Those pesky Russians are back

Top of my comment queue this morning (edited to remove the website link; click to enlarge):

And, just watch, Moose and Squirrel will be blamed for this one, too.

I am NOT running for mayor

I guess I better get that right out of the way.

Since Mayor Emmanuel's announcement yesterday that he would not seek a third term after all, a host of new candidates have declared themselves... sent out feelers... begun pollling... signaled their interest... the words are different but the meaning is the same: According to this morning's Politico / Illinois Playbook, the dozen or so candidates already in the mayoral race may be joined by Gery Chico, Bill Daley, Arne Duncan, Luis Gutierrez, Susana Mendoza, Maria Pappas, Toni Preckwinkle, Larry Rogers Jr., Michael Sacks, Kurt Summers, Anna Valencia, "and numerous aldermen including Proco 'Joe' Moreno, 1st; Ricardo Munoz, 22nd (who recently announced his retirement from the City Council), Roderick Sawyer, 6th; Tom Tunney, 44th; and Ameya Pawar (who’s not [seeking] re-election for the City Council)."

With so many candidates, a runoff seems insufficient: We need brackets.

What does all this mean for potential 2020 judicial candidates?

Not much... not directly... although the glut of mayoral candidates will soak up a lot of dollars that might have been available for judicial candidates. But there will be some time between the likely April 2019 mayoral runoff and the start of the 2020 primary season: Figure about six weeks. No more than eight. The Democratic Party's "pre-screening" of countywide judicial hopefuls will probably take place some time in June 2019.

Not sure about compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Not a likely FWIW reader - even if he were real.

As you might expect, because For What It's Worth is published on the Internet, it is available around the Whole Wide World (which, I have recently learned, is not what "www" stands for).

Nevertheless, much as I'd like to imagine Horace Rumpole decompressing at Pomeroy's after a hard day jousting with the Mad Bull down at the Old Bailey, sipping a generous glass of Chateau Thames Embankment, and calling up FWIW on his smart phone... it seems very unlikely that this blog would have much appeal much beyond the borders of County Cook.

However, if Rumpole or anyone else in chambers at No. 2 Equity Court were to call up FWIW, it is my understanding that they'd get the exact same page you're looking at, but with this notice superimposed:

This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies.

This blog is published by the Blogger service of Google, and Blogger slapped the above and foregoing notice on foreign incarnations of this blog without any exertion on my part. I dimly understand that this notice was added in order to comply with regulations imposed by the European Union.

I only recently figured out that the cookie notice is different, somehow, than the latest thing about which I'm getting frequent emails, viz., the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The one difference I can actually explain is that the cookie notice has been around for awhile now but GPDR is only going into effect this month.

Beyond that, although I have attempted to work through the jargon-laden verbiage of the 'explanatory' articles Google provides, I have had difficulty actually determining what, if anything, Google actually wants me to do in order to remain in the good graces of Brussels-based bureaucrats who have no interest whatsoever in the judicial aspirations of Cook County residents.

I have read that "GDPR introduces significant new obligations for the ecosystem," but I have no real understanding of what that means. I thought that 'ecosystem' referred to birds and bees and dirt and trees and other living things in a given area -- but I find that Dictionary.com offers an alternative definition of ecosystem as "any system or network of interconnecting and interacting parts, as in a business: The success of Apple’s ecosystem depends on hardware/software integration...."

I guess I am a content provider -- Google/Blogger wouldn't be able to collect any information about blog readers unless folks like me provide content -- and given how many millions of content providers exist, this probably makes me analogous to a bug hiding under a fallen leaf on the forest floor of the Google/Blogger ecosystem.

As near as I can tell, the following appears to be the key passage in the various materials I've gotten from Google about GDPR:

You are not required to seek consent for a user’s activity on Google’s sites (we obtain that ourselves when users visit our sites). We are asking only that you seek consent for your uses of our ads products on your properties. We already require that certain consents are obtained from your users in the EEA, and we are updating those requirements in line with the GDPR. We encourage you to link to this user-facing page explaining how Google manages data in its ads products. Doing so will meet the requirement of our EU User Consent Policy to give your users information about Google’s uses of their personal data.

Well, now I've linked. And I hope that's sufficient to keep me from getting stepped on.

Time will tell.

Attention #CookCountyJudicial candidates: LinkedIn says you're doing it all wrong

This was in my mail this morning. I felt duty-bound to pass it along....

And, always remember, free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it.

The Russians really are everywhere!

Unless you've been in a coma, you're painfully aware that Russia is dominating the news these days.

It started, of course, during the election campaign. There were allegations that the Russians were behind the Wikileaks disclosures of DNC emails. Mr. Putin, it seems, did not like Hillary Clinton... something about the "reset" button that she showed up with early in her tenure as Secretary of State. There was an entirely unsubstantiated rumor, which I probably just made up, that the reset button was, in reality, a thinly disguised "that was easy" button from the Staples commercials of some years back. Putin pressed the button and was so offended by the message, which he thought was directed at him personally, that he immediately started planning the invasion of Ukraine.

I wasn't sure what the big deal was about the Wikileaks 'revelations' anyway. Many of these merely confirmed that the DNC rigged the primary process for Ms. Clinton and did everything possible to undermine Senator Sanders. But this was hardly news... all the talking heads on cable pretty much agreed that this was the official policy of the Democratic Party. Some were happier about it than others. And, though 'fake news' is much in what passes for 'real news' these days, the Wikileaks emails weren't fake.

The Russian hackers were supermen -- but with strangely limited powers. They could pounce on the DNC servers like muggers rolling a drunk tourist. There were whispers that they invaded Trump Tower, too, and were blackmailing the Donald. But they absolutely couldn't (and wouldn't dare!) access the private server in Hillary Clinton's home. (Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.)

After Trump's unforeseen election, the Russian-mania amped up still more: The Russians stole the election!

It's not clear what the predominant theory is on this. Either the Russians promoted all sorts of fake news that benefited Trump or their amazing hackers somehow actually put Trump votes into the voting machines themselves, undermining the Great Blue Wall in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Well, the machines are electronic, aren't they? So what if many states went to electronic voting after the Hanging Chad fiasco of 2000? So what if these machines aren't actually connected to the Internet? Americans wouldn't vote for Trump, right? So it had to be Russian hackers. (This latter theory seems to be animating Dr. Stein's recount efforts.)

Trump has pooh-poohed the notion that the Russians helped him. It's a tempest in a teapot, perhaps, or a bubble in a bowl of borscht. It's pure coincidence that he proposes to appoint several officials in his forthcoming administration who have taken Russian gold from this oligarch, or that one.

But persons from across the political spectrum, from the aforementioned Dr. Stein on the left to former Congressman Joe Walsh on the right, and many actually responsible people in between, from both parties, have called for an investigation of Russia's actions.

Meanwhile, Russian hackers are turning up pretty much everywhere. Yesterday, for example, Rich Miller's Capitol Fax reported that the FBI told the Illinois Republican Party that the Russians had likely hacked some of its emails.

But the topper, for me at least, came just this morning.

Even when I have nothing to post, I try and check the blog every day. I never know when EP or Black Lady Who Reads or Lobo or THE PERSON WHO COMMENTS ONLY IN CAPS will have a new comment to share. I check my stats, too -- 2,902 page views yesterday -- the kind of number I used to see only in the few days before and after an election. So I was feeling pretty good about that.

But only for a couple of seconds.

The stats page also provides a map that shows a blogger where his or her page views are coming from. I generally don't pay much attention to mine: My map has always shown the United States in the darkest shade of green, meaning my readers are clicking in from somewhere in the United States. Although the map doesn't localize hits beyond that, I am highly confident that my readers are nearly all from Cook County. I met a Will County reader the other night... and I had to ask her... why?

But, anyway, here is my genuine, un-retouched stats map from this morning:

The Russians really are everywhere.

Just another delay on the CTA....

*Ding! Ding!*
We are experiencing a delay
and we regret the inconvenience.
We expect to be moving shortly.

Well, I expect to be moving right now. That's why I take the train and not the Kennedy. That, and parking every day would bankrupt me inside of a month. Even with a discount.

Time passes.

*Ding! Ding!*
We are experiencing a delay
and we regret the inconvenience.
We expect to be moving shortly.

A delay? Is that what you call it? If it lasts much longer it will amount to a wildcat strike. Does the CTA know what my desk looks like?

More time passes.

*Ding! Ding!*
We are experiencing a delay
and we regret the inconvenience.
We expect to be moving shortly.

This time, the motorman breaks in to announce that there is a sick passenger on a train ahead and they are waiting for paramedics to arrive. At least there's a reason for all this inactivity. I'm sure I'm not the only one on the car who hopes that it's not too serious for the poor passenger.

I wish they would get Internet service in the subway like they keep promising. I could at least look at my Twitter feed while we wait.

I know, I know. There was a time when I could read a newspaper in the subway. They used to sell newspapers at the train stations once upon a time. And no one ever swiped those. (Occasionally, someone might ask to borrow the sports page if you were through with it....)

*Ding! Ding!*
We are experiencing a delay
and we regret the inconvenience.
We expect to be moving shortly.

At this point, haven't the least perceptive among us noticed that we haven't been moving for some time now? Are the chimes really necessary at this point?

The motorman (motorperson is really too cumbersome, even if this motorman is a woman) chimes in again: Paramedics have arrived and the stricken passenger is being removed. We will be moving again just as soon as the trains in front of us start moving.

That's a relief. We don't want to start moving before the trains in front of us. That could create even more work for the paramedics.

Back to Solitaire. Scoff if you must. The woman sitting next to me is playing Candy Crush.

*Ding! Ding!*
We are experiencing a delay
and we regret the inconvenience.
We expect to be moving shortly.

Moments later, the train starts moving! Predict the same thing often enough, eventually you'll get it right.

Today is "Love Litigating Lawyers Day"

No, seriously. I found it on line. And, as we all know, if it's on the Internet it must be true. Right?

Right?

Well, anyway, this should do wonders for civility in the profession, at least for a day.

And if there's a special day for transactional lawyers, please let me know. I'll post that too.

Finally, a note to the CBA and ISBA: It's probably too late for your 2013 paper diaries, but "Love Litigating Lawyers Day" should be included in your 2014 books. And don't forget "International Be Kind to Lawyers Day" on April 10.

David Cook is surprise winner on "Idol"

But only because the votes in Michigan and Florida weren't counted.

New on page two: A letter from the FBI?

The FBI Director, Robert Mueller, allegedly writes a letter supporting a Nigerian bank scheme: Something new in spam?