Color us all stunned…
AIS employees create fake accounts on social media and news websites, and then use those accounts to post thousands of comments and posts in accordance with the daily pro-Kremlin talking points, creating the illusion of widespread support for Vladimir Putin’s government.
In her suit, the 34-year-old Savchuk called the AIS a “troll factory,” a reference to the 30,000 comments produced daily by AIS employees.
Oy. Here we go…
Summary:
Firearm Risk Protection Act of 2015
Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to: (1) prohibit the purchase or sale of a firearm unless the purchaser presents proof to the seller and the seller verifies that the purchaser is covered by a qualified liability insurance policy, and (2) require any person who purchases a firearm on or after this Act’s effective date to be covered by such a policy. Exempts the purchase or sale of a firearm for use by a federal, state, or local agency.
Defines “qualified liability insurance policy” to mean a policy that: (1) provides liability insurance covering the purchaser specifically for losses resulting from use of the firearm while it is owned by the purchaser, and (2) is issued by an insurer licensed or authorized to provide the coverage by the state in which the purchaser resides.
From the text of the bill:
“(2) In paragraph (1), the term ‘qualified liability insurance policy’ means, with respect to the purchaser of a firearm, a policy that—
“(A) provides liability insurance covering the purchaser specifically for losses resulting from use of the firearm while it is owned by the purchaser; and
“(B) is issued by an insurer licensed or authorized to provide the coverage by the State insurance regulatory authority for the State in which the purchaser resides.”.
(b) Penalty.—Section 924 of such title is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(q) Whoever violates section 922(aa) shall be fined not more than $10,000.”.
And the inevitable and obligatory:
“(B) Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to the purchase or sale of a firearm for the use of the United States or any department or agency of the United States, or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision of a State.
So, which is this more? A way to make firearms ownership too expensive for poor people? A way to enrich politically active insurance providers? A simple way to increase the number of people in the US who suddenly switch from “law abiding” to “criminal,” thus justifying an increase in the police state?
Here, this will shock you, I’m sure. A list of those sponsoring this bill:
Rep. Maloney, Carolyn B. [D-NY-12]
Rep. Lynch, Stephen F. [D-MA-8]*
Rep. Tsongas, Niki [D-MA-3]*
Rep. Grijalva, Raul M. [D-AZ-3]*
Rep. Clark, Katherine M. [D-MA-5]*
Darn those evil Republicans, doing their corporate masters bidding to soak the little guy!
In general I’m opposed to the notion of paying people to break their security clearances to hustle out secret reports. But some things probably *shouldn’t* be secret… such as international governmental trade deals. But the Trans Pacific Partnership is *bizarrely* secretive:
Anything like a treaty should be debated in Congress. But it *can’t* be debated if it can’t be read by those who would be debating it.
(I’ve said it before: when I gain dictatorial power, one of the changes I will institute is that a lawmaker cannot vote “yes” on a bill unless they have read it. And *all* bills will be read on the floor of the House & Senate, in their entirety, by the Senators & Reps who have written them. This’ll put an end to those 2,000 page tomes that “we have to vote for before we see what’s in it.”)
But more confusion: Wikileaks is trying to raise the $100K via a Kickstarter campaign. That’s clever. But… they’re soliciting the funds in order to incentivize someone to do an illegal thing. I’d think Kickstarter would be leery of that, to say the least.
In the Bay Area (the bay in question being San Francisco Bay, shockingly enough) town of Richmond, the city council recent passed a resolution against space-based weaponry. This was based on a 2001 anti-space-weaponry bill proposed by Dennis Kucinich (D: Insanity), and has resulted in the city being barraged with complaints by crackpots, loons and other generically silly people who seem to think that CIA mind control rays in low Earth orbit are trying to penetrate their aluminum foil hats.
Tell me this here ain’t high-larious journalizing:
Various estimates suggest the government already controls about half of the country’s food distribution, but that hasn’t stopped record shortages in shops and markets.
Heh. Ya gotta wonder if the writer is actually surprised that having a pack of collectivists taking over a good chunk of a vital portion of the economy results in lower performance… or if this is some form of sarcasm.
… NASA administrator Charles Bolden went so far as to say that “No commercial company without the support of NASA and government is going to get to Mars.”
This can be taken two ways:
1) “NASA is just plain essential and nobody else has the smarts to do it.”
2) “Just you try, and we’ll drop on you like a ton of Federal bricks.”
Let’s *hope* that the true meaning is the arrogance inherent in #1. #2 would indicate serious trouble.
Sometime around 1990 I was attending a community college in Illinois. Between classes, I’d go to the library and go through every issue of every magazine that seemed relevant. I was short of funds and the photocopier kinda stunk, so I was selective in what I copied. This strategy, sadly, has led to a few minor disappointments… in particular I distinctly recall seeing a painting depicting the interior of a Dyson sphere. But rather than a simple spherical ball, it was made from stacks of differently-sized ringworlds, forming sort of a sphere. I did not photocopy it at the time.
For reasons which seem good to me, a few weeks ago I decided that I *needed* to find that illustration. I felt certain that it was in “Futurist” magazine. So a few weeks ago I went to the USU library and looked through every issue of “Futurist” from the mid-1970’s to 1990. No luck. I went back again and looked through every issue of “Space World” magazine from the mid 70’s to the end of magazine in 1988. Again, no luck.
While I didn’t find what I was looking for, I did find some other stuff of interest. But what struck me the most was something I picked up in both magazines: the 1970’s were fundamentally very different from the 1980’s.
The magazines from the 80’s could pass for present-day magazines. Sure, the technologies presented are seriously out of date… but they are recognizable as early versions of what we have now. The fashions were different, but not *too* different. The graphic design of the magazines, as well as the paper and the color photos and other graphics, are more or less up to current standards.
But the 70’s issues…. ah, no. Just… no. Everything was different. Everything seemed alien. Even the tone was just plain *off.* The 70’s gave the world some ideas that are just plain ballsy, such as space colonies and solar power satellites; but the activism behind them was enthusiastic to a degree that smacks of desperation. And from what I can remember of the 70’s, “desperation” pretty much fits the bill. Everything was awful… the Arabs and oil, the Soviets and nukes, Nam, Nixon, terrorists blowing up planes and sporting events, Carter, polyester, perms, white people with fros, etc. People were, I think, resorting to excessive partying in order to avoid the reality. And thus… disco. Studio 54. Cocaine. KC and the Sunshine Band. Songs that, as a six-year-old, I thought were great tunes about the awesomeness of rockets… but really weren’t.
Whatever the cause, the 70’s were just *wrong.* The 80’s, in contrast, were the beginning of the current era. As evidence, I present this magazine ad I saw posted online earlier today. Take a guess what decade it’s from. Go on… guess.
It’s not just that the fashion shown is stuck in one very specific period, never to return again (with any luck). It’s the text. Holy carp, it’s just *bizarre.* This weird appeal to fake masculinity is something that faded out in the 80’s and has not returned, and now seems totally inconceivable.
If you want to see more mind-melting 70’s jumpsuits, here ya go.
Just… aaaaargh.
What turned the 70’s into the 80’s? Probably a vast number of things. But I do not discount Reagan. After the Sweater President, master of malaise, Reagan brought with him confident optimism. And that, coupled with the veto power, is damn near the *only* power the President Constitutionally really has that can fundamentally change a national economy. An economy is composed of a vast number of people; if they are on the whole depressed, the economy will suffer, and the people will be even more depressed. If the people can be cheered up, then the economy will improve. Even if the hard objective facts on the ground are *exactly* the same, you can get a fundamentally different economy and culture based on whether the President talks the economy up, as Reagan did with constant optimism, or talks it down, as Carter seemed to do.
And so when the tone out of Washington suddenly shifted, the culture suddenly shifted. And thus… no more jumpsuits.
But I’m still looking for that Dyson Sphere illustration. Sound familiar to anyone? Now I think it might’ve been in something like Science Digest or Omni… but who knows.
Here’s an interesting article:
Long story short… when the Queen keels over, the British economy will take a mighty thwack. And for no good reason: everything will just… stop.
This is a sad thought: a modern industrialized nation will go bugnuts because one person dies. One person of objectively little actual use: she doesn’t run things; she’s not a manager or executive of any kind. She’s not an inventor. She doesn’t go to the hospital daily and perform medical miracles or even just do the occasional open heart surgery. She’s not doing vital defense research. Nothing she does can’t be done by a friggen Muppet. Keep in mind, she’s in the position she is not because of any actual skills or talents she manifested, but because one of her ancestors was a bigger, more grabby and more *successful* scumbag than the other grabby scumbags in the aristocracy. She is, in many ways, a Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian… famous for being famous. And yet Britain will in many ways simply shut down when she does.
This will of course present certain opportunities. It seems that for a period of about two weeks, British business – civil and government – will kinda stop. So if you are a non-British corporation or government and you want to screw with the Brits… when the Queen dies, that’s the time to make lots of opportunities available, on a “sign up fast” basis. Somewhat akin to having free Bar-B-Que and fresh donuts at noon during Ramadan, I suppose. And of course, it’ll be the obvious time for Jihadis – British born and otherwise – to start blowing stuff up.
C’mon, Brits. Wander on up to the 21st Century. Where the death of a hereditary aristocrat is worthy of a few minutes on the news… and no more. If you heard tomorrow that the heir the Kaiser or the Czar had keeled over, or whoever was closest in line to Emperor Norton… would much of anyone apart from close family *really* care?
A few years ago, people started realizing that 3D printers and small CNC mills were going to revolutionize not just general manufacturing, but firearms manufacturing in particular. How can the government regulate firearms, when you can simply print one – or a dozen – up in your own home?
Well, a way to throttle innovation has been implemented: fear.
A small CNC mill, designed expressly to be able to mill out AR-15 receivers, is a perfectly legal device. It’s just a complex power tool. You don’t need to have any sort of license to own or operate such a thing. But FedEx and UPS have decided to chicken out on shipping them because they are afraid that they will be set upon by the government.
Couple this with the Obama administrations recent realization that while it cannot infringe on the freedom of the press it can ban ink, things are starting to look interesting in the world of organized gun-grabbing.