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This post is offtopic and wrong.

It discusses current heat content to try to refute that the ocean thermally connected the Antarctic with the Arctic 2.7 million years ago to start the current ice age.

It also casts the recent NASA paper that showed the increase in ocean heat content to be consistent with current estimates of radiative forcing as not finding the "missing heat". If the radiative forcings agree, there's no missing heat.

And raises the question "Why would a 150 year melt cycle be "right on time" in warming world?"
The answer is "Because the melt cycle is on top of a melting trend".

I can only assume that this got modded to +5 because there are too many climate change deniers on slashdot with mod points. I remember when the people posting and modding here had an interest in science.

WTF people? Science denial here? It's supposed to be "news for nerds" not "news for US tea-party morons from the trailer park" is here. Please go there an leave /. to people with something sensible to say.

And yet it still wouldn't be enough for this guy:

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure...

It was covered a lot at the time, and they even had hearings to follow-up, and hearings about the hearings. There were congressional hearings to discuss if the hearings were themselves illegal because of how they were targeting and proposing to target Muslim-Americans, and hearings to discuss the response of Muslim-Americans to the hearings about the civil rights of Muslim-Americans and their status as an internal threat to the security of the nation.

It's funny looking back at news articles, at clips of the hearings, at a brief few minutes stolen here and there. At times, it looks quite tame. Watching them actually occur was ... disturbing. After a few minutes, I was already waiting for the ghost of FDR to appear and tell everyone to just throw those brown-skinned suicide bombers into the concentration camps with the Japs and Krauts.

We talk about this once great nation; I wonder if it was ever great.

The conservatives seem to want to turtle and ban all travel from those nations ... which would, of course, be a death knell for any aide workers traveling there to help out..

Yeah, true. Because it's not like America has a freaking huge Air Force which can fly in and out those who actually have a good reason to go there.

LOL! I hate to break it to you but from what I've seen coming out of Fox News and dipshit O'Reilly's mouth, there's no "except for health workers" clause in their absolute ban on travel from ebola outbreak countries to the United States. USAF capabilities or not. Please provide a citation next time you post.

Well, these people are bumping a lot of uglies! http://www.foxnews.com/story/2... Maybe these useless PhD's could all get fucked too?

It will be more likely the Republicans will start saying they want a land war in Asia. Oh wait, that is what they want.

One of the classic blunders!

Ah, yes, the big, bad UNION .

Yes, them. Labor unions are nothing but monopolies (or wanna-be monopolies), whose sole official purpose is maintaining and increasing the prices, their members can charge. As such, they ought to be treated to the anti-monopoly laws as well as, when the members break the law (for the union's sake) with the federal RICO law — as racketeer-influenced and corrupt organizations — rather than have each beating, shooting, or property destruction treated as isolated crimes committed by individual members on their own.

On top of it, any union, whose connection to the bona-fide crime is proven (even if it is just a single union official), must be disbanded automatically and immediately — the innocent members, who wish to unionize again, can do so under a new name later.

Both are doing it for profit for the companies and directly against the interest of their own employees.

They do. But they've grown to become that way naturally — not by using the law to force others to join them, as the unions are legally empowered to do.

What about the collusion among tech companies to not hire each other's employees?

Such collusions — if they are legal to begin with — are not supported by the existing law. Very much unlike the unionization — whereby a group of employees may vote to "unionize" a particular workplace and then they get to force other employees to join their union as well as prevent the employer from hiring outside of the union.

Sure, people ought to be free to associate with each other. But labor unions have much more law on their side, than a church club or a bowling league. And that just should not be the case...

It will be more likely the Republicans will start saying they want a land war in Asia. Oh wait, that is what they want.

"War on Women" is a Democrat campaign scam - the Obama administration itself (and the Democrats in congress too) have been caught paying their female staffers less than their male staffers.

As for Issa's wealth... and whether it's "bad", let's see here:

Issa built his own wealth by starting and running businesses BEFORE going to Washington

The Kennedys (beloved by Democrats) all inherited their vast fortunes from their prohibition-era alchohol smuggler patriarch (whether you like that law or not, Joe senior was a criminal and the family fortune was built on crime dollars). This would be like somebody today building a financial empire on drug money, then after drug legalization pretending that the money was "clean" without regard to all the crime and dead bodies that contributed to the stash.

former Senator John Kerry (now SecState) got rich by marrying a rich widow.

Senator John McCain got rich by marrying a girl rich with inherited wealth

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) inherited a MOUNTAIN of money from a so-called "robber-baron" and then, in one of the planet's most hypocritical acts, struts around pontificating against the wealthy (while hanging-onto that inherited wealth and all the power it bought him).

Politics is an expensive game, so more and more of the members go there already wealthy, but most politicians who go to Washington NOT rich, (and spend MILLIONS on campaigns for jobs that pay $174K per year) somehow amazingly end-up quite wealthy after only several years. There are many ways this happens; members of congress, for one example, are exempt from "insider trading" laws (they can hear things about companies and markets, even in closed-door meetings, and then call their investors and place orders). Many of them sit on comittees where they direct taxpayer funds... and direct those funds to companies run by their relatives, like Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is an example, Former Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) and congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) (Who both have rich husbands who are investors - remember that insider trading exemption??).

No person is "evil". Calling extremists evil is a lazy manipulation designed to stop you thinking about their motivations and grievances. I think we've had quite enough of that.

ISIS engages in rape, torture, beheadings, amputations, crucifixions, live burials, mass executions, and genocide.

Are they simply misguided? They desire to spread their civilization and form of government over all the earth. Is that wrong? Are you being "judgmental"?

ISIS Attacks: “Religious Cleansing and Attempted Genocide”
Horrors Of ISIS: Children Buried Alive, Crucified Corpses
Iraq crisis: Islamic militants 'buried alive Yazidi women and children in attack that killed 500'

The Antarctic sea ice extent was not and is not projected to shrink in the near term.

Bzzz! False. Quoting the above-mentioned professor of "Climate Change" from Australia (emphasis mine): "Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change, but here ice is building up".

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2...

You might pay more attention to the news then. :)

It seems like every other week there is some Christian or another in Iran being sentenced with death.

"An Iranian Christian pastor already imprisoned for his faith now faces the death penalty after being hit with a bizarre new charge called "spreading corruption on Earth."

Supporters fear the worst for Pastor Behnam Irani, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2011 for his Christian activities, including leading a 300-member evangelical congregation in Karaj, a city less than 15 miles outside the capital, Tehran. He is now being held in solitary confinement and suffering numerous health problems, including internal bleeding, according to advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide."

She's probably just fine with the *state* peeping into your (not her) business. That's the very definition of a self labeled "progressive". Guns, drones, private (no tax man involved) monetary interactions between people, healthcare, retirement, etc.

Actually, Sotomayor is a bit of an outlier on the Supreme Court and has been highlighted for laying the groundwork to reinstate stronger Fourth Amendment protections -- particularly against the government intrusions -- especially in her ruling in United States v. Jones . (For details on her privacy rulings before joining the Court, you can see EPIC's summary here.)

Note that in TFA she was warning about "Orwellian" surveillance, which specifically tends to refer to a world where the government is spying on you, not just private citizens. The quotation highlighted in TFS seems to focus on private citizen regulations, but she has also demonstrated more concern about many government invasions of privacy than most other Supreme Court members, including those who are definitely NOT ''progressives."

Fortunately the most the flare is going to miss us http://www.foxnews.com/science...

This is not bad for Microsoft, it is bad for Apple. If people start calling all tablets "iPads" then Apple may lose their trademark on the term iPad. That article was from 2012, so clearly this isn't a new issue. It already happened to aspirin, elevator, and zipper.

On the other hand, I explicitly recall a statement along the lines of "we aren't going to worry about security until after we get it all up and working first" from one the people running the program. I sure wish I had bookmarked it because it is the kind of thing that is too stupid to believe.

Maybe you're thinking about this: "Among the issues that concerned the government's own technical experts was that security testing could not be completed because the system was undergoing so many last-minute changes."

"Secret" 3G Intel Chip Gives Snoops Backdoor PC Access

vPro processors allow remote access even when computer is turned off

http://www.infowars.com/91497/

###

NSA reportedly using radio waves to snoop on offline computers worldwide

"The Times reported that the technology, used by the agency for several years, relies on radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted covertly into the computers."

"A senior U.S. official, who compared the effort to submarine warfare, told the Times most of the implants are intended only for surveillance and can warn the U.S. about incoming cyberattacks.

"That is what the submarines do all the time," the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the newspaper. "They track the adversary submarines." In cyberspace, he said, the U.S. tries "to silently track the adversaries while theyâ(TM)re trying to silently track you.""

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...

You need to include printed sources too since this story was originally reported in the San Antonio Express - News and picked up by the national press - see link again.

If this Slate reporter/blogger didn't follow up, we would have never known for sure.

And here's the kicker, I guarantee you that Touch Bionics will be disputing this story for years to come.

All you need is someone who is careless or just lies because it sounds good, and it catches on, people remember the misinformation and never the truth. - mostly because it falls into their world view and they ignore anything that disputes it

I am no exception to the rule and I have been weening myself off of all news. If it's really important, I'll hear about it from my friends and neighbors. Everything else is just fluff, out of my control and irrelevant to me.

As a result, the World seems much safer, nicer, and I can listen to my neighbor's opinions and disagree without getting angry. Burying my head in the sand? Am i uninformed? What good is it to know everything happening in the Middle East when I cannot do anything about and it is irrelevant to my life? Who cares what the current leader of N. Korea says? Or the idiocy coming out of the politician's mouths? It's all lies, anyway. And don't get me started on the moronic cable news channels and the professional Trolls/Pundits like Hannity, O'Reilly, and those overpaid assholes.

Now, to ween of the Internet and all it's shit.

Sorry Slate reporter and Slashdot, but my life will be better without you.

Defense official says Pentagon has evidence Russia firing missiles inside Ukraine
Russian troops 'directly' involved in Ukraine conflict: US, Kiev

Of course, if you don't believe US officials, let's instead turn to something we can all trust: money.
Markets take fright as Russian tanks roll into Ukraine

Or, as the Washington Free Beacon and Fox News say (and several people submitted to /.): Feds Creating Database to Track Hate Speech on Twitter. Seriously.

Of course, it makes sense for Fox News to raise the alarm about attempts to expose astroturfing.

Links: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/06/08/easter-island-walking-stone-heads-stir-debate/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai#Transportation

You'd certainly think there are no debtors' prisons in the US any more, but:

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...

You do have to owe money to the court system, not to a private party, to get sucked into this...I think.

[Fox New link chosen to head of skepticism of lefty-er sources.]

Totally depends on who's providing the news coverage. Fox news, yes. CNN, maybe. Space.com, not so much.

In point of fact, Fox News' coverage is brief and very factual. http://www.foxnews.com/science...

But if 3 birds die in a 3500 acre site per day,

These numbers are bullshit. Real numbers are much higher.

http://www.foxnews.com/science...

Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one "streamer" every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version.

The investigators want the halt until the full extent of the deaths can be assessed. Estimates per year now range from a low of about a thousand by BrightSource to 28,000 by an expert for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group.

30 an hour is more than 3 per day. This makes the 28k/yr conservative estimate and the 3 per day complete bullshit.

It isn't an isolated problem.

Afghan Men Struggle With Sexual Identity, Study Finds

An unclassified study from a military research unit in southern Afghanistan details how homosexual behavior is unusually common among men in the large ethnic group known as Pashtuns -- though they seem to be in complete denial about it.

The study, obtained by Fox News, found that Pashtun men commonly have sex with other men, admire other men physically, have sexual relationships with boys and shun women both socially and sexually -- yet they completely reject the label of "homosexual." ...

Apparently, according to the report, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot "love" another man -- but that doesn't mean they can't use men for "sexual gratification."

Im not seeing where you're getting your info; everything Ive ever heard indicates that the only issues reported with the M4 are reliability, due to its tighter tolerances, but that its also more accurate.

I guess people have short memories
2006: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-faulty-ammo-failing-troops/

In a confidential report to Congress last year, active Marine commanders complained that: "5.56 was the most worthless round," "we were shooting them five times or so," and "torso shots were not lethal."

That's just the first article google kicked up.
Complaints about stopping power started showing up once the Iraqi insurgency picked up.

The M4/M16 is very accurate, it just doesn't have the same stopping power past 300 meters as larger rounds.
This is intentional, because the military did research and concluded that most engagements take place inside 300 meters.
This is also a problem, because in Iraq/Afghanistan, soldiers were being engaged from 400 and 500 meters, well past the effective stopping range of the 5.56 round.

2010: U.S. Military Reconsiders Army's Use of M4 Rifles in Afghanistan

The Taliban are meanwhile using heavier bullets that allow them to fire at U.S. and NATO troops from distances that are out of range of the M4.

To counter these tactics, the U.S. military is designating nine soldiers in each infantry company to serve as sharpshooters, according to Maj. Thomas Ehrhart, who wrote the Army study. The sharpshooters are equipped with the new M110 sniper rifle, which fires a larger 7.62mm round and is accurate to at least 2,500 feet.

Then again, the military is in the midst of a "pivot to Asia" so who knows what that means for the next war.

Foxnews.com has posted a story about a recent massive data breach.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/20...

Apparently, Russia is to blame, but if U.S. data can't be protected, how is U.S. I.T. good enough to know the origins of the attacks?

Citing records discovered by Hold Security, the New York Times reported on Tuesday that the stolen credentials include 1.2 billion password and username combinations and more than 500 million email addresses.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion...

http://www.belladonna.org/Gyno...

1. Israel can prevent civilian deaths.

During the course of the past twelve days, Israeli air strikeshave killedover 1000Palestinians—mostly civilians.

Israelsaysthe deaths are a result of Hamas using ordinary Palestinians as human shields, and the gruesome toll has been met with a shrug.

It’s an issue thathas come upduring past operations in Gaza.

Back in 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, the president of the United Nations General Assembly Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann,condemnedIsrael for violating international law in Gaza by targeting civilians.

Brockmanncalledthe offensive “a war against a helpless defenceless and imprisoned people.”

“Theviolationsof international law inherent in the Gaza assault have been well documented,” he added, listing collective punishment, disproportionate military force [and]attacks on civilian targets, including homes, mosques, universities, schools.”

Israel doesn’t have to fire at the civilian targets, it’s a choice that they make. Hamas rockets are broadlyineffectiveanyway—given Israel’s comprehensive network of bomb shelters. Just three civilians in Israel have been killed so far.

Noting the Israeli military’s “long record of unlawful airstrikes with high civilian casualties”, Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitsoncommentedthat Israel “would never accept an argument that any Israeli home of an Israel Defense Force member would be a valid military target.”

IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner also couldn’t provide any evidence of houses being used to command in control rocket attacks, when directlyqueriedby reporters.

2. The three Israeli teenswere killed immediately after being kidnapped.

Investigative journalist Max Blumenthal recently revealed that the Israeli governmentknewthatthe three missing Israeli teens, whowere abductedin June from Hebron in the West Bank, were murdered almost as soon as they were kidnapped. However, this was not revealed to the public, and insteadthe search forthe missing teenagers unleashed to a brutal crackdown on the West Bank.

Blumenthal says that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used outrage around the kidnapping to whip up enough support to justify the aggressive military campaign that has ensued.

3. Gaza is basically an open-air prison.

The economic blockade of Gaz

You are not buying stuff at the same price as 6 years ago, maybe you should actually pay attention to the receipts.

beef, pork, avocado, fruits, veggies, almonds, pinenuts, walnuts, mozarella, cheddar, other cheeses, seafood, grains, soy, soy, palm oil, milk, gasoline, beer and more beer, limes, canadian bacon, barley, restaurants, restaurants, restaurants,electrical energy, car rentals, hotel rooms, cab fairs,

air travel and air travel gets more expensive in many other ways, various extra fees, less room, more seats on planes

aluminium,

In grade-school chess it's the 9 year old girls you have to watch out for.

Absolutely nothing bad will be done to them; if anything, they'll get commendation medals for bravely charging at a potential terrorist machine. If they were in California, they'd probably be hailed as heroes and had a statue put up in their honor, compared to six cops beating a guy to death, on tape, with audio of them saying things like "Now see these fists? They're going to (expletive) you up" with the two actually brought to trial being acquitted by a jury. (A third was scheduled, but after this trial his charges were dropped.)

The jury part is what sickens me the most; there are all sorts of examples of police abuse, but rarely do the police in question actually get taken to court over it. It finally happens, and 6-12 of my "peers" think they were just doing their damn job. People will rationalize their stances, often going into convoluted and twisted reasoning; I have no hope for humanity, but it doesn't seem I have to make such leaps to maintain that stance...

(And in case anyone was wondering, the Fox News link is intentional; it's basically the AP article, and if Fox News isn't willing/able to put a spin to make the cops seem like heroes then any cop supporters should have a hard time as well.)

How about rock-paper-scissors?
[X] physical skills involved
[X] some kind of scoring system
[X] objectively declare winner
Ticks all your boxes!

And guess what? It's a sport!

All the supply-side, business-cycle, and Austrian folks have making all sorts of dire predictions since 2008, none of which have been coming true. Krugman and others have been making predictions too (e.g., no inflation even though the US has been 'printing money' because of the zero-bound interest rates), and they've been shown to be correct these past few years. Keynesianism works: it makes accurate predictions.

Then where are these predictions of Krugman's so that we may determine for ourselves how full of bullshit you happen to be? To assist you in the above endeavor, I present a freshly googled list of failed Krugman predictions. The first part deals with a several years long series of failed predictions concerning Europe and the state of the Euro.

The second part deals with his inability to predict how the real estate crisis would manifest. The third part deals with a variety of issues, such as the changing nature of his predictions based on whether a Republican or Democrat party member happens to occupy the White House.

That third part is in some ways quite relevant to your claims above. For example, you wrote:

Krugman, probably the most well-known Keynsian, was shouting from the roof tops from 2001-2007 that the US was spending too much, cutting taxes too much, and generally fucking over their finances.

Krugman then changed his tune when Obama was in office, claiming among other things that too little had been spent on the extremely ample 2009 stimulus package. Or as you put this bit of self-serving toadying, "consistent with Keynesian economics". There's also the observation that Krugman greatly underestimated the extend and duration of unemployment.

A key problem which Keynesians fail to recognize is that economies naturally recover even when nothing is done. So the problem is not whether an economic recovery is due to Keynesian policies, but rather whether the Keynesian policies improved a situation that would have corrected itself anyway.

Tools for death cause death in exactly the same way that tools for construction cause construction:

What about construction tools used for death? http://nation.foxnews.com/gun-...

It's very un-American to do something without the plan to profit from it!

Interesting. . . . . So what do you think Snowden makes? I hear he only gave about 200,000 of the 1,700,000 documents to reporters. A buck a page? Two? Ten?

American Generosity
Americans are the most generous, global poll finds

Americans are more apt to donate to a charity, volunteer, or help a stranger than residents of 152 other countries.
 

Generosity in America

It gets more fun too
"Immigration officer fired after putting wife on list of terrorists to stop her flying home (31 January 2011)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
"US Has A 'Secret Exception' To Reasonable Suspicion For Putting People On The No Fly List" (Apr 17, 2014)
https://www.techdirt.com/artic...
That other list:
"DHS ‘hands off’ list allowed suspects with terror ties into U.S."
http://www.washingtontimes.com...
'Hands off' list? Senator questions whether DHS allowing those with terror ties into US (May 07, 2014)
http://www.foxnews.com/politic...

Meanwhile, over 400 military drones have crashed: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/20...
No-one knows if this happened over schoolgrounds yet, but considering the number of drones in service, that's a pisspoor safety record. I can only imagine that flocks of cheap, commercial drones over populated area's will cause some 'mechanical rain' when electronic disturbance (nearby lightning strike) causes them to fail.

Well no point speculating, a quick search revealed that yes they did try to arrest him. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2...

"As for the Americans, I will never surrender to them," al-Awlaki said. "If the Americans want me, let them come look for me. God is the protector."

So there you go, he publicly admitted that he knew he was wanted, and he refused to surrender. Then he invited us to find him. And we did. His "god" certainly wasn't able to protect him, but that's not our fault.

Oops forgot the link: http://www.foxnews.com/politic...

I'm sure gather heat and wind information is the top priority of citizens who live in the murder capital of America.

In case there was any doubt: here is your ongoing proof that Fox is "fair and balanced" (/sarcasm). The headline reads: "FBI: Chicago officially America's murder capital" but did the FBI report contain anything suggesting the term "Murder Capital" was appropriate? Let's see... nope. OK, maybe the report particularly damns Chicago's poor attempts to reduce gun violence? Hmm, nope it doesn't say anything specific about Chicago at all. Where is the fine print at? Oh, ok, there it is! Chicago is, per capita, safer than almost all the other large cities in the US (NYC and LA as notable exceptions). So, in case you were wondering, the "Murder Capital" race is a toss up between Detroit (54 murders per 100k), and New Orleans (53 murders per 100k).

I'm sure gather heat and wind information is the top priority of citizens who live in the murder capital of America.

The murders happen in mostly constrained areas that do not affect the people shopping on Michigan avenue. The city is extremely segregated by socioeconomic status. The murders are tolerated because "it doesn't happen to people that matter." Surely this is to be used to keep the good people on the north side safe from the rabble.

I'm sure gather heat and wind information is the top priority of citizens who live in the murder capital of America.

Please provide a single scientific proof of anything Al Gore ever accomplished?

OTOH:

Blood And Gore: Making A Killing On Anti-Carbon Investment Hype

Al Gore invests millions to make billions in cap-and-trade software

Al Gore Invests $6M To Make BILLIONS In Cap And Trade

Gore lies to Congress about personal finances

Gore’s Dual Role: Advocate and Investor

The Money and Connections Behind Al Gore’s Carbon Crusade

Al Gore pushes Global Warming for personal profit

Cyber-Thieves Make Millions from Emissions Cap-and-Trade Scam

Obama's draft budget projects cap-and-trade revenue

Cap-and-trade: The biggest scam of all

Experts: Carbon Tax needed and NOT Cap-and-Trade Emission Trading Scheme (ETS)

Leading Global Warming Crusader: Cap and Trade May INCREASE CO2 Emissions

Cap-and-Trade's Unlikely Critics: Its Creators

Fraud in Europe's Cap and Trade System a 'Red Flag,' Critics Say

Spending Cap and Trade Auction Revenues Will Undermine California’s Climate Goals

Yet LFTR get's pooh poohed because it's experimental. Amazing.

They should fix it even more so with auto drive cars.

  so you can not get lost in Death Valley

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/26/...

directs drivers to trun on to runway at an airport

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/20...

The road looked clear, at low tide - but the map forgot to show the 9 miles of water and mud between the island and the mainland

http://news.yahoo.com/gps-trac...

takes goat trail up mountain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

sending cars down an private road that has no thru access.

I'm saying it is not breaking the law

You were stating, that a legal difference exists between payment and a mere "tip". I doubt it strongly...

The onus of intent or proof lies within the accuser. Even if they got fined/identified/whatever, in the end its up to the authorities to make proof that it was, in fact, an illegal transaction.

Unfortunately — and this is a giant loophole in the American (and, possibly, British) legal system — the accused's property is not at all as protected as his person. The government can confiscate property immediately — without bothering with the Judiciary. They can't lock you up, but they can confiscate your car, cash (we suspect it is drug money, so we take it away), and even freeze bank accounts...

In the article I linked to, the couple's family car was confiscated on the spot — on the Executive official say-so. That alone would severely impede the accused's ability to defend himself, would not it? Simply showing up in court suddenly becomes very difficult...

"There is no evidence of any chaos operations here. While turnout was up in every part of the district, the increase lagged in the most Democratic neighborhoods, with the City of Richmond up 22 percent compared to Republican strongholds like Goochland County which jumped 28 percent. Plus, Democrats have slim hopes of winning the district, which leans heavily Republican, this fall. Cantor is all but certain to abide by voters’ wishes and the state party has already blessed Brat’s candidacy. The incentive for mischief was low. And with a 10-point margin of victory, any disingenuous Democrats would be strictly background noise."

Upthread somebody mentioned that the league legally owns the team and the franchise owners are more like operators. That didn't sound right, so I did some research. This tidbit from a news article makes it sound like that is the case:

The ownership hearing had been scheduled for next Tuesday after the NBA charged Sterling with damaging the league with his racist comments that were recorded and released. A three-quarters vote of owners to support the charge would have terminated the Sterlings' ownership, and the league would have sold the team.

If the contract you signed allows the league to terminate your ownership you should not be whining about your $2 billion windfall. To stop the league from doing this, Sterling's wife (acting as a legal representative of the Sterling family trust) sold the team to Ballmer. The sale was entered into voluntarily, and even if it wasn't it sounds like the league has the ability to just confiscate the team.

Are there genuine sincere threats made on Twitter etc?

Yes, there are...

http://latino.foxnews.com/lati...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Just the same, it looks like the NSA's overreliance on technological solutions is likely to get worse instead of better. You should probably hope that you don't just happen to resemble someone's bad photo in their wanted database:

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...