Naked Capitalism has the post Has Apple Pay Just Put Apple in the CFPB’s Crosshairs?

…Apple’s newly announced Apple Pay service puts Apple under the CFPB’s jurisdiction but[sic] virtue of having made itself a regulated financial institution. And Levitin means all of Apple’s consumer services, not just Apple Pay. He believes that Apple is now a “service provider” under the Consumer Financial Protection Act. That makes Apple subject to CFPB examination and UDAAP.

What, say you, is UDAAP? UDAAP stands for “unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices”. UDAAP is the CFPB’s most feared power.

Chalk up another win for Elizabeth Warren.  Somebody has to put the brakes on Apple taking over everything.  As Microsoft’s evil empire declines, there is Apple ready to move in.

YouTube has the President’s address. I presume the White house will eventually put up an edited version, but at the moment, this is the one I have.

Skip ahead to 31 minutes at which time the President walks in.

There is a web site www.battleforthenet.com that gives you the opportunity to send a message to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and to call your legislators to tell them what you want them to do about this issue.

Big ISPs want the power to slow (and break!) sites like ours. Tell lawmakers: “Protect Internet freedom. Defend net neutrality.”

Don’t let the profits and the power of the few overrule the voices of the many.

On the other hand, if you want to see revolution in the streets, let them cut off the only peaceful and powerful means of protest and dissemination of information that is available to the 99% of us.

The Empire News has the story Meteorologists Predict Record-Shattering Snowfall Coming Soon.

Chances are you will hear a lot about El Niño in the next month or two. Meteorologists and weather science experts at the National Weather Service (NWS) say that there is a 99% chance that the we will start to see a massive cold-front sooner in the year than has ever happened, which will produce not just record-breaking snowfall, but according to Dr. Boris Scvediok, a doctor of global weather sciences, record shattering snow storms across the board, affecting the entire United States.

I must admit that this story really had me worried about my plans for this winter, at least for as long as it took me to read the article. Of course, the first hint was right in the first paragraph.

The UK Guardian has the article Tech firms begin ‘go-slow’ protest in battle for the web.

Kickstarter on Wednesday morning made its point on how new rules would ‘destroy net neutrality’.

Much of the internet went on a “go-slow” protest Wednesday as some of the world’s largest tech companies began a protest over proposals that could create fast web lanes for some companies.

When asked what it’s going to take to change the way the country (and world) is headed toward complete oligarchy, recent gubernatorial candidate Don Berwick pinned his hopes on muckraking independent journalists.

Since the main stream media have pretty much given up on muckraking, we are increasingly depending on independent journalists. In today’s world, these independent journalists use the internet to carry their voice to the people.

For the oligarchy to sustain itself, they need to get control of this last avenue of communication. Let us not kid ourselves that this is about creating fast lanes for people willing to pay. The fastest lanes will always be as fast as technology allows. What we are talking about is putting most communicators in a special slow lane for the unwashed masses. The regular (fast) lane will be only for the information that the oligarchs want the rest of us to hear.

At 9:44PM, I received an email from the town of the unofficial tally sheet of the state primary vote in Sturbridge.

Tally Sheet STATE PRIMARY 09-09-2014 Unofficial.

Berwick managed 82 votes in Sturbridge, but Coakley won as Governor candidate on the Democratic ticket with 244 votes.

Maura Healey got 325 votes for the win as Attorney General candidate on the Democratic ticket.

New Economic Perspectives has the article Mick Jagger, Gordon Brown, and Paul Krugman Lead the Charge for British Rule of Scotland by William K. Black. <spoiler-alert>

Krugman is correct that not having a sovereign currency is a risk and that Scotland would be far better off recovering all aspects of sovereignty, including its once sovereign currency.  That is politically impossible in Scotland (as it is in Ecuador as I have explained previously).

What Krugman does not explain, however, is that Scotland already lacks a sovereign currency because it lacks sovereignty and is part of a “union” in which it is a small, permanent, and often scorned minority.  Regardless of the vote on independence Scotland will lack a sovereign currency.  The English have a sovereign currency, the Pound, and they have had at all times under the “Union” the votes to set the UK’s economic and currency policies.  Scotland was helpless to prevent the insane austerity that crippled Scotland’s recovery from the Great Recession and forced it back into a gratuitous second recession.

</spoiler-alert>

I have not been following the situation in Scotland at all, but any time Bill Black takes Paul Krugman to task, it is worth reading.

Of course, I suppose I have put up a spoiler as the quote.  In the article Black tantalizes with hints as  to what is wrong with what Krugman says.  It is the anticipation of waiting for him to actually state the case that makes the article such a good read.

Talking Points Memo has the article Keith Olbermann: NFL’s Roger Goodell Is An ‘Enabler Of Men Who Beat Women’ which points to the video below.

Is it really more important to watch football than it is to vote in the primary? This primary has people who want to curb domestic violence. Voting for them might be better than watching the next 16 football games.

I cannot judge a woman’s reasons for defending her abuser. However, society cannot allow it’s safety to be compromised by the victim’s decisions.

This is what I put on facebook.

The turnout of voters between 7AM and 9AM was abysmal. I also found out that in order for OSV to allow us to hold the Sturbridge elections at their facilities, we must give up certain of our free speech rights. These are the very kind of limits struck down by the recent Supreme Court decision on another Massachusetts law that imposed buffer zones inside which people could not exercise their free speech.

I think Sturbridge needs to find another place to hold its elections. I also think that ordinary citizens ought to have as many free speech rights as abortion protesters now have. Are abortion protesters a new protected class that has more rights than I do?

Brave New Films has the video How “Protect and Serve” Became “Search and Destroy” on YouTube

Ever wonder how police became soldiers? With the 1033 Programs, “Protect and Serve” Became “Search and Destroy”

When you see how the federal government spent the money, you have to wonder where were the deficit hawks when we needed them? (As if we ever really needed them.)

If Federal law enforcement backs down in the face of Cliven Bundy, but provides materials for this kind of attack on unarmed citizens, what lesson does this give you? Is the Federal government telling us that we’d better come armed if we want them to pay attention to us? What kind of lesson is this that they are delivering?

It goes along with the message we deliver internationally. If you want to be taken seriously by the U.S., you’d better be armed with nuclear weapons. Otherwise, we’ll feel free to bomb you, drone you, and occupy you. So who are the countries acting rationally in the face of our threat? The ones that eschew nuclear weapons, or the ones that try to obtain them? Are we sending the wrong message?