Linkage

• Official Unemployment is at 3.9%? Economist Robert Pollin Says it is More Like 12% (Real News Network) Employment to population ratio remains below the pre-crash levels, so a lot of people have given up. H/t naked capitalism
• It seems someone is producing a banned ozone-depleting chemical again (Ars Technica) It appears that someone, probably someone in Asia, is producing CFCs again,
• Greenland ice cores track Roman lead pollution in year-by-year detail (Ars Technica) The led emissions come from silver smelting, so it is a good proxy for economic activity.
• NASA Satellites Detect Seriously Weird Changes in Earth's Freshwater (Inverse) More evidence of anthropogenic climate change.
• How Tech Can Turn Doctors Into Clerical Workers ( New York Times) Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have not worked the way that the wonks who drew up Obamacare said that they work.
• Tucson Draws the Line on Prison Privatization (Truth Out) Tucson is ground zero for ICE detentions, so this means something.
• Time to ditch Wikipedia? (Five Filters) It appears that Wikipedia may have an obsessive troll doing a lot of editing.

How police treat open carry activists depending on the color of their skin:

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• The bizarre tale of the flat-Earth convention that fell apart (CNET) I really wish that Terry Pratchett was around to comment on this.
• The carbon footprint of tourism revealed (it's bigger than we thought)
• Monica Lewinsky: What We All Can Learn from My Disinvitation Debacle (Vanity Fair) Monica Lewinski gets an anodyne invite to a charity function, and then gets uninvited after Bill Clinton announces that he will be there. Ms. Lewinski goes public. Much stupidity (Not from Lewinski) ensues.
• What's a safe distance between us and a supernova? (EarthSky) Somewhere under 50 and 100 light years, you start getting major effects on earth.
• Grenfell Tower fire: Government makes U-turn on inquiry panel after pressure from bereaved families (The Independent) The Theresa May Tango: Do something cruel and stupid, and after weeks of protests and condemnation, and reverses herself. She may be the most incompetent British PM since Winston Churchill in the 1950s.
• Connecting.nyc: Managing a top-level domain as a commons (P2P Foundation) Conservatives would call this proposal socialism. Conservatives are idiots.
• Study: programs like welfare and Social Security work (Yahoo Finance) Won't change conservative minds, because they are impervious to facts.
• We've Known for 400 Years That Torture Doesn't Work (Scientific American) It's official.
• Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at Bush stands for parliament (Reuters) Politics is weird.
• How The ACORN Scandal Seeded Today's Nightmare Politics (HuffPo) Whether it's the Democratic Party's defenestration of ACORN, or the similar dismissal of Shirley Sherrod, contributed mightily to the right wing echo chamber of lies, because they discovered that it worked.

This may be The best political ad of the season.

As an FYI, the station actually broadcast this, because federal regulations require it: (Warning, F-Bomb)

Linkage

• Wooden Shigir idol found to be over twice as old as Egyptian pyramids (Phys.org)
• When Milky Got His Money (Esquire) An Australian was allowed to overdraw his account to the tune of over a million Australian dollars. Much hilarity ensues
• 10 of the Most Sociopathic Washington Post Columns (FAIR) The only columnist with multiple cites is ……… wait for it ……… Richard Cohen!
• Neanderthals etched a message on this 36,000-year-old stone tool (Ars Technica) Just so cool
• Flirting with Liberals: A Critical Examination of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) (The Hampton Institute) A Marxist critique of DSA for not being Marxist enough. I disagree, but this should be read.
• Mystery pooper at N.J. high school's track turned out to be superintendent, cops say (NJ.com) It was on the rival school football field. That old school spirit.
• The coming media whitewash of John McCain’s career (Oliver Willis) Any obit should mention Sarah Palin and the Keating 5 prominently.
• One space between each sentence, they said. Science just proved them wrong. (Washington Post) I, a compulsive 2 spacer, find vindication.
• Gmail's 'Self Destruct' Feature Will Probably Be Used to Illegally Destroy Government Records (Motherboard) This is a feature, not a bug.
• Alan Turing’s chemistry hypothesis turned into a desalination filter (Ars Technica) Imagine what we would have learned if bigotry had not ended his life early.

Anyone remember transparent aluminum from Star Trek 4? (It's actually a ceramic in which aluminum figures prominently)

Linkage

• We Love the Pentagon’s ‘Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure’ (War Is Boring) Fat Albert is only the tip of the iceberg.
• The Five Types Of Nicolas Cage Movies (FiveThirtyEight) There is only one kind of Nicholas Cage movie: Awful ones.
• Healthy Tasmanian devils discovered by scientists looking to save species (BBC) There has been an epidemic of transmissible cancer threatening the species, so this is good news.
• The return of The Negro Motorist Green Book (ThinkProgress) The Green Book was a guide in the mid 10^th 20^th century for black travelers to not end up dead by being in the wrong place.
• The EU just made a dramatic move to protect bees (Science Alert) They have instituted a rather broad (greenhouses exempted) ban on Neonicotinoid pesticides to protect bees.

Michelle Wolf's White House Correspondent's Dinner routine. Much butthurt ensues:

Linkage

• Saving net neutrality, one house at a time (Washington Post) Concord, MA helps its citizens and saves money by building municipal broadband.
• Scientists finally confirm that Uranus is surrounded by fart clouds (Popular Science) Uranus and fart clouds, had to include it.
• Centrist Elites: Please Save Democracy From Democracy (Ian Welsh) Makes the point that the rule by experts enshrined into things like the Federal Reserve, international trade deals, and the European Union are deliberately anti-democratic by design because they benefit from such arrangements.
• Why the DNC Is Fighting WikiLeaks and Not Wall Street (Truthdig) Because they don't want to piss off the corporate donors who pay them their salaries when they quit to become consultants?
• Oh dear... Netizens think 'private' browsing really means totally private (The Register) "It's a little like some Tesla owners thinking Autopilot is, judging by the name, fully autonomous driving, rather than super-cruise-control."
• KPMG faces shareholder protests over GE and Wells Fargo audits To be clear here, it's the GE and Wells shareholders who want to dump KMPG, because they think that their audits are complete pants.
• Judge rules bar was allowed to kick out Trump supporter (The Hill) The delicate snowflake had his feelings hurt when he was kicked out a bar for a MAGA hat, so he sued claiming that Trump was his religion.  The judge said GTFOHWTBS
• Secretly Taped Audio Reveals Democratic Leadership Pressuring Progressive to Leave Race (The Intercept) They have tapes of Steny Hoyer telling a progressive to get out of a Congressional race. You weren't in Maryland, Steny, so the candidate could legally tape you without your knowledge. Oops.

8 Ways to Piss off Your Cat: (Not recommended unless you like finding crap in your stereo headphones)

Linkage

• Denial of the Obvious: Far Right in Maidan Protests and Their Danger Today (VoxUkraine) This is totally not a surprise.
• Moelis Reminds Staff to Treat Young Bankers Well (Bloomberg) At the Moelis investment bank, a memo was leaked excoriating some of its employees for not being at their desks at 2:00 am.  Much hilarity ensues.
• James Comey, the Would-Be J. Edgar Hoover (Rolling Stone) Matt Taibbi notes that, "In denying that he was angling to be a modern Hoover, he more often than not seems to be confirming it. The possible resurgence of such figures gives us one more thing to worry about in an era already chock-full of political dangers."
• The Restaurant Industry Ran a Private Poll on the Minimum Wage. It Did Not Go Well for Them. (The Intercept) People support increasing the minimum wage even if it raises the price of a burger and fries.
• MEPs back report urging break-up of Google services (POLITICO) Not an official EU position, but it should be.
• CFPB Payday Loans: payday lender is accused of stealing millions from customers. Trump’s CFPB is now letting them off the hook. (Vox) Where Trump is doing real damage.
• How Martin Luther Paved the Way for Donald Trump (The Nation) The history of Martin Luther is one of aggressively hostile religious extremism, particularly later in his life.
• Experts say Tesla has repeated car industry mistakes from the 1980s (Ars Technica) Silicon
  Valley thinking keeps repeating the the most terrifying mantra in the world, "But it's different this time."

World's best cover of "The Wheels on the Bus"

Linkage

• This Could Revolutionize That (The Baffler) File as bullsh%$ bingo, along with disrupt, meme, empowerment, sharing, holistic, and synergy.
• Priest Regrets Vow Of Celibacy After Learning About Furries (The Onion) America's finest news source.
• A new study on increased snowfall in Antarctica shows the dramatic pace of climate change (Quartz) Antarctica was basically a really cold desert.  Not any more.
• The F-35 Is a $1.4 Trillion Dollar National Disaster (The National Interest Blog) 
• Our Dental Insurance Sent us “Free” Internet-Connected Toothbrushes. And this is What Happened Next (Wolf Street) They sent them toothbrushes to spay on their family.
• A Public Outcry Against a Wall Street Titan’s Name on a High School (New York Times) Not something that one would expect from a largely white Philadelphia suburb.  Hopefully, this is the start of a trend.
• Glutamatergic Signaling Drives Ketamine-Mediated Response in Depression: Evidence from Dynamic Causal Modeling (International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology) Ketamine appears to be very effective in treating depression.
• The pundits were wrong about Assad and the Islamic State. As usual, they're not willing to admit it (LA Times) In related news, the sky is blue.

John Oliver with the straight dope on MLM:

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• In case you missed the ‘condom-snorting challenge’ — and didn’t know it’s a bad idea (Washington Post) I weep for our youth
• Before the Media Lionized Martin Luther King Jr., They Denounced Him (Rolling Stone) Very true. Also King was far more radical than the Disney type portrayals that we see of him today.
• Lying Is a Fundamental Part of American Police Culture (Truthout) What I will say if I am ever interviewed as a part of jury duty, which is why I will never be on a jury.
• The DCCC's Long, Ugly History of Sabotaging Progressives (In These Times) A good primer on the methods and history.
• Joseph Essig Kept Police Job After Groping Arrest (Law and Crime) While we are on the topic of corrupt police culture, here is the case of the son of a NYC assistant police chief.
• BP thinks an oil spill in Australia would be ‘welcome boost’ for locals (RT) Let them eat oil slicks.
• 'I’m not going to be a Gabby Giffords': Congressman Ralph Norman pulls out loaded gun at constituent meeting (Washington Post) Your Congress in action.

Dr. Evil Gets Fired from Trump's Cabinet:

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• Parents burned and beat their teen daughter after she said no to ‘arranged’ marriage, police say (Washington Post) Seriously, this sh%$ needs to stop.
• for the record: i wasnt too busy to work on deadpool. (Comic Book) The animated Deadpool series was canceled before its first episode. There is the script linked at the article. The decision not to proceed is a great loss for all of huge manatee.
• Meet The Unluckiest Woman On The Internet, And Prepare To Laugh Your Ass Off (Bored Panda) It's amusing because this woman is telling her own story, and she is a good writer.
• Colonists on LV-426 excited after discovery of Easter eggs (The Rochdale Herald) If you don't get the reference, you need to get out more.

Deadpool as all of Infinity Wars, because, Deadpool.

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• F-35: Still No Finish Line in Sight (POGO) Fail, rinse, lather, repeat.
• The New Pennsylvania Congressional Map, District by District (New York Times) A nice primer on how the court mandated redistricting will effect upcoming elections.
• The Kushner Family Passover Haggadah (McSweeney’s) Hysterically funny.
• Police chief said Uber victim “came from the shadows”—don’t believe it (Ars Technica) Neither do I. Corruption is part of Uber's corporate DNA.
• School district in Pennsylvania to arm students and teachers with rocks (The Guardian) Truth really is stranger than fiction.

A miscarriage of justice in the UK. It was a joke, not hate speech:

Linkage

• Why Do Cats Knock Everything Over? Science Explains (Inverse)Ummm ……… Still offering multiple explanations, but we love the enigma.
• How a corporate cult captures and destroys our best graduates (The Guardian) Our best and brightest are being directed to a parasitic activity, to the detriment of society.
• Hillary Clinton speech in India: I won in 'dynamic' places, Trump won 'backwards' (Business Insider) This is significant because it still is canon for much of the Democratic Party, or as Yves Smith observes, "The Dems refuse to get that their combination of vilification ('deplorables') and patronization ('let them eat STEM training') is losing them the bottom 80%."
• A Reporter Rolled Her Eyes, and China’s Internet Broke (New York Times) One of the good things about the internet is that no one can control what becomes a meme, not even Xi Jinping.
• Crucified Stormtrooper Removed From London Church (Londonist) The sculpture is available for only £12,000.
• People Are Suing Equifax in Small-Claims Court and It's Totally Brilliant. Here's Why (Inc) Cheap enough for a relatively low claim, and the high powered lawyers that Equifax uses have no clue as to the rules, at least in California.

BTW, the sculpture, wasn't removed, it was just relocated further away from the sanctuary:

Linkage

• Billionaire Paul Allen Finds Lost World War II Carrier USS Lexington (USNI News) Video Below.
• Six Ways the 'Resistance' Gave Trump a Dictator’s Toolkit (Truthdig) Even though they are protesting, the party leaders continue to increase the powers of the State Security Apparatus.
• How the Democrat's Corrupt Congressional Pay-to-Play Machine Sabotages Progressives and the Popular Will (naked capitalism) The DCCC is a real f%$#ing horror show.
• Disney shareholders vote against executive compensation (Business Insider) Not that it will mean anything.
• Did This American Tech Help Turkey Spy In Syria? (Forbes) Of course. There is money to be made.
• West Virginia Strike Highlights Corporate Media’s Atrophied Labor Coverage (FAIR) Unfortunately all to true.
• Shashi Tharoor: In Winston Churchill, Hollywood rewards a mass murderer (Washington Post) Pretty much, Churchill is the equivalent of Rudy Giuliani.
• If You Truly Care About Speech, You Will Invite Me to Your Office to Personally Call You a Dipshit (Splinter News) A righteous response to the pundits who think that criticism of them is an assault on their right to free speech.
• A skin of Castle Wolfenstein where all you do is pet dogs (Boing Boing) Too much free time.
• The article removed from Forbes, “Why White Evangelicalism Is So Cruel” (Political Orphans) A very cogent explanation arguing that white southern evangelicals have never moved past their racist origins.

The Lexington has been found:

Linkage

• So Bad the DoJ Woke Up: Saline Bag Makers Look to Have Endangered Patients Via Illegal "Tying" and Price Gouging (naked capitalism) Monopoly and corruption, that's the American way.
• Playboy lawsuit over (Boing Boing) Boing Boing links to a gallery of Playboy covers. Playboy sues. Judge laughs it out of court.
• VIDEO: Billionaire Paul Allen Finds Lost World War II Carrier USS Lexington (USNI News) Kewl. Video at site.
• Six Ways the 'Resistance' Gave Trump a Dictator’s Toolkit (Truthdig) Dems in Congress have supporting Trump to cut trade deals without meaningful review, go to war, spy on us, imprison us without trial, etc.
• How the Democrat's Corrupt Congressional Pay-to-Play Machine Sabotages Progressives and the Popular Will ((naked capitalism) DCCC dialing for dollars.
• Disney shareholders vote against executive compensation (Business Insider) Not binding, but not bad news.

Stephen Colbert is Colberting Congress:

Linkage

• Climate-change–driven accelerated sea-level rise detected in the altimeter era (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) Sea level rise is accelerating; a 66cm (26 in) rise predicted by 2100.
• Diabetes is actually five separate diseases, research suggests (BBC) Could make a big difference in treatments.
• Getting the Inside Dope on Ketamine's Mysterious Ability to Rapidly Relieve Depression (Scientific American) Studies are preliminary, but it looks promising.
• MSNBC’s Big Names Completely Ignore West Virginia Teachers Strike (FAIR) Not surprised.  MSNBC's version of "Liberal Media" is the anti-union Democratic Party orthodoxy.
• Patent Office Puts Allergan's Mohawk Deal Out Of Its Misery (Seeking Alpha) Allergan's attempt to rent sovereign immunity got shut down.

From the '80s:

Linkage

• Money Laundering Via Author Impersonation on Amazon? (Krebs on Security) Amazon does nothing to prevent this, because they still get their vigorish.
• North Pole surges above freezing in the dead of winter, stunning scientists (Washington Post) We are f%$#ed.
• A Certain Party’s Gift for Self-Immolation (New York Times) The DCCC f%$#ery against Laura Mosler makes the mainstream media. The Democrats: Seizing defeat from the jaws of victory since ………
• Meet the Community Organizers Fighting Against … Barack Obama (POLITICO) Community organizers are protesting the Community Organizer in Chief because of his refusal to produce a written community benefits agreement for his library.  Because, "Trust me" has worked so well with Obama.
• ICE Is a Terrifying and Faceless Federal Agency. Here’s the Face of the Guy Who Runs the Seattle Office. F%$# Him. (The Stranger)

The news of the past few weeks seems to call for this song:

Linkage

• Man featured in ads for pro-Trump dating site was convicted of child sex crimes: report (Raw Story) As Zathras would say, at least there is symmetry.
• The Arrest Was a Bust. The Officers Got Overtime Anyway. (New York Times) We are paying officers to make bogus arrests.
• 6 Sickening Details You Won't Read in Billy Graham's Fawning Obituaries (Alternet) I won't speak ill of the dead today, but I will point you to someone who does.
• Why can’t conservatives just admit they were wrong about inflation? (Washington Post) Because economists generally are more afraid of inflation than unemployment?
• The hysteria over Russian bots has reached new levels (The Guardian) Well, duh. Nasty twitter memes is not Pearl Harbor.
• Former Freemason found naked inside pipe organ in Brisbane (Daily Mail Online) I will probably never party that hard.

The song stylings of Kate Micucci and William Macy:

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• A Girl Scout sold 300 boxes of cookies — near a legal marijuana shop (Vox) She got her Capitalism Merit badge that day.
• Second White House official departs amid abuse allegations, which he denies (Washington Post) So not a surprise. This administration does for sexual abuse what the Eisenhower administration did for golf.
• Hey Muslims, Let’s Join the NRA. We Could Help Solve Gun Violence. (The Intercept) Don't laugh, it worked for the Black Panthers.
• Shareblue Astroturf Analysis A completely legal troll farm run by Hillary and Evil Minions^™. So the complaint appears to be that the Russians trolled better, and for less money.
• Chicken chaos as KFC closes outlets (BBC) The joys of modern business schools, save a few pennies, shut down all the KFC's in the UK.

To my mind, this is the quintessential country music song: (Warning: kind of NSFW)

Linkage

• Submerged permafrost releasing methane, but not into the atmosphere (Ars Technica) Basically, plankton is eating it, for now at least.
• Open Letter to the Airbnb Community About Building a 21st Century Company (Airbnb Newsroom) If you play bullsh%$ bingo, you just won.
• Mass Incarceration: New Jim Crow, Class War, or Both? (People's Policy Project) It turns out that if you correct for socioeconomic class, the incarceration rates are more similar, though not the same.  It's both a war on blacks and a war on the poor.
• Report: Labor Department hiding unfavorable report on impacts of tip-pooling rule (The Hill) Trump is objectively pro wage theft.
• Finally, Facial Recognition for Cows Is Here (Gizmodo) Paging Gary Larson.
• Study shows fracking and earthquakes in Oklahoma strongly linked (Business Insider) More earthquakes than California. Fracking is really bad news.
• Study finds humanities majors land jobs and are happy in them (Inside Higher Education) Not a surprise. University as a vocational school has always been a sucker bet.

Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek:

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• Internet Can’t Stop Laughing At These Cops Who Ticketed A Car Made Of Snow With This Note (Bored Panda) I love this sort of pranking.
• The Democratic Party Is Not What You Think (Gods & Radicals) The Democratic Party as the neoliberal equivalent of Marxist cadre. 
• Blockchain Sex Contracts Will Be Weaponized Against Women (Above the Law) How tech bros want to "solve" issues of sexual assault.  Pathetic.
• Russia’s Doomsday Torpedo Is A ‘Third Strike’ Weapon (Aviation Week) I'm not sure if this is Russia trying to scam US defense analysts, or US defense analysts trying to scam the budget process.
• Hillary Clinton reportedly protected an alleged sexual harasser on her 2008 campaign. (New Republic) Fail: If you talk the talk, you should walk the walk.
• Smut site fingered as 'source' of a million US net neutrality comments (The Register) These comments process was corrupt, and the FCC ignored all the Pornhub email addresses, in violation of the law. 
• Application Error (Financial Times) The FT 404 not found page is a hoot.
• Soros slams Facebook and Google as 'menace' to society, 'obstacles to innovation' (Business Insider) Yeah, pretty much.
• Former employees say Lyft staffers spied on passengers (TechCrunch) The "sharing economy" in a nut shell.

Why Do Cats Miaow?

Linkage

• An Assistant Allegedly Stole $1.2 Million of Goldman Sachs Exec's Wine (Vice) Mixed emotions. Theft is wrong, but stealing from the Vampire Squid, that's a service to humanity.
• This Is What a White Supremacist Department of Justice Looks Like (Vice) Jefferson Beauregard Sessions' history of bigotry and support of the white supremacist movement makes Donald Trump look like Bayard Rustin.
• HTML5 may as well stand for Hey, Track Me Longtime 5. Ads can use it to fingerprint netizens (The Register) Combating this sort of abuse should have been a part of the development of the standard from day 1.
• Bitcoin's fluctuations are too much for even ransomware cybercriminals (The Guardian) When criminals refuse to accept it, your currency has failed.
• The Fall of Travis Kalanick Was a Lot Weirder and Darker Than You Thought (Bloomberg) Uber is even more f%$#ed up than you imagined.

How do Cats Use Their Whiskers? Slow-Motion - Cats Uncovered - BBC: