2024-03-22


Cool

etc

  • What are Fields?

    Nevertheless, the notion that ordinary media made from ordinary materials have ordinary fields, and that empty space has cosmic fields that bear some rough resemblance to what we see in ordinary media, is useful. The analogy helps us gain some basic intuition for how fields work and for what they might be, even though we have to remain cautious about its flaws, known and unknown. Whether, in the long run, this analogy proves more beneficial than misleading is something that only future research will reveal. But for now, I think it can serve experts and non-experts alike, as long as we keep in mind that it cannot be the full story.

  • Deepsea eruption expected off B.C. after intense quake activity

Horseshit

celebrity gossip

Obit


Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

  • "It's Not About Trump": American CJ Hopkins, Charged Again in Germany, Describes Global Censorship Effort

    In a letter from the Berlin Prosecutor’s file on Hopkins, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA, analogous to our FBI) acknowledges receipt of a document from a government office describing an effort to have tweets deleted. “The Hessen Gegen Hetze reporting office,” the highlighted portion reads, “has already initiated measures to delete the relevant post on the social network”. CJ’s unique insight involves his ludicrous German case, which as you’ll read in the Q&A below has taken bizarre turns since we last checked and will now go to trial yet again. As an expat following the American situation from afar, he’s seen how the authoritarian tide is rising in similar or worse ways all around the globe.

  • Discussion With Glenn Greenwald: How "Free Speech" Turned Into a "Far Right" Slogan

    Glenn was the original “so-called journalist.” When he broke the story of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s domestic spying revelations in The Guardian in June of 2013, the same epithets came out in bulk. After New York Republican Peter King said, “Legal action should be taken against him,” denunciations from “colleagues” flowed. David Gregory on Meet the Press asked, “To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn’t you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?” Erick Erickson said, “I’d love to see him charged and tried with Snowden,” while Andrew Ross Sorkin of Squawk Box said, “I would arrest [Snowden] and now I’d almost arrest Glenn Greenwald, the journalist.”

  • AI images and conspiracy theories are driving push for media literacy education

Musk

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

  • What Did the US Get Wrong During Covid? We Need to Know - Bloomberg

    Lockdowns caused homes to become more crowded — with college students moving in with families, school age kids at home and others spending much more time in their houses or apartments. Epidemiologists have confirmed that hours of household exposure caused many more cases than exposures of less than 30 minutes. Again, time matters. A Covid commission should also measure the lasting impact of these early fumbles. After vaccines were introduced, the US started to see many more deaths than other comparably wealthy countries. We had lower vaccine uptake in part because the public health community had lost the people’s trust during that first year. The justification for blunt, long-term restrictions was the assumption that more people would die as a result of more targeted measures. But that needs close examination — it’s also possible that those policies made the situation here much worse and deadlier than it had to be. Lots of countries made mistakes as Covid spread around the world. The only way to learn from them is to give them a hard, nonpartisan look.

  • There Are Already More Measles Cases in the US This Year Than All of 2023

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

Apple

TechSuck / Geek Bait

Economicon / Business / Finance

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

  • Biden Says Pot Smokers Should Not Be Arrested—or Allowed To Own Guns

    President Joe Biden declared that "no one should be jailed for simply using" marijuana or "have it on their record." He amplified that message on X (formerly Twitter) that night, saying, "No one should be jailed just for using or possessing marijuana." Biden said those things on the same day that federal prosecutors in North Carolina filed a brief defending the federal ban on gun possession by cannabis consumers, whom they likened to "lunatics" and violent felons.

  • Don't Believe the Doom-and-Gloom Crowd; the Changes at the RNC Are Overwhelmingly Positive – RedState

    Call me crazy, but when Democrats hyperventilate over something Republicans are doing politically and say the strategy is ill-advised or will lead to disaster, I tend to think the strategy might have some merit. Since that's been their reaction to the swift changes enacted at the Republican National Committee, you can assume they think the changes are good for Republicans - or at least are capable of being good for Republicans.

  • US Congress releases $1.1T spending package to avert shutdown

  • Biden’s lawfare joke - Washington Examiner

    this is a joke Biden told, according to news accounts: “Our big plan to cancel student debt doesn’t apply to everyone. Just yesterday, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, ‘I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out.’ And I said, ‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.'” In February, Politico reported that Biden has “grumbled to aides and advisers that had [Attorney General Merrick] Garland moved sooner in his investigation into former President Donald Trump’s election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded.”

  • The One Idea That Could Save American Democracy - The New York Times

    Winning elections is critical, especially as liberal and progressive forces try to fend off radical right-wing movements. But the democratic crisis that our society faces will not be solved by voting alone. We need to do more than defeat Donald Trump and his allies — we need to make cultivating solidarity a national priority. For years, solidarity’s strongest associations have been with the left and the labor movement — a term invoked at protests and on picket lines. But its roots are much deeper, and its potential implications far more profound, than we typically assume. Though we rarely speak about it as such, solidarity is a concept as fundamental to democracy as its better-known cousins: equality, freedom and justice. Solidarity is simultaneously a bond that holds society together and a force that propels it forward.

    As our profit-driven economy has made us more insecure and atomized — and more susceptible to authoritarian appeals — the far right has seized its opportunity. A furious backlash now rises to cut down the shoots of solidarity that sprung up as a result of recent movements pushing for economic, racial, environmental and gender justice. In response, programs that encourage diversity and inclusion are being targeted by billionaire investors, while small acts of solidarity — like helping someone get an abortion or bailing protesters out of jail — have been criminalized.

    Solidarity is the essential and too often missing ingredient of today’s most important political project: not just saving democracy but creating an egalitarian, multiracial society that can guarantee each of us a dignified life.

  • Secretary Buttigieg Announces First Industry-Wide Privacy Review of US Airlines

    (DOT) will undertake a privacy review of the nation’s ten largest airlines regarding their collection, handling, maintenance, and use of passengers’ personal information. The review will examine airlines’ policies and procedures to determine if airlines are properly safeguarding their customers’ personal information. In addition, DOT will probe whether airlines are unfairly or deceptively monetizing or sharing that data with third parties. As DOT finds evidence of problematic practices, the Department will take action, which could mean investigations, enforcement actions, guidance, or rulemaking.

    • With so much recent news involving air travel; the public will certainly be reassured by the quick, decisive actions of the DOT. I might even suggest that the problem of securing customer data extends beyond the air travel industry; and might perhaps be better addressed as part of an effort also spanning across "folks that has customers." DOT might be better advised to focus on their own bailiwick and figure out what to do about airlines, railroads, and other industries where maintenance budgets have apparently been cut past the point where public failures become inevitable.
  • GOP leaders unleash on Janet Yellen over $110B energy tax hike

  • Senators push to declassify TikTok Intel, hold public hearing ahead of ban vote

  • Down the Rabbit Hole of Money in Politics - by Jamie Paul

    ever since Donald Trump bucked the trend in 2016, winning both the primaries and general election against more well-funded opponents, money in politics, as an issue, has been shunted to the back burner of progressive politics. Reformers, shaken by the Trump upset, seem to have lost some of their confidence in the issue’s foundational claims. I, too, was once quite animated about money in politics, but have found myself discussing it less and less over the years. This isn’t because I have changed my opinion, but rather due to the subconscious feeling that a significant amount of the wind has been taken out of this issue’s sails. The question is, does money in politics meaningfully influence elections and governance, or is it an overrated non-issue that activists have exaggerated? When we shift away from the realm of perception, the data shows that money in politics plays an enormous role in the American political system, in ways big, small, and sometimes unexpected.

    • Make politicians wear a registered symbol of each of their donors, on all official occasions. Scale them to the size of the politician's campaign funding and report the details online. Or just go full NASCAR with well recognized logos, ad agencies, and endorsement deals.
  • The IRS Has an Answer to TurboTax

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda