Month: January 2020

A New Frontier in Editorial Incoherence

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The New York Times editorial board REALLY wanted to endorse Amy Klobuchar, despite the fact that she has never been able to break 3%.

My theory is that they are impressed that she is a complete and utter turd to her staff, and they want a kiss-up/kick-down kind of person.

So, instead, they endorsed both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, to avoid mockery. (No link, they don’t deserve my minuscule traffic)

If you find the OP/ED, it’s just a Google away, you will note that their endorsement of Warren is an exercise in negging. (“Gifted Storyteller”, etc.)

The editorial board of the Times is more than comfortable with the status quo, which does pretty well for people like them, so they want more of the same, just without Trump.

Clearly, We are Preparing to Invade Endor

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Smart call on the Space Force camouflage.

Never know when you’re gonna have to blend into a space jungle or hide behind a space bush.

IT’S NOT LIKE SPACE IS A BLACK VACUUM WHERE NO ONE EVER GOES OUTSIDE OR ANYTHING. https://t.co/jbIR4ZlHs5

— SarcasticRover (@SarcasticRover) January 18, 2020


I know this is hard to understand, but on the left there is a picture of camouflage and on the right there is a picture of space. Study these carefully until you can see the difference. pic.twitter.com/7HhAeHRyrm

— JRehling (@JRehling) January 18, 2020

Now we’re talking. Let’s get that sweet military contract. Do you want to underbid me this time? Or shall I underbid you? #spacefarce pic.twitter.com/7i3dQnlhsk

— HartbrakебляMcCarthy (@BumpItMcCarthy) January 18, 2020

ShopBop has been hired to design the new #SpaceForceCamo uniforms. A sneak peak: pic.twitter.com/oOnl8jmiCU

— Ken Smith (@KenSmith) January 18, 2020

This would explain why the newly constituted US Space Force will have a camouflage uniform.

The alternative, that they have discovered space jungles, is too absurd to consider.

Needless to say, Twitter is going insane over this:

The U.S. Space Force on Friday offered a first look at its utility uniforms with its service name tape, unleashing a torrent of mockery over the decision to use a camouflage pattern for a military branch associated with the dark endlessness of the universe.

“Space Force” soon began trending on Twitter — mostly not because of excitement about the uniform.

“Smart call on the Space Force camouflage,” one Twitter user wrote. “Never know when you’re gonna have to blend into a space jungle or hide behind a space bush.”

“I’m dressed better for Space Force than this and I’m wearing $10 leggings from Target,” said one woman, who shared a photo of leggings with images of cats floating in space.

Another person posted a picture of a camouflage pattern next to a completely black box. “Study these carefully until you can see the difference,” he wrote in response to the Space Force.

The reality, as it usually is, is actually a bit more prosaic.

Their new uniform is, except for the various badges, reuses the existing camouflage uniforms, because, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Why spend all that money on a new uniform?

Then again, why spend all that money on standing up the cockamamie idea of a Space Force in the first place?

When Barr Demands that Apple Unlock Their Phones

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He claims that this is the only way for law enforcement to get into locked phones.

He is lying.

What this is really about is their wanting to be able to hack phones remotely, which, of course, will be used without a warrant by the US state security apparatus to do things like fight terrorism and spy on girl friends:

President Donald Trump’s bizarre friendship with his buddy Tim Cook is in trouble. With Apple once again refusing to allow the FBI to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone (two of them, actually, this time around), the president sent out a tweet the other day that said, “We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers, and other violent criminal elements. They will have to step up to the plate and help our great Country.”

………

In the current situation, the two handsets that the FBI wants Apple to open belong to Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani. The latter allegedly killed three people last month at a Navy base in Pensacola, Florida during an act that is being called terrorism. Because the FBI asked Apple to unlock the phones, it appeared that companies like Cellebrite and Grayshift could not unlock any iPhones running on iOS 13. But Bloomberg reports that Cellebrite recently pushed out an update to its machines that will allow law enforcement agencies to extract and analyze information from several locked iPhone models.

………

And that brings us to this question, if the FBI can open both of Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani’s iPhones without Apple, why is President Trump, Attorney General Barr, and the FBI putting pressure on Apple to unlock these phones? Perhaps it has to do with setting a precedent for the future when Apple comes up with a way to block the latest technology used by Cellebrite and Grayshift. However, the president should tread lightly here; he certainly doesn’t want to lose the “friendship” he has with the man he once called Tim Apple.

Why are they putting pressure on apple?  Because Cellbrite and Grayshift’s devices require physical possession of the device, and hence a warrant.

They, and by that I mean the US state security apparatus, want to be able to spy on citizens without having to go to court.

The British are Living the Chinese Curse

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You know the curse, “May you live in interesting times.”

It’s actually not a Chinese curse, its origin is likely British.

Which is ironic for the British business who have been repeatedly reassured that Brexit will not make any difference in how they do business.

It has been clear from day 1 that the pro-Brexit crowd would not go for a Brexit-In-Name-Only, where the regulatory landscape would still conform almost completely to EU standards.

The Tories, and their pro-Brexit allies have always said that this was about sovereignty, and now the Chancellor has confirmed that there will be no formal synchronization of EU and UK regulations and standards.

Businesses, particularly the City of London, are freaking out:

Sajid Javid, the UK chancellor, has delivered a tough message to business leaders to end their campaign for Britain to stay in lock-step with Brussels rules after Brexit, telling them they have already had three years to prepare for a new trading relationship.

 In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Javid quashed any prospect of the Treasury lending its support to big manufacturing sectors — which include cars, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, and food and drink — that favour alignment with EU regulations.

 “There will not be alignment, we will not be a ruletaker, we will not be in the single market and we will not be in the customs union — and we will do this by the end of the year,” Mr Javid said, urging companies to “adjust” to the new reality.

 ………
 But with Brexit now less than a fortnight away, business leaders are eyeing the upcoming trade talks with Brussels with trepidation.

 The EU wants the UK to stay in line with its regulations in return for a zero tariffs, zero quotas trade deal but Boris Johnson, prime minister, has repeatedly said he wants to break free from the bloc’s rules.

 ………

 Philip Hammond, the previous chancellor, fought to maintain alignment with the EU but Mr Javid made it clear that the Treasury was now under new management. He suggested being comfortable with some companies suffering from Brexit.

The complaint here is that Boris Johnson  and his Evil Minions™ did exactly what he promised.

No sympathy from me.

You Have Gotta be F%$#ing Kidding

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Trump has selected his defense team for the impeachment, and it includes Alan “Close Encounters with the Third Grade” Dershowitz and Ken “Hunter for the Great White Penis” Starr.

This is a juxtaposition of delusion and not giving a f%$# that positively buggers the mind:

President Trump enlisted the former independent counsel Ken Starr and the celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz to join his defense team on Friday, turning to two veterans of politically charged legal cases to secure his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial that gets underway in earnest next week.

 Mr. Starr, whose investigation into President Bill Clinton led to his impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice in 1998, will be joined by Robert W. Ray, his successor as independent counsel, who negotiated a settlement with Mr. Clinton as he left the White House that included a fine and the suspension of his law license.

 Mr. Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus who became famous as a defense counsel for high-profile defendants like O.J. Simpson, Claus von Bülow and Mike Tyson, will have a more limited role, presenting oral arguments at the Senate trial “to address the constitutional arguments against impeachment and removal,” the legal team said in a statement.

 In choosing the three prominent lawyers, the president assembled what he regards as an all-star television legal team, enlisting some of his favorite defenders from Fox News. But each of them brings his own baggage. Mr. Dershowitz represented Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. Mr. Starr was pushed out as a university president because of his handling of sexual misconduct by the football team. And Mr. Ray was once charged with stalking a former girlfriend.

Dershowitz did not just represent Jeffrey Epstein, he is alleged to have have participated in the rape of under-age girls as a part of his ongoing relationship with the now dead financier.

And we need to remember that Starr was fired for covering up for the, “Ever present football player rapist,” at Baylor.

While there may be a bit of method to this madness, it certainly DOES provide a strong signal of in group solitary to movement Republicans.

I would not that the impeachment will clearly be a complete sh%$ show, and Monica Lewinski’s reaction to all this just won the internet:

this is definitely an “are you fucking kidding me?” kinda day.

— Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) January 17, 2020

Tweet of the Day

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It would be hard to come up with a sentence more opposite to objective reality than, “the function of the intelligence community is to speak truth to power.” https://t.co/6z8Do4qHaF

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 17, 2020

This is not quite at the level of, “The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money,” but it is close.

I Feel a Great Disturbance in the Force, as If Dozens of Ammosexuals Suddenly Cried out in Butt Hurt, and Were Suddenly Silenced

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The Ammosexual community has been planning a massive (probably not so massive) demonstration at the Virginia state capitol.

In response to what Governor Northam calls, “Credible Intelligence,” of violence at the rally,  guns will be banned at the demonstration:

A Circuit Court judge upheld Gov. Ralph Northam’s temporary ban on firearms in Capitol Square ahead of Monday’s gun rights rally, which is expected to draw thousands of armed activists from across the country.

From Friday night until Tuesday, weapons of any kind will be prohibited on the grounds of the Capitol under a state of emergency. Northam (D) said the precaution was necessary because of “credible intelligence” that militias and gun rights advocates are threatening violence at the rally.

“This is the right decision,” Northam said in a statement about Richmond Chief Judge Joi Jeter Taylor’s ruling Thursday afternoon. “These threats are real — as evidenced by reports of neo-Nazis arrested this morning after discussing plans to head to Richmond with firearms.”

Gun rights groups filed an appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday evening.

Awww, they’ll have to leave their manhood at home, the poor babies.

Looks Like FCC and SpaceX are in for a World of Hurt

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It appears that the FCC’s approval of the SpaceX Starlink satellite constellation may have made a complete dog’s breakfast out of their review and approval process:

A battle for the sky is raging, and the heavens are losing. Upcoming mega constellations of satellites, designed to blanket Earth orbit in spacecraft beaming high-speed Internet around the world, risk filling the firmament with tens of thousands of moving points of light, forever changing our view of the cosmos. Astronomers who rely on unsullied skies for their profession and members of the general public who enjoy the natural beauty of what lies above stand to lose out. The arrival of such a large number of satellites “has the potential to change our relationship, and our connection, with the universe,” says Ruskin Hartley, executive director of the nonprofit International Dark-Sky Association. But with no binding international laws or regulations in place to protect the night sky, anyone opposing the advancement of mega constellations is surely fighting a losing battle. Right?

Wrong.

A new paper to be published later this year in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law argues that the Federal Communications Commission—the agency responsible for licensing the operation of these constellations in the U.S.—should have considered the impact these satellites would have on the night sky. In ignoring a key piece of federal environmental legislation, the FCC could be sued in a court of law—and lose—potentially halting further launches of mega constellations until a proper review is carried out.

“Astronomers are having these issues [and think] there’s nothing they can do legally,” says the paper’s author Ramon Ryan, a second-year law student at Vanderbilt University. “[But] there is this law, the National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA, pronounced ‘Nee-pah’], which requires federal agencies to take a hard look at their actions. The FCC’s lack of review of these commercial satellite projects violates [NEPA], so in the most basic sense, it would be unlawful.”

Enacted in 1970, NEPA obligates all federal agencies to consider the environmental impacts of any projects they approve. Such impacts cover a variety of issues, from the effects of casino barges on rivers to any project’s contributions to climate change—the latter has been a recent target of the Trump administration’s regulatory rollbacks. The reviews can take multiple years, producing anywhere from hundreds to thousands of pages of paperwork. Federal agencies can circumvent NEPA, however, if they are granted a “categorical exclusion” for some or all of their activities—usually by arguing that such activities do not impact the environment and thus do not require review. The FCC has had a sweeping categorical exclusion since 1986 across almost all of its activities—including its approval of space projects—despite other agencies involved in space—most notably NASA—being required to conduct NEPA reviews.

“There are other agencies that use categorical exclusions, but I don’t think there is one that’s as broad as this,” says Kevin Bell, staff counsel at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a nonprofit organization that works with government whistle-blowers on environmental issues. “It is a policy that was designed for another time, before large scale space exploration.”

In light of the concerns about the impacts of satellites on the night sky, Ryan says, this categorical exclusion would be unlikely to stand up in a court of law. SpaceX alone has been licensed by the FCC to launch 12,000 satellites in its Starlink constellation in the coming years, dwarfing the current number of approximately 1,500 active satellites in orbit—and the company has plans for 30,000 more. It has already launched about 180 Starlink satellites, with another 1,500 scheduled for 2020. Following the first launch of 60 satellites in May 2019, many observers were surprised by their brightness at dawn and dusk—popular times for both astronomy and simple stargazing. “That’s the time that most people enjoy the sky,” Hartley says. “These new satellites are brighter than 99 percent of [those] in orbit at the moment. And really, that’s the root of this concern.”

In its reasoning for its categorical exclusion, the FCC states that its actions “have no significant effect on the quality of the human environment and are categorically excluded from environmental processing.” Ryan says that the FCC may have been wrong in this assessment, however. “The FCC has never performed a study showing why commercial satellites deserved to be classified as categorically excluded from review,” he says. “And the evidence shows that these satellites are having an environmental impact. If the FCC were sued over its noncompliance with NEPA, it would likely lose.”

………

A key question is whether the night sky could be argued to fall under NEPA in a federal court. According to Section 1508 of the policy, there are both direct and indirect effects that can warrant NEPA review, with the latter including “aesthetic, historic, [and] cultural” ones. Ryan says that these factors could, in a court of law, be argued to apply to the night sky. “I definitely think that the night sky would fall under [that],” he says.

Considering Elon Musk’s record of “regulatory arbatrage”, and general lack of concern for the consequences of his actions, the creation of PayPal was an exercise in evading banking regulations, the FCC should have gone over his application with a fine toothed comb.

What’s the Problem with an Encryption Back Door?

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After successfully creating a health care app for doctors to view medical records, Diego Fasano, an Italian entrepreneur, got some well-timed advice from a police officer friend: Go into the surveillance business because law enforcement desperately needs technological help.

In 2014, he founded a company that creates surveillance technology, including powerful spyware for police and intelligence agencies, at a time when easy-to-use encrypted chat apps such as WhatsApp and Signal were making it possible for criminal suspects to protect phone calls and data from government scrutiny.

The concept behind the company’s product was simple: With the help of Italy’s telecom companies, suspects would be duped into downloading a harmless-seeming app, ostensibly to fix network errors on their phone. The app would also allow Fasano’s company, eSurv, to give law enforcement access to a device’s microphone, camera, stored files and encrypted messages.

………

“I started to go to all the Italian prosecutors’ offices to sell it,” explained Fasano, a 46-year-old with short, dark-brown hair and graying stubble. “The software was good. And within three years, it was used across Italy. In Rome, Naples, Milan.”

Even the country’s foreign intelligence agency, L’Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna, came calling for Exodus’s services, Fasano said.

But Fasano’s success was short lived, done in by a technical glitch that alerted investigators that something could be amiss. They followed a digital trail between Italy and the U.S. before unearthing a stunning discovery.

Authorities found that eSurv employees allegedly used the company’s spyware to illegally hack the phones of hundreds of innocent Italians—playing back phone conversations of secretly recorded calls aloud in the office, according to legal documents. The company also struck a deal with a company with alleged links to the Mafia, authorities said.

The discovery prompted a criminal inquiry involving four Italian prosecutor’s offices. Fasano and another eSurv executive, Salvatore Ansani, were charged with fraud, unauthorized access to a computer system, illicit interception and illicit data processing.

………

The demand for such technology has been driven in part by the rise in popularity of encrypted mobile phone apps and the reality that it is getting harder for law enforcement to glean evidence without the assistance of Silicon Valley giants such as Apple Inc., which is currently at loggerheads with the FBI over access to an iPhone used by an accused terrorist.

………

What makes the allegations against eSurv so astounding is that, if true, the company became involved in the spying itself—and did so right in the heart of Europe.

………

“I think that no prosecutors in Western countries have ever worked on a case like this,” Melillo said in a recent interview at his Naples office. This story is based on interviews with Italian authorities and a review of 170 pages of documents outlining the evidence collected, much of it never before reported.

In the city of Benevento, about 40 miles northeast of Naples, technicians working for the prosecutor’s office in 2018 were using Exodus to hack the phones of suspects in an investigation. That October, one of the technicians noticed that the network connection to Exodus was frequently dropping out, according to Italian authorities.

The technician did some troubleshooting and found a glaring problem. The Exodus system was supposed to operate from a secure internal server accessible only to the Benevento prosecutor’s office. Instead, it was connecting to a server accessible to anyone on the internet, protected only by a username and password, the authorities said.

The implications were enormous: hackers could potentially gain access to the platform and view all of the data that Italian prosecutors were covertly harvesting from suspects’ phones in some of Italy’s most sensitive law enforcement investigations. (Authorities don’t know if the server was in fact ever hacked.)

………

The investigation was eventually handed off to the prosecutor’s office in nearby Naples, which is responsible for handling major computer crimes in the region. The Naples prosecutor began a more in-depth probe—and found that eSurv had been storing a vast amount of sensitive data, unencrypted, on an Amazon Web Services server in Oregon.

The data included thousands of photos, recordings of conversations, private messages and emails, videos, and other files gathered from hacked phones and computers. In total, there were about 80 terabytes of data on the server—the equivalent of roughly 40,000 hours of HD video.

“A large part of the data is secret data,” said Melillo. “It’s related to the investigation of Mafia cases, terrorist cases, corruption cases.”

………

When Fasano began thinking about creating a police surveillance tool, he recruited a small team to explore the possibilities. They eventually developed a spyware tool that would allow police to hack Android phones by luring suspects into downloading what looked like an ordinary app from the Google Play store.

………

The app didn’t contain spy software, allowing it to bypass Google’s automated virus scans. But once a person downloaded it, the app served as a gateway through which eSurv could place spyware onto a person’s phone. The spyware would then covertly take total control: recording audio, taking photos and giving police access to encrypted messages and files, Fasano said.

………

In all, the Black Team spied on more than 230 people who weren’t authorized surveillance targets, according to police documents. Some of the surveillance victims were listed in eSurv’s internal files as “The Volunteers,” suggesting they were unwitting guinea pigs.

………

After reviewing evidence about the Black Team in May, a judge concluded that Exodus appeared to have been “designed and intended from the outset to operate with functions that are very distant from the canons of legality.” The judge approved a warrant to place Ansani and Fasano under house arrest; the investigation is continuing and additional charges could be filed, according to Italian authorities.

………

“It’s like a gun,” said Vincenzo Ioppoli, Fasano’s lawyer. “Once you have sold it, you don’t know how it will be used.”

This is why you can never trust law enforcement, or their contractors, not to abuse the power that you give them.

And the Balloon Goes Up

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The House of Representatives has selected managers and transmitted the impeachment to the U.S. Senate:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tapped two trusted committee chairmen to lead the team that will make the case in the Senate for President Trump’s removal from office, supported by a relatively small cast of additional impeachment “managers.”

Confirming widespread speculation that swirled for weeks as she held back the articles of impeachment, Pelosi (D-Calif.) turned to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) to lead the House team. She made the announcement at a Wednesday news conference after keeping the cast of managers under tight wraps for weeks.

Joining Schiff and Nadler are Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Val Demings (D-Fla.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Tex.), Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).

The seven-member team is smaller than the 13-member squad that presented articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton to the Senate in 1999, reflecting a more tightly controlled approach to the investigation.

I still think that they should have held on so they could incorporate the Parnas documents get testimony from John Bolton, et al.

Here’s hoping that Schiff is taking lead, because Nadler has been less than impressive.

OK, Had a Chance to Review the Parnas Documents

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First, it has to be noted that these documents have been in the possession of the Department of Justice for months, and the fact that there has not been more filings against the co-conspirators in the Ukraine affair indicates that Attorney General Bob Barr has unequivocally engaged in an active covered up.

He needs to be tried, convicted, and disbarred. (pun not intended)

The shocker here(so far) is that some of people involved were considering having the US ambassador to Kiev, Marie Yovanovitch, assassinated:

In April 2019, Rudolph W. Giuliani believed he was on the cusp of achieving an important goal: ousting the United States ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch. As Ms. Yovanovitch’s standing with the White House grew more precarious, Mr. Giuliani texted an associate.

………

The exchange was included in an array of documents released by House Democrats on Tuesday that offered new details on the shadow diplomacy campaign at the center of Mr. Trump’s impeachment and highlighted the effort to remove Ms. Yovanovitch.

Mr. Parnas, who is facing federal charges in Manhattan, recently turned the documents over to the House Intelligence Committee as part of its impeachment inquiry.

One of the new documents shows Mr. Giuliani saying that he had Mr. Trump’s blessing to seek a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president-elect, last spring, potential new evidence on the eve of the president’s impeachment trial.

Mr. Giuliani has previously said he was acting at Mr. Trump’s direction in his dealings with Ukrainian officials, but the letter released on Tuesday is the first public document that says he was doing so.

………

Mr. Lutsenko added: “And here you can’t even get rid of one [female] fool,” an apparent reference to Ms. Yovanovitch. He also inserted a frowning emoji.

“She’s not a simple fool[,] trust me,” Mr. Parnas responded. “But she’s not getting away.”

Mr. Trump ultimately recalled Ms. Yovanovitch from her post in late April.

In a separate series of cryptic text messages, Mr. Parnas communicated with another man who appeared to be monitoring the movements of Ms. Yovanovitch. The texts, exchanged in March on WhatsApp, indicated that the second man, Robert F. Hyde, was in touch with people in Ukraine who were watching Ms. Yovanovitch.

“They are willing to help if we/you would like a price,” one message from Mr. Hyde to Mr. Parnas read.

It was not clear who was watching the ambassador or why.

“Needless to say, the notion that American citizens and others were monitoring Ambassador Yovanovitch’s movements for unknown purposes is disturbing,” said Lawrence S. Robbins, a lawyer for Ms. Yovanovitch. “We trust that the appropriate authorities will conduct an investigation to determine what happened.”

In a brief interview conducted via text on Tuesday, Mr. Hyde, a Republican congressional candidate in Connecticut, denied that he had tracked Ms. Yovanovitch’s movements in Kyiv, and called Representative Adam B. Schiff, the intelligence committee chairman, a “commie.”

The Department of Justice has already ignored evidence that a US ambassador was stalked, and possibly targeted for death, so I think that Mr. Robbins is being optimistic.

Mr. Hyde appears to be completely unhinged, BTW.  (Here and here)

Drunk/Live Blogging the Democratic Debates

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11:10pm: Going to the Daily Show.

11:08pm: Klobuchar calls for radical moderation, meh.
Steyer: vote for me, I am a billionaire.
Buttigieg: The real problem is the division in our body politic. (F%$# that)
Warren: Lists the real problems in our society, sells hope.
Sanders: How do most of the population live paycheck to paycheck in the richest country in history?
Biden: We need to restore America’s soul. First time I’ve hear something compelling from him.

11:03pm: Closing statements.

10:58pm: More ads. Also, an ad for E-Verify on hiring illegals. This needs to be addressed by whoever is the nominee.

10:56pm: Biden is asked about Trump’s lying, Biden pivots to how Trump is a liar, and how the children 2will not do as well as their parents. Good ppitn.

10:53pm: Buttigieg talks about how he can can go against Trump because he is a veteran, like Kerry want up against Bush?

10:52pm: Seriously, Tom Steyer is weak tea.

10:50pm: Sanders goes medieval on Donald Trump’s ass. Good.

10:49pm: They finally go to Buttigieg’s aggressively racist policies. He lies through his teeth.

10:47pm: Joe Biden, again, “Obama, Obama, Obama.” Lame.

10:46pm: Sanders calls out the fossil fuel industries.

10:44pm: Klobuchar talks up natural gas. Not a good moment.

10:44pm: Warren pivots from climate change to corruption. Good.

10:42pm: Charlie has taken the bottle from me so I don’t die.

10:39pm: Finally, climate change.

10:38pm: Warren notes that the Trump administration is fundamentally, and deeply, corrupt. Good moment.

10:36pm: Steyer, correctly IMHO, says that he contributed to dragging the Congress kicking and screaming into impeachment. His best line so far.

10:35pm: Klobuchar unloads whup ass on McConnell’s tactics on impeachment, and invokes Joseph Welch, “Have you no decency,” good moment for her.

10:33pm: Impeachment is brought up. Biden gets first question. Says impeachment is inevitable, and that Trump has not done his f%$#ing job.

10:29pm: More advertising. I am on the ragged edge of coherence now.

10:27pm: Steyer is the first who brings up race, talking about how “Black and Brown” students need support. Good for him.

10:25pm: Klobuchar talks about home health care assistants, because we all want to be home health care assistants, I guess.

10:25pm: Warren notes (IMHO correctly)c that the rich are paying for this.

10:24pm: Buttigieg talks about means testing for for public tuition at public colleges. This is an excuse to do nothing.

10:22pm: Biden invokes the death of his first wife and daughter, and talks tax-credit. Meh.

10:21pm: Warren talks about childcare for all, Sandres is stronger and talks about how it is a basic human right, and how providers should be paid more.

10:19pm: Childcare comes up, and goes to Buttigieg first, and gives a good statement.

10:17pm: Klobuchar talks about drug reimportation. It’s a good issue for her.

10:15pm: To Warren, why should the government produce drugs to drive down drug prices. Warren goes full “competition” and capitalist to her bones.

10:13pm: Steyer is correct in making a (weak) analogy between the current healthcare system and rape.

10:12pm: Sanders: “We are finally going to have to stand up to the health care industry.”

10:06pm: The various debate participants are talking past each other on Medicare for All

10:02pm: Sanders notes that M4A saves money for the overwhelming majority of the American electorate. Tru dat.

10:00pm: Klubachar restates the moderate mantra, “Better things are not possible!”

9:58pm: Healthcare for all. Sanders: Take on the greed and the corruption of the healthcare industry. Yaaasss!!!!

9:50pm: Ad break. Sharon* will not be amused by by my level of inebriation. Ron Reagan, Jr. had his atheist ad up. Kewl.

9:50pm: Warren makes a good point, than women have over-performed in recent elections.

9:49pm: This colloquy over who has won and when is bullsh%$.

9:48pm: Klobuchar addresses issue, and really talks about nothing, even more than Buttigieg.

9:46pm: Warren responds. Talks about bringing the party together.

9:43pm: Brings up the Warren statement about Sanders if a woman can be elected president. Sanders denies.

9:41pm: I REALLY am feeling the booze now.

9:40pm: Steyer uses the trade deals to say that climate must be front and center. He finally engages his signature issue.

9:40pm: (OK, I have a serious buzz going on) Warren notes that the trade deals are corrupt, with the multinationals setting the agenda.

9:38pm: Sanders notes that the trade deals are about advantaging large multinational corporations. Wants to hold the corporate robber barons responsible.

9:36pm: Joe Biden invokes artificial intelligence? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

9:35pm: Klobuchar’s response, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa. I think that we know her strategy here.

9:34pm: Warren says that new NAFTA is better the old deal, and we should follow up. Sanders notes that this never happens, and that the trade deals are negotiated by and for rich pigs. (not his word)

9:31pm: Sanders asked about opposing the new NAFTA. This is in his wheel house, and he talks about competing with starvation wages, and notes that there is nothing regarding anthropogenic climate change.

9:29pm: Steyer makes a good point: Before a summit, the staff has to cross the “I”s and dot the “T”s.

9:28pm: Biden says that he would not go to an unconditional meeting with Kim Jung Un.

9:27pm: Klobuchar is asked, “What if JCPOA falls apart.” She correctly notes that that is not a certainty. I would add, if my grandmother had balls, he would be my grandfather. And then she spoils it by calling Iran a terrorist regime. Moron.

9:25pm: Buttigieg correctly slams Trump for walking away from the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA).

9:24pm: Steyer must hate Blitzer for asking about nothing but war, it plays to his weakness.

9:23pm: Warren talks about how generals keep insisting that we have turned the corner in Afghanistan, we are going in circles. good line

9:20pm: Biden is asked about committing troops without Congress, as Obama did, and says that they used the 2001 AUMF, which is bullsh%$.

9:18pm: Biden wants a significant special forces footprint. Then you need infantry to protect them. Rinse, lather, repeat.

9:16pm: Buttigieg goes on about the sacrifices of the soldiers without saying much.

9:15pm: Warren has a good point, that our presence there does not do any good.

9:12pm: Joe Biden is arguing for a continued ground troop presence in the Middle East.

9:12pm: Bernie Sanders has the first good line of the debates, that the two greatest foreign policy disasters of recent memory, Iraq and Afghanistan, were based on lies. In response to “what about ISIS” question.

9:12pm: Tom Steyer’s response: War is just like international finance. F%$#ing asshole billionaires.

9:07pm: Same question to Klubuchar and Buttigieg, both non-answers.

9:04pm: Blitzer notes that Sanders voted for Afghanistan, Sanders says that he was wrong, and we need to get out.  Biden invokes the Obama administration again.

9:03pm: Biden’s response, Obama, Obama, and, can I say it? Obama?  Take a drink (this time, 80 Proof Jim Beam®, not the hellacious 151 rum.

9:01 pm: Sanders gets the first question!  He explains that he was right on Iraq.

9:00 pm: Crap.  Wolf f%$#ing Blitzer is on the panel, and his first question is what makes you qualified to be commander and chief.

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

Pass the Pop Corn

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The House of Representatives have just released a treasure trove of documents incriminating Trump:

House Democrats just unveiled a trove of fresh impeachment evidence against President Trump in a surprise move that came just days before his impeachment trial is set to kick off in the Senate.

The files include a copy of a letter from Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani addressed to the President of Ukraine that casts Trump as fully aware of Giuliani’s actions in Ukraine — at a moment when Giuliani was publicly calling for the country to investigate Trump’s Democratic 2020 challenger, former vice president Joe Biden.

That letter, which requests a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, directly links Trump to a trip Giuliani described at the time as “meddling in an investigation.”

“In my capacity as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent, I request a meeting with you on this upcoming Monday, May 13th or Tuesday, May 14th,” Giuliani wrote.

Republicans have repeatedly defended the president by arguing that the evidence and testimony in the impeachment hearings haven’t linked him closely enough to efforts by those around him, like Giuliani, to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into Biden. But the letter says explicitly that Giuliani had Trump’s full backing and consent, at a time when Giuliani told The New York Times: “I’m asking them to do an investigation.”

The disclosures deliver a large new pile of hard evidence to Democrats on the eve of their Wednesday vote to send articles of impeachment to the Senate for a trial. In December, the House voted to impeach Trump for abusing his office by pressuring Ukraine to announce an investigation of Biden and for obstructing the Congressional investigation into what happened.

Giuliani’s letter and other documents released Tuesday were recently delivered to House Democrats by an embattled associate of his named Lev Parnas, a Ukranian-born businessman who helped Giuliani navigate the country and seek damaging information about Biden.

………

The new records include an apparent memo, written by Parnas, about getting Zelensky to announce an investigation of Biden. It’s a rare hardcopy piece of evidence suggesting what the whole scheme was about.

“Get Zalensky [sic] to Annonce [sic] that the Biden case will Be Investigated,” the note reads.

This is getting good.

Why the Federal Reserve Needs a Tighter Leash

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I have no problem with the Federal Reserve taking away the punch bowl when the party gets out of hand, but these days, the Federal Reserve spends most of its time bailing out rampant and reckless speculation:

One hurdle to a possible fix for recent volatility in the short-term cash markets: hedge funds.

Federal Reserve officials are considering a new tool to ease stresses in the market for Treasury repurchase agreements, or repos. Through the repo market, banks and hedge funds borrow cash overnight, while pledging safe securities such as government bonds as collateral. In September, an unexpected shortage of available cash to lend sparked a surge in the cost of repo-market borrowing, prompting the Fed to intervene for the first time since the financial crisis.

One potential solution is to lend cash directly to smaller banks, securities dealers and hedge funds through the repo market’s clearinghouse, the Fixed Income Clearing Corp., or FICC.

Hedge funds currently borrow through a process called sponsored repo, in which they ask a large bank to act as a middleman, pairing their government bonds with money-market funds willing to lend cash. The bank then guarantees that the parties will fulfill their obligations—repaying the cash or returning the securities. Firms trading through the FICC contribute to a fund that would cover a borrower’s default. Critics of the new plan say if the Fed lends cash directly through the clearinghouse, it could end up contributing to a hedge-fund bailout.

The Fed’s aim, according to analysts, is to step back from temporary efforts to quell repo-market volatility and increase financial reserves. After September’s volatility, officials succeeded in suppressing year-end swings with temporary measures, such as offering short-term repo loans and buying Treasury bills.

Yet the new approach could also create political problems for policy makers, analysts said. The problem centers on the central bank lending directly to hedge funds, the little-regulated investment vehicles that tend to serve wealthy or institutional investors.

The political backlash that followed crisis-era bank rescues hangs over policy makers’ approach to the current problem, analysts said, even as officials work to ensure the smooth functioning of a key piece of the infrastructure underpinning financial markets. Some fear that lending directly to hedge funds could lead to the perception the Fed is fueling risky bets.

“There’s a strong aversion to fat cat bailouts,” said Glenn Havlicek, chief executive of GLMX, which provides technology to repo trading desks.

Many hedge funds trade in the cash market through sponsored repos. The clearinghouse sits between buyers and sellers to ensure that neither party backs out of the transaction. Records of cleared trades also are publicly available, improving the market’s transparency.

The solution is to wind down the Repo market by making it more expensive gradually, which is something that the Fed can do, and it would reduce the risks in the market, but it would also reduce speculative profits, which is antithetical to the Central Bank’s true agenda.

Instead, they are looking at refilling the punch bowl, and adding Everclear.

This will not end well.

How Convenient

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As I’ve noted before, this is all about Amazon expanding its monopoly(ies):

The online retailer on Tuesday notified its third-party merchants that they could once again use FedEx’s Ground network to ship orders placed under Amazon’s Prime membership program, nearly a month after imposing a ban on the service because of performance issues.

The move ends a standoff between Amazon and onetime shipping partner FedEx, whose Ground network was blocked for the final rush before Christmas and several weeks thereafter.

An Amazon spokesman said FedEx Ground has been reinstated for Prime shipments fulfilled by third-party sellers now that the services are consistently meeting the retailer’s on-time delivery requirements.

This was not a performance issue.

F%$# Their Butt-Hurt

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I give quite a bit to fellow Dems – we’ve fundraised over $300,000 for others (more than my “dues”), w/ over 50% going to swing seats.

DCCC made clear that they will blacklist any org that helps progressive candidates like me. I can choose not to fund that kind of exclusion. https://t.co/qqwdwPAqek

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 10, 2020

The powers that be in the Washington, DC Democratic Party have bleating piteously over Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) refusing to raise money for the DCCC, because the DCCC has decided to go on a Jihad against progressive Democrats.

Of course the DCCC has always been an enemy of the progressive wing of the party, but Nancy Pelosi put the hapless Cheri Bustos in charge of the organization this time around, who made it official, so AOC’s action is reasonable, particularly when juxtaposed with her prodigious fundraising for Democrats in swing districts:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) announced she had formed a political action committee on Saturday to help raise funds for progressive primary candidates.

The congresswoman has been a vocal opponent of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s policy to “blacklist” vendors and firms that work with candidates mounting primary challenges against Democratic incumbents. Ocasio-Cortez was one such candidate, having run a successful primary campaign against Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) in 2018.

Democratic leadership sees the rule as necessary to protect seats and win elections, but critics like Ocasio-Cortez and fellow 2018 upset victor Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) say it prevents fresh voices from reaching Congress and could encumber efforts to increase diversity in the halls of the Capitol.

Ocasio-Cortez has also not paid her dues to the DCCC during this campaign cycle and said she did not plan to pay. The funds are traditionally provided to the DCCC by House members to redistribute among other important races.

Fox News reported that nearly 100 members had yet to pay their dues as of October.

Considering the fact that the DCCC is blacklisting people and organizations for people who are supporting challengers to right wing sellouts like Henry Cuellar and Dan Lipinski, who are in reliably Democratic districts, her actions are not only justified, but obligory.