Featured Editorials

CIA Incompetence Led to WikiLeaks’ Vault 7 Publications


‘Woefully lax’ security led to WikiLeaks Vault 7 dump’,
June 17, 2020, scmagazine.com (my bolds and italics)

“Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pressed new Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to detail security measures taken to safeguard sensitive intelligence after an internal CIA report said “woefully lax security” at the Center for Cyber Intelligence led to the “largest data loss in CIA history” – the leak of hacking tools to WikiLeaks.

Open Thread Friday 6-19-2020

Morning, this is not a cheery diary today. I thought I was done writing about China, but changes in current events keep happening fast.

The first phase of coronavirus infections are on an upswing as lockdowns in the United States are easing. Nearly half of US states seeing an uptrend in new US cases, and 10 seeing 7-day averages climb to their highest levels since the beginning of the crisis. This is not the second wave. A second wave will happen after we have reestablished a new normal and Covid-19 cases are naturally diminished for a while.

Moving past what I consider the first hurdle necessary to successfully address treatment and prevention. Healthcare providers fearing their patients. The current interviews and videos of health care professional do not show the same level of fear in their eyes.

We are getting closer to the stage of considering it like any other other contagious illness. Take appropriate precautions to avoid catching, early treatment and protocol to follow as seriousness of the condition increases in a patient.

Political Polling Pushes Duopoly Narrative

I don't ever answer my phone for calls from an unknown number, so I never participate in political polls. But today, they decided to get creative and sent a text message inviting me to give my opinions via a text survey. This seemed like a fun enough distraction, so I said ok.

Here is the part that floored me the most:

political poll via text.jpg

2nd white male arrested for torching Pct.3 in Minneapolis

This one by Federal Police. (From various sources)

Dylan Shakespeare Robinson (22) of Brainerd, MN, and was apparently captured on CCTV film inside the precinct building. He’s being charged with arson, and a second count of aiding and abetting arson, which can apparently carry a penalty of twenty five years in prison.

Hot Air

Bernie Sanders inoculated several generations with the idea that the US should step up and act like a democracy.

We assumed we could win if we just worked hard enough. How wrong we were, and how transparent and disappointing his transition (again) away from his candidacy to his old-time used-to-be.

Much of what was alive during that campaign is now alive in the protests.

The current administration and cronies are having a very hard time controlling the narrative, so far. The typical divide and conquer strategy is not working. Certainly we are united across race, across gender and across class to a great extent.

So, how will they divide us? Can they take control of the narrative?

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