Author Archives: BellaMaughan6

The hot new trend in American infrastructure: Unpaved roads

by BellaMaughan6 Posted on July 12, 2016

The hot new trend in American infrastructure: Unpaved roads

By on Jul 12, 2016Share

There’s an odd new trend in American infrastructure, and it may make you think you’ve found a wormhole back to the 1950s: All over the country, roads are getting de-paved.

Wired’s Aarian Marshall reports that transportation agencies in 27 states have ripped up roads they can’t afford to maintain. Even with congressional spending on infrastructure going up, it doesn’t match the rising cost of concrete, asphalt, and cement. Municipalities still can’t afford to pay for road upkeep, so instead they de-pave.

This may have consequences on your struts, but unpaved roads can have a few net benefits if done right. Paving materials not only absorb heat and make the area around roads hotter, they also contribute to surface runoff and can cause erosion, water pollution, and flooding. Plus, the cement industry is a huge producer of carbon dioxide — responsible for about 5 percent of all global emissions. So while de-paving might not be the sexiest solution to our infrastructure problem — and only goes to show how little we’re spending — it really isn’t the worst that could happen.

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The hot new trend in American infrastructure: Unpaved roads

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Hacker Reveals New Trove of DNC Documents and Answers a Few Personal Questions

by BellaMaughan6 Posted on June 30, 2016

Mother Jones

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The hacker using the handle “Guccifer 2.0” posted another set of internal Democratic National Committee documents Thursday, along with a series of answers to questions posed to him by journalists and others via Twitter. The hacker claims to be a male, working alone, and said “none of the US candidates has my sympathies.”

The new set of documents includes memos about foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation, details of attacks on Hillary Clinton posted on Twitter by Republicans, spreadsheets with political action committee financial commitments (along with the email and phone numbers for the PAC lobbyists), and other DNC materials.

This is the third release from the hack. The first went public on June 15 in response to a Washington Post story from the previous day in which it was announced that the DNC, and perhaps Hillary Clinton’s campaign itself, had been hacked. The hacker released an alleged DNC opposition research file on presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump on June 15 and also posted a batch of other internal DNC files concerning notes, research on opponents (from both parties), positions on various issues, and information related to DNC donors to a WordPress blog site. In that post, the hacker claimed he was working alone and had been within the DNC’s computer system for a year before getting booted on June 12. He then claimed to have downloaded thousands of documents and passed them to WikiLeaks.

He also mocked the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which had been brought in to handle the DNC hack and analyze its source. CrowdStrike said the hack was likely the work of hackers working with, for, or in collusion with the Russian government, a claim the Russian government denied to the Post. The paper reported that the hack appeared to be Russian, based on tools used in the attack, and that the Russians might be using this to help Trump.

The DNC has never confirmed the authenticity of the documents, but metadata associated with them, and some of the information within them, points to their authenticity. The DNC declined to comment on Thursday but said in a statement sent to Mother Jones after the hack was first revealed that it was all the work of the Russian government.

“Our experts are confident in their assessment that the Russian government hackers were the actors responsible for the breach detected in April, and we believe it may be a part of a disinformation campaign by the Russians,” a senior DNC official said.

In an interview with Vice News’ Motherboard on June 21, the hacker claimed he was working alone and was Romanian, not Russian. That same day, the hacker posted 261 new documents, including research on presidential candidates and talking points on Clinton controversies such as Benghazi.

On June 22, the hacker modified his Twitter account to allow questions to be sent via Twitter’s direct message system, saying he would answer them all at once. The hacker posted those answers Thursday in a post titled “FAQ FROM GUCCIFER 2.0”:

On where he’s from: “I can only tell you that I was born in Eastern Europe. I won’t answer where I am now.”
On suspected links to Russian intelligence: “I’ll tell you that everything I do, I do at my own risk. This is my personal project and I’m proud of it. Yes, I risk my life. But I know it’s worth it. No one knew about me several weeks ago. Nowadays the whole world’s talking about me. It’s really cool!” The hacker added that he’d never be able to prove he wasn’t affiliated with Russian intelligence, and he said cybersecurity firms like CrowdStrike have “no other way to justify their incompetence and failure” than to accuse Russia. “They just fucked up! They can prove nothing!”
On his gender: “I’m a man. I’ve never met a female hacker of the highest level. Girls, don’t get offended. I love you.”
About his political views and possible Trump support: “I don’t want to disappoint anyone, but none of the candidates has my sympathies. Each of them has skeletons in the closet.” He says he views Clinton and Trump differently: “Hillary seems so much false to me, she got all her money from political activities and lobbying, she is a slave of moguls, she is bought and sold;” Trump “has earned his money himself” and “at least he is sincere in what he says.” But, he added, he doesn’t support Trump: “I’m totally against his ideas about closing borders and deportation policy. It’s nonsense, absolute bullshit.”
On Bernie Sanders: “I have nothing to say about Bernie Sanders. It seems he never had a chance to win the nomination as the Democratic Party itself stood against him!”

The hacker also said he hopes he doesn’t get caught by the FBI, “but it won’t be that easy to catch me.” The FBI hasn’t responded to a request for comment on Thursday.

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Hacker Reveals New Trove of DNC Documents and Answers a Few Personal Questions

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The Bernie vs. Hillary Fight Is Kind of Ridiculous

by BellaMaughan6 Posted on February 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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Michigan senator Debbie Stabenow supports Hillary Clinton: “I think Bernie’s terrific as an advocate. There’s a difference between a strong community advocate and being someone who can get things done.” Martin Longman says this is an example of how nasty things are getting: “Breaking out the Sarah Palin talking points isn’t smart. Talk about how people view socialism all you want, but don’t dismiss community organizers or advocates. This isn’t a Republican campaign.”

I had to laugh at that. Nasty? I’d rate it about a 1 on the Atwater Scale. Toughen up, folks.

And speaking of this, it sure is hard to take seriously the gripes going back and forth between the Hillary and Bernie camps. Is it really the case that we can’t even agree on the following two points?

Sanders is more progressive than Clinton.
Clinton is more electable than Sanders.

I mean, come on. They’re both lefties, but Sanders is further left. The opposing arguments from the Clinton camp are laughable. Clinton is more progressive because she can get more done? Sorry. That’s ridiculous. She and Bill Clinton have always been moderate liberals, both politically and temperamentally. We have over two decades of evidence for this.

As for electability, I admire Sanders’ argument that he can drive a bigger turnout, which is good for Democrats. But it’s special pleading. The guy cops to being a socialist. He’s the most liberal member of the Senate by quite a margin (Elizabeth Warren is the only senator who’s close). He’s already promised to raise middle-class taxes. He can’t be bothered to even pretend that he cares about national security issues, which are likely to play a big role in this year’s election. He wants to spend vast amounts of money on social programs. It’s certainly true that some of this stuff might appeal to people like me, but it’s equally true that there just aren’t a lot of voters like me. Liberals have been gaining ground over the past few years, but even now only 24 percent of Americans describe themselves that way. Republicans would tear Sanders to shreds with hardly an effort, and there’s no reason to think he’d be especially skilled at fending off their attacks.

I like both Sanders and Clinton. But let’s stop kidding ourselves about what they are and aren’t. Republicans won’t be be swayed by these fantasies, and neither will voters. We might as well all accept it.

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The Bernie vs. Hillary Fight Is Kind of Ridiculous

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