Author Archive for: Jim White
About Jim White
Many years ago, Jim got a BA in Radiation Biophysics from the University of Kansas. He then got a PhD in Molecular Biology from UCLA and did postdoctoral research in yeast genetics at UC Berkeley and mouse retroviruses at Stanford. He joined biosys in Palo Alto, producing insect parasitic nematodes for pest control. In the early 1990’s, he moved to Gainesville, FL and founded a company that eventually became Entomos. He left the firm as it reorganized into Pasteuria Biosciences and chose not to found a new firm due a clash of values with venture capital investors, who generally lack all values. Upon leaving, he chose to be a stay at home dad, gentleman farmer, cook and horse wrangler. He discovered the online world through commenting at Glenn Greenwald’s blog in the Salon days and was involved in the briefly successful Chris Dodd move to block the bill to renew FISA. He then went on to blog at Firedoglake and served a brief stint as evening editor there. When the Emptywheel blog moved out of Firedoglake back to standalone status, Jim tagged along and blogged on anthrax, viruses, John Galt, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is now a mostly lapsed blogger looking for a work-around to the depressing realization that pointing out the details of government malfeasance and elite immunity has approximately zero effect.
Entries by Jim White
Retired Generals of Flynn-Associated IP3: “United States Mideast Strategy Is Resourcing Conflict”
/35 Comments/in Foreign Policy/by Jim WhiteThe retired generals of IP3, one of the companies that Michael Flynn advised and interacted with but did not disclose in his security clearance renewal, state that current US strategy in the Middle East is to “resource conflict”. That is a stunning admission and rare bit of self-awareness that could be used as a springboard to a better policy.
On July 2016 Panel, George Papadopoulos Used Same Cover Organization as Joseph Mifsud
/72 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, Mueller Probe/by Jim WhiteWhen George Papadopoulos appeared, along with several elected Republicans, on a panel for the American Jewish Committee in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention, he used a cover identity that is associated with one of the organizations also affiliated with Joseph Mifsud. Papadopoulos did not appear to claim association with the Trump campaign during the appearance.
It’s Not the Economy, Stupid
/17 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, Football, Racism, Republicans/by Jim WhiteDespite Bill Clinton’s famous catchphrase that he rode to two terms in the White House, and despite its echo in the 2016 campaign when Trump voters were described as acting out of “economic anxiety”, politics in the United States in my lifetime comes down, first and foremost, to racism. Yes, in Trump’s case and for […]
Waving the Constitution at Those Who Ignore It
/49 Comments/in 2016 Election, Bush Administration/by Jim WhiteIn real time Thursday night, I caught only the final few seconds of Khizer Khan’s powerful speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Through the rest of Thursday and Friday, more and more of the details of the speech flitted through my Twitter stream and then my heart was warmed when I saw photos […]
When Does a Random Taxi Driver Become a Lawful Combatant?
/8 Comments/in Drones, War/by Jim WhiteA couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post questioning the Obama Administration’s logic in killing the leader of the Afghan Taliban in a drone strike in Pakistan. It turns out that the Defense Department also employed some very suspect reasoning surrounding the drone strike. On June 1 (apologies for the delay, but as most […]
Mullah Mansour Drone Strike: Important Milestone or Radicalizing Event?
/11 Comments/in Drones, Terrorism, War/by Jim WhiteHow much more ironic could it be? More than 43 years after the last Americans evacuated Vietnam, ending our disastrous occupation there, the dateline reads Hanoi on President Barack Obama’s statement today on the US drone strike that killed Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour. Mansour was the head of Afghanistan’s Taliban but was in Pakistan at […]
Snickers Bars and Fudged ISIS Intelligence
/12 Comments/in Intelligence, War/by Jim WhiteYesterday, Shane Harris and Nancy Youssef informed us that there is now a second allegation of manipulation of intelligence on ISIS: U.S. military analysts told the nation’s top intelligence official that their reports on ISIS were skewed and manipulated by their bosses, The Daily Beast has learned. The result: an overly optimistic account of the […]
Reagan’s Republican Revolution and the Death of the American Dream
/10 Comments/in Elections--Historical, Ideas and Ideology/by Jim WhiteOn August 3, 1980, Ronald Reagan delivered a watershed speech (pdf) as the presidential campaign entered its final three months. The most often-quoted passage of the speech is his siren call to states’ rights: I believe in state’s rights; I believe in people doing as much as they can for themselves at the community level […]