Year: 2017

Today’s Philosophy Read

No Comments

How French “Intellectuals” Ruined the West: Postmodernism and Its Impact, Explained

It is a (IMNSHO) well deserved systematic dismantling of the philosophy of postmodernism, a philosophy which I loath, but which has found much favor in academe.

It reduces the whole of human knowledge to competing relativistic fictions.

The Trump administration’s comments regarding, “Alternative Facts,” is the epitome, if not the apotheosis, of post modernist thought.

Read the whole thing, but here is my favorite paragraph:

Our current crisis is not one of Left versus Right but of consistency, reason, humility and universal liberalism versus inconsistency, irrationalism, zealous certainty and tribal authoritarianism. The future of freedom, equality and justice looks equally bleak whether the postmodern Left or the post-truth Right wins this current war. Those of us who value liberal democracy and the fruits of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution and modernity itself must provide a better option.

Go read.

Another Stopped Clock Moment

No Comments

The Trump administration has revealed plans to crack down on H1B visa abuse:

The U.S. administration began to deliver on President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on a work visa program that channels thousands of skilled overseas workers to companies across the technology industry.

Fed up with a program it says favors foreign workers at the expense of Americans, the Trump administration rolled out a trio of policy shifts. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency on Friday made it harder for companies to bring overseas tech workers to the U.S. using the H-1B work visa. On Monday, the agency issued a memo laying out new measures to combat what it called “fraud and abuse” in the program. The Justice Department also warned employers applying for the visas not to discriminate against U.S. workers.


………

This week’s moves weren’t the administration’s first attempts to adjust the program. Last month, the immigration department suspended a system that expedited visa processing for certain skilled workers who paid extra. But people who have been pushing for reform had become frustrated in recent weeks that the Trump administration wasn’t moving fast enough.

Outsourcing firms are considered the worst abusers of the system, an impression that the tech industry has been happy to encourage. Monday’s USCIS announcement targets those firms, with the agency saying it will focus inspections on workplaces with the largest percentage of H-1B workers, and those with employees who do IT work for other companies. Shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., Infosys Ltd., Wipro Ltd. and Accenture Plc each slipped more than 1 percent on Monday.

………

The new guidelines released Friday require additional information for computer programmers applying for H-1B visas to prove the jobs are complicated and require more advanced knowledge and experience. It’s effective immediately, so it will change how companies apply for the visas in an annual lottery process that begins Monday. The changes don’t explicitly prohibit applications for a specific type of job. Instead, they bring more scrutiny to those for computer programmers doing the simplest jobs.

“This is a step in the right direction in terms of tightening up the eligibility,” said Ron Hira, an associate professor at Howard University, who has done extensive research on the H-1B program. “You’re going to have to beef up your argument for why you need this person.”

It’s baby steps, but considering that the previous 4 administrations have been aggressive in undermining wages of tech workers with the H1B and L1A visas, it is very much a step in the right direction.

Yank on Your ATM (It Just Sounds Dirty, but It Isn’t)

No Comments
Click for larger images


ATM with skimmer installed


Note the pinhole for a camera to read your PIN


Note the overlay beginning to pull away


The overlay removed

It turns out that thieves are attaching skimming devices to ATMS to steal your card codes and your pass codes:

Once you understand how easy and common it is for thieves to attach “skimming” devices to ATMs and other machines that accept debit and credit cards, it’s difficult not to closely inspect and even tug on the machines before using them. Several readers who are in the habit of doing just that recently shared images of skimmers they discovered after gently pulling on various parts of a cash machine they were about to use.

 ………

 ATM card skimmers contain tiny bits of electronics that record payment card data from the magnetic stripe on the backs of cards inserted into a hacked ATM. Most commonly (as in this case), a card skimmer is paired with a pinhole spy camera hidden above or beside the PIN pad to record time-stamped video of cardholders entering their PINs. Taken together, the stolen data allows thieves to fabricate new cards and use PINs to withdraw cash from victim accounts.

 Card skimmers designed to look like the green anti-skimming devices found on many ATMs are some of the most common cash machine skimming devices in use today, probably because they are relatively cheap to manufacture en masse and there are many fraudsters peddling these in the cybercrime underground.

 ………

 Many people believe that skimmers are mainly a problem in the United States, where most ATMs still do not require more secure chip-based cards that are far more expensive and difficult for thieves to clone. However, it’s precisely because most U.S. ATMs lack this security requirement that skimming remains so prevalent in Europe.

 Mainly for reasons of backward compatibility to accommodate American tourists, many European ATMs allow non-chip-based cards to be inserted into the cash machine. What’s more, many chip-based cards issued by American and European banks alike still have cardholder data encoded on a magnetic stripe in addition to the chip.

 When thieves skim ATMs in Europe, they generally sell the stolen card and PIN data to fraudsters on the other side of the pond. Those fraudsters in turn will encode the card data onto counterfeit cards and withdraw cash at ATMs here in the United States.

One more thing to be paranoid about.

Oh, Snap!

No Comments
Massachusetts instituted background for “ride sharing” drivers, and over 10% failed the check:


More than 8,000 Massachusetts residents who want to drive for ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft won’t be allowed to, because they didn’t pass a new background check system that operates in that state.

Most were rejected because they had suspended licenses or hadn’t been driving for long enough to qualify, according to a report on the matter in The Boston Globe. But hundreds had committed serious crimes, including violent crimes and sexual crimes. 51 applicants were registered sex offenders. Others had convictions for drunk driving or reckless driving.

The checks came about because Massachusetts passed a new law regulating ride-sharing companies, which required a background check run by the state government, in addition to the companies’ own background checks. The state checks began in January, and the results were announced yesterday. Out of the 70,789 drivers who went through the state application process, 8,206 were rejected.

………

“Under Massachusetts law, Lyft’s commercial background check provider, like all consumer reporting agencies, is legally prevented from looking back further than seven years into driver applicants’ histories,” Lyft said in a statement to the Globe. “The state does not face the same limitation, which likely explains why a small percentage of our drivers failed the state’s background check while passing ours.”

Note how most were simply unqualified to drive a hack, which IS something that should be picked up in a, “Lyft’s commercial background check.”

Lyft did not want to catch this, so they paid for a search that didn’t, otherwise they would have caught the folks who lacked sufficient driving experience to qualify.

Lyft and Uber did this because they thought that they could get away with it.

I Predict That They Will Cave

No Comments

They might have the votes right now, but I would bet the proverbial, “Credits to Navy Beans,” that they are going to fold in the end.

The Democratic Party seems to be constitutionally incapable of standing their ground these days, so I think that a significant portion of the caucus will eventually fold in the name of, “Keeping their powder dry.”

Realistically, this would have the effect of preserving the filibuster on SCOTUS only for Republicans, because, of course, if the Dems ever attempt such a filibuster, then the ‘Phants will threaten the nuclear option, and if the Democrats filibuster anyway, they will pull the trigger:

Senate Democrats have clinched enough support to block Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court, setting up a “nuclear” showdown over Senate rules later this week.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) announced on Monday that he will oppose President Trump’s pick on a procedural vote where he will need the support of eight Democrats to cross a 60-vote threshold to end debate on Gorsuch. Coons is the 41st Democrat to back the filibuster.

“Throughout this process, I have kept an open mind. … I have decided that I will not support Judge Grouch’s nomination in the Judiciary Committee meeting today,” Coons said.

“I am not ready to end debate on this issue. So I will be voting against cloture,” Coons said, absent a deal to avoid the nuclear option.Unless one of the 41 Democrats changes their vote, the filibuster of Gorsuch will be sustained in a vote later this week.

Gorsuch’s path to overcoming a filibuster closed on Monday after Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.) and Mark Warner (Va.) each announced they would oppose Gorsuch’s nomination.

Only four Democratic senators have said they will support President Trump’s pick on the initial vote to end debate: Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Michael Bennet (Colo.).

Needless to say, defeating Heitkamp, Donnelly, Manchin, and Bennet in their next elections should be a priority for Democratic activists.

There is a difference between a conservative Democrat and a disloyal one, and this particular, “Gang of 4,” are disloyal Democrats.

Know Your Rights

No Comments
Iceland is the first modern nature requiring public disclosure of salary as a way to combat discrimination, but a lot of people don’t know that in the US it is illegal for your boss to restrict discussions among employees of their pay:

Iceland recently decided its laws preventing pay discrimination were insufficient. New legislation will require employers to prove that their employees are being compensated fairly. This is a significant advance. Pay secrecy gives employers the power to discriminate against workers, or to pay them based on arbitrary, opaque criteria. Forcing employers to be transparent about compensation puts Iceland at the front of the pack in protecting worker rights. In many countries, including the United States, the onus is on the employee to uncover pay discrimination, and bring about legal action to remedy the situation.

………

The issue of pay secrecy is particularly fraught for women, who have historically been paid substantially less than men for doing the same work. This is starting to change. In an era of “lean-in” feminism, women have become familiar with research showing that Women Don’t Ask and that starting a career with a lower salary than a man in a similar position can lead to dramatic differences in compensation over the long run. These days, more and more women are asking.

………

In theory, the Ledbetter Act works in concert with Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act which grants non-supervisory employees in private-sector companies the freedom to discuss their wages or salaries. Any such discussion is concerted activity, protected under the act. However, the penalties for employer violations remain woefully weak, and may disappear entirely under the current presidential administration.

Moreover, as legal scholar Cynthia Estlund argues, most workplaces have strong norms against discussing salaries, and many workers incorrectly believe that they may be punished for these discussions. For example, numerous NLRB rulings prohibit companies from putting rules in employee handbooks that flout federal protections of workers’ rights. Yet companies still do it. In 2010, an administrative law judge ruled that ten different sections of the T-Mobile employee handbooks violated federal labor law, including provisions that effectively stopped workers from discussing wages and working conditions. In this case, the company was imposing an illegal policy on over forty thousand workers, chilling their ability to organize together at the same time that the Communications Workers of America was attempting to organize a union at T-Mobile.

Some 60 percent of private-sector workers report that their employers have similar policies to T-mobile. These policies, while technically unenforceable, create a climate where workers do not discuss pay, and therefore cannot uncover any disparities. Many workers wrongly think (no doubt encouraged by their employers) that it’s against the rules to discuss their wages or salaries with their coworkers. 

Know your rights here.

Requiring pay disclosure, and requiring that temp agencies disclose their billing rate to their contractors, would be a very good, but until then, know that any section of the employee manual that forbids discussion of your pay with a coworker is illegal and unenforceable.

Pass the Popcorn

No Comments
There has been a recent surge by the far left candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, in the French campaign for President, which means that it is theoretically possible that you would have a runoff between him and right wing extremist Marine LePen.

If Melenchon makes it into the runoff, I think that we will see the main-stream parties going for the bigot, because he is more of a threat to the bankster’s racket:

French left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon’s creeping gain in the polls is adding a new layer of risk to France’s election.

Although the possibility of a second round between Melenchon and the anti-immigration, anti-euro National Front’s Marine Le Pen — candidates of the extreme left and extreme right — is remote, his rise casts yet another shadow over what has been one of the most tumultuous and unpredictable election campaigns in recent French history.

Melenchon, who was a distant fifth in the polls until a couple of weeks ago, is now within touching distance of Francois Fillon, currently in third place. According to an Odoxa poll published by Le Point magazine Friday, Melenchon would get 16 percent of the vote in the first round on April 23, just shy of Republican candidate Fillon’s 17 percent. Emmanuel Macron and Le Pen remain the front runners, with 26 percent and 25 percent respectively.

“If Jean-Luc Melenchon’s momentum continues, one could have three or four favorites in a pocket handkerchief, within the margin of error of the polls,” said Yves-Marie Cann, political research director at polling firm Elabe. “And then there will be uncertainty.”

A potential battle of the two populists, coming after the Brexit vote in the U.K. and the election of Donald Trump in the U.S., would add to the turmoil in the markets. Although Melenchon, unlike Le Pen, hasn’t said he will take France out of the European Union, he remains hostile to Europe’s institutions and has said he wants to renegotiate treaties and reform the union.

………

The oldest of the main candidates, Melenchon, 65, is on his second run for president and has a loyal base attracted by his uncompromising positions against globalism and Western militarism. He was a member of the Socialist Party and even a government minister before quitting the party over what he saw as its pro-business policies.

In his campaign program, Melenchon says he’d put in place a 100 billion-euro ($107 billion) stimulus package to help tackle poverty, improve public services and protect the environment. He plans 173 billion euros of extra state expenses that he says will generate 190 billion euros of additional revenue, boost growth by more than 2 percentage points from 2018 and create more than 3 million jobs.

Among his populist measures are a plan to raise France’s minimum wage by 15 percent and lower retirement age to 60 years with full pension. He also plans to add 200,000 units of public housing a year. He expects his program to increase public debt as a share of gross domestic product to 95.8 percent, with a plan to reduce it to 87 percent in 2022.

It’s a slim chance, but I think that his making the runoff would be a good thing, and not just because he has the best policies of any candidate.

By presenting French voters with two choices outside the general window of acceptability (though Melenchon would have been pretty mainstream circa 1980) it requires actual thought by the voter.

Hopefully, this might create an electorate that eschews the false dichotomies that are presented by the current powers that be.

The disastrous policies coming from Berlin and Brussels have always been sold as being the only alternative, disabusing both the ordinary folk and the PTB would be a very good thing.

It’s the Start of the Crazy Season

No Comments

Spent most of today cleaning for Pesach (Passover).

It’s a period of high anxiety for Sharon*, and I am doing my level best to be as supportive as possible.

Light blogging for a while.

BTW, anyone know a good way to split the Red Sea?

Have a Pesach joke:

Once upon a time in a far away land there lived a king who had a Jewish advisor. The king relied so much on the wisdom of his Jewish advisor that one day he decided to elevate him to head advisor. After it was announced, the other advisors objected. After all, it was bad enough just to sit in counsel with a Jew, but to allow one to ‘lord it over them,’ was just too much to bear. Being a compassionate ruler, the King agreed with them, and ordered the Jew to convert. What could the Jew do? One had to obey the King, and so he did.

As soon as the act was done, the Jew felt great remorse for this terrible decision. As days became weeks, his remorse turned to despondency, and as months passed, his mental depression took its toll on his physical health. He became weaker and weaker. Finally he could stand it no longer. His mind was made up. He burst in on the king and cried, “I was born a Jew and a Jew I must die. Do what you want with me, but I can no longer deny my faith.” The King was very surprised. He had no idea that the Jew felt so strongly about it. “Well, if that is how you feel,” he said, “then the other advisors will just have to learn to live with it. Your counsel is much too important to me to do without. Go and be a Jew again” he said.

The Jew felt elated. He hurried back home to tell the good news to his family. He felt the strength surge back into his body as he ran. Finally, he burst into the house and called out to his wife. “Rifka, Rifka, we can be Jews again, we can be Jews again.” His wife glared back at him angrily and said, “You couldn’t wait until after Passover?”

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Hold Onto Your Wallet

No Comments

Here we have another claim of an earth shattering product.

It’s not software, it’s an actually a real world high tech physical device, and he is promising to be able to deliver a Lidar (Laser Radar) for things like self driving cars for pennies.

Am I the only one who thinks that this reads like an article about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos:

In the sixth grade, Austin Russell turned a Nintendo gaming handset into a cell phone. At 15, he built a holographic keyboard. By 17, he’d filed for a patent. Now at 22, he’s running a startup at the heart of Silicon Valley’s latest technology mania.

As founder and chief executive officer of Luminar Technologies Inc., Russell and his team are building lidar, a hyper-accurate laser sensing technology crucial for self-driving cars. Google parent Alphabet Inc. is suing Uber Technologies Inc. for allegedly stealing lidar designs, while startups Velodyne Lidar Inc. and Quanergy Systems Inc. have raised at least $150 million apiece from giants like Ford Motor Co., Baidu Inc., Daimler AG and Samsung Electronics Co.


Russell has raised a similar amount, according to people familiar with Luminar’s finances. The company, founded in 2012, had sought a valuation above $1 billion when it was raising money last year, one of the people said. It’s unclear who invested — Luminar is in “stealth” mode, meaning it hasn’t announced itself to the world yet. A spokeswoman declined to comment, as did Russell’s father Michael, a commercial real estate veteran who serves as chief financial officer. A message sent to Austin Russell through his LinkedIn profile was answered by his assistant, who declined to comment.Russell has raised a similar amount, according to people familiar with Luminar’s finances. The company, founded in 2012, had sought a valuation above $1 billion when it was raising money last year, one of the people said. It’s unclear who invested — Luminar is in “stealth” mode, meaning it hasn’t announced itself to the world yet. A spokeswoman declined to comment, as did Russell’s father Michael, a commercial real estate veteran who serves as chief financial officer. A message sent to Austin Russell through his LinkedIn profile was answered by his assistant, who declined to comment.

………

 That a relatively unknown college dropout of barely drinking age can raise millions of dollars shows the appetite for lidar. “It’s a gold rush and we’re selling pickaxes,” said Velodyne President Mike Jellen, who graduated college years before Russell was born. Several car companies want autonomous vehicles on the road by 2020 or 2021, which means they’re starting to order lots of lidar systems. Velodyne expects to ship 12,000 units this year, 80,000 in 2018 and 1.7 million by 2022.

 ………

A top-of-the-range lidar from Velodyne sells for more than $50,000. It offers cheaper lidar, which generates lower-definition 3-D images, for about $8,000, while Quanergy has a product that sells for some $4,000. Autonomous cars often require two or more lidar sensors, so having a capable system can get expensive.

Russell is trying to develop a lidar priced significantly less than $1,000, according to people with knowledge of Luminar’s planning. Quanergy aims to have one that sells below $100 in three to four years.

………

In a recent demonstration, the images generated by Luminar’s lidar system were higher-definition than those produced by competing equipment made by Velodyne or Quanergy, according to someone who saw the equipment first-hand, but was not allowed to discuss it publicly. Another version generated even sharper images, but the information was processed with a slight delay — because of a lack of computing power to crunch all the data rather than a problem with the core technology, the person said.

Another “unicorn”, only because it’s not a clever internet idea and actually have to deliver a physical product that is bound by the laws of physics, it ain’t quite so easy.

What we have here is the Silicon Valley investors distracted by a shiny bauble.

A few buzz words about the current in technology, and they go crazy.

Kind of like how all of big movers and shakers in tech declaring that Dean Kaman’s “Ginger”,  now known as the Segway scooter was going to transform the world.

Way too much of the US tech market seems startlingly close to snake oil sales.

If someone suggests investing in this, run in the other direction.

Everything That Is Wrong with the F-35 in 1 Article

No Comments

At 35 Seconds, You can See the Pilot’s Head Strike the Canopy

It’s a bit of a read but this article lists the the current problems, and the basic architectural problems in excruciating detail:

The F-35 still has a long way to go before it will be ready for combat. That was the parting message of Michael Gilmore, the now-retired Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, in his last annual report.

The Joint Strike Fighter Program has already consumed more than $100 billion and nearly 25 years. Just to finish the basic development phase will require at least an extra $1 billion and two more years. Even with this massive investment of time and money, Gilmore told Congress, the Pentagon and the public, “the operational suitability of all variants continues to be less than desired by the Services.”

Gilmore detailed a range of remaining and sometimes worsening problems with the program, including hundreds of critical performance deficiencies and maintenance problems. He also raised serious questions about whether the Air Force’s F-35A can succeed in either air-to-air or air-to-ground missions, whether the Marine Corps’ F-35B can conduct even rudimentary close air support, and whether the Navy’s F-35C is suitable to operate from aircraft carriers.

He found, in fact, that “if used in combat, the F-35 aircraft will need support to locate and avoid modern threat ground radars, acquire targets, and engage formations of enemy fighter aircraft due to unresolved performance deficiencies and limited weapons carriage availability.”

The details follow, and while some might eventually be fixed (late and expensive) a lot of these are artifacts of the basic architecture of both the plane.

This is going to be a complete cluster f%$#.

Seriously, This Guy Should Have Been Drowned at Birth

No Comments

I am referring, of course to Penn State trustee Albert Lord, who has stated that he is, “Running out of sympathy for 35 yr old, so-called victims with 7 digit net worth for the people who were raped by Jerry Sandusky, with the knowledge of Joe Paterno and Penn State:

Penn State trustee Albert L. Lord said he is “running out of sympathy” for the “so-called” victims of former Nittany Lions assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, according to an email sent to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Lord, a former CEO of student loan company Sallie Mae, also defended Graham Spanier, the dismissed Penn State president who was convicted of one count of child endangerment last week for his handling of complaints about Sandusky.

“Running out of sympathy for 35 yr old, so-called victims with 7 digit net worth,” Lord said in the email sent Saturday. “Do not understand why they were so prominent in trial. As you learned, Graham Spanier never knew Sandusky abused anyone.”

One thing to note here:  He is an trustee elected by alumni, and there is a contested election for his position that will be ongoing for the next few months.

If you are an alum, vote early and often for the other guys.

Donate to their Primary Opponents, and Do Not Vote for Them in the General

No Comments

Two Democratic Senators, Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp, have announced that they will vote to appoint Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court:

Senators Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp on Thursday became the first Democrats to support the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, giving Republicans two of eight Democratic votes needed to avoid a nasty fight on the U.S. Senate floor next week.

 Both West Virginia’s Manchin and North Dakota’s Heitkamp are up for re-election next year in states that voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

 “I hold no illusions that I will agree with every decision Judge Gorsuch may issue in the future, but I have not found any reasons why this jurist should not be a Supreme Court justice,” Manchin said in a statement. Manchin met with the nominee for a second time on Wednesday night.

 Heitkamp said that Gorsuch “has a record as a balanced, meticulous and well-respected jurist who understands the rule of law.”

This has got to be a red line:  If you vote for cloture, we are done with you.

I can’t speak to Heitkamp, she has been off my radar, but Manchin is a deeply corrupt individual who pulled strings to get the University of West Virginia to grant his daughter an unearned MBA degree, and later, when his daughter became CEO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals, he pushed to mandate them in public schools, even as the company was aggressively price gouging.

He is a bad, bad man, and we are not taking back the Senate in 2018.

If anything there will be fewer Dems in the Senate, because there are 9 Republican seats, and 25 Democratic seats (including independents who caucus with the Dems).

There is no way that Democrats will pick up two seats in Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Utah,* and Wyoming, and not lose any of the 25 other seats.

Naah gaah naah happen.

Better to be rid of them, and best to make an example of them, so that (to paraphrase Pat Boone’s bloodthirsty call for the execution of on neo-Nazi JCC gunman Buford Furrow) those who think like them will think differently in the future.

*The Oxford Comma, bitches, it just works.

For Once, Maryland Politics Works

No Comments

About a month ago the Maryland state Supreme Court ordered an overhaul of the bail system so that people do not spend weeks or months in pre-trial detention simply because they are poor:

Maryland’s highest court voted unanimously Tuesday to overhaul the state’s bail policies, essentially abolishing a system in which poor people could languish behind bars for weeks or months before trial because they could not post bond.

 The rule change, which takes effect July 1, requires judges to impose the “least onerous” conditions when setting bail for a defendant who is not considered a danger or a flight risk.

 That means Maryland will join a handful of states, including New Mexico, Kentucky and New Jersey, that have moved away from bail as part of a larger criminal-justice overhaul movement.

 Judges will be required for the first time to consider whether a defendant can afford to make bail before setting their pretrial release conditions. They must also weigh whether defendants pose a risk of committing another crime or of not appearing for their next court date.

 The directive approved by the rules committee of the Maryland Court of Appeals says that “preference should be given to additional conditions without financial terms,” court spokesman Kevin Kane said.

 Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D), who has been pushing for an overhaul of the system, called the rules change a “huge step forward” that will lead to “more justice in Maryland.”

Of course, there is a politically connected group who promptly got the state Senate to pass a bill eviscerating this ruling, but following an overwhelming vote against this bill by Maryland black caucus in the House of delegates, it appears it won’t even make it to the floor there:

In what could be a devastating blow to bail bondsmen, Maryland’s Legislative Black Caucus voted overwhelmingly Thursday to oppose legislation that would partially restore the role of cash bail in pretrial release.

The caucus voted, 31-5, to oppose a bill favored by the bail bond industry — and approved by the state Senate — that would overrule the Court of Appeals’ instruction in February that court commissioners and judges consider other forms of pretrial release before resorting to cash bail.

Opponents of the bill said the vote gives House Speaker Michael E. Busch the political cover he needs to keep the legislation off the House floor. Busch later acknowledged that the vote affects the bill’s future.

“This sends a clear message to House leadership that the issue is dead for this year,” Del. Curt Anderson said.

The question of how the General Assembly should respond — if at all — to the Court of Appeals rule has been one of the hardest-fought battles of this legislative session. The caucus came down firmly on the side of letting the rule stand.

………

The industry objected to a provision of the Court of Appeals rule that diminished the role of cash bail in pretrial release. “Preference should be given to additional conditions without financial terms,” the rule reads.

The Senate bill would supersede that provision and put cash bail on a par with other conditions, which include steps such as drug treatment, monitoring and home detention.

The bill is now bottled up in the House Rules & Executive Nominations Committee because the Senate passed it after a legislative deadline. Opponents want the speaker to keep it there, and the caucus action bolsters their case. Members of black caucus make up about 40 percent of Democrats in the House.

I’ve gotta contact Busch’s office and ask him to keep the bill off the floor.

BTW, like all recipients of corporate welfare, the bail bondsmen have set up a sophisticated and expensive lobbying and PR campaign.

All this to fight a rule that basically says, “If the defendant is not a risk, don’t throw him in jail for being poor.”

These ratf%$#s make Comcast look like Albert Schweitzer.

This Would Be Ironic

No Comments
When the Supreme Court declined to overturn Obamacare, they did restrict it somewhat, by declaring that the provision of the law that required states to expand Medicaid or leave the program.

The Court found that it was too coercive.

Legal experts are saying that this ruling would likely apply to Jeff Sessions’ attempts to defund sanctuary cities:

The Trump administration announced this week that it will make good on its January threat to claw back funding from so-called sanctuary cities that limit information-sharing with federal immigration officials. Yet hundreds of legal experts say the move would itself be illegal—in part due to a court ruling Republicans cheered just a few years ago.

In 2012, the Supreme Court forced the Obama administration to make Medicaid expansion voluntary for states instead of mandatory, ruling that when the federal government “threatens to terminate other significant independent grants as a means of pressuring the States to accept” a federal policy, it is unconstitutionally coercive.

Conservative groups that celebrated this victory over “infringement on state sovereignty by the federal government” may now be dismayed to learn that it could throw a wrench into the Trump administration’s current plan to punish sanctuary cities.

I am amused.

You Gotta Read This

No Comments

It’s an article on, “12 people, things that ruined the EU.

It starts with Zeus’s rape of Europa, but my favorite item is number 2:

2. Edith Cresson

Going straight from Zeus, ruler of Mount Olympus, to good old Edith Cresson may seem a bit of a stretch. But as a strong contender for the title of worst European commissioner ever, the Frenchwoman does have a claim to fame, too. In the early 1990s, Cresson was a French prime minister who quickly fell out of favor and was forced to resign after less than a year in office. That apparently qualified her for a high-powered job in Brussels. As commissioner for science, research and development, Cresson famously paid her dentist to be a scientific adviser. In 1999, allegations of fraud intended to target Cresson ended up bringing down the entire Commission. To put it crudely: Cresson did to the EU what Zeus did to Europa.

Read it all.

It may not mean anything about the future of the EU, but it is a hoot.