Political Randomness

[Daehawk]

Odd fact I learned - Trump Tower exaggerates its floor count because...oh who the fuck knows with this insecure clown.

Overcompensation. I think he is totally dickless. Id go so far as to bet he pays men to have sex with his wife...while he sleeps.

[Isgrimnur]

Texas

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in late 2016 appointed to the state’s Rural Health Task Force a former physician and Miller campaign donor who had his medical license revoked or suspended in three states.

In Iowa, Rick Ray Redalen’s medical license was first suspended when he was convicted of perjury in a case involving his marriage to his 15-year-old former stepdaughter. The license was later revoked for good for failure to report a malpractice suit, medical board records show.

Redalen, who calls himself “the Maverick Doctor,” said he was introduced to Miller several years ago by Todd M. Smith, a lobbyist who has reported making hundreds of thousands of dollars from Redalen’s company and is Miller’s longtime political strategist.
...
Miller’s relationship with Redalen isn’t his first involvement with doctors that has raised questions.

In February 2015, shortly after taking office, Miller charged the state $1,100 for a trip to Oklahoma in which he received a pain-killing treatment called the “Jesus Shot” that was created by Dr. John Michael Lonergan, who goes by “Dr. Mike” and previously had his medical license in Ohio revoked after being convicted of tax evasion.
...
Redalen has not practiced medicine for years but hit it big in the medical business nonetheless. In 1996, he founded a company called QuestRx, which now goes by ExitCare and was sold to Elsevier in 2012. The company provides a widely used tool that provides information to patients as they are discharged from medical facilities.

As a doctor, Redalen worked in emergency rooms and as a primary care doctor and has had his license suspended or revoked in Minnesota, Iowa and Louisiana.

The disciplinary action against Redalen by Minnesota’s medical board was due to “psychiatric and drug problems,” according to a 1995 Des Moines Register article.

Redalen’s legal troubles in Iowa stemmed from his relationship with his stepdaughter, whom he married in Tarrant County while on a trip to Texas in September 1988. He had been married to her mother, who committed suicide in 1987. In 1986, Redalen pleaded guilty to assault after authorities said he struck his wife with a rifle butt and pointed a gun at sheriff’s deputies, according to the Register article.

Redalen did not answer detailed questions about his past, but he said that his problems in Iowa were invented by enemies who were jealous because he was the “most popular doctor in town.” He said that the relationship with his former stepdaughter was not romantic and that he married her to get her out of a “lock-up” for “delinquents” that she had been placed in.
...
In 1995, after Redalen had moved to Louisiana, the medical board in that state revoked his license after accusations that he abused drugs and alcohol.

[Daehawk]

I dont know where to put this but Alaska voters turned down another anti transgender bathroom bill in their state. Frankly Im a bit surprised yet another state since Carolina even had this up for voting. Just like to applaud Alaskan citizens for not being dumb and standing up for human rights.

[Moliere]

TJ Miller Arrested, Accused of Calling in Fake Bomb Threat

[GreenGoo]

Is there a "swatting" thread? Sounds like that's what it was.

[pr0ner]

TJ Miller Arrested, Accused of Calling in Fake Bomb Threat

It's almost like he's turning into Erlich Bachman in real life.

[Daehawk]

Shit that Zuckerberg put up with today....

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... egulations

Id say someone went around smacking all the politicians with the stupid stick but we all know they arrived that way. Everything is done for them or written for them and they have no real clue about anything they vote over. They go in to vote, fall asleep, then wake up and ask if they voted and clap yay if they somehow did and say "Then I can collect that lobby money" and exit the building to go visit their mistress. I wish the whole of DC would just burn away so new blood could get in there...and most likely be the same old same old same old same old same old same old same old...

Another one...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/us/p ... imony.html

[Defiant]

Shit that Zuckerberg put up with today....

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... egulations

From the article

Some of the lines of questioning senators from both parties pursued demonstrated they aren’t exactly the most tech-savvy bunch, aren’t entirely clear on how Facebook works, or maybe have just never used the platform. Or they included some colorful anecdotes about their own social media use

He went on to ask Zuckerberg whether Facebook collects user data through “cross-device tracking”; the executive said he would get back to him on that.

That's not a weird or non-tech savvy question, and the answer is yes. You would think Zuckerberg would know that.

But it wasn’t all older lawmakers who seemed a bit confused. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), 45, repeatedly asked Zuckerberg whether Facebook could see emails he sends on WhatsApp, which Facebook owns. You don’t send emails via WhatsApp, and WhatsApp is encrypted, meaning it can’t be accessed by outside parties.

I haven't used whatsapp, and while it doesn't send emails, whether or not Facebook or Whatsapp can read emails depends on it's implementation. Simply being encrypted doesn't mean it can't be read by the provider.


Frankly, if this gets congress to actually start implementing regulations into a sector that has been the equivalent of a wild west, good.

[malchior]

That's not a weird or non-tech savvy question, and the answer is yes. You would think Zuckerberg would know that.

I watched the hearing and the question wasn't clear. Zuckerberg actually mentioned outright that cookies could be correlated to individuals but said he'd get back with specifics. It was the engineer's answer to a non-precise question.

Frankly, if this gets congress to actually start implementing regulations into a sector that has been the equivalent of a wild west, good.

I'd agree but these guys are *clueless* and that is 99% of the problem. Whatever they'd do would be outrun in 5 minutes though I wouldn't mind something approaching GDPR but that is way more than will happen here I imagine. Also the Senator (forget her name right now) asking him conspiracy-esque questions about palantir was another ridiculous bit of weird theater.

[GreenGoo]

And this is why lobbyists get to write their own regulations.

[Max Peck]

Teachers in Pennsylvania get 16in bats after Florida

A Pennsylvanian school district has given its teachers baseball bats in the fight against school shooters.

All 500 teachers of Millcreek School District near Erie got a 16in (41cm) bat in the wake of the Parkland, Florida high school attack in February.

Though the bats are largely symbolic, Superintendent William Hall said, they are there as a "last resort".

"Unfortunately, we're in a day and age where one might need to use them to protect ourselves and our kids."

The superintendent said the aim was to have a "consistent tool" for every teacher in every classroom.

Seems a little small to be called a baseball bat.

[Isgrimnur]

Sounds like there's a consistent tool in the superintendent's office.

[Defiant]

I watched a chunk of yesterdays hearings, and listened to some of todays. Zuckerberg is being fairly evasive and coy on some of the questions. For example, he was asked about data that is collected on non-facebook users, and how they can opt out, and Zuckerberg mentions that people can choose what is collected and that they can always stop all data being collected by deleting their accounts.



Also, unless I misheard, one question and answer mentioned that Facebook has collected health data?! I'm shocked that there weren't more questions on that (but I guess most of them have their questions written beforehand)

[Freyland]

Teachers in Pennsylvania get 16in bats after Florida

A Pennsylvanian school district has given its teachers baseball bats in the fight against school shooters.

All 500 teachers of Millcreek School District near Erie got a 16in (41cm) bat in the wake of the Parkland, Florida high school attack in February.

Though the bats are largely symbolic, Superintendent William Hall said, they are there as a "last resort".

"Unfortunately, we're in a day and age where one might need to use them to protect ourselves and our kids."

The superintendent said the aim was to have a "consistent tool" for every teacher in every classroom.

Seems a little small to be called a baseball bat.

Cool, so we're going back to paddling in schools again?

[Remus West]

If they start making bobbleheads resembling us I want a cut of the profits.

[Paingod]

Teachers in Pennsylvania get 16in bats after Florida

All 500 teachers of Millcreek School District near Erie got a 16in (41cm) bat in the wake of the Parkland, Florida high school attack in February.

Seems a little small to be called a baseball bat.

It's a club, not a bat.

Roll d6 (d3 vs. Large) bludgeon damage.

[Isgrimnur]

More like an unsharpened stake.

[Paingod]

They should give them Lawn Darts, then.

[Blackhawk]

We're the teachers of the school.
Tarantara, tarantara!
And we'll never look the fool.
Tarantara, tarantara!

And we find the wisest thing,
Tarantara! tarantara!
Is to slap our chests and sing,
Tarantara! tarantara!

[Pyperkub]

I watched a chunk of yesterdays hearings, and listened to some of todays. Zuckerberg is being fairly evasive and coy on some of the questions. For example, he was asked about data that is collected on non-facebook users, and how they can opt out, and Zuckerberg mentions that people can choose what is collected and that they can always stop all data being collected by deleting their accounts.



Also, unless I misheard, one question and answer mentioned that Facebook has collected health data?! I'm shocked that there weren't more questions on that (but I guess most of them have their questions written beforehand)

They looked at it, but appear to have backed off:

Facebook began speaking with hospitals last year about the possibility of matching anonymized user profiles with health data in an effort to improve medical care, according to a CNBC report exposing the program. Facebook confirmed its work to CNBC but said it had hit “pause” on the program last month — presumably following the Cambridge Analytica scandal — to focus on “doing a better job of protecting people’s data” and being clearer about how it’s used.

The plan had been to get hospitals to share anonymized medical information — such as health issues and age, but not name — and match it up with anonymized Facebook accounts that appeared to belong to those same people, according to the report. It would then somehow use insights from users’ Facebook behavior to inform medical treatments. In one example CNBC gives, it says Facebook might have determined that an elderly user didn’t have many local friends, so a hospital may want to send a nurse to check in on them while recovering from a surgery.

[Defiant]

Good lord. Even contemplating doing that is scary.

It does seem that Facebook has decided to shut down a lot of the more questionable practices very recently because of CA (they've stopped using data brokers because of it, and there was something he was questioned about where he mentioned they had implemented the change in the last week, although the Senator or Representative pointed out that they had known about this for years)

[Daehawk]

US vet deported...fights and fights...get to be US Citizen and return. Most dont.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/13/politics ... index.html

Whats worse is you can be a US vet and get deported and the only way back in is to die...then they bury you in a National Cemetery. Shameful.

I still say each veteran should be given an acre of land to live on or sell or do as they will.

[coopasonic]

I still say each veteran should be given an acre of land to live on or sell or do as they will.

Who, exactly, are you going to take this land from? I think most all of it is spoken for.

[Rip]

I still say each veteran should be given an acre of land to live on or sell or do as they will.

Who, exactly, are you going to take this land from? I think most all of it is spoken for.

Canada.

[Moliere]

I still say each veteran should be given an acre of land to live on or sell or do as they will.

Who, exactly, are you going to take this land from? I think most all of it is spoken for.

There are 21.8 million veterans in the U.S. We can steal it from the rich and get 14 million acres right off the bat from the top 10 landowners.

[LordMortis]

I watched a chunk of yesterdays hearings, and listened to some of todays. Zuckerberg is being fairly evasive and coy on some of the questions. For example, he was asked about data that is collected on non-facebook users, and how they can opt out, and Zuckerberg mentions that people can choose what is collected and that they can always stop all data being collected by deleting their accounts.



Also, unless I misheard, one question and answer mentioned that Facebook has collected health data?! I'm shocked that there weren't more questions on that (but I guess most of them have their questions written beforehand)

They looked at it, but appear to have backed off:

Facebook began speaking with hospitals last year about the possibility of matching anonymized user profiles with health data in an effort to improve medical care, according to a CNBC report exposing the program. Facebook confirmed its work to CNBC but said it had hit “pause” on the program last month — presumably following the Cambridge Analytica scandal — to focus on “doing a better job of protecting people’s data” and being clearer about how it’s used.

The plan had been to get hospitals to share anonymized medical information — such as health issues and age, but not name — and match it up with anonymized Facebook accounts that appeared to belong to those same people, according to the report. It would then somehow use insights from users’ Facebook behavior to inform medical treatments. In one example CNBC gives, it says Facebook might have determined that an elderly user didn’t have many local friends, so a hospital may want to send a nurse to check in on them while recovering from a surgery.

I just got a spam email from someone I know on FB with whom I have not shared email addresses. How do we opt out of that?

[Moliere]

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Penn.) and Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Penn.) announced their retirements last year,

Dent's not even waiting until the end of his term.

After announcing last year that he would not seek re-election, Rep. Charlie Dent has decided to leave Congress before his term is finished.

"After discussions with my family and careful reflection, I have decided to leave Congress in the coming weeks," the Republican from Pennsylvania said in a statement.

Dent, 57, has served in Congress since 2005.

On average, 22 House members retire each cycle, Roll Call reported. But this year has seen a record number of GOP lawmakers leaving Capitol Hill, according to NPR.

[Max Peck]

Literally the end of an era...

Through the Space Age, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Internet era, Cubans held one constant: A Castro ruled the nation.

That is about to change.

Raúl Castro, 86, is expected to step aside as Cuba’s president this week, ending the epochal run of two brothers who sent shock waves through 20th-century politics. Nearly two decades into this century, and less than two years after Fidel Castro’s death, his brother’s exit from Cuba’s top job leaves this insular island at a crossroads, weighing how fast, if at all, to embrace change.

“This is an important moment for Cuba, but the truth is, nobody knows what to expect,” said Camilo Condis, general manager of Artecorte, a community project in Havana. “I mean, other than Fidel and Raúl, who is there? You didn’t really know anyone else.”

In a session of the National Assembly opening Wednesday — and probably culminating with a succession vote on Thursday — members are expected to replace Castro with Miguel Díaz-Canel. Born after the revolution, Díaz-Canel, 57, grew up in the shadow of the olive-drab-wearing guerrilleros who remain a powerful if aging force in Cuba’s decision-making apparatus. He is viewed as a consensus builder unlikely to push for quick or radical reform.

[GreenGoo]

I still say each veteran should be given an acre of land to live on or sell or do as they will.

Who, exactly, are you going to take this land from? I think most all of it is spoken for.

Canada.

Why would they want it?

[Blackhawk]

Homesteading, of course.

[Moliere]

Russia Bans Telegram, a Popular Encrypted Messaging App

"At Telegram, we have the luxury of not caring about revenue streams or ad sales," Durov said in his statement. "Privacy is not for sale, and human rights should not be compromised out of fear or greed."

Telegram and Durov are no strangers to nationwide bans. Durov has lived in exile since 2014, after the Russian government pressured him to resign from his position at the social networking site Vkontake—often described as the Facebook of Russia—largely because he refused to give encryption access to allies of President Vladimir Putin.

Iran wants Telegram banned by the end of April. Officials there are upset that Telegram gives Iranians access to foreign sources the government does not support. In Indonesia, the company faced temporary bans after it emerged that ISIL groups used Telegram to promote its content. And here in the U.S., Congress, the FBI, and the Justice Department have all expressed an increasing interest in bills that would allow the government to compel individuals or companies, such as Telegram, Apple, and Facebook, to decrypt their data.

Sounds like someone else might be headed for slip and fall off a five story building.

[Defiant]

[GreenGoo]

Homesteading, of course.

Playing it straight, I see.

[Defiant]

Trump asks for more time to file his taxes

[El Guapo]

Trump asks for more time to file his taxes

This seems unbelievably stupid as a political matter. Like, his reasons for withholding disclosing his taxes are already transparent bullshit, so why not just file the usual on time and then use the usual bullshit excuses? Publicly announcing the extension and pushing the date to October 2018 seems perfectly designed to make his taxes and his corruption a major campaign issue.

Of course, having said that, it's going to be blown off the front pages by video of him sniffing cocaine off of a hooker tomorrow, I suppose.

[gilraen]

Trump asks for more time to file his taxes

This seems unbelievably stupid as a political matter. Like, his reasons for withholding disclosing his taxes are already transparent bullshit, so why not just file the usual on time and then use the usual bullshit excuses? Publicly announcing the extension and pushing the date to October 2018 seems perfectly designed to make his taxes and his corruption a major campaign issue.

I'm guessing the "usual" for him to getting an extension every year because it takes a long time to launder profits and find loopholes to avoid paying as much as possible. Plus these days any accountant stupid enough to still work for the Trump Org. is also too stupid to be any good at their job.

[El Guapo]

Trump asks for more time to file his taxes

This seems unbelievably stupid as a political matter. Like, his reasons for withholding disclosing his taxes are already transparent bullshit, so why not just file the usual on time and then use the usual bullshit excuses? Publicly announcing the extension and pushing the date to October 2018 seems perfectly designed to make his taxes and his corruption a major campaign issue.

I'm guessing the "usual" for him to getting an extension every year because it takes a long time to launder profits and find loopholes to avoid paying as much as possible. Plus these days any accountant stupid enough to still work for the Trump Org. is also too stupid to be any good at their job.

Regardless of how complicated his taxes really are, with the resources he has there is no excuse for needing an extension. I have to think that shitty and on time is preferable to a public extension announcement. Though for that matter, I'm not sure why they felt the need to announce it.

[Zarathud]

They're announcing it because they must. File or pay penalties after today.

Trump's accountants are in a no-win situation. Either Trump fires them for not claiming everything like usual or the return is picked apart by other accountants who know better. That means potential penalties given 100% audit of the President.

[LordMortis]

They're announcing it because they must. File or pay penalties after today.

Trump's accountants are in a no-win situation. Either Trump fires them for not claiming everything like usual or the return is picked apart by other accountants who know better. That means potential penalties given 100% audit of the President.

Isn't he supposed to be divested, which he didn't have to do, but he did it because, well, I don't really remember anymore. He communicates like a constant barrage of spam mail and I'm old and tired and forgetful.

[El Guapo]

They're announcing it because they must. File or pay penalties after today.

Trump's accountants are in a no-win situation. Either Trump fires them for not claiming everything like usual or the return is picked apart by other accountants who know better. That means potential penalties given 100% audit of the President.

Why would the penalties matter for Trump? And regardless, even if they file for an extension, why announce it?