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kylie · 1 year

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Is Salesforce’s Ohana dead? Layoffs continue to batter the cloud giant, eroding the upbeat culture

Below is my newsletter for Fortune Magazine's Data Sheet, you can read the original here.

Aloha! Tech reporter Kylie Robison here.

If you ever watched the Disney classic Lilo & Stitch, you know that Ohana means family. At business software giant Salesforce, Ohana is their entire schtick. However, over the last few weeks, it’s been a whole lot less about family and more about saving cash.

The $136 billion public company announced its plans to lay off 10% of its family—or staff—in the new year. The first round of cuts came in early January, and an ominous all-hands led by CEO Marc Benioff left many uneasy and confused. He hinted that layoffs were not finished, but didn’t provide a precise date for when the hammer would drop.

Yesterday, shortly after the end of the fiscal year, the dreaded second round of layoffs pummeled the company. Several thousand Salesforce employees across the globe were told aloha, but instead of hello, this one meant goodbye.

We reported that the company’s “#all-salesforce” Slack channel went from roughly 82,500 members on Feb. 1 to roughly 80,600 today, signaling that 1,900 workers may have been cut. Many people took to the company’s “#airing-of-grievances” channel to, well, air their grievances.

In screenshots of the channel viewed by Fortune, one person told a rather morbid story. The employee wrote that at 8 a.m., he was notified of his redundancy. Less than an hour later, he received a surfboard in the mail from Salesforce congratulating him on reaching 5 years at the company.

“There was the complimentary note from [CEO Marc Benioff] thanking me and hoping I’ll keep ‘riding the wave’ with Salesforce for many more years to come,” he wrote. “Ironic!”

Salesforce isn’t the only major tech company being rocked by layoffs at the moment. However, the firm’s specific culture of positivity and kinship has taken a particular beating. Employees have been leaking to the press at an unforeseen pace, the grievances channel has been bustling with complaints, and Benioff is “asking for a friend” why his employees aren’t their usual upbeat, profit-making selves.

It’s unclear if Salesforce’s cheerful culture will be able to bounce back. The company is under the ever-growing pressure of activist investors demanding cost-saving measures, and a looming recession seems to be sucking the fun out of Silicon Valley.

The fostering of Salesforce’s Ohana will be something to keep an eye out for. However, it’s unlikely this is the end of belt-tightening at the firm.

Do you have insights to share? Got a tip? Contact me at [email protected], through secure messaging app Signal at 415-735-6829, or via Twitter DM @kyliebytes.

NEWSWORTHY

It’s a bird, it’s a plane. It's been a couple of years since Alphabet grounded its fleet of internet-beaming Loon balloons. But balloons are back! A suspected Chinese spy balloon has been spotted floating around the U.S. CNN reported that government officials have advised President Biden to avoid shooting it down, as it presents a risk of harming civilians. The report adds that although the balloon has floated over “a number of sensitive sites,” it poses no serious intelligence-gathering risk.

Move over rabbit. Meta has done little to quell investor fears over its ambitious metaverse goals, until now. During its earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg dubbed 2023 the ‘Year of Efficiency’ and said the company is focused on “becoming a stronger and more nimble organization.” The quip, and the sentiment behind it, helped propel Meta’s stock almost 20%, reaching its highest level since last July.

Money now, please. Social media platform Twitter seems to be addicted to making controversial feature changes. This week, the company announced its intent to replace its free API, which allows developers access to Twitter data in order to make bot accounts like year progress bot, alt text reader bot, and SF earthquake bot, with a paid tier. The action would essentially eliminate accounts like these unless they’re ready to pay up. Twitter's new API rate card starts at $99 per month and goes all the way up to $1,899.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

How did JPMorgan fall for Frank? Several execs played a role in buying the $175 million startup that’s been accused of fraud, by Luisa Beltran

Microsoft-owned GitHub’s CFO and CRO depart for new startup jobs, by Kylie Robison

ChatGPT may be increasing cybercrime, but not in the way some cybersecurity experts fear, by Jeremy Kahn

This billionaire CEO skis 5 hours a day and ‘runs like a deer’. Now he has the same body fat percentage as peak Michael Phelps, by Eleanor Pringle

In France, Gen Z is taking to the streets to defend their work-life balance. The fight for retirement starts at age 18, by Vivienne Walt

Silvergate at center of DOJ fraud investigation for hosting FTX and Alameda accounts, by Ben Weiss

Making workers commute for meetings that are a ‘killer’ of freedom and time is a punishment, says workplace expert, by Jane Thier

BEFORE YOU GO

Creators, creators, creators. Speaking of new Twitter features, CEO Elon Musk declared the platform would start sharing ad revenue with creators for ads that appear in their tweet threads. There’s a twist though—the creator has to be subscribed to the company’s subscription product, Twitter Blue. The latest in a string of stunts at the social media giant could be useful in competing with behemoths like TikTok and YouTube in a race to lure creators onto their platforms. Yet, a creator program that users have to pay to use hasn’t been done before and has some users comparing it to a pyramid scheme.

#salesforce #layoffs #tech #twitter #elon musk

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pritamdeuskar · 2 years

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Pritam Deuskar - Investing for goals using mutual funds

Pritam Deuskar - In recent years, mutual funds have emerged as one of the most popular investment options. It has aided investors who want to build significant wealth in the long run. Most financial planners rely heavily on mutual funds to assist their clients in meeting their long-term and medium-term financial objectives.

Mutual funds are an investment vehicle that allows you to invest in a variety of assets. One of its most notable characteristics is its adaptability. Mutual funds pool money from a group of investors and invest it in a variety of securities.

Four types of mutual funds

Mutual funds are classified into four types: money market funds, bond funds, stock funds, and target date funds, each with its own set of characteristics, risks, and rewards, said Pritam Deuskar.

1) Money market funds:

Money market funds are low-risk investments that pay little interest once a month. Money market funds including those that invest primarily in government securities, tax-exempt municipal securities, and corporate and bank debt securities. Money market funds are well diversified, and because some of them invest in securities whose interest payments are not subject to federal taxes, they can provide a tax-efficient source of income.

2) Bond funds:

According to Pritam Deuskar Bond funds carry more risk than money market funds because they seek higher returns. The risks and rewards of a bond fund can vary dramatically because of the many different types of bonds. Bond funds allow you to buy and sell fund shares on a daily basis. In addition, bond funds allow you to reinvest income dividends and make additional investments at any time.

3) Stock funds:

A stock fund is a type of mutual fund that invests in stocks, also known as equity securities. It is distinct from bond funds and money funds. A stock fund's investment objectives, policies, and strategies will determine the types of stocks in which it will invest.

4) Target date funds: by Pritam Deuskar

Target date funds are an effective investment strategy that helps investors achieve their financial planning objectives. Target-date funds provide investors with the convenience of automatically allocating assets in the fund on the first day. However, these funds can help investors improve their returns. The stress of financial planning is reduced by target date funds. Typically, investors select a target-date fund and then let their investments run on autopilot.

Mutual funds for goal planning

The first step is to identify the goal for which you want to invest, as well as the cost and time required to achieve it. Mutual funds are one type of investment tool that can help you achieve your financial goals. They should be chosen with your specific situation in mind, such as risk tolerance, time horizon, and so on. This is where mutual fund investments can be advantageous. Whatever your objectives are, mutual funds can help you achieve them. Mutual funds also provide asset allocation funds that can be tailored to your life stage, gradually reducing your exposure to volatile assets and shifting to more stable options as you age. These funds are a good choice if you want to delegate asset allocation rebalancing to the fund manager. Visit wealthyvia if you want to plan your financial goals with Mutual Funds.

About Pritam Deuskar

Pritam Deuskar is a SEBI registered research analyst. Pritam has worked in stock market research and business analysis for the last many years. He had earlier worked with reputed portfolio management companies and PMS houses. His views, interviews and articles have been published in all leading financial newspapers and TV channels like CNN, CNN Bazar, Moneycontrol, Economic Times, Business Standard, and so on. Pritam Deuskar is known for small and mid-cap multibagger companies and finding them at a very early stage has been his forte. He has worked with both private and institutional clients. If you need more information, you can check out the wealthyvia.

#pritamdeuskar #wealthyvia

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hollandlange · 2 years

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Stimulus is here. but there are some Big Caveats

US futures and most global markets moved higher on Monday as investors welcomed the additional stimulus.

The backstory: Economists had been arguing for months that US lawmakers needed to deliver another relief package to help protect the fragile economic recovery from the pandemic. The Federal Reserve said so, too.

But getting a deal that was acceptable to both Democrats and Republicans proved to be exceedingly difficult. Trump's 11th hour intervention - against an agreement his administration negotiated - didn't help matters.

The deal removes two sources of uncertainty for investors. Cryptography It provides some relief to struggling Americans before President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month, and keeps the US government running through September 30. That means no pesky government shutdowns until at least the next fiscal year.

China tells Ant Group to quickly overhaul its business

China has ordered Ant Group to overhaul its operations, dealing yet another blow to the payments giant controlled by billionaire Jack Ma.

Financial regulators outlined a laundry list of expectations for Ant Group executives in a meeting on Saturday. The officials blasted Ant Group for having "defied" regulations, edging out rivals from the market place, harming consumer rights and taking advantage of regulatory loopholes for its own profit. They also accused the company's corporate governance structure of being "unsound," according to a transcript of remarks by Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China.

Big problems: Ant Group, which is affiliated with e-commerce giant Alibaba, offers everything from investment accounts and micro savings products to insurance, credit scores and even dating profiles. The company been subjected to intense scrutiny in recent weeks after Chinese officials shocked investors by halting its huge IPO at the last minute.

Here's more great context from my colleague Laura He:

President Xi Jinping made clear at a recent conference that one China's most important goals for next year is to strengthen anti-monopoly efforts against online platforms and prevent a "disorderly expansion" of capital.

Regulators told Ant Group executives on Saturday to "go back" and focus on its "original" payments services, among other tasks, according to Pan. Regulators also called for a "strict overhaul" of the company's credit, insurance, and wealth management services.

"Ant Group must fully realize the seriousness and necessity of this rectification," the regulators told the company. They added that the firm must develop a plan to implement these changes "as soon as possible."

Ant Group said Sunday that it would take heed of the latest requirements, while focusing on innovation, serving small businesses and increasing competitiveness on an international scale for the benefit of the country.

"We appreciate [the] financial regulators' guidance and help," the company added.

Bitcoin prices go berserk

Bitcoin is crashing - upward. Its price briefly topped $28,000 over the weekend and may have more room to run.

The context: Bitcoin passed $20,000 for the first time just 11 days ago, reports my CNN Business colleague David Goldman.

Investors are pouring money into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies during the Covid-19 pandemic as the Federal Reserve sent interest rates near zero (and expects to keep them there for several more years), severely weakening the US dollar. That makes bitcoin, comparatively, an attractive currency.

Also pushing the valuation: Big, name-brand investors are stockpiling it, and huge consumer companies are embracing it. For example, a top executive at BlackRock recently said the cryptocurrency can replace gold, and Square and PayPal have both embraced bitcoin.

Even with mainstream credibility, the recent cryptocurrency surge is showing signs of a melt-up - over-enthusiasm fueled by the fear of missing out, not simply market fundamentals.

Up next

Weibo reports earnings before the opening bell. There are no major economic reports expected on Monday.

Coming tomorrow: The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index will be released at 9:00 a.m. ET.

#Crypto #Explorer #Cryptography #Cryptocurrencies

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theculturedmarxist · 2 years

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Wonders never cease. First the New York Times. Then CNN. Now the Washington Post has caught up with the Hunter Biden laptop story — only 18 months after the New York Post broke the scandal, and too late for the 2020 election.

But now, after our story was censored by Big Tech and dismissed as “Russian disinformation” by Democratic prevaricator Adam Schiff, and 51 former spooks led by former CIA Director John Brennan, apparently it’s safe to admit the laptop is real and the emails we published can be easily authenticated.

Of course, they all avoid the inevitable conclusion to be drawn from evidence contained on the laptop that the president’s drug-addled son Hunter abandoned at a MacBook repair shop in Delaware in April 2019: that Joe Biden, when he was vice president, was aware of, and intimately involved in, a corrupt, multimillion-dollar, international influence-peddling scheme run by Hunter, and Joe’s brother Jim Biden, in the countries for which Joe was point man in the Obama administration, such as Russia, Ukraine and China.

Hunter’s laptop is a large piece of the jigsaw puzzle that leads to such a shocking conclusion.

But despite acknowledging that the material on the laptop showed that Hunter was “trading on his father’s name to make a lot of money,” as CNN White House correspondent John Harwood put it, both the Washington Post and CNN were at pains to absolve Joe Biden of any involvement in the scheme.

“There is zero evidence that Vice President Biden, or President Biden, has done anything wrong in connection with what Hunter Biden has done,” Harwood said.

The Washington Post declared it “did not find evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from or knew details about the transactions with [Chinese energy company] CEFC, which took place after he had left the vice presidency and before he announced his intentions to run for the White House in 2020.”

A New York Times piece earlier this month that also belatedly acknowledged that the veracity of the laptop — in the 24th paragraph — did not explicitly exonerate the president but simply rehearsed the legal defenses that Hunter could mount if he is indicted by the Delaware grand jury investigating him over alleged tax evasion, money laundering and violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

No doubt these august media organs that treated our story with sneering disregard for a year and a half have their reasons for jumping on board. For one thing, their original goal of removing President Donald Trump from office was achieved long ago, and Joe Biden is now so unpopular that his Praetorian Guard is melting away and reporting on his family is less hazardous to Beltway dinner party invitations.

For another thing, they can’t have their audiences blindsided when the US attorney in Delaware completes his investigation of Hunter. God forbid that their readers and viewers wake up to the fact they have been misled and kept in the dark by their media outlets of choice.

Leaving out facts

But instead of providing its readers with the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, the Washington Post curiously left out crucial facts in two detailed stories about the laptop on Tuesday that totaled a hefty near 7,000 words.

The main story was titled “Inside Hunter Biden’s multimillion-dollar deals with a Chinese energy company: A Washington Post review confirms key details and offers new documentation of Biden family interactions with Chinese executives.”

It goes into detail about Hunter Biden’s business dealings with the state-controlled Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC — which it doesn’t mention was the capitalist arm of China’s “Belt and Road Initiative,” an imperialist pet project of President Xi Jinping that aims to entrap developing countries with massive loans and overtake the United States as an economic power.

But it does not mention the $6 million CEFC wired into the business bank account of trusted Biden family friend Rob Walker, a former Clinton administration official whose wife, Betsy Massey Walker, had been Jill Biden’s assistant when she was second lady. On Feb. 23, 2017, and March 1, 2017, two wires, each for $3 million, were sent to Rob Walker from State Energy HK Limited, a Shanghai-based company linked to CEFC.

That money was payment for work done by Hunter and his business partners during the last two years of Joe Biden’s vice presidency in countries from Romania to Russia, using the Biden name to open doors and find acquisitions for CEFC.

Nor does the Washington Post mention the company SinoHawk Holdings, which was set up on May 15, 2017, for a joint venture between CEFC and Hunter and his business partners. This was the deal for which Joe Biden was to get a 10% cut, as cited in an infamous 2017 email on the laptop, “10 [percent] held by H [Hunter] for the big guy.”

Hunter’s former business partner, the CEO of SinoHawk, Tony Bobulinski, has publicly said that Joe Biden is the “big guy.” But the Washington Post curiously does not mention Bobulinski, even though his name is all over the emails and documents on the laptop relating to CEFC, and even though the naval veteran held a press conference spilling the beans on the Bidens in October 2020.

It does not mention that Bobulinski met Joe Biden twice in 2017, to be vetted as CEO of SinoHawk.

Curious omissions

Considering the newspaper says it has had possession of a hard-drive clone of Hunter’s laptop since June 2021, these are curious omissions, which serve to underplay Joe Biden’s role.

“It’s clear the corporate media was complicit in helping get Joe Biden elected by suppressing what they knew would be damaging stories,” says Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who with GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa conducted an investigation into Hunter Biden and was accused by Democrats of peddling “Russian disinformation” for his trouble.

“The Washington Post story should be viewed as what Nixon’s advisers once termed as a ‘modified limited hangout,’ ” he says, using a propaganda phrase that means releasing a small amount of hidden information in order to hide the more important details.

Another piece of the Biden jigsaw puzzle was provided by Johnson and Grassley’s inquiry that accessed confidential “suspicious-activity reports” that banks are required to send to the Treasury Department, and allowed them to track millions of dollars from China, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan paid into accounts associated with Hunter and Jim Biden and their associates.

Johnson says their inquiry was stymied by Democrats, who set up fake FBI briefings for him and then leaked details to the press to cast doubt on witnesses he wanted to subpoena, such as Hunter and his partners.

But it was also his own Republican committee members who got in the way, denying Johnson the numbers he needed to subpoena witnesses when his party had the power.

Johnson won’t name them, but Sens. Mitt Romney and Rob Portman were two Republicans who reportedly objected to the “political” nature of the subpoenas.

Johnson and Grassley have been vindicated now, but imagine how different history would have been if they had been supported by their own team. Joe Biden probably would not be president today.

#hunter biden #hunter biden laptop #joe biden #ny post #propaganda #ukraine #kazahkstan #kazahsztán #media collusion #tony bobulinski #democratic party #republican party #political collusion

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tinyshe · 3 years

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What Will Segregated Society Look Like for the Unvaxxed?

August 09, 2021

Story at-a-glance

High-profile restaurant chains like Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality will require staff and indoor diners in New York City and Washington D.C. to show proof of COVID “vaccination,” starting September 7, 2021

Vaccinated-only bars and restaurants have also popped up in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Boulder, St. Louis and New Orleans

A growing number of private companies are also requiring workers to participate in human medical experimentation or forfeit their job. High profile examples include Facebook, Google, Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Washington Post, BlackRock, Ascension Health, Netflix, Walmart, the Walt Disney Corporation and Morgan Stanley

PayPal is vowing to block transactions and cancel accounts held by “extremists” and anyone endangering “at-risk communities,” which could include just about anything, including anti-vaccine rhetoric

CNN anchor Don Lemon has suggested unvaccinated people ought to be barred from buying food in grocery stores and have their driver’s license taken away

In 2020, the proposition that COVID-19 countermeasures would come to include forced vaccination and vaccine passports, resulting in a segregated society where only those participating in the COVID injection experiment have human rights, was labeled a wild conspiracy theory unworthy of discussion.

Fast-forward to August 2, 2021, and Forbes announces, “No Vax, No Service: Here’s Where Bars and Restaurants Across U.S. Are Requiring Proof of Vaccination.”1

No Jab, No Dining

According to Forbes,2 high-profile restaurant chains like Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality are leading the way, requiring all staff and indoor diners in New York City and Washington D.C. to prove they’ve received the required doses of COVID-19 injections, starting September 7, 2021.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio hailed the decision, saying others will follow — and indeed, they did, with de Blasio himself announcing August 3, 2021, that proof of vaccination will be mandatory for all indoor dining, visiting gyms and going to movie theaters in the city:3

“This is a miraculous place literally full of wonders,” Mr. de Blasio said. “If you’re vaccinated, all that’s going to open up to you. But if you’re unvaccinated, unfortunately you will not be able to participate in many things.”

Several New York City eateries were already checking vaccination status, and during the last week of July 2021, the San Francisco Bar Owners Alliance urged its 300 members to require proof of COVID-19 injection or a negative COVID test for patrons wanting to have a drink indoors.

Several Los Angeles restaurants, bars and comedy clubs are also following suit, as are more than 60 establishments in Seattle. Vaccinated-only restaurants have also popped up in Oakland, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Boulder, St. Louis and New Orleans.

Since COVID countermeasures are a global lockstep operation,4 the same segregation trend is emerging in other countries as well. On the other hand, in Florida, where I live, businesses are prohibited by law5,6 from requiring customers to show proof of participation in the COVID jab experiment.

No Jab, No Job

A growing number of private companies are also requiring workers to participate in human medical experimentation or forfeit their job. As reported by Axios,7 this includes Facebook, Google, Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Washington Post, BlackRock, Ascension Health, Netflix, Walmart, the Walt Disney Corporation and Morgan Stanley.

As mentioned, Florida prohibits businesses from requiring customers to provide proof of COVID “vaccination,” but it does not bar companies from mandating vaccination for its employees.

For now, Disney’s jab mandate only pertains to salaried and nonunion hourly employees, but according to Yahoo! News,8 Disney is in negotiations with union officials who represent theme park employees and members of its movie and TV production crews. The goal is to extend the vaccine mandate to union employees as well.

In May 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decreed that it is legal for companies to require employees to get the COVID shots.9 This despite the fact that the four available COVID injections are only authorized for emergency use and are as yet unlicensed.10 Testing is not expected to conclude for another two years.

No Jab, No Business

Private companies also have the right to not mandate COVID shots, of course, but standing up for workers’ right to choose could hamper their ability to conduct business at all, as PayPal is now vowing to block transactions and cancel accounts held by “extremists” and anyone endangering “at-risk communities,”11 which could include just about anything at this point.

Seeing how the White House is promoting the idea that people who question the safety and effectiveness of COVID shots are “killing people” and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) labels anti-vaccine rhetoric as a form of hate speech, is it a stretch to suspect PayPal will start taking down the accounts of so-called “anti-vaxxers”?

Business owners and self-employed entrepreneurs who speak out against other official narratives probably face the same risk. Venture capitalist David Sacks recently commented on the situation:12

“When I helped create PayPal in 1999, it was in furtherance of a revolutionary idea. No longer would ordinary people be dependent on large financial institutions to start a business …

But now PayPal is turning its back on its original mission. It is now leading the charge to restrict participation by those it deems unworthy … [W]e are talking about … shutting down people and organizations that express views that are entirely lawful …

If history is any guide, other fintech companies will soon follow suit … When … your name lands on a No-Buy List created by a consortium of private fintech companies, to whom can you appeal?

As for the notion of building your own PayPal or Facebook: because of their gigantic network effects and economies of scale, there is no viable alternative when the whole industry works together to deny you access.

Kicking people off social media deprives them of the right to speak in our increasingly online world. Locking them out of the financial economy is worse: It deprives them of the right to make a living.

We have seen how cancel culture can obliterate one’s ability to earn an income, but now the cancelled may find themselves without a way to pay for goods and services.

Previously, cancelled employees who would never again have the opportunity to work for a Fortune 500 company at least had the option to go into business for themselves. But if they cannot purchase equipment, pay employees, or receive payment from clients and customers, that door closes on them, too.”

If this trend continues, which it probably will, might people who question COVID shots and/or refuse to participate in human experimentation be barred from having a credit card or a bank account?

No Jab, No Food

Some are promoting even more severe punishment for the unvaccinated. Yet, it’s not enough for some thought leaders that unvaccinated individuals can’t enter a bar or restaurant, and might lose their ability to send or receive money for goods and services using PayPal (and potentially other digital transaction services).

For example, CNN anchor Don Lemon recently suggested unvaccinated people ought to be barred from buying food and have their driver’s license taken away.13,14

Why is fascism so commonly associated with genocide …? It is because it needs a unifying force powerful enough to sweep aside all resistance. ~ Charles Eisenstein

I’d like you to conduct a thought experiment, and think this through from start to finish. What would your life be like if you were:

Barred from driving

Barred from working and earning a paycheck

Barred from sending or receiving money online

Barred from having a bank account and credit card

Barred from eating food at a restaurant (assuming you somehow got the cash to pay for it)

Barred from buying food in a grocery store (again, assuming you somehow got the cash to pay for it)

Are Lemon and countless others actually saying it is acceptable to make half the U.S. population homeless and starve them to death in order to, theoretically, prevent the spread of an infection that, so far, has had a 99.74% survival rate?15

Mob Morality

To understand what’s really happening and what Lemon’s rhetoric is accomplishing, I highly recommend reading Charles Eisenstein’s article “Mob Morality and the Unvaxxed.” It’s an excellent and thought-provoking piece. Here’s a few chosen excerpts:16

“We would like to think that modern societies like ours have outgrown barbaric customs like human sacrifice … we don’t actually kill people in hopes of placating the gods and restoring order. Or do we? …

Not just any victim will do as an object of human sacrifice. Victims must be, as [legal scholar Roberta] Harding puts it, ‘in, but not of, the society.’ That is why, during the Black Death, mobs roamed about murdering Jews for ‘poisoning the wells.’

The entire Jewish population of Basel was burned alive, a scene repeated throughout Western Europe. Yet this was not mainly the result of preexisting virulent hatred of Jews waiting for an excuse to erupt; it was that victims were needed to release social tension, and hatred, an instrument of that release, coalesced opportunistically on the Jews ...

‘Combatting hatred’ is combatting a symptom. Scapegoats needn’t be guilty, but they must be marginal, outcasts, heretics, taboo-breakers, or infidels of one kind or another … If they are not already marginal, they must be made so …

[D]efying left-right categorization is a promising new scapegoat class, the heretics of our time: the anti-vaxxers. As a readily identifiable subpopulation, they are ideal candidates for scapegoating. It matters little whether any of these pose a real threat to society … their guilt is irrelevant to the project of restoring order through blood sacrifice …

All that is necessary is that the dehumanized class arouse the blind indignation and rage necessary to incite a paroxysm of unifying violence. More relevant to current times, this primal mob energy can be harnessed toward fascistic political ends …

Sacrificial subjects carry an association of pollution or contagion; their removal thus cleanses society. I know people in the alternative health field who are considered so unclean that if I so much as mention their names in a Tweet or Facebook post, the post may be deleted …

The public’s ready acceptance of such blatant censorship cannot be explained solely in terms of its believing the pretext of ‘controlling misinformation.’ Unconsciously, the public recognizes and conforms to the age-old program of investing a pariah subclass with the symbology of pollution …

This program is well underway toward the Covid-unvaxxed, who are being portrayed as walking cesspools of germs who might contaminate the Sanctified Brethren (the vaccinated).

My wife perused an acupuncture Facebook page today … where someone asked, ‘What is the word that comes to mind to describe unvaccinated people?’ The responses were things like ‘filth,’ ‘assholes,’ and ‘death-eaters.’ This is precisely the dehumanization necessary to prepare a class of people for cleansing …

To prepare someone for removal as the repository of all that is evil, it helps to heap upon them every imaginable calumny. Thus we hear in mainstream publications that anti-vaxxers not only are killing people, but are raging narcissists … and tantamount to domestic terrorists.”

Dangerous Territory Ahead

If deep down in your gut you sense that we’re speeding into dangerous territory, you’re probably right. The “vaccinated” public are actively encouraged and manipulated both by media and government officials into literally despising and wishing death upon the unvaccinated, and this is indeed a very dangerous thing. It breeds mob mentality devoid of reason and logic, which can have tragic consequences.

“Why is fascism so commonly associated with genocide, when as a political philosophy it is about unity, nationalism, and the merger of corporate and state power?” Eisenstein asks.17

“It is because it needs a unifying force powerful enough to sweep aside all resistance. The us of fascism requires a them. The civic-minded moral majority participates willingly, assured that it is for the greater good. Something must be done. The doubters go along too, for their own safety.

No wonder today’s authoritarian institutions know, as if instinctively, to whip up hysteria toward the … unvaccinated. Fascism taps into, exploits, and institutionalizes a deeper instinct.

The practice of creating dehumanized classes of people and then murdering them is older than history … The campaign against the unvaccinated, garbed in the white lab coat of Science, munitioned with biased data, and waving the pennant of altruism, channels a brutal, ancient impulse.”

The Constitution still offers some measure of protection in the United States, but it may be naïve to assume it will be adhered to in the long term unless we the people demand it. In Australia, military are now roaming the streets of Sydney to make sure no one strays beyond their front door, as the country has implemented one of its strictest lockdowns yet.18

Fanning the flames of anger and hatred, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stated that vaccinated Australians might be able to regain some of their mobility once the vaccination rate reaches 70%, and broad lockdowns may be avoidable altogether if the vaccination rate hits 80%.

"If you get vaccinated, there will be special rules that apply to you,” Morrison told reporters. “Why? Because if you're vaccinated, you present less of a public health risk.”

A rational person might question whether Morrison would actually hold true to his word. A person blinded by anger probably won’t, but will instead direct their frustration onto the holdouts that prevent the vaccination rate from reaching that magical threshold where they believe freedom will be restored.

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drkwrldlightwrk · 4 years

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News is propoganda. Stories are cherrypicked to push agendas

Nationalized and sensationalized

Only if it fits "the narrative"

Events of note such as

Discoveries, accomplishments, miracles

Even mass murder

occur every day without a single news outlet

Ever saying a word

Why is an incident of police brutality that ends in death in Wisconsin on a certain day more newsworthy than the others across the US at the same time?

Moreover, why are incidents of black or african american police murder sensationalized more often than the incidents of Native American police rape and murder which are higher?

Is it perhaps due to the fact that at the nucleus of the inception of the police force itself, is the goal to re-capture free slaves using false claims of crime and militia force?

It has been told that in the years after the emancipation proclamation a person could get arrested for just being black and walking on the street.

All of the years since...

the people have made progress and yet the system has not changed!

The media continues to push the narrative because they know it will trigger peoples emotions, people of all types because the burden of this country's founding wears like an albatroz around the necks of everyone born here, regardless of culture likened to original sin

This is systemic racism

If youre already 'playing along'

i.e absorbing any media

Be it purposful or involuntary

Try watching the paterns

Certain stories will be publicized at certain times to make you feel a particular way about a specific agenda without being too pointed at all.

An anchor will wear a certain color or say a certain phrase in a particular way

Because some metric told some suit that some money could be made or a customer could be gained or a vote cast if he or she did

These are analog brain manipulation tactics

Being used on digitally wired minds

the media and government are learning it doesnt so much work to control these days it is the 21st century after all. Minds are evolving all the time...

What it does is confuse and dull the senses

Even a sharp mind is forced to spend so much subconscious energy navigating through the lies, double speak, and coded language, they grow at the very least weary of negative energy brain activity and shut down a little. It helps to keep your eyes open for the truth everywhere.

New years eve 2017 I met, through friends a former soldier with PTSD from a mass shooting they were a part of on a military base in Germany after 9/11. It got picked up by a few outlets and made its way to air as a failed training exercise.

After the shooting on the Las Vegas strip on October 1, 2017 I watched a "crisis actor" make his way from LV local news all the way(?) To CNN playing 2 different characters(?) Over the course of 36 hrs.

I watched a story about someone in MY OWN LIFE play out on the so called news and it was FULL of lies, falsehoods and manipulation. The smallest details were altered to fit their version of the story.

We have watched everything from sports to sandwiches become politics. We have watched politics become news, politicians become celebrities, celebrities become political. The head of the company is now acting on CNN and the high paid actor is being political for a new fan base on morning news.

Everyone is pushing an agenda or being puppeted

If not by some conglomorate by their own egos and need for attention

I do no care what an actor or a pop star is doing privately especially with their vote

If youre an artist create

If youre some ventriliquist dummy

(Which is all that appears to be left in media)

Go fuck yourself

-DEBATABLE

#poem #poetry #politics #media #propoganda #NO VOTE

0 notes

makaris · 4 years

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Holy fuck, the Iowa Caucus

Okay so I want to break this down, mostly as a way to help myself make sense of it all. If this helps other folks understand the time line of events, all the better. My ‘sources’ are scattered and random, as I’ve been absorbing most of this stuff through osmosis and it’s super hard nailing down the ‘best’ link to something, given how fast all this is moving.

I will arbitrarily start my rant here.

BUTTIGIEG BLOCKS CRITICAL DES MOINES POLL

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/02/iowa-poll-swiftly-spiked-after-buttigieg-campaign-issues-complaint

Shortly before the Iowa Caucus was to begin, the CNN/Des Moines poll was set to release. This is, apparently, a very important poll that a lot of the mainstream media (MSM) had already scheduled a lot of coverage for, as it would be a good indicator of the final state of things just before the election.

Then, Buttigieg campaign blocks its release. Why? Well, their campaign claimed that one of the pollsters may have not been giving out Buttigieg’s name while calling out. Not for any nefarious reason, just what is basically an IT issue. This alone isn’t really too bad. And, in a vacuum, not really worth too much fuss over. Like, I do think it’s a bit weird that CNN would let all that money/effort go to waste over a single campaigns minor complaint, but, still, whatever.

The fact that the poll ended up getting leaked and was very favorable to Bernie (and VERY unfavorable to Biden) is another small annoyance. It would have probably helped get a bit of positive / surprise coverage shortly before the caucus. But again, whatever.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/unreleased-final-iowa-poll-had-biden-in-fourth

Given what all ends up happening, it’s a just a prelude to some REAL hinky shit.

THAT FUCKING APP

So election day comes. I and many others are tuned into various outlets. We have the NYT and other vote trackers open, watching it all roll out. Looks like it’s going good for Bernie. Oh Boy!

Then, around 10PM, the numbers get pulled. We’re told that some app that was being used to communicate the votes was messing up. Numbers were going missing. They aren’t adding up. Tons of nonsense goes down.

The company that created the app is a company called Shadow (yes, really), which is part of a larger group called Acronym. It is staffed by ex Clinton staffers and other failures closely tied to the establishment, so the app being a POS should not be a surprise to anyone. Oh, and the company accepted over $42k from Buttigieg’s campaign.

https://www.truthorfiction.com/did-pete-buttigiegs-campaign-donate-42500-to-iowa-caucus-app-developer-shadow-inc/

It should be mentioned that this company and the people behind it will face no real repercussions. Yeah ‘Shadow’ might go under, but and they might have temporarily lost a few contracts with the DNC. But never underestimate how corrupt the democratic consultant class can be. They’ll be back to fuck some other shit up in no time.

Now, again, not trying to be conspiratorial here. Maybe the vapid bougie fucks behind this had no ill intent. Maybe their worst crime is being morons who did not test their software and accepted money unthinkingly. But at the very least, their history as agents positioned against one of the front runners, and acceptance of money from one of the others, is a clear conflict of interest and should not have been allowed to happen.

Moving on.

BERNIE RELEASES INTERNAL NUMBERS, BUT BUTTIGIEG VICTORIOUS?

Sander’s campaign releases their internal numbers, showing they are leading by a solid 5 points.

https://twitter.com/reaIKevin/status/1224685920504504321/photo/2

The above is the best we had that night.

Then, Buttigieg ended up reporting that he was ‘victorious’. This is obviously misleading at best, as he’d have no way of really knowing that. It was just blustering. An attempt to get ahead of the chaos and create The Narrative.

I won’t go into it right now, as this post is going to be long. But, in the end, the truth is not nearly as important as what people believe. If Pete can successfully insert the idea that he is winning, enough people won’t question it that you’ll gain some converts, regardless of it being untrue. Now, MSM would (surprisingly!) criticize him, a bit, but not nearly enough to make it a bad play, strategically. Pete is dangerous, because he’s the kind of guy that can identify an opening like this, see how it will play out, and shameless act on it.

When he got called out on it (again, surprisingly), he would later claim that he was being just being poetic / flowery, and didn’t mean to say that they had come in 1st and won, which is what victorious means. Pete’s lying, of course, because he is a liar who lies.

We’re getting head of ourselves. Let’s see what happens the next morning...

CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE

The party decides that they need to do a LOT of ‘quality control’, and it’s just too much to release all at once. They need to do it small batches. And the initial 62% they decide to first release excludes all the area’s where Bernie is doing the best.

https://twitter.com/joules1971/status/1225057375540916226/photo/1

Hey look, Pete’s fucking winning now (if you exclude all the poorer, urban, or minority focused areas)! The numbers aren’t in yet, but it fits The Narrative, so who cares!

From then, past initial 62% release up to the 80-something-% yesterday, we at least have some data. We can look past the noise and see that Buttigieg’s claim to victory is NOT based on the popular vote. It turns out that, even with the releases being poised against him, Bernie is still leading in both the 1st and 2nd round of voting. The only thing he did not take is the SDE count, so they are end up tied for Delegates. What are SDE’s? They’re State Delegate Equivalents. I’m not going to claim to understand how it works, as it is extremely arcane, but an easier way to think about it is that Bernie won the popular vote, but Buttigieg won some Iowa-based electoral college. And even there, is only winning by a slim margin.

It is very important to stress that the delegates from Iowa BARELY MATTER. They’re not why Iowa is significant. The reason we care at all is winning Iowa means you get positive press, and a news cycle dedicated to you. Most voters do not pay much attention, and will generally vote for whoever they perceive to be winning. And who they perceive to be winning is generally based on what the media tells them.

If the goal was to hurt whoever truly won the Iowa election, you would do exactly this. You would you string along the release of info for as long as possible, so that either A) someone else gains the benefits of the election, based on misrepresenting, incomplete data OR B) folks stop paying attention.

Let’s stop and think. A bunch of stuff has happened already. Is it gross incompetence? Or is there nefarious intent? Both? Does the DNC even deserve the benefit of the doubt, after all the shit that they are on the record pulling in 2016?

Let’s assume incompetence for now, and see if it’s even still possible to think that later.

The point is, Bernie was getting his (OUR) media cycle stolen, and Buttigieg is now starting to gain in the polls.

UH OH, MATH IS HARD!

It starts coming out that the totals we were getting were incorrect.

https://twitter.com/Harvard4Bernie/status/1225189173998411778

Bernie votes (and a few from Warren even!) were going to other candidates. Black Hawk County managed to break into the news cycle, but they were far from alone.

https://twitter.com/MCulshawMaurer/status/1225198291140268033

https://twitter.com/crulge/status/1225185093091840002

https://twitter.com/Banalization/status/1225199174171451393

https://twitter.com/MikePrysner/status/1225229056519503872

Turns out TONS of counties were seeing major discrepancies. And, for some reason, all these errors and miscalculations were seeming to only break against Bernie. In some areas, all of Bernie's votes going to fucking Deval or Steyer, who otherwise had basically no support. The only reason we found out is because of local leaders that were smart enough to keep there own numbers, were paying close attention, and caught it. If they hadn’t, we would have never known. Now that’s what I call ~~~QUALITY CONTROL~~~~<3

I goes without saying that the DNC’s numbers at this point are EXTREMELY SUSPECT, and Bernie’s numbers are starting to look like they might be closer to the truth. However, even with this blatant idiocy / corruption (your pick), Bernie still has the popular vote.

TOM PEREZ NEEDS TO RESIGN

That brings us to earlier today, 02/06. 97% of the votes are in. Bernie is only down by 0.1 points in SDE’s, still will ahead in the popular vote, and we’re clearly going to win at this point.

https://twitter.com/micahuetricht/status/1225131303189852160

The remaining votes are coming from satellite locations, mostly minority groups. These groups were pulled in by the Bernie campaign and with their support we would surely pull in that last 0.2 percent needed to win in EVERY metric. There would be no way that the MSM or other campaigns could spin this. Bernie Won!

Then, Tom Perez puts his foot down, sees Bernie Winning all these unfortunate, unforeseen issues, and decides it’s high time to pull the plug and start the whole thing over from the beginning.

https://twitter.com/TomPerez/status/1225468833458245632

Tom Perez, in case you don’t remember, has been in control of the DNC since 2017 but was an opponent of Sanders during the 2016, including him offering plans on how to best shiv Bernie that were discovered in the Podesta leaks.

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/4429

Notably, he helped engineer the narrative that Bernie could only connect with white liberals (ie the Bernie Bros myth), which has been something the Bernie campaign has been able to successfully push back on until it is now not only untrue, but the exact opposite of the truth. POC are the back bone of Bernie’s campaign!

https://twitter.com/CANCEL_SAM/status/1225566817889980418

ANYWAY, Tom Perez, sleazeball he is, decided to wait until just before we had crossed the finish line to pull this stunt. This is a pretty transparent attempt to delay the results (and the left’s victory!) as long as possible. It also achieves the goal keeping Pete out front and able to boost his polling going into the next states. Which is so far working for them, gaining 6-9 points just this week in NH.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/democratic_nomination_polls/

I don’t think anyone would be opposed to a recount, but there can be no reason to not release the last 3% (which they already had: (https://twitter.com/JennUWinn84/status/1225474355028746241). It is overt, blatant corruption.

THE TAKE AWAY / WHAT DO WE DO?

- Don’t feel hopeless. That’s what they want.

- It is super important that we not only win, but we need to win in CRUSHING numbers. Because the DNC will pull every trick in the book to stop us, and we need to be ready.

- Paper. Fucking. Ballots. You’re not a Luddite for wanting this. It’s just the most practical, tamper-proof method. The app was a technocratic solution that was sold to the DNC, based on a problem they invented.

- More transparent oversight of our elections. We invade South American countries due to electoral malfeasance with weaker pretenses then what just happened.

- Capitalists will always break fascist when confronted with the possibility of marginally higher taxes. ALWAYS. For these reasons, If/When Bernie takes over the party, the DNC needs to be purged of EVERY LAST Reagan/Bush/Clinton era asset. We don’t need them, they are not our allies, they will actively try to sabotage us, and for all these reasons and more unity with them is impossible.

- Do not play into the ‘VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO’ game. It is not the time for that. We are in the primary, and Bernie is the front runner. The old arguments no longer apply, and no longer matter.

There are real fucking stakes here, and half/partial measures aren’t worth shit. It doesn’t matter if YOU think you’re being principled by showing up to cast a vote for Bloomburg over Trump. Anyone other then Bernie will suppress the vote, full stop. When people don’t vote, republicans win. You will not be successful in holding poor / underprivileged people hostage and trying to activate them politically if all your promising them is the status quo, or wonky means tested BS.

- We’re winning!...

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-primary-forecast/

... But pretend we’re losing! We can’t get complacent.

Ok that’s enough. I have idea if anyone will read all this as I have like... four...? Followers? Sorry for my rant, but it’s time to get politically engaged!

#democrats #2020 Election #bernie sanders #dnc #tom perez #pete buttigieg #elizabeth warren #joe biden #bloomburg #iowa caucus

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reading-writing-revolution · 4 years

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Heather Cox Richardson:

May 28, 2020 (Thursday)

The coronavirus pandemic has ripped the remaining tatters of cover off this country’s racial inequality as black Americans are dying in much higher numbers than white Americans. Racial inequality is not new, but racial brutality has become more and more obvious in the past several years as cell phones have recorded the deaths of black Americans at the hands of authorities or white Americans who took it upon themselves to police their black neighbors.

On Monday night, a Minneapolis police officer killed a handcuffed man, George Floyd, by kneeling on his neck for ten minutes as other officers either held him down or looked away. It took only five minutes for Floyd, who had initially begged “Please, please. I can’t breathe,” to stop moving. A passerby captured the murder on video, and it has been widely shared on social media.

Last night, in Minneapolis, and then Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, and Manhattan, protesters took to the streets. In Minnesota, the protests turned into riots and looting after police greeted the protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets. This morning, after two nights of violent protests, the U.S. Department of Justice said it would make a federal investigation into the killing a “top priority.” Tonight, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) called in the state’s National Guard to keep the peace.

It didn’t work: as I write, it appears the Minneapolis precinct police department whose officers were involved in the murder is on fire. Police are reporting that 170 businesses in St. Paul have been damaged and dozens of fires have been set. Protests have spread to Phoenix, Arizona, and to Louisville, Kentucky, too, where 26-year-old Breonna Taylor was killed in her home on March 13 by plainclothes police executing a warrant for a man who lived in a different part of Louisville and had already been arrested.

Historically, political rioting in America is an attempt to call attention to a perceived injustice. In its aftermath, ordinary citizens decide whether or not the rioting was justified. Usually, they support social justice movements and shut down reactionary mobs.

When associated with a political riot, looting takes on a political meaning as well. If a population feels that the law is oppressing them—as it did for African Americans during slavery times, for example—they often break the law deliberately to illustrate their opposition to it (as African American abolitionists did in the years before the Civil War). There are always bad eggs in any mob scene, but in this case the larger story of the looting, after an event where an officer of the law murdered an unresisting man in full view of an audience, demonstrating his sense of untouchability, falls into a pretty well established historical pattern.

Crucially, white Americans are finally paying attention to the violence against the black community. I suspect the reason for this attention is that the current leadership of the Republican Party has gone so far toward consolidating power in favor of an oligarchy that ordinary white Americans are identifying with marginalized people. This is precisely what happened in the 1850s, when even desperately racist white Americans pushed back against the elite slave owners taking control of the American government because they recognized that they, too, could be sacrificed if leaders thought they stood in the way of the economic system that enriched a few.

Another story from last night illustrates exactly this point, showing the lengths to which Republican leaders are willing to go to achieve their legislative goals. In Pennsylvania, a member of the state legislature tested positive for Covid-19. He told his Republican colleagues, who engaged in appropriate quarantining and distancing, but neither they nor the Republican House Speaker, Mike Turzai, told the Democrats, who learned much later that one of their colleagues had tested positive for coronavirus from a reporter.

People outside the legislature learned of the situation last night, when Democratic Representative Brian Sims posted a passionate video on Twitter, angrily calling out his Republican colleagues for putting lives at risk. Sims revealed that he had recently donated a kidney to a patient dying of kidney failure, putting him at particularly high risk of contracting the coronavirus. His outrage that his Republican colleagues would keep such vital information from him and his Democratic colleagues, in order to make sure their goal of reopening the state did not falter, resonated. The idea that Republicans who, theoretically, were supposed to be working with Democrats for the good of Pennsylvanians, would deliberately endanger the life of a man who had secretly donated a kidney seemed the epitome of partisanship gone toxic.

More stories today illustrated that the Republicans are determined to cement their ideology into law no matter what voters want. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told judges over 65 that they should consider retiring to make sure Trump could fill their seats. "This is an historic opportunity. We’ve put over 200 federal judges on the bench. I think 1 in 5 federal judges are Trump appointees. ... So if you’re a circuit judge in your mid-60s, late 60s, you can take senior status; now would be a good time to do that if you want to make sure the judiciary is right of center. This is a good time to do it," Graham added.

Yesterday, Senate Democrats released a report examining how Republican leaders, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have packed the courts. Funded by millions of dollars of “dark money” contributions, they are “rolling back the clock on civil rights, consumer protections, and the rights of ordinary Americans, reliably putting a thumb on the scale in favor of corporate and Republican political interests.” The report notes that the House has passed more than 350 bills this session, nearly 90% of which are bi-partisan and popular, but that McConnell has refused to take them up, focusing instead on judicial confirmations. This “judicial capture” is designed to rewrite federal law “to favor the rich and powerful.”

Their point had another illustration today, when we learned that Marc Short, Vice President Pence’s chief of staff, owns between $500,000 and $1.5 million worth of stocks in companies linked to the administration’s pandemic response, in apparent disregard for the law.

But it appears that ordinary Americans have had enough. CNN reported today that GOP operatives are afraid that Trump will both lose the White House and tank the Republican Senate majority in 2020, something borne out by Graham’s call for older judges to retire and be replaced by partisan Republicans while they know they can be.

Knowing that the economic crisis is hurting the president’s chances of reelection, the White House announced today that it will not release the usual economic forecast this summer. Those projections would show the skyrocketing unemployment and ballooning deficit shortly before the election.

Symbolically, it also appears that the anti-maskers are losing ground to those advocating mask wearing. While Trump still refuses to wear one, McConnell, and FNC personality Sean Hannity, among others, have called for wearing masks to help contain the coronavirus.

And finally, Trump’s executive order today attempting to clamp down on social media so that it will not fact-check his inaccurate tweets about the election seem designed not to change policy—legal analysts say it will not withstand legal challenges—but to continue to push the idea that there is a grand conspiracy against him and his supporters. A Washington D.C. District Judge appointed by Trump threw out a lawsuit against Twitter and Facebook today, that claimed they were biased against right-wing users.

Trump’s executive order will shore up his supporters’ sense of grievance, and add more fuel to the argument he seems to be preparing: that any election he loses must be “rigged.”

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hellodigitalmarketingblogblr · 4 years

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Coronavirus and the impact of social media during this pandemic

This week i’ve decided to write about something that is seriously affecting all of us and is quite relevant, that is corona virus and how social media has helped and affected us during the outbreak.

Firstly, some background on both social media and corona virus:

Social media is essentially the integration of media, information and social communication/ interaction. It enables us to create and consume content from anywhere in the world at any time, making it easier for information to spread around the population at a rapid pace. Initially, social media was designed for social interactions, however over time its shifted its focus towards monetary gain

Below I’ve created a list of the pros and cons of social media:

It has given people the opportunity for crowdfunding/ crowdsourcing, whereby people may post about a monetary goal for a specific cause, issue or even an idea.

Connecting people across the world, with a total population of 7.549 billion people in the world and 3.196 billion of those people all using social media, it enables us to instantly connect with anyone at any time

Businesses are able to build brand awareness and sell their products/ services online

It also enables businesses to find talent/ employees all across the globe rather than just locally with websites like linkdin

Cons of social media:

once something is posted online it cannot be deleted entirely

Advertising practices online can feel like an invasion of privacy for users (e.g Facebook ads becoming more and more relevant to suit consumers needs in the hope of sales and increased revenue)

Heavy social media users tend to be less productive and work and school life and are at a greater risk of mental illness

Social media can apps can lead to stalking and murder through meet ups and users giving away too much information on their life and location

Not all information shared online is true and can lead to hysteria and rumours

The corona virus is an international pandemic that was developed in December 2019 when numerous people from Chinas Northern Hubei province developed a mysterious pneumonia- like illness.

By 2020 the outbreak had spread to multiple countries, as it continued to spread at a rapid rate, the demand for information on the virus rose more and more. Thus, the world turned to social media to find information. While this has been a useful tool for the government and businesses to keep the world up to date with information on how to stay safe and for epidemiologists to use data and trends to track the levels of peoples reactions and hysteria to the outbreak, it has also created a breeding ground for rumours that have in turn resulted in greater levels of panic. WHO director general has stated that ‘We’re not just fighting a pandemic, we’re also fighting an infodemic’.

The Corona virus is not the first virus to spread in the age of social media, with the Ebola epidemic, Zika outbreak and Swine flu also creating mass conversations online. However, during these times the health organisations were not as prepared to communicate and educate with risk information online. So the world was looking to the internet for information and direction, but found that it was flooded with unreliable information.

Recently we have made huge progress in the way that social media is used to help us through this pandemic and times of crisis.

Below are some ways that social media has helped us through the corona virus pandemic:

online stores generating revenue through consumers panic buying and stocking up on supplies, with less and less people wanting to venture outside of their house and manually visit stores t purchase supplies, online traders have made it easier and convenient for customers to purchase items without physical contact. Moreover, shelves in major supermarkets have been left empty due to this panic purchasing, so with the convenience of online shopping, consumers are able to browse the web for the items they need.

It has created a modern form of communication and a platform for victims and those in quarantine to communicate with the outside world and find information. With the increasing interest in first-hand information, corona virus Vlogs have become popular online.

Support systems and infrastructure have been developed to help those in need, with many crowdfunding pages set up to help raise money to struggling hospitals and victims. Major companies like Western Union have also used their platform and voice to encourage the public to donate. It has also given scientists a platform to collaborate and share ideas and possible solutions, as well as connecting people around the world and providing them with a communal platform for support.

Large brands like Forbes are calling for tech savvy millennials to use their online presence to spread important messages and educate the public. Rather than posting cute photos from holidays or memes, Forbes contributor John Brandon has encouraged us millennials to use our platform for greater purpose: ‘I’m talking about long captions encouraging your followers to stay home and why that’s important. I’m talking about sharing links so that all of your followers won’t miss the facts. They might not check CNN, but perhaps they will see your tweet.’ (Brandon, 2020)

While social media during this time has been a dangerous tool for widespread rumours and manifestation of hysteria, it has also been a useful tool for both the government and the community to come together and work as one to overcome this pandemic. My question to you is- How have you used your online platform to help educate others? After reading this do you feel more inclined to help spread valuable information that will help during this time? Or- Is there an outrageous rumour regarding a pandemic that you have seen online before? How did this make you feel?

Thanks for reading and please feel free to leave a comment below with your opinions or thoughts on the topic

#coronavirus #digitalmarketing #social media

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marygracegomez-blog · 5 years

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Busch Light and the Gameday Kid

By Mary Grace Gomez

Summary

Carson King will be remembered. Not only as the first person to wear an Iowa State sweatshirt in the Iowa Hawkeyes stadium and get applauded, but for being the 24-year-old who raised $3 million in less than a month with the help of a handmade sign and college gameday. What started out as a joke, quickly became an internet takeover of fall 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXO98myKdvo

Now dubbed the "Iowa Legend," King found internet fame on September 14 when he held up a handmade sign on ESPN's "College GameDay" asking for beer money with his Venmo account information at the bottom. (Calvin 2019) Overwhelmed by the money he was receiving, King decided to donate everything from his Venmo account to the Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. This selfless act from King generated even more attention and within 24 hours, King received $500,000. (Andrew 2019) In addition to the countless anonymous donors, Anheuser-Busch and Venmo promised to match whatever King could raise. In now-deleted tweets, Busch Beer promised to send King, a year's supply of beer cans with his face and name on each can. (Zdanowicz 2019)

By September 23, King reached over $1 million and received a special honor from Iowa Governor, Kim Reynolds, who declared that September 28 would be Carson King Day in the state of Iowa. (NBC News 2019) Everything seemed to be going well until a local newspaper, Des Moines Register reporter Aaron Calvin, discovered off colored tweets that King had posted when he was 16-years-old. The following day, September 24, Anheuser-Busch cut ties with King and rescinded their offer of a year’s supply of beer as well as the cans with King’s likeness. The story took another turn when Twitter users discovered that the Des Moines Register reporter, Aaron Calvin, who found King’s tweets had also, years earlier, made offensive tweets of his own. By the end of September, reporter Aaron Calvin was no longer with the Des Moines paper.

What Happened Next

Des Moines Register - Following the discovery of Aaron Calvin’s racist tweets, readers quickly criticized the publication and questioned why the Register had dug so far into King's life, surfacing posts from when he was 16 in 2012. The following day, the Des Moines Register, released a statement via social media from the Executive Editor Carol Hunter, who wrote “We took appropriate action because there is nothing more important in journalism than having readers' trust,”. When the publication continued receiving backlash regarding their coverage of Carson King, the Register issued another written piece that addressed what the Des Moines Register’s next steps would be moving forward. Hunter addressed the criticism, saying that numerous fundraising scams have been recently exposed. “As journalists, we have the obligation to look into matters completely, to aid the public in understanding the people we write about and in some cases to whom money is donated." Since the initial two statements, the Des Moines Register has continued business as usual. It is unclear whether Calvin quit or was fired.

Anheuser-Busch – When asked about the separation between Busch and King, spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch, Matt Kohan, told CNN, “Carson King had multiple social media posts that do not align with our values as a brand or as a company and we will have no further association with him”. Kohan continued, saying that the company would still donate more than $350,000 to the hospital as promised, but it had rescinded its beer offer. Instead, it will add the value of the year's supply to its donation. Busch also tweeted a reminder to their followers. (Andrew 2019)

Venmo – Since the beginning of the controversy, Venmo has declined to answer most questions regarding Carson King and have not interacted with any of their followers who have prompted questions. Additionally, Venmo has not given any indication whether they are still planning to match what King raises. Venmo told MarketWatch by email that, “Venmo’s decision to match the money raised for the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital was inspired by the kindness of the entire Venmo community and their desire to support a worthy cause. Our intent has never changed, and we continue to honor our pledge to support the patients, families and staff members of the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics.” (Pesce 2019) Their last update regarding the topic, via Twitter, was on September 20.

Carson King – Following the expose of King’s offensive tweets, King issued an apology via twitter and appeared on NBC News to discuss his tweets and further apologize. King tweeted that he considered the Des Moines Register to be “kind” in their coverage of him and wanted the public to know it was his decision to come forward and address his tweets from 2012.

Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital – When asked to comment, the hospital said it would not be issuing a statement at this time, though last week, University of Iowa Healthcare spokesman Tom Moore told CNN the hospital was coordinating a time for King to "bring the donation over and present the check" in early October. (Zdanowicz 2019)

The controversy didn’t stall donations, and by September 27, King had received over $2 million. In fact, many people were angry with the Des Moines Register and Anheuser-Busch, taking to their private social sites to show their support for King. As of October 7, the total was pushed to $3,000,000 thanks to a late donation from West Des Moines-based Doll Distributing, the local distributor for Busch Light in Central Iowa. The company says 13 different distributors from across the state chipped in to make the final $41,000 gift. (Fox Cleveland 2019)

Page Principles

Tell the truth: While the truth affected King, Busch Light and the Des Moines Register, each wanted to live transparently in the face of the public. Despite each receiving varying degrees of backlash, all three chose to be open about their actions and follow their own moral compass.

Prove it with action: Both Busch Light and the Des Moines Register felt obligated to be honest to their organization’s beliefs. While their decisions were unpopular and both organizations felt the repercussions of, they were true to their organization’s principles. Busch Light cut ties with King because his offensive tweets could not be ignored and King’s remarks didn’t align with what Busch represented eliminating Busch as a sponsor. The Des Moines Register also, was put in an uncomfortable position. As reporters and as a publication that focused on truth telling, they felt obligated to bring King’s past to light despite the public’s opinion. Additionally, King feels that he is not the same person as he was in 2012. By taking responsibility for his past, King was willing to accept the disappointment of fans and accept that he may lose his sponsorship with Busch.

Sources

Andrew, S. (2019, September 26). He raised a million dollars for a hospital through beer money. Then his old racist tweets surfaced. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/us/carson-king-busch-cuts-ties-beer-posts-trnd/index.html.

Calvin, A. (2019, September 25). Meet Carson King, the 'Iowa Legend' who's raised more than $1 million for charity off of a sign asking for beer money. Retrieved from https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/college/iowa-state/football/2019/09/24/meet-carson-king-whos-raised-over-1-million-charity-asking-beer-money-childrens-hospital-tweet/2427538001/.

Carson King hits $3 million goal thanks to late gift from Busch Light distributors. (2019, October 7). Retrieved from https://fox8.com/2019/10/07/carson-king-hits-3-million-goal-thanks-to-late-gift-from-busch-light-distributors/.

Pesce, N. L. (2019, September 27). Anheuser-Busch cuts ties with beer money fundraiser Carson King after racist tweets surface. Retrieved from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/anheuser-busch-cuts-ties-with-beer-money-fundraiser-carson-king-after-racist-tweets-surface-2019-09-25.

Shepherd, K. (2019, September 27). Iowa reporter who found a viral star's racist tweets slammed when critics find his own offensive posts. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/25/carson-king-viral-busch-light-star-old-iowa-reporter-tweets/.

Viral Iowa State University fan Carson King apologizes for offensive tweets. NBCNews (2019, September 25). Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/video/viral-iowa-state-university-fan-carson-king-apologizes-for-offensive-tweets-69907525554.

Zdanowicz, C. (2019, October 2). Almost $3 million in donations later, the man who raised money with a beer sign has ended his campaign. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/01/us/carson-king-hospital-fundraiser-ends-trnd/index.html.

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dendroica · 5 years

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This story is bursting at the seams with an all-star lineup of right-wing scammers. The GoFundMe itself, of course, has been rocked by scandal: After the effort raised $20 million, just $980 million short of the billion-dollar goal, GoFundMe said in January that the funds would be returned, since creator Brian Kolfage had originally pledged that “If for ANY reason we don’t reach our goal we will refund your donation.” But Kolfage quickly figured out how to keep the gravy train going, urging those who had donated to allow their donations to be redirected to a non-profit. Ultimately, $14 million of that $20 million figure was indeed rerouted by the idiots who donated it. That non-profit became We Build The Wall, and like all good conservative conjobs, it has the celebs of the fever swamp attached to it. Not only Kris Kobach, a tenacious liar who failed at proving voter fraud is a widespread problem—but also slightly washed-up figures like Bannon, Sheriff David Clarke, Curt Schilling, and Tom Tancredo. All the stars are here! How much sleazier could it get? Try this: the main contractor working at the site of New Wall, according to CNN, is Tommy Fisher. The Washington Post reported last week that Trump had “personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers” to give the contract for the border wall to the company owned by Fisher, a “GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News,” despite the fact that the Corps of Engineers previously said Fisher’s proposals didn’t meet their requirements. Of course, like all good schemes, the need for more money never ceases: On the Facebook page for the group, the announcement that Wall had been completed was accompanied with a plea for fans to “DONATE NOW to fund more walls! We have many more projects lined up!” So, what we have is: A tax-exempt non-profit raised $20 million by claiming it would be able to make the federal government build Wall by just giving it the money for it and then, when that didn’t happen, getting most of its donors to reroute that money; then it built a half-mile of wall on private land for as much as $8 million, which went to a firm of a Fox News star whom President Trump adores.

Right-Wing Grifters Are Building the Border Wall

#border wall #corruption #conservatism #politics

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nigeiadigitalmarketingcompany · 5 years

Text

2:00PM Water Cooler 7/31/2019

Digital Elixir 2:00PM Water Cooler 7/31/2019

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Trade

“Trump’s Bid to Dismantle Global Trading System Poised for a Win” [Industry Week]. “Thanks to a U.S. veto on new appeals judges, the WTO’s dispute arm is expected to start slipping into the institutional equivalent of a coma at the end of this year. That has set off a scramble by the European Union, Canada and other countries to set up a temporary alternative allowing the use of arbitrators rather than three-judge panels to hear appeals. But by creating that system, WTO members may be giving Trump and aidesーwho, like him, have deep-rooted skepticism of multilateral institutionsーthe very thing they want. Arbitration would above all provide the flexibility the U.S. is after, Vaughn said. It would see disputes treated as individual cases, avoiding the precedent-dependent system the WTO appellate body has become.”

“Inside the lose-lose trade fight between Japan and South Korea” [Nikkei Asian Review]. “[There is a] growing ‘Boycott Japan’ movement spreading across South Korea. South Koreans have also stopped buying cars, beer, cosmetics and just about anything else bearing the label ‘Made in Japan.’ Some are even canceling their summer holidays…. Well-organized protests are not uncommon in South Korea, and they tend to pass relatively quickly. But these boycotts — which in South Koreans’ minds are tied with the emotionally-charged issue of wartime labor and a sense that their most successful companies are under attack — may be different. The movement kicked off shortly after the decision by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration on July 4 to tighten controls on exports of three chemicals essential for making semiconductors and flat panel screens used in smartphones and TVs. By choking off supplies of the chemicals — Japan’s market share for two of them stands at more than 90% — the Abe administration was essentially taking aim at the engine that powers South Korea’s high-tech economy.”

“USDA gave almost 100 percent of Trump’s trade war bailout to white farmers” [New Food Economy]. • Deceptive headline erases class: “The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has documented that the program has disproportionately helped wealthy landowners and a recent analysis by Donald Carr, a senior advisor for EWG, argues that the MFP has deepened the disadvantages of black and minority farmers.”

Politics

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

“They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune

“2020 Democratic Presidential Nomination” [RealClearPolitics] (average of five polls). As of July 30: Biden continues rise at 32.2% (32.0), Sanders flat at 16.2% (16.2%), Warren up at 14.3% (14.0%), Buttigieg flat at 5.6% (5.5%), Harris up at 10.8% (10.5%), others Brownian motion. Sanders opens a little daylight between him and Warren, for the first time in two weeks.

* * *

2020

Delaney (D)(1): Naughty, naughty:

so someone edited John Delaney’s Wikipedia page

pic.twitter.com/dFMHiz15XD

— Sarah Flourance (@BookishFeminist) July 31, 2019

Gabbard (D)(1): “Tulsi’s Last Stand?” [The American Conservative]. “Gabbard has been perhaps the most interesting Democrat running for president and Wednesday night could be her last stand. She gets to share the stage with frontrunner Joe Biden, like Hillary Clinton a vote for the Iraq war. There is no guarantee she will get another opportunity: the eligibility criteria for subsequent debates is more stringent and she has yet to qualify…. Gabbard has so far been unable to penetrate this madness despite being young (she’s 38), attractive, telegenic, a military veteran, a woman of color, and an articulate, passionate opponent of the regime change wars that have brought our country so much pain.”

Warren (D)(1): The liberal Democrat enforcers are coming for Warren:

Maybe Warren really believes that single-payer is the only way; if so, I’ve misjudged her policy acumen. Either way, that was a bad night for someone who should be leading the progressive charge 7/

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) July 31, 2019

The Debates

“Sanders, Warren battle centrists in testy debate” [The Hill]. “But on Tuesday night, the moderates came out swinging at Medicare for all with grave warnings about the electoral consequences.” • Oh.

“The Centrists Did Not Hold” [Jeet Heer, The Nation]. The Deck: “Both the moderators and centrist Democratic candidates failed in their attempts to gang up on Sanders and Warren during Tuesday’s debate.” • So we’ve normalizes the idea that the moderators are not refs but players? One more reason to get the networks out the debate business. More: “The fusion of entertainment with politics continued apace with CNN orchestrating the Democratic primary debates as a professional-wrestling donnybrook. Led by Jake Tapper, the CNN hosts consistently tried to get the two factions to attack each other, while bizarrely elevating John Delaney for much of the debate.

“The Middle Ground Did Not Fare Well in the Democratic Debate” [Jacobin].

“‘Do or die:’ The pressure is on struggling 2020 Democrats to break through at Detroit debates” [McClatchy]. “With the leading candidates increasingly separating themselves from the rest of 2020 Democratic presidential primary field, this week’s second set of debates are shaping up to be most crucial for the bottom half of the pack who are dwelling in single digits and struggling to raise money. It’s those campaigns that are preparing to take a more aggressive posture in Detroit as they fight for survival ahead of a traditionally slow summer fundraising period and stiffer requirements to qualify for the next debates in the fall…. The next debates aren’t until September, when polling and donor requirements for entry will tighten. Seven candidates have indicated they’ve already crossed the necessary thresholds, with at least two others claiming they are close to doing so.” • Hence, beyond ideology, the aggressiveness of Hickenlooper, Delaney, et al., and the relative quiesence of Buttigieg and O’Rourke, who have already made it to the the next debate round. I would expect the same dynamic to be in play in tonight’s debate as well.

2019

“California Aims to Make Trump Release Taxes by Requiring It for Primary Ballot” [Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine]. “California governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation making disclosure of five years of income-tax filings a condition for appearing on the state’s presidential-primary ballot, beginning next year.” • Here the Constitutional qualifications and requirements for the Presidency. Article II, section 8:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

I don’t see the grounds on which California gets to add additional qualifications for a Federal office. Further, the additional qualifications are blatantly aimed at a political enemy of the California Democrat power structure (California is a one-party state). What happens a tit-for-tat struggle begins with states dominated by Republicans? We won’t have national elections any more. Back to the article:

But the latest bill passed on a strict party-line vote, and Newsom signed it on the grounds that because of its size and stature, California had a “special responsibility to require this information of presidential and gubernatorial candidates” (it will apply to candidates for Newsom’s own job after 2024).

This is a 21st century states’ rights argument, except only for large states. Where is it written that any state has “special responsibilities”?

Realignment and Legitimacy

“DSA Members, America’s New Left” [New Left Review]. “But the five dsa members, all from California chapters—and spanning a range of positions, from neo-Kautskian electoralism to libertarian party-building—offer a vivid sense of the debates agitating the group’s membership base. How will dsa convert its newly acquired supporters into political organizers? What fields of activity should it bestow its (still limited) resources upon? Most pressingly, how should it relate to the Sanders 2020 campaign, and to the Democratic Party as a whole? Can the long-term goal of building an independent working-class party be reconciled with dsa’s current practice of running candidates on Democratic ballot-lines?” • Interviews with five DSA members. Interesting!

“No, Professors Aren’t Discriminating Against Conservative Students” [Pacific Standard]. “The idea that left-wing college professors are both brainwashing undergraduates and discriminating against conservative students has emerged as one of the most consistent right-wing lines of attack against American higher education over the last few decades. While conservative undergrads, like many types of students, may often feel isolated, a new working paper led by a public policy professor who tells me he’s a ‘lifelong Republican’ suggests that any evidence for bias in grading against conservative students is at best minimal and most likely absent.”

Stats Watch

Chicago Puchasing Managers Index, July 2019: “[T]he lowest reading in 4-1/2 years” [Econoday]. “New orders sank deeper into contraction with employment falling into contraction for the first time in nearly two years and to its deepest level of contraction in nearly 10 years… Though conclusions are difficult to draw based on uncertainties over the make-up and size of Chicago’s sample, the drop in this report could reflect trade-tension issues.”

ADP Employment Report, July 2019: “ADP estimates that private payroll growth in Friday’s employment report for July will rise 156,000” [Econoday].

Employment Cost Index, Q2 2019: “Wage pressures are flat and will not stand in the way of a Federal Reserve rate cut that is expected this afternoon” [Econoday]. “The lack of acceleration in employment compensation readings hints at available capacity in the labor market.”

State Street Investor Confidence Index, July 2019: “Global institutional investors continued to reduce their exposure to equities and were even more risk averse in July” [Econoday].

Tech: “Privately Owned Scooter Companies Don’t Have a Future” [Jacobin]. “Nearly two years ago, dockless e-scooters started appearing on the sidewalks of major cities across the United States, eventually fanning out to Europe, Asia, Australia, and beyond. In most American cities, the companies didn’t bother getting permits or checking their services would be legal; they just dropped off their scooters.” • Scooter economics seem quite similar to ride “sharing” economics, i.e. not and never going to be profitable.

Manufacturing: “The CEO of one of the world’s largest airlines said Boeing needs to get its ‘s— together’ as the ongoing 737 Max crisis hits the carrier’s profits” [Business Insider]. “The CEO of one of the world’s largest airlines said that Boeing needs to get its “shit together” as the ongoing grounding of its 737 Max planes extends beyond predictions and the carrier’s profits take a hit…. Ryanair, the biggest low-cost carrier in Europe, had ordered 135 of the 737 Max planes, with the first 58 of those planes due to arrive by summer 2020. The airline was the fifth-biggest in the world by seating capacity in 2018, and is the world’s largest airline by number of routes.”

The Biosphere

“Whose fault is plastic waste in the ocean?” [Deutsche Welle]. “Because plastic is so tough, it can last for centuries without breaking down. That means plastic made in the past, mainly in richer nations, has accumulated, often in the ocean. Experts say this, along with the lack of data on plastic from marine and other sources, makes blaming individual regions for ocean plastic unhelpful.” •

“Geoengineering is very controversial. How can you do experiments? Harvard has some ideas.” [MIT Technology Review]. “For years, several Harvard climate scientists have been preparing to launch a balloon capable of spraying reflective particles into the atmosphere, in the hopes of learning more about our ability to counteract global warming…. ‘It’s an extremely high-profile institution that’s decided they don’t want to wait for the regulatory regimes to greenlight this,’ says Wil Burns, co-director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University.”

Health Care

“The Plausible Path to Medicare for All” [The American Prospect]. “The flailing second-tier Democrats in the presidential debates who attack Medicare for All and its sponsors are indeed doing the work of Republicans. It is indeed possible to get to universal coverage under the auspices of Medicare, without bankrupting the public treasury or increasing net costs to the middle class. And the coverage would be better, more reliable, and more cost-effective than even the best insurance that people now get from their employers. Today’s employer-provided insurance is riddled with deductibles, co-pays, denials of reimbursement, limits on which doctor or hospital you can use, and loss of insurance when you change jobs. Sanders and Warren are right about all that. But the transition problems are far from trivial. The biggest problem is that the people who will save money when they no longer pay premiums are not the same people who will likely pay more in taxes*. So the sponsors of Medicare for All should recognize that a better transition strategy may be the best way to disarm critics, among centrist Democrats, Republican attackers, and the press; and to reassure the electorate and make Medicare for All the big winner that it can be. The best of the transition approaches are those proposed by Jacob Hacker, with a close legislative counterpart in the Medicare for America Act co-sponsored by Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Jan Schakowsky.” • I would be more sympathetic to Kuttner if TAP and its ilk hadn’t, through unremitting effort, themselves created the need to “reassure the electorate.” I also remember the fantastically destructive role played by Hacker in the liberal Democrat bait-and-switch operation against single payer in 2009-2010. I know this is the genetic fallacy, but it’s very hard for me to believe that TAP and Hacker are operating in good faith. NOTE * So #MedicareForAll is a downward transfer of wealth? And this is a bad thing?

Black Injustice Tipping Point

“Whites get half of mortgages in Detroit, nation’s largest majority black city” [Bridge]. “Home loans are heating up in Detroit after years of a frigid lending market, but a majority of loan dollars now go to whites, who comprise just over 10 percent of the population. African-Americans, who still make up fourth-fifths of the city, are now far more likely to buy homes in the suburbs than Detroit. The findings come from a Bridge Magazine analysis of hundreds of thousands of federal mortgage records from 2007 to 2017.”

Class Warfare

“The Roepke Lecture 2019: ʺWar, capitalism, and the making and unmaking of economic geographiesʺ [Erica Schoenberger, Johns Hopkins]. Worth a listen over a cup of coffee:

youtube

(I owe a hat tip to an alert reader for this, but I can’t find the comment where the suggestion was made.O)

“The tyranny of productivity” [The Week]. “More than 100 years ago, states began listening to workers’ demands and limiting the hours employers could make people work. Later, in the 1930s and ’40s, the federal government did the same thing on the national level. And governments didn’t just guarantee people the free time to pay attention to things one might deem “unproductive” — they also helped them find unproductive things to do. Indeed, early 20th-century political leaders made playgrounds and public spaces a priority. Teddy Roosevelt, who helped create the national parks system, ensuring Americans’ access to wild and beautiful places, frequently described the power of nature in decidedly non-instrumental terms. ‘There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm,’ he once wrote. Later, during the depths of the Great Depression, workers hired by the federal government built some of the country’s most gorgeous public architecture — including, as Odell notes, the Oakland rose garden she so enjoys. But, in the second half of the 20th century, government increasingly shied away from policies aimed at anything as unproductive as beauty and pleasure and devoted itself to economic growth, instead.”

“IBU strike shuts down Alaska ferries” [Alaska Public Radio]. “In Ketchikan, approximately 30 picketing ferry workers stood on the sidewalk outside Alaska Marine Highway System terminal where the ferry Columbia was set to depart for Bellingham, Washington…. The union had warned the night before that a strike was imminent if it didn’t get a contract deal. It’s been negotiating for the past three years. An impasse last week led a majority of members to vote to authorize taking direct action.”

“These Are the Wealthiest Towns in the U.S.” [Bloomberg]. Handy map:

News of the Wired

“Daemons are the programs that run the internet. Here’s why it’s important to understand them.” [The Conversation]. “Internet daemons optimize how computers actively manage systems toward certain goals or highest-efficency states. Optimization is another way to understand algorithmic governance. It is at once a way of thinking and a way of doing. To optimize is to calculate optimal states that solve social and political problems. Optimization also involves ways to actualize these states…. The technical connotations of optimization obscures its social and political implications. For example, an optimal amount of news to include in Facebook’s NewsFeed or shorter passenger wait times on Uber are technical decisions and business ones.” • Optimization is not neutral!

“Behold, the most (intentionally) poorly designed website ever created” [Ars Technica]. • Here it is. Looks like Twitter’s designers examined this site closely.

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (Re Silc):

Re Silc writes: “My 3-year-old bristly locust love southern vermont.”

* * *

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2:00PM Water Cooler 7/31/2019

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bloojayoolie · 5 years

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America, Clothes, and cnn.com: MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR ISSUE 35& 36 AUGUST 26 &SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 https://ift.tt/Ol6IOt AMERICAN FREE PRESS 2 A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR Radical Leftists Commit Most Political Violence hortly before a demonstration pro- moting free speech kicked off in downtown Portland, Ore. on Aug. 17, President Donald Trump tweeted, "Major consideration is being given to Mass.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) would never denounce them. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif) went so far as to entertain violent leftist Joseph Alcoff. Al coff is currently in prison, facing felony charges after he and a cowardly group of about a dozen antifa-affiliated individuals at tacked two Marines in Philadelphia, one of whom is Hispanic. And one doesn't have to look very hard to find examples of this from the likes of CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. CNN hosts Chris Cuomo and Don black man. In antifa's twisted logic, the simple fact that they are all on the right of the politi- cal spectrum justifies antifa's violent targeting Contrast that with the breathless reports about the threat posed by "right-wing" vio- lence and terrorism. Groups like the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center have satu- rated the airwaves with the bogus assertion that "white supremacists" and "white nation- alists" are the leading threat in the country to- day-a claim that AFP writer John Friend de- bunks in his article on pages 22-23 in this naming antifa an 'organization of terror' Port- land is being watched very closely. Hopefully the mayor will be able to properly do his job!" We at AMERICAN FREE PRESS have been fol- lowing political violence on the part of the radical left very closely for a number of rea- sons, first and foremost being that the goal of antifa has always been to quash Americans' right to free speech and assembly-a right Lemon have repeatedly defended antifa live we believe to be critical to our great country just as our Founding Fathers did. A little background is important here. It actually has already been proven that antifa is a domestic terrorist organization, given its long history of violence for political purposes. What is standing in the way of that designa- alized that it's "okay to punch Nazis," even tion, however, is support from powerful groups and people on the left including the majority of the mainstream media, which con- tinues to downplay, explain away, and even apologize for the violent acts committed by this group. Individuals associated with antifa have car- ried out attacks on federal facilities. A mass murderer connected to antifa in Dayton, Ohio, killed multiple people including his transgen- Yiannopoulos deserve it because of their Hitler himself these days. der sibling. They have attacked journalists without cause, sending one prominent film- maker-who happens to be gay and the son of Vietnamese immigrants-to the hospital with a brain bleed. Meanwhile, far-left members of Congress like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D- week's issue. The truth is, the left is behind much of the political violence in the country today, but you'd never know that if you only relied on the big media. Circling back to the protest in Portland on Aug. 17, were it not for the Inter- net-and AMERICAN FREE PRESS the world would be clueless about the brutal attacks that went on there, all of which were carried though they never tell you these so-called out at the hands of radical leftists associated "Nazis" are actually conservatives who advo- with antifa. According to multiple sources including the mayor's office in Portland- which had the audacity to claim the rally was peaceful-there were no reports of violence targeting innocent people by the conserv tive Proud Boys or Patriot Prayera shock- ing admission, given that we conservatives are supposed to be the reincarnation of Adolf on the air. NBC host Chuck Todd went so far as to in- vite antifa apologist Mark Bray on his Sunday morning talk show "Meet the Press" to ex- plain why antifa's violence is "ethical." The Post and the Times have both editori- cate free markets, free speech, and capital- ism. These useful idiots-to borrow a term, ap- propriately enough, coined by none other than Lenin-go so far as to blame the targets of an- tifa's violence, claiming that conservatives like Ben Shapiro, Ann Coulter, and Milo "racist," "fascist" language. The irony is lost- or just ignored-that many of antifa's main targets are actually members of otherwise protected classes in the United States. Shapiro is Jewish after all. Coulter is a woman and is currently dating a liberal Jewish New York Democrat. Yiannopoulos dresses up in women's clothes, is gay, and is "married" to a -CHRISTOPHER J. PETHERICK Executive Editor. AMERICAN FREE PRESS: America's Last Real Newspaper-Populist & Independent, Not Republican or Democrat CONTACT AMERICAN FREE PRESS Phone: 202-544-5977 REGIONAL BUREAUS East: Phil Giraldi, Donald Jeffries, Pete Papaherakles, John Tiffany, South: Dave Gahary, Prof. Raymond Good- win. Southwest: Howard Carson, Don MacPherson. Mid west: Dr.Kevin Barrett, S.T. Patrick. 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