#640 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday April 21)
Good morning,
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON DISPLAY
How, exactly, does a 21 year-old national guardsman with a concerning Internet presence manage to access highly confidential U.S. intelligence and then distribute it on the Internet?
My flippant answer would be, “he must have visited Mar-a-Lago recently and received it as a tee prize in a golf tournament.”
Seriously, the fact that such information is so readily available to someone like the recently arrested 21 year-old national guardsman demonstrates that our information gathering apparatus and the data and studies that are an outgrowth thereof are insufficiently protected. Something really must be done to put a lid on the availability of such information, the ease of its portability and duplication, and the people in whose hands it is placed.
But there is another concern here. This is yet one more example of someone who, as a committee of one, elects to ignore the oath they took, elects to commit theft, and elects to put information out there that puts people—American agents abroad and, in this case, Ukrainian freedom fighters, at grave risk. What’s so bizarre here is that this fellow isn’t working for a foreign government, nor is he trying to circulate information as some grand moral gesture because of a perceived ethical need to do so. Apparently, he did it to show his fellow internet gamers how cool he was.
Ever since the lionization of people like Julian Assange and others, together with the “disrupter mentality” of internet hackers and self-styled patriots, people strive to upend the system. Sometimes there would seem to be high moral justification for the dissemination of such information. The Pentagon Papers comes to mind as important to the national interest. But these situations are rare and the moral ground on which they stand seems indisputable.
Apparently, in this case, Airman Teixeira, the founder and leader of an on-line gaming group, decided that he wanted to show his fellow gamers what “real war looked like.” According to his fellow gamers, he wanted to impress people with his knowledge of warfare.
In our increasingly polarized and hostile political environment, fueled by the desire to garner headlines and disrupt, there no longer seems a purpose other than disruption. While Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden could claim some sort of moral authority for their theft and dissemination of information, this guy just wanted to impress his buddies.
Enough already. This is a crime. It’s not disruption. It’s not in the service of a moral agenda. He has imperiled our information-gathering abilities. He has endangered Ukrainian troops. He has put patriotic public servants at risk. If his goal was to impress, he certainly did that. And more.
DISRUPTING THE DISRUPTORS
Speaking of disruptors, we are entering an era when the disruptors are getting disrupted by the application of laws designed to create a fair marketplace, protect our citizens, and require disclosures of risk. Elizabeth Holmes not only misled investors but she put patients’ health at risk. AirBnB flaunted local laws governing public accommodations, denying municipalities their share of taxes and “disrupting” the playing field by putting their rentals at an unfair advantage to more traditional hotels and motels. In the meantime, people who raised money from the public while avoiding securities laws and committing fraud are now being shown that they, too, must adhere to the laws that further safety, fairness, and ethics. It’s about time.
WOULD RONALD REAGAN EVEN RECOGNIZE HIS PARTY TODAY?
As I listen to the endless cultural war drumbeat from the right, I can’t quite figure out how the Grand Old Party got here. Sure there has been disagreement on cultural issues but the party stood for so much more.
Fiscal discipline. The party of fiscal discipline is the party of spendthrifts, including massive tax giveaways.
Responsible government. The party of responsible government doesn’t want to fund the IRS sufficiently to capture more taxes from those who successfully avoid paying.
Reasonable gun control. The party of law and order refuses to conscience any reasonable constraints on who can own a gun, how many guns, what type of guns, or what type of ammunition. Ronald Reagan famously believed in gun control (so, ironically, did the NRA, before it was radicalized).
Support of democracy throughout the world. Some segments of the party of the cold war and spreading democracy throughout the world now is distancing itself from support of Ukraine. DiSantis seems to think this is a mere “territorial dispute.” Marjorie Taylor Green and other influential Republicans are alleging that supporting Ukraine is a mistake and are making this an election issue.
Have a great week,
Glenn
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