| 'I'm done with him': Nancy Pelosi reacts to Donald Trump's comments she is 'nasty ... horrible person' Posted: 11 Jun 2019 11:01 AM PDT  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says a D-Day celebration in Normandy, France was an inappropriate venue for President Donald Trump to hurl insults at her.
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| US Catholic bishops convene to confront sex-abuse crisis Posted: 11 Jun 2019 02:28 PM PDT  How the bishops confront the problem "will determine in many ways the future vibrancy of the church and whether or not trust in your leadership can be restored," Francesco Cesareo, an academic who chairs a national sex-abuse review board set up by the bishops, said as the four-day gathering began. Key proposals on the agenda call for compassionate pastoral care for abuse victims, a new abuse reporting system, and a larger role for lay experts in holding bishops accountable. Votes on the proposals are expected on Wednesday and Thursday. The deliberations will be guided by a new law that Pope Francis issued on May 9.
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| NASA’s about to test a safer rocket fuel for the first time ever Posted: 11 Jun 2019 06:03 PM PDT  The fuel that powers most spacecraft today is incredibly toxic to living organisms. That's normally not a big issue when you're sending something into space, but it can still pose some risks if a mishap results in a spacecraft crashing back down to Earth. It's also a major obstacle for engineers who work closely with space-bound hardware on a daily basis.NASA thinks it might have a fix for all of this in the form of a new, "green" fuel alternative that swaps highly toxic hydrazine with a new formulation that much safer and, as it turns out, even more powerful than modern rocket fuels.As NASA explains in a new blog post, the new, pinkish-colored fuel is a whole lot safer for engineers to handle. Handling the toxic hydrazine requires significant precautions, including gloves, full body suits, and even oxygen masks. The greener fuel alternative still needs to be handled with care but doesn't require the same incredibly strict rules as its predecessor.The benefit for NASA and other space groups is that the fueling process could be done earlier in the procedures leading up to a launch, not to mention cheaper. As an added bonus, the new, safer fuel is roughly 50 percent more efficient than the more toxic option, giving spacecraft more freedom to maneuver or travel greater distances with the same amount of fuel.The first in-space test of the new fuel will come later this month when SpaceX will launch NASA's Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) satellite. The spacecraft will give NASA the ability to test the fuel and determine whether it's a viable option for future missions. If all goes well, the new propellant could be the next standard in rocket fuel, offering increased safety and greater efficiency.
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| NY Times says reporter's credentials revoked by Iran Posted: 10 Jun 2019 02:01 PM PDT  The New York Times said Monday Iran has revoked the credentials of its Tehran correspondent, leaving him unable to work for the past four months. The newspaper said it went public with news on its reporter Thomas Erdbrink amid speculation on social media and with his absence notable in recent weeks as tensions have risen between Washington and Tehran. The Times said Iran's Foreign Ministry had offered assurances that Erdbrink's credentials would be restored but have offered no explanation for the delay or for why it was revoked.
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| FAA says has no timetable for Boeing 737 MAX's return to service Posted: 12 Jun 2019 07:55 AM PDT  FAA spokesman Greg Martin said the agency has "no timetable" for allowing the 737 MAX to resume flying and will act "only when it is safe to return to service". Bloomberg reported earlier that the troubled 737 MAX aircraft will be back in the air by December, citing a top Federal Aviation Administration safety official. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and has not given a timeline on when the planes would be back in service.
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| Grandmother of dad who killed 5 kids asks to spare his life Posted: 10 Jun 2019 06:07 PM PDT  The father and grandmother of a man who killed his five children asked a jury on Monday to spare his life for the slayings because their family has seen so much death and sadness. Roberta Thornsberry testified that along with losing her five great-grandchildren after Timothy Jones Jr. killed them in their Lexington home in 2014, she has also had to deal with untimely deaths of other children and grandchildren. Defense lawyer Casey Secor asked her if the jury should sentence her grandson to death for killing her five great-grandchildren.
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| Rep. Ilhan Omar filed joint tax returns before she married husband Posted: 11 Jun 2019 04:07 PM PDT  Minnesota campaign finance officials said last week that Rep. Ilhan Omar misused campaign funds in violation of state rules. They also revealed that she had filed joint tax returns with her husband years before they were legally married and at a time when she was married to another man.
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| House Dems Authorize New Powers to Take Trump World Figures to Court Posted: 11 Jun 2019 01:33 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos GettyThe House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to give Congress the option to go to court against Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in order to obtain documents related to Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The measure passed the chamber 229 to 191 along party lines. The vote comes as the Department of Justice has just started providing more Mueller-related material to lawmakers following contentious negotiations. It had been anticipated on Capitol Hill for some time as a so-called "contempt" citation in response to Barr's failure to turn over certain Mueller documents and McGahn's failure to appear for testimony in May. But on Monday, the House Judiciary Committee and the Department of Justice announced an agreement that allows lawmakers to begin reviewing some of the documents they want to see. Both sides welcomed the development, and Democrats said they would not immediately be taking Barr to court.But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said that Tuesday's vote provides Democrats with a failsafe if his committee again reaches an impasse with the DOJ. "If the department proceeds in good faith and we are able to obtain everything that we need, then there will be no need to take further steps," said Nadler in a statement. "If important information is held back, then we will have no choice but to enforce our subpoena in court and consider other remedies."Language included in the resolution has other implications for Democrats' future oversight efforts: it gives committee chairs the authority to launch legal proceedings against administration officials who do not comply with subpoenas. That will expedite Democrats' efforts to obtain documents and testimony by making it unnecessary to stage votes in the full House to enforce their subpoenas. The resolution also allows lawmakers to sue to obtain grand jury information collected in Mueller's probe, material that is redacted in the public report and of great interest to Democrats.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Lean, mean, grass-cutting machine: Honda breaks record for fastest lawnmower acceleration Posted: 11 Jun 2019 08:58 AM PDT  It only took Honda's Mean Mower V2 6.29 seconds to go from zero to 100 and beat the Guinness World Record for the fastest acceleration of a lawn mower.
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| Did Donald Trump Inadvertently Reveal a Secret Mexico Deal? Posted: 11 Jun 2019 12:51 PM PDT  President Donald Trump may have an agreement with Mexico to commit to more "burden-sharing" on the handling of refugees.
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| The Moon’s largest crater is hiding something, and astronomers don’t know what Posted: 11 Jun 2019 11:09 AM PDT  Compared to other bodies in our Solar System, Earth's moon isn't particularly huge. However, its relatively small size belies one of its most interesting features, which is a colossal crater measuring over 1,500 miles across. Now, researchers believe the crater, which forms a huge basin on the far side of the Moon near its south pole, is hiding something.In a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers reveal the discovery of a huge mass hiding beneath the crater. An incredibly dense area under the lunar surface was detected with gravitational sensors, pointing to the presence of something massive lurking below.Before you go imagining a mysterious subterranean civilization of Moon Men hiding out below the lunar surface, that's not exactly what scientists have in mind. Instead, the researchers believe the dense mass is actually leftover material from the object that struck the Moon and created the colossal crater."One of the explanations of this extra mass is that the metal from the asteroid that formed this crater is still embedded in the Moon's mantle," lead author of the paper, Peter B. James, Ph.D., said in a statement. "Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. That's roughly how much unexpected mass we detected."It's an incredibly large mass of something, but the asteroid metal theory isn't the only idea being floated. Another possibility is that the dense mass is a buildup of material still left over from when the Moon's hot liquid rock cooled after formation.With humans headed back to the Moon sooner rather than later, the crater could be an interesting location for further study, though NASA and other space-faring organizations already have plenty of scientific objectives on their plates. Still, it sure would be neat to see what's down there.
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| Joe Biden vows to 'cure cancer' if he is elected president Posted: 12 Jun 2019 02:47 AM PDT  Joe Biden has vowed to "cure cancer" if he is elected as president.The Democratic hopeful made the bold pledge at a 2020 election campaign rally in Iowa.The former vice-president, whose son died of brain cancer in 2015, told supporters on Tuesday: "I promise you if I'm elected president you're going to see the single most important thing that changes America. We're going to cure cancer."His words were met with cheers and applause at the event in the city of Ottumwa.Improving cancer care has long been a focus of Mr Biden, whose eldest son Beau battled the disease for years before his death at the age of 46.During his time in Barack Obama's administration, Mr Biden unveiled a "cancer moonshot" agenda with a stated ambition of making "a decade's worth of advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, in five years".After leaving office in 2017, he established the non-profit Biden Cancer Initiative as "a response to the lack of a cohesive, comprehensive and timely approach to cancer prevention".Mr Biden's vow to end cancer unsurprisingly raised eyebrows on social media, where some accused him of giving people "false hope". There are more than 100 types of cancer and it is unlikely scientists could establish a single cure for them all.Science journalist and geneticist Rob Arthur said Mr Biden's vow was a "lofty goal but a dumb thing to promise". He added: "There is not and for the foreseeable future cannot be a single 'cure for cancer'. Cancer is an incredibly heterogeneous disease – breast cancer is not like brain cancer is not like leukaemia, and no cure would work on all of them."Others wanted Mr Biden to instead focus his attention on pursuing universal healthcare for Americans."My grandpa is dying of cancer right now and can't live with my grandma anymore because their insurance won't cover mixed-care living facilities," wrote one Twitter user. "Curing cancer is completely irrelevant if that cure is locked away within the current healthcare system."But some defended Mr Biden and said his vow was "obviously personal for him" and "clearly aspirational".Journalist Sam Stein tweeted: "There's plenty to go after Biden about. But his pledge/promise to cure cancer doesn't strike me as one of them."Some polls have put Mr Biden as favourite to oust Donald Trump from the White House, with recent Quinnipiac surveys suggesting the Democrat could beat the president by as much as 13 per cent.
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| Photos of the 2020 BMW 3-Series Wagon Posted: 12 Jun 2019 08:29 AM PDT |
| Planned Parenthood sues U.S. to block rule that may limit abortions Posted: 11 Jun 2019 11:04 AM PDT  Planned Parenthood and other nonprofits offering family planning services sued the Trump administration on Tuesday to block a new federal rule letting healthcare workers refuse abortions and other services because of religious or moral objections. The two lawsuits filed in Manhattan federal court said enforcing the "conscience" rule would encourage discrimination against women, minorities, the poor, the uninsured, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people by curbing access to legal healthcare procedures, including life-saving treatments. The plaintiffs also include Planned Parenthood of Northern New England Inc, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and Public Health Solutions Inc. The American Civil Liberties Union represents the latter two nonprofits.
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| House bill would help media companies bargain with Facebook and Google Posted: 11 Jun 2019 02:28 PM PDT  A House panel held its first hearing Tuesday to consider legislation that would attempt to give news companies great power to negotiate with major social and search platforms like Facebook and Google.
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| 'Bad for business': Executives from major companies sign joint letter against abortion bans Posted: 10 Jun 2019 10:18 AM PDT  Nearly 200 CEOs signed a letter opposing laws that restrict access to abortion. The executives said they represented more than 108,000 workers.
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| Southern Baptists combat sex abuse as critics rally Posted: 12 Jun 2019 06:48 AM PDT  Confronting an unprecedented sex-abuse crisis, delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention's national meeting voted Tuesday to make it easier to expel churches that mishandle abuse cases. The Rev. J.D. Greear, president of the nation's largest Protestant denomination, said the SBC faced a "defining moment" that would shape the church for generations to come. "This is not a distraction from the mission," Greear said of the fight against sex abuse.
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| GOP Rep. Justin Amash leaves far-right Freedom Caucus he helped found Posted: 11 Jun 2019 07:19 AM PDT  Amash was the first GOP lawmaker to call for Trump's impeachment, and he has been an outspoken libertarian voice during his four terms in Congress.
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| Fourth American reported dead at Dominican Republic resort in past two months Posted: 11 Jun 2019 11:03 AM PDT  A fourth American tourist has been reported dead at a Dominican Republicresort in the past two months, according to Fox News
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| Ford recalls 1.2 million Explorer SUVs for potential steering problem Posted: 12 Jun 2019 07:18 AM PDT  Ford Motor Co said on Wednesday it is recalling 1.2 million Explorer sport utility vehicles in the United States for a potential suspension defect that could lead to reduced steering control. The second largest U.S. automaker said the recall covers 2011-2017 model year Explorers that could experience a fractured rear suspension toe link that could increase the risk of a crash. Ford said one customer reported hitting a curb when the toe link broke but it not aware of any reports of injury.
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| Jason Chaffetz calls John Dean hearing a 'terrible embarrassment' for the House Judiciary Committee Posted: 11 Jun 2019 04:59 AM PDT  Special Counsel Robert Mueller has nothing on President Trump and that leaves Chairman Nadler with an empty bag, former lawmaker Jason Chaffez says after Democrats bring in ex-Nixon aide John Dean to testify.
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| A furious Jon Stewart tells Congress to support 9/11 first responders: 'It's an embarrassment' Posted: 11 Jun 2019 12:40 PM PDT  The former host of "The Daily Show" wins praise from members of the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution.
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| NASA wants to commercialize the International Space Station, and make heaps of cash doing it Posted: 10 Jun 2019 07:05 PM PDT  NASA has big plans for its immediate future, including missions to Mars and of course the Moon 2024 effort that was completely unaccounted for in the most recent federal budget. When it comes to science, funding can be hard to come by, and many of NASA's projects are pricey.So, in the hopes of generating additional revenue that it can then use for its own scientific research efforts, NASA just announced a new effort to embrace commercial interests and open up the International Space Station to private business. New opportunities for commercial visits to the ISS are expected to come swiftly, with pricing already being hashed out.At present, NASA doesn't have the cash it needs to make it to the Moon in 2024. The agency was recently given a mandate from the current administration to return humans to the lunar surface within five years, and despite how shortsighted that request was, NASA has been doing its best to generate support for the cause. Lawmakers have yet to allocate the additional funds NASA requested to make the mission a reality, and it's unclear when (or if) that might occur.So, with its wallet lighter than ever, NASA will now sell access to the ISS, an orbiting laboratory where companies can conduct their own research without needing NASA astronauts to do it for them.Here's NASA's own description of its decision to commercialize the space station:> This effort is intended to broaden the scope of commercial activity on the space station beyond the ISS National Lab mandate, which is limited to research and development. A new NASA directive will enable commercial manufacturing and production and allow both NASA and private astronauts to conduct new commercial activities aboard the orbiting laboratory. The directive also sets prices for industry use of U.S. government resources on the space station for commercial and marketing activities.NASA says it's limiting its own "allocation of crew resources and cargo capability" in order to make room for private companies. This includes "90 hours of crew time and 175 kg of cargo launch capability" that it will now sell to whoever is willing to pay.At present, NASA envisions at least two "short-duration private astronaut missions" to the ISS each year. Everything about the missions will be privately funded and will follow NASA's guidelines for its Commercial Crew Program.
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| The Latest: Detroit man tied to deaths, assaults arraigned Posted: 10 Jun 2019 11:07 AM PDT  A Detroit man being held in connection with the deaths of three women has been arraigned on sexual assault charges in a separate case police say is connected to the slayings. Thirty-four-year-old Deangelo Martin was arraigned Monday on charges of criminal sexual conduct and assault with intent to murder. Martin, who has no attorney, was returned to the Wayne County Jail.
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| Get Your Dad a Pizza Oven, but Make It High Design Posted: 11 Jun 2019 02:25 PM PDT |
| Biden’s slow rollout rankles Iowa Dems Posted: 10 Jun 2019 03:50 PM PDT  "If Joe Biden wants to remain 12 points or 15 points ahead then he's got to start to pull out the stops, and start meeting and greeting and saying hello," said one party leader.
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| Dominican Republic faces tourist backlash after David Ortiz shooting, multiple deaths Posted: 11 Jun 2019 09:17 AM PDT  The Dominican Republic has been in the news for all the wrong reasons — and it's concerning potential tourists.
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| Trump-bashing gets physical at China tech show Posted: 11 Jun 2019 07:57 PM PDT  It might be the most low-tech item at a Shanghai consumer electronics fair, but a bash-able Donald Trump is eliciting perhaps the most physical reaction from visitors amid his tech-and-tariff war with China. A kiosk at the centre of the Consumer Electronics Show Asia (CES Asia) bills itself as a "stress-relief" station where you can smash a life-sized bobble-head likeness of the US president with a hammer. The trade show, which is organised by the US Consumer Technology Association (CTA), opened this week under the shadow of the escalating trade war.
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| Mexico may consider U.S. 'safe third country' demand after 45 days Posted: 11 Jun 2019 04:46 PM PDT ![Mexico may consider U.S. 'safe third country' demand after 45 days]( "Mexico may consider U.S. 'safe third country' demand after 45 days") Mexico's government will consider legislation to accommodate U.S. demands to make Mexico a so-called safe third country for asylum seekers if it cannot stem migration flows in 45 days, Mexico's foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday. Ebrard said Mexico had agreed to consider a change in its legislation during talks with U.S. officials last week to avert the threat of U.S. tariffs on Mexican goods.
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| We Can Now Show You What Boeing's F-35 Would Have Looked Like Posted: 10 Jun 2019 06:00 PM PDT  One of the main reasons why Lockheed Martin's design was selected over Boeing's was because the X-32's direct lift system—which uses engine thrust to lift the aircraft—is prone to pop stalls. That's a phenomenon where hot exhaust gases are reingested into the engine causing a power loss. There were also questions as to whether the engine would be powerful enough to lift a fully operational F-32—the prototype had to have parts removed to ensure it would fly. It probably didn't help Boeing's case that it had to redesign the X-32 to meet the modified JSF requirements. An operational F-32 had a very different configuration from the X-32.On October 26, 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that Lockheed Martin's X-35 had won the Joint Strike Fighter contest over Boeing's X-32.(This first appeared in late 2015.)The win secured Lockheed's future as the manufacturer for all of America's fifth-generation fighter platforms. But Lockheed's resultant F-35 has suffered myriad delay, technical glitches, unrecoverable technical shortfalls and massive cost overruns. Already the largest ever defense program with an estimated price tag of $233 billion in 2001 for a total of 2,866 aircraft, the F-35 program is now estimated to cost more than $391 billion for 2,457 jets, according to the Government Accountability Office.
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| Lordy! 2005 Lexus IS300 Is Powered By Toyota's 2JZ-GTE Turbo Unit Posted: 10 Jun 2019 02:25 PM PDT  This 2005 Lexus IS300 is unlike most. Unless you are proficient in the way of Lexus, the IS300 appears rather bland. While it could be argued that the Lexus IS300 would only ever appeal to a limited audience –screaming of low market value versus high running and repair costs – we believe the vehicle's time is coming.
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| $1.6B pipeline proposed to move North Dakota crude oil Posted: 11 Jun 2019 05:50 PM PDT ![$1.6B pipeline proposed to move North Dakota crude oil]( "$1.6B pipeline proposed to move North Dakota crude oil") Two companies are proposing a $1.6 billion pipeline to move North Dakota crude oil, making it the biggest such project to move oil out of the state since the Dakota Access pipeline that sparked violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement in 2016 and 2017. Houston-based Phillips 66 and Casper, Wyoming-based Bridger Pipeline announced the joint venture called Liberty Pipeline on Monday. It's designed to move 350,000 barrels of oil daily — the bulk of which from western North Dakota's oil patch — to the nation's biggest storage terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma.
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| Amazon dethrones Google as top global brand: survey Posted: 10 Jun 2019 10:41 PM PDT  US retail giant Amazon has moved past hi-tech titans Apple and Google to become the world's most valuable brand, a key survey showed Tuesday. The brand value of Amazon surged by 52 percent to $315 billion, global market research agency Kantar said in its 2019 100 Top BrandZ report. Amazon jumped from third to first place to eclipse Google -- which slid from first to third place with Apple holding on to the second spot.
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| Stranger Accused of Breaking into Family's Apartment to Take Little Girl Posted: 11 Jun 2019 09:05 AM PDT  Indiana police arrested a man accused of breaking into an apartment and trying to take a little girl.
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| Trump promises Kim Jong Un protection from CIA spying Posted: 11 Jun 2019 11:40 AM PDT  The president once again lavished praise on Kim Jong Un while attacking former Vice President Joe Biden.
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| World must not 'sleepwalk' into war, Macron says in speech on reforming capitalism Posted: 11 Jun 2019 08:34 AM PDT  The world is going through a profound crisis and could be on the brink of a time of war, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a speech on Tuesday, calling for a global effort to address the dangers of inequality, unchecked technology and climate change. In a speech to mark the centenary of the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Macron called for universal social protection and compensation for people whose livelihoods were threatened by technological and environmental change.
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| Today’s top deals: $13 LED smart bulbs, $25 true wireless earbuds, $10 Anker wireless charger, $249 iPad, more Posted: 11 Jun 2019 07:33 AM PDT  You're not going to believe how good the deals are in Tuesday's daily deals roundup. Highlights include multi-color LED smart light bulbs for $13 that are just as good as $50 Philips Hue bulbs, wildly popular true wireless earbuds for an all-time low price of $25.49 when you use the exclusive coupon code BGRVIPSP at checkout, Anker's best-selling fast wireless charging pad for $9.99 when you clip the coupon on the Amazon page, $80 off 32GB iPads, $101 off 128GB iPads (all-time low price alert!), the Fire TV Stick 4K for the price of an entry-level Fire TV Stick, the lowest prices ever on the 6-quart Instant Pot Duo and the 8-quart Instant Pot Duo, the upgraded version of Amazon's best-selling Wi-Fi range extender for just $25, $50 off Sony wireless noise cancelling headphones that will blow your mind, $6 off the brand new Yi dome camera when you use the coupon code NEW1ITEM at checkout, Sylvania LED light bulbs for $1 a piece, and plenty more. See all of today's best bargains below.
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| Photos of the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato Continuation Posted: 11 Jun 2019 07:43 AM PDT |
| Debating Net Neutrality: Big-Tech Monopolies Are the Real Problem Posted: 11 Jun 2019 11:42 AM PDT  The recent debates over Internet-related policymaking in Washington, D.C., increasingly resemble a funhouse world. Issues that are actually important, such as the monopoly market and speech-squelching power of big-tech firms such as Facebook and Twitter, are treated as peripheral. Meanwhile, sideshows, such as the theoretical but never-exercised ability of Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to content providers, are treated as central issues to debate.The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently debated the Save the Internet Act of 2019, which would restore the Obama-era FCC Open Internet regulations, known as "net neutrality." Today is the one-year anniversary of the net-neutrality repeal taking effect, supposedly ushering in, critics warned, "the death of the Internet."Discussing the Save the Internet Act, ranking Republican Greg Walden warned, "Americans are more and more concerned about the role tech companies play." These companies, he argued, have "blocked, prioritized, or shadow banned" content while receiving "special protection under Section 230 [of the Communications Decency Act] as if they were a common carrier, but they are not covered by the net neutrality rules."The sponsor of Save the Internet Act, Representative Mike Doyle (D., Penn,), responded that discussing edge providers (dominant platforms and gateways for Internet content such as Google, Apple, or Facebook) in a net-neutrality debate was a distraction, as he was interested only in addressing the Obama-era rule-making, which focused on ISPs. However, it is revealing that many of the bill's supporters have portrayed it as actually cracking down on big tech, even though Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter are all lobbying for it.The Democrats' obsession with ISPs as the group that should be regulated by net-neutrality rules isn't exactly the equivalent of locking the barn door after the cow has already escaped. It's more like locking the door of a barn the cow never lived in, while ignoring the unlocked door of the barn where the cow actually resides, allowing it to get hopelessly lost somewhere in the countryside.Well, now that we've lost the cow, we definitely don't need the Democrats' net-neutrality bull. Yet that's just what we're continuing to get from Democrats, most of whom can't seem to adjust their mental model to address the fact that it is their "friends" at Google, Facebook, and Twitter who present the greatest risk to freedom of choice on the Internet today.In a video promoting the "Net Neutrality Day of Action," the activist group Fight for the Future warned that the FCC "handed corporate monopolies unprecedented power over what we can see and do online" when it repealed the Open Internet order in June 2018; the video then showed an image of Mark Zuckerberg nervously sipping water while testifying before Congress. The video gives the clear impression that Facebook is among the speech-controlling monopolies that net-neutrality protections would curb. Last year, Fight for the Future argued that "if you don't like Facebook's algorithm or Google's search results, then killing net neutrality just means you'll be stuck with them forever." It's no surprise that net-neutrality proponents have to disguise the actual targets of their legislation to build its popularity -- but it is revealing.Such confusion is aided and abetted not just by activist groups but by an often ill-informed liberal media. Freshman senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) has, in less than a year in office, established himself as the leading congressional voice in either party against Silicon Valley's monopoly power, privacy violations, and bias. However, numerous Missouri newspapers recently ran an editorial arguing that "if Hawley really wants to arm for bear against big tech, he could target internet service providers that would seek to limit customers from accessing whatever they choose." The editorial goes on to champion the Save the Internet Act. Fortunately, Hawley actually understands the source of the big-tech problem, even if many of his home-state newspapers don't.When Eric Trump noted that Google and Facebook have monopoly power and should not engage in censorship, Think Progress, the Center for American Progress's website, claimed that the president's son "accidentally makes a case for net neutrality" because this amounted to arguing "that large telecommunications giants should be treated as common carriers."Intentionally or not, by conflating ISPs with monopolistic tech platforms, these activists and news organizations do the entire debate on net neutrality a great disservice. It's true that ISPs should not have the power to block, throttle, or charge for prioritized content on ideological grounds or anti-competitive grounds. But this has not occurred, with or without net-neutrality regulations. In contrast, the very same tech giants who lobby for these net-neutrality regulations engage in this behavior on a daily basis.For example: * Senior Mozilla employees and engineers have recently accused Google of sabotaging Firefox -- slowing down YouTube videos or causing bugs in Gmail and Google Docs on Firefox, which benefits Google's Chrome. * Amazon blocks or stops selling Apple TV and Google's Chromecast on the Amazon website, in retaliation for those companies' refusal to allow Amazon Prime Video on their devices. * Google pays Apple billions of dollars each year to make its search engine the default on Safari and Siri.Defenders of this double standard argue that there is a big difference between dominant platforms and ISPs. As Slate's April Glaser wrote, "equal access to any one website or platform isn't the same thing as equal access to the internet writ large." Yet for small businesses or people who want to engage in political speech, being kicked off of a dominant platform is effectively Internet death, something confirmed by the dramatically reduced influence of several right-wing media figures who have been deplatformed from Facebook or Twitter.When over 90 percent of people use Google search, having Google block or throttle one's content is far more damaging than being blocked by an ISP, especially as the vast majority of consumers have at least some choice of ISPs and the largest broadband provider, Comcast, has less than a 24 percent market share. Meanwhile, according to one recent estimate, over 70 percent of Internet traffic currently goes through websites controlled by either Facebook or Google.This does not mean we need a laissez-faire policy toward ISPs, but it does mean we can't have a serious discussion of online gatekeepers without discussing dominant platforms such as Google, Apple, or Facebook.Despite the dismal state of the public debate on net neutrality, there is actually some hope for a bipartisan solution. Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema is looking to collaborate with Republicans on net neutrality, as are 47 House Democrats who called for a bipartisan working group on the issue. A sensible starting point would be to advocate the same non-discrimination principles, both for free speech and open competition, across all the Internet, including the big-tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter -- and not just for the ISPs.
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| 5 injured in Texas crane collapse expected to recover Posted: 10 Jun 2019 03:53 PM PDT  Authorities say the five people injured in the collapse of a crane that struck a Dallas apartment building Sunday are expected to recover. Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans says a second person was also discharged Sunday night. Kiersten Symone Smith, 29, was pronounced dead at a hospital following the crane collapse.
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| Did Apple accidentally reveal the Mac Pro release month on its website? Posted: 11 Jun 2019 03:14 AM PDT  On Monday, 9to5Mac was the first to report that "Coming September" was temporarily published on Apple's Mac Pro homepage, an error that was promptly switched to "Coming This Fall" in less than 24 hours.
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| Meghan McCain: Gwyneth Paltrow's part-time living setup with spouse is 'rich people stuff' Posted: 11 Jun 2019 05:57 AM PDT  Gwyneth Paltrow shared her two-home living situation with Brad Falchuk, and it appears everyone is not a fan of her unique approach to married life.
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| People are obsessed with this $25 drugstore anti-aging serum Posted: 11 Jun 2019 09:57 AM PDT  Well, thanks to beauty giant L'Oreal Paris, we have finally tracked down an anti-aging product with incredible reviews and a $23.94 price tag.
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