Eclectic Thought
News, Sports, Writing, Books, Poetry, Philosophy, Science, Politics and stuff. I'm not real big on specialization.
Trump is Evil
Donald Trump is evil. Not in the sense that he promotes evil policies, or that he lies. They all lie and they all have policies with which we disagree. No, Trump’s evil cloaks him like an ethereal mist, distorting our view and making the edges and the slime seem fulfilling and inviting. Trump’s bluster, bombast and bullshit, conveniently hidden in populism, speak to a much deeper, darker, and more dangerous evil. The evil of the uncaring mob, the evil of torture and lynchings and gas chambers lurks bubbling and boiling below the easy marketing and bombastic but ultimately muted anger on the surface that everyone sees in this election.
The evil that remains unseen and no one recognizes or understands paces back and forth behind the bars of the Trump marketing cage just waiting to be released. Trumps narcissism fuels and supports the populist mob. The mob may look benign and “merely” voicing popular frustrations, but make no mistake, that same mob lynches, tortures, and sends scapegoats of whatever persuasion to internment camps and gas chambers. The mob does not care. The mob has no morality. The mob is the Devil’s playground and it thrives on the big lies filled with half truths spewed by Trump and doused with the gasoline of real anger, frustration and disappointment pounded into that mob by the elite powers. Trump lights the match that could set fire to morality and decency, in any time and in any place.
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…To sum up, [Donald Trump campaign manager] Lewandowski assaulted a woman, and there is a witness to the event. Lewandowski responds to this by first completely denying it happened and then dragging the name of the woman he allegedly assaulted through the mud based on a dishonest interpretation of a report from an extremely controversial web publication.
By any standard, this is pretty despicable.
”Mark Hemingway on Trump’s campaign manager assaulting a reporter (via theweeklystandard)
Is it just me or do these guys remind you of brownshirts.
(via Pragmatists’ Dream Ticket: Hillary-Kasich 2016 - The Daily Beast)
Now this would be a ticket, and probably unstoppable and unifying. Never happen.
Apple, Security and Free Speech?
Apples position on unlocking the iPhone has a lot of holes despite their “interesting” free speech argument.
Apple and the Security Problem
First let’s talk a little about warrants and searches. The Government has a right to search your home, your property or your person without your consent, as long as it has a warrant. It can also seize your property with a warrant. That’s the law. That’s what the constitution allows. That’s the extent of your privacy rights in connection with search and seizure by the Government. And if they have your permission, they don’t need a warrant.
In the case of the terrorist phone involved in the San Bernadino killings, the phone belonged to the county, the people using the phone did not have a right to use it for personal private use. The county gave the government permission to search it.
Think of it this way. If the Government had a warrant to search your apartment, and they didn’t have the key they could either break down the door or make the landlord give them the key.
So now we come to the phone. The only potentially viable argument Apple has against unlocking the phone (and the one they have made) is that allowing this to happen, the act of inventing the software to do it, somehow is so dangerous to all American citizens that it violates the 4th Amendment. And that under the law, they can’t be forced to do so. I am sure, philosophically, this makes sense to many people. The Government is indeed not trustworthy, security is not infallible and no matter how its done, the software is likely to get out.
This is the first argument and really the only argument Apple has. To me that’s somewhat disingenuous. If the Software can be invented, and if the problem is that security is not infallible, so if its invented it will get out, why isn’t it out already? Is Apple’s security so much better than everyone else’s that only they can prevent someone from inventing software that governments would pay billions for (slight exaggeration) and it getting on the market? Can only someone hidden away in Apple’s admittedly security conscious facilities invent such software? Is the US Government so incompetent that they need someone else to do this? The NSA who supposedly can spy on everyone and everything, can’t hack into one iphone? Really?
I imagine it would take time to break the encryption. They clearly believe Apple can do it quicker and easier. No doubt true. But if it can be done by Apple, ultimately the Government can probably do it themselves. And if that’s the case, why is Apple fighting this? The Pollyanna in me wants to say that Apple is taking a philosophical stand. The cynic in me wants to say this is great marketing and publicity for Apple and they don’t get that very often.
The fact is that the case for Apple is a loser. The Government can make the apartment manager unlock the door.