The radical deregulation of the telephone industry, despite the lessons of previous natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, guaranteed that providers would chose to cut costs and increase profits rather than invest in hardening networks or emergency preparedness. That is how markets actually work in the real world (as opposed to in the delightful deregulation fantasy land dreamed up by hired economists).

Pai blames carriers, but he killed rules that were spurred by Hurricane Sandy

Saudis May Blame Intelligence Official for Killing Jamal Khashoggi
Audio Offers Gruesome Details of Jamal Khashoggi Killing, Turkish Official Says
On Khashoggi, the Trump administration’s softening stance toward the Saudis
Turkish source says Pompeo heard recording of Khashoggi murder, State Department denies

I woke up at 3:30 AM this morning and couldn't go back to sleep.  I was barely functional enough to drive into work, but I forgot my keycard and my thumbdrive.  We have a production push tonight.  There's a company social event this afternoon at a local bowling alley.  And on top of everything else Peggy wants me to take her shopping when I get home.   Gaaaaaaah.

Reuters: Trump threatens to send military to border with Mexico

2400 National Guard troops are already deployed on the border.

Quote:Oh, god, another musical universe.  I hate musical universes.

We've got yet another party leadership fight brewing. At least it's not the party in overall power this time, just the other third of their coalition. Which means we'll be changing deputy PM, not the top chair. *Sigh* I am really sick of the eternal dick waving contest Canberra's been doing for the past decade and a bit. It's nothing but a distraction that doesn't really change the government's overall policies anyway, and it keeps them from getting yelled at properly for that.

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Mitch McConnell Calls for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid Cuts After Passing Tax Cuts, Massive Defense Spending

Quote:"It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem," McConnell said of the deficit, which grew 17 percent to $779 billion in fiscal year 2018. McConnell explained to Bloomberg that "it’s a bipartisan problem: Unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future." The deficit has increased 77 percent since McConnell became majority leader in 2015.

YouTube has crashed and has been down for about an hour as I type this.  The most anyone has gotten out of them is "we're working on it."

Starting this in Politics because it's about a political statement.

This is one of those things that Canadians like to pretend doesn't exist: racism biased negatively toward aboriginal peoples, leading to hundreds if not thousands of missing and confirmed-murdered native women over the last half-century (if not longer).

On Thursday, we start acknowledging it.

Fast to show that you're at least aware of the problem, even though nobody has yet come up with any sort of plan to stop teenage girls from being raped and murdered with nobody caring simply because of the colour of their skin.

58 guests on right now.

And it maxed at 86 at some point yesterday.  Yeesh.