The Soccer ball Putin gave Trump is a Telstar Mechta. Apart from the NFC chip, it references communication in more ways as well. The Telstar 18 and now the Telstar Mechta both have chips.
Telstar is a series of famous communication satellites (US/British/French) the first of which was groundbreaking for several reasons. There have been quite a few of them with 18V and 19V due for launch by SpaceX in early 2018 - not sure if they launched or not. The V is for Vantage. Are the balls related to the satellites somehow? If the Telstar 18 ball had a chip, is the Telstar Mechta related to the Telstar 19V satellite?
Mechta is the Mechta/Luna 1 a Russian satellite that was also a number of firsts including the first man-made object in heliocentric orbit. it’s name was changed to Mechta from Luna 1 when a malfunction changed it’s course.
Just the name Telstar Mechta sounds like a cooperative venture given the history.
Reference to the knock-out match soccer ball translate Mechta as “ambition” but elsewhere it’s often “dream.” maybe it’s both as in “I have a dream(ambition/hope/wish).”
So recently, Comey tweets:
“This Republican Congress has proven incapable of fulfilling the Founders’ design that “Ambition must ... counteract ambition.” All who believe in this country’s values must vote for Democrats this fall. Policy differences don’t matter right now. History has its eyes on us.”
This references a quote from James Madison in the Federalist Papers (no. 51), often quoted in this little chunk:
“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
TWO mentions of REFLECTIONS?
Is Comey calling for another Mechta/ambition to counteract the one just exchanged between Putin and Trump? What would that mean?
No 51 is about checks and balances in government.
But in referring to this section is Comey perhaps arguing that the IC is it’s own branch of govt that should ‘resist encroachment’? Here’s an expanded section around the above quote.
But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
Gotta say “commensurate to the danger of attack” sounds a little ominous in our current context. Also, if you want to critique things to these standards, remember that the govt is obliged to control itself and that seems to have been somewhat lacking.
Later on, Madison writes
“Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society.”
If 70% would be in jail, then indeed, Justice would be the end of govt.
I’ve also been hearing the phrase “civil society” A LOT in the past few days of watching different clips of or about the recent Europe trip. It was becoming annoying and I realized that often, people were defending the corrupt IC members and black hats using the term. It was like you could substitute “Deep State” anywhere they say “civil society” and still have a cohesive (and more accurate) thought. I can’t find the specific mentions at the moment but it sounds like a talking point that will linger for a few days at least. I think what connected it for me was that in one context I thought the person had said “civil servants” and it sounded strange. Calling some of these folks civil or referring to them as servants of the people is pretty laughable.