Sunday, January 19, 2014

The US Can't Trust Snowden - - Or Russia



David Snowden may be a lot more dangerous to the security than we figured.  Two people on Face the Nation today and one on Meet the Press said they are ‘Pretty sure that Snowden had to have had help.  First of all getting around the Security measures for some of the secrets he collected took more knowledge than he would have had.  Snowden’s motive isn’t what he claimed it to be that “many young people born today have no concept of what it is to have any privacy at all”.  Well, they can blame some of that on their helicopter parents.  Snowden revealed a lot of military secrets and a whole lot to compromise our security such that the United States has had to abandon whole methods of operation because now our enemies are aware of them.  One must keep in mind that our National Security Administration was doing nothing illegal and there have been very few abuses.  A few NSA agents have checked in on old boyfriends and girlfriends for personal info.  The Martin Luther King parade tomorrow will be carried on KABC.  I watched most of “Face the Nation”.  Snowden’s trek out of the country was that of someone with a purpousful plan and not the random acts of some fleeing amature.   We have a lot to be concerned about with Russia in general and not because of all the suspicious help they gave Snowden.  But of course Russia has a thing or two to explain too about the Boston Marathon bombings and how those two brothers were able to get into this country and the Russians didn’t do anything about it or warn us adequately.  Besides this we now learn that Russia is NOT helping out much with security with the Olympics as far as working with our federal agencies, as has been a longstanding tradition between the United States and whatever nation was holding the Olympics.  It would seem that Vladimir Putin bears a lot of personal animosity to the United States.  I don’t trust Russia these days, and I don’t trust any nation that would be in a close military alliance with them.  But that’s just me.   It seems that the CIA chief made 46 specific recommendations of changes to the NSA, but I don’t know how many of these were taken up by the Administration.  One question I have is “If Google and Yahoo and AT&T are holding all this information, suppose they decide to themselves “We don’t need all of this volume of information cluttering up our data banks.  Let’s get rid of it.”  Will then these private companies be brought up on charges of Treason for violation of an implied contract?  Now ABC news is coming on and saying that there are threats of chemical weapons being let loose at the Russian Olympics.  There is a new video released by the same terrorist group that says “The attacks on Volgagrad are only the beginning, we have more in store including chemical weapons”.  One US Senator says it’s now unsafe for the United States to go to the Olympics.  Vladimir Putin was interviewed today by George Stephanoplis and Putin says “Snowden has a perfect right to travel anywhere in Russia with no limitations, even the Olympics”.

They are activating the “alarm clock” on this space craft that was launched ten years ago with a mission to land on a comet to learn its secrets and whether water from a comet gave earth it’s first prospect for life.  It will be like landing on a speeding bullet because the gravity would be very slight and I guess they have to bore into the ice of the comet to secure the craft.  One might think the gravity would be so slight a man could physically lift the craft off the ground.

A thief can get a tax refund in your name with virtually no ID.  All he needs if your social security number, and fill out a form and he’s in.  So basically it’s easier for someone to steal your tax refund than it is to vote in some states..He can have your refund in his pocket before you even getting around to filing for it.  They claimed as high as 1.6 million people in America have fallen victim to this, which sounds like no minor thing, but we’re just now hearing about it.

A few minutes ago the ‘49ers are clinging to a 17 to 13 lead but now Seattle has scored a touchdown on a "free play" and are now leading 20 to 17 and so the crowd is happy.  There's a whole quarter to go but I'm starting to get a grim feeling about this game. Even if the ‘49ers should lose this game, they have nothing to be ashamed of because they have played well.  But knowing the home team momentum with the cheering crowd and all the sheer energy may enthuse the home team and they could well come back to win.   The '49ers were cheated out of a "roughing the kicker" call that would have given then fifteen yards and a first down.  There was another base of bad officiating and a "not reviewable" clause, that awarded Seattle the ball.  I hope the game doesn't turn on a case of bad officiating.   But karma caught up with the Sea Hawks because they blew an easy touchdown, and now the '49ers have gained yards and have the ball with 8:18 to go.  In the Patriots and Broncos game earlier, the game turned on New England failing to make a two point conversion leaving them down 26 to 16, and right there is where the score stayed.  They were saying the weather was mild despite the fact they were playing in Denver.   This is a bit later and they just awarded the Lamar Hunt AFC championship trophy.

We are hearing a whole new counter-charge in this whole Governor Christie deboccle.  Now the right is accusing the democratic party of “orchestrating” all these multitudes of charges against the governor.  As you know the mayor of Hoboken was denied flood relief or something out of retaliation.  I didn’t know this was directly allotted Hurricane Sandy money congress had voted out.  So Christie does a campaign commercial for himself with his family in it with the money, but denies the people of Hoboken the right to flood relief congress wanted them to have.  That’s my understanding.  David Gregory tried a little “too hard” to appear neutral.  Some things are so glaringly obvious they don’t call for neutrality but objective pointed questioning.  Gates was on- - and of course he isn’t nearly as anti-Obama as FOX news would portray him.

Last night it was the Mc Laughlin group.  Four topics were covered all of sort of a National Security nature.  They talked about the new Obama guidelines for the NSA where Pat and Mort and the crowd generally thought “struck the right balance”.  The only key change in the way things are right now is that evidence AGAINST allowing a wire tap will at least be allowed before the FISA court hearing.  Then there was a round of Hillary Clinton bashing.  Then there was talk about Robert Gates and his book.  Finally they talked about Iran and that Republican bill that has the support of 59 senators so that a sustained Veto on the bill is even in question because this whole suspicion of Iran thing is only growing in momentum.  These are the only Senators who right now have pledged their support of the bill.

 I went out for coffee break after two and ended up having three pieces of some kind of flavored strawberry pink cake and vanilla icing, and two cups of coffee.  The birds are still in a chirpy mood.  Lisha was out there and it’s the second time I’ve seen her with that guy she said she was “Just friends with” when they were showing amorous affection in public.  I wanted to mention that sometimes I borrow traits from others.  For instance I got the phrase “There you go!” as a useful phrase for all sorts of occasions, I got from ex apartment neighbor Ken Hancock.  And that silly laugh John Metz does- - I do that one too, just not nearly as much.  It’s kind of half embarrassed and a little sarcastic.   Just so I can remember when I wrote this paragraph it’s short of two and a half years after Labor Day 2011.  Two things occurred on this day.  First Ray the lime time senior cook left in the kitchen and things haven’t been the same since.  Also as I flog my memory- - it’s the point in time where Dr Levy drastically cut back his classes from one long and one short class per week, to basically one short class per week, on those weeks he even deems to show his face.  What this means is that in the less than five years I’ve been attending his classes, half of that period was of a “truncated nature”.  I remember in the spring of 2012 when Levy was skipping a lot of classes that I considered it a problem then.  

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