…wilde was referring to parents (in the importance of being earnest) when he suggest that “to lose one […] may be regarded as misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness”…& oscar being oscar…he was trying to be funny…but…boris being boris
The resignation, the second from an ethics adviser in less than two years, threatens to overshadow Johnson’s attempts to shrug off the public outcry over Partygate, and the subsequent confidence vote from his own MPs last week.
[…]
Geidt’s predecessor, Alex Allan, quit in November 2020 after the prime minister ignored his finding that Priti Patel had bullied civil servants.
The ethics tsar faced a tough grilling from a cross-party committee of MPs earlier this week, during which he conceded it was “reasonable” to suggest Johnson may have broken the ministerial code – which includes an overarching duty to act in accordance with the law.
[…]
In his annual report, published at the end of last month, Geidt appeared to suggest that he had deliberately not made a recommendation on whether Johnson had broken the ministerial code, because the prime minister – who oversees the system – might ignore him.
“If a prime minister’s judgment is that there is nothing to investigate or no case to answer, he would be bound to reject any such advice, thus forcing the resignation of the independent adviser. Such a circular process could only risk placing the ministerial code in a place of ridicule,” he said.
[…]
Another watchdog, the committee on standards in public life, recently criticised Johnson for failing to give Geidt sufficient independence to do his job adequately.
The committee’s chair, former MI5 chief Jonathan Evans, said it was “highly unsatisfactory” that No 10 had not accepted in full a wide-ranging package of reforms recommended by his committee, and warned: “Suspicion about the way in which the ministerial code is administered will linger.”
[…]
Geidt took over after the resignation of Allan. He took on the job pledging to uphold the standards of the role, but was soon given the tricky job of deciding whether Johnson had broken the ministerial code over the funding of the No 11 flat refurbishment via a Tory donor.
Geidt exonerated Johnson, saying he believed the prime minister’s claims that he had not known where the money was coming from.
However, he showed the first signs of frustration with his boss after it later became public that Johnson had failed to disclose crucial text messages with the donor, Lord Brownlow. Geidt wrote a letter criticising Johnson for acting “unwisely” but cleared him of being deliberately misleading.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/15/boris-johnsons-ethics-adviser-lord-geidt-resigns-after-partygate-grilling
…admittedly “carelessness” seems like it might be a tad on the euphemistic side, there…& that’s just talking about an ethical void on a personal level
Priti Patel has been accused by Labour of participating in a “government by gimmick” in the aftermath of the 11th-hour cancellation on Tuesday of the inaugural flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda.
As the home secretary entertained demands from Conservative backbenchers to pull out of Europe’s human rights framework after the policy was scuppered by a court ruling, Labour said the plan to transport refugees 4,000 miles away was never a “serious policy”.
The criticism came as the Guardian learned that Patel was seeking to curb the number of modern slavery claims from refugees hoping to stay in the UK. Government sources said a slew of “spurious” claims was partly responsible for migrants being removed from deportation flights.
[…]
The ruling by the Strasbourg court was greeted with fury by Tory MPs, with fresh demands for the UK to pull out of the European convention on human rights. The ECHR rules on issues relating to the convention and is not an EU institution, so its influence has not been affected by Brexit.
[…]
Asked if the government could withdraw from the convention, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We are keeping all options on the table, including any further legal reforms that may be necessary. We will look at all of the legislation and processes in this round.”
[…]
In a joint letter to Patel, the Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, BMA, Faculty of Public Health, Helen Bamber Foundation, MSF UK, Doctors of the World UK, Medical Justice and Freedom from Torture said that the plans would have a severe and irreparable impact on people’s health, wellbeing and dignity.
“We oppose this policy on medical, ethical and humanitarian grounds,” they wrote. “We have severe concerns that those forcibly deported to Rwanda will struggle to access appropriate and timely healthcare.”
Meanwhile, a response to a freedom of information request, obtained by the Guardian, said officials did not know how much the new policy was costing them.
The FoI response stated: “We have carried out a thorough search and we have established that the Home Office does not hold the information you have requested on total government plans and preparations for our partnership with Rwanda. It is not possible to give a specific financial figure in this regard.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/15/priti-patel-seeks-to-curb-refugee-claims-of-modern-slavery
…so…things being what they are…gotta wonder what oscar might have to say about the prospect of losing two houses in november
At a moment in history when the leadership of the Republican party is undermining democracy, ignoring climate crisis, trying to overturn Roe v Wade, opposing a minimum wage increase, embracing more tax breaks for the rich and the growth of oligarchy, and stopping us from passing serious gun safety legislation, it would be a disaster for this right-wing extremist party to gain control of the US House and US Senate. Unfortunately, it appears that the current strategy of the Democratic party is allowing that to happen.
[…]
Unfortunately, despite strong support from the American people, despite the support of the President, despite passage in the House of Representatives, despite the support of 48 members of the Senate, two corporate Democrats – Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema – both of whom received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from billionaires and corporate interests – decided to sabotage that legislation. We needed 50 votes to pass Build Back Better. We had 48.
And it has been downhill ever since for the Democrats. After nine months of fruitless “negotiations” with Manchin and Sinema, the time is long overdue to realize that this is a path that leads to nowhere except defeat at the ballot box and the growing perception that the Democrats have turned their backs on working families. We need a new strategy. We need to take on Republicans. We need to fight back.
In an extremely difficult and unsettling time – inflation, the pandemic, the heating of the planet, gun violence, attacks on abortion rights, the war in Ukraine – the American people want their elected officials to stand up to powerful special interests and fight for them. Well. The Democrats control the White House, the Senate and the House – and that is not happening. They are being held accountable for their inaction, and they’re losing.
Is the situation hopeless? I don’t think so. But in order to turn the situation around, Democrats need a major course correction. And, in doing that, they can learn a lesson from the 1948 campaign of Harry Truman. In 1948, nobody believed Truman had a chance to win that election. Strom Thurmond and the segregationists had bolted the party and Henry Wallace, a third-party candidate, was taking progressive votes away from Truman. Truman responded with a simple and straight-forward strategy. Unlike today’s Democrats, he took the fight to the Republicans. He didn’t let them hide behind their whining and “do-nothingism.” He exposed them for what they were – tools of special interests. He made them vote on major issues. And, time and again, they voted against the interests of working families. Truman showed the very clear difference between the parties – and he won.
What the Democrats need to do, right now, is to make it clear: they may have 50 votes in the Senate, but they do not have 50 votes to pass the legislation that the American people want and need. They have no Republican support and there are two Democrats who will vote with Republicans on important issues.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/15/democrats-risk-a-crushing-defeat-this-year-they-must-change-course-now
…bernie has a few examples of things to get them on the record voting against, if you’re interested & don’t already have your own laundry list…but…when it comes to things to be clear about & the elephant in the room
…or indeed, womb
…we can’t stop people so far up their own ass they can’t see for shit
…but…it’s important to be clear about some things
…& without being placated by people only now prepared to say things to a public with the original vested interest that they previously found it in their interests to play notably closer to their vest
Bill Stepien, who told the Jan. 6 committee that he quit Donald Trump’s campaign after the 2020 election because he could not go along with his election lies, nevertheless continues to coordinate Trump’s political operation, which is built almost entirely on spreading those exact election lies.
Stepien’s National Public Affairs firm is currently paid $10,000 a month from Trump’s Save America committee, receiving a total of $130,000 since last May, and taking in another $90,562 from Trump’s reconfigured presidential campaign, according to a HuffPost analysis of Federal Election Commission filings.
He has also collected an additional $1.2 million from an all-star cast of pro-Trump election liars, including $190,488 from Harriet Hageman, who is trying to unseat Wyoming congresswoman and Jan. 6 committee vice chair Liz Cheney in the August Republican primary.
[…]
“I didn’t think what was happening was necessarily honest or professional at that point in time. So, again, that led to me stepping away,” Stepien said.
Yet Stepien never really left Trump, with his firm receiving $20,000 in both February and March of 2021, and as much as $30,000 and no less than $10,000 in every month since. His work for Trump to this day, according to an adviser to the former president, is to coordinate Trump’s political strategy, including Trump’s efforts to defeat candidates who challenge his false claim that the election was stolen from him or, worse, voted to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6 attack.
Each week, Stepien is on an hourlong call with other top Trump aides, including Dan Scavino, Jason Miller, and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The last such call was June 6; Monday’s call was canceled because it conflicted with the Jan. 6 committee hearing.
“He’s trying to tell the world he quit,” the Trump adviser, who is familiar with Trump’s political operation, said on condition of anonymity. “He has been on every call since Jan. 6. He gets paid every month to do that. … I mean, come on, man.”
Despite Testimony, Bill Stepien Is Still Making Lots Of Money Spreading Trump’s Election Lie [HuffPo]
…because, sure
Mr. Stepien may have tried to separate himself from the shadier schemes being pushed by Team Bonkers — er, Team Rudy. But he is apparently cool with Mr. Trump’s basic plan to burn down the nation by advancing conspiracy theories about a rigged election.
[…]
But let’s not pick on Mr. Stepien. His tale is sadly similar to those of so many other Trump courtiers. These are the people who could distinguish reality from delusion; they just chose not to do all that much about it. Some of them tried to privately nudge Mr. Trump in the right direction. But when that failed, most were far too frightened to kick up a fuss and risk ruining their special relationships with Mr. Trump. Many still haven’t totally abandoned him, even as he continues to spread the election-fraud lies eating away at the heart of American democracy.
The most notable and most galling member of Team Chicken — its M.V.P. — is Bill Barr, who became Mr. Trump’s attorney general in early 2019. Mr. Barr made more of an effort to push back against the big lie than most, going so far as to tell the president that the election-fraud claims not only were “crazy stuff” and “bullshit” but also were doing “a great, great disservice to the country,” as he testified.
[…]
And yet, despite everything he witnessed — Mr. Trump’s disregard for the truth, his antidemocratic machinations, his emotional instability and his possibly failing grasp on reality — Mr. Barr has publicly said that he would again vote for the former president if he secures the Republican nomination in 2024.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/opinion/jan-6-hearing-day-2.html
…the conflict depends on the interest
The US defence contractor L3Harris is in talks to take over NSO Group’s surveillance technology, in a possible deal that would give an American company control over one of the world’s most sophisticated and controversial hacking tools.
Multiple sources confirmed that discussions were centred on a sale of the Israeli company’s core technology – or code – as well as a possible transfer of NSO personnel to L3Harris. But any agreement still faces significant hurdles, including requiring the blessing of the US and Israeli governments, which have not yet given the green light to a deal.
[…]
If agreed, the deal would mark an astounding turnaround for NSO, less than a year after the Biden administration placed the company on a US blacklist and accused it of acting “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US”.
NSO’s government clients are known to have used the surveillance technology to target journalists, human rights activists, senior government officials in US-allied countries, and lawyers around the world.
The Guardian and other media outlets have also detailed how NSO’s surveillance technology, Pegasus, has been used by the company’s government clients to target American citizens, including Carine Kanimba, daughter of the Rwandan dissident Paul Rusesabagina, as well as journalists, activists and US state department officials working abroad.
Asked to comment on the talks, an L3Harris spokesperson said: “We are aware of the capability and we are constantly evaluating our customers’ national security needs. At this point, anything beyond that is speculation.”
…& to say speculative interests can be tricky is somewhat of an understatement
The official said that any US company – particularly a cleared US defence contractor – should be aware that a transaction with a blacklisted company would “not automatically remove a designated entity from the Entity List, and would spur intensive review to examine whether the transaction poses a counterintelligence threat to the US Government and its systems and information, whether other US equities with the defense contractor may be at risk, to what extent a foreign entity or government retains a degree of access or control, and the broader human rights implications”.
[…]
Any deal would also face hurdles in Israel. One assumption in the Israeli cyber industry is that it would have to keep oversight of the Israeli-made technology in Israel, and keep all development of Pegasus and personnel in Israel.
[…]
Any takeover of NSO’s hacking technology would add to L3Harris’s current suite of surveillance tools, which are already sold to US government and law enforcement clients. The company, which is based in Florida and reports about $18bn in annual sales, includes the FBI and Nato as clients.
[…]
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab at the Munk School at the University of Toronto, said he was doubtful that US agencies, and the agencies of the US’s closest allies, would trust NSO technology for their most sensitive operations, and it would therefore more likely be sold to local authorities.
“So where would the big market be? I fear the logical consumers would be US police departments. This would be an unprecedented threat to our civil liberties,” he said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/14/nso-group-pegasus-us-l3harris
…I think we might need a new word…unprecedented stuff is becoming so ubiquitous as to lose the significance it’s intended to emphasize…particularly when you consider the context
21. “Nobody brings this up, but as President, I suffered years of vicious lies, scandals, and innuendo concerning a fake and contrived narrative of Russia, Russia, Russia.”
Allow me to quote from the Mueller Report: “(I)f we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” reads the Mueller report. “Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. … Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
The 22 wildest lines from Donald Trump’s 12(!)-page statement on the January 6 committee [CNN]
…& what some people are making of it
At least 108 primary victors in races across several states have won after repeating claims originated by Trump that electoral fraudsters denied his winning the 2020 election after rigging the race in favor of Joe Biden, according to new analysis from the Washington Post.
Those who questioned the 2020 election results won primary races for seats in the House of Representatives, US Senate seats, state gubernatorial mansions, and other high-profile positions.
[…]
“These officeholders are so important,” said Joanna Lydgate, founder and CEO of States United Democracy Center, a nonprofit promoting free and fair elections, to the Post. “They are going to be the ones on whose backs our democracy survives or doesn’t.”
Excluding primaries from 7 June, eight US Senate candidates, 86 candidates for the House of Representatives, five gubernatorial candidates, four candidates for state attorney general and one for secretary of state have all won while promoting Trump’s 2020 election denialism.
Among primary winners who have publicly questioned the results of the 2020 election, many either participated in the January 6 attack on the Capitol or have attempted to reframe that day’s events.
[…]
Besides newcomers, incumbents who previously voted to overturn the 2020 election results also won their primaries, Politico reported.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/14/trump-big-lie-support-republican-primary-winners-gop
…& why they might see a feature not a bug
Corruption, defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, is a complex and nuanced subject. Its consequences are deeply significant. It is a barrier to equitable and sustainable development, and it diverts resources from the poorest to the rich and the restlessly ambitious, creating inequity, exclusion and inequality.
It deters foreign investment and distorts public expenditures. It is pervasive, deleterious and often likened to water, as it is seen as unstoppable, difficult to contain and always finds a way around barriers. It permeates our political and legal institutions and trickles down to the bedrock of our society, manifesting in fraud, bribery, extortion, embezzlement, cronyism and nepotism.
The word “corruption” can evoke images of past world leaders such as Mohammed Suharto, Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko, Slobodan Milosevic, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Alberto Fujimori or Arnoldo Alemán. More recently it can conjure up images of Nicolás Maduro, Isabel dos Santos, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.
Clearly, corruption does not have a colour, gender or race. It has a credo though: power, greed and a total absence of integrity and accountability.
[…of which more, anon]
…statistically, however, some arenas that we claim to care about keeping corruption clear of
In two dramatic hearings — so far — the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has painted a devastating picture of the comprehensive assault Donald Trump has waged on this country’s political system before, during and after the 2020 election. To this day, Trump makes his false claim of electoral fraud a litmus test of loyalty within the Republican Party, casting a threatening shadow over our elections and institutions.
So why are Democrats and their associated dark-money groups meanwhile spending millions to boost the campaigns of election-denying extremist Republicans in contested primaries?
They include candidates for House, Senate and governor, and some took part in Trump’s “stop the steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, though not necessarily in the riot that immediately followed. In Pennsylvania, state legislator Doug Mastriano, a Jan. 6 rally participant, has already won the GOP nomination for governor with an ad boost paid for out of the campaign treasury of the Democratic nominee, state attorney general Josh Shapiro.
The Machiavellian rationale for this little stratagem, documented in Tuesday’s Post by reporter Annie Linskey, is that, come November, Democrats stand a better chance of winning against “ultra MAGA” extremists.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/democratic-dark-money-extreme-republicans/
…skew pretty heavily in the direction of white & male
This financial network, enabled by lawyers, accountants, estate agents and others, stretches through the Americas and the Caribbean, eventually terminating in the US, EU, UK and its territories. These financial structures allow kleptocrats to easily hide the proceeds of their corruption.
[…]
State capture is a form of grand corruption and refers to systemic political corruption in which private interests significantly influence formation of a state’s policies and laws to their own advantage. These captors, through their personal connections to the political elite, gain a long-term economic stranglehold, not just by changing the rules but by the compounding over time of their interests, power and wealth.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jun/15/state-capture-corruption-blights-developing-world-us-europe-accomplices-mo-ibrahim
…&…arguably
The report was released in advance of a congressional hearing Tuesday during which Biden administration officials are giving updates on efforts to detect and punish fraud.
[…]
The $378 billion EIDL program has been heavily criticized for sending billions to fake businesses during the pandemic. The SBA inspector general has previously estimated that fraud in the EIDL program may have cost $84 billion.
[…]
Prior to the pandemic, RER Solutions Inc. of Herndon, Virginia, was a frequent government contractor, with smaller multimillion-dollar contracts dating back to 1999, according to federal government purchase orders. Before 2020, the firm had received less than $100 million over the preceding 20 years, according to purchase orders.
When the pandemic hit, the company won the $750 million no-bid contract. The new report calls it “the largest contract awarded by the federal government in service of the response to the pandemic’s economic impacts.”
To do the work, the company told congressional investigators, it relied on a six-person in-house team and subcontracted the rest of the work out to two companies.
First, RER turned to Detroit-based Rocket Loans and paid it $233 million of the original government contract to help distribute the SBA funds.
When RER realized that the flood of loans was too much for Rocket, it subcontracted an additional $148 million to one of Rocket’s affiliated businesses, Maryland-based Rapid Financial, according to the report.
In the report, congressional investigators say this left a net “windfall profit” of $340 million for RER.
[…]
Other administration officials in charge of the Covid fraud prosecution effort plan to announce that federal prosecutors have charged almost 1,500 defendants in more than 1,000 cases and recovered $10 billion in loans.
The work is expected to continue. “Countering this fraud has become a core focus of the Secret Service’s investigative work,” according to prepared testimony from the agency’s Pandemic Fraud Recovery Coordinator Roy D. Dotson Jr. “Investigative efforts to recover stolen assets and hold criminals accountable will continue for years.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/covid-contractor-netted-340-million-windfall-profits-750-million-contract
…incompetence does look like a common denominator of a particular subset of those representatives of that demographic
A water main break in West Texas could leave the 165,000 residents in and around Odessa with little or no water for 48 hours, officials said Tuesday, just as a heat wave grips the city.
[…]
“Water levels have reached a point that a Boil Water Notice has been issued,” the city added. “Citizens should expect a significant loss in water pressure and/or no water at all. A significant portion of the community remains without water at this time.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/165000-people-west-texas-water-days-heat-wave-main-breaks
…though…I might be tempted to suggest that if you’re ideologically wedded to a denial of some of the fundamental contextual realities
The U.N. Secretary General has slammed new funding for fossil fuel exploration, describing it as “delusional” and calling for an abandonment of fossil fuel finance.
[…]
In his speech to the summit in Vienna, the U.N.’s Guterres highlighted the “crippling prices” currently being experienced by businesses and households. “Our world faces climate chaos,” he added.
“New funding for fossil fuel exploration and production infrastructure is delusional,” he said. “It will only further feed the scourge of war, pollution and climate catastrophe.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/delusional-un-chief-slams-new-fossil-fuel-funding-warns-climate-chaos
…well…the blind leading the blind & all that
Several African leaders are considering pushing for new investment in exploration as gas prices around the world soar. Some European countries are also eager to provide such investment to replace supplies from Russia.
[…]
Omar Elmawi, a coordinator at the StopEACOP campaign in east Africa, said: “Decades after exploiting fossil fuels in Africa, we have yet to improve energy poverty and countries have continued to drown themselves in unsustainable loans taken because of the promise of fossil fuel revenues.
“Corporations registered in the global north have continued to benefit from these dirty fossil fuels in Africa and all we are left with are the impacts on our people, nature and the climate.”
The issue of gas in Africa is likely to prove a flashpoint at the Cop27 UN climate summit this November in Egypt. Robinson’s views, first expressed in an interview with the Guardian, sparked a row at UN climate talks in Bonn, where countries have held meetings over the past fortnight in preparatory negotiations for Cop27.
However, Guterres made clear in a speech on Tuesday morning at the Austrian World Summit in Vienna that no new fossil fuels should receive investment.
He said: “New funding for fossil fuel exploration and production infrastructure is delusional. It will only further feed the scourge of war, pollution and climate catastrophe. The only true path to energy security, stable power prices, prosperity and a liveable planet lies in abandoning polluting fossil fuels, especially coal, and accelerating the renewables-based energy transition.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/14/africa-gas-exploration-climate-disaster-un-reserves
…the part about the rule of a sovereign with at least one clear eye on the prize would seem to be
President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on U.S. oil refining companies to produce more, saying they need to help alleviate the burden of high prices on consumers.
[…]
″[C]ompanies must take immediate actions to increase the supply of gasoline, diesel, and other refined product,” the letter added.
[…]
Refiners can’t just ramp up output, with utilization rates already above 90%. Additionally, some refiners are now being reconfigured to make alternate products like biofuel.
Refining capacity has dropped since the pandemic took hold, which is a factor in the rapid advance of fuel prices. Demand has returned as economies restart and people travel once again, but supply remains tight.
[…]
Biden said that his administration is prepared to use “all reasonable and appropriate Federal Government tools and emergency authorities to increase refinery capacity and output in the near term.”
[…]
Still, he pointed to the “unprecedented disconnect between the price of oil and the price of gas.”
[…]
The industry says the administration’s policies are to blame for the surge in prices.
[…]
The industry group sent a letter to Biden on Tuesday outlining 10 steps the administration and Congress should take to tackle the energy crisis, including lifting development restrictions on federal lands and waters and accelerating LNG exports.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/15/biden-tells-oil-companies-in-letter-well-above-normal-refinery-profit-margins-are-not-acceptable.html
…easier said than done, I guess…not unlike letting an unseen hand take the wheel in that respect
In 392 incidents cataloged by the [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] from July 1 of last year through May 15, six people died and five were seriously injured. Teslas operating with Autopilot, the more ambitious Full Self Driving mode or any of their associated component features were in 273 crashes. Five of those Tesla crashes were fatal.
The data was collected under a NHTSA order last year requiring automakers to report crashes involving cars with advanced driver-assistance systems.[…]
“Until last year, NHTSA’s response to autonomous vehicles and driver assistance has been, frankly, passive,” said Matthew Wansley, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law in New York who specializes in emerging automotive technologies. “This is the first time the federal government has directly collected crash data on these technologies.”
[…]
The data includes cars with systems designed to operate with little or no intervention from the driver, and separate data on systems that can simultaneously steer and control the car’s speed but require constant attention from the driver.
The automated vehicles — which are still in development for the most part but are being tested on public roads — were involved in 130 incidents, NHTSA found. One resulted in a serious injury, 15 in minor or moderate injuries and 108 in no injuries. Many of the crashes involving automated vehicles were fender benders or bumper taps because they were operated mainly at low speeds and in city driving.
In more than a third of the 130 accidents involving the automated systems, the car was stopped and hit by another vehicle. In 11 crashes, a car enabled with such technology was going straight and collided with another vehicle that was changing lanes, the data showed.
[…]
NHTSA’s order for automakers to submit the data was prompted partly by crashes and fatalities over the last six years that involved Teslas operating in Autopilot. Last week NHTSA widened an investigation into whether Autopilot has technological and design flaws that pose safety risks.
The agency has been looking into 35 crashes that occurred while Autopilot was activated, including nine that resulted in 14 deaths since 2014. It had also opened a preliminary investigation into 16 incidents in which Teslas under Autopilot control crashed into emergency vehicles that had stopped and had their lights flashing.
…if you can’t be trusted to avoid a stationary object that literally has a flashing light on it…I’m pretty sure I’m not trusting you to maneuver me through a system of dead weights moving at velocities that all too frequently prove to be lethal…not least if the definition of “hands off” stretches to this part
…still…it’s a start?
NHTSA’s order required companies to provide data on crashes when advanced driver-assistance systems and automated technologies were in use within 30 seconds of impact. Though this data provides a broader picture of the behavior of these systems than ever before, it is still difficult to determine whether they reduce crashes or otherwise improve safety.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/business/self-driving-car-nhtsa-crash-data.html
…even if it might be a little late to the party
…because, you know…it’s important to know who was doing what before things crash & burn…regardless of who’s in the driving seat…or who’s actually steering…or whether they reach their intended destination
…so…I don’t know how you get those who don’t want to hear it to listen
…but…just how loud can “the quiet part” get before this kind of shit gets the response it deserves?
…because “well, your honor…the building that we actually managed to occupy that day isn’t one of the ones listed as a specific target for that sort of thing in this here documented evidence of the intended & very much pre-meditated plans of an organization I’m a member of but which I totally didn’t know anything about despite being able to lay hands on said document”…should not be something viewed as exculpatory in any sane world
A document, titled “1776 Returns,” which federal prosecutors said was used by the leader of the Proud Boys, lays out a plan to occupy Capitol buildings on Jan. 6, 2021, using covert operators to let “patriots” inside government offices in an apparent effort to force a new election.
[…]
The nine-page document, filed in federal court Wednesday, lays out a plan to fill buildings “with patriots and communicate our demands.” Its stated goals include maintaining control “over a select few, but crucial buildings in the DC area for a set period of time” and getting as “many people as possible inside these buildings.”
[…]
The New York Times in March reported on some of the details contained in the document. Its full text was shared in a Wednesday court filing by one of the Proud Boy defendants.
A lawyer for Proud Boy Zachary Rehl, who is seeking release from pretrial detention, included the document in a motion, which maintains that Rehl “had no knowledge of the document.”
The document lists eight targets: the Supreme Court, the Russell Senate Office Building, the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the Hart Senate Office Building, the Cannon House Office Building, the Longworth House Office Building, the Rayburn House Office Building, and CNN.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/court-document-proud-boys-case-laid-plan-occupy-capitol-buildings-jan-6
…&…at the risk of stretching a tenuous comparison beyond some sort of tipping point
Possibly the world’s biggest leak of methane has been discovered coming from a coalmine in Russia, which has been pouring out the carbon dioxide equivalent of five coal-fired power stations.
[…]
The leak, which comes from the Raspadskaya mine in Kemerovo Oblast, the largest coalmine in Russia, is about 50% bigger than any other leak seen by GHGSat since it started its global satellite monitoring in 2016. The company believes it is bigger than any leak yet traced to a single source.
Brody Wight, director of energy, landfill and mines at GHGSat, said that methane was an often overlooked side-effect of coalmining that added to the climate impact of burning coal. The Raspadskaya leak would add about 25% to the greenhouse gas emissions of burning any coal produced from the mine, he estimated.
[…]
Russia is one of the world’s biggest sources of methane from fossil fuel extraction. The country’s gas infrastructure, including production facilities and pipelines, is notoriously leaky despite calls for the government to take action.
[…]
Methane is about 80 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, though it degrades in the atmosphere over about 20 years. In February, the International Energy Agency warned that most countries were under-reporting their methane emissions, and the true amounts pouring into the atmosphere were far greater than had been thought.
[…]
The IEA also found that at current high gas prices, the cost of capturing methane was far less than the value of using it or selling it as a fuel source, which should give companies and governments an incentive to capture the gas rather than venting or flaring.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/15/methane-leak-at-russian-mine-could-be-largest-ever-discovered
…some profits still look like a net loss
Since the first public hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol last week, much of the traffic on right-wing social media has been about gas prices, blaming them on President Biden. Republicans see gas prices and inflation as key issues both to distract from the hearings and to enable Republicans to take over control of Congress in the November midterm elections.
In fact, according to a piece by E. Rosalie in the newsletter Hoaxlines, U.S. production of crude oil during Biden’s first year was actually higher than it was in Trump’s first year. To encourage production, Biden’s officials have issued more permits on federal lands than were issued in the Trump administration’s first three years, at a pace that approaches that of George W. Bush’s administration. Only 10% of all U.S. drilling takes place on federal land, but the Bureau of Land Management confirms that more than 9000 drilling permits on public land are currently approved. Not all would be productive if they were developed, and none of them could start producing immediately, but this undercuts the argument that gas prices are high because the Biden administration has choked off permits.
[…]
What appears to be driving U.S. gas prices is the pressure investors are putting on oil companies, whose officers answer to their investors. Limited production creates higher prices that are driving record profits. In a March 2022 survey of 141 U.S. oil producers asking them why they were holding back production, 59% said they were under investor pressure. Only 6% blamed “government regulations” for their lack of increased production.
Oil companies are seeing huge profits and are using the money for stock buybacks to raise stock prices. BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, TotalEnergies, Eni, and Equinor will give between $38 and $41 billion to shareholders through buyback programs this year. As EOG Resources wrote to its shareholders: “2021 was a record-setting year for EOG. We earned record net income of $4.7 billion, generated a record $5.5 billion of free cash flow, which funded record cash return of $2.7 billion to shareholders. We doubled our regular dividend rate and paid two special dividends, paying out about 30% of cash from operations…. This period of high oil prices allows us to further bolster the balance sheet. To support our renewed $5 billion buyback authorization and prepare to take advantage of other countercyclical opportunities, we plan to build and carry a higher cash balance going forward….”
But congressional Republicans appear uninterested in adjusting the disjunction between supply and demand that is creating such high consumer prices. In May the House passed the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act by a vote of 217 to 207 with only Democrats in the yes column and all Republicans and four Democrats voting no. The bill provided a vague warning that it is unlawful to charge “unconscionably excessive” prices for consumer fuel during presidentially declared energy emergencies, and it gave the Federal Trade Commission more power to punish price gouging.
The Senate has not moved forward with the bill. Republicans there can kill it with the filibuster and will do so, despite the fact that a Morning Consult/Politico poll shows that 77% of registered voters—including 76% of Republicans—like such a measure. Only 13% of voters outright oppose such a law (10% have no opinion).
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-14-2022
…so…anyway…I seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties this morning…& this is an hour late going up as it is…so…I’ll do my best to add some tunes if things on my end will cooperate…but hopefully I’ve still got in before wednesday clears its throat?
Ross Doubt-that’s tweet is a reminder of how vital the Times‘s insights are to the National Conversation. “History is complicated.” How wise, and how true.
While I’m on the subject, here’s an extremely cringe Vanity Fair interview with the Times‘s new Executive Editor, Joe Khan:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/06/joe-kahn-takes-charge-of-the-turbulent-times
The reader is left ambivalent about which party comes off worse. Though the intro claims “[Their] conversation is condensed and edited below”, we instead get hard-hitting, probing questions, phrased thusly:
(I did a search on this article. The lazy linguistic hedge term “sort of” appears 11 times total, and both use it.)
Yes, the interviewer has interviewed Khan before; he tells us he first interviewed him a decade ago, and presumably they have been enjoying chummy email exchanges ever since.
Khan, though Harvard educated and during his undergraduate career served on the Harvard Crimson with his friend Jeff Zucker (!) indulges in all sorts of deflections and generalities and mild self-denigration common to this kind of press release masquerading as journalism, and you can read it for yourself, but one thing I want to point out is Khan repeatedly refers to what Times writers phone in and what the Times publishes is “the report.” Oh boy. That shows up more than a dozen times.
I’m left with a question: Should I take advantage of the Times trial offer to get Doubt-thatian insights for just $1/week, down from $4.25? Or make that two questions: Should I also subscribe to the post-Tina Brown, post-Graydon Carter Vanity Fair for whatever that will cost, probably about $3 for a two-year deal? As Ross Doubt-that would no doubt put it (and be paid in the high six figures for doing so), “Much to ponder, and time will tell.”
That’s quite the “insight” from a low rent intellectual and physical Brain look a like (from Pinky and the Brain or for those didn’t enjoy 90s cartoons, Orson Wells.)
…you could always throw in the washington post while you’re weighing subscriptions
Joe Kahn is now editing the New York Times. Don’t expect a revolution. [WaPo]
…mind you…you know what they say about expectations
I actually signed up for the Washington Post’s daily (M-F) news roundup email, and Better Half has a corporate subscription so sometimes I use his. He also has one for the Times, but I only use that when I get wind of something horrendously egregious in “the report” (usually in the soft sections, like Opinion or Real Estate or Style or “Vows”) that I must read to self-flagellate.
The Douthat tweet is just a lovely example of how some people there can say whatever they want while the Times cracks down on opinions by the rest of the staff.
Defector has a deep dive into the new policy of “no politics, no expression” for the staff of its recent acquisition The Athletic (probably paywalled, but a subscription is really worth it).
https://defector.com/the-nyt-owned-athletic-lays-down-new-no-politics-rule-for-staff/
Times management promised they wouldn’t interfere with Athletic reporter freedom, but of course Times management lied.
So in other words, STICK TO SPROTS!!!1! That worked so well for Deadspin.
…when it comes to how rigorous news organizations are about applying principles that seem to mysteriously invert the idea of “getting it”…there’s an unfortunate pattern…even beyond the NYT
…though…to those who’d claim that drawing parallels between the 4th reich & the alt-white crowd is unhelpful…I’d like to ask what other conclusion we’re supposed to draw from the bit of bannon’s diatribe up there where he predicts that november’s mid-terms will be “a massive blow-out like 1932 – you’re witnessing, right now, a political re-alignment like 1932”
…I guess you could call it an extreme form of burying the lede?
Maybe it’s not a good time to wake up. Perhaps time to roll over and go back to bed.
In regards to BoJo ethics problem, we had that problem at Nortel (no, really?) but it wasn’t what you thought. In 2006ish we brought in the GE gang after our last CEO (the admiral) went on his way to eventually work for Huawei. One of the GE gang hailed from NC (based in the Nortel Raleigh Triangle Park Campus-my dept had butted heads with assholes based there for a long time so I don’t have much good to say about those inept shitheads) and became the overboss of me. Apparently he was either a graduate or fan of a NC school (I’d like to say UNC but not sure.) Anyway, at the end of a sporting event he got into a parking lot altercation with a young female student where he cut her off and then when she rightfully honked her horn at him, he got out of his car and attacked her.
Our CEO dithered because the rageaholic (pot calling the kettle) entitled asshole was his GE buddy who he brought to Nortel and because he turned out not to be as courageous as he proclaimed loudly he was. Instead of firing him, he gave him the Nortel equivalent of a slap on the wrist (nothing.) Our ethics commissioner resigned and so did all her staff.
I think this is when us old Nortel hands collectively stopped giving a fuck because of the incompetent, craven stupid arrogance and misogynistic attitude of our new GE bosses and would accelerate the demise of the company. A few months later Joel Hackney had to be shoved into a different role because he became less “effective” (read: after his senior leaders (my bosses) stopped listening to the shithead and tuned out his toddler screaming shitfits.)
Speaking of faulty AI,
Indeed has been sending me project management jobs that I have no background or skills in like working with Salesforce CRM SW or High Rise Construction.
Really? You can’t do any better than that?
I commend the Jan. 6 committee for making such a strong case thus far. It certainly looks pretty conclusive that all three branches of government were working in the same direction to overthrow an election.
Alas, it’s not going to make a difference for the country, though the GOP might pick a fall guy to take the heat off (and I suppose Loudermilk could be that huckleberry)
One more thing, and then I swear I’ll shut up:
Since you brought up Elon Musk, how about him voting for a Republican “for the first time”? It was to fill his open Congressional seat, and he went with the Mexican immigrant QAnon loon and helped flip the seat to the Republicans for the first time in decades. So much for Latinos being the salvation of the Democratic Party, but having owned a small place in a primarily Cuban-American building in Miami I could have told anyone 20+ years ago that Latino heritage is no guarantee of Democratic Party amistad.
But better, then he went on to endorse Ron DeSantis. I can imagine the reaction at Mar-a-Lago. Ron DeSantis. replied that he welcomed African-American support. He at least was joking in a more-than-slightly racist way, but I immediately elected Musk to my internal “African-American Hall of Fame,” along with GOAT Teresa Heinz Kerry who, during her second husband’s Presidential campaign, would address Black church audiences with, “As a fellow African-American…” Pretty much sums up the whole tenor of the Kerry campaign, really.
I only bring this up because Better Half could be called African-American but he’s not, because he dislikes the term. No, he prefers the more concise and accurate Black, which removes ambiguity, and forestalls anyone from mistaking him for another famous African-American, Charlize Theron.
…they say the converts are often the most zealous of adherents…but…for an old pal of thiel’s like the wannabe martian…I think suggesting this is a new look for him is…well, it might be too tragic to be a laughing matter…but it reeks of much the same stuff as anything else redolent of that particular musk
…on a mostly-unrelated note…along with the dubious inclusion of certain people under the umbrella term “african-american”…I’d admit to feeling a little dubious every time I see the term “latinx”…it just seems like something that’s meant to be read rather than spoken…because the pronunciation is a little iffy (to me)…pretty sure it isn’t supposed to rhyme with la-tinks…which leaves it uncomfortably close to “latin-esque”…& it seems insulting to sound like the best way to respect the identity of latin americans is to describe them as latin-ish…but unlike most of the crap I’ve wound up going with today I guess that might be more of a me-problem?
The term “Latinx” is almost never used by Latinos themselves and is widely disparaged, since it is thought to have been made up as a sociological-academic exercise, possibly by someone or someones who were not Latino themselves. Spanish speakers, like many speakers of non-English languages, have no problem with nouns being assigned genders, and if the default is masculine, so be it. A group of males is Latinos, females Latinas, and a mixed group is once again Latinos, but everyone would know what that means from context. Michelle Obama (of all people) was criticized fairly recently for using the term Latinx, in writing, of course, because as you point out no one outside a small group of English-language humanities classrooms and lecture halls would ever say it out loud.
welp…easy mistake to make i guess….
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/16/us/alaska-students-floor-sealant-milk/index.html