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Here’s my bold statement for 2023: Social media companies in the United States need to be regulated. Before you start agreeing and explain why it’ll never happen… you should know Meta didn’t launch Threads in the EU. Because of the EU’s REGULATION. It would have led to massive NEW fines and Meta doesn’t want MORE massive fines. It was recently hit with an order to stop sending EU users data to the US for processing and was fined almost $1.3BN for breaching the GDPR’s requirements on data export. When companies’ actions or inactions harm the public, the public demands something be done. In the EU they’ve recognized the harm being done by social media companies and enacted regulation. Short term, companies pay the fine and change their behavior to stop new fines. This is what we want, what the public deserves. Protection from harm. Here’s a good piece by Natasha Lomas’ in Tech Cruch that spells out Meta’s current privacy problems and reminds us of the General Data Protection Regulation, the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.
Last Friday (July 7, 2023), the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their latest labour market data – Employment Situation Summary – June 2023 – which revealed that the the US labour market has probably reached a turning point but is certainly not contracting at a rate consistent with an imminent recession. There was…
It was one of the fabled rivers of history and the Marines needed to cross it. In early April 2003, as American forces sought to wrap up their conquest of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and take strongholds to its north, the Marine Corps formed “Task Force Tripoli.” It was commanded by General John F. Kelly (who would later serve as Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff). His force was charged with capturing the city of Tikrit, the birthplace of dictator Saddam Hussein. The obvious eastern approach to it was blocked because a bridge over the Tigris River had been damaged. Since the Marines assembled the Task Force in northeastern Baghdad, its personnel needed to cross the treacherous, hard-flowing Tigris... Read more
Source: Iraq’s Climate Crisis appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
Seriously??? Trump is honest and trustworthy enough to run the most powerful country in the world but you couldn’t trust him or his people to do business with your software company. Is this guy for real? These people are so far gone it’s beyond all reason. Luckily, this cipher isn’t going to be in the race very long but it’s instructive to hear him speak anyway. They are all so tribal that they are willing to twist themselves into pretzels to stay in the GOP fold for Dear Leader but grasp at these straws to show that they are somehow different. It’s pathetic. I hope you enjoy looking in the mirror Bergum. If it looks a little bit distorted, check your conscience.
And yes, I’m talking about Chris Christie He may not try to overturn an election but if you think this guy wouldn’t use his power to go after his enemies you are mistaken. He hasn’t changed: GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie weighed in on the investigation of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the plea deal reached in the case, calling the probe as well as the U.S. attorney who oversaw it not truthful or incompetent. “U.S. Attorney [David] Weiss has to explain himself and he has to explain himself in public,” Christie told Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday. “You know, the fact is that this investigation of Hunter Biden in Delaware is either a lie or it’s incompetent.
President Macron of France is right to warn NATO away from any expansion into Asia, reminding all and sundry of NATO’s Atlantic design and focus. NATO’s continued existence after and at the end of the Cold War has already denied peaceful unity to the broader Europe, the promise of which the end of the Cold Continue reading »
India has an economy that is growing faster than China’s – six per cent versus four per cent – and it has a population that is expanding while that of its Asian neighbour is shrinking. Put these two facts together, and the implication is that India will surpass China in any race to become the Continue reading »
The U.S. public has been conned, once again, into pouring billions into another endless war. The playbook the pimps of war use to lure us into one military fiasco after another, including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Ukraine, does not change. Freedom and democracy are threatened. Evil must be vanquished. Human rights must Continue reading »
It is as certain as any future event can be that the British Labour Party will win the next UK election, which is likely to be held in the latter part of 2024. It is technically possible that the election could be delayed until January 2025 but it is hard to imagine the government choosing Continue reading »
Why the new ALP government’s new Child Care funds should restore its social benefits and stop funding the failing profit/market model. It has been 50 plus years since the McMahon Liberal government included preschool funding, the first since WW2. In 1972 the new Whitlam ALP Government promised the funding of Children’s services programs to meet Continue reading »
This week, a new report revealed First Nations people, as well as people of African or Middle Eastern appearance, were disproportionately targeted by police in issuing COVID-19 fines. Despite the Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton acknowledging structural racism when appearing before the Yoorrook Justice Commission in Victoria, Victoria Police have denied racial profiling in response Continue reading »
While unification with Taiwan and building a strong economy are the twin pillars of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, it’s dangerous to assume, as Washington does, that a faltering economy makes Beijing more aggressive towards the island. This is the final in a two-column series. It’s hardly worth mentioning that China and the United Continue reading »
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – July 9, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
Climate and environmental crises
World Registers Hottest Day Ever Recorded on July 3
[Reuters, via Naked Capitalism 7-5-2023]
6 southern Colorado counties, facing drought and thirsty neighbors, move to block water exports
[Colorado Sun, via Naked Capitalism 7-4-2023]
Dan Pfeiffer with the bad news: Why Threads Won’t Solve the News Crisis Like more than 70 million other refugees from Twitter, I downloaded Threads — Meta’s new Twitter clone — and immediately started “threading.” This wasn’t an easy decision. I generally believe that through a toxic combination of avarice and incompetence, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have done tremendous damage to the world. My most recent book was subtitled “How Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA Media are Destroying America.” So, it’s safe to say that I am not exactly a Zuck stan. But despite my trepidation, I started using Threads. Compared to other erstwhile Twitter replacements — Mastodon, Bluesky, Post, etc. — Threads was a huge success. It was easy to set up and even though I joined only a few hours after it launched, many people and media outlets were already posting on the app. The utility of a Twitter-like product is dependent on two interconnected questions — one, will enough interesting people share interesting content; and two, is the audience large and engaging enough to make sharing feel worth it?
By Carlos García Hernández Originally published in Spanish on 1/7/23. Definition of a State: a territory with fixed borders under a central authority with the capacity to …
The post A practical exercise for the reconstruction of the Left appeared first on The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies.
We will not allow you to exploit the innocence of our children to advance your agenda. When you come after our kids, we fight back. We are no longer silent. We are united. We are Mamas for DeSantis. …and we will elect @RonDeSantis President of the United States. Join our… pic.twitter.com/jo6HUATaVa — Casey DeSantis (@CaseyDeSantis) July 6, 2023 I’ll just leave that here.
While still open to writing for Doctor Who again one day, Neil Gaiman made his feelings clear on if he would ever want to be the showrunner.
What’s wrong with the world wide web today? I am. (To adapt a Chesterton line of uncertain authenticity.) Don’t get me wrong. It’s great! – it’s hopeful! – we are gathered here today to celebrate 20 years of Crooked Timber; meanwhile Twitter seems to be splintering. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, we […]
We’re not as right as we think we are Loss of the ability to laugh at oneself is the first warning sign of fundamentalism. It’s a personal maxim that has served well. Not unrelated is a shtick that comes in handy now and again. Jab your finger in the air toward someone as if punctuating an argument, and declare confidently, “Oh yeah? Well, I’m not as smart as I think I am.” Let’s back up. Heather Cox Richardson in her “Letters from an American” installment for July 9 observes that on this date in 1868, Americans ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. It eradicated the infamous Dred Scott decision by a Supreme Court then controlled by states’ rights advocates and “southerners and Democrats … adamantly opposed to federal power.” The drafters meant to ensure that southern states who recently fought a war to preserve slavery could not reimpose it under color of law in their legislatures. They did anyway for the next 100 years under Jim Crow until the post-World War II Supreme Court flexed the equal protection and due process clauses to dismantle it.
Everyone pulled together to get Hawley to correct a false “quote” from Patrick Henry on the U.S. and Christianity. It didn’t work.
The post This Week, America Failed to Get Josh Hawley to Feel Shame appeared first on The Intercept.
Nothing to see here Without comment. Plowable hail.