Communication Today

In the days before telephones, people sent notes to each other.  The note usually had some kind salutation and some kind of polite sign-off. When they met in person, there was probably at least a handshake. And when they departed, they said goodbye which like so many languages had the word God in it. Good refers to God. Adios. Adieu, etc. Not that it matters to me. But it was just a polite expression. Letters written always had greetings and some form of well wishes. And then came the telephone and the tradition persisted to some degree: Hello? Good bye, Take care, see you soon and so on. There was ham radio with sign-ons and sign-offs. And then arose the digital age. E-mail still allows for such greetings and in fact I will still use some kind of greetings to friends, but treating it as a kind of informal letter writing communication. But now we have social media, where we have "friends, followers or following." There are rarely ever greetings. Just statements, contradictions, smart aleck retorts, smiley or weeping faces, emojis that are supposed to express among other things emotional feelings. There's a lot of one upmanship going on, so much so it seems like an endless competition. Yet these are our "friends."

We wonder or at least some wonder why the fabric of society is fraying. Whereas the digital age has done so much to move humanity, who could acquire such tools, forward by leaps and bounds, quantum leaps, so to speak. But at what cost? Civility? Politeness? True human social behavior? To my mind these small social conventions slowly disappearing are the equivalent to the kinds of social behavior, social animals require, grooming among primates is a good example. Without that kind of social behavior the clan (not Klan) or troop falls apart. Friends? Social adhesion? Now robotic behavior because a good portion of social media are robots and the humans can't tell the difference any more.

Winners and Losers

When there are winners there are always losers, so I have noted most of my life. 

However, let's take our country for example. Wars of our own making which we alone have started, we have not done so well in. Vietnam, for example, is a such a case. We lost. That war lasted unofficially from about 1954 when we inherited the situation from the French till 1975 when the last American left. I won't assault you with the numbers except for two: Democrats and Republicans. It started in a Republican administration, then a Democratic administration, another Democrat, a Republican and then one more Republican. Winners and Losers. Clearly we know who the winners are.

The 21st Century has Gulf War II which is in another part of the world and is another case in point. It included Afghanistan, Iraq and other Mideast countries by proxy, and  rages on in Syria and points west and is now almost 16 years old with no finale in sight. Don't ask me to explain why but it probably was precipitated by Gulf War I, which was fielded in a Republican administration but carried on through a Democratic one. Again I come up with two numbers, Democrats and Republicans. Gulf War II commenced in a full two term Republican Administration, then a full two term Democratic administration and now continues under a Republican Administration. So far not much has been won by anyone.We have plenty of losers.

Now Korea which is on everyone's lips again is an unusual case and in the proximity of Vietnam. The U.S. reacted to a North Korean invasion of South Korea which we were occupying at the time. And when the U.S. beat back the attack across the 38th parallel, we couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to push on into North Korea causing China to participate against us. The Korean War, though hostilities stopped early on but with no peace treaty, has lasted through 12 Presidential administrations and once again the important number is two: Democrats and Republicans. Not one has figured it out how to make peace. Will there be any winners and losers in the future in this spooky endeavor?  Nope just losers irradiating.

So out of my 3 examples no way I can say 2 out of 3 ain't bad. All I can say is that it's all bad and we're all losers. And with one exception there is a winner but at a horrific cost. But those two numbers Democrats and Republicans keep on rolling along and like Bart Simpson they all say "I didn't do it" while pointing fingers at each other and both act like they're winners. And like I said at the outset, when there are winners, there are losers even when the winners are imaginary.      

Some thoughts on Russian spying in the U.S.

Some thoughts on Russian spying in the U.S. These are my most recent. . .

Let’s focus on the concept of “useful idiots.” It is someone used as a tool that may be completely innocent or may be participatory in some degree in a spy operation but not fully aprised of the extent and/or scope of an operation. Ultimately the useful idiot can also become the “fall guy.”

My view: The operation put forth by the Russian FSB may have gotten some lucky breaks in particular the fact that so many people associated with the Trump campaign happened to have had connections to Russian businessmen and governmental officials which probably was just business and innocent of spying and collusion. (except for that meeting Donnie Jr. had) Thus, useful idiots.

What was the scope and goals of the operation, an operation that must have changed over the time and when did it start?

By mid 2015 there were many who were already vying to be the Republican Presidential candidate. It was pretty obvious by then that Hillary would be the Democratic candidate. Bernie hadn‘t formally announced until May/June 2015. And for a brief period he was also looked upon as a joke. Ted Cruz had already announced March 2015 and the rest of the Republican crowd followed. Trump announced June 2015. Russian intelligence was watching all this and I think after Trump entered the race and was gaining popularity by late summer that the scope of the operation widened but they also had their focus.

I believe the operation was first hatched by late 2014 after the Republicans got complete control of congress. It was clear that divisions between Rep/Dem, Conserv/Lib were very deep. The goal then was to further these divisions and sow chaos and discord in the U.S. around the Presidential election. Hillary was already under investigation by congressional Republicans for Benghazi and the FBI for her personal email server. So that was another benefit for the FSB to sow discontent. The operation would take advantage of that to help drive that wedge between her and angry skeptical American voters, namely Republicans and independents. It is supposed that because Putin hated Hillary that that was the focus. No, not the focus just another way into the operation to disrupt the election, to cause dissent, to discredit individuals and for people to lose trust in their government. The goals were much larger than just taking revenge on Hillary Clinton. The goal was to somehow destroy the U.S. association with allies in Europe. Would Russian intelligence do this? No, not completely. They were relying on the discord and chaos that would result.

In addition “fake” news was planted in stories throughout the internet and made to look like acceptable “real” news. So many of these fake stories ended up in credible media. Cable news programs helped by focusing on one distracting story after another. The same as they are doing today. (It’s what our viewers want to hear.) Hillary and Bernie fought it out for almost a year and supporters of both were more concerned about defeating the other candidate while Trump’s ascendency was treated as pure entertainment in both late night TV comedy shows and cable news. This was either a lucky break for the FSB or they helped by planting fake news to stir this pot. Certainly the DNC hack which was not fake news really stirred the pot. I believe that she did not get the vote she should have gotten as a result of this discord.

When it looked like Trump was going to swamp the field, other parts of the operation kicked in. Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Carter Page, Jared Kushner and of course Donald Trump all had connections to Russians and the Russian government for various business dealings. (Useful idiots). When people like Jeff Sessions and Reince Priebus had meetings with the Russian ambassador, the FSB probably couldn’t contain themselves with joy. Wow look at all the connections! The seeds were now planted whereby the operation could be easily rolled up and blame would be aportioned to all of them. In other words it was your classic set up for fall guys.

I imagine that they were so surprised when Trump actually won. (As surprised as he was) I don’t think this was the part of the plan they were relying on. But fortune smiled upon them. The plan, according to me BTW, was that if Hillary was elected she’d be so discredited and the country would be so divided that it may have done far more damage than if Trump was elected. In fact the FSB could continue their operation to sow discord after a Hillary electoral win. The Democrats wouldn’t be investigating anything. Their candidate won. The Democrats would be working to continue the programs already in effect since Obama, wanting to figure out how to win back congress and wouldn’t have the time and couldn’t justify spending resources or using up political capital to do any investigating. Besides Republicans were in charge of congress and would be still hounding Hillary and voting to overturn Obamacare. I doubt there would have been rapprochement between HRC and most Republicans. And the Democrats would be trying to win over the electorate who didn’t vote for her. But just in case there was a problem the FSB still had their useful idiots to take the fall.

With Hillary as President, a woman, half the country would be even angrier than the half that is now angry with Trump. And who knows where that would have led. That is the half that owns most of the guns. Right now they think they are in catbird seat with Trump as their President.

I think ultimately that all of the investigations into Trump won’t turn up anything that he may have done that was illegal. I don’t think that he will be found to be in collusion nor did he engage anyone in Russian intelligence to help him try to win the election. He’s the kind of narcissist who thinks he is superior and doesn’t need any help and could do it all on his own. All he ever wanted from the Russians was to make money. He did use some of the hacking when he was told that Russians hacked into DNC and combined with the HRC e-mail problems and he used that information to his benefit. But he is still a useful idiot and also a fall guy by association. Of course I don’t pity him. Just don’t see him going to jail. He still might get pushed aside by the 25^th amendment for complete incompetence or if we’re lucky die from a stroke or heart attack.

But what does it all mean? One thing is don’t follow the cable news shows. They focus on one mostly irrelevant thing after another our useful idiot does for the short period of time that it is in vogue and then they move on. They have little regard for historical evidence, form no overall framework of ideas into which the little petty events can fit into. And they ignore all other issues to the detriment of their viewers, most of whom are in our demographic. The other thing is we may end up with nothing, nothing at all after all the investigating. If that is the case we could end up being in thrall to Trump and Trump like politicians for a long long time to come and we will be going backwards . . .

My last trip to Spain

I've been Spain three times. All those times via ship/boat. Twice I was in the Navy. The last time I was a wandering traveler. That last time, 1977, I went to Spain I took a Traghetto from Palermo to Livorno and it was the most pleasant of trips, cloudless and comfortable with a view of a gorgeous setting sun into the sea/sky horizon. Once there I took a train to Genoa and left the following day on another Traghetto, this time to Barcelona. We encountered the worst storm I had ever been in since a hurricane in the Caribbean in 1964. There was a lot of crying going on among the passengers, not to mention vomiting and crapping but I had been in worse.   I left Spain twice the same way, by naval vessel. The final time I took a bus to Marseilles while recovering from a food poisoning well past the vomiting stage and not having eaten in two days in time grew incredibly hungry but with not a morsel of food and stopping at a rest stop in France, I had no Francs only Pesetas and could not buy even a piece of bread, I went through the cafeteria taking the scraps of food left in trays on the tables. Desperation it was. Some man shouted at me in French. I gave him the Italian chin flick and headed for the bus. I tell you this because today is the fortieth anniversary of that last trip. 7/29/1977. Today is 7/29/2007

Something we just say

Every time there's a random shooting or an attack deemed a terror attack, many people say, "My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families." Why? Are these well-meaning individuals actually sitting around having thoughts about the victims and praying? How long does it go on for? How many thoughts? How many prayers? I know what prayers are, having started out in life as a Catholic. But what about the thoughts? What are they? What kind of thoughts? Are they meditating on the awfulness or the horrors of bloodshed? Are they thinking about the pain being experienced by the victims but also the psychic pain suffered by those close to the victims? And how is it that such "sympathetic" utterances lessen the pain or is it expected that the "thoughts" projected in sympathy suffering somehow expiates the horror and grief? Since thousands of people die everyday from diseases of every kind, from accidents, from others kinds of murder shouldn't these sympathetic people be professing their thoughts and prayers every minute of the 24 hour day? I know how my Mother would have explained it. She would have said in her annoyed voice, "Philip, it is something that we just say!"

Manchester Bombing

Another attack on another unsuspecting western city.  This time it's Manchester, England. Sleepy small town vibe, innocent Manchester, but 2nd largest city in England. Yes, it's horrendous that children were killed, innocent children, among the young adults. Humans who have limited understanding of their growing identities into whom they will become.  Cut short. Life is over. It's a horror I agree. And governments are incapable of preventing this sort of thing or are they?

Our constant invasions and our own attacks on the Middle East certainly haven't helped the situation. What roils me most, besides those numbed brain fanatics killing & maiming people, are the lame verbal responses from government officals and the tough talking retired generals and the cable "news" shows talking about how the fanatics can make their bombs and the triggers they use and the pointing of fingers and the showing of yellow taped off scenes and interviews with the shocked who had been there and the "will ISIS take reponsibilty?" meme repeated over and over, but also the responses from ordinary people on social media. The so-called "in our hearts" response. Oh fuck you already. This is your way of saying what? Oh I'm so sorry. No, what you're saying is I'm glad it isn't me. Stop supporting this so-called war on fanatics because there is no victory in the current way we are doing it. And it's not going to stop. This so-called war is fig leaf bullshit. All the crap that we the U.S., the Europeans are doing is window dressing, theater, security theater.

What we've got to do is get out of the Mideast. Stop with the racism. Try to come up with some kind of diplomatic reasoning. Stop kissing Saudi Arabia's ass as well as the other countries in the Mideast that are paying up to prevent attacks on themselves.  It's their problem. Not ours.

Western governments have bombed the stuffing out of the Mideast and social media discussions support those assaults on their innocent children or at best "tut tut" over the air strikes, but their children aren't wept over in this manner. How many are dead, maimed, demoralized in Syria? There are thousands and thousands killed and maimed. (No we're not bombing civilians! Russia is. Only Russia. Right?) How many drone strikes does it take to help destroy a country. How many Mother of All Bombs will we need to drop on Afghanistan. Yeah we're going after ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Taliban and I don't know who else. And nothing changes and bomb makers are making lots and lots of money! You know who the losers are? We're the losers. The winners are the arms manufacturers.

It's not like England doesn't have an expensive top of the line security apparatus as does the United States as does the EU. And it is costly. But that's not going to stop one individual. Doesn't matter how many stops of entrapped wanna be fanatics there are over the years. It just takes one who is smarter than that.  So that old saw that says: if you keep repeating the same things over and over but expect different results you are crazy.  

I don't want to sound heartless. It pains and upsets me when I hear about these insane bombings. It upsets me about the babies, the children, the young adults, the old people, the destruction of families and the loss of friends and also the people who have to clean up and try to put people back together. And what about the houses and communities and cities that are destroyed? I put myself in the shoes of the survivors. I think what if I were in that situation, what would I be doing, saying? Existing? Responding? Goddamn it we are all humans!  But here sitting at my laptop or you sitting at your laptop, tablet, phone are so far removed, and so it's alright to strike one's breast in sorrow but how about a mea culpa already? We are guilty too.

No E-Reader for me -- Ever!

(This was written originally 11/29/2007)

The NPR radio program "On the Media" ran a segment on the e-book reader and mentioned the Kindle.  In addition there was an interview with a writer whose name escapes me but the title of his essay remains: "Hamlet's Blackberry." What he said at least in the interview was that paper itself is a technology. Those of us who have been around for sometime before this wonderful e-revolution still require that we have the feel of paper, the feel of a book in our hands as we read. Our hands in some way inform us in this process of reading and in fact do quite a bit of work. These days as a retiree I don't buy newspapers much but read them online.  On the rare occasion when I do encounter a newspaper I realize how much I miss holding the paper and scanning the page and folding it up and pulling out sections and so on. And if I want to look at an advertisement I will. . . and if I don't want to I don't.

But I gave this Kindle some thought. It would be great to carry around 200 books with me. But does anyone have any idea how long it takes to read 200 books? It's not like I'm going to read them all in a Subway ride on the F-train on my way into Manhattan from Brooklyn. Besides  all these years I've always felt close to my books, to the paper, to the feel of new pages and being able to mark up something, some scrap of thought in the columns. I love the look of different fonts. I love to see how far I've gone along and how far yet I have to go.  And I sometimes love to just flip back and check out the first few pages and maybe skim them  while I keep keep my thumb as a place marker.  And then I love to look at my book shelves and sometimes pull down a book I read long ago and just look at it and feel it or skim through again or maybe even decide to read it again. Often memories come back of a different time and it evokes a certain feeling.

So no Kindle for me ever. The problem I see is that the  e-revolution has just allowed us to become a more of a throw away, uniform society than we were before. The mystery and the wonder of a book will hold nothing for us anymore.  In fact with computers the concept of wonder no longer holds a thrill for us.  I think it was Goethe who said that the highest form of thought is wonder. Sadly with the internet beneath our fingers wonder is just a word on Wikipedia.