Facebook | e-commentary

Archive for the Facebook Category

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)

Leave a comment »

Alex J. / J. Assange And The First Amendment (August 13, 2018)

Posted in Antitrust, Apple, Awards / Incentives, Courage, Facebook, First Amendment, Google, Monopoly, On [Traits/Characteristics], Perjury/Dishonesty, Supreme Court on August 13, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “I don’t think I would like him.”

J “Me neither.”

. . .

J “Which is, of course, the point. Reflect on the principle not on the principal. The Supreme Court looks at the principal not at the principle.”

K “That is the Supreme Court for you.”

J “For me? Not for me. You take ‘em.”

. . .

K “Google, YouTube, Facebook, Apple and Spotify are imposing various levels of censorship. Each is a monopoly in its own sphere and is, in practice and effect, a utility and a powerful government.”

J “The First Amendment does not protect free speech directly but rather is a limitation on government interference with free speech. Governments such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, Apple and Spotify should not be allowed to interfere with free speech.”

J “Governments should interfere with and regulate monopolies. However that is impossible when the monopolies are the government or at least own and operate the government.”

. . .

K “Free speech for Alex Jones!”

J “Freedom for Julian Assange!”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013)”, “Third Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2018 (April 9, 2018)”, “Second Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2017 (March 6, 2017)”, “First Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2016 (May 9, 2016)”, “Award Deadlines (Livelines?) (July 25, 2016)”, “Profile In Cowardice Award (May 12, 2014)”, “Profile In Courage Award, 2015 (May 11, 2015)”, “Chelsea And Ed: Time For ‘Con’ ‘dign’ Treatment (November 30, 2015)” and “On Courage and Truth (March 17, 2008)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Free speech for Alex Jones!

Freedom for Julian Assange!

(Unedited) petition circulating on the Internets; edit as appropriate or better yet use your own words and express your own concerns:

A Petition to the President of the United States: Pardon Julian Assange

Whereas Journalist Julian Assange and his media organization, Wikileaks, has in the respected tradition of American journalism obtained and published information that is classified and newsworthy, a practice shared with the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and others and

Whereas in the eleven years of its existence the authenticity and accuracy of materials published by Wikileaks has never been questioned or disputes and

Whereas the material regarding Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee published by Wikileaks served the national interest by exposing the corruption of the Clintons, the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton campaign and the Obama Justice Department and

Whereas assertion by the American Intelligence Services that Julian Assange is the agent of a “Hostile Foreign State” or the Russian government are politically suspect and completely unproven and denied by Assange and

Whereas Julian Assange has consistently denied that material obtained from the Democratic National Committee and published by Wikileaks came from the Russian State and has repeatedly offered to prove this for US authorities and

Whereas Assange, now in failing health, has been a veritable prisoner in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for six years, with the media now reporting Ecuador is preparing to hand Assange over to British authorities who will presumably extradite Assange to the United States for trial and

Whereas Julian Assange is an impeccably-honest, incredibly-brave, humanitarian journalist, who provides an invaluable platform for whistleblowers exposing corruption and criminality infesting governments, nullifying democracy and obliterating human rights, around the world and

Whereas there are absolutely no legitimate legal grounds to prosecute Assange and, as the U.S. DOJ admitted in 2013, that doing so would expose ALL U.S. journalistic and news outlets to similar criminal jeopardy.

Therefore Urge President Donald J. Trump to issue a full and unconditional pardon to the journalist Julian Assange in the interests of both justice and mercy.

Leave a comment »

Third Annual “Cameo In Courage” Award For 2018 (April 9, 2018)

Posted in Amazon, Awards / Incentives, Cameo In Courage Award, Courage, Facebook, Google, O'Bama, On [Traits/Characteristics], Privacy, Profile In Courage Award, Technology on April 9, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “The envelope please. . . . This year, the ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award is awarded to . . . Chelsea Elizabeth Manning and Julian Paul Assange. Courage is rare. It must be celebrated. It is one of the “rare-earths” within the human heart and is very rare on this Earth.”

. . .

And a tip of the hat to the great nation and good people of Ecuador that provide a home and a haven for Mr. Assange.

And a partial tip of the lid to former President O’Bama for commuting all but four months of Ms. Manning’s sentence. A presidential commutation reduces the sentence being served but does not change the fact of conviction. A presidential pardon would have forgiven the criminal offenses. But at core O’Bama lacked the fortitude and courage to pardon Ms. Manning and Mr. Snowden and Mr. Assange. He could have just done it.

[Please send nominations for the “Cameo In Courage” Award for 2019 and a supporting letter by January 25, 2019 to e-ssay@gci.net and send the entry fee to your favorite charity.]

[See the e-commentary at “Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013)”, “Second Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2017 (March 6, 2017)”, “First Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2016 (May 9, 2016)”, “Award Deadlines (Livelines?) (July 25, 2016)”, “Profile In Cowardice Award (May 12, 2014)”, “Profile In Courage Award, 2015 (May 11, 2015)”, “Chelsea And Ed: Time For “Con” “dign” Treatment (November 30, 2015)” and “On Courage and Truth (March 17, 2008)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“In a dozen plus years and without a debate or a vote, technology has deprived us of privacy. With little debate and many hasty votes, Congress has deprived us of privacy at every opportunity. We as a society should create a rebuttable presumption in favor of privacy even if it appears to sacrifice security. Our personal insecurities are actually creating greater national insecurity.” See “Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013)”.

Boycott Facebook. See “Boycott Facebook (August 2, 2010)”. And Google. And Amazon.

Love is elusive and transitory; the Internet is forever.

The Internet never forgets.

What’s said on the Internet stays on the Internet.

Leave a comment »

“Net Neutrality” Now. Oh, And Happy Thanksgiving! (November 20, 2017)

Posted in Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Net Neutrality, Technology on November 20, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “The proposed elimination of the regulations that provide some measure of protection for net neutrality was slated to be foisted on the folks just before Thanksgiving.”

J “They are getting a jump on sneakiness this holiday season. They usually sneak such things by the people just before Christmas.”

. . .

K “Maintaining net neutrality is critical and pivotal. Someone defined net neutrality as the principle that Internet service providers and governments regulating the Internet should treat all data on the Internet the same. They should not discriminate or charge differentially by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.”

J “Sounds like the Equal Protection Clause of the Internet.”

K “Or the Due Process Clause of the Internet.”

. . .

K “The folks at Battle For the Net and Fight For the Future are battling and fighting for us.”

J “I dropped a dime on my Congresspeople and demanded that they protect true net neutrality.”

. . .

K “Some stores are already foisting their Groundhog Day stuff on us.”

J “I’ve seen that before.”

. . .

[See “The Upside of Being Ruled by the Five Tech Giants” in “The New York Times” by Farhad Manjoo dated November 1, 2017.]

[See the e-commentary under the Category “Technology”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Net Neutrality Now

Leave a comment »

Are “Prices” A Language? Are Antitrust Laws Grounded In The First Amendment? How Do We Forestall The “Frightful Five” And Other Monopolies? Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 30, 2017)

Posted in Amazon, Apple, Constitution, Economics, Facebook, First Amendment, Google, Internet, Language, Microsoft, Monopoly, Price, Radio, Technology on October 30, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “Prices for goods and services are a language spoken with numbers (7) not letters (L).”

J “I love language. French is the language of love and the language of diplomacy. Accounting is the language of business. So Prices are the language of a free market economy?”

K “Yes. Russian is one of the languages of literature.”

J “So is French.”

K “And English.”

. . .

K “Monopolies distort Prices which distorts speech. By distorting Prices, the public is making inaccurate and incomplete decisions and paying more for goods and services while the corporations are not internalizing externalities.”

J “Price may just be the real Esperanto.”

. . .

J “The current monopolies are in part the consequence of acts of commission and even more often acts of omission by the government.”

K “The problem with my analysis is that the First Amendment is a restriction on government activity not a requirement for government action.”

J “So the Constitution is unavailing. We are stuck with Congress, the executive agencies and the courts to protect us.”

K “They do not speak our language.”

. . .

[See the interview by Terry Gross with the tech columnist Farhad Manjoo with “The New York Times” who cautions that the “Frightful Five” (Amazon, Google/Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook) are more powerful than the governments on the “Fresh Air” radio program titled “How 5 Tech Giants Have Become More Like Governments Than Companies” on October 26, 2017.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Spanish is the language a man uses to talk to his God;

French is the language a man uses to talk to his wife;

Italian is the language a man uses to talk to his mistress;

German is the language a man uses to talk to his mule.

And English is the language a man uses to fly a plane or to surf the web or to engage in international discourse. You create it, you talk it.

And Price is the language a man and a woman use to value and exchange resources.

Leave a comment »

Should You “Friend” The Tech Beasts And Behemoths? (October 23, 2017)

Posted in Amazon, Apple, Cyberactivities, Facebook, Google, Internet, Microsoft, Technology on October 23, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J “They don’t befriend me.”

K “They don’t be a friend of me either.”

. . .

J “In a land where nothing matters and anything goes and no one cares and no one knows, it is not a surprise that the technological monsters are devouring the populace with little comment or resistance by the people.”

. . .

[See “Tech Giants, Once Seen as Saviors, Are Now Viewed as Threats” in “The New York Times” by David Streitfeld dated October 12, 2017 and “Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend” in the “Sunday Review” of “The New York Times” by Noam Cohen dated October 13, 2017.]

[October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). See “High-Frequency Trading = Cybercrime (June 8, 2015).” The high frequency traders are committing cybercrimes every day. Consult with them on how to commit and to combat cybercrime.]

“Boycott Facebook (August 2, 2010)”

“Less Government Regulation Series: Google (November 30, 2009)”

“‘Legs Network’ Is Big Brother (October 27, 2014)”

“Net Neutrality (April 20, 2015)”

“The Great Google Wall (June 27, 2016)”

“Restraining Google/Alphabet And Damming Amazon (July 17, 2017)”

“Excellence In Journalism? Time For A True Trophy (September 24, 2012)”

“Brave 1984 Farm: The Best Of All Possible Worlds (March 19, 2012)”

“A ‘Journalist’ Declares War On Journalists . . . And Journalism (November 28, 2016)”

Bumper stickers of the week:

Big Brothers abound

“Legs Network” is Big Brother

Facebook is Big Brother

Google is Big Brother

Twitter is Big Brother

Amazon is Big Brother

ebay is Big Brother

Zillow is Big Brother

_____ is Big Brother

Little Brothers are bound

Leave a comment »

A “Journalist” Declares War On Journalists . . . And Journalism (November 28, 2016)

Posted in Blog, Cyberactivities, Digital, Facebook, Google, Internet, Journalism, Newspapers, Press/Media, Truth, War and Wall Street Party, Writing on November 28, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “The article may be the single most outrageous and egregious defamatory screed in the history of American journalism.”

J “And it is irresponsible, inaccurate, unfounded, unfair and wrong.”

. . .

J “The corporate media are now at war with independent commentators. It is all about money and power. The corporate players see a growing challenge to their hegemonic control of opinion and the profits that flow from purveying and controlling opinion.”

K “He indicted 200 sites on the basis of a website that is dubious at best. I doubt he even uploaded a dozen of the sites. Review a few of them. Charles Hugh Smith over at ‘Of Two Minds’ ventures trenchant commentary with supporting graphs and tables and light asides about life in Hawaii. Chris Hedges and the folks at ‘Truthdig’ provide more substance and depth than ‘Newsweek’ and ‘Time’ in their prime and actually ferret out the Truth. Yves Smith and the ‘Naked Capitalism’ team offer thoughtful and thought-provoking essays and commentary and have supplanted the ‘Wall Street Journal’ as America’s leading financial news source.”

J “And interject cute pictures of puppies and other critters. However, the ‘Tyler Durden’ chap at ‘Zero Hedge’ is the edgy and enigmatic bad boy who must be sampled cum grano salis. The motley assemblage occasionally strays near the truth, yet there is a dark and disturbing undertone. The right-leaning websites are also under assault.”

K “The title of the ‘Ron Paul Institute For Peace and Prosperity’ directly challenges the one political party system in America – the ‘War and Wall Street Party’ system. Wall Street is precluding and preventing Americans from achieving prosperity.”

J “Both Paul Craig Roberts and David Stockman held positions in Republican administrations and now challenge the neo-liberal economic policy and neo-conservative foreign orthodoxy strangling the Republic.”

K “The author of the article goes for the throat and challenges each author’s patriotism.”

. . .

K “Ben Norton and Glenn Greenwald cogently and succinctly characterize the assault in their observation that the ‘Washington Post Disgracefully Promotes A McCarthyite Blacklist From A New, Hidden And Very Shady Group.’ The paper I delivered has so deteriorated over the decades.”

J “Yet something funky and disturbing is going on out there. We are in a new era of ‘antisocial media’ concocted by admixing Facebook and Google into a vile and evil brew dispensed anonymously. A journalist getting it fundamentally wrong does not aid in getting it right.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

So many words, so little Truth

Facebook + Google = Trouble

Mass Media Breeds Mass Deception

1 Comment »

“Peak Advertising” (November 3, 2014)

Posted in Consumerism, Economics, Elections, Facebook, Football, Google, Minimum Wage, Occupy Movement, Peak Advertising, Politics, Press/Media, Social Media, Sports, Television, Voting, Wages, Writing on November 3, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1 “‘Mt. / Everest / Sherpas / Prefer / Burma / Shave.’”

2 “Turns out that some of the first ‘six-word memoirs’ were crafted by English majors laboring for BBDO.”

. . .

1 “‘Peak Advertising’ occurs when all of a person’s senses are assaulted all of the time with non-stop commercial advertising.”

2 “That is the collective business plan of all the social media platforms. They are premised on their presumed ability to bombard the right demographic with saturation advertising all the time.”

1 “At some time, the marginal utility of each additional fusillade will not provide any return because the consumer has nothing to spend and no source of additional debt. What if they don’t have any more money?”

2 “They have huge advertising budgets.”

. . .

2 “Well, right, those people may be out of money.”

. . .

1 “If the television is viewed as a mirror rather than a monitor, what should one make of a string of ads for fortified barley soda interspersed with those huckstering elixirs for erectile dysfunction.”

2 “Potents for potency. The medium is also a microscope into the ‘Land of Skinny People’ where the people have BMIs below 22 and definitely do not reflect their viewers. They hawk products that make a person fat ninety percent of the time and concoctions that purport to make a person skinny ten percent of the time.”

1 “When others talk about ‘thinking inside the box’ are they referring to the big flashing box in the home and the little flashing box in hand?”

2 “A wide body watches a wide out on a wide screen doing battle for his team and town. The viewer should go out and do.”

. . .

1 “Seventy percent of the economy is attributed to consumer spending. The total amount and the percentage of consumer spending in the next few years will be revealing.”

2 “Hard to spend if you have no money and no one will provide any more credit.”

. . .

1 “One thought might be to have parents lease a newborn’s forehead to tattoo an advertisement. You can’t let an unbleached beachhead canvas go untrammeled.”

2 “Start young. The kid surely would develop an affinity for the product or service.”

. . .

1 “Anyone in a political battleground state has been subject to ceaseless fusillades of hate and fear from all quarters for months. In interviews, voters criticize the negative campaigning and yet in the voting booth vote in favor of those behind the vicious attacks. The candidates provide what the public really wants. Each political battle is part of the ceaseless war in American politics to own the government with its ability to plunder from the populace.”

2 “I vote to be a non-combatant.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Mt. / Everest / Sherpas / Prefer / Living / Wage

Occupy Namche Bazaar

Namaste

Peak Oil, Peak Water, Peak Land, Peak Advertising, Peak Peaks

“Don’t mind your make-up, you’d better make your mind up.” Frank Zappa

“If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” Mark Twain

A ‘tax and spend’ Democrat versus a ‘no tax and spend’ Republican.

Vote

Leave a comment »

“Legs Network” Is Big Brother (October 27, 2014)

Posted in Amazon, Consumerism, Elections, Facebook, Google, Internet, Journalism, Markets, Press/Media, Technology, Television on October 27, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1 “While watching late last night, it dawned on me. Big Brother is now privatized and outsourced. The ‘Legs Network’ is Big Brother.”

2 “I like it. The name, that is. The Network provides ideological programming punctuated by ideological advertising. Spin reality and repeat it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and . . . .”

1 “A vile message grounded in fear and repeated and repeated and repeated to advance the interests of the corporate sponsors.”

2 “Over and over and over and over.”

. . .

1 “Female applicants are required to submit photographs of their legs. They know what they are foisting.”

2 “Shoes? Restorative varicose vein surgery? And all of the propagandists are graduates of the Edward L. Bernays School of Disinformation.”

1 “One was a Joe Goebbels Fellow.”

2 “Josephina Goebbels Fellow?”

. . .

1 “A higher percentage of the indoctrinees of the ‘Legs Network’ are living on government assistance than the viewers of public television.”

2 “The governments – federal, state and local – are also even bigger Big Brothers than in the past.”

1 “Every new social media spawns its own monopoly and gestates another Big Brother. Amazon, Google, Facebook, you name it, are all Big Brothers. We need a protective and independent ‘Big Brother’ to protect or at least to inform us. Instead we get a bevy of Orwellian ‘Big Brothers’ that monitor and manipulate us.”

2 “Everyone is in our corner and no one is in our corner.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Big Brothers abound

“Legs Network” is Big Brother

Facebook is Big Brother

Google is Big Brother

Twitter is Big Brother

Amazon is Big Brother

ebay is Big Brother

Zillow is Big Brother

_____ is Big Brother

Are Big Sisters more benign?

[A Pawel Kuczynski sketch of a video camera on a wall focused (and fixated) on a second video camera on the same wall also focused (and fixated) on the first camera.]

Leave a comment »

Excellence In Journalism? Time For A True Trophy (September 24, 2012)

Posted in Awards / Incentives, English Language, Facebook, Google, Journalism, Language, Newspapers, Press/Media, Writing on September 27, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J1 “Awards shape behavior.”

J2 “The palette of Pulitzers runs the spectrum from purple prose to yellow journalism.”

J1 “And the Pulitzers for black and white journalism run the route from The New York Times group of writers to The Washington Post Writers Group, with a few side shows. The trophy could be transported on the Eastern Airlines shuttle between the New York and Washington airports named for political types, with a few side trips.”

J2 “I concede that the Pulitzers generally reward solid work, yet they only consider conventional and narrowly defined writing drawn from an exclusive clique of writers.”

J1 “They are an exclusive group because they exclude not because of excellence. Then the Online News Association Awards emerged to emphasize ‘high-tech bells and whistles’ rather than quality and integrity. The corporate sponsors call the shots. The Googles and the Facebooks buy the beer and balloons and make the party possible. Gobs of gaudy high-tech gadgets on a screen define journalism.”

J2 “But in the end that is what the readership wants. Journalists cannot lose sight of the legitimate needs and concerns of the reader. We need to sell the product without selling out.”

J1 “Journalism needs a new way of thinking and a new award. Awards shape behavior.”

. . .

[J1 = Journalist 1; J2 = . . . ]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Here today, gone today

Where’s the tofu?

Too much sizzle, not enough tofu

Leave a comment »

Archive for the Facebook Category

Pages