International Censorship

Posted on 22 July 2017 by eehines

France wants to enforce a “right to be forgotten” law (recently enacted by the EU that allows persons to demand publicly available information about them to be erased from links in search engine results) inside other nations than the EU membership—inside the United States, for instance. Google, et al., is demurring, and France has taken the matter to the EU’s highest administrative court, the Court of Justice.

The case will help determine how far EU regulators can go in enforcing the bloc’s strict new privacy law….

This is a preview of International Censorship. Read the full post (235 words, estimated 56 secs reading time)

The Left

Posted on 12 July 2017 by eehines

…doesn’t like us very much. And, by “us” I don’t mean Conservatives, I mean the United States in particular and Western Civilization in general.

Here are a couple of examples. Recall President Donald Trump’s speech in Poland last week wherein he touted the successes of Western Civilization and the United States’ role in that and further said that we would never give in to the forces arrayed against us.

This is a preview of The Left. Read the full post (834 words, estimated 3:20 mins reading time)

“Pre-Crime”

Posted on 27 June 2017 by eehines

Another word for Government’s prior restraint of private citizens, a word used by Holman Jenkins in his Friday op-ed to disguise this assault on our freedoms.

Let’s face it, with big data, with impersonal algorithms that could track every earthly resident’s web activity, travels, purchases and electronic interactions with the world, it might be quite possible to know whose life and personality are disintegrating, who might seek to resolve the impasse by going on murder binge.

This is a preview of “Pre-Crime”. Read the full post (323 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Obstructionism

Posted on 23 June 2017 by eehines

…for the sake of obstructionism. And now the Progressive-Democrats in the Senate are getting blatant about it. They don’t want to help reform the health care coverage disaster of the last eight years, so to block Republican and Conservative efforts at reform, these Progressive-Democrats have decided to block everything in the Senate. Here’s Senator Chris Murphy (D, CT) o the overall attitude:

What more could we do—hold Republican Senators by the arms to stop them from getting to the chamber? I think we’ll use every tool at our disposal.

This is a preview of Obstructionism. Read the full post (249 words, estimated 1:0 mins reading time)

Incidental Unmasking

Posted on 5 April 2017 by eehines

Now we know that then-National Security Advisor to then-President Barack Obama (D) Susan Rice asked several times for American names to be unmasked that had been masked since their presence in communications of foreign nationals that were being legitimately monitored was entirely incidental to the communications and the reasons for which those communications were being monitored.

Rice’s requests were strictly legal; the NSA incumbent is one of the Executive Branch officials with the legal authority to ask for, and to receive, the names to be unmasked without having first to go through a court, even the secretive Star Chamber FISA court.

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Distractions

Posted on 29 March 2017 by eehines

Congressman Adam Schiff (D, CA), Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, wants them. He’s so anxious to have them that he’s insisting that Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R, CA) to stop being Chairman.

Mr Nunes should step aside from any congressional investigation pertaining to Russia or to the “incidental” collection of intelligence information, like what Mr Nunes said occurred to Mr Trump’s transition team.

Mr Schiff said in a statement it was “not a recommendation I make lightly…. I believe the public cannot have the necessary confidence that matters involving the president’s campaign or transition team can be objectively investigated or overseen by the chairman.”

This is a preview of Distractions. Read the full post (308 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

Inadvertent Tapping and Leaks

Posted on 27 March 2017 by eehines

As House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R, CA) revealed the other day enroute to the White House, intelligence community personnel, in the course of surveilling the communications and other activities of foreign nationals (vis., Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak), also surveilled incidentally members of then-President-Elect Donald Trump’s campaign and transition teams, and perhaps Trump himself. Wire tapping, indeed, if loosely and metaphorically.

Of larger import, though, is this, also from Nunes.

…the intelligence “ended up in reporting channels and was widely disseminated.”

It was previously reported that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was “unmasked” in this way; however, Nunes said “additional names” were unmasked as well.

This is a preview of Inadvertent Tapping and Leaks. Read the full post (196 words, estimated 47 secs reading time)

The Party of No Refugees

Posted on 31 January 2017 by eehines

…doesn’t turn out to be Republicans, or even President Donald Trump.

Recall the Vietnam War, and our collapse in it, including the abandonment of South Vietnam by the Democrats then controlling the Congress when North Vietnam began its final invasion and that Democratic Congress refused to allow the US to try to rescue the South.

Recall the vasty numbers of refugees trying to escape the North’s takeover and to come to the US.

The Democrats said, “No!”

…a chorus of big name Democrats…refused to accept any Vietnamese refugees when millions were trying to escape South Vietnam as it fell to the communists.

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Is It 20 January Yet?

Posted on 10 January 2017 by eehines

It’s always someone else’s fault with these Democrats.

At a final press conference in Washington, DC Thursday….

Kerry disagreed with the narrative that Obama failed to enforce the red line, however, saying the president did intend to act—but was steered off course after the British Parliament narrowly voted against bombing Syria in August 2013.

The motorboat skipper said this:

The president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, did decide to use force. And he announced his decision publicly and said we’re going to act, we’re going to do what we need to do to respond to this blatant violation of international law and of warnings and of the red line he had chosen[.]

This is a preview of Is It 20 January Yet?. Read the full post (365 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Slow-Motion Surrender

Posted on 4 January 2017 by eehines

Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian industrialist and philanthropist, seems to want one. Here’s his suggestion in a Wall Street Journal op-ed with the subheadline Crimea should not get in the way of a deal that ends the war. The lives that will be saved are worth it. In particular, Pinchuk recommends the following for Ukraine to agree:

Ukraine should consider temporarily eliminating European Union membership from our stated goals for the near future. We can build a European country, be a privileged partner, and later discuss joining.

This is a preview of Slow-Motion Surrender. Read the full post (496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

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