From Pine View Farm

Mammon category archive

The Great TikTok Misdirection Play 0

Youngster in bed looking at TikTok on a smart phone.  Eye stares through the window saying,

Via Job’s Anger.

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You Can Bet on It 0

Sportswriter extraordinaire Bob Molinaro:

March Madness pools are innocent enough, but the relentless presence of online betting platforms — heavily supported by sports leagues — has America headed for a massive gambling-addiction epidemic among Millennials and Gen Z.

Afterthought:

I don’t know about you, but I spell “gamble” L-O-S-E.

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All the News that Fits 0

Thom points out that mongering fear boosts ratings for television stations sells.

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Muskrat Love 0

Mailing it in.

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Suffer the Children 0

Marie Antoinette (allegedly) said, “Let them eat cake.”

Republican governors and attorneys-general definitely say, “Let them drink lead.”

Afterthought:

I think it not an exaggeration to suggest that today’s Republican Party has abandoned the concept of the “common good.”

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Republican Family Values 0

Woman holding sign reading,

Click for the original image.

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The Open Doorbell Fallacy 0

Consumer Reports has an appalling report on how insecure video “security” doorbells are.

Here’s how it starts; follow the link for the appalling part.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, a Consumer Reports journalist received an email containing a grainy image of herself waving at a doorbell camera she’d set up at her back door.

If the message came from a complete stranger, it would have been alarming. Instead, it was sent by Steve Blair, a CR privacy and security test engineer who had hacked into the doorbell from 2,923 miles away.

Blair had pulled similar images from connected doorbells at other CR employees’ homes and from a device in our Yonkers, N.Y., testing lab. While we expected him to gain access to these devices, it was still a bit shocking to see photos of the journalist’s deck and backyard. After all, video doorbells are supposed to help you keep an eye on strangers at the door, not let other people watch you.

H/T Bruce Schneier.

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Market Farces 0

Sam and the crew talk with Vanderbilt law professor Ganesh Sitaraman about the fallacious reasoning behind deregulating public utilities and services, such as airlines (the main focus of the discussion), and how it made the skies so fiendly as they have become.

Afterthought:

If you die and go to Hell on Delta, you will change in Atlanta.

I’ve changed in Atlanta. It was indeed–er–less than desirable.

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The Art of the Con 0

At NJ.com, Kevin Manahan reports on how Trumpish hucksters gulled the gullible with “Trump Bucks.”

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Writing at Psychology Today Blogs, Mary McNaughton-Cassill recounts two experiences she had recently when health insurance “AI” bots turned down her claims because, well, they thought they were smarter than her doctors.

Here’s a tiny bit:

In the past seven months, I have undergone two different surgeries with two different surgeons, both involving an overnight stay in the hospital. The first, which received pre-approval from my insurance company, was the culmination of several years of battling a painful autoimmune disorder. Two weeks after the procedure, I received a letter indicating that my insurer had determined that the surgery was unnecessary because I hadn’t had cancer. It took my well-known surgeon’s office six months to convince the payer that their artificial intelligence system and their expert, who trained in an unrelated medical field, had made a mistake.

It is a distressing read, but methinks a worthwhile one. Go decide for yourself.

Afterthought:

Automating greed does not make it less greedy.

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Fly the Fiendly Skies 0

They get fiendlier every day.

And, in more news of the fiendly . . . .

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Birds of a Feather 0

Gene Collier, writing at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, sees parallels between two rather dissimilar figures: Donald Trump and Wayne LaPierre, long-time head of the National Rifle Makers Association.

A snippet:

Though LaPierre withstood his moment of truth without any of the typical wailing and victimization of the oleaginous real estate mogul (save for an early reference to a witch hunt), the Trump and LaPierre narratives are of a certain parallel: Two men of at one time inordinate power who eventually got themselves exposed as common crooks.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

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Medicare Disadvantage 0

When I qualified for Medicare (yeah, I’m old), I made sure to get traditional Medicare, because even back then [mumble] years ago, I knew that “Medicare Advantage” was little more than a con and a scam designed to let insurance companies suckle at the public teat.

And, speaking of insurance companies . . . .

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Double Standards and the Double Dealer 0

Isaac Bailey disagrees with Donald Trump’s and the Trumpettes’ claims that he is a victim of a double standard. Rather, argues Bailey, Trump has benefited from double standards throughout his life.

A snippet (emphasis added):

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., recently said on Fox News that she sees “a two-tiered system of justice, a double standard, one for Donald Trump, and one for everybody else.”

She’s right. Despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing throughout his adult life, only now is Trump being charged or convicted of things such as fraud and being civilly held liable for rape.

Follow the link for context.

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“An Assault on Workers” 0

Sam and and labor lawyer Seth Goldstein discuss efforts by plutocrats and billionaires to destroy the NLRB, gut workers’ rights, and return employees to being serfs who labor for their lords.

It’s longish listen, but a worthwhile one.

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The Art of the Con 0

LZ Granderson explains how the “businessman president” gave America the business.

Just go read it.

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Medicare Disadvantage 0

Thom and Matthew Cunningham-Cook contemplate the con. (Warning: Some occasional minor audio glitches.)

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The Pusher Men 0

Afterthought:

Based on my experience from a lifetime of fighting against being a fat little kid (I was scrawny little kid till I had my tonsils out in second grade, then I became a fat little kid who wore “Sears husky”–remember Sears?), if you want to lose weight, lift weights and ride a bicycle.

It works, it’s fun, and it’s cheap.

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Are You Being Served? 0

A local television newsperson describes how he and several of his colleagues were targeted by telephone scammers claiming to be process servers, but who were actually identity thieves.

The story goes on to say that, according to the Better Business Bureau, this scam is one of the hot new things.

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Merchants of Death 0

Title:  Speaking of parents who should be held responsible for their kid's massacres . . . .  Image:  Man and woman labeled

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John Kander has more.

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