Correlation is not causation — but it may provide irony

[ by Charles Cameron — two matters concerning naval intelligence ]

.

Here’s a chewable DoubleTweet:

Amid Shocking Chinese Spy Case, Our Navy Can No Longer Be Trusted https://t.co/lk7LO1JhkO

— J. Scott Shipman (@jscottshipman) April 11, 2016

Correlate that with:

The Director of Naval Intelligence does not have a security clearance. Has "less access to secrets than an ensign." https://t.co/2yY0fmfKPE

— Michael Bayer (@mbayer1248) January 29, 2016

— and you just might glimpse what Carl Jung termed an “acausal connecting principle” or “acausal parallelism”.

**

For dessert, how’s this for a serpent biting its own tail?

This is pretty nuts. The Director of Navy Intelligence can't even read his own reports. https://t.co/2yY0fmfKPE pic.twitter.com/hveL2eVnGK

— Michael Bayer (@mbayer1248) January 29, 2016

  1. Charles Cameron:

    While we’re on the topic of serpents eating their own tails, this has to be today’s runner up:

    He survived.

  2. carl:

    The U.S. Navy for ten years and more prior to December 1941 had been preparing the fleet for war in the Pacific. Now we are going to buy 40 surface combatants with range sufficient for dominating the Caribbean.
    .
    Before WWII we and the Brits (and the Poles, I always have to put in a plug for Poland) had broken or were well on the way to breaking most Axis codes. Now, we have to assume the Red Chinese and Russians have everything, to include the complete life’s particulars of many people reading this blog. And only Monty Python could come up with the head of Naval Intelligence not having a security clearance for years.
    .
    But, sadly, it isn’t funny. It means death for lots of people who shouldn’t have to die, because I don’t see any way to turn things around before the historic defeat that is coming. Our career centric way of war; what can you say without verging on crying?

  3. Charles Cameron:

    As you say, the situation is both tragic and Pythonesque.