SALT REACTOR uses nuclear fuel dissolved in molten fluoride salt flowing into a graphite core. It requires super-durable structural materials and poses proliferation risks."

That is it.  The first sentence is accurate, but the term nuclear fuel is vague.  What nuclear fuel are they talking about?  Well it would be thorium in almost all cases.  The thorium fuel cycle is not only proliferation resistant due to the actual decay chain, but it produces many useful isotopes of other elements that we can make use of in science, industry and medicine.  On top of that the half life of many materials are in seconds and minutes or hours with none of them being longer than 70 years.  The materials with a 70 year life time are at the beginning of the cycle and can be kept in the reactor and re-used until in a less harmful state since this is a LIQUID fueled reactor.

Every other reactor type uses solid uranium oxide fuel except the traveling wave reactor.  That uses solid depleted uranium and is low pressure passively cooled.

The second sentence has the first part implying that the requirement for super-durable materials is somehow far too difficult to obtain to be worth the effort and the second part speaks about proliferation 'risks' without any discussion as to the actual level of risk (very low).

The super durable materials were created in the late 1950's and the specific one that is still used and available is called Hastelloy-N.  It is designed to be one of the most corrosion resistant alloys ever.  It was specifically engineered for the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors.  The test reactors devised in the 1950's ran for 20,000 hours (nearly four years) without a hitch.  It was this initial reaction that gave us the plutonium (PU-238) that was used in the nuclear thermal batteries we used in our deep space probes.  We are out of that plutonium now.  That plutonium could not be used in nuclear weapons.  Plutonium is not found in nature.

People often enough govern their lives out of fear rather than knowledge.  This needs to be corrected.

WTF is a samoflange!

So the FBI is again pushing back against our civil liberties and this time in a hardcore manner.  The FBI's Assault On Freedom & Privacy is getting worse and worse as time goes on.  The FBI has never been great with civil liberties regardless of being at war or peace.  The FBI has recently complained that by allowing users to encrypt their cell phones that its harder for them to do their job because now they have to serve the target of the investigation with a warrant rather than a 3rd party service provider.  In fact in that article they demand backdoor access...that is artificial vulnerabilities in your personal devices.  If the FBI can access it so can anyone else with some skill and determination.

Oh that pesky 4th amendment.  Additionally the FBI and all police have had a 'set back' because the US Supreme Court ruled that cell phones are part of the person's and property that are regarded as private and secure without a warrant due mostly to how they have evolved into a more complex data storage and personal organization device in addition to entertainment and work related value.

This most recent decision on the part of the FBI coincides with many people taking notice of all of the fake cell towers in the DC area and around our military bases where everyone's traffic is captured and redirected without their knowledge through government or other third party run interception towers.  The sad fact is that a crypto-phone sells for 1,500 Euros...which at the current exchange rate is...$1,792.00.  Good luck getting your company to pay for that unless you're an executive and not too many people know enough or care enough much less can afford to spend enough to obtain one of these.  No major carrier stocks them.  The alternative is the Blackphone and retails for about $630 before taxes.  Again you cannot walk into your carrier's local store and get one as part of a contract.

People should stand up and take notice of how much the FBI wants into your personal life and reject it out of hand.  The FBI much like the IRS or the ATF has gotten out of control and unlike those other organizations congress has never chartered it.  The FBI is quite literally a rogue agency.

Mass Effect 3 -> Mass Effect The Next Generation (or whatever)

The Mass Effect Trilogy was the journey of one Commander John/Jane Shepard.  Cdr. Shepard rose from a line officer to a Command officer and finally culminated in pan galactic war hero with unlimited authority and above any law.  Its a lot of exceptions to make for any man but for the story to succeed it worked.  He/She was basically an interstellar Delta-Force^³.

Well as a result of his or her choices we get three basic flavors of ending to this 'volume' for lack of a better term.

Flavor 1: Destruction - Reapers and Geth go bye bye...oh and so does EDI.
Consequence - Depending on war assets and whether or not you made the illlusive man kill himself...Shepard survives.  The reapers are destroyed and anything made up of their technology is at best majorly disrupted (presumably including the Keepers in the Citadel as well as the Citadel itself...now dead in orbit over the Earth).  The Mass Effect Relays are majorly damaged and teh galaxy is ravaged by the war with merely pieces of their fleets left over.

The industrial and damage to quality of life across these interstellar empires is massive.  This cycle may have been the least ready for an onslaught like this and only survived due to luck in finding what others had left behind.  The Protheans of the previous cycle had probably dealt a lot more damage to the Reapers than even Shepard could imagine...yet they kept on coming.  The empires of this era were comparatively new on the proverbial block.

The Reapers would have had precious little trouble if it wasn't for the MacGuffin that is the Crucible.  Not even the remnants of their creators (the Leviathan) were really much of a threat.

So to me this is the worst possible ending in terms of the amount of time it takes to recover.  However it gives the galaxy the largest chance to start completely anew.  It is a clean slate.  future protagonists will have to deal with an overall stunted technological and industrial/commercial base (logically) and whatever the main plot goal is...will be the most difficult to achieve.  However there will be some rewards in terms of flexibility for choices one would surmise.

As to the Quarian question - They might not matter.  If the player chose to side with legion...then do destruction...both Geth and Quarians are endangered species if not outright extinct by the time we pick up the first chapter of the next volume.  At best the Quarians are left trapped in the Sol System far from Rannoch...which at this point would be a long way from being rebuilt.

Shepards survival or death isn't terribly meaningful except to Liara..who may still be alive and a Matron by the time the new volume picks up.  If he survived there maybe one or two of his daughters out there to be encountered or if not encountered then at least you might hear about their own exploits.

Flavor 2:  Control - Quarians and Geth can survive in this one together or you can pick one or the other.  Here Shepard is now the Deus Ex Machina.  He replaces the Starchild and the Reapers become a super pan galactic protector rather than a machine of harvesting.

Consequences - The Mass relays are likely rapidly rebuilt and technological development continues onward.  Galactic travel likely resumes in as short as a generation or two thanks to Reaper assistance.  In game terms...maybe the new protagonist will hear the ghostly voice of =Shepard exclaiming that this store is his favorite on the citadel.  Perhaps the Reapers will deliver unexpected aid to the protagonist as a result of Shepard's benevolence and desire to protect the galaxy from whatever the latest threat is.

On the down side we may have an orwellian sort of state here where nothing is beyond the reach of the reapers.  A soft tyranny of sorts.  the brutality of the reapers will be unquestioned but largely hidden from all but those in power for the various stellar governments.  The mere threat of war will result in the Reapers stepping in as a police force to prevent or  stop instability.  Peace at all costs.

The overall plot wouldn't change but news reports and attitudes would be darker.  The Reapers would be anti-heroic.  Shepard is in control...isn't he?  That would be a neat C-plot to explore.

Flavor C - The Good Ending - Synthesis.  The Reapers...though partially organic before are now sentient and connected to the web of life.  They have empathy and individuality.  Individuals are now connected through their shared techno-organic Gestalt and have access to all of the knowledge that came before.

As the ending states...everyone is free to rebuild and flourish like never before.  The Reapers are galactic citizens and not oppressors or caretakers.  The state of technology would be highest here...perhaps with a new generation of Mass Relays...or a better form of travel that eliminates the need for them entirely.  Ships and people can now move freely about the Galaxy.  This ending REQUIRES many things.  It requires Shepard to have deleted the Geth who rebelled.  It requires Shepard to have stood down the Quarian fleet while allowing legion to sacrifice himself for the good of his entire people and it requires the quarians to have some to a peace with the Geth.

EDI lives.  The Normandy flies off.  Perhaps it reapirs itself now that it is at least partly composed of organic components.  The Krogan even flourish...rebuilding Tuchanka in the images of the ancients.  They have learned from their mistakes and have likely expanded their space beyond Tuchanka and potentially have a seat on the Council...taking their place finally as a legitimate power.  The Reapers after helping to repair likely retreated to dark space continuing a higher mission of protection of their Galactic Wards.  They might even have a council representative.

The protagonist here will have an extreme advantage compared to other endings with possibly a better starting condition.   N7 at this point should be a pan galactic designation...not one limited to those from Earth.  It should be on-par if not replacing the SPECTRE status (regardless of ending).  The difference here is that there will be more cooperation than in the destruction ending between powers...easier diplomatic solutions.  Control would force cooperation out of fear of the wrath of shepard.  Destruction...well the galaxy should be only *just* recovering in the slightest at his point.

Entire worlds will be cratered and scarred...in fact this would likely be the first Generation to really go back to the stars from the Destruction ending.  I for one can't imagine that ever being the best ending.  However it would have one thing in common with the synthesis ending and that is a different method of FTL travel not dependent on Reaper based Mass Relays.

Well here's to hoping we pick up on the Dark Energy story line here.

Movie Review: The Numbers Station

Premise:  Hardboiled but troubled CIA field agent is assigned to manage a small CIA shortwave radio broadcast station and must pull it together when things go awry.

The Actors: John Cusak, Malin Ackerman and Liam Cunningham (Sir Davos on Game of Thrones).
The Characters (respectively): Emerson Kent, Katherine, Grey.

Katherine is the rather wide-eyed civilian broadcaster who is somewhat in denial about what she does and fantasizes about the missions she is handing out.

Emerson is still shaken from Grey murdering an innocent girl to close the loose ends on a previous assignment (one of the numbers from a station like the one he is now manning).  Grey is promoted and gets him this job as a favor...and also so the agency simply doesn't off his former partner (he knows too much).

Cut to the bunker: They are leaving their 2 day shift for a weekend off and we are introduced to their shift alternates who are basically nothing more than red-shirts.  There is not enough time to develop their characters other than that they are both young though obviously the man is older in this case and through Emerson's eyes we see that they are in a relationship.  Though natural one can see disapproval in Emerson's eyes.

So we get some more of his mental anguish and drinking in a short cut-scene (thank the editor gods for that).  Then moving on he picks her up at the train station as usual.  They arrive at the bunker and see their alternate's transportation is still there...which at this point shouldn't be unmanned.  Then the attack begins and we go through a series of stages including investigation and they find out that even their emergency hardline is compromised.  Eventually our protagonists succeed, and not only are all of the antagonists dead (save one technically) but Emerson reveals that Katherine saved Grey's life.  Grey still wanted to kill her up until this reveal and gives them 10 days to disappear.


Movie Characteristics:

Location: Suffolk England @ WW2 US Army Base - Retrofitted Radio Bunker
Cinematography:  Good use of lighting for the mood and setting.  Dramatic rather than functional.  Adds to the stress of the situation.  The steady rather than shaky cam

Character development:  Emerson basically grows a backbone.  As for whether or not he's developed feelings for Katherine...it could be mostly a father-daughter relationship in his mind but he does care for her.  Grey is nearly a perfect sociopath, but he still values loyalty and since Emerson is loyal (though broken) he rewards that.  He knows how to manipulate and to what extent he can get away with emotional control.  Emerson would have been too much of a problem if he'd refused to let Katherine walk.

Katherine makes the heroine mistake of leaving the secured room at one point to make the broadcasts stopping the assassinations of CIA and other intelligence officials.  She gets a bullet as a reward but lives thanks to Emerson's persistence and timely crashing into a hospital parking lot (he was also shot by the final villain on the way out...jacking his car).

The movie is decent, though the suspense is a bit light.  The shady underbelly of the intelligence world only glimpsed rather than confronted.  But the veteran character's animosity towards his own people begins to show.  The psychologist examining him at the beginning says that "We're not sociopaths".  Obviously she is cajoling him.  A sociopath would have been fine with their activities and the protagonist isn't any longer.  He is detached...but not that distant.  He has a code; grown-ups have had their time and crossing with him is their last mistake.  Kids to him are off-limits or at least should be.  The CIA in this movie obviously feels that not only are domestic black bag operations acceptable but that its ok to murder innocent children to cover up an op's existence.

It is heavy handed but a movie like this has a screen play fit for future TV adaptation.  The Numbers Station has a great premise to build either a limited run mini-series or single season show on...or a longer multi-season (3-5 seasons).

I'd re-imagine it this way:
Post movie consequences - fallout from the destruction of this radio base leads to the upending of a conspiracy internally where a few low level CIA officials have been fired and disappeared...a new radio station opens in a different part of England (where of course our protagonists will be stationed...but for the pilot we have a cold open on a similar incident taking place...setting off another round of assassinations.)

This time Grey bites the dust.   The series will actually follow 2x sets of protagonists each getting an episode or half episode of time.  Some will run concurrently and others will be in serial.  The opening and closing credits will tell another story via a silent movie like method.  Putting together the credits from across a season will tell a story that is its own that could be self-contained or connect events otherwise only alluded to during the regular season.

Moving forward - post cold open and post credits we are introduced to our first new sets of protagonists.  This will be done with a similar psychologist interviewing them after previous assignments that have all taken a toll (for the 2 station chiefs).  For the civilians...like in the movie they will either be college drop-outs or hired straight out of college.  Complete civilians with minimal skills though they may have been to the farm for cursory training as analysts (replete with basic survival skills).

Each shift won't meet until the third episode during shift change.  Episode 2 will follow them on initial move-in and simple assignment broadcasting.  Episode 2 will show the second shift team doing prep-work and at the end of the show it will be a quick scene showing them being followed and chronicled by someone(s).

As the season draws on another station could be shown to be hit in a cold open by unknown people.  However life for our protagonists goes on fairly normal though they may notice being followed or something else.  One shift will be more open and another more coy.  Eventually they will leave messages for each other.  And following that...they will be attacked separately (but will persevere) and then they will be sharing ciphers.

They will work separately on pieces of the puzzle. And only get a peek at the conspiracy.  The conspiracy will take a bigger stage in season 2 as some episodes will focus more on that aspect.  Even here however the full extent won't be revealed with only 3-5 of the episodes having this as central.  The two teams will be growing closer but hiding it from their superiors.  This will keep them safe for the moment though more attempts on their station will be attempted.

Season 3 will kick off with a 2 part 2 hour show.  The first part will be much like the film with a siege of the installation with the second part being the relief but deepening of the conspiracy.  Their superiors will praise them for defending the installation without a compromise like we have seen happen in other places...but its a gambit...the team is split up...new stations for each pair with 3rd and 4th set added.  The 3rd and 4th set are conspirators.  conspiracy fun time!  As each original team watches the news in their off hours they see important people being assassinated world wide including congressmen and at least one important cabinet member.  Things are getting worse.  Season 3 will end with the death of the President...killed by his own secret service detail.

Season 4 kicks off with a presidential funeral, but then cuts back to the more hum-drum life of broadcasting numbers.  The conspiracy teams return and the assassinations stop.  The new President (VP whoever) is in power and things calm down.  Each *protagonist* team begins to put pieces together.  Each antagonist team begins to suspect that part of the jig is up.  Season 4 will concentrate on protagonist teams building allies in their off hours rather than on the numbers.  More action here a-la covert affairs with cross channel-tunnel action in Paris as well as England and Scotland.  Season 4 will end with each protagonist team blowing up their stations and going rogue for season 5..the final season each team with half a cipher...fighting to get to each other.

Season 5:  The cipher if united and used will lay out the final stages for a series of assassinations bringing unwanted people to power.  If the protagonists fail...WW3 will start.  If they succeed the USA will be rocked to the core and perhaps start another revolution.  Scenes of Tea Party protests and Snowden protests will be shown as well as Occupy and WTO protests for stock footage.  Police brutality clips and others will be used as filler.

This season will let the viewers vote on either a failure ending or a success at the end of each episode.  There will be no credits for this season like in past seasons.  Only a quick abbreviated credits black screen at the end.  The ending itself will take the form of a 21 minute credit sequence that is entirely silent.

DVD or special digital download will include the alternate ending. as well as bonus footage...commentary on every episode by each director, the executive producer and at least one star of that episode.  Behind the scenes gag reels and *making of* will be included.  Special options will be the actual dialogue from the silent scenes that was recorded but left out.

Net Runner - The Reality

Many of us nerds have either played or at least heard of the game Net-Runner.  This is part of the Cyberpunk genre of games and literature.  A great deal of this comes from watching the pace of technology accelerate and also combining it with the political perceptions of the late 1970's and early 1980's in a critical and dystopian manner.

The reality is that we do live in a crapsack world governed mainly by well capitalized interests and corrupt government officials acting mostly in cooperation if not outright coordination/collusion.

• LIBOR rate rigging
• FOREX (foreign currency exchange) Rigging
• Gold and Silver (really all metals) market rigging - nevermind the aluminum cartel

That is all just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what a crapsack world we really live in.  We all buy the sausage, but few of us are aware of how it is made and how many dirty hands touch it before it reaches our collective mouths.

On to the actual point of things!

Technology is advancing rapidly though asymmetrically.  Intel is busy pushing the next generation of connectivity alongside Google.  Intel's SD-card sized computer is in the works, though the current generation uses an Atom processor rather than a Quark processor.  This is done mostly for performance reasons, but leaves it bulkier than the original design called for.

 

The above picture is a reference design to show where things are headed soon.  It has wireless connectivity, runs a linux OS, and is a developer board.  This means that it is for the use of others to make applicable to our lives.  Chips like this can be fitted into any number of items from shoes and other apparel to making an extremely efficient distributed computer system embedded in a soldier's body armor, part of a police uniform or even helping you and your friends create a "personal-LAN".

Imagine integrating these connectivity devices with other wearables like google glass and using an encrypted connection and some VPN software having your own private communications system all hands free.

what you have here is the beginnings of the Star Trek Next Generation comm badge at the very least.  It would be able to provide GPS coordinates, link up and have its power augmented/supplemented by other devices, used as part of a personal ID system that replaces credit/debit cards and passports and driver ID's.

this little device could replace all of your miscellaneous identification and payment devices.  You won't need it implanted a la mark of satan..simply having it as part of a wrist watch device would be enough.  Cover it in an OLED screen and you have a functional watch tied to the system clock that updates via the nuclear clock over your now permanent internet connection.

The internet is also about to become free - as satellites are about to be launched in the next few years to broadcast internet connectivity world wide.  At first connection speeds may be slow and latency high.  But over time we will have a dick-tracy video/ radio watch.

The internet of things will quite literally let us perform miracles.

Back on to what it can do for soldiers.

• Provide a local network for communications that is short range and encrypted
• Use other wearable devices to give soldiers enhanced situation awareness (expanded spectral vision)
• Act as an emergency homing beacon in a compact and rugged form factor

Soldiers now with computerized systems on their armor basically have laptops on their backs or equipment that is still bulky.  A small distributed network however can be placed all around the solider's uniform so that even if one part is disabled the rest will function even if slightly degraded.

Police forces can benefit from the same things and so can individuals.  wearable safety devices while out hiking powered not my batteries but the energy of one's own movements.  GPS devices that never fail because they are powered the same way.  No one ever needs to be lost again.  These small units could monitor in real time a person's blood sugar level if they are diabetic giving a real time read-out on your watch of both actual and average over time.  Oxygen levels for people with COPD and a whole host of other conditions can be monitored.

This is only the beginning.

The Gaming Generation

My Generation - tentatively called "Millenials" of which I am one  of the earlier born members is the generation that is the first to grow up with the internet in a relatively modern format.  Additionally computer games in my generation finally  became more than moving dots and dashes around and more than letters and numbers.

Fully realized 3-D rendered and hardware acceleration became normal very quickly and soon the human need for social interaction would merge.  Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, EVE Online and even  games on Facebook and other platforms emerged.  Mobile gaming is finally becoming mainstream as our communications devices now have the gaming power of yesteryear's laptop computers.

Socially we are more interconnected than ever before.  Our devices are portals to each other.  Some see it as a distancing, or a filter and in some cases these analysts are correct.  Anonymity lets many individuals act in manners that are otherwise not permissible in social situations.  Other times the technology, such as integrated webcams on laptops, tablets and phones allows for intimate connections across vast distances.

Past generations wrote letters on paper and parchment.  Now we write on electrons and magnetic bits.  Past generations would use a complicated cipher to encode their writings, now we have 512 bit encryption available publicly.  There is something still intimate about a handwritten letter, but email is widely regarded as formal enough for almost any message as long as the formatting is thoughtful.

We used to have naughty deguerreotypes and now we sext each other instantly be it picture or video, or even broadcast it for all to see in a rather shameless manner.

Communication is instant world wide and I for one couldn't be happier.  I can speak with people in Russia, Denmark, Iceland and Singapore all at the same time and in real time with no cost beyond paying for access to the world wide web.  Aside from the fact that this would indicate a possible demise of legacy telecom systems in the future, the larger point is that we now have the ability to communicate as individuals with one another without the filter of a government in between.

Aside from picking and choosing what government you live under one discovers that a man is a man anywhere in the world and we have far more in common than governments would have us think.  We enjoy and have passions for the same things and have the same wishes for our families.  It is odd to think that we are somehow in opposition rather than engaged in cooperation.  But here we are.

My generation is certainly not one that is enamored with world peace, nor despite accusations to the contrary, so full of hubris that we think we can attain it.  However we are the first generation with the infrastructure for such an achievement.  Soon a company will be launching into orbit a constellation of micro-satellites that will broadcast internet access world wide.  It will not matter if you are sailing in the middle of the most desolate (of humans) ocean on earth, nor hiking a trail in Afghanistan, nor even in Antarctica.  Soon borders will mean even less.  What I do fear is that governments will jealously guard and attempt to clamp down out of insecurity.  Instead of freeing their citizens to interact, make contracts and engage socially the national governments will instead create more barriers to entry and try to keep us closed off from one another.

What good is a government that gives up social control?  Why it is the best government that one could have.  A freer people will never have existed on earth than is possible at this moment.  But world-wide we see restrictions.  Turkey closing down Twitter and youtube access is just a public example.  The Great Firewall of China is another.  The NSA's bulk monitoring of citizens online and mobile activities in and out of the United States is one of the most egregious.  And yet instead of backing down when challenged, those forces of authority double down and accuse critics of promoting the enemies of the state.  Hyperbole is ratcheted up and we see the militarization of police with MRAPs and an ever increasing number of SWAT teams and federal grants to support this.  Rights are restricted and the government talks seriously for the first time about licensing journalism and restricting the rights of the press and free speech.

My generation has the ability to choose what road we go down.  We will either go on the road to freedom, or on the road to serfdom.

Game On.

Officer Training Required

A more and more common sight:

Here is the issue:

The officer initiates contact
The subject of the contact indicates that she is not in violation and is in-fact the appropriate distance
The officer instigates by insisting that she move farther back (creating a situation where none existed)
The officer, seeing that this is going nowhere escalates further (under color of law) - demanding identification
The subject knowing her rights refuses based on the grounds that there was no reason for contact with the officer in the first place (illegal stop).
The officer arrests the subject and uses broad charges to justify harassment and abuse.

Result?

Subject injured despite there being no resisting arrest charge (possible excessive use of force)
Subject files lawsuit against the department
department reflexively denies
department still investigates (CYA: Cover Your Ass) just in-case their knee-jerk reaction is wrong.

There are many incidents like this and the list is growing day by day.  There are several reasons why police behave in this manner and it is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Police Officers/LEO's are a tribe much like the marines, or special forces; they are an insular group and everyone else is a potential threat.  This is why the California officers were so freaked out about Dorner.  He was one of them and then he became a threat from the inside.   The American people are the enemy and our cities and rural areas are now widely regarded as battlefields.

Police Officers lack proper training:  Here in my own state very few police officers know that a carry concealed permit also allows for open carry.  As a result the legal advice to residents was to not carry open.  This is wrong.  You do not tell citizens to not engage in a legal activity because you are too lazy to train officers and their superiors on the law.

Federal Funds/Militarization of Police: Bad.

America is becoming a battlefield and our police forces are increasingly populated with mentally ill veterans and sociopaths who engage in manipulative power trips under the color of law and the guise of protecting people.  Comply citizen, or get beaten like the chattel you are.

The Continuing Snowden Revelations

ITS A CONSPIRACY!

No really...it is.  But before digging in to the latest of the continuing reveals of exactly how far our intelligence services are overstepping their constitutional bounds let us take a travel back in time...not all that far to 2010.  This Article can be viewed for context but the main crux of it is from a paper Cass Sunstein (President Obama's Head of Information and Regulatory Affairs...a fairly Kafkaesque‎-esque position if you ask me) wrote with a Harvard Professor, Adrian Vermuele, dealing with how government should respond to citizens distrust of government.  The entire paper is publicly available HERE for you to read.

I refuse to take things out of context and Cassie here makes it quite easy to contextualize his statist attitude.  His wife by the way is Samantha Power.  She is a former journalist turned think tank fellow, turned Obama campaign advisor, turned State Department official.  She published her own statist paper/thesis dealing with a concept she called "The Right to Protect".  This entails using NATO/US/UN forces to intervene in 'humanitarian' crisis around the world based on the assumption that since we have a large military that we should use it for the benefit (as we see said benefit) to promote an open society/democracy/self-determination.  Of course this open society thing is funded by George Soros and the Tides Foundation at large.

Much of this is interconnected via think-tanks and the continuous cycle from Academia to think-Tank to Govt feeding cycle.  It is an intellectual version of the military industrial complex...rather it is the intellectual-industrial-complex. An interesting PDF can be found HERE on the number of think tanks in the USA.  Make of it what you will.  All of this dissembling may seem scattered but that is only because to explore the material in depth would require several books and leads down a rabbit hole so deep and twisting only the most dauntless of scholars or journalists would dare go down.

All one has to do to see the think tanks and though- shapers psychological warfare techniques are in operation is to wait for a significant event to occur and the security experts pop out of the woodwork.  Some of them are CIA/NSA/ Private contractor plants and the rest are shills for the administration (whoever is in power).  Their job is to deflect, discredit and destroy the opposition.  No different than what Cass Sunstein advocates in his paper.  One of the many symptoms of Cass Sunstein's cognitive infiltration strategy that is easily visible takes place in the many commentary sections of online publications.  There is always some racist bait or sexist or something there designed to take an illogical position aligned to the side that needs to be discredited before momentum is gained.

It is clever but diabolical.  And so far reaching that few would believe it...until documents came out saying that it is exactly what happens.  But 'tin foil hat' ITS A CONSPIRACY.  Well technically it is exactly that.  It is a concentrated group of people plotting to use their power against the larger group and influence them without their knowledge towards a goal that the concentrated group considers appropriate or beneficial...to their own selves and likely to the exclusion of others.

It is a thesis...turned actual plan. And it is the very definition of Kafkaesque.  The machine is being designed to grind liberty into dust.  A Semblance of Liberty

Born to fight, and we're born to flee
Doomed to live on ecstasy
Born to lie, and we're born to cheat
Look in the mirror, who do you see?

Born to flee, and we're born to fight
Without your mask, you're terrified
Don't hide your personality
That's who you are, your identity

If the virtues of tomorrow
Cause the greed of today
We won't have a future
Nor liberty

Born to breathe, and we're born to pursue
That's all we are supposed to do
The semblance of our liberty
Is nothing more than slavery

Born to flee, and we're born to fight
Is it failure that's our delight?
Born to cheat, and we're born to lie
Look at yourself, have you lost your mind?

If the virtues of tomorrow
Cause the greed of today
We won't have a future
And no more liberty

If the virtues of tomorrow
Set the need on the way
We won't have a future nor liberty

Private vice leads to public virtue

[Laughs!]

Raised to think that we are free
Living in our caves
Being slaves

We lost control of our lives
At the mercy of the waves
Massive waves

Blind to see what's going on
Conditioned as we are
And we are

We lost control of our greed
But now we face it all
Face our fall

Keeping all that we've created
And consuming all that's possible
Reaching deep into temptation
Nothing can stop us

Guarantee our hard-earned profits
Multiplied ten-fold if possible
Reaching out for new redemption
Nothing avails our needs

My opponent won't rule out raising taxes.
But I will, and The Congress will push me to raise taxes and I'll say no.
And they'll push, and I'll say no, and they'll push again, and I'll say to them:
Read my lips
[George H. W. Bush]

If the virtues of tomorrow
Set the need on the way
We never had a future anyway
We had no future 'till today

Time and tide
Will not wait for anyone

Consider the lyrics and reflect.

Whats really going on in The Ukraine

The protests in The Ukraine have been growing over time and most of us simply put it in the back of our minds.  The U.S. State Department however has put some interesting attention on it in the past few weeks driving the conflict forward.

First it is important to understand The Ukraine in a historical and Geographic sense.

The nation's name literally means 'Border' which is why it is called THE Ukraine.  There are two major groups in the country.  Those in the western third are Ukranian speaking and generally have closer ties to the E.U. community and the eastern third is Russian speaking with close ties to Moscow.  This should be no surprise.  Most people forget the Ukraine used to be a part of the Iron Curtain only two decades ago.  that is only a single generation.  So what is happening is partly based on historical ethnic/nationalist sentiment.

The other part is political and economical.  Politically Russia wants to keep close ties to the Ukraine to stop the increasing encroachment of the NATO alliance (which was formed to counter Soviet power and now Russian influence during the Cold War...which ostensibly is still on-going if you ask me).  The EU, where a vast majority of the member countries are NATO members or at least allies, is pushing for closer ties to the Ukraine and the current government in the Ukraine is resisting...preferring Moscow.

The Russian Federation is doing everything it can economically to buy support including massive natural gas price reductions for the Ukraine.  On the other side the EU/USA/NATO alliance is supporting the 'activists'/'protesters' at least on the diplomatic side including a senior official passing out cookies to them.  that in and of itself is hilarious because US diplomats are often referred to as cookie pushers from Harvard.  Of course Vicky here manages to avoid the Harvard part of the stereotype...but it isn't a subversion of the trope...more of a parallel where its might as well be the same thing.  Of course her part in the Benghazi cover-up and now showing up in the middle of the Ukraine-near-civil war makes one at least quirk an eyebrow at how one woman can keep popping up in areas at appear to be rapidly de-stabilizing.

At the same time Barack 'The Rock' Hussein Obama is warning the Ukrainian Govt (legitimately elected btw) to not use force against the so-called protesters.  My question would be...or else what?   Obviously it is a veiled threat of sanctions in the least and an armed intervention at worst under the guise of 'humanitarian assistance' or some such drivel.

So the answer to the question as to why this is happening is generally represented by Russian antipathy towards NATO and vice versa.  There are more specific reasons that entail trans-national corporate interests and EU expansion desires.  However it should be noted that there is likely a great deal of support for the protesters via operators from various intelligence agencies...or at least the assets that are distanced from the handlers that pass them messages and directives.

The protests have gone from chanting to gasoline bomb throwing, armory assaulting nigh-on-civil-war in the space of a couple weeks.  All of this is despite the government showing considerably more restraint than any in the United States would given similar levels of violence.  The only way that the government could be characterized as aggressive would be saying that...since it didn't simply give in to the mob of protesters...that alone is an aggressive act and...well you get the escalation almost purely one sided that we have today.

Its fun to watch from a distance...like a supernova.

Update:  Speaking of George Soros and his open society initiative...

Oh look a thinly veiled hit piece by Dana Milbank!

HERE

Step 1) Open with a false premise
Step 2) Offer a meaningless fact
Step 3) Brief Narrative
Step 4) Jealous projection of authors own ego upon his target
Step 5) Profit?

Monkey See Monkey Do

As usual something in the news has struck me again...this time as simply being odd.  Ok also stupid and additionally; entirely revealing.  You can read the full article HERE for all proper context.

So Rep. James Clyburn (not a monkey) feels that it is somehow related to the MLK "Dream" speech to talk about the media being less than diligent in their abilities or willingness to report facts.  I think at least with that summary most people agree...the media has a hard time at being unbiased in its reporting and is more often than not glib.

However...in speaking about Internet based media he claims that they often misquote people or simply quote people out of context.  As if that is something new...and then he blames those "internet media types" for the corporate media (mainstream) not doing their own due diligence and simply running with an unverified story.  So as he gets more and more off-track his thought train de-rails straight into godwin territory.

The quote in context (Hat Tip The Hill.com):

“The people of Germany believed Hitler’s foolishness that led to the Holocaust. They believed that stuff,” Clyburn said. “People will tend to believe what they hear through the media.”

Clyburn singled out “extreme right-wing” bloggers in particular for criticism. He accused such bloggers of forcing Shirley Sherrod to resign from the Department of Agriculture after misrepresenting statements she made to make her appear racially biased. He also said they had libeled the progressive group ACORN, leading to the group’s disbandment. 

"Most of these people are not media people; they are bloggers, and they are bloggers for the extreme right wing," he said. 

“People tend to act now and ask questions later,” Clyburn added. 

He also said that President Obama was vulnerable to misrepresentation due to the media abdicating its responsibilities.

“The media has not been discerning enough, in my opinion, to say to people, ‘This ain’t news. This is foolishness.”

So not only are the "New Media" (Internet media) disciples of Hitler who are intentionally misleading the masses and blaming the jews for everything, but they are somehow removing your ability to think critically and realize what is or is not foolish.  Clyburn obviously feels that there is a growing need for government to do something about these dastardly internet types beyond his control.  Already he has characterized bloggers as "not media people."  So this is related to the discussion that our self-styled betters have been having about the "need" re: desire, to license media people federally so that they can carve out special protections for them and not for you and me.  This was probably talked about for a long time but it was catalyzed by Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden and those who actually distributed the information Wikileaks (Julian Assange et. al. and The Guardian/ Glenn Greenwald...and now by extension his partner who was recently detained for 9 hours under a very broad and likely fraudulent use of an anti-terrorism statute).

So to really get at Clyburn's point.  You're a monkey and we (the government) need to do more to make sure that you get only one government issued and verified take on the days news.  That way you will do what we want.  This is all about control and not what is best for us as individuals.  This is about creating more layers of bureaucracy and it is folly disguised as wisdom at best and at worst it is a strike against the first amendment... disguised as promoting truth.

Andrea Mitchell is an ignorant slut

I know it sounds provocative but the title is simple a re purposing of a saturday night live quote by Dan Akroyd.

Of course the slut part is simply there for being outrageous but the ignorant part is true.  In some recent comments about fiscal conservatives (where she is simply projecting) she makes some assumptions that should not be made.

Her argument falls this way:  Fiscal conservatives should not want to spend money on border security because they don't want to spend money on things she wants money spent on.  Therefore their argument is invalid.  Her other argument is that the "statist-wing" of the republican party (re: McCain and friends) are heroic for their pursuit of the selling out of the United States, rather further selling out, to the corporate interests that want to keep depreciating wages.

Her asinine comments went right by the host (David Gregory) without even a request for clarification as it was mostly a baseless attack on people she disagrees with.  I don't know what to say about Mr. Gregory except that he is clearly not interested in anything resembling the truth.

Most so-called fiscal conservatives read and understand the constitution differently from Mr. Gregory.  They feel that the government ought only be spending money on their constitutionally specified roles.  Border Security would be one of those...as would the armed forces and various other activities, but they do not tend to like programs like social security, food-stamp/EBT programs.

That is what really gets Ms. Mitchell's ire up.  So instead of actually addressing the issue which is a difference of opinion on what government should be doing/ how it should be in our daily lives; she attacks her opponents based on a false premise that she herself...sets up.  That was possibly one of the largest straw-man attacks in recent days.  I wish I could hand her some sort of award for being a cunt.

Inside The Insiders - A Meta-Game

For those of you that know me, you know I have played a MMO called EVE Online for the last nine years or so, though I have taken breaks.  That isn't what this post is about, but it is relevant nonetheless.  In EVE Online there is a sub-set of players that are almost purely social and use that part of the game to enrich themselves in in-game terms.

They are many times genial, friendly and seemingly open, but in reality a pack of glib sociopath assholes.  They are the meta-game players.  They climb a social ladder in an organization just high enough to get some form of privileged access so that they can through betrayal or subversion obtain more influence and power or get more money.  We all know someone like this in real life and that is what this article is about.

In reaction to this article I felt it necessary to point out that another way of describing insider trading, political intelligence gathering or any other sort of related activity is meta-gaming.  It covers a whole host of situations if you just frame it all as a game.  Stock picking is a game just as much as EVE Online is and is vastly more lucrative.  There is nothing honest about what goes on in Wall St.  company fundamentals have little to do with stock price.  Rather is is how people feel about the stock.  If you meet your earnings projections...that doesn't mean you did a good job, rather people feel you are adequate.  If you beat projections you are stellar and if you fail to meet them you are trashed and no one cares that you still made a profit.  You are being gamed.  If some person gains access to the information ahead of time and uses it to leverage one position or another or several at the same time ( a gambit ) they are not just hedging but finding a way to profit based on non-public information.

This is illegal in the United States.  Now WHO do you think has the most inside of insiders information?  Why Those who write the rules that everyone will have to follow.  That would be the United States Congress and the executive branch that enforces those laws...who also has input into how those laws are 'shaped'.  They seem distinctly pyramid shaped to me.

And all one has to do is look at what former congressmen are doing now.

Tom Daschle and Trent Lott

That is just one example.  Those two always appeared to be on opposite sides but in reality were simply conspiring against their respective constituents for their own enrichment.  One man, William Binney, described this process in the just the NSA alone as a feeding cycle between private and public where a department would get more funding so that a dept head could later leave government and get a job at the firm he had given contracts to.  And the cycle of always getting a bigger budget would perpetuate itself.  This happens across all sectors of the government and when it happens in purely private industries people usually end up going to jail because it is corruption, a violation of their oaths of office and might as well be a form of mafia.  But those in power act like it is just a part of doing business.  So if that conspiracy is true...just follow the money.

Darryl Issa is Sir Bedevere

When Congressman (R) Darryl Issa (CA) is dealing with the IRS scandal I can't help but imagine the conflict with Lois Lerner going something like the witch scene in Monty Python: Quest for the Holy Grail film.  This woman has smartly invoked her 5th amendment right to not answer the question on the grounds that she may, without any intention to, implicate or incriminate herself.

Of course this isn't an actual judicial proceeding but she has good reason.
Those reasons are:  President Obama meeting with liberal blogger Ezra Klein and one of the founders of talking points media.  It is clear that these men are surrogates for the administration since sending out conventional operatives (Dan Pfeiffer and Jay Carney) failed to move the football down the field politically speaking.

Of course the Republicans are none too interested in solving this problem either.  They are focusing on Lois Lerner (who exposed this entire thing) rather than the people actually responsible for the bad and possibly illegal conduct.  so while many of these indignant and righteous men point fingers and scold whoever is in front of them...they do nothing as lawmakers to solve the problem.

They could: defund the IRS tomorrow if they so wished.

They could: abolish the IRS and institute a new flat/fair tax scheme and/or national sales tax.

They could pass legislation creating a special council/investigator who has the powers to investigate and subpoena individuals, documents and whatever else is needed to create an actual case.  They could do this with Benghazi...defund the CIA/DIA/NRO/NSA until answers are gotten.  That is...if congress were serious about making things better.

They may get a special prosecutor for the IRS.  They won't defund it, they won't rewrite the tax code, they won't upset the balance that the status quo is.  The IRS is their weapon.  It is a blunt instrument to keep us all in line and to separate us from one another by our incomes.  Envy is a powerful weapon.  Lois Lerner is made of wood and she shall indeed float...that is until she drowns.

You say what?

Today on CBS Face the Nation, noted liberal journolisto and show host Bob Schieffer spent a good amount of time grilling White House advisor (re: propaganda artist) Dan Pfeiffer.  Most of the time the interview was really going against Mr. Pfeiffer in terms of host attitude.  However the final exchange is notable.

BOB SCHIEFFER: But what I'm saying to you is-- to you is that was just PR, that was just a PR plan to send out somebody who didn't know anything about what had happened. Why did you do that? Why didn't the Secretary of State come and tell us what they knew and if you knew nothing say we don't know yet? Why didn't White House Chief of Staff come out? I mean I would, and I mean this is no disrespect to you, why are you here today? Why isn't the White House Chief of Staff here to tell us what happened?

DAN PFEIFFER: Well, let-- let's start with Susan Rice. She went out-- Ambassador Rice went out that day, and represented the administration and spoke to what happened with the best information we had, that everyone in the administration had, was what she looked at. And that was the consensus of the intelligence community. What we do is we want to go out and speak to the problems as they happened. And what's important here is that when problems happen is that the President takes responsibility for them and tries to fix them. And that's what-- that's what we're talking about in Benghazi because you're right, that is an absolute tragedy what happened. And the question isn't who edited what talking points. That-- that's largely irrelevant. What is relevant is what are we going to do to make sure that never happens again which is why President is calling on Congress to pass legislation to beef up embassy security around the world and protect our diplomats who, by their very-- the definition of their jobs are existing environment of risks. 

It takes only until the second sentence to lie.  Susan Rice did not present the best information they had at that point, though she did represent the administration admirably.  She fell on that sword good and hard.  That was supposed to end it and shield the President.  Nothing she said was part of the consensus of the intelligence community.  So far Dan has lied at least twice baldly on air.  The President took zero responsibility as the blame game was played between agencies for the last six months...lie number three.  (don't pay attention to who edited the talking points)...Is this real or am I in Oz?

Then he tells the host to pay attention to the new legislation they want to pass...as if the law was the problem in the first place and not terrible decision making.  Oh and by the way he manages to point out that these ambassadors put themselves at risk...y'know its kinda his fault he died...he knew what he was signing up for and probably deserved it.

Now the interview ends likely as a matter of time constraint...but in a sort of odd way considering how contentious it was.  Mind you Bob Schieffer was apologizing the entire time for possibly seeming argumentative.  Well he SHOULD be confrontational.  But he was letting Dan know that he wanted to be on his side...but that he couldn't see a rationale for it...and he was asking for one to be given to him...something he can stomach.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, I want to thank you for coming this morning. I know this is not an easy job. I mean, do you kind of feel like someone who drew the black bean here? You're the one that has to go out and try to explain?

DAN PFEIFFER: Oh, no. It's-- it's a privilege to be here with you, Bob.

So all is well that ends well eh?

Bob asked hard questions, but fails to call the guest on his absolute lies, his gas-lighting psychological warfare on the audience.  He admits that Rice's talking points were not accurate...but then says it was the best information they had.  Spinning 180 within a matter of seconds must be his specialty.  Pretty amazing that he's considered a credible person.

The Case Against The IRS

The IRS was created in 1913 under President Woodrow Wilson as the enforcement wing of the US Treasury Department in order to facilitate the Income Tax legislation that was passed following the ratification of the 16th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Part of the PR campaign that went with the passage of the 16th amendment was that it would never target the average citizen and was only to be applicable to the wealthiest among us.  The top rate in 1913 was 7% (those earning half a million dollars or more).  Later, rates would rise dramatically up to 67% by 1917 and have fluctuated wildly ever since.  However, regardless of the rates applied the Us Government has rarely ever actually captured revenue exceeding 18% of GDP.  In fact, according to the World Bank, The US government only captured 10% of GDP on average in the last few years.  That is despite all tax rates being quite a bit higher than 10% currently.

The current scandal involving the targeting of individuals and groups based on political ideology is not new and has gone on since the IRS was founded.  FDR was famous for using it as a weapon against political adversaries including those who formerly had supported him like Father Coughlin ( a raging catholic liberal ). Is it illegal?  Perhaps, but perhaps not.  The IRS targeting Al Capone is what put him away and many criminals get ensnared by the vigilance of the agents at the IRS.  Of course this mkes me think about renaming them TED (Tax Enforcement Directorate).  The name has a certain authoritarian ring to it and at least more accurately describes what the organization is designed to do.

If the what the IRS did was in-fact illegal, then not only should agents and leadership lose their jobs and go to jail (as you or I would for say...assault, tortious interference, perhaps use anti-stalking laws or other statutes to put them away).

However the real scandal so far is that no one is seeing the obvious solution to the problem.  if the IRS is being used as a weapon and no political head of state can be trusted to run it (here's looking at you all Presidents since and including Wilson).  Then we have to take that weapon away.  That is abolish the IRS.  Start a new subdivision of the Dept. of the Treasury and call it whatever you want...but not IRS.  Throw out the US tax code in its entirety where it would apply to individuals (businesses are a different issue and far more complicated).

Repeal the 16th amendment on the grounds that it is too broad and open for abuse.  Amend the constitution to allow for a flat (not progressive) income tax rate to be set by the US House by a simple majority (51%) and only allow the senate to confirm or reject said rate without changing the rate itself as all of this must originate in the House.

As a result of the new flat tax, there would be no deductions, allowances, or loopholes.  There would also be no requirement to report income via a filing mechanism.  Legislation can be passed requiring the employer to electronically withhold the amount and it be transmitted via EFT (electronic funds transfer) to the US Treasury upon each pay period.  In your check you would see only that tax (Social Security/medicare/medicaid would be taken out before taxes in my scheme to reduce the tax hit).

The amount of time and money saved would be staggering.  And the best part is that there would be no ability to socially engineer society with taxes, to use them punitively or as a form of information gathering by political entities on their enemies.

When it comes to businesses one would have to allow for them to deduct all of their expenses against revenue and only tax profit.  All auditing assets would be focused on the business community rather than on families and individuals.  Business rates would also be flat whether a business is a C Corp, S Corp, Pass-Through Entity (sole proprietorship/DBA/Partnership/LLC/LLP etc.).  It would be a separately set rate from the individual income tax, but done through the same electronic system wherein at a given timer period the taxes would be paid based upon receipts.  Most businesses file quarterly reports and that would seem a prudent method.

Of course these measures would also eliminate the distinction of the capital gains tax...which would be folded under the individual income tax...which means that the rate would likely rise by 2-5% from its current level of 15%.  Tax exempt trusts would only be considered tax exempt for the current generation, that is with the current generation's passing away it would be taxed going further.  So let us take the Kennedy's as an example (could just as easily use the Bush's), They have a tax free trust that allows them to live off the interest only like with municipal bonds or treasury certificates.  When the eldest member of the family passes away, the next eldest who would receive the monies for the family would not receive it in a tax free manner, but rather pay an income tax like everyone else.

The time for making distinctions between citizens has come and gone.  We must stand united against being divided by those who seek power.  This is a tough complicated issue and it requires hard critical thinking by the US Congress because it is up to them to fund the operations of the US Government.  So they must come up with a rate that is neither too high nor too low and also delivers to them the revenue necessary to adequately fund the governments constitutional activities.

That may mean however that the government's raw size for the second time in our entire history would decrease..and that means a lot of federal employees out of work.  Many of them military.  So Congress should see it as its duty to set aside funding for job training/retraining and even job placement centers for these people as we transition.  It should be seen as our duty to do this for the military especially.  The Federal government should not be seen as a jobs program writ large but as a mechanism for governance and so much of what is done falls outside of that or is well overspent.  Simply examine all of the recent government loans to "green" industries that have failed, or the past frauds of the military credit cards, the continuing fraud in medicare/caid/SSI/Disability and the coming fraud that will consume the Affordable Care Act...written largely by the insurance companies themselves (yes that is why your premiums are rising massively).

Our representatives have ceased to believe in the implied fiduciary duty they have to the tax payers and constituents in the districts that gave them the job.  There is no sense of honor left except among a few and even those few do not have enough bravery to push for an audacious change like this.  This post barely scrapes what would have to be addressed, never mind the political interests from all sides that like having their own niche carved out.  No more weaponization of taxation.