Jack

The gap between the rich and poor in the United States has grown so wide that it is inflicting a lot of economic damage and makes a new case for trickle-up economics.

With support, a new style of emerging market hero can lead African nations to a democratic rather than autocratic future.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post interviews John Sandweg, who served as acting general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security from 2012-2013, a period during which the Obama administration established its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The interview is revealing. According to Sandweg, granting deferred action to a broad class of unauthorized immigrants is all about making the best use of limited enforcement resources. When Sargents asks Sandweg if moving from an internal memo concerning how enforcement resources will be deployed to a public announcement makes some difference, Sandweg insists that it makes no difference at all.
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Sure, Pizza Hut thinks it’s being all revolutionary with its cookie pizzas, and infinite variations on stuffed crusts but the chain isn’t taking things nearly far enough. Have they tried putting an entire cookie pizza layer on top of a pizza? They have not. Yet. One brave man, Michael J. Hudson, has tried such a feat. The result looks horrifying. And amazing. And horrifying.

The inspiration for this pizza came from the pre-packaged DiGiorno frozen pizza including frozen chocolate chip cookies, but Michael went even further and used a separate tube of Toll House brand cookie dough. (When the pizza-and-cookies combo pack debuted, Consumerist called it a “watershed moment in American obesity,” an assessment that we stand by.)

I am a person with an unhealthy love of both pizza and cookies, but this actually turned my stomach. Proceed at your own risk.

Here’s how it all began: two packages of frozen food, a man, an oven, and a dream.

my apologies @besthandleever http://t.co/LNdX2YLU8x—
michael (@michaeljhudson) August 04, 2014

One Brave Man’s Dream Was To Put Cookie Dough On A Pizza And He Did It [Buzzfeed Food] (via Foodbeast)

House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that Republicans have no plans to impeach President Obama, and that all the impeachment talk was driven by Democrats hoping to stir up their base.

Boehner’s statement isn’t literally true: There have been mentions of impeachment around the edges of the GOP and by some Republican members of Congress. But on the whole, Democrats are spending a lot more time talking about impeachment than Republicans.

Consider, for example, the Sunlight Foundation’s Capitol Words database, which tracks words spoken in the House and Senate. So far in July, there have been 10 mentions of the term “impeachment” in Congress and four others of the term “impeach.” Eleven of the 14 mentions have been made by Democratic rather than Republican members of Congress, however.

Impeachment chatter has also become common on cable news. On Fox News this month, Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, called for Obama’s impeachment, for instance. But for every mention of impeachment on Fox News in July, there have been five on liberal-leaning MSNBC.

This data comes from a Lexis-Nexis search of transcripts on each network. It counts each mention of the words “impeach” or “impeachment.” The terms were used 32 times in a single episode of MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” on Monday. (Ordinarily, I’d adjust for the overall volume of words spoken on each network, but I know from my previous research that MSNBC and Fox News have about the same number of words recorded in Lexis-Nexis.)

The scoreboard so far in July: Fox News has 95 mentions of impeachment, and MSNBC 448. That works out to about 2.7 mentions per hour of original programming on MSNBC, or once every 22 minutes. (This data is as of late Tuesday afternoon.)

MSNBC hasn’t become quite as obsessed with impeachment as CNN was with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but it may be getting there. Impeachment mentions on MSNBC increased sixfold from May to July. Overall, since Jan. 1, MSNBC has mentioned impeachment 905 times to Fox News’s 213.

Some of the impeachment discussion from Democratic politicians and liberal commentators has a kind of a Br’er Rabbit quality. “Only please, Br’er Republicans, don’t impeach President Obama!” they say. But Democrats know such a move would be highly unpopular with the public and might be one of the few things that would revive their long-shot chances of recapturing the House of Representatives in November. In the meantime, Democrats have raised a bundle of money — at least $2.1 million — through emails like these:

The Democrats’ strategy has a parallel in 2006. That year, Republicans tried to rally their base around purported Democratic threats to impeach President George W. Bush. Back then, Fox News was more likely to invoke the specter of impeachment, with 374 mentions of the term from Jan. 1 to July 29, 2006, compared with MSNBC’s 206.

Why does ignorance rule in policy debates?

Accepting 60,000 children in a population of 317.2 million — less than two hundred-tenths of 1 percent (.02 percent) of our population — would hardly be straining our resources.

Despite the vast differences in wealth and resources between our country and those of Lebanon, Jordan and even Iran, which currently has one of the world’s largest refugee populations, the end-of-the-world scenarios proffered by some ring of hyperbole.

At a time when we were a more generous, caring nation, we brought 14,000 children into the United States from Cuba under Operation Peter Pan. In 1966, we flew 266,000 Cuban men, women and children into the United States from the Port of Camarioca. At the time, those 266,000 Cubans represented .14 percent of our population, seven times the number of migrants we are talking about today.

That is from Ira Kurzban, via Timothy Ogden.

This is from a New York Craigslist post, from a restaurant owner who apparently viewed tapes of customers from 2004 and 2014, here is part of his account of the more recent behavior:

2014

Customers walk in.

Customers get seated and is given menus, out of 45 customers 18 requested to be seated elsewhere.

Before even opening the menu they take their phones out, some are taking photos while others are simply doing something else on their phone (sorry we have no clue what they are doing and do not monitor customer WIFI activity).

7 out of the 45 customers had waiters come over right away, they showed them something on their phone and spent an average of 5 minutes of the waiter’s time. Given this is recent footage, we asked the waiters about this and they explained those customers had a problem connecting to the WIFI and demanded the waiters try to help them.

Finally the waiters are walking over to the table to see what the customers would like to order. The majority have not even opened the menu and ask the waiter to wait a bit.

Customer opens the menu, places their hands holding their phones on top of it and continue doing whatever on their phone.

There is more here, interesting throughout, and for the pointer I thank Jacqueline Mason.

Slowest Growing Populations (%, 2000-10)

1 Moldova -13%

2 Georgia -8%

3 #Ukraine-7%

4 Bulg -6%

5 Latvia -6%

6 Lithuania -5%

7 Belarus -5%

That is from here, the most rapidly growing populations are given here, some Gulf states and Africa, both are tweets from Ian Bremmer.

The author of this new and excellent book is my colleague Peter T. Leeson and the subtitle is Why Self-Governance Works Better Than You Think.  Here is one excerpt:

Twenty-two of thirty-seven street gangs Jankowski (1991: 78-82) studied have written constitutions.  Sicilian Mafiosi follow a largely unwritten code of rules, and recently police found a written set of “ten commandments” outlining the Mafia’s core laws…Kaminski (2004) identifies extensive (yet unwritten) rules dictating nearly every aspect of Polish prisoners’ lives, from what words are acceptable to use in greeting a stranger to how and when to use the bathroom.  And the National Gang Crime Research Center considers constitutions so central to criminal societies that the use of a constitution is one of the defining characteristics it uses when classifying gangs…

Peter of course does not favor criminal gangs, rather he seeks social principles for voluntarism and yes perhaps you could call these views a kind of anarchism.  My stance, however, differs from his.

I accept the reductionist argument that government too is a kind of anarchy, since it must rely on norms and internally polycentric and perhaps even ultimately intransitive mechanisms for maintaining order.  There is no “final court of authority” in the practical sense, but rather a series of overlapping constraints which give rise to a spontaneous order of rules and governance, for better or worse.  In this sense anarchy is not an absurd idea at all, and we can imagine many varieties of orderly anarchy, including those in a more libertarian direction.  That said, while I often favor smaller government, when it comes to political philosophy I do not seek to move toward “more anarchy.”  In fact I often admire the relatively centralized governmental structures of Great Britain and New Zealand, with their clean and sharp lines of accountability.

I think modern anarchy would indeed be “orderly,” but I also think that private protection agencies would end up colluding and re-evolving into a form of coercive government (pdf), furthermore in a form that libertarians would find objectionable.  I would much rather have the West’s current democratic governments, for all their imperfections, than a for-profit “shareholder state,” not to mention the transition costs and the uncertainties along the way.  The best thing you can say about a shareholder state is that it might have a better immigration policy.  In the meantime, we are seeking to rebuild the history we have.

Israel’s major problem is that circumstances always change. Predicting the military capabilities of the Arab and Islamic worlds in 50 years is difficult. Most likely, they will not be weaker than they are today, and a strong argument can be made that at least several of their constituents will be stronger. If in 50 years some or all assume a hostile posture against Israel, Israel will be in trouble.

Time is not on Israel’s side. At some point, something will likely happen to weaken its position, while it is unlikely that anything will happen to strengthen its position. That normally would be an argument for entering negotiations, but the Palestinians will not negotiate a deal that would leave them weak and divided, and any deal that Israel could live with would do just that.

What we are seeing in Gaza is merely housekeeping, that is, each side trying to maintain its position. The Palestinians need to maintain solidarity for the long haul. The Israelis need to hold their strategic superiority as long as they can. But nothing lasts forever, and over time, the relative strength of Israel will decline. Meanwhile, the relative strength of the Palestinians may increase, though this isn’t certain.

Looking at the relative risks, making a high-risk deal with the Palestinians would seem prudent in the long run. But nations do not make decisions on such abstract calculations. Israel will bet on its ability to stay strong. From a political standpoint, it has no choice. The Palestinians will bet on the long game. They have no choice. And in the meantime, blood will periodically flow.

There is more here, of interest throughout, via Eric Reguly.

Stocks rose, but ultimately went nowhere on the first day of a busy week that will give us a ton of information about the U.S. economy.

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 16,975.43, +14, (+0.1%)
• S&P 500: 1,978.39, +0.05, (0%)
• Nasdaq: 4,445.92, -3.6, (-0.1%)

And now, the top stories on Monday:

1. In the U.S., pending home sales in June fell 1.1%, an unexpected decrease as economists were expecting sales to rise 0.5%. The pace of sales, however, remains above average according to the National Association of Realtors. "Pending home sales remain below their year-ago levels, but after the upward moves during the three months through May, the y/y declines have become smaller," noted Barclays' Michael Gapen. "This report suggests the rebound in existing home sales following previous weather-related softness is complete, implying less momentum to sales in the third quarter."

2. Markit's "flash" services data for July was unchanged from the prior month at 61, which also beat expectation for a 59.9 reading. Of the report, Markit's economist Tim Moore said, "While a cyclical upswing appears underway across the service sector, the latest survey provides some indication that a smoother ride is not yet fully  entrenched. Service providers saw new business gains slip to a three-month low, while payroll growth moderated since June amid a drop in confidence towards the year-ahead business outlook."

3. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' latest manufacturing survey came in at 12.7, slightly below the 12.8 that was expected but well better than the 11.4 for the prior survey. BI's Rob Wile noted, however, that the Fed's comments reflected a much more uncertain future. "Skilled employee turnover is getting out of control," one manufacturer said. "There are too many employers chasing too few skilled workers."

4. It was a big day for corporate mergers, as Dollar Tree struck a deal to acquire Family Dollar, while Zillow reached a deal to acquire rival Trulia. Dollar Tree agreed to acquire Family Dollar for $74.50 per share, a 23% premium over Friday's closing price for Family Dollar. Shares of Family Dollar closed up more than 24%. The deal also marks a big win for Carl Icahn, who in June took a stake in the discount retailer and urged it to seek a sale. Later in the afternoon, Icahn issued a statement that said he is still hopeful another bid for Family Dollar will emerge. 

5. Zillow agreed to acquire Trulia in an all-stock deal worth about $3.5 billion at current prices. The two online real estate rivals made their merger announcement after a report from Bloomberg last week said that Zillow was seeking to acquire Trulia. Following the deal Trulia shares surged 17%. 

6. Shares of chicken chain El Pollo Loco gained another 36% after gaining 50% in their public debut on Friday. BI's Hayley Peterson noted that some investors believe El Pollo Loco could be the next Chipotle, and so far, investors have acted that way. 

7. A late afternoon report from Japan's Nikkei reported that Tesla has signed a deal with Panasonic to supply the electric carmaker with machinery to stock its first Gigafactory. Tesla shares popped following the news, but closed unchanged. 

8. Some 25 companies are scheduled to make their public debuts this week, which, if this number holds, will mark the busiest week for IPOs since August 2000. 

9. Gunmaker Smith & Wesson agreed to pay $2 million to settle charges from the SEC that the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in efforts to bribe foreign officials to awarded the company weapons contracts. Smith & Wesson did not admit or deny the SEC's findings. 

Don't Miss: Wall Street's Brightest Minds Reveal The Most Important Charts In The World »

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Ever want to get something off your chest, but are a bit too squeamish to just hit "send"? You're in luck.

Meet Leak, a new website that lets you send anonymous emails to your friends, coworkers — even the people you might not like so much.

Anonymous email isn't an entirely new concept, but Leak is hoping to make the experience less creepy and more fun by allowing you to choose the degree of familiarity in how you're attributed. It's a nice nod to the importance of context, and it allows users to send their anonymous note as "a friend," "a coworker," "a family member," "a friend of a friend," or simply "someone."

To send a Leak, you first have to agree to the "Do's and Don'ts" of Leak etiquette, which encourages users to "use anonymity for good" and prohibits people using Leak to bully, harass, spam, threaten, or otherwise take advantage of Leak's anonymity to cause others pain.

But Leak does have its issues.

When we tried sending a Leak to our coworkers, most of the time the email would find its way to their spam folders, and only occasionally to their inbox. For Leak to truly take off, people will need to know their small act of anonymous courage will actually be seen, otherwise there's really no point.

And without Leak, how else could we ever tell people our true feelings?

You can try Leak for yourself here.

Check out these other images, courtesy of Leak.

SEE ALSO: The Inside Story Of 'Timberman,' The Viral Tree-Chopping Arcade Game Whose Creator Still Can't Afford The Train Into Work

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HOW’S THAT RUSSIAN RESET GOING FOR YA, HILLARY? Russians’ Test Called Breach Of Missile Pact. “The United States has concluded that Russia violated a landmark arms control treaty by testing a prohibited ground-launched cruise missile, according to senior American officials, a finding that was conveyed by President Obama to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in a letter on Monday.”

The Russian fear is that we’d scrap the treaty and push new weapons systems. Putin knows that Obama won’t do that, so why stick to the treaty?

As the latest superhero film looms large, some of you may be wondering if there are any comics you should read before seeing Guardians of the Galaxy. Admittedly, Marvel usually does a pretty good job of making films that anyone can enjoy, but if you really want to know what's up, here are five comics that can help you get started.

While the full decriminalization of marijuana in the United States is far from guaranteed, momentum has been building at a fast clip in recent years: Colorado and Washington state have taken the lead, with medical marijuana now legal in nearly two dozen states in total. Now, the editorial board of The New York Times is calling for legalization with an opinion being published in tomorrow's edition. "We reached that conclusion after a great deal of discussion among the members of The Times's Editorial Board, inspired by a rapidly growing movement among the states to reform marijuana laws," it says. The piece — titled "Repeal Prohibition, Again" — compares the state of marijuana use in the US today to that of alcohol during the Prohibition...

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The Simpsons and Family Guy haven't historically been on the best terms. In 2005, a joke on The Simpsons took a dig at the shows' similarities, which Seth MacFarlane said was "definitely a slam." But it appears they've buried the hatchet — mostly.

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jigmypig (3675225) writes "Two patients in South Africa that have had their lives and more specifically their jaws severely affected by cancer, have just received 3D printed jaw implants. The jaws were 3D printed using a laser sintering process that melts powdered titanium, one layer at a time. The process saves a ton of money, and unlike traditional manufacturing of titanium jaws, it doesn't waste any materials. Traditional manufacturing wastes up to 80% of the titanium block used in the process, whereas with 3D printing there is little to no waste at all. This new process also allows for a fully customizable solution. The models are drawn up in CAD software, and then printed out to precisely fit the patient."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes with an unpleasant statistic from France, quoting David Corchia, who heads a service employed by large French news organizations to sift through and moderate comments made on their sites. Quoting YNet News: Corchia says that as an online moderator, generally 25% to 40% of comments are banned. Moderators are assigned with the task of filtering comments in accordance with France's legal system, including those that are racist, anti-Semitic or discriminatory. Regarding the war between the Israelis and Hamas, however, Corchia notes that some 95% of online comments made by French users are removed. "There are three times as many comments than normal, all linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," added Jeremie Mani, head of another moderation company Netino. "We see racist or anti-Semitic messages, very violent, that also take aim at politicians and the media, sometimes by giving journalists' contact details," he added. "This sickening content is peculiar to this conflict. The war in Syria does not trigger these kinds of comments."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

tsu doh nimh (609154) writes KrebsOnSecurity looks at a popular service that helps crooked online marketers exhaust the Google AdWords budgets of their competitors.The service allows companies to attack competitors by raising their costs or exhausting their ad budgets early in the day. Advertised on YouTube and run by a guy boldly named "GoodGoogle," the service employs a combination of custom software and hands-on customer service, and promises clients the ability to block the appearance of competitors' ads. From the story: "The prices range from $100 to block between three to ten ad units for 24 hours to $80 for 15 to 30 ad units. For a flat fee of $1,000, small businesses can use GoodGoogle's software and service to sideline a handful of competitors' ads indefinitely."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

U.S. officials today made public satellite imagery which they say proves that Russian forces have been shelling eastern Ukraine in a campaign to assist rebel groups fighting Ukraine’s government. The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which released the civilian-taken satellite images Sunday, said they show visual evidence that Russia has been firing shells across the border at Ukrainian military forces. Officials also said the images show that Russia-backed separatists have used heavy artillery, provided by Russia, in attacks on Ukrainian forces from inside Ukraine. One image dated July 25/26 shows what DNI claims is “ground scarring” on the Russian side of the border from artillery aimed at Ukrainian military units in Ukraine, as well as the resultant ground craters on the Ukrainian side of the border:

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Holy crap, it's real! As this new video shows, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Pizza Thrower—a full scale 12-foot-long version of the classic toy—actually works, throwing pizzas fast and far enough to actually hurt people with dough, cheese, and pepperoni projectiles. They should really call it the Pizza Tank.

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Early detection is the best tool to fight cancer, but biopsies can be painful and inconclusive. New research shows a simple blood test can detect cancers by blasting white blood cells with UV and seeing how they respond. Painless, universal cancer detection could be a drop of blood away.

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There are lessons for the rest of us in the good news from California.

I'll say right now that I'm not a Halbig guy. That is, I'm more interested in building the substantive case for rolling back and replacing Obamacare than on teasing apart the statute. I have enormous respect for Jonathan Adler and Michael Cannon, both of whom are exceptionally intelligent and public-spirited. But like the University of Chicago's Will Baude, my guru on all things legal and constitutional, I am (at best) agnostic on whether Halbig is correct. What I do find interesting is the possibility that one of the recurring themes of opposition to the health law from the Tea Party
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It seems like 2014 has been an especially bad year for plane safety, with the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the shooting of MH17 over Ukraine, and the recent crashes of TransAsia Airways and Air Algerie planes.

But it's important to remember that thousands of airplanes take off every day. Comparatively speaking, plane crashes are quite rare. Indeed, flying is one of the safest ways to travel, despite the impression you might get from watching CNN.

Here are some of the basics about how frequently crashes happen, when, where, and why.

1) Either almost everyone survives a plane accident or almost no one does

A thorough US government analysis of 1983–2000 plane accidents found that most accidents have really high survival rates of 81 to 100 percent. But in a handful of accidents, just 0 to 20 percent of people survive.

2) Flying is much safer than driving

Joseph Stromberg laid out the case in a recent Vox post: "The data on the risk of driving versus flying commercial is unequivocal. Plane crashes and attacks get a lot of attention, but they're extremely rare, and claim a much lower number of lives on a per-mile basis. . . . In 2012 (also the most recent year for which we have data), zero people died on commercial US flights. This includes international flights by US airlines. (There were 432 deaths on privately flown planes, along with 15 accident-related fatalities on air ambulances and cargo planes.) . . . Even figuring conservatively, the risk of death as a result of from driving a 100 mile trip as compared to flying it is at least an order of magnitude higher."

3) Fear of flying might lead to more deaths on the road

Right after 9/11, people were flying less and driving about 3 percent more. As Joseph Stromberg covered in this story, psychological researcher Gerd Gigerenzer noted that this extra driving was responsible for 353 excess deaths in the three months following 9/11. It's not a huge effect, and it would be interesting to see if it could be picked up following other disasters, too.

In October, November, and December of 2001 (squares), fatal traffic accidents deviated significantly from the five-year average (circles) Gerd Gigerenzer

4) Planes are crashing less often and killing fewer people

The worst year for plane deaths was 1972, according to this International Business Times analysis. The data do tend to fluctuate from year to year, but it's clear that we're not living in the most dangerous time for flying.

5) Deaths per plane passenger have been going down

The Economist did a nice analysis of recent trends and came to this conclusion: "Over the past four decades fatalities on aeroplanes—be it from accidents or terrorism—have declined even as the number of travellers has increased almost ten-fold." This chart also shows that the majority of deaths are because of accidents, not terrorist attacks.

6) At least 88 planes have disappeared since 1948

This count is from the Aviation Safety Network, an independent, private initiative that maintains an extensive database of airliner, military, and corporate accidents across the world. All 88 flights went completely missing without a single trace. "In these cases not a single piece of wreckage, oil slick or body has been found," the site says.

7) Jet planes crash most during takeoff and landing

This Reuters chart shows fatal accidents on commercial jets from 2003 and 2012, and the trend is pretty clear. Even though planes spend a lot of time cruising at high altitude, the most dangerous part is at the very end and very beginning. That's why they're always telling you to put your tray table away.

8) Flying in North America is way safer than in Africa or the former Soviet Union

When crashes are adjusted for the number of flights, North America and Europe are pretty safe places to fly. But, as this Forbes story points out, flying is more dangerous in some African and former Soviet nations.

9) The safest part of the plane might be the back. Or maybe not.

Crash survival rates. Popular Mechanics

In 2007, Popular Mechanics went through 36 years of fatal US crashes to try to find where the people who survived them sat. They concluded that the back of the plane was better. However, because such crashes are so rare, there were only 20 crashes available for analysis. And that makes it unclear if this is just a statistical fluke in a small data set.

The magazine's story also included a quotation from the FAA, which said that there's no way to know which area is safest. But since it's unlikely that sitting in the back will harm you, you may as well go for it if you want.