"Researchers find 600 accounts linked to Russian influence operations pushing both sides of the debate, The New York Times reports." I think all of them have replied to Jim Wright's tweets at some point in the last year. Somedays I think my Russian friends are interested in me (after all, I'm scintillating), but mostly I think it's collateral from Jim. Either way, I wonder how complete my dossier is. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"During the height of the 2016 campaign, Twitter users shared more 'misinformation, polarizing and conspiratorial content,' than actual news stories, an Oxford University study released Thursday says." I think they should have put "users" in quotes like I did. For those of us on twitter, yeah, we know. And despite constant calls for Twitter to do something about it, they give us 280 characters instead. But only for a few. Some are more equal than others. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
The military just decommissioned a satellite and opened it for use by the public. I'll be in my bunk. (Grokked from Dan)
A NY Times article from 1992 describing what would become the smart phone. Just for some historical perspective (also for the gratuitous "it'll never happen" predictions). In the novel I had finished, because of circumstances Silicon Valley wasn't the center of the digital US, upstate NY was. That was the home of Motorola, and the smartphone revolution happened much sooner (although the integration of technologies was a bit different, but akin to where I see the smartphone going). I'll also note that in 1992 we were also discussing devices that merged the computer, your TV, your cable, and this new thing called the Internet (well, the world wide web, the Internet was a little old at that time). While that vision isn't fully realized, your Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV and a host of other devices were close to what was being thought of. (Grokked from Dan)
"Chief White House economic adviser Gary Cohn on Thursday said he 'can't guarantee' taxes won't go up for some middle-class families, even though he said the White House's new tax proposal is 'purely aimed at middle-class families.'" And there it is.
"The Supreme Court is set to deal a sharp blow to the unions that represent millions of teachers and other public employees, announcing Thursday it will consider striking down the mandatory fees that support collective bargaining." And just as an FYI, "The union fees case presents the question of whether to overturn a 40-year-old ruling. In that case, Abood vs. Detroit, the Supreme Court said it was reasonable to require all employees, not just union members, to pay to support the cost of bargaining because all of them benefited. By law, the unions are required to represent all employees, including by handling their grievances." So yeah, my guess is they won't change the law mandating that the unions handle the grievances and include non-union pay and benefits in their contracts. This will then set up a counter suit that Unions are being forced to engage in speech without compensation (the case is based on if someone can be compelled to pay for speech they don't support, a dubious twisting of "free speech" which opens a whole can o' worms).
Nursing homes that rely the most on Medicaid tend to provide the worst care for their residents — not just the people covered by the program but also those who pay privately or have Medicare coverage." "'When Medicaid nursing homes are poor and perform poorly, their hospitalization rate increases, and Medicare pays for those hospitalizations,' (Vincent Mor, a professor of health services, policy and practice at the Brown University School of Public Health) says. 'If I'm a nursing home and I can barely afford my patients, I'm going to send my patients to the hospital.'" And boy do we see them.
In case you thought I was being cynical when I mentioned how deficits don't matter when Republicans are in charge… "'It’s a great talking point when you have an administration that’s Democrat-led,' said Representative Mark Walker, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of about 150 conservative House members. 'It’s a little different now that Republicans have both houses and the administration.'" And here is something else not cynical, they know it won't create jobs. They know it won't increase growth. They know that it'll hardly effect the middle and poor class (in fact, it'll probably raise their taxes). We know this (because we've seen what happens with prior tax cuts and with the experiment in Kansas). But they think their base is dumb enough and "desperate" enough to swallow it. All they need to do is say they're increasing taxes on the poor/inner cities/democratic strongholds (or decreasing the earned income benefit) and their base will eat it up and ask for seconds. As long as they screw over minorities more than they screw their base over. (Grokked from Ferrett Steinmetz)
But here's the thing Republicans forget. When income inequality grows to great, and those at the top forget to be humble, the rest of us will eat them. Literally and figuratively.
"President Donald Trump, the only president in modern history to not release his tax returns (see our fact-check), said he would not personally benefit from his proposed changes to tax law." Uh, yeah, Bob.
"The Department of Justice has obtained search warrants that could disclose information about thousands of people who liked a resistance Facebook page." One of the word's you're looking for here is "petty."
"(Speaker Ryan) also acknowledged that House Republicans have just about run out of patience with the Senate after the collapse of health care reform this week." The House doesn't trust the Senate… wow it's like that whole bicameral solution actually works.
"Racial slurs were written on the dormitory message boards of five black cadet candidates at the Air Force Academy Preparatory School earlier this week." I love how conservatives are all, "oh no, Trump's victory wasn't a victory for racism." Well here's the thing, the racists think it was. I also love the response from the command of the Academy (I wish they were as forceful with the evangelical push on campus).
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