Another Hero

"But here’s an unpopular opinion: Months ago, after all of the Cambridge Analytica scandal had broken, and we already knew about their role in the election and fake news, Mark Zuckerberg told us all that he planned on significantly increasing Facebook’s investment in security, and would add thousands of new employees to help that cause.

This is what he told the US Congress in April:
“I’ve directed our teams to invest so much insecurity — on top of the other investments we’re making — that it will significantly impact our profitability going forward.”

And then he added, for extra oomph.

“But I want to be clear about what our priority is: protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.”

Many didn’t believe him. Many tweeted about all the times that he’s talked the talk, but not walked the walk. But yesterday, when Facebook faced the music and took $120 billion on the chin, the fact that Zuckerberg finally walked the walk was conveniently absent from the conversation.

Here is the unpopular reality:

Mark Zuckerberg told us all he would put our safety, and fixing the problems of Facebook ahead of profits. He did that. Wall Street may not have liked it, but there’s no way around it: the man held true to his word." (Alex Whitcomb, @medium.com. Read the full article here.)

Second Most Sexiest Man Alive?

So I have been watching the Congressional hearing of FBI agent Peter Strzok.

I must honestly say, that after watching his clashes with representatives Trey Gowdy and chairman Bob Goodlatte, his bated and controlled anger made me hot and bothered and moist in my underwear. 'Tis a pity the man is straight.

Agent Strzok must be a pride and joy to 70% of the American people, and I don't give a damn about whatever foolishness he texted (taken out of context) that was totally irrelevant to his fulfilment of his duties.

(The sexiest man alive is of course Tomais Ashdene, the lairds consort.

Damn!

The Democrats were slaughtered in yesterdays midterm elections in the U.S.A. The Republicans won a majority in both the house and the senate.

The above picture comes from the first page of Huffington Post, via J.M.G.

Damn, damn, damn! And did I say damn?

Happy Independence Day, 2014

The American Declaration of Independence (declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain), was adopted by Congress on this day in 1776.

The preamble of that declaration says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Even if Thomas Jefferson's words are heavily influenced by religion and natural law philosophy they, to this day, express what those of us that believe in a democratic society based on full and equal human rights for all citizens still hold true.
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I wish all my American family members, friends and readers a happy Independence Day!

Extortion, Not Stalemate

I am still lingering on the shutdown of the American federal government, because I simply cannot wrap my mind around how something like this can occur in a democratic country with a healthy economy.

Time Magazine's cover for October 14, 2013

I think I may have stumbled upon a great article by US Political Commentator Brian Normoyle on Huffington Post's political pages. The article is entitled This Shutdown Is About Extortion, Not Stalemates.

"Those following or reporting on the U.S. government shutdown should refrain from using terms like "impasse" or "stalemate." These words imply two honest parties negotiating in good faith have arrived at a temporary but surmountable deadlock. That's not even remotely the case here.

Instead, two parties--the Senate Democrats and the House Republicans -- each passed divergent budgets earlier this year. The latter, propelled by a very small yet ideologically rigid minority of its members, made the calculated decision from the start not to negotiate.

Democrats made 18 requests since April to go to conference and compromise on a budget bill; Republicans blocked every single one of them. And now they are using a manufactured crisis to extract policy concessions on duly passed legislation they don't like and cannot repeal through the normal democratic processes: elections, legislative votes, and litigation.

Meanwhile, House Republicans continue to insist they're doing the will of the American people despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. While a plurality or small majority of Americans remain confused about or opposed to the Affordable Care Act, a strong majoritywant a budget approved without conditions to repeal, defund, or delay it -- mainly because they see the law as a settled issue.

And so it is. Republicans lost this fight repeatedly:

• in the 2008 election in which this was a primary issue;

• in a year-long debate in the halls of congress, media, and the public square, after which the law was passed by both chambers of congress and signed by the president;

• in the Supreme Court--the final arbiter of the constitutionality of a law;

• in the 2012 presidential election, which 2/3rds of Americans now see as a referendum on Obamacare;

• in the 2012 congressional election, in which the GOP failed to take the Senate, lost seats in the House, and lost the popular vote in that chamber by more than 1,000,000 votes;

• in the 46 House votes to repeal, defund, or delay Obamacare that were dead on arrival in the Senate and had no chance of becoming law.

Most curiously, Republicans now have the votes to end the shutdown immediately by putting a clean resolution on the House floor with no riders or conditions. Such a bill certainly would pass, and 800,000 Americans could return to work tomorrow, but Boehner doesn't do it.

The evidence suggests the GOP intentionally put these workers out of a job by using a historically routine budget resolution to undo the outcome of three lost elections. And they now have the hubris to demand Senate Democrats and President Obama negotiate with that extremist position. As Republicans continually shift the political goal posts ever further to the hard right, negotiating now requires meeting them somewhere between extreme and preposterously irrational. Democrats justifiably have declined to do so here.

This is not an "impasse" or a "stalemate." It's an attempt at extortion that was prevented."

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I believe I finally understand what has happened in the US after reading this article. We have a bunch of lousy losers who cannot accept that they lost and now are trying to shove their point-of-view down everyone else's throats to make them accept it. It's no new tactic, I have seen it before in both my lives, although never on such a dramatic scale.