Sex, Lies, and Text Messages

Jeff Bezos: “Alexa, send nudes to my secret admirer.”

Alexa: “Got it. Sending nudes to the National Enquirer.”

— Pranay Pathole (@PPathole) February 8, 2019

Best Twitter Take on All of This

It now appears that Jeff Bezos’ Girlfriend's brother leaked his texts to the National Enquirer.

This is not a surprise. He has frequently been described as an, "Acquaintance of provocative Trump backers Roger Stone and Carter Page."

It appears that, in the world of the radical right at least, politics trumps filial obligations.

The brother of Jeff Bezos’ mistress, Lauren Sanchez, supplied the couple’s racy texts to the National Enquirer, multiple sources inside AMI, the tabloid’s parent company, told The Daily Beast.

Another source who has been in extensive communication with senior leaders at AMI confirmed that Michael Sanchez first supplied Bezos’ texts to the Enquirer.

………

AMI has previously refused to identify the source of the texts, but a lawyer for the company strongly hinted at Sanchez’s role during a Sunday morning interview on ABC.

“The story was given to the National Enquirer by a reliable source that had given information to the National Enquirer for seven years prior to this story. It was a source that was well known to both Mr. Bezos and Ms. Sanchez,” attorney Elkan Abramowitz told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

If only there is some way for both Bezos and Trump to lose.

Maybe I Wasn't too Pessimistic*

It looks like the French and the Germans have come up with an Article 13 "fix" that is even worse than the initial proposal:

This week started with a terrifying bang, when German and French negotiators announced a deal to revive the worst parts of the new EU Copyright Directive though a compromise on "Article 13," which requires copyright filters for any online service that allows the public to communicate.

The Franco-German "compromise" was truly awful: German politicians, worried about a backlash at home, had insisted on some cosmetic, useless exemptions for small businesses; French negotiators were unwilling to consider even these symbolic nods towards fairness and consideration for free speech, competition, and privacy.

The deal they brokered narrowed the proposed German exemptions to such a degree that they'd be virtually impossible to use, meaning that every EU-based forum for online communications would have to find millions and millions to pay for filters — and subject their users to arbitrary algorithmic censorship as well as censorship through deliberate abuse of the system — or go out of business.

Now that a few days have passed, European individuals, businesses, lobby groups and governments have weighed in on the proposal and everyone hates it.

(emphasis original)
A partial list of people who hate the deal:

• Bertelsmann, the largest publisher in the world.
• The people of Portugal.
• The recording industry.  (Not a typo)
• The government of Italy.

Article 13 is shaping up to be a "Douglas Adams" level of legislative insanity, where at each stage, it is replaced by something even more bizarrely  inexplicable.

^*In an earlier post, I suggested that I was too pessimistic about the progress of the EU's disastrous, "Article 13," proposals.  It appears that my pessimism might have been justified.

Headline of the Day

Theresa May Is Negotiating Like Yasser Arafat

—Foreign Policy magazine

I'm not sure that the headline is completely accurate, but it does reflect the nature of the clusterf%$# that Theresa May has created.

1000 Words on the Democratic Presidential Primary

I don't know how accurate the metaphor is, but I find it intensely amusing.

Jack Klugman is Still Murdering People

Klugman has been dead for more than 6 years, but the orphan drug act that he championed is still giving drug companies a license to price old drugs at unaffordable levels:

In a letter sent Monday to the CEO of Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) demanded the company explain its decision to set the price of Firdapse, a drug used to treat a rare neuromuscular disease called Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS), at $375,000 per year.

For two decades, patients have received the same drug – known as 3,4-DAP – for free from Jacobus Pharmaceutical under the Food and Drug Administration’s compassionate use program. Recently, Catalyst licensed the rights to the drug and received exclusive rights to market Firdapse for seven years under the FDA’s orphan drug designation. In December 2018, Catalyst announced to investors it would set the list price for Firdapse at $375,000 per year.

As a result, patients around the country are frightened as to whether or not they will be able to maintain access to a drug they depend upon to survive.

Last week, Sanders spoke via Skype with one of those patients, Rebecca Hovde of Wellman, Iowa, who told him about the incredible anxiety people with LEMS are living with as a result of Catalyst’s decision to increase the price. “I have friends saying that it’s too much. They know they can’t afford it. And they’re just going to go to bed when their 3,4 DAP runs out,” Hovde told Sanders. (Watch the full conversation here.)

In response to the concerns raised by Hovde and other patients, Sanders asked the CEO of Catalyst how many patients will suffer or die due to their decision to set such an outrageous price, calling that decision “not only a blatant fleecing of American taxpayers, but...also an immoral exploitation of patients who need this medication.”

“By setting such a high price and forcing production and distribution of the older, inexpensive version to cease, you are threatening access that patients had to a cheap version of this product, and handing a completely unwarranted bill to American taxpayers,” Sanders wrote.

Sanders requested information on what Catalyst is charging patients, private insurers and government payers for the medication.

“The egregious price set by Catalyst cannot be allowed to stand. Patients in America should not be allowed to suffer or die because of the greed of a drug company. If Catalyst does not substantially lower the price of this medication, Congress must act to ensure it is affordable for every patient,” Sanders said.

Read Sanders' letter to Catalyst here.

Sanders is right, but the problem is not Catalyst as much as it is a regulatory regime that is dedicated to excessive monopoly rents. 

It is evil, and it is wrong.

A Feature not a Bug

It now appears that the removal of erotic services ads on Craigslist have increased the instance of violence against women:

Under the guise of targeting sex traffickers, FOSTA has both done damage to Section 230 protections and sex workers' literal lives. The law has yet to result in any credible, sustained damage to human trafficking, but that hasn't stopped the bill's supporters from trotting out debunked numbers anytime they need a soundbite.

There will likely be no studies performed by the government to determine FOSTA's actual impact on sex trafficking, but plenty of academics are offering evidence that pushing sex work further underground is endangering the lives of sex workers. This is just the icing on the stupid, life-threatening cake as multiple law enforcement agencies -- including the DOJ itself -- pointed out passing FOSTA would make it more difficult to hunt down traffickers.

A study released in 2017 showed the introduction of erotic services section on Craiglist tracked with a 17% drop in female homicides across many major cities. Craigslist spent a few years being publicly vilified by public officials -- mainly states attorneys general -- before dumping its erotic services section (ERS). This didn't stop sex work or trafficking, but it did shift the focus away from Craiglist as everyone affected found other services to use.

A newly-released study [PDF] (via Sophie Cull) shows there's been a corresponding increase in female homicides since the point Craigslist dumped ERS. Online services -- enabled by Section 230 -- helped sex workers stay safe by reducing or eliminating a few of the more dangerous variables.

This is not a surprise.

The effects were predicted when FOSTA was being debated.

Free Market Fail, ISP Edition

Greed, it appears, is not so good

People have been talking for years about how unleashing the creative power on markets on the internet service market.

The problem is that providers are natural monopolies, and as such their incentive is to minimize their monopoly rents, not by providing better and cheaper service.

Case in point, the studies showing that zero-rating some internet content raises prices:

When an ISP decides to exempt certain applications or services from cutting into a user's data cap, that's zero rating. And the evidence is in that it conclusively makes broadband more expensive.

A comprehensive multi-year study by the non-profit Epicenter.works, comparing the 30 member countries of the European Union (EU) on net neutrality enforcement, has found that zero rating business practices by wireless carriers have increased the cost of wireless data compared to countries without zero rating. This directly contradicts all of the assertions by major wireless carriers that their zero rating practices are “free data” for consumers.

Based on the evidence, zero rating not only serves as a means to enhance ISPs’ power over the Internet, but it’s also how they charge consumers more money for wireless service. Zero rating was originally going to be banned by the FCC under the General Conduct Rule, but when the FCC changed leadership the agency promptly green lighted and encouraged the industry to engage in zero rating practices before it began its repeal of net neutrality.

EU countries that do not have zero rating practices enjoyed a double digit drop in the price of wireless data after a year. In comparison, the countries with prevalent zero rating practices from their wireless carriers consistently saw data prices increase. This makes sense; carriers have an incentive to raise the costs of exploring alternatives in order to make their preferred, zero-rated choice of content more attractive. However, once that incentive is removed, the wireless carrier no longer has a reason to raise the cost of alternatives because nothing is given special treatment. In short, zero rating practices cost you more money.

So not a surprise.

The evidence is clear:  The more that internet service policy depends on "free market" forces, the more that the service costs, and the lower the quality of service.

Oh, You Delicate Snowflakes

It looks like Amazon little fee-fees are getting hurt by criticism from some New York politicians, and it is threatening to take its balls^* and go home.

The undeservedly wealthy and powerful are just SO sensitive:

Amazon.com is reconsidering its plan to bring 25,000 jobs to a new campus in New York City following a wave of opposition from local politicians, according to two people familiar with the company's thinking.

The company has not leased or purchased office space for the project, making it easy to withdraw its commitment. Unlike in Virginia — where elected leaders quickly passed an incentive package for a separate headquarters facility — final approval from New York state is not expected until 2020.

Tennessee officials have also embraced Amazon’s plans to bring 5,000 jobs to Nashville, which this week approved $15.2 million in road, sewer and other improvements related to that project.

Amazon executives have had internal discussions recently to reassess the situation in New York and explore alternatives, said the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the company’s perspective.

“The question is whether it’s worth it if the politicians in New York don’t want the project, especially with how people in Virginia and Nashville have been so welcoming,” said one person familiar with the company’s plans.

Let me guess, this, "Person familiar with the company's plans," has a name that sounds a lot like, "Splif Cheetos."

Amazon supporters are aghast that local New York politicians — including Gianaris and Van Bramer — have turned against the company.

They are aghast I tell you, aghast, that they are not being properly worshiped.

Who the f%$# do they think they are?  My cats?


^*As an aside, you can see Amazon's balls in their full glory on the website of the National Enquirer.

Damn………

Albert Finney dead at age 82.

A wonderful actor, and a volcanic presence on screen.

Tweet of the Day

"Bitcoin’s basically a re-enactment society for early modern economics. Like getting dressed up in medieval garb and going to feasts except instead you get to re-discover why each and every financial regulation we have today came into existence." - Riina Stewart

— David Gerard (@davidgerard) February 7, 2019

I would argue that you can apply this more generally to the entire tech industry.

Snark of the Day

The joke I heard:

Amy Klobuchar is a very likable and popular senator from Minnesota. She wins re-election with 70% of the vote there. The other 30% have worked for her.

—Eschaton

I do not know of the stories about her treatment of her staff are true, but this joke is as funny as hell.

Speaking of Chicken Sh%$s

Amid record profits, GM is shuttering Canadian plants, and moving production to Mexico, and the Canadian auto union Unifor has run a Super Bowl ad condemning the move.

GM has responded by threatening to sue the labor union:

The Canadian trade union Unifor is pissed that GM is shutting down the Oshawa Assembly Plant, which has a long and rich history spanning over 100 years. GM says on its website that the facility—which now builds the Cadillac XTS, Chevy Impala, Chevy Silverado, and GMC Sierra—has been open since 1953, but that before that, it built McLaughlin Buicks and Chevrolets prior to The Bowtie merging with GM in 1918.

Despite all of that history, in 2018, GM announced plans to close the historic manufacturing site. Shortly thereafter, workers walked out in protest, and the president of Unifor, the trade union representing the plant workers, voiced his displeasure, saying “They are not closing our damn plant without one hell of a fight,” per CTV News.
But last night, during the Super Bowl, the battle between Unifor and GM got heated, with the former unleashing this commercial in Canada:



The commercial is scathing, mentioning how Canada helped GM with the bailout last decade, and criticizing the company’s expansion into Mexico. “GM, you may have forgotten our generosity,” the commercial concludes, “but we’ll never forget your greed. If you want to sell here, build here.”

According to the Detroit News, GM wasn’t thrilled, and even threatened legal action:

Who knew that the automobile manufacturer was such a bunch of beautiful cinnamon rolls who are too good for this world?

In related news, Unifor is also calling for a boycott of Mexican made vehicles.

If the VIN starts with the number "3", it's from Mexico.

Officer, Would You Like a Cup of Shut the F%$# up to Go along with Your Doughnut?

Waze is a navigation app, and it's better than Google Maps, in part because its users can report road conditions and the like.

One of the road hazards that users can report are speed traps, and cops HATE that, because that's how they make their money.

Well, now the NYPD has issued a cease and desist letter to Waze, who promptly told them to go Cheney themselves:

The popular traffic app Waze gathers user-submitted feedback to alert drivers to possible inconveniences they might experience on the road—inconveniences like getting stuck at DWI traffic point. Now, the NYPD reportedly has a message for Waze and its parent company Google: Snitches get stitches.

CBS New York obtained a cease and desist letter that it claims was sent by the NYPD to Google in the law enforcement agency insists the Waze app is creating a dangerous situation by alerting users of nearby checkpoints. According to the report, the letter states:

Individuals who post the locations of DWI checkpoints may be engaging in criminal conduct since such actions could be intentional attempts to prevent and/or impair the administration of the DWI laws and other relevant criminal and traffic laws.

The posting of such information for public consumption is irresponsible since it only serves to aid impaired and intoxicated drivers to evade checkpoints and encourage reckless driving. Revealing the location of checkpoints puts those drivers, their passengers, and the general public at risk.

Curiously, a link to the full letter on the CBS website is now broken. An NYPD spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email, “I can confirm the NYPD sent the letter.” When asked for comment, a Google representative told us, “Safety is a top priority when developing navigation features at Google. We believe that informing drivers about upcoming speed traps allows them to be more careful and make safer decisions when they’re on the road.”

There are a number of things that are wrong with what the police have done.

First, Waze does not report sobriety check-points, ir reports speed traps, traffic cams, and  the presence of police cars.

Second, this is a seriously chicken sh%$ move, but seriously chicken sh%$ moves are all a part of law enforcement mentality, which is why one occasionally hear porcine metaphors when referring to the local constabulary.

Thank You James Tobin

Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) is proposing a transaction tax on financial transactions.
This tax, called a "Tobin Tax", after its creator, Nobel Prize winning economist James Tobin, would serve to disincentivize speculative activities:

Wall Street would bear the brunt of the latest tax proposal as Democrats jockey for the most progressive tax ideas with the approach of the 2020 elections.

Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, is working on a plan that would tax financial trades, according to his spokesman, Michael Inacay, who declined to provide details on how, exactly, it would be structured.

Financial transaction taxes typically place a levy of a fraction of a percent on the price of a securities trade. The idea has gained popularity within the Democratic Party as a way to curb high-frequency trading as well as raise revenue for progressive policies such as free college tuition.

………

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, another 2020 presidential candidate, as well as Sanders, has backed plans that would tax financial trades. The revenue of a tax set at 0.1 percent of the value of a securities trade is estimated to raise about $777 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Overseas, the idea for a tax on financial trades in gaining steam. Stock buyers in Europe would pay a 0.2 percent tax under a plan that Germany and France proposed last month.

Of course, such a tax might not raise that much money, because it would serve to discourage reckless speculation.

To quote Randall Munroe, "Mission f%$#ing accomplished.:

Assuming that it is properly structured, so, for example, short sellers would have to pay for each of their 4 transactions, (borrow, sell, buy, return) any revenue shortfall would be just fine with me.

Linkage

• The Kind Of Policy We Must Never Make Again (Current Affairs) Obama's "Race to the Top" education cluster f%$#.
• Undercover Police Posing As Drug Buyers Arrested By Undercover Police Posing As Drug Dealer (Disclose.tv) I recall an episode of Night Court that turned out that way.
• Do Democrats Really Want Medicare for All? (NY Mag) Dems run on single payer, then walk it back after being elected.  I wonder why voters don't believe when Democrats promise to make their lives better.
• America is falling out of love with billionaires, and it’s about time (Los Angeles Times)  Eat the rich.
• The Economic Costs and Benefits of Airbnb (Portside) Money quote, The economic costs Airbnb imposes likely outweigh the benefits."
• McKinsey & Company: Capital’s Willing Executioners (Current Affairs) Their role in Perdue Pharma's Oxycontin marketing.  Ethics, schmethics.
• Why are Democratic party thinktanks still not backing universal healthcare? (The Guardian) Because the folks paying their bills don't want it.
• Call for retraction of 400 scientific papers amid fears organs came from Chinese prisoners (The Guardian) Pretty f%$#ing horrifying.
• DuckDuckGo Warns that Google Does Not Respect 'Do Not Track' Browser Setting (Search Engine Journal) Being evil.
• We may finally see Trump’s tax returns, and Republicans are panicking (Washington Post) Pass the popcorn.
• How monopolies are contributing to inequality in the United States (Business Insider) They neglected to consider the effects of legally sanctioned monopolies like copyright and patent, which is a big part of this.

 SpongeBob Singing "Sweet Victory":

Perspective on the Unemployment Numbers

It doesn't feel like historically low unemployment, and one of the reasons why is that involuntary part-time work is also at an all time high, and the standard U-3 measure does not count them:

Britain just notched up yet another record-breaking low for unemployment, according to the government. Unemployment stayed at just 4%, while the number of people with jobs rose to 32.54 million, or 75.8%, "the highest since comparable estimates began in 1971," according to the UK's Office for National Statistics.

But once again, the monthly jobs tally eclipsed how that miracle was achieved. "Headline" unemployment is only at a record low because of a 42% increase in the number of people who are in "involuntary" part-time work.

"Involuntary" means they're only working part-time because they cannot get a full-time job.  

In March 2006, at the peak of the economic boom that preceded the great financial crisis, involuntary part-time work was at a low of 620,000. It rose to a peak after the 2008 crisis. But today, after 10 years of economic growth, it has settled back to 881,000 — an increase of 42% over the period, according to the ONS.

This is not good news.

Four percent unemployment is technically "full employment." Anyone who wants a job should be able to get one. But 881,000 workers need full-time jobs — the kind that get people out of poverty — and those jobs are not available.

I have a feeling that this is a feature, not a bug.

The politicians get to crow about success, and the captains of industry still don't have to pay a fair wage.

Oh, Canada!

The Canadian Supreme Court jas just ruled that bankruptcy does not give fossil fuel companies to leave their pollution for other people to clean up:

Green energy campaigners in Canada applauded a precedent-settiing Supreme Court ruling on Thursday which ordered the bankrupt Alberta-based oil and gas company Redwater Energy to clean up its failed wells instead of leaving the task to the public.

Observing the "polluter pays principle," the 5-2 ruling overturned two earlier decisions by lower courts which had sided with a federal law stating that insolvent companies could prioritize paying back their creditors over fulfilling their environmental obligations.

"Bankruptcy is not a license to ignore rules," Chief Justice Richard Wagner wrote in the ruling, which was celebrated as one that would set a new precedent for the entire country.

"The Supreme Court of Canada has prioritized paying clean up costs before creditors when extractive companies go bankrupt. This outcome reinforces the growing understanding that polluters are responsible for their clean up obligations," said the Pembina Institute, a think tank focused on clean energy and environmental policy.

Indeed.

I would argue that corporate bankruptcy generally serves to provide too much protection to companies and management.

In addition to ecological damage, how about allowing the claw back of sky high executive pay,  private equity management fees, etc. as a part of bankruptcy proceedings.

My First Thought Was That They Were Rebroadcasting Trump's Speech

That was my fist thought when I read a report of a new Russian Weapon System that induces nausea, vomiting, and hallucinations:

The Russian Navy reportedly has a new weapon that can disrupt the eyesight of targets as well as make them hallucinate and vomit.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that a Russian military contractor has installed the weapon on two Russian warships.

The weapon fires a beam similar to a strobe light that affects the target's eyesight, making it more difficult for them to aim at night. During testing, volunteers reportedly used rifles and guns to shoot targets that were protected by the weapon. The volunteers reported having trouble aiming because they couldn't see.

Additionally, about half of the volunteers said they felt dizzy, nauseous and disoriented. About 20 percent of the volunteers reported experiencing hallucinations.

The weapon, called the Filin, has reportedly been installed on the Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Kasatonov, two Russian warships. The weapon is expected to be installed on more ships that are currently being built.

This is actually not as far out as it sounds.  A phenomenon known as Flicker vertigo, as well as a flashlight type device that has been mooted for law enforcement use, have been known for years.

Still, it's an opportunity for me to make a cheap snark, so I took it.

T/t naked capitalism.

Why is this Guy not in Jail?

I understand that prosecutors are loath to pursue charges in cases of law enforcement, but this Sheriff needs to go to jail.

He used courtroom cameras to read notepads of the defense attorney and a juror.

This is so blatantly corrupt and so blatantly illegal that he should be arrested and held without bail:

Some defense attorneys in San Juan County worry that Sheriff Ron Krebs has a finger on the scales of justice after learning he used a courtroom security camera to surreptitiously zoom in on defense documents and a juror’s notebook during a criminal trial last week.

The incident has drawn outrage from criminal and civil-rights attorneys and frustration from the county prosecutor, and prompted a rare weekend hearing during which a judge dismissed misdemeanor assault and trespass charges against a Lopez Island man after finding the incident amounted to government misconduct that had violated his right to a fair trial.

“I’m flabbergasted,” said San Juan Public Defender Colleen Kenimond, the attorney whose notes were targeted. “This was a court of law. You are supposed to be safe there, and the proceedings are supposed to be fair. Here, the sheriff used the courtroom to violate my client’s rights. Outrageous hardly covers it.”

Kenimond isn’t alone. San Juan County Prosecutor Randall Gaylord — whose office has been stung by misconduct in the Sheriff’s Office before — distanced himself from Krebs. “I too am frustrated at what has happened here, frustrated that it has happened to cases I personally was involved in, and concerned about the community we represent.”

………

In court filings, Krebs and Gaylord insisted the incident was isolated and unintentional and resulted from security concerns about the defendant in the case, who allegedly had threatened to stab a Lopez Island grocer. Krebs, in a sworn declaration, said he “inadvertently manipulated the camera in the District Courtroom in such a way that it zoomed in on one or more locations in the courtroom” and insisted he didn’t read or pass on anything he may have seen. He claimed he did not know the camera had a zoom function.

Bullsh%$.

I guarantee that this is not the first time that he did this, it's just the first time he got caught doing this.

Even if it had been the fist time, he should be in facing criminal charges over this.

When the DCCC Calls for Money………

Remember Nancy Pelosi's promise to the insurance companies that there won't ever be Medicare for all.

I am not suggesting that you close your wallet for the 2020 election season, but I AM suggesting that allowing the party establishment to decide where YOUR money goes is a sucker bet"

Less than a month after Democrats — many of them running on “Medicare for All” — won back control of the House of Representatives in November, the top health policy aide to then-prospective House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Blue Cross Blue Shield executives and assured them that party leadership had strong reservations about single-payer health care and was more focused on lowering drug prices, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

Pelosi adviser Wendell Primus detailed five objections to Medicare for All and said that Democrats would be allies to the insurance industry in the fight against single-payer health care. Primus pitched the insurers on supporting Democrats on efforts to shrink drug prices, specifically by backing a number of measures that the pharmaceutical lobby is opposing.

Primus, in a slide presentation obtained by The Intercept, criticized single payer on the basis of cost (“Monies are needed for other priorities”), opposition (“Stakeholders are against; Creates winners and losers”), and “implementation challenges.” We have recreated the slides for source protection purposes.

An added benefit to not giving to the DCCC is that the DC consultants won't siphon away 60% of your donations to line their own pockets.

Where's the Verbs?!?!?!?!

Thank God for language geeks.

I Hope That This Means Something

The New York State Senate has appointed a vociferous critic of Amazon "HQ2" deal to the Public Authorities Control Board, which has the power to stop the deal.

I think that there are a couple of things going on here, first the Senate is feeling its oats in challenging a governor of their own party who attempted to keep the body in Republican hands, and second, after the Foxconn debacle in Wisconsin, this deal has become much less popular with the general public.

In either case, :

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and newly emboldened Democrats in the State Senate appeared headed for open warfare on Monday over a plan to bring Amazon to New York City after the Senate leader named a critic of the $3 billion deal to a state board that could scuttle it.

The decision to choose the critic, Senator Michael Gianaris, for the board immediately presented a direct political challenge for Mr. Cuomo — who must decide whether to refuse the Senate’s selection. And it demonstrated the ability of the Democrat-led State Legislature to call into question the governor’s control over the kinds of state boards that, in recent years, he had been mostly able to bend to his will.

………

Mr. Cuomo could reject the pick, though doing so could create a protracted standoff with the Senate leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and her fellow Democrats. Already, the battle lines were hardening on Monday as Mr. Cuomo’s office reacted angrily to Mr. Gianaris’s appointment.

………

It was yet another sour note in the Amazon deal. Company executives have bristled at the intense criticism and, last week at a City Council hearing, seemed to float the notion that Amazon could reconsider its commitment to New York.

The ability of a local legislator to block the deal to bring a major new Amazon campus to Long Island City was exactly what Mr. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio had tried to avoid when they decided to use a state development process and to bypass more onerous city rules. Opposition, while vocal, seemed futile.

But now, with the insistence of Senate Democrats on appointing Mr. Gianaris to the little-known Public Authorities Control Board, those who want to stop Amazon from coming to Queens have gotten their most tangible boost yet. The board will have to decide on the development plan for Amazon, Mr. Cuomo has said, and could veto it.

………

The obscure state board does have a history of blocking major deals: 14 years ago, it helped derail former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plans for a new stadium in Manhattan.

………

He would be one of three voting members of the board; any voting member of the board has the power to stop projects that come before it.

………

Lawmakers have used the Public Authorities Control Board — whose voting members are appointed by the Senate, the Assembly and the governor — as a roadblock to big projects before. In 2005, Mr. Bloomberg saw his plan for a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, part of the city’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics, shot down in front of the board by the vote of one state lawmaker, Sheldon Silver, who was then the Assembly speaker. Mr. Silver said he could not support a deal that could harm the district in Lower Manhattan that he represented.

(emphasis mine)

I doesn't help that Amazon has stated that it will continue to aggressively sabotage any unionization efforts in the state.

They Will Always Be J. Edgar Hoover's Boys

And now, we discover that, in response to KKK and neo-Nazi violence, the FBI went after the people protesting against them.

Call me old fashioned, but I find being on the side of the KKK and Nazis vaguely un-American:

The FBI opened a “domestic terrorism” investigation into a civil rights group in California, labeling the activists “extremists” after they protested against neo-Nazis in 2016, new documents reveal.

Federal authorities ran a surveillance operation on By Any Means Necessary (Bamn), spying on the leftist group’s movements in an inquiry that came after one of Bamn’s members was stabbed at the white supremacist rally, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. The FBI’s Bamn files reveal:

• The FBI investigated Bamn for potential “conspiracy” against the “rights” of the “Ku Klux Klan” and white supremacists.
• The FBI considered the KKK as victims and the leftist protesters as potential terror threats, and downplayed the threats of the Klan, writing: “The KKK consisted of members that some perceived to be supportive of a white supremacist agenda.”
• The FBI’s monitoring included in-person surveillance, and the agency cited Bamn’s advocacy against “rape and sexual assault” and “police brutality” as evidence in the terrorism inquiry.

The FBI’s 46-page report on Bamn, obtained by the government transparency non-profit Property of the People through a records request, presented an “astonishing” description of the KKK, said Mike German, a former FBI agent and far-right expert who reviewed the documents for the Guardian.

………

Shanta Driver, Bamn’s national chair, criticized the investigation in a statement to the Guardian, saying, “The FBI’s interest in BAMN is part of a long-standing policy … Starting with their campaign to persecute and slander Dr. Martin Luther King, they have a racist history of targeting peaceful civil rights and anti-racist organizations, while doing nothing to prosecute the racists and fascists who attacked Dr. King and the movement he built.”

The FBI launched its terrorism investigation and surveillance of Bamn after white supremacists armed with knives faced off with hundreds of counter-protesters, including Bamn activists, at a June 2016 neo-Nazi rally in Sacramento. Although numerous neo-Nazis were suspected of stabbing at least seven anti-fascists in the melee, leaving some with life-threatening injuries, the FBI chose to launch a inquiry into the activities of the leftwing protesters.

I really do believe that the FBI needs to to be fumigated to get the cockroaches descended from Hoover out of the organization.

I Am Busy Driving Railroad Spikes into My Eyes Tonight

So I will not be watching Trump's state of the union speech.

Simply put, I will have a much more pleasant evening doing something else.

Now, where is that sledge hammer.......

Wangdoodle

It is impossible to secure 1,900 miles of real estate without a barrier. I don’t care what you call it. Call it a wall, infrastructure or even a wangdoodle! No matter what you call it we have to have some kind of physical barrier to secure our border. pic.twitter.com/vQHWUmmv10

— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) January 31, 2019

Roll Tape!

We now have a name for the wall, courtesy of Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), who suggested "Wangdoodle".

One of these days, I want to see the Great Wangdoodle of China.

Why Letting Republicans Run as Democrats is a Bad Idea

Case in point, Ralph Northam, who voted for Bush in 2000 AND 2004, is now known to have not only had a fucking Klan picture in his medical school yearbook, but had the nickname "Coonman" in his VMI yearbook:

It was no easy feat. But on Saturday, Ralph Northam staked a claim in the annals of most surreal political news conferences, presiding over a 40-minute extravaganza that would do Mark Sanford and Jim McGreevey proud. Or something like that.

In a bid to salvage his job, the Democratic governor of Virginia denied he was one of the men dressed up as a Klansman or in blackface in a picture on his medical school yearbook page — after admitting the night before he was, in fact, in the photo.

But that was just the start. Here are six of the strangest moments of the presser.

BEAT IT

Northam said he “vividly” remembers dressing up in blackface to imitate Michael Jackson at a talent show in 1984 and that this memory solidified his belief that he wasn’t photographed in his yearbook dressed in blackface or in a Klan outfit. But when asked by reporter, he couldn’t remember the artist’s name and relied on his wife, Pam, to whisper his name.

  ………

 In a different yearbook at Virginia Military Institute, Northam was nicknamed “Coonman.” Why? He wasn’t quite sure, he said.

 “My main nickname in high school and in college was ‘Goose’ because when my voice was changing, I would change an octave. There were two individuals, as best as I can recollect, at VMI — they were a year ahead of me. They called me ‘Coonman’. I don’t know their motives or intent. I know who they are. That was the extent of that. And it ended up in the yearbook. And I regret that.”

This guy was a college age Republican at the height of the Reagan administration.


He voted for George W. Bush in 2004.

Of course he was doing racist sh%$ like this, it's what college Republican pukes did back then.

Modern Extortion, YouTube Style

Extortionists are targeting YouTube channels with copyright "strikes" to extort money:

In a terrible abuse of YouTube's copyright system, a YouTuber is reporting that scammers are using the platform's "three strike" system for extortion. After filing two false claims against ObbyRaidz, the scammers contacted him demanding cash to avoid a third - and the termination of his channel. Every week, millions of YouTubers upload content for pleasure and indeed profit, hoping to reach a wide audience with their topics of choice.

On occasion, these users run into trouble by using content to which they don’t own the copyrights, such as a music track or similar.

While these complaints can often be dealt with quickly and relatively amicably using YouTube’s Content ID system, allegedly-infringing users can also get a so-called ‘strike’ against their account. Get three of these and a carefully maintained channel, with countless hours of work behind it, can be rendered dead by YouTube.

As reported on many occasions, this system is open to all kinds of abuse but a situation highlighted by a YouTuber called ‘ObbyRaidz’ takes things to a horrible new level.

The YouTuber, who concentrates on Minecraft-related videos, reports that he’s received two bogus strikes on his account. While this is nothing new, it appears the strikes were deliberately malicious with longer-term plan to extort money from him.

………

While people should be protected from this kind of abuse, both from a copyright perspective and the crime of extortion, ObbyRaidz says he’s had zero luck in getting assistance from YouTube.

“It’s very unfortunate and YouTube has not done very much for me. I can’t get in contact with them. One of the appeals got denied,” he explains.

It's the nature of Google that no matter what happens, you never ever get to contact a human being, so if they take you down, you are basically completely f%$#ed.

Tech support literally does not exist, and this is a core policy of Google, which means that any

As is noted at Naked Capitalism, "If your business depends on a platform, you don’t have a business."

Maximum Geek

U-2 from Beale AFB disguised as the USS Enterprise! 🤣👍

"NCC1701A" pic.twitter.com/4pcdHLambB

— Aircraft Spots (@AircraftSpots) January 30, 2019

Mr Spock estimates that the odds against these call numbers being a product of random chance are 14,345,251:1.

So Not a Surprise………

It turns out that advertisers are probably paying Facebook to engage fake accounts:

Facebook sells advertisers on its access to real people — 2.32 billion of them, a network that exceeds the populations of North America, South America and Africa combined.

But do that many people really use Facebook?

The answer lies partly in how many of the accounts are fake. The Silicon Valley company defines fake accounts as profiles that are either designed to break its rules, for example by spammers or scammers impersonating others, or that are misclassified, such as someone setting up a Facebook profile instead of a Facebook page for a business.

Yet the number of Facebook accounts that fit those descriptions is less clear. While the company discloses its estimates of fake accounts, its figures have fluctuated and are confusing. Even Facebook admits its understanding of the numbers is tenuous.

“Duplicate and false accounts are very difficult to measure at our scale,” it said in a securities filing in October, and the actual numbers “may vary significantly from our estimates.”

………

For years, investors, analysts and journalists had only Facebook’s estimates to judge fake accounts. Last year, Facebook introduced a transparency page, which discloses how many fake accounts it has taken down each quarter. Those figures revealed that the scope was far larger than the estimates in securities filings had suggested.

Let’s run through the math on this in more detail. Facebook’s new numbers added up to more than 2.8 billion fake accounts taken down in the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, or about 7.7 million a day.

Facebook had previously reported that about 3 percent to 4 percent of its active users were fake. According to the new figures, the accounts taken down each quarter were equivalent to 25 percent to 35 percent of its active users (though those accounts were not counted in Facebook’s active-user tallies because they had been removed).

I am shocked and stunned by this.

Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are the kindest, warmest, bravest, most wonderful human beings I've ever known in my life.

They would never do anything to violate the trust of their customers, and their users.

Please understand that the above is sarcasm.

Our Broken Military-Industrial Complex

Case in point, the USS Gerald Ford, which emulates its namesake:

The Navy’s costliest warship, the $13 billion Gerald R. Ford, had 20 failures of its aircraft launch-and-landing systems during operations at sea, according to the Pentagon’s testing office.

The previously undisclosed failures with the electromagnetic systems made by General Atomics occurred during more than 740 at-sea trials since the aircraft carrier’s delivery in May 2017 despite praise from Navy officials of its growing combat capabilities. The Navy must pay to fix such flaws under a “cost-plus” development contract.

The new reliability issues add to doubts the carrier, designated as CVN-78, will meet its planned rate of combat sorties per 24 hours -- the prime metric for any aircraft carrier -- according to the annual report on major weapons from the Defense Department’s operational test office.

………

The launch-and-landing issue is separate from the ship’s lack of 11 functioning elevators to lift munitions from below deck, an issue that’s drawn scrutiny from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican.

The Ford “will probably not achieve” its sortie rate requirement because of “unrealistic assumptions” that “ignore the effects of weather, aircraft emergencies, ship maneuvers and current air-wing composition on flight operations,” Robert Behler, the Pentagon’s director of operational testing, said in his assessment of the carrier, obtained by Bloomberg News.

………

Ten “critical failures” occurred during 747 at-sea catapults of jets; another 10 “operational mission failures” occurred during 763 shipboard landing attempts, according to the testing office’s report.

So, we are talking about a 1.5% failure rate for the technology.

This is not human error, this is a failure of the underlying technology, the catapult is performing about 6x worse than what is specified under contract, and the arrester gear is performing about 100x worse than is called for.

This is a hell of a way to run a f%$#ing railroad.

Lame

The Super Bowl half time show is always lame, but the promised tribute to Craig Stephen Hillenburg was a 2 second clip of the Spongebob episode "Band Geeks."

Lame, lame, lame, as my son Charlie, a fan of the series, observed.

This is Like the Super Bowl of TV Ads

I am referring, of course, to ……… Uh ……… The Super Bowl.

I have no dog in this hunt, so I am looking at the ads, and what sort of tribute to Craig Hillenburg, the late creator of Spongebob Squarepants will happen in the half time show.

Daym!!! I'm Not Paranoid Enough!!!!

I knew that the FCC was flooded with bogus comments about their repeal of net neutrality, but I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams would have imagined that Roger Stone and his Evil Minions^™ would be at the bottom of this:

An organization run by a former Trump campaign statewide director is being investigated by the New York attorney general’s office for its role in the submission of potentially hundreds of thousands of fraudulent comments to the Federal Communications Commission during the agency’s 2017 efforts to rollback Obama-era net neutrality rules.

Research by Gizmodo reveals the group’s deep ties to prominent GOP firms, including one paid more than $31 million by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to provide email lists of potential voters during the 2016 campaign. Americans whose names were attached to fraudulent FCC comments linked to the ex-Trump campaign staffer confirmed during a series of interviews that their identities had been stolen.

Asked how their names wound up on the FCC’s website next comments slamming “wealthy leftist billionaires and powerful Silicon Valley monopolies,” the residents of Sharpsburg, Georgia, were reasonably confused. Like two retirees in their 80s whom Gizmodo spoke with on Wednesday, many residents say they’ve never even heard of net neutrality.

But in Sharpsburg, a town of less than 400, roughly a quarter of the population seemingly filed comments with the FCC about net neutrality—at least according to its website. Of those comments, 37 are perfectly identical: “It took only two years and a green light from Obama for companies like Google and Facebook and their liberal allies like George Soros to take total control of the dominant information and communications platform in the world today,” they read. “The future of a free and open Internet is at stake.”

………

“Whoever did this is stupid,” said another man, after learning his name and address had been used without his consent. “They won’t find my IP address anywhere near this. And I’d be happy to talk to police about it.” A total of five Sharpsburg residents, whose names had been used to send identical comments to the FCC, told Gizmodo this week that their identities must have been stolen.

………

What’s remained unreported until now is the source of the 37 identical Sharpsburg comments, which match those submitted on behalf of more than 300,000 Americans nationwide. That comment, which rails against Google, its former chairman Eric Schmidt, and “global billionaires like George Soros,” was authored by a group known as Free Our Internet, according to a page on its website, which has since been deleted.

Free Our Internet’s campaign against net neutrality, which it presents as a conspiracy by “liberal globalists to take over our Internet,” was first announced in a now-deleted press release on the website of Raven Strategies, a political consultancy whose client list includes, among others, Donald Trump for President.

………

By comparison, Free Our Internet has a small online footprint—this despite being the apparent source of upwards of 800,000 gathered comments. The organization’s submission page, meant to be the online portal through which all those comments were collected, has been tweeted no more than two dozen times. Free Our Internet’s website was boosted on occasion, however, by a few well-known characters on the far-right, such as longtime Trump adviser and self-described “dirty trickster” Roger Stone and his one-time friend, conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi.

Roger, you have been a very busy boy.

Well, Performance Issues, It's Not Uncommon. One out of Five Daleks………

One thing I won’t ever do again is build a snow dalek. I did that when we lived at our old house as the kids were into Dr Who. I learnt that when snowdaleks start to melt they upset the neighbours #snowman #snowdalek #drwho pic.twitter.com/YrK8vJqAJr

— Oeufelia (@oeufelia) February 1, 2019

Someone made a snow Dalek, but they neglected to consider what would happen when it warmed up.

Live in Obedient Fear, Citizen!

Family Tree DNA has allowed the FBI to access its database of genetic information without a court order and without notifying its users:

Family Tree DNA, one of the largest private genetic testing companies whose home-testing kits enable people to trace their ancestry and locate relatives, is working with the FBI and allowing agents to search its vast genealogy database in an effort to solve violent crime cases, BuzzFeed News has learned.

Federal and local law enforcement have used public genealogy databases for more than two years to solve cold cases, including the landmark capture of the suspected Golden State Killer, but the cooperation with Family Tree DNA and the FBI marks the first time a private firm has agreed to voluntarily allow law enforcement access to its database.


While the FBI does not have the ability to freely browse genetic profiles in the library, the move is sure to raise privacy concerns about law enforcement gaining the ability to look for DNA matches, or more likely, relatives linked by uploaded user data.

For law enforcement officials, the access could be the key to unlocking murders and rapes that have gone cold for years, opening up what many argue is the greatest investigative tactic since the advent of DNA identification. For privacy advocates, the FBI’s new ability to match the genetic profiles from a private company could set a dangerous precedent in a world where DNA test kits have become as common as a Christmas stocking stuffer.

………

Until now, investigators have limited their searches to public and free databases, where genealogy enthusiasts had willingly uploaded the data knowing it could be accessible to anyone.

Now, under the previously undisclosed cooperation with Family Tree, the FBI has gained access to more than a million DNA profiles from the company, most of which were uploaded before the company’s customers had any knowledge of its relationship with the FBI.

………

“We are nearing a de-facto national DNA database,” Natalie Ram, an assistant law professor at the University of Baltimore who specializes in bioethics and criminal justice, told BuzzFeed News. “We don’t choose our genetic relatives, and I cannot sever my genetic relation to them. There’s nothing voluntary about that.” 

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is looking increasingly prophetic.

Given the FBI's anti-abortion biases, this is particularly chilling in the area of reproductive freedom.

F%$# Me. I Agree with Joe F%$#ing Liebarman

He is leading the charge to lower the excessive fees charged by the federal courts to access their documents:

For most of the nation’s history, the most common way to read court filings was to travel to the courthouse itself, pull up a desk in the clerk’s office, and leaf through them by hand. This was hardly a convenient system, especially if you lived in a far-flung rural area or lacked the resources to travel to a nearby courthouse for the task. But it was still an impressive one. Public access was a core principle of the American federal judiciary, which absorbed both the Founders’ disdain for secretive British courts and their belief in the democratic virtue of open legal proceedings.

Then came the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system in the 1990s. In theory, the federal courts’ electronic docket system—known universally as PACER—allows anyone with an internet connection to call up the motions, briefs, orders, and appendices for virtually any federal court case. The interface has not evolved with the times. In an age of sleek, minimalist web design, PACER is a clunky and nonintuitive portal into the courts’ inner workings. What’s more, it’s overcharging its users.

Now a medley of legal advocacy groups, media outlets, and former politicians and judges are asking the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to rein in excessive PACER fees. Some of the organizations argue that the current payment structure violates federal e-government laws that prohibit unnecessary fees. Others see the fees as a threat to judicial transparency and openness. What’s ultimately at stake is the ability for Americans—including journalists and defendants—to fully participate in the nation’s legal system.

Three legal nonprofit groups—the National Veterans Legal Services Program, the National Consumer Law Center, and Alliance for Justice—filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government in 2016 to challenge PACER’s fee structure. They argued that by charging more than the marginal costs to keep the system functional, the judiciary had run afoul of a federal law dedicating PACER’s fees solely to that purpose. “Instead of complying with the law, the [federal judiciary] has used excess PACER fees to cover the costs of unrelated projects—ranging from audio systems to flat screens for jurors—at the expense of public access,” they told the district court in 2016.

“Anyone who wants to be able to access the documents that are essential to understanding the way our court system works has to pay these fees,” Brianne Gorod, the chief counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, told me. The organization filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of former Senator Joe Lieberman, the 2002 law’s original sponsor. “What that means is that one’s ability to access these documents—to read the briefs that the courts use when making decisions, to understand why courts are doing what they do—is going to turn on one’s financial situation.”

F%$# me.

I am on the same side as Joe Lieberman.

I feel so dirty.

The Mistake Jet Just Gets Better and Better

It now appears the first F-35s delivered will have only ¼ the life originally promised:

Structural defects mean the earliest F-35Bs delivered by Lockheed Martin could reach a service life limit by 2026 after 2,100 flight hours, according to the Pentagon’s director for weapons testing.

The design specification of the F-35B called for a service life of 8,000 flight hours, but early production models fall “well under” the durability requirement, Robert Behler, director of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E,) wrote in his latest annual report to Congress.

The new DOT&E assessment comes after several years of durability testing that exposed multiple structural cracks. Lockheed completed two service lifetime cycles of durability testing on a static F-35B airframe called BH-1, but canceled a plan in February 2017 to perform a third series.

Structural redesigns, including a new approach for the wing-carry-through, had made BH-1 unrepresentative of the final production standard, the DOT&E report states. The F-35 program has obtained funding to acquire a new structural test article, but it was not yet on contract, the report adds. Bloomberg first reported the DOT&E’s findings on the F-35 program.

Yeah, the new test article is, "Not yet on contract."

The B model is the STOVL version, and any weight increase would have potentially catastrophic effects on performance, but they have not let a contract for a test article yet.

I'm SO reassured.

I Would Have Figured That the Number Was Larger………

A study is now rep[ortint that Americans got 26.3 billion robocalls last year, a nearly 50% increase from the prior year.

If I do a quick back of the envelope calculation, that is about 100 robocalls per phone per year, or about 1 every 3-½ days.

I typically get 2-3 a day on weekdays, so I think that the number is way too small.

In any case, it is getting to the point that people are no longer answering their phones at all, so something that needs to be done.

I have a 7 word suggestion:

The Most Popular Drone Strike Program Ever!

You Call This a Line?

It appears that is quite a queue forming to deface the soon to be erected statue of Margaret Thatcher in Grantham:

A statue of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in her home town of Grantham will require a high plinth to curb the threat of vandalism, according to police.

Plans to install the £300,000 statue on a 10ft-high platform will be voted on next week amid fears it could become a "likely target for politically-motivated vandals".

However, the police added that despite a "motivated far-left movement… who may be committed to public activism" who are against Mrs Thatcher "the passage of time does seem to have diminished that feeling".

Which is why you are mounting it on a. "10ft-high platform," because, "The passage of time," has diminished the (well deserved) ire towards her.

"A threat assessment has been carried out by Lincolnshire Police who consider there is a possibility any public statue of Baroness Thatcher could be a target for politically motivated vandals.

"Lincolnshire Police’s Crime Prevention Officer has not objected to the proposal but they have recommended the statue is placed on a sufficiently high plinth and is sited in a location that benefits from good natural surveillance as well as lighting and CCTV."

I actually have a compromise suggestion that might solv things, Put up the statue, but do so behind bars.

The mindful human beings can then look at her as she should have been, while the Tories can be secure in the fact that the hoi polloi will be kept from her.

Quote of the Day

Congress long ago abdicated its constitutional authority to declare war, but demands veto over withdrawals: column https://t.co/MgdwxejWMW

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 1, 2019

We truly live in Bizarro world

Matt Taibbi takes a very jaundiced view toward the permanent war party in Washington.

I wholeheartedly agree:

On the surface, it was a truly bipartisan defeat of Trump. A full 22 of those 68 yeas were Democrats.

But every Senate Democrat who’s even rumored to be running for president voted nay. The list included Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar and Jeff Merkley. Sherrod Brown did not vote.

Was it possible that their reluctance was connected to the fact that survey after survey shows the public has lost appetite for our Middle East wars, especially in Afghanistan?

The “stinging rebuke” in the Senate that has Washington buzzing was a graphic example of how out of touch the capital is with the rest of the country, which would like more of a say in when, where and why we go to war.

………

Having been told off by the Trump team, the Senate meekly got together to craft a new AUMF. The proposal among other things would trigger a 60-day review period by lawmakers, in the highly probable event a president decided to make war against a new country.

But nobody on the Senate Foreign Relations committee believed they could get the measure passed. “I think it’s going to be very difficult to get to the finish line on this,” predicted Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD). So even that pathetic ask for a fig leaf of congressional authority for future wars went nowhere.

………

Yet when Trump decided he was going to withdraw forces from Syria and Afghanistan, suddenly it was We Are The World time on the Hill. Republicans and the non-presidential candidates on the Democrat side joined hands to renounce the executive branch for daring to withdraw troops from somewhere without permission.
………

The constitutional idea that Congress does the declaring of wars, while presidents only command them, is designed to give voters extra input on this most crucial of decisions, i.e. when we’re going to risk American lives (to say nothing of foreign ones).

But Congress has been abdicating that responsibility for a while now. Two successive presidents made a joke of it, expanding limited authorization to go after 9/11 terrorists into nearly two decades of open-ended Middle East missions. We were bombing seven countries when Trump took office, and probably 99 percent of voters couldn’t have named them.

When Trump tried to withdraw troops from two countries, what happened? Congress, snoring on this issue since at least 2001, threw a fit that the president was acting unilaterally.

Seriously, if we were to replace every member of Congress with Big Mouth Billy Bass plaques, we would probably have a more meaningful discussion regarding war and peace.