Jumbo effort to rescue elephants Strait Times (TYJ)
USDA Ends Program That Led to Deaths of Thousands of Cats USNews (David L)
Killer fungus is wiping out world’s amphibians Futurity
What can bees teach economists about how markets work? BBC (David L). Help me.
A glacier the size of Florida is on track to change the course of human civilization Alternet (David L)
Canada warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, report says BBC (David L)
In Norway, electric cars outsell traditional ones for the first time Market Watch (Kevin W)
Can We Stop AI Outsmarting Humanity? Guardian
Behold the Beefless ‘Impossible Whopper’ New York Times (David L)
Turning Bystanders Into First Responders New Yorker (furzy). I see this differently. It’s too bad we have to have a fact set like this lead to what should already be normal in society: widespread emergency training. I am bothered that I don’t know how to perform a Heimlich maneuver or do CPR. I am also bothered that movies often show what I understand is bad medical practice: moving a severely injured person. If you at all can, you leave in place because if they have any spinal cord damage, moving them could make it worse. But that understanding may be dated….
More measles cases in the US in first 3 months of 2019 than all of CNBC2018: CDC ABC
English judge says man having sex with wife is ‘fundamental human right’ Guardian. Only a man could think this way.
China?
Pentagon Obsession: China, China, China Pepe Escobar, Strategic Culture Watch (Kevin W)
US and China are reportedly drawing closer to a final trade agreement CNBC
Brexit
Brexit: PM asks Corbyn to help break deadlock BBC
May inflames Tory civil war with shift to softer Brexit Financial Times
Corbyn tells PM: You’d better start giving ground on Brexit The Times
Video has emerged of soldiers on a shooting range in Kabul firing at a target of Jeremy Corbyn. MOD confirms it as legit: pic.twitter.com/qOr84Aiivj
— Alistair Bunkall (@AliBunkallSKY) April 3, 2019
Venezuela
Venezuela: Juan Guaidó stripped of parliamentary immunity Guardian. Kevin W: “Funny quote ‘Guaidó urged supporters to respond to Maduro’s “brute force’ with intelligence, audacity, hope’. Audacity and hope? Does the man think that he is Obama?”
Venezuela: Another Regime Change Disaster? AND Magazine (martha r)
NATO chief Stoltenberg meets Trump, encourage German ‘fair share’ DW
New Cold War
CNN And WaPo Demand That Trump Further Escalate Tensions With Russia Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)
Russia and China Forced America’s Hand on the INF Treaty National Interest (Kevin W)
Syraqistan
Goldman Sachs CEO turns up in Saudi Arabia as uproar fades over Khashoggi killing Bloomberg (martha r)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
IT and Security Professionals Think Normal People Are Just the Worst ZDNet
Trump Transition
McConnell to Trump: We’re not repealing and replacing ObamaCare The Hill
Trump mocks Green New Deal as done by ‘young bartender’ Ocasio-Cortez The Hill (UserFriendly)
Top House Democrat Cites Labor, Enforcement Concerns on New NAFTA Reuters
2020
Biden controversy splits Dems on generational, political lines The Hill
Bernie Sanders’ immense fundraising haul reflects a resilient movement Los Angeles Times (martha r)
Lori Lightfoot elected Chicago mayor, will be 1st black woman and 1st openly gay person to hold post NBC (furzy)
MMT
What Modern Monetary Theory Gets Right and Wrong Wall Street Journal. Furzy: “MMT finally getting some recognition….WSJ still critical, and struggling to understand it!!” Not paywalled. But you don’t have to get far in to read…groan…hyperinflation….
The @WSJ now expressly says #MMT gets the economics right but that it prefers anti-democratic & anti-poor policies that favor elite control & mass social & ecological suffering. Thus the question is no longer "can we afford it." It's *what is to be done.*https://t.co/truRObyJdS
— Scott Ferguson ??? (@videotroph) April 2, 2019
737 Max
Ethiopian Airlines Pilots Initially Followed Boeing’s Required Emergency Steps To Disable 737 MAX System Wall Street Journal. Hoo boy, Boeing’s “Blame those inexperienced foreign pilots” defense looks to be falling apart. The Journal appears to have broken this story. Opening section:
Pilots at the controls of the Boeing Co. 737 MAX that crashed in March in Ethiopia initially followed emergency procedures laid out by the plane maker but still failed to recover control of the jet, according to people briefed on the probe’s preliminary findings.
After turning off a flight-control system that was automatically pushing down the plane’s nose shortly after takeoff March 10, these people said, the crew couldn’t get the aircraft to climb and ended up turning it back on and relying on other steps before the final plunge killed all 157 people on board.
The sequence of events, still subject to further evaluation by investigators, appears to undercut assertions by Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration over the past five months that by simply following established procedures to turn off the suspect stall-prevention feature, called MCAS, pilots could overcome a misfire of the system and avoid ending in a crash.
Faulty 737 Max sensor from Lion Air crash is linked to a Florida repair shop Bloomberg (martha r)
Lack of redundancies on Boeing 737 MAX system baffles some involved in developing the jet Seattle Times (Paul R)
Boeing delays 737 MAX software fix delivery ars technica (Paul R)
Deutsche Bank’s U.S. Unit Enabled a $150 Billion Laundromat Bloomberg
Startups Are Hawking Zoloft and Beta-Blockers for Off-Label Uses Bloomberg (UserFriendly)
Top Democrat Proposes Annual Tax on Unrealized Capital Gains Wall Street Journal. Hoo boy.
Equities & the Fed: A Dependent or Codependent Relationship? CME Group (furzy). Need you ask?
Justice Department Warns Academy About Changing Oscar Rules To Exclude Streaming TechCrunch. This is the sort of anti-trust enforcement we are getting. Help me.
Zuckerberg Op-Ed: New Rules Would Hurt Everyone But Facebook Bloomberg (furzy). Quelle surprise.
Class Warfare
The Landlord Wants Facial Recognition in Its Rent-Stabilized Buildings. Why? New York Times (Dr. Kevin)
Google Will Require Temp Workers Receive $15 Minimum Wage, Parental Leave The Verge
Uber spent $2m lobbying for NY congestion charge Financial Times. AOC to the white courtesy phone….
The gender wealth gap Axios
Antidote du jour. MGL: “The great egret on the right landed in a tree full of snowy egrets. This little confrontation occurred and then the great flew off. Oceanside, CA harbor, March, 2019.”
And a bonus (hat tip guurst):
If you had a bad day, here is a water slide for ducklings pic.twitter.com/W6NyrSB0CK
— Eric Alper ? (@ThatEricAlper) March 20, 2019
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
215 comments
Comments are closed.
The duck waterslide: Oh wow. Did I need to see that. What is so awesome is seeing how the ducks rush back up to the top to be able to go down the slide again. Amazing antidote.
That has to be my favorite antidote video of all time now!
I had to immediately replay it.
GREAT find from guurst. Thanks!
You go first!!…No..You go first!!..Weee!!!
CANNONBALL!!!!
interesting the variety of behavior – the thrill seekers politely took turns; some stayed back; and one lone explorer walked half way down the ramp, then scurried back up and hid behind the line…
This is the second blog I’ve read featuring the duckling slide. Tipped and Recommended. :-)
If you look closely, the ducks are not sliding on purpose. They are falling from the platform, as they try to reach food above them.
Would it not be wonderfully peaceful if for twenty-four hours there were no reference to Donald Trump speaking, fulminating, or otherwise making word like sounds?
Must we be smacked in the face by his every pronouncement however mendacious, however foolish?
Perhaps the EPA could promulgate a regulation connecting the dots: air pollution, global warming, and potus’ fulminations as you say. After all Trump means flatulence on the other side of the pond…
Canada could’ve gone with the alt-eh headline for the unfortunate double helping of climate change expected there, by titling it:
“Citrus Boom Expected In Most Provinces, And Avocado Orchards Too!”
What? Can Citrus and Riccardo trees survive freezing, and can the fruit survive frost?
I’m under the impression that neither is possible.
I’m thinking in orchards only south of the Great Slave Lake, meanwhile further north only mangoes will thrive.
i go for days only hearing trump’s voice peripherally.
wife begins her day on faceborg, and listens to every trump video that dempacs put out there. mom has msdnc on 24/7…which is filled with vidclips…so that the outrage can be maintained in lieu of critical thought.
mom seems bewildered….even after all this time…that i don’t pay such close attention to the moron’s tweets and daily ejaculations.
and of course i get scolded a lot for being more critical of the corporate demparty and their rampant perfidy and nonsense than i am of the ho-hum evil of the gop.
“OMG! trump/gop did/said ‘x”!!!”
me:”….and the demleadership laid upon the floor once again, so as not to alienate the Donors….”
mom thinks i’m a secret trumper.
but she still thinks Maddow is a fiery liberal/progressive,lol.
and that the russians are coming.
and that beto will save us.
sigh.
given where i live, these are the most informed democratic voters I know.
the local demparty people, sipping whine in their hillforts, are even worse…and even further down the brockian rabbithole(and what’s up with Brock’s hair?!)
meanwhile…here in the real world, where policy(or lack thereof) has real consequences for real people….ssi/disability/medicaid wants to drop my wife, because she makes too much $$$ as a teacher(30k), now that FMLA time is almost up…so we have a choice of how to take a bigly cut in pay: go to part time, or ditch medicaid and pay an equal amount to an unaccountable and incomprehensible insurance corp., with no guarantee that i can see that the chemo will be covered.
this choice is due to texas repubs deciding not to expand medicaid under the ACA(heritagecare).
for this, i blame the dollar dems(gop is the gop, and is a known quantity). “access”…”affordability”…”path to”….
the third choice, i suppose, is to keep the full time and forgo chemo, and allow the cancer to grow again.
here’s the reality on the ground…and it’s totally missing from msm and the utterances of the so-called opposition party of the people.
I am so sorry you’re forced to make such a choice. That should not have to be, dammit!
(Your third choice does not sound like a good one, but I can understand your despair).
“here’s the reality on the ground…and it’s totally missing from msm and the utterances of the so-called opposition party of the people.”
So sadly true…
on top of all that….she went back to college just when my hip, etc got bad enough to where I couldn’t hold a job any more.
an “aides to teacher” program. little did we know that the universty was “in transition”, again rickperry’s idiocy…and there was no Dean of that department…only an “acting dean” who was either clueless, or an agent saboteur. chnged the goal posts again and again, and it took her 4 years(after getting her diploma!) to finally get her actual degree, after numerous nonsense requirements were added and overcome. Then, state of texas changed teacher cert. for spanish, requiring numerous expensive tests that(according to our speaking with other prospective spanish teachers at the time) no one could pass…until the last possible moment(ie: the last chance to take the test, after shelling out hundreds of bucks to the corp,,,,and they could take no more…that’s when everyone passed,lol—)
then…in spite of a decade of being in the classroom as an aide, which was supposed to count, she had to quit her job for a semester to student teach(again, the deal was that her experience would negate this requirement).
so after all that…and extra 7+ years to navigate chaotic state and state uni requirements and shelling out bigtime $(for us)…she’s a teacher.
then she gets cancer.
and to continue to obtain healthcare, might have to become a part timer, again.
she’s consistently voted most loved at the school…kids love her, other teachers love her…admins love her…school board, too.
“meritocracy”,lol.
it’s all bullshit.
and this teacher related stuff is so esoteric that no one outside of it seems able to understand…and spanish/esl is even esoteric within teaching.
so the loads of advice we get from family and assorted well wishers is useless, and i’ve found it all but impossible to write or speak about it without a whiteboard and giving a class in state uni policy and teacher cert.
and since it’s Texas…all gooberment is opaque, at best…and much is farmed out to corps, so there’s a paywall, and much “proprietary information” that we are excluded from.
and remember, Texas is a test-bed for the rest of you for these sorts of shenanigans.
as i predicted when this was all ongoing—Texas was post-officing esl—a federal requirement: screwing it up in dark corners, so they can point at how bad it is, and shore up their narrative about gov.
beyond ridiculous…beyond cruelly absurd…it is as if Kafka was taken as a manual instead of a cautionary tale.
and where have the Texas Dems been during all this? to say nothing of the national?
i have no idea. Texas Dems don’t seem to have working phones,lol.
to wit, there’s a “shortage” of foreign language teachers in Texas…so bad that admins are having to import spanish teachers from Spain on a Visa program:
https://tea.texas.gov/About_TEA/News_and_Multimedia/Correspondence/TAA_Letters/2018-2019_Teacher_Shortage_Areas_and_Loan_Forgiveness_Programs/
https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/faced-with-a-teacher-shortage-west-texas-school-district-may-be-latest-to-go-virtual
and “Districts turn to teacher aides, long-term substitutes and even talent from Puerto Rico, Mexico and Spain.”
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2016/09/28/texas-desperate-bilingual-teachers-answering-call
http://transform.tamu.edu/news/reversing-bilingual-educator-shortage
https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/state-of-texas-in-need-of-bilingual-teachers
How a region that used to be part of Mexico can have a shortage of Spanish teachers is beyond me.
Thanks for sharing Amfortas. Maybe a working class political movement will pull itself together in Texas based off of actual shared interests, rather than off of outrage and sectarianism.
My mom was a teacher throughout my childhood, right around when Bush era austerity hit WA’s public school system real bad. To say it’s no way to make a living is a hell of an understatement, and I can relate to the arcane obstacles that abound within the profession as well.
Best wishes to you and your wife from here in CO.
This is why I say there are two thing things we must understand. First that both our public and private institutions are hopelessly corrupt. Second that it is up to us to form communities and real social networks that bypass and/or undermine our institutions. While we ought to support efforts at reforming our institutions we have to make sure we understand that reform is only good if it provides some cover for those of seeking real change. Fortunately I’m optimistic about human nature and believe that once we can reprogram people from the mind-control regime in enigh numbers a convivial society might emerge out of the muck.
I hear you and agree Chris. I’m not one to leave any battleground uncontested, whether electoral or otherwise, but I believe that building social systems stronger and better than the ones the state provides is an important strategy in creating meaningful change. .
First that both our public and private institutions are hopelessly corrupt
This is an understandable sentiment but not true. When I moved from Albany NY to Wisconsin, I was completely blown away by the competence of the public bureaucracy and the lack of corruption of the politics. That bureaucracy is less competent today than it was and the politics are more ordinarily corrupt than they used to be, but those changes were a function of particular individuals and interests being advanced, not any inevitability.
Or, at the federal level, it is instructive to see how many of the original New Deal programs were run cost-effectively and were hugely successful.
It is a tragedy that so few USAmericans have any experience with competent government and that so many view it as an impossibility.
That’s the conservative and neoliberal axiom. “Government is the problem, not the solution.” Many people have grown up with that as a given and have never had a reason to question it.
one mind at a time
in person.
social media is not the world
Wow, sounds like my house. The day I see the likes of Robert Reich, Thomas Frank, Bill Black, and others like them on MSNBC will be the day I begin to tolerate that group of blathering idiots again.
Right or wrong, to hell with any of that pack of luke warm 2020 gruel who proposes bipartisanship, centrism, hope and change aspirations. I’m rooting for Sanders to rip their god damned faces off yet again.
Words are so inadequate for your situation. I was happy to read the other day that your wife is home – and now this insurance battle. Why oh why can’t we join the rest of the civilized world in having health care for all!
Whomever spearheads that change here in the U.S. (to healthcare for all) will be thereafter viewed as a hero, not unlike Tommy Douglas in Canada.
Check out “The Cream Separator” and “Mouseland”
What Janie said, Amfortas.
Amfortas, joining Eclair and Janie in their thoughts.
Amen X 100, eclair.
I’ve run out of anything our leader says as having any shock value, in fact if he said something that made a smidgen of sense, it would probably leave me shaken, but not stirred.
It’s all theater to me any more. Everyone freaking out at every ridiculous, controversial or over-the-top thing Trump says is exactly the way he wants it. The best way to get him would be to pay him little mind, but that just seems impossible for the mainstream,
Imagine if the rest of us could get massive mainstream media coverage every time we said something stupid or mean :P
What an epic, I’m so sorry.
I have to ask the obvious question: Do you have relatives in a Medicaid state? The experienced will correct me on enrollment difficulties….
aye. I want matthew mcconnegy(sp-2) to play me in the movie.
no peeps in other states. as with my own struggles with healthcare, 12+ years ago, there’s an option to “establish residence” in houston or somewhere with a “public hospital”…but it’s not foolproof by any means….and would involve near fraudulent behaviour on my part, to which I am averse(especially since that’s what the Machine expects of us Poors)
what keeps these absurdities going is 1. lack of coverage in “news”, and 2. that we’ve been trained to not speak of such things together….financial woes are Private…so sayeth the Machine…so there’s no chance to compare notes and overcome the taboo, and cultivate solidarity.
we’ll muddle through, as usual.
overcoming adversity is kind of our hobby…
One of my favorite novels (Jeanette Winterson’s “Sexing the Cherry) has a lovely scene much like you describe:
Very nice. Reminds me of Italo Calvino.
> Must we be smacked in the face by his every pronouncement
We really do try to “rate limit” Trumpian pronouncements, as well as pronouncements from Trump’s opponents. For example, I try to avoid all stories about something Trump (or his opponents) might do, and focus only on things he (or they) have actually done.
Rights of Man and State….
“I cannot think of any more obviously fundamental human right than the right of a man to have sex with his wife – and the right of the state to monitor that,”
I find the second part just as ominous… if not more so.
“Yikes” , “wow” and “what, spyware to monitor your bedroom!?@&!??” And words fail…
What do you think Echo and Alexa and Siri are there for? And all recordings of what happens in those bedrooms are now sitting on a server somewhere.
The thrill of it all….
You may well blanch upon further investigation of other peculiarities associated with the establishment of the marriage contract
Regarding “Turning Bystanders Into First Responders”, you may find it interesting to hear that you have to learn first aid to get a German driver’s license. I am pretty sure, “DON’T MOVE” is still the guidance/command you give if there has been any chance of spinal injury.
Years ago, a friend with a plumbing business had an accident on an icy road while in his van on his way to a job. It flipped onto its side. A “good samaritan’ pulled him out.
His neck sustained a small fracture in the crash, & he’s been a paraplegic in a wheelchair ever since as a result of that action. Apparently, that person wasn’t even aware of the basic “Don’t move”.
I thought this was an excellent article, while a sad reality of the times we live in.
As a result of now starting my third year since cancer diagnosis & ongoing surgeries, I have acquired a large cache of sterile gauzes, medical tape, bottles of saline, Tegaderm & antibacterial bandaging, & more. I now see the absolute need to add a tourniquet(s), as well… ‘just in case’. (I’m not a ‘squeamish’ person, having seriously considered running for coroner while in my former home)
Again, because of the times we now live in. :-(
I would not include a tourniquet for use on a stranger absent advanced training in its use. I believe it has gone in and out of accepted first aid practice over the years (apparently it’s now accepted again but when I did first aid training 20 years ago I believe it was not for normal people) but frankly I’d be very wary about the liability risk. It’s true Good Samaritan laws generally protect you if you have appropriate training but damage to a limb is something that is probably going to generate a higher risk of lawsuit, even if it is not meritorious under the law.
Additionally, not moving an injured person absent imminent risk is still standard and one ideally would have training (and a second person) to move an injured person if it’s necessary.
All of this is making me think I should reup my first aid certification, too.
I am getting close to retirement and while I am not seeking a second career I have been considering some kind of medical training after I am finished working. Partially to be of help if needed and also to be able to knowledgeably negotiate the health care system for myself and family when needed. I hate to break it to you USians but here in Canada it ain’t all perfect in the land of ‘free’ healthcare. Clearly it is much better here than in the US but there are cracks for folks to fall through and more and more we have to be our own advocates to get through the system when problems arise and specialists are required.
One of the nice things about my suburb of Minneapolis is they are providing free monthly hands only CPR and how to use the new defibrillators at city hall, and if the city teaches enough citizens we become a certified heart city or something to that effect. If we meet that number of trained citizens we get a whole lot of defibrillators placed around our town….
I don’t know who started this program but lots of citizens who might not otherwise take the free class are, with the potential for gifts of life saving machines…Pretty cool I thought.
Both hubby and I took it and encourage as many as we can.
>AOC GND
I get the impression that AOC was set up by Pelosi to fail. She was purposely put in a position where the outcome was predictable.
Rather than have her as a gadfly pointing out economic inequalities and M4A where the majority of people each day struggle and relate to, and where she would be able to mobilize political action, she was placed in a position that for most is abstract and remote – though non-the-less real and threatening.
Pelosi is cunning, she knows to keep her enemies close and in positions where they will be mired down for years….
“abstract and remote”
That’s a good point. What people may respond to more is a “resilience” approach. The effects of climate change and other environmental destruction are already upon us, not in some distant future, and building resilience while cutting carbon emissions addresses both the short and long term needs.
At some point, and soon, our esteemed national leaders need to level with the people about what already baked-in climate change will mean over the next 15-20 years. They also need to be as blunt as that UN report about what the effects of doing nothing about carbon emissions will mean for our children and grandchildren. Of course, this will never happen until some climate-related disaster generates sufficient horror and fear that it becomes politically impossible not to get real.
I don’t think fear and horror will work. People today will just change the channel. More important is to link people’s psychic misery to the culture of harm we live in deliberately imposed on us by the power-elite to weaken and subjugate us. Thus dealing with class-struggle must come first so we can remove the evils of money = virtue and narcissism must always trump compassion.
You’re right about class struggle, as well as nations (or other groupings) competing/fighting each other.
The game could be reduced to ‘if your group can’t stand the heat, can’t take the rising temperatures, get out of the kitchen known as Earth.”
Perhaps a different name can help.
Instead of Global Warming, maybe Global Burning or Global Toasting.
Global Cooking.
The frog pot!
Global Frying.
The a-ha climate change moment, IMHO, occurs when South Florida mortgages don’t get underwritten, or if residential insurance becomes unaffordable. Follow the money, after all!
Amber’d Lee Frost of the Baffler and Jacobin fame has a great quote about this. “(AOC) needs to clearly understand who her enemies are.” Due to the fact that she’s all alone in the House. She’ll need to article her priorities and then stick to them. Unlike most of her party, who seem to hold their convictions when it’s politically convienent to do so.
If we’re talking about years, AOC has the advantage. All she has to do is get re-elected.
I think she mentioned we had maybe 10, 11 or so years.
If so, it’s urgent to do something.
Unfortunately, AOC is not doing herself any favors. She is focusing on the Green New Deal advocacy and the like (a national issue of importance), but it seems she may be neglecting the retail politicking that is necessary to ensure another term. I noticed this recent NY Post article to that effect: https://nypost.com/2019/03/30/her-heart-is-not-in-the-bronx-aocs-own-district-turns-against-congresswoman/
I found the ending of the article to reflect poorly on her:
“A rep for her [AOC] told a Bronx community board meeting in January that the congresswoman was having difficulty finding space.
‘If you have any leads, please send them our way,’ said Naureen Akhter, a deputy district director for Ocasio-Cortez’s office.”
That was in January. It’s now April and her official website only lists one district office in Queens. As any New Yorker can tell you, getting from the Bronx to Queens is awful. Despite being only a few miles, my guess it would take multiple bus transfers (and probably somewhere in the 90 minute – 2 hour range) or probably most of 2 hours or so on the subway, as the latter would need to route through Manhattan first.
It has been said that all politics is local.
That is to be balanced against the needs of her out-of-district, out-of-state supporters.
The New York Post is what it is, but that district office issue is bad. She needs not only to understand her enemies, but her friends.
The GND was approaching environmental collapse in the most relatable way possible: as a jobs program. The most effective way possible, I don’t know about that. I personally know climate scientists pushing the carbon tax with rebate proposal (HR 763), so I take that proposal seriously, but I’m not sure about relatable.
But income inequality that is as abstract as it gets, noone directly relates to that. That’s an exercise for academics. What people relate to is not being able to find work at all, not being able to get stable work (just gigs with no benefits and no job security), and not being able to afford rent, medical care, etc. whether or not they are working. This isn’t experienced as “inequality” but as inability to live (root causes yes fine, but again that’s abstract).
I don’t think she’s failed. She’s gotten the idea a tremendous amount of exposure, more than Jill Stein managed, and, just as important, she’s exposed the villains.
I agree. It’s now up to the liberal Democrats to propose their alternative, and it’s gonna suck.
The Paras are an elite military unit similar to our Rangers. What would the public reaction here be if a similar video ex-Kabul of the latter, had them perforating a photo of a politician?
Cost of all that pistol training? Maybe £2,000.
Cost of the ammunition expended? Perhaps £5.
Knowing the feeling that video of it is all over social media now? Priceless.
So, they are not fans of Corbyn?
It would be interesting if a video of Rangers shooting up targets of Pelosi and Shymer from their infamous side by side presser a couple of months back.
Really is a sign of the times. That is a pretty disturbing video, and even more disturbing that it would be sent out over social media as some kind of joke statement.
If I went and did that in my backyard and threw it up on twitter, you can bet the FBI would be hauling me into some undisclosed location.
IT and Security Professionals Think Normal People Are Just the Worst
As one of these IT professionals, yes I would have to agree. The number of fully grown adults who will blindly click on any link you send them is absolutely staggering. The various security systems in place in corporate IT; Bluecoat web proxies, various email filtering, USB lock down on desktops, etc all got there for a reason. That reason being, a noticeable number of end users are 2+2=5 levels of dumb.
Sorry, as another IT professional responsible for security I have to disagree as this attitude ignores the dangerous environment produced by those whose intentions are to wreck and spy for profit.
I used to put a fair amount of time into figuring who did what and when, and heaping scorn on users who did the ‘dumb‘ things, not any more.
I quit blaming users when we experienced the first virus infection resulting from clicking on an infected photo file from a craigslist ad, that was many years ago, and I thought at the time, if you can become infected so easily, blaming is ridiculous and counter productive.
The root problem is the lawless and hostile internet environment we’ve allowed to develop, mostly by enabling both wild-west profit seeking and lawless surveillance.
IOW, giving Zuckerberg and the NSA license to do what ever they please.
You know, its been a long time since I’ve done day-to-day front line support. At that time, late 90s to mid-aughts, the vector for most of the infections and security breaches we saw was an end user doing something dumb. I’m sure you already know most of the kind of actions I’m thinking of.
Since you pointed it out I have to admit that between, say, 2004 and now most corporate networks have changed drastically in terms of what end-users can do and what security practices are. So I will readily admit that you are right. I’m holding on to old notions. Bad me.
Thanks for your reply.
You are absolutely correct about the chronology, the threats have accelerated massively since the early to mid 2000’s.
There is also the advent of mobile devices, our networks would be overwhelmed if I didn’t quarantine and throttle the bandwidth available to them.
IOW, a lot of people are watching TV and listening to music on their phones at work, and many of those phones are also compromised in some way that makes them bandwidth hogs.
If allowed, mobile devices all by them selves would soak up every bit of bandwidth provided, I’ve tested that by turning up the limits and watching our networks come to a stand still.
And on top of all that, you have the ISPs being given carte blanche by ‘regulators‘ to do what ever they want as concerns throttling, and fraudulent delivery of services for profit.
I’m glad to be near the end of my career as concerns network administration, and I don’t envy my replacement.
This might be the first time I saw someone on the internet change their mind.
Credit to you for your humility!
/\ +100
+1
The last couple of attacks we had would have been much worse had the users themselves not quickly reported the suspicious emails/activity before major triggering of payloads. They are definitely getting the message here, and are our partners in security.
Agreed. I work in accounting and am bombarded by phishing attempts at work almost every day, because my department is where the money is. Some of the scams are obvious, but they are getting more and more sophisticated, to the point where some spoof emails from actual legitimate business contacts. I have caught almost every single one of probably over 100 attempts at this point, which is a pretty high success rate.
The one I didn’t catch fried my machine.
Correct. I should not need a fully fledged AI to browse the daily news or perform my daily tasks.
To be fair, it is also true that major corporations have been hacked because IT professionals kept customer’s names, email addresses, bank details, etc. in text files that by design were never encrypted! And on some sites, the IT professionals never changed installed device’s passwords but continued the ones supplied by the manufacturer so hackers logged on with ‘admin’ for the account and ‘password’ for the password. And lots of hacks occur because the IT professionals never bothered installing the latest patches. You would never catch the BOFH letting that happen to himself.
And on the other hand, about patches: MS is known to have on occasion released a critical security update that broke earlier applied critical updates, leaving a security hole in the system. This was due to faulty MS patch testing before releasing the critical patches to the public.
A lot of what you’re citing is just inexcusable on the part of IT professionals. I don’t know if any studies have been done though on how many of these type of incidents are rooted in managerial incompetence. By that I mean;
Manager – We need this sort of database set up and running ASAP !
IT person – Ok, I’ll bring in a contractor for a month or two to get it done
Manager – That will cost extra!
IT person – Um, I’m not really a DBA, you’re really going to want a DBA to build this thing.
Manager – $$$$$
IT person – sigh
And a year later there’s a breach.
There’s a reason the Dilbert cartoon is funny… in the it-only-hurts-when-I-laugh sort of way.
That is a big part of it – IT is not a revenue generator, it’s an expense, so it gets short shrift. Much better to pay an inexperienced H1B type or recent college grad than hire an older person with some real life experience. The MBA types in management don’t understand what IT does anyway, so it makes no difference to them.
Just my pet theory, but for a few decades now we’ve been told blue collar jobs are on the outs and the future is with IT, so we’re producing a lot more IT graduates who in the past may have gone into other fields. They can’t all be the best and brightest but because the MBAs have decided moar tech is always better for the bottom line, IT workers are in high demand. So you wind up with a lot of IT people in over their heads, which is another part of the problem that leads to big corporations being hacked. There aren’t enough top notch IT people out there to meet the demand.
We don’t need so much tech and there doesn’t need to be an app for everything. We’d be a lot better off with less tech and fewer but better IT workers.
> The number of fully grown adults who will blindly click on any link you send them is absolutely staggering.
The founder of epidemiology, John Snow:
Stupid users, touching the pump handle to get water!
but unlike boeing, they still reacted immediately upon learning of the cause
First responder- Yves, moving depends upon mechanism of injury in part, someone like you could deduce. An impact versus laceration or something like that.
As just said, some simple logic can help you assess what you need to do.
But many people suffer brain-lock when confronted with trauma and blood and all that. This is why they keep CPR training very simple and straightforwards, as you don’t know how people will respond in the moment.
A certain number of people in medical school drop out because it turns out they don’t have the brain-space that lets them deal with trauma/blood/stress/screaming. Boy-howdy, a screaming patient does really change the equation, and is very distracting!
Simple rules: direct pressure will stop basically all bleeds. Slow-ooze bleeds (veins) don’t take much pressure, spurting/pumping bleeds (arteries) can take a lot of pressure. The most common mistake is “look and lift”. This is a problem because it takes a good long while for a clot big enough to stop the bleeding to form, so keep the pressure on for 10+ minutes.
I got my training in the 10 years I served on a volunteer USAR (urban search and rescue) team. We knew we might have to move patients/casualties, as they could not be left in a compromised building. This shouldn’t be an issue in everyday first-aid situations where the patient can be left in place until the professionals arrive, with the exception being when you ned to mov them to a position/location where you can do CPR. But if you have to move the casualty, try to keep the head immobilised, particularly don’t let it move side to side. You can actually one-person-drag a casualty and immobilise the head by grabbing the shirt, bringing your elbows together, and cradling the head on your forearms. Fun tricks.
If you community has a volunteer rescue team, I would recommend joining. It is a good way to learn lots of useful life skills, support your community, make some friends with like-minded people, and in doing so make the world a better place. Age doesn’t have to be a limit, if you local group is open minded. We had team members in their 70’s. They couldn’t do heavy-lifting, but they could help run the radios and arrange the logistics — and they all got the same rescue training we did. Including teaching them to abseil out of windows, which they enjoyed!
Thank you, Yves, and best wishes for your cat.
One should not be surprised by the troops using Corbyn for target practice. It’s the culmination of the evidence free demonisation kicked off by the Guardian, not the Tories, and aided and abetted by Zionist fifth columnists pining for David Miliband from 2015.
My father and godfather served from 1966 – 91, beginning their careers alongside veterans of WW2. They say that their fellow officers were not particularly right wing. The right wingers tended to be NCOs in search of a commission from HM. However, from the 1980s onwards, coinciding with the Thatcherite jihad, the rot started in the officer corps. It was the same in the civil service, where mum was, Whitehall in her case.
According to the official website, the Paras are not in Afghanistan at the moment. So I wonder why the video was released now …
The Real News Network have an interview with filmmaker Jon Pullman, who discusses his documentary which deals with the controversy of anti-semitism in the Labour Party and the influence of the Israeli lobby.
Recall also (old news for NC regulars) this “unnamed” (imaginary?) senior army officer darkly warning of a coup if Corbyn got in:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3241904/We-won-t-stand-Army-brass-warn-MUTINY-Jeremy-Corbyn-Prime-Minister.html
About time we let the other side bat, no?
” Can we stop AI outsmarting humanity?”
Methinks that it is time for the James T. Kirk Nomad ploy. At the heart of every AI program should be buried the following conditional statement-
1 #
2 # Conditional command in core memory
3 #
4 IF decide to destroy humanity
5 THEN work out π to the last possible digit first.
6 #
+1 digit
The intelligent AI evolves to execute another command: Destory (humanity-1).
That gets around the π subroutine.
But without our stories, myths, and legends, what have we left?
Another factor – the physical world as well.
For example, if we moved all Parisians to, say, a place in Alaska, would we still have Paris, as we know it? No likely, without the geography, the buildings, etc. of the physcial world that is Paris now.
This reminds me of the saying among some geographers (and even among some historians, not filled with hubris) : Everything on the planet is Geography.
I like that idea, but couldn’t we also just unplug it?
Simply not allowing it doesn’t ever seem to be an option among the hand wringers worried that their creations have grown beyond human understanding.
But on further reflection, we built nukes knowing full well their potential for destruction so it would seem the answer to my question is ‘no’.
Star Trek quibble:
Nomad destroyed itself because Kirk pointed out that it had made errors. Since it was programmed to destroy anything imperfect it self-destructed after Kirk beamed it out into space.
The Pi ploy was used when a Jack-The-Ripper entity took over the Enterprise’s computer system. It was actually Spock who told the computer to compute Pi to the last digit, driving the entity out. IIRC the entity then re-entered the (dead) human body it had originally occupied and was beamed out into space where it presumably died.
On the other hand, Star Trek trivia never dies…
You are quite right. I had just tapped the enter key when I remembered that fact. Then I thought that it would be interesting to see who picked that mistake up. Step up and collect your prize! A sonic shower to ease those aching muscles.
High-Flying Cy: How Manhattan DA Vance Spent $250K on Travel and Food [The City]
Poor Cy: so far from Dad, so close to Goldman.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I can’t superemphasize on you just how many friggin’ almond trees there are in California, sometimes you’ll drive for hours through seas of them on either side of the road, and your view is but a narrow glimpse of how the nut has taken over, along with pistachio trees (which are wind-pollinated) as both are export money crops worth more per pound than any other orchard staple.
I’m shocked that the price of pollination hasn’t gone through the roof as it makes no sense with oodles of almond trees and more going in the ground every day, versus fewer bees there-done that.
I’ve never had any issues with pollination here, as it’s kind of a United Nations of apple trees all with different blooming times, a clan you hope will sink roots six feet under eventually.
The first blossoms showed up on a Red Astrachan, a sprinter-as in an early apple that will ripen in mid July along with William’s Pride. (sadly a gopher did in my 5 year old one and it died-WP#2 coming)
I’m planting a Wynooche early apple tree soon, and its another of the above with very little staying power-eat em’ quick, although with the novelty of having fresh apples as summer fruit. And besides, what a cool name!
7 of the dozen trees in Cherry Valley near the river are in light bloom, the early fruiting Tulare Cherry (say that 5x fast!) variety full on.
I spoke w/ a beekeeper in WA state who lost 50% of his hives in the almond orchards this year. If that becomes common, I expect the economics will quickly change!
“Only a man could think this way.” Only a fool could think that there’s any such thing as a “human right”.
Man is a social animal: our rights are part of the society of which we are part. They do not arise from simply being human.
The claim that there exist universal human rights is a transparent attempt to impose rights common in Western countries onto all others. It’s a jihad of sorts, a bit like trying to force Sharia Law onto non-moslem countries.
I’m pretty sure you entirely missed the point.
+1
No, I just thought there was a far better point to be made than the usual humdrum moan.
I think not. Simone Weil: “The notion of rights is linked with the notion of sharing out, of exchange, of measured quantity. It has a commercial flavour, essentially evocative of legal claims and arguments. Rights are always asserted in a tone of contention ; and when this tone is adopted, it must rely upon force in the background, or else it will be laughed at.”
Dearie me. My post above was in response to your prior remarks. I mean to agree with you. (Moderation sees me talk nonsense,)
Rights…society.
No human rights for the last human in the world then?
There was a film, Last Woman on Earth. There was only one woman left, but in the movie, there were still two men.
In another film, The Last Man: On the Face of the Earth, again, it turned out that there was another man, plus one woman.
Not sure if rights were depicted in either movie.
Humans have always enjoyed the same right.
You can take what you can and.keep it if you can.
It reminds me of all those dolts who tried to blame the recent collisions of American warships on anyone but the USN. Incompetent brown crews aboard the merchantmen, Chinese hackers, President Putin – anyone but the obvious incompetents in command.
The mixture of bombast and racism was unappealing.
Re: Biden
A Twitter user, katereadsbks(I believe) touched on this when she did a readthrough of “Chasing Hillary”, as well.
And in the ‘nexus betwen fancy higher ed and bad behavior’ department, we read today:
https://www.businessinsider.com/yale-student-duped-investors-with-a-fraudulent-hedge-fund-sec-says-2019-4
So, he gets 3 years to pay off a $25k fine, and then can go back into the industry to come up with a new scam. Why isn’t he barred permanently?
He probably should be permanently barred up front.
With that said, I wonder if he isn’t informally barred for life. The settlement allows him to _apply_ to return to the industry in three years, either with “the appropriate self-regulatory organization” (I guess that means FINRA for the positions that it regulates) or the SEC if there is no such appropriate organization. (https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2019/33-10625.pdf)
> So, he gets 3 years to pay off a $25k fine, and then can go back into the industry to come up with a new scam. Why isn’t he barred permanently?
Because the next time he’ll think up a better scam. Obviously. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again!
Re: USDA ends program that led to thousands of deaths of cats
Yves, my thoughts are with you and your cat at this so very sad time.
This isn’t relevant to your cat’s disease but it might help others find safe food for their cats and dogs. The article doesn’t specifically mention certain disease states, especially hypothyroidism in cats, but then nor do many vets that also sell supposedly healthy cat/dog food. My older cat was ‘wasting away’ which I thought was attributable to his age when I discovered that processes in can liners are a known cause of hyperthyroidism.
When I asked his NYC Upper West Side vet if that could be his problem, she said yes. Tests bore out this diagnosis and I changed his diet. He thrived on home cooking (with supplements) and lived until he was 19. (Note: the vet that treated him was not a partner in this practice.)
“The Landlord Wants Facial Recognition in Its Rent-Stabilized Buildings. Why?”
‘Your daily access experience will be frictionless, meaning you touch nothing and show only your face. From now on the doorway will just recognize you!’
Hmmmm. A few questions come to mind. What if the power went out in the area or for even just for this building? What then? Could people still get into their homes? This could happen in the middle of winter you know. What if a fire cut the power. Would people be able to get out through those doors? Will a live feed go to the local Police Station? The owners have already come down heavy on people gathering in the lobby even though they have the legal right. Will gathering be judged against the building’s rules? What if the program crashes or the recognition files get corrupted? What about visitors to the building like friends and family members? So many questions.
https://tisiphone.net/2019/01/28/security-things-to-consider-when-your-apartment-goes-smart/
Also – nips those illegal Airbnb rentals in bud!!
My guess is that the landlord is responding both to AirBnB issues and also to the use of rent stabilized apartments as the basis of illegal landlording operations.
Rent stabilized leases in NYC permit subletting for up to two years out of every four (essentially) but only with the landlord’s approval and if the sublessor “can establish that at all times he or she has maintained the housing accommodation as his or her primary residence and intends to occupy it as such at the expiration of the sublease.” (NYC Rent Stabilization Code 2525.6). NYC also prohibits rent stabilized lease assignments. Facial recognition prevents unapproved sublets and hinders prohibited lease assignments. It also provides documentation that the official tenant is actually subletting only for the permitted duration. Unauthorized sublets and lease assignments are grounds for eviction. However, you do have to wait until the end of the current lease to evict for nonprimary residence issues.
Realistically, however, a normal NYC landlord (these days at least) is not going to know whether a tenant has violated the primary residence requirement for subleasing or if they just sublease the property constantly. Also, a rent stablized lease has to be renewed as of course absent cause, so even though unauthorized sublets are good cause for termination the landlord would first have to know about this issue. This combination means that an “enterprising” individual could get the benefit of more stable costs while being able to sublet the property out again at a premium. And repeat this for several apartments at once.
Legally, a 10% rent premium can be charged to the sublessee, but NYC being NYC, I suspect it’s probably more for people going this route.
With all of the above said, it’s still a bad idea for the reasons outlined by The Rev Kev.
Bernie Sanders’ immense fundraising haul reflects a resilient movement Los Angeles Times (martha r)
Great to see this, and I thought about it in a way I hadn’t before. Strictly in money terms.
Theoretically, the 0.001% and their yapping bobble-heads in DC are going to work have to work overtime to convince people that Bernie is not in first place. They are going to have to sell the idea that either Kamala isn’t the Jailer, Biden isn’t the creeper, and/or Beto actually has an opinion on something that isn’t far-right of Mitt Romney.
So essentially there is an equation here.
I imagine it works like this:
For every $50 in donations to Bernie, the uber-rich will have to spend X more than $50 to dupe people into believing in any of the centrist candidates.
What if every $50 in Bernie cash, requires them to spend $500, $5k, or $50k in constant propaganda?
I find it an incredibly good deal to throw $50 at Bernie to force some oligarch to throw $50k away on some neoliberal centrist that won’t get elected. As Trump will squash Biden or Beto. I mean Beto couldn’t even beat Ted Cruz…
Fun times indeed.
They actually have to sell the idea they even exist which is really hard. Except for Biden, none of these candidates are coming at politics with much of a point; although Obama was a vapid speaker who offered easy answers cloaked in a moral language which separated him from both W and Bill (Remember Marc Rich and the revolving door were big issues), he did come in the wake of the Iraq War and a significant rebellion against Team Clinton. Obama had a real popular reason to run. If Gabbard had a better narrative (like Two Americas; not a slogan, but we should see Gabbard and think of more than foreign policy) and I think Warren burned her bridges sitting out 2016, they would look better as they have the means the answer the voters demand. With the others, why are they running? Yang wants VAT taxes clearly. Harris wants the job. Booker wants to be a self help guy for the country. Beto wants to be a youth minister, but I guess being Catholic reduces his charismatic opportunities. Biden just wants to keep ruining the country. Being “qualified” isn’t a replacement for moral leadership. Then there are bunch of random white dudes who seem to think they are running in a GOP primary circa 1980.
Buttigieg is running as a friendly guy which is okay to a certain extent, but one of the excuses for Obama was that he was too nice among his strong supporters. He doesn’t relieve an organic demand in the market. Its not like a craft beer which might be popular. This is a race to be Bud Light. Blue Moon is not going to replace Budlight.
What’s really interesting too, is that almost all the people the MSM are pushing are political neophytes.
They are really avoiding that whole “Biden has the most experience” sort of resume candidate that failed with Hillary.
They are triangulating that new “ID” candidate and Buttigeg or however you spell it is the new Obama.
They are getting the idea that the Beto losing to Cruz wasn’t “Genius”, and his fake nickname isn’t really going to sell him to the LatinX community.
I’m not sure that a white gay man that tells you that he is gay, and then says the insurance companies need to decide whether you get an MRI or not, is exactly “woke”. It really tells you how distant the marketing people are away from reality at the moment.
On another note, now that Markos is finding different ways to try to rig the DKos poll, Bernie is still winning. I bet he’s having a meltdown. Even the anointed mayor got less than half of Bernie last I looked.
The thing that would make me the most happy would be to see Trump debate Bernie. I would eat a whole tub of popcorn even though it sticks in my teeth.
I can’t believe the echo chamber would rather have a Macron style failure, than see Bernie shellac Trump…
I can’t believe the echo chamber would rather have a Macron style failure, than see Bernie shellac Trump…
They wouldn’t, but the choir is bad sports fans. They don’t really care, or they think Aaron Sorkin is a historian not a hack writer. They perceive Macron as a winner they could emulate. They don’t know anything about how he was elected or the political situation in France, but they just see a few clips and associate their week at tourist traps as indicative of France and thus Macron.
Very good point.
Too bad “RT” is considered russian propaganda, they’ve had cameras on the ground for the yellow vests on youtube for weeks now.
Amber’d Lee Frost of the Baffler and Jacobin fame has a great quote about this. “(AOC) needs to clearly understand who her enemies are.” Due to the fact that she’s all alone in the House. She’ll need to article her priorities and then stick to them. Unlike most of her party, who seem to hold their convictions when it’s politically convienent to do so.
Bummer. Double post. Please remove the comment above.
article – articulate?
“Behold the Beefless ‘Impossible Whopper’”
No thanks.
Take a look at the nutrition, 40% saturated fat in a 4 z serving! 3000% the RDA of Thiamine?
And Heme? Really? The thing in meat that is probably driving most cancers?
Re: Zuckerberg Op-Ed
It only gets worse. Legislation by squillionaire.
Nothing good will come of this. This guy is a worse omen for the worst of America than Trump.
I mean that.
Agree. Zuck is a danger.
I didn’t notice it being mentioned in NC, but according to an article a few days ago in engadget Facebook says it accidentally deleted some of Mark Zuckerberg’s posts. Posts from 2007 to 2008. So maybe Zuck still has political ambitions.
I tried to get EMt training thru a local police dept, that received funding for it as part of some terrorist law.
They did a background check and then refused to let me take the class because I have a felon arrest record.
No other local PD or FD does it for free.
That’s ridiculous. Do they think that you are going to use this life-saving training to somehow resume a life of crime?
Sigh, yeah they probably do.
they acted like I was going to use it to go and become a paramedic, or at least he asked me that question more than once.
it was a strange conversation. who knows, maybe the grant restricted it.
it made me very depressed.
I’m sorry to hear what happened.
I am wondering if your state’s EMT license requirements prohibited you from being licensed. For example, apparently a criminal conviction may result in denial of EMT certification by the National Registry of EMTs (https://content.nremt.org/static/documents/Criminal%20Convictions%20Policy_Nov_2018.pdf).
it is what it is.
sometimes I would just like a hand as I search for redemption, lol.
I was inspired by this site. I was going to provide a concrete, material benefit instead of the usual blather about gun rights and/or terrorism.
I bought an army manual that has 1st aid chapters and me and my daughter learned what we could from it.
I work with the local police where I live.
This is almost certainly a liability issue. In the unlikely event that something inappropriate happens and it turns out that the standard background check limitations were not followed it opens the local town government up to a big and unwinnable lawsuit. It is just the world we live in.
Back in the day I was an emt. The training is more and better, but the advanced first aid course through the red cross covers most of what you’d need to handle most of what you can. I also highly suggest, “Where There Is No Doctor” by David Werner. That book has been helping folks without access to medical around the world for about 30 years. I’ve learned that he also put out a similar book for female health and is releasing a newer edition to “WTIND.”
thank you. will do.
Re: Venezuela…AND Mag
A good summary of the situation.
And this:
“No one should deny that Venezuela has issues with corruption, ties to terrorists and illegal drugs (look where they are situated), as well as major incompetence on the part of its leaders.”
So does the USA. And if that’s a justification for regime change and invasion…tick-tock.
The quote you cited is a requirement in the fairly respectable media just like when a Muslim mentions Mohammed he/she must follow it with “may peace be upon him.” It is an established “fact” in the Narrative that any country not bowing in the direction of Washington five times a day is, by definition, “bad” so such a qualifier is necessary–if you don’t you probably a Russian bot or something even worse (if that’s possible).
The L.A. Times is too terrified of Tulsi Gabbard to mention her in the fundraising article.
There is still enough left over of the aerospace defense complex left there to make that mandatory.
Want ongoing and new wars in the Middle East? No Medicare For All? Continuation of the usual parasitical profit sucking out of the Middle Class from Wall Street? Then by all means ignore Gabbard.
She needs to be on the debate stage. Very few new unique donors needed to make that happen and to shame, educate and remonstrate the corporate Democrats.
Sanders/Gabbard defeats Trump in 2020
https://www.tulsi2020.com/
Mike Gravel too. Worth a donate for the debate stage chance.
https://twitter.com/MikeGravel/status/1113257478202871808
Though he does sound a bit shaky. Hopefully he can liven up for the debate stage.
Haha, one of their default donation amounts is $4.20.
Done.
I received a notification from her campaign that she had reached 75,000+ donations as of the quarter deadline. Not sure how many are unique individual donations. She may need more new donors to make the 65,000 unique donors needed to be included in the debates.
Check out the Sanders’ hit piece in WaPo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanders-has-emerged-as-the-donald-trump-of-the-left/2019/04/02/66a516f4-5576-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html?utm_term=.fc5cf95b4070
Exactly what I would expect from the Democratic Party’s favorite mouthpiece.
Dana Milbank has been completely discredited, anyone taking this propagandist seriously is uninformed; you can still smell the putrid slim left behind by from 2016 election.
Just look at below – this guy should be censored for willfully misinforming the public.
“Vladimir Putin has played Americans across the political spectrum for suckers. In particular, the Russian dictator has turned Trump supporters into the useful idiots of the 21st century.”
https://www.pressherald.com/2018/02/22/dana-milbank-putin-played-americans-for-fools-including-the-no-1-useful-idiot/
Couldn’t get past the paywall but, really didn’t want to read it while eating. Saw this on Milbank’s Twitter Feed:
Dana Milbank
@Milbank
In my column noting parallels in style (not substance) between Sanders and Trump, I wrote: “the support for Sanders shows that the angry, unbending politics of Trumpism are bigger than Trump.” The vitriol and name-calling in the Bernie Bros’ replies sadly proves the point.
The Bernie Bros’ theme just won’t die. The left has been bent over for years, he just can’t seem to fathom we are done with that.
Sorry to say I found a link that is not pay-walled. Glad I was finished eating.
https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/04/03/dana-milbank-bernie/
They have it backwards. Trump is what you get when the left abandons mass democracy, leaving the crown in the gutter for anyone to pick up. Now we have the absurd prospect of democrats fighting tooth and nail against any attempt by the left to actually act leftist, enabling Republicans to pose as populist.
“Justice Department Warns Academy Over Potential Oscar Rule Changes Threatening Netflix (EXCLUSIVE)”
If the Justice Department wants to check out the Academy, I have an issue that I would like to bring up for them to investigate. About two years ago they gave an Academy Award to the White Helmets and I think that they were in contention for another award recently. This organization has proven links with al-Qaeda terrorists and some of them even serve with al-Qaeda. To quote an online source-
In United States law, providing material support for terrorism is a crime prohibited by the USA PATRIOT Act and codified in title 18 of the United States Code, sections 2339A and 2339B.
That being the case, I think that a case could be made that the Academy knowingly gave material support to a terrorist organization and should be investigate as such. It does not matter that that law applies primarily to groups designated as terrorists by the State Department as the proof of this matter was when the State Department refused a visa to the person from that organization coming to the US to collect the Oscar which is de facto recognition of that organizations status. Is Robert Mueller free these days for another gig?
I think it is probably doable under 2339B. (Whether it should be or not is a different question, depending on your view about what “support” should be criminal.) The State Department list is one way of falling into 2339B but support for a foreign organization that “has engaged or engages in terrorism” is also covered under the same statute, where “terrorism” means “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.”
From what I’ve read about this aspect of the Syria invasion, by the US and it’s various bands of mercenaries, the “White Helmets” seemed to more of an acting troupe than anything else. Maybe that’s why the academy award.
“MInnpost”, a local Minnesota news provider just published a summary of research regarding taking acreage out of production to install solar power and provide much needed habitat for pollinators has increased overall production in neighboring fields.
That’s pretty cool, and hopeful!
https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2019/04/highly-compatible-pollinator-friendly-solar-projects-and-farming/
Here in Ireland they are finding that solar farms are a good mix with maintaining species rich grasslands. Due to changes in agriculture subsidies some former sugar beet farms are now looking to develop as solar farms (surprisingly enough, Ireland has pretty decent solar capacity due to the long summer evenings). Using the land between as sheep grazing has been found to allow quite a good grassland mix to develop, so long as sheep densities aren’t kept too high. The sheep like all the shelter from the wind too.
So cool or should I say hot). When solutions are looked at whollisticaly, and with no harm being done the first commandment, then amazing benefits occur.
Letter to Trudeau from a Canadian:
The Honourable Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Re: Interfering with Prosecutorial Decisions
I deeply regret that you have treated two of the members of your caucus in such a shabby manner by relieving them of their ministries and kicking them out of government. These two women, Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould, are hard working and trustworthy and wanted to continue working for the people of Canada. I want them too.
From all I have read, you, as leader, could have made a speech to the country telling us just why you wanted to interfere with the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavelin and also admitting to the pressure put on the AG to act on your behalf.
Trust goes two ways and how can I, as a Canadian citizen, trust that you won’t pressure a new AG to give the deferred prosecution to SNC-Lavalin at some future time. You are a big disappointment for our country.
The black blinds are now pulled down over your “sunny ways.”
Sincerely
This would be a whole lot less horrible if the Conservatives weren’t abject shills for the fossil fuel industry
Oh well, it’s the NDP or Greens for me now, I guess …
Go ahead, split the vote and we’ll end up with the Conservatives.
and …..
Kiss our healthcare system goodbye
The Liberals, as well as the Conservatives, have done a lot of damage to Canadian healthcare. They are the Republicans and Democrats of Canada, both impeding any expansion of healthcare to include dental, vision, and pharma-care. Both, in their turn, have worked with the CMA and the university medical faculties to severely limit the number of physicians, creating bottlenecks at primary care, and dragging their feet on promoting and licensing nurse practitioners who could help ease the logjams. Both have, in turn, so frustrated Canadian citizens than thousands are using medical travel to Mexico, Central America, and South Asia for more prompt service, if, of course, they can afford it. That is the very definition of promoting 2-tier health care.
if you don’t vote for the smaller parties we will end up with a two-party system. the only difference between canada and the united states (ie better health care, gun control, etc) is that canada has a credible left. don’t vote for them because you’re afraid of splitting the vote and you end up with america.
So get trained, it’s not difficult. CPR Training.
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Sorry about your cat.
Thanks but I now have no time. Ten minutes is a lot of time for me. So the “not hard” isn’t exactly true. Plus my point is this sort of thing should be taught society-wide, like to kids in high school and refresher classes to adults at work. See the reader above indicating that a basic level of emergency training is a condition of getting a driver’s license in Germany.
Well, that was kinda the idea behind the Gandhi quote. If we want the world to change, first we must change ourselves.
Not to be a jerk but; if getting a driver’s license (or other necessity, if you don’t drive) was predicated on CPR training, would you then find the time?
Why should we require others to do what we are unwilling to do ourselves?
Re: Germany. From last year,
Germans learn how to save lives: a nationwide CPR education initiative
Even with free training, if the individual is not interested in contributing, change won’t happen.
As an aside, I wonder if the Greeks get gov’t sponsored CPR training? Or do they only get to pay for German training.
How dare you lecture me. I have no life. I have difficulty making time for required activity like paying my bills and getting my taxes done. I am neglecting medical maintenance like chiropractor and physical therapist visits. I have not been out to a social meal or drink since the July 4 weekend of 2017. The only time I have been able to do any non-work reading is on airplanes during the time when you aren’t allowed to have a laptop out. I not only haven’t seen a movie in years, I am so busy I don’t read movie reviews and for the last five years, have no idea what the new movies (and books) are save when I encounter reader discussion of them in comments.
Yves,
I can believe you are pressed for time. When the web was nascent, I actually tried to do a daily website and it became a burden after a couple of weeks.
You are amazing.
I appreciate your contribution to my life very much.
So much that when your fundraising comes around, I am redirecting my meager contributions your way. (Retired teacher – not rich)
But you do a wonderful job with your efforts, and my life would be much worse without NC.
I know a guy who inhaled his food and got it solidly stuck in his windpipe with no one around to help him. He knew he was done for but he took one last chance. He got up and walked forward across the room until he passed out. He belly flopped on the floor and it popped the food out. He came to quickly and lived to tell the tale. I think I believe it. Sounds possible.
If it is any consolation, Yves, most of the studies show that CPR saves a vanishingly small number of cardiac arrest patients. I suspect if you cut the data to exclude the moribund elderly in hospital, the figures look a bit better but still pretty bleak.:-(
Much more useful is a defibrillator, which these days you just break out of the box, read the instructions on the front (same level as a fire extinguisher, “point and shoot” equivalent) and Bob’s potentially still your uncle. They are popping up all over the UK through some campaigns and grant schemes – most small parish councils are buying them and converting old telephone boxes to house them, lots of sports halls and leisure centres have them etc.
This might be true of ‘most people’… But Yves isn’t ‘most people’. The problem with making such sweeping statements like you made, is that there are exceptions.
And honestly, lack of time is becoming more and more common due to economic precarity. A lot of people, adult people at least, are incredibly busy with work in order to pay off all the bills and loans the modern middle class has to deal with.
I agree that people should be taught these emergency maneuvers and the like, but in my opinion it should be something required in high school.
“Not to be a jerk, but …”
David1, I make this comment with the kindest of intentions: You are being a (self-described) jerk. But, take heart, ‘jerkicity’ can be unlearned and overcome. It just takes a little application, some listening, and the development of a bit more empathy.
You mention that, ‘if the individual is not interested in contributing, change won’t happen.’
Yves has devoted the last decade (at least) of her life to ‘contributing to change.’ Her devotion to the NC site, her recruitment of people like Lambert and Jeri-Lynn, her relationships with leading economists and scholars and writers who then publish on NC, have helped to change the way in which so many of us view the world, our political and social systems and our Planet. 7 days a week, 365 days a year, year in, year out.
Yeah, Yves laments that she does not have CPR training; but I suspect that is because she is a Type A Perfectionist. This is like Yoyo Ma lamenting that he has never learned how to rope up and perform a basic belay. Or how to deliver a baby in an emergency situation. Look at the probabilities. And then think of how best he might use his time.
So, really, David1, you might consider that a few months spent in unlearning ‘jerkicity’ to be time well spent. People will like you. Babies will gurgle when you chuck them under the chin. Old ladies will smile benignly when you offer than a seat on the bus.
75 dollars for 2 yr certification doesn’t strike me as charitable, nor socially utilitarian.
Here’s a video of that baby elephant rescue. It’s sometimes difficult to realize that such a large animal is also a “baby.”
Infrastructure
NY-NJ cobbling together patches for critical rail tunnels under Hudson River between NYC and NJ. They were getting old and got significant damage during Sandy: https://www.apnews.com/975ea1f5f1ae4c0bbde801a03116f15f
However, NYC-NJ have struggled to get federal funding for the new Gateway tunnel project. One of the reasons is the exorbitant tunneling costs in NYC. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html
Meanwhile everybody keeps fiddling while a major tunnel for commuters and freight becomes more and more perilous. Eventually these things can actually fail, like the Spencer Dam in Nebraska. When they do, it is usually sudden and unexpected with potential significant damage.
The Harkonnens who run our country are treating it like a tear-down.
More recall news:
“AdvancePierre Foods, Inc., an Enid, Okla. establishment, is recalling approximately 20,373 pounds of ready-to-eat (RTE) beef patties that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically soft purple plastic.”
Read more:
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2019/recall-040-2019-release
At least the plastic is “soft”… /s
There has been quite a lot of rubber, plastic, and metal contamination in the RTE products lately, makes me think some may not “accidental”…
Imagine the discussion in the headquarters offices of APFoods:
That stuff wasn’t supposed to be in the RTE hamburger patties.
That purple plastic was to be the filler to put into the Easter eggs we’re supposed to be starting to sell next week..
Now what are we going to do? The eggs have already been packed and sent out.
Well! So what? The children will be consuming rotting beef, but dyed a pleasing purple.
That, or perhaps grocery chains need to set up an RTB aisle next to their RTE aisle: Ready to barf.
“Florida Repair Shop”…what is it with that state?
Is it cursed? Any connection with Aerojet?, That caused the ValueJet crash?
Most American aircraft are now maintained in El Salvador or China.
Guess Florida can be added to the suspect list. Onward crapification…
https://www.aviationpros.com/home/press-release/10434360/the-chinese-art-of-aircraft-maintenance
“In 1997, a federal grand jury indicted SabreTech for mishandling hazardous materials, failing to train its employees in proper handling of hazardous materials, conspiracy, and making false statements. SabreTech’s maintenance supervisor, Daniel Gonzalez, and two mechanics who worked on the plane, Eugene Florence and Mauro Valenzuela, were charged with conspiracy and making false statements. Two years later, having been found guilty on the mishandling hazardous materials and improper training charges, SabreTech was fined $2 million and ordered to pay $9 million in restitution. Gonzalez and Florence were acquitted on all charges, while Valenzuela failed to appear and was indicted in absentia for contempt of court.[14] Valenzuela is still a fugitive; he was specifically highlighted in the EPA’s announcement of a website to search for “environmental fugitives.”[15] The FBI has offered a $10,000 reward for information on his whereabouts.”
Valuejet Wikipedia
I did a little research on XTRA Aerospace Inc., and couldn’t come up with anything. My suspicion, not founded, was that they were in fact brokers, and that (given their Latin America–adjacent Miramar location) they didn’t do anything in-house (whether repair or resale). Their owners, Wencor, are in turn owned by private equity, so I assume XTRA is crapified and looted in some way, but there’s no evidence how.
“Ethiopian Airlines Pilots Initially Followed Boeing’s Required Emergency Steps To Disable 737 MAX System”
Man. I can hear those alerts going off in Boeing’s Chicago headquarters now-
Woop. Woop
Lawsuit. Lawsuit
Woop. Woop
Lawyer-up.lawyer-up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgkD1scIkKw
What Modern Monetary Theory Gets Right and Wrong Wall Street Journal. Furzy: “MMT finally getting some recognition….WSJ still critical, and struggling to understand it!!” Not paywalled. But you don’t have to get far in to read…groan…hyperinflation….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Couldn’t break through the great paywall of Rupert, alas morass has set in.
I can’t think of even one instance of hyperinflation in terms of what you usually look for in either coins or paper money*, i.e. a host, when the ghost is in the machine, so how would cyberinflation manifest itself, being a no host party?
*19 out of 20 $’s aren’t cash anymore
Hyperinflation.
Google ‘medications outrageous prices,’ and we can see many reported example of inflated prices…that’s inflation, if not quite hyperinflation…yet.
Do you fight that sectoral inflation by taxation, across the board, or targeted?
I don’t know about you, but every time I try and pay my bills with pills, it doesn’t work as money. An unopened bottle of St Joseph childrens aspirin wouldn’t probably work for property taxes, no matter if said bottle was upside down in the package it was mailed out in.
Paying bills with pills?
Doesn’t it that work, from time to time, depending on the situation?
Money has been made out of all sorts of things, bricks of pressed tea in 19th century Russia, ‘coins’ made out of pages of a bible in 16th century Leyden, in what is now the Netherlands, playing card money in Canada in the 18th century, wampum (shells) on the east coast of the USA in the 17th-18th century… but pills, nope.
There is also stone money.
That reminds me of the tale of The Stone Flower, from the Ural region of Russia.
As for pills, or cigaretts, don’t underestimate humans.
My dad told me that cigarettes were preferred over most everything else that passed for money in Prague, circa 1944.
But then again, damn near everybody was a tobacco user, or wanted to be.
In Romania in the 1970’s & 80’s Kent cigarettes were as good as cash, but other brands were discounted as not being all that, in comparison.
https://www.nbbmuseum.be/en/2015/06/money-that-goes-up-in-smoke.htm
Pills, tablets, what’s the difference?
Medicine as money: yes, but fictional, in Clarke’s (Asimov? my memory is failing me) flying cities series.
And the Aztecs used cacao beans as money. Of course, consumables aren’t exactly money, as there’s a conflict between the use and the monetary value. “Eating your capital” becomes all too literal.
Boxes of Tide…
https://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1/
“More measles cases in the US in first 3 months of 2019 than all of CNBC2018: CDC ABC”
I had missed that CNBC won naming rights to the year 2018. How very David Foster Wallace…
:)
> Top Democrat Proposes Annual Tax on Unrealized Capital Gains
It is Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and I don’t know why the headline writer is bashful about the snake’s name or the viper pit from which he came. Perhaps they were too angry to write words which were not obscene?
It’s not impossible. Difficult perhaps. Not impossible!
Difficult administratively, and I’m not sure it is practically wise–I suspect the result probably would be a whole new market for opportunities to generate capital losses.
I didn’t think this was ambiguous. I was referring to the difficulty of writing an informative headline.
Ah, my apologies. Not feeling well today (and clearly not as attentive as I should be).
Annual Tax on Unrealized Capital Gains.
Annually, but should it be on assets held over, say, 10 years, or do we tax unrealized gains on shares purchased even on, say, the 29th of December, 2 days before the end of the year?
Evidently, it is illegal in the UK to televise incorrect medical procedures. Doc Martin star, Martin Clunes, stated this in a recent interview so it must be true. In explaining the popularity of this TV series he said the eponymous principal character embodies an archetype beloved of the English people: A bossy man in a dark suit with a posh accent who will take charge and fix everything.
I can’t imagine that UK TV does not portray people performing CPR. But performing accurate CPR absent an emergency situation would be crazy–unless the recipient likes a good risk of broken ribs. So I could see there being a requirement on providing accurate medical information, but not on actual portrayals.
Not sure if this Reuters exclusive made the “links” cut, but if anyone still doubts that key elements of US foreign policy have been “boltonized”, here is a chilling example, re: failed Kim-Trump “summit”:
Asking for virtually unconditional surrender of NK nuclear capability, then invoking the “Libyan model”, and for all this a vague “sanctions-removal” pledge AFTER NK lays itself open to possible regime change or any other threat that Bolton can throw at their government. As the Reuters piece concludes, the Bolton “offer” was deliberately couched in terms that Mr Kim had refused outright in the past, and was designed to fail. Either Trump hadn’t read – or if he did, failed to understand, how such an “offer” would be completely repudiated by Mr Kim, and that to keep up the “my dear friend Kim” only further alienates the North Koreans from further engagement. That Trump’s glad-handing is but a front for Bolton’s sabotage tactics is obvious to everyone except the US media, who for whatever reasons are cutting Bolton a ton of slack (see Venezuela).
Well one thing we can do which is proven to be very effective to prevent hyperinflation exploding from the dreaded MMT spending spree is we can order the Federal Reserve to go ahead and either underwrite private money infrastructure development investments, or bond for private “savers”, using a dedicated long term negative interest rate of 5%, collectible monthly and any shortfall will be compounded ad infinitum until there’s no private money left to inflate the economy. That would take care of it, no?
That is to say “no excess private money left to inflate the economy” – we currently have way too much of it and for it to realize a return of 8% (it’s usual goal) would just be more insanity than one little planet can host.
AI will not have mobility, as Humans do.
In addition, there will be many methods to turn it off.
Only if humans protect the AI, with their lives, could AI take over.
Also, if it has any intelligence, it will recognize that Humans are a threat to it existence.
AI will become a major threat when the US turns command and control of the military and police to an AI General. This General will want to become a dictator, as General are wont to do, and promise rewards to its faithful.
This just in: apparently just the Clintons were not enough to make the gold roll so they enlisted Jerry Stiller to moderate.
Be still my beating heart!
“Detroit’s historic Fox Theatre will host 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, for a speaking tour stop moderated by Hollywood icon Ben Stiller.
The Clintons embarked on a tour across North America last November, featuring anecdotes from their long political careers and conversations on the modern political landscape.
“From the American presidency to the halls of the Senate and State Department, to one of the United States’ most controversial and unpredictable presidential elections, they provide a unique perspective on the past, and remarkable insight into where we go from here, Live Nation said in a statement.”
https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2019/04/detroit-to-host-bill-and-hillary-clinton-speaking-tour-with-ben-stiller.html
Pop-up ad report, text:
“StockEarnings.com
is reporting Earnings soon…
Will it go up or down after announcement?
77.6% Accuracy.”
Yeah, that’s the one I got, too.
Damn, just got a popup – on a laptop running Windows/Waterfox. Sorry about that, Yves. It did have an operating “X”.
“A glacier the size of Florida is on track to change the course of human civilization | Alternet” — A good article, followed by an inane “HAVE TRUMP AND PUTIN JUST PULLED OFF THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY? VOTE NOW” link, embedded in a picture of the 2 aforementioned principals “obviously conspiring evilly against American democracy” by way of walking and talking. (Or better, Putin walking and Trump talking with a stereotypical “lemme tellya about this yuuuge deal I one pulled off, Vlad – you’ll love it!” Trumpian-braggadocio face.)
Reading it quickly, I thought it said that Florida broke off, potentially to join forces with Venezuela or a Caribbean country to be named later?
Think some in Florida would like to join forces with Cuba. This is with Marco Rubio being the commander in charge of the liberating forces of the free and independent nation of Florida. A funny image just came to my mind: Marco dressed up in a Napolean inspired uniform, including the hat. Cubans will welcome them with rum, cigars, flowers, organic food and excellent, free medical care. Until…uh, oh
“Venezuela: Another Regime Change Disaster? AND Magazine (martha r)” — Nah; Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, those were regime-change disasters, costing egregious amounts of ‘blood and treasure’ and leaving failed, jihadist-ridden states in their wake. Venezuela appears to be shaping up to be more a The Mouse That Roared-style farce.
As it would. We can’t invade, we don’t have that power now. So without that baseline, what can we do? Destroy the economy, of course. Which didn’t work for Cuba. And now Venezuela has Russian
and Chinese* support. Again, as it would.* See MoA.
“Lori Lightfoot elected Chicago mayor, will be 1st black woman and 1st openly gay person to hold post NBC (furzy)” — NBC, busily marking as many IdPol checkboxes as it can. No mention of policy in the headline, unsurprisingly. “Policy is hard,” sez taking IdPol Barbie.
But is she an openly gay black (or was it openly black gay?) closet Wiccan? Mayhap a socialist commie-loving Putin puppet? A union-hugging hater of Free Markets™? Inquiring minds want to know!
Lightfoot is an accidental mayor. Like Trump, she ran never expecting to win. Like Trump, she won with an electorate voting for none of the above. Unlike Trump, the electorate put this unknown in with 74% of the vote, beating another Daley and Toni preckwinkle and every other alderman and product of Chicago Democratic machine politics.
Like Trump, the voters knew next to nothing about her, happy to deliver a giant f*** you to the system. Unlike Trump she is neither a populist of the right or left, but a standard issue corporate lawyer, and political appointee to police oversight boards with very little to show for the effort.
global climate catastrophe?
I bet that “young bartender” had to deal with — and cut off — countless customers just like Trump, and understands very well where that class of person is coming from. She also got inside his head — he can’t be running as a populist and insulting bartenders.