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continuations · 5 years ago

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The Social Media Triangle

“Two out of three ain’t bad” is the title of a Meat Loaf song but is also the idea behind triangles: situations in which you can achieve only two of three objectives. The classic example is the idea that in manufacturing you can have any two, but not all three from fast, cheap, good. (*)

Much of the current debate about social media and how to regulate it is people shouting loudly past each other because they are pursuing different objectives in what I believe is a social media triangle:

Freedom: there isn’t a central authority that can exert power over individual expression or appropriate rents generated by contributors to the system.

Openness: anyone can join a globally connected network and express themselves without being trolled or harassed.

Criticism: there is a mechanism by which people get exposed to opposing viewpoints and relevant facts and by which information cascades (especially spread of misinformation) are curtailed.

All the existing big systems such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube fail on the first objective, as they are controlled by for-profit corporations, which are further subject to regulation and intervention by governments.

This of course has many people, myself included, arguing for decentralized alternatives. I think we have to be clear though that this will make accomplishing objective #2 harder (although to date the bar set here by the centralized players is extremely low). More importantly though accomplishing #3 will not be possible in a decentralized system.

At the current trajectory though there is a good chance that we will wind up with the worst of all outcomes, at least for a while: a regulatory environment in which massive players are perversely protected from new entrants but simultaneously hidebound because their conduct is subject to behavioral rules (which require consulting an army of lawyers for every product change). That is what stagnation looks like and we know it all too well from many other industries as well as some prior moments in information technology. In tech those moments were kept thankfully short by massive platform shifts (e.g., mainframe to PC) but there isn’t an obvious one of those on the horizon (except for blockchain but more on that in a moment).

There is a clear alternative to this which helps us accomplish objectives 1 and 2, while at the same time incentivizing competition. Give a Section 230 like protection to companies in return for providing a complete set of enduser APIs. In other words, require Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. to be fully programmable in order to have their liability limited.

How does this accomplish objective 1? By reducing the network effect lock in of the incumbents. In a fully programmable world new interfaces can be created that let me interact with multiple systems transparently, so I don’t need to keep track for example of which social network my friends are on. Some of these alternatives may be new centralized systems but others may be decentralized ones.

What about objective 2? In a fully programmable world, users can control what they see and what they don’t. So while that will not prevent trolls from getting on a system it allows endusers and coalitions of endusers to filter what they see.

Of course this immediately shows that objective #3 will be challenging. Again centralized players have done a horrendously bad job at this to date, largely because they are optimizing for total attention gathered. To get a glimpse of how hard that will be one need to look no further than information cascades on WhatsApp.

Why do I still think this is better? Because the misinformation problem is much larger than any one social media system and reaches all the way back to such fundamentals as how people learn and what value systems they internalize. In other words, it has been and will continue to be one of the central problems of human progress. For more thoughts on that I have an entire book which you can find at World After Capital.

(*) It turns out that you can achieve all three if you start with quality but only if you build a culture of quality. Similarly here I believe you can eventually accomplish all three if you build a culture of criticism.

#social media #api #decentralization #section230

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tevnakurdi · 5 years ago

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On World Health Day07 April 2020,

After nine years of politicizing and weaponizing health and health services in Syria, the response to the Corona pandemic must not be politicized nor used to overlook crimes committed in Syria.

Since 2011 more than 180 health workers were killed under torture in the detention centers of the Syrian government, in addition to over 500 attacks on health facilities in Syria, more than 90% of them by the forces of the Syrian government, its allies and militias. These acts are war crimes committed systematically in violation of all international laws, regulations and UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, while resolution No 2286 (2016) failed to put an end to these attacks or provide any kind of protection to health workers.

In addition, whole communities were systematically deprived from the right of health within the sieges imposed by the Syrian government in several areas for many years in which the Syrian government used the right to access health services as a means of pressure on both communities and individuals; as well as prohibiting medical equipment from reaching besieged cities and towns including cesarean operation kits, infant medicines, and even delaying delivery of vaccines to many regions. This continues today with other stakeholders using access to basic needs and services as political bargaining chips. UNSC de-authorized use of Alyarobieh crossing point for aid delivery due to veto threats by Russia, depriving 2 million people in northeast Syria from getting cross border medical aid, and leaving them at the mercy of the Syrian government – which obstructed medical aid for years – as their only means of accessing supplies. Furthermore, water, electricity and other basic needs have been weaponized. The Turkish authorities have failed to provide adequate water supplies due to several interruptions to operations at Allouk water station, which provides water to almost 460,000 people in northeast Syria, which cannot be allowed, especially given the growing need for water to tackle the corona pandemic.

The Syrian government has a long record of depriving detainees, particularly opinion and political detainees, from the rights of minimum health conditions in the detention centers. Many reports issued by rights groups have documented the practice of torture in many military health centers. Furthermore detainees and their relatives have been deprived of accessing their medical records, while many death cases in detention centers were attributed to "health problems" without sharing any medical records with the families of the victims. These procedures culminated in preventing UN bodies and the ICRC teams from visiting detention centers to monitor the health conditions of the detainees.

Today, on the 70th Annual World Health Day, which also coincides with the anniversary of the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO), which this year is dedicated to thanking the nurses and midwives who, today, stand bravely in the face of the Corona pandemic. Thanking them in Syria should be embodied in protecting them from any politicization of their actions in response to this pandemic, and from any political intervention to overlook the crimes committed against them, or the rights of over 900 of their colleagues who have lost their lives at duty.

The organizations signing this statement have real fears that the humanitarian health response to Corona pandemic may be exploited politically in a way that ignores the crimes committed by the Syrian government, its allies and all the other parties to the conflict over many years, particularly the crimes related to health issues. The absence of statistical transparency by the Syrian government on Coronavirus cases is very clear. The irresponsible conduct of the Syrian government in facing the pandemic, in addition to the long history of the Syrian security services’ involvement in the medical humanitarian response increase fears the response being politicized, either through discriminating between Syrians according to the party in control of their region of residence, or by exploiting the pandemic to distort the long record of crimes and violations against the right to health. The real obstacle to responding meaningfully to the corona pandemic is these practices by the Syrian government, as well as other actors in Syria, and nothing else. Therefore, we demand that:

1. WHO lead the response against Corona regardless of the party in control of the Syrian regions, to guarantee the provision of all health requirements in terms of diagnosing, responding and spreading awareness which are basic needs in health response, in a way that guarantees access to all health services in all the geographic regions in Syria and to all Syrians in Syria and in neighboring countries.

2. Member states in the Human Rights Council, judicial bodies, investigation committees, and other bodies working in Syria, not to turn a blind eye to any violations committed in the health sector in Syria during the last nine years and to ensure that providing a better response to Corona pandemic does not mean overlooking any crimes, accountability or justice procedures towards the criminals.

3. The immediate release of all detainees, especially political and opinion detainees, and those who were detained on the background of engagement in the humanitarian response in Syria. Full access for ICRC teams to detention facilities should be guaranteed.

4. The UN leadership of the humanitarian response in Syria to work to improve the response to the aggravated health needs, and to increase the response to other humanitarian sectors, in a way that guarantees the maximum engagement of Syrian civil society, and the protection of humanitarian workers and infrastructure.

Accordingly, we sign:

Access Center for Human Rights - ACHR

Al-Kawakibi Center for Transitional Justice and Human Rights

ASML/Syria

ASO Center for Consultancy and Strategic Studies

Association of German Syrian Organizations (VDSH e.V.)

Baytna Syria

Bercav Organization

Big Heart Foundation

Caesar Families Association

Center for Civil Society and Democracy

Collective of Missing Families in Algeria (CFDA)- Collectif de Familles Disparues en Algérie

Dawlaty

Detainees' Voice Team

Fédération euro-méditerranéenne contre les disparitions forcées

Fraternity Foundation for Human Rights FFHR-Biratî

Hand in Hand for Aid & Development – HIHFAD

Hurras Network

Impunity Watch

Inmaa Alfourt Organization

International Service for Human Rights

Jana Watan

Justice for Life

Local Development and Small-Projects Support (LDSPS)

Local Development Organization

SEMA

Shafak

Shaml Syrian CSOs Coalition

Start Point

Still There

Syria Legal Network in the Netherlands

Syria Relief

Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)

Syrian Coalition for Development and Relief

Syrian Lawyers Aggregation

SYRIAN LEAGUE FOR CITIZENSHIP

Syrian Network for Human Rights

Syrians for Truth and Justice-STJ

TEVN

The Asfari Foundation

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information

The Day After

The Syria Campaign

UOSSM

Urnammu For Justice & Human Rights

Women Now for Development

#World Health Day07 April 2020 #human rights #syria #democrcay #COVID19 #corona veruis

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thinkveganworld · 6 years ago

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Here’s something I wrote years ago on a subject that’s being discussed lately - the subject of Nazis in the Republican Party. What’s interesting to me is that Democrats and the corporate media are now using Cold War propaganda tactics and fear-mongering against Russia - tactics Republicans once used to justify and prop up fascists. People need to know and understand history to avoid repeating it. When anyone is surprised I don’t seem horrified with what’s going on today regarding the resurgence of Nazi influence, I want to tell them it’s because I’ve seen it all before (even recently). What’s going on now has been in the works for a long time and is the logical outcome of the facts I’m describing in what follows.

Nazis and the Republican Party

In his book Blowback: America’s Recruitment of Nazis and Its Destructive Impact on Our Domestic and Foreign Policy, award winning investigative reporter Christopher Simpson says that after World War II, Nazi émigrés were given CIA subsidies to build a far-right-wing power base in the U.S. These Nazis assumed prominent positions in the Republican Party’s “ethnic outreach committees.”

Simpson documents the fact that these Nazis did not come to America as individuals but as part of organized groups with fascist political agendas. The Nazi agenda did not die along with Adolf Hitler. It moved to America (or a part of it did) and joined the far right of the Republican Party.

Simpson shows how the State Department and the CIA put high-ranking Nazis on the intelligence payroll “for their expertise in propaganda and psychological warfare,” among other purposes. The most important Nazi employed by the U.S. was Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler’s most senior eastern front military intelligence officer. After Germany’s defeat became certain, Gehlen offered the U.S. certain concessions in exchange for his own protection. Gehlen promoted hyped up Cold War propaganda on behalf of the political right in this country, and helped shape U.S. perceptions of the Cold War.

Journalist Russ Bellant (Old Nazis, The New Right, And The Republican Party) shows that Laszlo Pasztor, a convicted Nazi war collaborator, built the Republican émigré network. Pasztor, who served as adviser to Republican Paul Weyrich, belonged to the Hungarian Arrow Cross, a group that helped liquidate Hungary’s Jews. Pasztor was founding chairman of the Republican Heritage Groups Council.

Two months before the November 1988 presidential election, a small newspaper, Washington Jewish Week, disclosed that a coalition for the Bush campaign included a number of outspoken Nazis and anti-Semites. The article prompted six leaders of Bush’s coalition to resign.

According to Russ Bellant, Nazi collaborators involved in the Republican Party included:

Radi Slavoff, GOP Heritage Council’s executive director, and head of “Bulgarians for Bush.” Slavoff was a member of a Bulgarian fascist group, and he put together an event in Washington honoring Holocaust denier, Austin App.

Florian Galdau, director of GOP outreach efforts among Romanians, and head of “Romanians for Bush.” Galdau was once an Iron Guard recruiter, and he defended convicted Nazi war criminal Valerian Trifa.

Nicholas Nazarenko, leader of a Cossack GOP ethnic unit. Nazarenko was an ex-Waffen SS officer.

Method Balco, GOP activist. Balco organized yearly memorials for a Nazi puppet regime.

Walter Melianovich, head of the GOP’s Byelorussian unit. Melianovich worked closely with many Nazi groups.

Bohdan Fedorak, leader of “Ukrainians for Bush.” Fedorak headed a Nazi group involved in anti-Jewish wartime pogroms.

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an article on the Bush team’s inclusion of Nazis (David Lee Preston, “Fired Bush backer one of several with possible Nazi links,” September 10, 1988.) The newspaper also ran an investigative series on Nazi members of the Bush coalition. The article confirmed that the Bush team included members listed by Russ Bellant.

Journalist Martin A. Lee, has written for The Nation, Rolling Stone, The San Francisco Chronicle, and other esteemed publications. In his book The Beast Reawakens, Lee confirms that during both the Reagan and Bush years, the Republican Party’s ethnic outreach arm recruited members from the Nazi émigré network.

Lee says that the Republican Party’s ethnic outreach division had an outspoken hatred of President Jimmy Carter’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI), an organization dedicated to tracking down and prosecuting Nazi war collaborators who entered this country illegally. Republican Pat Buchanan attacked Carter’s OSI after it deported a few suspected Nazi war criminals.

According to Lee, public relations man Harold Keith Thompson was principal U.S. point man for the postwar Nazi support network known as die Spinne, or the Spider. In the late 40s and early 50s. Thompson worked as the chief North American representative for the remaining National Socialist German Worker’s Party and the SS. Lee writes that the wealthy Thompson gave generously to Republican candidates Senator Jesse Helms and would-be senator Oliver North. Thompson’s money gained him membership in the GOP’s Presidential Legion of Merit. Lee says Thompson also “received numerous thank-you letters from the Republican National Committee.” Those letters are now in the Hoover Institute Special Collections Library.

Christopher Simpson writes in Blowback that in 1983, Ronald Reagan presented a Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, to CIA émigré program consultant James Burnham. Burnham was a psychological warfare consultant who promoted something called “liberationism.” Just before the 1952 election, the CIA worked up a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign aimed at selling Americans on expanding Cold War activities in Europe. Part of the guiding theory (given the name “liberationism”) was the idea that certain Nazi leaders from World War II should be brought in as “freedom fighters” against the USSR.

Reagan said that Burnham’s ideas on liberation “profoundly affected the way America views itself and the world,” adding, “I owe [Burnham] a personal debt, because throughout the years of traveling on the mashed-potato circuit I have quoted [him] widely.” Reagan may not have known Burnham’s theories were based on his work on projects that enlisted many Nazi collaborators, but it seems that Reagan’s CIA Director William Casey or former CIA Director, Vice President George Bush, would have informed him.

At a May 9, 1984, press conference, writer, Nazi hunter and Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal said, “Nazi criminals were the principal beneficiaries of the Cold War.” The Cold War mentality, hyped by Reinhard Gehlen and other Nazis, became the shelter for tens of thousands of Nazi criminals. Helping the far right in this country to promote Cold War hysteria became the Nazi war criminals’ “reason for being.” As Christopher Simpson says, the Cold War became those criminals’ means "to avoid responsibility for the murders they had committed.”

Journalist Seymour Hersh says Christopher Simpson’s Blowback is “the ultimate book about the worst kind of Cold War thinking, in which some of our most respected statesmen made shameful decisions that they mistakenly believed to be justified.” To this day, says Simpson, the U.S. intelligence agencies hide the scope of their post-World War II collaboration with Nazi criminals.

Are Republicans such as George H. W. Bush, Oliver North, and Jesse Helms, aware they have been assisted by Nazi collaborators? Bush once worked for the CIA and should have known about the nature of the Nazis in his ‘88 campaign. No doubt he knows the history of Nazi/CIA collaboration. Whether or not Bush knew of the fascists’ involvement in his campaign, the Republican Party should have done a far better screening job. One thing is certain: The intelligence agencies know the scope and extent of Nazi involvement with the political right in this country. It is a shame they keep it hidden from the majority of the American people.

Again, today Democratic Party leaders are joining Republicans in manipulating the public using propaganda techniques very similar to those of Hitler’s propagandist Joseph Goebbels. See my earlier posts on a must-watch Chris Hedges interview with NYU media studies professor Mark Crispin Miller for specific details and reference sources. I recommend William Shirer’s books in addition to the Simpson book mentioned above and another of his called The Splendid Blond Beast.

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patriotsnet · 3 years ago

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Will Any Republicans Run Against Trump

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/will-any-republicans-run-against-trump/

Will Any Republicans Run Against Trump

Who Are The Republicans Challenging Trump For 2020 Nomination

Is There Any Republican That Would Actually Run Against Trump?

Only one candidate is now vying to defeat Trump for Republican nomination in the 2020 presidential race.

While the pool of Democrats vying for the partys presidential nomination was among the largest and most diverse in the history of the United States, President Donald Trump faced a much smaller cadre of challengers for the Republican ticket in 2020.

After two Republicans dropped out, only one opponent remains in the race against Trump. Thats in contrast to the three remaining contenders in the Democratic field, which once had more than two dozen candidates.

In a statement in April, the Republican National Convention said the Republican Party is firmly behind Trump and any effort to challenge the presidents nomination is bound to go absolutely nowhere, prompting criticism that Republican leaders are making it;impossible for another candidate to succeed.

Here is a look at the now sole Republican challenging Trump.

Florida Gov Ron Desantis

DeSantis narrowly beat out Trump in a straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver last month, but his greatest strength could also prove to be his greatest weakness. Praised by Republicans as a next-generation Trump, it could put him on a collision course with Trump should both run.

DeSantis is up for reelection next year, and hes purposely avoided Iowa to not drive 2024 speculation, according to Politico. Still, hes building out a gubernatorial record sure to please primary voters. Name a top Republican issue today, chances are DeSantis has signed a bill and/or has run Facebook ads about it.

Hes signed bills banning vaccine passports,restricting ballot drop boxes and voting by mail, and setting mandates for civics curriculum in the state. Another bill prohibiting deplatforming was signed into law in May, but a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, arguing it likely violates social media networks First Amendment freedom of speech rights. Hes run Facebook ads about critical race theory and transgender athletes in sports.

But DeSantis has backed away from partisanship when responding to the building collapse in Surfside, Florida. The first-term governor welcomed President Joe Biden to the state last week when he visited to meet with families and survivors. Youve recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one and youve been very supportive, DeSantis said of Biden.

Trump Remains 2024 Candidate Of Choice For Most Republicans Poll Shows

59% of Republican voters said they wanted Trump to play prominent role in party, but tens of thousands left after Capitol riot

If the 2024 Republican presidential primary were held today, Donald Trump would be the clear favorite to win big. That was the message from a Politico-Morning Consult poll released on Tuesday, three days after Trumps acquittal in his second impeachment trial, on a charge of inciting the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.

Among Republican voters, 59% said they wanted Trump to play a prominent role in their party, up a whopping 18 points from the last such poll, taken in the aftermath of the Capitol riot. A slightly lower number, 54%, said they would back Trump in the primary.

Tens of thousands of Republicans left the party after the Capitol insurrection, and a majority of Americans have told other pollsters they would like to see Trump banished from politics.

Though the 45th president will be 78 by election day 2024, he will be able to run again if he chooses, having escaped being barred from office after a 57-43 Senate vote to convict with seven Republican defections but 10 votes short of the majority needed.

Mike Pences life was threatened by Trump supporters at the Capitol, as the vice-president presided over the ratification of electoral college results confirming Trumps defeat by Joe Biden. He placed second in the Politico-Morning Consult poll, with 12%.

Don’t Miss: Dems Voting For Trump

Trump Has Said Hes Not Interested In Debating His Republican Opponents

Everyone remembers the 2016 Republican primary debates and how entertaining they were. Many Republicans were running for the coveted spot and Trump stood out during the debates. When the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they would support whoever ultimately won the primary, Trump was the only one who didnt raise his hand. And then he kept talking about how he had donated to many of the candidates campaigns in the past.

But it looks like this time around, Trump wont have a chance to debate the candidates running against him for 2020. Trumps 2020 campaign is already going strong, and there are no hints of any plans by the RNC to have debates with his opponents.

The reason why both parties had debates for the primaries in 2016 was because there wasnt an incumbent President running. But this time around, its different for the Republicans. They have an incumbent, so theyre not going to give a lot of attention to Trumps opponents.

Back in September, Trump was asked if he would debate a Republican opponent, NBC reported. Trump responded: I would say this: They are all at less than 1 percent. I guess its a publicity stunt. We just got a little while ago 94 percent popularity or approval within the Republican party. So to be honest, Im not looking to get them any credibility. They have no credibility.

Kansas will also not hold a caucus for Republicans in 2020.

Arizona Republicans also voted to cancel their primary too.

Election: Trump Forces Republican Field To Sidestep Direct Challenge To Biden

No notable Republican has declared outright a challenge to President Biden in 2024. But plenty of them are flocking to Iowa courting activists, establishing political action committees and trotting out their best digs against Democrats signaling that the GOP presidential primary is already underway.

This cycle, however, has a Trump-induced twist. As the former president keeps Republicans guessing whether he will run again, politicians are being especially circumspect about their own White House aspirations.

“Usually, when the race is over and don’t win … the very next day, the race is on,” said Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader, an influential network of Christian activists in the state. “That hasn’t been the case so much. A lot of people are still asking, ‘What is Trump going to do?'”

The looming question has added an extra degree of coyness as possible contenders cozy up to voters in Iowa, which traditionally has held the first contest of the nominating season. Despite some prominent conservatives in the state sensing desire for a new Republican standard-bearer, politicians are assiduously working not to alienate Trump, who still enjoys broad popularity with the party’s base

The bold-faced GOP names who have visited so far include former Vice President Mike Pence; Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rick Scott of Florida; ex-Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley; and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.

Don’t Miss: When Did Republicans And Democrats Switch Platforms

Republican Leadership Thus Far Mum On 2024 Preferences

RNC officials have vowed to remain neutral in the future presidential race. They say their focus right now is on the 2022 elections a major item on the retreat agenda as the party tries to regain control of the U.S. House and Senate.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other election officials are attending the retreat. Scott, a Florida senator and potential presidential candidate, heads up the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The weekend series of meetings includes panels and speeches on such topics as improving Republican voter turnout, expanding GOP coalitions, and building a campaign case against Biden, his administration and the Democratic-led Congress.

To Democrats, this weekend’s activities in Palm Beach look a lot like sucking up to Trump. Democratic National Committee spokesman Ammar Moussa likened the would-be presidential candidates to contestants on Trump’s old television show, “The Apprentice.”

“While Republicans are hobnobbing with their special interest donors, President Biden and Democrats are delivering for everyday Americans, putting vaccines in arms, money in pockets, and bringing normalcy back,” he said.

Former Us Ambassador To The United Nations Nikki Haley

Haley, 49, stands out in the potential pool of 2024 Republican candidates by her resume. She has experience as an executive as the former governor of South Carolina and foreign policy experience from her time as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Haley was a member of the Republican Partys 2010 tea party class. A former South Carolina state representative, her long shot gubernatorial campaign saw its fortunes improve after she was endorsed by Sarah Palin. Haley rocketed from fourth to first just days after the endorsement, and she went on to clinch the nomination and become her states first female and first Indian-American governor.

As governor, she signed a bill removing the Confederate flag from the state Capitol following the white supremacist attack at the Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston. She left office in 2017 to join the Trump administration as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Quinnipiac poll found she was at one point the most popular member of Trumps foreign policy team.

I think that shes done a pretty masterful job in filling out her resume, said Robert Oldendick, a professor and director of graduate studies at the University of South Carolinas department of political science.

Haley criticized Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters, saying she was disgusted by his conduct. Oldendick said he thought her pretty pointed criticism of the president will potentially cause some problems.

You May Like: How Many Republicans Are Against Trump

Democrats Sweat Turnout Disaster In California Without Trump To Run Against

Without Trump on the ballot, California Democrats are trying to motivate voters.

In a heavily Democratic state where Gov. Gavin Newsom beat his Republican opponent in 2018 by 3 million votes, the recall stands within a few percentage points of passing next month. | Jeff Chiu/AP Photo

08/26/2021 02:34 PM EDT

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LOS ANGELES Donald Trump could swing the California governorship to a Republican. Merely by his absence.

Democrats turned out in record numbers when they had Trump to vote against. But in one of the first, large-scale tests of voter enthusiasm for Democrats in the post-Trump era, Californias surprisingly close gubernatorial recall election is laying bare just how hard it may be for the party to motivate its base without Trump as a foil.

Even in this bastion of progressive politics, ominous signs for the Democratic Party are everywhere. A CBS News-YouGov poll last week found voters who cast ballots for Joe Biden were less likely than Trump supporters to be very closely following the recall and less motivated to vote. In a Berkeley-IGS survey, registered Democrats and independent voters were nearly 30 percentage points less likely than Republicans to express a high level of interest in voting in the election.

Can Democrats win without having Trump as their foil? This is the challenge, said Gray Davis, the former California governor who was recalled in 2003.

Were going to find out pretty soon,” he said in an interview.

Filed Under:

Former Ambassador To The United Nations Nikki Haley

Trump takes aim at Republicans who have spoken out against him

Haley has changed her tone when it comes to Trump. After saying he let us down and lost any sort of political viability he was going to have following Jan. 6, Haley is, at least publicly, a fan again. During her remarks at the Iowa Republican Party dinner on June 24, Haley praised Trump and told a story about him asking if he should call Kim Jong Un little rocket man during his speech at the U.N. Haley said she cautioned him to treat the audience like church instead of a rally, but he went ahead and used the term.

Haley even sounded kind of Trumpian during her speech, telling Republicans they were too nice. We have to be tough about how we fight, she said. We keep getting steamrolled and then whine and complain about it. The days of being nice should be over.

She also didnt shy away from her gender, opening the speech by saying, America needs more strong conservative women leaders and less of Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris, and praising female Iowa Republicans like U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and Gov. Kim Reynolds. I wear heels, Haley said. Its not for a fashion statement. I use it for kicking. But I always kick with a smile.

Don’t Miss: What Are The Views Of Republicans

Four State Republican Parties Cancel 2020 Primaries To Protect Trump’s Re

South Carolina’s move is an attempt to sideline the states former Republican governor, Mark Sanford, who on Sunday in the GOP primary. Also in the running against Trump are former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld.

Trump was asked Monday if he would debate any of his Republican rivals.

“I don’t know them,” the president responded. “I would say this: They are all at less than 1 percent. I guess it’s a publicity stunt. We just got a little while ago 94 percent popularity or approval within the Republican party. So to be honest, I’m not looking to get them any credibility. They have no credibility.”

He added, “One was a person that voted for Obama, ran as a vice president four years ago and was soundly defeated, another one got thrown out after one term in Congress and he lost in a landslide and the third one Mr. Appalachian trail he wasn’t on the Appalachian trial; he was in Argentina.”

Sanford, a conservative who clashed with Trump when he served in Congress, said on MSNBC on Monday that he’s running because Republicans have turned their back on their values in favor of personal allegiance to Trump.

“Right now, the sun, moon and stars too often basically orbit around Donald Trump, Sanford said of the attitude of the GOP. “And if it’s not personal allegiance to him, not issue allegiance or idea allegiance, but if it’s not personal allegiance, it’s not good enough.”

Kansas’ GOP also came to the same decision on Friday.

Former President Donald Trump

Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he made up his mind about whether hell run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination again, but he didnt say what the answer is, keeping the 2024 field open, for now.

The former president held his first post-White House rally in Ohio on June 26 the first since his inflammatory Jan. 6 Save America rally that preceded the failed insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. Trump called it the first rally of the 2022 election, but no cable news network carried it live, not even Fox News.

The rally came in the middle of a busy few days in June for Trump. Trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had his law license suspended in the state of New York over his false and misleading claims about the 2020 election, and a week ago, The Trump Organization and its Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg were indicted on tax fraud charges and accused as part of a two-year investigation that began when Trump was still in office. Weisselberg and lawyers for the Trump Organization both pleaded not guilty.

The former president has reportedly told others that he wont have to wait until 2024 to return to the White House. The New York Times and other news outlets have reported that Trump expects to be reinstated as president by August.

Trumps power in the Republican Party is growing. Heres how we know

Don’t Miss: Who Was The Leader Of The Radical Republicans

Us Election 2024: Who Are The Likely Republican Candidates To Run For President Against Joe Biden

Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump and Ted Cruz are among the rumoured candidates to become Donald Trump’s successor

The 2020 presidential race has only just finished, but the Republican candidates for 2024 are already preparing themselves for their shot at the White House.

We take a look at who may be looking to get themselves in to the race.

Why The Gop Congress Will Stop Trump From Going Too Far

The coming resistance from Republican lawmakers who hate Trump, fear executive overreachor both.

This is a sneak preview;of the upcoming January/February 2017 issue of the Washington Monthly.

Could it happen here? Could a democratically elected leader come to rule us as an autocrat? Citizens of a free society can never lose sight of this question, andhowever complacent many of us have becomethe election of Donald Trump has shoved it back out to center stage.

A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government, James Madison observed in The Federalist Papers, but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions. These precautions are the separation of powers and checks and balances, enshrined in the Constitution. Citizens concerned about tyranny from the leaders they have elected must depend on the other branches of government to defend the republic.

In particular, the public must rely on Congress, the branch of government that Madison felt necessarily predominates, given its proximity to the people. Moreover, Article I of the Constitution vests in Congress all legislative Powers herein granted, as well as ample implied powers of oversight, and the power of impeachment should that become necessary. If a strongman government ever takes root in America, it will not be simply because we elected a president determined to establish it, but because Congress acquiesced in his designs.

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Like many people, James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, has been thinking about the best way for the Presidency of Donald Trump to end. Interviewed in New York last week, Comey said that his own, possibly weird thought is that impeachment is not the ideal course; for one thing, it would let voters off the hook in 2020. We need a clear jump upward, and it will come from tens of millions of Americans, he told his interviewer, Nicolle Wallace. But Comey put the burden on the Democrats, saying, They have to win.

In response, Trump tweeted that Comey had just totally exposed his partisan stance by urging his fellow Democrats to take back the White House in 2020. He added, Comey had no right heading the FBI at any time, but especially after his mind exploded! The date and the circumstances of the alleged detonation were not clear, but the message was: to speak about confronting Trump at the polls is to speak as a Democrat.

Trump knows that, which is why his campaign is already working to engineer a preëmptive endorsement in the New Hampshire primary, the first in the nation, from the state Party, which traditionally remains neutral. He could be much more vulnerable by August of 2020, when the Republican National Convention meets in Charlotte, North Carolina, depending on, among other things, how the Mueller investigation develops.

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un-enfant-immature · 6 years ago

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Internal Facebook memo sees outgoing head of policy Schrage take blame for hiring Definers

TechCrunch has attained an internal memo published by Facebook’s outgoing head of public policy Elliot Schrage in which he blames himself for hiring PR firm Definers. He admits to having the company push negative narratives about competitors, but says Facebook did not ask or pay Definers to publish fake news. Schrage announced in June that he’d be stepping down in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but would stay on to help find a replacement. COO Sheryl Sandberg left a comment on the memo, saying it was never Facebook’s intention to play into anti-semetic theories about George Soros.

Facebook’s former head of policy and comms Elliot Schrage (left)

The memo includes a Q&A regarding points raised by a New York Times article detailing how Definers worked to spread negative publicity about Google and other tech giants to make Facebook look better, and that the firm’s employees also published biased articles through a news site called NTK Network that’s affiliated with Definers.

We’ll have more analysis shortly. The memo and comment can be found below:

Elliot Schrage

Many of you have raised questions about our relationship with the Definers consulting firm. We’ve been looking into this and though it is close to a holiday for many of you I wanted to share an update on what we’ve learned and where things stand:

Why did we hire Definers?

We hired Definers in 2017 as part of our efforts to diversify our DC advisors after the election. Like many companies, we needed to broaden our outreach. We also faced growing pressure from competitors in tech, telcos and media companies that want government to regulate us.

This pressure became particularly acute in September 2017 after we released details of Russian interference on our service. We hired firms associated with both Republicans and Democrats — Definers was one of the Republican-affiliated firms.

What did we ask them to do and what did they do?

While we’re continuing to review our relationship with Definers, we know the following: We asked Definers to do what public relations firms typically do to support a company — sending us press clippings, conducting research, writing messaging documents, and reaching out to reporters.

Some of this work is being characterized as opposition research, but I believe it would be irresponsible and unprofessional for us not to understand the backgrounds and potential conflicts of interest of our critics. This work can be used internally to inform our messaging and where appropriate it can be shared with reporters. This work is also useful to help respond to unfair claims where Facebook has been singled out for criticism, and to positively distinguish us from competitors.

As the pressure on Facebook built throughout the year, the Communications team used Definers more and more. At Sheryl’s request, we’re going through all the work they did, but we have learned that as the engagement expanded, more people worked with them on more projects and the relationship was less centrally managed.

Did we ask them to do work on George Soros?

Yes. In January 2018, investor and philanthropist George Soros attacked Facebook in a speech at Davos, calling us a “menace to society.” We had not heard such criticism from him before and wanted to determine if he had any financial motivation. Definers researched this using public information.

Later, when the “Freedom from Facebook” campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, the team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them. They learned that George Soros was funding several of the coalition members. They prepared documents and distributed these to the press to show that this was not simply a spontaneous grassroots movement.

Did we ask them to do work on our competitors?

Yes. As I indicated above, Definers helped us respond to unfair claims where Facebook was been singled out for criticism. They also helped positively distinguish us from competitors.

Did we ask them to distribute or create fake news?

No.

Who knew about this work, and who signed off on it?

Responsibility for these decisions rests with leadership of the Communications team. That’s me. Mark and Sheryl relied on me to manage this without controversy.

I knew and approved of the decision to hire Definers and similar firms. I should have known of the decision to expand their mandate. Over the past decade, I built a management system that relies on the teams to escalate issues if they are uncomfortable about any project, the value it will provide or the risks that it creates. That system failed here and I’m sorry I let you all down. I regret my own failure here.

Why have we stopped working with them?

Mark has asked us to reevaluate how we work with communications consultants. It’s not about Definers. It is about us, not them.

Mark has made clear that because Facebook is a mission driven company, he wants to hold us to a higher standard. He is uncomfortable relying on any outside firm to make decisions about how to make our case about our mission, policies, competitors and critics until he can become comfortable with our management, oversight and escalation.

Where are we now?

Many people across the company feel uncomfortable finding out about this work. Many people on the Communications team feel under attack from the press and even from their colleagues. I’m deeply disappointed that so much internal discussion and finger pointing has become public. This is a serious threat to our culture and ability to work together in difficult times.

Our culture has long been to move fast and take risks. Many times we have moved too quickly and we always learn and keep trying to do our best. This will be no exception.

What happens next?

Our legal team continues to review our work with Definers to understand what happened. Mark and Sheryl have also asked Nick Clegg to review all our work with communications consultants and propose principles and management processes to guide the team’s work going forward. We all want to ensure that we, our advisors and consultants better reflect Facebook’s values and culture.

[Comment from Sheryl Sandberg]

Thank you for sharing this, Elliot. I want to be clear that I oversee our Comms team and take full responsibility for their work and the PR firms who work with us. I truly believe we have a world class Comms team and I want to acknowledge the enormous pressure the team has faced over the past year.

When I read the story in New York Times last week, I didn’t remember a firm called Definers. I asked our team to look into the work Definers did for us and to double-check whether anything had crossed my desk. Some of their work was incorporated into materials presented to me and I received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced.

I also want to emphasize that it was never anyone’s intention to play into an anti-Semitic narrative against Mr. Soros or anyone else. Being Jewish is a core part of who I am and our company stands firmly against hate. The idea that our work has been interpreted as anti-Semitic is abhorrent to me — and deeply personal.

I know this has been a distraction at a time when you’re all working hard to close out the year — and I am sorry. As I said at the All Hands, I believe so deeply in the work we do and feel so grateful to all of you for doing so much every day. Thanksgiving seems like the right time to say a big thank you once again.

#TechCrunch

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warninggraphiccontent · 4 years ago

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11 September 2020

The strategy is delivered

It's here!

Nearly two and a half years after it was announced, DCMS has published the framework National Data Strategy. It's open for consultation until 2 December, so do submit your thoughts by then. There's also an extremely interesting-looking report from the Government Office for Science alongside it on 'the future of citizen data systems'.

I'm sure you've not been able to sleep with excitement for my hot take on it all. With apologies to insomniacs, I'm going to take some time to digest the full suite of publications and announcements properly (see Meta Data, below), but some initial thoughts are here. There are also interesting responses from the Open Knowledge Foundation, Prospect, CBI, Peter, Mor, Tom, Owen, Heather Burns and Adam to keep you busy. And well done to the team at DCMS on getting it out.

Elsewhere:

Gaia, head of the National Data Strategy at DCMS, was one of the excellent speakers at this week's Data Bites, one of the best we've done, I think. 13, lucky for some, etc. Watch the event here.

More press briefings about magic data at the centre of government. Will we find out more? Does it really exist? Let's see.

I'll be chairing a few events at the IfG's virtual fringes for both Labour and Conservative party conferences.

Have a great weekend

Gavin

Today's links:

Graphic content

Viral content

Coronavirus UK map: confirmed Covid cases and deaths today (The Guardian)

UK government alarmed over rising coronavirus cases* (FT)

Covid: why Spain is hit worse than the rest of Europe* (FT)

Coronavirus surges in India as infections spread from cities* (FT)

The southern hemisphere skipped flu season in 2020* (The Economist)

Coronavirus: Behind the rise in cases in five charts (BBC News)

Environment and climate

It’s a Race Against Heat, and Humanity Is Losing* (Bloomberg)

California, Washington and Oregon Fire Tracking Maps* (New York Times)

A devastated West Coast (Reuters)

Air attack: How California uses dozens of aircraft to battle wildfires (Reuters)

Net zero: how government can meet its climate change target (IfG)

Ministerial resignations (IfG)

'Permanent' secretaries (IfG)

Brexit bill tracker (IfG)

Cabinet secretaries (IfG)

Measuring up for levelling up (Onward)

What happens to Admin Court JRs (Joe Tomlinson, via Sukh)

There aren't enough jobs for America's unemployed (Axios)

Playing around with making presidential election Galton boards (Matthew Kay)

Trump-Biden Battleground States Shaped by Virus-Fueled Downturn* (Bloomberg)

Voters Face a Complicated Election as the Pandemic Remakes Voting* (Wall Street Journal)

Facebook offers a distorted view of American news* (The Economist)

Americans’ view of black-white race relations hits a 20-year low* (The Economist)

Polling explainer: is the race for the White House tightening?* (FT)

These are 922 of the most powerful people in America. 180 of them are people of color.* (New York Times)

1,018 people have been shot and killed by police in the past year* (Washington Post)

America in Crisis: A Closer Look at a Deeply Polarized Nation* (Bloomberg)

Everywhere else

Elections in Russia’s regions will be test of Putin machine* (FT)

What is at stake in the eastern Mediterranean crisis?* (FT)

How a Massive Bomb Came Together in Beirut’s Port* (New York Times)

Evin Prison* (Tortoise)

#dataviz

BEST OF THE VISUALISATION WEB… MAY 2020 (Visualising Data)

How to pick more beautiful colors for your data visualizations (Datawrapper)

VISUALISING UNCERTAINTY: A SHORT INTRODUCTION (Analysis Under Uncertainty for Decision Makers Network)

Meta data

National Data Strategy

National Data Strategy (DCMS)

The future of citizen data systems (GO Science)

Government publishes new strategy to kickstart data revolution across the UK (DCMS)

Digital Secretary launches National Data Strategy at London Tech Week's Global Leaders Innovation Summit (DCMS)

UK National Data Strategy (NDS) consultation (DCMS)

Consumers and businesses to be given more control of data under new laws (BEIS, DCMS)

Smart data: putting consumers in control of their data and enabling innovation (BEIS, DCMS)

Government publishes long-promised national data strategy (Computer Weekly)

UK wants pandemic levels of data sharing to be the new normal (Tech Crunch)

For reaction, see introduction

Viral content

Coronavirus: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan 'frustrated' over 'lack of information' about contact tracing app (Sky News)

More testing alone will not get us out of this pandemic (Nature)

Scotland's new tracing app: What you need to know about Protect Scotland (BBC News)

Royal Society publishes rapid review of the science of the reproduction number and growth rate of COVID-19 (Royal Society)

Statistics, lies and the virus: Tim Harford’s five lessons from a pandemic* (FT)

Ministers warned on Covid freedom of information failures (The Ferret)

The government’s mass testing Moonshot project looks like a 90s Silicon Valley PowerPoint nightmare (Diginomica)

Identity crisis

No, Dominic Cummings isn't plotting to bring back ID cards* (Wired)

Industry ‘cautiously’ welcomes plan to overhaul digital ID, but privacy campaigners warn of weak protections (NS Tech)

Covid-19 strengthens the case for digital ID cards* (The Economist)

Experts slam government digital ID response (Computer Weekly)

I got 'rithm

From viral conspiracies to exam fiascos, algorithms come with serious side effects (The Observer)

The labour movement must be prepared for the age of the algorithm (LabourList)

Mutant Algorithms Are Coming for Your Education (Cathy O'Neill for Bloomberg)

A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human? (GPT-3 for The Guardian)

The Guardian’s GPT-3-generated article is everything wrong with AI media hype (The Next Web)

Google Maps 101: How AI helps predict traffic and determine routes (Google)

Tech

Beware Dominic Cummings’s technology investment arms race* (The Independent)

Why Boris thinks no deal might be worth the pain (Robert Peston for The Spectator)

Inside Dominic Cummings' wild scheme to build a British Google via a no-deal Brexit: 'It's a bit of a simplistic way of thinking about technology'* (Business Insider)

A vision for community-powered tech: a real-time investigation into the relationship between civil society and technology in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (Glimmers)

Internet Society launches tool to protect the open web (NS Tech)

Facebook to be forced to stop sending EU data to the US (Politico)

Facebook to freeze political ads before US presidential election (BBC News)

Facebook’s ban on new political ads won’t change anything (CNBC)

Making the UK a digital clean tech leader (techUK)

UK government

It's the biggest job in tech. So why can't they find anyone to do it? (ZDNet)

The data flows of Universal Credit (medConfidential)

Data stakeholders in government - any research? (Edafe Onerhime)

'Data privacy' (Privacy Matters)

Local authority financial reporting and external audit: independent review (MHCLG)

Our Digital Future Consultation (Labour Party)

Everything else

Bringing Structure and Design to Data Governance (Sage Bionetworks)

Opening up climate data (Open Data Charter)

Inside the secret plan to reboot Isis from a huge digital backup* (Wired)

[Annual Report] Open Data to Shift Power (Open Data Charter)

A data fail left banks and councils exposed by a quick Google search* (Wired)

Opportunities

JOB: Investigator and Organiser (Foxglove)

JOB: Executive Director (Financial transparency Coalition)

JOBS: Deputy Director job opportunities with GOV.UK at the Government Digital Service (GDS)

JOBS: Assistant Deputy Directors (ONS)

JOBS: Data roles - Grade 6 and Grade 7 (DHSC)

JOB: Senior Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer (ODI)

JOB: Policy Research Officer – Part Time (Campaign for Freedom of Information)

JOB: Legal officer (Privacy International)

JOB: Python Developer (Democracy Club)

JOB: AI Imaging Senior Programme Manager (NHSX)

EVENT: Coming together to face the social sector’s data challenges: the data for good festival 2021 (DataKind UK)

EVENT: Exploring Data Institutions (ODI)

CONSULTATION: Artificial intelligence and intellectual property (IPO)

And finally...

Hear, hear

PHANTOM ISLANDS – A SONIC ATLAS (Andrew Pekler)

Interstellar (A Podcast of Unnecessary Detail, via David)

A Data-Led Theory to Generationally Divide Dance Floors (The Pudding)

Everything else

At last - an honest response to an FOI (George Grylls)

Presenting the public beta of my digital government alignment chart (Chris Yiu)

Online testing session: Datopolis - The open data board game (ODI)

Can artificial intelligence create a decent dinner? (BBC News)

Finally, a decent use of not3words. (via Chris Barnes)

Petition for a canonical register of... (Alice)

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ladystylestores · 4 years ago

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Killing of Hachalu Hundessa Shows Ethiopia’s ‘Combustible’ Politics

NAIROBI, Kenya — In life, Hachalu Hundessa’s protest songs roused and united Ethiopians yearning for freedom and justice. He is doing the same in death, with thousands flocking on Thursday to bury him in Ambo, the town 60 miles west of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa where he was born and raised.

Mr. Hundessa, 34, was shot on Monday night by unknown assailants in Addis Ababa and later died of his wounds in a hospital. His death has ignited nationwide protests that have killed 81 people, injured dozens of others and caused extensive property damage. The authorities have blocked the internet and arrested 35 people, including a prominent media magnate and government critic, Jawar Mohammed.

The unrest, analysts say, threatens the stability of Africa’s second-most populous country and deepens the political crisis in a nation already undergoing a roller-coaster democratic transition.

“I am in bitter sadness,” said Getu Dandefa, a 29-year-old university student. When he saw Mr. Hundessa’s coffin in Ambo, he said he dropped to the ground and started crying.

“We lost our voice,” he said, “We will keep fighting until Hachalu gets justice. We will never stop protesting.”

Mr. Hundessa’s funeral serves as a moment of national reckoning in a country already facing myriad political, economic and social challenges. The fury aroused by his death poses a challenge to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who rose to power in 2018 following a wave of antigovernment protests that Mr. Hundessa — a member of the country’s largest but historically marginalized ethnic group, the Oromo — helped to galvanize through his music.

Since then, Mr. Abiy, an Oromo himself, has introduced a raft of changes aimed at dismantling Ethiopia’s authoritarian structure, releasing political prisoners, liberalizing the centralized economy, committing to overhaul repressive laws and welcoming back exiled opposition and separatist groups.

In 2019, Mr. Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his initiative to resolve the decades-long conflict with neighboring Eritrea and for spearheading regional peace and cooperation in the Horn of Africa.

A nation of about 109 million people, Ethiopia has one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa, hosts the headquarters of the African Union, and is a key United States ally in the fight against terrorism.

But while the 43-year-old prime minister has made great strides, the changes have unleashed forces that have produced a sharp increase in lawlessness in many parts of the country, with rising ethnic tensions and violence that have displaced 3 million people.

Yohannes Gedamu, an Ethiopian and lecturer in political science at Georgia Gwinnett College, in Lawrenceville, Ga., said that the ruling coalition had lost its grip on the structures it once used to maintain order in an ethnically and linguistically diverse nation. As a result, he added, as the country moves toward multiparty democracy, rival ethnic and political factions have clashed over resources, power and the country’s direction forward.

The government has come under fire for failing to stop the killing of government critics and prominent figures, like the chief of staff of the Ethiopian Army, and its inability to rescue a dozen or more university students abducted months ago.

In combating the disorder, the authorities have resorted to the tactics of previous, repressive governments, not only blocking the internet, but arresting journalists and enacting laws that human rights advocates say could limit freedom of expression. Ethiopian security forces have been accused of gross human rights violations, including rape, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings.

The coronavirus pandemic has complicated all this, leading the government to postpone August elections that many saw as a critical test of Mr. Abiy’s reform agenda. The move drew condemnation from opposition parties, who fear the government will use the delay to attempt a power grab.

“The last few days demonstrate just how combustible the situation in Ethiopia is,” said Murithi Mutiga, the project director for the Horn of Africa at the International Crisis Group.

He added: “The merest spark can easily unleash all these bottled up, ethnonationalist passions that have become the defining feature of Ethiopian politics, especially as it goes through this very delicate transition.”

While Mr. Abiy has a daunting task at hand, many say the government’s forceful response to discontent could make matters worse. Laetitia Bader, the Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said the group had received reports that security forces had used lethal force on protesters in at least seven towns.

“The initial signs aren’t good,” Ms. Bader said. “The government needs to make clear that it is listening to these grievances, creating the space for them to be heard and adequately responding to them without resorting to repression or violence.”

Given Mr. Hundessa’s stature, and how his music provided a stirring soundtrack against repression, the authorities should pull back and allow “people to grieve in peace,” said Henok Gabisa, the co-chairperson of the International Oromo Lawyers Association, based in St. Paul, Minn. About 200 of the city’s Oromo community protested on Tuesday.

“The Oromo people are in disbelief, shocked and confused,” said Mr. Gabisa, who knew Mr. Hundessa and met him a few months ago in Ethiopia. But arresting political opposition leaders like Bekele Gerba, of the Oromo Federalist Congress party, and raiding Mr. Mohammed’s Oromia Media Network only risked inflaming long-simmering tensions, he said.

“Abiy fumbled,” Mr. Gabisa said. “He dropped the ball.”

Despite the recent upheaval, however, analysts still give Mr. Abiy high marks for his efforts to put Ethiopia on a new course.

Mr. Gedamu said the prime minister had taken huge strides on multiple fronts, establishing the nationally unifying Prosperity Party, overseeing a record-breaking tree planting project to tackle climate change and expediting efforts to complete the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which would bolster the country’s electricity supply.

“It is my understanding that revolutionary positive changes might actually take some time,” Mr. Gedamu said. “But overall, the gains of the reform outweigh the challenges.”

For now, tensions remain high across Ethiopia as Mr. Hachalu is being laid to rest. The military was deployed to parts of the capital on Wednesday, and witnesses reported hearing gunshots.

Rawera Daniel, 24, an unemployed university graduate in Addis Ababa, said the authorities should not crack down on citizens who want to mourn.

On hearing of Mr. Hundessa’s death, “I cried like I lost my mother,” he said. “He fought for our freedom. His lyrics spoke on our behalf.”

Mr. Mutiga, of the International Crisis Group, said that Mr. Abiy should rise to the occasion not just as a political leader but as Ethiopia’s healer in chief.

“I think where Abiy definitely could do better is to try to fashion consensus,” he said, “persuade his opponents and be more deliberative and consultative and try to carry people along with him.,”

Tiksa Negeri contributed reporting from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

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businessfrontrunners · 5 years ago

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Butta B-Rocka Robinson Sang “So Will I” At City Gala/City Summit Fundraiser in Burbank, CA On February 24, 2019, Oscars Night At The Academy Awards, A Performance That Deserves An Oscar

https://authoritypresswire.com/?p=27596 Oleathia “Butta B-Rocka” Robinson, International Touring Artist, Songwriter, Best Selling Author on Amazon for her book “Fear Of Failure Fear Of Not Trying”, Contributing Writer, Model, Actress, Playwright of the stage play “I Cheated So What,” Humanitarian, CEO/Founder of 501c3 non-profit “Artists Rock the MIC Foundation.” Robinson has been diligently putting in work across markets and borders. Butta has redefined the term “versatility” by showcasing her vocals and composed pieces for ears in the US, UK, Germany, Holland, Japan, Canada, Portugal, St Lucia, St Thomas, St Kitts, Barbados, Chile, Puerto Rico, Antigua, Africa and across genres from pop, rock, gospel, country and rap. Between her background vocals, demo recordings, and stage performances her résumé boasts work and assistance with international superstars, Grammy winners and performers like Janet Jackson, Akon, TLC, Nas, rock group Collective Soul, country singer Zac Brown, Dream, Japanese star Namie Amuro, Belgium superstar Sandrine, German Artist Vanessa Jean Dedmon and countless other talents across the globe. Robinson started work on her material and released her independently produced debut album, ‘Switch Lanes.’ This superstar uses her astonishing abilities as a musician and vocalist to render electrifying performances for corporate functions, conventions, private events, as well as 5-star hotels. She has wooed domestic and international crowds in intimate settings, as well as crowds that numbered well into the thousands. More Specifically, The Presidential Inauguration, before the Prime Minister of Bahamas, The Coalition of Black Women Celebrating Legacy Anniversary, performing before Rev. Dr. Bernice King (The King Center), Judge Penny Reynolds, Mr. Phil Wise (The Carter Center), Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore, Ambassador Andrew Young, Former Atlanta Mayor, Shirley Franklin, Dr. Joseph E. Lowery. The City Summit Event is a world-class, socially conscious business acceleration experience. The Summit’s mission and the outcome are to elevate each of its attendee’s business acumen by giving them tools, techniques, knowledge, insights, motivation from multiple 7-10 figure earners, CEO’s, investors, and inspirational heroes so that they grow their network and accelerate their business. City Summit taught attendees to learn, grow, and thrive, so they are better positioned to make a meaningful impact in their communities. A select group of pre-qualified entrepreneurs was able to pitch and present their businesses to investors, live on stage, and in person! City Summit invited proven business leaders, strategists, and business owners to teach our community how to increase revenue, generate leads, diversify income, establish authority, raise the value of a business, elevate brand awareness and concentrate on hyper-growth. The topics of the event ranged from Leadership, Innovation, Marketing, Business Fundamentals, Operations, and Inspiration. The ultimate goal of the City Summit was to fund the City Gala on February 24, 2019, which took place on the evening of the Academy Awards from 7 pm-midnight. City Gala is a fundraiser for non-profit organizations that have a mission to solve global challenges. Each year, the Gala raises funds for organizations that are feeding the hungry, sheltering homeless, liberating and rehabilitating young people that have suffered from human trafficking, providing education and mentorship programs, and promoting health and wellness initiatives. Here is the list of the Headline, Founders of Billion Dollar Brands, Humanitarians & Experts. With a live performance by “Butta B-Rocka” Robinson HEADLINE SPEAKERS Les Brown – Motivational Speaker & City’s 2019 Legacy Honoree Colin Farrell – Golden Globe Winning Actor & City’s 2019 Inspiration Honoree Allison Larsen – Speaker’s Coalition & Author, Soul Intuition Kevin Harrington – Original Shark Tank & Inventor of Infomercials Randy Jackson – American Idol Mario Lopez – Extra TV Lynn Rose – Launch You Now & Host FOUNDERS OF BILLION DOLLAR BRANDS Alec Stern – Constant Contact Brian Smith – UGG Boots Frank Shankwitz – Make A Wish Foundation Jeff Hoffman – Priceline HUMANITARIANS Chris Salem – Empowered Fathers Dale Godboldo – International Arts & Philanthropy Foundation Forest Harper – INROADS CEO & City Gala’s 2019 Hero Honoree Gary Miller – Rock Against Trafficking Mark Hattas – Journey’s Dream Meiko Taylor – Selah Freedom Michelle Seiler Tucker – Tucker Teens & Tots Ryan Long – City Summit & Gala Shelly Hart – Giving Hart Tamara Hunter – Service Heroes Tim Ray – United Intentions Vanessa Fune – Tribe Unity EXPERTS Alain Torres – Genesis Doctor Berny Dohrmann – CEO Space Chanti Niven – Captivating Speakers Damien Elston – EYE Consulting Dave Austin – Extreme Focus Daven Michaels – 123 Employee David Corbin – Mentor Antoine Chevalier – Chevalier Foundation Freddy Behin – The Legacy Millionaire Hillary Taggart – Mentorship Dr. James Dentley – NBC University Gene McNaughton – The Sales Edge George Chanos – Seize Your Destiny Jen Du Plessis – LAUNCH! Joby Weeks – Investor John Shin – Think & Grow Rich: The Legacy Katerina Cozias – Media Mindset Mentor Kristin Grayce – Health & Lifestyle Alchemist Kuo Yang – Brigade LA Lora Polowczuk – Priority Retreats Michael Packman – Keystone National Properties Michele Malo – Your Business Accelerator Peter Nguyen – Ad Exchange Group Randy Morgan – Artist Scott Kelly – VC Fast Pitch Stephen Howard – Leadership Syndicate Steven Lloyd – Stone Bay Holdings TR Garland – Leveraging LinkedIn To learn more about how Butta B-Rocka” Robinson is inspiring the world go to https://www.buttabrocka.com/

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tevnakurdi · 5 years ago

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On World Health Day07 April 2020,

After nine years of politicizing and weaponizing health and health services in Syria, the response to the Corona pandemic must not be politicized nor used to overlook crimes committed in Syria.

Since 2011 more than 180 health workers were killed under torture in the detention centers of the Syrian government in addition to more than five hundred attacks on health facilities in Syria, more than 90% of them by the forces of the Syrian government, its allies and militias. These acts are war crimes committed systematically in violation of all the international laws and regulations and the UNSC resolutions, while resolution No 2286 (2016) failed to put an end to these attacks or provide any kind of protection to health workers.

In addition, whole communities were deprived from the right of health in a systematic way within the sieges imposed by the Syrian government in several areas for many years in which the Syrian government used the right to access health services as a mean of pressure on both communities and individuals; as well as prohibiting medical equipment from reaching besieged cities and towns including cesarean operation kits, infants medicines, and even delaying vaccines to many regions. This continues today with other stakeholders using access to basic needs and services as political bargain chops. UN security council de-authorized Alyarobieh crossing point due to veto threats by Russia, which deprived 2 millions in north east of Syria from getting cross border medical aid, and left them under the mercy of the Syrian government, which is the only way to access supplies, and whom obstructed medical aid for years. Furthermore, weaponization of water, electricity and other basic needs, in addition to the failure of the Turkish authorities of providing adequate water supplies due to several interruption of running Allouk water station which provides water to almost 460 thousands in north east of Syria, can’t be allowed under the growing needs of water to tackle the corona pandemic.

The Syrian government has a long record of depriving detainees, particularly opinion and political detainees, from the rights of having the minimum of health conditions in the detention centers. Many reports issued by law bodies mentioned practicing torture acts in many military health centers, furthermore detainees and their relatives were deprived from accessing their medical records, while many death cases in detention centers were attributed to "health problems" without sharing any medical records with the families of the victims. These procedures culminated in preventing UN bodies and the ICRC teams from visiting detention centers to monitor the health conditions of the detainees.

Today, on the 70th Annual World Health Day, which also coincides with the anniversary of the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO), which is, this year dedicated to thank the nurses and midwives who, today, stand bravely in the face of the Corona pandemic. Thanking them in Syria should be embodied in protecting them from any politicization in responding to this pandemic, and from any political intervention by overlooking the crimes committed against them, or the rights of over 900 of their colleagues who had lost their lives at duty.

The organizations signing this statement have real fears of the humanitarian health response to Corona pandemic being exploited politically in a way that ignores the crimes committed by the Syrian government, its allies and all the other parties of the conflict for many years, particularly the crimes related to health issues. The absence of statistical transparency of the Syrian government on Coronavirus cases is very clear. The irresponsible conduct of the Syrian government in facing the pandemic, in addition to the long history of the Syrian security services in the medical humanitarian response increase fears of politicization of the response, either through discriminating between Syrians according to regions’ control, or exploiting the pandemic to distort the long records of crimes and violations against the right of health, while the challenges to respond to the corona virus pandemic are those practices by the Syrian government and other stakeholders, and nothing else . Therefore, we demand that:

1. WHO lead the response against Corona regardless of the party in control in the Syrian regions, to guarantee the provision of all health requirements in terms of diagnosing, responding and spreading awareness which are basic needs in health response, in a way that guarantees the reach of all health services in all the geographic regions in Syria and to all the Syrians in Syria and in neighboring countries.

2. The member states in the Human Rights Council, the judicial bodies, and the investigation committees and bodies working in Syria, not to turn a blind eye to any violations committed in the health sector in Syria during the last nine years and to ensure that providing a better response against Corona pandemic does not mean turning away from any crimes, accountability or justice procedures towards the criminals.

3. Immediate release of all detainees, especially political and opinion detainees, and those who were detained on the background of engagement in humanitarian response in Syria. Full access for ICRC teams to detention facilities should be guaranteed.

4. The UN leadership of the humanitarian response in Syria to work to improve response to the aggravated health needs, and to increase the response to other humanitarian sectors, in a way that guarantees the maximum engagement of Syrian civil society, and the protection of humanitarian workers and infrastructure.

Accordingly, We sign:

Access Center for Human Rights - ACHR

Al-Kawakibi Center for Transitional Justice and Human Rights

ASML/Syria

ASO Center for Consultancy and Strategic Studies

Association of German Syrian Organizations (VDSH e.V.)

Baytna Syria

Bercav Organization

Big Heart Foundation

Caesar Families Association

Center for Civil Society and Democracy

Collective of Missing Families in Algeria (CFDA)- Collectif de Familles Disparues en Algérie

Dawlaty

Detainees' Voice Team

Fédération euro-méditerranéenne contre les disparitions forcées

Fraternally Foundation for Human rights FFHR-Biratî

Hand in Hand for Aid & Development – HIHFAD

Hurras Network

Impunity Watch

Inmaa Alfourt Organization

International Service for Human Rights

Jana Watan

Justice for Life

Local Development and Small-Projects Support (LDSPS)

Local Development Organization

SEMA

Shafak

Shaml Syrian CSOs Coalition

Start Point

Still There

Syria Legal Network in the Netherlands

Syria Relief

Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)

Syrian Coalition for Development and Relief

Syrian Lawyers Aggregation

SYRIAN LEAGUE FOR CITIZENSHIP

Syrian Network for Human Rights

Syrians for Truth and Justice-STJ

TEVN

The Asfari Foundation

The Day After

The Syria Campaign

UOSSM

Urnammu For Justice & Human Rights

Women Now for Development

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addictionfreedom · 6 years ago

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thinkveganworld · 7 years ago

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This is long, but I thought I’d post on the outside chance anybody might find it worth reading. It’s part two of a three-part series of articles I wrote years ago, and it includes information on modern day U. S politicians’ use of political propaganda.

Goebbels and mass mind control: Part Two How PR opinion-shapers undermine environmental protection

In part one, we examined the fact that Hitler's propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, admired Edward Bernays, a self-proclaimed founder of the public relations industry. Goebbels used Bernays' book "Crystallizing Public Opinion" in his campaign against Germany's Jewish population. Now we'll look at specific propaganda techniques shared by Goebbels and today's corporate PR teams, and at how those techniques undermine today's environmental movement.

Public relations can be used for good or ill. When PR spin is used to convince people that harmful things are good for them, or to turn people against their own best interests, it is used for ill. Goebbels practiced propaganda as a black art.

He helped organize Hitler's "brown shirts," and incited them to violence. He instigated the events leading to "Kristallknacht," the infamous nights of widespread brutal attacks against the Jews, November 8-9, 1938. He helped create the "fuhrer cult," spinning Hitler as Germany's great redeemer and convincing millions that the Nazi state was vital to their well-being.

Goebbels believed in using stealth tactics, or "institutional lying," and in using "fronts" to promote anti-Semitism and Nazi policies. For example, Goebbels set up a film office in July 1933, made it part of a branch of the Reich Cultural Chamber, and then used films to influence mass audiences. Klaus P. Fischer writes in "Nazi Germany: A New History" that most of the entertainment films "presented a sanitized image of carefree life under the protective umbrella of the Nazi regime."

When pro-Nazi or anti-Semitic propaganda came from the mouth of a popular German movie star on the screen, instead of directly from Goebbels, the public perceived it differently. In the same way, today's PR firms use front groups (fake grassroots, or "astroturf " groups) or specific so-called "third parties" to speak for corporations.

In "Global Spin," (Chelsea Green Publishing, 1997) science lecturer Sharon Beder writes that Merrill Rose, executive vice-president of the PR firm Porter/Novelli, said: "Put your words in someone else's mouth . . . There will be times when the position you advocate, no matter how well framed and supported, will not be accepted by the public simply because you are who you are. Any institution with a vested commercial interest in the outcome of an issue has a natural credibility barrier to overcome with the public, and often with the media."

John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton point out in "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You," that on behalf of tobacco company Philip Morris, the PR company, Burson-Marsteller, "created the [front group] 'National Smokers Alliance' to mobilize smokers into a grassroots lobby for smoker's rights . . . To defeat environmentalists, PR firms have created green-sounding front groups such as "The Global Climate Coalition" and the "British Columbia Forest Alliance."

Both Goebbels and today's PR firms have used euphemisms and Orwellian newspeak and doublespeak to influence the public mind. For example, corporate PR spinners have told the public that polluting-corporations are friends of nature; that weapons-manufacturer General Electric does no harm but merely "brings good things to life;" that spreading sludge on farm fields is "beneficial use;" that human beings killed in war-for-profit are "collateral damage."

American corporations have at times managed to circumvent the U.S. Constitution and ignore laws designed to protect our own workers and the environment by moving their companies offshore, in the name of "freedom." In Hitler's Germany, the euphemistically named "Law for Terminating the Suffering of People and Nation" (or, the "Enabling Law") gave governments such "freedoms" as the right to deviate from the constitution, ultimately helping Hitler undermine democracy and gain political power.

Goebbels presided over a communications monopoly in Germany by denouncing intellectualism and urging book burning. Today, U. S. corporations have a Goebbels-like communications monopoly, because virtually all television networks and the vast majority of other media outlets in the country are owned by a handful of corporations.

Klaus Fischer writes, "On May 10, 1933, an appalling event in the history of German culture took place-the burning of the books . . . This particular 'cleansing action' (Sauberung) was carried out by the German Student Union."

Of the book burning, Goebbels said, "The age of extreme Jewish intellectualism has now ended, and the success of the German revolution has again given the German spirit the right of way." (J. M. Ritchie, "German Literature Under National Socialism," 1983.) Today corporations discourage Americans from educating themselves about corporate wrongdoing by, as Stauber and Rampton say, "burning books before they're printed."

For example, science writer David Steinman obtained obscure government research from the Freedom of Information Act and used the information in his book, "Diet For A Poisoned Planet." Steinman wrote that many U.S. foods contained contaminants and gave readers a chance to make safer food choices by comparing the amounts of toxins contained in various foods.

Right away, corporate PR firms, including a "pesticide industry front group with deep Republican connections" went to work attacking the book. The Ketchum PR agency (representative of Dole Foods, the Beef Industry Council, Miller Brewing and many other corporate food clients) markets itself as a specialist in "crisis management," according to Stauber and Rampton. A Ketchum memo to the CALRAB food safety team read: "The [Ketchum] agency is currently attempting to get a tour schedule so that we can 'shadow' Steinman's [book promotional] appearances; best scenario, we will have our spokesman in town prior to or in conjunction with Steinman's appearances."

Stauber and Rampton's source inside Ketchum said the PR firm called every talk show where Steinman was booked, saying the shows shouldn't allow Steinman to appear without also presenting "the other side of the issue." The firm also tried to portray Steinman as an "extremist" without credibility.

According to Sharon Beder ("Global Spin") corporate front groups are a fairly recent phenomenon in America . . . a response to the rise of genuine citizen public interest organizations. One front group, the American Council on Science and Health, receives funds from Burger King, Coca-Cola, NutraSweet, Monsanto, Dow, Exxon and other corporations.

Dr. Beder, author of numerous books, and a professional engineer and senior lecturer in Science and Technology Studies at the University of Wollongong, Australia, writes that "the American Council on Science and Health is one of many corporate front groups which allow industry-funded experts to pose as independent scientists to promote corporate causes. Chemical and nuclear industry front groups with scientific sounding names publish pamphlets that are 'peer reviewed' by industry scientists rather than papers in established academic journals."

On the subject of corporate front groups, Beder quotes Mark Megalli and Andy Friedman ("Masks of Deception: Corporate Front Groups in America,"1991): "Contrary to their names, these groups often disregard compelling scientific evidence to further their viewpoints, arguing that pesticides are not harmful, saccharin is not carcinogenic, or that global warming is a myth. By sounding scientific, they seek to manipulate the public's trust."

The goal of pseudo-scientific corporate front groups, says Beder, is to cast doubt on the legitimacy of authentic environmental problems. For example, the Global Climate Coalition is a front group for various gas, oil, coal, automobile and chemical corporations; and it has battled restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.

Global Climate Coalition has sent journalists videos claiming increased carbon dioxide levels will help feed the world's hungry by increasing crop production. The coalition has lobbied against mandatory emissions controls and asked the Clinton administration to avoid agreements that would reduce greenhouse emissions, claiming they "would damage the U. S. economy."

Corporations have worked to shape the next generation's environmental perceptions "through the development and distribution of 'educational' material to schools," writes Beder. Of course, the "educational" materials promote a corporate slant on environmental problems.

Conservative think-tanks have also opposed environmental legislation, working to cast doubt on greenhouse warming, industrial pollution and ozone depletion. These think-tanks mingle with lobbyists, consultants, interest groups and others and, as Beder says, "seek to provide advice directly to the government officials in policy networks and to government agencies and committees."

The think-tank employees ultimately "become policy makers themselves," and act more as pressure groups or interest groups than as academic institutions. Even so, says Beder, think-tank employees are treated by the media as "independent experts" and sources of expert opinion. Most conservative think-tanks promote free-market ideas, including corporate deregulation and lower taxes for the wealthy.

Corporate and think-tank PR spin doctors typically show little respect for the targets of their propaganda, and little regard for democracy. In another book by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, ("Trust Us, We're Experts!" - Tarcher/Putnam, 2001) the authors write, "If you ask the managers of these ever-more-expensive propaganda campaigns why they have vulgarized the democratic process [with, for example, fake grassroots campaigns], they will frequently tell you that the problem is not with them but with the voters who are too "irrational," "ignorant," or "apathetic" to respond to any other kind of appeal."

Stauber and Rampton quote Bill Greider's "Who Will Tell The People:" "On issue after issue, the public is belittled as self-indulgent or misinformed, incapable of grasping the larger complexities known to the policymakers and the circles of experts surrounding them. The public's side of the argument is said to be 'emotional' whereas those who govern are said to be making 'rational' or 'responsible' choices . . . The reality, of course, is that the ability to define what is or isn't 'rational' is itself loaded with political self-interest."

Hitler's spin doctor, Joseph Goebbels, also expressed contempt for the people and democracy. Klaus Fischer quotes the propagandist: "We go into the Reichstag in order to acquire the weapons of democracy from its arsenal. We become Reichstag deputies in order to paralyze the Weimar mentality with its own assistance. If democracy is stupid enough to give us free travel privileges and per diem allowances for this service, that is its affair. We do not worry our heads about this."

Fischer also points out that the Nazis were beneficiaries of popular anti-democratic theories of their time, and of a "totalitarian mood," which included "a wish to dismantle the egalitarian welfare state." Again, Goebbels' techniques and attitudes and the fruits of his propaganda were different in degree from those of today's corporate propagandists, but they were clearly of the same basic nature.

Goebbels and today's corporate PR firms often practice public relations as a black art, however some citizens inform people in helpful ways that produce the fruits of increased public health, safety and well-being.

For example, registered nurse and environmental activist Terri Swearingen worked to prevent the building of one of the world's largest toxic waste incinerators. When accepting the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, Swearingen said, "There are experts who are working in the corporate interest, who often serve to obscure the obvious and challenge common sense; and there are experts and non-experts who are working in the public interest."

Swearingen added, "Citizens who are working in this arena-people who are battling to stop new dump sites or incinerator proposals, people who are risking their lives to prevent the destruction of rain forests or working to ban the industrial uses of chlorine and PVC plastics-are often labeled obstructionists and anti-progress. But we actually represent progress-not technological progress but social progress. We have become the real experts, not because of our title or the university we attended, but because we have been threatened and we have a different way of seeing the world."

In part three, we'll take a closer look at propaganda and politics.

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goarticletec-blog · 6 years ago

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Facebook's latest crisis is about its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg: What you need to know

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/facebooks-latest-crisis-is-about-its-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-what-you-need-to-know/

Facebook's latest crisis is about its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg: What you need to know

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Gerard Julien/Getty Images

Facebook is back in the hot seat after The New York Times published a more than 5,000-word investigative report about how its executives responded to a series of scandals.

The latest revelations come at a bad time for the world’s largest social network, which is already having a rough year. From combating election meddling and hate speech to dealing with a massive security breach, the tech giant’s woes keep piling up. It’s trying to rebuild trust with its more than 2 billion monthly active users, but it also faces the potential of more regulation from lawmakers.

Here’s what you need to know.

Why is Facebook under fire yet again?

The New York Times investigation focuses on how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 34, and COO Sheryl Sandberg, 49, handled crisis after crisis over the last three years. The report was a biting criticism of their leadership, raising new questions about them, their role at Facebook and the company’s future.

The executives “ignored warning signs and then sought to conceal them from public view,” the paper wrote. They were also “distracted by personal projects and passed off security and policy decisions to subordinates.”

Facebook tried to “deflect blame” and “mask” the extent of a data privacy scandal that came to light in March. Cambridge Analytica, a UK consulting firm, harvested the personal data of roughly 87 million Facebook users without their permission.

The paper also said Facebook knew about Russian activity on the platform as early as spring 2016, more than a year before the company alerted the public. Sandberg clashed with Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, who’s since left the company, over how to handle the problem, according to the Times.

Meanwhile, Facebook executives were apparently wrapped up in protecting the social network’s image. To do that, the Times said, the company resorted to “aggressive” lobbying tactics and tapped its Washington connections to shift blame to tech rivals and ward off critics. At one point, the company hired a firm known for opposition research, Definers Public Affairs, which tried to discredit critics by linking liberal billionaire George Soros to activists protesting Facebook.

Now playing: Watch this: Zuckerberg defends actions after New York Times investigation

2:58

Why do people care so much about what Facebook does?

Facebook is the planet’s biggest social network. With an active user base of roughly 2.3 billion people, its membership is larger than the population of any country on Earth. Yet, Facebook is a company. There are no elected representatives, and there’s no court of appeals. It’s just Zuckerberg, his executive team and the people they hire.

This tension has been in the background since Facebook’s founding in 2004. Nearly since the beginning, any time the company made big changes (like when it introduced the News Feed or when it forced people to download Messenger as a separate program), there were uproars from users frustrated by the company’s unilateral moves.

When the 2016 election rolled around, we discovered Facebook was no longer just a place to share pictures of our kids or what we ate for lunch. Russian operatives had also learned it was an effective tool for interfering in elections by spreading misinformation.

Since then, Facebook’s flatfooted responses, and the splintering controversies that arose around them, like the one involving Cambridge Analytica, have drawn ire from all over the globe.

How is this scandal different from others?

The social networking giant has faced four spiraling crises over the past year alone, but this one specifically involves the company’s leadership and how it’s responded to the problems.

At the start of the year, Facebook’s biggest ongoing scandal was the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. The tech firm announced in 2017 that it had found evidence Russian operatives used the social network to purchase ads about politically divisive topics. But questions remain about when Facebook knew about Russian activity and if it acted quickly enough. This year, on the eve of the US midterm elections, Facebook pulled down more than 100 accounts that may’ve been tied to Russia’s Internet Research Agency.

In March, the company faced a new scandal when The New York Times and the Guardian’s Observer newspaper revealed that tens of millions of Facebook users’ data was acquired by a political consulting firm called Cambridge Analytica. The scandal sparked concern about how well Facebook was safeguarding the trove of info it gathers about users. To make matters even worse, Facebook took nearly three years to alert users about the data misuse. The uproar prompted Zuckerberg to make a rare appearance before Congress.

Then, in the summer, Facebook joined the rest of the tech industry when it banned far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from its platform for violating its rules against hate speech and violent content. Jones has been widely criticized for spreading false stories, including one that claimed the mass shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax. The ban reignited allegations that Facebook was censoring conservative voices, which the company has denied.

Criticism over how well Facebook has been protecting user data returned in September after the company disclosed a massive security breach. Hackers exploited code tied to the site’s View As feature, which lets people see what their profiles look like to other users. That let attackers steal the personal information of 29 million Facebook users, including phone numbers, birth dates and hometowns.

Zuckerberg testified before Congress in April.

Jim Watson/Getty Images

OK, this controversy involves a firm called Definers Public Affairs. What’s the deal with them?

Definers was founded by Republican political operatives. The Times said Definers circulated a research document and tried to press reporters to dig into financial ties between Soros and members of Freedom from Facebook, a coalition of Facebook critics that’s urged regulators to break up the social media giant.

The allegation doesn’t bode well for Facebook, which is under pressure to combat misinformation and hate speech. Soros, a Hungarian Jewish billionaire, has publicly criticized Facebook in the past, but he’s also been the target of anti-Semitic and far-right conspiracy theories, and a pipe bomb was delivered to his home in October. The fact that Facebook, through Definers, was pointing a finger at alleged behind-the-scenes activity by Soros played on the conspiracy theories, intentionally or not. Facebook partners and advertisers also said Definers’ work revealed that Zuck & Co. were willing to use dirty politics to protect their brand.

Definers also focused on Facebook’s tech rivals, the Times said. Some of the social network’s critics in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal have been other Silicon Valley companies and personalities, including Apple CEO Tim Cook. Definers has ties to a conservative news site, NTK Network, which published dozens of critical articles about Apple and Google.

And Definers targeted senators who questioned Sandberg during a congressional hearing in September, according to a separate Times story.

Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s outgoing head of public policy and communications, said in an internal memo that he “knew and approved of the decision to hire Definers and similar firms,” but he denied that Facebook asked Definers to spread misinformation.

Who funded Freedom from Facebook?

Freedom from Facebook’s initial donor was David Magerman, a Pennsylvania philanthropist and former hedge fund executive, according to Axios.

Magerman said he’s contributed roughly $425,000 to the campaign so far because he thinks Facebook holds “too much power over how the world communicates.”

An official for Soros’ nonprofit Open Society Foundations told The Times it’s funded some of Freedom from Facebook’s member groups but hasn’t supported campaigns against Facebook.

How have Facebook and its executives responded to the criticism?

Zuckerberg and Sandberg both pushed back against criticism over how they handled the scandals. “To suggest we weren’t interested in knowing the truth or wanted to hide what we knew or wanted to prevent investigations is simply untrue,” Zuckerberg said less than a day after the Times story published.

The two also said they didn’t know that Facebook hired Definers or about the firm’s work. After the Times report appeared, Facebook ended its contract with Definers. Facebook also plans to look into its relationships with other lobbying firms. Sandberg told CBS that Definers had been hired by “the communications team.”

“The article saying that I was spending time hiding, deflecting or hiring PR firms to do other things. That’s just all not true,” Sandberg told CBS. “I wasn’t involved in any of that, and I don’t think that was the core strategy at all.”

Definers said it wasn’t hired by Facebook for opposition research, but that its main work focused on “basic media monitoring and public relations around public policy issues facing the company.” The firm acknowledged, though, that it provided “research and background information about critics — both on the left and the right.”

Facebook also denied it knew about Russian activity as early as the spring of 2016, but The New York Times has stood by its reporting.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg testified before Congress in September.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

What impact will this controversy have on Facebook?

The company could face more government regulation.

Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat who’s expected to become the next chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, responded to the Times report by saying Facebook can’t be trusted to regulate itself.

When Congress convenes in January, Cicilline wrote on Twitter and Facebook, it should work on legislation to “address the corrupting influence of corporate money in our democracy.”

Meanwhile, Democratic senators are asking the Department of Justice, which is investigating the Cambridge Analytica scandal, to look into whether Facebook “retaliated against critics or public officials seeking to regulate the platform, or hid vital information from the public.”

Facebook is also already grappling with lower employee morale, The Wall Street Journal wrote, and its latest scandal certainly isn’t helping.

Will Zuckerberg or Sandberg step down or get fired?

It appears unlikely.

Zuckerberg controls 60 percent of Facebook’s voting shares, so he can’t be forced out of the company. So far, he’s signaled that he doesn’t have any plans to step down either.

Facebook’s board of directors has defended Facebook’s leadership and how the company handled its efforts to combat Russian election interference. There reportedly have been tensions between Zuckerberg and Sandberg. The Facebook CEO told Sandberg that he blamed her and her team for the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Some Facebook investors have called on Zuckerberg to at least relinquish his title as chairman of the social network’s board. But he told CNN on Nov. 20 that he doesn’t plan to do so.

He’s also showed his support for Sandberg.

“She has been an important partner for me for 10 years,” Zuckerberg told CNN. “I am really proud of the work we have done together and hope we work together for decades more to come.”

First published Nov.17, 5 a.m. PT. Update, Nov. 21 at 12:20 p.m.: Adds Zuckerberg’s remarks from an interview with CNN and Elliot Schrage’s internal memo about Definers, along with more background about Sandberg.

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technicalsolutions88 · 6 years ago

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TechCrunch has obtained an internal memo published by Facebook’s outgoing head of public policy Elliot Schrage in which he blames himself for hiring PR firm Definers. He admits to having the company push negative narratives about competitors, but says Facebook did not ask or pay Definers to publish fake news. COO Sheryl Sandberg left a comment on the memo, saying it was never Facebook’s intention to play into anti-semitic theories about George Soros.

The memo includes a Q&A regarding points raised by a New York Times article detailing how Definers worked to spread negative publicity about Google and other tech giants to make Facebook look better, and that the firm’s employees also published biased articles bashing Facebook’s competitors and critics through a news site called NTK Network that’s affiliated with Definers.

In the memo, Schrage justifies the use of opposition research, and chastizes Facebook employees for allowing internal finger pointing surrounding its troubled past two years to become public. He also notes that his replacement, Facebook’s new head of global policy and former UK deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg will be reviewing its work with all political consultants, which could turn up more skeletons.

Facebook’s former head of policy and comms Elliot Schrage (left) meeting former President George W. Bush. [Image publicly shared by Facebook’s Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth]

Schrage announced in June that he’d be stepping down in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but would stay on to help find a replacement. Many have asked who, if anyone, would be fired for putting Facebook in cahoots with Definers. As TechCrunch previously reported, Schrage was atop the chain of command here. Given his extensive experience in public policy, was likely well aware of the nature of Definers’ work. Schrage taking the blame provides a convenient solution to the issue, as he’s already on his way out.

“Responsibility for these decisions rests with leadership of the Communications team. That’s me. Mark and Sheryl relied on me to manage this without controversy” Schrage writes. “I knew and approved of the decision to hire Definers and similar firms. I should have known of the decision to expand their mandate . . . I’m sorry I let you all down. I regret my own failure here.” This explanation serves to protect Zuckerberg and Sandberg from additional blame, even as Sandberg strives to show she’s not passing the buck by noting “I want to be clear that I oversee our Comms team and take full responsibility for their work and the PR firms who work with us.”

Schrage’s defense of his bosses provides additional cover for Zuckerberg’s comments from a CNN interview that ran tonight in which he said he won’t step down as Facebook’s chairman and hopes to continue working alongside Sandberg for decades to come. The memo could have been aimed at quieting internal unrest about Facebook’s chief lobbyist Joel Kaplan. His ties to the GOP, support for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and involvement with Facebook’s latest PR troubles had led some employees to question his employment. Now Facebook has someone else to take the heat.

Schrage is effectively jumping on the grenade here.

The memo and comment can be found below:

Internal Facebook Memo By Elliot Schrage

Why did we hire Definers?

What did we ask them to do and what did they do?

Did we ask them to do work on George Soros?

Did we ask them to do work on our competitors?

Yes. As I indicated above, Definers helped us respond to unfair claims where Facebook was been [sic] singled out for criticism. They also helped positively distinguish us from competitors.

Did we ask them to distribute or create fake news?

No.

Who knew about this work, and who signed off on it?

Responsibility for these decisions rests with leadership of the Communications team. That’s me. Mark and Sheryl relied on me to manage this without controversy.

Why have we stopped working with them?

Mark has asked us to reevaluate how we work with communications consultants. It’s not about Definers. It is about us, not them.

Where are we now?

Our culture has long been to move fast and take risks. Many times we have moved too quickly and we always learn and keep trying to do our best. This will be no exception.

What happens next?

Comment On The Memo From Sheryl Sandberg

Facebook has other ties to Definers, the GOP-led opposition research group

Additional reporting by Taylor Hatmaker

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fmservers · 6 years ago

Text

Internal Facebook memo sees outgoing VP of comms Schrage take blame for hiring Definers

TechCrunch has attained an internal memo published by Facebook’s outgoing head of public policy Elliot Schrage in which he blames himself for hiring PR firm Definers. He admits to having the company push negative narratives about competitors, but says Facebook did not ask or pay Definers to publish fake news. COO Sheryl Sandberg left a comment on the memo, saying it was never Facebook’s intention to play into anti-semitic theories about George Soros.

Facebook’s former head of policy and comms Elliot Schrage (left)

“Responsibility for these decisions rests with leadership of the Communications team. That’s me. Mark and Sheryl relied on me to manage this without controversy” Schrage writes. “I knew and approved of the decision to hire Definers and similar firms. I should have known of the decision to expand their mandate . . . I’m sorry I let you all down. I regret my own failure here.” This explanation serves to protect Zuckerberg and Sandberg from additional blame. That ties in nicely with Zuckerberg’s comments in a CNN interview that ran tonight in which he said he won’t step down as Facebook’s chairman and hopes to continue working alongside Sandberg for decades to come

Schrage is effectively jumping on the grenade.

The memo and comment can be found below:

Elliot Schrage

Why did we hire Definers?

What did we ask them to do and what did they do?

Did we ask them to do work on George Soros?

Did we ask them to do work on our competitors?

Yes. As I indicated above, Definers helped us respond to unfair claims where Facebook was been singled out for criticism. They also helped positively distinguish us from competitors.

Did we ask them to distribute or create fake news?

No.

Who knew about this work, and who signed off on it?

Responsibility for these decisions rests with leadership of the Communications team. That’s me. Mark and Sheryl relied on me to manage this without controversy.

Why have we stopped working with them?

Mark has asked us to reevaluate how we work with communications consultants. It’s not about Definers. It is about us, not them.

Where are we now?

Our culture has long been to move fast and take risks. Many times we have moved too quickly and we always learn and keep trying to do our best. This will be no exception.

What happens next?

[Comment from Sheryl Sandberg]

Facebook has other ties to Definers, the GOP-led opposition research group

Via Josh Constine https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

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theinvinciblenoob · 6 years ago

Link

TechCrunch has attained an internal memo published by Facebook’s outgoing head of public policy Elliot Schrage in which he blames himself for hiring PR firm Definers. He admits to having the company push negative narratives about competitors, but says Facebook did not ask or pay Definers to publish fake news. COO Sheryl Sandberg left a comment on the memo, saying it was never Facebook’s intention to play into anti-semetic theories about George Soros.

We’ll have more analysis shortly. The memo and comment can be found below:

Elliot Schrage

Why did we hire Definers?

What did we ask them to do and what did they do?

Did we ask them to do work on George Soros?

Did we ask them to do work on our competitors?

Yes. As I indicated above, Definers helped us respond to unfair claims where Facebook was been singled out for criticism. They also helped positively distinguish us from competitors.

Did we ask them to distribute or create fake news?

No.

Who knew about this work, and who signed off on it?

Responsibility for these decisions rests with leadership of the Communications team. That’s me. Mark and Sheryl relied on me to manage this without controversy.

Why have we stopped working with them?

Mark has asked us to reevaluate how we work with communications consultants. It’s not about Definers. It is about us, not them.

Where are we now?

Our culture has long been to move fast and take risks. Many times we have moved too quickly and we always learn and keep trying to do our best. This will be no exception.

What happens next?

[Comment from Sheryl Sandberg]

via TechCrunch

#IFTTT #TechCrunch

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