Vlad the Destroyer (Up yours, Putin)

Yesterday, the Russian-backed Syrian government used chemical weapons on its own people. Russia (meaning Vladimir Putin) is blocking UN action to investigate this war crime. Vlad the Destroyer is OK with crimes against humanity.

Recently, Russia passed some truly regressive anti-LGBT laws, and announced that foreign visitors (such as Olympic athletes) would be jailed, harassed, and so on. Vlad the Destroyer is OK with persecuting gay people for being gay.

A while back, members of a Russian punk band got sent to a labor camp for making fun of Putin and the Church. Vlad the Destroyer is OK with working people to death, if they offend him.

It is hard to imagine anyone supporting or praising such a despicable piece of dung as Putin. Indeed, one would think that anyone who does praise and support Putin is someone who shared his destructive, regressive, authoritarian tendencies and traits. One would be right.

So, then: Syria, Wikileaks, Greenwald, Snowden and Assange have been revealed as supporters of war crimes, hate crimes, and violations of human rights across the board. Think about this, the next time you think about supporting them. When they praise Putin as a human rights icon, they support his human rights activities.

Up yours, Putin. And the same goes for anyone and everyone who supports him.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Snowden is a “Free Man in Russia”? Really?

Just ask Pussy Riot, gay tourists, businessmen and anyone who has irritated their KGB-boss leader (Putin).

Troublemakers are never free in Russia. Snowden is in for a shock.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The NSA: Not Secure. Not Serving our Nation.

One thing that has gotten lost in the outrage, uproar, and general brouhaha over the NSA’s Domestic Surveillance programs is how utterly inept the NSA has been shown to be. Yes, we hear about their Total Information Awareness yadayadaramaramadingdong, but it’s hard to believe they are capable of doing f***-all in a  secure and competent manner. Why?

Because a marginally-qualified contractor with nefarious intent was able to waltz into a supposedly secure NSA facility  and walk out with Hopper-knows-how-many secret files without anyone noticing. Indeed, the only reason those putzes at Fort Meade knew he had committed those crimes was because he told them he had done so.

Think about that for a minute. No security to speak of, open USB ports,  no checks of personnel on entering or leaving the building, any schmuck who can con his way into a gig with a consulting firm can take whatever information he or she likes and do whatever they want with it.

And where is that information now? Short answer: at least two places we know of (Snowden and Greenwald  both have the files), and probably more by now. Why more, you ask? Very simple: Snowden has had his laptops and other devices in three countries (USA, China, and Russia) who have very large and well-funded IT departments. Any schmuck with a screwdriver could have slipped out and ghosted his hard drives while he was in the shower, and he’d never know.

After that, no matter what sort of encryption he threw at the files, it’s only a matter of time before they are cracked open, and then everybody will know the NSA’s secrets. And that could harm a lot of people. Hell, it could bring down governments. And whose fault is it?

It’s the NSA’s fault, that’s whose fault it is. Time was, NSA security actually meant something. Many of us knew NSA workers, but almost none of us knew they were NSA workers. That agency kept security, by God it did.

Nowadays, any flat-headed flannelmouth with a good BS story can be a contractor for the NSA, get paid more than they deserve, and make off with sensitive national security information. Can you imagine how many foreign agents have already done the same thing? This writer suspects that the answer is “a s***load-and-a-half”.  But since the NSA is not at all secure, we’ll never know.

Not secure. Not serving our nation. So, what value are we getting for the billions upon billions of dollars we taxpayers have given the NSA over the decades? Apparently, not much value at all.

 

This blogger suggests we pull the plug on the NSA, fire the lot of them, and start over with a competent staff who can actually spell “security”.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Who is Paying Edward Snowden’s Bills?

If you see Mr. Blunt and Cranky on stage playing some old chestnut like “Freebird”, you can tell why he’s playing it by who’s paying him (some bar owner, corporate type or FOTB). Once you know who is laying out the green and folding, you can understand why the band is playing a song we’ve grown heartily sick of over the decades. But hey, he who has the gold makes the rules: so in order to get the gold, the players follow the rules. The dude with the bucks wants to hear Skynyrd, so he gets Skynyrd.

If you encounter this writer in a corporate context, you might wonder why he puts on a tie, when his aversion to such ornamental ligatures is well-established. So you ask who is putting up the cash. Once you know who is writing the checks, the wearing of a suit and tie makes sense. Because he who has the gold makes the rules: so in order to get the gold, the suits follow the rules. The man with the cash wants us to wear ties, so we wear ‘em.

Now let us apply the same analytical (and yes, cynical) process to Edward Snowden. He took a pay cut in order to be able to steal government secrets and spread them around the globe, so he wasn’t likely saving a ton of bucks. He then flew on some not-too-cheap flights from Hawaii to Hong Kong, and then to Russia, where he’s been holed up for weeks in a pretty darned expensive and heavily secured hotel. He’s also been accompanied and been given legal advice on occasion by Wikileaks at least since he fled the USA (and for all we know, before that). He’s divulged secrets and rattled cages, and acted in a sometimes inexplicable manner. And we wonder: “Why?”

The answer, my friend, can be found when we identify Snowden’s paymaster. Putin sure as hell ain’t comping Edward’s room, meals and drinks for nothing. So either he is getting “paid” with Snowden’s stolen information, or somebody else is paying the bills for the airport hotel and whatever other costs he may be incurring.
Wikileaks is also not giving legal advice away for free. So either they are getting “paid” with Snowden’s stolen information, or somebody else is paying the bills for the legal beagles.

When we know who is bankrolling the man, we’ll understand why he is doing such things. Whoever has the gold makes the rules, and if Ed wants the gold, he’s following their rules. Somebody with money wants to stick it to the USA, and so Eddie is sticking it to us.

So, who’s the “somebody”, and what do they want for their money? Snowden sure as Hell isn’t telling: he wants to get paid, like everybody else. So who among you, out there in the Cranky Nation, can track down man with the cash?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

P.S. This writer was able to find any number of crowd-funded “legal defense” funds set up for the man: but no way to actually tie those funds to his current financial situation. Send in some documentation, and if it’s verifiable we will publish it here.

It’s the Secrecy, Stupid

Let’s start by saying that the Patriot Act (along with all of its bastard children) needs repealed ASAP, and the infrastructure that supports its aims needs trundled off to the scrap heap immediately afterwards. The notion that we are guilty until proven innocent is so diametrically opposed to everything America stands for is what makes all of these post-911 laws so dangerous.

But beyond the fact that the government is treating each and every one of us as if we are criminals and/or terrorists that they haven’t caught yet is the bigger problem: the secrecy with which these operations are carried out. “Trust us”, say the NSA, Congress, President et.al. “This is for your own protection”, they say. “We’d never abuse our authority”, they say. “We can’t show you how it works, what we do, why we do it or to whom we are doing it”, they say. “It has to be secret”, they say.

The problem with secrecy is the same problem we have with most human inventions: a little might perhaps enhance our safety, but too much can hurt us, weaken our nation, and perhaps lead to its dissolution. This whole domestic surveillance mess is made even messier by the fact that the government hid even the broad brush strokes of what they were (and still are) doing. And such information that does leak out seems to indicate that our government is acting in ways that would make Hoover blush.

This makes it very hard indeed to trust them: not only do they suspect each and every one of us of being potential Bin Ladens, but they themselves aren’t acting like honest, upstanding citizens whom we would be inclined to trust. (Remember Nixon and his “trust me” schtick, and how that turned out?)

On top of that, the degree of secrecy being employed here makes it possible for glory-hound “journalists”, “experts”, and “representatives” to make outlandish claims (e.g. Snowden, Greenwald, Issa) because we cannot verify anything they are saying. By acting thus they sow even MORE distrust among our society. The secrecy is making it impossible to trust our government, our institutions, the businesses with whom we deal, or even each other.

Secrecy kills trust. And without trust, we cannot be united. So if we can’t trust the government, we might as well just pull the plug on our country, because it can’t be a truly “United States of America”: there is no unity without trust.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

They Cried “Wolf” About Benghazi and the IRS. So Why do you Believe Those F ***ers About the NSA?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky cannot believe how stupid and gullible his fellow Americans have gotten to be. Really, he should go into used car sales or something, because the lot of you have evidently lost your critical faculties of late. Let us review:

Act One: Benghazi. It was spun by the “news” media and certain politicos as a breathtaking scandal that could doom Obama’s chances of re-election, and lots of hysterical stories were written and accusations were leveled. As time passed, we learned that a lot of the initial stories were false, wrong, or at the very least inaccurate. In the end, it turned out that the cries of “Wolf” were hysterical, manipulative crap. The truth of the matter is, people had f***ed up, heads rolled and changes had to be made, but the Prexy had nothing to do with it. The media retracted very little of what they had said, and the politicos retracted nothing. So lots of stupid people STILL think there is a Benghazi scandal, even though the wolf-criers have been proven to be liars.

Act Two: the latest IRS dustup. It too was spun by the “news” media and certain politicos as a breathtaking scandal that could doom Obama’s chances of accomplishing anything in his second term, and lots of hysterical stories were written and accusations were leveled. As time passed, we learned that a lot of the initial stories were false, wrong, or at the very least inaccurate. In the end, it turned out that the cries of “Wolf” were hysterical, manipulative crap. The truth of the matter is, people had f***ed up, heads rolled and changes had to be made, but the Prexy had nothing to do with it. The media retracted very little of what they had said, and the politicos retracted nothing. So lots of stupid people STILL think there is an IRS scandal, even though the wolf-criers have been proven to be liars.

Act Three: The NSA Scandal. Just like before, it is being spun as the scandal of the century, hysterical bulls*** is plentiful,and people want to throw our President our of office. Never mind that the quote Journalism end quote is a load of sloppy garbage and just as in our two previous examples,falls apart like a cheap nose wipe in the rain when subjected to scrutiny.

And what are Americans doing? Do they say “Gee whiz, they cried “Wolf” before, maybe we better wait and see what the facts are”? Oh, don’t be silly. No, just like puppets on strings they are jumping up and down, getting outraged, freaking out, and acting as if this scandal du jour is somehow different than all the other times the boys in the media and Congress have cried “Wolf” in the past. Wake the f***ing f*** up, peeps: just like before, we’ll find out that people f***ed up, and heads will roll and changes will be made. But none of this means that Obama is some sort of evil Lupine creature. No matter how many times the wolf criers may call him one.

So, why for the love of GOD, do so many of you keep believing those little f***ers when they cry wolf? Really, people, you should have learned by now to wait for proof before believing the lying wolf criers.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky