The new accessory form Satechi, carried exclusively by select Apple Stores, brings back many of the missing ports that Apple has removed from Mac notebooks over the years.

We begin today’s roundup with John Harwood’s insight at CNBC on the GOP’s reaction to Trump’s racist tweets:

With their votes this week, House Republicans absolved President Donald Trump of racism in calling for four non-white lawmakers to “go back” to other countries.

But not only Trump.

They also voted to absolve themselves, their party and the voters who elected them – like the ones who chanted “send her back” at a rally Wednesday in North Carolina. It took more than just fealty to the president to unite 187 of 191 Republicans against condemning his words...[T]his week’s furor implicates the character and reputation of many others besides the president. Denouncing Trump’s words as racist, as the House Democratic majority voted to do, means denouncing those chanting rally audiences that all GOP candidates depend on.

Adam Sewer at The Atlantic highlight’s the significance of this moment in American history:

[M]ost of Trump’s predecessors had something he does not yet have: the support of a majority of the electorate. Ilhan Omar’s prominence as a Republican target comes not, as conservatives might argue, simply because her policy views are left-wing. Neither is it because, as some liberals have supposed, she is an unmatched political talent. She has emerged as an Emmanuel Goldstein for the Trumpist right because as a black woman, a Muslim, an immigrant, and a progressive member of Congress, she represents in vivid terms a threat to the nation Trumpists fear they are losing. To attack Omar is to attack a symbol of the demographic change that is eroding white cultural and political hegemony, the defense of which is Trumpism’s only sincere political purpose. Many of the president’s most outrageous comments have been delivered extemporaneously, when he departs from his prepared remarks. Last night, though, his attacks on Omar were carefully scripted, written out by his staff and then read off a teleprompter. To defend the remarks as politically shrewd is to confess that the president is deliberately campaigning on the claim that only white people can truly, irrevocably be American.

Since being finally ousted from the governor's mansion, Scott Walker has been scrambling to find a soft place to land through the conservative welfare system. One of the empty figurehead jobs he got was the chief national fundraiser for a right wing front group, National Republican Redistricting Trust, which goal is to raise money to help the inevitable gerrymandering the Congressional Republicans are going to try to pull. Because of this, Walker will occasionally throw up some lame rationalization for gerrymandering on social media and/or his podcast, ironically names "You Can't Recall Courage."

Media Matters caught an exceptionally gobsmacking moment from Walker's podcast on July 5:

[embed eid="36050" /]

During the July 5 edition of You Can’t Recall Courage, Walker offered further justification of his tweet. Complaining about high voter turnout in liberal-leaning Madison and “unbelievably big” Democratic margins of victory in districts in and around Madison, Walker said it’s a “flawed argument” to say that “a vote in Madison counts the same as a vote in a very rural community or in a suburban community.”

read more

Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh warned his fellow party members on Thursday that they would “get wiped out in 2020” if they failed to denounce the racism seen at Trump rallies.

Walsh told CNN’s Brianna Keilar that Trump voters who chanted “send her back” to Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) are full of “hatred.”

“It’s ugly, it’s racist, it’s anti-American, and it ought to be denounced,” Walsh said. “And Brianna, it should have been denounced by the president last night. But he’s not capable of it.

According to Walsh, Republican lawmakers have privately told him that they “can’t stand what the president has unleashed, this big bowl of ugly.”

“I had to crack up, your congressional correspondent earlier, who said that privately these Republicans are uncomfortable with what the president did last night, and uncomfortable with the chant privately, bull crap on being privately uncomfortable,” Walsh added. “I’m sick of the private stuff.”

read more

Senator Rand Paul was criticized by Jon Stuart and many others for holding up a vote in the Senate to fully fund the 9/11 responders.

Paul claimed he just wants to have more debate about how the benefits will be paid for and immediately went on Fox News with Neil Cavuto to whine and characterize everybody attacking him as a "mob."

He said the 9/11 responders will get their money and had some choice words for the former Comedy Central host.

"It’s really disgusting," Paul groused. "He pretended for years when he was on his comedy show to be somebody that could be both sides and see through the BS. Now he is the B.S.”

Forgetting all about Donald Trump's historic record of lying to the American people, Rand launched a rant: "People need to wake up and not be so, sort of overwhelmed by celebrity that they take out-and-out falsehoods and ad hominem attacks from — really a guttersnipe like Jon Stewart.”

Boo hoo, Rand Paul. Boo hoo.

h/t Mediaite

Friday.

The weekend’s not any kind of respite from the horrors of living in Trumpworld. But it is a respite from telling you each morning that there’s no respite from the horrors of living in Trumpworld.

But we do see Fridays as imposing a responsibility on us—by which I mean me—for preparing you—by which I mean you—for figuring out on your own or with friends, family and neighbors that there’s no respite from the horrors of living in Trumpworld.

Wow, is that too dark? How about this, then?

Hey, come on! It’s not that bad! Wacka-wacka-wacka! Did that do the trick? I’m sure I’ll come up with better once we start reading the news.

Listen right here at 9:00 AM ET!

PODCAST LISTENERS: There’s a new podcast platform in town, and the big news is: this one pays! RadioPublic pays podcast producers at $20 CPM for listens on their native app (available for iPhones & Androids), financed by pre- and post-roll ads they insert. Not a bad way to support the show, with somebody else’s money!

So if you’re a podcast listener, please consider downloading the RadioPublic app on your Android or iOS phone. Yes, you can still download directly from their site, or listen to the player embedded here at Daily Kos. But it’s listens in their app that count toward payment. And get this: listen to just three episodes in their app, and we earn a one-time, $1 “loyal listener” bonus.

Nothing changes on our end. It’s still Greg Dworkin, Joan McCarter, and even Armando. Plus also, me. And you! As always, we still want your voice on the air with us. Sit down with your smart phone or other electronic recording device and send us your stories and commentary to share with the audience. There’s no easier way to try your hand at podcasting, without all the hassle!

Of course there’s no substitute for having your support via Patreon, or one-time contributions via Square Cash. (And hey, if you want a cool trick for donating sorta-kinda cost free, get their cash.me app and use this share code to get $5 in your account (plus $5 in mine) when you send your first $5 (to anyone)!

For now, how about one on the house? Here’s what we did on our last show:

x Embedded Content

RadioPublic|LibSyn|YouTube|Patreon|Square Cash (Share code: Send $5, get $5!)

Donald Trump proved last night what he proves every day: He can get worse. David Waldman and Greg Dworkin review yesterday’s events, which will seem a walk in the park by next week: Donald Trump had a signature campaign rally last night in which he goaded his followers into behaving like Trump followers. He needs them to be racist thugs, although a bit more discreet. Mobs can be effective, yet so hard to regulate. Don’t worry, Donald has a plan if things get out of hand. It’s ride or die time for Republicans, with no room for the weak. Susan Collins is deeply concerned. Ivanka Trump considers a name change. Democrats just want to get along. The Squad remains in the limelight, and not one of their couple hundred Democratic Congressional co-workers are one bit envious of that limelight... Several did pull Jake Tapper aside to speak candidly under condition of anonymity about how they were especially rankled by having to address specific concerns in an order that they themselves would not have selected, probably. Also-rogue Representative Al Green introduced articles of impeachment, again. 95 fellow Democrats thought that was a fine idea. But, it was tabled, because of course we should wait to hear the Mueller report testimony before doing something imprudent. In New York, the sun rises. If you think we have it tough, UK’s Trump Boris Johnson lost his first House of Commons vote, and he’s not even Prime Minister yet. Boris attempted to suspend parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit.

Thanks to Scott Anderson for the show summary! Please help me pay him more! Need more info on how to listen? Find it below the fold.

Keeper is a good solution to password troubles. It's a password manager that can store unlimited passwords securely using two-factor methods including text and fingerprint confirmation. Keeper also removes the chore of trying to design your own secure password by generating super-tough random passwords that can't be broken. 

The Chinese space station Tiangong-2 is scheduled to drop out of orbit on July 19 and fall into the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Chile. New Scientist reports: Tiangong-2 -- which translates as "heavenly palace" -- was launched in September 2016, and it was never intended to be a permanent fixture in orbit. Instead, its purpose was to test technologies for China's larger planned space station, whose main module is scheduled to launch in 2020. That space station is planned to be about one-fifth the size of the International Space Station. Tiangong-2 is far smaller. In 2018, Tiangong-2 began to lower its orbit to prepare for the end of its mission. On 19 July, it will fire its thrusters again to aim its descent toward the Pacific Ocean. Most of the craft will probably burn up as it enters the atmosphere, but any parts that survive should splash into the water harmlessly. Its predecessor, Tiangong-1, lost power in April 2018 and crashed in an uncontrolled fashion.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple is facing a new security threat thanks to developments in the spyware/surveillance tool sold by the Israeli firm NSO Group. Via the Financial Times, the Pegasus phone software now not only harvests data from the user’s onboard storage, but also all communications with the connected cloud.

The vulnerability purportedly affects the iPhone and Apple’s iCloud as well as Google Android phones, and even third-party apps installed on the phone that communicate over ‘encrypted and secure’ connections.

more…

The post Report: Israeli surveillance tool can silently collect all iCloud data for a targeted user appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Researchers at Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania analyzed 22,484 porn sites and found that 93% leak user data to a third party. Normally, for extra protection when surfing the web, a user might turn to incognito mode. But, the researchers said, incognito mode only ensures that your browsing history is not stored on your computer. CNET reports: According to a study released Monday, Google was the No. 1 third-party company. The research found that Google, or one of its subsidiaries like the advertising platform DoubleClick, had trackers on 74% of the pornography sites examined. Facebook had trackers on 10% of the sites. "In the U.S., many advertising and video hosting platforms forbid 'adult' content. For example, Google's YouTube is the largest video host in the world, but does not allow pornography," the researchers wrote. "However, Google has no policies forbidding websites from using their code hosting (Google APIs) or audience measurement tools (Google Analytics). Thus, Google refuses to host porn, but has no limits on observing the porn consumption of users, often without their knowledge."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Open thread below...

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While Google stopped selling its augmented-reality glasses to customers due to privacy concerns, Google Glass lived on as something to be used by researchers and businesses. The New York Times reports of a new effort from Stanford researchers to use Google Glass to help autistic children understand emotions and engage in more direct ways with those around them. The glasses could also be used to measure changes in behavior, something that has historically been difficult to do. An anonymous Slashdot reader shares an excerpt from the report: When Esaie Prickett sat down in the living room with his mother, father and four older brothers, he was the only one wearing Google Glass. As Esaie, who was 10 at the time and is 12 now, gazed through the computerized glasses, his family made faces -- happy, sad, surprised, angry, bored -- and he tried to identify each emotion. In an instant, the glasses told him whether he was right or wrong, flashing tiny digital icons that only he could see. Esaie was 6 when he and his family learned he had autism. The technology he was using while sitting in the living room was meant to help him learn how to recognize emotions and make eye contact with those around him. The glasses would verify his choices only if he looked directly at a face. He and his family tested the technology for several weeks as part of a clinical trial run by researchers at Stanford University in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. Recently detailed in The Journal of the American Medical Association, Pediatrics, the trial fits into a growing effort to build new technologies for children on the autism spectrum, including interactive robots and computerized eyewear.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It's been a few years now since Philadelphia's Honey Radar last released a full-length album. With a sound that is perfect for a hazy summer day as much as it for watching a torrential downpour of rain, Ruby Puff Of Dust is sure to be welcomed by many who dig things like the Byrds but much more twisted and fractured.

What are your listening to tonight?

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A little bit of perspective on the election from Ron Brownstein:

Trump's victory in 2016, and his consistent support in polls from about 40-45% of the population, shows there is a significant audience for his hard-edged message on immigration and demographic change more broadly. But there is also a clear cost. In effect, Trump's bruising racially-infused nationalism is forcing the GOP to trade support among younger voters for older ones; secular voters for the most religiously conservative, especially evangelical Christians; diverse voters for whites; white collar whites for blue-collar whites; and metro areas for non-metro areas. Since Trump's emergence Republicans have consolidated their control of small-town, exurban and rural communities. But that has come with significant losses for the GOP inside metropolitan areas even in red states, like Texas and Georgia.

The trade Trump is imposing on the GOP was apparent in 2016 and enormously intensified in 2018.

read more

New submitter symgym writes: Recently out of stealth mode is a new battery technology that's printed on silicon wafers (36 million "micro-batteries" machined into 12-inch silicon wafers). It can scale from small devices to large-scale grid storage and promises four times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries for half the price. There should also be no issues with fires caused by dendrite formation. "When you use porous silicon, you get about 70 times the surface area compared to a traditional lithium battery... [and] there's millions of cells in a wafer," says Christine Hallquist of Cross Border Power, the startup that plans to commercialize the battery design developed by Washington-based company XNRGI. "It completely eliminates the problem of dendrite formation." If all of this is true, it's a massive disruptive invention. Hallquist also notes that the new batteries are 100% recyclable. "At the end of the life of this product, you bring the wafers back in, you clean the wafer off, you reclaim the lithium and other materials. And it's essentially brand new. So we're 100 percent recyclable." "Hallquist says the battery banks that Cross Border Power plans to sell to utility companies as soon as next year will be installed in standard computer server racks," reports IEEE Spectrum. "One shipping container worth of those racks (totaling 40 racks in all) will offer 4 megawatts (MW) of battery storage capacity, she says. Contrast this, she adds, to a comparable set of rack-storage lithium ion batteries which would typically only yield 1 MW in a shipping container."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It was dad’s birthday yesterday (#78), so I went and picked up Tammy and met my parents and my sister and her husband in Pittsburgh at a restaurant called Kaya. I gotta tell you, this is the best new (to me) restaurant I have been to in ages. Everything on it was in my favorite flavor profile, with peppers and lime and cilantro and goodness everywhere. We split a bunch of appetizers (my favorite was the shishitos), and for dinner I had the street corn and fish tacos. For dessert I brought with us a birthday cake called Death by Chocolate. We’re all still living, but if you gotta go, that is a good way.

Trump is awful.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is calling on the FBI to investigate FaceApp after privacy concerns have been raised about the Russian company which developed the app. In a letter posted on Twitter, Mr Schumer called it "deeply disturbing" that personal data of U.S. citizens could go to a "hostile foreign power." The BBC reports: Wireless Lab, a company based in St. Petersburg, says it does not permanently store images, and does not collect troves of data -- only uploading specific photos selected by users for editing. "Even though the core R&D team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred to Russia," a company statement reported by news site TechCrunch said. Mr Schumer however has asked that the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigate FaceApp. "I have serious concerns regarding both the protection of the data that is being aggregated as well as whether users are aware of who may have access to it," his letter reads.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The bouncing balls have bounced and we now have the lineup for the next two Democratic debates:

Debates for July 30 and 31: pic.twitter.com/a7jM5jDETj

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 19, 2019

On July 31 we get the Joe and Kamala show again. However, Pete and Bernie are moving to the first night to give Liz someone serious to argue with. Should be a barrel of laughs.

Slashdot reader John Nautu shares a report from Windows Report: Microsoft released their Q4 earnings and it's (almost) all good news. The giant registered amazing growth on all departments, increasing its share price by one third. It was a record fiscal year for Microsoft, and the numbers exceeded all expectations: - Revenue was $33.7 billion and increased 12% - Operating income was $12.4 billion and increased 20% - Net income was $13.2 billion GAAP and $10.6 billion non-GAAP, and increased 49% and 21%, respectively - Diluted earnings per share was $1.71 GAAP and $1.37 non-GAAP, and increased 50% and 21%, respectively - GAAP results include a $2.6 billion net income tax benefit explained in the Non-GAAP Definition section below Of course, Microsoft's partnership with many industry leading companies also played a role in the constant development and improvement of their products. Despite Azure leading the way, Office 365, Windows, and Microsoft Teams also contributed to the growth. [Teams recently overtook Slack with 13 million daily users.] It's not all good news though. The Verge notes that the company's gaming business has stalled. "Gaming revenue declined by 10 percent this quarter, alongside Xbox software and services revenue decline of 3 percent." Ryan Duguid, Chief Evangelist at Nintex, said the company is planning some big things for next year: "In 2020, we expect to see Microsoft double down in three key areas to further differentiate from the leading tech giants: AI and ML (across the entire platform), data (infinitely expandable, cost-effective, and supportive of ODI), and modern workplace (productivity software)." In after-hours trading, Microsoft shares gained more than 1%. "The closing price gave Microsoft a market capitalization of $1.045 trillion, the only U.S. company worth more than $1 trillion," reports MarketWatch.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.