Can the Senate end the debt-limit standoff?
By Thom Hartmann A...
Over the weekend, House Republicans and President Obama hit a stalemate in fiscal negotiations, and the Senate moved on to work out their own plan. On Saturday, after meeting with the President, House Speaker John Boehner told his party that talks with the White House had broken down. So, Senate leaders immediately started their own negotiations to deal with the government shutdown, and the debt ceiling. But, now there are new disagreements in the upper chamber about what should be offered in exchange for such legislation.
What started out as a fight over Obamacare, has morphed into a debate about the sequester, tax revenues, and cuts to Social Security and Medicare. On CBS's “Face the Nation,” democratic Senator Chuck Schumer explained the proposal, saying, “The plan would be, open up the government immediately for a period of time before the sequester hits, and then have serious discussions where we might be able to undo the sequester.”
However, President Obama already rejected a similar plan offered by House Republicans. That plan would have opened the government, raised the debt ceiling, and replaced the next round of sequester cuts with cuts to Social Security and Medicare. And, it appears unlikely that Senate Republicans will accept a plan that repeals the sequester without equal cuts to another program. Republican Senator Bob Corker said, “I just can't imagine how that has any possibility of becoming law.”
But, at least Senate leaders are still talking, and still working with the White House to find a way to avoid default. As the debate continues, the debt ceiling deadline grows closer, and Americans – and the World – want our lawmakers to end this fight.
Comments
#2
Quote paper:All Your Location are Belong to Us: Breaking
Mobile Social Networks for Automated User
Location Tracking
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Abstract
—Many popular location-based social networks (LB-SNs) support built-in location-based social discovery with hundreds of millions of users around the world. While user (near) realtime geographical information is essential to enable location-based social discovery in LBSNs, the importance of user location privacy has also been recognized by leading real-world LBSNs.
To protect user’s exact geographical location from being exposed, a number of location protection approaches have been adopted by the industry so that only relative location information are publicly disclosed. These techniques are assumed to be secure and are exercised on the daily base. In this paper, we question the safety of these location-obfuscation techniques used by existing LBSNs. We show, for the first time, through real world attacks that they can all be easily destroyed by an attacker with the capability of no more than a regular LBSN user. In particular, by manipulating location information fed to LBSN client app, an ill-intended regular user can easily deduce the exact location information by running LBSN apps as location oracle and performing a series of attacking strategies. We develop an automated user location tracking system and test it on the most popular LBSNs including Wechat, Skout and Momo. We demonstrate its effectiveness and efficiency via a 3 week real-world experiment with 30 volunteers. Our evaluation results show that we could geo-locate a target with high accuracy and can readily recover users’ Top 5 locations. We also propose to use grid reference system and location classification to mitigate the attacks. Our work shows that the current industrial best practices on user location privacy protection are completely broken, and it is critical to address this immediate threat.
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...users’ location traces can leak much information about the individuals’ habits, interests, activities, and relationships as pointed out in [9]. And loss of location privacy can expose users to unwanted advertisement and location-based spams/scams, cause social reputation or economic damage, and make them victims of blackmail or even physical violence.
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..location obfuscation techniques are expected to enable location-based social discovery, while at the same time protect users’ location privacy. And millions of users are made to believe so and thus fail to be conscious about the
potential risk of leaking their location information when using the services.
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...is it possible to make an involuntary localization of a random LBSN user
by exploiting the public available information only? That is, without hacking into the services and using only the client side information that publicly available through the unmodified app of LBSNs, could we accurately localize a random online user of no priori knowledge? Second, could we freely track a particular user within a reasonably short time period? By investigating three most popular LBSN apps (Wechat, Momo and Skout), our answers to these two questions are more than a simple “yes”. Our research findings show that: 1) An attacker could perform a range-free, involuntary user localization with high localization accuracy; 2) Furthermore, it can successfully establish very accurate user location traces.
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... the newly identified attacks pose a serious threat towards the locations privacy of hundreds of millions of LBSN users.
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...the locations reported in LBSN apps honestly reflect mobile users’ real locations, though users’ exact locations are hidden or obfuscated by various location hiding techniques.
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...the localization accuracy of smartphone relies on which kind of location data sources it used. The location data sources (also called as location providers) include: GPS, WiFi, and Cell ID (cell tower), which could achieve the localization accuracy of 10m, 80m and 600m.
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... relying on the above mentioned location privacy hiding techniques may introduce a more dangerous location privacy leaking issues. Due to trust on these location hiding/obfuscating techniques, LBSN users are more willing to share the PROTECTED location information with the potential adversary, which could recover users’ exact location or even traces by using the methodology proposed in this paper.
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#3
I think most of our legislators are far more concerned with pleasing those who provide campaign funds than with us ordinary folks.
#4
All the Riechwing wants is to CUT programs that help the Working Class! We have been cut enough!!! It is time to increase Revenue by Taxing those who have been plundering our nation!
#5
Forgive me for my language but I am so angry I could chew nails and spit horseshoes. Eric Cantor is a litlle dictator who has set himself up to destroy the world.
That f**king asshole Cantor changed the rules of the House the night before the government shutdown on October 1. He is the only one who can allow a vote to resume government operations. He fixed it so that Boehner is helpless. No wonder Boehner hasn't taken a vote to allow the government to resume work. This filthy prick needs to be stopped. Boehner needs to get some balls and tell this little bastard to STFU.
How can one f**king piece of shit be allowed to destroy the economy of the entire planet?
This is the same prick who went to Israel in 2009 and told the leaders to ignore President Obama. He is a f**king traitor and his appointing himself dictator is the last straw. He must be arrested and charged with treason, found guilty and shot by firing squad in front of the Capitol.
Why can't Boner or even the President order them to vote to open the government? Can't the President issue an executive order? Chimp issued hundreds of them. One f**king Nazi should not be allowed to take down the economy of the entire planet. Is he getting even for the Holocaust or does he just detest black people and Americans because we did not take in the Jews from Europe during WWII?
#6
Eric Cantor should not have this power. It is not right. It is like he is a dictator. What about checks and balances? I am horrified and the whole thing, the whole mess. It has affected our family business in a bad way. People don't buy things or order things when the government is doing things like this. These clowns are going to be voted out. I sure hope. Often, though, the replacement person voted in gets a King Complex and becomes just like the others he replaced.
#7
This whole obscene republican caused mess might end up like a South Korean chamber several years ago when all hell broke loose and the house members were hitting each other with chairs. It was total chaos.
#8
I'm thrilled to say I called in today and I'm Proud to be a member. I feel that I need to apologize for talking more than listening. My topic was the Redskins and I was very nervous and wanted to keep it short. I truely feel that there are much better Italians to name a Holiday for and have Parades for than Columbus. There has been many immigrants that have been wronged in America's short history. There has been lots of attention given to slavery and it caused a Civil War! Mexico once owned the western half of the US and Evil men took it from them and I'm certain it burns in their hearts and we owe them too! Japenese Americans were put into internment camps during WWII, but NONE compare to the Crimes perpatrated on the Indigenous Tribes of America!!! They Still live on Reservations and suffer from health issues caused by Poverty and Abuse! As I write this they are Prisoners of Capitalism and NOT FREE!!! The government is poisoning their water, feeding them GMO food and poisoning them with Drugs and Alcohol and it NEEDS TO STOP!!! Our history books described them as savages, but WE were the Savages! They are a Dignified and Honorable People, they have Elders(real leaders) and honor family. They Worship Nature, Land, Water, Air, Sun and Moon and we call them savages, We're Savages, squandering resourses and chasing Money! American Indians NEVER wasted anything, they grew crops, they killed to eat and cooked the meat, made cloths from pelts and tools from bone, made medicine from plants and prayed for them all!!! They TRUELY HONORED their dead and I have NOTHING BUT REVERENCE FOR THEIR RIGHTEOUS CULTURE!!! We should model our culture after their's and I wish they would run for Congress and FIX this Disaster of a government! It's Their Country, WE SHOULD LET THEM RUN IT, then we would have REAL LEADERS that are Brave and Honorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#9
John The Union Carpenter ~ You said it, and you said it well. We would do wonders to pattern our society after the Gemeinschaft American Indian model. We would also do well with American Indian elders in charge as well.
It is amazing how our history about Columbus, Native Americans, Pilgrims, and the founding of the country has been warped in our school history books. Here is an informative and humorous recount of real history and how truly noble the Native American nation was prior to European incursion. It also tells how the Vikings discovered America far before the Europeans did and how the Native Americans made quick work of them far before their society was devastated by a plague. Interesting reading:
6 Ridiculous Lies You Believe About The Founding Of America
http://www.cracked.com/article_19864_6-ridiculous-lies-you-believe-about-founding-america.html
#10
Loren Bliss ~ Well said! I hope you are wrong. I wish I could disagree, but I had a minor "procedure" performed this morning and the anesthesia is still clouding my thoughts. On the way home from the hospital I vaguely remember seeing two gentlemen on the opposing corners of one busy intersection with banners around their necks that said something on the order of, "Now is the time to pray! May God save America!" The banners had red, white and blue trim on them. I was too groggy at the time to make much of it; but, now after hearing you Loren, I think they probably had the same nightmare.
Too hard to think right now. Therefore, I'm just going to respectfully bow out of this one and hit the sack early. Good night, everyone. Thanks for the contribution, Loren! Have a great day; and, may God help us all.
#11
The eve of destruction -- that's where I think we are, just as it said in that old Barry McGuire song from the 1960s.
Obviously the Republicans (and let us not forget their nine Democrat allies) intend to keep the government shut down and use the debt ceiling to crash the treasury like a bad bank by forcing it into international default.
Just as obvious, particularly because this crisis has been on the horizon since 2011, is the fact the president and his advisors are either too incompetent -- or too cleverly part of the conspiracy -- to have developed any effective countermeasures.
The only question is how bad things will get. Will the military, which is now a subset of the Republican Party and its JesuNazi fringe, stage a coup? Will the generals declare the U.S. a Christian theocracy and order their troops to begin the methodical extermination of all unbelievers? Will the generals then turn national governance over to a committee of corporate executives? (I had a terrifying nightmare recently in which all those things happened.)
Or will the country merely fall apart, dividing itself into maybe five separate republics, with the few humanitarian-minded realms -- New York City, the New England states, California from San Francisco north, Oregon, parts of Western Washington, parts of Alaska, all the First Nations reservations -- trying to muddle through as best they can?
Assuming Congress and the president hurl the nation into default -- and I am increasingly convinced that is their intent -- we can assume at the very least that life as we knew it is forever finished, and that -- unless we are part of the One Percent and its Ruling Class -- we will all soon be living the infinitely miserable lives of refugees and serfs. Social Security checks, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, all those programs will end. Many of us, myself included, will soon die, whether from starvation or by deprivation of medical care -- which is precisely what the One Percent intends.
If default happens, what was last week a relatively peaceful nation will next week be the largest Darwinian zoo on Planet Earth, as one thing the moral imbeciles of Moron Nation's moronic majority are congenitally incapable of doing is working cooperatively for mutual well-being.
If there is no default, you can be sure the carefully scripted so-called "bargain" that avoids it will include calculatedly murderous cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all other socioeconomic programs. Indeed it may be this entire succession of crises -- the sequester, now the debt ceiling -- is merely a Machiavellian charade staged by the One Party of Two Names to impose maximum austerity on a population too stupid to resist.
Either way, default or not, think of it as "cleansing" -- socioeconomic rather than ethnic -- but every bit as deliberately genocidal as the Holocaust itself.
As Sir Winston Churchill said on the eve of the Battle of Britian, "only a miracle can save us now."
#12
"It's unlikely that Teapublicans will accept a plan that repeals the sequester without equal cuts to other programs." Well good for them, they want more social safety net cuts to make up for their unfunded wars and tax cuts for billionaires. All pretty wishful thinking for a party that's staggering around trying to avoid the inevitable knockout punch headed their way. Thank you Teabaggers!
Anyway, why are we even talking about safety net cuts when the Democrats are clearly in the drivers seat? In fact I have an idea for the Democrats, instead of Tommy Reed's House debt clock, how about the dems put up a clock showing the massive cost of the Bush-Era tax cuts for the top 5%? From 2001 until 2011 it was at $1,034,424,338,581 ........ and the only thing that has trickled down is poison tea. Better yet, let's have the clock include all of the cost of tax cuts since the Reagan period. For gods sake, when will the Dems go on offense?.....it's time my polite friends. And it's high time for the Teabaggers to put down their Soldier of Fortune magazines and leave town.
By the way, did the Washington police tear gas and arrest the protestors who were vandalizing and pushing through the barriers at the WWII memorial?.....or is that just reserved for young people with huge college debt and no jobs? I'll bet anything all of those old people at the protest are living on Social Security. Too bad they don't realize that Palin and Kruz-control want to cut it....damn entitlement that it is! .
#13
The Tea Party faction of the Republican Party pulling the strings of their dummy, House Speaker Boehner, could not get away with their shutting down the Government without the help of the Corporate News. On CBS “Face The Nation”, Democratic Senator Schumer talked in “code mode” so not to offend the Republicans, then Republican Senator McCain spewed outright lies about the Democrats “moving the goal post” against agreement. Since there was no rebuttal from Senator Schumer, Republican Senator McCain wins.
#14
Loren Bliss: Many years ago I had the pleasure of watching Jorma Kaukonen and his Hot Tuna band do a fine cover of The Eve of Destruction at a small bar. I'll never forget it.....funny thing is I found the song to be quite uplifting, and I don't believe my friend that we are on the eve of destruction. In fact I believe we are on the eve of transition to economic and social equality in this fine country. We can win this class war, Reagan/ Koch and company started, trust me!
#15
Like Loren Bliss sad, I fear destroying America is republcans plan (and 9-democrats).. Interesting that Osama couldn't do it, but was able to manipulate the GOP into cooperating, reacting with 10-years of war that has hurt our economy to the point where drowning our government in the bath tub is possible (a reference to a republican strategist during reagans time, g norquist I believe).. Now I see republicans Publicly protesting the shutdown. This didn't make any sense at first, until I realized that the Republican voter base will swallow anything. They are trying to make it look like Obama cost shutdown. The way I understand govt, the republicans do not have the votes to implement their agenda, and so this s a misuse of their govt power (can they be sued because f the oath office?.). This is clearly fascism, since the people overwhelmingly are in favor of health care for all, Medicare, social security., but the republicans (and 9-democrats.. Can I have a list please), are fighting hard to implement what corporations want. Fascism.
#16
"Can the Senate end the debt-limit standoff?"
Do they want to?
Perhaps we are seeing a warped reaction against the oligarchic system from within. I'm just shooting the breeze here but what if the "teabaggers" in the House of Representatives subconsciously feel that something is truly rotten in the State but don't yet realize they were Koch-opted a long time ago.
Maybe it is just intra-elite squabbling that will end with a last minute compromise once elected officials see the opinion polls!
Or it is all Kabuki theatre to force through a default? God knows why.
#17
I'm sick of hearing about the sick, poor and elderly picking up the tab. The rich pay their dues to get their way. The world is not enough. Unstoppable. Richest country on Earth? Bull! It's richest minority on Earth. Bought and paid for. Nobody can stop it. Nobody that can wants to.
#18
This may turn out to be the endgame of the Wanniski "Two Santa Clauses" strategy (often cited by Thom), which has served the Republicans quite well ever since the election of Ronald Reagan. The problem for its authors and underwriters is that now that their long-sought-after Grover-Norquist moment ("drowning the government in a bathtub") has been reached, there's an ominous and unexpected shudder coming from all over the hull of the vessel, trembling the walls of their finely appointed offices and executive suites ("What's that creepy sound, Mitch, John, Rush, Sean, Eric, Roger, Karl, Grover? Surely not the creaking, groaning or growling of twisting steel or the rifle shot of a shearing bolt, is it? Nah, no way -- let's get on with business."). All along they've envisioned "winning" somehow, ushering in a Randian paradise, when the outcome of the game may instead be a social convulsion that occurs with astonishing rapidity and which no one, not even the Masters of the Universe, can foresee or control. Sure, it'll be "the Democrats and liberals' fault," but that oft-repeated cant will be slender compensation, come judgment day. When Reagan rolled out that line about government being the problem, not the solution, he was speaking on behalf of his billionaire sponsors, a group unaccustomed to hearing anything but lavish praise for their "genius" from the packs of toadies -- all brilliant biz and law school grads -- they employ as their inner circle. If government would just "get out of the way," their spokesmouths would say with a smile (notice the perfect teeth) then we'd all ride the rising tide of an economic boom. Well, some of us would, anyway. I think that not even they fully understood the implications of what they were saying. For them, it meant deregulation of everything and a march backward to the bathtub-gin days of the Gilded Age, which for them was a very good time indeed, or even further, into feudalism, in which the pain-in-the-ass voice of we the people could be shut down for good. In fact, we -- they -- may soon find that disintegration of the United States and its currency leaves even the well-heeled princes and barons of the Chamber of Commerce and all the lords and ladies of Congress, as well as the horde of corporate courtiers, the lobbyists, gripping the free-spinning wheel of a rudderless Titanic. If that happens, then in spite of all their vast resources, they and their friends in the Grand Ballroom will come rushing to the deck, only to find that the life raft they always assumed would be theirs has already departed.
#19
This looks like Kabuki Theater again.
Despite all the HIGH DRAMA along party lines, the Corporatist Republicans and Corporatist Democrats share the same goals including walking away with the public's wealth in all its forms -- real estate property (like our homes), public infrastructure (like the Post Office's buildings), public wealth (through PRIVATIZATION), future stipends (like employee retirement accounts).
Obama was given a number of tasks by the Elite who chose his candidacy, and getting ahold of Social Security was one of those tasks. All this drama is about doing that, imo.
Dubya failed to get it done.
And Clinton failed to get it done. [SEE "How Monica Lewisky Saved Social Security" -- http://www.counterpunch.org/2004/10/30/how-monica-lewinsky-saved-social-... ]
But now Obama is going for it, under the cover of bickering buffoonery and the ever growing emergencies created by that bickering buffoonery.
#20
Nora, I really like your posts. You sound like someone who's paying attention. But I pray that you're wrong about Obama's motives regarding Social Security. I'm not saying you are; I just hope you are. - AIW
#21
"I'm sick of hearing about the sick, poor and elderly picking up the tab" says Willie W, and "The rich pay their dues to get their way". Rrrrright! And the world is flat, too. Go soak your head, Willie! - AIW
#22
John Best says "Forgive me for my language but I am so angry I could chew nails and spit horseshoes." and "One f**king Nazi should not be allowed to take down the economy of the entire planet." And I just want you to know you're not alone. I feel your rage. - AIW
#23
Alice...
Rage is a hopeless, lost, desperate emotion
Seems to reflect American people in general regarding current circumstance
To me... the underlying question is how can America serve dollar 16.3 trillion debt???
The rich have still not got the picture have they!!!
Thy separate themselves from the rest without any realization
If no one else has anything neither can they have anything
#24
And deport Ted Cruz back to Canada. Both Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan have gotten even worse since Cruz popped onto the scene.
#25
Marsh - AGREED! We've enough of these toadies here already without more imported from Canada.
#26
This may have been in the news a couple of years ago but I sure never heard of it before.
A law suit claims that AT&T knowingly helped Nigerian Scammers in bilking US taxpayers out of as much as 95% of the funds (millions of dollars) for the Deaf Person's assistance program. AT&T was getting as much as $1.30 per minute for the "calls". Deaf People (but it was mostly abused by Nigerian Scammers) would use a TTY to type out instructions for an employee to pass along the orders for goods and services and the employee would verbally phone vendors the orders. The person who took the orders learned of the scam and she reported it to her supervisor. But the employee was fired for not going along with the scam and then she became a whistleblower which has led to the law suit against AT&T. How low can these Welfare Corporations (cf: Reagan's Welfare Queens) go and they want to make us all think that the Social Programs are what is causing economic problems.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15693
http://live.wsj.com/video/suit-claims-att-billed-us-for-nigerian-scam/94...
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
Thom & Louise at a "private audience" with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at his summer palace, Castle Gandolfo, Italy
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"Beneath the success and rise of American enterprise is an untold history that is antithetical to every value Americans hold dear. This is a seminal work, a godsend really, a clear message to every citizen about the need to reform our country, laws, and companies."
From Screwed:
"If we are going to live in a Democracy, we need to have a healthy middle class. Thom Hartmann shows us how the ‘cons’ have wronged this country, and tells us what needs to be done to reclaim what it is to be American."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him."
I believe that much of what is now going on in government..ie: the shutdown...is a wag-the-dog ploy to detract from the highly illegal and immoral gestapo practice of spying on everyone in addition to the move to defund the social programs. In addition, they have been assassinating people, even children, on the streets and in their homes...killing thousands of innocent people along with their assassination targets.
So if the government is setting an example...then perhaps they may be influencing a number of people to follow in their footsteps. Could there be citizens inspired to use the same kind of assassination tactics that "our" government uses....even using drones? Drones are not terribly complicated to build in a garage. They wouldn't necessarily be as high tech, or reusable, as "our" government's weapons. But, wouldn't it be just as ethical (or non ethical) as what our government is doing around the world?
Here's an article that has been removed from it's original web site but saved and displayed for all to read on the cryptome.org web site: "Assassination Politics" by Jim Bell
http://cryptome.org/ap.htm
And here is a blog where they discuss "Assassination Politics". And, of course, it is not just about how to handle corrupt politicians but corrupt ruling elite as well. I don't subscribe to these things, of course, but it may be something that would do well to sit in the minds of these overly greedy kochroaches.
http://cryptome.org/2013/10/ap-ycombinator-13-1014-0944.htm