Independence Day frivolity

Ah, this has been the best July 4th in ages! Early this morning, I was in Dundalk to get video of a parade (for use in a project). Guess who participated? Dutch Ruppersberger, the congressman who represents that part of Maryland.

Not a bad fellow, Dutch is; his voting record is actually pretty good. But when it comes to Spooksville, the guy is basically DiFi with a penis (and slightly more convincing hair dye). Ruppersberger is the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee -- and he is, in every sense, the NSA's congressman, Fort Meade being within his district.

So as Dutch passed by, I yelled out: "HEY DUTCH!"

He turned. I gave the thumbs up signal; so did he. Then I shouted: "ED SNOWDEN ROCKS!"

The look on his face...! It was the look of a man who, having bitten into the Dagwood sandwich of his dreams, suddenly realizes that the mayo has gone very, very bad.

People standing nearby seemed annoyed by the inconsiderate jackass who brought up politics on the Fourth of July. Nevertheless, I was proud to have done my patriotic duty.

Let's look at what else has been going on...

Walmart. America's most beloved company has been selling "inspirational" posters of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign above the entrance to the Dachau concentration camp. There is no truth to the rumor that the company has quietly placed this poster in every store's employee lounge.

When my brother was a young man, he ran a Burger King. I tried to convince him to put a sign in the kitchen that read "Arbeit Macht FRIES." He didn't get it.

Hell's new tenant. Richard Mellon Scaife died today. As Scaife was led before the Judgement Seat, St. Peter whispered in his ear: "You know, Vince Foster really did commit suicide."

And Scaife answered: "Don't tell me they got to you too?"

The NSA targets the "privacy conscious." If you show online signs of concern for your right to privacy, the NSA figures you for a bad guy and zeroes in.

Merely searching the web for the privacy-enhancing software tools outlined in the XKeyscore rules causes the NSA to mark and track the IP address of the person doing the search. Not only are German privacy software users tracked, but the source code shows that privacy software users worldwide are tracked by the NSA.

Among the NSA's targets is the Tor network funded primarily by the US government to aid democracy advocates in authoritarian states.

The XKeyscore rules reveal that the NSA tracks all connections to a server that hosts part of an anonymous email service at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It also records details about visits to a popular internet journal for Linux operating system users called "the Linux Journal - the Original Magazine of the Linux Community", and calls it an "extremist forum".

Don't worry, folks. I'm sure Dutch is going to get right on it.

False flags ah-OY! No doubt you've heard about the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish Israeli students. From the standpoint of the American media, their deaths matter, while the deaths of Palestinians do not. (Example: The revenge murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir, which seems to have been perpetrated by right-wing Israelis.)

But the killing of those three "actual human beings" -- is there more to the story? Global Research has published an investigation which I find disturbing...

The “search” entailed arresting and beating up about 600 Hamas members (including legislators) and trashing about 2100 homes; Israeli forces killed at least 7 Palestinians. Israel also heightened its daily air strikes on the Gaza Strip, which has been under the Israeli blockade since Sept. 2006. The Gaza government appealed to the UN for relief, which responded by condemning the kidnappings rather than the massive abuse of the Palestinian population. And then urging “all parties” to show restraint.

In other words, the kidnapping provided a fine excuse for an anti-Palestinian pogrom. And no, I will not apologize for the use of that word.

In short, the Global Research piece theorize that the Israeli security forces themselves organized the kidnappings. Why? Here's why:

Prime Minister Netanyahu has used this event for huge political gain:

* to create divisions within the new “unity government” of Fatah and Hamas,

* to physically punish Hamas members and the cause of Palestinian resistance,

* to get legislation passed through the Knesset to block the return of East Jerusalem to Palestinians (1),

* to try to foment a third intifada to legitimate further attacks on Palestinians (1) and

* to whip up such hatred of Palestinians that it has become dangerous for them to be seen on Israeli streets.

I'm intrigued but not convinced. The trouble with this type of argument is that it asks "Cui bono?" -- always a good start -- yet it goes no further. "Cui bono?" should be your first question, not your last or only question. The kidnapping case does have a couple of hinkey aspects: A strangely tardy official investigation, and an unusual gag order concerning the deaths. But so far, we don't have enough evidence to talk "false flag."