Year: 2018

How Convenient

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In Georgia, Brian Kemp is the Secretary of State. He’s also running for governor.

As Secretary of state, he has purged a tenth of voters, with blacks purged at a rate twice that of white voters.

As Marcus Tullius Cicero was wont to say, “Cui bono” (Who benefits):

My lawyer had to threaten Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp with a federal lawsuit to force him to turn over the names of over half a million voters whose citizenship rights he quietly extinguished.

This past week, I released the name of every one of these Georgia voters Kemp flushed from voter rolls in 2017. If you’re a Georgia resident, check the list. If your name is on it, re-register right now. You only have through tomorrow (October 9).

It’s no coincidence that Georgia’s Purge’n General is also running for Governor: The Republican candidate is fighting a dead-even race against Stacey Abrams, Democratic House Minority Leader. Abrams, if she wins, would become the first Black woman governor in US history.

Suspiciously, Kemp sent no notice to these citizens after he took away their voting rights. If they show up to vote on November 6, they’re out of luck — and so is Georgia’s democracy.

Palast (above) neglects to mention that it is minority voters who are being disproportionately effected by his actions:

An analysis of the records obtained by The Associated Press reveals racial disparity in the process. Georgia’s population is approximately 32 percent black, according to the U.S. Census, but the list of voter registrations on hold with Kemp’s office is nearly 70 percent black.

An important thing to note here:  Despite public chest beating, the national Democratic party does not spend a whole bunch of time or money on getting voters registered.

It should be 24/7 thing, but it isn’t.

Francisco Franco is as Francisco Franco Does

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One of the narratives regarding the conflict between Madrid and Barcelona over Catalan independence and autonomy is that the independence movement chased away finance and created a capital flight.

It turns out that the Rajoy government aggressively pushed the companies to leave Catalonia.

It’s not a surprise,  Mariano Rajoy’s “People’s Party” is pretty much a direct descendant of Franco’s Fascist (Falange) party, and the Falange was dedicated to grinding everything Catalan into dust:

Just over a year has passed since over two million people in Catalonia voted in a banned referendum to leave Spain. On that day, the separatists were given a brutal lesson in the raw power of state violence. Days later, they were given another harsh lesson, this time in the fickleness of money. Within days of holding the vote, which was brutally suppressed but not prevented by Spanish police, Spain’s north eastern region was forced to watch as one after another of its brand names moved their headquarters, at least on paper, to other parts of Spain.

………

But what is only now becoming clear is just how central a role the Spanish government in Madrid was playing in fomenting this massive exodus of funds. The Catalan newspaper Ara has revealed that large state-owned companies such as public broadcaster RTVE, rail infrastructure manager Adif, freight and passenger train operator RENFE and Spanish ports, on the behest of Spain’s central government, raided their own accounts in Catalonia during the frenzied days immediately after the referendum.

In one day alone, the state-owned companies withdrew €2 billion from Banco Sabadell. The presidents of these state-owned companies apparently told the bank’s CEO, Jaume Guardiola, that they had received orders to trigger a run on deposits. As much as a third of all the money that left Catalonia during those first days of October belonged to institutions or companies controlled by the State.

The covert ploy worked like a charm. In the short space of just a few days Banco Sabadell suffered a deposit outflow of €12 billion, while Caixabank lost almost double that, according to Ara.

Another senior executive at Banco Sabadell allegedly asked Spain’s then-Economy Minister Luis de Guindos about the apparent cause of the bank run, to which he received the response: “Have you changed your company address yet?” When the executive answered in the affirmative, the minister said there was no longer any reason to worry. Within hours, the deposits of the state-owned firms were back in their accounts.

In the long run, Rajoy ended up worsening the divisions between Barcelona and Madrid, with the spectacle of police officers in body armor beating up elderly ladies.

The smart move would have been to allow the independence forces to fall into a morass of back-biting and corruption, but the dynamics of the People’s Party were such that they had to respond with brutality.
He really had no 

If Only There Was Someone at Tesla Who Knew How to Count

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Maybe they should have hired someone who had worked at a place that processes payment, like PayPal.

But alas, it appears that they did not, so the auto manufacturer neglected to pay almost ¾ of a million in unemployment taxes:

A state agency is taking Tesla to court over claims that the electric car manufacturer owes the state more than half a million dollars in unpaid taxes, which a company official says is due to a “clerical” error and was paid on Tuesday.

According to a certificate of judgment filed Monday in Clark County District Court, the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) is seeking more than $654,000 in unpaid unemployment taxes from Tesla stemming from the last two fiscal quarters.

According to a statement of liability filed with the court, the company owes $210,710 from the fiscal quarter ending on April 30, and another $439,753 from the quarter ending on July 31. The company paid a portion but not all of its assessed unemployment taxes during each quarter.

Nevada law requires almost any business that pays wages in the state to pay a base 2.95 percent unemployment insurance tax on wages.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Tesla said the issue came about due to a “clerical error” with the company’s acquisition of rooftop solar installer SolarCity — founded by one of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s cousins, Lyndon Rive — and over how the state assess unemployment taxes.

“This judgment is the result of a clerical error, and we have processed this payment today to reflect the latest unemployment insurance contribution rates,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Over the past 18 months, Tesla has already paid over $3.3 million in unemployment taxes to Nevada.”

So somehow they want us to trust their autopilot technology, but they cannot even do what is pretty basic taxes.

That is so reassuring.

Our Friends in Riyadh

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It appears that agents of the House of Saud murded dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in their consulate in Istanbul, dismembered him, and took him out of the country in diplomatic pouches:

Top Turkish security officials have concluded that the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on orders from the highest levels of the royal court, a senior official said Tuesday.

The official described a quick and complex operation in which Mr. Khashoggi was killed within two hours of his arrival at the consulate by a team of Saudi agents, who dismembered his body with a bone saw they brought for the purpose.

“It is like ‘Pulp Fiction,’” the official said.

Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have denied the allegations, insisting that Mr. Khashoggi left the consulate freely shortly after he arrived. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has demanded that the Saudis provide evidence proving their claim.

………

The security establishment concluded that Mr. Khashoggi’s killing was directed from the top because only the most senior Saudi leaders could order an operation of such scale and complexity, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose confidential briefings.

Fifteen Saudi agents had arrived on two charter flights last Tuesday, the day Mr. Khashoggi disappeared, the official said.

All 15 left just a few hours later, and Turkey has now identified the roles that most or all of them held in the Saudi government or security services, the official said. One was an autopsy expert, presumably there to help dismember the body, the official said.

………

 Security camera footage showed Mr. Khashoggi entering the consulate shortly after 1 p.m. that day. Ms. Cengiz, his fiancée, waited outside, and she has said he never emerged.

Two and a half hours after he entered the facility, six vehicles with diplomatic license plates pulled out, carrying 15 Saudi officials and intelligence officers, Sabah reported.

Two other vehicles, including a black Mercedes Vito van with darkened windows, went from the consulate to the consul’s residence about 200 yards away. Turkish employees of the residence had unexpectedly been told not to report for work that day, the newspaper said.

This is completely nuts, but it’s par for the course for Mohammad bin Salman.

The 33-year-old boy king-in-all-but-name has clearly never ever had anyone ever say, “No” to him, and he is off the deep end in a way that would have Czar Nicholas II saying, “Dude, you are letting this whole absolute monarch thing go to your head.”

We are in for a bumpy ride on the Arabian peninsula.

This is Beginning to Sound Like Whitey Bulger Writ Small

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Remember that horrific limousine accident in upstate New York?

Remember how the limo was falling apart, and the driver lacked proper licenses?

Well, we may now have an idea as to why this particular company was given a pass by regulators, its owner was a big time FBI informant.

In fact, this guy was commonly referred to as a “Superinformant“, and seemed to spend a lot of his time, as is the FBI’s wont, finding swarthy people who had very little intention of doing anything, and turning them into terrorism defendants.

The FBI does have a history of becoming excessively involved with the shady business dealings of its informants, the Boston office was almost a partner of James Joseph “Whitey” Bulger Jr.’s during his blood-soaked run through Beantown’s criminal underworld:

The aging limousine that crashed Saturday in Schoharie County, killing 20, was operated by a company with a record of failed inspections — and an owner who was a controversial FBI informant.

 The 2001 Ford Excursion was operated by Prestige Limousine, a small company that shares an address with a run-down motel in the Saratoga County town of Wilton, just north of tony Saratoga Springs.

 The company is owned by Shahed Hussain, whose backstory includes numerous stints as an undercover informant for the FBI.

 Authorites said Hussain, 62, is in his native Pakistan at present. Other company officials have pledged to cooperate with the investigation.

 Asked whether Hussain is under criminal investigation, State Police Major Robert Patnaude said anyone found to be criminally culpable will be “held accountable.”

 ……

 Albany-area lawyer Dana Salazar, who represented Shahed Hussain in a civil action against Saratoga County that revolved around the Saratoga Road motel property, verified on Monday that her client had indeed been the celebrated informant.

 Hussain emigrated from Pakistan in the early 1990’s, fleeing a murder charge that he later said was trumped up, according to news reports. He worked as a translator for the New York state Department of Motor Vehicles but was caught helping people cheat on DMV exams in return for money.

 He later was accused of making fraudulent statements in a personal bankruptcy case as well.

 Hussain pleaded guilty to a felony in relation to the DMV scam but avoided prison and deportation by becoming an informant, working in New York’s Muslim communities to find people that had radical tendencies.

 ……

 “And, perhaps perversely, it’s hard not to come away without some degree of admiration for Mr. Hussain, seen and heard only in the grainy videos shot in his car and living room,” reviewer Mike Hale. “He puts on a superior performance over a long period of time and lies with breathtaking ease and quickness. If there were Oscars for informants, he’d be on the red carpet every year.”

In the article, you have his hotel being shut down by authorities, multiple problems with his limo service, but he was always allowed to continue operating.

It’s not exactly the same as Winter Hill Gang boss Bulger and Stephen Joseph “The Rifleman” Flemmi using their status as informants to get FBI protection and take out rivals, but it certainly seems to rhyme.

Live in Obedient Fear, Citizens

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It ppears that the FBI is back to some of its old tricks, specifically it is masquerading as journalists again:

Newly public Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) documents outline for the first time the specifics of the agency’s guidelines for impersonating members of the news media in undercover activities and operations. The records detail, among other things, that such activities require high-level approval from within the FBI and Justice Department. The FBI released the guidelines after the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit when the agency failed to respond to a request for records about its impersonation of documentary filmmakers, specifically. Additionally, records recently released in connection with a separate FOIA lawsuit filed by the Reporters Committee show that the FBI has engaged in the impersonation of documentary filmmakers on a number of occasions, though questions remain as to just how frequently the FBI relies on this tactic.
……

 In defense of the practice, then-FBI Director James Comey submitted a letter to the editor to The New York Times acknowledging the tactic and stating that the FBI’s impersonation of an AP journalist in the Seattle investigation “was proper and appropriate[.]” The controversy also led the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General to investigate the FBI’s use of media impersonation in the Seattle investigation. In September 2016, the office issued a formal report noting that the FBI had prepared new guidelines setting forth “approval levels for sensitive circumstances specifically in situations in which [FBI] employees represent, pose, or claim to be members of the news media or a documentary film crew.”

 The guidelines obtained by the Reporters Committee detail that approval process: The relevant FBI field office must submit an application to the Undercover Review Committee at FBI headquarters and it must be approved by the FBI Deputy Director after consultation with the Deputy Attorney General. The guidelines do not provide any criteria the FBI Deputy Director and/or the Deputy Attorney General must consider when approving these undercover activities.

…..

In response to part of that FOIA request, the FBI has asserted what is known as a “Glomar” response, refusing to confirm or deny the existence of records related to other instances in which it has impersonated documentary filmmakers during the course of its investigations. In support of its argument, in a recent filing the FBI went so far as to argue that disclosing these records “would allow criminals to judge whether they should completely avoid any contacts with documentary film crews, rendering the investigative technique ineffective.”

In response, the Reporters Committee argued that this is precisely the reason why disclosure of information regarding FBI media impersonation is so important: this tactic has a chilling effect on journalists and documentary filmmakers, and sources are less likely to speak candidly to members of the news media if they think that the journalist is an agent of the government. Further, the Reporters Committee argues that the FBI cannot issue a Glomar response in this case because its practice of media impersonation is already well-known to the public and the FBI has already officially acknowledged the existence of these records — two standards the court will consider in evaluating whether the FBI’s Glomar response to part of the FOIA request was appropriate.

2 Thoughts:

  • J. Edgar Hoover is an inescapable part of the FBI’s DNA, and we are not going to change this in my lifetime, though breaking it up into separate functions might be a good start.
  •  James Comey is not, and has never been a friend of civil rights, restraints on law enforcement, or transparency.

Linkage

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3 whales do a triple breach. I think that the whales knew that they were showing of for tourists:

Banksey is a F%$#ing Genius

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Brilliant

A Banksy painting sold at Sotheby’s for over £1 million.

Once the auction was completed, Banksey, or someone affiliated with him, triggered the shredder built into the picture frame:

Banksy has released a video showing how he secretly built a shredder into one of his paintings that self-destructed after it was sold for more than £1m.

The framed Girl With Balloon, one of the artist’s best known works, was auctioned by Sotheby’s in London.

Moments after the piece was sold, the canvas of a girl reaching for a heart-shaped balloon shredded itself.

Quoting Picasso on his Instagram, Banksy wrote: “The urge to destroy is also a creative urge – Picasso.”

The clip starts with a caption, saying: “A few years ago, I secretly built a shredder into a painting.”

The video then shows someone in a hoodie installing the device, before another caption, saying: “In case it was ever put up for auction.”

The video then shows the moment the painting shredded itself at the auction house on Friday, captured on a mobile phone.

It is unclear how the shredder was activated.

Moments before, the 2006 stencilled spray-painting had sold for £1.042m.

“It appears we just got Banksy-ed,” said Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s senior director and head of contemporary art in Europe.

I’ve got to believe that Banksy is the secret love child of Eugène Ionesco, spiritually, if not genetically.

I’m Sure that the Blairites Will Flock to Support Her

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The Guardian is reporting that Tory PM Theresa May is wooing Labour party MPs in an attempt to secure support for her Brexit proposals.

The (reflexively anti-Corbyn) Guardian misses the point here.

May’s appeal to Labour is not, “The Good of the Kingdom,” it’s, “You have the opportunity to stop Jeremy Corbyn.

You will notice that the report does not detail who is in discussions with the Conservatives, and I think that this is because it is the representatives of failed New Labour who are in talks, in yet another of their schemes to destroy the party to preserve their position within the party:

Theresa May has drawn up plans for a secret charm offensive aimed at persuading dozens of Labour MPs to back her Brexit deal even if it costs Jeremy Corbyn the chance to be prime minister, the Guardian has learned.

Senior Conservatives say they have already been in private contact with a number of Labour MPs over a period of several months, making the case that the national interest in avoiding a no-deal outcome is more important than forcing a general election by defeating the government on May’s Brexit deal.

Now, with talks in Brussels entering their frantic final phase, the prime minister and her party whips are stepping up efforts to win backing for a compromise deal that one minister described as a “British blancmange”.

………

Labour MPs will thus be the focus of intense lobbying, in the period between May returning from Brussels with a Brexit deal and the meaningful vote, which is expected to come about a fortnight later.

………

May appealed directly to Labour backbenchers in her conference speech when she spoke of the “heirs of Hugh Gaitskell and Barbara Castle, Denis Healey and John Smith”, saying they were on the backbenches, not in the shadow cabinet of what she called the “Jeremy Corbyn party”.

This is not an attempt at a better Brexit, it’s an attempt to sabotage Labout, an Blair and his Evil Minions™ are more than willing to aid and abet this strategy.

Google+ Still Has 500,000 Users?

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Google discovered that its programming tools for Google+ allowed advertisers and programmers to access private data.

They sat on this information for months, and then, when threatened with exposure announced that they will be shuttering Google Plus:

Google exposed the private details of almost 500,000 Google+ users and then opted not to report the lapse, in part out of concern disclosure would trigger regulatory scrutiny and reputational damage, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing people briefed on the matter and documents that discussed it. Shortly after the article was published, Google said it would close the Google+ social networking service to consumers.

The exposure was the result of a flaw in programming interfaces Google made available to developers of applications that interacted with users’ Google+ profiles, Google officials said in a post published after the WSJ report. From 2015 to March 2018, the APIs made it possible for developers to view profile information not marked as public, including full names, email addresses, birth dates, gender, profile photos, places lived, occupation, and relationship status. Data exposed didn’t include Google+ posts, messages, Google account data, phone numbers, or G Suite content. Some of the users affected included paying G Suite users.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai knew of the glitch and the decision not to publicly disclose it, the WSJ reported. Based on a two-week test designed to measure the impact of the API bugs before they were fixed, Google analysts believe that data for 496,951 users was improperly exposed. According to the report:

Google:  That whole, “Don’t be evil,” thing is, “inoperative.”

BTW, I am aware of the irony present in my using a Google blogging platform, and (barely) monetizing said blog on Google™ Adsense™.

The New Doctor

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I saw the premier of the latest season of Dr. Who, with a new Doctor.

I was not immediately impressed, but typically, the first show with a new doctor tends to be a bit weak, because both the writers, and the actor, are trying to find the character.

This is further complicated because they are also adding a whole new batch of companions.

That being said, I rather like that she has a northern (Yorkshire) accent rather than the received pronunciation (BBC), and I like that this actually Jodi Whittaker’s native accent.

I do kind of wish that there wasn’t so much hype over this, but I do understand why this is the case.

Motherf%$#ers

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Compulsive gambler, alcoholic, rapist, and perjurer Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate, expect Roe v. Wade, and probably Eisenstadt v. Baird, as well as Griswold v. Connecticut.

Welcome to the Handmaiden’s Tale, or, to quote Ted Kennedy, Brett Kavanaugh’s, “America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy.”

This just sucks.

Corrupt

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The California NAACP came out against an initiative that would make implementing rent control easier.

Days later, it’s president got a 6 figure consulting contract from the realtors opposing the initiative:

The president of the California NAACP has long resisted criticism that she melds the group’s interests with those of her political consulting firm, which takes in large fees for working on campaigns that the civil rights organization backs.

Critics say Alice Huffman is doing it again on what is shaping up to be one of the most bitterly contested measures on the November ballot — Proposition 10, which would repeal a state law that limits cities’ ability to impose rent control.

The state NAACP’s 28-member executive committee voted in May to oppose Prop. 10. Huffman said the group agreed with arguments that allowing stricter forms of rent control would discourage housing construction and therefore hurt low-income tenants.

A month after the NAACP voted, Huffman said, her AC Public Affairs political consulting firm in Sacramento signed a deal to be a lead consultant on the opposition’s $800,000 campaign targeting African American voters through mailers and workers who will go door-to-door.

Apparently Ms. Huffman saw Delray Mckesson’s Patagonia vest endorsement deal, and thought, “Here, hold my beer.”

She claims that she does not accept contracts from companies that oppose the state NAACP positions, but she is the president of the organization, so she is in a position to move the group in a way that benefits her financially, as she did when the NAACP, and AC Public, played both sides of the street regarding cigarette taxes in 2006 and 2016.

America, where no good deed goes uncorrupted.

Your Feel Good Story of the Day

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Roll Tape

Yes that is Donald Trump climbing the stairs to Air Force 1 with toilet paper stuck to his shoe:

In a week consumed by a fraught Supreme Court confirmation battle, you could probably use a little levity. To that end, on Thursday, a video of Trump boarding Air Force One with toilet paper apparently stuck to his shoe surfaced. And it’s everything you imagined.

The clip first shows the president getting out of a limousine. It’s parked directly in front of a staircase that leads up to the open door of Air Force One. Secret Service agents are milling around the car as Trump climbs the stairs … with a little white scrap trailing off his left shoe. He stops to wave at the top of the stairs, then enters the plane, leaving the scrap outside the entrance.

There’s no way to know it was in fact toilet paper — or even how it got there — but Twitter users seemed convinced.

As if this entire presidency couldn’t be more bizarre…

To quote Zathras, “At least, there is symmetry.”

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!

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Jason Van Dyke has been convicted of second-degree murder for the shooting of Laquan McDonald in Chicago.

I am pleasantly surprised.

It’s been a very long time since a white cop has been convicted for shooting a black kid:

Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted Friday of second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, marking a stunning end to a racially tinged case that roiled the city when now-infamous police dashboard camera video of the shooting was released three years ago by court order.

 Van Dyke is the first Chicago police officer in half a century to be found guilty of murder for an on-duty shooting. He faces a minimum of six years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Vincent Gaughan.

 The jury deliberated for about 7½ hours before finding Van Dyke guilty of second-degree murder instead of the first-degree charge on which he was indicted.

7½ hours to convict a cop is a very short deliberation.

The veteran officer also was convicted of all 16 counts of aggravated battery for each shot he fired at McDonald. The jury acquitted him, however, of a single count of official misconduct.

This Van Dyke needs to be sentenced as if he were a black teen who shot a white cop.

Collins and Manchin Will Vote for Kavanaugh, All but Ensuring His Confirmation – The New York Times

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We are Not Amused

I expected that Susan Collins would vote for Canvanaugh, making sane noises and then voting the party line when it matters is her thing, but Manchin will not get a single vote from Kavanaugh supporters, because they would never vote for someone with a (D) after their name, so his gesture is stupid self-destructive futility:

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh is heading to confirmation to the Supreme Court this weekend after two key undecided senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia — announced Friday that they would support his elevation to the high court, ending the most divisive confirmation fight in decades.

 Ms. Collins’ lengthy speech on the Senate floor dwelled as much on Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial record as on the sexual misconduct charges that have consumed his nomination. She did conclude, “We will be ill-served in the long run if we abandon the presumption of innocence.”

 “The Me Too movement is real. It matters. It is needed, and it is long overdue,” she said, arguing that her support for Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation does not negate the claims of sexual assault that have flooded forward in the wake of Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against the nominee. But she said she was not convinced of Judge Kavanaugh’s guilt.

 “I found her testimony to be sincere, painful and compelling. I believe that she is a survivor of a sexual assault and that this trauma has upended her life. Nevertheless, the four witnesses she named could not corroborate any of the events,” Ms. Collins said.

 Mr. Manchin, a Democrat, immediately followed with a statement proclaiming his support.

 “I have reservations about this vote given the serious accusations against Judge Kavanaugh and the temperament he displayed in the hearing,” he wrote. “And my heart goes out to anyone who has experienced any type of sexual assault in their life. However, based on all of the information I have available to me, including the recently completed F.B.I. report, I have found Judge Kavanaugh to be a qualified jurist.”

Seriously:  The only reason for a Democrat to pull the lever for you is the Supreme Court, and you just pissed all over that.

Seriously:  Go Cheney yourself.

This is Not the Resource Curse

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One of the perplexing questions of modern society is how the discovery of riches, particularly things like oil and diamonds, can make a country less well off. (the “resource curse”)

So now we have people wondering why the outsized role of finance in the UK does not create prosperity.

This one is pretty easy:  Finance is not wealth you dig up from the ground, and it is not meaningful productivity, though it can help getting actors with capital in touch with actors who need capital.

It produces nothing, and when it dominates an economy, as it does in the UK, it is actually highly parasitic.

No one asks why bank robbers don’t benefit society, and as William Black has noted, “The best way to rob a bank is to own one.”

To argue that the City hurts Britain’s economy might seem crazy. But research increasingly shows that all the money swirling around our oversized financial sector may actually be making us collectively poorer. As Britain’s economy has steadily become re-engineered towards serving finance, other parts of the economy have struggled to survive in its shadow, like seedlings starved of light and water under the canopy of a giant, deep-rooted and invasive tree. Generations of leaders from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair to Theresa May have believed that the City is the goose that lays Britain’s golden eggs, to be prioritised, pampered and protected. But the finance curse analysis shows an oversized City to be a different bird: a cuckoo in the nest, crowding out other sectors.

I would also note the the international finance sector has much to do with creating the “resource curse” in places like Angola, where they finance grandiose projects, launder money, and foment destructive speculation.

Why would they do anything different in the City of London than they do in Luanda?

Unfortunately, modern politicians want to negotiate with them, which makes as much sense as negotiating with a tapeworm.

Tories Could F%$# Up a 2 Car Funeral – Stellar Parthenon

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The Tories are going to have an official conference, so they had an app for that.

Rather like Brexit negotiations, it was a complete fiasco:

A major flaw in the Conservatives’ official conference mobile phone application has made the private data of senior party members – including cabinet ministers – accessible to anyone that logged in as that particular conference attendee.

The data of hundreds of attendees to the Tory conference could be viewed by second guessing attendees’ email addresses, with Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Gavin Williamson and others among those whose personal information – including their phone numbers – was made accessible.

Once logged into the app, users were able to both amend and make the personal details of prominent MPs public. Twitter users claimed Johnson’s picture had been briefly changed to one featuring a pornographic image.

Gove’s picture was changed to Rupert Murdoch, his previous employer at the Times. Anyone could log in as any attendee by providing an email with no password. Many MPs had registered with their public parliamentary email addresses, making it simple for any member of the public to access their mobile number via the app.

Commentators said the flaw raised questions over the ability of the government to harness technology to solve issues around the Irish border and customs checks. The app may also have breached data laws. Its privacy policy states that it “complies with … the European Union’s general data protection regulation (GDPR)”.

………

It follows the gaffe that unfolded last year during Theresa May’s keynote speech when a comedian managed to get to the front of the stage and pass her a P45, [Layoff Form] which she accepted.

馬鹿につける薬はない (There is no medicine for stupidity.)