Just Let Me -- G -- Indoctrinate You!

Showing posts with label Pew Research Center. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pew Research Center. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

It's This is Just Plain Wrong Thing

Dear America,

what is going on?

at almost two-to-one, the populace is siding with the intrusive, massive,  fishing expedition of the U.S. government surveillance program -- otherwise known as PRISM -- without cause?

[see PEW Research Center, here]

"Currently 62% say it is more important for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy. Just 34% say it is more important for the government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats."


That seems to be the answer that has the web getting all a-buzz, anyway.

Delving deeper into the nitty-gritty, the Pew tells us something different:


Question:  Should the government be able to monitor everyone's email to prevent possible terrorism?

Response:  45% say YES, 52% say NO, and 3% have no idea.

You know what I think?

I think that instead of making this grandiose announcement to the world declaring the U.S. government dirty rotten scoundrels when it comes to amassing deep background on every single one of us, Snowden should have just anonymously sent us all an email, boom. (You know, considering he said he had the full "authority" and ability to pull that off). 

yeah, yeah -- that might have got our attention right quick.  

pew ew....we would be like, who are you --  and what do mean all of my so-called secure information on the net is being currently, and severely, compromised?  What do mean every email, phone call, web link and troll, is being mined, collected, hoarded, by my own government, out in some remote, highly classified, secure location?  [yeah right...wanna see a picture of it?  Thank you, NPR.]

According to a post written by James Bamford @WIRED -- from over a year ago, by the way -- we get another view:

"Just off Beef Hollow Road, less than a mile from brethren headquarters, thousands of hard-hatted construction workers in sweat-soaked T-shirts are laying the groundwork for the newcomers’ own temple and archive, a massive complex so large that it necessitated expanding the town’s boundaries...


Rather than Bibles, prophets, and worshippers, this temple will be filled with servers, computer intelligence experts, and armed guards. And instead of listening for words flowing down from heaven, these newcomers will be secretly capturing, storing, and analyzing vast quantities of words and images hurtling through the world’s telecommunications networks. In the little town of Bluffdale, Big Love and Big Brother have become uneasy neighbors."


Indeed -  and five zettabytes and 1.5 million gallons of water needed a day, costing 20 million dollars a year just to maintain, costing taxpayers 1.2 BILLION dollars to build --  later...

I KNOW!   Has our head been in the sand, or what?
Snowden is really not giving us anything more than what all of us should have already figured out already! 

More from the WIRED post of March 2012:
But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”


Oh, I get it --  it is more than just a data center. 

Everybody with communication is a target. 

While this so-called "senior intelligence official" continued to fort brag to enemies (foreign and domestic) "another important and far more secret role that UNTIL NOW has gone unrevealed...code-breaking...breakthrough...ability to break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the U.S" will be possible.

good to know.  can I get your name?


oh and  get this -- returning to the NPR article, it's still not enough!  The NSA headquarters at 9800 Savage Road, Fort George G. Meade, Md -- is expanding.  But not to worry, the upgrade will only amount to about two-thirds of the size of the facility in Utah.  well, that is a relief, isn't it.


What did Snowden actually do, but tell us something all of us -- including Congress -- including anyone who reads WIRED -- including anyone with their head up -- already knew?  What is making Snowden's circumstances of 'coming out'  any different? 

What is the problem with what he did?

If a majority of Americans -- as the Pew Research Center shows -- truly believes that government spying is no big deal, what is the issue?  IF upper level intelligence officers have already spilled the full capability and scope of this high-tech, super-duper, amassing of intelligence -- where anyone with communications is liable to be scooped up and stored, from within and abroad --  what's so secret?

Perhaps it was just the way he did it...Snowden...You know, embarrassing the President and all, carrying on so,  and making these stark, glaring contradictions of position from the President vs. Senator vs. campaigner-in-chief become so clear to all of us -- virtually overnight.   Nobody makes the president out to be a hypocrite, nobody.

I heard on the radio yesterday a great analogy:  Snowden is the modern day Paul Revere.  Is that just fabulous, or what?  Think about it.  What did Revere do, but warn the commonwealth that the British were comin', the British were comin'...And who were the British, but the current government!

But man, James Bamford -- you sir, deserve a Pulitzer or something.

What a magnificent piece detailing every living breathing detail of the NSA's prized golden calf, out there yonder, in the foothills of Bluffdale, just off Beef Hollow Road.  I am amazed, googly-eyed and awe struck of the amount of information, the way you presented it, the air of secrecy joined with nothing is sacred, let me tell you how it really is, intelligence briefing through and through...you covered it all...everything from the first kilowatt  to the last zettabyte.  Please people -- read it -- link into a second chance of life and limb before the government deems it too classified for your own good.  [warning: very detailed and very long and may take every ounce of human energy out of you]

Speaking of energy --  get this:

Electricity will come from the center’s own substation built by Rocky Mountain Power to satisfy the 65-megawatt power demand. Such a mammoth amount of energy comes with a mammoth price tag—about $40 million a year, according to one estimate.


And what about fueling the manpower? 
Oh that's been all figured out...even though something about the way it's being presented here gives me the creeps, but carry on:

"We were finding
that we had to make our own people
who understood data centers
from end to end
 that could manage it," 
according to Harvey Davis,
NSA director for installations and logistics.
 
He really said, "make our own people," Harvey did. yeah, I bet.  Does it have anything to do with cloning drones, or is that top secret, too?
 
 
"The NSA helped design the new program’s curriculum. Richard Brown, dean of the U. of U. College of Engineering, said undergraduate and master’s degree students studying computer science and electrical or mechanical engineering will take courses in the other two disciplines. That will ensure students know all facets of data-center management, from the computing to the importance of heating and cooling to the electrical requirements. The NSA needs "someone who is at least able to talk to people in all of these areas," Brown said.  [Just gushing with bureaucratic confidence, isn't he?    Can you hear me now -- Are you feeling more secure?  Are you feeling more secure?]
 
So, where are we now?
 
The NSA is creating behemoth Spy Centers, in  multiple NSA locations, indoctrinating our people to protect and to serve the NSA, costing the American taxpayers billions of dollars to build, maintain, and support the NSA, to keep us safe from terrorists -- foreign and domestic.
 
 
[I do believe China could see all of this from Google space without the help of Snowden; while WIRED efficiently, triumphantly,  highly accurately, seems to fill in any black holes remaining...just sayin']
 
Enter a new era following the enacting of The Patriot Act.
 
Wonder what will be their excuse when this doesn't change a thing?  Or worse, wonder what the response will be next?
 
Hard to fix "terrorism" when we can't even use the word, define it properly, call it what it really is.
 
Oh details, schmeetails -- right, Mr. President, who recently told a graduating class:
 
"Unfortunately, you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They'll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can't be trusted."

 
 
Enter the full floor speech by the senator, Barack Obama -- transcript 2005,  transcript 2006 -- along with a current update from Breitbart, here:
 
"If someone wants to know why their own government has decided to go on a fishing expedition through every personal record or private document - through library books they've read and phone calls they've made - this legislation gives people no rights to appeal the need for such a search in a court of law. No judge will hear their plea, no jury will hear their case. This is just plain wrong."  Barack Obama, 2005

 
exactly.
but now let's build a mammoth spy center or two and make no apologies about it  --  let's go fishing everybody.
 
yeah, yeah, that sounds just peachy (for about half of us, anyway, according to Pew).
 
Make it a Good Day, G


 

Monday, June 3, 2013

It's Excelling At Telling a Little Lie or Two Thing

Dear America,

age of reason, edge of reason, tomayto, tomahto.

happy Monday.

Considering my head is about to explode -- as there is simply way to much to opine upon for one day -- let me begin here, by diverting your attention away from the gruesome brain fragments about to plaster the page, and take you to the comments made by one of California's very own, Darrell Issa:

"We understand — these are in real time.  And the administration is still — their paid liar, their spokesperson, pictured behind, he’s still making up things about what happens in calling this [a] ‘local rogue.’  There’s no indication — the reason the Lois Lerner tried to take the Fifth [Amendment] is not because there is a rogue in Cincinnati. It’s because this is a problem that was coordinated in all likelihood right out of Washington headquarters and we’re getting to proving it. We have 18 more transcribed interviews to do...The president’s spokesperson is saying whatever is convenient at the time and the story changes..."
 

For more, go to The Daily Caller, here.


Ouch. The truth hurts.

If given the chance to piece together the barrage of responses from Jay Carney, specifically concentrating on the last year -- a twelve year old could figure out something is quite amiss.

In action, in reality, in living color, in broad statements, in swift and on the fly parsing of words, in stylistic changes --  taking full creative license to the max,  in obstinate disdain, in an aloof display of superiority....Jay Carney prides himself of his very ability to distract, interfere, misrepresent, the whole truth.    And honestly, Issa's observance is courageous and spot on, for Carney is being paid to do it:  to Lie.

Carney's job is all about buying enough time on the backend of a scandal -- using whatever skills and untruths he can muster from his arsenal -- to allow for the people to forget all about it, to move on, and otherwise manage to scoff off magnificent assaults of the rule of law as if what we all know to be true, with evidence to show for it, is just a bunch of malarkey.

The truth is, it doesn't get any easier telling the truth -- either to ourselves, our spouses, our children, our society and specifically within the village we live -- even as adults.  Thou shall not bear false testimony against thy neighbor isn't up for debate; it's not even open to conversation, let alone a question worthy of a truthful response.

It's kinda funny, considering truthfulness was a large enough issue in biblical times to count it among the Top Ten Things (for the good of humanity)  per God, almost as if God saw this coming. 

Human nature has a real hard time with telling the truth; while some might even say, being a wee bit deceitful is in our DNA, and will continue to be, until the end of time. [oooh, speaking of DNA]

One of the first things we should do is stop teaching the importance of telling the truth in our schools; yeah, let's stop all moral teachings and from whence it comes full stop. yeah, yeah, that's sounds sound; that sounds real good.

[happy snarky Monday to me.]

Have you watched any of the American Greed shows on CNBC?   It's an hour snapshot on some really bad dude who takes advantage of one, and usually more, trusting souls who end up handing over their life's savings for a sure thing and super bad investment.   The story is as old as time, right?  Snake oil and fool's gold and swamp land and easy, sleazy, huge returns on investment with other people's money.    Turns out -- the bevy of liars, cheaters, schemers and dreamers are well supported by an equal bevy of believers and dreamers who trust they are telling the truth.

At first blush, isn't it nice to know we are still so trusting, confident that the good in man as a rule, rules?

And yet how sad. 

How sad that we still make people who unabashedly, unapologetically,  see how far they can go ripping good people off and living the highlife on lies. 

Leaders of corrupt countries do it by the billions [see current news on Equatorial Guinea, here and here.]

And how about really larger than life lies that we tell ourselves to rationalize behavior?

The spark between Erick Erickson and his comments arriving from the data of a recent Pew Research study showing that in 'four out of ten households,' the woman is the sole or primary breadwinner, and concluding:  "having mom as the primary bread winner is bad for kids and bad for marriage, and reality shows us that's the truth."

The whole truth on this one kicks us in the gut, doesn't it.

The growing dysfunction in families -- with the proliferation of prescription drugs (both adults and children), increase of school drop outs, high divorce rates, the perfectly acceptable and common occurrence of unwed mothers, latch-key kid syndrome in both rich and poor neighborhoods, gang membership growing more attractive to the lost teen, the uprising trajectory raising the simply spoiled and rotten, shall I go on? -- society proves just how detrimental the loss of mom home after school truly is.

Sure -- some according to Megyn Kelly  and Greta Van Susteren -- manage to pull it off; your fellow contributor's on the Fox News Channel might just be Neanderthals.   But as a whole --  as the collective meanders through this maze of misdirection, attempting to meet up the challenges with conscious solutions that satisfy the tremendous responsibility of good parenting and the security that comes with, and sheltering both our children and our ambitions in equal portion -- let's face the facts!  We have some serious issues going on, seen and unseen.  Not all of us do parenting well and effectively; and we would be lying to ourselves -- individually and collectively -- to say that we do.

And Erick Erickson, from www.redstate.com, gives us some serious rebuttal, too.   Read THIS: The Truth May Hurt, But Is Not Mean.

Complimentary roles are at play when it comes to the working family in order to fulfill the direct and many needs of the child (first).

The truth is, to have a single parent working full time, something's gotta give.

The truth is, to have both parents in a household working full time -- no matter who the breadwinner, something's gotta give.

What we have allowed to let go is the responsibility of childrearing, through the most formative years, to other people -- be it schools, household staff, grandparents, or no one at all.

This has been a conscious change, evolving since the sixties, coming out of the think tanks of the progressive, liberal, intellectually superior Left that has allowed for the traditional family to take a back seat (while today, looking more like being frowned upon). 

Oh sure, disguised under the rights of women to have their careers and family too, no one wants to discuss the repercussions now.   No one wants to discuss the issues we seem to be having with this openly and honestly; but no bother, pretty sure there is a pill to take for it anyway.

Do you think are kids are fairing well?  Really?

Personally -- I think it's great news that 40% of our households are led by a female breadwinner. Halleluiah!   That should nip tuck the whole conversation on the inequality in the workplace and at home, at the very least, right?  Next.

Erickson pointed out another stat from the same survey, noting:  "Three-fourths of those surveyed say these mothers make raising children harder, and half worry that it’s bad for marriages. About half of those surveyed felt it was better if mothers stayed home with young children. In contrast, 8 percent thought it was better if fathers did."

So 75% of those surveyed admit the difficulty of raising children, and "half worry that it's bad for marriages."  And still half believe moms staying home with younger children is best.   Real people reveal there is a real toll and recognize the whole truth.   We give up a little something in the end.

Is it worth it?  Is what we give up better for society and families in general, in the specific?  [It's just a question.  Don't hate.]

More from Erickson (although, easy does it, for some of you, it just might make your head explode):

"Life is terribly unfair. Sometimes a parent dies. Sometimes a parent is an abusive ass. There are unfortunate exceptions. But we should not kid ourselves or scream so loudly in politically correct outrage to drown the truth — kids most likely will do best in households where they have a mom at home nurturing them while dad is out bringing home the bacon."


yeah, something like this might as well be coming out of the dark ages...there is that; and then again, there is also the truth.   And somewhere in between are some answers; answers that carry the potential to truly hit home and make the future bright.

But the truth is -- at the end of this day -- we seem to be excelling at the art of telling a little lie or two.

Make it a Good Day, G

 

Monday, November 14, 2011

It's Just Thirteen Questions and a Pew Thing

Dear America,

happy monday

we are trying something new today...
I encourage you to take a simple quiz via the Pew Research Center.
It will only take about three minutes -- or less.

Go ahead. Go here.  I'll wait.

It's just thirteen questions.


But if you are anything like me, the quiz itself is nothing; the true test comes immediately upon finish...when you are assaulted with how the average American has responded, with demographic breakdowns and all.


It's just thirteen questions.

Your little G thing got every question right [because they were simple-simon] -- BUT the average American girl, only got 6.8 of the answers correct.   [men, 8.5 out of thirteen]  With 100%, thirteen out of thirteen, I landed in the top 8%; meaning, 92% of the respondents got less than that. [hate to have to spell it out, but kinda feel like I have to be really clear]

When given the answers right in front of you -- with a straightforward, multiple choice selection and no tricks -- only 40% of all women who took the quiz could pick out how many troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the war began; only 36% of all women could emphatically point out that Republicans control the House; only 51% of all women could demonstrate their full awareness of the current unemployment percentage (as promoted by this administration) holding steady at a rocking 9%.  (Did they really think it was five, or the fifteen?)

Quite honestly, this is heartbreaking.


How can we expect to uphold the fundamentals when we can't even keep up with the current events?

Do you really think we can get away with walking around in our own little bubble without responsibility to the whole?

Sure -- maybe this Congress has a NINE percent approval rating (meaning, we dis-approve of 90% of the lot); but what does it matter when 90% of Americans answering thirteen SUPER SIMPLE questions can't even get a hundred percent correct? This only goes to prove one thing -- seems ninety percent of us are walking stupid (or ignorant, or uneducated, or selfish, or ingrates, or spoiled, or looking forward to being communists...to name only seven out of thirteen).

Think about it, but don't hurt yourself; it is only Monday.

Make it a Good Day, G

a little 'Garbage' is playing for the song of the day -- just a click away on 'It's Just Thirteen Questions...'  TuRn It uP and dAnCe