At least it’s out in the open.
The science of elite incompetence
Scientists have found that the higher someone rates their social class, the more likely they are to overestimate their talents.
Google suspends some business with Huawei after Trump blacklist – source
The end of Globalization 1.0
It’s what you’re certain of that ain’t so that’s dangerous
True facts
Everyone presumably pays for accurate polling even if it shows them losing because how else can they adjust strategy unless they are in possession of the true facts. Now 3 failed polling predictions in 3 major Anglo democracies raise the question of how they could be so wrong?
David Cameron called the Brexit referendum confident Remain would win. The Hillary Clinton victory fireworks were already laid out. The Australian bookies had already paid those who had bet on Labor to win. Then the unthinkable happened. The sure thing didn’t happen.
Just as historians will forever wonder why the Titanic’s lookouts didn’t see the iceberg so also will political scientists wonder at how pollsters, presumably in honest search of the true facts, with vast sampling resources at their disposal, got it so totally wrong.
Former CIA officer gets 20 years in prison for selling secrets to China
Assistant Attorney General John Demers called the case “an alarming trend” of former U.S. intelligence officers passing along government secrets to China.
The screws tighten
LONDON (Reuters) – Iranian crude oil exports have fallen in May to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) or lower, tanker data showed and industry sources said, after the United States tightened the screws on Tehran’s main source of income, deepening global supply losses.
Reuters
Meanwhile …
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran said on Friday it could “easily” hit U.S. warships in the Gulf, the latest in days of saber rattling between Washington and Tehran, while its top diplomat worked to counter U.S. sanctions and salvage a nuclear deal denounced by President Donald Trump.
Reuters
War With Iran? Count Us Out, Europe Says
Even the article admits Trump doesn’t want war with Iran. What Europe is worried about is Washington going its own way on Iran and possibly doing better. Europe has no real answer to the Iran problem. Perhaps neither does Washington, but it’s not as if there is now a choice between War and Peace.
Insurer says Iran’s Guards likely to have organized tanker attacks
A confidential assessment issued this week by the Norwegian Shipowners’ Mutual War Risks Insurance Association (DNK) concluded that the attack was likely to have been carried out by a surface vessel operating close by that despatched underwater drones carrying 30-50 kg (65-110 lb) of high-grade explosives to detonate on impact.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-oil-tankers-exclusive-idUSKCN1SN1P7
Venezuela’s Collapse Is the Worst Outside of War
The weird thing is nobody knows why.
Mom and daughter strangled pregnant Chicago teen
How many people died in this incident is the single greatest mystery of modern times.
Strauss lured students to private clinic with local advertising
The advertisement in The Lantern described his clinic as offering “prompt treatment of common genital/urinary problems,” as well as providing examinations for rashes, lumps, pain/burning, checkups, testing, sexually transmitted diseases and “answers to questions.”
Now-dead Ohio State doctor accused of abusing at least 177
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A now-dead Ohio State team doctor sexually abused at least 177 male students over nearly two decades, and university officials knew what he was doing and did little to stop him, according to an investigative report released by the school Friday.
Dr. Richard Strauss committed the abuse from 1979 to 1997 — nearly his entire time at Ohio State — in episodes involving students from at least 16 sports, plus his work at the student health center and his off-campus clinic, the report said.
Social Media Battlespace
Speech and the control of speech is part of hybrid war
Nurse Facing Capital Murder Charge Isn’t Licensed To Practice
Unlicensed nurse may have killed a thousand grannies. Nothing deadlier than the trusted killer.
The suspect may be an illegal alien.
Trudeau threatens ‘consequences’ for disinformation on online platforms
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday promised that efforts to regulate social media in Canada would include “meaningful financial consequences” for online platforms that fail to counter disinformation.
Facial recognition comes to London.
Masking won’t help. China has body biometric and gait recognition. The only escape is to partly disempower the State
Assad’s torture chambers
The question is always who will bell the cat. Sometimes the truth is not in vogue.
The global chain gang
If the globalization meant China could turn off your fridge would you still like it?
CGI Democracy
Max Boot, remarking on Duterte’s midterm poll victory in the Philippines tweeted “undermining democracy is popular”. It’s more than’undermining’ but rather fake democracy. The new tactic in hybrid warfare is for strongmen to make dictatorship look like democracy. Just as politicians have learned the art of making war in secret they have perfected the skill tyrannizing in secret. Low observable technology goes beyond stealth airplanes.
Ordinary people are losing the political arms race against their rulers. Digital manipulation, mass surveillance and individual targeting have tipped the scales against publics that rely on traditional protest tactics like marches and rallies. These old methods are increasingly ineffective against an administration that can call on the technical help of China.
Hence protesters are adopting the tactics of the elite and forging international alliances, waging information warfare and reducing rather than amplifying their signature. One bad turn deserves another.
Can the ‘true’ result, if one can call it that, be recovered? The one constant is reality. Duterte’s fraud was primarily digital. The original paper ballots are the scam’s weakness because they are real and therefore harder to change.
Wholly virtual electoral systems are like CGI where anything is possible. Paper ballots and physical artifacts introduce an element of live action requiring an actual something. We have to step back from CGI politics and go back to live action. Just now
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday after a meeting with FBI officials that Russian hackers successfully penetrated the election systems of two Florida counties in 2016.
“Two Florida counties experienced intrusion into the supervisor of election networks, there was no manipulation or anything but there was voter data that able to be gotten,” said DeSantis. “It did not affect any voting or anything like that.”
But it could have. Virtual systems are far more vulnerable than ones based on stubborn physical artifacts like paper ballots.