• “THE ROLE OF THE SUPREME COURT was established to interpret the U.S. Constitution & body of laws without regard for who might be pleased or annoyed by the outcome… But today, in a nation divided left and right, the Court is coming to be viewed less as an interpreter than as an activist imposer of moral & political outcomes… Starting in the early 1900s, Progressives have promoted social & economic change through statutory law, urging activism to promote ‘evolving liberal values,’ while Conservatives have urged ‘judicial restraint,’ and neither camp is now grounded in the Constitution as understood during our first 150 years… Since politics now determines the ordinary issues of life – jobs, retirement, health care, day care, education, housing and more – with political battles over those ending up in the courts, it’s no wonder that those who fear losing the battle resort to desperate means… The Supreme Court derives its very power from the public’s willingness to respect and abide by its decisions… but latest surveys suggest only 37% now have confidence in the Court –better than the 11% who approve of congress or only 23% with confidence in newspapers, and about on a par with the percentage who support the President… but Is there any hope for reconciliation?”   [TIME –Oct 8, 18]
  •  75% OF CALIFORNIA MILLENNIALS ARE PRESENTLY CONSIDERING EXODUS FROM THE STATE,” according to Urban Land Institute. For over eight in ten, the Biggest influencer is unaffordable housing, but also “rising crime, the highest poverty rate in the nation, punitive tax rates, the worst traffic in the western world, a growing homelessness epidemic, wildfires & earthquakes, and crazy politicians that do some of the stupidest things imaginable… Over time, these factors, along with prospects of reduced immigration and a continuing drop in fertility, will impact the state’s future.”  [ZEROHEDGE.COM – Sep 15, 18]
  • “THE POLITICAL CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC STAKES OF ANY AMNESTY LEGISLATION now impacts a population of roughly 22 million illegal migrants – twice the establishment estimate of 11 million” – according to latest analysis at Yale University and MIT. “This shocking estimate will force recalculation of the impact on wages & salaries, crime rates, welfare consumption, rental & real estate prices, productivity rates, and distribution of job-creating investment funds to coastal versus heartland states… It also undercuts demands for yet more legal immigration of foreign workers, consumers and renters.” [LBN EXAMINER – Sep 23, 18] A HUGE FACTOR IS MACHINES, projected to replace over 50% of workplace tasks within the next seven years (versus 30% today), according to latest forecasts by World Economic Forum, with globally 75 million current jobs eliminated. While over 130 million new jobs will be generated, they will require “design or programming, critical thinking, and social intelligence – all of which are more resistant to automation” but which demand significant skillset training.  [TECHNOLOGY REVIEW – Sep 17, 18]
  •  FROM A HACKER’S PERSPECTIVE, “THE INTERNET IS STILL IN ITS WILD WEST PHASE, the era of highways before seatbelts & airbags… before someone comes along and says we’ve got to secure this somehow. ‘Spoofing’ internet addresses which lure surfers to fake websites to steal credentials and plant malware” is the hack-du-jour. Domain address expansion was the instigator – by combining words, dots & symbols relating to some 1,900 ‘top-level domain’ extensions (including .party, .beer,  .city, .shop, etc.) which can easily make an internet address look real. Beyond confusing-enough Cyrillic & Chinese alphabet characters, internet organizers have utilized characters covering 139 scripts, which look “visually the same down to the last screen pixel” while re-directing intended searches to bogus scam sites.  [THESTAR.COM – Sep 10, 18] Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to be the top country hosting domains that serve web-based threats (at last count, 252 compared to 139 from Russia) and also the main source for Exploitation Toolkits which cybercriminals use to distribute malware.   [BLEEPING COMPUTER – Sep 5, 18]
  •  LATEST P.C. FOR SNOWFLAKES FOLLY: University of Manchester UK Students’ Union have voted “to ban applause at events in order to make public appearances more ‘inclusive’ for people with ‘disabilities’ like anxiety and other sensory issues… since loud noises like ‘whooping’ or ‘traditional applause’ can create problems for those students… Instead ‘jazz hands’ (a British Sign Language motion) will be used in place of clapping as a way to show appreciation of someone’s point without interrupting or causing disturbance… and a ‘genuinely nice’ way to show solidarity with a point.”  [ZEROHEDGE – Oct 3 18]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:    “The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept.” – George Carlin

       How is this ‘magic’ possible?  https://biggeekdad.com/2011/07/smoking-magic/

      “One thing a person cannot do, no matter how rigorous his/her analysis or heroic their imagination, is to draw up a list of things that would never occur to them.”   (That’s why DCG perspective is so often the missing link…)