Hmmm….
«Here is the change in the total revenues for degree-granting institutions of higher education in America over the last four decades, per total full-time equivalent enrollment, converted into 2022 dollars:
FY1980: $26,417
FY2001: $39,141
FY2022: $49,749»
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/12/the-crack-up-4
Super-interesting post, actually. I was going to post excerpts, but I realized I was “excerpting” more than half the post.
«After arriving in Grand Junction, Egan, who was driving a taxi, pulled up next to Alex at a stoplight and, according to an arrest affidavit, said something to the effect of: “Are you even a U.S. citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a Marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”
Alex, who had been out reporting, then drove back to his news station in the city. After he got out of his vehicle, Egan chased Alex as he ran toward the station’s door and demanded to see his identification, according to the document laying out police’s evidence in the case. Egan then tackled Alex, put him in a headlock and “began to strangle him,” the affidavit said. Coworkers who ran out to help and witnesses told police that Alex appeared to be losing his ability to breathe during the attack, which was partially captured on surveillance video, according to the document.»
https://apnews.com/article/tv-reporter-attack-trumps-america-40c4c3622bf85baef9cefbd50d50fcec
“This is Trump’s America now.” 🙄
(That wouldn’t be an eye roll if Alex had died.)
Old article, but good background:
Feels like Ernst Röhm and the SA, and we all know how that ended. (Or we will after we read some Wikipedia.)
CW: death
Wow, that took a dive into darkness. 😢
Maybe I should CW this thing.
https://www.abandonedamerica.us/eulogy-for-a-nameless-kitten#photo
Just to say… I just donated to Wikipedia due to a certain childish-seeming billionaire expressing his wish that I not do so because he doesn’t like that they focus on telling the truth.
https://www.propublica.org/article/ftc-investigating-microsoft-antitrust-cloud-computing
«At the time, many federal employees used a software license that included the Windows operating system and products like Word, Outlook and Excel. In the wake of several devastating cyberattacks, Microsoft offered to upgrade those license bundles for free for a limited time, giving the government access to its more advanced cybersecurity products. The company also provided consultants to install the upgrades.
Vast swaths of the federal bureaucracy accepted, including all of the military services in the Defense Department — and then began paying for those enhanced services when the free trial ended. Former sales leaders involved in the effort likened it to a drug dealer hooking a user with free samples, as they knew federal customers would be effectively locked into the upgrades once they were installed. Microsoft’s offer not only displaced some existing cybersecurity vendors but also took market share from cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, as the government began using products that ran on Azure, Microsoft’s own cloud platform.…
Some of those incursions were the result of Microsoft’s own security lapses. As ProPublica reported in June, Russian state-sponsored hackers in the so-called SolarWinds attack exploited a weakness in a Microsoft product to steal sensitive data from the National Nuclear Security Administration and the National Institutes of Health, among other victims. Years before the attack was discovered, a Microsoft engineer warned product leaders about the flaw, but they refused to address it for fear of alienating the federal government and losing ground to competitors, ProPublica reported.
While the engineer’s proposed fix would have kept customers safe, it also would have created a “speed bump” for users logging on to their devices. Adding such “friction” was unacceptable to the managers of the product group, which at the time was in a fierce rivalry with competitors in the market for so-called identity tools, the news organization reported. These tools, which ensure that users have permission to log on to cloud-based programs, are important to Microsoft’s business strategy because they often lead to demand for the company’s other cloud services.
According to a person familiar with the FTC’s probe, one such identity product, Entra ID, formerly known as Azure Active Directory, is another focus of the agency’s investigation.»
I guess Microsoft will have to spend some money to bribe Trump.
«If I had to guess, I’d imagine the same 7-2 majority from Talevski holding together and ordering South Carolina to enforce the Medicaid Act. But this time, Barrett will write the majority opinion. In that opinion, she will tell the Republican Congress exactly what they have to do to amend the Medicaid Act in a way to allow the states to prevent women from using it to access contraception.»
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/supreme-court-planned-parenthood-contraception/
This division of a large group of people into sub-groups, with Followers and the Restrained being the largest, seems about par for the course for all societies.
#haaretz #gaza #social #research #TheBlotOfALightCloud
I really don’t like Christmas as an obligatory gift-giving occasion and source of stress. These are my last-minute donations in honor of family members. (Bunch of links coming; don’t know how many anti-spam triggers will get flipped.)
The two above empowerment efforts are 100% run (in-country) by indigenous staff. Zoe enters a community only by invitation, and they work with local community leaders to identify kids most likely to benefit. There’s a lot more, but this is a toot.
Here, Read This 