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Re: Corporate Mendacity and Duplicity
By: AGelbert Date: March 23, 2019, 4:37 pm
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[center]Extended Conversation with Vicky Ward [img
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Web Exclusive MARCH 22, 2019
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[move][font=courier]investigative journalist and author of
Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary
Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.[/font][/move]
Web-only extended interview with investigative journalist Vicky
Ward, author of “Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The
Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.”
[font=times new roman]Transcript[/font]
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War
and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh. Our
guest is Vicky Ward, investigative journalist. Her new book,
Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary
Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
Why don’t we just begin with the title, Vicky?
VICKY WARD: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: Kushner, Inc.
VICKY WARD: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Why did you call it that?
VICKY WARD: Because I think that, you know, all roads, in the
book, lead back to the Kushners’ giant financial problems and
that everything Jared and Ivanka have done in this White House
is about self-service, not public service. You know, these are
people who both grew up in cultures that have extraordinary
disdain for rules, including the rule of law. They think that
rules only apply to other people. You know, I mean, Jared has
very strong feelings about government, going back to what
happened to his father in 2004, when, you know, he pled guilty.
The government, Chris Christie and his team of prosecutors in
New Jersey, had extraordinary leverage. And I think that from—
AMY GOODMAN: Why don’t you tell that story, for those who are
not familiar with what happened? This is before Chris Christie
was governor, prosecutor in New Jersey. And what happened to
Charles Kushner?
VICKY WARD: Well, Charles Kushner pled guilty to basically three
counts: tax fraud, illegal campaign contributions, but the most
sort of scandalous and notorious thing was that he set his own
brother-in-law up in a very sordid sting involving a prostitute,
that was witness tampering. And Christie had a lot of leverage
over him, that I go into in the book, about his personal life
that Charles Kushner did not want out in public, which is why he
pled guilty so quickly. And Jared was aware of a lot of this.
And I think that—you know, I included it in the book because
it’s the only way that you can understand the intensity of the
hatred that I think is engendered in Jared towards Christie, but
towards the system. Right? This is—you know, there’s a Kushner
mentality, and Charles had it, too, that, you know, we’re not
here to—you know, we don’t wait to be accepted by Harvard; we
pay our way into Harvard. You know—
AMY GOODMAN: And explain that.
VICKY WARD: So, Charles Kushner’s company sent a check to
Harvard University for $2.5 million. Jared Kushner ended up
going to Harvard. He was, at his high school, in the third track
of the—in his class, there were five tracks. He was in the
third. No, it was unheard of for anyone in the third track to go
to any Ivy League school, let alone Harvard. And I quote one of
his classmates, who was in the first track, getting—being
rejected by Harvard and crying when she heard that Jared had got
in. And a lot of the teachers were crying. They thought it was
such an abuse of the system.
The Kushners are used to buying—buying their way through life.
They think that money buys everything they need. You know,
during Charles Kushner’s legal troubles—there’s a lawyer I quote
in book who said, with their money, they virtually got him
fired. You know, he said that they knew how to use money. So—
AMY GOODMAN: They got who fired?
VICKY WARD: They didn’t get him fired. He’s a guy called
Theodore Moskowitz. He was involved in Charlie Kushner’s legal
dispute with his brother.
But you asked me a bit bigger question. So that, yeah, there is
this mindset, when Jared and Ivanka go into government, that
rules are for other people. And I think that this is why you see
the unfairness in, for example, the divestment, right?
Everyone—you know, Gary Cohn, Rex Tillerson sell everything in
order to go into the government. Jared Kushner and Ivanka don’t.
I mean, they put most of their things into a trust run by family
members. And, after all, they both come from family businesses.
And then Jared does something extraordinary: He closes the White
House logs, the White House visitor logs, so that no one can see
who he’s meeting with in the White House. And we only discover a
whole year later, when John Kelly says, “No, no, the White House
logs have got to be open,” that he’s met with Citigroup and
Apollo, who have meanwhile given his family firm loans, and he’s
met with Lloyd Blankfein, then the CEO of Goldman Sachs, at a
time when Goldman Sachs had an investment in a company that
Jared had not only actually put—he hadn’t put it on his White
House disclosure form, and he hadn’t divested. I mean, this is—I
mean, this is just remarkable. And no one knew. And the American
people have a right to know who’s going in and out of the White
House.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Jared Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner,
has just written a piece in The Washington Post titled “Here’s
the Truth About My Family and Our Business.” Charles Kushner
writes, quote, “When he left the company, Jared took several
steps to preclude conflicts of interest. At the recommendation
of his legal counsel, in consultation with the Office of
Government Ethics, he divested from more than 80 partnerships,
including 666 Fifth Ave., at a substantial financial sacrifice.
We walled off Jared from receiving information on the company,
and he resigned as the controlling partner in more than 100
entities. This was all done out of an abundance of caution,”
Charles Kushner wrote.
VICKY WARD: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think this also was in response to your
book?
VICKY WARD: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: It was today.
VICKY WARD: Yes. I mean, I think it’s just sad. I mean, there’s
the—it’s just—this is a fantasy. This is version of what Charles
Kushner wishes had happened. I mean, it’s almost more
interesting for the things it leaves out than for what it
actually says. You know, he starts off, and he portrays the
Kushner family as sort of like this cookie-cutter family. No
mention of the sordid scandal and him going to jail. He talks
about the fact that it’s legal to seek foreign investment to
finance trophy buildings in New York. He doesn’t explain that he
had to seek foreign investment, because no one in America would
touch this thing with a 50-foot barge pole. He talks about the
fact that he was bailed out with a 99-year lease. He doesn’t say
that that lease was paid up front. I mean, that’s just unheard
of, and which is why Congress is investigating it. And—
AMY GOODMAN: And you’re saying that Qatar is involved with this
lease?
VICKY WARD: Yes. The Qataris have a $1.8 billion stake in
Brookfield. And, you know, Charlie Kushner has bragged about his
relationship with the Qataris. I knew they were always there.
And the Qataris—if the Qataris want to do this, Brookfield is
not going to turn around and say no. I mean, to pay a 99-year
lease up front, I mean, you’d have to have—any businessperson,
you’d have to have your—for a building that’s worth—you know,
would be better if it was just dirt, you’d have to have your
head examined. It makes absolutely no financial sense.
And to the last point about Jared having no appearance of
conflict of interest, how can he wall himself off from his
family? I mean, this is a family business. And I also say in the
book he has—you know, he’s also had, in the past, a
profit-sharing agreement with his brother, by the way. You know,
clearly, the security agencies don’t agree with Charles Kushner,
because that’s why they wouldn’t give Charles—Jared Kushner a
security clearance.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about the significance of that, that only
recently sort of exploded again, the whole issue of how Jared
Kushner and Ivanka Trump got security clearances, Ivanka Trump
going on television recently and outright saying Trump was not
involved in her security clearance, when in fact—what do you
understand happened?
VICKY WARD: Well, Trump had to override everybody. Absolutely
everybody said, you know, they’re not—they cannot have security
clearances. The—
AMY GOODMAN: You mean everyone in intelligence, who is—
VICKY WARD: Sorry, sorry. Any, yes, career intelligence agency.
And, you know, Trump had to override this. And then, as we know,
he lied about it, and Ivanka lied about it on television. I
mean, for this to be the new norm in our leadership strikes me
as just extraordinarily troubling and dangerous. I mean, you
know, how do you even begin to right a system that’s so broken
and is so dangerous?
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, I want to turn to Ivanka Trump’s recent
appearance on Fox News criticizing the Green New Deal’s proposal
for guaranteed jobs for all Americans.
STEVE HILTON: You’ve got people who will see that offer from the
Democrats, from the progressive Democrats, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez—”Here’s the Green New Deal, here’s a guarantee of
a job”—and think, “Yeah, that’s what I want. That simple.” What
do you say to those people?
IVANKA TRUMP: I don’t think most Americans, in their heart, want
to be given something. They’re—I’ve spent a lot of time
traveling around this country over the last four years. People
want to work for what they get. So I think this idea of a
guaranteed minimum is not something most people want. They want
the ability to be able to secure a job. They want the ability to
live in a country where there’s the potential for upward
mobility.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was Ivanka Trump speaking to Fox News.
Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter
saying, quote, “As a person who actually worked for tips &
hourly wages in my life, instead of having to learn about it
2nd-hand, I can tell you that most people want to be paid enough
to live. A living wage isn’t a gift, it’s a right. Workers are
often paid far less than the value they create,” Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted—
VICKY WARD: Right.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: —in response to Ivanka’s comment. So—
VICKY WARD: Right, right, right. Well, I mean, how out of touch
is she? But, I mean—but, you know, we see this. I mean, you
know, what Jared and Ivanka, I think, don’t realize is that
everyone else in the White House sort of views them as like
Inspector Clouseau, like bumbling incompetence. And the only
people who are aware that—you know, who don’t realize how
incompetent they are, are themselves. I mean, they live in a
reality distortion field.
AMY GOODMAN: So, can we switch gears completely and talk about
what you understand happened with the firing of James Comey—
VICKY WARD: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —and what Jared Kushner’s involvement was?
VICKY WARD: Yes. So this is really important. And I think, you
know, one of the most important reveals, actually, in the book
was that Jared Kushner—the story that Jared Kushner had met with
the Russian ambassador and a Russian banker connected to the
Kremlin during the transition started to come out in the early
spring of 2017. And it was noticed and reported that Jared had
not put any of these meetings, or any of the other meetings he
had with any foreigners, for that matter, on his security
clearance form. That is—that could well be—that’s a felony.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: I mean, you suggest, in fact, that it was Jared
Kushner who was responsible for removing the White House logs—
VICKY WARD: Yes. So—
NERMEEN SHAIKH: —so he could not—you know, so he would be
protected from people knowing about all the people who were
coming to see him at the White House.
VICKY WARD: Yeah. Well, that’s a slightly different thing. This,
that is indeed true and also extraordinary. But the Comey thing
is a little different. You know, Jared’s normal sort of way of
operating with the president was to take him aside and talk
quietly to him. But when it came—so, but once these reports were
out that he hadn’t disclosed these meetings on his security
clearance forms, and by this time the FBI had got—then run by
James Comey—had opened its investigation into whether or not
there was collusion with the Trump campaign and Russia, Jared,
unusually, in front of everybody, in front of a large
group—Bannon was there, but so were lots of others—made an
impassioned plea to the president to fire James Comey. He gave a
three-pronged argument. He said, you know, “The FBI doesn’t like
him. The Democrats don’t like him. And your base will love it.”
Steve Bannon, who is—you know, whatever we all think of his
politics, he’s a wily strategist—thought this was a disastrous
idea, and pushed back. But, obviously, you know, it was Jared
who, I say in the book, was “gung-ho” about this. I mean, he was
very atypically impassioned. Jared swayed the president. And
hence you have Robert Mueller. I mean, James Comey goes, and,
you know, hence we have everything—you know, the extraordinary
events of this ongoing investigation, the special counsel.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let me ask you about Ivanka Trump’s defense of
her father after Charlottesville. We have this famous moment
after the horror of Charlottesville and the killing of Heather
Heyer, the Ku Klux Klan/neo-Nazi march, where President Trump
says this.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think there’s blame on both sides. And
I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it,
either. And–and—
REPORTER 1: But only the Nazis—
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And—and if you reported it accurately,
you would say.
REPORTER 2: One side killed a person. Heather Heyer died—
REPORTER 1: The neo-Nazis started this. They showed up in
Charlottesville. They showed up in Charlottesville—
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Excuse me. Excuse me.
REPORTER 1: —to protest the removal of that statue.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They didn’t put themselves down as
neo—and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also
had people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had
people in that group—excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same
pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were
there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very
important statue and the renaming of a park, from Robert E. Lee
to another name.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s President Trump. “There were fine people on
both sides.”
VICKY WARD: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain where Ivanka Trump then fits into this
story.
VICKY WARD: So, I mean, to me, this is the heart of the book.
It’s the sort of absolute tipping point, because I think it’s
just the most shocking reveal of all. Gary Cohn, whose
grandfather was a Holocaust survivor, an immigrant, came over
here, Jewish—very, very upset by what the president had said.
AMY GOODMAN: His top economic adviser.
VICKY WARD: Yeah, sorry. Yes. And so upset that he decides he’s
going to resign. He goes to New Jersey, where the president has
a home. So do Jared and Ivanka. And he stops in to visit Jared
and Ivanka and explain that he’s going to resign. And
Ivanka—Jared, rather typically, says nothing. Ivanka, to his
amazement, says, “no, no. You know, you don’t get it. My father
is—you know, my father didn’t mean any of that.” But then she
says, “No, my father didn’t say that.”
Gary Cohn had been part of the circle of advisers trying to
manage Trump’s response to Charlottesville, and he knew that not
only had Trump said it, that Trump had said it deliberately. He
had gone against the advice of his advisers. He had picked
out—pulled out a piece of paper. He said those words quite
deliberately. He was horrified at what—at Ivanka’s response. And
he never felt the same way about Jared and Ivanka again. He
didn’t resign, but the reason he didn’t resign was he talked to
Rob Porter, then the staff secretary, who he’s close to, and
Porter said, “You know, we need you to try and get tax reform
through Congress.”
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Vicky Ward, investigative
journalist. Her new book, Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition.
Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka
Trump. We were speaking to you about Ivanka Trump the last time
you were on Democracy Now! You were investigating her business
interests from China to India. What about Jared Kushner’s links
to China? Can you explain them more fully, as you do in the
book?
VICKY WARD: Yeah. So—
AMY GOODMAN: And especially talk about the holding company
Anbang Insurance.
VICKY WARD: Yeah, I think this is one of the things that
actually triggered me to start thinking about writing this book,
is what happened, what we started to learn about Jared and the
Chinese. You know, it was—so, no one knew this. None of his
transition or White House colleagues knew anything about this.
But Jared, the first weekend of the transition, and his father
had a dinner with a major Chinese insurance firm, Anbang, that
they were hoping would bail them out of the 666 Fifth Avenue,
this disastrous money pit. But at the same—in the same time
period in the transition, the Chinese government flew in,
because they were so concerned about what the president said—had
said about Taiwan. And Jared—
AMY GOODMAN: This is before he’s president.
VICKY WARD: Yes, this is the transition.
AMY GOODMAN: Just in the period—the transition period.
VICKY WARD: And Jared and a group of others meet with the
Chinese government officials at the Kushner Companies
headquarters. The whole thing is, you know, wildly, wildly
inappropriate. But Jared doesn’t mention the fact that he’s got
these ongoing talks with this Chinese insurance company, by the
way, whose CEO has gone to jail for a life sentence. And on, I
think it’s January 9th, The New York Times reports news of this
dinner. And all of Jared’s colleagues—you know, Gary Cohn,
Priebus—are just horrified. And Gary Cohn says to Jared, “You
know, you realize, Jared, that from now on, whatever you do,
everyone is just going to assume you’re here to enrich
yourself.”
AMY GOODMAN: The Palestinian negotiator, Erekat, what did he say
about Jared Kushner, as he pushes a, quote, “Middle East peace
plan”? Something around the issue of “he sounds like a real
estate agent”?
VICKY WARD: A real estate, yes, exactly. He did. And, of course,
Jared pushes back and says, “Well, maybe you need a real estate
broker to solve Middle East peace.” I mean, it’s—you know,
again, we come back to this idea, the sort of entitlement, the
disdain of rules, rule of law, the sort of the personal agendas,
self-interest, not the public interest. I mean, and—
NERMEEN SHAIKH: You could say that’s something that’s true of a
large number of people within the Trump administration. The
distinction is that Trump and—that Jared and Ivanka Trump are
relatives of Donald Trump. I mean, would you say that’s the main
problem with them? Therefore they’re not in formal positions for
which they could be faulted for the things that you’re pointing
out, but rather they’re relatives who have access to Trump in a
way that, first of all, gives them power, but without granting
them some kind of formal authority.
VICKY WARD: Well, I think it’s more complicated than that. I
think it’s to do with transparency. I think that the other
members of the Cabinet and the administration are sort of held
to a greater public scrutiny. I mean, you know, all these
things, you know, that Jared has the power to close the logs and
operate in darkness, the fact that he’s—the foreign policy is
conducted in darkness, that it’s the—it’s that they’re kind
of—they, unlike everyone else, are out of the system. And this
is what Reince Priebus couldn’t manage. You know, everyone else,
it’s sort of a bit more transparent, you know, their
conversations with the president. I think the problem with these
two is, we don’t—there’s so much that we don’t know.
AMY GOODMAN: Even though they have official titles, as a senior
advisers.
VICKY WARD: Right. And that’s not OK. I mean, look, if she was
just the first daughter, not a problem. But she’s not. And
that’s where there is a real problem. You know, you can’t go
into government and run it like a family [img
width=20]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718205808.gif[/img]<br
/>real estate business. But that is exactly what’s going on.
AMY GOODMAN: Talking about the family real estate business, what
about the Trump International Hotel, down the street from the
White House, and how it’s being run, who goes there, what they
pay, and then what they’re getting in return?
VICKY WARD: Well, that’s an obvious example of exactly what
we’re talking about, just an extraordinary conflict of interest,
that’s in plain sight. I mean, famously, you know, anyone—all
the foreign entities who are looking to curry favor all stay
there. I mean, you know, and again, Ivanka and her—the Trump
children each have a 7 percent share in that, which actually is
surprisingly little, that Donald Trump didn’t give them more
equity. I mean, that, I think, explains, to some degree, why
Ivanka was so keen to hold onto her fashion line for so long,
even though it was completely inappropriate that she do that,
because Donald Trump gives his children surprisingly little.
It’s an unusual arrangement for a New York real estate family
business. They have surprisingly little equity in his assets.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what about the House Oversight Committee,
Judiciary—
VICKY WARD: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —now that Democrats control the House? What is
being—what do you think should be exposed about Jared Kushner
and Ivanka Trump? What do you think they are most vulnerable on,
as the—as, for example, House Judiciary has demanded—
VICKY WARD: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —documents from 81 businesses and people, but
Ivanka Trump is not one of them?
VICKY WARD: No, but her businesses are—I mean, come up, and
there are a lot of questions about her businesses, as there are
about Jared and his businesses. You know, I hope that House
Oversight asks more people. I mean, I think that it’d be—you
know, I that talking to Jared’s brother—I mean, there are
questions about conflicts of interest. You know, just a
question. And, you know, it seems clear that Gary Cohn would be
a useful person to interview, given that he had a prior
knowledge of some of the Kushner brothers’ partnerships.
AMY GOODMAN: Because?
VICKY WARD: Because Goldman Sachs, which is where Gary Cohn used
to work, was an investor. So, I hope that—you know, I think that
one way to look at it is that the investigations coming out of
Congress now are going to give us a road map. They’re the sort
of what. And I hope that my book is the why, if that makes
sense.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me ask you specifically about another
issue, very important: BFPS.
VICKY WARD: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain what that is, how this ties into the whole
debate around healthcare, Obamacare, around the Affordable Care
Act.
VICKY WARD: Right. So, BFPS is on Jared Kushner’s White House
disclosure forms. It stands for “brothers first, partners
second.” The way he described it to someone he was trying to
hire, three years ago, before he went into the government, was
that it’s a profit-sharing vehicle with his brother Josh,
whereby each brother splits 50 percent of each of their
businesses with each other. Charles Kushner, I report in the
book, liked this arrangement, because Charles Kushner had a
famous disastrous feud with his own brother about money. So he
thought it would be great if these two split their profits
50-50, avoid any fighting.
Now, Josh Kushner says that currently there is no profit-sharing
arrangement between them—very precise use of the tense. But Gary
Cohn knew that they still had—you know, that Jared still has a
stake in a company called Cadre, that he founded with Josh
Kushner, his brother, and he kept that stake when he went into
the government. He didn’t disclose it on his financial forms.
Instead, he rolled it up in BFPS.
AMY GOODMAN: Brothers first, partners second.
VICKY WARD: Yes. So, yes. So—
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking about Thrive. We’re talking about
Cadre. We’re talking about Oscar insurance.
VICKY WARD: Oscar—well, so, it’s a little tricky. So, Oscar
Health insurance is a business that Josh Kushner started. It’s a
health insurance business that’s worth—or it was worth, at the
time, at the beginning of the administration, $2.7 billion. And
because Gary Cohn knew that there was this web of entanglement,
or that certainly existed in the past, and he knew—he did know
that Jared still had a stake in Cadre with his brother, he was
very concerned when Jared kept bringing up his brother’s name
during discussions of repeal-and-replace. And, you know, Jared—
AMY GOODMAN: Repealing Obamacare.
VICKY WARD: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Jared—because Josh’s business,
the success of it, is entirely predicated on Obamacare, it’d be
disastrous if it had been repealed, for Oscar, this $2.7 billion
business. So when Jared kept saying—you know, mentioning Josh,
Gary Cohn was really, really uncomfortable. And then Joel Klein,
who works for Josh, reached out to Gary Cohn with suggestions of
how he thought healthcare should be shaped. And Gary Cohn says
in the book that he was really uncomfortable about this. Now,
Joel Klein says, “I was just doing—I was doing what anyone in my
position would do.” You know, but given the background and given
these business partnerships, I think Gary Cohn was really
troubled. And rightly so.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you don’t name a lot of your sources.
VICKY WARD: No.
AMY GOODMAN: And that’s one of the criticisms of the book—
VICKY WARD: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —is that it’s based on so many unnamed sources.
Why?
VICKY WARD: Well, if you look at any book about a White House
that’s written contemporaneously, they’re not on the record. I
mean, even the great Bob Woodward is full of anonymous sources.
And with this White House in particular, that is known to be so
punitive, people are very frightened to go on the record. You
know, Washington is an ecosystem. These people’s livelihoods
depend on their relationship with the White House. So the only
way you can get around—you know, you can really try and be as
accurate as possible is to double- or triple-source everything.
And, you know, so I made it a point of principle not to take one
person’s word—you asked me earlier about Steve Bannon—absolutely
never to take what somebody like he might have said, you know,
as gospel, that it had to be run past other people who had
direct knowledge of what happened in the room.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: But there are a couple of moments where you say,
“He thought to himself,” Bannon thought to himself. That can’t
possibly be verified by anybody else.
VICKY WARD: Yeah, it’s a—so, that would have been checked. I
mean, that’s not in there without, you know, yes, I would have
known. I would have had access to what he thought in those
instances, and he is aware of that.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’ll leave it there. At the end, an unnamed
source says to you, “Wait until they’re out of power.”
VICKY WARD: Oh, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: “I’ll tell you the real story then.” Vicky Ward,
investigative journalist. Her new book is titled Kushner, Inc.:
Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared
Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
To see Part 1 of our discussion
HTML https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/21/kushner_inc_vicky_ward_on_how,<br
/>go to democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
The original content of this program is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works
3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this
work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program
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HTML https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/22/extended_conversation_with_vicky_ward_on
#Post#: 11871--------------------------------------------------
Re: Corporate Mendacity and Duplicity
By: AGelbert Date: March 24, 2019, 4:47 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]Beto O’Rourke: Corporate or Progressive
Democrat?[/center]
March 24, 2019
O’Rourke is a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a caucus
with close connections to the finance, insurance and real estate
industries; Beto calls himself a progressive Democrat – with
Jacqueline Luqman, Norman Solomon and host Paul Jay
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/IHNJc73EArE[/center]
HTML https://therealnews.com/stories/beto-orourke-corporate-or-progressive-democrat
Agelbert NOTE: Beto is a stalking horse for the Fossil Fuel
Industry. He will lie about EVERYTHING just to get elected.
Follow the MONEY that gave this crook all his support and you
will see through Mr. O’Rourke's BULLSHIT.
[center][img
width=640]
HTML https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2W28Ik1wiRY/maxresdefault.jpg[/img][/center]
#Post#: 11935--------------------------------------------------
Re: Corporate Mendacity and Duplicity
By: AGelbert Date: March 30, 2019, 1:07 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Sat, 03/30/2019 - 12:02
[center]Facebook [img
width=40]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-311013200859.png[/img]<br
/>'Accidentally' [img
width=40]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718202127.gif[/img]<br
/>Scrubs Years Of [color=red]Mark Zuckerberg's [img
width=20]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-250817135149.gif[/img]<br
/>Old Posts[/color]
HTML https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-30/facebook-accidentally-scrubs-years-mark-zuckerbergs-old-postsmeline[/center]
[quote]Facebook 'accidentally' deleted old posts by CEO Mark
Zuckerberg during pivotal periods in the company's history"
[img
width=20]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-311013201314.png[/img]
... " Mark's posts were mistakenly deleted due to technical
errors. The work required to restore them would have been
extensive and not guaranteed to be successful so we didn't do
it" [img
width=80]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-191017140758.jpeg[/img]
Yeahhhh, restoring files from a back up is extremely cumbersome
and thus never done. So ... we truly understand. [img
width=30]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-280515145049.png[/img]<br
/> [img
width=30]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-051113192052.png[/img]<br
/>
Thankfully, though [img
width=20]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp[/img],<br
/>the "technical errors" only targeted specific posts and period
s
in Marky's timeline and not everything ... unlike those
"technical errors" that continually take down the entire
accounts and histories of anyone who has an independent thought
that goes against the [img
width=50]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418203402.gif[/img]<br
/>establishment or that FB's "independent and wholly objective
🐉🐵👹reviewers🦍😈🐍"
deem worthy of
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-040718162656-14241872.gif<br
/>extermination.[/quote]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-301014183629.gif<br
/>[img
width=120]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-120818204546.gif[/img]<br
/>
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-300115234833.gif
[quote]People of every culture, religion and ethnicity have
believed that Evil exists in some form. Zuckerberg is a
handmaiden to the Anti-Christ or whatever ultimate form of evil
you believe in. This dude is seriously bad.[/quote]
True. [img
width=80]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418202709.png[/img]<br
/>
[center][img
width=640]
HTML https://ofcommonsense.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/free-choice-not-consequences.jpg[/img][/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/pEqWCH_4srU[/center]
#Post#: 11968--------------------------------------------------
Re: Corporate Mendacity and Duplicity
By: AGelbert Date: April 3, 2019, 11:34 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday April 03, 2019 · 9:55 AM EDT
[center]Elizabeth Warren: Corporate executives [img
width=20]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-311013201314.png[/img]http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418193910.gif<br
/>must face jail time
HTML http://www.smiley-lol.com/smiley/exagerent/police/enprison.gif<br
/>for overseeing massive scams
HTML https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/4/3/1847417/-Elizabeth-Warren-Corporate-executives-must-face-jail-time-for-overseeing-massive-scams[/center]
#Post#: 12763--------------------------------------------------
Re: Corporate Mendacity and Duplicity
By: Surly1 Date: June 29, 2019, 8:51 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
On our way down the drain, at least we'll know our scores. Well,
maybe some of them.
Everyone’s Got a “Surveillance Score” and It Can Cost You BIG
Money
HTML https://www.theorganicprepper.com/everyones-got-a-surveillance-score-and-it-can-cost-you-big-money/
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class="swp_label">SHARES</span></span></div> </div> <h3>
By
Dagny Taggart</h3> <p>In these <a
href="
HTML https://www.theorganicprepper.com/surveillance-tech-orwellian/"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Orwellian times</a>,
when it is revealed that yet another government agency is spying
on us in yet another way, most of us aren’t one bit
surprised. Being surveilled nearly everywhere we go (and even in
our own homes) has become the norm,
unfortunately.</p> <p>Yesterday, <a
href="
HTML https://www.technewsworld.com/story/86101.html"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">it was revealed</a>
that the NSA improperly collected Americans’ call and text
logs in November 2017 and in February and October 2018 –
just months after the agency claimed it was going to delete the
620 million-plus call detail records it already had
stockpiled.</p> <p>But this article isn’t about
that.</p> <p>It is about something far more
insidious.</p> <h2>When it comes to spying on people, the
government has competition.</h2> <p>The Chinese government
is currently implementing a <a
href="
HTML https://www.theorganicprepper.com/social-credit-system-coming-to-america/"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">social credit
system</a> to monitor its 1.3 billion citizens (China already
has 200 million public surveillance cameras). Facial recognition
technology and personal data from cell phones and digital
transactions are being used to collect intimate details about
people’s lives, including their purchasing habits and whom
they socialize with.</p> <p>The gathered data is used to
create mandatory social credit ratings for every citizen. These
ratings will score citizens’ “general
worthiness” and provide those with higher scores
opportunities like access to jobs, loans, and travel. Those with
lower scores will not have access to those
opportunities.</p> <p>While the United States government has
yet to implement such a system, <em>companies</em> in the
country are, <a
href="
HTML https://thehill.com/policy/technology/450084-advocates-push-ftc-crackdown-on-secret-consumer-scores"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reports The
Hill</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Consumer advocates are
pushing regulators to investigate what they paint as a shadowy
online practice where retailers use consumer information
collected by data brokers to decide how much to charge
individual customers or the quality of service they’ll
offer.</p> <p>#REPRESENT, a public interest group run by the
Consumer Education Foundation in California, <a
href="
HTML https://www.representconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019.06.24-FTC-Letter-Surveillance-Scores.pdf"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">filed a complaint</a
>
with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday asking the
agency to investigate what the group is calling
“surveillance scoring” of customers’ financial
status or creditworthiness. (<a
href="
HTML https://thehill.com/policy/technology/450084-advocates-push-ftc-crackdown-on-secret-consumer-scores"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">source</a>)</p> </blockquote> <h2>Companies
are using Secret Surveillance Scores to evaluate
you.</h2> <p>The opening paragraphs of the <a
href="
HTML https://www.representconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019.06.24-FTC-Letter-Surveillance-Scores.pdf"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">38-page complaint</a
>
are chilling:</p> <blockquote> <p>Major American
corporations, including online and retail businesses, employers
and landlords are using Secret Surveillance Scores to charge
some people higher prices for the same product than others, to
provide some people with better customer services than others,
to deny some consumers the right to purchase services or buy or
return products while allowing others to do so and even to deny
people housing and jobs.</p> <p>The Secret Surveillance
Scores are generated by a shadowy group of privacy-busting firms
that operate in dark recesses of the American marketplace. They
collect thousands or even tens of thousands of intimate details
of each person’s life – enough information, it is
thought, to literally predetermine a person’s behavior
– either directly or through data brokers. Then, in what
is euphemistically referred to as “data analytics,”
the firms’ engineers write software algorithms that
instruct computers to parse a person’s data trail and
develop a digital “mug shot.” Eventually, that
individual profile is reduced to a number – the score
– and transmitted to corporate clients looking for ways to
take advantage of, or even avoid, the consumer. The scoring
system is automatic and instantaneous. None of this is disclosed
to the consumer: the existence of the algorithm, the application
of the Surveillance Score or even that they have become the
victim of a technological scheme that just a few years ago would
appear only in a dystopian science fiction novel. (<a
href="
HTML https://www.representconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019.06.24-FTC-Letter-Surveillance-Scores.pdf"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">source</a>)</p> </blockquote> <h2>These
scores are used to discriminate based on
income.</h2> <p>Written by lawyers Laura Antonini, the
policy director of the Consumer Education Foundation, and Harvey
Rosenfield, who leads the foundation, the complaint highlights
four areas in which companies are using surveillance scoring:
pricing, customer service, fraud prevention, and housing and
employment.</p> <p>“This is a way for companies to
discriminate against users based on income and wealth,”
Antonini <a
href="
HTML https://thehill.com/policy/technology/450084-advocates-push-ftc-crackdown-on-secret-consumer-scores"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told The Hill</a>.
“It can range from monetary harm or basic necessities of
life that you’re not getting.”</p> <p>Antonini
and Rosenfield argue that the practices outlined in the
complaint are illegal – and that consumers are largely
unaware that they’re being secretly evaluated in ways that
can influence how much they pay online.</p> <p>“The
ability of corporations to target, manipulate and discriminate
against Americans is unprecedented and inconsistent with the
principles of competition and free markets,” <a
href="
HTML https://www.representconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019.06.24-FTC-Letter-Surveillance-Scores.pdf"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the complaint
reads</a>. “Surveillance scoring promotes inequality by
empowering companies to decide which consumers they want to do
business with and on what terms, weeding out the people who they
deem less valuable. Such discrimination is as much a threat to
democracy as it is to a free market.”</p> <h2>Stores
are using this scoring system to charge you higher
prices.</h2> <p>Here’s more detail, <a
href="
HTML https://thehill.com/policy/technology/450084-advocates-push-ftc-crackdown-on-secret-consumer-scores"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">from The
Hill</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The filing points to a <a
href="
HTML http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/cbw/static/pdf/imc151-hannak.pdf#_ga=2.168469798.626541938.1547520668-169367495.1547520668"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2014 Northeastern
University study</a> exploring the ways that companies like Home
Depot and Walmart use consumer data to customize prices for
different customers. Rosenfield and Antonini replicated the
study using an online tool that compares prices that
they’re charged on their own computers with their own data
profiles versus the prices charged to a user browsing sites
through an anonymized computer server with no data
history.</p> <p>What they found was that Walmart and Home
Depot were offering lower prices on a number of products to the
anonymous computer. In the search results for “white
paint” on Home Depot’s website, Rosenfield and
Antonini were seeing higher prices for six of the first 24 items
that popped up.</p> <p>In one example, a five-gallon tub of
Glidden premium exterior paint would have cost them $119
compared with $101 for the anonymous computer.</p> <p>A
similar pattern emerged on Walmart’s website. The two
lawyers found the site was charging them more on a variety of
items compared with the anonymous web tool, including paper
towels, highlighters, pens and paint.</p> <p>One paper towel
holder cost $10 less for the blank web user. (<a
href="
HTML https://thehill.com/policy/technology/450084-advocates-push-ftc-crackdown-on-secret-consumer-scores"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">source</a>)</p> </blockquote> <p>To see
screenshots of different “personalized” prices shown
for items from Home Depot and Walmart, please see <a
href="
HTML https://www.representconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019.06.24-FTC-Letter-Surveillance-Scores.pdf"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pages 12-16</a> of t
he
complaint. The examples presented demonstrate just how much
these inflated prices for common household goods can really add
up.</p> <h2>The travel industry is particularly
sneaky.</h2> <p>A few days ago, we reported on <a
href="
HTML https://www.theorganicprepper.com/hidden-fees-could-be-costing-you-thousands-of-dollars-heres-how-to-protect-yourself/"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hidden fees that cou
ld
be costing you big bucks</a>. The travel industry is a
particularly large offender when it comes to sneaky fees, and
they are also implicated in this
scheme:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Travelocity.</strong
>
Software developer Christian Bennefeld, founder of etracker.com
and eBlocker.com, did a sample search for hotel rooms in Paris
on Travelocity in 2017 using his eBlocker device, which
“allows him to act as if he were searching from two
different” computers. Bennefeld found that when he
performed the two searches at the same time, there was a $23
difference in Travelocity’s prices for the Hotel Le Six in
Paris.</p> <p><strong>CheapTickets.</strong> The
Northeastern Price Discrimination Study found that the online
bargain travel site CheapTickets offers reduced prices on hotels
to consumers who are logged into an account with CheapTickets,
compared to those who proceed as “guests.” We
performed our own search of airfares on CheapTickets without
being logged in. We searched for flights from LAX to Las Vegas
for April 5 through April 8, 2019. Our searches produced
identical flight results in the same order, but Mr.
Rosenfield’s prices were all quoted at three dollars
higher than Ms. Antonini’s.</p> <p><strong>Other
travel websites.</strong> The Northeastern Price Discrimination
Study found that Orbitz also offers reduced prices on hotels to
consumers who were logged into an account (Orbitz has been
accused of quoting higher prices to Mac users versus PC users
because Mac users have a higher household income); Expedia and
Hotels.com steer a subset of users toward more expensive hotels;
and Priceline acknowledges it “personalizes search results
based on a user’s history of clicks and purchases. (<a
href="
HTML https://www.representconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019.06.24-FTC-Letter-Surveillance-Scores.pdf"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">source</a>)</p> </blockquote> <h2>There is
an industry that exists to evaluate you and sell your data to
companies.</h2> <p>The complaint also describes an industry
that offers retailers evaluations of their customers’
“trustworthiness” to determine whether they are a
potential risk for fraudulent returns. One such firm –
called Sift – offers these evaluations to major companies
like Starbucks and Airbnb. <a
href="
HTML https://sift.com/archive/spring-2019-release"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sift boasts on its
website</a> that it can tailor “user experiences based on
16,000+ real-time signals – putting good customers in the
express lane and stopping bad customers from reaching the
checkout.”</p> <p>The Hill contacted Sift for comment,
and the company was not able to respond. But, back in April, a
Sift spokesperson told <a
href="
HTML https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secret-trust-scores-companies-use-to-judge-us-all-11554523206"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Wall Street
Journal</a> that it rates customers on a scale of 0 to 100,
likening it to a credit score for
trustworthiness.</p> <p>While credit scores can wreak havoc
on a person’s ability to make big purchases (and
sometimes, gain employment), they at least are transparent.
Surveillance scoring is not. There is NO transparency for
consumers, and Rosenfield and Antonini argue that companies are
using them to engage in illegal discrimination while users have
little recourse to correct false information about them or
challenge their ratings.</p> <h2>We are being spied on and
scored on a wide variety of factors.</h2> <p>“In the
World Privacy Forum’s landmark study “The Scoring of
America: How Secret Consumer Scores Threaten Your Privacy and
Future,” authors Pam Dixon and Bob Gellman identified
approximately 44 scores currently used to predict the actions of
consumers,” the <a
href="
HTML https://www.representconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019.06.24-FTC-Letter-Surveillance-Scores.pdf"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">complaint</a>
explains:</p> <blockquote> <p>These
include:</p> <p>The Medication Adherence Score, which
predicts whether a consumer is likely to follow a medication
regimen;</p> <p>The Health Risk Score, which predicts how
much a specific patient will cost an insurance
company;</p> <p>The Consumer Profitability Score, which
predicts which households may be profitable for a company and
hence desirable customers;</p> <p>The Job Security score,
which predicts a person’s future income and ability to pay
for things;</p> <p>The Churn Score, which predicts whether a
consumer is likely to move her business to another
company;</p> <p>The Discretionary Spending Index, which
scores how much extra cash a particular consumer might be able
to spend on non-necessities;</p> <p>The Invitation to Apply
Score, which predicts how likely a consumer is to respond to a
sales offer;</p> <p>The Charitable Donor Score, which
predicts how likely a household is to make significant
charitable donations;</p> <p>The Pregnancy Predictor Score,
which predicts the likelihood of someone getting pregnant. (<a
href="
HTML https://www.representconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019.06.24-FTC-Letter-Surveillance-Scores.pdf"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">source</a>)</p> </blockquote> <h2>The
government isn’t doing anything to stop these
practices.</h2> <p>Back in 2014, the Federal Trade
Commission held a workshop on a practice they call
“predictive scoring” but the agency has done little
since to reign in the practice. Antonini said that their
complaint is pushing the agency to reexamine the industry and
investigate whether it violates laws against unfair and
deceptive business practices, <a
href="
HTML https://thehill.com/policy/technology/450084-advocates-push-ftc-crackdown-on-secret-consumer-scores"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to The
Hill</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>“It’s far, far
worse than when they looked at it in 2014,” she said.
“There’s an exponentially larger amount of data
that’s being collected about the American public
that’s in the hands of data brokers and companies. Their
ability to process that data and write algorithms have also
improved exponentially.” (<a
href="
HTML https://thehill.com/policy/technology/450084-advocates-push-ftc-crackdown-on-secret-consumer-scores"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">source</a>)</p> </blockquote> <p>We seem to
be past the point of expecting our data to remain private, The
<a
href="
HTML https://www.representconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019.06.24-FTC-Letter-Surveillance-Scores.pdf"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Introduction</a> to
the complaint begins with a passage that sums up reality for us
now:</p> <blockquote> <p>This Petition does not ask the
Commission to investigate the collection of Americans’
personal information. The battle over whether Americans’
personal data can be collected is over, and, as of this moment
at least, consumers have lost. Consumers are now victims of an
unavoidable corporate surveillance
capitalism.</p> <p>Rather, this Petition highlights a
disturbing evolution in how consumers’ data is deployed
against them. (<a
href="
HTML https://www.representconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019.06.24-FTC-Letter-Surveillance-Scores.pdf"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">source</a>)</p> </blockquote> <h2>We
can’t go anywhere without being surveilled
now.</h2> <p>It is now impossible to shop in any large chain
stores without being spied on. Stores are starting to use
“smart coolers”, which are refrigerators equipped
with cameras that scan shoppers’ faces and <a
href="
HTML https://www.coolerscreens.com/product/"
target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"
data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'0',r'None'">make
inferences </a>on their age and gender. And, a recent article
from <a
href="
HTML https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-video-surveillance-watch"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Futurism</a> describ
es
how security cameras are no longer being used solely to reduce
theft:</p> <blockquote> <p>“Instead of just
keeping track of who’s in a store, surveillance systems
could use facial recognition to determine peoples’
identities and gathering even more information about them. That
data would then be out there, with no opportunity to opt out.
(<a
href="
HTML https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-video-surveillance-watch"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">source</a>)</p> </blockquote> <p>A new <a
href="
HTML https://www.aclu.org/report/dawn-robot-surveillance"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ACLU report</a> titl
ed
“The Dawn of Robot Surveillance” describes how
emerging AI technology enables security companies to constantly
monitor and collect data about people.</p> <p>“Growth
in the use and effectiveness of artificial intelligence
techniques has been so rapid that people haven’t had time
to assimilate a new understanding of what is being done, and
what the consequences of data collection and privacy invasions
can be,” <a
href="
HTML https://www.aclu.org/report/dawn-robot-surveillance"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the report</a>
concludes.</p> <h2>What do you think?</h2> <p>Do you
think it is too late to stop all of this surveillance? Does it
concern you? Have you noticed surveillance cameras in your
community and in stores? Please share your thoughts in the
comments.</p> <h3>About the Author</h3> <p><em>Dagny
Taggart is the pseudonym of an experienced journalist who needs
to maintain anonymity to keep her job in the public eye. Dagny
is non-partisan and aims to expose the half-truths,
misrepresentations, and blatant lies of the
MSM.</em></p> <p></p>[/html]
#Post#: 12818--------------------------------------------------
Why Facebook is so toxic
By: AGelbert Date: July 8, 2019, 4:53 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]Why Facebook is so toxic[/center]
[center]It was DESIGNED to be that way >:([/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/mV6HWDYQ56Y[/center]
Interview with Sam Vaknin
The original public Internet has a completely different
character. Zuckerberg and company deliberately introduced
psychologically toxic elements into its design to encourage
"engagement" to generate maximum page views and advertising.
What it really did was empower 👹 psychopaths.
The complete interview is here. Pretty profound and worth a
look:
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/dmXcjvL9VSc[/center]
HTML http://www.nextworldtv.com/videos/health-and-wellness/why-facebook-is-so-toxic.html
#Post#: 13154--------------------------------------------------
Re: Corporate Mendacity and Duplicity
By: AGelbert Date: August 7, 2019, 1:46 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center][img
width=320]
HTML https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Z44iOjpLKZ8QHQKQbMvQXjK2GBIb1m27FJceyjmyfqQy0gO9TZx_oU3v8NMQFdfhTH4ZmUWyzJzAYKvupVYXhEBoMn_16iCy5ldx2aJ2LNG2VqY22Z63HSqDSTpj=s0-d-e1-ft#https://media.mercola.com/ImageServer/public/2019/August/EN-20190807-1.jpg[/img]<br
/>[img
width=225]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-200419205434.png[/img][/center]
[center]Coca-Cola [img
width=20]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-311013201314.png[/img]<br
/>Wants to Add This to Sodas, Are They Serious?[/center]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-111018132401-16881856.gif<br
/>It's nothing short of a hoax, as it will do absolutely nothing
to change the detrimental impact of its beverages. Plus, the
latest 'functional junk food' fad used to give the sweet stuff
an aura of healthiness - where will the smoke and [img
width=60]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-080419191019.png[/img]<br
/>mirrors end?
Full article: [img
width=50]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418200416.png[/img]<br
/>
[center]Coca-Cola [img
width=20]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-311013201314.png[/img]<br
/>seeks revision of fortification guideline
HTML https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/08/07/coca-cola-seeks-revision-of-fortification-guideline.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20190807Z1&et_cid=DM305824&et_rid=680877125[/center]
#Post#: 13551--------------------------------------------------
For Decades, Polluters Knew PFAS Chemicals Were Dangerous But Hi
d Risks From Public
By: AGelbert Date: September 9, 2019, 11:15 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]For Decades, Polluters Knew PFAS Chemicals Were
Dangerous But Hid Risks From Public >:([/center]
As far back as 1950, studies conducted by 3M showed that the
family of toxic fluorinated chemicals now known as PFAS could
build up in our blood. By the 1960s, animal studies conducted by
3M and DuPont revealed that PFAS chemicals could pose health
risks. But the companies kept the studies secret from their
employees and the public for decades. Here is a timeline of
internal memos, studies and other company documents detailing
the two companies’ history of deception.
View Timeline of Corporate [img
width=20]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-311013201314.png[/img]<br
/>Deception:
HTML https://www.ewg.org/pfastimeline/?emci=0c1bfae6-04d3-e911-bcd0-2818784d4349&emdi=61b11fed-04d3-e911-bcd0-2818784d4349&ceid=1975104&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=201909PFASNews&utm_medium=email<br
/>
#Post#: 14302--------------------------------------------------
Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty exposes Mark Zuckerberg’s civil rights bl
indspots
By: AGelbert Date: November 6, 2019, 4:47 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center][img
width=30]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-210614221847.gif[/img]<br
/>Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty exposes 😈 Mark Zuckerberg’s civ
il
rights blindspots[/center]
2,314 views•Oct 23, 2019
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/betiae0_1H0[/center]
Daily Kos
10.9K subscribers
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) grills Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on
his seemingly apathetic views on civil rights and diversity.
Category News & Politics
#Post#: 14314--------------------------------------------------
Sanders: Time to Break Up Facebook
By: Surly1 Date: November 7, 2019, 8:53 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Time to 'Break Facebook Up,' Sanders Says After Leaked Docs Show
Social Media Giant 'Treated User Data as a Bargaining Chip'
HTML https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/06/time-break-facebook-sanders-says-after-leaked-docs-show-social-media-giant-treated?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email
"As I have been saying the privacy frame is bullshit," said
another critic. "Facebook is all about criminal behavior to
monopolize ad money."
[html]<div> <div> <div> <div
itemprop="description"> <p></p> </div> </div> </
div> </div> <div> <div>by</div> <div><span
itemprop="author" itemscope=""
itemtype="
HTML http://schema.org/Person"><a<br
/>href="
HTML https://www.commondreams.org/author/jessica-corbett-staff-writer"<br
/>target="_blank"><span itemprop="name">Jessica Corbett, staff
writer</span></a></span></div> </div> <div
data-app-id="6840204" data-app-id-name="headline_above_content"
data-app="share_buttons" data-title="Time to 'Break Facebook
Up,' Sanders Says After Leaked Docs Show Social Media Giant
'Treated User Data as a Bargaining Chip'"
data-link="
HTML https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/06/time-break-facebook-sanders-says-after-leaked-docs-show-social-media-giant-treated"<br
/>data-summary=""> <div ng-show="ready"
ng-class="containerClasses" ng-controller="AppCtrl as appCtrl"
translate="no" orientation="horizontal"
ng-hide="disabled"> <div ng-=""
ng-class="canvasClasses"> <div ng-mouseenter="onHover=true"
ng-mouseleave="onHover=false"
ng-class="{'shareaholic-share-buttons-wrapper-with-headline' :
config.appName !== 'floated_share_buttons' &&
headlineConfig.arrow}"></div> </div> </div> </div>&#
13;<div></div> <div> <div> <div> <div
itemscope="" itemprop="image"
itemtype="
HTML http://schema.org/ImageObject"><img<br
/>src="
HTML https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/headlines/gettyimages-962130594_0_0.png?itok=51tvSde5"<br
/>width="955" height="500" alt="Mark Zuckerberg"
/></div> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div>
3;<div> <p>Mark
Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook,
attends the Viva Tech start-up and technology gathering at Parc
des Expositions Porte de Versailles on May 24, 2018 in Paris.
(Photo: Christophe Morin/IP3/Getty
Images)</p> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div>
<div> <div
itemprop="articleBody"> <p>After <em>NBC News</em> on
Wednesday published a trove of leaked documents that show how
Facebook "treated user data as a bargaining chip with external
app developers," White House hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders
declared that it is time "to break Facebook up."</p> <p>When
British investigative journalist Duncan Campbell first shared
the trove of documents with a handful of media outlets including
<em>NBC News</em> in April, journalists Olivia Solon and Cyrus
Farivar <a
href="
HTML https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-leveraged-facebook-user-data-fight-rivals-help-friends-n994706">reported</a><br
/>that "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg oversaw plans to consolidat
e
the social network's power and control competitors by treating
its users' data as a bargaining chip, while publicly proclaiming
to be protecting that data."</p> <p>With the publication
Wednesday of nearly 7,000 pages of records—which include
internal Facebook emails, web chats, notes, presentations, and
spreadsheets—journalists and the public can now have a
closer look at exactly how the company was using the vast amount
of data it collects when it came to bargaining with third
parties.</p> <p>Technically still under protective order in
a California state civil lawsuit that the startup app developer
Six4Three filed against Facebook in 2015, the leaked documents
from the case include 3,799 pages of <a
href="
HTML https://dataviz.nbcnews.com/projects/20191104-facebook-leaked-documents/assets/facebook-sealed-exhibits.pdf">sealed<br
/>exhibits</a>, 2,737 pages of <a
href="
HTML https://dataviz.nbcnews.com/projects/20191104-facebook-leaked-documents/assets/facebook-exhibits.pdf">exhibits</a>,<br
/>415 pages of related <a
href="
HTML https://dataviz.nbcnews.com/projects/20191104-facebook-leaked-documents/assets/facebook-discovery-notes.pdf">notes<br
/>and summaries</a>, and a 20-page <a
href="
HTML https://dataviz.nbcnews.com/projects/20191104-facebook-leaked-documents/assets/facebook-memorandum.pdf">memorandum</a><br
/>(pdfs). More than 1,000 pages are labeled "highly
confidential."</p> <p>According to Solon and Farivar of
<em>NBC</em>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Taken together, they
show how Zuckerberg, along with his board and management team,
found ways to tap Facebook users' data—including
information about friends, relationships, and photos—as
leverage over the companies it partnered with. In some cases,
Facebook would reward partners by giving them preferential
access to certain types of user data while denying the same
access to rival companies.</p> <p>For example, Facebook gave
Amazon <a
href="
HTML https://dataviz.nbcnews.com/projects/20191104-facebook-leaked-documents/assets/facebook-sealed-exhibits.pdf#page=575"<br
/>target="_blank">special access to user data because it was
spending money on Facebook advertising</a>. In another case the
messaging app <a
href="
HTML https://dataviz.nbcnews.com/projects/20191104-facebook-leaked-documents/assets/facebook-sealed-exhibits.pdf#page=1029"<br
/>target="_blank">MessageMe was cut off from access to data</a>
because it had grown too popular and could compete with
Facebook.</p> <p>All the while, Facebook planned to publicly
frame these moves as a way to protect user privacy, the
documents show.</p> </blockquote> <p>Open Markets
Institute fellow Matt Stoller <a
href="
HTML https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1192105432044785664">tweeted</a><br
/>in response to <em>NBC</em>'s report Wednesday: "As I have bee
n
saying the privacy frame is bullshit. Facebook is all about
criminal behavior to monopolize ad money."</p> <p>The
document dump comes as Facebook and Zuckerberg are facing <a
href="
HTML https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/28/hundreds-facebook-employees-ceo-zuckerberg-free-speech-and-paid-speech-are-not-same">widespread<br
/>criticism</a> over the company's political advertising policy,
which allows candidates for elected office to lie in the ads
they pay to circulate on the platform. It also comes as 47 state
attorneys general, led by Letitia James of New York, <a
href="
HTML https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/47-attorneys-general-are-investigating-facebook-antitrust-violations-n1070021?cid=public-rss_20191026">are<br
/>investigating </a>the social media giant for antitrust
violations.</p> <p><em>The Week</em>'s national
correspondent Ryan Cooper, who also responded to <em>NBC</em>'s
report on Twitter, <a
href="
HTML https://twitter.com/ryanlcooper/status/1192125564032819201">wrote</a><br
/>that "there are some practical (but not insurmountable) proble
ms
with putting antitrust regulations on say, Amazon. [But]
Facebook you could just shut it down and the world would be a
far better place."</p> <p>The call from Sanders (I-Vt.)
Wednesday to break up Facebook follows similar but less
definitive <a
href="
HTML https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/18/bernie-sanders-break-up-google-amazon-apple-1369255">statements</a><br
/>from the senator.</p> <p>One of Sanders' rivals in the 202
0
Democratic presidential primary race, Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), released her plan to "<a
href="
HTML https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/01/does-anyone-think-thats-bad-thing-leaked-zuckerberg-audio-suggests-warren-vow-break">Break<br
/>Up Big Tech</a>" in March. Zuckerberg is among the <a
href="
HTML https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/08/elizabeth-warren-praised-plan-break-tech-giants">opponents</a><br
/>of Warren's proposal, which also targets other major technolog
y
companies like Amazon and
Google.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div>[/html]
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