republicans
Latest
Memes made the presidential debate great again
There's something magical about an inside joke. A good inside joke reminds friends that no matter what happens, you'll always have that moment when you were completely in sync, united by laughter and happy tears. Memes, meanwhile, are inside jokes on a massive scale. Memes remind the people involved of happier times, when an entire country or group of disparate people shared a moment of levity, something to laugh about, something adorable to bond over. Throughout the cutthroat 2016 presidential election, citizens of the United States have been in dire need of a uniting force. And, during last night's second presidential debate, the people found their common ground in an affable, red-sweatered meme named Ken Bone.
Democrats slam Republicans fighting the internet handover
If you thought Facebook and Google raised a big fuss over Republican opposition to the US' plan to hand the internet's 'keys' (the authority managing domain name assignments) to an international governing body, you haven't seen anything yet. A quintet of House and Senate Democrats have used TechCrunch to post an open letter to the Republicans, chastising them over their resistance to the transition to ICANN. While Senator Ted Cruz and supporters have previously claimed that international control would make it easier for authoritarian governments to censor the internet, the Democrats reject this outright. The task of managing the domain name system is "clerical," they argue -- countries like China or Russia can't manipulate content just because DNS isn't under exclusive US oversight.
Illinois politician resigns after fighting social network fakes
Politicians tend to quit over scandals or sheer public outcry, but fake social networking accounts? That's new. Illinois House representative Ron Sandack has resigned after spending weeks battling with "cyber security issues" -- namely, people creating multiple impersonating Facebook and Twitter accounts. The fight made him "re-evaluate" his role in office and whether or not it was worth missing "important family events" to be there, he says.
The 2016 RNC was celebratory and friendly, both online and off
Donald Trump has, whether knowingly or not, tapped into some deep-seated bigotry still lurking just beneath the surface of this country. I do not know if Trump agrees with the openly racist people he retweets or if he's merely aping the language and memes of the alt-right for political gain. As many have discovered, though, Trump's most vocal supporters on Twitter are often unabashedly anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and racist. The question for me as I prepared for the 2016 Republican National Convention was, would these newly invigorated hate groups suddenly feel as safe expressing themselves face-to-face as they do online? I'm happy to report the answer is no -- mostly, anyway. The 2016 RNC certainly wasn't without incident or ugliness, but by and large the crowds were peaceful and respectful, and the hate groups did not find the Republican Party waiting for them with open arms in Cleveland.
Republican platform highlights the importance of privacy
In the wake of countless scandals, from Bush-era warrantless wiretaps to Obama-age metadata collection, the Republican party has decided to put renewed focus on citizen privacy. Multiple sections of the party's platform, which lays out its agenda for the next four years, call for strengthening privacy protections both against the government and private businesses. It even particularly calls out the need to protect the information of farmers and ranchers in the age of "big data." On the specific challenges around encrypted data and communication, however, the GOP leaves itself plenty of wiggle room when it comes to accessing such information.
Republican party embraces next-gen wireless and IoT
In 2012 the GOP's official platform didn't say much about broadband. In fact, in the 62-page, roughly 30,000-word document detailing the party's various policy stances, the word "broadband" only appeared once. In 2016, things are a little different. The platform dedicates far more space to talk of expanding internet access. It even calls for reforms that would help the Internet of Things "thrive."
GOP platform praises NASA's ability to foster innovation
The Republican party has officially adopted its platform (warning: PDF) for the 2016 election season. And inside is some slightly surprising praise for NASA and talk of investing in it as a means to foster innovation. Specifically the GOP called the agency (along with the Department of Defense) critical to maintaining the country's edge in space. Of course, the specifics of the language are very carefully chosen. The platform doesn't whole-heartedly embrace a government-driven path to space-based dominance. Instead it calls out the agencies, as well as their public-private partnerships with the likes of SpaceX, that it claims have saved tax payers money.
Twitter will livestream the Democratic and Republican conventions
Twitter isn't limiting its livestreaming to major sporting events. The social network has revealed that it will stream both the Democratic and Republican national conventions, which respectively start on July 25th and July 18th. The coverage (technically provided by CBSN) will be available through both the web and Twitter's official mobile apps, and won't require an account to start watching.
Apple won't assist the Republican convention due to Trump
Apple has made a number of firm political stands ever since Tim Cook took the helm, and it's not about to back down any time soon. Politico sources (backed by in-the-know journalist John Paczkowski) say that Apple won't provide funding or other support for the Republican Party's July presidential convention due to Donald Trump's policies. Reportedly, his attitudes toward immigrants, minorities and women are beyond the pale -- although Apple has been willing to court Republicans in the past (Cook met with House GOP bigwigs in 2015), Trump is just too extreme for the company's tastes. Apple has declined to comment to Politico so far.
DNC accuses Russian hackers of stealing opposition research
The Democratic National Committee reports that its entire database of opposition research into Donald Trump was compromised and accessed by Russian hackers. That includes all email and chat logs as well, according to security experts who responded to the data breach. Officials first noticed "unusual network activity" in late April and believe that the hackers may have gained entry through a targeted spearphishing campaign. What's more, this appears to be just one of a number of recent incursions by the Russians who, in recent months, have reportedly hacked Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's campaigns as well as a few GOP superPACS.
Republican budget proposal would gut net neutrality
It's no secret that the Republican Party hates net neutrality regulation, but it's now ready to raise the stakes. House GOP members have drafted a 2017 budget proposal that would neuter some of the FCC's bigger telecom initiatives, at least for a while. On top of cutting the FCC's budget by $69 million, it would prevent the FCC from enforcing its net neutrality rules until some court cases wind down -- which, knowing the legal system, could take years. You could also forget about short-term attempts to open up competition for TV set-top boxes, as the legislation would prevent the FCC from taking action on its set-top rule until a study finishes.
Senate committee looks into Facebook's news filtering methods
It's not just your right-leaning friends worried that Facebook is pruning conservative perspectives out of its Trending News section. The US Senate's Commerce Committee (led by Republican John Thune) has sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg asking him to answer questions about Facebook's news curation methods. The group wants the social network to not only explain its news curation methods and policies, but show how it's investigating alleged exclusions of conservative stories. Does it keep records of the judgment calls that curators make, for example?
Iowa GOP website exposes voter records for 2 million people
The Iowa caucuses may be over, the state's Republican party still has its hands full. Wall Street Journal reports that the website for the Republican Party of Iowa had a security flaw that exposed voter information for around 2 million people. Names, phone numbers, addresses, birth dates, party affiliations and voter records for registered Republicans, Democrats and Independents were all part of an unencrypted database left open on the site. Voter records don't list who someone voted for, only if they voted. However, the leaving personal details out for the taking is certainly troubling.
Trump claims he'd make Apple build devices in the US
Donald Trump isn't known for having a firm grasp of technology-related issues, and he just reinforced those beliefs on Monday. The hopeful Republican presidential nominee told an audience at Liberty University that he'd make Apple "build their damn computers in this country," rather than sending the work to China and elsewhere. It sure sounds like a great idea, especially in light of increasing efforts to bring tech manufacturing stateside. However, there doesn't appear to be much evidence that this will happen -- or even that it can happen.
Donald Trump commandeers Jebbush.com
The domain Jebbush.com redirects to the official campaign page for Donald Trump's presidential bid. The URL has been up for grabs since April, at least -- at the time, CNN Money reported it was on sale for $250,000 via hosting service Fabulous.com. Apparently Bush, who's running for the Republican nomination alongside Trump and a (large) handful of other candidates, didn't think it was worthwhile to invest in his own-name dot-com domain. His official website is Jeb2016.com.
Political TV ads will soon know who you are
Like it or not, another US election is almost upon us -- and this time around, the incessant political advertising may cut a little too close to home. Both Democrats and Republicans are using a new TV ad targeting system from DirecTV and Dish that takes advantage of voter records to put personalized campaign ads on your DVR. If you tend to swing between both parties, you may get different commercials than lifelong supporters. You may also get reminders to vote early if you frequently cast absentee ballots. And unlike conventional targeting methods, which run ads on shows they believe certain demographics will watch, these promos will automatically appear on any show you record as long as there's a free slot.
Google named official social platform of 2012 Republican National Convention
It's no secret that Big G's tight with the federal government, whether it's White House staff hanging out on Google +, or the company giving us all a personal tour of Obama's abode. This time around, though, Larry Page & Co. have announced a partnership with the GOP which makes Mountain View the official social platform and livestream provider of the upcoming Republican National Convention. Essentially, this means Republicans at the gathering will use sites like YouTube and Google+ to stream live events and pop in at the occasional Hangout. That said, it wouldn't surprise us if attendees dabbled in that other social network, as it's no stranger to politics, either. Too bad Santorum's not around to try on those snorkeling goggles...
GOP presidential candidate quoted Pokemon: The Movie 2000. Four times.
Herman Cain, a Republican presidential candidate from Georgia, doesn't only want to catch the executive seat; he's on a quest to catch the public's attention, the media's focus and probably a baseball or two. In other words, what's we're getting at is this: he's gotta catch 'em all. In Thursday night's Republican primary debate in Iowa, Cain quoted "a poet" as having once said, "Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, but it's never easy when there's so much on the line" (3:31 below). These are lyrics from "The Power of One," a song written for Pokemon: The Movie 2000 by "poet" Donna Summer. This could be dismissed as a charming flub, if only it was the first time Cain had used Pokemon lyrics in a political speech. Cain quotes the line on what appears to be his official website (attributing it to the 2000 Olympics closing song, which it's not), at his official campaign announcement in May, and at the Republican Leadership Conference in June. Maybe it's a secret message that if he wins the presidency, he'll replace all US court systems with Pokemon tournaments, because that's the only way to be sure justice is truly upheld. Maybe.
House subcommittee votes to block FCC's net neutrality rules
They may face an uphill battle given the numbers in the Senate (not to mention a Democratic President), but it doesn't look like the House Republicans will be softening their opposition to the FCC's new net neutrality rules anytime soon. Following a full vote on an amendment to a spending bill in the House of Representatives last month (which just died in the Senate yesterday), the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has now passed a new measure that, if it ultimately adopted, would completely overturn the FCC's new rules. The measure now heads to the Energy and Commerce Committee but, as before, it's unlikely that anything will change in the Senate even it ultimately passes in the full House -- that certainly won't stop opponents of the rules from trying, though.
Encrypted Text: The rogue guide to gear customization
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Email me with any good screenshots or questions you have! Back in the good old days, rogues were stuck with whatever leather gear that happened to drop. It didn't matter if it had spirit or strength on it, as we really had no other options. We could augment our pieces with a few different enchants, but even those were better suited for warriors. While sometimes it seemed as if there were a random number generator churning out tier loot, we happily scooped it up anyway. The class, and everyone else, was at the mercy of the itemization gods of Blizzard. Times have changed quite a bit since those days. While we're still not able to craft custom pieces of gear tailored to fit our every need, we're not stuck with caster stats anymore. With the number of dungeons and bosses available, combined with the addition of justice points, there are a ton of options for nearly every slot on our character sheet. Enchanting has grown to encompass most of our gear, while reforging and the gem system have taken gear customization even further. Not only is there more gear to be had, but the gear we do get is much more malleable, allowing us to pick the perfect combination.
