It’s Spreading: More Anarchists Are Fixing Potholes Because the Gov’t Won’t Do Its Job

(ANTIMEDIA) Indianapolis, IN — As government agencies continue to prove themselves incompetent at local, state, and federal levels, some citizens are taking responsibilities typically assigned to the authorities into their own hands. One of these responsibilities is maintaining the roads, a task most people believe only government entities can carry out. In Indianapolis, Indiana, however, where the […]

Trump Signs Tax Overhaul, Stopgap Spending Bills In First Major Legislative Victory

Update: as previewed moments ago, President Trump on Friday morning signed into law legislation funding the government through Jan. 19 and more importantly, the $1.4 trillion Tax Cut and Jobs Act, i.e. the Tax Reform bill, overhauling the U.S. tax code. Trump is now set to depart for Florida.

The bill’s signing ends the president’s first year in office on a high note. As the Hill adds, the president has had some other successes as well, in areas such as rolling back regulations and getting a new Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch, confirmed. But Republicans were unable to repeal and replace ObamaCare, and the headlines over the past year have also at times been dominated by the Russia election meddling investigations and palace intrigue stories about disagreements among Trump"s staff.

Trump publicly made efforts to try to get Democrats to vote for the measure as well — particularly senators facing 2018 reelection bids in states the president carried in 2016. But while the president gave speeches on the tax plan in states with vulnerable Democratic senators such as Missouri, North Dakota, Indiana and Pennsylvania, no Democrat in either chamber of Congress ultimately backed the package.

Democrats have focused on the fact that some taxpayers would get tax increases and have argued that the largest benefits will go to wealthy people like the president. They think attacking Republicans on the plan will help them in the midterms since polls show the measure is unpopular with the public.

 

But Republicans are brushing off the polls, arguing that public opinion will change in February when people start to see higher take-home pay. They argue that the bill will be a winner because it will boost job creation, wages and the economy.

The irony will be if the tax bill - slammed by Democrats - actually ends up being popular and succeeds in reducing prevailing tax rates. Such an outcome would result in an even greater lock on Congress by the GOP after the 2018 midterm elections, forcing the Democrats to truly scramble what Russian collusion scandal they will trot out next. 

* * *

After days of speculation over whether Trump would sign his new tax reform bill this year or wait until January to avoid certain spending cuts (something we covered here), Trump has just announced that the tax bill, along with the missile defense bill, will be signed in the Oval Office later today before he heads off to Mar-A-Lago for Christmas. 

"Will be signing the biggest ever Tax Cut and Reform Bill in 30 minutes in Oval Office. Will also be signing a much needed 4 billion dollar missile defense bill."

Will be signing the biggest ever Tax Cut and Reform Bill in 30 minutes in Oval Office. Will also be signing a much needed 4 billion dollar missile defense bill.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2017

Oddly, at least for Trump, the bill signing will be conducted in private rather than as part of a massive media event.

Per senior administration official @POTUS will sign #TaxCut bill before departing WH for Mar-a-Lago this morning. Am advised signing will be private. WH event to celebrate slated for Jan. 3

— Major Garrett (@MajorCBS) December 22, 2017

And just like that, the White House just delivered a $1,000 Christmas bonus to AT&T employees around the country...something that we"re almost certain will result in another Trump tweet at some point today.

Rex Tillerson: Reports Of My Ouster Are "Laughable"

Yesterday, the New York Times appeared to confirm what many in Washington had long suspected: The deteriorating relationship between Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Donald Trump had reached the point of no return, and the former ExxonMobil CEO would be leaving the administration "within weeks", to be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

Rumors that Pompeo was in line to replace Tillerson have been circulating since at least September.  The former Indiana Congressman has become one of Trump"s closest foreign policy advisers since taking over the CIA. He"s in charge of delivering Trump"s daily intelligence briefings.

But while the White House issued a cryptic statement saying only that it wasn"t planning any personnel changes "at this time," Tillerson immediately started pushing back against the report.

Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said he spoke with Tillerson and the secretary "doesn"t plan to be ousted."

On Friday, Tillerson doubled down on those denials, telling a group of reporters that the NYT"s story was "laughable." He made the comment during a meeting with Libya"s prime minister at the State Department, accoding to the Hill.

Tillerson has reportedly disagreed with Trump on several key foreign policy issues, including how to de-escalate the standoff with North Korea and how to determine the future of the Iran deal. Two months ago, the relationship between the two men appeared to be irreparably compromised following reports Tillerson called the president "a f---ing moron" during a security breifing at the Pentagon, where Trump reportedly told the generals that he wanted to greatly expand the size of the US nuclear arsenal.

If Tillerson does leave, he"d be the first high-profile departure from the administration since Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned over his use of chartered jets at taxpayer expense. Tillerson would also be one of the most important players to leave the administration so far.

Of course, Tillerson isn"t the only Trump administration official who"s rumored to be on his way out: NEC Chairman Gary Cohn is reportedly planning on leaving the administration after the end of the year.

To be sure, the NYT said Trump had yet to finalize plans for Tillerson"s departure. Also, one would think the White House might want to keep Tillerson happy considering he could easily spill his guts to the press after leaving the administration.

The 11 Nations Of The United States

Via Jim Quinn"s Burning Platform blog,

In his fourth book, “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America,” award-winning author Colin Woodard identifies 11 distinct cultures that have historically divided the US.

Yankeedom

Encompassing the entire Northeast north of New York City and spreading through Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, Yankeedom values education, intellectual achievement, communal empowerment, and citizen participation in government as a shield against tyranny. Yankees are comfortable with government regulation. Woodard notes that Yankees have a “Utopian streak.” The area was settled by radical Calvinists.

New Netherland

A highly commercial culture, New Netherland is “materialistic, with a profound tolerance for ethnic and religious diversity and an unflinching commitment to the freedom of inquiry and conscience,” according to Woodard. It is a natural ally with Yankeedom and encompasses New York City and northern New Jersey. The area was settled by the Dutch.

New York City is located in Woodward’s New Netherland.Flickr / Andrés Nieto Porras

The Midlands

Settled by English Quakers, The Midlands are a welcoming middle-class society that spawned the culture of the “American Heartland.” Political opinion is moderate, and government regulation is frowned upon. Woodard calls the ethnically diverse Midlands “America’s great swing region.” Within the Midlands are parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.

Tidewater

Tidewater was built by the young English gentry in the area around the Chesapeake Bay and North Carolina. Starting as a feudal society that embraced slavery, the region places a high value on respect for authority and tradition. Woodard notes that Tidewater is in decline, partly because “it has been eaten away by the expanding federal halos around D.C. and Norfolk.”

Greater Appalachia

Colonized by settlers from the war-ravaged borderlands of Northern Ireland, northern England, and the Scottish lowlands, Greater Appalachia is stereotyped as the land of hillbillies and rednecks. Woodard says Appalachia values personal sovereignty and individual liberty and is “intensely suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social engineers alike.” It sides with the Deep South to counter the influence of federal government. Within Greater Appalachia are parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Indiana, Illinois, and Texas.

Louisville, Kentucky, is located in Woodward’s Greater Appalachia.Flickr / Peter Dedina

Deep South

The Deep South was established by English slave lords from Barbados and was styled as a West Indies-style slave society, Woodard notes. It has a very rigid social structure and fights against government regulation that threatens individual liberty. Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina are all part of the Deep South.

El Norte

Composed of the borderlands of the Spanish-American empire, El Norte is “a place apart” from the rest of America, according to Woodard. Hispanic culture dominates in the area, and the region values independence, self-sufficiency, and hard work above all else. Parts of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California are in El Norte.

One of our most beloved OPs, El Whatever, owns this joint.

The Left Coast

Colonized by New Englanders and Appalachian Midwesterners, the Left Coast is a hybrid of “Yankee utopianism and Appalachian self-expression and exploration,” Woodard says, adding that it is the staunchest ally of Yankeedom. Coastal California, Oregon, and Washington are in the Left Coast.

San Francisco is a natural fit for Woodward’s Left Coast.Shutterstock / prochasson frederic

The Far West

The conservative west. Developed through large investment in industry, yet where inhabitants continue to “resent” the Eastern interests that initially controlled that investment. Among Far West states are Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Washington, Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. 

New France

A pocket of liberalism nestled in the Deep South, its people are consensus driven, tolerant, and comfortable with government involvement in the economy. Woodard says New France is among the most liberal places in North America. New France is focused around New Orleans in Louisiana as well as the Canadian province of Quebec.

First Nation

Made up of Native Americans, the First Nation’s members enjoy tribal sovereignty in the US. Woodard says the territory of the First Nations is huge, but its population is under 300,000, most of whose people live in the northern reaches of Canada.

Source

*  *  *

Woodard says that among these 11 nations, Yankeedom and the Deep South exert the most influence and are constantly competing with each other for the hearts and minds of the other nations.

“We are trapped in brinkmanship because there is not a lot of wiggle room between Yankee and Southern Culture,” Woodard says.

 

“Those two nations would never see eye to eye on anything besides an external threat.”

Woodard also believes the nation is likely to become more polarized, even though America is becoming a more diverse place every day.

He says this is because people are “self-sorting.”

“People choose to move to places where they identify with  the values,”  Woodard says. “Red minorities go south and blue minorities go north to be in the majority. This is why blue states are getting bluer and red states are getting redder and the middle is getting smaller.”

Mainstream Media Now Promoting "Gun Confiscation Orders" As Solution To Mass Shootings

Authored by Alex Thomas via SHTFplan.com,

In what many saw coming a mile away in the aftermath of both the Las Vegas Massacre and the Texas Church mass shooting, liberals in the government, with the help of their mainstream media allies, are now pushing what amounts to plans for gun confiscation, outside of normal law, for Americans across the country.

The new push for gun control from the left comes courtesy of ABC News which recently published a piece promoting the use of an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) that many believe is nothing more than a thinly veiled confiscation plan that would allow a judge to “issue an ex parte order” for the direct confiscation of an American citizens firearms.

Unbelievably, the order can actually be issued without the firearm owner even being present, which would in turn end with police at the citizens door demanding he hand over his weapons or face violence from the state.

ABC’s Andy Fies, on the other hand, apparently wants Americans to see the orders differently, painting a more friendly picture of the ERPO’s while quoting two different left-wing gun control groups as seemingly unbiased experts on gun violence.

As of now, only Washington, California, Connecticut and most recently Oregon have ERPO laws (while Indiana and Texas have modified risk warrant statutes). Over the past year, however, spurred by a string of mass shootings beginning with the Pulse Nightclub attack that killed 49 in June 2016, legislatures in 19 states and Washington, D.C., have taken up 32 separate ERPO bills for consideration, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control.

 

Everytown’s deputy legal director, William Rosen, told ABC News that list will grow. “We expect to see at least as much interest in 2018,” he said.

 

“There is a growing consensus,” added Lauren Alfred of the gun violence prevention group Sandy Hook Promise, “that this is the first step we should be taking when we are talking about people who are at risk of hurting themselves or others.”

 

Current laws barring gun ownership are limited. Generally, a person with a long history of mental health issues can still legally buy or possess firearms if they don’t fall into specific statutory categories such as having been adjudicated mentally ill or under a domestic violence restraining order. But, as was the case with Texas church gunman Devin Kelley, even these restrictions may not work if the person’s troubled past is not recorded on a background registry.

 

With an ERPO, however, if family members or police can show a gun owner to be an imminent danger to themselves or others, they can force the person to surrender their weapon(s).

Keep in mind that Everytown for Gun Safety is a Michael Bloomberg funded, left-wing gun control group that was created as part of a rebranding effort by the billionaire gun grabber after his previous group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was outed by multiple former members as actually pushing an agenda of full-scale gun confiscation.

The Extreme Risk Protection Orders scheme seems to be nothing more than another attempt at slowly eroding the right of lawful Americans to own firearms.

As AWR Hawkins reported in an April 2017 article about a similar law being pushed in Oregon, “Oregon state Sen. Brian Boquist is pushing a confiscation bill that would broaden the number of prohibited gun purchasers as well as require certain individuals to hand over any guns in their possession.”

At the time, gun rights activist and NRA member Keely Hopkins rightfully described the law as an attempt to remove your Second Amendment rights by using a third-party who would need little evidence to declare you unfit to own a firearm. (Imagine a vengeful ex-wife/husband)

“This bill allows for a protective order to remove your Second Amendment rights, not because of a criminal conviction, but based on third-party allegations using an evidentiary standard that falls far below what’s normally required for the removing of fundamental rights.”

It is also important to note that gun control advocates and the mainstream media are using The Las Vegas Massacre, which the authorities are openly lying about (there were at least 7 different shooters) as a pretext to further take away Americans right to bear arms. This is, and has always been, the modus operandi of the power elite.

Despite Tree Lovers Offering $150K to Buy Forest, Gov’t Sells It To Loggers for $40K Less

When conversationalists offered $150,000 to preserve large portions of Indiana"s Yellowwood State Park, the government sold it to a logging company for less

State Threatens to Kidnap Little Girl Because Parents Cure Her Seizures with CBD in a LEGAL State

The state demanded this little girl be administered a harmful pharma drug, even though her seizures were virtually cured using a legal CBD prescription.

Vacant Property Rates Soar In Over Half Of U.S. Local Housing Markets

According to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions published earlier today, vacant property rates are once again increasing in many markets across the country but perhaps not for the reasons you might think.  While so-called pre-foreclosure "zombie" properties have declined some 22% YoY, overall vacant property rates in 54% of the 149 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed by ATTOM actually increased due to, among other things, increasing ownership rates by investors as opposed to actual homeowners.

ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s largest multi-sourced property database, today released its 2017 U.S. Residential Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, which shows nearly 1.4 million (1,367,793) U.S. residential properties (1 to 4 units) were vacant as of the end of the third quarter of 2017 — representing 1.58 percent of all U.S. residential properties.

 

The 1.58 percent vacant property rate nationwide decreased slightly from 1.63 percent a year ago, but vacant property rates increased from a year ago in 81 of the 149 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report (54 percent), including Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Baltimore and Phoenix.

 

The report also shows that the number of vacant “zombie” pre-foreclosure properties — which have started the foreclosure process but have not yet been repossessed by the foreclosing lender — decreased 22 percent from a year ago to 14,312 as of the end of Q3 2017, 67 percent below the peak of 44,030 in Q3 2013. The number of vacant bank-owned properties decreased 48 percent from a year ago to 24,026 as of the end of Q3 2017.

 

“Zombie foreclosures have dwindled dramatically over the last four years as a supply-starved housing has soaked up even some of the most highly distressed properties,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. “There are still pockets of the country with high zombie foreclosure rates, and high vacant property rates in general, primarily in the Rust Belt and parts of the Northeast and Southeast — driven in large part by a high share of non-owner occupied vacant properties in those areas.

 

“There is evidence that the ultra-tight inventory environment in some red-hot markets is beginning to ease just a bit, with vacant property rates nudging higher in markets such as San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Denver,” Blomquist added.

Twitter To Crack Down On Revenge Porn Ahead Of Senate Intel Committee Hearing

Via StockBoardAsset.com,

Last week, Twitter Safety released ‘a calendar of our safety work’ in approach to make the social media platform a much safer place. Twitter’s blog indicates “far too often in the past we’ve said we’d do better and promised transparency but have fallen short in our efforts”. The timeline will include regular and real-time updates about safety changes and overall progress of the social media channel to provide transparency. The blog also indicates “this is the first time we’ve shared this level of visibility into our work”.

According to Ars Technica, Twitter’s transformation will begin this Thursday–

On October 27, Twitter will expand what types of “non-consensual nudity” (aka “revenge porn”) that it takes action against. The company will already act when a victim complains, but Twitter will soon act even in cases where the victims may not be aware images were taken, instances like upskirt photos and hidden webcams. “Anyone we identify as the original poster of non-consensual nudity will be suspended immediately,” 

What is Revenge Porn?

The term ‘revenge porn,’ though frequently used, is somewhat misleading. Many perpetrators are not motivated by revenge or by any personal feelings toward the victim. A more accurate term is nonconsensual pornography (NCP), defined as the distribution of sexually graphic images of individuals without their consent.

As of June 08, 2017, C.A. GOLDBERG, PLLC, who focuses in the areas of revenge porn, domestic violence, sexual assault, & public figure crises says about 38 US states have adopted ‘revenge porn laws’. Interesting enough, Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, and South Caroline do not have ‘revenge porn laws’.

Here are various states and the penalties for revenge porn…

Revenge porn search term in the United States has been an explosive trend over the past 5-6 years. States such as Maine, West Virginia, and Kentucky have the highest interest by region.

Unfortunately, millions of Americans idolize Hollywood, who have been actively promoting revenge porn for the world to see. The latest story is Rob Kardashian posting nude pictures of Blac Chyna…

Back to the Twitter’s blog post, where the social media platform has outlined 4-months of proposed transparency in attempt to make the platform a much safer place. After Thursday, on November 03, Twitter will suspend organizations and groups who have a history for advocating violence . This will include banning hate imagery in profile headers and avatars, along with banning “hateful display names”.

Most social media channels are in damage control ahead of the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify in a public hearing November 01 about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Twitter has felt the need to become more ‘transparent’ and tackle revenge porn ahead of the meeting.

Here are questions we ask: 

1. 
   

   Why does Twitter suddenly care about revenge porn?

   
   


2. 
   

   Is it because of the Senate Intelligence Committee meeting?

   
   

*****

Are insiders attempting to transform Twitter <TWTR>  post -81% stock crash?

This Secretive Japanese Company Is Driving The Global Boom In Industrial Automation

As we’ve reported in the past, skyrocketing wages in mainland China have caused the adoption of robot workers by the country’s manufacturers to accelerate rapidly in recent years, cementing the country’s position as a world leader in industrial automation.

But while that trend has been widely cited and is widely known, particularly as the US plays catch up with one of its most prominent economic rivals despite President Donald Trump’s promises to bring back manufacturing jobs, what many don’t know is the worldwide boom in industrial automation has largely been driven by one press-shy Japanese company called Fanuc.

Fanuc, as Bloomberg Businessweek reports, manufacturers robots that can perform all manner of functions. From constructing complex motors to making injection-molded parts and electrical components. At pharmaceutical companies, Fanuc’s sorting robots categorize and package pills. At food-packaging facilities, they slice, squirt, and wrap edibles.

Sales of industrial robots in the US soared during the first quarter of 2017 as manufacturers spent more than half a billion dollars on new products bound for auto manufacturing centers in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio - and the overwhelming majority of these robots are being manufactured by Fanuc.

In the first quarter of 2017, North American manufacturers spent $516 million on industrial robots, a 32 percent jump from the same period a year earlier. A study published by the Brookings Institution shows many of them are ending up in steel and auto manufacturing centers such as Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. According to the report, there are about nine industrial robots for every 1,000 workers in Toledo and Detroit—three times the figure for 2010. Many of these robots are Fanuc’s. Its machines are also in Tesla Inc.’s Gigafactory, in Nevada, lifting heavy chassis and delicately assembling battery trays, among other tasks. Its sorting robots, meanwhile, are ubiquitous at Amazon.com Inc.’s massive warehousing and shipping facilities.

But US sales are dwarfed by sales in China—which purchased some 90,000 units, almost a third of the world’s total industrial robot orders last year. Sales to China amounted to about 55 percent of the $5 billion that Fanuc’s automation unit generated in the fiscal year ended March 2017.

The International Federation of Robotics estimates that, by 2019, China’s annual industrial robot orders will rise to 160,000 units, suggesting Fanuc  will be insulated from any slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. Yoshiharu told investors at his most recent Q&A session in April that the company expects demand in China to outstrip supply even after Fanuc opens a factory next August in Japan’s Ibaraki prefecture. The facility will be dedicated solely to keeping up with Chinese demand.

Fanuc, whose robots are painted in the company’s signature bright yellow, was founded in the 1950s by Seiuemon Inaba, a Japanese engineer. His son, Yoshiharu, now serves as CEO.

But of the many models of machines produced by Fanuc, none are more representative of the company’s dominance than the Robodrill - a machine used by Apple Inc. suppliers to make the metal casings that have been a feature of every iPhone since the iPhone four.

Analysts even cited Robodrill sales to discount rumors that the Apple 8 and Apple X wouldn’t feature the metal casing.

King of them all is the Robodrill, which plays first violin in one of the great symphonies of modern production: machining the metal casing for Apple Inc.’s iPhones. In the fiscal year surrounding the 2010 introduction of the iPhone 4, the first to use an all-metal casing, Robodrill sales more than doubled.

 

Since then, this relationship has become so chummy that, based solely on strong first-quarter Robodrill sales, analysts discounted early rumors the iPhone 8 would eschew metal casing for front-and-back glass panels. Instead, the recent iPhone 8 release and coming iPhone X launch spurred higher Robodrill sales to Apple’s manufacturers in China, some of which are building new factories to assemble the company’s phones. New iPhones also mean more demand for Robodrills from Chinese smartphone makers such as Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo Electronics, and Huawei Technologies, which often present their own more affordable models in the wake of each fresh offering from Apple.

Indeed, Fanuc’s machines are directly responsible for the return of offshore manufacturing jobs to North America, as companies realize they can achieve more efficient streamlining and less costly economies of scale with “lights out” factories stocked with robots.

The Robodrill

Of course, this trend, as Bloomberg notes, won’t save American manufacturing jobs - if anything it will only slow the decline. Companies are spending more money than ever before on robots. And as academics and even investors like Bill Gross speak up about the potential for automation to reshape the global labor market in fundamental ways, there’s a strong argument that Fanuc is the most important manufacturing company in the world right now.

That this status is held by a Japanese company is hardly surprising. The country’s looming demographic crisis, driven by the lowest birth rate in the developed world, has bolstered domestic demand for machines that can augment or replace human workers.

And as China goes, so goes the rest of the industrial world. Multinationals that are reshoring operations from East Asia to North America and Europe are doing so in part because automation promises sophisticated production methods and labor savings; they, and companies who stayed out of China in the first place, are spending more than ever on industrial robots. The overarching pattern is less a reversal of the 20th century’s offshore manufacturing boom than an unraveling, with jobs vanishing from developing and developed nations alike.

 

Amid the tumult, there’s one clear winner: the $50 billion company that controls most of the world’s market for factory automation and industrial robotics. In fact, Fanuc might just be the single most important manufacturing company in the world right now, because everything Fanuc does is designed to make it part of what every other manufacturing company is doing.

Fanuc reached an important milestone in its conquest of the US market in the early 1980s when the CEO of GM purchased the first Fanuc robots to work on GM assembly lines.

The resulting press coverage caught the attention of Roger Smith, who had recently become president and CEO of General Motors Corp. Smith had joined GM’s accounting division 30 years earlier, after spending the final two years of World War II in the U.S. Navy. He’d risen through the corporate ranks slowly, gaining prominence as GM deftly navigated the gasoline crisis of the 1970s to become America’s top automaker.

 

When Smith took over, GM held 46 percent of the U.S. auto market, but the industry was in decline, and most companies were looking to cut costs and improve efficiency to compete with Japanese automakers. GM was in the enviable position of being flush with cash, and Smith had ideas, most of which sought to restore the company’s focus on technological innovation. Like Fanuc, GM had pioneered early developments in numerical control, including the use of a storage system to record the movements of a human machinist, then mimic them on demand. Such experiments had led Smith to imagine what he called a “lights-out factory of the future,” which would so limit reliance on assembly workers at GM plants that lights and air-conditioning would be unnecessary. The company failed to advance very far in that direction, though, choosing to focus instead on the traditional manufacturing methods that were helping it dominate the U.S. auto market.

 

Fanuc’s robots were unlike anything Smith had seen outside his own dreams, and he soon decided he’d found the way forward for GM. A year after he became CEO, on a humid June afternoon in Troy, Mich., a yellow robot bowed first to Smith and then Inaba before swinging its arm to cut the ribbon for a joint venture called GMFanuc Robotics Corp.

As advances in automation and machine learning continue to accrue, human workers in all but the most-skilled professions will slowly see their jobs lost to an army of robots. But as Bloomberg points out, while an optimist might hope the consequences of automation might be limited to workers enjoying more meaningful pursuits with their free time, whether automation will lead to a higher standard of living for all - or rather further imbalance already lopsided economic inequality remains to be seen.

State Supreme Court Rules Having Sex With Minors is Legal But Sexting Them is Illegal

(RT) — Sexting minors is illegal, but having sex with them is okay, an Indiana Supreme Court has ruled.

Indiana high school teacher Sameer Thakar faces three years in prison for sending nude photographs to a 16-year old girl after the Supreme Court ruled earlier this week to reverse a lower court’s decision to throw out the case.

Thakar began texting the teenager in 2014, when he was 38. After a short period in which the girl told him she was underage, he then sent her images of his erect penis, court documents reveal.

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The State charged then-38-year-old Sameer Girish Thakar with Class D felony dissemination of matter harmful to minors under Indiana Code section 35-49-3-3(a)(1) (2008) (“the Dissemination Statute”), after Thakar sent a photograph of his erect penis to a 16-year-old girl. The trial court dismissed the charges, relying upon Salter v. State, 906 N.E.2d 212 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009), trans. not sought, which found the Dissemination Statute void for vagueness as applied, because the intended recipient met Indiana’s age of consent to sexual activity. We now overrule Salter, hold that the Dissemination Statute is not unconstitutionally vague, and reverse.

He was charged with one count of felony dissemination of matter harmful to minors, but argued in court that the charge doesn’t make sense.

In Indiana, it is legal for adults to have consensual sex with 16 year olds. It is illegal, however, for a person to knowingly send sexually explicit photographs to someone under 18, which is classed as disseminating material harmful to minors.

READ MORE:  Ferguson Police Chief Attempts to Join Michael Brown Protest, Chaos Ensues

The court originally threw out the charges, explaining it was “patently illogical” that a man could have sex with a teenager, but not send them images. The case was appealed and ended up in Indiana’s Supreme Court.

Believing that it was patently illogical that an adult man could legally show his penis to a 16-year-old through consensual activity in person, but not through photography, the Salter court held the statute was unconstitutionally vague as applied because the activity in question would not be understood by a person of ordinary intelligence as “‘patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable matter for or performance before minors,’” which is a necessary element of the statutory definition of “harmful to minors” contained in Indiana Code section 35-49-2-2 (2008).

The Supreme Court found the charges should be upheld, despite the “inconsistent” law. It found no conflict between the two rules, as both can be complied with at the same time.

“With respect to a 16-year-old, consensual sexual activity in person is permitted, the dissemination of a sexually explicit photograph (consensually or otherwise) is not,” Justice Mark Massa wrote.

Massa said the court interprets the text of the law, and that it’s up to state lawmakers to sort out the inconsistency.

DirecTV Will Allow Angry Customers To Request NFL Refunds

In the first reported case of corporate blowback involving the ongoing Trump vs NFL feud, the WSJ reports that DirecTV is letting some angry customers cancel subscriptions to its Sunday Ticket package of NFL games and obtain refunds "if they cite players’ national anthem protests as the reason", according to customer service representatives. While DirecTV"s regular Sunday Ticket policy doesn’t allow refunds once the season is under way, the representatives said they are making exceptions this season, which began in September, in response to the player"s growing protests, either kneeling or linking arms during the national anthem.

DirecTV service representatives contacted by The Wall Street Journal had different understandings of the policy. One said refunds to those concerned about the anthem protests were only offered to subscribers with certain offers or plans. One representative said full refunds were available for those who complained about anthem protests. Another said such people could only get prorated refunds for the remainder of the season.

While other representatives said the policy hadn’t changed and that no refunds were allowed for any reason, DirecTV subscribers contacted by the WSJ showed the satellite broadcaster was offering at least some refunds.

Marc Hoffman, a longtime subscriber to Sunday Ticket, which gives sports fans the ability to watch every Sunday game, said in an interview he was able to cancel his subscription and receive a refund on Monday. The package costs around $280 per season. “I honestly didn’t think I’d get a refund,” Mr. Hoffman said. “I know their guidelines, I just wanted to make a point.”

Chris Baker, who lives in Indiana, told the WSJ that he reluctantly canceled his Sunday Ticket subscription, but not precisely as a response to the protests. “I explained to them I was tired of politics in sports, and it’s not how I want to spend my Sunday, watching all that transpire,” he said he told a DirecTV representative. He said the representative “insinuated there was a high volume of calls calling in to cancel.”

The shift is the latest twist in a controversy that has divided the nation after President Donald Trump blasted players who took a knee during the anthem and said they should be fired. He has called on people to walk out of stadiums when players are kneeling.

To be sure, Trump added to the fire on Tuesday saying that “for people to disrespect that by kneeling during the playing of our national anthem, I think is disgraceful.”

While several teams have issued statements defending the rights of their players to express their opinion - and the NFL also has shown solidarity with them - the stakes are much higher, and go beyond just the political. As the WSJ reports, football draws the biggest TV audiences of American sports and is a vital income source for a host of major media companies. For DirecTV, Sunday Ticket is a major customer draw and one of the NFL’s premier franchises, earning it $1.5 billion a year in licensing revenue.

Aside from DirecTV, the NFL-owned channel RedZone, which provides live action and scoring from every game on Sundays, is also experiencing some cancellations due to the protests.

Chuck Plavk, a veteran who resides in Wisconsin, canceled his subscription to the channel from Charter Communications ’ Spectrum Cable. He said when he called, the customer service representative said, “everybody’s calling about that today.” Unlike Sunday Ticket, which is only available through DirecTV, RedZone is available through a number of cable providers and streaming outlets.

Needless to say, a spike in cancellations risk further damage to both viewership and revenues as the league tries to stem an ongoing decline in ratings. Viewership fell last year and, as Trump pointed out, continues to do so this year.

Network executives and league officials attributed last year’s declines in part to viewing competition from the presidential election, consumer distaste with the pace and quality of games.

And now, based on DirecTV"s announcement, one can add anthem protests to the list.

Trump Tax Plan Latest Leak: Lowest Tax Rate Rises To 12%, But Standard Deduction Doubles

Continuing the recent flurry of leaks of the Trump tax plan set to be unveiled tomorrow, Axios reports that "GOP leaders have agreed to raise the lowest individual tax rate from 10 to 12 percent, paired with doubling the standard deduction."

As previously leaked, the plan will also collapse the number of brackets from seven to three, while the standard deduction is set to almost double to $12,000 for a single filer and $24,000 for married couples, which means that Trump can correctly argue that many more low income earners would pay no tax under his plan. Also, as previously noted, the top tax bracket would fall from 39.6% to 35%.

According to Axios, Trump plans to sell the proposal tomorrow as a populist "tax cut" but notes that "as recently as yesterday top Republicans on Capitol Hill were nervous as they got word that Trump wasn"t entirely thrilled with the product that had been hashed out in immense secrecy for weeks with two members of his administration, Gary Cohn and Steven Mnuchin, working with GOP leaders." However, that changed last night when Trump reportedly has come around to supporting the framework, "despite his misgivings about the corporate rate not being low enough and about the political risks of raising the lowest rate."

The bottom line is that many more people will now pay no tax because of the increased deduction, which will allow Trump to pitch the proposal as a tax cut for the middle class as well as for the wealthy.

It was not immediately clear what the projected impact on the budget deficit will be as a result of said tax cut for both the middle class, for the highest earners, and for corporations and "pass thru" entities.

In previewing the rollout, Axios writes that Trump "won"t go into great detail when he talks about the tax plan tomorrow in Indiana, leaving plenty of negotiating room for the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate."

As of yesterday morning Trump hadn"t signed off on the final product, and as with all policy announcements involving Trump, Republican Hill leaders will be holding their breaths to some extent until the president actually utters the words. Speaking with conservative groups at the White House yesterday Trump, reassured them of his commitment when he gushed about the "tax cut" he was planning to unveil.

Confirming his enthusiasm for the plan, moments ago President Trump said that "we will cut taxes tremendously for the middle class", even as he added that he would discuss the framework for tax reform with lawmakers before it is released tomorrow.

Small-Town American Budgets Devastated By Opioid Crisis As 41 States Subpoena Big Pharma

A surge in Opioid consumption, primarily prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl - a drug 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine - and the resulting spike in overdose related deaths is devastating families in rural America.  But the opioid epidemic is laying waste to more than just the broken families it counts among its victims, as Reuters points out today, rural municipalities are finding it nearly impossible to fund the surging costs associated with overdoses which come in the form of emergency call volumes, medical examiner and coroner bills, and overcrowded jails and courtrooms.  

As an example, Ross County, Ohio, a town of only 77,000, says its budget for child services has doubled in just 5 years and 75% of the children place into protection come from homes where parents have opioid addictions.

Ross County, a largely rural region of 77,000 people an hour south of Columbus, Ohio, is wrestling with an explosion in opioid-related deaths - 44 last year compared to 19 in 2009. The drug addiction epidemic is shattering not just lives but also stressing the county budget.

About 75 percent of the 200 children placed into state care in the county have parents with opioid addictions, up from about 40 percent five years ago, local officials say. Their care is more expensive because they need specialist counseling, longer stays and therapy.

That has caused a near doubling in the county’s child services budget to almost $2.4 million from $1.3 million, said Doug Corcoran, a county commissioner.

For a county with a general fund of just $23 million, that is a big financial burden, Corcoran said. He and his colleagues are now exploring what they might cut to pay for the growing costs of the epidemic, such as youth programs and economic development schemes.

But it"s not just the cost of child services that is wreaking havoc on municipal budgets as everything from autopsy and toxicology costs to court fees and jail expenses are surging throughout rural America.

Autopsy and toxicology costs there have nearly doubled in six years, from about $89,000 in 2010 to $165,000 in 2016, county data shows.

Court costs are soaring, mainly because of the expense of prosecuting opioid-related crimes and providing accused with a public defender, local officials say.

The county is using contingency funds to pay for the added coroner costs, said Mike Baker, the county’s top government official. Last year, the county drew $63,000 from those funds, up from $19,000 in 2014, he said. In 2014, the county saw 10 drug-related deaths. In 2016, the number had grown to 53.

In Mercer County, West Virginia, 300 miles (483 km) to the south of Indiana County, opioid-related jail costs are carving into the small annual budget of $12 million for the community of 62,000 people.

The county’s jail expenses are on course to increase by $100,000 this year, compared to 2015. The county pays $48.50 per inmate per day to the jail, and this year the jail is on course to have over 2,000 more “inmate days” compared to 2015, according to county data.

“At least 90 percent of those extra jail costs are opioid-related,” said Greg Puckett, a county commissioner who sits on a national county opioid task force. “We spend more in one month on our jail bill than we spend per month on economic development, our health department and our emergency services combined.”

Meanwhile, as Bloomberg has just noted, attorneys general from 41 states are broadening their investigation into the opioid industry and have served subpoenas to five pharma companies that make the most powerful prescription painkillers.

They announced Tuesday that they had served subpoenas requesting information from five companies that make powerful prescription painkillers and three distributors. Forty-one attorneys general are involved.

The investigation into marketing and sales practices seeks to find out whether the industry"s own actions worsened the epidemic.

If the industry cooperates, the investigation could lead to a national settlement.

The Healthcare Distribution Alliance said in a statement that it"s not responsible for the volume of opioid prescribing but that it does want to work on solving the public health crisis.

Dozens of local and state governments have already filed, announced or publicly considered lawsuits against drugmakers or distributors.

To add some context to the scale of the opioid epidemic, the California Department of Public Health recently dropped some staggering statistics showing that there are a remarkable number of counties in California where annual prescriptions for pain killers actually exceed the population.  

Trinity County is the state’s fourth-smallest, and ended last year with an estimated population of 13,628 people.

Its residents also filled prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone and other opioids 18,439 times, the highest per capita rate in California.

Besides Trinity, other counties with more prescriptions than people include Lake, Shasta, Tuolumne and Del Norte counties. In the Sacramento region, El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties had prescription rates above the statewide average, with Yolo County slightly below the state average.

A county’s prescription total represents all opioids dispensed via prescriptions filled at a pharmacy and tracked by the state. Statewide, 15 percent of Californians were prescribed opioids in 2016, ranging from 7.3 percent of residents in tiny Alpine County to almost 27 percent in Lake County.

As might be expected, the scripts per capita are highest in California"s more rural northern counties.

So who is participating most in this deadly epidemic?  Well, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the biggest abusers of opioids are high-school educated, unemployed, white people living in small towns...

“The following characteristics were associated with higher amounts of opioids prescribed: a larger percentage of non-Hispanic whites; higher rates of uninsured and Medicaid enrollment; lower educational attainment; higher rates of unemployment; (small-town) status; more dentists and physicians per capita; a higher prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, arthritis, and disability; and higher suicide rates,” concluded the authors of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released in July.

“What you’re seeing in California is what you’re seeing in many parts of the country, including Oregon,” Korthuis said. “There are still a lot of rural counties around the U.S. that are awash in prescription opioids.”

Of course, growth in opioid addiction is hardly just a California phenomenon.  According to the CDC"s Annual Surveillance Report of Drug-Related Risks and Outcomes, addiction-related deaths are far more prevalent in the rural "rust-belt" states of the Midwest.

Meanwhile, the epidemic is growing far more severe every year with overdose deaths up 167% across the country since 1999.

The rate of drug overdose deaths increased from 6.1 per 100,000 population in 1999 to 16.3 in 2015; for unintenttional drug overdose deaths, the rate increased from 4.0 per 100,000 in 1999 to 13.8 in 2015; for drug overdose deaths involving any opioid, the rate increased from 2.9 per 100,000 in 1999 to 10.4 in 2015 (p<0.05); for unintenttional drug overdose deaths involving any opioid, the rate increased from 2.1 per 100,000 in 1999 to 9.3 per 100,000 in 2015 (p<0.05). For all four categories of drug overdose deaths, increases in rates were largest from 2013 to 2015, with the rate increasing on average by 9% per year for overall drug overdose deaths (p<0.05), 11% per year for unintenttional drug overdose deaths (p<0.05), 15% per year for drug overdose deaths involving any opioid (p<0.05), and 16% for unintenttional drug overdose deaths involving any opioid (p<0.05).

But don"t worry too much because, as Princeton Economist Alan Krueger told us recently, there is a simple solution to the opioid epidemic in the U.S...apparently it can all be solved with just a little more Obamacare.

Cruz Blames Staff For Liking Porn

Well, that"s awkward.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was trending on Twitter this morning after his official Senate account "liked" a pornographic video...

As The Hill reported, the tweet was from the account @SexuallPosts and includes a clip from a pornographic video. The like remained for nearly an hour before being undone by Cruz"s team around 1:20 a.m, according to The Verge.

Some claimed Cruz was hacked. But as The Hill reports, Cruz is blaming a "staffing issue" saying it was a mistake rather than a malicious hack.

"There are a number of people on the team that have access to the account and it appears that someone inadvertently hit the like button," Cruz said.

When pressed if it was Cruz personally who "liked" the tweet, Cruz said "it was a staffing issue, and it was inadvertent, it was a mistake, it was not a deliberate action."

"We’re dealing with it internally, but it was a mistake, it was not malicious conduct," Cruz added.

Cruz also joked that publicity surrounding the tweet could have helped his failed 2016 GOP presidential bid.

"This is not how I envisioned waking up this morning," he added.

"Although I will say that if I had known that this would trend so quickly, perhaps we should have posted something like this back during the Indiana primary."

The tweet, which included a clip from a pornographic video, was up for nearly an hour before being deleted by Cruz"s team around 1:20 a.m.