Category: MK

For the many low wage Amazon workers — both full time and temporary — set to receive a raise thanks to the just announced boost in minimum pay to $15/hour, the news is certainly a big plus. It should also be noted that had Amazon not been subject to intense scrutiny and criticism from the likes of Bernie Sanders and others, Jeff Bezos never would have responded with such an aggressive move. That said, if you think a little beyond the surface level about why he’s doing this now and what his real motives are, it becomes clear nobody should take this move at face value.

Stacy Mitchell, co-director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, is someone whose work on Amazon I’ve cited on various occasions. She tweeted out an important thread this morning that helps you take a step back and not miss the forest for the trees.

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Big Tech Is Appealing to Congress to Help Get Around California’s New Online Privacy Law (Another reason we need to strongly support states rights, The Intercept)

Trump’s Phony Anti-Globalism Should Fool No-One (Michael Tracey, Spectator USA)

Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access to Your Shadow Contact Information (More shadiness from Facebook, Gizmodo)

Bezos Space Startup Blue Origin to Supply Engines for Boeing-Lockheed Rocket Venture (More evidence of the increasingly close ties between Bezos/Amazon and the U.S. military/surveillance complex, MarketWatch)

Actor James Woods Bashes Twitter After Getting Locked out (AP)

GOP Sees Highest Favorability in Seven Years (Only Democrats could be so bad they make the GOP more popular, CNN)

Why I’m Done with Chrome (Important read, Cryptographic Engineering)

Trump War Whore Celebrates Starvation Of Iranian Civilians At MEK Rally (Caitlin Johnstone, Medium)

Meanwhile, Facebook briefly blocked unfavorable stories about itself, later blaming it on algos.

Oh yes so it is – Facebook is blocking the link to the @AP story about its hack as potential spam h/t @kateconger pic.twitter.com/LOONu4z4Ph

— emily bell (@emilybell) September 28, 2018

U.S. News/Politics 

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Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.

– Ralph Waldo Emmerson

This past Friday, PayPal informed Alex Jones’ Infowars it was severing ties with the website and that it had ten days to find an alternative payment processor. The news transported me back to that summer day a little over six years ago when I first acutely recognized the power and potential of Bitcoin, and then publicly decided to embrace it.

By August 2012, Wikileaks had been under a financial blockade for nearly two years. It was at this point I came across an article by Jon Matonis published in Forbes, detailing the predicament as well as the clear threat this posed to freedom of the press and free speech in general. He noted:

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State Department Team Led by Former Raytheon Lobbyist Pushed Mike Pompeo to Support Yemen War Because of Arms Sales (Despicable doesn’t even begin to describe this, The Intercept)

Pompeo Threatens Iran: ‘They’re Going to Be Held Accountable’ (Pompeo seems to get turned on by needless death and war, CNN)

They Got ‘Everything’: Inside a Demo of NSO Group’s Powerful iPhone Malware (This is terrifying, MotherBoard)

Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China (More creepy shadiness from Google, The Intercept)

Google China Prototype Links Searches to Phone Numbers (The Intercept)

PayPal Bans Alex Jones, Saying He “Promoted Hate” (Extremely bullish for Bitcoin, ArsTechnica)

Amazon Dominates as a Merchant and Platform. Europe Sees Reason to Worry. (Problems are starting for Amazon, The New York Times) 

With Amazon Probe, EU Takes Cue From ‘Hipster’ Antitrust (Terrible title but good article, Bloomberg)

Big Brother: China’s Chilling Dictatorship Moves to Introduce Scorecards to Control Everyone (China is becoming an episode of Black Mirror, News.com.au)

Michael Hudson: The Lehman 10th Anniversary Spin as a Teachable Moment (Excellent article, Naked Capitalism)

Danske Bank CEO Quits over $234 Billion Money Laundering Scandal (Reuters)

U.S. News/Politics

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The deal those bankers cooked up was to save the banks from capitalism.

– From Matt Taibbi’s recent piece: Ten Years After the Crash, We’ve Learned Nothing

While Google executives still attempt to portray themselves as scrappy, enlightened, countercultural tech luminaries, their reaction to Donald Trump’s victory in a recently leaked internal video leaves you wondering whether they understand anything at all about what’s happening around them.

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Ten Years After the Crash, We’ve Learned Nothing (RollingStone)

Leaked Video: Google Leadership’s Dismayed Reaction to Trump Election (Worth watching, Breitbart)

Syrian Rebels in Idlib Target Those Who Might Surrender as Government Assault Looms (Even mainstream media has to admit Idlib is swarming with al-Qaeda terrorists, The Washington Post)

Not in Our Name: Why European Creators Must Oppose the EU’s Proposal to Limit Linking and Censor the Internet (Of course they ended up voting in favor, BoingBoing)

EU Parliament Approves New Copyright Rules That Could Be ‘Catastrophic’ for the Internet (The Independent)

UIDAI’s Aadhaar Software Hacked, ID Database Compromised, Experts Confirm (Huffington Post)

Decentralized Microgridding Can Provide 90% of a Neighborhood’s Energy Needs, Study Finds (Interesting concept, MotherBoard)

U.S. News/Politics

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Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.

– Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

This past Friday, Alex Jones was de-platformed from the last couple of third party tools he had been using to publicly communicate his message after Twitter and Apple permanently banned him and his website Infowars. This means an American citizen with a very large audience who played a meaningful role in the 2016 election, has been banned from all of the most widely used products of communication of our age: Twitter, Facebook, Google’s YouTube and Apple’s iTunes.

You can point out he still has his radio show and website, and this is unquestionably true, but when it comes to the everyday tools most people interact with to receive information and communicate in 2018, Alex Jones has been thrown down the memory hole. Not because he was convicted of a crime or broke any laws, but because corporate executives decided he crossed an arbitrary line of their own creation.

To prove the point that tech oligarchs are acting in a completely arbitrary and subjective manner, let me highlight the following tweet.

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Trump Agrees to an Indefinite Military Effort and New Diplomatic Push in Syria, U.S. Officials Say (This would be very bad, The Washington Post)

‘Five Eyes’ Governments Call on Tech Giants to Build Encryption Backdoors — or Else (Ominous, TechCrunch)

Honest Government Ad | Anti Encryption Law (Related to article above, YouTube)

Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones, Infowars (Zerohedge)

JP Morgan’s Top Quant Warns Next Crisis to Have Flash Crashes and Social Unrest Not Seen in 50 Years (CNBC)

September 5, 2018: Sen. Cotton Q&A During Intelligence Committee Hearing (Must Watch, this is beyond creepy, YouTube)

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration (This is such nonsense, for a unique analysis see link below, The New York Times) 

We Are Being Played (Caitlin Johnstone, Medium)

Saudi Arabia Threatens Prison Time for Satire ‘Disturbing Public Order’ (What an ally, Bloomberg)

Philadelphia-Bound American Airlines Passengers Quarantined After Showing Flu-Like Symptoms, Customs Officials Say (NBC Philadelphia)

The Rise of Post-Truth Liberalism (UnHerd)

U.S. Politics/News

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The sneaky thing about Amazon’s increased dominance in so many key aspects of our lives is that much of the perniciousness is hidden. No one’s going to tell you about all the retailers who have gotten pressured or destroyed via its tactics while you’re happily clicking “add to cart” and smiling about 2-day free shipping. In this sense, it can be best compared to the evils of factory farming. Most people just simply have no idea about the immense damage going on behind the scenes as they indulge in incredible convenience and what looks like a good deal.

– From my November 15, 2017 post: Amazon Poses a Serious Threat to Freedom and Free Markets

Today’s post should be seen as an update to last year’s article referenced above. In the months that have followed, I’ve been consistently frustrated by the lack of interest when it comes to the dangers presented by Amazon and its richest man in the world ($165 billion as of last count) CEO Jeff Bezos. The following Twitter exchange is a good example of what I mean:

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Google and Mastercard Cut a Secret Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales (Bloomberg)

CIA and Saudi Arabia Conspired to Keep 9/11 Details Secret, New Book Says (Newsweek)

Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption (This is a big deal, Australian Government Department of Home Affairs)

CNN, Credibly Accused of Lying to Its Audience About a Key Claim in Its Blockbuster Cohen Story, Refuses to Comment (The Intercept)

CNN Analyst: Criticism of Antifa Is ‘Donald Trump’s Appeal to Racism’ (Unimaginable levels of stupidity, YouTube)

The Other Side of John McCain (Consortium News)

Researchers Find Way to Spy on Remote Screens—Through the Webcam Mic (This is nuts, ArsTechnica)

What Is Freedom? | J. Krishnamurti (Excellent, YouTube)

U.S. News/Politics

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