Great Read/S

++I am 2/3rds through Brian Krebs' Spam Nation:The Inside Story of Cybercrime--from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door. Krebs was the computer security writer for the Imperial Post until his stories demanded too many lawyers verifying his copy. He has gone on to create his own blog Krebs on security.com 

++You could just read this as an account of a new form of global capitalism, a crime story or how hackers turned their trade into money. All those Viagra ads I get, actually deliver the drugs and don't rip off your credit cards. Krebs interviews customers of the virtual pharmacies and finds most are happy with the service. Why such a large American market? Almost all these drugs are cheaper overseas. Those "Canadian" pharmacies really ship from India or Hong Kong. The spam inserted in you computer is to generate more spam. 

++Krebs fascinates with stories how the cybercriminals fund Russian sports teams as a way to pay off law enforcement and finagle their way into the Russian legal system to finance clerks to stall their investigations. 

++When the Obama Administration started taking cybercrime seriously the man put in charge was none other than the EBOLA Tsar, a fact never mentioned in the press. He had previously been involved in cleaning up the virtual pharmacies.

++Krebs traces the origins of cybercrime back to Belarus and documents how they shut down all of Estonia's IT infrastructure, including banks, because they were attacking a rival cybercriminal family. From Belarus down to the Ukraine and some upwards to Russia.

++Krebs flies to Moscow to meet one head of a cybersyndicate and finds he is the same bullshitter in person as he was on the phone.

++The amount of documentation Krebs had to comb through is mind-numbing and the whole story of malware and the Internet Crime Forums, where junior hackers can get a start is beyond me and is probably only accessible to a younger generation.

++Spam Nation is accessible and a riveting read.

++Meanwhile the LA Times has an oped today on the Financial Transaction Tax, which I have supported for years, and why it will assist the middle class.

++Paul Krugman is interviewed by Ezra Klein in the VOX. Klein should learn to stay as much out of the conversation as possible. Krugman warns of pandemics that are certain to grow from globalism,is pessimistic Congress will achieve anything and speaks about liberals' fears that Hillary may be flirting with Clinton-Blairism that dictated the economic policies of the 1990s or the Third Way.

++Margaret Thatcher's papers have been released because the 30-year ban is up. Maggie wanted to rebuild the UK's chemical weapons program because of her fears in the Cold War and wanted to put commercials on the BBC. I don't know which is worse.

++Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly ran a video of Jeb Bush saying that the science on climate change is not unanimous. This then led to a riff on Stem Cell research and anti-abortion. BUT to Jeb's Defense he is right. Climate change is not unanimous. I found a scientist named Dr. Zimmerman, who believes termites and cow farts release more methane into the air than human activity and cause more carbon emissions than your average coal plant. He's probably Bob Dylan's demented uncle. Of all the scientific papers on the subject, all of One , count it, One suggests humans are not responsible for climate change. 

++But if that's Jeb's position, you can imagine what the next two years will song like.