Last week I wrote about the misinformation being distributed by Republicans in comparing the Trump documents case to Hillary Clinton’s “but her emails” scandal in 2016. It’s taken as a given on the right that she broke the law and was granted special dispensation despite the fact that there were five different investigations that found otherwise. Unfortunately, that isn’t the only fake scandal they’re flogging these days to try to cover for Trump’s corruption and criminality. They’re back on the Burisma beat. I wrote about this pseudo-scandal back in 2020 when it was making one of its periodic rounds in the right wing media, mostly so they could have a excuse to circulate embarrassing photos from Hunter Biden’s laptop (which is a whole other story for another day.) I distilled the story into this succinct description: The “scandal” itself is actually nothing more than an example of the very common (and admittedly skeevy) business practice of hiring the family members of important people for the purpose of obtaining favors, gaining access or simply being viewed in a favorable light.
Reading
Fitting a model that has a parameter called ‘probability’ to data does not mean that the estimated value of that parameter estimates the probability of anything in the real world. Just as the map is not the territory, the model is not the phenomenon, and calling something ‘probability’ does not make it a probability, any […]
For our book club at OEF we’re reading the book Smart Cities (2013) by Anthony Townsend. I just finished the Audible audio book and wanted to get my notes down in writing before they slip away. The book covers the deployment of digital technology for managing and understanding the city. There are a two main … Continue reading Smart Cities (2013)
Institute for Public Accuracy
Pentagon Papers whistleblower and longtime peace activist Daniel Ellsberg died on Friday at the age of 92.
In a pair of articles published this afternoon — “Daniel Ellsberg Wanted Americans to See the Truth About War” and “Daniel Ellsberg Has Passed Away. He Left Us a Message.” — author and activist Norman Solomon reflects on the dimensions of Ellsberg’s commitments and historic impacts.
The cable car that you pedal by hand
Slavers hid news of slavery’s end A Juneteenth tale from CNN: Temple “Tempie” Cummins stoically stares at the camera with her arms folded in her lap, sitting stiffly in a chair in her dusty, barren backyard with her weather-beaten wooden shack behind her. Her dark, creased face reflects years of poverty and worry. The faded black and white image of Cummins from 1937 was snapped by a historian who stopped by her home in Jasper, Texas, to ask her about her childhood during slavery. Cummins, who did not know her exact age, shared stories of uninterrupted woe until she recounted how she and her mother discovered that they had been freed. She said her mother, a cook for their former slave owner’s family, liked to hide in the chimney corner to eavesdrop on dinner conversations.
If there’s no personal gain in it, fuck it The people who ran against Democrats over “defund the police” (never a Democratic Party policy) now want to dismantle the F.B.I., make the Department of Justice a political enforcement tool of a future Republican presidency, dismantle the civil service and more. Consider it an extension of the profit motive to our entire experiment in popular sovereignty, from regulatory capture to full repurposing the government to serve personal aggrandizement. If there’s no personal gain in it, fuck it. Now under federal indictment under a Joe Biden administration D.O.J., Donald Trump promised in a speech last week that if elected he would appoint a “real” special prosecutor to investigate the current president and his entire family. Being held to the rule of law is for Republicans an abomination. Holding your enemies to it is delicious. Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman write in the New York Times: But by suggesting the current prosecutors investigating the Bidens were not “real,” Mr.
Open Rights Group has responded to a Guardian report that the Home Office has “quietly disbanded” the unit created to reform the department after the Windrush scandal, which saw thousands of people from Commonwealth countries incorrectly classified as illegal immigrants. Rather than focusing on rectifying the harm caused by a government that is hostile towards […]
Conservatives have passed a suite of laws targeting Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil over the past two years.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: TWD: Dead City/Daryl Dixon, James Gunn/DCU, Strange New Worlds, Secret Invasion, The Flash/Arrowverse & more!
Many of the leave voters George Llewelyn met in 2021 were dissatisfied Eurosceptics who are now ardent rejoiners. How did it happen?
BOAMBEE Rural Fire Service (RFS) has received a cheque for $3,500 from Sawtell Bowling and Recreation Club from profits raised through its weekly seafood raffles. The funds will go towards the cost of laying a concrete slab for an extension being built at the fire station. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth...
The post Boambee RFS closer to building new training room thanks to Sawtell Bowling and Recreation Club donation appeared first on News Of The Area.
THE Homelands Tour, a travelling roadshow of multimedia, digital art, visual art, short films and a performing arts showcase, comes to Coffs Harbour in celebration of Refugee Week (18-24 June 2023). The tour is curated to raise awareness and understanding of refugee experiences through arts. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it...
The post Homelands Tour celebrates Refugee Week in Coffs Harbour appeared first on News Of The Area.
The future of the web must be open. It is essential. But it is not inevitable.
Therefore, at the Drupal Association, we feel it is important for the Drupal Community to take an active role in promoting the Open Web because of how crucial its principles of open access, open standards, free expression, and digital inclusion are to the well-being of modern societies.
As such, we are proud to issue our Open Web Manifesto.
Over the past few months, the Drupal Association has collaborated with Drupal founder Dries Buytaert and invited the Drupal Community to provide input into an Open Web Manifesto. The goal is a public declaration of the values that undergird Drupal the product and Drupal the community.
Despite Government claims, a total of 272 contracts by NHS England and NHS Supply Chain Coordination have not been made public
Rishi Sunak may have been pitching the UK as a possible global hub for AI regulation in a recent White House visit, but the reality is that the EU is the one innovating in this field
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Refugee Week, and the theme is compassion, celebrating the resilience of refugees and asylum seekers. However, it is disheartening to note that this year has also seen a significant increase in attacks on refugees’ rights, particularly digital rights. In previous years, the Home Office has used Twitter to […]
- by Aeon Video
- by Costica Bradatan
He’s just a thief!
The post Don’t Compare Donald Trump to Reality Winner. He’s No Whistleblower. appeared first on The Intercept.
- by Madhura Rao
Is it any surprise Conservative politicians and media rush to back North Sea gas and oil given their funding?
Mainstream economists who want to defend their use of models often quote statistician George Box, saying that “all models are wrong, but some are useful.” But the important lesson taken from Box ought to be another quotation from the same paper: “since all models are wrong the scientist must be alert to what is importantly […]
I left my Ma in tears again. We waved from the train in Totnes as the carriage moved off. We all had the sad sparkly eyes for a quiet time as the train sped along the seaway. Too many goodbyes for me this …