Monday OT: 11/23/2020 - Fibonacci Day

Today is day 327 of the Gregorian Calendar year,
Boomtime, The Aftermath 35, 3186 YOLD
And let us not forget 13.0.8.0.14 mlc (the Mayan Long Count)

HOW TO CONQUER GAS (GEAR ACQUISITION SYNDROME)

Fibonacci shell

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The criminal US occupation of Veracruz ended.  I can't match this comment by QMS in last Monday's open thread, so I'll try to paste it here --

Dia de la Revolución
Although technically occurring on the 20th November,

(2005) recent legislation changed the celebration to occur on the third Monday of November each year, regardless of date

It was a 10 year struggle for the people of Mexico, led by the likes of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapapta.

some fun facts in history:

In April 1914 U.S. opposition to Huerta culminated in the seizure and occupation of the port of Veracruz by U.S. marines and sailors. Initially intended, in part, to prevent a German merchant vessel from delivering a shipment of arms to the Huerta regime, the muddled operation evolved into a seven-month stalemate resulting in the death of 193 Mexican soldiers, 19 U.S. servicemen and an unknown number of civilians. The German ship landed its cargo—largely U.S.-made rifles—in a deal brokered by U.S. businessmen (at a different port). U.S. forces eventually left Veracruz in the hands of the Carrancistas, but with lasting damage to U.S.-Mexican relations.

Ricardo_and_Enrique_Flores_Magon

Ricardo Flores Magón (left) and Enrique Flores Magón (right), leaders of the Mexican Liberal Party in jail in the Los Angeles (CA) County Jail, 1917.

Partido_Liberal_Mexicano_button_1911.svg-2

and the struggles continue

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Fibonacci Day celebrates the fibonacci sequence which generates an endless series that does not approach a limit.  As the numbers in the series increase in magnitude, however, the ratio between any two successive numbers approaches the "golden Ratio", phi, an amazing irrational number.  Phi ( F = 1.618033988749895… ) turns up all over the place, is important in art and art history, architecture, and numerous natural phenomena.  It is the basis of the Nautilus Shell and the seed pattern in sunflowers some of the patterns on a Rhino's butt and cauliflower and broccoli crowns and much more.  Here's a brief discussion of the derivation of the nautilus shell and logarithmic spirals:  https://earthsky.org/human-world/nautilus-shell-fibonacci-logarithmic-sp... . It pops up in Penrose Tilings:

Arguably the most famous fractal pattern, The Mandlebrot Set:

And has been argued to be the most irrational irrational number because of an alternate derivation:

I once considered building a shower enclosure based on the Golden Rectangle, but abandones the idea because of certain linguistic complications.

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On this day in history:

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534 BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character on stage.
1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.
1733 – The start of the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in the West Indies.
1867 – The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England
1876 – Boss Tweed was delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain.
1889 – The first jukebox went into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
1914 – The last U.S. occupation troops finally withdrew from Veracruz.
1924 – Edwin Hubble's discovery, that the Andromeda "nebula" is actually another galaxy far outside of our own Milky Way, was first published
1936 – Life magazine became a photo magazine and enjoyed instant success as such.
.1946 – French naval bombardment of Hai Phong, Vietnam, killed thousands of civilians.
1953 – Felix Moncla's F-89 vanished while chasing a UFO over Lake Superior.
1959 – Charles de Gaulle declared his vision for "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals".
1963 – The BBC broadcast the very first episode of Doctor Who
1971 – Representatives of the PRC attended the United Nations for the first time.
1978 – The Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 went into effect
1981 – War Criminal Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the CIA the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1992 – The first smartphone, was introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1993 – Rachel Whiteread won both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year.
2001 – The Convention on Cybercrime was signed in Budapest, Hungary.
2003 – Eduard Shevardnadze resigned following a foreign funded and created "color revolution."
2005 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia becoming the first woman to lead an African country.
2006 – A series of bombings killed at least 215 people and injures 257 others in Sadr City, making it the second deadliest sectarian attack since the beginning of the Iraq War. Assuming, of course, that it was indeed a sectarian attack.  The US, whose occupying forces had just lifted their lockdown of Sadr City blamed it on AQI, but we will never know the truth.
2009 – The Maguindanao massacre occured in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, Philippines.
2015 – Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle became the first rocket to successfully fly to space and then return to Earth for a controlled, vertical landing.

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Born this day in:

Society must be made to operate in such a way that it eradicates once and for all the desire of a man to become richer, or wiser, or more powerful than others.3

-- Francois-Noel Babeuf

-- Harpo

1760 – François-Noël Babeuf,  journalist and activist
1803 – Theodore Dwight Weld, author and activist
1837 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals, physicist and thermodynamicist
1868 – Mary Brewster Hazelton, painter
1869 – Valdemar Poulsen, engineer
1876 – Manuel de Falla, pianist and composer
1883 – José Clemente Orozco, painter
1887 – Henry Moseley,  physicist and chemist
1888 – Harpo Marx, philosopher, comedian, and musician
1890 – El Lissitzky, photographer and architect
1892 – Erté, illustrator and designer
1915 – Anne Burns, aeronautical engineer and glider pilot
1925 – Johnny Mandel, composer and conductor
1926 – R. L. Burnside, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1929 – Gloria Lynne, singer
1930 – Geeta Dutt, singer and actress
1933 – Ali Shariati, sociologist and activist
1939 – Betty Everett, singer and pianist
1946 – Bobby Rush, activist and politician
1949 – Alan Paul, singer, songwriter, and actor
1949 – Sandra Stevens, singer
1952 – Bill Troiano, tuba player and educator
1953 – Francis Cabrel, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1953 – Johan de Meij, trombonist, composer, and conductor
1954 – Pete Allen, clarinet player and saxophonist
1955 – Steven Brust, singer, songwriter, drummer, and author
1972 – Christopher James Adler, drummer
1978 – Tommy Marth, saxophonist
1978 – Alison Mosshart, singer and songwriter

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Died this day in:

“All art is a revolt against man's fate.”

--André Malraux

1974 – Cornelius Ryan, journalist and author
1976 – André Malraux, theorist and author
1992 – Roy Acuff, singer, songwriter, and fiddler
1995 – Junior Walker, singer and saxophonist
2006 – Jesús Blancornelas, journalist, co-founded Zeta Magazine 
2006 – Anita O'Day, singer
2007 – Robert Vesco, benefactor & crook
2013 – Wayne Mills, singer and songwriter
2014 – Clive Palmer, banjo player

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Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
National Cashew Day
Fibonacci Day
National Espresso Day
Doctor Who Day

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Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies Wink

Manuel de Falla

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R.L. Burnside

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Gloria Lynne

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Betty Everett

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Alan Paul

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Bill Troiano
?

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Roy Acuff

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Junior Walker

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Anita O'Day

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Clive Palmer

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Manuel de Falla - El Amor Brujo (complete)

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It's an open thread, so do your thing

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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

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Comments

Lookout's picture

and here's to cashews too.

Another place Fibonacci’s sequence come up a lot is in chaos theory, that is, the study of chaotic dynamical systems. One tool in chaos theory is the "cat map," in which an algorithm is used to transform a matrix in seemingly chaotic ways. (One early matrix was a graphic of a cat, hence the name.) The "cat map" is transformed by starting with two numbers x and y between 0 and 1, sending the pair (x, y) to (2x+y, x+y), and throwing away the integer parts of the resulting numbers to get another pair between 0 and 1. Lather, rinse, repeat, and you’ll find that the coefficients always come from the Fibonacci sequence:

(x, y) -> (2x+y, x+y) -> (5x+3y, 3x+2y) -> (13x+8y, 8x+5y) -> . . .

One of the hallmarks of chaos theory is that many systems look very similar, so many dynamical systems have structures similar to that of the cat map. Whether the exact Fibonacci sequence is part of that structure of just a consequence of the simplicity of this model example is pretty open, but most mathematicians would chalk it up to chance.

https://www.straightdope.com/21343304/what-s-up-with-fibonacci-numbers

Plenty of chaos to go around these days!

Be well and take care. Thanks for the OT and music!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

keep them in the house.

Fibonacci and chaos is indeed a package, which is whence Fibonacci and Mandlebrot set. Recursive formulas are a very good starting point, and, of course, the Fibonacci sequence is generated by such a formula. The cat map algorithm is another. The "interrsection" at fractals, as I first learned to play with it was the Sierpinski triangle, remarkably simplistic yete self similar at all scales if done perfectly, and an interesting process if done freehand.

Thanks for reading.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

first I've seen of R.L. Burnside on that take. Good stuff.

Re: Johnny Mandel -- turned his trumpet into Hollywood soundtracks.

The post on last weeks Monday OT was to highlight how the US empire
involved itself in screwing its neighbors -- this time in Veracruz.

Thanks for remembering!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

would fit in with what I was doing with the music, but, as you note, it was mostly soundtracks and theme songs, and I generally avoid same. Thanks for bringing him up all the same.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

thanks especially for the music. The Clive Palmer piece takes me back in time. Here's a bit more:

Have a good one.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@randtntx

Incredible String Band and almost went with one of their tunes because of the great album cover, but not that one; this one:

Thanks for bringing that up and posting that clip.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris , and there are so many more.

The contrast between that era and what we have now is so jarring. You and otc point out the absurdity of "kraken lawyer extraordinaire" and the feeling that someone has created a "parody" of the worst kind for all of us to inhabit. Yuk. I prefer this:

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magiamma's picture

@randtntx
and disquieting. wtf. There is a way and we will find it. Cause why not.

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@magiamma , that's an ever increasingly frequent refrain on my part wtf.
You are right, all the good bits and pieces are going up.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/11/23/pers-n23.html

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proved to be so fucking nutty, even Guliani and Trump kicked her to the curb! LOL!
Nevertheless, she has this Big Lawsuit to file, and it will release the Kraken, show exactly how Hugo Chavez rigged the election from the grave. (From Hell, to be more precise.)
Good times!
Avoid the virus today and everyday!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

gone down the same rabbit hole as Powell, just not as far I guess. And "communists", pleeeease. They sound like a bad fifties or sixties parody of the John Birch Society.

There's a restaurant on the main drag in Cambria named Madeline's that serves a most excellent appetizer of baby Kraken which they call something like "Spanish Style Octopus", we had some accompanied by a bottle of Conundrum Red after a long morning's walk up to and around town from the Sea Otter Inn down along the coast road.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris I have an iodine allergy, so you would get my baby octopus portion, but I would keep my pour of wine.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp
of James Baker. That would make Powell ...?

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Marie

Good morning Marie, btw.

be well and hae a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris
So, I was thinking more along the lines of something out of an Ed Wood movie or a soapbox on a busy corner occupied by a ranting crazy person.

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@on the cusp

Sidney Powell, Lawyer Extraordinaire,
proved to be so fucking nutty, even Guliani and Trump kicked her to the curb! LOL!

that is supposed to be witty. I don't suppose you have any evidence to demonstrate that it has any relation to reality?

“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity,” Trump Campaign Attorney Rudy Giuliani and Senior Legal Adviser Jenna Ellis said.

That's what was said and SP has replied, effectively, 'fine' and that she does not have a problem with that.

Politico, Vice, etc. and you claim she was fired, thrown under the bus or whatever. OK - fired from *what*? Was she retained by the Trump campaign? Representing Trump personally?
As far as I can tell, no, she was not and therefore could not have been fired.

Let's see what happens this week. The press has repeated ad nauseum that Powell, Giuliani, Lin Wood and others have no evidence - which is clearly utter BS as affidavits from forensic experts and eyewitnesses ARE evidence. They may not ultimately be compelling, but they are certainly evidence that is very likely admissible in court.

Let's see. Joe diGenova, in addition to being counsel to several Senate committees (Judiciary, Government Affairs) as a federal prosecutor led the prosecution of Jonathan Pollard and corruption in the Washington, DC government that led to conviction of a dozen official.

Giuliani has prosecuted numerous complex high profile cases as a federal prosecutor including corruption and taking on the NY mafia.

Powell is a veteran federal prosecutor with an impressive record in appellate defense work.

Lin Wood, who is also working independently of the Trump campaign successfully defended the falsely accused Atlanta Olympic bombing suspect Richard Jewell, and more recently successfully sued the WaPo, CNN and other MSM for their defaming of Nick Sandmann.

What is the likelihood of people like that just deciding to just make shit up and launch cases they have no prospect of prevailing in? I'm thinking not much of one.

And if Dominion is squeaky clean and competent why are we not hearing from them? Why aren't they suing Sidney Powell? Discovery have anything to do with it?

I Know Sidney Powell. She Is Telling the Truth

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@Blue Republic n/t

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp

Bad wording on my part.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Blue Republic

part of a team of “wonderful lawyers and representatives” you can dig for the original or take the Guardian's word for it.

While the Republican leadership in Washington is standing behind the president’s protestations of voter fraud, it seems there are some bizarre election claims that even the Trump administration won’t touch. The campaign’s legal team cut ties with conservative attorney Sidney Powell this weekend after she peddled conspiracy theories and pledged to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” lawsuit. Just last week, Trump said Powell was part of a team of “wonderful lawyers and representatives” headed up by Rudy Giuliani.

The fact that some people once did something arguably of not does not make anything they do or say correct - it is argumentum ad hominem, a known fallacy, to assert otherwise. Trumps lawsuits have been tossed, and in Az his lawyers bailed on one because if truye it couldn't change the outcome (which, had they pursued it, might've gotten them disbarred).

Dunno what would make people do certain things, money, greed, political debts, ideology, and much, much more. But if judges throw shit out then that might be a sign that, yes, lawyers and such can make shit up that has no chance of winning. Kindly note that every lawsuit has a loser, as does eveery criminal case, so some given number of lawyers lose daily.

Affidavits are not evidence, per se, but can be introduced as evidence under certain circumstances.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

The fact that some people once did something arguably of not does not make anything they do or say correct - it is argumentum ad hominem, a known fallacy, to assert otherwise. Trumps lawsuits have been tossed, and in Az his lawyers bailed on one because if truye it couldn't change the outcome (which, had they pursued it, might've gotten them disbarred).

@enhydra lutris

Fine, but if someone wants to contend that multiple people with serious professional track records are all going to veer radically off course and pursue something groundless - when doing so would have profound negative consequences for them personally and professionally...
then shouldn't the person making that argument have some obligation to explain what would what would motivate such apparently bizarre and irrational actions?

How is failing to do that while flinging insults at the people involved not *itself* argumentum ad hominem?

Ad hominem (Latin for 'to the person'), short for argumentum ad hominem, is a term that refers to several types of arguments, most of which are fallacious. Typically this term refers to a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself. This avoids genuine debate by creating a diversion to some irrelevant but often highly charged issue. The most common form of this fallacy is "A makes a claim x, B asserts that A holds a property that is unwelcome, and hence B concludes that argument x is wrong".

"As long as human beings are imperfect, there will always be arguments for extending the power of government to deal with these imperfections. The only logical stopping place is totalitarianism -- unless we realize that tolerating imperfections is the price of freedom."

~ Thomas Sowell

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Blue Republic

election, that if sufficient to label them whacko - he's dead.

As to why others might do so, power, influence, money, ideology, cult membership (Trumpism is a cult by all the usual standards), and more. One never needs to provide guesses as to the motives of those engaged in political speech, the fact that it is "political" speech implies motive. That said speech expands into filing lawsuits doesn't really change that, especially when one political principal is a litigation happy nutcase as demonstrated by his history.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris

someone asserts that someone else asserted something that that person never in fact *did*?

When people assert shit like Hugo Chavez rigged a current
election, that if sufficient to label them whacko - he's dead.

A very modest amount of checking would reveal that Powell asserted no such thing.

She has asserted that the software was developed at Chavez' behest to ensure he did not lose future elections, although the timeline is a bit unclear - electronic voting was first used (and fraud alleged) in the 2004 election that Chavez won. However, it has also been stated that he wanted to ensure against future losses after losing an election, but the only one he ever lost was a constitutional referendum in 2007.

In any case, it was Giuliani that referred to Dominion's software as 'Chavez approved'. Grammatically, that is like expressions such as 'Union Made' or 'AAA Rated' which are, effectively, adjectives. To interpret what Giuliani said as implying that Chavez was around to actively interfere with the 2020 election is just plain wrong, and attributing it to Powell even more so.

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@Blue Republic

to a desperate lawyer scuttling metaphors
to obscure the losing strategy represented?

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Blue Republic

the claims about Chavez, whatever they were, are likely to be inaccurate and baseless.

We'll just go with this is a group or reputable, well intentioned, honorable, attorneys who have filed a bunch of suits which the courst have dismissed for reasons such as baseless, no evidence, will hae no effect even if victorious and the like.

Why would the courts ignore how upstanding these honorable persons who would never ever make shit up are? Another mystery we will never solve.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@Blue Republic Lawyers file the lawsuit their client pays them to do.
Defamation is proof people make shit up all the time.
When Ms. Powell claimed on Fox News that Hugo Chavez rigged the election, Giuliani and Trump immediately distanced themselves from her. 2, maybe 3 days ago, they had proudly claimed she was part of the team.
Fox News asked her for proof about Chavez. She declined.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp

Lawyers file the lawsuit their client pays them to do.

AFAIK she is working for free and funding other expenses by crowd sourcing. You have information indicating otherwise?

Defamation is proof people make shit up all the time.

True (see below) but my point was that for experienced prosecutors to just pull stuff out of thin air and promote it as the basis for major civil cases that they would have no prospect of prevailing in is highly unlikely. It would have serious negative consequences professionally and personally and anyway would be uncharacteristic of any of the people I cited (DiGenova, Powell, Giuliani, Wood).

And again, if Powell's claims about Dominion are wildly untrue then where are they? Why are they not out there defending their reputation, why are they not suing Powell?

On the subject of making shit up:

When Ms. Powell claimed on Fox News that Hugo Chavez rigged the election, Giuliani and Trump immediately distanced themselves from her. 2, maybe 3 days ago, they had proudly claimed she was part of the team.

Powell did *not* say that Chavez rigged the election (feel free to prove me wrong). What she said was that the software was developed for Chavez after he lost some referendum and wanted to be able to ensure against ever losing again. (The software may have been based on software previously - guess this would be 90's or early 2000's - developed by US alphabet agencies). more info on the history of Hammer (HAMR) and Scorecard here.

Maybe the Trump campaign effort is actively distancing itself from Powell or maybe they determined that there needed to be more clarity about who was and wasn't working on behalf of whom...

Expanded clarification issued by Powell:

I agree with the campaign’s statement that I am not part of the campaign’s legal team. I never signed a retainer agreement or sent the President or the campaign a bill for my expenses or fees.

My intent has always been to expose all the fraud I could find and let the chips fall where they may–whether it be upon Republicans or Democrats.

The evidence I’m compiling is overwhelming that this software tool was used to shift millions of votes from President Trump and other Republican candidates to Biden and other Democrat candidates. We are proceeding to prepare our lawsuit and plan to file it this week. It will be epic.

We will not allow this great Republic to be stolen by communists from without and within or our votes altered or manipulated by foreign actors in Hong Kong, Iran, Venezuela, or Serbia, for example, who have neither regard for human life nor the people who are the engine of this exceptional country.

#WeThePeople elected Donald Trump and other Republican candidates to restore the vision of America as a place of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

"Social Engineering - The art of replacing what works with what sounds good."

~ Thomas Sowell

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@Blue Republic This is a civil case, no prosecutors are involved.
She must have a client, regardless of who is paying her expenses.
I take back everything I have said in a negative vein about Powell once she has proven by clear and convincing evidence that Serbia is responsible for getting Biden elected.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

TheOtherMaven's picture

@on the cusp

It's so very, very right-wingnut. They think everybody who isn't a greedy billionaire is a "communist", and they aren't even sure about all of them.

It's entirely possible that Ms. Powell is a kook - which doesn't mean she is wrong about election fraud (only about who might be doing it, for whom, and why).

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven It is odd she is going on and on about a lawsuit she has yet to even prepare. I can't even determine where she will file it, or if it is a state or federal suit.
Serbia must have her unhinged, like the evidence just blew her mind.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

magiamma's picture

et al

yin yang, much? late 60s- 70s. Big yes. Peace lova and flowers, hari krishna, what's your sign.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zSySPXzdz4]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ykQeaTUCwM]

(So now it seems that it's all about moving all the good bits and pieces up to the upper echelons while our infrastructure fails, people starve in the streets.)

Gotta get back to our roots. Stay safe; take good care y'all.

edit to regroup videos as a video vs a text link.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@magiamma

possibly as serfs unless we find a solution.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Thanks el that cracked me up. good day
The Golden Ratio video width makes my browser look funny: "iframe width="1122".

Did you know California outsourced its Employment Development Department payment system to Bank of America? I didn't. I think that kind of shirking should be illegal. Don't call yourself a tech lead when you can't even disburse a payment properly, or detect fraud? C'mon man! Banks incorporate fraud, it is built in to their profit system. Like aphids in the garden, they all suck.

How Bank of America helped fuel California’s unemployment meltdown

In summary
After the Great Recession, California signed an exclusive contract with Bank of America to distribute unemployment benefits through prepaid debit cards. A CalMatters investigation reveals that to this day, no one knows how much the bank has made off the deal. Lawmakers are examining the bank’s role in mass account freezes and untold amounts of missing money for thousands of struggling jobless Californians — as well as where the bank may have failed to keep unemployment money safe from fraud.
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It’s a breakdown of the state’s job safety net that raises questions about the best way to get money into the hands of workers who desperately need it, since California is one of only three U.S. states that does not offer a direct deposit option, according to a CalMatters review of public documents. To this day, it’s not clear how much Bank of America has made from handling the bulk of the unprecedented $109 billion California has paid out in benefits since March. Lawmakers are examining the bank’s role in payment issues that began during a two-week identity-verification update, and whether the bank has provided adequate security for unemployment insurance money in the face of rampant fraud.

Bank of America, whose contract is up next July, declined to answer detailed questions about how many unemployed Californians are still unable to use their debit cards, how much money has been withdrawn from accounts flagged for potential fraud, when and how claimants may be paid back or how much the bank has made in fees on the cards. The state told CalMatters that some 377,500 debit cards were frozen this fall and as of Thursday, around 350,000 accounts remain impacted, meaning progress has been slow.
...

BofA could not securely protect and distribute the program to scale. They froze or removed funds from workers unemployment "accounts", rendering some homeless. Does the bank CEO get a bonus for that, or do they get promoted? equity equity equity

good luck

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enhydra lutris's picture

@eyo

Yeah, B of A is crooked and no doubt criminal, and the law providing for the use of prepaid debit cards was criminal too, a stone cold rip off since, especially at inception, there are fees for using them to get cash.

be well and have a good one.

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8 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --