2013 – AmericanDelusions

FISA Court – Not a Court – an Administrative Rubber Stamp – Bureaucrats Dressed Up as Judges

July 11, 2013

The government and the press continue to refer to the FISA Court as a judicial review, a third party oversight of the government’s intrusions on our privacy. This misuse of words and concepts needs correction. 3657

The Uses of Metadata – an experiment you can conduct with your own life’s metadata

July 9, 2013

With the recent revelations of the NSA vacuum cleaner collecting metadata about every aspect of our lives we have been subjected to calming incantations, “We are only collecting metadata, we aren’t looking at the content”. As I (and many others) have pointed out earlier, this is complete nonsense. 3640

Wall St – not about investing but fixing the game

July 9, 2013

An article in the NY TImes today reports that NY Attorney General Schneiderman is pursuing various information providers, Thomson Reuters in the immediate case, for their practices of selling market sensitive information preferntially. Those paying a premium get information several minutes before its release to the general public. This is --->> read more -->>

Put your bodies upon the wheels, upon the levers….

June 27, 2013

Confronting the ruling powers (government or corporate) over their misdeeds has a long and honored history. Most recently the Occupy movement brought some new approaches and energy if not immediate success to protest. The Free Speech Movement at U. Cal Berkeley in the mid-sixties provides the famous speech by Mario Savio --->> read more -->>

NSA Vacuuming, Meta Data, Mistaken Misleading Metaphors

June 17, 2013

NSA’s gathering of Meta Data Compared to Corporate Use of Information In the current discussions of the government’s wholesale seizure of the meta data of our personal digital lives there is regular comparison to the acquisition and use of information about our digital lives by corporations. At the moment corporate --->> read more -->>

Dangers of the US Security State

June 16, 2013

There are those, in response to the recent revelations of the US government vacuum cleaning our lives through the NSA and other secret programs, who take the line that the innocent have nothing to fear from the government. Here is an example of why no one should take such a --->> read more -->>

US Vacuum Cleaning Our Privacy – the bigger story

June 8, 2013

There has rightfully been considerable outrage over this week’s revelations that the Federal government has been sucking up information on virtually every aspect of our lives, email, telephones calls, pictures, credit card and banking transactions, and so on. Unfortunately almost all of this discussion is taking place without a useful --->> read more -->>

Thomas Friedman’s It’s a 401(k) World – facile, misleading

May 21, 2013

May Day 2013 brought a piece in the NY Times by Thomas Friedman, “It’s a 401(k) World” that points out the enormous changes in employment, technology, personal access to information and personal responsibility for larger swaths of life. Work changed from a steady job as a regular feature of life --->> read more -->>

John le Carré on Bush’s Iraq War – The United States of America Has Gone Mad

April 21, 2013

John le Carré, author of many beloved spy novels, e.g., Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy, wrote this piece critiquing the then upcoming War on Iraq in January 2003. Besides pointing out the very strong connections between big oil and the Bushes, many other elements of the critique continue to be applicable --->> read more -->>

The War on Drugs Is a Failure – The Gregory Brothers’ video

April 20, 2013

Why waste endless words on this topic? I stumbled on this video, “The Drug War Is a Failure” by the Gregory Brothers via the New York Times. While poking about on YouTube I found more by these folks, “We Don’t Treat Alcoholics Like This” Then for fun here is their --->> read more -->>

Our Longest War – The War on Drugs – more data on its futility

April 15, 2013

I have noted here several times earlier about America’s longest war – the War on Drugs. Here is a graphic that displays the complete failure of our policies:

US Imperialism Redux – Tom Lehrer

March 30, 2013

The other day I stumbled on this Tom Lehrer song, “Send in the Marines”. This is as good a summary of American foreign policy as there is, though to update the lyrics for the Obama version just substitute “drones” for “Marines”. Here is a YouTube video performance, perhaps from the --->> read more -->>

Ten Years After Shock and Awe – A Crime Against Peace

March 20, 2013

On March 19, 2003 George Bush, Dick Cheney and the cabal surrounding them launched their war of Shock and Awe on Iraq. The stated purpose was “to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.” This war that --->> read more -->>