Monday, March 10, 2025

What Just Happened to UK TBTF Lender Barclays’ Online Banking Services, and What Could It Mean for the Wider World?

“[W]e have this house of cards where you’ve got an awful lot of institutions working co-operatively with each other, but if one messes up the system, then the whole system fails.”

New Filing Details How Crooked Attorney Ann Oldfather and Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman Conspired to Sell Out Underwater Pension Funds and Taxpayers to the Tune of Hundreds of Millions, Even >$1 Billion, in Lost Recoveries

As more legal filings and reviews show, Ann Oldfather and Attorney General Russell Cameron are shafting Kentucky taxpayers for their benefit

AI’s Impending Information Crisis

AI coverage whistles past the graveyard of its lack of enough content to generate good output, assuring garbage in, garbage out.

Tankus and Kelton on Musk’s DOGE Seizing Treasury’s Payments Chokepoint. But Where Are The Lawyers?

What attack surfaces does DOGE present?

2:00PM Water Cooler 2/3/2025

~ Today’s Water Cooler: Open Thread ~

Links 2/3/2025

Trump Declares Economic War on Just About Everyone That Matters. Is a Smash-Up a Feature and Not a Bug? Update: Mexico One Month Pause. Who Blinked?

Trump is opening up a multi-front economic war by imposing tariffs on America’s biggest trade partners, with the EU next in line. What gives?

How Do We Get Competent Politicians?

Richard Murphy argues that all prospective UK parliamentarians and councillors should have to take an exam to prove their competence.

Meditation and Mindfulness at Work Are Welcome, but Do They Help Avoid Accountability for Toxic Culture?

An update on corporate efforts to deploy seemingly beneficial practices like meditation for their benefit.

Links 2/2/2025

Will It Matter Who Wins Germany’s Upcoming Election or Will Country’s Fate Largely Be Decided in Washington?

If Germany stays under the thumb of Washington and living standards continue to decline under a new government, what happens then?

California Blesses Political Donors’ Strategy to ‘Multiply Their Influence’

Venture capitalists and tech execs strengthen control over Democrat-controlled California while they do the same at the national level under Trump’s GOP.

Links 2/1/2025

Migrant Vendors Park Carts as Their American Dreams Slip Away

Enforcement was already rising. Under Trump, street vendors have gone into hiding to avoid criminal tickets that could make them ICE targets.

Book Bans

A look at a historical example of a concerted book ban to assess its effectiveness and long-term impact.