Kompromat, Hybrid Warfare & Active Measures .

War is Hell. General Smedley Butler said it was "a racket." Clausewitz said:

"War is the continuation of politics by other means" [Brainy Quotes]

Mao Tse Dong said:

"Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed." [brainyquotes also]

So it is only natural that some international tyrants see politics as a continuation of war by other means. The term "hybrid warfare" is a reformulation of an old truism to adapt to our modern information age. It's not that Vladimir Putin is pursuing a brilliant new strategy. It's that he's systematically pursuing principles of human manipulation, psi-ops and information warfare that are battle tested ones. 'Hybrid warfare' is international politics pursued with the ruthlessness of warfare. It is an effort to return the world to the Pre-World War I "great game" where coalitions were always temporary, often secret, and regularly betrayed for private, separate interest. It recognizes that we live in a world of fragile balances and asymmetrical power. It's not feasible to use atom bombs on our enemies or it would have already been done more than twice. We live downwind of each other.

And the Russians are [still] heavily involved in subverting our system.

Free Competition

Henry George, in his 1891 Populist plank, included a well crafted plank that included a definition of where the distinction between a public set of goods and services can be managed by the "market," Left up to individual initiative, and where it shouldn't. The distinction rests on the question of "where free competition becomes impossible," and his examples; "telegraph, railroads, water and gas supplies", today would include all telecomms, internet, electrical power, etc... are as valid today as in his time (1890s). And they hing on the term "free competition."

How the Right Hacked our election - war on Voters

The primary mover in "The GOP's Stealth war on Voters" in the Rolling Stone, was a man named Kris Kobach. Back when it was first reported the original article was about voter purge software and how he was problematically purging valid voters from the voter rolls. This software played a major role in the 2016 election. Trump is rewarding Kris by naming him to head a Commission to make voter caging nationwide!

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/trump-executive-order-voter-fraud-mike-pence-kris-kobach

To Mom and all our loves

Like Snowflakes

They are with US
In our souls
Even when their bodies
Have melted away

Like Snowflakes
Each unique
In their reality
In their own special way

Like Snowflakes
Born where cold air meets
Wet and warm
We fall from the sky
One day to return.

Chris

How we miss them when they leave us
And the leaving is always too soon.
It leaves an empty chasm
In the caverns of our hearts

But the echoes of their presence
The drumbeat of who they were
Is heard in our own hearts beating
Strong and steady, warm and sure.

Their voices shout within us
"Here I am, by your side!"
A friendly voice in the morning
A smile reflecting in our edges
As we awake.

And we go on as companions
Bringing them alive
In reflections
As we talk among ourselves
And remember their lives.

No more need forgiving
No more anger or silly feuds
For our loved ones
We loved them
Each in a special way.

And they pass on
Knowing that is true
Peaceful images floating
Smiling on the winds.

Chris

Authority

There is a lot of "Business Stuff" [BS] in our public discourse at the present moment. Too many of our present day authorities are Grifters, Oligarchs, demagogues, charlatans and Pirates. If we listen to them uncritically we'll get steered over a cliff and eaten for dinner. This is true whether one is talking about religion, politics or economics. There is just too much money to be made by conning people [See Grifters], and at the same time, there are many folks who either believe the grifters or are so spun and gaslighted they pass on the nonsense. Yet we ourselves are not usually authorities. And if we set ourselves up as authorities, we set ourselves up to join the ranks of con artists and grifters. Worse our lies may be amplified by unreliable disciples and turned into myths and legends and join the corpus of fractional and misleading ideas that constitute our present messes in philosophy, religion and politics. How does one thread the needle of actual correctness, wisdom and find real authorities?

Oligarchs!

Oligarchy is from the greek ολίγοι ("Oligoi") + (άρχς) archy = rule/ruler --> Oligarchy; rule by the few.

Grifters!

A Grifter is someone who swindles people through deception or fraud. The term is a contraction of "Graft" and "drift" and refers to the need of classic con artists to leave town before they got caught. Graft meaning "to secure illicit gains in business or government through fraud and/or deception; by corruption."