Later today, all of America is in for a real treat. That is when the top U.S. Intelligence Agency officials (CIA< FBI, DNI) make their pilgrimage to the Center of the Known Universe, that is to say, the gloriously golden Trump Tower in New York, there to engage with the President-to-Be on the vexatious Russian Spy Hacking pas de deux (or, perhaps quatre is a better fit).
Trump has famously reiterated, ad nauseam, in the last two weeks, that his gut tells him the Russians are good guys and didn’t mess with America during the election. Rather, it was either a 14-year old (according to that reliable intelligence source, Julian Assange) or an otherwise unidentified 400-pound fat Guy in Jersey (Trump’s first choice of villain in October).
Trump Doesn’t Buy It on Russian Hacking version 1
Most reluctantly, Trump agreed to listen to the dolts running U.S. intelligence this week, even though they got Iraq WMDs all wrong, and Trump was right about the war, as far back as 2003. Anyway, once a non-Trumpite makes a mistake, they can never be trusted again to get anything else right, forever and ever. Trump should know, since he has never made a mistake anyone could pin on him in more than 70 years of trying, Now there’s a record of sustained success anyone could be proud of.
The stage is set. The drama is building. Trump is at the head of the table and directing the flow.
The ineradicable Trump Twits continued unabated on Wednesday and Thursday this week, intended to tenderize the public in advance, and prepare them to marvel at the genius of Trump that is to come. There was just a small glitch earlier, as Trump did say at the end of last week that he knows some real amazing, secret stuff, and the Press and public would be informed about it in due course, in fact, by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. An unnatural and uncharacteristic cone of silence enveloped the Trumpster in this regard, and nothing new (secret or otherwise) has emerged to enlighten the rest of us.
Trump Still Doesn’t Buy It on Russian Hacking version 2
Trump’s continuously updated performance on the complex web of issues related to U.S.-Russian relations, spy hacking on the election, U.S. intelligence capabilities, and Julian Assange as a credible source for Presidential citation, are so malignantly and monumentally stupid as to defy any attempt at rational explanation or interpretation.
Expect the overworked Trump cleanup team, Kellyanne, Sean, Hope, and the boys to go into maximum hyperdrive later Friday to plug the holes after tomorrows get together, whichever way Trump decides to slip and slide. Double down, blame someone else, or act like it didn’t happen.
About the only thing, the American public can count on is that there will be a love pat for Putin somewhere in the mix.
That’s the basic preliminary meeting set-up, in advance of the face-to-face this morning.
Danger, Will Robinson, Danger !!!
Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!!! (Robot B-9 Warning)
All of this reminds me of the iconic Irwin Allen television series on CBS from1965-1968 called, “Lost in Space”.* A central character was the B-9, Class M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot, nicknamed Robot. His closest human ally was the 9-year son, Will Robinson, who was part of the family stuck on the lost spaceship hurtling through space, on their weekly adventures. Whenever threats to the humans would appear, the Robot would wave his arms, fast flash his red-chest protector light, and yell Warning!, Warning! as an alarm. On one particularly memorable occasion, the Robot B-9 gave us the iconic phrase Danger Will Robinson Danger.
We have a similar anticipatory dilemma overnight before Trump gets an intelligence briefing, if that description is not an oxymoron. Trump has already spoken his mind (what there is of it) on the subject at east a dozen times already via his imperishable Twits.
The danger is this. A classified U.S. national Intelligence briefing prepared for the President is necessarily an adult conversation. Let me repeat that, it requires an adult conversation to proceed.
Trump is now increasingly famous for operating at an 8th grade intellectual level at the top, end reducing his mental horsepower to a 4th-5th grade level comfort zone for his Twitter policy contributions.
DNI James Clapper Tries to Explain It in a Calm Adult Voice (January 5, 2017)
On Thursday January 5 (yesterday) the Republican controlled U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee held a public hearing with the chiefs of U.S. intelligence agencies to get a few licks in before the I-men venture into the Trump den of enlightenment and political wisdom.
Our distinguished Director of National Intelligence, Retired Air Force General James Clapper, was one of the hearing witnesses. He made an opening statement, and had a dialogue and answered questions posed by committee members of both parties, which is one of the ways important public business has always been carried out in America, for the last 100 years or so.
Director Clapper’s testimony and answers are already available in transcript form for review by interested members of the public.
Therein, lies the seed of danger for tomorrow’s meeting with Trump.
I have processed Clapper’s remarks at the reliable scoring site, Readability Score.com
Readability Score: James Clapper’s Senate Testimoy (01/05/17)
The results are what one might expect for a serious adult conversation. The average grade level of Clapper’s testimony and remarks score at the 12th grade level, that of an education high-school senior. There are some longer sentences, some words with more than four syllables, and you need to pay some cranial attention to get the full meaning of what he is saying.
And here is the core of the Dangerous Dilemma. Trump doesn’t naturally or routinely function at a 12th grade level of the spoken word, as shown repetitively by Trump’s own voluminous corpus of words, interviews, and Twits. It is not definitively established at what mental level Trump can perform, for an extended period of time, at the new reality of his current age of 70, whatever his reputed college experience was, more than 50 years ago.
Is it possible to have a serious adult conversation on significant matters of national security, and communicate critical data effectively between two parties with such a large functional verbal performance gap?
We are likely to have more information on this burning topic later on Friday.
At least no military call-ups, armed forces redeployments, diplomatic realignments, or permanent intelligence organization reshuffling are in the offing today, or for at least the next two weeks.
After that, Trump may run relatively free over the range to do his intelligence thing, whether wisely informed or gut-guided.
In the meantime, the rest of us, can draw comfort and go back In time 50 years (via the magic of videotape) to 1965 and enjoy Will Robinson, the benign human protector Robot B-9, the sneaky Doctor Smith, blossoming sister Penny, Mom and Dad and the rest of the family on the spacecraft Jupiter 2, presented in full color for seasons 2 and 3.
Final Fillip for Thursday Night
As the Washington Post informs us:
Former CIA director R. James Woolsey Jr., a veteran of four presidential administrations, resigned Thursday from Trump’s transition team because of growing tensions over Trump’s vision for intelligence agencies.
Woolsey’s resignation as a Trump senior adviser comes amid frustrations over the incoming administration’s national security plans and Trump’s public comments undermining the intelligence community.
“Effective immediately, Ambassador Woolsey is no longer a Senior Advisor to President-Elect Trump or the Transition,” Jonathan Franks, a spokesman for Woolsey, said in a statement. “He wishes the President-Elect and his Administration great success in their time in office.”
People close to Woolsey said that he had been excluded in recent weeks from discussions on intelligence matters with Trump and retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the incoming White House national security adviser. They said Woolsey had grown increasingly uncomfortable lending his name and credibility to the transition team without being consulted. Woolsey was taken aback by this week’s reports that Trump is considering revamping the country’s intelligence framework, said these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly.
So, experienced former CIA Director Woolsey, veteran of four administrations, has left the building in sorrow and in haste. That leaves the bulk of Trump’s intelligence input in the hands of Flynn the Fired, and Trump’s rumbling gut.
I can’t make up my mind which of these sources of gastric irritation and upset is more heartburn inducing.
And this late breaking gem:
Senior officials in the Russian government celebrated Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton as a geopolitical win for Moscow, according to U.S. officials who said that American intelligence agencies intercepted communications in the aftermath of the election in which Russian officials congratulated themselves on the outcome.
The ebullient reaction among high-ranking Russian officials — including some who U.S. officials believe had knowledge of the country’s cyber campaign to interfere in the U.S. election — contributed to the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Moscow’s efforts were aimed at least in part at helping Trump win the White House.
Other key pieces of information gathered by U.S. spy agencies include the identification of “actors” involved in delivering stolen Democratic emails to the WikiLeaks website, and disparities in the levels of effort Russian intelligence entities devoted to penetrating and exploiting sensitive information stored on Democratic and Republican campaign networks.
Those and other data points are at the heart of an unprecedented intelligence report being circulated in Washington this week that details the evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and catalogues other cyber operations by Moscow against U.S. election systems over the past nine years.
The classified document, which officials said is over 50 pages, was delivered to President Obama on Thursday, and it is expected to be presented to Trump in New York on Friday by the nation’s top spy officials, including Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and CIA Director John Brennan.
Selected Additional Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/03/us/politics/trump-russian-hacking.html
From the Wikipedia entry on “Lost in Space”:
Lost in Space is an American science fiction television series created and produced by Irwin Allen. The series follows the adventures of a pioneering family of space colonists who struggle to survive in a strange and often hostile universe after their ship was sabotaged and thrown off course. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between 1965 and 1968. The first season was filmed in black and white, with the second and third seasons filmed in color.
Although the original concept (depicted in the unaired 1965 pilot episode) centered on the Robinson family, many later story lines focused primarily on Dr. Zachary Smith, played by Jonathan Harris. Smith and the Robot were both absent from the unaired pilot, as the addition of their characters was only decided upon once the series had been commissioned for production.
Originally written as an utterly evil (if careless) saboteur, Smith gradually became the troublesome, self-centered, incompetent character who provides the comic relief for the show and causes much of the conflict and the misadventures. In the unaired pilot, what caused the group to become lost in space was a chance encounter with a meteor storm, but in the first aired episode it was Smith’s unplanned presence on the ship that sends it off course into the meteor field, and his sabotage which causes the Robot to accelerate the ship into hyperdrive. Smith is thus the key to the story.
Cast of Irwin Allen’s TV Show “Lost in Space”, CBS (1965)
- Dr. John Robinson (Guy Williams): The expedition commander, a pilot, and the father of the Robinson children. He is an astrophysicist who also specializes in applied planetary geology.
- Dr. Maureen Robinson (June Lockhart): John’s biochemist wife. Her role in the series is often to prepare meals, tend the garden, and help with light construction while adding a voice of compassion. Her status as a doctor is mentioned only in the first episode and in the second-season episode “The Astral Traveler.”
- Major Don West (Mark Goddard): The military pilot of the Jupiter 2. He is Dr. Smith’s intemperate and intolerant adversary. His mutual romantic interest with Judy was not developed beyond the first few episodes. In the un-aired pilot, “Doctor Donald West” was a graduate student astrophysicist and expert in interplanetary geology, rather than a military man.
- Judy Robinson (Marta Kristen): The oldest child of the Robinsons. She is about 19 years old at the outset of the series. In the unaired pilot, she is described as having given up a promising career in musical theater to go with her family instead.
- Penny Robinson (Angela Cartwright): The middle child. A 13-year-old in the first season, she loves animals and classical music. Early in the series, she acquires a chimpanzee-like alien pet with pointy ears that made one sound, “Bloop”. While it is usually referred to by Will and Professor Robinson as the bloop, Penny named the creature “Debbie”. Most of Penny’s adventures have a fairy-tale quality, underscoring her innocence. She is described in the unaired pilot, “No Place To Hide”, as having an IQ of 147 and an interest in zoology.
- Will Robinson (Billy Mumy): The youngest child. A precocious 9-year-old in the first season, he is a child prodigy in electronics and computer technology. Often, he is a friend to Smith when no one else is. Will is also the member of the family closest to the Robot.
- Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris): Acting as Alpha Control’s flight surgeon in the first episode, he is later referred to as a Doctor of Intergalactic Environmental Psychology, expert in cybernetics, and an enemy agent (roles that are rarely mentioned after the initial episodes). His attempt to sabotage the mission strands him aboard the Jupiter 2 and results in it becoming lost.
- The Robot: The Robot is a Class M-3, Model B9, General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Robot, which had no given name. Although a machine, endowed with superhuman strength and futuristic weaponry, he often displayed human characteristics, such as laughter, sadness, and mockery, as well as singing and playing a guitar. The Robot was performed by Bob May in a prop costume built by Bob Stewart. The voice was dubbed by Dick Tufeld, who was also the series’ narrator. The Robot was designed by Robert Kinoshita, who was also the designer of the iconic Robby the Robot for the 1956 sci-fi movie Forbidden Planet. Robby appears in LIS #20 “War of the Robots”, and the first episode of season three; “Condemned of Space”.
During its three-season run, many actors made guest appearances, including familiar actors and/or actors who went on to become well-known. Among those appearing in Lost in Space episodes: Joe E. Tata, Kevin Hagen, Alan Hewitt, Warren Oates, Don Matheson, Kurt Russell, Ford Rainey, Wally Cox, Grant Sullivan, Norman Leavitt, Tommy Farrell, Mercedes McCambridge, Lyle Waggoner, Albert Salmi, Royal Dano, Strother Martin, Michael J. Pollard, Byron Morrow, Arte Johnson, Fritz Feld, John Carradine, Al Lewis, Hans Conried, Dennis Patrick, Michael Rennie among many others. Future Hill Street Blues stars, Daniel J. Travanti (billed as “Danny Travanty”) and Michael Conrad, made guest appearances on separate episodes. While Mark Goddard was playing Major West, he had a guest appearance as well. Jonathan Harris, although a permanent cast member, was listed in the opening credits as “Special Guest Star” of every episode of Lost in Space.
Watch Episode 1 (1965) of the series (in B&W) here.
The show, which only had 83 episodes in the original run, was nonetheless widely syndicated. I got a double helping in high school and some wasted afternoon hours in college. There was a feature movie in 1998 with Mimi Rogers and Heather Graham as the female cast stars. The show’s concept has enough drawing power, at a 50 year remove, that none other than TV taste arbiter Netflix, has commissioned a 10-epiisode original series for 2018, production in progress.
Robot B-9 and Will Robinson Face the Aliens
Before there was diminutive R2-D2, humanity’s favorite robot in Star Wars (1977), there was Robot B-9 in 1965 on “Lost in Space”, a full size 6’6”, strong, competent, full of sensors, and able to speak English in complete sentences. Robot B-9 also sang and played the guitar.
Watch Robot B-9 warn Will Robinson of threats ahead with his iconic phrase, known to millions of Americans.
Here is a short form video compilation honoring Robot B=9, including the John Williams theme music.
“Lost in Space” Title Sequence, Kinda Like PEOTUS Trump
The main theme of “Lost in Space” seems distinctly relevant to politics in America today, as our About to Be Next President Trump often seems adrift and lost in apace himself, idea wise. Robot B-9 had another iconic phrase to identify the illogical and irrational, “It does not compute”. Another phrase so applicable to our Leader-in-Chief.
B-9 had enough gravitational pull on America’s imagination that New York’s Hammacher Schlemmer store offered, for the very well heeled and discerning customer, a full size animatronic remote controlled replica of B-9 faithfully reproduced.
Robot B-9 Faithful Replica (Hammacher-Schlemmer)
This is the 6 1/2-foot, animatronic remote-controlled version of the B-9 Environmental Control Robot from the classic Lost In Space television series that ran from 1965 to 1968. Every detail of the original robot is faithfully reproduced from original archival molds, patterns and blueprints. It is made from fiberglass, acrylic, aluminum, and steel parts, including its rotating torso and radar head, flashing lights, animated ear sensors, and clawed arms. It can be operated using the included remote control, allowing you to move its torso left and right and activate the robot’s soil sampler (which comes out of its right tread housing and spins; the robot provides an audible environmental analysis thereafter). The robot has a 240-watt audio system, and speaks 511 pre-recorded phrases performed by Richard Tufeld, the original voice of the robot from the television series (including such familiar phrases as “Danger Will Robinson!”) Pulling the robot’s power pack causes it to utter “Aaghhhhhh…” just as it did in the TV series when being shut-down; plugging it back in prompts it to say “Who turned out the lights?” For Personalized Service on this item call 1-800-227-3528 and our Product Specialists will gladly answer all questions and provide additional service information. Please note that special conditions and guarantee limitations apply. 78″ H x 27″ W. (275 lbs.)