#border unsecured

[cloudshuffle]

So, for the ai request can I please have yandere prince Aventuriene x princess reader headcanon?

I LOVEEE

prince aventurine - no, just aventurine, as he's insisted on you calling him - is awfully intimidating.

not in size or anything, no. you've seen a good handful of soldiers taller and gentler than he. but he's powerful, wealthy, and handsome besides, the way a doll might be.

and for reason, he's set his eye on you. hailing from a small kingdom with not many natural resources to call your own, your family has found themselves in increasingly dire straits. pressure from neighbouring kingdoms pressing in on your borders, the coffers running low - as if angels from heaven, the avgins swoop in at this crucial time and extend a benevolent hand out to you.

of course, you're not naive enough to think of this as a miracle. he's at that age where the avgins are expecting a princess, and your kingdom needs money and help. you're eternally grateful to them for entertaining your letters, eventually deciding to bring you over to their kingdom so you can get acclimatised. the wedding hasn't been confirmed yet, but you're hopeful.

but once you get there, you do feel a slight sense of... confusion. the very floors echo of money, marble inlaid with the most delicate gold. and they were saying they needed... you? an uninteresting princess from an uninteresting kingdom? surely he could have found better options elsewhere.

aventurine hushes your worries in the snap of a finger, however. he's so polite and considerate, not to mention sensitive to your emotions. he always seems to know exactly what you're thinking, and he always has the right thing to say.

"don't worry yourself," he tells you one evening after dinner, your arm looped through his as you take a stroll through the gardens. "i wouldn't choose any other princess over you."

you look at him, surprised. "how did you know i was thinking that?"

he just smiles and kisses you lightly on the top of the head.

little do you know that he makes it a habit to check your journal after you've gone to bed. castles have their secret doors and passages, after all, and so does yours, a passage connecting directly from yours to his.

he slips in after you've fallen asleep, pinching it from where you've left it unsecured in your drawer, and reads the day's entry like he's reading the daily paper.

he's careful, of course. he wears gloves so he leaves no trace, but sometimes he can't help pressing his nose to the pages. it smells like the ink you use and your perfume. he hopes you can get married soon so he can have your scent around him always.

[stackslip]

anyhow fuck discourse-poisoned idiots. what maia crimew has uncovered is far more important and confirms how racist that list is and how any kind of freedom fighters or anyone a little too brown speaking too loud is barred from flying. i suspect this affects far more than usamerican borders considering the influence they have.

[scribblesbyavi]

bridges breaking down, flyovers developing cracks, temple roofs leaking, cities flooding, airport canopies falling down, unsecured borders, terrosrist attacks, mob lyncings, buldoger gangs destroying houses, pot holes, loss of lives, deforestation and poor quality air, but still 30% direct taxes and 28% indirect taxes. where is our money going?

[1americanconservative]

Here is Biden’s America:

-Banks are crashing. -Inflation is high. -Wars are raging. -Borders are unsecured. -Billions released to Iran. -Food is extremely expensive. -Illegals are treated better than Veterans. -Massive layoffs nationwide.

But no mean tweets!

[mariacallous]

What would Donald Trump’s foreign policy look like, should he win a second presidential term? The debate ranges between those who believe he will abandon Ukraine, withdraw from NATO, and herald a “post-American Europe”—and those who predict he will escalate the Russian-Ukrainian war and continue his fiercely anti-communist policies. Foreign governments have been frantically reaching out to Trump and Republican circles to understand, if not influence, the future direction of his policies; one such visit may have even played a role in Trump’s acquiescence to the most recent batch of U.S. military aid to Ukraine following months of delay by many of his Republican supporters in the U.S. Congress.

One fact is already clear: If Trump regains the presidency, he and his potential advisors will return to a significantly changed global landscape—marked by two regional wars, the threat of a third in Asia, the return of great-power geopolitics, and globalization measurably in decline. While many expect a Trump 2.0 to be a more intense version of Trump 1.0, his response to the dramatic changes in the geopolitical environment could lead to unexpected outcomes.

Trump may now be less eager to abandon Europe given fast-rising European defense spending and an ongoing major war. The strengthening U.S. economy and flux in global supply chains could facilitate a broader decoupling from China and market-access agreements with allies. Expanded Iranian aggression could make it easier for Trump 2.0 to build a large international coalition. An examination of these and other changes of the last four years could yield surprising insights into how a second Trump administration could differ significantly from the first.

Since Trump left office, the U.S.-Mexico border crisis has worsened significantly. In 2020, Trump’s last full year in office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection carried out 646,822 enforcement actions, including against three individuals on the Terrorist Screening Data Set. By 2023, this had skyrocketed to 3.2 million encounters, including 172 people on the terrorist list. Under the Biden-Harris administration, there have been some 10 million illegal border crossings, including nearly 2 million known so-called gotaways—illegal crossers who could not be apprehended. The unsecured border, broken asylum process, and overwhelmed immigration courts have enabled significant fentanyl trafficking, resulting in over 200,000 American deaths in the last three years.

For a second Trump administration, sealing the border would be the critical national security issue, overshadowing all others. The Republican platform calls for completion of the border wall, the use of advanced technology on the border, and shifting the focus of federal law enforcement to migration. It also proposes redeploying troops from overseas to the southern border and deploying the U.S. Navy to impose a fentanyl blockade. Americans now see the border as a major problem, and Congress is likely to support significant spending. This reallocation will impact other areas, since the U.S. Army and Navy are already struggling with personnel and fleet size targets. Navigating tensions with Mexico and Central American countries, many of which have free-trade agreements with the United States and receive U.S. assistance, will be challenging.

Facing escalating regional wars and the smallest U.S. military in generations, Trump would likely oversee the most significant U.S. military buildup in nearly 50 years. The U.S. Armed Forces are shrinking, and the defense budget is close to its post-World War II low in terms of both federal budget share and percentage of GDP. The capacity, capabilities, and readiness of the U.S. military are weakening, and the defense industrial base has atrophied. The disastrous defeat in Afghanistan has led to a significant drop in Americans’ confidence in the military.

Trump has long supported a bigger and stronger military, but his administration’s modest budget increases primarily went to personnel, operations, and maintenance, with little investment in capabilities. Under then-Defense Secretary James Mattis, the 2018 National Defense Strategy abandoned the long-standing U.S. doctrine of maintaining readiness to fight wars in two regions simultaneously, focusing instead on deterring China in the Indo-Pacific. Today’s Trump-approved Republican platform pledges a larger, modern military, investment in the defense industrial base, and a national missile defense shield. Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, likely the next chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has proposed a detailed plan to raise defense spending from 3 percent of GDP in 2024 to 5 percent within five to seven years. This plan aligns with Trump’s policies and could lead to a domestic manufacturing boom. Trump could announce the first-ever trillion-dollar defense budget with broad Republican support, determined not to be remembered as the president who let China surpass the U.S. militarily.

Notwithstanding the Biden administration’s climate agenda, the United States’ historic rise as the world’s energy superpower could empower Trump to pursue more punitive policies against Russia and Iran while wielding greater leverage over China. The United States is now producing and exporting more energy than ever, even as its carbon emissions have decreased, largely due to the shift from coal to gas. In 2019, the country became a net energy exporter. Since 2017, total energy exports have nearly doubled, and the country has surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s biggest oil producer. By further ramping up liquefied natural gas exports to Europe, a second Trump administration could reduce Russia’s influence, reshape European geopolitics, and strengthen trans-Atlantic ties. It would also greatly reduce the trade deficit with Europe, something Trump frequently rails about. Expanding energy production would also increase U.S. leverage over China, the world’s largest energy importer. Greater production—as well as closer alignment with Saudi Arabia under Trump—could do much to lower gas prices in the United States and oil prices globally. This, in turn, would allow Trump to pursue more aggressive strategic policies, such as striking Iranian nuclear assets or, should he wish to do so, diminishing Russian oil and gas exports.

The relative strength of the U.S. economy and major shifts in trading patterns would give another Trump administration far greater leverage on trade—including winning a trade war with China and striking new or revised trade deals with others.

Many Americans have a pessimistic view of their country’s economy, but it is far stronger relative to its peers than in 2016 or 2020. This year, the U.S. economy will account for an estimated 26 percent of global GDP, the highest share in almost two decades. It was nearly four times the size of Japan’s when Trump first entered office, and it will be seven times as large by the end of this year. As recently as 2008, the U.S. and Eurozone economies were similar in size. Today, the former towers over the latter, with the U.S. economy almost 80 percent larger. Britain’s relative decline is similar.

The strength of the U.S. economy would give Trump the leverage to strike the fair and reciprocal trade deals he seeks. Japan, facing an ever-aggressive China and urgently needing to boost economic growth, might build on the 2019 U.S.-Japan market access deal. Trump could resume the talks with Britain from the end of his first term with more leverage; a former Trump official indicated that a deal with Britain would be a priority in a second term. Trump might also revisit negotiations with the EU, following up on a market access agreement signed in 2019 following his imposition of tariffs. After eight years on top, the United States has overtaken China to be Germany’s top trading partner again. Trump’s aim to secure better deals is evident, and he may find more willing partners than before.

The same dynamics may lead to a far broader trade war with and decoupling from China. The U.S. economy has grown relative to China’s over the past eight years, with the gap widening in both directions: The U.S. economy is larger and the Chinese one smaller than economists expected. The forecast for when China’s economy might surpass the United States’ keeps sliding further and further into the future and may never happen at all. The International Monetary Fund projects that China’s share of the Asia-Pacific region’s GDP will be slightly smaller in five years than it is today, and it may never become the majority share. Even China’s official, flattering statistics suggest its economy is experiencing a lost decade due to deeply structural challenges, not temporary ones.

Over the past eight years, the U.S. economy has also become less dependent on foreign trade, including with China. In 2016, China was the top U.S. trading partner, accounting for more than 20 percent of U.S. imports and about 16 percent of total U.S. trade. By 2023, China slipped to third place, accounting for 13.9 percent of imports and 11.3 percent of trade. This shift would give greater credibility to Trump’s threats to revoke China’s most-favored nation trading status and impose wide-ranging tariffs. While these measures would have economic costs for Americans, around 80 percent of Americans view China unfavorably today, a significant increase from 2017, and the United States is now better positioned to withstand a protracted trade war with China than a few years ago.

Trump 2.0 would have the potential to lead a broader containment approach toward China. First, Trump and most Americans blame the Chinese government for the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed more than 1 million Americans, forced the U.S. economy into a deep recession, and likely cost Trump his reelection in 2020. Whether through trade measures, sanctions, or a demand for reparations, Trump will seek to hold China accountable for the estimated $18 trillion in damage the COVID-19 pandemic caused to the United States. In parallel, he is likely to end the attempts at partnership made by the Biden administration and Trump during parts of his first term. Issues like climate change, public health, foreign investment, Chinese land purchases in the United States, and Beijing’s role in the fentanyl epidemic will be viewed through the lens of strategic independence from China, as outlined in the Republican platform.

Second, the United States’ major European allies have become much more critical of China than when Trump left office—the result of COVID-19, Chinese “wolf warrior” diplomacy, Beijing’s support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, and mounting issues concerning trade, technology, and supply chains. The references to China in the 2024 G-7 summit statement and NATO summit communique, compared to the last versions under Trump in 2019, make that clear. Europe is following Washington’s lead in imposing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, restricting Chinese telecoms from 5G infrastructure, and exposing and punishing Chinese espionage. A second Trump administration could build a coalition against Chinese behavior.

Third, the United States’ Asian allies are enhancing their military capabilities and cooperation among themselves. Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and others are increasing their defense spending, and the United States recently negotiated expanded military access to key sites in the Philippines. Improved regional alliances and partnerships, including the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) pact, the Quad (Australia, India, Japan, and the United States), much improved Japan-South Korea relations, and growing Japan-Philippines cooperation will strengthen Trump’s hand with Beijing.

However, the China Trump will face is more powerful and aggressive than ever before. It has significantly increased its military harassment of Taiwan, the Philippines, and India. It has also deepened its strategic partnership with Russia: The two countries declared a “partnership without limits” in 2022, and Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023 that the world is undergoing changes “we haven’t seen for 100 years—and we are the ones driving these changes together.” China’s navy, already larger than its U.S. counterpart since around 2015, could be about 50 percent larger by the end of Trump’s second term. How would Trump respond if China attacked Taiwan? Washington assesses that Xi has ordered the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to be prepared to win a war against Taiwan by 2027, and U.S. war games consistently indicate the U.S. could lose such a conflict. Trump continues to hew to the decadeslong policy of maintaining strategic ambiguity regarding Taiwan’s defense, even if he has included Taiwan in his familiar critique of allies not doing enough for their own defense. Nevertheless, the continuously eroding balance of power and rapidly evolving correlation of forces could make Trump less likely to assist Taiwan than one might suspect given his overall China policy. As Trump recently acknowledged in the bluntest of terms, Taiwan is 9,500 miles away from the United States but only 68 miles away from China.

Trump would return as commander in chief with the largest European war since World War II raging in Ukraine, the increased presence of U.S. forces on the continent, and European NATO members ramping up their defense spending. The much-changed situation in Europe could make him far less likely to withdraw U.S. troops, end support for Ukraine, or seek a grand bargain with Putin.

Trump’s persistent haranguing of European allies when he was president, coupled with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has prompted European countries to rapidly increase their defense spending. Whereas only five NATO members spent at least 2 percent of GDP on defense in 2016 and nine did so in 2020, 23 do so now. European NATO nations have increased their collective defense spending by more than half since Trump first took office, far ahead of the United States’ much smaller increase during the same period. Germany has even surpassed Britain as Europe’s biggest defense spender. The burden sharing Trump pushed for is beginning to happen: European NATO allies are now shouldering a greater share of bloc-wide defense spending, and Europe also provides the majority of aid to Ukraine. U.S. companies and workers are benefiting: The U.S. share of global arms exports rose from 34 percent to 42 percent over the most recent five-year period.

In his first term, Trump welcomed both Montenegro and North Macedonia into NATO, even though neither met the 2 percent mark at the time. His inclination to move U.S. forces farther east along NATO’s frontier is now a reality. Today, 20,000 U.S. forces are stationed in the alliance’s eastern frontier states, part of what Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Christopher Cavoli called a “definite shift eastward.” With the addition of Finland and Sweden as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO now has a significantly reshaped posture.

While the 2 percent floor for defense spending is now grossly inadequate, European states are proposing higher benchmarks. The European Union has released its first-ever defense industrial strategy, and many European countries are planning further increases in spending. Were Trump to preside over the June 2025 NATO summit in the Netherlands, he could not only announce “mission accomplished” with respect to the 2 percent target, but that NATO has collectively pledged a higher 3 percent floor.

Trump has promised to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours”—but has also threatened to dramatically increase arms support to Ukraine if Putin does not comply. He has never outright opposed military aid to Ukraine, acquiesced to congressional passage of a large supplemental in April, and recently concluded a positive call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Having observed how Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan sunk his presidency, Trump may be determined to avoid a similar loss of Ukraine.

Facing a Middle East with escalating Tehran-backed conflicts and a near-nuclear Iran, Trump 2.0 might also double down and increase U.S. military involvement to douse the fires Tehran has lit.

Trump is likely to end the Biden administration’s pressure on Israel to end the war against Hamas, de-escalate against Iran, and withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank. Trump would end Biden’s embargo on certain U.S. arms deliveries to Israel, halt aid to Gaza, and de-emphasize humanitarian concerns. Trump has consistently supported an Israeli “victory”—a stance repeated by his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance—and called on Israel to “finish the job.” Trump has walked back his previous endorsement of a Palestinian state, suggesting a very different approach to the “day after.” If a major war between Israel and Hezbollah breaks out, Trump’s track record suggests he would support swift Israeli action with less concern for civilian casualties, with full U.S. support but no direct military involvement.

Trump 2.0 would quickly face the choice of whether to take preemptive military action against Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran is now a nuclear breakout state, capable of producing enough weapons-grade uranium for several bombs in less than 10 days, even if weaponization may take several months to a year. Berlin, Paris, and London, antagonists to Trump 1.0’s Iran policy, may be supporters of Trump 2.0’s, as Iran’s growing military alliance with Russia, nuclear progress, and support for the Houthis have shifted European attitudes. Having repeatedly passed the wartime tests by Iran and its proxies, Israeli anti-air capabilities have rapidly improved, as has coordination with Arab partners. Trump will likely recharge his maximum-pressure approach, but he may be more likely to threaten Iran directly than ever before.

Trump 2.0 could also launch a campaign against the Houthis similar to that against the Islamic State during Trump 1.0. He would inherit a 24-nation coalition that is currently failing to restore freedom of navigation through the Red Sea. Despite the most intense U.S. naval combat operations since World War II, Suez Canal transits are still fewer than half of what they were a year ago; so far, over 90 commercial vessels have been hit and more than 100 warships attacked. Just as he declared the defeat and destruction of the Islamic State to be his “highest priority” on the first day of his presidency, he may flip the mission from a defensive to offensive one by hitting Houthi launch sites, targeting critical infrastructure, eliminating Iranian naval support, and directly threatening Tehran. A successful campaign could restore commercial shipping, lower energy and shipping costs, and foster diplomatic cooperation with European, Middle Eastern, and Asian governments.

Even if Trump’s instincts and inclinations remain unchanged, the world’s vastly shifted circumstances could prompt unexpected approaches. If Trump 1.0 was an alliance disruptor and protectionist, a second Trump administration could turn out to be a coalition builder and forger of significant trade deals. Concerns over U.S. abandonment of Europe and withdrawal from the Middle East may prove to have been hasty, with altered circumstances leading to greater stability in Europe and a rollback of Iranian aggression in the Middle East. Dealmaking with China may give way to the best opportunity to build a Cold War-like coalition to blunt aggressive Chinese behavior.

[hughescocksworthnews]

Florida Sheriff Shows Pictures Of Biden's 'Unsecure' Border

[norelationtodonkeykong]

reading about the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, it seems extremely likely that Israel will invade again, and this paragraph from the US Army War College's assessment really puts in perspective how badly Israel was beaten.

"By 5 August, the IDF had approximately 10,000 soldiers in southern Lebanon. In three weeks of war, the ground forces managed to penetrate no farther than four miles. Remarkably, the border zone remained unsecured, as were the towns of Maroun al Ras and Bint Jbeil. Yet, the entire Hezbollah force south of the Litani consisted of only 3,000 fighters. Unlike the IDF, Hezbollah did not call on its sizable reserve forces and chose to fight the entire war south of the Litani with its original force of 3,000 men.35 For Israel and the IDF, there was still no “spectacle of victory” or any sign of Hezbollah’s impending defeat" - Matt M. Matthews, We Were Caught Unprepared: The 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, Page 50

[katblu42]

Last House on the Left?

For @flashfictionfridayofficial prompt #117 The Last House on the Left. I hope I make it in time! Not proofread! (Sorry for any typos or mistakes.)

Thunderbirds fandom. Rated teen - nothing bad, but it is a rescue fic! Approx 837 words.

Virgil’s footfalls sent water splashing up his back as he ran down Stony Creek Road.  Any time his feet strayed off the bitumen the his boots sank at least an inch into the sodden ground with a spongy squelch, so he tried to keep to the solid road surface rather than taking shortcuts across lawns.

He fixed his eyes on the two story red-brick home at the end of the row still some hundred metres away.

The last house on the left the caller had said before John had lost the signal. 

Communications in the area were hampered by the weather which had knocked out signal towers all across the region.  It was amazing anyone had even been able to get a call for help out there for Thunderbird Five to latch onto.

Days of relentless rain, swollen waterways and rising flood waters and now strong winds bordering on gale force.  Local authorities had their hands full evacuating people from homes in the path of the oncoming flood.  Local emergency services had been inundated with calls for help as trees, power lines and even communication towers had toppled onto cars and homes.  And then major roads into and out of the town had been cut by a major landslide, with further rock and mudslides expected to tumble down the hillside and endanger more homes.

So, International Rescue were there to assist, boots already on the ground when the voice had reached John’s ears.  Unable to convey much more than the fact they needed help, the name of the street and that last on the left detail.

Approaching the house with trepidation, the hydraulics of Virgil’s exosuit whined as he slowed.  Something struck him as being very odd even before he reached the front door and saw the note scrawled in a messy hand.

We have evacuated.  House secure.

He didn’t want to interrupt John who was feeding information to Scott and Alan at the site of the landslide where they were trying to free people from a number of vehicles, some partially buried and others quite precariously positioned.

He rang the doorbell, pounded on the door, shouted “Is anyone in there?  International Rescue.  Do you need help?” and peered through the window.   He glanced to his right, towards the side of the house, considering looking for another way in, any unsecured entry point, and caught sight of the fence.  Just beyond the wide wooden slats was a section of neat but waterlogged lawn interrupted by a paved driveway.

A driveway leading nowhere.

Virgil’s heart took a dive into his gut.

“John,” he had no choice but to interrupt now, “what number would the last house on the left of Stony Creek Road be?”

There was a pause. “Twenty-seven.”

Damn!

The number on the door of the red brick house was a shiny brass 25.

Virgil cursed himself for not noticing there was another driveway, for not asking for the number sooner.  He ran the last few metres from one house to where the next should be and couldn’t help but gasp as he saw what had happened.

At the end of the driveway was a large sinkhole that had evidently opened up beneath the house and taken it tumbling down the slope towards the creek.  As he drew closer he could see the way the building had been torn apart on the way down, bricks and weatherboard, soft furnishings and appliances and all sorts strewn over the steep slope and area below.

“Thunderbird Five I need information.  Now!”  Virgil’s requests for readings on the stability of the ground beneath him, the possible position of the person who’d called for help and all the information he’d need to safely reach the house and its occupant were efficiently met by Eos’ precise numbers, readouts and calculations.

Virgil tested every footstep on approach to the edge of the sinkhole, then set himself for a long slide down towards the wreckage.  The exosuit would be enough to help him pick his way through the debris and reach the victim, but he would need his ‘bird to help them get out.

As if on cue the air was filled with a familiar engine rumble, and the voice of a little brother broke in over his comm.

“Thought you could use a hand,” Gordon said, almost cheerfully.  “Where do you want me?”

It took some time and a lot of careful manoeuvring, Virgil directing Gordon where to use Thunderbird Two’s grapples to remove or lift and support larger sections of the collapsed building while he used his Jaws of Life to shift or break through smaller pieces.  There were a few heart-stopping moments where the ground beneath them shifted further, the house groaning around them, but finally Virgil and the old man who had called for help emerged from the rubble. Gordon lowered the rescue cradle and hauled them both up into the safety of the great green Thunderbird, leaving behind the crater where the last house on the left had once stood.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Today (May 7), I’m in Berkeley at the Bay Area Book Festival for an 11AM event with Wendy Liu for my book Chokepoint Capitalism.

Weds (May 10), I’m in Vancouver for a keynote at the Open Source Summit and a book event for Red Team Blues at Heritage Hall and Thu (May 11), I’m in Calgary for Wordfest.

#20yrsago Future of Music coalition open letter on media consolidation https://web.archive.org/web/20030504023803/http://www.futureofmusic.org/news/fccmusicianletter.cfm

#20yrsago The Web makes writing better https://web.archive.org/web/20030509221227/http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,950915,00.html

#20yrsago A (dangerous) primer on hardware hacking https://hackingthexbox.com

#15yrsago House passes bill that will let the RIAA take away your home for downloading music https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-110hr4279rh/pdf/BILLS-110hr4279rh.pdf

#15yrsago Using a record-cutter to turn old CDs into 45RPM singles https://web.archive.org/web/20080502021126/http://www.futuresonic.com/08/art/cdrecycled/

#15yrsago BBC sends legal threat over fan’s Dr Who knitting patterns https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/bbc-removes-doctor-who-fans-knitting-patterns-from-the-web/

#15yrsago Band “shoots” video by sending Data Protection Act requests to CCTVs that caught them performing https://web.archive.org/web/20080510192510/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/1938076/The-Get-Out-Clause%2C-Manchester's-stars-of-CCTV-cameras.html

#15yrsago RIAA says DRM is coming back — in the future, you won’t own music https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2008/05/if-music-drm-is-dead-the-riaa-expects-its-resurrection/

#15yrsago UK blacklist of “suspicious” store clerks includes people never charged or convicted https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7389547.stm

#15yrsago HOWTO detect hidden video cameras https://www.instructables.com/How-to-locate-pinhole-cameras

#10yrsago Hedge fund managers suck at making money (for you) https://www.cnbc.com/id/100718881

#10yrsago HOWTO build a working digital computer out of paperclips (and stuff) https://memex.craphound.com/2013/05/08/howto-build-a-working-digital-computer-out-of-paperclips-and-stuff/

#10yrsago Disney files trademark application for “Dia de Los Muertos” https://web.archive.org/web/20130508212616/http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disney-dia-de-los-muertos-trademark-62484/

#10yrsago Faced with excommunication threat, Irish PM explains separation of church and state to Cardinal https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politicians-have-responsibility-to-legislate-on-abortion-issue-1.1383262

#5yrsago Georgia’s governor has vetoed SB 315, the state’s catastrophically stupid cybersecurity law https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/victory-georgia-governor-vetoes-short-sighted-computer-crime-law

#5yrsago Equifax finally publishes a tally of what got breached when it left 146.6 million credit files unsecured https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/05/equifax-breach-exposed-millions-of-drivers-licenses-phone-numbers-emails/

#5yrsago Over 55,000 security camera DVRs are vulnerable to an exploit so simple it fits in a tweet https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-hacking-tool-lets-users-access-a-bunch-of-dvrs-and-their-video-feeds/

#5yrsago Jeff Sessions tells border guards to separate children from their parents https://www.alternet.org/2018/05/jeff-sessions-says-border-agents-will-separate-undocumented-kids-their-families

#5yrsago An upcoming Supreme Court ruling could force all workers into forced arbitration, deprived of the right to class lawsuits https://www.epi.org/blog/the-supreme-court-is-poised-to-make-forced-arbitration-nearly-inescapable/

#5yrsago Welsh police deployed facial recognition tech with a 92% false positive rate, but they’re sure it’s fine https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/uk-police-say-92-percent-false-positive-facial-recognition-is-no-big-deal/

#5yrsago Should I use an algorithm here? EFF’s 5-point checklist https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/math-cant-solve-everything-questions-we-need-be-asking-deciding-algorithm-answer

#5yrsago Google announces ad-ban for sleazy bail-bonds companies https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/first-google-banned-payday-loan-ads-now-it-will-ban-bail-bond-ads/

#5yrsago AT&T to the Supreme Court: “Fuck the FTC” https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/att-will-ask-supreme-court-to-cripple-the-ftcs-authority-over-broadband/

#5yrsago Here’s why everyone in the world just emailed you a new privacy policy https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/why-am-i-getting-all-these-terms-service-update-emails

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Berkeley, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[justbeingnamaste]

While few Americans are pleased with the direction of the nation, 88 percent say Biden’s America is headed in the wrong direction, marking the worst polling on the issue since 2013 when Barack Obama was president.

The poll sampled 978 Americans from June 23 to 27 with a 3.1-point margin of error. The polled respondents disproportionally leaned left. Thirty-one percent identified as Democrats, 43 percent as independents, and only 26 percent as Republicans.

Under Biden’s leadership, the nation continues to suffer under 40-year-high inflation. The southern border remains unsecured, fentanyl has become the greatest killer among 18 to 45-year-olds, gas prices have increased to all-time highs, weekly wages have shrunk, and supply chain woes have persisted.

On Sunday, Biden’s approval rating dropped to the lowest point of his presidency (30 percent). Biden’s approval rating has been on a downward trend since August — when Biden oversaw the deadly Afghanistan withdrawal that left 12 troops dead and thousands stranded behind enemy lines.

[leebranden]

Florida Sheriff Shows Pictures Of Biden's 'Unsecure' Border

[bllsbailey]

Ric Grenell Offers 10 Questions for CNN to Ask Harris

With Vice President Kamala Harris finally set to give a sit-down interview with a major media outlet this week, Ric Grenell, former acting director of National Intelligence offered some suggestions for the CNN interviewer.

In July, Harris was awarded President Joe Biden's spot at the top of the Democratic Party's ticket without the benefit of a single delegate or primary vote. Since that time she has only spoken in scripted preproduced formats, leaving many in the media clamoring for Harris to state her case for the presidency in her own words. 

Grenell, formally of the first Trump administration, offered some biting suggestions Wednesday to anchor Dana Bash to help get the conversation started:

If you are capable of lowering prices for Americans, why have not you done it in the 3½ years you have been in office?

You say housing affordability would be a "day one priority" if you were elected. Why is it not a priority now? Housing is not affordable for the average American in 99% of the nation.

You co-sponsored Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal. Do you still support these multitrillion-dollar takeovers of the American economy?

You talk a lot about "freedom." What about the freedoms of Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, and Jocelyn Nungaray? These women were killed by illegal immigrants who were let into the country under your watch.

President Trump did not need a "border bill" to secure the border. Why did you support executive actions like stopping construction of the border wall and halting deportations that intentionally unsecured the border?

Trump was the first president in decades to start no new wars. Under your watch, wars are popping up in Europe and the Middle East. Why is that?

You supported the defund the police movement and have said more police does not mean more safety. Why do you want fewer police officers?

Why did you conceal Joe Biden's cognitive decline from the American people?

You have called for getting rid of cash bail and your campaign has not backed away from it. Why do you still support such a radical view?

You have sent anonymous aides out to claim you have abandoned the radically liberal positions that you have held for decades. Do you think lying to the American people is the best strategy?

For her first prime-time interview, Harris will curiously be joined by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Even some of the outlet's own commentators have blasted the decision to bring along a companion.

"I think it's incredibly weak — weak sauce — to show up with your running mate," CNN's Scott Jennings said.

"The fact that they don't have enough confidence in her to let her sit at the actual top of the ticket and do a single interview speaks volumes."

The Harris-Walz interview will be taped Thursday and is expected to air at 9 p.m. ET on CNN.

James Morley III ✉

James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature. 

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Florida Sheriff Shows Pictures Of Biden's 'Unsecure' Border

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