REVENGE OF THE NERF NERDS: We’ve provided nuggets for several years about Joshua Schulte. He has made an incredible10 appearances in The Dead Drop, the first, back to 2018. The former CIA employee has been in jail awaiting trial, and then re-trial, on charges of leaking many terabytes of highly-sensitive Agency hacking tools and information – known at the Vault 7 and Vault 8 leaks. The loss, according to one former CIA official amounted to a “digital Pearl Harbor.” Now The New Yorker is out with a near book-length magazine story about the frat-boy hijinks and name calling that Schulte and ex-colleagues allegedly engaged in at CIA. The story recounts nerf gun battles and rubber band wars that escalated into fisticuffs. At one point, according to The New Yorker, Schulte filed a restraining order in a Virginia court against one of his co-workers, which is not the definition of a happy workplace. The allegation is that Schulte was so annoyed that he decided to leak mountains of the nation’s most secret stuff. The New Yorker story goes on and on – talking about Schulte’s arrest, allegations of contacting Wikileaks from prison – and much more mind-boggling stuff. The story says that Schulte’s own lawyer readily conceded in court that her client was “an a-hole,” but being one is not criminal, she said. He subsequently fired her (but not for that) and is now defending himself against the allegations. His first go around ended in a mistrial and his second is about to begin on June 13. We hope court security examines everyone entering the court to make sure they’re not carrying concealed nerf guns.
KREMLINOLOGY 201: Back in the old days, one way that amateur Kremlin-watchers would try to gauge who was up and who was down in the Soviet Union, was to assess the seating arrangements at Lenin’s Tomb for May Day parades. Things haven’t changed all that much – and there remains a fascination in trying to figure out who would be in line if anything happened to the current leader. The British tabloid Express got in the guessing game this week with a piece speculating that Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) might be a candidate to succeed Putin if Vlad were to take the fall for the botched invasion of Ukraine. We are not putting a lot of faith in Express’ opinion however, since they seem shocked that Bortnikov (accompanied by the head of the SVR) met with then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo in Washington in 2018. The event does not sound that shocking to us – perhaps the only surprising part was that the “meet and greet” story got leaked.
TOO SOON? Politico reports that West Point may soon remove a larger-than-life-size portrait of Robert E. Lee, decked out in his confederate uniform, that has been displayed in the U.S. Military Academy’s library for 70 years. In the 1850s, before abandoning the U.S. Army to lead the Confederate one – Lee had been the superintendent of West Point for three years. But the painting shows him in his rebel regalia after changing sides. Some observers argue that honoring a general who fought against the Union sends an unwelcome message. Others, like Senator Tom Cotton (R, AR) have said in the past, that West Point is “not just a military academy. It is, essentially a museum to the United States Army. And the cadets there need to learn about their history.” It’s unclear if that museum has any portraits of another historic American general who commanded defenses at West Point during the revolutionary war, General Benedict Arnold.
MAZEL TOV MAVERICK: The naval aviation blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” continues to do fantastically well at the box office. Most pundits figured it would do OK – but not this well – grossing more than a half billion dollars in its first ten days. And it looks like we (and just about everyone else) owe the filmmakers an apology. For several years, we have been reporting that Paramount Pictures had caved to Chinese pressure and removed a Taiwanese flag that was stitched on Tom Cruise’s flight jacket in the first Top Gun movie, which was made shortly after the Wright Brothers were around. The story was that in an effort to avoid bugging Beijing, Paramount pulled the patch. Well, now the movie is in theaters – and the patch has mysteriously reemerged. Gutsy move. Predictably, China reacted by making the movie non grata so it can’t be shown there. Of course, with their Covid lockdowns – there probably aren’t a lot of folks crowding into theaters anyway – but kudos to Paramount for letting Tom’s Taiwan flag fly.
NO TANKS FOR THE MEMORIES: This is a weird one. Well, most of our entries are kinda weird this week. But how’s this for chilling? A Chinese “online influencer,” Li Jiaqi, was trying to peddle a new product last week and was pushing a brand of British ice cream called “Viennetta.” Mr. Li showed it off by decorating the ice cream with some round cookies on the sides and a chocolate stick on top. Almost immediately, the live video disappeared from the Chinese internet. What happened? According to the Wall Street Journal, observers think that the design looked too much like a tank – and tanks are an unwelcome reminder of the Tiananmen Square massacre which happened thirty three years before, almost to the day. So Chinese censors apparently pulled the plug on the promotion. No word on whether he faced any other punishment or if Mr. Li got his just desserts.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
CAT TASTROPHY: U.S. Army officials in Hawaii are investigating reports that a group of soldiers who had recently been on a training mission to Indonesia, brought back blow dart guns. The soldiers are reported to have been trying out their souvenirs using Hawaiian feral cats as targets. According to Army Times, as you can imagine, local pet-friendly charities are not pleased. Our advice to GIs with blow guns: practice on trees not cats, and when preparing to shoot – don’t inhale.
WELL, YOU ASKED: The U.S. Air Force is nothing if not bold. Not just taking risks in the air, but in public opinion. We told you back in April, that the USAF Chief Information Security Officer came up with a new cartoon mascot and solicited public recommendations for names. Now, we hear that the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base has a new cartoon mascot and they too, crowd-sourced a name. The winner? Sticky McStickface. It seems the high-tech folks at Edwards came up with a low-tech mascot – a stick figure. Aim low, Air Force, Aim low.
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