Audio

🎧 This Week in Google 459 Status Update: Terror | TWiT.TV

Listened to This Week in Google 459 Status Update: Terror by Leo Laporte, Stacey Higginbotham, Joan Donovan from TWiT.tv
Internet Trends, Algorithmic Idiocy
  • Analyzing Mary Meeker's 2018 Internet Trends Report
  • FBI wants US citizens to reset their routers
  • California gets halfway to Net Neutrality
  • Chrome 67 brings PWAs to life
  • Are location-targetted ads too creepy?
  • Stacey Higginbotham explains why you shouldn't panic about the security flaw in Z-Wave.
Tips and Pics:
  • Joan's Pick: Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor
  • Stacey's Things: Jabra 65t headphones with Alexa, Wyze Cam Pan

An Indieweb Podcast: Episode 8 Interflux

Episode 8: Interflux

Running time: 1h 23m 35s | Download (26.2 MB) | Subscribe by RSS

Summary: David Shanske and I recap the recent IndieWeb Summit 2018 in Portland Oregon including recent developments like microsub, readers, Vouch, and even the comeback of webrings!

Huffduff this Episode

Shownotes

Recap of IndieWeb Summit 2018

Vouch(🎧 00:7:13)

The Year of the Reader (🎧 00:38:32)

Webrings (🎧 00:59:03)

Aaron Parecki posts (🎧 1:12:10)

🎧 Episode 335: Kind Of A Challenge For Newcomers | Core Intuition

Listened to Episode 335: Kind Of A Challenge For Newcomers by Daniel Jalkut, Manton Reece from Core Intuition
Daniel and Manton catch up after traveling to Chicago and Portland, respectively. Manton reflects on the IndieWeb Summit and the inspiration he took away from that event. They talk about learning to balance “business emergencies” with other obligations, and other indie business skills. Finally, they respond to Apple’s new Maps announcements, and whether Apple’s stance on privacy is an excuse for poor user experiences. Links:

🎧 Episode 336: Bringing Webrings Back | Core Intuition

Listened to Episode 336: Bringing Webrings Back by Daniel Jalkut, Manton Reece from Core Intiution
Manton and Daniel talk about migrating Manton.org to run on Micro.blog. They reflect on the nostalgia and inspiration of old web conventions like webrings and blogrolls. Finally, they talk about macOS Mojave’s forthcoming AppleEvent sandboxing and the effect it has on a wide variety of apps.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Father and Son, Forced Apart at the Border | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Father and Son, Forced Apart at the Border by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

A 5-year-old boy named José and his father fled the violence in Honduras and headed to the United States. They were separated at the border. What has happened to them in the weeks since?

On today’s episode:

• Miriam Jordan, who covers immigration for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• Many children who have been taken from their parents as a result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy end up in shelters or foster homes.

• Federal criminal prosecutions of migrants have skyrocketed, and the volume of cases has prompted rapid-fire hearings in which multiple defendants — in one instance, 40 people — are brought into the courtroom at once.

• Republicans in the House and the Senate voiced their intention to halt the practice of separating families at the border — but clashed over how to proceed.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: How Separating Migrant Families Became U.S. Policy | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: How Separating Migrant Families Became U.S. Policy by Michael Barbaro, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Michael D. Shear from nytimes.com

President Trump has blamed Democrats for his administration’s practice of taking children from their parents at the border. Why is one of his top aides, Stephen Miller, claiming credit?

On June 7, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and I interviewed Stephen Miller, President Trump’s senior policy adviser, in his West Wing office about the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy at the border, which has led to heartbreaking images of children being forcibly separated from their families. Here are some key points from that interview.

1. The zero-tolerance policy grew out of a desire to end what Mr. Miller calls “crippling loopholes” that attract illegal immigrants into the United States.

From where Mr. Miller sits, illegal immigration is driven by a belief among people outside the United States that those who make it across the border will be allowed to stay indefinitely. “The success rate is the predominant factor that drives illegal migration,” he told us. By instituting a zero-tolerance policy, Mr. Miller said, the administration is sending a message that should reduce the flow of illegal immigration into the country. He conceded that the policy has not reduced the immigration numbers, but said, “It’ll take a few months of sustained effort.”

2. Anything less than zero tolerance at the border creates what Mr. Miller calls “perverse” incentives for lawbreakers.

Mr. Miller used the example of speeding laws in the United States. Imagine, he said, if the police decided that speeding laws didn’t apply to people who have a child in the back seat. “Could you imagine what the consequences of that would be? Well, one thing, a lot more child endangerment,” he said, comparing the situation to the lack of enforcement of illegal border crossings under prior administrations.

3. Continuing policies in place during the Obama administration would cause what Mr. Miller called a “vicious cycle” that would increase illegal immigration.

Mr. Miller said a “giant hemispheric shift in migration patterns” was driving people toward the United States, which he said must respond with tighter borders. He said Obama-era policies would allow the number of immigrants to “spiral upward endlessly.” Using a favorite phrase, Mr. Miller said: “So you have to turn the ship. And so again, it’s a whole-of-government approach.”

4. Zero tolerance at the border will keep out dangerous illegal immigrants who would otherwise “grievously harm innocent Americans,” Mr. Miller said.

Reading from a list of arrests in Philadelphia in May 2017, Mr. Miller recounted the crimes committed by illegal immigrants: murder, child neglect, negligent manslaughter, car theft, prostitution, racketeering, rape. “It is impossible to take moral lectures from people like the mayor of Philadelphia, who dance in jubilant celebration over ‘sanctuary cities,’ when you had innocent Americans, U.S.-born and foreign, who are victimized on a daily basis because of illegal immigration,” Mr. Miller said.

5. Trump administration officials believe Americans will support their zero-tolerance policies over what Mr. Miller calls the “nihilism” of the Democratic agenda.

Mr. Miller said he believed the issue of border security, even with the controversy over family separations, was a “90-10” issue for Mr. Trump and his Republican allies. He predicted that voters in November would reject “the Democrats’ open-borders extremism,” adding that Democrats had adopted “a point of view so radical that it can really only be described as absolute nihilism.”

On today’s episode:

Background coverage:

🎧 This Week in Google 457 Trouble at the Cheese Factory | TWiT.tv

Listened to This Week in Google 457 Trouble at the Cheese Factory by Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, Stacey Higginbotham, Mike Elgan from TWiT.tv
Facebook Transparency Report Facebook shuts down 1.3 Billion fake accounts. Google Clips gets better. So does Google One storage. 3500 Russian Facebook election ads can't be wrong! Amazon's Rooney rule. Senate votes for Net Neutrality. China's frightening social credit score system. Analyzing Wi-Fi EasyMesh.
  • Leo's Tool: Surface Hub 2
  • Jeff's Number: Use miles to visit UA 747 boneyard
  • Stacey's Thing: Hubitat
  • Mike's Stuff: 16GB Pixelbook and Squid

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Cracking Down on Leaks | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Cracking Down on Leaks by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

For a year and a half, President Trump has threatened to crack down on leaks and leakers.

The seizure of emails and phone records from a reporter at The New York Times tells a great deal about what that might look like.

On today’s episode:

• Matt Apuzzo, a reporter for The Times in Washington who had his records subpoenaed during the Obama administration.

Background reading:

• Federal prosecutors seized years of email and phone records from Ali Watkins, a New York Times reporter.

• President Trump wants better press, and he’s blaming leaks for not getting it.

• From 2012: The Obama administration used the Espionage Act to pursue leak cases.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Report on the F.B.I.’s Clinton Inquiry | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: The Report on the F.B.I.’s Clinton Inquiry by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

The Justice Department’s inspector general released a long-awaited report on Thursday on the F.B.I. investigation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.

The findings could be both good and bad for President Trump.

On today’s episode:

• Matt Apuzzo, who covers national security for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• The Justice Department’s inspector general painted a harsh portrait of the F.B.I. during the 2016 presidential election, describing James B. Comey, the former director, as “insubordinate,” but finding no bias in his decision to clear Hillary Clinton.

• The report gives President Trump an opening, but it also undercuts his narrative.

• Democrats saw the document as proof that the F.B.I. had wronged Mrs. Clinton, but it also brought new worries.

• The report is more than 500 pages long. Our reporters break it down.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Narrowing Path to Asylum | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: The Narrowing Path to Asylum by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

The Trump administration has said that domestic abuse is no longer grounds for receiving asylum in the United States. We share one asylum seeker’s story.

On today’s episode:

• Mariam, a survivor of domestic violence who came to the United States from Burkina Faso, and who asked not to be identified by her real name.

Background reading:

• A ruling that Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued in a closely watched case will make it difficult for asylum seekers to gain entry in the United States based on fears of domestic or gang violence.

• As Washington’s immigration policies become increasingly restrictive, a growing number of refugees from Central America are waiting at the Mexican border.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: What Trump Gave Kim | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: What Trump Gave Kim by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

In a joint statement, President Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, committed to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Why is a seemingly significant promise being dismissed by critics as meaningless?

On today’s episode:

• Nicholas Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times who writes about human rights and global affairs, and who has repeatedly traveled to North Korea.

Background reading:

• The summit meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim yielded a vaguely worded joint statement in which both parties agreed to work toward peace, but offered few details on how they planned to move forward.

• In a news conference after the meeting, Mr. Trump announced that the United States would halt joint military exercises with South Korea, a decision that appeared to catch both the Pentagon and South Korean officials off-guard.

• The president’s concessions to North Korea may vastly outweigh their returns, Mr. Kristof writes in an Op-Ed. Lawmakers in both parties have noted that it remains unclear what, if anything, has been gained by the U.S.

• The encounter between the two leaders was rich in spectacle — and in ambiguity. Here are 10 takeaways from the event.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: A Historic Handshake | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: A Historic Handshake by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

For the first time ever, a sitting president of the United States has met with a North Korean leader. Was the handshake between President Trump and Kim Jong-un a beginning or an end?

On today’s episode:

• Mark Landler, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, who is reporting on the summit meeting from Singapore.

Background reading:

• In an encounter that seemed unthinkable just months ago, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim met face-to-face for the first time in Singapore on Tuesday morning. Here are live updates and photographs from the meeting.

• Among the issues on the table were the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War and economic relief for North Korea.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Part 5 of ‘Charm City’: What’s Behind the Black Box? | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Part 5 of ‘Charm City’: What’s Behind the Black Box? by Sabrina Tavernise from nytimes.com

The relatives of a Baltimore teenager think they know the name of the police officer who killed him. But when his mother finally sees the surveillance video of his death, a new story emerges.

Every day this week, we’ve brought you the story of Lavar Montray Douglas, known as Nook, who was fatally shot by a police officer in Baltimore in 2016. His family has been searching for answers ever since.

Part 5 is the conclusion of our series. We talk to Nook’s mother, Toby Douglas, about how grief has changed her. She tried joining a support group for mothers, many of whom now fight to stop gun violence. But her son had a gun, and he was shooting it.

Toby and her mother, Davetta Parker, think they know the name of the police officer who killed Nook. They’ve heard it around the streets. We visit him at his home in the suburbs, and he’s not at all who we expected.

Nook would have turned 20 in late May. We drive with Toby to tie balloons at his grave and to a stop sign at the corner of Windsor Avenue and North Warwick Avenue, where he was killed. She often goes there to feel close to Nook, sometimes sleeping in her car at the intersection.

One day, Toby gets a phone call. It’s the police. They want to show her the complete surveillance video of Nook’s final moments.

If you’d like to start from the beginning, here are Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Part 4 of ‘Charm City’: The Police Scandal That Shook Baltimore | New York City

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Part 4 of ‘Charm City’: The Police Scandal That Shook Baltimore by Sabrina Tavernise from New York Times

As the Baltimore Police Department tried to repair its public image, a corruption trial exposed the depths of misconduct: An elite group of officers had been stealing from residents.

Every day this week, we’re bringing you the story of the life and death of Lavar Montray Douglas, known as Nook. He was 18 years old when he was killed by a police officer in Baltimore in 2016, a year after Freddie Gray died in police custody.

In Part 4, we go to the heart of the problem with the Baltimore Police Department, beginning with the trial of officers from the Gun Trace Task Force — a plainclothes unit created during the peak of zero-tolerance policing — accused of stealing from residents for years. We talk to Leo Wise and Derek Hines, federal prosecutors nicknamed “the Twin Towers of Justice,” because they are both very tall and thin.

Their case started with a pair of heroin overdose deaths. As the case grew, it revealed a sprawling network of criminal activity, in which police officers used brass knuckles and baseball bats and went after drug dealers, because they kept cash. When those drug dealers complained, no one believed them.

The officers are now being sentenced. Over time, they stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. They planted guns and fabricated evidence. The city announced this week that it would have to re-examine around 1,700 cases that involved the task force.

If you’d like to start from the beginning, here are Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

🎧 The Daily: “Charm City,” Part 3: The Lure of the Streets | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Part 3 of ‘Charm City’: The Lure of the Streets by Sabrina Tavernise from nytimes.com

What happened to the generation caught between a crack epidemic that consumed their neighborhoods and the aggressive police tactics meant to fix the problem?

Nook spent the first few years of his life in an affluent suburb. But when he returned to Baltimore, he became part of a young generation caught between the crack epidemic and the aggressive police tactics meant to fix the problem.

For the past two days, we’ve been bringing you the story of the life and death of Lavar Montray Douglas, known as Nook. He was 18 years old when he was shot dead by a police officer in Baltimore in 2016.

In Part 3, we look at Nook’s childhood. He spent the first few years of his life with an aunt in an upper-middle-class home outside Baltimore, taking piano lessons and going to church every week. Yesterday, we learned that Nook’s mother, Toby Douglas, kept returning to Baltimore. The same thing happened to Nook.

We go to Nook’s Baltimore, to his corner on Calhoun Street and Pratt Street. Some of his friends are still there, and we talk to them about Nook’s life. He was ambitious, they say. A leader. His mother was proud of that.

Everybody was talking about the Baltimore police officers who had just been on trial, accused of stealing from drug dealers. You see, they said, we were right. The cops are robbers. We said this all along, but nobody believed us.

Suddenly, two police officers pull up, and we encounter something that seems to be emblematic of the changes in the Baltimore Police Department.

If you’d like to start from the beginning, here are Part 1 and Part 2.