The FBI is openly setting out to make and break political leaders, undermining what we have left of a functioning democracy.
Sunday, August 10, 2025
Cancelling NYC Meetup This Friday, January 18; Need Input On Planned Fort Lauderdale Meetup on Thursday, February 7
Readers have expressed virtually no interest in the first two scheduled meetups of this year, and we have gotten the message.
2:00PM Water Cooler 1/14/2019
Today’s Water Cooler; Fortnite, Southeast Asian trade, Sanders 2020, Democrats and the heartland, soybeans, Tidal’s faked streams, Bird, AWS and MongoDB, RSS, fiber, market moves, Los Angeles teachers strike, gig economy, Marie Kondo, countering misinformation
CalPERS Fiasco 2: Confidential Member Data at Risk by Letting Company With No Contract Have Access; CalPERS Apparently Still Has No Deal With Any Vendors for Upcoming Elections
How CalPERS gave access to its sensitive member database to a company it barely knew, Votem Corp., with no contractual protection whatsoever. That’s like giving the keys to your house to someone you just met.
CalPERS Fiasco: Impermissible Non-Public Board Election Count; Failure of Widely Criticized Internet Voting to Deliver on Any Goals; Botched Tabulation
CalPERS refused to abandon its half-baked idea to push beneficiaries to vote by Internet ant phone. The scheme had not only failed to produce its alleged benefits, but it’s also again demonstrated CalPERS’ incompetence and deep commitment to cronyism.
Rethinking Free Trade Agreements in Uncertain Times
Jomo Kwame Sundaram makes the case against the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement that went into effect at the end of 2018, for six of its eleven member countries.
‘A Reckless Advocate of Military Force’: Demands for John Bolton’s Dismissal After Reports He Asked Pentagon for Options to Strike Iran
John Bolton manages the difficult task of making me yearn for the days of Henry Kissinger.
Plastic Watch: Ocean Cleanup Array to Arrive Today in Hilo for Necessary Repairs
Ocean Cleanup Array arrives today in Hilo for necessary repairs; not yet clear that the system will succeed in collecting plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Wolf Richter: Oops, SpaceX to Lay Off 10% of its Employees after Funding Fiasco in November
The LA Times reports that SpaceX, the unicorn startup with a newly minted $30.5 billion “valuation” and dreams of sending humans to Mars shortly, will lay off about 10% of its employees.
Off-Roading, Chopped Joshua Trees, Overflowing Toilets: Our National Parks During a Shutdown
Wreckage of national parks during the shutdown as yet another sign of lack of social cohesion.
$15 Minimum Wage: Job Killer or Path Out of Poverty?
This Real News Network segment sets forth the most common arguments against increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, or alternatively, a living wage level, and shows why they don’t hold up to scrutiny. A decent minimum wage is even more important when the supposedly robust US economy is increasingly creating McJobs. JAISAL NOOR: […]
Please Join Our “Come in From the Cold” NYC Meetup Next Friday, January 18 and Fort Lauderdale Meetup Thursday February 7
Hope you can make our NYC or Fort Lauderdale meetup’! You’ll find good company and if you are so inclined, plenty of potables.
