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Hot Wheels is making a Spock Buick Riviera
Tom Swiss Wed, 06/08/2016 - 16:03

I think I need this.

A Tiny Spock Leaning on a 1964 Buick Riviera Is the Best Hot Wheels Car Ever (io9)

[San Diego sciComic-Con] hasn’t even started yet, but Hot Wheels might have already won the whole thing with this exclusive 1964 Buick Riviera featuring a badass-looking Spock leaning on the hood.

Hillary Clinton wore a $12,495 Armani jacket during a speech about inequality (CNBC)
Tom Swiss Tue, 06/07/2016 - 11:47

And this is why so many people feel that the stench of the Clintons must be hosed off the Democratic Party -- perhaps even if the cost is four years of (ugh) President Trump.

Hillary Clinton wore a $12,495 Armani jacket during a speech about inequality (CNBC)

Hillary Clinton took a lot of flak on Monday after a report surfaced that the presidential candidate wore a Giorgio Armani jacket worth more than $12,000 during a speech in April about inequality.

Samsung to push more ads at you through your TV

Posted on: Tue, 05/31/2016 - 13:11 By: Tom Swiss

And this is why the only things we should connect to the net are things running software that's under our control -- free software, in other words. (Free as in freedom, not (necessarily) as in price.) Otherwise your TV, your phone, your tablet, your PC, are all enemy agents, bent on spying on and brainwashing you. Root your phone and tablets, put Linux on your PCs, adblockers everywhere, and everything else off the network, to hell with "the Internet of Things". It's as necessary to information hygiene as washing your hands is to biological hygiene.

Even older Samsung TVs are going to get baked ads (The Stack)

An insider has stated that Samsung, the largest manufacturer of televisions in the world, is not only seeking to expand the use of hardware-baked advertising tiles in its newer models, but also to use software updates to make the functionality possible for older TVs which did not originally include it.

The South Korean company includes advertisements in its range of internet-connected televisions, and according to a post at WSJ, Executive Vice President Lee Won-jin (recently poached from Google) is at the helm of the initiative to add extra value to the razor-thin percentages thAn insider has stated that Samsung, the largest manufacturer of televisions in the world, is not only seeking to expand the use of hardware-baked advertising tiles in its newer models, but also to use software updates to make the functionality possible for older TVs which did not originally include it.

The South Korean company includes advertisements in its range of internet-connected televisions, and according to a post at WSJ, Executive Vice President Lee Won-jin (recently poached from Google) is at the helm of the initiative to add extra value to the razor-thin percentages that Samsung is currently able to garner in competition with cheap Chinese exports.

OxyContin maker's lies led people into addiction
Tom Swiss Thu, 05/26/2016 - 12:00

Big Pharma delenda est.

(static.latimes.com)

But OxyContin’s stunning success masked a fundamental problem: The drug wears off hours early in many people, a Los Angeles Times investigation found. OxyContin is a chemical cousin of heroin, and when it doesn’t last, patients can experience excruciating symptoms of withdrawal, including an intense craving for the drug.

The problem offers new insight into why so many people have become addicted to OxyContin, one of the most abused pharmaceuticals in U.S. history.

State Department finds Clinton e-mail violated directives, insecure, unapproved

Posted on: Wed, 05/25/2016 - 12:20 By: Tom Swiss

There are three separate but related issues about the Clinton e-mail server:

1) Via her poor practices she put operational security at risk, demonstrating that she does not have the judgment to hold any position of responsibility or trust. (Though you might think that would be well-established after Iraq, Libya, and Honduras, a lot of people still don't seem to get it.)

2) She violated the spirit, and quite possibly the letter, of federal records retention laws, demonstrating that she has little regard for transparency or oversight.

3) She may have violated laws regarding the handling of classified information.

Clinton faulted on emails by State Department audit (www.yahoo.com)

Hillary Clinton disregarded State Department cybersecurity guidelines by using a private email account and server, an internal audit found Wednesday. Her staff twice brushed aside specific concerns that she wasn't following federal rules.

Another anti-Trump protest turns violent, putting Trump closer to the White House

Posted on: Wed, 05/25/2016 - 09:31 By: Tom Swiss

Every time this happens, it strengthens the "we need to 'take our country back' from 'those people'" narrative. It plays right into an Agnew/Nixonesque appeal to the "silent majority". Young Elijah Martinez is absolutely right: this is giving Trump what he wants.

Anti-Trump protesters at Trump rally throw rocks, bottles at Albuquerque police (Washington Post)

ALBUQUERQUE — What began as an assembly of about 1,000 peaceful protesters outside a Donald Trump rally at the Albuquerque Convention Center morphed into madness Tuesday evening when mostly young, raucous rioters joined the ranks, hurling burning T-shirts, rocks and bottles toward the police and police horses trying to contain them.

Several Albuquerque police officers were injured by the projectile rocks, and at least one rioter had been arrested by the end of the night, the department tweeted....

How Sanders supporters are being slandered over Nevada

Posted on: Thu, 05/19/2016 - 09:37 By: Tom Swiss

At Counterpunch, Doug Johnson Hatlem has a good breakdown of the manufactured myth of violence by Sanders supporters at the Nevada Democratic convention. Nobody threw chairs, nobody made death threats, and there is a legitimate grievance at the root of it. If you had any doubt that the corporate media has had an anti-Sanders bias all along, their coverage of this clusterfuck ought to put that doubt to rest.

The Faux Fracas in Nevada: How a Reporter Manufactured a Riot (www.counterpunch.org)

Fifty-eight Sanders supporters were denied entry to the Nevada Convention and were told they weren’t Democrats. Other than the one guy who acknowledged he switched his registration on his own, this is ludicrous. Nevada had onsite registration for the original caucuses in February, and no one could participate in them unless they were registered as a Democrat.

Trump leads Clinton 45-42 in Fox News poll. (Yes, Fox, so, grain of salt.)

Posted on: Wed, 05/18/2016 - 22:11 By: Tom Swiss

It's a Fox poll, so, take with salt. But still, good job Democrats on picking the candidate who consistently polls worse against Trump.

Trump leads Clinton in Fox News poll (POLITICO)

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical general election matchup, according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday evening.

Trump leads Clinton 45 percent to 42 percent, within the poll’s 3-point margin of error. In the same poll conducted in April, Clinton led by 7 points — 48 percent to 41 percent.

...

More than seven in 10 — 71 percent — said the phrase “will say anything to get elected” describes Clinton, while 65 percent said the same of Trump.

Clinton holds double-digit advantages among women (50 percent to 36 percent), African Americans (90 percent to 7 percent), Latinos (62 percent to 23 percent) and those under the age of 35 (46 percent to 35 percent).

Trump, meanwhile, has the upper hand among independent voters (46 percent to 30 percent), men (55 percent to 33 percent), white voters (55 percent to 31 percent), those without a college degree (45 percent to 40 percent), and varying majorities of voters 35 and older.

Pirate radio on the rise
Tom Swiss Fri, 04/29/2016 - 14:15

From the "the more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers" department:

In Internet age, pirate radio arises as surprising challenge (hosted.ap.org)

In the age of podcasts and streaming services, you might think pirate radio is low on the list of concerns of federal lawmakers and broadcasters. You'd be wrong.

...

Helped along by cheaper technology, the rogue stations can cover several blocks or several square miles. Most broadcast to immigrant communities that pirate radio defenders say are underserved by licensed stations.

Obama & Clinton were warned Panama trade deal would help tax cheats, pushed it anyway; Sanders opposed it

Posted on: Mon, 04/04/2016 - 23:52 By: Tom Swiss

Surprise surprise, the critics -- Bernie Sanders among them -- were right, and Clinton and Obama were wrong. Yet again.

Panama Papers: Obama, Clinton Pushed Trade Deal Amid Warnings It Would Make Money Laundering, Tax Evasion Worse (International Business Times)

Soon after taking office in 2009, Obama and his secretary of state — who is currently the Democratic presidential front-runner — began pushing for the passage of stalled free trade agreements (FTAs) with Panama, Colombia and South Korea that opponents said would make it more difficult to crack down on Panama’s very low income tax rate, banking secrecy laws and history of noncooperation with foreign partners.

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