Trump's Lease for his D.C. hotel forbids him from being "an elected official"

Thanks to Daring Fireball for bringing yet another example of corruption to our attention: TTrump's Lease for his D.C. hotel forbids him from being "an elected official"

The Post Office Lease differs from many of Mr. Trump’s other business arrangements. That’s because, in writing the contract, the federal and D.C. governments determined, in advance, that elected officials could play no role in this lease arrangement. The contract language is clear: “No ... elected official of the Government of the United States ... shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom...”

The language could not be any more specific or clear. Donald Trump will breach the contract on Jan. 20, when, while continuing to benefit from the lease, he will become an “elected official of the Government of the United States.”

President Obama Claims He Cannot Pardon Snowden; He's Wrong | Techdirt

President Obama Claims He Cannot Pardon Snowden; He's Wrong | Techdirt:

Obama pardoned three Iranian Americans who had not yet stood trial. That happened this year. So for him to say it's impossible to pardon someone who hasn't gone before the court is simply, factually, historically wrong.

There may be reasons why the President doesn't wish to grant a pardon to Snowden, but his stated reasons are completely bogus.

McCain warns Trump on torture, waterboarding - POLITICO

McCain warns Trump on torture, waterboarding - POLITICO:

"I don't give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do. We will not waterboard," McCain told an audience at the annual Halifax International Security Forum. "We will not torture people – It doesn't work."

On Saturday, McCain reminded the audience that torture remains illegal under the Geneva Conventions and was also banned by Congress last year.

That law, signed by President Barack Obama, restricts interrogation techniques to those outlined by the U.S. Army Field Manual — which does not permit waterboarding.

Good on you, Senator McCain. And thank you.

Trump's big infrastructure plan? It's a trap. - The Washington Post

Trump's big infrastructure plan? It's a trap. - The Washington Post:

Trump's plan is not really an infrastructure plan. [... It] doesn’t directly fund new roads, bridges, water systems or airports, as did Hillary Clinton’s 2016 infrastructure proposal [...] Trump’s plan provides tax breaks to private-sector investors [...]

[...] projects that are not attractive to private investors [...] get no help from Trump’s plan. [With the business tax break, it's] a stunning $85 billion after-tax profit for contractors — underwritten by the taxpayers.

[It] isn’t really a jobs plan, either. [...] it funds tax breaks, not bridges [...] simply no guarantee that the plan will produce any net new hiring.

Third, because there is no proposed funding mechanism for Trump’s tax breaks, they will add to the deficit — perhaps as much as $137 billion.

But when the plan is passed and those voters see that it fattens investors’ and contractors’ pockets (but not workers’)[... they will] turn against its backers.

The 'us and them' divide worked for Putin and it will work for Trump | World news | The Guardian

The 'us and them' divide worked for Putin and it will work for Trump | World news | The Guardian Another informative read.

I have the privilege of being able to convey messages from the future to my friends in the US and Europe.

For someone like Trump or the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, xenophobia is only a means of mobilisation, not an end in itself... Trump and Putin are ecumenical nationalists.

...they are not bound by logic or intellectual decency. Their constituencies have short attention spans, and don’t notice when their leader switches from hating to ... co-opting... That’s what Putin has done with former Chechen independence fighters, who are now playing a key role in his machine of terror.

The anti-Trump marches ... last weekend were all about minority rights... Trump’s spin doctors will have no problem breaking up this movement, pitting its diverse components against each other, the same way Putin did with the Bolotnaya Square protests in 2012.

To beat him, Trump’s opponents need to start everything anew and unite under more universal, and unifying, slogans.

I subscribe through the Guardian's iOS app, which seems to have a discounted rate. Maybe it's time to upgrade to full fare.

Stephen Bannon Has No Business In The White House | Southern Poverty Law Center

You can sign the Southern Poverty Law Center's petition here.

The Way to Stop Trump | by David Cole | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books

The Way to Stop Trump | by David Cole | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books:

The risks are almost certainly greater than those posed by any prior American president...

Whether Trump will actually try to implement these promises, and more importantly, whether he will succeed if he does try, lies as much in our hands as in his.

...if we now and for the next four years insist that he honor our most fundamental constitutional values, including equality, human dignity, fair process, privacy, and the rule of law, and if we organize and advocate in defense of those principles, he can and will be contained.

I worry about this point. If Trump learns the art of spy-ops as taught by Putin's Russia, we will have a hard time.

Americans did not sit back and accept that the executive [under G.W. Bush] was above the law... they protested, filed lawsuits, wrote human rights reports, lobbied foreign audiences and governments to bring pressure to bear on the United States, leaked classified documents, and broadly condemned the administration’s actions as violations of fundamental constitutional and human rights.

Bush did not introduce these reforms because he came to realize his wrongs... But Bush was nonetheless checked—by American civil society, international criticism, and, for the first time in history, the Court and Congress.

Obama’s troubling use of drones to engage in secret targeted killing far from any battlefield leaves Trump an extremely dangerous weapon.

I'll stop quoting. Please go read the entire article.

For the love of all that is holy and good, #StopBannon's appointment – Medium

Practical steps to deter institutionalized white supremacy: For the love of all that is holy and good, #StopBannon's appointment – Medium

President-elect Trump's coal con

Coal country can't catch a break. President-elect Trump's coal con:

"...all those politicians and industry officials and career campaign consultants who spent most of the campaign trying to convince the hard-working people of the coalfields that another boom would be just around the corner – Well, I guess we were supposed to take them seriously, but not literally."

A Trump administration thaw with Russia is "unacceptable," McCain says - The Washington Post

A Trump administration thaw with Russia is "unacceptable," McCain says - The Washington Post:

"...plunged his country into tyranny, murdered his political opponents, invaded his neighbors, threatened America's allies and attempted to undermine America's elections"

It doesn't take a great deal of imagination to see this as a prediction of the future of the U.S.

Local Wind Energy Development Has Broad Consequences for Golden Eagles

Local Wind Energy Development Has Broad Consequences for Golden Eagles:

"Together, the stable isotope and genetics data indicate that eagle populations are connected across much of North America and often travel long distances."

This puts me in mind of Grace, a recently deceased golden eagle who had been a resident of New Mexico Wildlife Center. Grace didn't have an easy life; she came to NMWC after being found by a road in northern NM, apparently hit by a car, tail feathers pulled by some heartless scofflaw. While in residence at NMWC she participated in several golden eagle surveys throughout the state, tethered in fields near elk carcass to attract other passing eagles. I don't know when/where the results will be published, but my understanding is that they helped confirm a decline in golden eagle numbers in New Mexico. The reasons for the decline are unknown. Coincidentally, while hiking with friends this last Saturday (1 Oct) near Ironton Park, Colorado, we saw several birds circling above a rock outcropping. Several were ravens. One was a small hawk, either a Cooper's or a sharp-shinned. And one, barely discernible in a photo I snapped, looked very much like a golden eagle.

Scientists Trace Society's Myths to Primordial Origins - Scientific American

Scientists Trace Society's Myths to Primordial Origins - Scientific American: in which Carl Jung's model of the collective unconscious is replaced by phylogenetic modeling.

A Government of the People, by Some Other People

A couple of years ago I signed a petition asking for a full pardon for Edward Snowden. Roughly two years behind schedule, The White House has responded to that petition. No surprise: TWH has declined to issue a pardon. The Intercept has summarized the errors and misleading statements in the response. Among their points:

Snowden is willing to accept the legal consequences of his acts — but, were he to come home under the current circumstances, [he] would be barred under the draconian Espionage Act from publicly arguing that his leaks were justified.

Ars Technica expanded on this and other inaccuracies in The White House's response. With emphasis added:

Another one of Snowden’s US-based lawyers, Jesselyn Radack, reiterated to Ars that her client is not "running away."

"Snowden is in Russia because of the United States, which revoked his passport while he was transiting through there to Latin America," she said. "How does President Obama think Snowden should have ‘constructively addressed these issues’ when his administration has led the worst crackdown on national security and intelligence whistleblowers in US history? Earlier, President Obama stated that he had passed an executive order that Snowden could have used in order to go through proper channels. That statement was false. Presidential Policy Directive #19 was not implemented when Snowden blew the whistle on NSA and does not protect contractors like Snowden."

The White House is intent on prosecuting Ed Snowden, but it shows no interest in prosecuting those responsible for the illegal collection of bulk call data. Also see:

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/12/16/an-nsa-coworker-remembers-the-real-edward-snowden-a-genius-among-geniuses/
• http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/07/aclu-to-appellate-court-please-halt-nsas-resumed-bulk-data-collection/

Simulators and Aviation Safety

Everything We Thought about Training Was Wrong | Flying Magazine:

"In addition to the benefits technology in the cockpit afford, there are two big trends affecting safety in a positive way. The first is the increased use of simulator technology in preparing students for flight and maintaining proficiency. "

Hanging Out With Someone Who Walked On The Moon | Hackaday:

"David [Scott, Apollo astronaut] told us that the simulations were remarkably accurate. His recollection was the only difference between the simulation and being on the moon was the fact that you were on the moon. Quite an endorsement of the Apollo simulators.

"David is a big fan of simulations. He told us that when traveling into space you want to simulate as much as possible while on the ground so that you get to know the systems and your fellow crew members. Apollo went so far as to simulate parts of the mission with the CM and LM inside of a huge vacuum chamber."

It probably doesn't need emphasis, but Dave Scott was talking about realistic simulations. Simulations need to be sufficiently realistic that, when training scenarios play out in real life, the pilot can recognize what's happening as something familiar.

Aside: I loved this bit from NOVA's "First Man on the Moon", around the 24:19 minute mark:

NARRATOR: Back in orbit, Armstrong kept his cool, figuring out his only remaining option: disengage all the maneuvering thrusters including the one that was stuck and use the re-entry thrusters to counteract the tumbling and regain control of the spacecraft.

SCOTT:
He had to reach up above his head and throw switches under this high-speed roll. That's amazing that he was able to do that and he knew exactly where the switches were, exactly which ones to throw.

SCOTT: I mean, the guy was brilliant.
He knew the system so well that he found the solution, he activated the solution under extreme circumstances, and I gotta say it was my lucky day to be flying with Mr.
Neil Armstrong.

Pres. Obama: NSA security backdoors are a bad idea

The headline is misleading. He didn't really say that. At least, not on purpose. As far as I know.

From 2 March 2015:

Exclusive: Obama sharply criticizes China's plans for new technology rules | Reuters:

In an interview with Reuters, Obama said he was concerned about Beijing's plans for a far-reaching counterterrorism law that would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys, the passcodes that help protect data, and install security "backdoors" in their systems to give Chinese authorities surveillance access.

Obama said the rules could also backfire on China.

"Those kinds of restrictive practices I think would ironically hurt the Chinese economy over the long term because I don’t think there is any U.S. or European firm, any international firm, that could credibly get away with that wholesale turning over of data, personal data, over to a government," he said.

From 24 February 2015, an exchange between Yahoo's Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos and NSA Director Mike Rogers, in which Mr. Stamos challenges the NSA's plan to ban working crypto:

Yahoo's security boss faces down NSA director over crypto ban - Boing Boing:

AS: [...] So, if we’re going to build defects/backdoors or golden master keys for the US government, do you believe we should do so — we have about 1.3 billion users around the world — should we do for the Chinese government, the Russian government, the Saudi Arabian government, the Israeli government, the French government? Which of those countries should we give backdoors to?

[...]

MR: I think we can work our way through this.

AS: I’m sure the Chinese and Russians are going to have the same opinion.

MR: I said I think we can work through this.

AS: Okay, nice to meet you. Thanks.

Squatting Owls Eavesdrop On Prairie Dogs | LiveScience

The part that caught my eye actually had little to do with the owls:

Squatting Owls Eavesdrop On Prairie Dogs

...prairie dogs have the most sophisticated language yet decoded among non-humans. Recent studies have shown that they have nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs, which they can use to indicate the size, shape, color, and speed of an intruder. The social rodents even have different calls for a tall human in a blue shirt and a short human in a grey shirt.

“In the past, people shied away from the word language, because we didn’t have enough information. But it’s really clear now that’s what it is,” said Con Slobodchikoff, an animal behaviorist at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, who studies prairie dog calls.

Growing up, my parents frequently opined that animals of other species were as intelligent, if in sometimes specialized ways, as humans. I bet they'll be pleased by the final paragraph:

“We have for a long time underestimated the ability of animals. We thought they were running on programs of instinct, like little robots,” said Slobodchikoff. “But in reality, they’re far more advanced and far smarter than we give them credit for, and with that acknowledgement we need to give animals more respect than we have been."

As a first step maybe we could stop trying to exterminate prairie dogs...

For Some Value of "Magic": Bradley Manning's Post-Sentencing Statement

For Some Value of "Magic": Bradley Manning's Post-Sentencing Statement:

"Our nation has had similar dark moments for the virtues of democracy—the Trail of Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism, the Japanese-American internment camps—to name a few. I am confident that many of our actions since 9/11 will one day be viewed in a similar light. "

Thanks to Steve Holden for posting the statement. It's well worth reading in its entirety.

Cameron Proves Greenwald Right

Cameron Proves Greenwald Right:

"Britain is now a police state when it comes to journalists, just like Russia is."

Well put.

I don't care what Edward Snowden's personal character may prove to be. He has done us a huge favor by bringing these issues to the fore. Now we need to pressure our elected representatives to actually do something about the destruction of our civil liberties.

Prairie dogs in the NM news

[2013/03/03] Local news briefs - The Santa Fe New Mexican:

"CLOVIS - City commissioners have approved a plan to poison prairie dogs in a Clovis park.

The Portales News-Tribune reported that Clovis city commissioners on Friday approved an emergency budget transfer to purchase 250 containers of Rozol rodenticide to reduce the population of prairie dogs at Ned Houk Park.

The move came after several landowners near the park pressured commissioners about the burrowing rodents.

Resident Glenn Eagle said the prairie dogs have eaten his oat crop in the past, and he's worried they will eat the oats again this spring. He said the rodents are destroying the park by eating the grass and making erosion problems worse.

But Clovis resident Susan Hubby says she was concerned about the long-term effects of Rozol on the park's ecosystem."

I'm starting to collect snippets about prairie dogs. They're interesting creatures, and humans tend to regard them in one of two extreme ways: as dangerous pests to be eradicated, or as cute fur balls to be serenaded by Tibetan monks.

Interesting: Gunnison's prairie dogs, the kind we have here in Santa Fe, have 40 diploid chromosomes, whereas all other species have 50.

Also interesting: prairie dog species can vary quite a bit in appearance and vocalization. Compare this excellent, up-close view of some Denver-based black-tailed prairie dogs, by Yuta Murai, with these clips I took of a small Gunnison's colony here in Santa Fe.

Also interesting, and exemplary of extreme human attitudes toward prairie dogs, is the history of their association with bubonic plague. Some people think they "carry" plague and other deadly diseases such as hanta virus. In fact they suffer from plague, which can quickly wipe out almost 100% of a colony; but they don't carry it from place to place as rats do. And they don't carry hanta virus, or spread it in their droppings.

There's plenty more to write about human attitudes toward prairie dogs (and how we invent myths to justify those attitudes), about their "keystone species" status, etc.

---

Further Reading / Viewing:

1. "City approves prairie dog poison", Portales News-Tribune, 1 March 2013
2. "Tibetan Monks on U.S. Tour Take Moment to Bless Critters", Albuquerque Journal North, 10 August 2008.
3. Animal Diversity Web
4. "Prairie dogs", by Yuta Murai
5. "Prairie Dogs", by yours truly
6. "Man charged with shooting at prairie dogs", Santa Fe New Mexican, 13 August 2012
   
7. "Gunnison's Prairie Dog", Endangered Species of the Mountain-Prairie Region: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services
8. "Interspecific Comparisons of Sylvatic Plague in Prairie Dogs", Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 82, No. 4, November, 2001.
9. "Recovery and Restoration of the Black-footed Ferret (Mustela nigripes)", American Society of Mammalogists
10. "Resolution on the Decline of Prairie Dogs and the Grassland Ecosystem in North America", American Society of Mammalogists

Squeeze play?

The Mac App Store (MAS) requires participating developers to pay Apple $99/year plus 30% of gross sales price; only apps which are approved by Apple may be sold via MAS.

Xcode4 was released today on MAS, for $4.99. It used to be included on the OS X distribution DVDs, as a no-extra-cost optional installation.

The beta distributions of OS X Lion is available only through the MAS. As far as I know it does not include Xcode.

Developers are not forced to sell their applications through the MAS. In fact, some types of software, those which require administrator privileges for installation, must be sold outside the MAS.

Still, Apple seems to be edging down a path at the terminus of which developers must pay an annual fee to sell software for use on OS X, and must have that software approved by Apple before it can be offered for sale.

I sincerely hope this isn't what they have in mind.

Thank goodness for Linux.