[Red State] California is a step closer to paying reparations to black residents. The state’s reparations task force approved a raft of recommendations for putting a dollar amount on just how sorry California is for what NBC called "generations of harm caused by discriminatory policies."
(Spoiler alert: the state is really, really sorry.)
This is terrific news for several important reasons. For one thing, "recommendations on the table ranged from the creation of a new agency to provide services to descendants of enslaved people to calculations on what the state owes them in compensation." A new Federal agency? How innovative!
You need infrastructure to shove that cash around, and qualified professionals to run it. (Cal State should offer a BS in Reparations Accounting.) How often do you get to be there at the birth of an industry?
Of course, the task force itself has been around for a couple of years, and so have, er, imaginative California reparations schemes. And there are nay-sayers, of course. Prof. Roy L. Brooks, a reparations scholar at the University of San Diego School of Law said "There’s no way in the world that many of these recommendations are going to get through because of the inflationary impact."
What inflationary impact? Once the first check is issued it will never end.
#2
...I'm pretty sure that the nice folks in charge of this disaster are working on a way to foist it off on the federal government. And once the precedent is there...
#3
/\ Yep, the ultimate 'Obama Care.' California is simply the Federal Gov't proof of concept. Updated Social Security Cards will reflect your level of eligibility. Offices opening soon near you. Case workers needed. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.
#4
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2023 8:30 Comments ||
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#7
#5 I believe this is why Grewsom is doing what he's doing. He's borrowing from the GOPe Kabuki Playbook. He'll act tough, but cave to a barely acceptable proposal and tell the volkes: "he had no choice", which is in some part very true. In the meantime, we've just instituted our Hate Snitch Hotline. Watch what you say folks, the neighbors are listening - and your tv...phone...
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
05/10/2023 10:25 Comments ||
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#8
The Irish should be next. Did I tell you I'm half Irish?
#10
Ref #7 above
Look for the Snitch Hotline to be touted as merely a "non-criminal" intervention by social workers, to make the reporting seem harmless and supportive. Then comes the accumulation of Stasi-levels of information as a tool to report "wrong-think" by conservatives and traditional Americans. And,.... wait for it, those files become the basis for Red Flag laws to suspend firearms ownership and even travel restrictions. Creeping Marxism comes to Interior California where the remaining Americans still live.
Time travel movie (hate those, don't get me started on multi-verse). Bruce Willis goes back in time to find a group calling itself Army of the 12 Monkeys, Environmentalists suspected of releasing a virus killing damn near all humans.
The plot point mentioned is a phone number to voice machine he is supposed to call and state evidence of his investigation. A voice machine which survives the apocalypse so 'in the future' the evidence can be examined and acted upon.
[Fox News] Budweiser-Dylan Mulvaney controversy is no longer about a boycott. It's a matter of executive survival
Remember when drinking Bud Light wasn’t a heavy topic? Now, one of the anchor products for Budweiser is dragging down an entire company.
Just the other day, video surfaced of fans lined up to get beer in Boston’s renowned Fenway Park. Lined up at every concession stand but one — the one selling Budweiser and, especially Bud Light.
This is no longer about a boycott. This is about executive survival, which matters far more to CEOs and the people they pay. As Mel Brooks’ Gov. William J. Le Petomane memorably declared, "We’ve gotta protect our phony, baloney jobs, gentlemen!"
#10
Lose jobs, they are doing what was expected of them. To quote the movie Zulu:
Can't you see that old boy up on the hill? He's counting your guns. Testing your firing power with the lives of his warriors.
Ace reports on the global advertising initiatives and goals, some shit called GLAM or something, which pushes just such things. Like I've been saying, if it weren't Dylan is would have been some other dude.
They knew Nike, who had been pushing female athletics seriously for over a decade would catch hell putting a soy boy in a tube top and calling it serious exercise gear.
Maybalene knew that making this the guy the....ugh...face of their cosmetics would chode longtime users.
I think here they had a controlled burn which got loose, then bungled the containment which increasing fire conditions. But because we are not serious people and are favor hires they didn't understand there are no local releases with the internet, then brought in politicians and, uggghhh, the boyfriend of Peter Buttgig, talk out the fire by chokechaining lifelong customers.
We'll see, but if sales of Coronoa and Modela were flat or even dropped over Cinco de Mayo, well...
2REARS dropping Shock Top and Goose Island is grand even if for the wrong reasons.
#12
Dylan is not a woman but I wouldn't call it a man, either. Male yes, man no.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/10/2023 19:54 Comments ||
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#13
At some point they will seek a government bailout. There is no rational case for one, but they will seek one. They are probably already networking that type of solution. It is what low integrity executives do. Full disclosure- I once worked for GM.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/10/2023 20:04 Comments ||
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Hat tip to powerlineblog.com. This is a very, very long essay about the government's war on so-called disinformation. I've just gotten started on it so I cannot judge it. But what I've read so far seems both interesting and terrifying. Here is just a small sample from the preamble:
[TabletMag] In his last days in office, President Barack Obama made the decision to set the country on a new course. On Dec. 23, 2016, he signed into law the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act, which used the language of defending the homeland to launch an open-ended, offensive information war.
Something in the looming specter of Donald Trump and the populist movements of 2016 reawakened sleeping monsters in the West. Disinformation, a half-forgotten relic of the Cold War, was newly spoken of as an urgent, existential threat. Russia was said to have exploited the vulnerabilities of the open internet to bypass U.S. strategic defenses by infiltrating private citizens’ phones and laptops. The Kremlin’s endgame was to colonize the minds of its targets, a tactic cyber warfare specialists call "cognitive hacking."
Defeating this specter was treated as a matter of national survival. "The U.S. Is Losing at Influence Warfare," warned a December 2016 article in the defense industry journal, Defense One. The article quoted two government insiders arguing that laws written to protect U.S. citizens from state spying were jeopardizing national security. According to Rand Waltzman, a former program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, America’s adversaries enjoyed a "significant advantage" as the result of "legal and organizational constraints that we are subject to and they are not."
The point was echoed by Michael Lumpkin, who headed the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), the agency Obama designated to run the U.S. counter-disinformation campaign. Lumpkin singled out the Privacy Act of 1974, a post-Watergate law protecting U.S. citizens from having their data collected by the government, as antiquated. "The 1974 act was created to make sure that we aren’t collecting data on U.S. citizens. Well, ... by definition the World Wide Web is worldwide. There is no passport that goes with it. If it’s a Tunisian citizen in the United States or a U.S. citizen in Tunisia, I don’t have the ability to discern that ... If I had more ability to work with that [personally identifiable information] and had access ... I could do more targeting, more definitively, to make sure I could hit the right message to the right audience at the right time."
The message from the U.S. defense establishment was clear: To win the information war—an existential conflict taking place in the borderless dimensions of cyberspace—the government needed to dispense with outdated legal distinctions between foreign terrorists and American citizens.
Since 2016, the federal government has spent billions of dollars on turning the counter-disinformation complex into one of the most powerful forces in the modern world: a sprawling leviathan with tentacles reaching into both the public and private sector, which the government uses to direct a "whole of society" effort that aims to seize total control over the internet and achieve nothing less than the eradication of human error.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/10/2023 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11128 views]
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#1
"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/10/2023 12:57 Comments ||
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#5
"But the next stage, already underway, is being carried out through both scalable processes of artificial intelligence and algorithmic pre-censorship..."
Tucker Carlson, two weeks after being ousted by Fox News, accused the network Tuesday of fraud and breach of contract — and made a host of document demands that could precede legal action.
Why it matters: The aggressive letter from his lawyers to Fox positions Carlson to argue that the noncompete provision in his contract is no longer valid — freeing him to launch his own competing show or media enterprise.
Says Elon Musk
On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever is said.
And, of course, anything misleading will get @CommunityNotes.
I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever. Tucker is… https://t.co/0TMjuYnKUp
[ForeignPolicy] Now that the United States has left Afghanistan, the local branch of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... has turned its sights on a new enemy: Russia. Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the Islamic State’s central propaganda apparatus initiated a Ukraine-focused media campaign in its weekly al-Naba newsletter under the headline "Crusader Against Crusader Wars," in which the group reveled in the mutual destruction of its declared adversaries on the European continent.
"This bloody war taking place today, between the Orthodox crusaders—Russia and Ukraine—is an example of the punishment that was unleashed upon them and is forever glued to them." The conflict, the article argues, is about power and "a manifestation of the escalating competition between America and Russia for control of the Eastern European countries." The Islamic State says the "crusader against crusader wars" are just beginning, and the article concludes with an appeal: "O Allah, make their wars bloody and plant discord in their hearts; pour your wrath and torment upon them."
Following the al-Naba item, the Islamic State’s central propaganda outlets moved on to other issues; however, pro-Islamic State media groups continued the discourse and carried on producing their own content. During the summer of 2022, the group’s Afghanistan branch, known as the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K)—named after a that encompassed northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, and northern Afghanistan—emerged as the leading voice on the Russia-Ukraine war and began spearheading the campaign to capitalize on the conflict that dominates daily global news headlines.
Russia is a familiar enemy for Sunni jihadists and has found itself in the crosshairs of IS-K for several reasons. According to IS-K, Moscow’s hands are covered in Moslem blood, especially in Afghanistan, where the legacy of the decade-long Soviet-Afghan War still looms large. IS-K narratives frequently point to Russia’s historical entanglement in Afghanistan and current relations with the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , highlighting Moscow’s of the Taliban to gain access to Afghanistan, while in return, the Taliban hopes to acquire international recognition and support.
Further, the Russian military’s brutal tactics in multiple Chechen wars and its scorched-earth counterinsurgency campaign in the Caucasus mean that there is no love lost for Russia. The Kremlin’s continued assistance to notorious dictator Bashir al-Assad in Syria, where targeted Sunni strongholds during the long-running civil war, cements Russia’s image as a worthwhile enemy to focus on. Taken together, these factors make Russia an attractive target for IS-K propaganda.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/10/2023 02:45 ||
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Link ||
[11122 views]
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[GIZMODO] This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.
Two decades ago, when the world was wising up to the threat of climate change, the Bush administration touted ethanol — a fuel usually made from corn — for its threefold promise: It would wean the country off foreign oil, line farmers’ pockets, and reduce carbon pollution. In 2007, Congress mandated that refiners nearly quintuple the amount of biofuels mixed into the nation’s gasoline supply over 15 years. The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, projected that ethanol would emit at least 20 percent fewer greenhouse gasses than conventional gasoline.
Scientists say the EPA was too optimistic, and some research shows that the congressional mandate did more climatic harm than good. A 2022 study found that producing and burning corn-based fuel is at least 24 percent more carbon-intensive than refining and combusting gasoline. The biofuel industry and the Department of Energy, or DOE, vehemently criticized those findings, which nevertheless challenge the widespread claim that ethanol is something of a magic elixir.
"There’s an intuition people have that burning plants is better than burning fossil fuels," said Timothy Searchinger. He is a senior researcher at the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment at Princeton University and an early skeptic of ethanol. "Growing plants is good. Burning plants isn’t."
Given all that, not to mention the growing popularity of electric vehicles, you’d think ethanol is on the way out. Not so. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continue to tout it as a way to win energy independence and save the climate. The fuel’s bipartisan staying power has less to do with any environmental benefits than with disputed science and the sway of the biofuel lobby, agricultural economists and policy analysts told Grist.
"The only way ethanol makes sense is as a political issue," said Jason Hill, a bioproducts and biosystems engineering professor at the University of Minnesota.
#6
If "the environment" = "my bank account," it is great.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2023 8:25 Comments ||
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#7
back in the 2000s, it was expected that next generation ethanol or some other biofuel would be made from, say kelp or other easily grown plant and the fuel would be less expensive than gasoline
in fact, Congress mandated this (and provided research funding) in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 --- but this turned out to be a case where technology forcing policy failed almost completely
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/10/2023 9:19 Comments ||
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#11
An once again those of us called conspiracy nuts that took time to research the E90 E85 fuel process impact and the food denied millions are vindicated.
Btw: How are they gonna keep up with corn demands given the LSD agenda move to ban chemical based fertizers ?
[Markcrispinmiller] While tracking the reports of people "dying suddenly," and falling gravely ill, we’ve also noticed what appears to be a sharp uptick in "shocking" incidents of violence, or "altercations"—sudden melées, screaming matches, physical attacks, breaking out at sports events (including golf matches), on airliners, in restaurants and other places, in what seem to be unprecedented numbers, more and more as time goes on. (Scroll down for dozens of examples from just this past month.)
Now, just as there are those apologists (that is, accomplices), paid trolls and (no doubt) bots insisting that those countless "sudden deaths" and crippling injuries are nothing new, or just coincidence, or caused by sadness, alcohol, excitement, air pollution, weed, Daylight Savings Time, unhealthy sandwiches, referees’ whistles, pizza margherita and/or Christmas, so will those entities insist that all these crazy incidents are also nothing new, or just coincidence, or caused by lockdown, economic stress, the Internet, racism, too-tight pants, and/or blah blah blah blah.
And just as those multitudinous reports of sudden death reflect the grim statistics on excess mortality since "vaccination" started—excess deaths primarily among the "vaccinated"—so do all these stories of insane attacks and outbursts complement the scientific data on the psychological and cognitive effects of "vaccination."
For example, VAERS makes clear that "vaccination" often has a deleterious effect on mental health. A glance at OpenVaers discovers hundreds of just such "serious adverse events" (SAE): If hear gunfire, or you see something say something run like a SOB in a zig-zag pattern away from it.
"the patient was admitted to a psychiatric ward for behavioral disorders with delirium of erotomania and persecution through an interpretive and intuitive mechanism with confusion."
#7
I often joke to myself about the odds of millennials surviving a drowning in that if I try to help, will they zuckerberg-stare blankly into space past my hand (as they always do), or would they actually reach for my hand and grab it to save themselves.
I originally bought this book to gain more detail on early US naval operations before Midway and the Guadalcanal Campaign, focusing on the Japanese Java Sea campaign.
The book instead focused on four battles: Pearl Harbor Raid, the Marshall Islands carrier raids in early February, the Coral Sea operation, and Midway.
Still, this book was a real page turner. The author spent a good deal of the text on personalities of the allied and Japanese civilian and military leadership. This was helpful in understanding how those four battles were tied together, but I think he wrote just a bit too much on it.
That said, I never realized just how much US Admiral Chester Nimitz's decisions were tied to US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Earnest King, Nimitz's senior. His contention that Midway was basically an intelligence war is apt, but he doesn't leave out the grit and bravery of the many men who fought in that and the previous battles.
I knew from other books, and the Kings and Generals youtube video series about the Marshall Island raids, but did not read about them in great detail. This book fills in that gap well. Those raids weren't just something for a crippled navy to do as the fleet rebuilds.
The intelligence gathered by cryptanalyst US Commander Joseph Rochefort, in part enabled US carrier commanders to conduct air operations with some ease in order to gain early, valuable experience in carrier tactics.
In fact, during one phase of the operation, US carriers were within 90 miles of their intended targets, something they would not have been able to do with confidence.
I recommend this book about the early months of the war in the Pacific. It falls short in that the author doesn't discuss the Guadalcanal Campaign. But, still, it is well worth the time and expense.
#1
I recommend this book about the early months of the war in the Pacific. It fall[sic] short in that the author doesn't discuss the Guadalcanal Campaign.
Falls short? Guadalcanal literally isn't the early months. Anything after Midway isn't.
Part 2 of the book discusses everyone's favorite Guadalcanal. Why, I've no idea because there is no shortage of books about Guadalcanal. Bookshelves literally groaning under the weight of them. But, I guess a book falls short unless it retreads well-worn territory.
This book is about lesser-known parts of the war. That's literally why it was written. I used to wonder why sitcoms and sequels were so popular. Why did people like to watch the same things over and over again? Well, I don't wonder any more.
#3
Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific by Eric M. Bergerud(1997). Excellent book. Several observations in the book (and his other book Fire In The Sky) about how the Japanese military-industrial complex dictated some of their actions in WW2, for example: the heavy diesel engine production bottleneck meant freighters or destroyers DD), which meant logistics required emphasizing light infantry training and organization instead of the heavier equipment they wanted to field...
#4
Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939 by Alvin Coox(1997). Excellent operational-level coverage about the border skirmish and the months long campaign that concluded in Zhukov's Double Encirclement of Khalkin Gol(the winners get to name the battles). The author also covers various social, diplomatic and political events preceding and following WW2 that are quite interesting. For example: why would the Japanese commander order thousands of soda s from Korea? The troops drank the soda and the empty bottles were made into incendiary anti-tank weapons (Molotov cocktails). Or the fate of Japanese MIA/POWs that were deliberately forgotten because they shamed themselves by not 'dying with honor'...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Fox News] Budweiser-
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
[Markcrispinmiller] While tracking the reports of people "dying suddenly," and falling gravely ill, we’ve also noticed what appears to be a sharp uptick in "shocking" incidents of violence, or "altercations"—sudden melées, screaming matches, physical attacks, breaking out at sports events (including golf matches), on airliners, in restaurants and other places, in what seem to be unprecedented numbers, more and more as time goes on. (Scroll down for dozens of examples from just this past month.)
