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ancianita
ancianita's Journal
ancianita's Journal
January 25, 2021
Pretty chilly in Florida these days.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/back-moscow-air-banners-near-223718999.html
'Go Back to Moscow': Airplane Banners Near Mar-a-Lago Taunt 'Pathetic Loser' Trump
Pretty chilly in Florida these days.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/back-moscow-air-banners-near-223718999.html
January 25, 2021
Biosphere death is bad for these humans, too. May the rest of Big Fossil follow.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bps-oil-exploration-team-swept-001324854.html
BP's oil exploration team swept aside in climate revolution
By Ron Bousso
LONDON (Reuters) - Nothing escapes the winds of change now sweeping through BP, not even the exploration team that for more than a century powered its profits by discovering billions of barrels of oil.
Its geologists, engineers and scientists have been cut to less than 100 from a peak of more than 700 a few years ago, company sources told Reuters, part of a climate change-driven overhaul triggered last year by CEO Bernard Looney.
The exodus is the starkest sign yet from inside the company of its rapid shift away from oil and gas, which will nevertheless be its main source of cash to finance a switch to renewables for at least the next decade.
BP is cutting some 10,000 jobs, around 15% of its workforce, under Looney's restructuring, the most aggressive among Europe's oil giants including Royal Dutch Shell and Total.
The 50-year-old, a veteran oil engineer who previously headed the oil and gas exploration and production division, aims to cut output by 1 million barrels per day, or 40%, over the next decade while growing renewable energy output 20 fold.
Despite the changes, oil and gas will remain BP's main source of revenue until at least 2030.
Due to the pandemic, acquisitions of new onshore and offshore exploration licences for the top five Western energy companies "dropped to the lowest in at least five years," citing data from Oslo-based consultancy Rystad Energy.
LONDON (Reuters) - Nothing escapes the winds of change now sweeping through BP, not even the exploration team that for more than a century powered its profits by discovering billions of barrels of oil.
Its geologists, engineers and scientists have been cut to less than 100 from a peak of more than 700 a few years ago, company sources told Reuters, part of a climate change-driven overhaul triggered last year by CEO Bernard Looney.
The exodus is the starkest sign yet from inside the company of its rapid shift away from oil and gas, which will nevertheless be its main source of cash to finance a switch to renewables for at least the next decade.
BP is cutting some 10,000 jobs, around 15% of its workforce, under Looney's restructuring, the most aggressive among Europe's oil giants including Royal Dutch Shell and Total.
The 50-year-old, a veteran oil engineer who previously headed the oil and gas exploration and production division, aims to cut output by 1 million barrels per day, or 40%, over the next decade while growing renewable energy output 20 fold.
Despite the changes, oil and gas will remain BP's main source of revenue until at least 2030.
Due to the pandemic, acquisitions of new onshore and offshore exploration licences for the top five Western energy companies "dropped to the lowest in at least five years," citing data from Oslo-based consultancy Rystad Energy.
Biosphere death is bad for these humans, too. May the rest of Big Fossil follow.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bps-oil-exploration-team-swept-001324854.html
January 25, 2021
Thank You, President Biden, For Your Guidance In The Years Ahead
In the fight ahead ... "never forget that Justice is what love looks like in public."
January 24, 2021
Jane Mayer On the Mitch McConnell Problem
From next week's New Yorker:Then McConnell directly accused Trump of having “provoked” the mob. Jim Manley, who served as the senior communications adviser to Harry Reid, the former Democratic Majority Leader, told me, “There is no going back now. He has decided to cut his losses, and do what he can to make sure Trump is no longer a threat to the Republican Party.” McConnell and other Republican leaders, Manley suggested, “have gotten as much out of Trump as they can, and it’s now time to make sure Trump is damaged goods.”
But the risks for McConnell and other Senate Republicans are high. It’s never good for a party leader to get out too far ahead of his caucus members—he risks losing their fundamental support. Senator Lindsey Graham has criticized McConnell’s decision to blame Trump for the Capitol riot and has warned that, “without Trump’s help” in 2022, “we cannot take back the House and the Senate,” adding, “If you’re wanting to erase Donald Trump from the Party, you’re going to get erased.” McConnell’s maneuvers have also stirred the wrath of such powerful right-wing media figures as Sean Hannity, the Fox News host known for his unyielding sycophancy toward Trump. Hannity has called for McConnell to step down from the Party’s leadership in the Senate.
But if McConnell can muster the additional sixteen Republican votes necessary for a conviction—doing so requires the assent of two-thirds of the Senate, and the fifty Democratic senators are expected to vote as a bloc—he will have effectively purged Trump from the Party. Moreover, after a conviction, the Senate could hold a second vote, to bar Trump permanently from running for any federal office. Such a move might strengthen McConnell’s clout within the Party and help his wing of traditional Republicans reëstablish itself as the face of the G.O.P. Al Cross, a veteran political reporter and the director of the Institute for Rural Journalism, at the University of Kentucky, said, of McConnell, “I think he sees a chance to make Trump this generation’s version of Nixon, leaving no doubt who is at the top of the Republican heap.” Banning Trump would also guarantee that a different Republican will secure the Party’s nomination for President in 2024. Otherwise, Trump threatens to cast a shadow over the Party’s future.
Jentleson, the former Senate aide, thinks that McConnell and his party are in a very tricky spot: “The glue that kept the Tea Party and establishment Republicans together during the past few years was tax cuts and judges. And McConnell can’t deliver those anymore. So you could basically see the Republican Party coming apart at the seams. You need to marry the forty per cent that is the Trump base with the ten per cent that’s the establishment. McConnell is like a cartoon character striding aside a crack that’s getting wider as the two plates drift farther apart. They may not come back together. If they can’t reattach, they can’t win.”
There is another option: McConnell could just lie low and wait to see if the Democrats self-destruct. A divisive Senate impeachment trial may undercut Biden’s message of bipartisan unity, hampering his agenda in the crucial early months of his Presidency, when he needs momentum. McConnell has already seized on the fifty-fifty balance between the parties in the Senate in order to obstruct the Democrats. He’s refusing to devise rules for moving forward on Senate business unless Schumer yields to his demand not to alter the filibuster rule...
McConnell could conceivably make a play that would avoid a direct showdown over convicting Trump. A conservative legal argument has recently been advanced by J. Michael Luttig, a prominent former federal appeals-court judge: the Senate, he says, has no constitutional authority to hold an impeachment trial after a President has left office.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/01/why-mcconnell-dumped-trump
We're been more aware than most about this situation, but Mayer's audience includes the moneyed class whose support McConnell is deeply worried about losing.
Her details factor into why Schumer must seize the moment to declare the Democrats' shift away from the national view of a do-nothing Senate.
He could tell McConnell the tiny lie that if MM gets the conviction vote that clears the Trump stain, Schumer will defer on the filibuster rule. Then change his mind.
It's not as if Chuck's only about "doing a McConnell;" it's about the one small change of mind that does tremendous good for this session and others until 2024, and beyond. He can assure McConnell that he can get back to rebuilding Repub credibility to close the party split, and share credit with voters over what Democrats do. Which will be better than MM's got right now. If McConnell tries to "both side" the Democrats, they can recall to GA and swing state voters all the damage Republican theft and lies have done to them.
Democrats can also point to how President Biden can't expect unity from Republicans when they can't even unify their own party. Then Pelosi and Schumer can help further split their ranks through floor votes.
Kamala Harris is paying attention, likely liaising between Biden and Schumer.
Perhaps Biden can sell McConnell on his party's need for survival.
January 24, 2021
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/01/this-site-posted-every-face-from-parlers-capitol-hill-insurrection-videos/
The DOJ and Congress should use all evidence gained from tech, and enforce the law accordingly.
Faces of the Riot Posted Every Face from Parler's Capitol Hill Insurrection Videos
Late last week, a website called Faces of the Riot appeared online, showing nothing but a vast grid of more than 6,000 images of faces, each one tagged only with a string of characters associated with the Parler video in which it appeared.
The site's creator tells WIRED that he used simple, open source machine-learning and facial recognition software to detect, extract, and deduplicate every face from the 827 videos that were posted to Parler from inside and outside the Capitol building on January 6, the day when radicalized Trump supporters stormed the building in a riot that resulted in five people's deaths.
The creator of Faces of the Riot says his goal is to allow anyone to easily sort through the faces pulled from those videos to identify someone they may know, or recognize who took part in the mob, or even to reference the collected faces against FBI wanted posters and send a tip to law enforcement if they spot someone.
"Everybody who is participating in this violence, what really amounts to an insurrection, should be held accountable," says the site's creator, who asked for anonymity to avoid retaliation. "It's entirely possible that a lot of people who were on this website now will face real-life consequences for their actions."
The site's creator tells WIRED that he used simple, open source machine-learning and facial recognition software to detect, extract, and deduplicate every face from the 827 videos that were posted to Parler from inside and outside the Capitol building on January 6, the day when radicalized Trump supporters stormed the building in a riot that resulted in five people's deaths.
The creator of Faces of the Riot says his goal is to allow anyone to easily sort through the faces pulled from those videos to identify someone they may know, or recognize who took part in the mob, or even to reference the collected faces against FBI wanted posters and send a tip to law enforcement if they spot someone.
"Everybody who is participating in this violence, what really amounts to an insurrection, should be held accountable," says the site's creator, who asked for anonymity to avoid retaliation. "It's entirely possible that a lot of people who were on this website now will face real-life consequences for their actions."
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/01/this-site-posted-every-face-from-parlers-capitol-hill-insurrection-videos/
The DOJ and Congress should use all evidence gained from tech, and enforce the law accordingly.
January 24, 2021
For these men to encourage, facilitate, participate and possibly help plan this anti-democratic insurrection on January 6;
For these men to so corruptly try to force injustice this way on the 81 million who voted for the current president -- to threaten past presidents (??!!) and current leaders who represent that 81 million in order to stop the trial of this high crime -- makes them accessories after the fact.
John Cornyn
Josh Hawley
Ted Cruz
Andy Biggs
Paul Gosar
Madison Cawthorn
Mo Brooks
Mark Finchem
Anthony Kern
Scott Perry
18 US Code § 3 - Accessory after the fact
"Whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact."
To not enforce the Constitution in a Senate trial, and for the DOJ's FBI to even "debate" enforcing rule of law is to tell the American people that there is no equality before the law at all -- not constitutional or statutory law.
But oath takers know this trial is the right thing to do in Congress, and the DOJ knows that arresting lawbreakers is the right thing to do in society:
“There is absolute resolve from the Department of Justice to hold all who intentionally engaged in criminal acts at the Capitol accountable,” Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said in an email. “We have consistently made clear that we will follow the facts and evidence and charge individuals accordingly..."
If everyone does their job for the 81 million who voted, and the nation those voters now represent, these cultists' evil bullshit will stop.
Never give in to the fascist Right.
Their threats demand more press conferences, more headlines, more Lincoln Project.
Their Threats Demand More Press Conferences, More Headlines, More Lincoln Project
John Cornyn and his cult crew are tit-for-tat 3rd grade mentalities, 3rd rate gamers and breakers who don't deserve the name 'politician,' nevermind the elected offices they hold.For these men to encourage, facilitate, participate and possibly help plan this anti-democratic insurrection on January 6;
For these men to so corruptly try to force injustice this way on the 81 million who voted for the current president -- to threaten past presidents (??!!) and current leaders who represent that 81 million in order to stop the trial of this high crime -- makes them accessories after the fact.
John Cornyn
Josh Hawley
Ted Cruz
Andy Biggs
Paul Gosar
Madison Cawthorn
Mo Brooks
Mark Finchem
Anthony Kern
Scott Perry
18 US Code § 3 - Accessory after the fact
"Whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact."
To not enforce the Constitution in a Senate trial, and for the DOJ's FBI to even "debate" enforcing rule of law is to tell the American people that there is no equality before the law at all -- not constitutional or statutory law.
But oath takers know this trial is the right thing to do in Congress, and the DOJ knows that arresting lawbreakers is the right thing to do in society:
“There is absolute resolve from the Department of Justice to hold all who intentionally engaged in criminal acts at the Capitol accountable,” Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said in an email. “We have consistently made clear that we will follow the facts and evidence and charge individuals accordingly..."
If everyone does their job for the 81 million who voted, and the nation those voters now represent, these cultists' evil bullshit will stop.
Never give in to the fascist Right.
Their threats demand more press conferences, more headlines, more Lincoln Project.
January 23, 2021
More fun details, along with how Q and Moby Dick connect, at https://krebsonsecurity.com/tag/ron-guilmette/
Not sure that Krebs' site is full of white hats, but I'm glad they inform the public about the shady parts of the nets.
Where Parler ended up? Nowhere. DDoS-Guard Forfeits Internet Space Occupied by Parler.
Parler found a home in DDoS-Guard, a Russian digital infrastructure company. But now it appears DDoS-Guard is about to be relieved of more than two-thirds of the Internet address space the company leases to clients — including the Internet addresses currently occupied by Parler.
The pending disruption for DDoS-Guard and Parler comes compliments of Ron Guilmette, a researcher who has made it something of a personal mission to de-platform conspiracy theorist and far-right groups.
In October, a phone call from Guilmette to an Internet provider in Oregon was all it took to briefly sideline a vast network of sites tied to 8chan/8kun — a controversial online image board linked to several mass shootings — and QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory which holds that a cabal of Satanic pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against President Donald Trump. As a result, those QAnon and 8chan sites also ultimately ended up in the arms of DDoS-Guard.
Much like Internet infrastructure firm CloudFlare, DDoS-Guard typically doesn’t host sites directly but instead acts as a go-between to simultaneously keep the real Internet addresses of its clients confidential and to protect them from crippling Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.
The majority of DDoS-Guard’s employees are based in Russia, but the company is actually incorporated in two other places: As “Cognitive Cloud LLP” in Scotland, and as DDoS-Guard Corp. based in Belize. However, none of the company’s employees are listed as based in Belize, and DDoS-Guard makes no mention of the Latin American region in its map of global operations.
The pending disruption for DDoS-Guard and Parler comes compliments of Ron Guilmette, a researcher who has made it something of a personal mission to de-platform conspiracy theorist and far-right groups.
In October, a phone call from Guilmette to an Internet provider in Oregon was all it took to briefly sideline a vast network of sites tied to 8chan/8kun — a controversial online image board linked to several mass shootings — and QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory which holds that a cabal of Satanic pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against President Donald Trump. As a result, those QAnon and 8chan sites also ultimately ended up in the arms of DDoS-Guard.
Much like Internet infrastructure firm CloudFlare, DDoS-Guard typically doesn’t host sites directly but instead acts as a go-between to simultaneously keep the real Internet addresses of its clients confidential and to protect them from crippling Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.
The majority of DDoS-Guard’s employees are based in Russia, but the company is actually incorporated in two other places: As “Cognitive Cloud LLP” in Scotland, and as DDoS-Guard Corp. based in Belize. However, none of the company’s employees are listed as based in Belize, and DDoS-Guard makes no mention of the Latin American region in its map of global operations.
More fun details, along with how Q and Moby Dick connect, at https://krebsonsecurity.com/tag/ron-guilmette/
Not sure that Krebs' site is full of white hats, but I'm glad they inform the public about the shady parts of the nets.
January 22, 2021
Common sense and competence in government is a relief.
The Presidential Inauguration was beautiful, uplifting and entertaining.
Great thanks to President Biden for $350 billion in state and local aid.
The next obstacle is the allocation fight, while NY expects fair recompense.
The federal COVID effort is in great hands, helping governors know they're not alone.
Governor Cuomo Briefing January 22 2021
Day 328Common sense and competence in government is a relief.
The Presidential Inauguration was beautiful, uplifting and entertaining.
Great thanks to President Biden for $350 billion in state and local aid.
The next obstacle is the allocation fight, while NY expects fair recompense.
The federal COVID effort is in great hands, helping governors know they're not alone.
January 21, 2021
Epic Soul Factory. "Everdream"
We're not there yet, but we're getting there.
DJ Shadow. "Midnight In a Perfect World"Epic Soul Factory. "Everdream"
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayHometown: New England, The South, Midwest
Home country: USA
Current location: Sarasota
Member since: Sat Mar 5, 2011, 12:32 PM
Number of posts: 36,023
