Archive for September, 2020

Google: “Be Evil” (September 28, 2020)

Posted in Amazon, Elections, Facebook, Google, Magazine Reference, Monopoly, Privacy, Society, Technology on September 28, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “’Don’t Be Evil’.   An age of overwhelming edgy sarcastic anxiety and detached cynical irony really is not a healthy and productive age.”

J          “Our society has not aged well.  Bad wine.  White wine that has gone sour and not red wine that improved with age.  And Google and Facebook and Amazon provide the most perverse ironies of our age.”

. . .

[See “The Big Tech Extortion Racket” in “Harpers” dated September 2020 by Barry C. Lynn.

“In 2018, an Irish technologist named Dylan Curran downloaded the information Google had collected about him.  All in all, Curran found, the corporation had gathered 5.5 GB of data on his life, or the equivalent of more than three million Word documents.

In an article for article for “The Guardian”, Curran wrote that within this trove he found

“every Google Ad I’ve ever viewed or clicked on, every app I’ve ever launched or used and when I did it, every website I’ve ever visited and what time I did it.  They also have every image I’ve ever searched for and saved, every location I’ve ever searched for or clicked on, every news article I’ve ever searched for or read, and every single Google search I’ve made since 2009.  And . . . every YouTube video I’ve ever searched for or viewed, since 2008.”

In addition, Curran discovered that Google keeps a detailed record of what events he attends and when he arrives, what photos he takes and when he takes them, what exercises he does and when he does them.  And it has kept every email he has ever sent or received, including those he has deleted.”]

[See the e-commentary at “Goggle” and “Facebook” and “Amazon” and other topics such as “Privacy” and related issues.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Bye Don 2020 (also sported on lawn signs)

Re-Elect The Mother Fracker (also sported on ball caps and t-shirts)

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The Persecution Of Assange And The Feckless MSM (September 21, 2020)

Posted in Cameo In Courage Award, First Amendment, Journalism, Newspapers, Press/Media on September 21, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Most media outlets are not concerned about press freedom because they are completely free to say precisely what they are directed to say.”

J          “The only journalists commenting on the most critical freedom of the press case of our time are commentators such as award-winning Caitlin Johnstone and historian and human rights advocate Craig Murray, those at Consortium News, and a few other heroes, stragglers and renegades.”

. . .

K          “What would RBG say?”

J          “I respectfully dissent.”

. . .

[See “Empire’s mask slips at Julian Assange trial” in “The Asia Times” dated September 18, 2020 by Pepe Escobar.]

[See some of the e-commentary by typing “Assange” in the search box.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Have a peaceful International Day of Peace

“First they came for the journalists.  We don’t know what happened after that.”

Have a peaceful Equinox

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

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From “Occupy” to “Occupation”:  Nine Years Later (September 14, 2020)

Posted in Book Reference, Civil War, Class, Collapse, Occupy Movement, Voting on September 14, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Occupy showed so much promise.”

J          “That’s why they killed it.”

. . .

K          “What was percolating may start boiling.”

J          “What was festering may start exploding.”

. . .

K          “Occupy challenged one to occupy his or her mind and community and now the Occupation/Siege calls for one to occupy the bowels of the beast.”

J          “September 17 may become as big a holiday as July 14.  Stay tuned, as they say.”

. . .

[See the commentary on the Occupation/Siege at Adbusters.]

[See the e-commentary at “Occupy America (October 10, 2011)”, “Occupy America: The “Bonus March/Chicago Police Riot/Kent State” Of 2011? (October 17, 2011)”, “An “Occupy Primer” (November 14, 2011) and “Civil War II.  Coming To A Country Near You (November 26, 2018)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking:  What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?  Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?  …  The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!  If … if … We didn’t love freedom enough.  And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation … We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”  Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918 – 1956

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Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague: What Is A [Labor Day] Weekend? (September 7, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Society, Work on September 7, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “The appeal of that show is still beguiling, yet the series appealed to the whole family wholeheartedly and to me.  ‘What is a weekend?’, the Dowager at Downton Abbey inquired at dinner.  What was a declining way of life for the wealthy is now an emerging way of life for the villagers.”

K          “And when you are self-unemployed under the old way of life, you only knew it was the weekend because your friends could come out to play.”

J          “But you are employee of the month every month.”

. . .

K          “The circus had its own calendar and dedicated days.  In the fall and winter, Friday night was demarcated by high school football, Saturday afternoons by college football and almost all of Sunday by professional football.”

J          “And the professional game metastasized into Monday night and then into the Thursday night edition of Monday night football that became Thursday night football.  Tuesday and Wednesday are the weekend for football.  The circus markers are gone or limited.”

. . .

J          “A friend notes that she only knows the day of the week if the newspaper does not arrive which means it is Saturday.”

K          “And then there is always Sunday night.  A friend described the Sunday night malaise that set in every week around 5 o’clock began sooner each year and then set in earlier in the day and then set in upon getting up and then set in around 5 o’clock on Saturday night and then set in earlier in the day and then set in upon getting up and then set in around 5 o’clock on Friday night.”

J          “On Sunday night, you are only seven days away from Sunday night and a fortnight away from Sunday night.”

. . .

K          “And the winter solstice this year falls on a Monday.”

J          “And the day the sun starts returning springs on a Tuesday.”

. . .

K          “Until recently, of course, one typically spent five days in an office and two days in or operating out of a home.  Now seven days are spent in a home office that creates a sense of uninterrupted house arrest.  I even use the word ‘prisoner’ in some conversations to describe my confined circumstances.”

J          “Although I am likely to cancel the furlough, I booked an airline ticket in December that I hold in my hand to hold out hope of getting a work release from the prison I am booked in today.  The ticket is a psychological get out of jail card for fee.”

K          “Book ’im, Danno.”

. . .

J          “What is a weekbegin?”

K          “T.G.I.?.”

. . .

[Follow the criminal proceedings – by the English and American court systems – against Julian Assange at Consortium News.]

[See the e-commentary at Labor Day and Labor Day weekend at “Laboring Day (September 2, 2019)”, “Labor Day.  Oh, And Happy Labor Day! (September 3, 2018)”, “On Writin’ And Livin’ And Laborin’ (September 4, 2017)” and “Doctorin’ And Lawyerin’ And Laborin’ (September 5, 2011)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Labor on!

What is a weekend?

Unions – The folks who brought you the weekend

Everybody’s playing for the week

“Eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of what you will”

T.G.I.?.

“A job?”

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