by Barry Hastings

“Hey, Buddy! Seen any drones?”

“Yep. Seen a couple of ’em.”

“Big one, Nr. 2 shot; smaller ‘un, Nr. 4.”

Seriously speaking, though, these remote-controlled accidents seeking a place to happen are a deep concern to incoming and outgoing commercial aircraft crews, to aircraft operating in support of firefighters in western states, for those concerned with privacy rights, and to national security types for all the obvious reasons.

They have to worry about coordinated attacks (several attacks on several types of infrastructure/several attackers to one target/random variations. It’s a very big headache.

For example, there have been 500 recent drone ‘incidents, 62 of them near federal facilities. There were four incidents in “a couple of days,” near in-flight commercial airliners. A big problem with these things (in addition to nefarious applications of crooks, spooks and nitwits), they could (and have been) equipped with hacking systems, and can fly from site to site, disrupting multiple systems or stealing information.

If Will and Ariel Durant still lived, they’d have to add another volume to their massive (11 vol.) Story of Civilization, entitled, The Age of Surveillance. (I sold my shotgun to dodge temptation should I ever spot one.)

“Wael, naow,” as the military expert and United States Senator from South Carolina (or, the Birthplace of Liberty), Lindsey Graham wouldn’t say…

“The Great Republican Dog and Phoney Show is now under way, underwritten by Kooks ‘n Hints (git it?). And so far, the Ringmeister, none other than the Angel, Gabrielle, come to clean out the nests of vipers he’s always before been such a big, visible part of.”

This guy blows a big horn, but what he’s collected to date is very near his best. He’s already offended most of the big GOP money (excepting his).

It sure ain’t like the good old days, when one family could gather resources enough through personal wealth, added to connections with mafiosos like the Giancanas, the Buffalinos, the Hoffas, and to big $$ (Kooks ‘n Hints) across business, manufacturing (particularly defense related), to do it on their own. Hey, they’re all people… ain’t they? The truth, my friends, is it’s ever been this way, and pre-dates even colonization of this beautiful, pristine land we a.) stole, and b.) ravaged.

It’s the “800-pound Gorilla of capitalism” the last good (and I’m rapidly closing on great) Republican President, Dwight David Eisenhower, warned us of in his Farewell to the Nation letter of 1961. I wish he’d made it a televised speech, and every kid would have to read it, periodically, and for life. The pertinent paragraph is worth quoting. . . , and well worth remembering.

“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial (add intelligence) complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

Yes, I added emphasis to the paragraph’s most critical sentence, and hope you will, as well. At time of Ike’s writing in ’61, ‘Intel’ was not the ever-probing behemoth it’s become these days (though it was home to many crackpots and screwballs — some dangerous to themselves and others).

I know I’m not alone in believing “critical mass” was reached when these people covered-up consistent failure in Vietnam, and got away with it ’til we were driven out. Nobody paid for the wasting of nearly 60,000 soldiers, or loss of national ‘standing. I’d like to see comparisons of costs of crappy intel then and now.

My own feeling is we’re very, very close to another major intel failure, and in ensuing investigation(s), we’ll find many examples of missed boats. Much of it will lie on failed intel across many governmental divisions and departments, military and civilian. Problem is, ya can’t get rid of any of these folks, they’re crazy-glued to the inside track – they move ’em around, up a level, down a notch, and, sooner or later, they pop-up where you don’t see much of ’em for a while, but they’re still collecting those top-level salaries and benefits.

A failed CIA director now makes the “News and talk” circuits, even predicts attack here over the Fourth of July holiday. The warning came as I watched the weekday A.M. Charley Rose News, and was delivered with the all-knowing, near-smiling, self-assured face these folks always wear.

The (former) CIA runt, Petraeous, was cut from the same cloth. He expected to be running for the presidency, right now. Had he not been caught giving his sweetie/biographer classified info (then told a judge he had possession, while she still had the stuff), he’d be #18 in “The Great Republican Dog and Phoney Show.”

Would he have been the “complex” candidate? How can we ever know? Maybe. Petraeous would make a great project for some industrious young investigative writer/reporter.