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Stop airing Trump’s phony briefings live!
For over a month now, the White House has been holding its daily coronavirus briefings, and most networks, cable news channels and major news websites have been carrying all or parts of them live, as millions of people, trapped inside and anxious, have tuned in.
The briefings are marked by Trump’s own misinformation, deceptions, rage, blaming and boasting. He takes no responsibility at all for his abysmal handling of the crisis, while each day he seems to find another person to blame…
Under no circumstance should these briefings be carried live. Doing so is a mistake bordering on journalistic malpractice. Everything a president does or says should be documented but airing all of it, unfiltered, is lazy and irresponsible.
As the veteran anchor Ted Koppel told The New York Times last month, “Training a camera on a live event, and just letting it play out, is technology, not journalism; journalism requires editing and context.” He continued, “The question, clearly, is whether his status as president of the United States obliges us to broadcast his every briefing live.” His answer was “no.”
Yes. I understand how “TV journalism” reached – and crossed – the boundaries of reflective, edited journalism. For anyone who cares about truth and accuracy, scientific fact over superstition and fabrication, the Fake President’s campaign rallies masquerading as press briefings are a criminal farce.
Zombies vs Vampires — legal battle between corrupt medical labs
❝Right now a dead, bankrupt and corrupt laboratory company is suing an active, morally bankrupt lab company. No matter who eventually wins the court battle all of us — patients, Medicare, insurance companies, not to mention our entire health and legal systems — will lose.
❝Health Diagnostics Laboratory is the zombie lab company. After raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in a few short years for its owners and others, HDL went out of business last year. The reason: the company’s business model was illegal and unethical.
The company bribed doctors to order unnecessary tests — lots of unnecessary tests. Then it told patients that they would not be billed for the tests. This is also illegal.
But in its heyday the company reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from Medicare and insurance companies.
❝True Health Diagnostics is the vampire lab company. When HDL went out of business this new company bought its remaining assets and adopted its business model of bribing doctors to order their tests and not collecting the patients’ portion of the bill. (Despite the company’s denials, True Health appears to have close connections with at least some of the major figures involved with HDL.)
Late last year the surviving legal remnant of HDL began efforts to collect from patients on some of the bills on which the company had promised, in writing, never to collect…
❝Patients panicked when they suddenly found themselves faced with thousands of dollars in bills. Naturally many of them called their doctors to complain, and many of the doctors complained to their True Health sales reps, since in many cases this was the same person.
True Health in turn panicked. It threatened to sue HDL. If doctors and patients believed that there was even a small chance that patients would be held responsible for thousands of dollars for their tests then their entire sleazy business model would topple like a house of cards. So the company sent letters to doctors, telling the doctors to tell their patients to ignore the letters.
This did not sit well with HDL, which then sued True Health…
❝I have no idea how the legal issues here will be resolved. I don’t know if patients who were promised they would never receive a bill can be held responsible for those bills because those promises were illegal. This kind of situation is exactly why we have so many lawyers but so little justice.
But I do know this: the one thing missing in the battle of the zombie lab versus the vampire lab is justice.
The responsible figures — the HDL leaders, its salesmen, and, especially, the doctors who ordered and profited from all these unnecessary tests — are not being held responsible. Many of the same doctors and salesman who participated in the earlier HDL scheme are now participating in the True Health scheme…
❝We’ll probably never know how many hundreds of millions of dollars were made by the HDL executives and salesmen and the doctors who participated in their scheme. And unless people start going to jail there will be no incentive to stop more schemes like this. Civil suits, by the government or by private insurance companies, will simply be viewed as the cost of doing business.
Gotta love self-regulating, self-policing crafts, trades, industries. Seems to me a great deal of what is involved here is plain and simple fraud. Some of it must have crossed state lines. If states won’t act responsibly – well, that’s why we have federal attorneys.
Weed the People
“A line this long that never ends and everybody is happy,” marveled Jim Leighton, a 30-year Oregon resident. “Isn’t that great?” He and some 1,300 others stood in a queue that snaked around the block in the sweltering Portland heat Friday afternoon, waiting for entry to an event where they could get up to seven grams of marijuana for nothing more than a smile and a handshake.
Oregon is the fourth state in the United States, in addition to the District of Columbia, to legalize marijuana for recreational use for adults 21 years and older. But even after parts of the law went into effect Wednesday that legalized possession and growing of small amounts, marijuana still cannot be sold to the general public.
So growers and medical dispensaries at Weed the People found their way around the law by giving away their weed for free, some hoping to use it as a marketing tool later…
On midnight Wednesday as the law went into effect, hundreds gathered on Burnside bridge in downtown Portland in celebration. The bridge was billowing with smoke as the clock struck midnight. But while the original plan was to hand out free samples of marijuana, the overwhelming turnout halted the giveaway.
Two days later, the free handouts proceeded as planned at Weed the People, thought to be the first formal event with free cannabis giveaways – after attendees paid a $40 admission fee to attend.
The alcohol-free event lasted for seven hours, as attendees mulled around to test out smoking devices; relaxed on comfy chairs and listened to records in a “chill out area”; and waited in a line that wound through the inside of a warehouse to enter the “Grow Garden”, the highly secured and roped off area where they could pick up their free goodies. One growing entity, Green Bodhi Gardens, said it brought more than 2,000 grams divided into one-gram jars in anticipation of the crowds…
Restrictions notwithstanding, “people want to celebrate,” said event organizer Josh Taylor. “Oregonians are big on sharing!”
The easiest thing to share still is Good News. As more and more folks are exposed to the reality of attitude-alteration with substances like cannabis versus craptastic amounts of alcohol, mellow stoners versus combative drunks, progress towards an understanding of reality outside the boundaries of conventional politics continues to grow – and grow.
Our culture, our government, our politicians may be characterized by ignorance, stupidity, superstition and bigotry. The fact remains that exposure to reality changes folks’ minds. It’s always too gradual for many; but, it’s inevitable. Even faster if you get on board the freedom train. 🙂
Weed seeds publicly shared at Washington DC celebration
Potential family gardeners lined up for seeds — DC Cannabis Campaign
Residents of Washington D.C. lined up for free cannabis seeds Saturday in a giveaway resulting from last year’s successful ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in the District of Columbia.
The event, sponsored by the D.C. Cannabis Campaign, was held Thursday and Saturday and saw hundreds of 18-and-up D.C. residents line up to receive and trade free seeds…
More than 3,500 people signed up for the giveaway, which saw distribution at Libertine bar and restaurant on Thursday and at D.C. Cannabis Campaign Headquarters on Saturday.
Legalization of marijuana for consumption and growth, known as Initiative 71, was passed 7 to 3 last November by D.C. voters who now join Colorado and Washington state in allowing use of the drug for recreational purposes.
The initiative, which went into effect in late February, allows D.C. residents to use the drug out of view and cultivate six seedlings and up to three mature plants, with a limit of 12 plants per household.
DC coppers were present. No one was bothered. Sharing or swapping seeds isn’t against the law, now.
I wonder if any of the coppers took any of the seeds? It is legal, after all. I wonder if any members of Congress had someone on their staff who is a DC resident pick up a few for the boss?
Man walks free of death row after 26 years in Louisiana pen
Glenn Ford – a long time ago
A man who spent nearly 26 years on death row in Louisiana walked free Tuesday, hours after a judge approved the state’s motion to vacate the man’s murder conviction in the 1983 killing of a jeweler.
Glenn Ford, 64, had been on death row since August 1988 in connection with the death of 56-year-old Isadore Rozeman, a Shreveport jeweler and watchmaker for whom Ford had done occasional yard work. Convicted of first-degree murder by an all-white jury, Ford, who is African-American, had always denied killing Rozeman.
Ford walked out the maximum security prison at Angola on Tuesday afternoon, said Pam Laborde, a spokeswoman for Louisiana’s Department of Public Safety and Corrections.
Asked about his release, Ford told WAFB-TV, “It feels good; my mind is going in all kind of directions. It feels good.”
Ford told the outlet he harbors some resentment at being wrongly jailed: “Yeah, cause I’ve been locked up almost 30 years for something I didn’t do…I can’t go back and do anything I should have been doing when I was 35, 38, 40, stuff like that,” he added…
Gary Clements, one of Ford’s lawyers, told Al Jazeera that the new information was a confession from another suspect in Rozeman’s murder.
“We are very pleased to see Glenn Ford finally exonerated, and we are particularly grateful that the prosecution and the court moved ahead so decisively to set Mr. Ford free,” read a statement from Clements and Aaron Novod, another attorney for Ford from the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana.
They said Ford’s trial had been “profoundly compromised by inexperienced counsel and by the unconstitutional suppression of evidence, including information from an informant.” They also cited what they said was a suppressed police report related to the time of the crime and evidence involving the murder weapon.
I hope Mr. Ford lives long enough to sue the crap out of the state of Louisiana. They’ve been caught in corrupt and crooked incarceration enough times that they actually passed a law limiting compensation to innocent prisoners after their release to $25K for each year wrongfully imprisoned.
Anyone think that the Sportsman’s Paradise will do anything about the sleazy coppers and prosecutors who railroaded Glenn Ford into prison?
I don’t think so, either.
Secular alliance had the strongest result in Libya’s election
Results from Libya’s first elections since the overthrow of Col Gaddafi have shown gains for an alliance of parties seen as broadly secular…The National Forces Alliance, led by ex-interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, has won 39 out of 80 seats reserved for political parties…The Muslim Brotherhood’s party has gained 17.
The 200-member General National Assembly will also include dozens of independent candidates…The overall orientation that the assembly will have is so far unclear.
What remains to be seen is who, if anyone, will lead the assembly by majority, the BBC’s Rana Jawad in Tripoli reports…
The current interim Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib said the announcement of the results was “a time of celebration”.
“Everybody in Libya is happy. And we are thankful to those partners and friends who have helped us to get to this point,” Mr Keib said.
The assembly will have legislative powers, though it is unclear what role it will play in drawing up the country’s new constitution. The assembly is expected to be in place for at least a year.
It will choose the first elected government since Col Muammar Gaddafi came to power in 1969…The last fully free parliamentary election was held soon after independence in 1952. The last national vote was held in 1965, when no political parties were allowed…
The election commission put turnout at 62% of registered voters.
Bravo – and good luck. The road to democracy is long and difficult. Some of us haven’t mastered it after trying for over two centuries.
New York turning payphones into free Wi-fi hotspots
Payphones, those relics of the pre-cellphone era, may just get a new lease on life in New York. The city is testing a pilot program in which it installs free Wi-Fi on select payphone kiosks.
The hotspots are initially coming to ten payphones in three of the boroughs and will be open to the public to access for free. You can see a list of sites here. Users just agree to the terms, visit the city’s tourism website and then they’re up and running…
The payphones have been outfitted with “military grade” antennas, that provide service up to 300 feet away. The $2,000 installation is being provided for free by Van Wagner Communications, which owns many of the city’s payphones. The plan is to eventually spread the Wi-Fi hotspots to more of the city’s 13,000 payphones with the maintenance and ongoing costs paid by the payphone companies.
New York is already flush with a lot of great free Wi-Fi options. AT&T has been lighting up many of the city’s parks as part of a five-year plan. The city has been installing more Wi-Fi at schools, libraries and senior centers. And providers like Towerstream are providing sponsored Wi-Fi for users who are willing to view a selection of daily deals.
Here in Santa Fe, we are fortunate to have beaucoup free wifi sources. Practically a requirement for any coffee shop that wants regular clientele.
I agree with Ryan Kim – given New York’s focus on dollar$ 24/7 — adverts will show up sooner or later. Still, the overriding question is always access and availability. We can grump about charges when we have sufficient.
Free Wi-Fi coming to Japanese vending machines in 2012
Free Wi-Fi is on its way to some Japanese vending machines. Working much like a mobile hotspot at your local coffee shop, people located near the machines would be able to connect to the internet for 30 minutes at a time and surf the web.
The vending machines are for the drink company Asahi. Connecting to the web using a machine can be done without any kind of log-in, and if your initial 30-minute connection to the network expires, you can connect again and keep on surfing. The service is available to anyone, to use with any smartphone, tablet, or computer and does not require the purchase of a drink from the machine.
Why vending machine hotspots? Free internet hotspots in the country are few and far between due in part to Japan’s early adoption of mobile broadband, which led to a lack of free Wi-Fi locations. Now that tablets and smartphones have taken off, there’s a growing need for Wi-Fi. While there are a few hotspots at places like McDonalds, the vending machines would allow people to get connected in more areas.
OK. I still recommend setting up a VPN — virtual private network — connecting through your home network before you start wandering much through public access unsecured wifi.
Put a thousand books from the 19th Century on your iPad for free
I just love finding apps like this, and I think you’ll be excited too. The British Library has released 1000 books from its 19th Century collection into a free iPad app that includes novels, historical works, poetry, philosophy and scientific books.
The books have been scanned in high resolution and color so you can see the engraved illustrations, the beauty of the embossed covers, along with maps and even the texture of the paper the books were printed on.
You can search the collection, browse titles by subject, and even read commentary on some of the titles. The books can be downloaded for reading offline.
In general, I found the app a joy to use. It was fun to browse titles, or search for things I was interested in. While some of the type is old and weathered, you can zoom in and read everything without issue…
Although the app is free, the British Library plans to charge for an enhanced version of 60,000 titles later this year. Many of the books have an option to buy, and when you click you are sent to Amazon to purchase a printed copy. The app is iPad only for now, but will be coming to the Kindle Reader and Android tablets in the future. If you grab the app let us know what you think.
This seems to have been a moderately literary weekend. Though never a fan of the Compleat 19th Century, I was mentored quite happily for a spell by a pedant with a doctorate in Victorian poetry, prose and drama. Younger days.
Though I often reject today’s most backwards populists as being stuck into the 19th Century, it is their misunderstanding of economics I characterize. The Age of Reason never did make to America [outside of Boston anyway] and probably won’t for another generation or two. At a minimum.
If you are properly equipped, I can recommend the app.
Eideard 