Scattershots – 25may17 (updated 26may17)

George Rebane

Former President Obama willfully violated Americans’ 4th Amendment rights for years by authorizing and executing large-scale surveillance on all electronic communications by our intelligence agencies (primarily NSA). He did this in the face of protests from the FISA court from which by law he is supposed to seek authorization before conducting such ‘wiretaps’. No matter how you look at it, that was a sustained criminal activity. From Zerohedge we learn that “These new discoveries come from a recently unsealed FISA court document dated April 26, 2017 and center around a hearing dated October 26, 2017, just days before the 2016 election, in which the FISA court apparently learned for the first time of "widespread" and illegal spying on American citizens by the NSA under the Obama administration.”

With the lamestream predictably silent on the matter, let’s see what recourse occurs under our corrupted justice system. (more here)

Algorithms rule. That long-known truth is finally recognized bigtime in the public media. RR readers have been apprised for years of the power and seminal role that algorithms play in sustaining modern civilization. The most recent revelations and information on algos is featured this week in the WSJ which is a running a week-long series on algos and AI in different sectors of industry and commerce (more here). The growing problem is still to find people clever enough to design the algos that can be implemented in fast computers connected to very large databases. We don’t do such a good job at turning out enough of them, and other countries are beginning to play catch up in their academia. All we can do is hope that their central planners continue stifling the entrepreneurial juices of their people faster than our leftward bound government stifles ours. That’s a hell of a strategy for us to count on remaining competitive in the global markets.

The Manchester bombing confirms something that no one is talking about in the media. Salman Abedi, the Islamist killer, was already on the UK list of suspicious people who should be tracked to see if/how their radicalized behavior progressed. More than that, it turns out that Abedi not only had a supportive network but also a bomb making shop in his home. (more here) What did the UK authorities know about all this – nothing. The obvious thing that this investigation again corroborates is that the UK police and intelligence services are overwhelmed with the literally thousands of Muslim suspects that they have to track. The number of potential terrorists in UK’s native-born and imported Islamic population is so large today that devout killers like Abedi abound. More importantly, they are so numerous that it is politically too sensitive to publicly admit that the domestic terrorist threat has become existentially unmanageable. In short, no matter what happens in Mosul or Raqqa, ISIS and other Islamist terror organization have already infiltrated the lands of the infidel to levels that dramatically changed the way we are forced to travel, do business, and entertain ourselves. In the interval the progressives’ drumbeat against ‘Islamophobia’ is heard across the land, impacting any remaining policies with which we may still defend our civilization.

[update]  The French brain drain.  Isn’t socialism wonderful, and more socialism even more wonderful?  The situation in France is now so bad that there is a national effort ongoing to reach out and convince the country’s emigrated and escaped educated classes to return to their homeland.  Why did they leave?  If you have to ask, then you haven’t been paying attention to what has happened to that bastion of collectivism in the west.  The French government has been ingenious in the way it has stifled enterprise and entrepreneurship.  Back in 2015 Emmanuel Macron, then economic minister and now president, already attempted to fashion a siren song for the French intelligentia on foreign shores (here).  No luck.  Now two years on the problem has gotten so bad that it is making news in the world’s prominent media outlets like the WSJ (here) and BBC (here).  And today our own socialists (now indistinguishable from Democrats) are doing everything possible to bring that European dream cum nightmare to America.

[26may17 update]  The WSJ series on algorithms and quants concludes today with Jason Zweig’s article ‘How to be Your Own Quant’ (a quant is a quantitative analyst in the investment field who today develops and uses computer executed algorithms for securities trading).  At the end of the article Zweig includes a little directory of all the other articles in the series and their links.

Comments

[Todd Juvinall]

I could not hack Obama yapping overseas and lying through his teeth so I changed channels.

Manchester still has not made the British leaders get their acts together. I listened to Nigel Farrage and the woman Tucker talks to who is from Britain. She is being investigated for "hate" speech as she tweeted the country should do something "before" the killers trike. My goodness, the land where free speech started has now lost its mind.

[Bill Tozer]

RE: Manchester Bombing.and political correctness: They let the barbarians in through the front door. No putting that Jeanie back in the bottle. Meanwhile, nothing to see here. We just need to coexist......right.

http://www.lifezette.com/referral/ex-navy-seal-tells-katy-perry-hold-one-concerts-syria-see-goes/?utm_content=buffera3eae&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=laura_ingraham_buffer

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1094746297326073/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1094565150677521/?type=3&theater

[Bill Tozer]

Manchester Bombing according to the Bernie Left:

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1094266157374087/?type=3&theater

Manchester bombing according to No Drama Obama.

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1093731904094179/?type=3&theater

[Bill Tozer]

Muslin attacks according to Trump.

Statement by President Donald J. Trump on the Attack in Egypt
Terrorists are engaged in a war against civilization, and it is up to all who value life to confront and defeat this evil. This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls. Wherever innocent blood is spilled, a wound is inflicted upon humanity. But this attack also steels our resolve to bring nations together for the righteous purpose of crushing the evil organizations of terror, and exposing their depraved, twisted, and thuggish ideology.
America also makes clear to its friends, allies, and partners that the treasured and historic Christian Communities of the Middle East must be defended and protected. The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished.
America stands with President Al Sisi and all the Egyptian people today, and always, as we fight to defeat this common enemy.
Civilization is at a precipice—and whether we climb or fall will be decided by our ability to join together to protect all faiths, all religions, and all innocent life. No matter what, America will do what it must to protect its people.

[Russ]

How Team Obama tried to hack the election, bugging America

New revelations have surfaced that the Obama administration abused intelligence during the election by launching a massive domestic-spy campaign that included snooping on Trump officials.

The irony is mind-boggling: Targeting political opposition is long a technique of police states like Russia, which Team Obama has loudly condemned for allegedly using its own intelligence agencies to hack into our election.

The revelations, as well as testimony this week from former Obama intel officials, show the extent to which the Obama administration politicized and weaponized intelligence against Americans.

http://nypost.com/2017/05/26/how-team-obama-tried-to-hack-the-election/

Glenn Reynolds: "President Trump needs to launch a major investigation, and fire a lot of people. And maybe prosecute some folks from the Obama Administration. This is much worse than Watergate, which only involved bugging a single office. Obama basically bugged America."

[George Rebane]

Hey Russ, your comment repeats a topic in my post as if you were introducing it here. Whenever a topic has already been introduced either by me or by a previous commenter, it's good to reference it in your own comment that expands on it. That gives the reader the full coverage of said topic in these pages or at least in this comment stream. Thanks.

[Russell]

George @ 01:54 My intent was to expand on your initial post. Will explain that in the future.

[Bill Tozer]

RE: Zerobama violated Americans 4th Amendment rights.

Oh boy. Now we have fail Presidential canidate and current US Senator saying he may have been spied on for political purposes.

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/06/02/graham-reason-believe-conversation-foreign-leader-unmasked/