SoylentNews

I was most active at Kuro5hin but its server's entire data center was decommissioned. Lawrence Calvin Foster III promised to put up a read-only archive of the site but it's been long enough that we are all convinced that he had no off-site backups.

https://dontsuemebro.com/section/Diary

dontsuemebro is intended to replace kuro5hin but so far it's just a few of us diehards.

http://advogato.org/person/MichaelCrawford/

I journal only rarely at Advogato these days but I was quite active during the zeroes.

http://www.warplife.com/mdc/books/vancouver-diaries/

I was intending to publish a dead-tree book of these when Bonita finished school and moved out West to join me. What I actually got was informed that she was divorcing me on my second visit home.

That refers to the Canadian Vancouver but it includes some of my time in Sunnyvale and San Jose, California.

Green Party's Jill Stein to face charges after North Dakota protest

U.S. Green Party's Stein faces probe over North Dakota pipeline protest

Sheriff: Green Party presidential candidate faces charges in pipeline protest

I didn't know this about Gary Johnson. Sure, maybe some of it is skewed but there's plenty in this video that just couldn't be any more damning even without the commentary pointing it out.

I'm actually a bit shocked. It's just another Bernie :(

And that's why I would implore people to watch it, even if they don't agree with me now or afterwards. Disagreement is good, it can challenge us to think, maybe not straight away but later on after the dust settles.

This all makes me wonder about two things in particular:

1. Why is Jill Stein polling worse than Gary Johnson? I take the people who previously supported Bernie at their word which means that roughly half the Democrat voters are looking to vote for someone who is not Clinton. Maybe what makes me recoil at that video of Johnson has attracted them to him but the thought makes me shudder; the guy behaves like the typical fascist.

2. What happened to that oddball interesting Libertarian (a real one?) who was first out in announcing his run for the presidency? The ex-CIA guy who wrote a lot about Open Intelligence? At least he seemed like he was actually Libertarian although tarnished by his previous job.

I personally don't care about Gary Johnsons stance on climate change one way or the other (I don't regard it as science and would like people to understand why and why that is important even if the guess about consequences turns out to be a correct guess but that's about it) and to the extent I have a beef with Black Lives Matter it's not about Marxism but about the choice of a self-defeating strategy on an important issue (unacceptable murders and other gross abuses of power by police against all), but I care a lot about other parts of the video.

In particular his support of the TPP (see note below) and the way that Gary Johnson blows up at the reporter, it is everything I would not want at all. He's like a male and healthy Hillary. Johnson stinks of Bernie & Clinton & Kaine, it's awful :3

I don't have a vote but if I did I could never use it for Gary Johnson.

TPP: there's probably a lot more sources/confirmation (a glance at a search indicates so) but the Wikipedia page on Gary Johnson sources the article "Think You’ve Got It Locked, Hillary? Meet Jill Stein." where the following quote can be found about Gary Johnson:

"And while Johnson sounded critical of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in an earlier Politico interview, in this later one he appeared to support it. “It is my understanding that the TPP does advance free trade,” he said. “Is it a perfect document? Probably not. But based on my understanding of the document, I would be supporting it [though] in a perfect world there wouldn’t be a document like that, there would just be free trade.” The statement makes him the only candidate in the four-person field indicating he would ratify the pact, which may raise his stock with anti-Trump free trade Republicans but muddles his case for the Bernie camp."

And of course TPP is not over, the powers that be will just try again as they always do. Slap on a new acronym and do some cosmetics and run the same shit once again. So it does matter.

Gary Johnson and his running mate Weld also support NAFTA as can be seen here (please note that the latest stance is listed first and is pro-TPP).

They're simply globalists, not Libertarians, there's nothing Free about their "free trade" instead it's economic enslavement and servitude, exactly the kind the EU is so "good" at and which tilts the tables vertically in favor of big business and against small business aka what's usually called crony capitalism (or in the original Marxist definition simply capitalism) and nowhere close to what ordinary people usually think of when they say free trade or capitalism: mutually beneficial and mutually voluntary transactions in non-monopolies.

What does everyone else think about these things regarding Gary Johnson and Weld? Please don't attack the messengers, look beyond style and at Gary Johnson.

P.s. I'm not a libertarian but I leaned that way before I decided all ideologies are bad. Later I discovered I'm in good company.

New streaming show 'StartUp' rides bitcoin, fintech crazes

Call it a case of art imitating life.

The shadowy world of computer hackers, long an object of fascination in movies and popular culture, may be about to take a new leap as an entertainment vehicle. As hackers, anonymous data leaks and cyber intrigue fill real-world headlines, a new television show called "StartUp," featuring similar themes, launches on Tuesday — but with an added twist.

The 10-episode drama will debut on Sony Pictures' streaming platform Crackle, and centers around three strangers who find themselves enmeshed in a digital currency scheme (hello, bitcoin!) while fighting the FBI. "StartUp," which includes actors Martin Freeman and Adam Brody, has already released its first episode for viewers to watch on Reddit.

GenCoin, the fictional digital currency used in the show, loosely represents bitcoin, currently world's largest digital currency. Given that it's difficult to regulate and trace, some say it's an ideal vehicle for criminal activity such as money laundering.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters/comments/4zeuo6/startup_episode_1_exclusive_reddit_premiere/

The cartoon.

Charlie Hebdo slammed for 'lasagna' cartoon on Italy earthquake victims

Controversial French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has provoked fresh outrage with its response to last week's devastating earthquake in central Italy.

The latest edition of the edgy French publication features a cartoon entitled "Earthquake, Italian-style," which depicts victims of the 6.2-magnitude quake with varying degrees of injury, each likened to an Italian recipe. A severely bleeding man is labelled "penne with tomato sauce." A woman with a badly bruised or burned face is "penne au gratin." And a pile of victims pancaked beneath a collapsed building, their legs sticking out from the bloodied rubble, is "lasagna." The cartoon prompted a swift response in Italy and online.

Oh nooooo! We can't pretend to support free speech any more! They've gone too far this time!

This submission was already run one year ago, with an extra link to the Diane Rehm show.

The Coddling of the American Mind

The Atlantic has some new coverage of the University of Chicago's rejection of trigger warnings and safe spaces that has hit the news this week.

Trump To Meet With Mexican President Ahead Of Immigration Speech

Now that's interesting.

Not refined enough for a submission, but the spirit is there:

When Molecular Nanofactory is realized then a desktop Whiskey Machine will produce spirits at less than 36 cents per bottle

The Whiskey Machine: Nanofactory-Based Replication of Fine Spirits and Other Alcohol-Based Beverages (139 pages)

Politico reports that Andrea Tantaros, former co-host of the Fox News Channel news and talk shows The Five and Outnumbered , has filed a lawsuit (PDF) against the network, several of its executives, and former chair and CEO Roger Ailes, who resigned last month.

Besides the company and Ailes, the suit names as defendants

• Dianne Brandi, executive vice-president of legal and business affairs;
• Suzanne Scott, who earlier this month became executive vice-president of programming and development after working as senior vice-president of programming and development since 2009;
• Irena Briganti, the executive vice-president of corporate communicationsl; and
• William Shine, who earlier this month became co-president of the network.

  The suit alleges sexual harassment by Ailes, claiming that

  [...] his actions were condoned by his most senior lieutenants, who engaged in a concerted effort to silence Tantaros by threats, humiliation, and retaliation.

  Ailes has previously denied similar accusations; a representative of the network declined to comment.

Backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung stabbed to death at Australian hostel

A 21-year-old British woman has died after she was stabbed during an attack at a backpackers' hostel in Australia. The victim has been named as Mia Ayliffe-Chung, from Derbyshire. A 30-year-old British man - named locally as Tom Jackson from Cheshire - was severely injured in the attack in Home Hill, Queensland, and is in a critical condition.

A French suspect, 29, who allegedly said the Arabic phrase "Allahu akbar" during the attack, was arrested. Police are treating the incident as a murder case, not a terror attack. They are investigating a number of possible motivations, including drugs misuse, mental health issues and extremism.