 |
| There is no joy in Mudville. |
As the week ended, new waves of emails came crashing upon the beaches of the Internet: another Wikileaks dump, of correspondence found inside John Podesta's inbox. CNN had been claiming the reading of the Wikileaks emails was actually illegal, and that they operated under different conditions, as journalists. Besides making clear the DNC's strategic and calculated navigation of the primary process, the Podesta emails reveal the internal workings of a political campaign: from the daily press briefings to the logistics of departures and arrivals to pleas for attention from voters, special interest groups, institutions, and organizations. The implication of these emails-- multiple troves of documents, each including thousands of files-- is unprecedented. Never before has a political campaign had the means to communicate with each other so directly, so clearly-- and never before has a citizenry been afforded such access. Imagine such a document dump during the time of the American Revolution: one must imagine first that such documentation was even maintained, let alone what the people in the streets would do with such information. We, however, who are still learning how best to Tweet and represent ourselves inside of the text boxes of Facebook, may still be most likely to fall for whatever story-cover produced by the mainstream media.
I found out in a conversation with my father that, as the week ended, Rush Limbaugh and I agreed on something: FBI Director Jim Comey's letter, which basically said a lot of legalistic nothing regarding the ongoing investigation of Hillary's email practices and security, may have been an intentional distraction from another round of Wikileaks. Focusing the American public's attention back to the mild reprimand of Hillary Clinton that emerged from within the government itself is surely preferable to having nothing for the people to focus on over the weekend: the less attention, and thus web traffic, the better. Rush Limbaugh's seeing this conspiracy for different reasons than mine-- he wants to see a Trump presidency, and is willing . I am in favor of neither candidate, and felt like an anarchist as I cast my absentee ballot for Jill Stein, a candidate I do not agree with fully but believe isn't part of The Machine, as it were.
 |
| Image by Kim Dotcom (seen here in green). |
John Kass's Saturday morning editorial in the Chicago Tribune tried to turn the tide on the Presidential campaign of 2016; as I write this, talking heads across the networks are offering their Sunday-morning contextualization of his clear demands. "If ruling Democrats hold themselves to the high moral standards they impose on the people they govern, they would follow a simple process," wrote Kass,
"they would demand that Mrs. Clinton step down, immediately, and let her vice presidential nominee, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, stand in her place."
Under the weight of a network of her own making, Clinton's ability to govern has been irreparably damaged, forever tainted by the means of her questionable rise to power. Kass begins with a reasonable argument: were she to win, the potential for us to endure another "long national nightmare" is too great to put up with any longer. The "[...] during this presidential campaign, Americans were confronted with a two-tiered system of federal justice: one for standards for the Clintons and one for the peasants." Kass doesn't have to go any farther than to make his claim about "federal justice"-- but anyone with a Facebook account knows the landscape of right and wrong and good and bad in this country has become far more complicated than pitting Cruella DeVille against the well-being of some adorable puppies. Kass knows Hillary's 'getting-away-with-it' cannot be undone or unmuted, but could prove to be a scourge on our democracy, long after the election is over and a winner is declared.
If there is A Machine at work, this situation could not have been a part of their plan. The Podesta emails, brought to us by Wikileaks, reveal the internal workings of the Clinton campaign-- with far more nuance and detail than anyone may have expected (these emails include communication related to HRC's failed bid for the Presidency in 2008). So much of the email dump is banal, the kind of emails we all accumulate: documentation of our situational awareness, 'FYI' messages from institutions and organizations, and endless back-and-forth exchanges regarding logistics. These emails have not yet produced information that would end Hillary's campaign, and few are willing to speak about the true motivations of Julian Assange have yet to be uncovered (Russian operative or unprincipled computer whiz?). Snowden, Anonymous, and other shadowy entities have shied away from giving context to the most recent bouts of Wikileaks. The most there is to go on is this Twitter exchange in late July 2016, between Snowden and Assange.
The difference between the philosophies of these two men is important to understanding our modern information warfare: one claims to believe "modest curation" of the release of illegally-accessed information to be critical to its maximum impact, while the other characterizes "curation" as "censorship." Before this Twitter tussle, Snowden appeared in the April 2016 issue of Reason magazine, where he drew distinctions between himself and Assange ("I am not anti-secrecy. I am pro-accountability." as cited by Feeney).
In the spirit of Snowden's distinction, I browsed the latest Wikileaks dump last night, and found the server processing search requests to be reliably unavailable (how many other thousands of people were wading through this, I wondered?). There were over seven pages to visit; each page held a few dozen emails, sorted by subject line, sender, and recipients. I was struck by one email-- copied below-- from early November, 2008. With the confidence of a job well done (or as well as possible) and with the promise of continued work within the Executive Branch of the government, Hillary's team communicates about a list of "proposed briefings to be requested"-- that is, the global and domestic situations on which she needed more information. Some of the places and countries on these lists are familiar headlines; this list, written in the blissful early winter of 2008, when the nation was busy celebrating the election of our first black President, and all seemed right with the world (within weeks, he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize). This email represents the beginning of an era in the United States' foreign policy: on military intervention, the expansion or moderation of trade, and our increased collaboration with other countries, to fight global terrorism. ISIS, domestic gun violence and mass shootings, racial violence and law enforcement's abuse of power, climate change-- these do not appear on this list (to my knowledge; there are many mysterious acronyms). What does appear, at the top of both lists, are the United States' ongoing conflicts: where boots may or may not have been on the ground at the time (2008), but where American lives may have been lost in the eight years that have followed. It is the context of these lists that adds an unescapable chill (I liberally added line breaks, but changed not a word): the non-governmental email addresses (AOL; GMail) are troubling, but not as much as the communication's final line. Attached automatically, it brands the entire transmission to be part of a larger, dark toolbar-- an application on someone's desktop, just like yours.
###
Re: Proposed Briefings to be Requested
From:ricesusane@aol.com To: mlippert@barackobama.com, dmcdonough@barackobama.com, djsberg@gmail.com, tblinken@barackobama.com, john.podesta@gmail.com, john.podesta@ptt.gov
The difference between the philosophies of these two men is important to understanding our modern information warfare: one claims to believe "modest curation" of the release of illegally-accessed information to be critical to its maximum impact, while the other characterizes "curation" as "censorship." Before this Twitter tussle, Snowden appeared in the April 2016 issue of Reason magazine, where he drew distinctions between himself and Assange ("I am not anti-secrecy. I am pro-accountability." as cited by Feeney).
In the spirit of Snowden's distinction, I browsed the latest Wikileaks dump last night, and found the server processing search requests to be reliably unavailable (how many other thousands of people were wading through this, I wondered?). There were over seven pages to visit; each page held a few dozen emails, sorted by subject line, sender, and recipients. I was struck by one email-- copied below-- from early November, 2008. With the confidence of a job well done (or as well as possible) and with the promise of continued work within the Executive Branch of the government, Hillary's team communicates about a list of "proposed briefings to be requested"-- that is, the global and domestic situations on which she needed more information. Some of the places and countries on these lists are familiar headlines; this list, written in the blissful early winter of 2008, when the nation was busy celebrating the election of our first black President, and all seemed right with the world (within weeks, he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize). This email represents the beginning of an era in the United States' foreign policy: on military intervention, the expansion or moderation of trade, and our increased collaboration with other countries, to fight global terrorism. ISIS, domestic gun violence and mass shootings, racial violence and law enforcement's abuse of power, climate change-- these do not appear on this list (to my knowledge; there are many mysterious acronyms). What does appear, at the top of both lists, are the United States' ongoing conflicts: where boots may or may not have been on the ground at the time (2008), but where American lives may have been lost in the eight years that have followed. It is the context of these lists that adds an unescapable chill (I liberally added line breaks, but changed not a word): the non-governmental email addresses (AOL; GMail) are troubling, but not as much as the communication's final line. Attached automatically, it brands the entire transmission to be part of a larger, dark toolbar-- an application on someone's desktop, just like yours.
###
Re: Proposed Briefings to be Requested
From:ricesusane@aol.com To: mlippert@barackobama.com, dmcdonough@barackobama.com, djsberg@gmail.com, tblinken@barackobama.com, john.podesta@gmail.com, john.podesta@ptt.gov
Date: 2008-11-07 18:29
Subject: Re: Proposed Briefings to be Requested
yes, we envisioned that as part of ongoing operations.? Would you separate it out? Come to think of it, we should also ask for AFRICOM brief.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Lippert <mlippert@barackobama.com>
To: Ricesusane@aol.com;
Denis McDonough <dmcdonough@barackobama.com>;
djsberg@gmail.com;
Antony (Tony) Blinken <tblinken@barackobama.com>;
yes, we envisioned that as part of ongoing operations.? Would you separate it out? Come to think of it, we should also ask for AFRICOM brief.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Lippert <mlippert@barackobama.com>
To: Ricesusane@aol.com;
Denis McDonough <dmcdonough@barackobama.com>;
djsberg@gmail.com;
Antony (Tony) Blinken <tblinken@barackobama.com>;
john.podesta@gmail.com;
john.podesta@ptt.gov
Sent: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 3:19 pm
Subject: Re: Proposed Briefings to be Requested
john.podesta@ptt.gov
Sent: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 3:19 pm
Subject: Re: Proposed Briefings to be Requested
Just skimming - I'd throw CTJF-HOA brief into the mix for DOD.
From: ricesusane@aol.com
To: Denis McDonough; Mark Lippert; djsberg@gmail.com ; Antony (Tony) Blinken; john.podesta@gmail.com ; john.podesta@ptt.gov
Sent: Fri Nov 07 14:17:07 2008
Subject: Proposed Briefings to be Requested
Below is the list of briefings Jim and I propose we request of the IC and others for senior transition national security staff over the coming weeks.?? A subset of these TBD could subsequently be requested for POTUS-E and VPOTUS-E.? We leave it to others to decide if it?is desirable and appropriate for POTUS-E to request any or all of these in his meeting?with Bush on Monday). We welcome your thoughts.
IC
Iraq
Iran
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Russia
China
MEPP and region
Mexico
Counter-narcotics and Crime
North Korea
Al Qaeda and global CT threat
Global WMD Threat (bio, chem and nuclear)
Cybersecurity and CI
IRDPA briefs
NSC Policy briefings on:
Iraq
Iran
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Russia
China
MEPP and region
North Korea
Al Qaeda and global CT threat
Global WMD Threat (bio, chem and nuclear)
Cybersecurity
Mexico
Counter-narcotics and Crime
Syria
Lebanon
Egypt
Saudi Arabia
Darfur
Zimbabwe
DRC
Weak States strategy
OMB Budget briefing
DOD
Ongoing Operations
Iraq
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Nuclear safety and security
Readiness
Homeland Security Infrastructure
security
Border security
Disease/pandemic preparedness
First respone/disaster preparedness
Crisis Response plans/processes and continuity in government
Instant access to the latest & most popular FREE games while you browse with the Games Toolbar - Download Now!
###
Feeney, M. (April 2016). "Snowden makes distinction..." Reason [magazine]. Retrieved from http://reason.com/blog/2014/04/09/snowden-makes-distinction-between-himsel
Kass, J. (29 Oct. 2016). "Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside." Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-hillary-clinton-emails-kass-1030-20161028-column.html
Wikileaks. (2016). "Re: Proposed briefings to be requested." Podesta Emails. Retrieved from https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/1299
From: ricesusane@aol.com
To: Denis McDonough; Mark Lippert; djsberg@gmail.com ; Antony (Tony) Blinken; john.podesta@gmail.com ; john.podesta@ptt.gov
Sent: Fri Nov 07 14:17:07 2008
Subject: Proposed Briefings to be Requested
Below is the list of briefings Jim and I propose we request of the IC and others for senior transition national security staff over the coming weeks.?? A subset of these TBD could subsequently be requested for POTUS-E and VPOTUS-E.? We leave it to others to decide if it?is desirable and appropriate for POTUS-E to request any or all of these in his meeting?with Bush on Monday). We welcome your thoughts.
IC
Iraq
Iran
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Russia
China
MEPP and region
Mexico
Counter-narcotics and Crime
North Korea
Al Qaeda and global CT threat
Global WMD Threat (bio, chem and nuclear)
Cybersecurity and CI
IRDPA briefs
NSC Policy briefings on:
Iraq
Iran
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Russia
China
MEPP and region
North Korea
Al Qaeda and global CT threat
Global WMD Threat (bio, chem and nuclear)
Cybersecurity
Mexico
Counter-narcotics and Crime
Syria
Lebanon
Egypt
Saudi Arabia
Darfur
Zimbabwe
DRC
Weak States strategy
OMB Budget briefing
DOD
Ongoing Operations
Iraq
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Nuclear safety and security
Readiness
Homeland Security Infrastructure
security
Border security
Disease/pandemic preparedness
First respone/disaster preparedness
Crisis Response plans/processes and continuity in government
Instant access to the latest & most popular FREE games while you browse with the Games Toolbar - Download Now!
###
Feeney, M. (April 2016). "Snowden makes distinction..." Reason [magazine]. Retrieved from http://reason.com/blog/2014/04/09/snowden-makes-distinction-between-himsel
Kass, J. (29 Oct. 2016). "Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside." Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-hillary-clinton-emails-kass-1030-20161028-column.html
Wikileaks. (2016). "Re: Proposed briefings to be requested." Podesta Emails. Retrieved from https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/1299
