REMINDER: Political correctness kills.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
May 24, 2017
“D” IS FOR DYSFUNCTION: Democrats Still Struggling To Achieve Any Kind Of Party Unity.
The new chair of the Democratic National Committee recently began cursing — “Republicans don’t give a shit about people” — as a way to fire up the base in his attempt to unify the party against President Trump. But in the three months since the Democratic party elected Perez as DNC chair over Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, Perez has struggled to bridge the gap between the establishment and progressive wings of the party.
Perez and the DNC have been especially unsuccessful in convincing their supporters to give the kind of money the RNC has brought in every month. The DNC brought in just $4.7 million in April — less than half of the RNC’s $9.6 million haul over that same time, according to FEC filings submitted by the parties this week. The RNC finished the month with $41.4 million cash on hand, dwarfing the DNC’s $8.8 million in cash on hand.
RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel took a victory lap after the numbers showed the RNC again dominating the DNC in the fundraising game. “These numbers are evidence of the overwhelming enthusiasm for President Trump and the tireless work by Republicans everywhere to ensure we work together to build on our majorities and elect Republicans up and down the ballot headed into 2017, 2018, and beyond,” McDaniel said.
Perez, an establishment figure on the left, has been unsuccessful in winning over the party’s left-wing, where many leaders believe the party has drifted too far right.
Keep thinking that.
BIOMETRIC INSECURITY: Hackers Can Unlock Samsung’s Galaxy S8 Using Fake Irises.
The CCC describes how this particular hack works. First, you need a camera with a night vision mode or with the infrared filter removed. A good digital camera with a 200mm lens was able to take successful images at up to five meters, or about 17 feet. Distance from the subject will obviously depend on the quality of the camera, the lighting conditions, the angle of the photo, and the skill of the photographer.
Once the photo is taken, the final image can be printed on a high-quality laser printer (CCC reports that, ironically, Samsung printers worked best for their own security testing). Place a contact lens over the iris photo to simulate the effects of a real eye’s curvature, and voila — you’ve got a solution that can bypass Android security.
Anyone shooting your picture from within 17 feet using a 200mm telephoto lens isn’t exactly going to be discreet.
OH: Obama intel agency secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years.
More than 5 percent, or one out of every 20 searches seeking upstream Internet data on Americans inside the NSA’s so-called Section 702 database violated the safeguards Obama and his intelligence chiefs vowed to follow in 2011, according to one classified internal report reviewed by Circa.
The Obama administration self-disclosed the problems at a closed-door hearing Oct. 26 before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that set off alarm. Trump was elected less than two weeks later.
The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an “institutional lack of candor” and that the improper searches constituted a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue,” according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017.
Maybe when Obama said “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” he meant he had a pen and access to your phone.
JOHN KIRBY: Calling Manchester Attackers ‘Losers,’ Won’t ‘Resonate With Jihadis’
But the Koran says otherwise.
CHANGE: Moody’s Cuts Its China Rating for the First Time Since 1989.
Moody’s Investors Service cut China’s sovereign credit rating for the first time in nearly three decades, citing expectations that the country’s financial strength will deteriorate in the coming years as debt keeps rising and the economy slows.
In a Wednesday statement, Moody’s said it downgraded China’s rating to A1 from Aa3, while changing its outlook to stable from negative. In March of last year, it cut China’s outlook to negative from stable. Moody’s last cut its China credit rating in November 1989, not long after the bloody crackdown on mass protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square rocked the nation. Moody’s now rates China’s credit alongside that of countries such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Nobody really knows what’s going on in China’s economy, not even Beijing.
AFTER MANCHESTER: Three more arrests in bomber investigation.
Police arrested the three in the city on Wednesday. Abedi’s 23-year-old brother was arrested on Tuesday.
Abedi killed 22 and injured 64 when he blew himself up outside an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night.
The UK terror threat level is now up to its highest level of “critical”, meaning more attacks may be imminent.
It means military personnel are being deployed to protect key sites.
The Palace of Westminster has been closed to the public following police advice, and will not re-open until further notice, a statement on its website said.
And the Changing the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace has been cancelled on Wednesday to allow for the redeployment of police officers, the Ministry of Defence said.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “[Monday’s attack] was more sophisticated than some of the attacks we’ve seen before, and it seems likely – possible – that he wasn’t doing this on his own.”
More to come.
MORE FOR US! Kuwait says OPEC, non-OPEC could deepen oil cuts.
The top oil producer in OPEC, Saudi Arabia, favors extending the output curbs by nine months rather than the initially planned six months, to speed up market rebalancing and prevent crude prices from sliding back below $50 per barrel.
OPEC members Iraq and Algeria as well as top non-OPEC producer Russia also said they support a nine-month extension.
As ministers gathered in Vienna for informal consultations, Saudi OPEC ally Kuwait said discussions included the possibility of deepening the cuts or prolonging them by 12 months.
“All options are on the table,” Kuwaiti oil minister Essam al-Marzouq told reporters.
Unless they bring American frackers to the table — and they can’t — all these talks amount to is how how much marketshare OPEC/non-OPEC is willing to cede to us in order to stabilize prices.
FASTER, PLEASE: FCC Begins Rolling Back Obama’s Net Neutrality Rule.
NEWT GINGRICH AND PAT NOLAN: Opioid Addictions Won’t be Cured by Tough Sentences.
One of the most important promises President Trump made during the campaign was his pledge to end the opioid epidemic – and he has taken some strong steps toward making good on that promise, including the creation of a commission and almost a half billion dollars in new funding. But Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s announcement last week that federal prosecutors should “pursue the most serious, readily provable offense” when dealing with drug crimes has us concerned.
While the memo does allow for some prosecutorial discretion, we are troubled because this directive could potentially slow progress fighting the opioid epidemic and work against other efforts by the Trump administration to do so.
Frankly, putting people battling opioid addiction in jail rather than in treatment programs could lead to more opioid-related deaths.
A huge body of evidence shows opioid addiction is a chemical brain disease – not a behavioral or lifestyle decision. Because of this, many people who are chemically predisposed to opioid addiction become hooked after taking lawfully prescribed opioid-based painkillers following a surgery or an accident. Once the prescription runs out, they turn to the illegal market to feed their addiction. These are not people with malignant intentions, they are suffering from an addiction – a medical condition.
Read the whole thing.
IT’S COME TO THIS: Duterte Declares Martial Law in Southern Philippines.
Duterte declared martial rule for 60 days in the entire southern Mindanao region, the restive third of the Philippine archipelago, Tuesday evening to try to crush Muslim extremists who have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group and occupied a hospital, jail and other buildings and battled troops in an audacious attack in Marawi City.
Martial law could be extended for a year depending on how long the problem could be quelled, Duterte said on board a plane en route to the Philippines.
“I said I would be harsh and I warned everybody not to force my hand into it,” Duterte said. “I have to do it to preserve the republic.”
I’m so old I can remember when ISIS was still the junior varsity.
GROUND SUPPORT: The A-10 Warthog Isn’t Going Anywhere — Yet.
The service recently solicited defense contractors to participate in the OA-X light-attack aircraft experiment at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico this coming July to “augment” the A-10. So far, the A-29 Super Tucano, Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine, and AirLand Scorpion are set to compete at OA-X.
While observers speculate that one of those warplanes may eventually replace the A-10 upon retirement, the DoD’s 2018 budget proposal seems to suggest the service is no longer itching to retire the legendary aircraft.
The DoD’s budget proposal is just that: a proposal. And a spokesman for Air Combat Command threw cold water on the idea that the budget request is a firm pledge to modernize and maintain the A-10 indefinitely.
“Any questions about the president’s budget proposal fall to the president,” Maj. Andrew Schrag, a spokesman for Air Combat Command, told Task & Purpose. “Congress debates and adjusts and manages all of these proposals, and months from now, we may or may not have the budget, and then we start making adjustments, and even those adjustments occur at a DoD level.”
“It’s a Russian nesting doll,” Schrag added. “We’re talking about hypotheticals on hypotheticals, and we’re talking about tactical- and maybe operational-level conversations about airframes that fall so far below items in a line item budget that haven’t even been voted on yet.”
Amazing planes, but those airframes aren’t getting any younger or cheaper to maintain.
QUESTION ASKED: Would Californians Be Better off Under Single-Payer Healthcare?
One way or the other, you get the feeling we’re going to find out sooner rather than later.
NEVER LET THE FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD CONSPIRACY THEORY: There Remains No Evidence Of Trump-Russia Collusion.
Diverse figures and outlets agree that the nexus of “possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign” does not include any evidence of collusion. Maxine Waters (D-CA) concedes there is no proof of collusion as does Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) joined by Trump nemesis Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Fox political analyst, Brit Hume, on Sunday’s #MediaBuzz stated that he has never seen a charge get so far out in front of the available evidence over the course of his long career. Matt Taibbi, a left-wing columnist for Rolling Stone who calls Trump the “crazy clown President,” points out that “despite almost daily leaks by anonymous sources, we do not know whether it is about collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian state.”
The New York Times, in a lead editorial, counters the lack of evidence of collusion as follows: “The known facts suggest an unusually extensive network (my italics) of relationships with a major foreign power.” The Times’ logic: Trump-associate dealings with Russians are alone sufficient justification for an investigation. Where there is smoke, there may be fire. So, investigate, investigate, investigate until you find something.
I’d like a deeper investigation into the Clinton-Russia uranium story.
GOOD MORNING: Here’s Liz Sheld’s morning brief to make it even better.
May 23, 2017
YOU CAN’T BUY THAT KIND OF P.R.: Al-Qaeda Slams Trump as ‘Hateful Crusader Master.’
YOU MAY NOT BE INTERESTED IN THE GLEICHSCHALTUNG, BUT THE GLEICHSCHALTUNG IS INTERESTED IN YOU: Here’s How Trump Supporters Lose Acting Gigs.
LOOK FOR THE PEOPLE WHO ARE HELPING OTHERS: What was trending after the Manchester Ariana Grande attack? Mr. Rogers. Here’s why.
NEWS YOU CAN USE? Why Some People Can’t Handle Their Weed.
When humans consume weed, it stimulates their endocannabinoid system (ECS), which plays a key role in regulating our response to reward, stress and emotions. “What the ECS does is it optimizes our brain between excitation and inhibition,” says Dr. Baler. But when chemicals found in weed, such as THC, enter the ECS, they perturb the system’s ability to act in synchrony, which can disrupt our ability to regulate our response to stress, potentially causing anxiety.
“Fear stimuli that we can normally cope with can become unmanageable under the effects of marijuana because our fight-or-flight response gets disrupted,” says Dr. Baler. “You may not be able to keep those stimuli under control because your ECS is so out of whack because of all the THC in your system,” he says.
Chelsea Wind, a 46-year-old caregiver from Anderson, California, has been using medicinal marijuana every day for the past six years for pain management. One night she had a panic attack when she was at her friend’s house. “He was encouraging me to smoke more and more and get as high as humanly possible,” says Wind. “It felt like I had stopped being able to breath. I was panicking so much and I made him call 9-1-1.”
Too much is too much.
MARK I: ‘Iron Man’ Suit On Track, But Hurdles Remain.
The highly anticipated tactical assault light operator suit (TALOS), which has been in development since 2013, is intended to protect the first special operator coming through a door during a raid. It should have enough armor to thwart small arms fire or bomb blasts. It would also provide support for physically exhausting activities such as climbing multiple flights of stairs or carrying heavy loads.
Army Col. Jim Miller, director of the suit’s joint acquisition task force, said the program is continuing to develop a prototype of the often-dubbed “Iron Man” suit. The current suit is called the Mark 5 because it has gone through at least five iterations since the effort first began.
“There have been some design changes to it every month since I arrived last July,” he said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Special Operations Forces Industry Conference. Nevertheless, the task force has made progress narrowing down requirements and capabilities, he added.
The TALOS effort is “relatively on schedule,” Miller said. “I say relatively because this is [research and development],” he added, noting that it is critical to develop a product that works as advertised. Once a prototype is developed, the effort will become a program of record, most likely run by program executive office SOF warrior, he said.
The suit comprises a base layer that hosts a variety of physiological and biological sensors, actuators that serve as the muscles to power the suit, processors and computers, and a durable exoskeleton that offers support to the operator.
Currently the exoskeleton is made out of titanium, but the task force may consider alternative materials such as composites in the future, Miller said.
How much longer before we have a suit for special operators which operates without the operator?
ON THE INTERNET, INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE. SO DO CONVICTS. South Dakota Becomes First State with Online Pardon Application.