tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102385342024-03-07T22:01:38.049-05:00Faceless BureaucratBlogging on bureaucracy, organizations, USDA, agriculture programs, American history, the food movement, and other interests. Often contrarian, usually optimistic, sometimes didactic, occasionally funny, rarely wrong, always a nitpicker.Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.comBlogger8584125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-295057572429406422023-06-28T15:50:00.000-04:002023-06-28T15:50:00.039-04:00Vertical Farming Crash<p> A long piece on the <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/food-and-farms/why-vertical-farming-just-doesnt-work">decline</a> in vertical farming. I think my past posts reflect skepticism about it. I don't think it will work until fusion is a viable source of energy.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-27468157962504194382023-06-14T17:48:00.002-04:002023-06-14T17:48:30.071-04:00What the Hell Is This? <p> The fewer posts I put up, the more views I get. </p><p>I will never understand humans. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-62541663430246224462023-06-05T17:49:00.005-04:002023-06-05T17:49:56.440-04:00I'm Thin-Skinned<p> "Thin skin" is a metaphor meaning sensitivity to critical comments/insults, etc.</p><p>I'd argue that with age I've become less sensitive to criticism than I used to be, although I'm far from insensitive to criticism. (I always thought I was successful in not showing it, but now I doubt that.)</p><p>But the reality is my aged skin is much more susceptible to cuts and tears than it used to be. In my gardening I often become aware that I'm bleeding, bleeding without ever sensing what happened to break the skin. </p><p><br /></p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-73814525472318083462023-06-03T16:44:00.005-04:002023-06-03T16:44:38.675-04:00The Pilot Makes the Machine?<p> I found this <a href="https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/06/brewster-buffalo-the-world-war-ii-fighter-history-cant-forget/">piece </a>on an obscure and unsuccessful (for US)WWII fighter plane to be very interesting. It seems that while it was a failure in the Pacific for us, it worked for the Finns.</p><p>Raises the question of how much was the machine, how much the pilot and their training, and how much the opposing airforce? And to what extent does this illustrate a more general proposition about man/machine/environment?</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-34817465460946481422023-06-02T17:44:00.007-04:002023-06-02T17:44:44.256-04:00Watergare II--Disregard of Law<p> Nearing the end of the Watergate book, which now recounts the briefing of the House Judiciary Committee by the special prosecutor and his staff, some 7500 pages of evidence. </p><p>According to Graff, two things particularly struck the memebers:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>the misuse of national security to excuse and cover up misdeeds not related to national security (i.e., the attempts to have the CIA convince DOJ to limit its investigation, etc.)</li><li>the lack of regard for the law and constitution. Nixon never was concerned about what was legal, just what was practical and offered a way to get out of the mess.</li></ul><div>I'm particularly struck by the second--it sounds exactly like TFG. Or maybe not, in his egotism TFG claims superior knowledge of the constitution and the law, which Nixon didn't do. Afterwards Nixon would claim, IIRC, what TFG believes: "when the president does it it's legal".</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm also struck by Chairman Rodino's concern for bipartisan votes in his committee, much more concern than the Democrats showed in their two impeachments.</div><p></p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-49239044388579661032023-05-31T16:08:00.003-04:002023-05-31T16:08:47.435-04:00October Is Coming: the 50th Anniversary<p> The Watergate book I'm reading starts one chapter with the observation: "October 1973 would prove to be perhaps the most historic month in the history of the American presidency..."</p><p>A reminder--the month saw the <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/vice-president-agnew-resigns#:~:text=Reelected%20with%20Nixon%20in%201972,tenure%20as%20U.S.%20vice%20president.">resignation of the vice president</a> minutes before he was charged with crimes, and agreed to one, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War">Yom Kippur war </a>which included a confrontation with the Soviet Union, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre#:~:text=The%20Saturday%20Night%20Massacre%20was,1973%2C%20during%20the%20Watergate%20scandal.">Saturday Night Massacre</a>, with the resignation of the Attorney General and deputy AG after Nixon fired the special prosecutor for Watergate.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-81953529290319303732023-05-29T15:08:00.000-04:002023-05-29T15:08:13.140-04:00Watergate<p> In the process of reading Garrett Graff's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Watergate-History-Garrett-M-Graff/dp/1982139161/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1685387119&sr=1-1">Watergate.</a> It's a reminder of how we simplify our history--many reporters involved other than Woodward and Bernstein.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-27655320400937788722023-05-12T17:38:00.003-04:002023-05-12T17:38:50.162-04:00Why Do LIberal Reforms Hurt the Poor?<p> Is this true?</p><p>Liberals propose and enact more laws, regulations, and programs than conservatives? </p><p>The poorer the citizen the more difficulty they have in knowing, understanding, complying, and taking advantage of the laws, regulations, and programs.</p><p>The richer the citizen the more able they are to manipulate laws and regulations to their advantage and to exploit programs in ways not intended by the authors.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-79216561828475797352023-05-10T15:50:00.003-04:002023-05-10T15:50:45.894-04:00Farm Bill and Debt Limit<p> The cynic in me applauds President Biden's tactic of inviting a bipartisan delegation to the White House to discuss the new farm bill. Why am I cynical? While negotiations over farm bill provisions got White House attention in the 1960's and 70's, they haven't gotten that much in recent decades. </p><p>But this year the current farm bill is expiring just as the issue of raising the debt limit and cutting spending is at the forefront. One of the things the House Republicans want to cut is food stamps (SNAP) which is a title in the farm bill. IIRC if the bill the House passed were actually implemented, USDA would see its spending reduced to 83 percent of current. But farm state Republican senators, which likely includes them all, listen to their farmers so Biden is putting the squeeze on. In effect he's saying two things: </p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>you need to help resolve the impasse over debt limit so we can move on to the farm bill, and</li><li>you need to oppose the provisions in the House bill to make cuts, particularly in SNAP, in order to get the Democratic votes you will need to pass the farm bill.</li></ol><div>Well played, it seems, at least at this moment.</div><p></p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-25198666467023451032023-05-09T15:00:00.002-04:002023-05-09T15:00:07.226-04:00Apollo 11--Apogee of White America?<p> Watched the documentary film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_(2019_film)#:~:text=It%20focuses%20on%20the%201969,narration%2C%20interviews%20or%20modern%20recreations.">Apollo 11 l</a>ast night. Seeing it 54 years after the original offered a certain perspective, not to mention color and clarity.</p><p>Couldn't help noticing the almost 100 percent white male control room and the almost 100 percent white audience at Cape Canaveral viewing in person. The film didn't make a point of either, though I'm sure it wasn't by chance the camera passed over one woman in the control room and a couple blacks watching. The film was shot in 1969 with the sensibilities of the time, so I'm guessing it didn't miss much. I'm sure there was a sizeable TV audience of blacks, but few would have had the time and money to travel to the Cape. I can only guess the feelings of the black watchers; possibly discomfort at being one in a thousand, possibly participating in the sort of nationalistic pride most may have felt, or possibly just enjoying the spectacle.</p><p>Apollo 11 was a peculiarly white endeavor; IIRC many black leaders questioned spending the money on space rather than domestic needs. The black participants in the effort were hidden. See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures">Hidden Figures</a>. So it seemed an white American success, perhaps with a little credit to the German scientists who immigrated to Alabama after WWII. </p><p>In 1969 LBJ had been driven from office, so Tricky Dick got to call the astronauts after their recovery. We'd seen the assassinations of MLK and RFK, and the country was sharply divided. The immigration laws had been reformed in 1965 but it was too early to see their effect. We were still on the gold standard and inflation was starting to be a concern. </p><p>I don't know how modern historians place the moonshot in the flow of American life. I suspect many have considered it a sideshow, an assessment which may be changing as we try to get back to the moon and then to Mars. </p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-42871895951912121772023-05-08T15:49:00.002-04:002023-05-08T15:49:17.404-04:00Aging: Learning, Forgetting, Mismatching<p> Had to wait at the self-service checkout for the clerk to help another old man, who complained that he had so many cards--I guess he hadn't used the right number for his Safeway loyaltt account. This ties in with something from the weekend. I can imagine a graphic--two dimensional, though it ought to many dimensions. Stage one--birth: the baby icon is at one edge of a colored circle, the circle representing all the things about the world which the baby can learn and the color representing the status of the information--current, obsolete, new. At stage one the whole circle is the same color, since with respect to the baby all the information is currrent.</p><p>Stage two--the baby icon has grown, representing the information which has been learned. Meanwhile the circle has increased in size, with the increase representing new information while a little of the circle has changed color as information becomes obsolete.</p><p>Successive stages see a continuation of these developments: as time passes the amount of information which can be learned increases, the amount of information the person has learned increases, but as time goes by some of the learned information becomes obsolete.</p><p>Fast forward to my 80's: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>my interest in learning new information and my ability to do so has declined, so the modern world is getting away from me (too many cards)</li><li>the information I've learned is increasingly obsolete. I know so many things which are of no use now. </li><li>bottomline--there's mismatch between me and the world, which is increasing.</li></ul><p></p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-7162143449467225332023-05-04T17:45:00.003-04:002023-05-04T17:48:05.605-04:00The Ending of Government Mental Institutions<p> Some discussion on twitter about the ending of government mental institutions, the <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/deinstitutionalization-people-mental-illness-causes-and-consequences/2013-10">deinstitutonalization</a> movement. Apparently some believe that President Reagan was responsible, only to be corrected that his actions were as CA governor. </p><p> I remember the <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/1074/voices-from-the-asylum#:~:text=By%201879%2C%20focus%20shifted%20to,1993%20because%20of%20safety%20concerns.">State Hospital</a> in Binghamton, NY, not from personal experience but as a reference point in discussions when growing up. According to the website I linked to it dated to mid-19th century, was noted for its architecture, and treated alcoholism as a disease. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhDS84joJC62KxLMMWw9dRUW8uoiHfLBBSzV6dW5GX04a_fzvrCnRHEfEWnOoYnQBLDoh_i97e8uCUM9m1DswzoHbaTlirtiDfu4x5SuLZ7D7ZAXFx4LJKNL09tqx0GqLGz0AQ3hVpGpC-Sc8jqga88eQWMiYPl1CAWm2i9d-uloGSkTknJHQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="800" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhDS84joJC62KxLMMWw9dRUW8uoiHfLBBSzV6dW5GX04a_fzvrCnRHEfEWnOoYnQBLDoh_i97e8uCUM9m1DswzoHbaTlirtiDfu4x5SuLZ7D7ZAXFx4LJKNL09tqx0GqLGz0AQ3hVpGpC-Sc8jqga88eQWMiYPl1CAWm2i9d-uloGSkTknJHQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I also remember my sister had a paperback of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snake_Pit">The Snake Pit</a>, the novel on which the award winning film was based (1948). I think I tried reading it when young; likely one of the books I never finished.</p><p>Anyhow, for me the reform movement started in the 40's, with the Snake Pit, then One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962 novel) followed by the documentary <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/titicut-follies-1968">Titicut Follies</a> (1967). </p><p>It seems to have been a case where liberal good intentions and fond hopes for drugs in place of institution were misplaced. Will it be 100 years before we get another effort for reform?</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-7908696693973975112023-05-03T16:18:00.001-04:002023-05-03T16:18:34.226-04:00Will, Ford, and Pardons<p> George Will's newest column is a<a href="https://wapo.st/3LS1KcG"> review</a> of a new biography of Gerald Ford. I don't know what Will thought of Nixon and Ford in the 1970s, but today he likes Ford and likes his pardon of Nixon.</p><p>Comments on the column don't. IIRC when it happened, I understood the logic and was pleased that Ford's approval rating crashed--I wanted the Democrats to resume their rightful place in the presidency, not realizing Carter's one term would be followed by 3 Republican dinosaurs.</p><p>I still don't know what to think now. Would seeing Nixon on trial have been helpful to the nation? Or would it have further entrenched partisanship? I don't know.</p><p>I do know that while Ford seemed a good person, by 1974 I still harbored resentment over his role in getting Justice Fortas to resign.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-75245104109728722112023-05-02T18:11:00.002-04:002023-05-02T18:11:54.388-04:00How Soon I Forget--Debt Ceiling<p> Discussing the debt ceiling issue this morning I had completely forgotten that prior negotiations had included a "temporary suspension" of the ceiling in order to have more time to negotiate.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-42022991670225896362023-05-01T15:32:00.003-04:002023-05-01T15:32:47.149-04:00Born Round<p> Just read Frank Bruni's<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Born-Round-Family-Ferocious-Appetite-ebook/dp/B002IEUUZ6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2DTIVUMPQAK39&keywords=Born+round&qid=1682968870&sprefix=born+round%2Caps%2C84&sr=8-1"> memoir</a> on food and his other loves. </p><p>One point of his interest--he goes to Italy as the NYTimes correspondent soon after reaching a turning point in his food obsession which he'd lived with and denied since he was small. So he's very sensitive to Italy and their food ways (his grandparents were from southern Italy). </p><p>Based on his memoir, and partially his analysis, at least circa the late 1990s, Italians enjoyed their food, but eating was wrapped in manners and routines, the servings were smaller and the eating slower. In his American milieu, the cooking was competitive (among his grandmother, aunts, and mother) and the amounts signified prosperity and success. </p><p><br /></p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-16003320623712878742023-04-26T16:15:00.003-04:002023-04-26T16:15:40.172-04:00Tyler Vs Hennepin<p> George Will wrote about this case, as did <a href="https://reason.com/volokh/2023/04/26/unusual-cross-ideological-agreement-in-tyler-v-hennepin-county/">Somin</a> in Powerline and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/26/1170667154/grandma-didnt-pay-taxes-now-her-house-is-focus-of-property-rights-test-case">Tottenburg</a> at NPR.</p><p>If I understand Tyler owned a condo, she left for assisted living and apparently left the condo unoccupied. Years later the county took the condo for nonpayment of taxes, auctioned it off, and kept the proceeds. It sounds like a case of injustice.</p><p>What the brief summary seems to miss is that Tyler not only didn't pay her taxes, she didn't pay her HOA dues nor her mortgage. The Minnesota law says if the county takes the property for unpaid taxes, that action wipes out all mortgage and HOA fee debts.</p><p>To me it's hard to see how Tyler should get any money. If she'd declared bankruptcy, then the three creditors: county, mortgage holder, and HOA would presumably fight over the proceeds of the auction.</p><p>To be clear, I don't have a problem with invalidating the law. </p><p>This is a tear-jerker case, which might lead to poor decisions. we'll see.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-50549663323863112082023-04-25T17:31:00.003-04:002023-04-25T17:31:31.305-04:00Biden's In<p> I'll vote for him. What I really want, and won't get, is a victory wide and deep enough to include Democratic gains in the House, the Senate, and state legislatures.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-8101709876882198612023-04-21T17:27:00.004-04:002023-04-21T17:27:56.531-04:00Slavery Everywhere? <p> Americans, some of us, know that slavery was part of our history from 1619 to the Civil War. We're less knowledgable about the slavery in the Caribbean and South America. I'd have to use Google to find out the extent of slavery in Canada or Chile, Bolivia or Mexico. </p><p>I know, of course, that "slave" derived from "Slav" because Slavs were often enslaved sometime back in history. The TV series "Vikings" touched on slavery there. </p><p>The Bible includes<a href=" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_and_slavery#:~:text=The%20Holiness%20code%20of%20Leviticus,property%20that%20could%20be%20inherited."> codes</a> for treatment of slaves. </p><p>My recent reading has included discussions of slavery among Native American tribes and enslavement and slave trading in Africa.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-80530028195004299562023-04-20T16:19:00.002-04:002023-04-20T16:19:23.544-04:00Fraud, Waste, and Abuse<p> Those terms are the mantra for conservatives attacking the size of government, and those who believe it's possible to reduce the deficit without cutting programs.</p><p>As a liberal and retired bureaucrat I'm dubious of the idea.</p><p>One thing we don't do is focus on is private companies. Mr. Zuckerberg has been presumably cutting "waste, fraud, and abuse" in his Meta company--40 percent cuts? And Mr. Musk is cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in his Twitter company. </p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-53832064158487090912023-04-19T15:29:00.002-04:002023-04-19T15:29:28.988-04:00Surprising Defection from TFG on Right<p> Given Powerline Blog's support of TFG over the years, even going so far to oust one of its bloggers for insufficient loyalty (Paul Mirengoff), I never expected to see this <a href="https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/04/time-for-trump-to-go-away.php">post</a> from John Hinderaker, who I think has been the most consistently supportive of the remaining three bloggers: </p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-13522910300447988102023-04-18T17:34:00.001-04:002023-04-18T17:34:07.207-04:00Knowledge problem<p> See <a href="https://crookedtimber.org/2023/04/13/industrial-policy-and-the-new-knowledge-problem/">Farrell</a> at Crooked Timber has a discussion of the "<a href="https://crookedtimber.org/2023/04/13/industrial-policy-and-the-new-knowledge-problem/">Knowledge Problem</a>". If I understand, it's the argument that market prices encapsulate a lot of information and provide a key basis for a decision. </p><p>Based on that understanding I can agree to support market capitalism, at least partially. The argument depends on the framework that someone is deciding what to buy and when to buy, and the price conveys information.</p><p>But as a failed historian I'm struck by the idea that humans make decisions based on history as well. Some of our history-based decisions are also economic decisions; we know what prices were yesterday and have an expectation of what they'll be tomorrow. Or we know how good or bad our last car has been and how good the service from the dealer has been, which has a big impact on which new car we buy and who we buy it from.</p><p>But we also have history-based noneconomic decisions with little or no price involvement. We know, or think we know how good or bad a politician or political party has been; the knowledge guides our future.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-59454183589626034782023-04-17T16:22:00.002-04:002023-04-17T16:22:43.527-04:00Resistance to Remote Work<p> The Times has a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/11/magazine/return-to-office-consultants.html?searchResultPosition=1&login=email&auth=login-email">piece</a> on remote work, describing some research and a categorization done by a social scientist. Attitudes fall into four categories:</p><p>resistor--high level types who go their own way.</p><p>defector--who will quit</p><p>quiet quitters--who don't work hard when at the office</p><p>skeptics--(not clear how they differ from the quitters, except maybe they're more vocal and still work harder than the quitters).</p><p>The breakdown reminds me of the Hirschman analysis in Exit, Voice, and Loyalty.</p><p>Note however that the Times expert is focused only on forms of resistance; he does not address the loyal employees who try to do the job both in the office and at home.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-67991000398687593062023-04-14T18:37:00.003-04:002023-04-14T18:37:24.311-04:00Thomas, Crow, and Heirs Property?ProPublica reported this:<blockquote>In 2014, one of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow’s companies purchased a string of properties on a quiet residential street in Savannah, Georgia. It wasn’t a marquee acquisition for the real estate magnate, just an old single-story home and two vacant lots down the road. What made it noteworthy were the people on the other side of the deal: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives.</blockquote><p>Lots of discussion about the propriety of the purchase, but I wonder about something else, given the last 5 words. Apparently Thomas' mother lives in the home. </p><p>Slate <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/clarence-thomas-mom-billionaire-house.html">reports</a> that: <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Retina, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"> "</span>All three properties were co-owned by Thomas, Williams, and the family of Thomas’ late brother<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Retina, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">." </span> That sounds to me like confirmation of what I suspected when I started this post--the property was "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heir_property">heirs property</a>", meaning the original owner died without a will. That's been a big issue for ASCS/FSA, since having clear title to the land you're farming used to be a requirement for obtaining some loans. Congress has recently provided money for FSA to dole out to NGO's who are supposed to help owners of heirs property. </p><p>I've always mentally ascribed the prevalence of heirs property among blacks to the historical lack of lawyers in the community. But here we have one of the nine most powerful lawyers in the US involved with heirs property. The iriony.</p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-65729404801471150212023-04-13T15:47:00.007-04:002023-04-13T15:47:58.275-04:00On Distribution LIsts<p> Kevin Drum and many others don't understand how a National Guard member could have access to the sort of information which was leaked.</p><p>I think part of it is the pathology of distribution lists. One of my early jobs in ASCS was reviewing and updating the distribution lists we maintained for various types of directives. These were paper or telegraph messages, but similar logic would apply in the world of data.</p><p>I think there's severa; aspects of what I'm calling pathology:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>no one pays any attention to distribution lists. Once they're set up they can go on forever, automatically.</li><li>distribution lists can be based on an office, a position, or an individual. If you specify x number of paper copies for an office, it's then up to the office manager to see they get distributed. In today's world, the email/is sent to the office url. If it's a position, then whoever occupies the position or acts for the occupant would have access. If it's an individual, then an individual address. Each of these are vulnerable.</li><li>The vulnerability is in part the fact that things change, but as I said, the distribution list is automatic. Bureaucracies may have procedures for "out-processing" people, but that's not a priority (I remember my outprocessing from Nam).</li><li>The other vulnerability is the gap in comprehension between the originator of the classified info and the actual recipient in the bureaucracy. </li></ul><div>I'll be interested to see how close my guesses come to the reality in the current case.</div><p></p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10238534.post-26403495055054571372023-04-12T15:23:00.004-04:002023-04-12T15:23:49.052-04:00A Large Dairy, Poor Cows<p> Big <a href="https://www.newschannel10.com/2023/04/11/reports-upwards-18000-cattle-lost-explosion-dimmitt-dairy-farm/">explosion at a dairy </a>in Texas Monday, with estimates of the number of cows killed at 18,000!</p><p>Don't know the cause of the explosion--possibly methana from manure would be a guess. </p><p>Can only feel sorry for the cows which died, which have to be killed because of injuries, and which survived but won't be milked on schedule, not to mention their likely PTSD. </p>Bill Harshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02094598931693185805noreply@blogger.com0