Presidential Alert

For John, BLUF:  I am glad it worked.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

THE LONG, STRANGE HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENTIAL TEXT ALERT

From Wired, by Reporter Garrett M Graff, 3 October 2018.

Yes, at 2:18, I received my text from FEMA.

The story mention Ukulele Playing Entertainer Arthor Godfrey.  I once met Mr Godfrey. The Fall of 1966, at DaNang Air Base, in Viet-Nam. He was visiting the troops, and in this case the 390th (Blue Boars) Tactical Fighter Squadron Ops Building.  He told a ribald joke, which everyone appreciated, and made us feel appreciated.  People visiting the troops is a good thing.

Even SNL Alumni and even US Senators, current and retired.  But, the most appreciated that year at DaNang was Ann-Margaret.

Hat tip to my Brother John.

Regards  —  Cliff

Don't Block Me, Bro

For John, BLUF:  I think this is petty harassment.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Judge Rules Trump Violates First Amendment by Blocking Critics on Twitter

From PJ Media, by Ms Bridget Johnson, 23 May 2018.

Here is the lede:

A federal judge ruled today that President Trump cannot block his critics on Twitter because his feed is a "public forum" protected by the First Amendment.

OK then, does this mean the White House (and by extension, Congress Critters) must open and read every EMail and Snail Mail communication?  I would think so.

But, the supplemental question is, if one receives a form letter, especially one not germaine to the issue raised, is that prima facia evidence that the original recipient didn't open and read the communication, in essence blocking the communication?

Lawyers?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Our Privacy Rights

For John, BLUF:  Just assume you are being monitored.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Obama intel agency secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

This Circa 24 May 2017 article is by Mr John Solomon and Ms Sara Carter.

Here is how the article starts out (at the link is another link, to the FISA Court Decision):

The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents that chronicle some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community.

More than 5 percent, or one out of every 20 searches seeking upstream Internet data on Americans inside the NSA’s so-called Section 702 database violated the safeguards Obama and his intelligence chiefs vowed to follow in 2011, according to one classified internal report reviewed by Circa.

The Obama administration self-disclosed the problems at a closed-door hearing Oct. 26 before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that set off alarm. Trump was elected less than two weeks later.

The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an “institutional lack of candor” and that the improper searches constituted a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue,” according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017.

The admitted violations undercut one of the primary defenses that the intelligence community and Obama officials have used in recent weeks to justify their snooping into incidental NSA intercepts about Americans.

This is bad new and Congress needs to do something about it when laws come up for renewal.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The President on Daesh

For John, BLUF:  I am not sure the President is doing all that well communicating on Daesh.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Writing for Time Magazine, Mr Mark Thompson gives us "Reading Between the Lines of President Obama's ISIS Pentagon Briefing".

Regards  —  Cliff

Is a Single Language Coming?

For John, BLUF:  I'm glad lots of folks speak English.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

I am poor at learning languages.  Eight years after I left high school, a 2300 student three year high school, my next youngest brother, Lance, showed up in class with my French Teacher, Monsieur Bibiloni, who remembered me with the comment, "He never went to college, did he?"

So, the idea that there are 6,000 different languages out there is almost overwhelming for me.

Today's "Saturday's Essay" in The Wall Street Journal looks at today and then forward to the year 2015.  Of course, as Yogi Berra tells us, “It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Even so, here is the effort, What the World Will Speak in 2115:  A century from now, expect fewer but simpler languages on every continent.

Here is an item on English:

Two thousand years ago, English was the unwritten tongue of Iron Age tribes in Denmark.  A thousand years after that, it was living in the shadow of French-speaking overlords on a dampish little island.  No one then living could have dreamed that English would be spoken today, to some degree, by almost two billion people, on its way to being spoken by every third person on the planet.

Who knows what we will be speaking 100 years from now?

Regards  —  Cliff

Propaganda in Gaza

For John, BLUF:  Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Propaganda is part of war and has been for ages.  This is an example of careless propaganda, or careless news reporting.

Talk about bad luck.  The same family that was killed last week by Assad in Syria, was again killed this week by the Israelis in Gaza.

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is not to say you don't have to be careful of what Israel puts out, or the United States Government itself.  Remember the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 eased some of the restrictions of the Smith-Mundt Act.  Who says the House of Representatives and the Senate, that Republicans and Democrats, can't cooperate.

Regards  —  Cliff

Pirate Radio in US

For John, BLUF:  Government being about enforcement is not as good as government being about facilitation.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

In today's edition of The Boston Globe is an article by Reporter Kathleen Conti, on pirate radios, headlined, in the dead tree edition, "Unlicensed radio is widespread in suburbs".

The gist of the story is that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has taken enforcement action against unlicensed radio stations in northeastern Massachusetts 37 times since 2003.  That works out to be about five times a year.

To me, the real problem isn't low power pirate stations hurting the big stations so much as it is finding ways to serve small communities of people who are not otherwise being served.  The article does talk about trying to fix the need, which is the real problem.

To address this, Congress approved the Local Community Radio Act, which opened up low-power FM stations for noncommercial uses, but there were only a few of those licenses available in the region.  A window to apply for a low-power FM license opened briefly last fall, from Oct. 17 to Nov. 14, but it is unknown when or whether there will be another opportunity, Carter [T. Barton Carter, a professor of communication law at Boston University] said.

It doesn't sound like the FCC is working overtime to help entrepreneurs meet the needs of these small, language limited, communities in our area.  Nor, apparently, is Congress, really.  Government should be about helping the little guy, as well as the big guy and it doesn't seem to be happening here.

Regards  —  Cliff

AP Bans "Islamist" From Stories About Islamists

For John, BLUF:  AP may change its Style Book, but if so they have to expand the narrative.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Well, maybe Slate has it right about "Right Wing Bloggers" not being happy with the Associated Press.  Then there is the citation of a New York Post article for its exposure of the New York Police Department overreach in its surveillance of the Muslim Community.  Frankly, I think the NYPD does overreach, as when it stops citizens on the street to frisk them.  What ever happened to the Bill of Rights?

But, enough of that.  Slate comments here on the AP changing its style book with regard to the word Islamist.  This change is close on the heels of dispatching "illegal immigrant" to the backwaters of journalism.  Per Slate, in part the change reads:

"Where possible, be specific and use the name of militant affiliations: al-Qaida-linked, Hezbollah, Taliban, etc.  Those who view the Quran as a political model encompass a wide range of Muslims, from mainstream politicians to militants known as jihadi."

This will be good it if results in longer stories with more insight into each of the wide variety of organizations out there and their interconnectedness.  On the other hand, I am not counting on it.  I think we will be depending on the Samizdat to keep us informed as to what is really going on. The organization urging the Associated Press to change its Style Book, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was happy with the change.

In the mean time, over at The National Review, Mr Clifford May talks about Muslim on Muslim conflict, showing why we need more detail from the Associated Press, and others on what is going on in the Muslim world.  Then there is Reporter Spencer Ackerman, writing in Danger Room of Wired about an interview with an American Jihadist in Somalia (Mr Omar Hammami, a 28 year old Alabama native), who argues it isn't US foreign policy that encourages the Jihadists to fight, but Islam itself.  Both the US and his former al-Shebab buddies are after him, with a price on his head.

Regards  —  Cliff

What Did That Mean?

For John, BLUF:  Sometimes a comment is not straight forward, but symbolic.

Right off the bat Pogo comments:  "In short, they're either stupid or fascists".

This at an Althouse post on Justice Scalia and the use of rhetorical devices.

Regards  —  Cliff

Communicating With Communicators

For John, BLUF:  Prominent people should engage the Blogosphere just as they should engage the other Media.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

This is a month-old article, but I think it is relevant to the ongoing discussion in the Greater Lowell area about the Blogs.

There is a tendency to hold the Blogs at arms length, but as the more traditional media change, the blogosphere becomes relatively more important.  Yes, Facebook and Twitter are growing in importance, and are more easily controlled by politicians and government and business leaders, but there is still the possibility of pushback from others.

Thus, there may be some value to those in the news in reviewing the points made by Reporter Willy Stern in the above linked article.  The Press, and the blogosphere, is not your friend, but it is your partner.  Here are the first two paragraphs of the Forbes article:

The evening before he was sworn in as CIA chief, I emailed David Petraeus seeking help with a story. The message he sent back is privileged.  But I can share that he banged out a 2-page email of approximately 40 sentences.  I learned how his last run went, where his aches and pains were, and what spy novel he’d just finished.  I also got some meaty on-the-record quotes.  That’s the work of a master–disgraced today, to be sure–but a master of the craft of media cultivation.

Wonder why Petraeus got a lot of good ink before his inexplicable fall from grace?  Wonder no more.  In the world of journalism, I’m a relative nobody so how, one wonders, must Petraeus have treated scribes from the NY Times and Washington Post?  Let’s not forget that Petraeus, like all truly sophisticated modern military leaders, never missed an opportunity to make a friend in the media.

Regards  —  Cliff

PowerPoint Anniversary

Death By PowerPoint

The inventor of PowerPoint♠, Robert Gaskins, writes about the 25th Anniversary of the program's development for the Beeb, here.

Then there is this:

I am a Powerpoint Ranger. This is my creed.

This is my PowerPoint. There are many like it but mine is 2007.
My PowerPoint is my best friend. It is my life.
I must master it as I master my life.
My PowerPoint without me is useless.
Without my PowerPoint, I am useless.
I must format my slides true. I must brief them better
than the other J-cells who are trying to out brief me.
I must brief the impact on the CINC before he asks me. I will!
My PowerPoint and myself know that what counts in this war
is not the number of slides, quantity of animations, the colors
of the highlights, or the format of the bullets. We know that it
is the new information that counts. We will brief only new information!
My PowerPoint is human, even as I, because it is my life.
Thus I will learn it as a brother.
I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its fonts,
its accessories, its formats, and its colors.
I will keep my PowerPoint slides current and ready to brief.
We will become part of each other. We will!
Before God I swear this creed. My PowerPoint and myself are
defenders of my country. We are the masters of our subject.
We are the saviors of my career.
So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy,
but peace (and the next exercise)!

There you have it, except for Edward Tufte, who writes here.  Per Professor Tufte,

Power Corrupts.
PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely.

Now you have it.♥

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Well, to the extent any one person has ever invented anything.
♥  You have it if you recognize Lord Acton's quote about Vatican I.

SOPA Support

Over at Left in Lowell is a link to a good, albeit longish, discussion of SOPA and PIPA.  Yes, I am driving you through Miss Lynne's blog to get to the link.

In the mean time, here is the Althouse blog talking about how some other "left wing" blogs are up in arms over who is and isn't supporting SOPA.

Regards  — Cliff

Short Wording (and Long Exceptions)

Someone sent along this little item, which captures a certain idea about government and the idea that if you give a bureaucrat a pencil and some paper you are in danger of him or her writing well into the night.

Pythagorean Theorem: 24 words
Lord's Prayer:  66 words
Archimedes' Principle:  67 words
Ten Commandments:  179 words
Gettysburg Address:  286 words
US Declaration of Independence:  1,300 words
US Constitution with all 27 Amendments:  7,818 words
EU regulations on the sale of cabbage:  26,911 words

—  Europe's problems in a nutshell

But, the idea misses something, as my Brother John has been pointing out to me in missives for the last several days.  For example:

Consider just the 179 words of the Ten Commandments.  The implementing manual (i.e., The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version) is 1891 pages long.  And, apparently, so subject to misinterpretation that God had to come to earth himself to straighten things out.  Based on what I can see (e.g., Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Islamic Fundamentalists) he didn't get the word out.♠

And another example:

And, had the drafters of that short Constitution given us more than these 10 words, "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes . . ." we might not now have the 14,872 pages of the tax code.  If they had just added six words and a number, "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect flat rate income Taxes at 15 per centum . . ." we could have saved an incredible amount of hassle.  But, nooooo . . .

Actually, we could have also fixed it by using more that 30 words in the Sixteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, again making the point about a flat tax.

And then, for those of you who have always thought that the US Army's contract with the Wright Brothers for the first airplane represented simplicity in Government action, we have this fisking by Mr Vernon J Edwards.  Complete with quotations and footnotes—76 footnotes.  But, it is a good read.

I think it is the people wanting the exceptions to the rule that are the cause of the problem.  For Pythagoras of Samos and Archimedes of Syracuse there are not exceptions to their rules and thus the rules are pretty straight forward, although, as I recall from school, some author made some money off of writing about the Pythagorean Theorem and then inventing problems on which students could practice until they got their understanding in line with that of Pythagoras himself, or at least in line with their contemporary teacher.

There is a whole class of people who make a living trying to get exceptions to the rules.  We call them lobbyists, but in fact, they include, to some degree, most of us.  We write letters and be join groups (like AARP), looking to get an exception to the rule.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Our other Brother then noted:  "And then he had to also come talk to Joseph Smith to further straighten things out."  Said Brother might have also added that then the enlightened people of the Northeast ran Mr Smith clean out of the region.

Speaking and Writing English

I am currently filling out the Department of Commerce, US Census Bureau, American Community Survey.  The Instructions say it should take 38 minutes.  Maybe.

Question 14c under the individual detail section is:

How well does this person speak English?

I think that the question is incomplete.  In addition to speaking English, one needs to be able to write English.  My example de jour:

1.  Your profile in [REDACTED] will be shortened and contain only basic information.

2.  You will be notified individually of your new password via email. Passwords are NOT changing.

With luck the new password, passed via EMail, will be the same as the old password, which isn't changing.

Regards  —  Cliff