Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Focus and aperture


The left-of-center USA political campaign has a wide aperture which gives it great depth of field but a focus that often lets in too much light, and makes its images washed out.

The left is focused on opportunies for all citizens which include education, healthcare, homes, and jobs for all citizens; fair taxes that distribute our common wealth to create and maintain our infrastructure and protect us from foreign adversaries; wind down the military-industrial complex and allocate its monies and people to domestic projects. Avoid foreign entanglements and endless wars; we are not duty-bound to police the world. Yet sending troops and goods to central america and Venezuela for humanitarian relief could knock down a lot of the reasons people from there are seeking refuge. Bring troops and equipment back from Arab deserts to build the wall on our Southern border. Engage in practical immigration just as it is engraved on the statue of liberty. We are responsible for keeping at least our corner of the planet clean and fresh. Patriotic citizens IMHO.


The right-of-center campaign is intensely focused with a tight aperture which results in a very shallow depth-of-field, and often makes its images very dark.

The right is focused on pure capitalism, the art of the deal, and every man for himself. Its zealots say Trump, a man of unquestioned immorality by every measure,  is the second coming of Christ, that we were founded by white Christian men, and don't you forget it. Strict constitutionalists. Walls are good. Guns are good; big military is good; biggest military is thereby best; we are destined to rule the world.  "A well regulated militia" does not mean that you have to be trained, licensed, or qualified by a government-monitored militia.  We were, are, and will always be exceptional.  And Russia could be helpful(?).  

Use midrange aperture and moderate focus to get a clear crisp picture.

Wednesday, September 5, 2018



2016 Total Democrats -- Republicans ----- Ind Advantage: R
House 435 201 46% 234 54% 16%
Senate 100 44 44% 54 54% 1 23%
Senate committee chair 24 0% 24 100% -
State Governors 50 18 36% 38 76% 1 111%
State Legislature majority 100 30 30% 68 68% 127%
http://history.house.gov/Institution/Party-Divisions/Party-Divisions/
http://www.senate.gov/history/partydiv.htm
http://www.senate.gov/senators/leadership.htm
http://www.stateside.com/states/governors-legislatures-partisan-splits/
http://www.stateside.com/states/governors-legislatures-partisan-splits/






Hillary Clinton Speech to Goldman Sachs – 10.23.15


Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Installing cabinetry




Some assembly required...

President Donald J Trump
Vice President Arnold Schwarzenegger 
Department of State Andrew Breitbart
Department of the Treasury Donald J Trump
Department of Defense Robert Duvall
Department of Justice Trey Gowdy
Department of the Interior Bristol Palin
Department of Agriculture Meatloaf
Department of Commerce Mark Cuban
Department of Labor Donald Trump Jr
Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Oz
Department of Housing and Urban Development Ivanka Trump
Department of Transportation Donald J Trump
Department of Energy Sarah Palin
Department of Education Kelsey Grammar
Department of Veterans Affairs Gary Sinise
Department of Homeland Security Dick Cheney
Surgeon General Ben Carson
White House Chief of Staff Drew Carey
Environmental Protection Agency Kim Kardashian
Office of Management & Budget Carl Icahn
United States Trade Representative Martin Shkreli
United States Mission to the United Nations Ann Coulter
Council of Economic Advisers Ben Stein
Small Business Administration Donald J Trump
Supreme Court Justice Ted Cruz
Secretary of Guns Tom Selleck

Monday, April 25, 2016

Churchill ruckus busted

Churchill ruckus busted



Consider:
  1. NY Times in 2012:  Here’s what really happened. After Sept. 11, 2001, the British government lent President George W. Bush a bust of Winston Churchill for “the duration of the presidency.” The White House already had a similar bust, but Mr. Bush put the loaned one in the Oval Office. After Mr. Bush was re-elected in 2004, the British said he could extend the loan for his second term. He did.Following Mr. Obama’s inauguration, the usual redecoration took place. Various pieces of artwork and furniture were moved around. Loaned artwork was returned, including the Churchill bust, which went to the British Embassy. Meanwhile, Mr. Obama selected a bust of Abraham Lincoln for the Oval Office. As far as I can tell, no protest was filed by Her Majesty’s Emissary to the Former Colonies.But the other Churchill bust, the original one, remained in the White House. It’s outside the treaty room in the family quarters.
  2. I'd expect permanent busts of Eisenhower and FDR to be in 10 Downing Street. But the only American Art in the UK's Government Art Collection  are a portrait of Washington and two of the Battle  of Bunker's Hill... hardly glory moments in our relationship from their POV... displayed in the USA at the British Consulate-General in Boston Massachusetts.
  3. This distinctly racist and supremacist quote from Winston Churchill:
    I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.
  4. Another flattering quote from Mr. Churchill:
    You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
    Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu135259.html

Friday, February 26, 2016

Life without a backdoor



What I am hearing about cracking an iPhone is that an update can be applied to a locked and encrypted phone. As the hardware ID is (1) embedded in the phone, (2) not revealed to the user at any time, (3) is part of the encryption key, an update that forces this specific hardware id to set its unlock code to a specified value could enable entry, but to what end?

Apple turned over the perp's unencrypted cloud backup data from six week ago. The perp's notebook and PC likely have lots of info, and the phone service providers have call records. The only other info might be just pictures of cats and regret messages for missing dentist appointments.

The bigger issue is that the FBI has a dozen other locked phones. And then we start to slide. Many police departments have locked phones that are related to crimes that do not conjure terrorism. Doesn't every lawyer on either side of a case want to know what's on a phone? It gets 'slipperier'...

What do you do when when Putin hands you 50 phones to crack? Or the leaders of China or North Korea or Pakistan for fuzzy reasons that dissenters are fomenting revolt.

A pundit references Breitbart's piece on how Apple bends over for China. But what is described there is very different. It is unclear whether Apple  revealed anything about "spyware"... whatever that would be. And accepting that cloud backups are probably best kept on hardware within each nation is a good idea... we really do not want their user's data. And I assure you that no source code or architectural designs left Cupertino or ever will. None of this expresses cracking an individual user's device. Apple did not bend over for China IMHO, they just assured sovereign status. Trust me, the Chinese are not cracking locked devices.

So what does Apple do as the flood of cracking requests builds? Have a Board of Arbitration that decides whose request is worthy and legitimate? Once cracking gets out of the box entirely you might just drop a phone off at a kiosk in your local mall to get it cracked while you shop.

What single galvanizing event would be big enough to really push this over the top? Well, you gotta think that if the current iPhone technology were pervasive in 1962, Lee Harvey Oswald's cell phone data would be damned interesting.

Reflecting on this a bit, the pilots that flew the planes into the Wold Trade Center were so methodical in their planning that there really (AFAIK) isn't much more to know about them or their motives.