…ok…so I’ll try not to let this get out of hand the way it did on tuesday…& since despite myo’s valiant efforts I seem to have managed to acquire some “technical difficulties” that are apparently (or at any rate hopefully) solely sent to try me (possibly for my wall-of-text sins in some sort of karmic fashion) there’s at least a chance that works out…although
…on the other hand there’s a stack of links even I find hard to believe so I guess we’ll see how many I get through before the aforementioned technical difficulties make me quit for the sake of whatever vestigial elements of sanity remain to me…anyway…where was I?
“People by and large, across partisan and most demographic lines, strongly support at least an essential role for the federal government in making sure people have access to basic housing, education, health care and food,” John Halpin, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a co-author of the report, told me.
[…]
When Halpin conducts focus groups, he says he finds over and over again that people say either they or people they know benefited from government aid, even as they say they still believe others do take advantage of the programs. “What we see is the challenges of the American economy are hitting a lot more people,” he said. “Consequently, they’re willing to support pretty strong measures by the government to help low-income people.”
[…]
That’s not to say Republicans are fully mind-melding with Democrats. A large majority oppose raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and also continue to agree that welfare programs can trap people in poverty because they encourage dependence.But the larger takeaway remains. These findings call out Republican opposition to spending on people in need of help for what it is: mean-spirited. In fact, it is so unpopular that Republicans holding elected office are thwarting the wishes of a majority of their own voters by coming out against it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/10/voters-are-leaving-republicans-behind/
…you’d think maybe they’d notice…I mean…hopefully some voters will when it’s all stacked up?
…but apparently they’re…uh…otherwise occupied?
…ah, yes
It was a familiar play by Donald J. Trump: lashing out at his enemies and trying to raise money from it.
Trump, Hungry for Power, Tries to Wrestle Away G.O.P. Fund-Raising [NYT]
…we are still situation FUBAR
…I remember now
https://www.vox.com/22321215/trump-rnc-cease-and-desist-fundraising-feud-purge
…anyone surprised?
Trump’s latest request for a mail-in ballot is yet another instance in which the former president’s actions have sharply contrasted with his rhetoric on vote by mail, often lobbing baseless claims that election fraud was responsible for his loss to President Biden.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/10/trump-mail-voting-ballot-palmbeach/
…yeah
…didn’t think so
…although this NFT shit…that is kind of a surprise
…gotta think the tangerine man’s really feeling that void where his twitter used to be, though…so that makes me feel a little better…this kind of thing, though
“Nonfungible tokens” and blockchain technology are taking the mainstream art world by storm, fetching huge prices. We explain, or try to.
What Are NFTs, Anyway? [NYT]
…not so much?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/beeple-nft-fetches-record-breaking-69-million-in-christies-sale
…I guess I’ve read too many dystopian sci fi efforts to rest easy when crazy money is getting flung at shit we’d be better off not encouraging
US far-right extremists making millions via social media and cryptocurrency [Guardian]
…in those this kind of thing is inevitably a harbinger of the collapse of functional fungible currency or something similarly cataclysmic
https://www.techradar.com/news/cryptominers-have-already-cracked-nvidias-rtx-3060-hash-rate-limiter
The new must-have for those who can afford it? Their very own electrical grid. [NBC]
…so we probably don’t have time to get into all of them
Massive camera hack exposes the growing reach and intimacy of American surveillance [WaPo]
FBI must target white supremacists’ infiltration of police agencies, congressman says [Guardian]
California attorney general cuts off researchers’ access to gun violence data [Guardian]
The day after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, a voice mail was waiting for Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II at his office in Independence, Mo. On the message, authorities say, Kenneth R. Hubert called Cleaver, who is Black, a racial slur and suggested that he hoped the Missouri Democrat would be lynched.
A self-described ‘right-wing nut job’ threatened to lynch Black and Jewish lawmakers, FBI says [WaPo]
[…]
The Missouri man’s record of alleged threats stretches back years, prosecutors said. According to court documents obtained by The Washington Post, Hubert, a self-described “right-wing nut job,” was investigated by the Secret Service for saying that President Barack Obama “needed to be hanged by a light post.” He also made harassing and homophobic phone calls in 2014 to a federal judge in Montana over a same-sex marriage ruling, prosecutors allege.
An attack on a San Francisco Uber driver over the weekend by a passenger who allegedly refused to wear a face mask has drawn outrage after video of the incident emerged on Tuesday.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/09/san-francisco-uber-assault-passenger-refuse-mask
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/10/rittenhouse-trial-delayed-november/
Arkansas has passed a new law banning nearly all abortions in the state, a sweeping measure that supporters hope will force the US supreme court to revisit Roe v Wade but opponents vow to block before it takes effect later this year.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/09/arkansas-abortion-ban-supreme-court-roe-v-wade
14-hour days and no bathroom breaks: Amazon’s overworked delivery drivers [Guardian]
What if the most important election of the year is happening right now in Alabama? [Guardian]
…but I think we can give some recognition to a few of the biggest fuck ups?
…yup…again…because after the first time you know what they didn’t do?
“The attacker who stole data from Gab harvested OAuth2 bearer tokens during their initial attack,” Torba wrote. “Though their ability to harvest new tokens was patched, we did not clear all tokens related to the original attack. By reusing these old tokens, the attacker was able to post 177 statuses in an 8-minute period today.”
Gab’s failure to purge bearer tokens may have stemmed from unfamiliarity with the open source Mastodon code the site runs or an unwillingness to require users to go through the hassle of resetting OAuth2 bearer tokens. The theft of the tokens came as a surprise to many because they weren’t included in a trove of hacked Gab data posted by the Wikileaks-style site Distributed Denial of Secrets following the breach.
…yup…if your answer was “fix the fuck up that got them here the last time” you would be absolutely correct…although we’d also accept “learn what the fuck they’re doing or how their own shit actually works”
…I mean
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/11/gab-hack-neo-nazis-qanon-conspiracy-theories
…that shit is just embarrassing
…which reminds me
A New York State court on Tuesday dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by the re-election campaign of Donald J. Trump against The New York Times Company, ruling that an opinion essay that argued there had been a “quid pro quo” between the candidate and Russian officials before the 2016 presidential election was protected speech.
Court Dismisses Trump Campaign’s Defamation Suit Against New York Times [NYT]
…why it’s almost as though it matters that people should have access to information
Thirty House and Senate Democrats unveiled a new $94 billion proposal Thursday to make broadband Internet access more accessible and affordable nationwide, aiming to remedy some of the digital inequalities that have kept millions of Americans offline during the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/11/house-senate-internet-broadband/
[…]
Closing the persistent gap between those who can sign on and those who cannot — known as the digital divide — long has counted among Democrats’ top policy priorities. But the issue has taken on new political urgency in the year since the coronavirus forced workers out of a job and students out of the classroom, leaving much of the country no choice but to rely on the Internet to participate in daily life.
[…]
In the months ahead, Democrats believe they have a viable opening to advance their legislation, known as the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act, as part of the looming debate over infrastructure reform. Congress is expected to turn to the matter after lawmakers Wednesday completed legislative work on a $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, which similarly included significant sums to help families access the Internet.
…which is why shit like this fucking sucks
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/10/amazon-library-ebook-monopoly
…but this might not?
Challengers take over Nevada Democratic Party, triggering turbulence [WaPo]
…baby steps & all that
After Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley, also a progressive woman of color, defeated longstanding Democratic members of Congress in 2018, the D.C.C.C. instituted an official policy: No consultant or political group that had supported a challenger against an incumbent Democrat in the House would be allowed to do business with the party’s official campaign arm.
[…]
“Having that ban really hurt the party,” she said in an interview. “When I first was sworn in, when one of the party’s first moves was to say, ‘We are going to ban anyone that helped you get here,’ it was very personal.”She added: “It felt like a very targeted message of saying, ‘You’re not welcome. And anyone who helped you get here is not welcome.’”
The D.C.C.C. Blacklist Is No More [NYT]
[…]
It’s a long-held political custom for parties to protect their incumbents, and the D.C.C.C. had long had an unofficial policy of shunning groups that supported primary challengers. But it felt notable that the party’s leaders had decided to make that policy official at the very moment when the progressive wing was gaining clout — and savvy.
[…]
“I would hate to see the D.C.C.C. go back to an informal blacklist, which is what their policy used to be,” [Waleed] Shahid [a spokesperson for Justice Democrats] said. “But it is a step forward to not have an explicit blacklist.”
…oh, yeah…remember that vox thing I lifted those tweets from earlier…well, here’s another one
…& that Dr Seuss thing…that actually reminds me of kind of a good one?
…so…that doesn’t suck?
…plus…I don’t know if you noticed…but it’s friday…so we got that going for us
Here’s a piece of good news to warm the heart of any New Yorker: Cuomo is being cut out of any involvement in distribution of Covid relief money to the City of New York. When it comes to public funds Cuomo has very sticky fingers, not for himself personally but to redistribute at whim, to reward and to punish. No New York City native (with the exception of Trump) has a greater desire to cripple the city than Cuomo:
https://www.amny.com/news/mayor-de-blasio-senator-schumer-cut-out-cuomo-as-middleman-in-deliverance-of-stimulus-funds/
Further good news comes as Cuomo and his minions’ control over the country’s largest public transportation system seems to be weakening:
https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/3/11/22326532/tough-guy-cuomos-hard-reign-over-mta-shaken-by-growing-scandals
It’s supposed to be a nice, sunny weekend here. I hope you all experience the same.
Bad Touch Andy sounds like another embattled nepotistic doofus who initially did okay on CoVID then fucked things up (and hates the main city of the province he’s in charge of). Doug Ford.
However, Doughy isn’t caught up in a bad touch scandal of his own making. Small blessings.
I must say, I find your posts about NYC and Cuomo to be quite enjoyable because everyone who lives upstate says the same thing — except in reverse: That Cuomo only cares about NYC and funnels all the money that way.
“Buffalo Billions”? Where do you think the billions came from? It wasn’t from thriving Utica or Boomtown Buffalo. If Syracuse University moved out of Syracuse it would be best to turn it into a federally managed wilderness preserve. Watertown exists to serve Fort Drum and bargain-hunting Canadians. I could go on, these are only the upstate cities I’ve personally visited, off the top of my head. Only Albany has any kind of viable economy and if the state government moved to NYC (like Boston is where the Massachusetts Legislature sits, and Denver is the capital of Colorado) it would revert to being a not-so-quaint Hudson River town and focus of the history of the Erie Canal.
Yeah, see, there are 7 million people living north of Westchester. That would be a bigger state than Massachusetts, Colorado or Arizona. I just think it’s funny, because NYC residents are just as proud and provincial as upstaters; it’s just “crime-ridden hell hole” vs. “there ain’t nothing there!” and both are wrong.
So I clicked to view that gosar tweet. The replies and other tweets are unreal. They give new meaning to “right wing nut job”
He’s the dentist who doesn’t recommend flossing or brushing of teeth.
https://www.newsweek.com/qanon-south-park-episode-vaccine-special-1575340
They sound like Linus talking about The Great Pumpkin.
Not as funny in real life.
@SplinterRIP Please don’t rein it in! You are saving me a crap ton of time reading news from different sites and I am very grateful. Keep up the good work!
There is an .org which keeps track of US gun violence on a granular level. Feel free to take a look, and join me in feelings of horror and despair. I find the successful wresting of gun data from California researchers alarming. Its almost as if the big money behind US governments doesn’t want the have the correlations between guns and bad actions further documented…
Schadenfreude is tasty!
At work, we have a new site boss. From my own connections, I heard he’s a very smart guy.
The director I work for is a patronizing arrogant insecure shithead (IMO) who I loathe and I know the feeling is mutual; he used to be my manager, was one of two people who tried to heave my stupid ass out several years ago and quashed a couple of requests for to hire/promote me to help out the engineering staff.
On a tour yesterday, director was explaining operations in the area I work in while treating said VP like he was a fucking idiot. Turns out, the VP knew the area pretty well and was having none of my director’s patronizing bullshit.
Watching the director step on his own dick made me laugh cruelly and for a long time.
I used to try to convince myself that once all these old fucks die or retire, the younger generation would be much more reasonable. This last year was definitely a wake up call that I was delusional…
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/republican-freshman-class-notorious-local-bozos.html
They’re all nutters but Madison Cawthorn brings a special kind of crazy and he’s only 25. I have a feeling he’s going to be haunting us for decades. Extremely handsome and in a wheelchair (result of spring break Florida road mishap, not military service) and brief attendee (one semester at Patrick Henry College, a fringe Evangelical training ground for these kinds of people). Successful CEO of a real estate empire (he was the sole employee of his self-created agency and was involved in precisely one transaction), none of this chicanery seems to matter to the good citizens of North Carolina, or at least the ones in his district. We are not living in a Periclean “Golden Age.”
I think we need a poll of biggest wackadoodle. Competition is fierce! Remember the days of Michelle Bachmann being the worst? Good times!
She’s become an elder stateswoman of wackjobs.
I can’t click on current events links today. People are awful, stupid, and awfully stupid. I get it. Here’s where my brain is landing:
Make-Your-Own Bayeux Tapestry
The real tapestry, for reference. We’ve been lucky enough to see it during a day tour of Normandy.
I love bikes, so this is fantastic to me.
hmmm, eyes the embroidery supplies…
mofo’s ruining my friday by scheduling a 3 pm meeting, no fucks left today
That’s the WORST
I had a 2:30 meeting today that was cancelled at 2:28. Woohoo!
Oh, Rick Scott. Your unwavering adherence to screwing over anyone who isn’t rich is almost laudable, if it weren’t so fucking evil. But tilt at that windmill, Skeletor.
https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-relief-2651026979/
Well, here’s a new take on Trump’s legal woes:
Trump allies counting on Ron DeSantis to refuse extradition to New York if ex-president gets indicted
https://www.rawstory.com/ron-desantis-donald-trump/
welp…that was a first
me mate just called to say goodbye as monday they are going to let him pass in his sleep
strange strange conversation to have
…damn…that’s pretty rough…sorry to hear it…& hope you’re doing all right, considering
thanks mate
im allright all things considered…if anything im a little confused….getting a heads up like that is just bloody wierd
…yeah…not the same but I remember something not altogether dissimilar some years ago involving a relative…we’d been trying to visit as often as we could after they were diagnosed & it was clear they weren’t going to be getting better but there came a point when they said they’d rather we remembered them as they used to be & that would be the last time we’d see them
…not gonna lie…that was hard to take…& a difficult goodbye…but I’m older now if not necessarily wiser & I can respect that under those sorts of circumstances there’s really only one person whose wishes (&/or feelings) get to have the last word
…so you have my sympathies…as indeed does your friend…& my condolences
That’s a tough, tough conversation, @farscythe. Condolences to your friend, his family, and you. Hang in there.
thanks mate
I’m sorry. I had a similar incident with an old friend from high school who died last year. He’d been struggling for a while, cancer, kidney failure, other problems, but he kept posting funny stories and anti-Trump screeds on Facebook, and I followed him, even when it was clear Facebook is the Great Satan. He posted one day that it was time, he was going to the hospital, and he wasn’t coming back. I messaged him two days later, late at night, telling him how much he meant to me and how awed I was by his bravery and dignity. He responded almost immediately with some stories from high school. His mother posted a day or two later to tell all his friends he was gone. I realized that he died the morning after we corresponded.
I know it was a weird conversation for you, farscythe, but I’m sure he was trying to let you know how much you mean to him.
Sadly I’m waiting a call like this soon.
My condolences.
Dammit, I forgot again. It’s Fur Face Friday!
https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2021/03/fur-face-friday_12.html?m=1
I’m not completely convinced cryptocurrency is “real” so I’m not even going to expend any mental energy on NFTs *waves cane around*
I have seen Amazon delivery people literally run from their driver’s seat, deliver the package, snap the puc, and run back. I’m surprised they even put the van in park. Unless the package arrives damaged (or not at all) I always leave a good rating when asked.
…yeah…seems like the pitch is that the blockchain is supposed to be the ultimate you-can’t-fake-this provenance
…but now there’s accounts replying to twitter posts that have an artist’s work in them with a token like they can just claim jump the IP rights or some shit & frankly the whole thing smells like scam to me?
…I know foreign currency trading has been a thing for a long time but cryptocurrency seems more like a ponzi scheme with more advanced mathematics than usual & a much bigger electric bill rather than a genuine medium of exchange…& the resources required to prop it up just seem like a colossal waste in too many ways for me to really respect the stuff even if it is here to stay