In The Deep State, author Mike Lofgren, whose 2011 commentary, „Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult,“ remains the most-read article at Truthout.org, connects the dots between apparently disparate aspects of our current dystopia. „The deep state,“ argues Lofgren is „the red thread“ linking the „ideological syndrome“ of McMansions; DC‘s culture of careerist strivers; the financialization, deindustrialization and ultimate mutation of the US economy into „a casino with a tilted wheel“; the burgeoning of government secrecy even as individual privacy has been demolished; the consistency and persistence of unpopular policies regardless of which party wins elections; militarized foreign policy, „defense“ and „security“ establishments that thrive on failure and enjoy essentially unlimited funding whatever nostrums about the national debt and the necessity for austerity are being peddled for every other function of government; the prevalence of incompetence and ineptitude in government response to crises; unequal justice, including impunity for the wealthy and corporations, a corrupt Supreme Court and a strikingly punitive criminal legal system for ordinary people; legislative gridlock; perpetual war; political extremism and other ruinous epiphenomena.

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Britain has been accused of waging a behind-the-scenes PR offensive aimed at neutering United Nations criticism of Bahrain for its human rights record, including the alleged use of torture by its security forces.

Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu has arrived in Iran to hold talks with senior Iranian officials on the latest regional developments and ways to promote defense and military cooperation.

„Our fighters have seized advanced surface-to-surface missiles from Akafeh military base in Najran province in Southern Saudi Arabia,“ senior Ansarullah commander Ebrahim al-Sa‘ada told FNA on Sunday.
Al-Sa‘ada declined to disclose the name of the US-made missiles and their launch system due to security concerns.

The U.S. Air Force says an unarmed Minuteman 3 missile has been launched from California’s central coast in the latest test of the intercontinental system.(…)
The Air Force says the missile carried a test re-entry vehicle that headed for a target area 4,200 miles away to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Time to remix Gang of Four. Everybody singin’: “I love a man in (al-Qaeda) uniform.”

I guess this isn‘t that surprising, but as the big legal fight heated up this week between Apple and the Justice Department over whether or not Apple can be forced to create a backdoor to let the FBI access the contents of Syed Farook‘s iPhone, all of the major Presidential candidates have weighed in… and they‘re all wrong. Donald Trump is getting the most attention. Starting earlier this week he kept saying that Apple should just do what the FBI wants, and then he kicked it up a notch this afternoon saying that everyone should boycott Apple until it gives in to the FBI. Apparently, Trump doesn‘t even have the first clue about the actual issue at stake, in terms of what a court can compel a company to do, and what it means for our overall security.

In California, the FBI is hoping to force Apple to write a hacking tool for it so it can access the contents of an iPhone. Further up the coast in Washington, the compelling force is moving in the opposite direction. The attorney representing a man swept up during the FBI‘s two-week stint as sysadmins for a child porn server has just had a motion granted that would force the agency to turn over details on the hacking tool it deployed.