By John Gruber

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Algoriddim: djay Pro AI ★

My thanks to Algoriddim for sponsoring this week at DF to promote djay Pro AI, the latest version of their Apple-Design-Award-winning app. Recreated from the ground up using Core ML to harnes the power of Apple’s Bionic chip, djay Pro AI provides human brain-like processing of sound on iPhone and iPad. Instantly isolate beats, instruments, and vocals of any song — in real time.

It’s gorgeous, fun, and powerful.

Friday, 24 July 2020

‘Apple Puts Power Mac G4 Cube on Ice’ ★

As mentioned in the aforelinked piece by Steven Levy on the 20th anniversary of the G4 Cube, this was Apple’s own headline for the press release announcing its discontinuation. What a fun way to break bad news. Phil Schiller is still there (he’s even quoted in the press release), but somehow I can’t see Apple writing a headline like this today. I wish they would though. I think that Apple is still there, but they no longer let it show.

“Apple Pulls the Plug on AirPower” would have been an opportunity, but they not only didn’t write a funny headline for that announcement, they didn’t even post about AirPower’s cancellation on Newsroom. The Washington Post did use this exact pun in their headline, but it would have packed a lot more punch if Apple itself had used it.

“Apple Puts Power Mac G4 Cube on Ice” was a deft way of acknowledging that they swung and missed with the Cube without actually acknowledging anything other than what they say in the press release. Headlines matter.

Steven Levy on Steve Jobs and the G4 Cube ★

Steven Levy, writing for Wired:

In any case, the G4 Cube failed to push buttons on the computer-buying public. Jobs told me it would sell millions. But Apple sold fewer than 150,000 units. The apotheosis of Apple design was also the apex of Apple hubris. Listening to the tape, I was struck by how much Jobs had been drunk on the elixir of aesthetics. “Do you really want to put a hole in this thing and put a button there?” Jobs asked me, justifying the lack of a power switch. “Look at the energy we put into this slot drive so you wouldn’t have a tray, and you want to ruin that and put a button in?”

But here is something else about Jobs and the Cube that speaks not of failure but why he was a successful leader. Once it was clear that his Cube was a brick, he was quick to cut his losses and move on.

In a 2017 talk at Oxford, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about the G4 Cube, which he described as “a spectacular commercial failure, from the first day, almost.” But Jobs’ reaction to the bad sales figures showed how quickly, when it became necessary, he could abandon even a product dear to his heart. “Steve, of everyone I’ve known in life,” Cook said at Oxford, “could be the most avid proponent of some position, and within minutes or days, if new information came out, you would think that he never ever thought that before.”

The Cube was a worthy failure, deserving of our utmost praise in hindsight. Powerful computers needed to get smaller, quieter, and more attractive. The Cube pushed the state of the art forward.

But the more important lesson embedded in this story has nothing to do with the Cube specifically and everything to do with Jobs’s truly extraordinary ability to change his mind. Strong opinions loosely held — no one’s opinions were stronger, no one’s more loosely held.

Why not pull a Steve Jobs on the App Store? Cut the commission rate to 85/15 across the board and act like it’s innovative and something only Apple could or would do. Open up the Netflix rule to all developers — maintain the rule that if your app charges money as an in-app purchase, you must use Apple’s in-app payment system — but let any and all apps choose to do what Netflix does if they want to opt out of that, and sign up customers on their own outside the app. Just make all of this antitrust stuff disappear before it even starts by eliminating the complaints about money and maintaining what matters more to Apple: independence and control.

Thursday, 23 July 2020

Calculator Desk Accessory ★

You might ask why you should spend $8 on a calculator app whose only appeal has nothing to do with functionality and everything to do with gimmicky nostalgia. To you I say, you don’t know how to properly squander $8.

The Talk Show: ‘I’m Batman. America. Freedom.’ ★

Adam Lisagor returns to the show. Topics include the cinematic and presentation style of Apple’s WWDC keynote, some post-production details on The Talk Show’s WWDC episode, the tribulations of producing professional videos during COVID-19, and the new sounds of MacOS 11 Big Sur.

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Intel Announces Further Delay on 7 NM Process ★

Paul Alcorn, reporting for Tom’s Hardware:

Intel announced today in its Q2 2020 earnings release that it has now delayed the rollout of its 7nm CPUs by six months relative to its previously-planned release date. Intel’s press release also says that yields for its 7nm process are now twelve months behind the company’s internal targets, meaning the company isn’t currently capable of producing its 7nm process in an economically viable way.

Good time to be a computer maker who has taken its destiny into its own hands with CPU design and fabrication.

Woz Sues YouTube Over Ongoing Bitcoin Scams ★

Monica Chin, reporting for The Verge:

According to the lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, crooks have been posting videos on the platform claiming that Wozniak is hosting a bitcoin promotion. They convince users that if they send bitcoin to a provided address, “Wozniak” will return double the amount.

“YouTube has featured a steady stream of scam videos and promotions that falsely use images and videos of Plaintiff Steve Wozniak, and other famous tech entrepreneurs, and that have defrauded YouTube users out of millions of dollars,” the complaint reads.

They won’t stop these scams, but if you upload a video with a copyrighted song they’ll have it down in about a minute. They police what they care about.

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Wednesday, 22 July 2020

U.S. Ambassador to Britain Petitioned to Have British Open at Trump’s Golf Course ★

Mark Landler, Lara Jakes, and Maggie Haberman, reporting for The New York Times:

The American ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, told multiple colleagues in February 2018 that President Trump had asked him to see if the British government could help steer the world-famous and lucrative British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, according to three people with knowledge of the episode.

The ambassador’s deputy, Lewis A. Lukens, advised him not to do it, warning that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain, these people said. But Mr. Johnson apparently felt pressured to try. A few weeks later, he raised the idea of Turnberry playing host to the Open with the secretary of state for Scotland, David Mundell.

For those of you who’ve been asking for fewer posts on politics and Trump’s jackassery, I figured I’d post about sports.

American Airlines Adopts Strict Mask Policy ★

American Airlines:

American Airlines will require all customers over the age of 2 to wear face coverings at airports and on board, strengthening the airline’s commitment to keep customers and team members safe. This requirement will become effective on July 29, 2020. Due to safety risk of asymptomatic COVID-19 transmission by individuals without face coverings, all customers must wear a face covering from the time they enter their departure airport and not remove it until they exit their arrival airport. […]

The only time face coverings may be removed at the airport or on board is when the customer is eating or drinking. Those unwilling to comply with this face covering requirement at any time during their journey with American may be barred from future travel for the duration of this face covering requirement.

Sorry, Senator Cruz.

Apple Hires Outside Economists to Compare the App Store to Other ‘Digital Marketplaces’ ★

Ian Sherr, reporting for CNet:

Ahead of an antitrust hearing on Capitol Hill next week, Apple is fighting back against the perception that its App Store charges onerous commission rates to developers. It hired economists from the firm Analysis Group, who said the tech giant’s fees were similar to competitors.

The research, published Wednesday, collected commission rates reported on or disclosed by app stores from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and others. The company’s economists also studied ticket resale marketplaces, game stores and ride-hailing apps. Overall, the economists said the commissions charged were similar, though stores generally offered different features for consumers and developers.

Here is the Analysis Group’s PDF report.

You know you’re in trouble when part of your argument is “Hey, at least we’re better than Ticketmaster.”

Delta Has Already Banned 100 Anti-Maskers ★

Ben Schlappig, writing at One Mile at a Time:

Delta has been requiring passengers to wear masks on flights since early May. Initially enforcement was perhaps lax, given the vague wording of the rules, allowing exceptions for “people unable to keep a face covering in place, including children.”

However, as the use of face masks has become more political, Delta has also stepped up its enforcement. Bastian claims that Delta has placed 100 people on its “no fly list” over mask issues, and says that if you insist on not wearing a mask, he insists on you not flying Delta. As he explains:

“We’ve been steadily and rather aggressively stepping up our enforcement of the mask policy. You cannot board a Delta plane unless you have a mask on. If you board the plane and insist on not wearing a mask, we insist that you do not fly Delta into the future. We already have 100 people put onto that list.”

Even better:

On top of that, anyone who has a condition preventing them from wearing a mask should show up at the airport early to complete a “Clearance-to-Fly” process, which could take over an hour. This process includes a virtual consultation with a healthcare professional, who will consider circumstances, and could make exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

Delta is no longer using the “honor system” for wearing masks. Any passenger found to be making false claims about a disability or health condition in order to obtain an exemption can have travel privileges on all Delta flights suspended for as long as the airline is requiring passengers to wear face masks.

Bravo to Delta — every other airline should immediately adopt this same policy.

Apple Opens iPhone ‘Security Research Device’ Program ★

Apple:

As part of Apple’s commitment to security, this program is designed to help improve security for all iOS users, bring more researchers to iPhone, and improve efficiency for those who already work on iOS security. It features an iPhone dedicated exclusively to security research, with unique code execution and containment policies.

The Security Research Device (SRD) is intended for use in a controlled setting for security research only. Shell access is available, and you’ll be able to run any tools and choose your entitlements. Otherwise, the SRD behaves as closely to a standard iPhone as possible in order to be a representative research target.

SRDs are provided on a 12-month renewable basis and remain the property of Apple. They are not meant for personal use or daily carry, and must remain on the premises of program participants at all times. Access to and use of SRDs must be limited to people authorized by Apple.

This initiative was announced last year by Ivan Krstic, Apple’s head of security, at the Black Hat conference.

Tuesday, 21 July 2020

Twitter Finally Cracks Down on ‘QAnon’ Nutters ★

Twitter:

We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm. In line with this approach, this week we are taking further action on so-called ‘QAnon’ activity across the service.

We will permanently suspend accounts Tweeting about these topics that we know are engaged in violations of our multi-account policy, coordinating abuse around individual victims, or are attempting to evade a previous suspension — something we’ve seen more of in recent weeks.

1. No longer serve content and accounts associated with QAnon in Trends and recommendations
2. Work to ensure we’re not highlighting this activity in search and conversations
3. Block URLs associated with QAnon from being shared on Twitter

According to NBC News, this move bans 7,000 accounts and limits 150,000 others.

Your move, Facebook.

Monday, 20 July 2020

Mark Zuckerberg on Ridiculous and Crazy Ideas ★

Mike Allen, writing at Axios today:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, under fire for allowing President Trump to post inflammatory statements on his platform, tells Axios there’s no truth to whispers that the two have a secret understanding.

Why it matters: Zuckerberg, facing a growing ad boycott from brands that say Facebook hasn’t done enough to curtail hate speech, has become increasingly public in criticizing Trump. “I’ve heard this speculation, too, so let me be clear: There’s no deal of any kind,” Zuckerberg told Axios. “Actually, the whole idea of a deal is pretty ridiculous.”

Zuckerberg in 2016, after Trump’s election:

“Personally I think the idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way — I think is a pretty crazy idea. Voters make decisions based on their lived experience.”

Zuckerberg in 2017:

“After the election, I made a comment that I thought the idea misinformation on Facebook changed the outcome of the election was a crazy idea. Calling that crazy was dismissive and I regret it.”

Astute point from Tony Romm, on Twitter:

No one said there was a deal. They said Facebook was acting kindly to Trump out of self interest.

There’s a lot of that going around.

How Facebook Handles Climate Disinformation ★

Veronica Penney, reporting last week for The New York Times:

All opinion content on the platform — including op-ed articles or posts that express the views or agendas of politicians, businesses, and nongovernmental organizations — is exempt from fact-checking. This policy has been in place since 2016, according to said Andy Stone, Facebook’s policy communications director. […]

According to Climate Feedback, the op-ed cherry-picked facts and compiled them in a deliberately misleading manner. You can read the full fact-check here.

John Podesta, an adviser to President Barack Obama who coordinated the administration’s climate policy, called Facebook’s opinion policy “a loophole that you can drive a Mack truck through.”

According to Mr. Stone, Facebook is most concerned with flagging or removing content that poses an immediate threat to human health and safety, including disinformation about the coronavirus or hate speech that incites violence. Climate change content, he said, does not fall within that category.

John Paczkowski:

The “imminent threat” loophole is just shameful BS.

Fact-Check of Viral Climate Misinformation Quietly Removed From Facebook ★

Judd Legum and Emily Atkin, jointly reporting for Popular Information and Heated:

Shortly after the email was sent to top Facebook executives, Science Feedback’s fact-check was removed from The Daily Wire article. According to Facebook’s policy, a rating should only be removed if: 1. The fact-checker determines their initial rating of the was wrong, or 2. The factual errors in the article are corrected.

In this case, neither occurred. Science Feedback is standing by its fact-check of The Daily Wire. It is still the featured fact-check on its homepage. And The Daily Wire did not correct the article. Instead, at the very bottom of the article, The Daily Wire briefly summarized Science Feedback’s fact-check and provided a link. […]

But Science Feedback removed the rating from The Daily Wire anyway. Emmanuel Vincent, the founder and director of Science Feedback, acknowledged that, normally, articles need “to be corrected with a prominent correction notice” to have a rating removed. Vincent said that, in this case, the link appended to the end of the article was “barely sufficient” because the initial rating was “partly false.”

Facebook ought to start putting dick quotes around “fact-check”, then they can just say they’re not really fact-checks, they’re just fake fact-checks.

WSJ: ‘Disney Slashed Ad Spending on Facebook Amid Growing Boycott’ ★

Suzanne Vranica, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (News+ link):

Walt Disney Co. has dramatically slashed its advertising spending on Facebook Inc., according to people familiar with the situation, the latest setback for the tech giant as it faces a boycott from companies upset with its handling of hate speech and divisive content.

Disney was Facebook’s top U.S. advertiser for the first six months of 2020, research firm Pathmatics Inc. estimates. It joins hundreds of other companies that have paused spending, including Unilever PLC, Starbucks Corp., Ford Motor Co., Verizon Communication Inc. and many small marketers.

In the first half of this year, Disney spent an estimated $210 million on Facebook ads for Disney+ in the U.S., according to Pathmatics. Disney was the biggest ad spender during that period. Last year, it was the No. 2 Facebook advertiser in the U.S., behind Home Depot Inc.

If you won’t advertise on Breitbart or The Daily Caller or Ben Shapiro’s Hate Club, why advertise on the social network that promotes them all?

The State of Google Pixel and My Own Very Brief Review of the Pixel 4 ★

Joe Maring, writing for Android Central:

I don’t expect Google to make phones that are flawless, but what I do wish is that its phones had a clear identity and purpose. This strategy of constantly changing plans and going back to the drawing board is hurting and turning users away, and given the limited scope of the Pixel brand in the first place, that’s not really something Google can afford.

Growing pains in the beginning were to be expected, as they would be for any company trying to make its own smartphone hardware for the first time. It’s now been four years, however, and Google seems to be even more lost with the Pixel than it was in 2016.

My basic theory is that Google, institutionally, is bored with Android — and if Google has lost interest in Android generally it’s going to lose interest in Pixels specifically.

I bought a Pixel 2 in 2017 and a Pixel 4 last fall. There’s a lot that’s nice about the hardware but the software is sloppy. My nutshell review of the experience of using a Pixel 4 can be summed up just by looking at this screenshot of my home screen (or this one with an alternate system font). “Instagr…”, “Podcas…”, “Play St…” — that’s how the home screen displays the names for Google’s own apps and Instagram, one of the most-used apps in the world.

Now imagine that the same lack of attention to detail that would lead to a home screen like this, where even Google’s own essential apps like Play Store have their names truncated hamfistedly, is applied to every aspect of the entire system. That’s what using Android on a Pixel 4 is like.

Marc Levoy, Former Head of Computational Photography at Google, Lands at Adobe ★

David Imel on Twitter:

Holy hell.

Just got word that Marc Levoy, who previously led Computational Photography at Google has just joined @Adobe as a VP and fellow to work on [computational photography] initiatives, as well as a “Universal Adobe Camera App”.

See also: Imel’s interview from October with Levoy (and his then-colleague Isaac Reynolds) for Android Authority.

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Monday, 20 July 2020

Bahamas Shuts Borders to U.S. Tourists Amid Spiking COVID Cases ★

Jacqueline Charles, reporting for The Miami Herald:

Less than three weeks after reopening its borders to international visitors, the Bahamas on Sunday announced that it is closing all of its airports and seaports to tourists from the United States, effective Wednesday.

51 years ago the United States landed men on the moon.

Today, thanks to President Trump and every goddamn idiot and/or bigot who voted for him, we’re not allowed to go to the Bahamas.

Marriott to Require Face Masks in All Hotels ★

Marriott:

Following American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA)’s “Safe Stay Guest Checklist” announcement last week, Marriott International will require all guests to wear a face covering in its hotels effective July 27.

How was this not the policy already, and why in the world is this not taking effect for another week?

Zoom to Sell 27-Inch Dedicated Appliance for $600 ★

Ron Miller, TechCrunch:

The device, dubbed the Zoom for Home — DTEN ME, is being produced by partner DTEN. It consists of a standalone 27-inch screen, essentially a large tablet equipped with three wide-angle cameras designed for high-resolution video and 8 microphones. Zoom software is pre-loaded on the device and the interface is designed to provide easy access to popular Zoom features.

Put aside the lunacy of buying hardware from a company with Zoom’s security and privacy track record — who has room in their home for a dedicated 27-inch display just for Zoom?

Sunday, 19 July 2020

Simris Algae Omega-3 ★

My thanks to Simris for sponsoring DF last week to promote their algae-based omega-3 supplements. One third of the matter in your brain is literally made of omega-3, and many people eat fish and take fish oil as an omega-3 supplement. But the source of omega-3 is algae — not fish. Fish get their omegas from eating algae. Simris Algae Omega-3 is a completely plant-based and superior alternative to fish oil and krill, without the mercury, PCB, and dioxins, and without harming our oceans.

Simris is a Swedish pioneer company growing microalgae. They save and protect endangered marine habitats by replacing unsustainable marine ingredients, and proudly combine Scandinavian innovation and design at its finest.

Everything about Simris’s products is just really nice: from their website to their packaging to the actual capsules.

David Shor’s Unified Theory of American Politics ★

While I’m on a political kick, please allow me to direct your attention to this interview with political strategist and data analyst David Shor, by Eric Levitz for New York Magazine. Shor’s insights are extraordinarily smart, fascinating, data-driven, and in ways large and small, often counter to conventional wisdom (e.g. big-money donors are pushing the Democrats to the left). I assure you it is worth your time and full attention.

A taste, regarding why non-college-educated voters have been drifting right, both in the U.S. and Europe, for decades:

So why is this happening? The story that makes the most sense to me goes like this: In the postwar era, college-educated professionals were maybe 4 percent of the electorate. Which meant that basically no voters had remotely cosmopolitan values. But the flip side of this is that this educated 4 percent still ran the world. Both parties at this point were run by this highly educated, cosmopolitan minority that held a bunch of values that undergirded the postwar consensus, around democracy and rule of law, and all these things.

Obviously, these people were more right wing on a bunch of social issues than their contemporary counterparts, but during that era, both parties were run by just about the most cosmopolitan segments of society. And there were also really strong gatekeepers. This small group of highly educated people not only controlled the commanding heights of both the left and the right, but also controlled the media. There were only a small number of TV stations — in other countries, those stations were even run by the government. And both sides knew it wasn’t electorally advantageous to campaign on cosmopolitan values.

So, as a result, campaigns centered around this cosmopolitan elite’s internal disagreements over economic issues. But over the past 60 years, college graduates have gone from being 4 percent of the electorate to being more like 35. Now, it’s actually possible — for the first time ever in human history — for political parties to openly embrace cosmopolitan values and win elections; certainly primary and municipal elections, maybe even national elections if you don’t push things too far or if you have a recession at your back. And so Democratic elites started campaigning on the things they’d always wanted to, but which had previously been too toxic. And so did center-left parties internationally.

Microbe Economics ★

Paul Krugman:

Econ 101 has lots of good things to say about free markets (probably too many good things, but that’s a discussion for another time), but no rational discussion of economics says that free markets, left to themselves, can solve the problem of “externalities” — costs that individuals or businesses impose on others who have no say in the matter. Pollution is the classic example of an externality that requires government intervention, but spreading a dangerous virus poses exactly the same issues.

Yet many conservatives seem unable or unwilling to grasp this simple point. And they seem equally unwilling to grasp a related point — that there are some things that must be supplied through public policy rather than individual initiative. And the most important of these “public goods” is probably scientific knowledge.

And this again exemplifies how this abject failure of Republican leadership is not about any traditional left-right conservative-liberal partisanship. It’s science vs. willful ignorance. And the simple truth is that the Republicans used to be — or at least fancied themselves — the party of facing hard truths even when inconvenient or downright unpleasant. They insisted Democrats were “bleeding heart liberals”, who chose policies based on compassion rather than facts.

White House Portraits of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush Moved From Prominent Space to a Closet, Like Deck Chairs Being Moved on Titanic ★

Jeff Zeleny and Kevin Liptak, reporting for CNN:

White House tradition calls for portraits of the most recent American presidents to be given the most prominent placement, in the entrance of the executive mansion, visible to guests during official events.

That was the case through at least July 8, when President Donald Trump welcomed Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The two stood in the Cross Hall of the White House and made remarks, with the portraits of Clinton and Bush essentially looking on as they had been throughout Trump’s first term. But in the days after after that, the Clinton and Bush portraits were moved into the Old Family Dining Room, a small, rarely used room that is not seen by most visitors.

That places the paintings well outside of Trump’s vantage point in the White House. In their previous location, the pictures would have been seen daily as Trump descends the staircase from his third floor private residence or when he hosts events on the state floor of the White House. Now, they hang in a space used mainly for storing unused tablecloths and furniture.

The story of these portraits, in itself, is not important. But what’s behind this petty insignificant-in-the-grand-scheme-of-events story is the same fundamental truth that is the cause of so many deeply important problems happening right now: Donald Trump has the small mind and emotional maturity of a petulant child.

The portrait story is all the more clarifying given that Bush is a two-term Republican. It’s hard to imagine a more politically polarizing president than Bush. We do live in a polarized time, and George W. Bush exemplified that polarization on the left-right divide. He was certainly far more conservative than Trump, both in rhetoric and policy. (Clinton was, famously, a moderate, and left office with the highest approval ratings of any president since World War II. Why Trump despises him is plainly obvious and has nothing to do with politics.) Trump’s problem with Bush isn’t partisan. It’s about adherence to foundational American ideals such as the rule of law, and the idea that the President of the United States is the leader of all Americans, not just those who support him. Say what you want about Bush’s presidency, when the nation faced a true crisis on 9/11, he brought the nation together.

When faced with this crisis, Donald Trump, mind-bogglingly, drove the country further apart. His remaining supporters are with him not despite this, but because of it, like pigs wallowing in mud.

Saturday, 18 July 2020

‘The Plan Is to Have No Plan’ Redux ★

Jay Rosen, back in early May:

“The plan is to have no plan” is not a strategy, really. Nor would I call it a policy. It has a kind of logic to it, but this is different from saying it has a design — or a designer. Meaning: I do not want to be too conspiratorial about this. To wing it without a plan is merely the best this government can do, given who heads the table. The manufacture of confusion is just the ruins of Trump’s personality meeting the powers of the presidency. There is no genius there, only a damaged human being playing havoc with our lives.

I linked to this back when Rosen wrote it. What’s happening today was obvious months ago to anyone willing to look at it with open eyes, but yet it still takes your breath away.

Trump Regime Opposes New Funds for Testing, Tracing, and CDC in Virus Relief Bill ★

Erica Werner and Jeff Stein, reporting for The Washington Post:

The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said Saturday.

The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to allocate for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to address the pandemic at home and abroad, the people said.

The administration’s posture has angered some GOP senators, the officials said, and some lawmakers are trying to push back and ensure that the money stays in the bill. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal confidential deliberations, cautioned that the talks were fluid and the numbers were in flux.

Even Republicans are getting it through their thick skulls that Trump and his regime really do only care about the optics — they care only about the reported number of positive test results, not the actual number of infections.

I wrote this on April 10:

Any feasible plan starts with massive testing, completely subsidized by the government. And yet just yesterday the president claimed we don’t need mass testing. The one thing that everyone who knows what they’re talking about agrees on is that we need mass testing — and the president is arguing we don’t need it.

We needed massive federalized testing months ago. And here we are in July, with daily records for cases nationwide and several states raging out of control, and the Trump regime is pushing to block spending for what’s needed. The house is ablaze and the fire department is calling for the water to be shut off. They’re not just a little off course, they’re insane.

We’ve elected a mad king and he’s surrounded himself with enablers.

‘Inside Trump’s Failure: The Rush to Abandon Leadership Role on the Virus’ ★

Michael D. Shear, Noah Weiland, Eric Lipton, Maggie Haberman, and David E. Sanger, reporting for The New York Times:

Each morning at 8 as the coronavirus crisis was raging in April, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, convened a small group of aides to steer the administration through what had become a public health, economic and political disaster.

Seated around Mr. Meadows’s conference table and on a couch in his office down the hall from the Oval Office, they saw their immediate role as practical problem solvers. Produce more ventilators. Find more personal protective equipment. Provide more testing.

But their ultimate goal was to shift responsibility for leading the fight against the pandemic from the White House to the states. They referred to this as “state authority handoff,” and it was at the heart of what would become at once a catastrophic policy blunder and an attempt to escape blame for a crisis that had engulfed the country — perhaps one of the greatest failures of presidential leadership in generations.

Absolutely riveting — and infuriating, and terrifying — account of how the U.S. response went so terribly wrong. Devastating assessment of Jared Kushner (no surprise) and Dr. Deborah Birx (a bit surprising).

Civil Rights Hero and Icon John Lewis, ‘Conscience of the Congress’, Dies at 80 ★

Katharine Q. Seelye, The New York Times:

On the front lines of the bloody campaign to end Jim Crow laws, with blows to his body and a fractured skull to prove it, Mr. Lewis was a valiant stalwart of the civil rights movement and the last surviving speaker at the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

More than a half-century later, after the killing in May of George Floyd, a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis, Mr. Lewis welcomed the resulting global demonstrations against systemic racism and the police killings of Black people. He saw those demonstrations, the largest protest movement in American history, as a continuation of his life’s work, though his illness had left him to watch from the sideline.

The arc of Lewis’s career is simply hard to conceive.

Lewis: “My philosophy is very simple: When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to stand up and just say something. You have to do something. I got into good trouble, necessary trouble. Even today, I tell people, ‘We need to get in good trouble.’”

Friday, 17 July 2020

Twitter: ‘An Update on Our Security Incident’ ★

Twitter:

At this time, we believe attackers targeted certain Twitter employees through a social engineering scheme. What does this mean? In this context, social engineering is the intentional manipulation of people into performing certain actions and divulging confidential information.

The attackers successfully manipulated a small number of employees and used their credentials to access Twitter’s internal systems, including getting through our two-factor protections. As of now, we know that they accessed tools only available to our internal support teams to target 130 Twitter accounts. For 45 of those accounts, the attackers were able to initiate a password reset, login to the account, and send Tweets. We are continuing our forensic review of all of the accounts to confirm all actions that may have been taken. In addition, we believe they may have attempted to sell some of the usernames.

“May” is a bit of a stretch here given that The New York Times reported hours ago that they had been selling usernames, and Brian Krebs reported it yesterday.

For up to eight of the Twitter accounts involved, the attackers took the additional step of downloading the account’s information through our “Your Twitter Data” tool. This is a tool that is meant to provide an account owner with a summary of their Twitter account details and activity. We are reaching out directly to any account owner where we know this to be true.

DMs are the first thing that comes to mind with the “Your Twitter Data” tool. That archive contains pretty much everything, including your location data.

NYT: ‘Hackers Tell the Story of the Twitter Attack From the Inside’ ★

Extraordinary reporting by Nathaniel Popper and Kate Conger for The New York Times:

But four people who participated in the scheme spoke with The Times and shared numerous logs and screen shots of the conversations they had on Tuesday and Wednesday, demonstrating their involvement both before and after the hack became public.

The interviews indicate that the attack was not the work of a single country like Russia or a sophisticated group of hackers. Instead, it was done by a group of young people — one of whom says he lives at home with his mother — who got to know one another because of their obsession with owning early or unusual screen names, particularly one letter or number, like @y or @6. […]

The hacker “lol” and another one he worked with, who went by the screen name “ever so anxious,” told The Times that they wanted to talk about their work with Kirk in order to prove that they had only facilitated the purchases and takeovers of lesser-known Twitter addresses early in the day. They said they had not continued to work with Kirk once he began more high-profile attacks around 3:30 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday.

In one of the first transactions, “lol” brokered a deal for someone who was willing to pay $1,500, in Bitcoin, for the Twitter user name @y. The money went to the same Bitcoin wallet that Kirk used later in the day when he got payments from hacking the Twitter accounts of celebrities, the public ledger of Bitcoin transactions shows.

Secret Police in Portland Are the Opposite of ‘Law and Order’ ★

Rep. Adam Schiff:

Federal officers wearing camouflage, using unmarked vans, arresting and detaining peaceful protestors, over the objections of local authorities, isn’t “law and order.”

It’s the exact opposite.

And it’s un-American and unacceptable.

My friend and lifelong Portlander Cabel Sasser:

p.s. I could’ve sworn one of the top 5 fantasies for gun owners was to bravely prevent an armed federal occupying force in unmarked vehicles and without identification from invading a city — super weird how quiet they are now.

The longstanding argument of rightwing gun nuts that they’re ready to defend liberty for all Americans in the event of some ever-imminent power grab by no-badge no-warrant “jackbooted” government forces, is quite obviously nonsense given their collective reaction — which ranges from silence to vocal support — of the Lafayette Square fiasco in Washington D.C. six weeks ago, and their continuing silence/support of what’s now happening in Portland. But more than mere hypocrisy or even fantasy, it’s projection: “attributing one’s own unacceptable urges to another”. Rightwing nuts live in constant fear of an armed fascist crackdown from the left because they assume the left would abuse such power against them in the ways they would abuse power (and now are) against the left. It’s always been obvious but now it’s transparently so.

Federal Agents Unleash Militarized Crackdown on Portland ★

Sergio Olmos, Mike Baker, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, reporting from Portland for The New York Times:

Federal agents dressed in camouflage and tactical gear have taken to the streets of Portland, unleashing tear gas, bloodying protesters and pulling some people into unmarked vans in what Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon has called “a blatant abuse of power.”

The extraordinary use of federal force in recent days, billed as an attempt to tamp down persistent unrest and protect government property, has infuriated local leaders who say the agents have stoked tensions.

“This is an attack on our democracy,” Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland said. […]

In a statement issued on Friday, Customs and Border Protection said agents who made the arrest had information that indicated a suspect had assaulted federal authorities or damaged property and that they moved him to a safer location for questioning. The statement said that the agents identified themselves but that their names were not displayed because of “recent doxxing incidents against law enforcement personnel.”

We don’t have secret police in the United States. Well, we didn’t.

Ken Klippenstein, reporting for The Nation:

While many people have criticized the alleged lawlessness of the arrests, some even engaging in conspiracy theories about them, these arrests are likely legal, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials interviewed by The Nation. And that’s exactly what makes them so troubling, explains Jenn Budd, a former senior Border Patrol agent.

“During the DC protest, many federal agents removed their insignia,” Budd explained, referring to a June 1 protest in front of the White House where protesters were teargassed. “What the agencies discovered was that they could do this without much blowback from Congress,” Budd explained.

A former senior DHS intelligence officer explained that while other federal agencies are required to wear identifiers when conducting arrests — NCIS agents have to wear both marked jackets and hats during arrests, for example — that is not the case with the DHS. “The fact is, they don’t have to do anything in marked vehicles,” he said. “Such operations happen all the time and at the discretion of supervisors.”

More fuel for the argument that the entire Department of Homeland Security should be disbanded.

Republican Governor Larry Hogan: ‘Trump Left Maryland Vulnerable to the Pandemic’ ★

Maryland governor Larry Hogan, writing in The Washington Post:

Meanwhile, instead of listening to his own public health experts, the president was talking and tweeting like a man more concerned about boosting the stock market or his reelection plans.

America’s governors took a different approach. In early February, we descended on Washington for the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association. As chairman, I had worked closely with the staff for months assembling the agenda, including a private, governors-only briefing at our hotel, the Marriott Marquis, to address the growing viral threat. We brought in Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was already widely admired but whose awesome knowledge and straight-talking style hadn’t yet made him a national rock star; CDC head Robert Redfield; Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of homeland security; Jay Butler, the CDC’s deputy director for infectious diseases; and Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services.

They hit us with detailed presentations and the unfiltered truth, as well as it was known then. I remember hearing many dire claims: “This could be catastrophic.… The death toll could be significant.… Much more contagious than SARS.… Testing will be crucial.… You have to follow the science — that’s where the answers lie.”

It was jarring, the huge contrast between the experts’ warnings and the president’s public dismissals. Weren’t these the people the White House was consulting about the virus? What made the briefing even more chilling was its clear, factual tone. It was a harrowing warning of an imminent national threat, and we took it seriously — or at least most of us did. It was enough to convince almost all the governors that this epidemic was going to be worse than most people realized.

In theory it shouldn’t, but in practice it matters that Hogan is not just a Republican governor, but a popular one. Hogan’s scathing condemnation of the president’s response to the COVID-19 crisis puts the lie to the notion that the fundamental problem with Trump and his remaining supporters is about the left/right political divide. It’s about the science/anti-science divide, deferring to expertise vs. defiant know-nothing-ism as a political stance. There is nothing conservative or liberal about combating a pandemic.

Thursday, 16 July 2020

‘The Science Should Not Stand in the Way of This.’ ★

The New York Times:

Several large school districts — including in Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco — said this week that they would open the academic year with online classes, bucking pressure from President Trump and his administration to get students back into classrooms.

Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, said Thursday that Mr. Trump still wants to see schools reopen. “When he says open, he means open and full, kids being able to attend each and every day at their school,” she said. “The science should not stand in the way of this.”

Ms. McEnany then referenced data published in JAMA Pediatrics, a respected medical journal published by the American Medical Association, that indicated the risk of children contracting the coronavirus was low compared with seasonal influenza.

Trump and McEnany are really stupid. Trump says “Put your children at risk to make me look good”; voters think “Screw this guy, and screw his party, too.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Sues Atlanta Mayor Over City’s Face Mask Mandate ★

NBC News:

Georgia’s governor on Thursday sued Atlanta’s mayor over that city’s mask law, a day after the governor banned local governments from requiring the coverings that health experts say help to stop the spread of COVID-19. […]

Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, and members of Atlanta’s City Council. The lawsuit argues that Bottoms exceeded her authority in issuing coronavirus-related orders that are more restrictive than the state’s orders.

Kemp issued his executive order, which banned more than a dozen local governments from mandating that masks be worn in public, on Wednesday. A spokesman for Atlanta’s mayor had said that the mayor’s order remained in effect, that the city would be guided by data and science, and that “masks save lives.”

Brian Kemp is really stupid, and let’s not mince words, evil.

In Separate Rallies, Utahns Protest Mask Mandate and Demand in-Person Classes ★

Courtney Tanner, reporting for the Salt Lake Tribune:

As she walked up to the podium to speak, one of the moms grabbed a face mask and spit her gum out into it. “It’s garbage,” she shrugged, wadding it up. “It doesn’t work anyway. Not for me and not for my kids.”

A dad who spoke after her said he, too, doesn’t think the masks are effective, and said he’s pulling his kids out of school this fall if the state doesn’t lift its mandate requiring all K-12 students to wear a face covering. Another mother carried her 4-year-old son in her arms, noting there’s no way he would keep one on in his kindergarten class — but she thinks they’re stupid anyway, regardless of age.

Parent after parent followed at the Utah County commission meeting Wednesday afternoon, objecting for more than two hours to having their kids in masks even as counts of the virus continue to climb across the state, where there are more than 30,000 confirmed cases.

The first photo — a meeting of well over 100 people packed elbow to elbow in a room — is startling. These people are incoherently angry, and that’s striking. But the most salient fact — which straight news reporting won’t just come out and state — is that they are really, really stupid.

Wednesday, 15 July 2020

Apple Wins Irish Tax Battle Against E.U. ★

Valentina Pop and Sam Schechner, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (News+):

Apple Inc. won a major battle with the European Union when the bloc’s second-highest court on Wednesday sided with the U.S. company over a €13 billion ($14.8 billion) tax bill that EU antitrust officials had said the company owed to Ireland. The decision was a rebuke to Margrethe Vestager, who is leading the charge at the European Commission to rein in alleged abuses by big tech companies including Apple, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Amazon.com Inc. […]

Apple and Ireland on Wednesday applauded the annulment of the tax case. Ireland reiterated that it gave no special treatment to Apple, and said that the company had paid taxes according to “normal Irish taxation rules.”

Apple said that it supports international talks over how countries should divide up taxation rights for multinational companies. “This case was not about how much tax we pay, but where we are required to pay it. We’re proud to be the largest taxpayer in the world as we know the important role tax payments play in society,” an Apple spokesman said. […]

It’s perfectly reasonable and perhaps correct to argue that Apple, along with all other titanic corporations today, should pay more in taxes. But Apple is not one of these companies that somehow makes a fortune yet pays no or little in taxes — they really are the biggest taxpayer in the world, and I really do think it’s true that they pay what they owe, worldwide. If you think they should pay more, your beef is with the law, not Apple’s compliance with them or their accounting practices.

“Sometimes, the Commissioner for Competition would be well-advised to restrain her eagerness for catchy political headlines and instead prepare her cases more thoroughly, so that they can hold up in a court of law,” said German center-right MEP Markus Ferber, who in 2016 backed the commission’s decision against Apple. “High-profile decisions like these being overturned is quite the disservice to the cause of tax justice,” he said.

I think that’s a harsh burn from a German.

Twitter Account Hijackings Were an Inside Job ★

Joseph Cox, reporting for Motherboard:

A Twitter insider was responsible for a wave of high profile account takeovers on Wednesday, according to leaked screenshots obtained by Motherboard and two sources who took over accounts. […]

After the publication of this piece, Twitter said in a tweet that “We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.”

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