Targeted Killing - Death by Drone

The Drone Papers

Secret military documents expose the inner workings of Obama’s drone wars.

The Intercept

By Jeremy Scahill

The link reveals secret details of the official Drone program.  Simply secret details about the nature of a very unsecret program we are all aware of.  

We have a new whistle blower:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-intercept-source-another-snowden_561f9cc6e4b0c5a1ce621c97?ry41v2t9 

Read the comments to the link.  Wet your finger and put it up in the air.  I feel growing dissension and fractionalization in the USA.  The symptom of a state-less social conflict?  Who benefits?

Warfare has evolved over centuries in terms of "stand-off" capability to target and kill.  From up close and personal with a blunt or sharp weapon to impersonal death dealt from thousands of miles away.  Target detection has likewise evolved.  So has the strategy of kill more of them than they kill us.  The ultimate winning end of that game is kill them all at no cost of death to our side.

Is that a simple enough picture?

Drones are the ultimate weapon.  Used to be the atom bomb.  Still is.  We have plenty.  They are not used, except twice and how many enemy combatants did they kill?  It was a different war then.  Civilians populations were targeted.  Not the sword and spear clashes of huge armies on open fields.

In 1996 I visited Ho Chi Minh's headquarters.  Also his home.  This is link to pictures:

https://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/vietnam/hanoi/hcm/stilthouse.html

He had his meetings in half of the downstairs.  Lived upstairs.  Bunker in the back.  Next to the old Provincial French palace which he refused to occupy.  I'm sure that his home was hard to see from the air.  The palace however stood out plainly.

Is it possible that we did not know, could not find out where his house was and conclude that he was probably at home at some time?

It was never bombed but hundreds of thousands of bombs were dropped.  Missions were flown over Hanoi.  John McCain was fished out of a lake in the center of Hanoi.

It was a different war.  The top leader of the enemy was not targeted.  Village leaders were.  By both sides.  NVA and Viet Cong got a lot of media attention killing village leaders.  US and ARVN did it also but not publicized.

Civilians are killed in drone strikes.  A cost of doing business.  Like and cost/benefit analysis there is a break even point.  There are also probabilities of success/failure and definition of terms.  It is a cold calculation when it comes to human lives.  A calculation that involves moral values.  What are they?  Anything we wish them to be.  The statistical probability criteria for civilian deaths?  A low number I hope but probably contingent on the value of the target.  Morally justified perhaps by proximity being guilt by association.  Any reason will do.

Drone targets are not heads of state.  They are stateless therefore not covered by the gentleman's war agreement not to officially target heads of state.  "Terrorists" are free fire zone targets.  The Drone Papers describe some official dissent that we cannot capture them for interrogation.  Better alive than dead in that case.  There is a point to be considered there.  Probably being made by those government agencies in the torture business, which may have declined.  Who knows, it is secret.

I admire Tom Engelhardt.  He often writes and feature writers on the subject of drone warfare and related matters.
Examples:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175978/tomgram%3A_gregoire_chamayou,_hunting_humans_by_remote_control/

http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175990/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_counting_bodies,_then_and_now/ 

"Stateless" enemies are "free fire" targets.  There is no "State" country with military power to retaliate the attack.  Were American Indians stateless targets?  Indigenous peoples of other colonized countries?  Something to ponder in the rules of war.  Terrorists are stateless, little or no rights until they become a state.  1776?

Being or becoming a nation state has its security advantages.  An attack on its citizens is an attack on the state.  9/ll?

It works in reverse.  A nation-state may officially retain a name like Iraq or Afghanistan  or Syria but in essence becomes a stateless entity in the eyes (unofficially) of external states when it is composed of warring factions.  Then different rules of warfare apply, those generally applicable to stateless entities.  Stateless entities have State of Being heads that can be targeted.

The long term game plan of Israel is getting increased attention lately as things go to hell in a handbasket in the Middle East.  The plan for "Securing the Realm" is being looked at in terms of current progress and it seems to be doing so much better than other countries overt plans for the Middle East.  The question arises:  Are they the same plan?  If so what is that plan?

If there is such a plan?  Google "Strategy for Securing the Realm" selecting just the past week and there are 8 pages of hits.  The strategy names countries, Nation States,  what better strategy than to reduce a Nation State to stateless.  A nation in name only but a geographic area of stateless actors.

Stateless actors become targets of different rules and have internal agenda not so much external unless they become a combined official state like a Caliphate which given their fractional divisions is a dream held by zealots to the advantage of Israel.

How does that benefit the USA?  The USA has a nation building agenda based on Freedom.  Might the true USA strategy be based on the Israeli strategy of reducing nation-states to basic statelessness.

The USA does not do nation building well.

I admire Andrew Bachavich and everything he writes:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176055/tomgram%3A_andrew_bacevich%2C_vietnamization_2.0/ 

The USA attacked Iraq.  A nation-state.  Afghanistan.  A nation-state.  No so good result.  Shouldn't attack nations states so much any more.  But factions within a nation state might be a better way to attack a nation-state.  The only trick is to support the nation-state head of state until there is no longer a state to be head of because it is broken up into factions that we simply wash our hands of.  A threat only unto itself, not us, not Israel.

Mission Accomplished.

Remain allied to one of the factions sending in the drones for support until they become "enemies" and side with another faction that become the good guys.

Perpetual war.  Out of sight, out of the public mind.

The "Let's you and him fight" Strategy.

No rules for stateless entities or those with centralized power to impose it rules.

Jay Gould had a strategy:
 Frequently attributed:  "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."

Is the USA hiring half the population (or some faction with half the power) and paying them in Drone Strikes?

The "rules of war" should be re-written.  Only hand held weapons weapons can be used and only those that can inflict death on another either held in the hand like a knife or club or thrown by hand like a spear.  Inflicting death in such a manner can only be done upon an enemy holding in their hand one of the authorized weapons of war.  Killing the old fashion way.  Up close and personal with skin in the game.

Information Age Identification of Uniquely Identified Objects at the Granular Level

Summary to the point.  I had an idea in to run with in this blog but if I put a gps tracker on on it then it would reveal that I was running all over the playing field.  Sometimes headed for the goal to the extent that any spectator watching the play on the field would wonder where the goal was as well as the name of game.  For clarification I have later added the following in bold as I Monday morning quarterbacked it.

Who is on First?  First thing is to name the players and identify their unique attributes associated with their role in the game and relationships.  It is (or is it?) a simple matter (or is it?) of defining (or proclaiming) Object Oriented Parent Class and Child of the Parent Class relationships and attributes.

Start Monday morning quarterbacking of what I wrote yesterday and follows  the conclusion of this analysis
Money Game Players:

Money is a a Child Class of the Parent Class: Medium of Exchange

People is a Parent Class in an Object Oriented Parent/Child relationship structure.

People Play (with) Money.

Parsing the previous sentence:  People is the the Subject noun.  Play is the implementing verb.  Money is the object noun.   Play is the action that relates the Subject to the Object and gives it some relationship meaning.  The verb action nature of the play is Transaction. That applies when Money is in the conditional state of Transaction between any instance of the class "People" where any two instances of the class People are in a mutually exclusive conditional state of either Have Money or  Want Money.

There are two children of the class People that share all attributes of the parent class People in the Money Game:

Human Being
 and
Business

Human Being child of the class People has the attribute state of Living Breathing.  When state is dead then Human Being is a child of the sub class of people: Business.  Yeah, I know, crude but this is about the Money Game. 

ParentClass:People:ChildSubClass:Business is any entity mutually exclusive of;;;;;;

ParentClass:People:ChildSubClass:Human Being that transacts with Money.

Comment:  Yes, I know I am changing to a descriptive format not consistent with the way of describing these "things" not used previously.  Its a progressively developmental thinking thing that starts to look like it is some kind of crude programming thing.

Any children of the Class:People play exclusively with and among any other children of the class and/or children of their class.

Human Being has no children of its class.  By definition they are all distinct, discrete and equal in the money game.  Any two or more instances of the Human Being class of People transacting with Money in a contractual relationship are by definition children of the Parent Class:Business.

Business has two children of its class:

People:Business:Public and,

People:Business:Private

Why?

This Parent:Child relationship is structured to deal with traditional entity relationship of Government and Business.  I am unplugging entities and reconnecting them in different ways for different reasons.  The objective is to answer the riddle: "Who's on First" or as I looked at in a prior blog entry: Untie the Gordian Knot.

Business wants to share attributes of Human Being in the Game of Money.  Business wants to share attributes of Government and social governance (social governance being the verb that implements the relationship between Government and Human Being Parent Classes).  that relate to the money game.  OK, let's look at that Object Oriented relationship in various structurally connected ways.

There is a Public/Private conflict to be resolved here in the Money Game.

"We the People" is a collective Human Being enterprise for relationship governance.  Traditionally viewed in conceptual belief (but always divorced form the reality of implementation) as the Parent with collective proclamation of attribute rights that are inherited to children of our enterprise maybe  called Freedom.

Free Private Enterprise?

Yes, that too.

Business has always been a collective enterprise for relationship governance.

This is where the thought mangled by my own way of thinking goes:

If Business wants to have the attributes of Human Being then discrete unique instances of the ParentClass:Business must be as uniquely identified at the lowest granular level as finely and equal to the identification of Human Beings.  In an equally exact manner of who, on an equally information specific manner, who the entity called a business is, where it is located, what it does and who it interacts with.

In other words, if a business wants to share the attributes of Human Being in the money game, and that is its only game, profit or non-profit, then it is subject to the same discrete indentification surveillance as any Human Being citizen of the USA.  All citizens are subject to "secret" surveillance by our own government for our own good because it is a freedom and right to privacy that we have given up to protect us from an small number of "bad actors".  There are a number of "bad actor" businesses that justify treating all businesses in the same manner as all Human Being citizens.

Yes, Business, you can have the attributes of Human Being citizens too.

Yes, Business. You too can and must be assigned an official identity equal in nature to a distinct Human Being surveilled  in the same manner to collect all and any private information about the business and who it has what relationships with, not as an invasion of privacy but as absolutely necessary for our shared security and protection from those that would do us harm.

Ultimately all Businesses are Human enterprises.  They all relate to human beings in some monetary system structure and exchange of ownership of goods and services through a medium of exchange.  There is a key to problem solution there.  Might it be total information all the time?  We are certainly farther down that road for human citizens because other human beings want to do us harm and that is how we want to protect ourselves from them.  Some specific business enterprises and structures want to do harm to us individually and collectively.  Likewise we must be ably to know, when necessary and with controls, everything related to money about all Business entities and all the human beings they relate to directly as employees/benficiaries as well as what other business enterprises they relate to.

Trade secrets?  They are protected?  Are they like a person's rights to privacy? 

A whole new assignment for the NSA.

End of Monday morning quaterbacking.

Beginning of what was Monday morning quarterbacked......................



What is a more uniquely granular entity object than a human being?  Each is a distinct one of a kind.  There really are a multitude of uniquely existing unlike any other object things in its collective class of things but to us we are most important.  A good thing and a bad thing when we define our relationships to the other things in the world.  Over time that definition has been largely in terms of the physical world.  Now it is rapidly increasing its expansion into the conceptual world of information and what we do with it.

We, individually as human beings are becoming more uniquely identified in information systems.  Information systems like the computers they exist on reduce ambiguity.  Which Joe Doe are we talking about.  Where Joe lives, his age, eye color driver license serve to uniquely identify him.  Biometric information identifies him beyond a shadow of a doubt.

http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/10/08/the-fbi-wants-your-face-and-fingerprints/

Where is this going?

We are becoming increasingly more defined as unique individuals.  It has been a progression from being defined by things we are associated with, like a name, age, occupation, telephone number, address to things that we are: Our biometrics and there are many of them that uniquely identify us.

Biometric identification is progressive.  More markers and detection is accumulating at a greater sensor distance of time and space as well as the here and now real time of a uniquely identified individual.  Tracks of where and when we are located in real time and space become the historical record of where we were and increasingly why.  The volume of the historical record grows as more real time information grows and is maintained in history.

My concept of a Monetary System involves unique digital identification of every unit of money value and who owns it.  Who owns it in real time as well as who owned it in history and who the new owner was in a monetary transaction.  A block chain record.

The entities that conduct monetary transactions are individuals or monetary entities that are not unique individual people.  People transaction with personal money they own are uniquely identified.  They are becoming increasingly identified by biometrics.

Collective entities transacting with money are not as uniquely identified.  They range from uniquely identified to unknown and untraceable.  A situation probably often a function of design.  Collective entities are public or private.  Public ones are well defined.  Private ones are business either for profit or non profit.  Some are well defined others obscure as far as their links to the money they transact with in real time as well as in past history.

In order to have full information control of the monetary system all entities beyond unique individuals that transact with money in their personal account must be as uniquely identified directly to the money to which they claim ownership.

Maybe only the first direct link of a non-human being money transacting entity need be known?  In a block chain record of all transactions of all entities each entity receiving money becomes known.  A shell company might be the direct link to an account that receives or spends money in my monetary system but knowing where the money trail goes from there tells all.

Money only changes ownership for goods or services or is a charitable donation or gift.  Giving something for nothing.  The exception of the money world both private individuals or collective monetary entities.

All "Collective Monetary Entities" dealing with money must be identified as conclusively as individual people.  They must have the equivalent of biomarkers to identify them and perhaps more evidence of the good or service they are exchanging for money than is required of most individuals.  Individuals that are paid a wage or salary for the good or service they provide.

Who's on First in Yemen

If the Middle East is a confusing mish-mash of relationships then Yemen is the bush league child of the entire situation and the US relationship to it.  I will enter the clear link rather than linking to it:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/08/why-is-the-us-aiding-and-enabling-saudi-arabias-genocidal-war-in-yemen/

Spokeo is an information tool presenting entity relationships.  Wikipedia describes it as a tool presenting information about people.  Relationships of a person to another person.  Specific data element information about an individual person and extension to relationship to others based on connecting data elements.

"Strength" of connection between two and more people is not defined by a metric but is apparent by observation.  When the connection is a business relationship money/asset/economics is therefore involved and strength or meaning might be considered relatively high.  Money and its related asset/economic things has relationship to many other high level objects that are more conceptual.  Power, politics, religion, philosophy, family, country, social standing, etc.

Maybe the old approach of "follow the money" might reveal the connection between an individual's relationship to another based money to further relationships based on other high level conceptual or real entities.

Maybe the Spokeo business plan is to expand into those other high level relationships but that is dangerous ground.  More in the territory of the NSA where all information is sought and is fair game not only for the seeking but the deep meaning of its relationships.

"Who is on First?" requires a powerful information analysis tool to answer the question!

I would like to see how Spokeo would present that answer in  a weighted relationship entity analysis not only of individual people but the entity analysis of higher level "aggregated groups" of people based on all significant relationships and their relative and/or competing/cooperating nature and strength.

Apply  an analysis like that to the Middle East----if that was possible ----like not! -----and what would the Spokeo chart look like????

Perhaps I should submit a Freedom of Information request to the NSA to see it?

Maybe just Google for it.

In the old days before relational data bases any attempt to present a picture of information relationships resulted in a spaghetti chart.  That of course is why relational data bases emerged as a better way to look at things.  Mostly I think because it looked at "things" first rather than the actions that related them.  Then by simply seeing the relationship between/among things with simple information rules and structures actions implementing them could be identified.

Of course I am an object oriented guy and that is the way I see "things".  Organize and analyze the nature of things and the related actions fall into place.  Then if the actions are not logically related to the nature of the thing (disconnected) then the entity definition of nature of the thing must be either be changed or the action implementing the relationship between/among the things involved must be changed. 

Things and their related action (implementing interaction)  is a fixed vs variable relationship.  The dominant one -- Thing or Action -- drives the choice of which to change to bring them into logical true desired relationship.  The catch is that often the logical true relationship is the private relationship that is intended by design to be different than its public relationship.

Media manipulation can do that at the macro level but once "things" and relationship to things at the granular level, like one person or one uniquely serialized and digitized dollar on a central cloud can be solidly linked at the most granular level there is a result:  Macro level appearance of things and their actions is contrary to the micro level relationship of the entities.

The Information Mill continues to grind exceedingly small.  The Information Age is on that trend line.

It is a good thing.  We will increasingly see the dis-connection between the macro picture and the micro entity level relationship picture that creates it.

Better formalized information organization eyesight to see the detail lowest level entity relationships and associated implementing actions and build them structurally from the bottom up to either confirm or deny what we hear or are inclined to see from the top down view is what will change the ball game.

In my opinion the single most important micro to macro level entity having the determining role in the structure of our various social systems from the bottom to the top and their implementing relationships is money.

Structure a universal monetary system based on this to understand and manage our world:
A granular level uniquely identified digital debt free unit of value and uniquely identified entities (people and institutions, public or private) that transact with each other in exchanging ownership of each unit.

Record all transactions in a block chain establishing history of all monetary changes of ownership of money among transacting entities.

Go from there as we decide what are our values and how we govern accordingly individually and collectively.

Who's on First? ,,,,In the Middle East Baseball Game?

Preamble:   The best part of many of my blog entries comes at the end.  Seeing that I move the end to the beginning.  So, here is the end up front: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot .  How I got from what follows to this end is even a mystery to me........................

I refer in the title the the famous comedy skit. Go to the link, even if you know the skit.  It is a classic.  Probably a classic because it presents in the context of comedy a confusing situation that cannot be understood to answer the question.  I suppose there are variations on the same comedy theme but I won't take time to find them for my own amusement.  If I did then one variation that comes to mind might be "What is Life?" set in the comedy context.  Serious or comedy the answer remains the same in the end.  Difficult to comprehend and it either leaves us laughing or mystified but still clueless in either case to grasp the ever elusive answer.  A answer that might lead to a better quality of life if we had it.

Short of a universal fundamental answer we all find our own answer.  Maybe the answer already established in doctrine of some social group.  Maybe the one we find entirely ourselves wandering in the dessert populated by a multitude of of answers like a Chinese Menu.  Independent discovery probably only reveals that we are not the first ones to find it but the first to find it for ourselves in our own journey to seek down a road well traveled.

This blog asks (and often goes astray from the question as it takes on similar questions):

"What is money?"

I find an answer by reducing money to a uniquely identified digital serialized instance of a class that is at the lowest granular level of "one" unique unit with a state of being existing as either:

1.  Present

2.  Absent

My Money Model looks like a Life Model.

The Money Model Looks exactly like the Life Model in the "Present" state.  That being we have it.

The more abstract state, being non presence, the digital equal of Zero, is by abstraction a higher level concept that requires a frame of reference beyond physical existence in a different world, a different realm of being where "nothingness" has meaning like.....ah, like.....eternity?  A strange world where all is also nothing?  That is a round about way of defining "Unity".

Just thinking as I make this stuff up as I go................

Having lost sight of my objective, I doubled my thinking effort to go where it took me.

Back to "Who is on First" in the Middle East.

Bridging the preceding thinking to the question at hand, unique individuals are key players that are instances of their class.  We all know their names.  Start with Obama and the rest of the classroom is small.  My rule of numbers says 8 to 12.  Make it more like baseball and call it 9.  These are the ones that supporting/opposing "stake holders" act through and the numbers go geometric quickly as sub-classes of power influence expand.

Focusing on the playing field of the Middle East, what is going on?  I don't know.  It is extremely confusing to me.  Some stakeholders have no uniquely identified instance of a class.  ISIS (what the heck is a Levant?) or Al Qaeda.  At least until it is claimed that the leader has been killed but that is a game of Wack a Mole.  Used to be it was one guy.  Now we know who it was after the fact.  They are the shadow players, the ones that are stakeholders represented by the Main Players.  The fans that have influence power?  Something like that but unlike a baseball game they do not always stand out as a cheering section would.  Like a tree falling in the woods?

For example:  Who is Bashar Hafez al-Assad?  that is a Wikipedia link that describes him.

This link looks at USA and Russia (Obama and Putin) relationship to him.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/10/assad_putin_and_the_smart_move_that_obama_must_make.html

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mcmanus-obama-syria-putin-20151004-column.html

Or simply look at a number of different view represented by a google search and pick one and try to get an accurate description of the relationship!!!!

Who's on First?

Obama is presented by this Wikipedia Link.

Putin at this Wikipedia link.

My first observation is that the Wikipedia link for Obama goes into detail about what he has done as a head of state.

The presentation of Putin and Assad in the Wikipedia links tend more toward the political influences that formed them and the nature of the power group constituencies that are their base.

That observation might help clarify an understanding of the situation.

The playing field is the Middle East.  Off the top of my head I could not give a definition of the Middle East much beyond where all the trouble is.  I could name some of the countries.  Easy geographic divisions.  How they came about from colonial days.  The ethnics?  The religions? Clans? Peoples that claim a common name?  How they cross geographic/political boarders?

Much more difficult going down that road to get to some fundamental unique definable units of classes!

Wikipedia definition of "Middle East"

To conclude my thinking here before it eludes me:

In my simple model everything in our human mind and the organization of our existence in relation the world of physical reality or the conceptual reality we create beyond the physical world is coded into the beauty of a basic Noun and Verb cognition.  The relationship of two nouns is implemented by a verb.  The computational trinity model that I have referred to in so many blog entries that seems to have universal application from macro to micro level.

A prior entry called, I think, the Tower of Babel, is a myth describing the curse of fragmenting communication in to so many different forms of expression that a common language was not possible.  It is the allegory of not just the language but the division of schools of thought that apply the language that all go their separate ways to divide us, not combine us.

What is the common school of thought that will unite us?

The two principal nouns that are are related by the single verb from which our conceptual structures are derived?

While my philosophy put the subject noun as supremely determining the structure of the concept in the noun/verb relationship I have to think that the dominant driver to the preceding question, as much as I do not like it, is a verb that determines the controlling nature of the Subject/Object noun situational relationship from top to bottom.

The verb is........

Violence.

It controls today.

There is an binary alternate verb that could take control.

How could that be applied to resolve the situation in the Middle East and answer the question "Who is on First?

That is even a greater challenge than figuring out "What is Money"

The algorithm solution, approach to the problem seems to be the same?

Does looking at the relationship of Violence and Money as a key give some insight as to the solution?

A key binary relationship in the world today looks to me like this binary state of being:

Have  (presence of some thing)

and

Have Not (absence of same thing)

That thing being Money.

Money is a fungible as Power.

Both are as binary in their state of being as having natures of good and bad.

Is there a glimmer of a solution to be had somewhere in all of this?

Enough of this.  I have wood to chop and water to carry.

As always, Yves links lead me to great thoughts:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/10/could-the-syrian-conflict-irrevocably-change-global-geopolitics.html

Syria.  The Gordian Knot.  An excellent eloquent way to describe the situation.

https://www.google.com/search?q=syria+gordian+knot&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=seamonkey-a

Gordian Knot Read about it at the link.  Enlightening old view of the problem.

The Gordian Knot is a legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem (disentangling an "impossible" knot) solved easily by cheating or "thinking outside the box" ("cutting the Gordian knot"):

Truth Is A Weapon That Results in Colateral Damage

Sample coverage if the Afghan hospital bombing:

The Radically Changing Story of the U.S. Airstrike on Afghan Hospital: From Mistake to Justification Intercept (resilc). Important.
Afghan Forces Asked US Special Forces on the Ground in Kunduz To Call In Strike on Médecins Sans Frontières Marcy Wheeler
The U.S. Gunship that Slaughtered Doctors and Patients in Kunduz Daily Beast (furzy mouse)
CNN and the NYT Are Deliberately Obscuring Who Perpetrated the Afghan Hospital Attack Intercept (resilc)
Afghan Doctor Slaughter Pulls Back Curtain Consortium News (Judy B)

It all paints a picture of probability:  A direct intentional hit.  It also reveals a scramble to cover it up and minimize potential collateral damage done by truth as a weapon of destruction.

Can't wait to see the official report!

Makes me wonder.

No doubt about what Doctors Without Borders is and does.  Little doubt about what a hospital is and does.  Little doubt about the status of the Red Cross in war.  It is not morally/legally (war crime) a target to attack.

An investigation will put US forces between a rock and a hard place.

Good.  But who will be the scapegoat to twist in the wind?

Keep an eye on this one. 
  
 

Information and Accounting Structures

Fall is coming.  I feel it in the crispness of the air.  It is a special time of year when my mind becomes clear and focused on conceptual things.  Where they all fit together.....or don't.  This blog displays the historical pattern of increased entries as well as depth and clarity............

Note pause here:

(to the extent the the writing on the wall clarity of the matters I become interested in see as information structures at least appear to be essentially more simple in their fundamental relationships as well as the extension of those Super Class relationships to the complexity of all the children of the Super Class that form the Object Oriented information and process structure).............

The nature of complexity gets easier to see when it is reduced to simplicity at the foundation.  All complex systems are based on a few simple fundamental relationships.  Information systems in this age are all reduced to digital simplicity representations according to some simple binary rules that become every more complex as they are expressions of things like money as an example at one end of the conceptual things we create or airplanes at the more solid end of putting materials rather than ideas together to create a thing.

The fun part of it all is connecting, building if you like that word, using concepts directly related to their real world identities (either physical existence or "things" whipped up out of our own fertile imaginations).  Again, money is an excellent example.  The new Boeing airplane designed and flown on a computer before it ever becomes reality is another example. What we conceive in our minds becomes reality.  It has always been that way since a guy invented the wheel (in his mind) then made one and put it on a car.

This blog entry is the introduction to a new episode in my annual awakening of clarity of thought (my thoughts, clear to me) about whatever attracts my interest as a challenge to understand using my own approach to the problem.  A

All problems have a simple foundation.  Some problems are problems that have a wrong foundation or poorly designed one or one that is designed intentionally to be sub-optimized to the benefit of the creator.   The more we look at problems that have an invalid foundation the more they tend to be recognized for what they are (faulty) and fall apart when the true or better foundation is recognized.  It is becoming increasingly easier to the bad structures as the Information Age advances and all things become a conceptual internet of things in parallel with the real internet of things and their relationships.

The information structures that are the low hanging fruits for revision structured on a better conceptual base are those that have a base unit of unique identity during their existence that cannot be changed and are over a given period of time remain unchanged. 

Human beings are like that.  Each uniquely and instance of a class.  No two ever alike but sharing variable characteristics of the class of human beings that makes them sub-classes in an progression that ends with each of us being our own unique sub-class of One Each unit of issue.  Existing in a variable time frame.  Each equal by our own collective definition of ourselves to those that believe that as a matter of faith and proclaim it as a national truth.

I see money like that and that is the essence of what I write about in this blog and apply the concept to things that are not money but their object oriented information structure is the same. 

The whole world and everything in it is an object.  The thing called time gives objects a stage upon which to perform actions.

That is all there is to it.

Objects

and

Actions........ as a function of two or more objects relating to each other over time.

No object can ever relate only to itself and no other unless it is purely eternal which makes it a non-entity by definition relating only to itself and no other object for eternity.  For all intents and purposes of my mortal self that is maybe the one problem that is beyond me grasping through application of the the way I think.  It is a matter of pure faith not reason. 

Pure faith relates only to itself and no other thing.  Plug in the word faith in any application you can think of.  At the ultimate end, or bottom, or top, wherever the end is defined to be because by definition the ultimate end is undefinable and it is faith in what?   Its faith in "whatever" we chose to be the ultimate end. 

Like our own unique human existence that is our own being and reality while we dwell in this world for the time we call life, I think each of us conceptually defines our own faith in whatever we wish to believe in.   It may be anything on the spectrum of reality that goes from rock solid to purely non-existent in reality beyond the frame of reference of space and time.

There, I took my running leap and jump of the diving board to a new season of thought!

On to the good stuff!

It's all good!

Strategic Communications

Robert Parry writes good stuff. "The Power of False Narrative" is one of them.  A couple other things I read today relate to what he wrote.

How Journalism Helps Lunacy Become Reality

By Larry Beinhart, Al Jazeera America

28 September 15

The Greatest Threat to Campus Free Speech Is Coming From Dianne Feinstein and Her Military-Contractor Husband By Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept26 September 15

 Israel has created a powerful narrative to serve itself, its ambitions and its actions.

The USA has its own narrative in Exceptionalism.

Both are threatened by fact based analysis.  Neither can allow it.  Both use similar methods to extend and foster the narrative as well as protect it with defense and even greater offense measures.

The "norm" of the narrative has moved to the absolutely ridiculous.  Examples abound.  Trump and the clown car.

While the "norm" of truth and Objectivity has been moved so far out of bounds, defense and offense tools to "manage" reality distortions have also moved beyond reason to protect the false narrative.  Israel is the finest example of this situation although the USA is not far behind. 

Good job Robert.  Good Job Glenn.  Good job Larry.

My design on steroids

This plan not only establishes a record of all money received and spent but all significant assets a person owns or has interest in I would guess 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-06/life-cashless-world-how-cash-became-policy-tool-–-interview-dr-harald-malmgren

This Is What I Want

I want to know who "owns" every single US dollar in circulation that in sum total is our national medium of exchange.  I want to know that information in real time.

I want to know the grand total amount of US Dollars in circulation at any given time in real time.

"In circulation" means "In existence".

"Every single US Dollar in circulation means every US dollar in the the unit value denomination of "One Dollar" with a uniquely assigned serial number.

I want all US Dollars to exist in the digital domain.

I want all owners of US Digital dollars to be identified by an associated uniquely identified account that is their key and governmental authorization to transact exchange of US Dollars from one account holder to another.

I want a block chain public record of all transactions in US Dollars.

I want it all.

I want in now.

I want it in debt free, positive money US Dollars that once created they exist forever.

I want this monetary system to be operated as a Public Utility subject to governmental oversight and rules and regulations of Public Money.  All US Dollars are Public Money created as the sovereign right of our National Government that serves us.

I want a transition plan that transitions the nature of our monetary system from debt based to a debt free monetary system.

I want the entire economic world to transition to debt free money based on the US Dollar system.

I want a one world monetary system operating on a secure single digital unit of value monetary system that satisfies all the things I want it to be. 

When the monetary system that I want satisfies all the things that I want it to be then the users of the system can do anything they want to do using it.

The monetary system I want is the user's ball to play the game.  It gives total transparency to how users play the game.  If we as all users do not like the game that is being played then we change the rules.  The nature of the ball remains the same.

I want my definition of what money is.

I want user (all holders of accounts in which all money exists as a medium of exchange object) freedom to determine what money does. 

Creation of Debt in the monetary system that I want is a single application function of existing debt free money, not the the source of its existence in accordance with the current monetary system.

Discourse Markers, uh, you know, like, I mean..............

This link Here's Why Using 'Like' In Conversations Could, You Know, Be A Good Thing
presents "discourse markers" as a trait of conscientious people displaying thoughtfulness of the listener.

A significant study and conclusion?  Baloney!

I am more inclined to believe that it is "mind chunking"  my own term.  Chunks of incomplete thought expression connected by a verbal filler pause while the next thought chuck is formulated.  The antithesis of lucid thought.  Perhaps associated with short attention span.  Perhaps a learned mannerism through exposure to media?

How far ahead does a mind formulate what the words express?  To the extent that a standard sentence or paragraph is fully formed in the mind prior to expression.  Kind of like a peripheral vision for speech, you know?

Like Airhead talk.

I am hearing this speech pattern more often in verbal media.  Today I listened to a corporate spoke person pepper her comments with these "Discourse Markers".  Maybe she was hired to speak to speak to the target audience.

Unfortunate deterioration of the quality of communication but even sadder a dumbing down of the power of lucid thought process.

An app for that?  Like a spell checker.  A speech checker applied to prerecorded media conversation to eliminate the "discourse markers".  Hey, that sounds like a translator!

The Chinese Drachma. Greece Adopts Chinese Remindi as its Currency

This blog site is generated from the simple Idea of positive money in a digital dollar form of a single granular unit of digital, uniquely serialized money with a value of 1 held in a digital repository with knowledge of its relationship to an owning account.  Money in the repository does not move from account to account as ownership changes.  Only account ownership of fixed individual digital dollars changes based on monetary transactions.  These digital dollars are debt free positive money that exist forever once created.

Crazy paradigm shift idea from money being created from nothing by virtue of a loan made by a bank and going back to nothing when the loan is repaid (negative money) to a positive money that like coins are created debt free.

Crazy idea.  Simple and elegant to me but crazy to an economist or a especially a banker or financier.

I like crazy simple ideas written on the wall.  Ideas like this one:

How a Chinese puzzle could enable the Greeks to have the last laugh by David McWillliams

Ecuador currently uses the US Dollar as its national currency.  Why doesn't Greece use a national currency of choice?

The beauty of it is that China uses an economically weak country in the heart of an extracting economic union to turn the tables of the extractor.  China is a great producer.  The problem is that it had no toe hold or foot in the door to enter markets like the United States.  It entered via  an agency called Walmart.  Made the Waltons rich.  

 What sweet revenge when Greece becomes a gateway for China to compete with Germany for the money of the EU and takes its cut on the extraction action!

It is so crazy I love it! 

From the link:

"The Chinese get a foothold into Europe. They invest billions into Greece, where they reassemble Chinese goods into Europe with no tariffs or hassle. They gradually move up the value curve, making ever more sophisticated goods in Greece – just as the Americans have done here.

They can even use the Greek tax system to reduce the taxes they have to pay, just like the Americans have done here. And, of course, it would be a massive diplomatic and geo-political coup for the Chinese."

"The Greeks would get a stable currency, lots of liquidity into their banking system and a currency backed by real economic logic. They would get industry and technology, so that the next generation of Greek kids could work in spotless hi-tech factories, exporting hi-tech consumer goods into Europe.

Oh yes, and lastly, who would lose most over a generation? Which European country has most to fear from its consumer goods being eviscerated by Chinese competition?

Why, Germany of course! Wouldn’t it be sweet revenge for Athens that, after being humiliated by the Germans, Greece would be the staging post for a commercial assault on Germany that would terrify the Bundestag?

Everything I have said above is doable, legal and possible within Greece’s membership of the EU."

crazyboy ain't so crazy, or as crazy as me?

 

Google Traffic- IMSI and Liability

Follow on to the previous post.

Imagine this scenario:

Raw cell phone tower data that records a unique cell phone IMSI for the purpose of anonymizing it and selling it to Google for real time input to Google traffic also identifies the IMSI of cell phones in vehicles exceeding 80 mph for a given period of time or whatever the state would otherwise fine for speeding.

On an exception basis the IMSI is retained and becomes the legal basis for automatic fine when the speed is maintained for a period exceeding a specified amount of time.

Result:  Automatic speeding citation!  No need for a highway patrol to catch speeders.  Saves pubic money!

What if the algorithm detects sudden deceleration of the speeding vehicle as well as another vehicle IMSI at the same geolocation?  It would seem that the burden of liability would be on the speeding vehicle?  Reasonable?  If speeding is generally considered dangerous and correlates with accident rates?

Proof of liability in a court case?

Just how factual is the information?

How accurate is the data?

Reason for retention of exception information (IMSI travelling over 90 MPH) for a given period of time for the purpose of investigating traffic accidents?

Here is another angle on info retention:  When any two vehicles being tracked by IMSI for traffic monitoring purposes suddenly decelerate to zero the IMSI tracking history is locked for both vehicles to determine prior geolocation for forensic evidence.  Was the prior location a site that served alcohol?  This is all done in real time.  It only takes recording and retaining IMSI for 24 hours before it is dumped.

Exactly to what extent does Google Traffic monitor all traffic on all roads?  That is a big load of data!

While IMSI is associated with mobile cell phones now, it will be increasingly associated with other things on the Internet of Things.  A cell phone IMSI is not proof of presence of the person owning the cell phone (unless there is a biometric log in by the user at point of sale or fingerprint password).  However, when dongles attached to a vehicle computer such as the Progressive Insurance Dongle transmit vehicle information to a receiver it identifies a specific unique vehicle.  The only thing needed to establish who is driving is a biometric key to start and operate the vehicle.  Perhaps it could be associated to a smart biometric driver's license?

Google Traffic and IMSI

On a recent trip to the east cost I did most of the driving and my sister did the navigating.  I would ask Siri for directions and she would give them for my sister to follow.  My sister has her own iPhone and once in New York I asked her to get directions.  She got them from Google but what she told me was a surprise.

She said that we could save x number of minutes by another route due to traffic congestion.  How do you know that, I asked.  She said the directions told her that and showed the length of the delay.  I said that the map directions don't have that ability.  She said yes they do and show delay on the map in red.  I asked what directions she was using.  She said Google.

News to me but when I looked I saw it was true.

Not knowing how it was done I drove on thinking that the only way they could do it was to capture an IMSI and then track it so see how it is moving.  Obviously there is a difference between 60 and 70 mph and 10 or 20.  Easy for cell phone towers to detect.  I have covered geolocation in prior posts but this was new to me.

The trip is over and a mental note was made to check on "how do they do that".

Wikipedia explains it at this link.

Yes, it involves geolocation using cell phone data location data obtained from GPS satellite positioning.  That location is transmitted to Google by Google map users.  Maybe by other Google positioning apps also?  Maybe, maybe not but why not?

The Wikipedia link specifically is about Google Traffic.  However it contains a section explaining CrowdSourcing location data to provide traffic flow info using cell phone towers for positioning.  Why include a Cell Tower crowd sourcing explanation in the explanation of how Google Maps works when Google gets its positioning from satellite GPS.  Some smoke here that indicates the presence of fire!!

From the link:

"Google Traffic works by analyzing the GPS-determined locations transmitted to them by a large number of mobile phone users. By calculating the speed of users along a stretch of road, Google is able to generate a live traffic map.^[2] Google processes the incoming raw data about mobile phone device locations"

While Google obtains GPS satellite location information via their cell phone app an alternate method to obtain positioning location and deduced speed is cell towers positioning and wifi positioning.  Google does this to provide geolocation services as a Business License to app developers for a price.

It did not take much searching on Google to find the explanation, a technical one, of exactly where "Google Maps API" gets its location data from for various geolocation purposes.  Explanation at this link for Google Developers.  that buy a license from Google to use it in their apps.

I am not a Google Developer but the tech explanation of means and methods is revealing.

This section of Google Maps API geolocation explains what it is and does.  The noun and the verb nature of the API.

The Google Maps Geolocation API returns a location and accuracy radius based on information about cell towers and WiFi nodes that the mobile client can detect. This document describes the protocol used to send this data to the server and to return a response to the client.
Communication is done over HTTPS using POST. Both request and response are formatted as JSON, and the content type of both is application/json.

All this geolocation info is passively received by the cell phone from fixed transmitting source(s).  Information received is used to record/display location and associated info in real time and over time such as speed and direction calculation.  Since the "Google Map" is an on line data base, not resident data stored in the cell phone, location data has to be transmitted to a Google Map somewhere in the cloud to return display information.  I conclude that therefore there is a constant realtime communication going on between the cell phone and an external Google mapping object and function.

Ya think?

This is speculation but if logically figures because the capability exists as well as reasons to use it.

Google Maps location operates in the mode of the cell phone being the passive recipient of geograhic information transmitted by a source to it.  A cell phone also operates in an active mode transmitting identification information to a cell tower (IMSI) as well as associated meta data information that can be computed from the transmission signal.

There is a matrix point at which the passive information received by the cell phone and transmitted to Google for mapping purposes and actively transmitted information sent to a cell tower by the cell phone can be put together to identify the user association by means of the IMSI to the cell phone and its location.  Active rather than passive transmission of information about location is not only to cell towers for the purpose of cell phone communication services.  Visual information is being broadcast all the time giving a geolocation based on what is visually seen.  All that is necessary is a visual receiver such as the LPR camera at a toll booth or any other point, fixed or mobile.

Essentially, a cell tower and a video camera are simply sensor devices detecting a specific category of wave length transmission.  Some say the universe is simply just waves.  It is called wave theory.

Some App developer could create an App for sale exclusively to law enforcement agencies.  Law enforcement could buy services identifying traffic law breakers as well as identifying public safety problems.

If the State Patrol wanted to pay for it they could buy the info, which is real time, and just wait for a consistent speeder traveling at over a given rate of speed like 90 mph over a long distance and then just wait for them to go by.  No need to know the IMSI of the speeder's cell phone.  They are coming, just wait.  A blatant speeder will violate the speed limit all day long on a long trip.  Not for just a few miles.

So what is important about this?

My IMSI is identified cell tower service providers.  It tells how fast I am going.  Maybe it tells that I am on the turnpike and not moving.  My own phone is transmitting geolocation information to Google via Google maps. 

Public Safety Accident Identification:  An algorithm detects that suddenly several other vehicles are not moving on a freeway or turnpike within seconds.  Speed went from 60-70 mph or more in a matter of seconds.  Gimme a deduction.  Not much brain computing power required.  No need to call 911.  The cell phone tower service provider notifies the highway patrol.  

And if the unique IMSI is of interest to the police?  It can be tracked in real time identifying the subject of law enforcement interest with the proper legal probable cause controls having been identified.

Gone are the days where the police have to hid behind bill boards an wait for speeders to go by.  Now they can know precisely in advance based on rate of excessive speed travel.

Easy to figure out.

What intrigues me is all the other information that can be generated by IMSI cell tower recording and anonymizing the results ( or not) then data mining them.

Who is doing that now and for what purpose?

To whom exactly are the cell phone service providers selling this information and what are the recipients doing with it?

Tolls booths are an east coast thing.  Not much in the west where I live.  Each toll booth had a camera aimed at the car. Obviously LPR.  How easy is it to match an IMSI to a  license plate.  I would think that it would only require correlation between two toll booths.  They seem to be every several miles around Chicago.  Hardly get up to speed before the next one.  We finally got an EZpass.  That probably made it even easier to correlate an IMSI with an owner as well as the IMSI of each phone in the car.

The IMSI is now the identifier of the cell phone probably in the possession of the  owner (or not).

This is the Information Age.  Most people know that.  What few people know is that it is the Knowledge Age.  That is what information data becomes.  

Just driving down the highway I am creating information being recorded by sensors.  That information becomes knowledge of value to someone that will pay for it or legally demand it.  What do they do with that?  Tell me quicker ways to get to my destination.

What else?

Knowledge about me that I have no information or knowledge about.





 

GeoMatrix Geolocation System

Sunday morning and I decided to catch up on the latest in surveillance.  I haven't looked at it in a couple weeks.  It moves fast.

Simple start: Google search on "IMSI Geolocation".  Didn't even use quotes.

First hit: GeoMatrix - GeoLocation System 

This is a simple statement from the site of what they do:

GeoMatrix is an advanced geolocation intelligence system, which provides real time location of any GSM / UMTS / 3G / 4G (LTE) subscriber worldwide.

That is awesome!  Scary too if they can do it.

All that is necessary is providing an IMSI cell phone identifier.  Geomatrix does not do that.  It is the "Google" of IMSI surveillance providing real time location of any input IMSI.

Absolutely amazing!

GeoMatix does this as described at their website:

GeoMatrix is a unique SS7 protocol based solution that enables intelligence and law enforcement agencies the ability to locate, track, and manipulate GSM / UMTS / 3G / 4G (LTE) subscribers covertly virtually anywhere in the world, all in real-time using a very friendly GUI and graphical supported maps.

Undetectable by the target and the mobile operators, the solution stealthily ascertains status, location and movement of targets of interest, from anywhere in a city and/or area to the entire country and beyond borders, pinpointing them with high accuracy in real-time.

GeoMatrix allows manual or automatic queries in real-time via criteria pre-defined by the user (Triggers) which enables automatic long-term tracking of a selected subscriber's status and location. 

Download the pdf brocure at the site for more amazing information!  Did someone fail to assign it a Top Secret, Eyes Only classification?

GeoMatrix is a Rayzone Group Ltd. product.  Rayzone offers its products and abilities worldwide.

Rayzone Group Ltd.

65 Yigal Alon st.
Toyota House, Tel Aviv, Israel 6744316.
Tel: +972-73-2802266
Fax: +972-73-2802260
info@rayzoneg.com

Exactly what Rayzone offers and does is exactly described at its website:

Piranha is an IMSI catcher device described here at this link.

I am astounded at the precise description of capabilities and description on a website that is publicly viewable on the internet.  It looks like something that should be secret, at least protected by a registered user log in!  That however is called marketing.

Rayzone sells internationally but I am sure that clients are vetted by Israeli Intelligence.  Perhaps Rayzone product and services have components and abilities that customers are not aware of.  Who might be listening to the listeners?  Watching the watchers?

Rayzone TA-9 is a separate website.

There is a Rayzone International USA company doing business in Dallas Texas but no direct link to the Rayzone subject of this blog entry....yet.

Everybody is building IMSI catchers! This site mentions Rayzone.

https://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-boxes-that-can-steal-your-social-media-and-dropbox-passwords-for-the-cops

http://www.rayzoneg.com/en.interapp.html

Wintego, an Israeli company offers the same capability: http://www.wintego.com/#!intelligence/cye7

https://www.adaptivemobile.com/blog/can-they-hear-you-now-hacking-team-ss7 

Waste, Fraud and Abuse in the Military Accounting System

Preface:  Much of what I write about in this blog is money.  What it is.  Strict definition of money as a monetary system digital object with unique identity and unit value at the granular level of one dollar each.  Money defined as such an object exists on a static cloud record and does not move. What changes in this monetary system is the ownership account related to each and every unit dollar as money is used to do what money does payment for goods and services.

The domain of what money is or should be in the case of my proposal is a relatively highly structured problem entailing a great degree of accuracy and accountability.

What money buys invests goods and services with a financial value based on its purchase price plus or minus changes in value from that purchase price for various reasons over time.  That is more in the realm of inventory or resource asset accounting.  That problem domain, as compared to the the problem domain of money itself is a more nebulous problem entailing a much greater accountability problem.

Inventory management was the problem domain of my navy career.  Starting with offloading cargo ships in Vietnam and ending in Washington D.C. with accounting for the existence and application of vasts amounts of material in inventory and on records accounting for (or failing to account for the physical inventory on hand and its application reasons for being there. 

This blog entry is a diversion from monetary system design and operation into the management of inventory system design and operation.  Both are Object Oriented Children of  the same parent:  Accounting Control.  They both share similar attributes.  They have additional attributes that make them children inheriting the attributes of their Accounting Domain Parent.  A principal attribute being that at the granular level each discrete unit of money or inventory object has a unique identity.

Consequently, there is much carryover from my physical inventory accounting and management thinking to money as an inventory of objects in an Accounting Control problem domain.

This is a revisit to the things that I worked with in Inventory Accounting Control.  Going back to that problem domain I hope will give me some thinking about something I know as a framework for application to monetary system design.
Waste, Fraud and Abuse in the Military Accounting System.

End of preface.  The following addresses the title of this blog entry:

Just plain old dumbness on a big scale should be added to the subject line.  I speak from experience.

This link at Crooks and Liars (Posted with permission from Alternative-News.tk reports:  Report Reveals $8.5 Trillion Missing From Pentagon Budget.

Shocking, absolutely shocking!  A report that is likely to be considered true by most people simply on belief of military incompetence before the report is even read!  Dog bites man is not news but this must have been a slow news day for the Crooks and Liars repost made by Crooks and Liars that was made in Nov. 2013 by the Daily Ticker: 

Want to Cut Government Waste? Find the $8.5 Trillion the Pentagon Can’t Account For 

The genesis of both reports is this Reuters investigative report link from Nov. 2014: Behind the Pentagon’s doctored ledgers, a running tally of epic waste.

It is the second in a series of three reports that are all under the title of: Unaccountable; The High Cost of the Pentagon's Bad Bookeeping.

The first in the series is:

How the Pentagon’s payroll quagmire traps America’s soldiers 

The second is the one I am focusing on in this link.

The third in the series is: 

Why the Pentagon’s many campaigns to clean up its accounts are failing

 I wanted to write something about it then, maybe I did.

There are broad and often complex financial accountability problems in military accounting systems.  The report at the link states a problem but then presents an ambiguous analysis that contributes little to its understanding.  Fundamentally it conflates the accounting for money which the accounting for the financial value of material.  The conflation starts with the title that gets attention:
$8.5 Trillion Missing From Pentagon Budget.  Wow! Big bucks!

Missing from the "Budget"?    The Budget is money.  That money is spent for stuff.  There may be some actual money unaccounted for in the money ledgers where there is no substantiation as to whom money in the budget was payed to.  That is more in the realm of bank accounting for money it holds.  More like our own balancing of the personal checkbook.  Accounting purely for money is rather tightly contolled.  The stuff it buys and reconciliation to the money spent for it and its actual existence and relationship is not well controlled.  That is where the problem is, the follow on problem is that little or nothing is done over time to solve this accountability problem.

I would like to address the last point.  Little is done because "We are too busy fighting alligators to drain the swamp".  In wartime under war conditions vast amounts of material are expended.  Vast amounts of material are thrown at the problem.  Much never hits its target.  It simply stays in inventory based on the cost of not having it available if needed.  For lack a nail to shoe the horse the battle was lost.  Better to have too much than too little.  In war there is no time to spend on accounting for stuff, who gets it or how it is used.  A justification as well as an excuse.

The current environment is war all the time.  The old wartime approach to material is still applied.  To that extent we always fight the last war again.  On payday in Vietnam I had additional duties as a paymaster.  I took custody of hundreds of thousands of dollars in MPC.  Counted every dollar when I got it.  Counted every dollar in exchange for a pay slip checked by the DK. At the end of the day I had to have a total of remaining dollars plus the total of pay chits equal to the total dollars I was given.  If not I was accountable for the difference.

The next day I went back to my regular job of offloading cargo ships in the harbor.  Each item handled had a Cargo Delivery Receipt.  I guess they were reconciled to delivery somewhere back at the White Elephant.  For a long time prior to that we just put stuff in landing craft and on barges for delivery ashore with no documentation.  The object was to empty the ship.  There were many ships waiting to be emptied.  We were short of sailors to do the work.  12 on, 12 off.  Both day and night shifts.  One month days.  One month nights.  Relieve on station 7 days a week.

Accounting was not a major priority.  Moving cargo to support the war was.  Accounting became a priority when I could not account for a couple pallets of medical supplies to were to go to an NGO doctor working in the mountains somewhere and one of my men wrote the last document CDR to be associated with it.  It was a PR problem.  Sometimes accounting does matter.  Otherwise....on with the war.

Both links conflate accounting for money with accounting for the financial value of things that money is spent on, often held in inventory or on some record of material accountability with associated money value.  

Crooks and Liars title says: $8.5 Trillion Missing From Pentagon Budget.

Daily Ticker title says: $8.5 Trillion the Pentagon Can’t Account For 

The first implies real money missing (unaccounted for in terms of balancing a budget amount to the expenditure of dollars from that budget to pay for goods and services) from a money account budget.

The second reports on the the balancing of mainly inventory financial value with the actual presence and legitimate expenditure of stuff, not money, from inventory.  It goes on to report that even stuff held in inventory and accounted for is a waste because it is in excess to needs (or otherwise not needed at all because it has no known application).

Really two distinct but inter-related things one is money accounting the other is accounting for material accounting for what money buys.  Inter-related but also independent stand alone problems.

A subset of accounting for material is this:  Once the amount of material in inventory on a line item basis and its extended value matches what the inventory record states to be on hand then the basic question is:  Is the item needed?  What is its purpose or application?  Is there too much on hand? should more be ordered and why?  That is an inventory management problem.  It is a big time serious problem if material that the record says is on hand cannot be found in inventory or the flip of that being material found to be on hand in inventory but not on inventory records.  In this case the records do not match.  Red Flag!

If the material on hand matches the inventory record but the record does not match a justification for the material to be on hand, such as a specific application to something or substantiated future need for things defined as "needed" based on past demand then that is a horse of a different problem.

The Reuters report contains this about material on hand excess to need:



 

$100,000 Reward for Secret TPP Document

Subject line of this blog entry is at this link.

I like it!  I don't do social media "liking" but this one I give a big thumbs up to!

I would rather see an individual motivated by the best interest of what is right and wrong about a matter come forward to do with personal courage what they are morally convinced is the "right thing".  Judgment of what is a morally right thing to do in any situation is a tricky thing to.  What is the domain frame of reference that proscribes the "right thing".

An excellent question!

There are domains of reference competing in decision making within higher order domains of reference.  Maybe all the competing domains can be viewed as interacting on a level playing field.  That field is difficult to define but whatever it may be is something to be defined and agreed upon by the competing actor entities.  Entities that are people, in the singular and in the plural collective, that act individually or collectively through the personal or collective nature of beliefs.  Beliefs that may be highly defined and established in formal rules and regulations, procedures and protocols or as ambiguous as anyone or collection of people all agreeing on the same commonly held standard without that standard being highly defined.

I suggest that even in domains dominated by rigid rules and regs there exist individual and collective entities within that domain, regardless of its size that have, individually (or in a closely held small group) shared standards alternative and competing with the standards of the parent domain.

Turds in punch bowls?  Maybe.  But by what standard is a turd or a punch bowl a punch bowl?

Elusive isn't it?  As elusive as the framework right or wrong in any given domain.  Domains of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  A collection of individual rights at the foundation of our social fabric.  A collection of rights now applicable to collective entities beyond individuals when those entities are defined as corporate.  Extend out that "corporate interest" right and non-profits also have them, extend that our and entities other than collections of humans also have the rights.  A collective like Mother Earth nature.  The natural world collective and all of its children.  A view that does not put human beings as the center of all the natural world.  One contrary to the biblical view that the earth was given to us to use solely for our own dominating interests.

This is a classical tough situation to grasp and make appropriate decisions.

This particular situation of TPP involves secrecy.

So much in the world today is increasingly related to secrecy.  I think it is a product of the information age.  The nature of secrets was once a matter of unwritten shared agreement, maybe backed by blood or something like that, among a small group.  A group small enough that the shared secret be interpersonal and sanctions for violation personally applied.  In the information age all that secret stuff has to be formalized in documentation.

That is what the $100,000 reward is for.  That is what Edward Snowden revealed.  All that secret documentation.

Cost vs Benefit is a neutral standard related to a level playing field.  A standard so neutral that it can be applied to opposed entities such as doing things judged as good or doing things judged bad.

Secrets may be either good or bad.  Hard to tell since they are secrets.  It is good to keep them when the outcome of revelation would be bad, by some standard.  Also good to keep them when the good outcome would be thwarted by their revelation before implementation of whatever is being held secret.

What is best for the common good?

The secret of the atom bomb and the implementation of its secret purpose is something to ponder.

In the world of secrets the defense of the secret is often: "We are doing it to protect you".  Maybe: "You can't handle the truth".  Or: "Don't ask how the sausage is made".   Or: "Let history be the judge".

Perhaps one what to approach the matter is that nothing be secret?  Is that possible?  One of the best kept secrets was D-Day.  What if it was not secret.  It would defeat the purpose.  There would be a severe downside risk.  On D-Day, plus one, there was no longer a secret.

TPP is secret.  Secret with sanctions and appropriate safeguards to keep it secret.  It will have its D-Day, someday.  on D-Day, plus one, it will be totally revealed.  Why publicly expose the plan before then?  Why, because D-Day will make it fait-accomlished?  Without possibility of reversal?

The TPP once revealed will have public review before being passed by law in congress.  Prior to then it is a multi party negotiating document.  A multi party negotiating document before it becomes a two party negotiating document at the individual national level.  Will each of the participating national entities in secret negotiations have to take it to its related national political level for public review and decision making?   At the secret level it appears to be a matter of "all in" to reach final agreement.  What is the risk that the representatives of national entities that agree in secret on it will have that agreement denied by national public review?

There is much at stake with TPP, much at risk if what is being invested in secret review is not endorsed by public review.

It is a risk/reward situation.  TPP has to do with trade but the bulk of it is not about traditional trade by corporate interests in whatever corporations are interested in beyond pure trade matters.  What might that be?  Power to control.  Not to compete but to dominate.

Not for corporations to compete with what entity? 

Answer: Government on a global as well as national level.  Corporate competition with government at our own US level is an open warfare struggle.  At the global level where corporations operate there is no single competing governmental entity.  None that has a legislative, executive and judicial system as entities agent of its governmental structure.  The global "governing" entity has a monetary based system of governance with monetary Legislative, Executive and Judicial systems.

One of the prime features of TPP is that a global judicial system would dominate national legislative and executive as well as judicial system.  In the US they operate in a check and balance system, generally.  Judiciary rule is a way to subvert the system.  What is the better corporate game plan for national domination?  Capture all three branches but ultimately which one rules on the law of the land?  In a chess game capturing the key figure ends the game.  That much I think  I know about chess.

TPP is secret because if it was not then recognition by the public that it was not in our best national interest in the USA or any other participating nation would nip it in the bud.

In conclusion:  It is good that the secret be penetrated and made public before it is presented to our governmental representatives that are in the pocket of financial corporate interests.

Yes, I would donate to the reward.  Like the cop that recently fired one of the hundreds of bullets into a fleeing automobile and killing the occupants:  Could I be held responsible for aiding and abetting a technically illegal act if I donated a dollar?  Perhaps my donation should be protected as a secret like the donation to a PAC?  I doubt if I could get that legal standing.  While I may have a dollar, I do not have that many dollars to buy my protection from the rule of law or by the rule of law.

Edward Snowden is a hero because the reward for his justified action was not monetary.  Who got the reward money for Bin Laden, if anybody did.  If a reward was given there was no public recognition because the recipient was no hero.  Some claim that someone in the raid has bragging rights but recently the entire raid that killed him has a new look. 

TPP  is a Global vs National power play.  Just exactly who is the Global entity playing here?  The USA government owned by corporate/financial interest wearing its global mantel or Corporate Global Governance that will strengthen its hold on the US government by weakening its representation of the the common good but strengthening and using its allied military power as an enforcement agency?

It is an intricate web of power and influence domain in which to make a decision.

The standard of judgment however is as clear as ever:  What is best for the common good?  The world is not so complicated that we can't see what that is no matter how the media agents of national and corporate interest want to distort it to protect the secret that we the people no longer own our country.

Corporate interests own us as a resource.  That is the secret they are good at keeping.

Is there a secret way for me to donate?

No, of course not.  Secrets are for thee, not for me.

Example of judicial rule captured by corporate interest:

"Handing banks a victory, the Supreme Court ruled that financially struggling homeowners who file for bankruptcy may not expect to have their second mortgage loans canceled, even if they owe more on their homes than the properties are worth."

Those same financial/corporate interests were, of course, not even brought into court for impartial justice much less subject to a Supreme Court decision.

This link also.

This today..good job Wikileaks!
  
Wikileaks Drops Another Damning Trove Of Secret Trade Deal Documents
 
So, what is the scam.  TPP made public with 60 days for review.  Then vote but TPA says Congress can make no amendments?  Send to the President to sign.  Which he will.  Then everything depends on him being swayed by public opinion to approve or disapprove?

Do I get that right???????????????????????

FBI Behind Mysterious Surveillance Aircraft Over US Cities

The subject line report of this blog entry is at this ABC News link.

Old news really.  Maybe it was a slow news day.  Maybe it is related to the recent vote on the Patriot Act to get eyeballs as a function of connection to a recent major issue.

It is secret stuff so there is no telling what is really being done with what equipment and for what purpose.  Therefore, speculation can run wild.  Speculation, however, supported by the capabilities of current technology.  Speculation supported by the tech specs of specific equipment available from various companies that can do visual and cell phone surveillance.

Cheap to fly light aircraft gathering all this surveillance data is probably the best cost to benefit thing a spy agency can do to collect massive information on citizens.  Big cities are the low hanging fruit.

"Aircraft surveillance has become an indispensable intelligence collection and investigative technique which serves as a force multiplier to the ground teams," the FBI said in 2009 when it asked Congress for $5.1 million for the program.

Duh!  That is where the people are!  30 Major cities in the USA can be a large part of the population!  The scope of the program might be limited by funds but it is so cheap to fly these aircraft it is probably limited by the objective to keep it all under the public awareness radar.

There must be something that makes small aircraft collection of data better than cell phone dumps obtained from companies with cell phone towers.  Photo surveillance however has no general alternative except google maps.

The whole thing is ripe for blue sky speculation.

I wrote a blog entry about what might be behind massive amounts of stolen cell US phones finding their way to south of the border through Florida.  It had names of business and locations and associated people in Florida connected to this that may have been government agents and agencies that "doctored" these phones prior to sending them south via criminal channels.  Once there they could be monitored for various purposes.  I never published the blog entry.  It may have been more accurate than I thought and therefore thought twice.

If that program existed and worked south of the border then why not in the USA?

Who knows?

There is some kind of "secret sauce" benefit to the government running this city overflight surveillance program that produces info not otherwise easily or legally obtainable?  If its genesis was south of the border, how many of the same type of aircraft are used by the DEA there?  Do they, did they fly circles around major cities there?

Interesting comments at this link about the FBI Cessna 182RG. 

Theories and speculation about all this are only limited by the clear blue sky and visibility is unlimited under those conditions!

From the link:
"Most flight patterns occurred in counter-clockwise orbits up to several miles wide and roughly one mile above the ground at slow speeds. A 2003 newsletter from the company FLIR Systems Inc., which makes camera technology such as seen on the planes, described flying slowly in left-handed patterns. "

Recently I looked at FLIR in connection to road traffic surveillance cameras.  A world wide company, it has a location in Portland.  They are perhaps the major supplier of this type of camera that is perhaps the camera installed at traffic intersections in my city for "traffic control" purposes that are supposedly "less costly" alternatives to the circular vehicle detectors installed at intersections.

Hmmm, really?  Less costly is claimed in the official explanation of the use of these "traffic control" cameras that supposedly regulate the traffic lights depending on what they observe.  However, if the lights are actually on constant timing regardless of traffic flow then they are not doing that are they? 

Hmmm.....what are they doing?  They are not there to record traffic violations.  That requires a physically different camera.

If FLIR Inc. is making the cameras installed on these aircraft the cameras with this ability do not appear as a product for sale at the FLIR site.   The best resolution of cameras at the site is 1080 x 1920.  I will have to research that.

FLIR Camera offerings are not impressive regarding high definition.  The most exciting thing offered is laser targeting.  FLIR is also the generic term for Forward Looking Infared Radar so it may not be a FLIR Inc. camera.