I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Monday, June 10, 2019

Linkee-poo remember when you were young, you shone like the sun

"Herold threw another idea Bluestone’s way. What if anti-CD3 could counter T cell attacks on the pancreas, which lead to type 1 diabetes? On something of a lark, in the early 1990s the pair injected anti-CD3 into a mouse model of diabetes, before the animals had become sick. The treatment kept many of them from developing diabetes." Not so much a cure, but a way to stop it from developing.

"The Chinese company Huawei has become one of the world's telecom giants. And there are questions about how it got there, including accusations that it stole technology to get ahead." What's the opposite of hagiography?

"United Technologies and Raytheon are joining forces to create an aerospace and defense powerhouse. It is one of the biggest corporate mergers of 2019." If it's allowed to.

"Seniors in major metropolitan areas, especially in the Northeast and around Washington, D.C., are more likely to continue working past age 65 than those in other areas around the country, according to an analysis of Census data by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research."

"A couple say they were subjected to a homophobic attack and left covered in blood after refusing to kiss on a bus." (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

"Maker Media, the company that publishes Make Magazine and Maker Faire is laying off its staff and halting its operations amidst financial troubles, according to TechCrunch." It's a thousand times easier to be a consumer than to be a maker. I've become a maker, in a small sense, because I can't find things I need in the market place either by availability or by price points. There's also been recent articles, one of which in the NYTs, about how "millennials aren't good at DIY". These articles have received the derision (at least in the circles I move in) they so rightly have deserved. But all the issues surrounding that concept are not good for the portion of the market that supplies DIYers. (Grokked from John)

"She is among nearly 3 million students around the country who face struggles keeping up with their studies because they must make do without home internet. In classrooms, access to laptops and the internet is nearly universal. But at home, the cost of internet service and gaps in its availability create obstacles in urban areas and rural communities alike." The Digital Gap rears it's ugly head.

"But you can save yourself, Martin County Detective Mike Fenton and others tell her. We will give you an apartment. We will provide food and education. We will bring your children to the United States… Just tell us you are a human-trafficking victim and testify against your captors." Police interrogation techniques and applying pressure.

How go the Trade Wars? "(Laredo) fortunes, based entirely on trade between the two countries, is forever tied to the United States’ kinship with or animus for its southern neighbor. The closeness of that relationship can sometimes make the restrictive lines of the national border feel blurry, but with the Trump administration’s recent threats of a trade war, they have become increasingly stark."

"'We have fully signed and documented another very important part of the Immigration and Security deal with Mexico, one that the U.S. has been asking about getting for many years,” he wrote, claiming that it would be 'revealed in the not too distant future and will need a vote by Mexico’s Legislative body!…'" You would think that an international deal, signed (just whom signed it still hasn't been revealed), obligating the US to actions, would be released in full. And if it has to be approved by the Mexican "legislative body", why doesn't it have to be approved by Congress as well? This "fully signed and documented" shit has the feel of, "I read it somewhere…".

Oh, and about that "deal" (which informed people are saying, "Wait, didn't Mexico agree to that months ago?"), "President Donald Trump is bragging about a new deal with Mexico that provides for 'large' sales of U.S. farm goods, but it doesn’t appear to exist." The article also fact checks many recent statements. It's fairly long.

"President Donald Trump says if Chinese President Xi Jinping… doesn’t meet with him at the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, this month, additional tariffs will go into effect." The word you're searching for is "petulance".

"'You are never alone. Don't trust anyone. Not the little lady in the restroom who's sweeping out the stalls. Not the flower girl in the corner. You just didn't trust anyone in Moscow,' she said." Jonna Mendez on The Moscow Rules, a book about CIA spy craft in the Soviet Union.

"Fourteen Russia-backed YouTube channels spreading disinformation have been generating billions of views and millions of dollars in advertising revenue, according to researchers, and had not been labeled as state-sponsored, contrary to the world’s most popular streaming service’s policy." I hope my Russian friends bought something nice. (Grokked form Joy Reid)

"The House of Representatives is expected to vote Tuesday on a civil contempt resolution against Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn." Things just sure ain't the same here on Walton's Mountain.

The Politics with Amy Walter podcast with… "But a core constituency of the Democratic electorate, since Barack Obama was elected has not gotten the same level of attention: African Americans… Will this change before 2020?… According to the strategists we talked to, if Democrats want to win back the White House, it better." Dear Democrats, please focus on the communities that really help you win elections. Please sell this focus to the other communities by being able to explain that by helping marginalized communities we are strengthening everyone's political franchise and looking out for everybody's health and wellbeing.

"Examining the history of the nearly three-decade-old magazine and its intellectual trajectory teaches a useful and illuminating lesson in the logic of political ideas — how certain intellectual premises can entail the adoption of specific political positions, like a chess match in which certain moves open up a limited number of forward paths while foreclosing others. Examining that logic can help us to understand why elements of the American right have developed in the way that they have — and to make informed predictions about where they are likely to go next. What such reflection shows us is that at least some intellectuals on the religious right are in the process of talking themselves into tearing down American democracy." The first reason I am no longer a conservative (although many of my core views haven't changed). This is the logical outcome of the Reagan Compromise which brought social conservatives (the "religious right") off the sidelines of politics and invited them to take over the Republican Party. So now the solution is to clap harder, "Instead, social conservatives need to fight harder and even be willing to fight dirty, seeking to win at any cost, just as their secular liberal enemies do."

"In other words, while Obama-Trump voters still overwhelmingly approve of the president, that support is a lot softer than it was back in 2016. They did not find any significant movement among any other group of voters (like those who supported Romney in 2016 and Trump in 2016, or those who voted Romney 2012 and Clinton in 2016). And, while these Obama-Trump voters remain supportive of the president, 'even small movement among these voters — who represented 5 percent of voters in 2016,' writes the authors of the report, 'may prove significant heading into the 2020 presidential election.'" A little of the weeds of targeting politicking. Part of the problem is this narrow focus on certain groups, which is a byproduct of elections since 1980. What will change this is when a candidate can make the case that we are all in this together, and if we make sure the least among the group is taken care of, everyone will be taken care of. But that's a hard sell in an era with balkanized social groups.

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