NSA Makes Quiet Change to Internet Collection: No More Incidental Collection

I guess after all the Russia probing the NSA is getting out of the way of this kind of thing.

Concern over the incidental collection of Americans' communications renewed this year when the Trump administration accused the intelligence community of improperly revealing the names of Americans that came up through incidental collections.
The NSA said Friday its changes were made following an in-house review.

I think they are making this change before Congress the White House or whomever clamps down or makes an enemies list like the Obama White House seemed to have done.

Nike, Under Armour and Adidas all pass on Lonzo Ball: I Think His Dad Just Messed Him Up

I guess he is a victim of his own hype:

In his meetings with the three, LaVar insisted that the company license his upstart Big Baller Brand from him. He also showed the companies a shoe prototype that he hoped would be Lonzo’s first shoe.
“We’ve said from the beginning, we aren’t looking for an endorsement deal,” LaVar told ESPN. “We’re looking for co-branding, a true partner. But they’re not ready for that because they’re not used to that model. But hey, the taxi industry wasn’t ready for Uber, either.”

The problem is Uber is getting damaged due to the screw-ups of their top people. Kind of like Lonzo getting damaged by the screw-ups of his dad of LaVar. The idea that this so-called Big Baller Brand will be able to secure financing and distribution that can come close to Nike or Adidas is laughable. Lonzo seems to be a fairly good player but no Michael Jordan or LaBron. My money is on a very public split with LaVar in a few years when Lonzo renegotiates his rookie contract.

Sorry Blue States: Trumps Tax Plan is Going to Cost You

I guess this is where they will partially fund the tax cuts.

One reason this deduction landed on the chopping block? It could be who pays. While wealthy voters in Democrat-leaning states benefit handsomely from many tax write-offs, the state and local tax deduction has one of the most dramatic political skews. That’s largely because blue states tend to have the highest state and local tax burdens.

So just how dramatic is it? According to 2014 figures compiled by the Tax Foundation, taxpayers in just four deep blue states - California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois - reaped nearly 44% of total benefit from the deduction. That means those four states pick up the lion’s share of the tab if the deduction were eliminated.

If you add this to cutting Federal expenditures to the sanctuary cities/states you will have quite a few different ways blue states will be getting punished in the wallet.

@ThePromiseFilm looks like the Worst Bomb in a Long Time: Cost $100 Million and Made $4 Million so Far

I guess a love story based during the Armenian Genocide is simply box office poison.

In her forecast, THR’s Pamela McClintock writes that things are looking exceedingly bleak for the Bale-Isaac romantic drama, which is set against the backdrop of Armenian genocide. Produced for $100 million by the late Kirk Kerkorian via his Survival Pictures, The Promise is predicted to net only about $4 million domestically, which — considering what that means for its prospects in subsequent weeks — is a doomsday scenario. While producers are downplaying such a situation, claiming that what’s really important is that all theatrical receipts go toward funding nonprofits (including Elton John’s AIDS foundation), there’s no way to truly sugarcoat its expected box-office crash and burn.

Teen Mom @FarrahAbraham wants a Harmful or "Adverse" Guy for Some Reason

Um, maybe she needs to do a little grammar study before she starts looking for a guy.

As for what Abraham is looking for in a guy - one word: adverse.

“If I find somebody who is just understanding of adversity and I find a man who is equally adverse, then that is the best thing for me to be partnered with. They can’t be jealous and they can’t stop my career,” she explained. “With Simon, when I met him, I stopped doing my tours and stopped traveling. He has his own reasons for fights and arguments that I couldn’t deal with, so I stopped some things.”

I think she meant "equally used to adversity" not a person who is "adverse" which means "preventing success or development; harmful; unfavorable." Like adverse winds or adverse schooling. 

@SenKamalaHarris Seems like a Serious Pragmatist

With this kind of thinking the Dems might actually make a comeback in 2018.

As the Democratic party tries to claw its way back to control of Congress, she wanted them to at least consider rallying behind some of its most conservative — and most vulnerable — politicians.
“It was a room full of people who did not want to hear that,” Harris said Thursday in a meeting with reporters and editors in The Times’ Washington bureau. “They were like, ‘What happened? Why are you saying this?’”

She would rather try to keep the GOP from having a veto-proof margin in the Senate instead of kicking these middle-road Dems out of the tent. Very pragmatic. This statement makes her sound like anything but a fire-brand liberal.

But she suggested the party has too often seized on wedge, identity politics issues that divide voters. “What I do know about those two ladies and that guy is when we wake up at 3 in the morning or something is troubling us, it is never through the lens of, ‘am I Democrat or Republican,’ or on our identity based on what other people have decided is our identity.”
Instead, she said, it is economic issues that weigh on people: their bills, their job troubles, their difficulty getting health insurance.

Yeah and paying for college and such. If the Dems stuck to middle-class economic issues they would bring a lot of those blue-state Trump supporters back into their party. They don't care very much about identity politics or to be called racists or deplorables and such. They want to pay their bills, send their kids to college, and own a house and such. They definitely don't seem to care about transgender bathrooms or Black Lives Matter.

@Target Feels a Boycott Backlash to the Tune of Millions

I guess this is why corporations need to keep their mouths shut for the most part.

The boycott cost the company millions in lost sales and added expenses. Shopper traffic and same-store sales started sliding for the first time in years after the blog post, and the company was forced to spend $20 million installing single-occupancy bathrooms in all its stores to give critics of the policy more privacy.

What they should have done is quietly allowed the program or simply looked the other way if transgendered people wanted to use the toilet of their choice. Target probably would not have faced much a complaint this way. Whenever a company beats their chest like this and calls attention to themselves politically they have to face the consequences.

Looks Like Jared Kushner is Winning the War Against Bannon

It seems that the Trump administration is lurching leftward as Kushner moves up in the ranks.

The fighting between Kushner and Bannon has been “nonstop” in recent weeks, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. It’s been an “open secret” that Bannon and Kushner often clash “face-to-face,” according to senior officials.

One official said Bannon has lately complained about Kushner trying to “shiv him and push him out the door” and likened him to a fifth column in the White House.

It seems that people are blaming Bannon for the recent screw-ups at the White House.

Furthermore, two big efforts spearheaded by Bannon in the Trump administration recently failed. Trump’s “Muslim ban” executive orders, crafted in large part by Bannon, are at best indefinitely tied up in court, and his pugilistic push on Trumpcare — which included Bannon urging Trump to “keep a shit list” of Republicans who opposed him — didn’t get the job done.

Bannon has been a disaster and he is a major reason why Trump's approval rating is so low. The "Muslim ban" is just a feel good measure that will not actually protect very many people since much of the terror in the US and Europe is home grown. The White House might not even have the stomach to fight the thing all the way to the Supreme Court. They certainly aren't pounding their chest about it like they did before.

I did like the strong-arm tactics on Obamacare because it showed the White House was willing to have strong feelings on something. It was such a change to the squishy feelings of the Obama White House. However, repealing Obamacare ultimately failed mightily and damaged the President. The "Art of the Deal" Trump got dealt a serious blow by that failure. It will be interesting to see who is standing at the end of this fight.

#YouTubeTV looks like a Steal for $35: They Have all My Channels. Might be Time to Finally #CordCut

It seems that YouTube TV should have cable companies quaking in their boots.

The $35 per month service, which launches in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and Philadelphia with other regions to follow, will let you stream ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and the CW. That’s a coup for Google, as competing services like Dish’s (DISH) Sling TV and Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation Vue either offer only some of or none of those broadcasters.

Outside of those channels, you’ll get Fox Sports and its FS1 and FS2 affiliates, ESPN and its various offshoots, CBS and NBC’s sports channels … you know what, let’s just say there are a bunch of sports networks. There’s also Syfy, Bravo, FX and FXX, E, Disney Channel, Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC and a slew of others.

The channels on their list are pretty much the only channels I watch. It also includes 6 user accounts and access to an unlimited space DVR. You also get to watch all of this content from any device which makes the $35 a month seem like like a pittance. It doesn't seem to have HBO but you can get HBO Go for $15 a month add on so you can get your fix of Game of Thrones.

It Seems fear of Trump is Slowing Border Crossing

I guess we don't have to build the wall after all.

The first months of the new administration have seen a huge drop in the number of people being caught by agents on the U.S.-Mexico border, raising the possibility that a "Trump effect" is keeping migrants away.

Fewer than 12,500 people were caught at the southern border in March, the lowest monthly figure in at least 17 years and the second straight month that border arrests dropped sharply. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, in testimony submitted to a Senate committee, called the decline "no accident" and credited Trump.

 

Woman's Movement Shutting out All Dissent?

Hmm a very interesting article by a First Wave Feminist.

But the women’s movement doesn’t live up to that idea. If women choose to be chief executives and officeholders and columnists and doctors and partners in law firms, great! If they choose, however, to be moms and wives and attend Bible study or bake cookies, they are “bitter clingers” and “deplorable.” And if they happen to be conservative professional women, they are invisible.

I think Conservative woman needs to form a bunch of their own well funded organizations so that they can fight against the liberal female industrial complex mentioned in this article.