I think it was a vision of a late-stage capitalist utopia.
Learn some history, and remember:
Hitler’s concentration camps were inspired by an American model.
Source: A concentration camp by any other name is still a concentration camp
“Trump is institutionalizing cruelty as official policy”
Go read the details at Ed’s place.
Georgia City of Racists
Hoschton Georgia appears to be competing for the title of most racist town in the USA. Multiple elected officials are quoted clearly spouting racist thoughts and asking the other politicians to cover it all up to hide their racism. If these elected bigots keep their jobs it means the majority of the population of that place are extreme racists.
Unfortunately the man who was discriminated against seems to accept the situation partly because he got a better job elsewhere so it’s unlikely the city will face any legal repercussions.
Source: Georgia mayor under fire for alleged remarks about black job candidate
Why I Don’t Trust Politicians on IT/Tech Issues
It’s because they are not competent in even the simplest of technical issues, here’s a prime example.
U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner and staff introduce an IoT bill and where do they post the text, a walled garden pay service that requires registration to get a copy. Thankfully the bill will eventually put on the official US government sites including congess.gov where citizens can get a copy without paying¹ a commercial service. When senators and their staff can’t even do the simplests of tasks, posting a document for citizens for free, how can anyone trust they are competent in any tech area. I suppose I should at least give them credit for not being even worse, they could have posted it to Facebook or some other extreme privacy violating money grubbing corporate site.
¹ Forced sign up, even without direct cash payment, is still paying with your private personal data.
TWiT Network Ridiculous Whining
Ian and Leo on TWiT, and others on other shows this week, were whining because US newspaper companies don’t want to spend a bunch of money so that they can continue to give free stuff to Europeans without fear of legal financial penalties.
Leo has even admitted it cost his tiny company 40 hours of labor some if it lawyer time. Obviously Leo feels his company will at least break even on the expense so of course he should make the effort. I am confident the newspapers calculated that it will result in only a net loss so it would violate their fiduciary responsibility to waste money complying with GDPR.
Update: just watched Mac Break Weekly and Alex brought up how GDPR is a no profit, only losses, situation for businesses who don’t have EU customers. I should have expected this bit of sanity since Alex is a very smart business person (as well as one of the most amazing media production experts around).
Internet Censorship Bills (SOPA/PIPA)
Massachusetts GOP Wants More Regulations
Idiot GOP members Richard Ross of Wrentham, and Steven Levy of Marlborough, in the Massachusetts House and Senate want to increase regulations to prevent imaginary problems. Theyve filed a dozen bills to require photo IDs for voting but there has never been any voter fraud significant enough to affect the outcome of an election in Massachusetts.
Fortunately our Governor is rational and will veto any of this absolutely silly legislation if it comes to his desk.
Of course most likely what these stupid Republicans want is to disenfranchise minority and elderly voters so they can more easily remove social safety nets.
Ed at Dispatches from the Culture Wars has a good post about this on the national level.
Sadly Realistic
Sadly, I’ve seen far too many Tea Party folks respond this way to questions about their political views.
Support Libel Reform in the UK
The libel laws in the UK are heavily weighted in the favor of scam artists, frauds and other evildoers. These laws allow them to very easily silence the critics who are trying to save peoples money, health and even their lives. This really needs to change, so please head on over to The Libel Reform Campaign website and sign the petition. It costs you nothing to sign and people from outside the UK are most welcome.
In a recent email and post Simon Singh outlined some of the reasons why everyone who believes in free speech, human rights, liberty and honesty should make haste and sign the petition.
(a) English libel laws have been condemned by the UN Human Rights Committee.
(b) These laws gag scientists, bloggers and journalists who want to discuss matters of genuine public interest (and public health!).
(c) Our laws give rise to libel tourism, whereby the rich and the powerful (Saudi billionaires, Russian oligarchs and overseas corporations) come to London to sue writers because English libel laws are so hostile to responsible journalism. (In fact, it is exactly because English libel laws have this global impact that we welcome signatories to the petition from around the world.)
(d) Vested interests can use their resources to bully and intimidate those who seek to question them. The cost of a libel trial in England is 100 times more expensive than the European average and typically runs to over 1 million.
(e) Three separate ongoing libel cases involve myself and two medical researchers raising concerns about three medical treatments. We face losing 1 million each. In future, why would anyone else raise similar concerns? If these health matters are not reported, then the public is put at risk.
I urge everyone to please go sign the petition and stand up for free speech.
Paul Hutchinson's Blog 