Let me just show you the tweet, sent out by Lawrence Tribe, retired Harvard Law School professor, unquestionably the greatest living constitutional scholar. This tweet led me to read the article that is the subject we address below:

OMG is not a phrase one would expect to hear from Professor Tribe, who is far more likely to speak in Latin, but it may be all he could utter.

It seems that, on a daily basis, Trump looks for new and increasingly dangerous ways, to intentionally weaken the United States of America. Hearing that the White House chief of cyber-security quit because “leadership is inviting an attack” should stop everyone’s heart as they whisper their last “OMG.” From computer security Chief Dimitrios Vistakis’ resignation letter this last week, via an article found in The Next Web:

They say that history repeats itself. Unfortunately given all of the changes I’ve seen in the past three months, I foresee the White House is posturing itself to be electronically compromised once again. Allowing for a large portion of institutional knowledge to concurrently walk right out the front door seems contrary to the best of interests of the mission and organization as a whole.

Now that sounds familiar. Downsize the entire department, allowing “institutional knowledge to walk right out the front door.” We saw that in the first months of the administration. Trump believed it to be extremely important that the government downsize the State Department to a shocking degree, losing all that “institutional knowledge.” Institutional knowledge being a short phrase meaning; “people that know how to do the assigned job, and may make noises if the job isn’t being done or trouble erupts.”

The article gives an overview of the problem:

The Office of the Chief Information Security Officer (OCISO), according to Vistakis, has been targeted by White House leadership for removal. He reports that leaders employed tactics such as “habitually being hostile” to OCISO members, withholding annual bonuses, and limiting workers’ job scopes in order to force them to quit.

“Force them to quit.”

The moment you start asking yourself what is to be gained by severely weakening White House cyber-security, you start to get very sick to the stomach, something that has hit us three to four times today already. One thing we know, whoever determines “White House Policy” with respect to cyber-security, isn’t prioritizing security:

Vistakis greatest complaint seems to be that White House officials are prioritizing the President’s comfort or convenience over actual computer security.

I am sorry, but I am not buying it. This is the president of the United States we are talking about, head of a budget that cannot be counted. There are ways to grant the president “comfort” and “convinience” without compromising computer security. Whatever Trump “wants” with respect to comfort and convenience can be done with ample security. These are the best tech people in the world with access to technology thirty years ahead of what’s available to the private sector. I believe that Trump (“the president”) doesn’t want security. He wants it leaky, and has a reason.

Anyone who disagrees, anyone saying that I am paranoid and seeing “Russians” or Saudis in every direction such that I’ve lost touch with reality, needs to explain to me how it is that the entire staff was downsized, treated like dogs, tossed out, and then blamed upon “ease and convenience.” Tell me why I am hearing this about the cyber-tech security section, but not the Secret Service, or from OMB.

No, take a step back, wrap an arm around Occam, and the two of you have your own conversation. Talk about the most likely rationale for the behavior you see.

Then both of you can back off, and grab some Tums, or just grab a couple beers and talk about the days when the world looked at the United States as the world’s leader, the best of the best. Now, we can’t go a single Saturday evening without reading the equivalent of a red flashing light, blinking ominously overhead; “Your country is being given away to pay off one man’s debt.”

Hand me one of those beers. Cheers.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

jmiciak@yahoo.com and on Twitter @MiciakZoom