Eric Schmidt Nazi

Google’s Eric Schmidt Is An As*hole

Google’s Eric Schmidt calls for ‘spell-checkers for hate and harassment’

Google’s Eric Schmidt has called on the technology industry to put its collective intelligence behind tackling terrorism on the internet, by building “spell-checkers, but for hate and harassment”.

Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, wrote in the New York Times that individuals, tech companies and governments all have a role to play in ensuring the internet is only used for positive ends.

Whose ends?

Obama the loser

Two Obama Speeches, Both Disasters

Among an influential cast of liberal opinion leaders, Republican criticisms of Barack Obama’s prime-time address can only be taken seriously if they also laud the president in some form or fashion. Well then, let’s give them what they want.

The President of the United States finally – finally — acknowledged the domestic threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism directed or inspired by militant organizations overseas. After terrorist attacks attempted or executed by radicalized fundamentalist Muslims in Fort Hood, Time Square, Boston, Garland, Texas, and San Bernardino, California, the president is at last coming to terms with this menace. To his credit, Obama finally acknowledged Major Nidal Hasan’s murder spree was an act of Islamic terrorism. He also noted that the killing of five at a U.S. Navy recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was inspired by the same murderous ideology.

The Cost Of Islam: France considering ban on access to free Wi-fi and Tor

The Paris attacks have significantly altered the security agenda in France, and now the French government is considering banning access to free Wi-Fi networks and the Tor anonymity network.

Le Monde newspaper revealed an internal report from the Ministry of Interior, authored by the French Department of Civil Liberties and Legal Affairs (DLPAJ) that lists two proposed bills – one around the State of Emergency and the other on combating counter-terrorism.

The State of Emergency proposal, advices the French government to forbid the use of free and shared Wi-Fi connections during a state of emergency. The Hacker News website reported that according to the French police, the reason behind restricting access to Wi-Fi is that it is apparently difficult to track suspects who use public Wi-Fi networks to communicate. In addition, during a state of emergency the police will be entitled to search houses without a warrant, tighten border controls, and ban protests.

Abu Nabil Dead Muslim Terrorist

Pentagon confirms US airstrikes killed head of ISIS in Libya and senior al-Shabaab leader as white American jihadi surrenders to authorities in Somalia

The Pentagon has confirmed that one of ISIS’s top commanders in Libya was killed in a U.S. airstrike last month.

The operation to kill Iraqi national Abu Nabil in the eastern port city of Darnah was conceived before terrorists went on a rampage in the French capital, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said.

It is believed the commander had previously been governor of Salah-ad-din province in Iraq before he was dispatched to ISIS’s franchise in Libya.

There has also been speculation that Abu Nabil was the man who threatened the West in the ISIS propaganda video in which 21 Coptic Christians were executed on a Libyan beach.

Pegida Germany

Pegida UK: Birmingham leaders unite to condemn ‘far-right’ rally organised by Tommy Robinson

Political leaders of all three main parties in Birmingham have united to condemn a planned anti-Islamic march in their city, accusing the rally of being “based on prejudice, intolerance and hate”. In a joint statement, Birmingham’s Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders said the council rejected a “far-right” march by Pegida UK due to take place in their city.

The statement follows an IBTimesUK interview with Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the English Defence League (EDL), in which he said he would relaunch a UK branch of Pegida, holding its first rally on 6 February 2016 in Birmingham. This was, he said, because Birmingham had become the “terrorist epicentre of Britain”.

Isis trolling day Dec 11 2015

Isis Trolling Day: How Anonymous will mock Daesh on 11 December

Militant hacking group Anonymous has made it its mission to declare “war” on Islamic State (Isis) after announcing plans to hold an official trolling day against IS sympathisers on 11 December.

The campaign called “Day of Rage” will see Anonymous and its supporters take the fight to IS (Daesh) by mocking the group in a number of different ways through social media. It released a statement as part of its OpIsis campaign, which was launched after the Charlie Hedbo massacre in France, stating that Isis “thrive off of fear” and trolling its members “will show them that we are not afraid” and “mock them for the idiots they are”.

exit from the eurozone: golden star fallen from a blue wall

We don’t belong in the EU’s evil empire

A few weeks ago Gianluigi Nuzzi, an Italian journalist, published a book called Merchants in the Temple in which he explained that the Vatican isn’t the bastion of goodness people like to think. Instead, it is a place of corruption, greed and nastiness where you can buy a sainthood for £500,000. I imagine he’s had a pretty iffy time since.

Still, he isn’t the first to suffer unpleasant fallout for telling the truth about a hugely powerful and deeply arrogant institution: if he wants advice on how to handle the next ten or 20 years he could do worse than talk to Bernard Connolly. Twenty years ago, Connolly — at the time a senior economist with the European Union — published The Rotten Heart of Europe, a pretty devastating look at just how badly wrong he thought the introduction of monetary union was likely to go. It was immediately read by his colleagues and it wasn’t much liked. Within days he was barred from his office (with his picture posted at the entrances just in case he tried to sneak in), and then fired.

Extremists have targeted refugee program to enter US, Homeland Security chairman says

Canada - The New HomelandIntelligence officials have determined that Islamic extremists have explored using the refugee program to enter the United States, they told the head of the Homeland Security Committee.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) revealed portions of a classified letter from the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) on Monday, which offered new claims not previously disclosed by the Obama administration.

Flock

Evening Photos

Flock by Giuseppe Peppoloni (also on Facebook, here)

Slanted and Enchanted (Cascade Mountains, Washington state) by Michael Bollino (see also his personal website, here)Washington

 
Twilight (Croatia) by Aleksandar Gospić (also on Facebook, here)Croatia

 
Winter Wonderland (Oregon) by Gary Randall (see also his personal website, here) Snow-Oregon

 
Barrier Lake (Alberta, Canada) by Nicholas Yee (also on Facebook, here)Barrier-Lake

Zumwalt-class_destroyer

Largest destroyer ever built for US Navy heads to Atlantic for testing

The largest destroyer ever built for the US Navy cut an imposing figure as it drifted down the Kennebec River in Maine and toward the open ocean on Monday.

The USS Zumwalt, a 610-foot, 15,000-ton behemoth, will undergo sea trials before joining the US fleet some time next year.

Its pricetag of $4.4 billion (£2.9 billion) is almost as astounding as its bulk, but Navy Captain James Kirk, the ship’s skipper, said he was “fired up” for the Zumwalt to finally set off for the Atlantic Ocean.

Police Officer Bitten By ‘Rampaging’, Gun-Grab Muslim Illegal Alien Invader Screaming ‘Allah Hu Akbar’

German police were forced to pepper-spray a fare dodging Islamist on Sunday after he reacted badly to having his ticket checked, attacking officers, trying to snatch a police handgun and screaming “Allah hu Akbar”.

The 23-year-old Moroccan ‘asylum seeker’ spoke no German and savagely attacked police on Sunday in Osnabrück station.

TV ad revenues in “free fall”

From Hollywood Reporter:

In the U.S., digital advertising will surpass TV in 2016.

For the first time in history, outside of recession years, global television advertising revenue fell year-over-year as digital advertising surged once again. Digital, in fact, should overtake TV by the end of 2017, according to a study released Monday from Magna Global.

A different study from ZenithOptimedia, also released Monday, says TV’s share of the advertising pie probably peaked at 39.7 percent in 2012, and it will be overtaken by digital for the first time in 2018.

Both studies paint a rosy picture for digital advertising and a troubling one for traditional cable and broadcast TV, at least in the long term. More.

Reality check: People share the media behemoths’ values but aren’t watching or listening anyway now. Most voters/taxpayers won’t notice if governments quietly subsume them into PR operations, operations that the media will be more or less compelled to go along with.

Consequences: 1) The only authentic media will be independent new media 2) We must each develop our own news sources that we have some reason to trust 3) The bailed-out legacy media will be hostile to free flow of information, by virtue of their own new position, and many battles will be fought around free flow. 4) Traditional cultures can only survive wth free flow.

See also: News reporter worst 2015 job? Manufacturing news is undergoing a downturn like other manufacturing businesses

and Manufactured news

Yes, high tech IS killing white collar jobs

From Forbes:

“What globalization did to blue collar jobs and the working class economy over the past 30 or 40 years, big data, artificial intelligence and robotics will do to the white collar economy — and at a much, much faster pace,” says Greene.

It’s a problem that will only exacerbate the growing gap between the rich and the poor, he claims, because we’ve left ourselves unprepared for the inevitable automation of many jobs traditionally done by humans.

…

“This is a much bigger issue than any of the presidential candidates are acknowledging,” says Greene, who unsuccessfully ran for a Senate seat in 2010, pointing to a Harvard Business Review study that claims as many as 40 million Americans may soon have job skills that have no economic value. More.

But they will have one big heap of resentment, about everything, anything, and nothing—above all, their “identity,” which is everything to them and nothing to anyone else.

Reality check: No, of course AI isn’t killing the jobs where we have to originate new information. It is killing the ones where people pushed/lugged paper around all day, every day.

When .pdf killed the Post Office, it did not make documents write themselves. But it did cut the number of people required to provide a document very considerably—usually down to its author, and maybe an editor/Web master.

See also: Will artificial intelligence kill our jobs? That depends. It depends in part on what we understand our jobs to be.

and

Respecting one’s heroes but taking issue – Thomas Sowell edition

Silicon Valley is disrupting unions?

Of course. From Breitbart:

Silicon Valley is coming after unionized industries. A top investor in the Valley, Paul Graham, lit up Twitter, saying, “Any industry that still has unions has potential energy that could be released by startups… (I don’t mean in simply paying people less, but rather that industries afflicted by unions are sclerotic so have left lots undone.)”

The lack of innovation leaves unionized industries susceptible to startups, which are increasingly moving into new forms of labor, from driving and delivery to education. Google recently announced a new partnership for creating cheap, online business school courses. Generally speaking, these types of online courses don’t need the permission of universities or teacher unions to set salaries, allowing tech companies to provide very low-cost education.

Interestingly enough, Graham’s comments illustrate how Silicon Valley represents a new pro-capitalism, anti-union political category. Employees from Graham’s investment company, Y-Combinator, give exclusively to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets. Many of these Silicon Valley stars prefer Democrats because they see a role for the federal government as an investor in education and scientific research, but not as a regulator from capitalism. More.

Reality check: Instant IQ test = can we see what is happening here? Silicon Valley’s employees will be more like management than labour. Valley need hire only clever AI types who work brutally hard and get paid tons of money. And what’s $10k here or there to land a promising young genius? They’re available globally now.

The people who used to be union labour in North America will be lucky to have jobs in service industries threatened by AI. If they unionize or demand high minimum wages, AI will just move faster. They will end up on the public dole, not the corporate payroll.

As for Silicon Valley supporting Democrats? That party will form the base of technocratic progressive government in the future. It’s fine with them if former union labour is on lifetime benefits. One suspects society will be somewhat like a human wildlife sanctuary but then that’s the Brave New World that looms.

See also: More good news: Tax analyst Stephen Moore gets it too, re Asscrat U, USA (The precious little asshats are in training to manage the unemployed/underemployed classes, a job for which they will not need conventional academic thinking skills. And in fairness to them, they sense that.)

Trump Just Publically Announced What We Have All Been Asking For

Donald Trump

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he is calling for a “complete and total shutdown” on Muslims entering the United States.

Trump says in a statement released by his campaign Monday that his proposal comes in response to the level of hatred among “large segments of the Muslim population” toward Americans.

Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says Trump’s proposed ban would apply to “everybody,” including Muslims seeking immigration visas as well as tourists seeking to enter the country.

Well, there ya go! You just got 100% of what we have all been demanding!

It is now impossible to be an authentic counter-jihadist if you do not support Donald Trump. This will ‘out’ the final round of posers that claim they are still on the fence.

Obama inveterate liar

U.S. Intel to Obama: ISIS Is Not Contained

A new U.S. intelligence report on ISIS, commissioned by the White House, predicts that the self-proclaimed Islamic State will spread worldwide and grow in numbers, unless it suffers a significant loss of territory on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria, U.S. officials told The Daily Beast.

The report stands in stark contrast to earlier White House assurances that ISIS had been “contained” in Iraq and Syria. And it is already spurring changes in how the U.S. grapples with ISIS, these officials said.

Mocking the prayers for San Bernardino victims

A friend was truly shocked by this, from Federalist:

For some reason, much of the media began mocking the efficacy of prayer. This was happening while victims of the shooting were actually asking people to pray. I mean, the critiques were everywhere. An editor at ThinkProgress said, and I quote, “Stop thinking. Stop praying.” There’s a bumper sticker for you!

…

Twitter highlighted in its “Moments” section another progressive journalist’s campaign to shame politicians who prayed for victims. And a senator from Connecticut tweeted about the attack, without understanding the perpetrators, their motive, or their relationship to any proposed or imagined gun restriction:


Who but Murphy thought that the officials were not going to do anything? Maybe they won’t do what he wants if it isn’t popular with voters, but…

More from Federalist.

Reality check: Progressives will work increasingly hard to drive all conventional expressions of religion out of the public square except those useful for cementing their control. Islam is useful as a club against Christians and Jews.

And, let’s face it, “Our prayers are with you” is a pretty conventional expression. It certainly doesn’t imply that nothing else will be done, and is almost never taken that way by the hearers.

Later, the progressives may discover that he who rides a tiger can never dismount. But then they are not known for thinking ahead. They tend to think that the famines and pogroms will always happen to someone else.

They have usually been right, as it happens – though not always.

And this is a useful opportunity for progressives in media to narrow the boundaries of permissible speech.

But again, people vote for them. Worldwide throughout history, many have been silenced by governments who did not vote for them. They deserve more sympathy.

See also: Religious Nones are the largest group in the US Democratic Party

“Devout” means what these days?

Via Mashable:

From ‘housewife’ to mass shooter: Friends say Tashfeen Malik’s life took a devout turn

“I recently heard it from relatives that she has become a religious person, and she often tells people to live according to the teachings of Islam,” recalled aunt Hifza Batool.

Batool spoke in the town of Karor Lal Esan, the home of Malik’s family, 280 miles (450 kilometers) southwest of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

More.

Reality check: So which is it, are these “un-Islamic activities” or the hallmark of the young woman’s devotion?

It’s best not to try to unpack such a question as if the purveyors of manufactured news could sponsor a serious discussion.

What will probably happen is that, as the term “devout” becomes a code word for terror and murder, elderly Catholic women praying the Rosary in processions will become subject to hostility. If they are attacked, the processions may be cancelled on account of the public disorder they elicit.

Young people on their smart phones are not listening to legacy media sources but they will allow them to set the tone, as long as they themselves are left alone.

See also: Bleating about “Christian” terrorism

San Bernardino shooter’s ‘hardline’ Islam not an outlier in native Pakistan

Anyone looking for clues for why Tashfeen Malik turned from a young mother into an Islamic State-supporting mass killer capable of slaughtering 14 people with her husband will struggle to find anything in the picture that has so far emerged of the 29-year-old Pakistani.

The news on Monday that she regularly attended a women’s religious group that promotes an austere form of Islam did nothing to change the emerging profile of a woman who resembles countless other young Pakistanis living at a time of social, economic and religious upheaval.

“She’s a typical small-town, educated, middle-class conservative,” said Nadeem Farooq Paracha, a social commentator for Dawn newspaper. It is a class getting richer, living in fast-growing towns and, Paracha notes, increasingly strident in its religion.

 

There’s always a Canadian Connection…

More… Mississauga educator distances Islamic school from San Bernardino attack

A controversial Mississauga Islamic educator is defending her school after one of the San Bernardino killers was revealed to be a former student.

Farhat Mashmi, who runs the Al-Huda Institute of Canada an Islamic school in Mississauga, issued a statement on her website Monday distancing herself from Tashfeen Malik. The controversial scholar acknowledged that Malik studied at Al-Huda’s branch in Multan, Pakistan branch for two years starting in 2013 and left without completing a diploma.

“It seems that she was unable to understand the beautiful message of the Qur’an,” the statement says. “We cannot be held responsible for personal acts of any of our students.”

Pakistan remains among the top sources of immigration to Canada for some bizarre reason.

I have written on Farhat Hashmi before, she was listed as a ghost employee at ISNA

Moderate Muslim Extremist Farhat Hashmi Is Back In Canada?

Where Was Canada Revenue? Islamist Charity Fraud ISNA Canada Keeps Muslim Extremist Ordered Deported On Payroll

Note that a branch of ISNA lost its charitable status after having been found to have funded terrorists.

PM Useful Idiot just loves ISNA!

PM Useful Idiot at ISNA

 

 

ISIS Phone App

Ghost Security hackers expose sick ISIS phone app attempting to entice Western fighters

ISLAMIC State (ISIS) has released a smartphone app to spread its warped message to followers and potential converts.

Jihadists can watch beheading videos and speeches from terrorist leaders as the group – also called Daesh – increases its online and social media grip even further.

Messages are also featured which show “life inside the caliphate” and tells of apparent terrorist attacks it claims to have carried out around the world.