Hacker Breaches Securus, the Company That Helps Cops Track Phones Across the US

Source: Motherboard

A hacker has broken into the servers of Securus, a company that allows law enforcement to easily track nearly any phone across the country, and which a US Senator has exhorted federal authorities to investigate. The hacker has provided some of the stolen data to Motherboard, including usernames and poorly secured passwords for thousands of Securus’ law enforcement customers.

Read more: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gykgv9/securus-phone-tracking-company-hacked

Goldman Sachs Says It May Be Forced to Fundamentally Question How Capitalism Is Working

Source: Bloomberg

....

But what if margins stay elevated? That too is possible, and its implications could be unsettling.
Goldman wrote: "We are always wary of guiding for mean reversion. But, if we are wrong and high margins manage to endure for the next few years (particularly when global demand growth is below trend), there are broader questions to be asked about the efficacy of capitalism."

In other words, profit margins should naturally mean-revert and oscillate. The existence of fat margins should encourage new competitors and pricing cycles that cause those margins to erode; conversely, at the bottom of the cycle, low margins should lead to weaker players exiting the business and giving stronger companies more breathing space. If that cycle doesn't continue, something strange is taking place.

....

Henry A Giroux: Beyond the Politics of the Big Lie: The Education Deficit and the New ...

Henry A Giroux: Beyond the Politics of the Big Lie: The Education Deficit and the New Authoritarianism

First paragraph

James Baldwin, the legendary African-American writer and civil rights activist, argued that the big lie points to a crisis of American identity and politics and is symptomatic of "a backward society" that has descended into madness, "especially when one is forced to lie about one's aspect of anybody's history, [because you then] must lie about it all.&quot 42) He goes on to argue "that one of the paradoxes of education [is] that precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience, you must find yourself at war with your society. It is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person.&quot 43) What Baldwin recognizes is that learning has the possibility to trigger a critical engagement with oneself, others and the larger society - education becomes in this instance more than a method or tool for domination but a politics, a fulcrum for democratic social change. Tragically, in our current climate "learning" merely contributes to a vast reserve of manipulation and self-inflicted ignorance. Our education deficit is neither reducible to the failure of particular types of teaching nor the decent into madness by the spokespersons for the new authoritarianism. Rather, it is about how matters of knowledge, values and ideology can be struggled over as issues of power and politics. Surviving the current education deficit will depend on progressives using history, memory and knowledge not only to reconnect intellectuals to the everyday needs of ordinary people, but also to jumpstart social movements by making education central to organized politics and the quest for a radical democracy.

Experimental Banana Bread:

I've been working on this on and off for a couple years. See what you think.

Experimental Banana Bread:

1/4 Cup Butter
1/4 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Very well drained Apple Sauce
2 Med Eggs
1/4 Cup lowfat Buttermlk
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 Cup lightly mashed Banana (divided)
1 Cup unbleached AP Flour
1 Cup whole grain Pastry Flour (can substitute rye or spelt)
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder (scant)
3/4 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 Cup Pecans
additional pecan halves and candied or marachino cherries for decoration

In large bowl cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add liquid ingredients and blend several more seconds. Scrape beaters and switch to a spoon to stir in the first cup of banana. In smaller bowl thoroughly combine dry ingredients. Add the dry to the wet and stir untill just moistened. Add the rest of the banana and the pecans, stir gently to distribute.
Makes one loaf.

(yes, this is other places on the web, yes I originated it)