A closer look at the alleged virtues of gentrification
On December 20th, the Cincinnati Business Courier ran an item by Randy Simes entitled “New report challenges negative views on gentrification” — and it was republished on December 23rd with UrbanCincy.com under the title “Gentrification occurring in more than Cincinnati’s center city neighborhoods.” These items reference research conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, and that data extols the virtues of gentrification, suggesting that people end up with higher credit scores when a neighborhood is gentrified. The Business Courier’s headline especially bolsters such a reading.
Simes writes that “[o]ne of the biggest concerns shared by those worried about the gentrification of neighborhoods is that it is particularly those that rent, rather than own, who are affected most. This too, however, is challenged by Hartley’s research.”
Simes writes that “[o]ne of the biggest concerns shared by those worried about the gentrification of neighborhoods is that it is particularly those that rent, rather than own, who are affected most. This too, however, is challenged by Hartley’s research.”
President's Intelligence Review Panel “wasn’t thinking in constitutional terms”
On August 9, 2013, President Obama, responded to the never ending NSA surveillance scandal by forming a panel to give him recommendations on how to change the intelligence community's practice of wholesale spying on the whole world. Although the panel was touted as independent and tasked with safeguarding liberties, its function was very different both in its inception and execution.
The panel answered to the president through Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and consisted of intelligence community and Obama administration insiders. The charge of the review panel was to “assess whether, in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States employs its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations, such as the risk of unauthorized disclosure and our need to maintain the public trust.”
The panel answered to the president through Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and consisted of intelligence community and Obama administration insiders. The charge of the review panel was to “assess whether, in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States employs its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations, such as the risk of unauthorized disclosure and our need to maintain the public trust.”
Two NSA cases, two rulings and at least one apparent perjury
The holiday season brought the world two federal rulings on the National Security Agency’s collection of data on every single person in the country. The cases were brought in two different federal districts before two different federal judges. Federal District Judge Leon, of the District of Columbia, called the NSA’s practices “Orwellian,” and “likely unconstitutional” but declined to issue an injunction prior to a full trial.
Federal District Judge Pauley, of the Southern District of New York, upheld the NSA’s bulk metadata collection. In both cases the NSA relied on testimony from Teresa H. Shea, the Director of the Signals Intelligence Directorate of the NSA.
Federal District Judge Pauley, of the Southern District of New York, upheld the NSA’s bulk metadata collection. In both cases the NSA relied on testimony from Teresa H. Shea, the Director of the Signals Intelligence Directorate of the NSA.
War on Poverty wages on
Fifty years ago this week, President Lyndon Johnson, lamenting that too many Americans “live on the outskirts of hope,” declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.” This will not be “a short or easy struggle,” he stated in his State of the Union address to the Congress, “no single weapon or strategy will suffice, but we will not rest until that war is won. The richest nation on earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it.”
With over 46 million in poverty today, including more than one in five children, Johnson’s promise is mocked by today’s realities.
But in reality, the war on poverty was initially very successful, reducing poverty in the United States by about 30 percent in the five years after Johnson’s speech. Many different strategies were tried and worked.
Giving the poor money directly worked: expanded Social Security put more money in the pockets of seniors, reducing poverty among the elderly from over 35 percent in 1959 to 25 percent in 1968, to less than 10 percent today. Raising the minimum wage meant that low wage workers could lift their families from poverty.
With over 46 million in poverty today, including more than one in five children, Johnson’s promise is mocked by today’s realities.
But in reality, the war on poverty was initially very successful, reducing poverty in the United States by about 30 percent in the five years after Johnson’s speech. Many different strategies were tried and worked.
Giving the poor money directly worked: expanded Social Security put more money in the pockets of seniors, reducing poverty among the elderly from over 35 percent in 1959 to 25 percent in 1968, to less than 10 percent today. Raising the minimum wage meant that low wage workers could lift their families from poverty.
Amazon's drone army
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, seems very cheery in recent interviews. His new business plan has excited not only Bezos, but the speculative corporate press. The new plan is simple, efficient, and oddly alienating: drone delivery.
Some passing lip service has been paid to privacy concerns amid speculation about the regulatory and technology hurdles. The business press has missed and understated the privacy implications. They have not looked carefully at the technological capability of drones. The most important questions in the information age, the ones concerning the flow of data, have yet to be articulated. Seeking answers to those questions gives apparent cause for alarm about Amazon's drone army, or if it really is Amazon's drone army at all.
Some passing lip service has been paid to privacy concerns amid speculation about the regulatory and technology hurdles. The business press has missed and understated the privacy implications. They have not looked carefully at the technological capability of drones. The most important questions in the information age, the ones concerning the flow of data, have yet to be articulated. Seeking answers to those questions gives apparent cause for alarm about Amazon's drone army, or if it really is Amazon's drone army at all.
Is the NSA spying on Congress?
BURLINGTON, Vt., Jan. 3 - U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today asked
the National Security Agency director whether the agency has monitored
the phone calls, emails and Internet traffic of members of Congress and
other elected officials.
"Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials?" Sanders asked in a letter [1] to Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director. " 'Spying' would include gathering metadata on calls made from official or personal phones, content from websites visited or emails sent, or collecting any other data from a third party not made available to the general public in the regular course of business?"
Sanders said he was "deeply concerned" by revelations that American intelligence agencies harvested records of phone calls, emails and web activity by millions of innocent Americans without any reason to even suspect involvement in illegal activities. He also cited reports that the United States eavesdropped on the leaders of Germany, Mexico, Brazil and other allies.
"Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials?" Sanders asked in a letter [1] to Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director. " 'Spying' would include gathering metadata on calls made from official or personal phones, content from websites visited or emails sent, or collecting any other data from a third party not made available to the general public in the regular course of business?"
Sanders said he was "deeply concerned" by revelations that American intelligence agencies harvested records of phone calls, emails and web activity by millions of innocent Americans without any reason to even suspect involvement in illegal activities. He also cited reports that the United States eavesdropped on the leaders of Germany, Mexico, Brazil and other allies.
Top 10 proofs people can be completely manipulated without hypnosis
1. Any article listing the top 10 of anything will be widely read.
2. A poll of people in 65 countries, including the United States, finds that the United States is overwhelmingly considered the greatest threat to peace in the world. The consensus would have been even stronger had the United States itself not been polled, because the 5 percent of humanity living here is largely convinced that the other 95% of humanity -- that group with experience being threatened or attacked by the United States -- is wrong. After all, our government in the U.S. tells us it's in favor of peace. Even when it bombs cities, it does it for peace. It's hard for people under the bombs to see that. We in the U.S. have a better perspective.
2. A poll of people in 65 countries, including the United States, finds that the United States is overwhelmingly considered the greatest threat to peace in the world. The consensus would have been even stronger had the United States itself not been polled, because the 5 percent of humanity living here is largely convinced that the other 95% of humanity -- that group with experience being threatened or attacked by the United States -- is wrong. After all, our government in the U.S. tells us it's in favor of peace. Even when it bombs cities, it does it for peace. It's hard for people under the bombs to see that. We in the U.S. have a better perspective.
Pentagon data on student testing program rife with errors and contradictions: Student privacy compromised
In late December, 2013 the Department of Defense released a database on the military's controversial Student Testing Program in 11,700 high schools across the country. An examination of the complex and contradictory dataset raises serious issues regarding student privacy and the integrity of the Student Testing Program in America's schools.
The data was released after a protracted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The DoD's Freedom of Information office reports that 678,000 students participated in the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Career Exploration Program (ASVAB-CEP) during the 2012-2013 school year, down nearly 10% from the previous school year. The three-hour test is the linchpin of the Pentagon's school-based recruiting program and provides the Military Entrance Processing Command (USMEPCOM) an invaluable tool in prescreening candidates for military service.
The data was released after a protracted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The DoD's Freedom of Information office reports that 678,000 students participated in the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Career Exploration Program (ASVAB-CEP) during the 2012-2013 school year, down nearly 10% from the previous school year. The three-hour test is the linchpin of the Pentagon's school-based recruiting program and provides the Military Entrance Processing Command (USMEPCOM) an invaluable tool in prescreening candidates for military service.
Is MoveOn Less Progressive Than the New York Times Editorial Board?
The New York Times is hardly a progressive newspaper -- but when it comes to the surveillance state and ongoing militarism of the Obama White House, the establishment’s “paper of record” puts MoveOn.org to shame.
And so, the same day that the Times editorialized to excoriate President Obama for his latest betrayal of civil liberties, MoveOn sent out a huge email blast sucking up to Obama.
The Times was blunt in its Saturday editorial: “By the time President Obama gave his news conference on Friday, there was really only one course to take on surveillance policy from an ethical, moral, constitutional and even political point of view. And that was to embrace the recommendations of his handpicked panel on government spying -- and bills pending in Congress -- to end the obvious excesses. He could have started by suspending the constitutionally questionable (and evidently pointless) collection of data on every phone call and email that Americans make.”
But, the newspaper added: “He did not do any of that.”
And so, the same day that the Times editorialized to excoriate President Obama for his latest betrayal of civil liberties, MoveOn sent out a huge email blast sucking up to Obama.
The Times was blunt in its Saturday editorial: “By the time President Obama gave his news conference on Friday, there was really only one course to take on surveillance policy from an ethical, moral, constitutional and even political point of view. And that was to embrace the recommendations of his handpicked panel on government spying -- and bills pending in Congress -- to end the obvious excesses. He could have started by suspending the constitutionally questionable (and evidently pointless) collection of data on every phone call and email that Americans make.”
But, the newspaper added: “He did not do any of that.”
Truman’s True Warning on the CIA
Fifty years ago, exactly one month after John Kennedy was killed, the Washington Post published an op-ed titled “Limit CIA Role to Intelligence.” The first sentence of that op-ed on Dec. 22, 1963, read, “I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency.”
It sounded like the intro to a bleat from some liberal professor or journalist. Not so. The writer was former President Harry S. Truman, who spearheaded the establishment of the CIA 66 years ago, right after World War II, to better coordinate U.S. intelligence gathering. But the spy agency had lurched off in what Truman thought were troubling directions. President Harry S. Truman.
Sadly, those concerns that Truman expressed in that op-ed — that he had inadvertently helped create a Frankenstein monster — are as valid today as they were 50 years ago, if not more so.
It sounded like the intro to a bleat from some liberal professor or journalist. Not so. The writer was former President Harry S. Truman, who spearheaded the establishment of the CIA 66 years ago, right after World War II, to better coordinate U.S. intelligence gathering. But the spy agency had lurched off in what Truman thought were troubling directions. President Harry S. Truman.
Sadly, those concerns that Truman expressed in that op-ed — that he had inadvertently helped create a Frankenstein monster — are as valid today as they were 50 years ago, if not more so.