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It's Bank Failure Friday!!! (On Saturday)

We have now had the 3^rd bank failure of the year, Proficio Bank, of Cottonwood Heights, UT.

That's 3 for the year so far, as versus 5 for all of last year.

I'm not sure what it means. They are both small data sets.

Linkage

• Please Explain How 'Both Sides' Journalism Will Help Us Now (Esquire) Charlie Pierce unleashes a well deserved can of whup ass on the concern trolls among media critics.
• How much pee is in our swimming pools? New urine test reveals the truth (The Guardian) Aspartame and pee in pools. Ewwwwwww………
• Internet of Things Teddy Bear Leaked 2 Million Parent and Kids Message Recordings - Motherboard (Motherboard) The "Internet of Things" = "The Internet of Sh%$".
• Amazon S3 problem caused by command line mistake during maintenance (Ars Technica) Why Amazon's cloud went down. To quote the RPG Paranoia, "Whe computer is your friend."
• How To Fine-Tune Your Bullsh%$ Detector (Co.Design)) Basically common sense.
• Drugs are Cheap: Why Do We Let Governments Make Them Expensive? (The Center for Economic and Policy Research) Dean Baker explains the problem with drugs is not high costs, it is high prices, and suggests that we find alternatives to the current IP based monopolies.

Machiavelli’s Advice For Nice Guys.

It is an interesting, though by no means definitive, analysis which has echos of existentialism, particularly the money quote, "It's not enough to dream well, the true measure is to achieve."

Well, It's a Start

Republican Contributor, Casino Mogul, and Lawn Gnome Sheldon Adelson

For the first time ever, employees at one of Sheldon Adelson's casinos have joined a union:

When Sheldon Adelson’s casino empire opened a new branch in 2009 on the grounds of the old Bethlehem Steel mill in Pennsylvania, the interior designers played up the link to faded industrial glory.

The gaming floor drips with lights the color of liquified iron ore. There’s a Steelworks Buffet & Grill, and the late-night lounge is called Molten.

But there was another bit of Bethlehem Steel’s legacy that the casino company might not have counted on: labor unions.

The ratification of a new union contract by security guards at the Sands Bethlehem Casino on Wednesday night marked the first time that a workforce within Adelson’s global empire, the Las Vegas Sands Corp, had successfully unionized, despite years of efforts by the Culinary Workers’ union and others in Las Vegas.

Security employees at Sands Bethlehem voted 70-6 in favor of a contract that gives 146 workers an 8% wage increase, and that sets up a seniority system and grievance process. The vote was the result of five years of work by organizers and a year of negotiating between the Sands Corp and the Security Police Fire Professionals of America.

Adelson is one of the most vociferous union opponents in the US, and I hope that this leads to more of the same for him.

Lessons Not Learned

Specifically, the old saying that, "It ain't the crime, it's the coverup."

It appears that one Jefferson Beauregard Sessions has not learned this lesson:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday that he will recuse himself from investigations related to the 2016 presidential campaign, which would include any Russian interference in the electoral process.

Speaking at a hastily called news conference at the Justice Department, Sessions said he was following the recommendation of department ethics officials after an evaluation of the rules and cases in which he might have a conflict.

“They said that since I had involvement with the campaign, I should not be involved in any campaign investigation,” Sessions said. He added that he concurred with their assessment and would thus recuse himself from any existing or future investigation involving President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The announcement comes a day after The Washington Post revealed that Sessions twice met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign and did not disclose that to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing in January.

(emphasis mine)

"Did not disclose," is pretty mealy mouthed. Session explicitly denied any contact with Russian officials at the hearing.

Of course, IOKIYAR,^* so nothing is going to happen to him.

^*It's OK If You're A Republican.

Modern Pinkertons, Paid for by Your Tax Dollars

It appears that the Memphis Police department decided to offer their services to McDonald's franchises as private anti-union thugs:

Police claimed they had “authorization from the president of McDonald’s” to arrest protesting fast food workers, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed on Wednesday against the city of Memphis, Tennessee.

The suit alleges that local police engaged in a “widespread and illegal campaign of surveillance and intimidation” against a local chapter of the Fight for $15 fast-food worker organization as it campaigned for an increase in the minimum wage and union rights for fast food workers.

Officers followed organizers home after meetings, ordered workers not to sign petitions and blacklisted organizers from city hall, according to the suit. They claimed to have been authorized by McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast food chain, and in one incident a McDonald’s franchisee joined police in tailing protesters.

The suit alleges that a campaign of harassment began after Memphis workers participated in a nationwide day of protest on 4 September 2014. Since then, police officers have repeatedly threatened workers with arrest during protests, at one point telling them they had “authorization from the president of McDonald’s to make arrests”. On “multiple occasions” officers “seemed to take direction from McDonald’s”, the complaint charges.

I kind of preferred the old days, when the companies actually had to pay their own money for their thugs.

These days, "Business friendly" politicians use the taxpayer's money to brutalize their own citizens.

Some Perspective from Sweden

Driving to work this morning, I heard that Sweden was re instituting military conscription.

The story had a heavy "Red Menace", angle, implying that the Russians are freaking out the Swedes.

While the history of Russia and Sweden is rather frought, it appears that the actual reasons for this are rather less dramatic:

For readers from countries that haven't had the draft since the mid 20th century like the UK or US, the idea that young Swedes can now be called up for obligatory military training may sound archaic. So what's the background to Sweden bringing back conscription? Here are four things to help you understand.

1. Not enough people are joining the military

This one kind of falls in the category of, "Well, duh." If they didn't have recruiting fhortages they would not be reinstituting the draft.

2. The situation in the Baltic region has changed

Yeppers, this is the Russians.

3. Public support is strong

A mind-boggling 72% of Swedes like the return of the draft, and elections are going to happen next year, and a little bit of dick swinging plays well with the electorate.

4. It hasn't even been away that long

The draft only ended in 2010, so both the military and public are still familiar with the concept.

My guess is that the first bit is the main driver of this, and that electoral considerations are a close second.

In either case, it's rather less alarming that it was presented to me on my morning commute.