WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Xi Jinping Becomes China’s Most Powerful Leader Since Mao Zedong.
Archive for 2017
October 24, 2017
PRIVACY: Microsoft to drop lawsuit after U.S. government revises data request rules.
The new policy limits the use of secrecy orders and calls for such orders to be issued for defined periods, Microsoft Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said in a blog post on Monday.
“As a result of the issuance of this policy, we are taking steps to dismiss our lawsuit,” Smith said. bit.ly/2gE3kDp
The company expects the changes to end the practice of indefinite secrecy orders.
Microsoft filed the lawsuit in April 2016 arguing that the U.S. government was violating the constitution by preventing the company from informing its customers about government requests for their emails and other documents.
The suit argued that the government’s actions were in violation of the Fourth Amendment, which establishes the right for people and businesses to know if the government searches or seizes their property, and the company’s First Amendment right to free speech.
The changes will ensure that secrecy order requests are “carefully and specifically tailored to the facts in the case,” Smith said.
“This is an important step for both privacy and free expression. It is an unequivocal win for our customers, and we’re pleased the DOJ (Department of Justice) has taken these steps to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans,” the statement said.
More like this, please.
TEACHING HATRED AT GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS’ WEST PARISH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: “So mainstream has the hate against the president become that fantasizing about his death is considered school-appropriate humor.”
I remember when a rodeo clown lost his job just for wearing an Obama mask.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME EDITION: Trump, Emoluments, and the Professoriate. The DOJ isn’t looking so great either: “The president’s most effective defender on the subject of foreign emoluments is not his own Justice Department but a pair of law professors: Seth Barrett Tillman, a law professor at Maynooth University in Ireland, and Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law.”
RISING SUN: Japan Needs Long-Range Strike Capabilities.
To boost its deterrence capabilities, Japan should consider being even more proactive. It should, in fact, contemplate acquiring the capability to strike enemy territory with long-range strike capabilities. Under the notion that Japan should not simply wait around to die if an enemy were preparing to attack, the Ichiro Hatoyama administration argued in 1956 that having capabilities that could strike enemy missile sites was theoretically within the constitutional right of self-defense. This interpretation even applied to Japanese strikes against another country before a missile is launched at Japan. Subsequent administrations have adhered to this interpretation, meaning Japan can constitutionally possess long-range strike capability. As a matter of policy, however, its governments have not tried to acquire them. It may be time to move beyond the theoretical.
We wouldn’t be having a conversation about expanding Japan’s offshore military capabilities if China hadn’t allowed North Korea to go Full Rogue on nuclear weapons — but it’s not too late for Beijing to act.
IN THE MAIL: From Victor Davis Hanson, The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.
Plus, fresh Gold Box and Lightning Deals.
EVERYBODY’S TRANSITIONING THESE DAYS. Roger Simon: Eek, I’m a Populist!
WHEN DOES THROTTLING ACCESS BECOME CENSORSHIP? The Daily Signal reports on a common occurrence, namely right-leaning posters being denied access to FB (often called “Facebook Jail”). FB claims it was not content-based but allegedly a matter of their computers erroneously flagging the guy’s account for “overposting.” Allen Muench, a retired accountant told The Daily Signal that:
“Facebook suspended him for two weeks for posting a video of the American flag, and also suspended him for posting memes about Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and former President Bill Clinton.”
That may or may not be the case, but blaming the computer always sounds like a weak excuse. A Facebook spokesperson said that:
Muench was posting a large amount, including to various Facebook groups, which the company’s system could identify as spam because he often posted almost identical content or content that some members of groups didn’t like. Muench was not violating Facebook’s Community Standards, the spokeswoman said, and the error notices he saw when posting also could result from his posting too fast.
So the question becomes whether they are merely throttling access or making content-based decisions. As a private actor, FB has the right to do the latter, but if that’s the case, they ought to be more honest about it. (Good luck with *that*.) The dispositive fact that’s missing is whether far-left FB members have had the same problem. Guesses don’t count, and other than a class-action suit, I don’t see how that data could be pried from FB.
YOU WILL LET ME KNOW WHEN THOSE LAMBS STOP SCREAMING, WON’T YOU? Anguished Liberals Plan to ‘Scream Helplessly at the Sky’ on Anniversary of Trump Election.
BILL GERTZ: DHS, FBI Warn Companies of Ongoing Cyber Attacks on Critical Infrastructure.
The detailed technical analysis of the cyber campaign highlights the growing danger of foreign states’ efforts to map networks that control critical infrastructures in preparation for future operations that could shut down the electric grid and other infrastructures.
Adm. Mike Rogers, Cyber Command commander and director of the National Security Agency, told Congress in May he is concerned about foreign nations using attacks against critical infrastructures that run the electric grid, financial systems, communications networks, the transportation systems, and others.
“We assess that several countries, including Iran, have conducted disruptions or remote intrusions into critical infrastructure systems in the United States,” Rogers said.
It seems safe to assume that’s because so far they’ve felt they could probe our systems and attack with impunity. We need to both harden our infrastructure and change their assumptions.
UNEXPECTEDLY! Bay Area hammered by loss of 4,700 jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring efforts. “I always thought that if I went into the tech industry, I could create a prosperous future for myself. But who wants to commute six hours a day? You should be able to afford a place to live near where you have to work.”
It’s weird how when you adopt a bunch of regulations limiting the supply of housing, the price goes up.
MATH IS RACIST: Algebra, geometry perpetuate white privilege.
“On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness. Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as White,” Gutierrez argued.
Gutierrez also worries that algebra and geometry perpetuate privilege, fretting that “curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.”
Math also helps actively perpetuate white privilege too, since the way our economy places a premium on math skills gives math a form of “unearned privilege” for math professors, who are disproportionately white.
“Are we really that smart just because we do mathematics?” she asks, further wondering why math professors get more research grants than “social studies or English” professors.
I see — it’s a shakedown.
LALALA, I CAN’T HEAR YOU: In a story that may be related to the Andrew Sullivan piece Glenn posted yesterday, DC leftist think tankers have gone on “listening tours” of Trump country – and reported that what voters really want is exactly what the think tanks recommended in the first place.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Republican students harassed, threatened for wearing MAGA hats.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Travel Ban, Niger, Hollywood Harassment and Much, Much More.
FIGHTING THE WITCH HUNTS: ‘Willing to Do Everything,’ Mothers Defend Sons Accused of Sexual Assault.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON ON MUELLER: Investigating the Investigators. “Despite having both an expansive budget and a large legal team, Special Investigator Robert Mueller likely will not find President Trump culpable for any Russian collusion—or at least no court or congressional vote would, even if Mueller recommends an indictment. That likelihood becomes clearer as the Trump investigators—in Congress, in the Justice Department, and the legions in the media—begin to grow strangely silent about the entire collusion charge, as other scandals mount and crowd out the old empty story. This news boomerang poses the obvious question—was the zeal of the original accusers of felony behavior with the Russian collusion merely an attempt at deflection? Was it designed to protect themselves from being accused of serious crimes?”
DEREGULATION: EPA plans to repeal emission standards for truck components.
Unlike some Obama-era regulations, the rule, which is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, has been widely embraced by the trucking industry.
The rule applies the standards now used for heavy-duty trucks to new truck components called gliders and trailers. A glider, or body, is the front of a truck, including the cab, which fits over the engine. Trailers are the storage components that make up most of the length of a truck.
Currently, trucking companies can install an outdated engine into a new truck body and avoid regulations that would apply to an entirely new truck. Engine manufacturers and public health advocates are in favor of closing that loophole and applying pollution controls uniformly. Heavy-duty trucks have faced tighter emissions standards since 2004, though they have become more stringent over time, thereby widening the gap between new ones and truck bodies that contain older engines.
On Sept. 11, executives from three major heavy-truck and engine manufacturers — Volvo Group North America, Cummins and Navistar — wrote Pruitt urging him not to reopen the rule.
I’m shocked, shocked to find that engine manufacturers oppose re-purposing older engines.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Maryland attorney general Brian Frosh seeks to derail probe into Clinton’s personal lawyers.
UPDATE: Putin critic cleared to travel to US.
Original item that Bill Browder had been barred is here.
NOTHING MORE PEACEFUL THAN A DEAD TROUBLEMAKER: FBI al Qaeda infiltrator: ‘I am appalled at what these animals are doing.’ “We’re not at war with Islam. We’re at war with radicals. I am a Muslim. I am an American. And I’ve been serving my country for 22 years and counting. And I am appalled at what these animals are doing to my country while desecrating my religion.”
I hope we pursue the kind of strategy against Al Qaeda that Gen. Mattis has brought out for ISIS.