Donald Trump demeans U.S. troops, including former senator John McCain

 

James Mattis, Donald Trump's former Sec. of Defense denounced Trump saying

 

that he was "a threat to the Constitution." John Kelly, a retired four-star general and former White House chief of staff, was not on speaking terms with Donald Trump when he left the White House and is purported to be able to confirm the disparities against American troops. And Trump's obsession with John McCain produced comments like this re. his funeral...

“We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” the president told aides.

Not exactly the kind of comment one might expect from the person sitting in the Oval Office. Knowing sources within the White House said...

"he seems to genuinely not understand why Americans treat former prisoners of war with respect. Nor does he understand why pilots who are shot down in combat are honored by the military."

That could be because he was a draft dodger who connived through his doctor an exemption from the draft over a bogus health problem. Once at Arlington Natl' Cemetery to celebrate the death of Kelly's son in Afghanistan, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” One of Kelly's friends added...

“He can’t fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself,” one of Kelly’s friends, a retired four-star general, told me. “He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there’s no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker. There’s no money in serving the nation.” Kelly’s friend went on to say, “Trump can’t imagine anyone else’s pain. That’s why he would say this to the father of a fallen marine on Memorial Day in the cemetery where he’s buried.”

Yes, this is, tragically, Donald Trump. And there is much more in the Atlantic article I recommend reading.

Read even more here.

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Are police cozy with far right?

Mark of the White Supremacist

A former FBI agent speaks, "Too many local police don’t take the far right seriously – or actively sympathize." The Brennan Center for Justice says there is, "Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement." A couple of observations from Brennan...

"many have concluded that a structural or institutional bias against people of color, shaped by long-standing racial, economic, and social inequities, infects the criminal justice system."

"These systemic inequities can also instill implicit biases — unconscious prejudices that favor in-groups and stigmatize out-groups — among individual law enforcement officials, influencing their day-to-day actions while interacting with the public."

Mike German, the former FBI agent has been warning of this enigma for years, but the problems have escalated in the last couple of years as Donald Trump spews racism and white supremacy from the Oval office. In an undercover assignment in California against neo-Nazi groups in Los Angeles, California, in 1992, there were routine warnings...

"A redacted version of a 2006 FBI intelligence assessment, White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement, alerted agents to 'both strategic infiltration by organized groups and self-initiated infiltration by law enforcement personnel sympathetic to white supremacist causes,'"

There's more from German...

"A leaked 2015 counter-terrorism policy guide made the case more directly, warning agents that FBI 'domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers.'"

The former agent says that "white supremacists have engaged in deadly rampages in Charleston, South Carolina, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and El Paso, Texas." It gets worse...

"More ominously, neo-Nazis obtained radiological materials to manufacture 'dirty' bombs in separate cases in Maine in 2009 and Florida in 2017, which were only avoided through chance."

The point is we have been lucky when it comes to the discovery of nuclear threats before they occur. What we don't need is law enforcement standing in the way or even aiding and abetting in these events. Police are basically honest and dedicated to their jobs to protect the public. The problem is identifying those who aren't. Mike German's article here.

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CNN's Daniel Dale highlights Trump RNC convention lies

Anderson Cooper-Daniel Dale

Of course we expected a parade of deceit from Donald Trump at his RNC speech on the last night of the Republican convention. It was a big show for the morons packed close together, most without masks, on the south lawn of the White House, a group of around 2,000 with the potential of turning into another super spreader of COVID-19. Why not...everyone else is doing it. But it gave the Oval Office lunatic another shot at adding to his collection of over 20,000 lies.

Right after the convention ended, Daniel Dale, an expert fact checker with CNN talked to CNN's Anderson Cooper about Trump's ongoing clash with the truth. Here's what he said to Cooper...

“Anderson, this president is a serial liar, and he serially lied tonight,” Dale told anchor Anderson Cooper, and then—over the course of three dizzying minutes—ticked off 21 instances of Trump assaulting the truth, everything from his erroneous claims that Joe Biden wants to take down the border wall and confiscate guns to his bogus boast that no president has done more for the African-American community.

Dale finished and Anderson Cooper jokingly asked: "That’s it?” Dale replied: “There’s more. How much time do you have?” But it really wasn't funny, as both men must have agreed, the leader of the greatest nation in the free world feels it is okay to lie about most everything that comes out of his mouth. It is a character trait most would agree not appropriate for the position. That is, of course, except for Trump's double-digit supporters.

There's lots more to the Daily Beast article you can read here. And Daniel Dale's rattling off of Donald Trump mistruths is a must-watch!

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Trump shuts down briefings on election security

The noose tightens around the neck of the November election with Donald Trump eliminating a source of critical information from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It seems they are afraid to do live briefings to "avoid the risk of saying something that might incur the wrath of the President," according to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Here's the scenario...

"With a written release or a written report, you avoid the back-and-forth of questions, some of which could be quite probing. And I think, I think the DNI would like to avoid that and avoid the risk of saying something that might incur the wrath of the President," former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Saturday.

There's more...

"I think this is a terrible thing with respect to the need to inform the electorate about what foreign nations are doing to interfere in our political process, most notably the Russians," added Clapper, a CNN contributor.

Apparently, the committee hasn't replied to CNN requests for qualification. There is back and forth within the Trump administration that China wants Biden to win but Russia wants Trump to win. My assumption is the White House is afraid the intelligence will lean too heavily with China's desires than with Putin's Russia. The irony is that so far I have seen no indication Biden wants help from China, but plenty that Trump will take anything he can get from Russia.

READ MORE...

Controlling the use of your name and personal data

Back in 2005, when I was still a part of the junk mail business, I began seriously questioning whose property an individual's name, address and other personal data was. I came to the conclusion, and it also seemed common sense to me, that the individual should own this data and be paid for its use. I created a formula for how the American public should be compensated and publicized it nationally. It was met by resistance by the entire industry, even privacy organizations.

My proposal, which was introduced on July 4, 2006, "Independence is Control Over your Name and Personal Data," was met with hostility from junk mailers, the Direct marketing Assn., and many privacy groups whose purported purpose was to protect your name and personal data. Here's an excerpt...

"There is only one answer to protecting our names and personal data, and holding Big Brother at bay when it comes to business and government usurping individual privacy. Orwell’s 1984 predicted it, and we are very close to fulfilling his prophesy, but Americans are beginning to see the light and the need to protect their inner sanctum."

That led to...

"(2 In the case of compensation in the sale of consumer names and personal data, this same system would calculate revenue by individual, and maintain an accounting of what is due. Based on the junk mail industry’s annual take of $4 billion for the selling of names and private information, I feel the name-holder should receive one-half. Ideally, it could be placed in an account bearing simple interest of 3 percent, and the person could eventually draw around $607 a month to supplement their retirement, or take the proceeds in cash."

And then I did a follow-up piece some two weeks later, "Junk Mail Industry Continues to Rob Customers," which reassessed my earlier post of July 4, remarking how junk mailers seemed to ignore the individual's privacy, selling your name repeatedly...

"Yet, the very culprits responsible for the conspiracy are whining over how to get even more results from your names and private information. In a recent article, “Marketers Feel Data-Challenged,” from Direct, a junk mail industry publication, a survey reveals a general unhappiness by companies of not realizing the highest return from your personal data. They want more and more of it, but don’t know how to use it. Pathetic."

There's more...

"In keeping with the inaccuracy of ChoicePoint and Acxiom data from another survey ( 73% and 67%, respectively), junk mail marketers seem to fare no better, with only 30% reporting their data as reliable. Have you ever known of an industry selling its product—mailing lists—for $4 billion a year with an average error rate of 70%? I think not."

Well, the American public, a bunch of lazy apathetics I call them, didn't respond to my proposal, but apparently California sees the idea of the protection of this private information very important. Important enough to pass California Consumer Protection Act, or CCPA, and I look forward to seeing its effect on the use of our names and private information. Read more here...

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Michael Cohen's Trump tell-all does that and more

"Disloyal: A Memoir. The true story of the former personal attorney to President Donald J. Trump," is due out October 6, but Cohen is pushing for September. The recently published foreword site had so much traffic it crashed, which gives you an idea of the significance of the expose. Cohen says...

“'From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies, to silencing Trump’s clandestine lovers, I wasn’t just a witness to the president’s rise—I was an active and eager participant,' it says, among other things."

When Cohen first outed Trump to congressional leaders, "he urged others to rethink their support," resulting in the following comment...

“To those who support the President and his rhetoric, as I once did, I pray the country doesn’t make the same mistakes as I have made or pay the heavy price that my family and I are paying,” Cohen recalled, “exhorting them to learn from my example.”

Cohen continually felt that he was under surveillance, checking to see if he was being followed. Paranoid, perhaps, but completely logical when you are dealing with Donald Trump. After all, as Cohen describes it, he was the most infamous person in the country at the time. I have read over a half-dozen books on Donald Trump recently but think I am looking forward to this one most. Read more here...

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COVID-19 aerosol transmission must be addressed

There are three kinds of coronavirus transmission: "The first is through “fomites,” objects that are contaminated with the virus (which could include someone else’s skin)." The second "is through droplets, small bits of saliva or respiratory fluid that infected individuals expel when they cough, sneeze, or talk." The latter is the major source according to WHO and the CDC, but in this case the droplets fall to the ground after traveling 3 to 6 feet.

The above droplets are only important when coughing and sneezing. However, more important is the third pathway which is aerosols. Here is Jimenez's assessment...

“'Aerosol' (sometimes referred to as 'airborne') transmission is similar to droplet transmission, except that the bits of fluid are so small that they can linger in the air for minutes to hours."

Both "WHO and CDC both state that aerosols could lead to transmission under highly specific situations, both organizations maintain that they are less important." Professor Jimenez disagrees...

"I believe this is a significant mistake and on July 6 I, along with 239 scientists, appealed to the WHO to reevaluate their stance. WHO updated its position in response, but the agency’s language continues to express skepticism of the importance of this pathway."

Even considering WHO's and the CDC's position on aerosols...

"just a few diseases, including measles and chickenpox, have been accepted as being transmitted through aerosols—and only because these are so transmissible that the evidence could not be ignored by the medical community."

Here is an excellent illustration...

"it is useful to use cigarette or vaping smoke (which is also an aerosol) as an analog. Imagine sharing a home with a smoker: if you stood close to the smoker while talking, you would inhale a great deal of smoke. Replace the smoke with virus-containing aerosols, which behave very similarly, and the impact is similar: the closer you are to someone releasing virus-carrying aerosols, the more likely you are to breathe in larger amounts of virus."

Jimenez describes it like "cannonballs" flying from someone's mouth that "travel through the air until they either hit something (worst case someone else’s eyes, mouth or nostrils) or fall to the ground." That is not a good scenario but is just yet another mandate for masks and social distancing that, while not guaranteed, are proven to cut back the transmission of COVID-19 significantly. This is an excellent article you can read here.

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