Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

California’s Senate Judiciary Committee Blocks Efforts to Weaken California’s Privacy Law

The California Senate Judiciary Committee heard five bills on Tuesday that EFF and other privacy advocates strongly opposed. These measures, backed by big business and the tech industry, would have eviscerated the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), a landmark privacy law passed last year. We thank the Senate Judiciary Committee, in particular Chair Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson and the committee’s staff, for blocking efforts to weaken the state's baseline privacy protections.

Unfortunately, the California legislature failed to add much-needed additional protections to the CCPA this year when it blocked bills from California Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. These measures would have afforded consumers rights about how companies use their personal data, and increased their ability to exercise and enforce their rights under the CCPA. Worse, lawmakers advanced several bills that each would have weakened the CCPA on their own. Taken together, they would have significantly eroded this law, which is set to go into effect in January 2020.

Thankfully, Senate Judiciary Committee members voted down A.B. 873, which privacy advocates opposed because it would have weakened the definition of “personal information” and undermined critical privacy protections in the CCPA.

We are also pleased that Assemblymember Ken Cooley chose not to bring the most problematic of the privacy-eroding bills, A.B. 1416, up for a vote, and that it will not move forward this session. A.B. 1416 would have created an enormous loophole that would have allowed any company that sells or shares information to the government the ability to ignore your privacy rights. It faced strong opposition from privacy advocates and immigrant rights advocates.

The committee passed A.B. 25 (Asm. Ed Chau), after the author agreed to amendments that assuaged the concerns of privacy groups, employer advocates, and labor unions. The bill, originally intended to clean up implementation concerns with the CCPA, would have removed CCPA protections from data that companies collect about their employees. This bill contains a one-year sunset, with stakeholders committing to discuss employee privacy legislation more comprehensively in 2020.

The committee also spent significant time discussing the two remaining bills aimed at weakening the CCPA: A.B. 846 (Asm. Autumn Burke), which would make it easier for businesses to force consumers to pay for their privacy rights under the guise of loyalty programs, and A.B. 1564 (Asm. Mark Berman), which would make it harder for low-income Californians to exercise their privacy rights. We appreciate that Sen. Jackson negotiated with both authors to take amendments in committee on their bills that address some of our concerns. We look forward to continuing these conversations.

Finally, we thank every person who spoke up to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee and its chair to defend the basic privacy protections granted by the CCPA. We will continue the fight to improve the privacy rights of all Californians.

Warren and Sanders Have Mobilized to Attack the New Billionaire in the 2020 Campaign

The already overstuffed 2020 Democratic field got a little more crowded Tuesday when billionaire political activist Tom Steyer officially entered the fray. In an announcement video, Steyer, who originally said in January that he wouldn’t mount a White House campaign, said he was running “to end corruption of our democracy by corporations and give more power […]

20 overlooked benefits of distributed solar energy

A study released today provides the most complete list yet of the advantages of solar energy -- from carbon sequestration to improvements for pollinator habitat.

Former Puerto Rico Education Secretary Arrested on Federal Corruption Charges

Julia Keleher, the former Puerto Rico Secretary of Education, was arrested Wednesday morning, accused of illicitly steering hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts to close associates in 2017. Keleher was arrested in Washington, D.C., according to Noticel, which first reported the news. Mother Jones could not immediately verify the precise location or means of […]

Best healthy eating nudges

In a meta-analysis of real-life experiments drawn from food science, nutrition, health economics, marketing and psychology, the authors find that behavioral nudges -- facilitating action rather than providing knowledge or inducing feelings -- can reduce daily energy intake by up to 209 kcal, the same number of calories as in 21 cubes of sugar.

Address Space Isolation and the Linux Kernel

Mike Rapoport from IBM launched a bid to implement address space isolation in the #Linux kernel... https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/address-space-isolation-and-linux-kernel

Trump is Having a Social Media Summit and the White House Invited Right-Wing Trolls

After the first round of Democratic debates, a false claim about Kamala Harris’s heritage went viral on Twitter. It was even retweeted by the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. Though Trump Jr. later deleted his post, the author of the original “Kamala is *not* an American Black” tweet, Ali Alexander, has now been invited to the […]

Will a $15 Minimum Wage Kill Jobs and Hurt the Poor?

Workers making the federal minimum wage of $7.25 have a high risk of poverty, but gradually raising it to $15 would “stifle new job creation, impose undue harm to our nation’s small business owners, and harm those it proclaims to help.” That’s the gospel according to the National Restaurant Association, the trade group representing the […]

Will Progressive Groups Finally Abandon Susan Collins?

When Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, ran for reelection in 2014, she had the backing of a wide swath of powerful groups whose agendas are more often associated with Democrats. With control of the Senate up for grabs, the Human Rights Campaign—which advocates for LBGTQ equality—endorsed Collins, as did the national gun control groups […]

Six Years Ago, I Accidentally Started a Viral Rumor About “Friends of Hamas.” It’s Back.

In 2013, I accidentally started a rumor involving Hamas and the Obama administration. Six years later, a version of the rumor is back in the right-wing media. It began after I’d heard scuttlebutt on Capitol Hill that Chuck Hagel, who had recently been nominated by President Barack Obama as defense secretary, might have given paid […]

Kamala Harris Has Teamed up With AOC to Convince Voters She’s a Progressive

On Wednesday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) are introducing a bill that would help formerly incarcerated people secure government housing assistance.  “Too many people become involved in our criminal justice system and serve their time only to return home to face additional barriers to employment, education, and housing,” said Harris in […]

The Democratic Grandmasters At Work

Not doing anything to stop Trump is just smart strategy!

Truth in Advertising

They can now send you to jail in Mississippi for calling a veggie burger a “burger.”

Back to the Land

How “re-wilding” can help turn the tide of climate change.

A Federal Court Appears Ready to Buy the GOP’s Argument to Kill Obamacare

The fate of the Affordable Care Act remains uncertain following a hearing about the law at a federal appeals court in New Orleans. The hearing concerned a lawsuit originally filed by Republican state attorneys general in a Texas district court in 2018, which alleges that the entirety of Obamacare should be invalidated because Congress used […]

Ranked Choice Voting Is On a Roll: 6 States Have Opted In for the 2020 Democratic Primary

The 2020 Democratic presidential primary is shaping up to be an all-out brawl for the nomination. With multiple candidates boasting impressive fundraising hauls, and momentum seemingly shifting week to week, it’s unclear if any Democrat will rise as the consensus nominee. And as a number of campaigns are being fueled by small-donor contributions, candidates have little incentive to drop out of the race, no matter their standing in the polls.   

That’s a recipe for tumult, division and a plurality nominee, potentially pushing Democrats into the same position as Republicans in 2016—led by a standard-bearer who couldn’t command majority support in his own party.

Luckily, there’s an easy way to solve this problem, and a number of states are already taking dramatic action that could change the very nature of our elections. 

Six states plan to use ranked choice voting (RCV) for their 2020 Democratic primaries or caucuses, including for all early voters in Iowa and Nevada, and all voters in Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas and Wyoming. These states will adapt RCV to Democratic Party rules—last-place candidates will be eliminated and backers of those candidates will have their vote count toward their next choice until all remaining candidates are above the 15 percent vote threshold to win delegates.

State parties made this change because they realize allowing voters to rank their choices—especially in a crowded field that includes many experienced and well-funded candidates—makes everyone’s vote more powerful. RCV has the additional advantage of putting an end to vote splitting, the problem of “spoilers” and even the possibility of a nominee who lacks majority support inside the party. 

It’s a bold move, and it comes at a time when many presidential candidates including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bennet, William Weld, Andrew Yang, Seth Moulton and Beto O’Rourke have indicated they support RCV. 

In 2017 and 2018, Maine voters passed and affirmed ranked choice voting in trailblazing ballot measures. RCV saw its first use in gubernatorial primaries last spring and in fall congressional races. It made an immediate impact.  

In Maine’s 2nd District, incumbent GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin finished the first round with a narrow lead over Democratic challenger Jared Golden—but far short of the 50 percent necessary to win. Poliquin earned 46.4 percent, compared to 45.5 percent for Golden. Two independents split the remaining—and decisive—8 percent. Second-place votes broke toward Golden and in the end, he defeated Poliquin by less than 3,000 votes.

In June, after seeing RCV in action, both chambers of the state legislature approved a reform that could begin a political transformation. The state House and Senate overwhelmingly adopted ranked choice voting for presidential general elections as well. A procedural issue has so far kept the bill from reaching Gov. Janet Mills, but that still can happen in the coming months. 

What would RCV on the presidential level mean in action? Americans could have the power to rank their candidate preferences in order, and no longer would voters have to settle for the “lesser of two evils,” or complain that a third-party candidate was some kind of spoiler. 

Far more Americans cast votes for president in the November general election than in party primaries. So why shouldn’t general elections allow Americans the broadest possible choice? 

Maine is pointing the way toward an entirely different future. During the controversial 2000 and 2016 presidential elections, third-party candidates have represented the Greens and Libertarians, and much of the conversation has been angry and accusatory. Supporters of third-party candidates have been blamed for electing the major party candidate they liked least—i.e. George W. Bush and Donald Trump. 

Add RCV to the equation, however, and it’s an entirely different conversation. Voters of these third parties would be welcomed rather than alienated. RCV simulates an instant runoff if no candidate reaches 50 percent of the vote, so if a third-party candidate finishes out of the running, those votes are reallocated to second choices, ending any spoiler effect.

But more importantly, it’s easy to imagine how Americans might get to choose from a rich bounty of perspectives in a presidential election—and with RCV, voters would be able to magnify their vote and their voice at precisely the moment when most Americans go to the polls. 

Two of our last five presidents have taken office without winning the popular vote. Four of the last seven elected presidents have failed to earn a plurality. That’s a key reason why our politics remains so polarized and divisive even after an election. 

Let’s embrace choice, fairness and a truly representative democracy in which the majority really rules. Maine has led the way, and now we’re seeing a slew of states stepping up in the 2020 presidential race. We shouldn’t be stuck choosing the lesser of two evils. Our political debate shouldn’t be stuck in the same frustrating partisan quicksand, or the same angry dismissals of candidates and voters who dare stand outside the conventional two-party process. 

Trust voters. Trust democracy. It shouldn’t be that complicated. And the growing momentum behind RCV makes all of this a real possibility. 

Device could bring both #SolarPower and clean #water to millions | #Science | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/09/device-bring-both-solar-power-clean-water-to-millions

#Engineering #Technology #RenewableEnergy #Renewables

New antibiotics developed

Not only are they effective against Gram-positive and negative multi-resistant bacteria, they also appear not to trigger resistance when used to treat infection in mice. Such are the promises of the two new antibiotics.

New high-definition satellite radar can detect bridges at risk of collapse from space

An early warning system to identify at-risk structures using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has been developed. The system could be applied to infrastructure projects including roads, railways and building developments at lower cost and greater accuracy than existing techniques.