When someone says they have no politics, it means that their politics align with the status quo. None of us are unbiased, none removed from the question of power. We are social creatures, who absorb the outlook and opinions of those with whom we associate, and unconciously echo them. Objectivity is impossible.
The illusion of neutrality is one of the reasons for the rotten state of journalism, as those who might have been expected to hold power to account drift thoughtlessly into its arms. But until I came across the scandal now erupting in Canada, I hadn’t understood just how quickly standards are falling...
The Liberated Liberal →
Interesting take on President Obama's State of the Union Address yesterday:
The best way to understand the State of the Union, in other words, is as a statement in the constant conversation between the president and his party. In his sixth such address—as it’s been since the beginning of his presidency—his message was as mediated by party debates as it was bounded by party limits.
And if you want to see how the political and ideological limits of the Democratic Party have expanded since the 2012 election, just look at the scope of Obama’s rhetoric. Following the path paved by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren—who has captured the energy of the Democratic grass roots—Obama has offered a muscular defense of the party’s liberalism and the programs it has produced.
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It’s worth noting that none of this is out of sync with the Democratic Party’s agenda through the 20th century. In his own sixth-year State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton touted Social Security and proposed a tax credit for long-term care of the disabled. The difference is that Obama has almost abandoned the "Third Way" approach of his Democratic predecessor. Where Clinton proposed private accounts for Social Security, touted deficit reduction, and called for Congress to toughen its drug laws, Obama has pushed for infrastructure spending, ignored presidential ledger counting, and asked Congress to "reform America’s criminal justice system so that it protects and serves us all."
If anything, Obama’s confident, assertive liberalism is a return to the immediate postwar era, when Democratic governance was broadly popular and ascendant. "I think everybody knows that social insurance and better schools and health services are not frills, but necessities in helping all Americans to be useful and productive citizens, who can contribute their full share in the national effort to protect and advance our way of life," said President Truman in his 1952 address, the sixth and final one of his presidency. The rhythm is different but the rhyme is the same: Government has a place in securing prosperity and protecting ordinary people.
With that said, there are still limits to the scope of this new Democratic liberalism. Obama’s speech was strong, but his agenda was relatively modest. Even if Congress adopted all of Obama’s economic proposals, it would put just a small dent in the towering inequality that defines modern American life. Core problems of wage stagnation, social mobility, and retirement security remain unaddressed by most Democrats...
Rebel coup ousts Yemen's leader, minister says; U.S. vehicle fired on →
Shiite Houthi rebels have taken over Yemen's presidential palace, Yemeni Minister of Information Nadia Sakkaf told CNN on Tuesday amid reports of renewed clashes.
Sakkaf said the Prime Minister's residence was also under attack from the street.
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The developments in the capital, Sanaa, came a day after heavy fighting between government forces and Houthis -- Shiite Muslims who have long felt marginalized in the majority Sunni Muslim country.
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Gunfire could be heard sporadically across the city Tuesday, whereas a day earlier it was constant.
Unknown assailants fired shots Monday night at a U.S. Embassy vehicle in Sanaa, the U.S. Embassy said Tuesday.
Detailed study confirms high suicide rate among recent veterans →
A lot of questions still left unanswered, but shedding light on these issues gives us the ability to better solve them.
Solar Jobs Report Shows Huge Growth →
The solar industry reports job growth 20 times higher than the rest of the U.S. economy, according to a new analysis.
As of 2014, there were nearly 174,000 jobs in the solar industry, according to the report from the nonprofit Solar Foundation. That represents 86 percent employment growth since the organization began tracking job figures in 2010. By the end of 2015, companies said they expect to hire an additional 36,000 new solar workers.
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"The reason that installations are growing like gangbusters is because of cost reductions," Luecke said, noting that the average price of solar panels has declined 64 percent since 2010.
Money Dries Up for Oil and Gas, Layoffs Spread, Write-Offs Start →
When money was growing on trees even for junk-rated companies, and when Wall Street still performed miracles for a fee, thanks to the greatest credit bubble in US history, oil and gas drillers grabbed this money channeled to them from investors and refilled the ever deeper holes fracking was drilling into their balance sheets.
But the prices for crude oil, US natural gas, and natural gas liquids have all plunged. Revenues from unhedged production are down 40% or 50%, or more from just seven months ago. And when the hedges expire, the problem will get worse. The industry has been through this before. It knows what to do.
Layoffs are cascading through the oil and gas sector. On Tuesday, the Dallas Fed projected that in Texas alone, 140,000 jobs could be eliminated. Halliburton said that it was axing an undisclosed number of people in Houston. Suncor Energy, Canada’s largest oil producer, will dump 1,000 workers in its tar-sands projects. Helmerich & Payne is idling rigs and cutting jobs. Smaller companies are slashing projects and jobs at an even faster pace. And now Slumberger, the world’s biggest oilfield-services company, will cut 9,000 jobs.
Robert Reich Is Right: Higher Wages Aren't Coming Back, And Here's Why →
For a large portion of employers, there’s no need to offer more to employees. There are still millions who are out of the labor market and whom the government has officially stopped counting as unemployed. These people aren’t sitting on personal wealth that can fund a permanent vacation. They eventually need an income, and for companies effectively looking to keep a body in place, that’s enough to continue wage depression. Labor union representation of workers has been low for years, which means that negotiations between employees and employers is always tipped in the latter’s favor.
Increasingly, there are other options, as well. Companies can outsource, as Reich argues, although that’s often more a matter of avoiding environmental and safety regulations, because, for many businesses, labor is a small portion of the cost of their goods. A bigger issue is how industries have increasingly automated operations and services. When even the work of anesthesiologists can be automated, as Johnson & Johnson JNJ +1.51% has done with its Sedasys system, how can anyone expect any job to be secure? The combination of high education, high demand, and need to administer a service locally was supposed to be the sine qua non of professional security. But it doesn’t exist.
Perhaps reality will sink in when CEOs realize that their jobs can also be sent overseas to thoroughly competent managers in a global marketplace who will cost the company less money. However, for now, the premium is still on reducing human costs and increasing profits, all the while falsely claiming that they can’t help it because there’s a legal mandate to maximize shareholder value...
As William Lazonick, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, wrote in the Harvard Business Review, we currently have profits without prosperity. Corporate profits are high and the stock market has never done better, but most Americans don’t partake of the benefits. As Lazonick wrote, “While the top 0.1% of income recipients—which include most of the highest-ranking corporate executives—reap almost all the income gains, good jobs keep disappearing, and new employment opportunities tend to be insecure and underpaid.”
Companies aren’t investing their capital and are even borrowing money — and keeping wages low and not hiring people for expansion — to push cash into stock buybacks...
Why? CEOs are paid largely in stock and, Lazonick argues, buybacks increase share prices and, as a result, their own compensation. Corporate boards are part of the system because they typically are filled by executives who have their own compensation to consider. It’s an incestuous economic system combined with a sense of entitlement...
There's a Problem in the Silk Road Trial: the Jury Doesn't Get the Internet →
How do you get a fair trial, heard by a "jury of your peers", if they don't understand the ABCs of your alleged crime?
Judge Katherine Forrest said rig off the bat when the case began that “highly technical” issues must be made clear to the jury.
"If I believe things are not understandable to the average juror, we will talk about what might be a reasonable way to proceed at that time," she said.
After the first day of proceedings, Forrest told the prosecution to be more clear with explanations of concepts central to the case, noting sh was unhappy with its “mumbo-jumbo” explanation of the anonymizing service Tor. She also requested all readings of chat transcripts include emoticons.
The majority of the second day of testimony from Homeland Security Special Investigation Agent Jared DerYeghiayan continued setting the groundwork for the case, explaining in-depth many concepts central to Silk Road. US Attorney Serrin Turner’s questioning was so thorough it bordered on tedious for the more tech-savvy observer, asking DerYeghiayan to explain ‘wiki,’ ‘internet chat,’ and ‘add buddy.’
There’s a distinct knowledge gap between what an average juror or judge can be expected to already know and the intricacies of modern cybercrime. This is true of any legal case, of course. In any courtroom there are terms, specifics, and details that the lawyers have to walk the jury through in order to make their case. But when it comes to the web, that knowledge gap becomes even wider.