Open Thread
Thursday Open Thread [9.18.14]
![Thursday Open Thread [9.18.14]](http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/feed-with-gdp.png "Thursday Open Thread [9.18.14]")
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apple-will-no-longer-unlock-most-iphones-ipads-for-police-even-with-search-warrants/2014/09/17/2612af58-3ed2-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html?hpid=z2" target="_blank">Kudos to Apple today</a>:
<blockquote>Apple said Wednesday night that it is making it impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police — even when they have a search warrant — taking a hard new line as tech companies attempt to blunt allegations that they have too readily participated in government efforts to collect user information.
[…]The key is the encryption that Apple mobile devices automatically put in place when a user selects a passcode, making it difficult for anyone who lacks that passcode to access the information within, including photos, e-mails and recordings. Apple once maintained the ability to unlock some content on devices for legally binding police requests but will no longer do so for iOS 8, it said in the new privacy policy.</blockquote>
If you have data in the iCloud, this does not apply, but I like locking down your devices from law enforcement not just as a privacy standard, but also as a marketing differentiator. All of the rest of the cell phone purveyors need to offer this level of privacy immediately.
Hijacking a Comment to Create an Open Thread [9.14.14]
Stealing this from Geezer in the Sunday Daily Delawhere thread:
I’ll treat this as the open thread so I can post this link to Thomas Frank’s piece from Salon, which is the best thing I’ve read so far this morning.
John Manifold responds Geezer’s post of the Frank article with this:
Thomas Frank : Ezra Klein
Rousseau : Voltaire
Thursday Open Thread [9.11.14]
![Thursday Open Thread [9.11.14]](http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/tfp_archive/2001-09-12/lg/DE_NJ.jpg "Thursday Open Thread [9.11.14]")
It’s the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and there are memorials and remembrances everywhere. You can see the front pages of newspapers worldwide as printed on 9/12 from the Newseum. Here’s the NJ front page from that day:
Wednesday Open Thread [9.10.14]
You’ll find spinning wheels at the top of Netflix, Etsy, Foursquare and other top sites today, as they take part in Internet Slowdown Day. While sites won’t slow down for real, participating Internet companies will be covered with the symbolic loading icons “to remind everyone what an Internet without net neutrality would look like,” the organizers write on their website.
It’s all part of a push to get the Federal Communications Commission to enact stronger protections for net neutrality. “We’re going to reach millions and millions of people who have never heard the words “net neutrality” before,” writes Fight for the Future’s Evan Greer. The group advocates for tougher net neutrality protections.
Interesting, I haven’t noticed the slowdown yet — have you?
Monday Open Thread [9.8.14]
As states restrict the ability of women to get legal abortions, there will be more stories like this:
A Pennsylvania woman has been sentenced to up to 18 months in prison for obtaining so-called abortion pills online and providing them to her teenage daughter to end her pregnancy.
Jennifer Ann Whalen, 39, of Washingtonville, a single mother who works as a nursing home aide, pleaded guilty in August to obtaining the miscarriage-inducing pills from an online site in Europe for her daughter, 16, who did not want to have the child.
Whalen was sentenced on Friday by Montour County Court of Common Pleas Judge Gary Norton to serve 12 months to 18 months in prison for violating a state law that requires abortions to be performed by physicians.[…]
Whalen told authorities there was no local clinic available to perform an abortion and her daughter did not have health insurance to cover a hospital abortion, the Press Enterprise newspaper of Bloomsburg reported.
And this is what the War on Women looks like — criminalizing what shouldn’t even be the state’s business.
Sunday Open Thread [9.7.14]
It’s been GOTV weekend here in Delaware and there are still races that are worth talking about — witness Mike Protack running against Janet Kilpatrick for NCCo Council proudly waving the flag for Metropolitan government (joining the governments of Wilmington and NCCo):
If elected, Protack said he would push for a metropolitan government in which the county would take over most functions from the city of Wilmington, which he called “a giant anchor” for New Castle County. He claimed without county intervention the government would be bankrupt, like Detroit, within five years.
“It could be a shining diamond, so it’s really a shame,” he said. “We need to save it from itself.”
Oh my.
Tuesday Open Thread [9.2.14]
![Tuesday Open Thread [9.2.14]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/black-children-240x180.jpg "Tuesday Open Thread [9.2.14]")
The Washington Post published Five things to know about Delaware’s election, noting that there are no Bidens on the ballot and noting that Beau Biden has gotten large contributions from Peter Angelos and the Buccini Brothers. They also note that Brenda Mayrack seems to be cruising in this primary and that Kevin Wade might be tilting at windmills. Smink has a COD endorsement? Yikes.
Labor Day Open Thread [9.1.14]
![Labor Day Open Thread [9.1.14]](http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2014/08/blargh3.png "Labor Day Open Thread [9.1.14]")
So now we have a new bit of right-wing foolishness to live through — Right wing launches misguided protest against Labor Day. Got that? A protest against Labor Day, folks.
But to the Freedom Foundation, a business-backed Olympia think tank, the day is evidence of the power of unions, which to members equals the decline of America. Rather than stoop to taking a union-backed day off, they plan to fight the power by … working all day Monday instead!
“I can’t think of a problem in society that can’t be traced in some way back to the abuses of organized labor, so it would be hypocritical of us to take a day off on its behalf,” said Freedom Foundation CEO Tom McCabe, in announcing the “work-in.”
Weekend Open Thread [8.30.14]
![Weekend Open Thread [8.30.14]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tan-suit-240x180.jpg "Weekend Open Thread [8.30.14]")
The Audacity of Taupe: President Obama wore a summer tan suit at his press conference on Thursday and I gather that this is not only news, but something of a cause celebre in Tea Party Nation. A Tan Suit, people. If you are a journalist actually paying attention to this, I need you to ask yourself now if you are why Americans seriously distrust their media. But when Eternally Outraged Congressman (ed. Peter King) Not Trying to Be ‘Trivial,’ But Doesn’t Think Obama’s Tan Suit Was Appropriate is making a fuss, I guess knee jerk coverage is in store, laundering this thing into some legitimacy that just looks bad for the liberal media that is actually covering this. (Be sure to click the link to NY Mag to see Peter King rockin’ his tan suit next to Gerry Adams. Then tell me who looks statesmanlike there.) And to all of the badly dressed teajhadists who think that a tan suit is a THING:
Thursday Open Thread [8.28.14]
![Thursday Open Thread [8.28.14]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Republican.Women_-240x180.png "Thursday Open Thread [8.28.14]")
Two conservative groups commissioned a poll and found that women think that the GOP is “intolerant”. Ya think? YA THINK???
The report found that women think the GOP is “intolerant” and “stuck in the past,” and that women are “barely receptive” to Republican policies. Women think Republicans “fail to speak to women in the different circumstances in which they live.”
“This lack of understanding and acknowledgment closes many minds to Republican policy solutions,” the report reads, according to Politico.
Late Night Video — Race/Off by Jon Stewart
Awesome commentary about the media coverage of the Ferguson business:
Tuesday Open Thread [8.26.14]
Chris Christie demonstrates a perfect execution of the GOP Grift:
Gov. Chris Christie’s administration openly acknowledged that more New Jersey taxpayer dollars were going to land in the coffers of major financial institutions. It was 2010, and Christie had just installed a longtime private equity executive, Robert Grady, to manage the state’s pension money. Grady promoted a plan to put more of those funds into riskier investments managed by Wall Street firms. Though this would entail higher fees, Grady said the strategy would “maximize returns while appropriately managing risk.”
Four years later, New Jersey has secured only half the promised results. The state has sent more pension money to big-name Wall Street firms like Blackstone, Third Point, Omega Advisors, Elliott Associates and Grady’s old firm, The Carlyle Group. Additionally, the amount of fees the state pays financial managers has more than tripled since Christie assumed office. New Jersey is now one of America’s largest investors in hedge funds.
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