May, 2016 archive
Your Military-Industrial Complex at Work 0
Read the tale of “Fat Leonard.” Here’s just a tiny bit:
He exploited the intelligence for illicit profit, brazenly ordering his moles to redirect aircraft carriers to ports he controlled in Southeast Asia so he could more easily bilk the Navy for fuel, tugboats, barges, food, water and sewage removal.
Over at least a decade, according to documents filed by prosecutors, Glenn Defense ripped off the Navy with little fear of getting caught because Francis had so thoroughly infiltrated the ranks.
The company forged invoices, falsified quotes and ran kickback schemes. It created ghost subcontractors and fake port authorities to fool the Navy into paying for services it never received.
Francis and his firm have admitted to defrauding the Navy of $35 million, though investigators believe the real amount could be much greater.
“A Party That’s Run Out of Ideas” 0
Thom and John Kenneth White try to figure out what the hell is going on withe the Republican Party.
Part One:
Part Two:
The Super Stadium Scam 0
The AP’s Paul Newberry calls out the NFL for its strategy of dangling Super Bowls in front of cities to get free stadiums. (Cities seem to be easy marks for the NFL’s con game.) A snippet:
Nothing much has changed since then, but cities keep playing the game.
Where’s the ref to throw the flag on illegal use of hand-outs?
Contempt of Court 0
Dick Polman considers Donald Trump’s attack on the judge hearing the “Trump University” case. A snippet:
So, a few questions. Are Trump’s followers so deaf and blind that they truly don’t realize what is happening here? Has their faith in our democratic institutions eroded to the point that they’re happy to feed a junkyard dog who would treat our institutions as his personal chew toy? Are they so ignorant of world history that they can’t see the danger of a leader cult? And can the complicit Republican party sink any lower
Read it.
Afterthought:
Looking to recent history, the answer to Polman’s question in the last sentence is, without question, “Yes.”
“Sinking lower” is what Republicans do.
Two Sets of Rules 0
Writing at The Observer, Evgeny Morozov explores self-serving double standards of tech titans who would have you run naked through the internet while, secluded behind high walls with turrets and towers, they watch you cavort.
Here’s just a couple of examples; follow the link for much, much more.
They are digital carrion crows; under cover of providing a “service,” they pluck the bodies of their users and sell them for profit.*
In their world, openness is for others, a commodity to mined and traded.
_________________
*As the regards the “services” they provide, I would argue that Google’s search is far more valuable and useful to those who use it–it is an actual “service”–than, say, Facebook’s or Instagram’s nattering nurseries of narcissism.
Oracle in Error 0
Bad guys lose suit against not-quite-so-bad guys.
Oracle will, no doubt, appeal, because it has more money than God. Google, to its credit, will no doubt continue to fight.
As an aside, I point out that Oracle has no qualms about using other people’s stuff. It markets something called “Oracle Linux” (if I remember correctly, it used to be called “Ironclad Linux”), which is little more than Red Hat Enterprise Linux (commonly referred to as RHEL) repackaged with an extra added price tag. That is quite legal under the terms of the GPL that governs must free and open-source software, but it also highlights Oracle’s self-serving lack of–er–consistency.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Worship politeness. (Or is that “worship politely?” Nah. It’s gunly politeness they worship.)
“And what he was doing was clearing the weapon,” he added.
A round inside the chamber discharged and struck the ceramic tile floor.
And another gun that miraculously discharged itself, praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
/dev/null 0
I haven’t paid much attention to the Hillary Clinton email scamdal because I knew from the git-go that it was yet another Republican lie in a long parade of lies about the Clintons, a parade reaching back to and beyond the Republican fever dream that the Clintons somehow murdered Vince Foster.
One does not have to be a fan of the Clintons to be disgusted by the Republican lies.
Now Cynthia Dill has sacrificed her time to plough through the bureacratise of the report on Hillary Clinton’s email scamdal so we don’t have to. Her findings come as no surprise. As with an email sent to /dev/null, there’s no there there.
Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
Clinton reasonably believed her private server was allowed because the bureaucrats in charge of security allowed it. This present-day conviction for violating rule 12 FAM 544.2 after the fact means nothing of any consequence. Nobody was hurt. No security was breached. Who cares?
I think one reason that this particular scamdal has had some staying power is that, to most persons, an email server–hell, a computer–is a dark magic box, mysterious and alchemical.
An email server is, actually, nothing more than a program that relays mail from the persons who write it to the recipients over a network and from a network to the recipient(s).
You too can have your own email server, if you wish. I know folks who do. It’s a bit complex, but it’s not magic, it’s not alchemy, it’s not voodoo; it’s just a computer program. (If you think government servers are somehow magically more secure than other servers, think again. Governments don’t do security better than anyone else, except possibly Sony.)
(Be sure to check your ISP’s terms of service before setting up your own mail server; most US ISPs forbid public-facing servers–news, web, database, mail–unless you have a business-class account. That’s why I don’t run my own mail server–my ISP’s TOS forbid it for my level of account. Otherwise I’d set one up just to see whether I could make it work. I like crossword puzzles too.)
The Student Loan Scam Is Working Out So Very Nicely, Is It Not? 0
Welcome to the brave new old way of financing an education.
The Math 2
Via PoliticalProf, who reminds us
You don’t have to like her. You don’t have to vote for her. Just don’t say she isn’t winning.
Collateral Damage 0
The old bumper sticker from my youth was correct. War is hazardous to humans and other living things.
New research indicates that war causes CTE.
Follow the link for an article as depressing as it is long.
