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Add to this, the question about the elephant in the room:

"Free," is paid for, precisely how?

Google provides a free lunch if you agree to buy the plate.

They scan their docs to fine-tune advertisement delivery.

And they are not bullet proof:

Google announced Tuesday that it had been the target of a “highly sophisticated” and coordinated hack attack against its corporate network. It said the hackers had stolen intellectual property and sought access to the Gmail accounts of human rights activists. The attack originated from China, the company said.

Hackers are trading millions of Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo logins

5 million Gmail passwords leaked

It's not a matter of, "if," it's, "when."

but what's your problem with the travel bans?

My problem is that the bans are counter-productive. They do not make the US any more safe than it is now as the stats prove. Having rigorous vetting is good and if someone cannot be vetted, then understandably they should not be let in, but it's not like there is or has been a massive problem of terrorists coming in to the US through these countries, whereas there is a history of people coming in from other countries (such as SA) and doing a lot of damage, yet these countries are not on the list.

It makes no sense. You're fighting people who want nothing more than all muslims to be demonized and targeted, because that's the single most effective way of turning them against you. ISIS would like nothing more than US banning islam and telling muslims to 'convert or die' as that'd be the perfect gift for them; they'd tell everyone to officially give up their faith (something the Koran sanctions) and go deeper into underground to strike against the US. Attacks would likely increase, not stop. This is what they openly wish for.

The ban as it's currently implemented does nothing except further ruin your repetutation and make alliances with those and other muslim countries even harder. The jihadists are already taking advantage of it;

Several postings suggested that Trump was fulfilling the predictions of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American born al-Qaeda leader and preacher who famously said that the “West would eventually turn against its Muslim citizens.” Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

“When U.S. President Donald Trump says ‘We don’t want them here’ and bans the Muslim immigrants from Muslim countries, there is one thing that comes to our mind,” said another posting, beneath a banner of al-Awlaki and his quote.

Another posting on the Telegram channel “Abu Magrebi” said Trump’s actions “clearly revealed the truth and harsh reality behind the American government’s hatred toward Muslims.”

Leaders of the Islamic State speak frequently of their intention to drive a wedge between Western governments and their Muslim populations, and have welcomed outside help — intentional or not — in fulfilling that goal. In a 2015 essay in the Islamic State’s English-language magazine Dabiq, the group said that its motivation for launching terrorist attacks in Europe was to provoke an anti-Muslim backlash that would force ambivalent Muslims to enlist with them.

“Jihadists would have to argue to lengths that Obama, Bush, and others held anti-Islam agendas and hated the religion — not just radical terrorists,” said Rita Katz, founder of the SITE Intelligence Group, a private organization that monitors jihadist websites. “Trump, however, makes that argument a lot easier for them to sell to their followers.”

You're playing exactly into their hand and strategy with this ban, while gaining no notable benefit to your current situation. It's a completely shortsighted and stupid policy to be putting into action when you can already - if need be - refuse immigrants if they cannot be properly vetted. The ban is not needed for that. The justifications given for it are also complete bullshit:

"There are 1,000 open ISIS investigations, approximately, inside the United States. There's a very strong nexus between our immigration and visa programs and terrorist plots and extremist networks inside the United States," the official continued. "Look at the recent, high-profile attacks that have occurred inside the country -- an immigration nexus is not at all uncommon. I won't go through the list of them all now. One obvious example would be Tashfeen Malik and the San Bernadino incident with the K1 visa."
A K1 visa i

Cynic in me says they are looking for someone who can be implicated as a terrorist supporter to be used to justify the ban.

Funny thing about that...

Trumps actual order has an exception for immigrants who are already in transit, viz section (e): "[...] when the person is already in transit and denying admission would cause undue hardship -- and it would not pose a risk to the security or welfare of the United States."

So holding people up at US airports just some ICE pricks trying to make a false narrative to paint Trump in a bad light.

I'd say you hadn't read the article you linked to, but since you quote it, and seem capable of English comprehension, I can only assume you are deliberately trying to mispresent the case. The "ICE pricks" are doing exactly what Trump has decreed. You conveniently left out the start of the section, which includes as the beginning...the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security may jointly determine to admit individuals to the United States as refugees on a case-by-case basis...[including] when the person is already in transit...

So those 'ICE pricks' have no discretion. BOTH Secretaries of State AND Homeland Security must apply that "in transit exemption". AND they can't even do it by a class or group - they have to give approval for each individual. Before they can enter.

AND this exception only applied to refugees. Not to tourists or people visiting their families.

I'm starting to wonder if it isn't the other way around: a power grab in the US with terrorists as the boogey man (since the Soviet Union and Cold War is over). I used to think it was just ineptitude, but it is just too consistent for that. The US policy in the Middle East always seems to create future enemies that need to be fought, benefiting military contractors. Every bomb dropped needs replaced, just look at those revenue numbers skyrocket! Then of course rebuilding everything afterwards requires expensive contractors as well.

* US backs Shah against democratically elected officials, creating theocracy and a future enemy.
* US trains Bin Laden and others how to fight against a superpower, creating a future enemy.
* US provides weapons to an enemy in the Iran Contra scandal.
* US alllows it's companies to sell key technologies to Iraq, which aided them in their chemical, missile, and nuclear programs, building up a future enemy.
* US, with drones and other planes bomb weddings and children on a disturbingly frequent basis. The military and intelligence agencies know this will create blowback, more future terrorists, yet on it continues.
* US destabilizes Iraq, allowing ISIS to get built up and armed. Say what you will about Saddam, he kept jihadists in check. This enabled an enemy to rise to power, which is still our enemy.
* US provides weapons and aid to jihadists in Syria (same CNN link above) . Come on, if you've been paying attention you know what these people will become right? Future enemies! So predictable!

When will this madness end? No wonder everyone in the Middle East hates the US, just look at history and it's all laid out to see.

In many places where he wants to build the wall it's nearly impossible. The terrain is extremely rugged or there's sand dunes. Good luck building a wall in sand dunes and rough terrain like Big Bend, Tx. He also has never heard of tunnels or drones. Most illegals overstay their visas and enter the country legally.

Cynic in me says they are looking for someone who can be implicated as a terrorist supporter to be used to justify the ban.

Funny thing about that...

Trumps actual order has an exception for immigrants who are already in transit, viz section (e): "[...] when the person is already in transit and denying admission would cause undue hardship -- and it would not pose a risk to the security or welfare of the United States."

So holding people up at US airports just some ICE pricks trying to make a false narrative to paint Trump in a bad light.

And other than Syria, which was specifically referenced in the order, Trump is using Obama's list of Muslim countries, viz: "Obama restricted visa waivers for those seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen — and now, Trump is looking to bar immigration and visitors from the same list of countries."

So this is just lefties not caring about the actual issue. When they do it it's OK, but thay have to paint Trump in a bad light when he does it.

(Speaking of which, has Hillary been seen in a black church or black community since November? Or was that just an election thing?)

Also, Obama banned Iraq refugees for 6 months and we didn't hear a peep out of the lefties. Once again, they don't care about the issue, only which side does it.

And no, he didn't ban Muslim immigration. Muslims from Turkey and Saudi Arabia (for example) are not affected by this.

There's a fuckton of people on social media who are actually in favor of this, and who see this as a temporary measure intended to create common-sense rules intended to keep us safe. People are also noting that this was one of his campaign promises, and it's both surprising and refreshing to see someone actually keeping those promises.

You guys have 6 1/2 years to groom a replacement, and you'd better get started real soon now. Your campaign strategy of being the "lesser of two evils" won't work the next time around.

If Jared Kushner or Donald Jr. decides to run for president, the current of actually kept promises will be almost impossible to swim against.

Cynic in me says they are looking for someone who can be implicated as a terrorist supporter to be used to justify the ban.

The cynic in me says that border control agents are as confused by the order as everyone else.

They were told legal residents were not included in the ban, then they were included, then a judge blocked deportation, now while everyone is stuck waiting around they might as well try to do some "extreme vetting".

"I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in -- and the West in general -- into an unbearable hell and a choking life."

— Osama bin Laden's last recorded interview

One study predicts that the Persian Gulf will be uninhabitable due to increase temperatures by 2100. The people living there will have to move to cooler areas, wear environmental suits or die off.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/world/persian-gulf-heat-climate-change/index.html

Silicon Valley will be under four feet of water by 2100, as it was built on a flood plain. No one yet is talking about building miles of levees to keep the water at bay.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/22/silicon-valley-sea-level-rise-google-facebook-flood-risk

A compromise with the GOP? The hell it was. Not even ONE member of the GOP in the House or Senate voted for this, not even one. This whole thing was 100% the Democrats doing. Republicans wanted NOTHING to do with this.

Except for the amendments they approved.

But hey, you know what? They had 6 years to do anything else. But all they did was scream repeal, but then what?

Remember the "You are going to have to pass it to find out what's in it" thing from Ole Nancy P at the time? Why did she say that?

Yeah, we remember the narrative, as what she was actually saying was that the GOP was lying so much about it, that the average person had no idea what was in it. Some people still confuse the ACA and Obamacare as if they were separate things.

Because the Republicans where just a few hours away from being able to actually having enough votes to stop the ACA with the election of a republican in the Special election for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat who was to be sworn in. There was not even time to READ the bill before everybody had to vote.

March 10was the speech, months after th Senate had passed their bill, leaving the House to confirm it in two weeks.

Democrats had to pass this sight unseen, which is what their leaders asked and what they did.

Nope. There was plenty of scrutiny and debate.

Many are no longer in office because of this.

Nope. Try gerrymandering.

I consider the ACA to be the start of the long decline of democrats power who have been losing more and more power as they tried to cling to this ACA mess... Obama killed your party, it's power, it's credibility with all this mess and until you realize it, you will be the opposing party, the party of "no" and nothing else.

Well, that's what worked for the GOP, isn't it? Except you know, losing the popular vote.

Ouchies. Three Presidential losses of the popular vote in a row, and not too well in 2010, guess you ought to reconsider which party is dying.

Smells like more of what I am starting to refer to as 'Trumped up news'.

Not that I support the man (or in fact could really care less directly about US politics), however it seems very important to quite a group of people to
make it look like the sky is falling right now. It is quite sad to see the side that believes they stand for fairness, doing the right thing, caring of others, etc
having to throw so much dirt so bitterly. Its like watching monkeys at the zoo fighting over scraps.

No it's not. It raising the alarm over alarming actions. It's the same thing thing that happened to some other guy. It's the same thing that yet some other guy did many many times.

when you think the press is critical of you, and not the other guy, you're just biased. when you complain and criticize almost non-stop, then call it unfair when other people criticize and complain about you, you're just a fucking cry-baby.

That trump is not just blatantly lying but doing his damnest to make it so truth itself can be crushed and that all reasonable voices to the otherwise are silenced is scary as hell.

Yup, This is how it started in Russia. Many people seem confused as to why would they deny something as obvious as the size of the inauguration crowds for example that's easily proven false? Well, it has 3 important effects on american public discourse and media:

1. Establishing a norm with the press: they will be told things that are obviously wrong and they will have no opportunity to ask questions. That way, they will be grateful if they get anything more at any press conference.

2. Increasing the separation between Trump's base (1/3 of the population) from everybody else (the remaining 2/3). By being told something that is obviously wrong - that there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrong - they are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble here - likely to pay off - is that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as "fake news" (because otherwise they'd be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.)

3. Creating a sense of uncertainty about whether facts are knowable, among a certain chunk of the population (which is a taking a page from the Kremlin, for whom this is their preferred disinformation tactic). A third of the population will say "clearly the White House is lying," a third will say "if Trump says it, it must be true," and the remaining third will say "gosh, I guess this is unknowable." The idea isn't to convince these people of untrue things, it's to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.

This is laying important groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump's White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as the crowds at the inauguration, just imagine what else they'll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of. This allows them to eventually say anything to the public, and this should be worrisome to Americans regardless of who you voted because this is how totalitarian states get started.
He's setting up his Pravda and being quite upfront about it.

He's still making the claim that 3 million 'fake voters' voted for Hillary to lose him the popular vote. There's no evidence for this, none whatsoever, anywhere. Yet the defense given reads like this::

Forced to defend the President's remarks to congressional leaders on Monday night, his spokesman Sean Spicer was unable to quell the controversy on Tuesday, citing "studies and evidence" -- then refused to discuss or produce any such material.
"The President does believe that, I think he's stated that before, and stated his concern of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign and continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence people have brought to him," Spicer said.

So to him. He only knows. Truth is what he believes it to be. Where have I read this before?

I tell you Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the party holds to be truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.

-1984

I'm not american, but all I can say to Americans is: don't fall for this. Don't let the man divide you even further against yourself and monopolize the truth. You've seen how well that has gone in Russia, a

Q: Would you cut departments?
TRUMP: Environmental Protection, what they do is a disgrace. Every week they come out with new regulations.

If you read this carefully, it's a clear example of Trump evasiveness. Note he didn't actually say that he would cut or get rid of the EPA. He didn't even mention the EPA directly by name, he said they do things that are disgraceful. Then in the next line he affirmed that he wouldn't get rid of it completely.
The quote is so sneaky that he can basically do anything and still live up to his promise. Not only that, everyone agrees that some things the EPA has done are bad.

People are acting like the US government has the only facts in existence and a wiping of the public facing data held by that government by order of the head of that government is an attack on fact itself.

Trump has the only facts that matter. Listen and believe.

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/24/...

Unless the polls were hacked, then the election wasn't hacked.

Grima Wormtongue, um, sorry, Sean Spicer, has already stated that the President BELIEVES the election was hacked, that the President has SEEN reports and documentation of it. It happened today from the Mouth of Sauron, I'm sorry, Trump, Sean Spicer, himself.

Who are we to argue with Lord Hee-Haw, himself, if he wants to say that the 2016 November Elections are illegitimate? That's fine, I am entirely comfortable with accepting his determination that he was illegally elected. He has even told us how we should respond.

Some people simply can't take the demoralizing facts and they feel the need to downmoderate such facts.
Sad.

Fortunately, though moderation points can run out, no one has yet run out of copy/paste!

So let us be reminded that we need to stop the demowawizin!
It makes the Pwetious Swowflake in Thief fwustwated.
He DID have the biggest and bewutifuwest inaguwation! He DID! HE DIIIIIIDDD!!!
Stop demowawazing the Pwedident! It'll huwt his pwetious thiewings!

See? This time I even got the link right! Ahh... The magic of copy/paste.
Dog bless you thin-skinned frustrated sore winner moderators. Dog bless you all.

Ooops! Messed up that link.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01...

It's OK. They have options.

OK, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are genuinely ignorant and not just trying to be a troll. You do know that the US is a net exporter of oil right... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

The war in Afghanistan was because a few monsters over there murdered 3000 US civilians, and the ruling body in Afghanistan sided with those monsters, so we killed them. You remember that right? There is/was no oil in Afghanistan...

The war in Iraq happened because Saddam Hussein had a huge stockpile of chemical weapons (previously well documented in the 80s and previously used on the Kurds in 1988 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared... ) and had Uranium (550 tons http://www.nbcnews.com/id/2554...), was trying to buy more and refine it (we found the centrifuges buried in a civilian district of Baghdad http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/... ) and he kicked the IAEA/weapons inspectors out of Iraq. He thought we would blink because we were already involved in Afghanistan, but we didn't and that was what triggered the Iraq war.

We didn't take over any Iraq oil fields and we don't import it. We spent $2,000B on the Iraq war http://www.reuters.com/article... while the Iraq oil production is worth a piddling $25B/year. http://www.theglobalist.com/ir... If you think the Iraq war was about oil or for profit, you are either ignorant or a moron or both.

We need the US war machine so that the Russians and/or the Chinese (or Iran for that mater), don't try to subjugate the rest of the world. I suspect under Trump, a lot of other modern countries who have been getting a free ride as far as protection via the US military will start shouldering their fair share of expenses, so we may well have more cash, but that will probably go to actually building things like power plants, transmission lines, roads and airports, rather than more "green jobs." We already tried that under BHO and we got Solyndra. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/...

And then you look at other states that are failing

Other states have:

*Taxes that are devastating on people with lower incomes
*Instead of randomly belaboring a single data point, consider the whole picture, including the nastiness of total local government debt
*A regulatory and legal climate that leads to exposure to pollution and injury risks
*Decades old reports with schools that are some of the worst in the nation being hysteria to justify even worse results
*Huge backlogs of road work necessary across the country, and a refusal to pay for it
*Increasing income inequality
*Huge drug problems in rural areas.

I can drop links on you all day, don't pester California or San Francisco when you live in a glass house yourself.

And then you look at other states that are failing

Other states have:

*Taxes that are devastating on people with lower incomes
*Instead of randomly belaboring a single data point, consider the whole picture, including the nastiness of total local government debt
*A regulatory and legal climate that leads to exposure to pollution and injury risks
*Decades old reports with schools that are some of the worst in the nation being hysteria to justify even worse results
*Huge backlogs of road work necessary across the country, and a refusal to pay for it
*Increasing income inequality
*Huge drug problems in rural areas.

I can drop links on you all day, don't pester California or San Francisco when you live in a glass house yourself.

Mocking the diabled: Video, 45 seconds long: http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2...

Trump racism: Let's start with 1973 charges of discrimination in housing, then work forward to 2016 where he said the Central Park Five should go to jail DESPITE DNA evidence exonerating them, with all sorts of gems along the way. http://fortune.com/2016/06/07/... Oh... and then there's the famous quote about Mexicans. And suggesting a blanket ban on Muslims as a category.

Advocating for war crimes: March 2016, defending ordering the US military to commit war crimes of killing non-combatants that are family members of those in combat http://www.washingtontimes.com... Also advocates for waterboarding and worse in several interviews and speeches.

Regarding treatment of women: Ah, the famous "grab them by the pussy" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

It is because Left Wingers keep parroting "Clinton won the Popular Vote" as if that mattered.

Except it does. Why?

Because it shows Trump is LYING about a landslide.

If you weren't a partisan hack, you'd oppose that too, and point out the real facts. You can't though, because again, you're a partisan hack.

Which you can't even admit, but have to lie about and pretend you're some kind of neutral observer. Who consistently repeats right-wing lies. Huh.

You think we're dumb as you are? We're not, we spot your lies.

When liberals offer that up, it opens up every other comparison out there. Hillary lost the election, popular vote doesn't count. If you wanted it to count, the vote totals would change, substantially.

Whah-whah. It does count. Because that way, we know exactly how broken the Electoral College system is, and no, not every other comparison. Your false allegations about Hillary losing in 49 states, for example. Trump's assertions of a landslide. Those are still lying bullshit.

A lot of Republicans in California don't vote because what is the point?

All evidence indicates a lot of Americans don't vote, period.

Turnout drop is arguable, but even that aside, 90 million non-voters. That's how Trump was able to win Wisconsin with fewer votes than the losing side got in 2004.

No. I was thinking of Robert Byrd who did his best to continue segregation until political reasons forced his to pretend to change. And pretend was all it was. You just had to listen to the man.

Quick google search would show you that
http://www.azquotes.com/author...

Democrat Senator Reid is the same way (but he is bat-shit crazy so I almost want to give him a pass.)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITI... He made these comments in 2008, long after Thurmond dies (so much more recent.)

If you're among the 1-percenters' offspring whose parents either went to these elite institutions or can afford to donate something substantial to get you in, why is it surprising that elite schools have more well-off students?

No more than it is "surprising" that the wealthy live much longer than the poor, another statistic that is in need of dramatic adjustment. Bring back 91% marginal tax brackets while providing universal health care and education.

There's basically 4 factors that determine where you end up in life -- how smart or successful your parents are, how wealthy they are, how much raw potential you have, and usually a whole lot of dumb luck.

The "dumb luck" is to be born to a rich set of parents. The poster children for this example is George W. and Neil Bush. The one kept getting handed multimillion dollar businesses to run into the ground, and the other "just happened" to have a couple of women knock his his hotel room door, looking to have sex with him.

Poor kids who do everything right dont do better than rich kids who do everything wrong

After parthogenesis is perfected, a few women will go for it. And the rest will go for men as usual, for a variety of reasons: * More fun! * Simpler/cheaper procedure, no need for pills/equipment. A handful one-night stands is all a woman really need from men anyway. * Men are useful for painting walls, fixing car tires, removing snow, carrying stuff from shops, . . . * Alimony

That depends on how many men are going to put up with that shit. Seema a fiar number are dropping out of that mess.

I think it's like this - what is in it for men? That one night stand might get you accused of rape, or certainly you might get nailed for child support intil the offspring graduates college if you being used as an insemination utility is successful. And a man who donates sperm had better understand that he can now be liable for child support. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/23/...

For those who don't want to read the link, a man who donated sperm to a lesbian couple was successfully sued for child support when the couple fell on financial hard times.

Lest we think this is a isolated case: http://www.canada.com/news/nat...

A retroactive child support suit after 20 years.

And this guy won, but tell me, you gonna donate? http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pa...

So if you are willing to sign your life and fortune and good name away for a piece of ass, have at it. Just go in with both eyes open. Because if she wants your money, she's gonna get it, sepecially if you do it th eold fashioned way.

IOW, you'll get screwed multiple times and ways.

I was especially disgusted when they claimed Snowden was trying to court favor with Obama to get a pardon, and then stated that they "saved Snowden's ass":
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/06/...

How could you possibly interpret his statement like that?

Because he said almost exactly that? Fuck the bankers? Cool. Fuck the DNC for rigging their own primary? Hey, no fair!

People seem set on ignoring the single most important detail about this "partisan" issue - The people wanted Sanders vs Trump; the GOP grudgingly honored the will of its constituents (even though they largely expected to lose as a result), while the DNC rigged every step of their primaries to get the "right" woman on the ticket (and did lose as a result).

As for "one sided" - Nope!, the Russians hacked both sides, they just didn't find anything "juicy" enough about the GOP to bother with.

China owns something like a third of the total foreign held US debt

The amount of US debt China owns is less than 10% of the total amount outstanding. Currently around $1.3 Trillion which is a big number but only a single digit percentage of the total debt. Most of the US debt is actually held by Americans. Of the $12.9 trillion chunk of debt owned by Americans, $5.3 trillion is held by government trust funds such as Social Security, $5.1 trillion is held by individuals, pension funds and state and local governments and the remaining $2.5 trillion is held by the Federal Reserve. Basically most of the debt is IOUs to the American people.

Interestingly Japan owns almost as much US debt as China does at $1.1 Trillion. But Japan isn't so scary so people gloss over that fact.

Although China needs the US as badly as the US needs China, if we try to bluster our way into something stupid, just calling the debt will make for a rather unpleasant time as the world economy topples.

China has no ability whatsoever to "call" the US debt. Treasury bonds don't work like that. China bought those treasuries to keep their currency exchange rate under control. Furthermore even if China wanted to get rid of their US denominated debt, they have absolutely no one else they can sell it to. There simply are no buyers for that much US debt at anywhere close to face value. If they hold a fire sale they absolutely screw their own economy in the process.

2000 GM workers losing their jobs on Jan 20
Thanks Donald

Maybe msmash could find the same article on a more reputable site, like Buzzfeed or CNN.

Easy enough. Don't Anonymous Cowards have google?
Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/peter...
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/18/...

Posting AC because I've moderated.

President Obama did not pardon Manning. He commuted her sentence. Commuting leaves the crime and punishment intact but reduces the time spent in jail.

A pardon essentially wipes the crime from the person's record. This CNN article explains more clearly the difference between the two acts:

A presidential commutation reduces the sentence being served but it does not change the fact of conviction, whereas a pardon forgives a certain criminal offense.

Considering the US has the highest recidivism rate, around 76%, in the world, the EU countries by definition are doing better. Norway, as an example, has the lowest recidivism rate, around 20%, in the world.

Hey! We pour the most money into our prison system, so it must be the best.

Sad to say, the get tough on crime crowd in conjunction with the war on drugs, has turned the US Prison system into insanity. Then there is the aspect of money, which in some cases gets you three months for sexual assault rape, http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/02/... versus getting 50 years for stealing a rack of ribs. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

And yet, the people who think that what amounts to a life sentence for stealing food is a fine idea, almost universally don't want to pay for that incarceration.

We're Kookoo for Cocoa-Puffs some times.

I hear this a lot, but with the one child policy I don't think they want their one and only child killed.

Sure, most people love their children, but then you have this issue: China's biggest problem? Too many men

30 million more men than women by 2020. Don't you think that's going to cause some problems?

Sorry to tell you, but she was already impeached.

This is more likely a response to Russia's actions during the election.

So, NOW Obama reacts to Russian hacking?

What about when the Russians hacked the White House itself? Obama did nothing.

What about when China hacked the entire OPM database of cleared government workers? Obama did nothing.

What about when Russia had penetrated the entire State Department network? Obama did nothing. (So given Obama's fecklessness, Hillary actually did have a reason to run a separate email system - but she didn't run it securely and it was probably hacked by everyone: Hillary Clinton’s Email Was Probably Hacked, Experts Say)

Obama did nothing until Democrats needed an excuse for Hillary's loss.

This is more likely a response to Russia's actions during the election.

So, NOW Obama reacts to Russian hacking?

What about when the Russians hacked the White House itself? Obama did nothing.

What about when China hacked the entire OPM database of cleared government workers? Obama did nothing.

What about when Russia had penetrated the entire State Department network? Obama did nothing. (So given Obama's fecklessness, Hillary actually did have a reason to run a separate email system - but she didn't run it securely and it was probably hacked by everyone: Hillary Clinton’s Email Was Probably Hacked, Experts Say)

Obama did nothing until Democrats needed an excuse for Hillary's loss.

Trump said it was a terrorist attack.
The God Emperror is always right.

We need a total and complete shutdown of all iphones entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on!

Seattle: Together with Microsoft and bad city management, Seattle is a miserable place: Traffic: Seattle one of the worst U.S. cities for traffic congestion, tied with NYC (March 31, 2015) Quote: "An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic may not sound like much, but when it adds up over a year it becomes 89 hours." (Whoever wrote that must be accustomed to Seattle misery. An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic sounds HORRIBLE.) Slow internet: Many areas of Seattle have poor internet connections. See the article, These places have the slowest Internet in the country. (June 25, 2015) Quote: "... Seattle ... CenturyLink (CTL) customers trying to access particular sites from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. will have unbearably slow speeds."

Yes, Seattle is horrible. DO NOT COME HERE! There's nothing to see or do. No work. No food. No housing. um, ...did I mention it rains all the time and you'll be depressed and need Vitamin D shots or risk committing suicide? It's a wasteland and at best just the demo version of San Francisco. Move there!

Amazon: Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon's sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers (February 23, 2014)

Amazon: Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace (August 15, 2015) Quote: "The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers..."

Amazon: Amazon Under Fire Over Alleged Worker Abuse in Germany (February 19, 2013)

Microsoft: Microsoft Is Filled With Abusive Managers And Overworked Employees, Says Tell-All Book (May 23, 2012)

Seattle: Together with Microsoft and bad city management, Seattle is a miserable place:

Traffic: Seattle one of the worst U.S. cities for traffic congestion, tied with NYC (March 31, 2015) Quote: "An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic may not sound like much, but when it adds up over a year it becomes 89 hours." (Whoever wrote that must be accustomed to Seattle misery. An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic sounds HORRIBLE.)

Slow internet: Many areas of Seattle have poor internet connections. See the article, These places have the slowest Internet in the country. (June 25, 2015) Quote: "... Seattle ... CenturyLink (CTL) customers trying to access particular sites from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. will have unbearably slow speeds."

Well, some were gaoled. But mostly low-level, none of the big fish.

Good idea. We'll go back to longbows.

No thanks, longbows were used to justify conscripting thousands of innocent English peasants to wage war for the benefit of a king.

Let's not repeat that mistake.

You will personally assure all of our military folks that the people who routinely shoot at them will stop doing so, right? As soon as you've got all crazy Islamists signing a binding agreement that they will only slaughter people with scimitars from now on, that should help.

Why bother with an agreement about that? Why not just stop propping up dictatorships that benefit from most of the people being indoctrinated into believing the wildest and craziest ideas? We could even stop sending them arms that they use to oppress their citizens.

Take responsibility for our own actions. Like moral people do.

You do understand how defense works, don't you? Like how, for example, it took actual bullets fired from actual guns to stop a terrorist truck driver from running over and backing over them again just this past Saturday? Never mind. Get back with us when someone has violently attacked you, if you survive, and let us know what you think then.

You do know how violence and oppression work, don't you? Like for example, how the police have been known to break into the wrong house, and kill an innocent grandmother themselves? No, you haven't any familiarity with that? Perhaps a grandfather beaten? Perhaps some innocent students shot by the national guard? Maybe you heard about this lawsuit? Or this incident? No? Then get back to us when somebody, purporting to stand up for law and order, subjects you to the force and violence you so cavalierly hand-wave as necessary, and if you survive, let us know what you think.

Like Tom Wolfe said, if being mugged can turn a liberal into a conservative, being jailed can turn a conservative into a liberal.

But I get it, you want to sneer down at others because that's the way you've been trained and indoctrinated. Too bad you're blinder than anyone else.

Keep playing your vidya games though, they're sure teaching you a lot about the real world. We really do have Quad-Damage power-ups!

Not quite true that *nobody* was jailed. Here are 35 bankers sent to prison:

http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/2...

Also some who didn't go to prison did get fines over over $100 million.

Compared to the 1980s S&L crisis, there were certainly fewer prosecutions. One career prosecutor who is knowledgeable about both says that one reason for that is the the Obama administration, unlike the Reagan administration, was hostile toward white-blowers who could have enabled prosecution.

the recent election outcome, which was in large part *against* globalism.

You stupid sonofabitch. Do you really think this election was about globalism?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/28/...

It's really fascinating to see that they really didn't invent the modern, big touch screen smart phone. They were going to release something that likely would have been consigned to the annals of history as a failed idea and eventually been forced to go the touch screen route like everyone else.

Jobs was famously honest about stealing good ideas. The iPhone might be the highest value theft ever.

I can show you where Samsung got their smartphone design from.

Now, Please show me where Apple got the iPhone from (and don't say from that barely-similar LG Prada, unless you think Apple could have designed the iPhone in ONE MONTH, since the Prada wasn't even LEAKED until December 12, 2006, and the iPhone was DEBUTED on January 9, 2007, some 25 DAYS later).

Also, the FBI never even examined the DNC server. No need to redact top secret info which doesn't exist.

I'm humored by this, where the report states that they "rarely can publicly reveal the full extent of its knowledge or the precise bases [sic] for its assessments..." Huh? They didn't reveal any knowledge or basis, at all.

And, they don't know the difference between a troll and a sockpuppet.

I failed at math? Here's my citation, where's your's? http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/21/...

It's not a memristor. See this article which does a much better job of explaining it than WikiPedia.

Memristors by definition is not a stateful electronic component, so, to answer your question, no, it's not a 4-state memristor. The original article does talk about "states" but it refers to the ternary numerbing system available in the device. Ternary is better than binary for efficient storage (log base 3 of n vs log base 2 of n) but hopelessly inefficient for actually accessing it or doing anything with it.

Imagine, if you will, the old "sort the coins with the balance-scale" problem. Given n coins you CAN do it in log(3)n+2 instead of log(2)n+1 which is "better" except there's an algorithmic cost to have to identify discrete coins and move them around. In the log(2)n solution you just put half on one scale, half on the other, and see which side goes up and which side goes down.

Computationally intensive algorithms make a ternary system less efficient than a binary system for FAR MORE than the cost that one saves in storage or having different 'states' as they call it.

As to the comment that you can do logic gates, that is not in the original article. All the article purports to claim is that the memory chip can do operations on the data in the memory chip so you don't need a CPU. Put more simplistically it means that the memory chip can do CPU-like functions without the transfer back and forth of memory. In-place ops are significantly less computationally expensive than those requiring memory-mapping, DMA, or whatever transfer mechanism is used.

E

Apple removed the English and Chinese-language versions of the New York Times app on 23 December, although it was not immediately clear why.

Maybe because the NYT was banned in China in 2012?? http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/26/world/asia/china-times-website-blocked/

and

From How the New York Times is eluding censors in China

Using apps: Articles are published on apps targeting the Chinese-language market that have often been ignored by Chinese censors for weeks or months at a time, before being blocked. Often these apps are openly branded with the “New York Times” name.

I'm not saying censoring them is right, but this crap they are peddling about not knowing why their apps were pulled from China is pure bullshit. They know exactly why: They were banned in 2012 by the Chinese government! China just never got around to asking for the apps to be pulled until now.