Oh, the Poor Babies

The New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association has a sad over a bill that would require cops to carry their own liability insurance.

I literally could not give less of a sh$# about their feelings about this.

You have a culture, and a contract, that makes any sort of accountability nearly impossible, so it's time to fight your evil with the evil if the insurance companies.

There are a lot of indicators that can find a likely bad cop, but police departments almost universally refuse to use this data.

Insurance companies will use this data, and jack up the rates for high rise officers.

What's more, they keep track of the cops that bounce from department to department following incidents.

Normally bad cops cost the taxpayer.  Let them pay their own way 

One of many ideas floated as a solution to police misconduct issues is the requirement that officers carry their own insurance. Almost every law enforcement officer is currently indemnified by the towns and cities that employ them, ensuring they’re never personally responsible for any judgments or settlements stemming from their misconduct.

And that’s a very small percentage of civil rights lawsuits. Far more frequently, officers are allowed to walk away from these lawsuits with application of qualified immunity, a Supreme Court-created doctrine that says officers can’t be held accountable if any “reasonable” officer would not have immediately understood their actions violated constitutional rights.

The liability insurance theory goes like this: officers who become uninsurable due to multiple lawsuits will become unemployable. Given that most law enforcement agencies currently do as little as possible to discipline officers who engage in rights violations and misconduct, any nudge of the needle towards the accountability ideal is welcome.

 

Took Charlie to his Birthday Dinner Tonight

His birthday is actually on September 10, but he will be back home in Gaithersburg.

He's turning 25, and I think this will be his first birthday where he isn't home.

I feel old.

Both Inevitable and Justified

It appears that activists are distributing information that would allow for anyone to make some of the most expensive medications in the world themselves.

A case in point is Sofosbuvir (brand name Sovaldi), which is at this point the only drug which cures Hepatitis C, which sells for $1,000.00 a pill but can be made in a relatively simple home lab for $0.87 a pill, a 114,943% markup.

This means that the treatment regimen can be had for less than $100.00, as opposed to almost $100,000.00.

Drug patents have gotten out of hand, and it needs to stop:

I’ve been video chatting with Mixæl Swan Laufer for about 30 minutes about an exciting discovery when he points out that to date, the best way he’s been able to bring attention to his organization is “the old school method of me performing a bunch of federal felonies on stage in front of a bunch of people.”

I stop him and ask: “In this case, what are the felonies?”

“Well, the list is pretty long,” he said.

Laufer is the chief spokesperson of Four Thieves Vinegar Collective, an anarchist collective that has spent the last few years teaching people how to make DIY versions of expensive pharmaceuticals at a tiny fraction of the cost. Four Thieves Vinegar Collective call what they do “right to repair for your body.”

Laufer has become well known for handing out DIY pills and medicines at hacking conferences, which include, for example, courses of the abortion drug misoprostol that can be manufactured for 89 cents (normal cost: $160) and which has become increasingly difficult to obtain in some states following the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs.

In our call, Laufer had just explained that Four Thieves’ had made some miscalculations as part of its latest project, to create instructions for replicating sofosbuvir (Sovaldi), a miracle drug that cures hepatitis C, which he planned to explain and reveal at the DEF CON hacking conference.

Unlike many other drugs that treat viruses, Sovaldi does not suppress hepatitis C, a virus that kills roughly 250,000 people around the world each year. It cures it.

“Normally you have a virus, and your body fights it off or your body fights it to a standstill and you just have it forever, basically, and hope it remains dormant more or less,” Laufer said. “The holy grail for every virologist is to find a way to drain the viral reservoir, and Sovaldi does this. You take one pill of Sovaldi a day for 12 weeks and then you don’t have hepatitis C anymore.”

The problem is that those pills are under patent, and they cost $1,000 per pill.

“Literally, if you have $84,000 then hepatitis C is not your problem anymore,” Laufer said. “But given that there are other methodologies for managing hepatitis C that are not curing it and that are cheaper, insurance typically will not cover [Sovaldi]. And so we’ve got this incredible technology and it’s sitting on the shelf except for people who are ridiculously wealthy.”

So Four Thieves Vinegar Collective set out to teach people how to make their own version of Sovaldi. Chemists at the collective thought the DIY version would cost about $300 for the entire course of medication, or about $3.57 per pill. But they were wrong. “It’s actually just a little under $70 (83 cents per pill), which just kind of blew my mind when they finally showed me the results,” Laufer said. “I was like, can we do the math here again?”

Our current IP regime, particularly with regard to pharmaceuticals does not work.

Furthermore, it runs counter to the Constitutional requirements of such a system, (Article I, Section 8, Clause 8) "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

This sort of looting and rent seeking does not promote the, "Progress of Science and useful Arts," it promotes corrupt business models.

Patent and copyright are a tax on the rest of us that is provided in order to benefit the public.

Our current IP regime does not do this.

Of Course There Is No Legal Basis, It’s Peter Thiel

The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK is trying to create what it calls a, "Federated Data Platform," to manage information in its sprawling healthcare system.

They contracted this out to Palantir Systems, the data analytics firm that has been notorious for opaque deals with intelligence and law enforcement agencies to engage in spying that would not be legal for its clients to conduct themselves.

It appears that critical parts of this program have no legal basis, according to both internal legal documents and lawsuits filed by privacy advocates.

This is not a surprise.  Thiel is a lawless individual who has expressed his contempt for the NHS, so abusing a few tens of millions of Brits is of no concern to him:

NHS England has received advice from lawyers saying key aspects of its controversial Federated Data Platform (FDP) lack a legal basis, meaning that unless a solution is found, it must allow citizens to opt out of sharing their data.

The FDP is being built by US spy-tech biz Palantir following the award of a £330 million seven-year contract by NHS England, a non-departmental public body under the Department of Health and Social Care. The total four-year budget for the project is actually £485 million, The Register revealed weeks ago.

In December last year, a group of campaign organizations led by Foxglove began preparing a legal challenge alleging there is no lawful basis to create the FDP, as described in procurement documents, within the current legal directions used to obtain and share data within the NHS.

At the time an NHS spokesperson said: "This letter fundamentally misunderstands how the Federated Data Platform will operate and is totally incorrect in both matters of law and fact."

However, documents shared with the FDP board in March show that NHS England had received legal advice showing a vital aspect of the program – its privacy-enhancing technology (PET), to be provided by IQVIA – lacked a legal footing to proceed.

Board documents seen by The Register state that NHS England got the advice from King's Counsel – its team of barristers – that PET "will require a separate lawful basis to process PCD [personal confidential data]."

It adds that unless NHS England finds a solution, it will have to offer all patients the opportunity to opt out of sharing their data with the FDP under the current legislation for the control of patient information (Section 251 of the National Health Service Act 2006).

Given that the plan was started under the Tories, who have been trying to destroy Britain's socialized healthcare system for (checks notes) 76 years, in part by gradually privatizing its core functions.

The fact that it has been outsourced to one of the most privacy hostile business in the world is just icing on the cake.

Good Policy and Good Politics

Consumer advocates are asking the FTC to ban product downgrades on already sold products.

You know, when Amazon demands a surcharge to not show ads on your digital picture frame, and then shows ads, or when Peleton retroactively places a charge on resold exercise bikes, or when an educational products company starts charges parents for access after selling it to the school system for a single low price, or pretty much anything Elon Musk sells.

This would be a good thing.  The whole, "You'll own nothing and you'll be happy," business model is an exercise in defrauding the consumer:(So is HP's program of locking out 3rd party printer supplies)

Consumer and digital rights activists are calling on the US Federal Trade Commission to stop device-makers using software to reduce product functionality, bricking unloved kit, or adding surprise fees post-purchase.

In an eight-page letter [PDF] to the Commission (FTC), the activists mentioned the Google/Levis collaboration on a denim jacket that contained sensors enabling it to control an Android device through a special app. When the app was discontinued in 2023, the jacket lost that functionality. The letter also mentions the "Car Thing," an automotive infotainment device created by Spotify, which bricked the device fewer than two years after launch and didn't offer a refund.

Another example highlighted is the $1,695 Snoo connected bassinet, manufactured by an outfit named Happiest Baby. Kids outgrow bassinets, yet Happiest Baby this year notified customers that if they ever sold or gave away their bassinets, the device’s next owner would have to pay a new $19.99 monthly subscription fee to keep certain features. Activists argue that reduces the resale value of the devices.

Signatories to the letter include individuals from Consumer Reports, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, teardown artists iFixit, and the Software Freedom Conservancy. Environmental groups and computer repair shops also signed the letter.

The FTC acting on this should be a no-brainer.

It's good policy, and GREAT politics.  Everyone hates it when manufacturers pull this crap on them.

This Is Not Taking the Time to Do It Right

You may recall that after a series of problems with Boeing aircraft, including a fuselage plug falling off mid-flight, Boeing has promised slow down production to focus on safety.

It appears that they are already reneging on this deal, pushing 777s through the factory as quickly as possible ahead of a threatened strike.

I think that their agreement with regulators, as well as their public statements, did not include a, "Backsies," clause:

For months, Boeing’s leadership has claimed repeatedly that slowing the pace of jet production and renewing the focus on inspections will ensure production quality. As a potential strike by 33,000 machinists looms next week, that’s not the reality mechanics see inside Boeing’s widebody jet plant in Everett.

Managers there are currently pushing partially assembled 777 jets through the assembly line, leaving tens of thousands of unfinished jobs due to defects and parts shortages to be completed out of sequence on each airplane, according to three people working directly on 777 assembly.

Though the production rate of 777 jets is at a crawl, with a total of just 11 deliveries so far this year, employees describe a chaotic workplace.

Mechanics are chasing airplanes through the Everett factory to install systems that should have gone in earlier and to complete rework of defects on 777 cargo planes that have traveled far down the assembly line and even outside onto the Paine Field flight line, said a veteran 777 mechanic who works on fuselages.

At the 737 MAX plant in Renton, Boeing has said it is severely limiting such “traveled work,” which requires installing parts out of the normal assembly sequence. The practice contributed to the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout in January.

“It’s not the way the hourly workers want to do business,” said the veteran mechanic, alarmed by the state of 777 production. “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot.”

A longtime 777 quality inspector in Everett — who, like the other employees quoted here, requested anonymity because he feared retaliation — said Boeing has moved new inspectors onto the assembly line who are unfamiliar with the work.

If someone wants to save Boeing, they need to fire all senior executives, ban stock buy backs, and install an independent monitor to address crap like this.

Well, It Didn't Blow Up

The #Starliner spacecraft is back on Earth.

At 12:01am ET Sept. 7, @BoeingSpace’s uncrewed Starliner spacecraft landed in White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico. pic.twitter.com/vTYvgPONVc

— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) September 7, 2024

The Boeing Starliner capsule undocked from the ISS and landed successfully at White Sands in New Mexico.

It was unmanned, and the astronauts who were originally supposed to be at the space station will now be returning early next year.

What a clusterf%$#.

Joke of the Day

Stranger:	Why you wearing a mask?
Me:	I’m getting into character for a film I’ll be starring in.
Stranger:	What character are you playing?
Me:	A survivor of a zombie apocalypse.
Strannger:	Sounds like a cool sci-fi movie.
Me:	It’s actually a documentary.

I am still masking, and I am continuing to have exactly this sort of conversation on a regular basis, albeit with a bit less sarcasm.

Monthly Jobs Report Today ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

See az Trend in NFP>


Unemployment Rate (U-3)Job growth was 142,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate fell by .1% to 4.2%.

You need around a 125,000 - 150,000 increase in the non-farm payroll to keep place with natural growth of the labor market, so this is at best flat.

Employers added 142,000 jobs in August, continuing a labor market cooling trend that has stoked fears that interest rates have been high for too long.

The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2 percent.

The August jobs report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics was among the most closely watched snapshots of the labor market since the coronavirus pandemic. The jobs gains were weaker than forecasters’ predictions of 161,000 jobs, but improved on July’s weak showing of 114,000. Still, downward revisions from the two previous months suggest that the labor market is cooling faster than the initial data may indicate.

Analysts were watching to see if the unemployment rate spike in July was a mere data quirk or indicative of a broader slowdown in the labor market. Data from August hints that July’s weaknesses were mostly a one-off, as temporary layoffs declined by 190,000, offsetting an increase in the prior month. Federal Reserve officials will be using the data to steer interest rate cuts later this month. And the presidential candidates will be looking to the report to make their case for who is better for the economy.

Wage growth was good, 3.8% year over year, which beats inflation, which is good, but the NFP numbers in June and July were revised down by 86,000.

My prediction stands, the Fed will lower rates by 25 basis points (¼%) at their next meeting.

I think that we are already in a downturn, and that the numbers will be getting worse.

Another Day, Another School Shooting

At Joppatowne High School, about 30 miles from my house, one dead.

This sh%$ needs to stop:

A 15-year-old Joppatowne High School student died after being shot in the chest Friday during an altercation in the school, according to Harford County authorities, who arrested a 16-year-old suspect.

Warren Curtis Grant died in a hospital Friday afternoon after being shot during the dispute in a first-story bathroom, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said at a Friday afternoon news conference. Police did not identify the suspect, a 16-year-old Joppatowne High student, noting they would release his name once he is formally charged as an adult, which Gahler said could be expected later Friday or Saturday morning.

Officers responded to the school at about 12:36 p.m. after the single shot struck the teenaged victim in the chest, Gahler said. The suspect fled the school grounds, and Grant was dragged out of the bathroom by other students. The wounded 15-year-old was tended to by school personnel, including a nurse, a resource officer and Principal Melissa Williams, before being airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in serious condition, Gahler said during another news conference earlier Friday afternoon.

If I hear one more idiot offer, "Thoughts and Prayers," to the victims and the victims' families, my head might explode.

Filed Under, "Gee, You Think?"

It appears that people who run computer systems for companies have discovered that the honeymoon is over, and the monopolists at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are aggressively raising prices for cloud services.

This sort of sh%$ is why people moved to PCs in the first place:

After an initial euphoric rush to the cloud, administrators are questioning the value and promise of the tech giants' services.

According to a report published by UK cloud outfit Civo, more than a third of organizations surveyed reckoned that their move to the cloud had failed to live up to promises of cost-effectiveness. Over half reported a rise in their cloud bill.

Although the survey, unsurprisingly, paints Civo in a flattering light, some of its figures may make uncomfortable reading for customers sold on the promises from hyperscalers. Like-for-like comparisons for a simple three-node cluster with 200 GB of persistent storage and a 5 TB data transfer showed prices going from $1,278.58 in 2022 to $1,458.68 in 2024 on Microsoft Azure.

For Google, the price went from $1,107.61 to $1,250.35. According to Civo's figures, the cost at AWS increased from $1,142.46 to $1,234.59.

Just as an FYI, this is 14.1% for Microsoft, 12.9% for Google, and 8.1% for Amazon.

As an aside, it seems to me that anyone managing IT for an enterprise had better be damn sure that they are not locked into a single provider.

They need to be able to move to local machines, or another cloud provider on a few days notice.

It's Thursday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Short version, initial unemployment claims fell, which was a better than expected result, but a Challenger, Gray, and Christmas report shows a surge in layoffs.

The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits declined last week as layoffs remained low, helping to allay fears that the labor market was deteriorating.

The weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday, the most timely data on the economy's health, also showed unemployment rolls shrinking to levels last seen in mid-June. It reduces the urgency for the Federal Reserve to deliver a 50 basis points interest rate cut this month.

Economists shrugged off other data showing private employers hired the smallest number of workers in August. Most expect the U.S. central bank to kick off its easing cycle with a quarter-point rate reduction as domestic demand remains solid. A step-down in hiring, which pushed the unemployment rate to near a three-year high of 4.3% in July rattled investors and fanned concerns that a recession was stalking the economy.

"There are signs of a slowdown in hiring with fewer job openings, but until payroll jobs actually decline there is no recession," said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS. "At the moment, it does not look like the Fed is behind the curve."

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 227,000 for the week ended Aug. 31, the lowest level since early July. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 230,000 claims for the latest week.

Continuing claims fell by 2,000 to 1.838 million the best number since the start of Summer.

That all looks good, but as I noted above, layoffs rose a lot in August:

U.S. employers in August unveiled the greatest number of layoffs in five months, led by cuts in the technology sector, amid a cloudy outlook for growth and ongoing cost concerns, a monthly tally of workforce reduction announcements showed on Thursday.

Firms announced 75,891 layoffs last month, roughly triple the number in July and the largest month-to-month increase in a year, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas said. Still, announced staff reductions are down 3.7% year to date.

"August's surge in job cuts reflects growing economic uncertainty and shifting market dynamics. Companies are facing a variety of pressures, from rising operational costs to concerns about a potential economic slowdown, leading them to make tough decisions about workforce management," Challenger Vice President Andrew Challenger said in a statement.

My take is that the official numbers, which come out tomorrow, for the non farm payroll will be rather grim.

It appears to be a lock that the Fed will lower interest rates at its next meeting, but I am still predicting a 25 basis point (¼%) cut, not a 50 basis point cut.

Quote of the Day

There’s This Hysteria That We Apparently Have a Gang Problem, but What We Have Is a Slumlord Problem in the City of Aurora

—Aurora City Councilwoman Alison Coombs as quoted by the Denver Post

A slumlord operating buildings in Aurora, Coloradowho has been sued by multiple times by the city of Aurora as well as by current and former tenants.

They have been so bad at this that the city has already closed down one of the apartments operated by CBZ Management, LLC. (They have refused to provide legally mandated assistance to the tenants evicted as a result)

In response to their cruelty and greed, they hired a PR firm and started claiming that the problem was that Venezuelan criminal gangs had taken over the complexes.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman (a Republican) made extensive statements to this effect, as has the Donald Trump campaign.

As to CBZ management, they are located in Brooklyn, New York, and the owner is Zev Baumgarten, and two other senior managers are Shalom Baumgarten and Shmary Baumgarten.

Yeah, these jerks are Jewish.  It's a Shanda Fur die Goyim.

As Shalom Alechem once wrote, "Shver TSU Zayn a Yid (שװער צו זײן א איד)."*

They have used these claims to get delays in its trials.

CBZ is run by horrible people, and should be shunned by all people of good will:

The frenzy over a Venezuelan gang’s presence in Aurora reached a fever pitch over the holiday weekend, fueled in part by viral video of men with guns knocking on an apartment door and by a presidential election in which immigration and border security will be key issues for voters.

Right-wing social media influencers and citizen journalists seized on video shared by Denver’s Fox31 television station showing armed men at an Aurora apartment complex, often adding their own captions and commentary, as it made the rounds on TikTok, X and Facebook.

Even former President Donald Trump weighed in during a podcast interview, repeating unverified claims that gangs were taking over big buildings with “big rifles” in the city.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman appeared on national TV and posted about the Venezuelan gang on his Facebook page, contradicting his police chief about the severity of the situation, and saying the city was preparing to go to court to get a judge’s order to clear out the apartment complexes where the Tren de Aragua gang operates. However, city staff on Tuesday said that is not the immediate plan.

Aurora and Denver police have publicly acknowledged there are Tren de Aragua gang members in their cities, but they say the gang’s numbers are not large and they operate in isolated areas. Others say the Tren de Aragua presence in Aurora, a city of nearly 400,000 people, has been overhyped.

“Those stories are really overblown. If you didn’t live here, you would swear we were being taken over by a gang and Aurora was under siege,” Aurora City Councilwoman Stephanie Hancock said Tuesday. “That’s simply not true.”

………

“There’s this hysteria that we apparently have a gang problem, but what we have is a slumlord problem in the city of Aurora,” City Councilwoman Alison Coombs said.

This makes me sick to my stomach.

^*It's tough to be a Jew.

Neologism of the Day

Sanewashing

(I really wish that the blink tag was still around)

Best defined as, "What mainstream journalists do when they paraphrase the insane rantings of Donald John Trump to make them appear to be coherent policies."

Needless to say, this is a mark of journalistic dysfunction.  (I'm talking to you, New York Times) 

Four years ago, in an article for Media Matters for America, I warned that journalists were sanitizing Donald Trump’s incoherent ramblings to make them more palatable for the average voter. The general practice went like this: The press would take something Trump said or did—for instance, using a visit to the Centers for Disease Control to ask about Fox News’s ratings, insult then–Washington Governor Jay Inslee, rant about his attempt to extort Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden, and downplay the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the U.S.—and write them up as The New York Times did: “Trump Says ‘People Have to Remain Calm’ Amid Coronavirus Outbreak.” This had the effect of making it seem like Trump’s words and actions seemed cogent and sensible for the vast majority of Americans who didn’t happen to watch his rant live.

Flash-forward to today, and it’s clear this problem has only worsened. As Trump’s statements grow increasingly unhinged in his old age, major news outlets continue to reframe his words, presenting a dangerously misleading picture to the public.

For instance, last week, Trump posted the following to his Truth Social account:

I have reached an agreement with the Radical Left Democrats for a Debate with Comrade Kamala Harris. It will be Broadcast Live on ABC FAKE NEWS, by far the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business, on Tuesday, September 10th, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Rules will be the same as the last CNN Debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone except, perhaps, Crooked Joe Biden. The Debate will be “stand up,” and Candidates cannot bring notes, or “cheat sheets.” We have also been given assurance by ABC that this will be a “fair and equitable” Debate, and that neither side will be given the questions in advance (No Donna Brazile!). Harris would not agree to the FoxNews Debate on September 4th, but that date will be held open in case she changes her mind or, Flip Flops, as she has done on every single one of her long held and cherished policy beliefs. A possible third Debate, which would go to NBC FAKE NEWS, has not been agreed to by the Radical Left. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

CNN described that rambling, insult-laden, conspiracy-riddled wall of text—itself a pretty good example of what he spends his time off the campaign trail doing—by writing, “Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he has ‘reached an agreement’ to participate in a September 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, noting that ‘the rules will be the same as the last CNN debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone.’”

Does that really capture what Trump posted?

………

This “sanewashing” of Trump’s statements isn’t just poor journalism; it’s a form of misinformation that poses a threat to democracy. By continually reframing Trump’s incoherent and often dangerous rhetoric as conventional political discourse, major news outlets are failing in their duty to inform the public and are instead providing cover for increasingly erratic behavior from a former—and potentially future—president.

Seriously, this is why I try to get my news from non-US sources.

And He Steals Girl Scout Cookies

No, not Donald Trump, it's North Carolina Lieutenant Governor, and Republican candidate for Governor Mark Robinson, who was sued by the Girl Scouts over almost $3,000 in cookies that he or his wife never paid for.

Where the f%$# do they find these folks?

Because it is an even a, "More wretched hive of scum and villainy," than Mos Eisley Spaceport.

According to public records obtained from Guilford County Court, the wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson was sued by Tarheel Triad Girl Scouts over “money owed” in Guilford County Small Claims Court in 2003–and the Girl Scouts won.

In September of 2003 the Girl Scouts filed suit against Yolanda Hill due to a $2,956.03 bad check. The matter was heard the following month, and court documents indicate nobody attended on behalf of the defendant. The magistrate found in favor of the Girl Scouts and tacked on fees and damages as permitted by state law on returned checks for a grand total of $3,486.03.

Robinson and Hill had to pay the Girl Scouts’ attorney fees as well. Girl-Scouts-vs.-Yolanda-Hill-lawsuit The records do not explain what the check was for or offer any context around what happened between Hill and the Girl Scouts. 2003 was certainly a difficult year for Robinson and Hill as their daycare center Precious Beginnings was struggling badly enough that they declared bankruptcy.

Further down, it is revealed that his recently closed business was shut down because it was caught literally taking food out of the mouths of babes:

………

After auditing just a few months of Balanced Nutrition’s nearly ten-year activity, DHHS found that the nonprofit, which served as a conduit for getting federal funding for child care facilities’ meals, was requesting federal funding on behalf of childcare centers and then not actually giving them the money.

 As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."

Bummer of a Birthmark, JD

This could very well be the stupidest person on the face of the earth. Perhaps we should shoot him.^*In the further adventures of the least popular Vice Presidential running mate since (at least) Bob Dole in 1976, J.D Vance said that it's not like, "Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a grave site," which is not completely accurate, since Donald Trump has already released the commercial.

J.D., I believe that the truth may want to have a word with you.

I understand that this can be a little bit intimidating, since you have never met the truth before.

Ohio Senator J.D. Vance doesn’t seem to know what the other half of his ticket is up to.

Speaking before a crowd in the battleground state of Wisconsin for a fourth time Wednesday night, the Republican vice presidential pick attempted, once again, to brush off Donald Trump’s Arlington National Cemetery debacle. According to Vance, Trump was wrongly booted from the military burial ground, since it wasn’t as if he was filming a “TV commercial at a gravesite.”


Except that’s exactly what Trump was doing.

“You’re acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a gravesite,” Vance said to “the media.” “He was there providing emotional support to a lot of brave Americans who lost loved ones they never should have lost, and there happened to be a camera there, and someone gave them permission to have that camera there.”

Trump utilized the footage for a campaign video where he can be seen laying flowers down at a grave and taking photos with people while giving a thumbs-up to the camera.

Seriously, these folks are f%$#ing shameless.

^*What, you've never seen Ruthless People? Great movie.

Is This Even News Anymore?

Georgia this time, Winder County, about 45 miles east of Atlanta, where we have had another school shooting.

The shooter was allegedly a 14-year old, and he used an AR pattern rifle. 

4 dead.

F%$# the hypocritical Republican thoughts and prayers that are about to be offered:

A 14-year-old opened fire at a Barrow County high school Wednesday morning, killing two students and two teachers and injuring nine others, according to investigators.

The shooting at Apalachee High School shocked not only the local community nestled between Atlanta and Athens, but soon made national headlines throughout the day, with federal and state law enforcement agencies assisting with the investigation.

………

Colt Gray, 14, an Apalachee student, was charged with murder and was expected to be held at a regional youth detention center, Smith said. Gray was being charged as an adult, and investigators released details about a previous investigation involving the teen.

He is accused of killing four people Wednesday, and was previously investigated for threats about a shooting last year, the FBI Atlanta office said. Gray was not charged after the 2023 investigation.

Also, F%#$ the NRA.

It's Embarrassing Because the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada was a Nazi

It appears that the Canadian government want to prevent a release of a list of Nazi war criminals who were admitted to Canada post war because it might, "Prove embarrassing," to our neighbor to the north.

Given that an Ukrainian Nazi SS member was honored in parliament on live TV, I do not think that the government could be any more embarrassed, nor that they would be subject to any litigation, sovereign immunity being what it is.

What is really going on here is that it's current Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland's grandfather is arguably the most prominent Nazi war criminal admitted during that time, who did exactrly the same thing that Julius Streicher was hung for after the Nuremberg trials.

A list of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada could remain secret as federal officials come under increasing pressure to censor the records because they could prove embarrassing to this country.

Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa consulted in June and July with what it called a “discrete group of individuals or organizations” about whether the list should be made public, according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

Those consulted included members of Canada’s Ukrainian community, records show, but Library and Archives Canada, also known as LAC, did not include Holocaust survivors nor Holocaust scholars who had advocated for a full release of the list of alleged Nazi war criminals, Jewish and Holocaust academics say.

Of course they did not contact any Holocaust survivors or scholars.  The reason for the consultation was to create an excuse to suppress the information, because it exposes a current senior member of the government well deserved opprobrium.

Freeland has been lying about her grandfather, Michael Chomiak, and her specific knowledge about the actions of her grandfather, for decades.

The reason that the government wants this suppressed is that either Michael Chomiak's name is on the list, or people will start asking why Michael Chomiak's name is not on the list.

………

Some of the individuals and organizations consulted by LAC argued against releasing any of the information, warning it could be embarrassing or lead to prosecutions of the alleged war criminals.

“A few stakeholders were concerned that the release of the report would result in new legal action (criminal prosecution, citizen revocation, or otherwise) being brought against the individuals named in the report,” a summary of the library’s discussions noted.

Trying Nazi war criminals, and for that matter, trying ALL war criminals is a good thing, not something to be avoided.

We are not talking about people who were silent when this was happening, we are talking about people who were actively supporting and in some cases committed war crimes on behalf of the Nazis.

Republican Commitments to Education (With a Side Order of Excellent Student Journalism)

Remember when I wrote about former Senator Ben Sasse's looting of public funds at the University of Florida? 

It appears to be tied to his abrupt departure from his position as the University president.

He has announced that an audit has reported that his spending was appropriate, but once again, the student journalists at The Independent Florida Alligator have uncovered, no audit was ever conducted.

Gee, Sasse lied?  Hoocoocanode.

Once again, major props for good shoe-leather journalism:

Former UF president Ben Sasse said a completed audit found no wrongdoing when it came to his spending. But according to public records, the audit never existed.

In an Aug. 16 X post responding to a previous Alligator report on his expenditures, Sasse wrote, “It is my understanding that the Audit Committee of our board did its work thoroughly and without any findings of concern.”

A request from The Alligator for any internal audits requested during the fiscal year 2023-2024 was returned without any indication of a UF presidential audit. Expenditures related to Sasse were not among the 17 audit requests listed in the report.

There is also no documentation of a current, future or completed audit from the state.

The Board of Governors for Florida’s State University System announced Aug. 15 it would conduct its own audit into UF’s presidential office. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced the Florida Department of Financial Services would help the Florida Board of Governors investigate any fraud or wrongdoing in Sasse’s expenditures.

As an FYI, the original story came out on August 12, so their plans for an audit can best be described as damage control, and not a good faith effort.

………

A public records request submitted to the Florida Department of Financial Services also found no proof of a UF presidential audit being discussed, planned or completed by the state.

The Alligator does very good work, and they are a tax-exempt 501(c)3, and they are independent of UF.

Buy them coffee, or send them pizzas, or make a tax-deductible contribution.

Note that I have no contact with anyone on the paper.  All I know is the articles that they published.

Only in Texas

At George Dawson Middle School in Southlake, Texas, they have censored the autobiography of George Dawson.

Yes, the same George Dawson.

They are doing this, because in his memoir, Dawson described a lynching, and in the Southlake Carrol Independent School District (ISD), they have a long and contentious history of racism, including videos of students chanting the N-word, discriminatory discipline, etc., so they don't like the idea of their students being shown what their ancestors did.

F%$# them:

You name a new school building after a man or woman, and decades later few remember who that person was. In the case of the late George Dawson of Dallas — he of George Dawson Middle School fame in Southlake’s Carroll ISD — the reason his name is on a school is something of a miracle.

Yet now we learn from Dallas Morning News Education Lab reporter Meghan Mangrum that a committee of district educators reviewed Dawson’s book to check for, in the words of Superintendent Lane Ledbetter, “age and content appropriateness for students.”

Students can still read most of the book. But for seventh graders any discussion of the most important chapter must instead be overseen by a teacher as part of a guided discussion. To me, it sounds like the book’s key chapter might not get read at all, but instead be summarized by the teacher.

Critics call this a book ban. The Carroll district, already suffering image-wise from a slew of battles over race relations in its schools, fights this labeling. I’d say it’s more of a book censoring than a banning. Is there a difference? I’m not sure.

………

It’s a remarkably embarrassing situation for one of the state’s premier school districts. If ever a book’s story needs to be told, it’s this — Life Is So Good, by George Dawson and Richard Glaubman.

"One of the state’s premier school districts?" Yeah, maybe.  I have been told that the schools were remarkably good in Omelas* too.

What they are banning is the autobiography of a man, the grandson of slaves, who was abandoned by the Texas education system in his youth and only learned to read when he was 98 years old.

A friend oh his was lynched on the basis of false accusations, and he writes about this, but in the Carrols ISD, there can be no mention of this, because any reference to the evil that was done by the parents and grandparents and great-grandparents of the white citizens of the district must be suppressed.

It must be suppressed so that students can continue to chant the N-word.

I guess that they think that anything else is "Critical Race Theory."

Can we please give Texas back to Mexico?

^*You don't get the reference? Seriously? Read a book occasionally, or at least this short story.

Best Healthcare System in the World

In the relentless pursuit of profits, we see a new business model at some hospitals, kidnapping patients to get insurance money.

Acadia Healthcare is one of America’s largest chains of psychiatric hospitals. Since the pandemic exacerbated a national mental health crisis, the company’s revenue has soared. Its stock price has more than doubled.

But a New York Times investigation found that some of that success was built on a disturbing practice: Acadia has lured patients into its facilities and held them against their will, even when detaining them was not medically necessary.

In at least 12 of the 19 states where Acadia operates psychiatric hospitals, dozens of patients, employees and police officers have alerted the authorities that the company was detaining people in ways that violated the law, according to records reviewed by The Times. In some cases, judges have intervened to force Acadia to release patients.

Some patients arrived at emergency rooms seeking routine mental health care, only to find themselves sent to Acadia facilities and locked in.

A social worker spent six days inside an Acadia hospital in Florida after she tried to get her bipolar medications adjusted. A woman who works at a children’s hospital was held for seven days after she showed up at an Acadia facility in Indiana looking for therapy. And after police officers raided an Acadia hospital in Georgia, 16 patients told investigators that they had been kept there “with no excuses or valid reason,” according to a police report.

Acadia held all of them under laws meant for people who pose an imminent threat to themselves or others. But none of the patients appeared to have met that legal standard, according to records and interviews.

………

But at Acadia, patients were often held for financial reasons rather than medical ones, according to more than 50 current and former executives and staff members.

Acadia, which charges $2,200 a day for some patients, at times deploys an array of strategies to persuade insurers to cover longer stays, employees said. Acadia has exaggerated patients’ symptoms. It has tweaked medication dosages, then claimed patients needed to stay longer because of the adjustment. And it has argued that patients are not well enough to leave because they did not finish a meal.

Unless the patients or their families hire lawyers, Acadia often holds them until their insurance runs out.

“We were keeping people who didn’t need to be there,” said Lexie Reid, a psychiatric nurse who worked at an Acadia facility in Florida from 2021 to 2022.

Seriously, this sh%$ is unsustainable, and if the government does not fix it now, then it will implode, placing the health of tens of millions of Americans at risk.

It’s Times like These That I Miss F%$#edcompany

We have the story of Cameo, a former unicorn worth $1,100,000,000.00 which now lacks the cash to pay a $600,000.00 court settlement.

I would note that the valuation, was always suspect, as it was largely driven by investments of Softbank, whose business model, as I have noted earlier, appears to be buying a large chunk equity of a company on the cheap and then increasing the price for smaller and smaller purchases until you have a valuation in the billions of dollars.

Joseph Kennedy, Sr., the first head of the SEC would probably call this stock fraud, but these days, we'd call it, "Pump and dump."

Needless to say, if we had decent financial regulator and financial prosecutors, they would not be doing their securities manipulation in the United States, and if the Japanese had decent financial regulator and financial prosecutors, Masayoshi Son would be experiencing the joys of a Japanese prison.

The app Cameo, once a unicorn and a pandemic-era distraction, has seen much of its valuation evaporate. The connection-economy darling rose to fame as an app that let users pay for customized messages from celebrities. At its peak in 2021, Cameo’s valuation reached $1 billion before plummeting 90% early this year.

And it just got worse. Last week a consortium of 30 state attorneys general fined Cameo for not properly disclosing when celebrities were paid to endorse a certain product. However, Cameo’s financial situation meant it couldn’t afford to pay the $600,000 penalty levied by the suing states. Instead the company will have to pay only $100,000, according to the settlement agreement.

During the settlement Cameo submitted audited financial documents from 2021 and 2022 that showed it couldn’t afford the payment. Cameo also provided more recent financial information from October 2023 that further proved it had fallen on hard times.

Cameo’s bleak financial outlook spared it from having to pay the full penalty. However, if the company were to break the rules again it would be forced to pay the remaining $500,000, which “would presumably send the company into bankruptcy,” said Jennifer Arlen, director of a program on corporate compliance and enforcement at NYU Law.

………

Cameo’s harsh financial picture makes it the latest in a line of former unicorns to have hit hard times. In March 2021, Cameo was flying high, with a soaring valuation of $1 billion on the back of a $100 million Series C funding round. Major investors like SoftBank, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and even skateboarding legend Tony Hawk all lined up.

Like I said, pump and dump.

The investors bought a part of the company for $100,000,000.00.  You overpay, but this serves to increase the value at the IPO, so you make bank when the IPO happens.

And then there is the sales pitch:

………

Cameo pitched itself as an alternative to talent agencies and managers that could help celebrities connect with their fans directly, while cashing in on their fame.

“We exist in an entirely different world today—one in which talent actually want to connect more deeply with their fans, and fans expect unprecedented access to the talent they admire most,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis wrote in a blog post after the Series C round. “This funding will help us create the access and connections that will define the future of the ‘connection economy’ on a global scale.”

Yeah, this time, it's different.  Always a red flag.

Seriously, the bezzle is obvious here .  Where are the prosecutors.

 

So, Austerity Has Led to a Right Victory in Germany?

Yeah, it did that in 1933 as well.

And now it has happened in 2024, where the fascist AfD came in first in state elections in Thuringia, and a close second in Saxony.

Leaders of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland have demanded that their party be included in coalition negotiations in two states where it won nearly a third of the vote in elections on Sunday, in results that have scrambled the political landscape a year before a general election.

Although the political earthquake from the elections in eastern Germany had been long foreseen, the centrist governing parties proved incapable of stopping the rise of the AfD, which came first in Thuringia state with nearly 33% of the vote and a close second in Saxony with almost 31%.

The three parties in the chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular government each scored in the single-digit percentage points in a stinging rebuke from voters, leaving another of the EU’s main powers, along with France, politically chastened and hamstrung.

………

The AfD chapters in Saxony and Thuringia have been designated as “rightwing extremist” by the security authorities. Sunday’s result in Thuringia marked the first time since the Nazi period that a far-right party has claimed the top spot in a state election, raising questions about how long the democratic parties can keep it out of power by refusing any cooperation.

One interesting thing is that the new leftist BSW party scored impressive numbers, coming in third place in both states, and support for Die Linke, which has moved in an establishment direction over the past few years, collapsed.

………

The night’s other big winner was the new leftwing-conservative populist party the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), named after its founder who broke off from the far-left Linke party last year, leaving it in tatters.

The BSW, which calls for higher taxes on top earners, curbs on immigration and an end to military assistance for Ukraine, scored nearly 16% in Thuringia and almost 12% in Saxony.

So, yes, everything is going to hell in a hand basket.

Totally Not Surprising

Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of Miami have found that people who use cryptocurrencies are more likely to exhibit psychopathic tendencies.

Not surprised at all:

Cryptocurrency is an industry notably rife with fraudsters, nutjobs, and criminals. Now, in a development that just makes sense, an academic team has published a study asserting that people who are really into fake internet money are more likely to display psychopathic tendencies.

Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of Miami recently set out to answer the question: “How are cryptocurrency buyers different from those who do not purchase cryptocurrency?” To get to the bottom of this, they surveyed 2,001 American adults, asking them questions about themselves and about their interest in cryptocurrency. They found that crypto’s core demographic is a bunch of maladjusted young men who believe everybody’s out to get them.

“The results presented here suggest that cryptocurrency ownership is associated with several nonnormative and arguably maladaptive characteristics,” the report says. “Crypto ownership was associated with belief in conspiracy theories, ‘dark’ personality characteristics (e.g., the ‘Dark Tetrad’ of narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism), and more frequent use of alternative and fringe social media platforms,” it continues.

When one consider what makes cryptocurrency attractive to some people, it comes down to money for nothing, and, in the case of folks like A16Z, the ease of using insider access to make a profit before the pyramid comes tumbling down.

It follows that this would select for psychopathic traits.

This is a Big F%$#ing Deal

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that TikTok is not protected from laibility by Section 230 of the DMCA for serving dangerous content to its users.

The legal chain here is fairly interesting.

Section 230 indemnifies the providers of digital communities from user created content.  So, for example, a newspaper article could be subject to a libel suit, but that newspaper would be protected from liability comments in the discussion sections of those articles.  The same sort of indemnification wouild be applied to bulletin board systems and social media.

It turns out that the US Supreme Court, in Moody v NetChoice, ruled state laws that forbade moderation based on political views had to be evaluated with consideration of the 1st Amendment implications, because the moderation, and the algorithms that perform that task, are protected editorial speech.

The details behind the lawsuit that was reinstituted are pretty horrible , a 10 year old girl was served a large number of, "Blackout Challenge," videos, and when she attempted to make a video, she accidentally hung herself.

The court that the serving of these videos, though not the videos themselves, was a deliberate editorial choice, and so is not covered by the Section 230 safe harbor:

A US appeals court has issued an opinion that could have wide-ranging implications for social media platforms, finding that content selected for users by TikTok's algorithms doesn't qualify for Section 230 protection.

In an opinion [PDF] published today, a three-judge panel from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Pennsylvania decided that, because TikTok presented "blackout challenge" posts to 10-year-old Nylah Anderson on her For You Page of recommended content, the platform deserves to be taken to court for her death that followed.

The "blackout challenge" refers to a dangerous self-asphyxiation "trend" that went around on TikTok several years ago. Anderson attempted to participate in the challenge, leading to her death, but a lower-court judge decided in 2022 that TikTok was protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which protects social media platforms from liability for content posted by their users.

The Third Circuit court sharply disagreed.

"TikTok knew that Nylah would watch [the blackout challenge video] because the company's customized algorithm placed the videos on her 'For You Page' after it 'determined that the Blackout Challenge was 'tailored' and 'likely to be of interest' to Nylah,'" Judge Paul Matey wrote in a partial concurrence included in the decision.

Matey argued that Section 230's application has evolved far beyond the original intent when Congress passed the CDA in 1996. It is not to "create a lawless no-man's land" of legal liability.

"The result is a Section 230 that immunizes platforms from the consequences of their own conduct and permits platforms to ignore the ordinary obligation that most businesses have to take reasonable steps to prevent their services from causing devastating harm," Matey said.

Judge Patty Shwartz wrote in the main body of the opinion that the Third Circuit's reading of Section 230 is reinforced by the recent Moody v NetChoice decision from the US Supreme Court. In that case, related to content moderation laws passed in Florida and Texas, SCOTUS held that algorithms reflect editorial judgments. Shwartz wrote that it's a compilation of third-party speech made in the manner a platform chooses, and thus merits First Amendment protection.

If I were a senior executive at Facebook, or Ecch (Twitter), or Reddit, I would be speed dialing my company attorney right now, because if this decision sticks, it makes many, if not most, of the business models for these companies are now untenable.

I rather imagine that there will be a circuit split, and that this will be decided at the US Supreme Court, and I have no clue as to how that might go.

Linkage

• Carbon Market Faces Upheaval as 32% of All Credits Fail Test (Bloomberg) That's because carbon credits are a scam. Always has been.
• Noah Lyles’ collapse with Covid: How not to manage health at the Olympics (STAT) Lots of Covid, and countries whose Olympic teams tried to protect their athletes from the disease outperformed those that did not.
• Maybe Murder and Humiliation is the Whole Point (Alon Mizrahi) The thesis is that colonialism is driven more by the desires of  people to exert power oven another.  Colonialism as sadism.  Money quote, "What I think is: it may be very possible (and intuitively I feel strongly that this is the case) that the greatest temptation in colonialism, as in capitalism, is not the expected profit, but the sadistic joy of crushing people in a system that does not punish but rewards such behavior." (Archive.is link here)
• The low-tax countries wooing the world’s wealthy (Financial Times) It's called a race to the bottom, and only the hyper-wealthy benefit from this.
• ​The National Endowment for Democracy:What It Is and What It Does (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China) Short version, as I have noted before, the NED is a cutout for the US State Security Apparatus to destabilize and overthrow governments that it does not like.,
• Pluralistic: MIT libraries are thriving without Elsevier (16 Aug 2024) (Cory Doctorow) Not a surprise.  Human intestines thrive without tapeworms as well.  Elsevier are a bunch of parasites.
• ‘Monument to history’ battle between US and China over future of Mao’s secretary’s diary (The Guardian) Senior Chinese official Li Rui kept extensive diaries, and his daughter sent copies of them to the Hoover Institution in the US.  Li's widow is trying to get them back, claiming ownership.  It is believed that the lawsuit is being promulgated by the leadership of the PRC.
• Inside Boeing’s factory lapses that led to the Alaska Air blowout (The Seattle Times) This is a complete horror show.  If it's Boeing, I ain't going.

My mind is blown. I will never look at Looney Toons the same way again:

Not Enough Bullets

John Foley, the co-founder and former CEO of Peleton is saying he is broke following his firing by the exercise bike firm.

By broke, he means that he only has $225,000,000.00 in the bank. 

Oh, the horror:

John Foley, the co-founder and former CEO of Peloton, went from being a billionaire to being broke after he lost his job. Foley told the New York Post that he was forced to sell his homes and most of his belongings to make ends meet.

"You know, at one point, I had a lot of money on paper. Not actually [in the bank], unfortunately. I've lost all my money. I've had to sell almost everything in my life," Foley told the Post.

………

Foley was forced to step down as CEO in February 2022. Now, Foley, who was once worth nearly $2 billion, found himself with no job and $225 million in the bank.

He was forced to sell his $55 million East Hampton waterfront home and cut back on his and his family's expensive lifestyle.

To quote F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The rich are different from you and me."

Yes, they are.  They are more delusional, greedy and evil than the rest of us.

They are the worst of us.

That F%$#ing Paper

This is a nickname for the New York Times favored by Duncan "Atrios" Black, and it is particularly apt in this case

But I am coming here to bury the Times not to praise it for this correction:

A correction was made on Sept. 1, 2024: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that a local chapter of Moms for Liberty had accidentally quoted Adolf Hitler in a newsletter. The group, which later issued an apology, was aware that the quote was from Hitler when the newsletter was published.

It only took them 24 hours to correct this, but seeing as how it has been known for over a year that the quote was deliberate, and the NYT itself covered the controversy, they get no props from me. 

Also, it's at the bottom of the article, where no one will see it, as is generally the case. 

Seriously, there is something seriously wrong with the so-called "Paper of Record".

No Blogging Tonight

I just got back from Trial By Fire & Lochmere Arrow (Take 2), and I am exhausted.

4 hours of intense cooking under camping conditions.

It was wet wicked humid as well.

Worst Team-Building Exercise Ever

It appears that there was some sort of team-building exercise in Colorado, and abandoned one of their cow-orkers on top of a 14,000 foot peak.

A Florida man on a corporate retreat became separated from his co-workers during a hike in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado last Friday, leaving him missing in the wilderness for a day and forcing him to brave a bitter storm overnight before being rescued, search and rescue authorities said.

(emphasis mine)

It's always a Florida man, isn't it? 

“He’s lucky to be alive,” Evan Brady, the public information officer for Chaffee County Search and Rescue South, said of the man, Steve Stephanides, of Apopka, Fla.

At sunrise last Friday, Mr. Stephanides, 47, and 14 of his co-workers at Beazley, a London-based global insurance firm, started on a popular trail hike to the summit of Mount Shavano, a 14,000-foot peak about 75 miles west of Colorado Springs, Chaffee County Search and Rescue South said in a statement. During the trek, Mr. Stephanides stopped for a break while his co-workers continued on the route, Mr. Brady said.

Sorry, at 14,000 feet if someone needs to take a break, you do not leave them alone.

………

As he tried to find his way to the correct trail on Friday, Mr. Stephanides sent his co-workers at least one more location pin from his phone, but became further disoriented. About 9 p.m., Chaffee County Search and Rescue South was alerted about Mr. Stephanides’s status as a missing hiker and used search teams and a drone pilot to try to find him. Ten local volunteer and professional search teams, as well as helicopters, were deployed to assist.

But rescue efforts were thwarted Friday night because of a “brutal” storm that rolled into the mountain range, Mr. Brady said.“Teams encountered high winds and freezing rain, which made reaching the summit unsafe, and presented many difficulties for the drone operator,” the county’s statement said.

I am by no means a wilderness maven, but even I know that leaving someone alone on a rather tall mountain is a recipe for disaster.

So, for that matter is someone going off on their own in such an area is foolhardy.

Buddy system, folks.

And These Are Supposed to Be the Sane Ones

It looks like the Democratic National Convention was a Covid superspreader event.

This is usually the point where I say, "Wear your f%$#ing mask," but the DNC banned masks, because the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) are a bunch of f%$#ing morons:

People often leave political conventions with lots of good memories and fun souvenirs, but some participants in the recent Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago also brought home an unwelcome visitor: COVID-19.

"Ugh: DNCovid-24," Doug Sovern, a political reporter at San Francisco's KCBS, wrote on X, adding a photo of his positive test result. "I brought home an unfortunate souvenir from #DNC2024. And so did many of my fellow convention crew. I guess 4 hours of sleep a night + endless work + close indoor proximity to so many people = my first COVID since the NBA Finals in 2021."

"Oh man! I brought home so much sweet swag from the DNC!" said Fred Wellman, a retired Army officer, in a social media post that has since been deleted. "Coffee mugs, stickers, t-shirts, poster, buttons, bags, pins, and...COVID!"

"I arrived at the DNC healthy and hopeful and left very sick and disillusioned," wrote Yasmine Taeb, a human rights lawyer, who, like Sovern, also posted a photo of her positive test on X.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- one of the event's marquee speakers -- also came down with COVID. The illness forced her to drop out of a Democratic fundraiser she had planned to attend.

The Democratic National Committee, which hosted the convention, gave convention-goers conflicting guidance regarding masking, one of the prime COVID prevention strategies. In its convention FAQ, the "Public Health and Safety" section says the following regarding COVID: "The 2024 Democratic National Convention Committee adheres to current guidance from relevant public health authorities regarding COVID-19. Masking is not required at convention events, but any participant desiring to wear a mask is welcome to do so."

Yeah, it's OK, but not really OK:

However, in the "Accessibility" section of the same document, a question about whether attendees are allowed to wear masks at the two main convention venues is answered as follows: "Yes, masks will be allowed if necessary due to a disability. You may be asked to remove your mask when going through security." The committee did not respond by press time to an email asking about whether any COVID precautions were taken at the event, at which very few masks were visible. 

Yeah, you can wear a mask, but security will harass you.

This is in the middle of the biggest Covid outbreak in about 2 years:

………

Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, the author of the "Your Local Epidemiologist" newsletter, told MedPage Today that she was "not surprised at all."

"We are in the middle of a massive infection wave and, presumably, a national gathering like this provides new social networks for the virus to explore," said Jetelina, who is a senior scientific consultant to the CDC. "There are a lot of things people could do to prevent this from happening, including wearing a high-quality mask to the event. Unfortunately, when I was watching from television, I saw very few utilizing this tool."

I'm not surprised. They are f%$#ing morons.

And the other side is as least as stupid, and bat-sh%$ insane as well.

I am not fond of the available choices.

It's Thursday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Initial claims


Claims vs New HiresBoth the weekly unemployment report and the updated 2nd quarter GDP results are out, and it looks like the beginning of a recession to me, because the new hire numbers are falling off of a cliff.

Eventually, that will bleed over into the economy:

The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits slipped last week, but re-employment opportunities for laid-off workers are becoming more scarce, a sign that the unemployment rate probably remained elevated in August.

Though the labor market is slowing, it is doing so in an orderly fashion that is keeping the economic expansion on track. The economy grew faster than initially thought in the second quarter, powered by consumer spending, other data showed on Thursday. Corporate profits also rebounded last quarter, helping to further dispel fears of a recession.

While the labor market slowdown positions the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates next month, the data argues against a 50 basis point reduction in borrowing costs.

I'll take the under on that one.  If the Fed cuts rates, my money is on ¼% (25 basis points), not 50.

………

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 231,000 for the week ended Aug. 24. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 232,000 claims for the latest week. Claims have retreated from an 11-month high in late July as distortions from temporary motor vehicle plant shutdowns for new model retooling and the impact of Hurricane Beryl faded.


A step-down in hiring because of tighter monetary policy is accounting for the loss of labor market momentum, rather than layoffs. It has attracted the attention of officials at the U.S. central bank, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell who last week said "the time has come for policy to adjust."
Financial markets expect the Fed to begin its easing cycle next month with a 25-basis-point reduction in its benchmark overnight interest rate. A half-percentage point cut is on the table. The Fed has maintained its policy rate in the current 5.25%-5.50% range for more than a year, having raised it by 525 basis points in 2022 and 2023.

………

Gross domestic product increased at a 3.0% annualized rate last quarter, revised up from the 2.8% rate reported last month, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its second estimate of second-quarter GDP on Thursday. The economy grew at a 1.4% pace in the first quarter.

I expect the economic news to get worse over the next few months.

Nothing in the Least Authoritarian or Fascist Here

Emanuel Macron is refusing to allow the left alliance that won the snaop election that he called to form a government, because nothing can ever be allowed to make investment bankers and industrialists uncomfortable.

F%$# Macron with Cheney's dick:

France has been plunged into further political chaos after Emmanuel Macron refused to name a prime minister from the leftwing coalition that won the most parliamentary seats in the snap election last month.

The president had hoped consultations would break the political deadlock caused by the election that left the Assemblée Nationale divided into three roughly equal blocks – left, centre and far right – none of which has a majority of seats.

After two days of talks with party and parliamentary leaders to break the stalemate and allow him to name a prime minister with cross-party support, Macron’s decision not to choose the New Popular Front’s candidate was met with anger and threats of impeachment.

Threats of impeachment are not enough.  Start the impeachment process, even though the mechanism is next to impossible to execute. 

………

A government formed by the leftwing alliance the New Popular Front (NFP) – comprising France Unbowed (LFI), the Socialist party (PS), the Greens (EELV) and the Communist party (PCF) – would lead to an immediate vote of no confidence and a collapse of the government, Macron said explaining his decision.

That's a lie.  While Macron's party (Renaissance) would likely support a vote of no confidence with near unanimity, it is far less likely that the right wing RN would do so, because while Marine Le Pen is a deeply evil person, she is not an idiot, and voting no-confidence would set back the party for years.

Macron seems to think that he is king.

He needs to study his history, because it has not been kind to the kings of France for the past few hundred years.

We Are F%$#ed

For a while, I have been saying that climate scientists have been underestimating the severity of global warming.  (See here, here, here, and here)

Remember all those dire consequences for a 1.5°C (2.7°F) increase in temperatures globally?

Remember how the IPCC said that a doubling of  CO2 levels might result in a global temperature increase of 4.5°C? (8.1°F)

Well, a new study is suggesting that the impact of increasing CO2 is even greater than previously thought, and that a doubling of atmospheric CO2 levels might result in a 14°C (25°F) temperature increase.

That is real end of the world stuff:

Doubling the atmospheric CO2 levels could raise Earth’s average temperature by 7 to 14 degrees Celsius (13 to 25.2 degrees Fahrenheit), according to sediment analysis from the Pacific Ocean near California conducted by researchers from NIOZ and the Universities of Utrecht and Bristol.

The results were recently published in the journal Nature Communications

“The temperature rise we found is much larger than the 2.3 to 4.5 degrees Celsius (4.1 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit) that the UN climate panel, IPCC, has been estimating so far,” said the first author, Caitlyn Witkowski. 

45-year-old drill core

The researchers used a 45-year-old drill core extracted from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. “I realized that this core is very attractive for researchers, because the ocean floor at that spot has had oxygen-free conditions for many millions of years,” said Professor Jaap Sinninghe Damsté, senior scientist at NIOZ and professor of organic geochemistry at Utrecht University. 

………

From this record, the researchers were able to extract an indication of the past seawater temperature and an indication of ancient atmospheric CO2 levels, using a new approach.

………

The researchers derived the temperature using a method developed 20 years ago at NIOZ, called the TEX86 method. “That method uses specific substances that are present in the membrane of archaea, a distinct class of microorganisms,” Damsté explains.

“Those archaea optimize the chemical composition of their membrane depending on the temperature of the water in the upper 200 meters of the ocean. Substances from that membrane can be found as molecular fossils in the ocean sediments, and analyzed to this day.”

………

Damsté: “A very small fraction of the carbon on Earth occurs in a ‘heavy form,’ 13C instead of the usual 12C. Algae have a clear preference for 12C. However: the lower the CO2 concentration in the water, the more algae will also use the rare 13C. Thus, the 13C content of these two substances is a measure of the CO₂ content of the ocean water. And that in turn, according to solubility laws, correlates with the CO₂ content of the atmosphere.”

Using this new method, it appears that the CO2 concentration dropped from about 650 parts per million, 15 million years back, to 280 just before the industrial revolution.

………

When the researchers plot the derived temperature and atmospheric CO2 levels of the past 15 million years against each other, they find a strong relationship. The average temperature 15 million years ago was over 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 degrees Fahrenheit): 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than today and about the level that the UN Climate Panel, IPCC, predicts for the year 2100 in the most extreme scenario.

Fighting anthropogenic climate change cannot be about convincing emitters to reduce output through incentives, and not just because it has been repeatedly shown that carbon offsets are a scam.

It won't get us there.

Legal mandates with a probability of swift criminal enforcement is the only way to fix this.