Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Category: Politics

  • Sarcasm Defined

  • My Old Kentucky Home

    Well, my parents were from Kentucky, I grew up in Milwaukee (Go Packers). But I think Kentucky wins the most improved award (though West Virginia, Oregon, California and Nevada are all right up there).

  • Creepy

    Holding hands?

  • How To Destroy Your Cell Phone

    I’m not a Sen. Lindsey Graham fan, but after Trump yells out your cell phone number at a political stump speech, this is pretty amusing.

    Though someone needs to point out to him that phone numbers aren’t tied to physical phones anymore…

  • Grexit

    A fascinating interview with Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek Finance Minister, just before the latest agreement.

    There was a moment when the President of the Eurogroup decided to move against us and effectively shut us out, and made it known that Greece was essentially on its way out of the Eurozone. … There is a convention that communiqués must be unanimous, and the President can’t just convene a meeting of the Eurozone and exclude a member state. And he said, “Oh I’m sure I can do that.” So I asked for a legal opinion. It created a bit of a kerfuffle. For about 5-10 minutes the meeting stopped, clerks, officials were talking to one another, on their phone, and eventually some official, some legal expert addressed me, and said the following words, that “Well, the Eurogroup does not exist in law, there is no treaty which has convened this group.”

    So what we have is a non-existent group that has the greatest power to determine the lives of Europeans. It’s not answerable to anyone, given it doesn’t exist in law; no minutes are kept; and it’s confidential. So no citizen ever knows what is said within. … These are decisions of almost life and death, and no member has to answer to anybody.

  • Health Insurance

    That would seem to be good…

  • Joe Biden Has a Really Itchy Face

    Apparently he does…

  • And I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride

    A genuinely classic line from Yanis Varoufakis, the now former Finance Minister of Greece.

    Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted ‘partners’, for my… ‘absence’ from its meetings; an idea that the Prime Minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement. For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today.

    I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras exploit, as he sees fit, the capital that the Greek people granted us through yesterday’s referendum.

    And I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride.

  • Unencrypted UK

    David Cameron’s proposed ban on strong encryption is being met with disbelief on the tech side. This Business Insider interview is a pretty good overview:

    BUSINESS INSIDER: What was your immediate reaction to Cameron’s proposals?

    Bruce Schneier: My immediate reaction was disbelief, followed by confusion and despair. When I first read about Cameron’s remarks, I was convinced he had no idea what he was really proposing. The idea is so preposterous that it was hard to imagine it being seriously suggested.

    …

    BI: Is there really no way to keep users’ data secure while providing backdoors to law enforcement?

    BS: Yes, there really is no way.

    Think of it like this. Technically, there is no such thing as a “backdoor to law enforcement.” Backdoor access is a technical requirement, and limiting access to law enforcement is a policy requirement. As an engineer, I cannot design a system that works differently in the presence of a particular badge or a signed piece of paper. I have two options. I can design a secure system that has no backdoor access, meaning neither criminals nor foreign intelligence agencies nor domestic police can get at the data. Or I can design a system that has backdoor access, meaning they all can. Once I have designed this less-secure system with backdoor access, I have to install some sort of policy overlay to try to ensure that only the police can get at the backdoor and only when they are authorized. I can design and build procedures and other measures intended to prevent those bad guys from getting access, but anyone who has followed all of the high-profile hacking over the past few years knows how futile that would be.

  • Grexit

    One of the better summaries of the situation from Bill McBride of Calculated Risk:

    δίλημμα: Dilemma. There is no good choice on Sunday.

    Poor fiscal policies led to the need for a bailout. And the poorly designed bailout program has crushed the Greek economy. Now the creditors want more of the same, expecting a different result;  so voting “Yes” seems like the definition of insanity. But a “No” vote will mean complete chaos.