On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog

Crooks & Liars writes that Christopher Wray is Trump’s choice for Director of the FBI. Wray was in the Justice Department during the Shrubbery’s Hedgemony.

Wray is currently a private attorney at King & Spalding LLC. Among King & Spalding clients are the ‘trust’ Trump set up for his assets, and Rosneft, the state owned Russian oil monopoly.

For those playing at home, Techdirt dug up the numbers on Presidential appointments. Trump has 559 jobs that he can fill after they are confirmed by the Senate. He hasn’t made any nomination for 431 positions; he has picked someone for 25 positions, but hasn’t formally submitted them; and he has 63 positions awaiting confirmation. That means that he has filled only 40 positions, or just over 7% of those jobs that are open.

Who is so pathetic that they can’t find a friend who wants to be ambassador to the United Kingdom or Canada?

From the ABC: Arab nations Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Libya, Yemen cut diplomatic ties with Qatar

Six Arab nations have cut diplomatic ties to Qatar, further deepening the rift between Gulf Arab nations over that country’s support for Islamist groups.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all announced they would withdraw their diplomatic staff from Qatar, a gas-rich nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Following suit, one of Libya’s three rival governments has announced cutting diplomatic relations with Qatar, and Yemen’s Government has cut relations with the country.

From CNN: Trump appears to take credit for Gulf nations’ move against Qatar

CNN Exclusive: US suspects Russian hackers planted fake news behind Qatar crisis

Washington (CNN) US investigators believe Russian hackers breached Qatar’s state news agency and planted a fake news report that contributed to a crisis among the US’ closest Gulf allies, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.

The FBI recently sent a team of investigators to Doha to help the Qatari government investigate the alleged hacking incident, Qatari and US government officials say.

Intelligence gathered by the US security agencies indicates that Russian hackers were behind the intrusion first reported by the Qatari government two weeks ago, US officials say. Qatar hosts one of the largest US military bases in the region.

Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is a very large US base in the region and is the regional headquarters of the Central Command, as any competent ‘commander-in-chief’ would remember from his briefings, because a competent ‘commander-in-chief’ would have and pay attention to daily briefings.

The current occupant of the White House doesn’t seem concerned about how the 10K+ US personnel on that base are going to be supplied now that there is no fresh food coming in from Saudi Arabia. He also seems to be unaware of what will happen if the Qatari government tells the US to get the hell out because of his tweets.

Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election:

Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.

Cuffed: Govt contractor ‘used work PC to leak’ evidence of Russia’s US election hacking

A 25-year-old contractor has been charged with leaking NSA files that claim Russian intelligence hacked at least one maker of voting software used in 2016’s US elections.

Reality Leigh Winner, who held a top-secret clearance and worked at government tech provider Pluribus International, is accused of passing classified information to journalists. She was collared by the FBI on Saturday, June 3, at her home in Georgia, US, after which she apparently confessed everything to Uncle Sam’s agents. She was charged on Monday.

NPR has more background on Ms Winner, who was a linguist in the Air Force before being hired by the contractor and stationed in Maryland. That means she was assigned to NSA and was an R 203X1, just like I was, but different languages.

About her name – Texans do this to their little girls, or add -lene to the end of their father’s name, etc. One of the worst examples was what James Stephen “Big Jim” Hogg did to his daughter, Ima Hogg.

Everything in this report has been talked about for months, so why is it classified. Once it was openly discussed, what was the point of having it classified. Hacking is a criminal offense, the House & Senate have investigations, and there is an independent prosecutor. Why are we wasting money on hiding something that was being openly discussed long ago?

From the BBC: Trump renews feud with London mayor over terror attack

US President Donald Trump has again lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan over his assurances to Londoners following a terror attack.

Mr Khan had said people should not be alarmed by an increased police presence on the streets.

But Mr Trump on Sunday accused him of playing down the threat and on Monday said the mayor’s clarification of his statement was a “pathetic excuse”.

Trump is angry apparently because the Londoners aren’t hiding in their cellars, like he would. He can’t understand how they will continue about their business, just like they did during the Blitz and when the IRA was blowing things up.

The mayor of London is a Muslim and has spoken out against Trump’s attempts at imposing a Muslim travel ban. He has enough problems without wasting time responding to tweets from twits.

Instead of bothering other governments Trump needs to start filling jobs in the US emergency response agencies.

US can fulfill pledges, says Michael Bloomberg:

The US can still meet its commitments to fight climate change, despite President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris accord, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said.

He argued this could be done “through partnerships among cities, states and businesses”, saying Americans would not let Washington stand in their way.

Mr Bloomberg is the UN special envoy for cities and climate change.

Bloomberg’s foundation is going to cover the $15 million US commitment to funding the UN program created by the Paris agreement and he is already building a coalition of cities, states and businesses to honor the reduction pledges that the US made.

Digby noted The Weather Channel’s frontpage when they reported Trump’s withdrawal. They didn’t hold back any of the facts that support global climate change and buried him under a landslide of facts and charts. It does no good because he doesn’t read and only watches Fox News.

The BBC reporting live:Police confirm more than one fatality after a terror attack on London Bridge and Borough Market.

There were two seemingly coordinated incidents. In the first on London Bridge, a van left the roadway to attempt to run down pedestrians, and then people exited the vehicle and began slashing bystanders.

In the Borough Market attack people report hearing 3 explosions in about 5 minutes and multiple shoot outs between police and the perpetrators.

The reports are not verified at this time, and it will be tomorrow at the earliest before what happened will really be understood.

Trump pulls US out of 2015 Paris climate accord. He says he’s going to negotiate a “better deal”. Germany, France, and Italy state flatly that there is no reopening of negotiations – you’re in or you’re out.

As flat denials aren’t working, Putin says Patriotic Russians may be involved in hacking:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested “patriotic” Russian citizens might be engaged in hacking.

Such individuals might be joining “the justified fight against those speaking ill of Russia,” he said.

Like “artists” who get up and paint all day, he added, hackers spend their day attacking adversaries, he added.

Mr Putin also denied once again that his administration hacked the US election last year.

So, his people tell him that the hacking can and/or has been traced back to Russia, so he shifts to a back-up excuse.

June 1^st:

The official start of the hurricane season.

Events:
1495 – Friar John Cor records the first known batch of Scotch whisky.
1660 – Mary Dyer is hanged in Boston, Massachusetts, for defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is considered by some to be the last religious martyr in what would become the United States.
1890 – The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machine to count census returns.
1967 – The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is released.
1980 – The Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.

Births:
1563 – Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman and spymaster (d. 1612)
1780 – Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian general (d. 1831)
1804 – Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (d. 1857)

For some reason I didn’t make the list.

Trump’s use of private cellphone raises security concerns:

U.S. President Donald Trump has been handing out his cellphone number to world leaders and urging them to call him directly, an unusual invitation that breaks diplomatic protocol and is raising concerns about the security and secrecy of the U.S. commander in chief’s communications.

Trump has urged leaders of Canada and Mexico to reach him on his cellphone, according to former and current U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the practice. Of the two, only Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken advantage of the offer so far, the officials said.

Oh, yes, let’s try to set up secret backdoor communications with the Russians, but put the rest of the world on the modern version of the ‘party line’. At least he doesn’t want a private e-mail server 😈

The UK has its own problems – Ex-Ukip politician calls for death penalty for suicide bombers:

A former Ukip politician has demanded the death penalty be introduced – for suicide bombers.

Janice Atkinson, who stood for Ukip in Folkstone and Hythe before becoming an independent politician, made the comments following the Manchester terror attack which claimed 22 lives on Monday night.

Someone should give Ms Atkinson the OED definition of “suicide”.

Two weeks ago Theresa May and the Conservative Party were looking at a landslide win in the UK elections but the 31 May YouGov seat projection shows a drop to less than a majority. Apparently after reading what the Tories were planning on doing, people didn’t want to vote for them anymore.

Governments using back channels is not unusual. Governments who don’t have formal diplomatic ties will use back channels to deal with common problems. They are also useful for dealing with difficult negotiations that neither side wants their own people to know about until a possible agreement has been reached that can be officially discussed by the leaders of of the governments involved.

Back channels can be as simple as two people meeting in a park and feeding ducks while exchanging information designed to avoid an over-reaction to some future act, but most take the form of lower ranking diplomatic personnel for the governments involved holding meetings in a neutral country.

If all of that is true, why are people going ballistic over the activities of Jared Kushner? The obvious point is that back channels are the province of governments, and Kushner had no standing other than private citizen when he was asking for the Russian embassy to establish an encrypted direct line to the Kremlin. The counterintelligence guys got really upset when the meetings were not disclosed on the appropriate forms by Kushner, and then they found out what the unreported meetings were all about.

If Kushner had waited until he was actually part of the government, people might have been annoyed, but it would have been legal. Private citizens don’t get to make foreign policy under US law.

In order to generate “local excitement” [sell stuff] the chamber of commerce is once again annoying people with the Billy Bowlegs Festival. This year the unavoidable part runs from Friday, June 2^nd and finishes up on Monday. The really obnoxious parade on Monday screws up traffic and sends a lot of noisy people through my neighborhood.

Almost as bad as the parade traffic jam are the Friday fireworks. I know a lot of people enjoy fireworks, but they probably have not seen what loud noises and flashes of light can do to people and aircraft – I am definitely not a fan.

With luck it will rain the rest of the week… 😈

This is a picture from one of the columbariums at the Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place of many of those who served the United States since the middle of the 19^th century.

That is my Father’s marker. He didn’t know those located around his marker, but they all shared service to their country as part of their life.

The country continues to ask for service and people still respond to that call. As you think about the sacrifices represented by Arlington and other cemeteries, ask yourself if you have done what you could to prevent misuse of the willingness of some to serve.

It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

From the BBC – Merkel: Europe ‘can no longer rely on allies’ after Trump and Brexit

Europe can no longer “completely depend” on the US and UK following the election of President Trump and Brexit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says.

Mrs Merkel said she wanted friendly relations with both countries as well as Russia but Europe now had to “fight for its own destiny”.

Her comments come after Mr Trump refused to re-commit to the 2015 Paris climate deal at the G7 summit.

Mrs Merkel is on the campaign trail ahead of elections in September.

“The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I’ve experienced that in the last few days,” Mrs Merkel told a crowd at an election rally in Munich, southern Germany.

You can’t take him anywhere without him causing a scene. He doesn’t understand what NATO is, and keeps talking about members owing the US money. He doesn’t believe what his eyes show him about climate change in Mar-a-Lago and New York City. He is a schmuck who is making enemies wherever he goes.

He’s not a suspect, but Jared Kushner Under Scrutiny in Russia Probe, Officials Say. He is “a person of interest” who is “helping the authorities with their inquiries” because he is a good citizen.

He suffers from the same problem as his father-in-law, too many failed project to attract investment from domestic sources, so they reach out for “alternate sources of financing.