Hopefully

Well then.

For example, the sensors, cameras, radar and software could easily be flummoxed by rain, snow, dust or fog. While it is good at detecting large, solid objects — even when moving at high speeds — pedestrians and cyclists might be more tricky, Mr Musk admitted.

“It should not hit pedestrians, hopefully,” he said. “It can see and sense cyclists and pedestrians. It should brake before hitting them . . . [But] I wouldn’t want to say today, don’t worry about it.”

In any accident, the driver remains liable, he added.

Another 14 Years Should Do It

We just can't quit you.

WASHINGTON — The United States will halt its military withdrawal from Afghanistan and instead keep thousands of troops in the country through the end of President Obama’s term in 2017, Mr. Obama will announce on Thursday, prolonging the American role in a war that has now stretched on for 14 years.

The current American force in Afghanistan of 9,800 troops will remain in place through most of 2016 under the Obama administration’s revised plans, before dropping to about 5,500 at the end of next year or in early 2017, senior administration officials said.

Mint The Damn Coin Already

Put Paul Robeson's face on it, just to up the trolling game, too.

The debt limit deadline will hit Congress sooner than previously anticipated, as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told lawmakers Thursday he would be out of maneuvers on Nov. 3.

In a new letter sent to lawmakers, Lew said he expects Treasury will have exhausted its “extraordinary measures” to operate under the borrowing cap two days earlier than he previously forecast. Lew told lawmakers at the beginning of October he thought he could free up space underneath the $18.1 trillion borrowing cap until Nov. 5.

Plantation Politics

Well then.

Morning Thread

Our good friend, Athenae, over at First Draft is putting together a "best of" anthology from First Draft posts.

This book collects some of our best stories from the past 10 years: Bush’s re-election and subsequent implosion, Scout’s reporting from NOLA after Hurricane Katrina, Holden’s story about Terri Schiavo and his sister, my final Galactica thread, the Freepi obsession the morning after Obama’s election, a malaka or two, and Jude’s gumbo recipe.

You can pre-order the book at Kickstarter. Knowing Athenae, it will be great!

Deafening

The silence out of Janesville. In the mean time Clown Car II

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy!

America's Worst Humans

John McCain

Oh No, Not the Prison Guard Training Program

What will Saudi Arabia do without the crucial prison guard training program?

LONDON — For more than a year, an asthmatic 74-year-old grandfather and former oil executive has sat in a prison in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, accused of violating the country’s strict prohibition on alcohol after the authorities found bottles of homemade wine in his car.

...

The British government said Tuesday that it was canceling a program to train prison officers in Saudi Arabia and that Prime Minister David Cameron would make a personal appeal for clemency, as Mr. Andree’s case continued to draw attention on social media.

Quite impressed by the fact that the reporter managed to not mention anything related to, say, this.

Since the conflict escalated in March the UK has issued 37 arms export licences for arms transfers to Saudi Arabia. The government has declined to tell parliament the details of these deals. It justifies the continued fuelling of the crisis on the grounds it has assurances from the Saudi government that its bombing campaign is in accordance with international law.

But that prison guard deal! It's off!

On Notice

Did you send them a sternly worded letter? Threaten to leave them off your Christmas card list? I bet they're really frightened now, Mr. Hite, and I'm sure your laywers drafted an ironclad contract which ensures that they will be punished for not doing the job you hired them to do.

After the hearing, though, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr., responding to reporters' questions, sounded the most ominous warning yet about the firm awarded a $34 million contract to handle substitute-teaching services. That company, Cherry Hill-based Source4Teachers, has underperformed all year.

"My patience has run out" with Source4Teachers, Hite said.

The company promised that 75 percent of open sub jobs would be filled on the first day of school. It's never come close, acheiving a fill rate in the low teens initially. The rate was 19 percent on Friday, and 22 percent the day before - and those gains were made after the district told Source4Teachers to bump up its pay rate and hire more internal staff to process candidates.

Hite Wednesday reiterated earlier statements, saying he had put Source4Teachers "on notice."

That "patience has run out" line has surely frightened them. I bet that the company is now reconsidering their cunning plan to effectively pay people the minimum wage (including preparation etc.) to take over classrooms at a moment's notice. Wow, Mr. Hite, they're thinking, we thought this would work! And so did you, because you gave us all that money to make it work! But, jeepers, now that we're "on notice" what should we do???

The Internet As Video Game

Reading most mainstream sites these days is like trying to play a game of Angry Birds. You have to click here, and there, and there, just to maybe read a couple of paragraphs before it scrolls up or to the side or a popover ad appears and you have to find the little 'X' to click to make it go away before it all starts again.

Sites gotta make a buck, but what the hell are advertisers thinking? That this stuff actually sells products?

What's the Problem?

Nothing wrong with this.

It was nearing closing time in March last year when a manager at Boffi Georgetown dispatched a series of alarmed messages. Observing two men yelling outside the luxury kitchen and bath showroom, Julia Walter reached for her phone and accessed a private messaging application that hundreds of residents, retailers and police in this overwhelmingly white, wealthy neighborhood use to discuss people they deem suspicious.

“2 black males screaming at each other in alley,” Walter wrote. “. . . Help needed.”

One minute later, a District police officer posted he would check it out, and Walter felt relieved. But as weeks gave way to months and the private group spawned hundreds of messages, Walter’s relief turned to unease. The overwhelming majority of the people the app’s users cited were black. Was the chatroom reducing crime along the high-end retail strip? Was it making people feel safer? Or was it racial profiling?

Richard Cohen - yes, the funny one - explained this all to you years ago.

In order to be admitted to certain Washington jewelry stores, customers have to ring a bell. The ring-back that opens the door is almost perfunctory. According to the owner of one store, only one type of person does not get admitted: Young black males. The owner says they are the ones who stick him up.

Nearby is a men's clothing shop -- upscale, but not really expensive. When young black males enter this store, the sales help are instructed to leave their customers and, in the manner of defensive backs in football, "collapse" on the blacks. Politely, but firmly, they are sort of shooed out of the store. The owner's explanation for this? Young blacks are his shoplifters.

Are these examples of racism? The shopkeepers either think so or think they can be accused of it. They are loath to talk about their policies and quick to assert their liberalism, but business, as they say, is business. Most of their customers apparently concur. Usually they say nothing when they see blacks turned away, and one white congressman, witnessing some blacks being rebuffed, said that if he owned the store, he would do the same even though he considers himself a liberal. He obviously thought there was a contradiction between his ideology and his self-interest.

...

For too long now, liberals have reacted to race as predictably as the racists they so abhor. Like racists, they too sometimes see nothing but race, ignoring all other factors. As long as race is involved, it dominates. For instance, it was not just race that bothered some school-busing opponents; it was social class as well. As for our Washington storekeepers, race is only one factor in their admissions policy. Age and sex count, too. And while race is clearly the most compelling factor, ask yourself what their policies would be if young white males were responsible for most urban crime.

Of course, all policies based on generalities have their injustices. A storekeeper might not know that the youths he has refused to admit are theology students -- rich ones at that. But then insurance companies had no way of knowing I was not a typical teen- age driver. I paid through the nose anyway.

A nation with our history is entitled to be sensitive to race and racism -- and we are all wary of behavior that would bring a charge of racism. But the mere recognition of race as a factor -- especially if those of the same race recognize the same factor -- is not in itself racism. This may apply as much to some opponents of busing or public housing in their own neighborhood as it does to who gets admitted to jewelry stores. Let he who would open the door throw the first stone.

Being racist is not in itself racism. Just deal with it black people.

Reasons

This kind of thing puzzles me. Somebody - many somebodies - decided it was a good thing to do. Somebody told other people to make it happen. But why? There's probably quite the interesting story there.

Post-Prandial Thread

Debate Thread

enjoy

Policies

Can't believe Florida doesn't mandate more freedum than this.

WINTER PARK, Fla. -
There's a policy in place to check all bags and purse for guns at Winter Park Regal at the Village movie theater, but somehow a loaded gun ended up in the men's bathroom Sunday night.

(ht)

America's Worst Humans

Michael Kinsley.

Doing It Halperin Style

Grading the debate:

Jim Webb

Style: A+ Substance: A- Overall: C

Hillary Clinton

Style: F Substance: F Overall: D+

Lincoln Chafee

Style: F Substance: C+ Overall: A-

Martin O'Malley

Style: A- Substance: B+ Overall: D

Bernie Sanders

Style: F Substance: F Overall: F

What you expect me to write this stuff after the debate? That's cocktail hour, suckers.