Commentary on The Capital Markets
in POTD , 90 references
Wave At THEM
Wave 8*10 $60
in Social Issues , 175 references
Our JOKE Of A 'Government'
You got to be kidding me -- applauding this?
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a settlement under which Facebook will pay a record $5 billion fine for violating an FTC order regarding its privacy practices.
The settlement, which still needs Justice Department approval, shows that Facebook is finally getting a well-deserved punishment for abusing the privacy of those who use the service.
Facebook is getting punished? How?
How do you "punish" a corporation? Fining it well less than five percent of its revenue for the previous 12 months is a joke.
Let's take this in context; you have a job that pays $50,000 a year. You get caught doing something really egregious -- for the second time! Let's say you have a second offense DUI. In other words, you didn't kill or injure anyone, but you did break the law -- twice, the first time getting caught, then again doing the same thing.
You spend no time in jail, there is no revocation of your driver license or plates, and your total fine is...... $2,500.
That's it. No other punishment of any sort.
Most people who get a first DUI wind up with north of $10,000 of loss even if they make nothing. For someone who makes $20,000 a year this is 50% of their gross income! Oh, and they sometimes go to jail too -- for a second offense that's quite likely.
A third offense, in most states, is a felony and carries prison -- not jail -- time.
Remember, this was not the first time Facebook got caught breaking the law. They got caught previously and agreed not to do it again. Well, they did do it again. And again. And again. And got caught again.
They were clearly not penitent nor do their officers and directors, including Zucker****er, give a wet crap about what the law requires or what they agreed to.
There is no government action that will be taken to stop this. The only action that will work is criminal prosecution of the directors and officers, imprisoning them and asset-stripping them of their stock -- something that's of questionable capability, given the existing state of law.
But that Congress won't pass laws to mandate such doesn't mean we, the people can't decide that this conduct is unacceptable and will not stand. We can. We have legal, available means to do this. We can refuse to deal with any person who works for such a company. We can refuse them service. We can refuse to let their kids play with ours. We can isolate them to the point that they have only others in that firm to associate with. Yes, that's a big club, but if we do that, we delete these apps, we boycott all their advertisers and tell them why we have plenty of tools available to us to literally destroy the "value" of both these firms and those who run them.
When Zucker****er has only himself, his wife and his kid to hang around with, and is forced to cower behind his big walls in his mansion, lest he meet a universal chorus of middle fingers should he be seen anywhere in the United States -- he'll cut that crap out.
There's not one law that would be broken in doing all of that, and if the isolation drove him and his family to kill themselves that wouldn't be illegal for us to impose on them either.
The power is within us -- we just have to use it.
in Politics , 338 references
Trump Tossed Chum, Sharks Did....
... what sharks do.
Mindless eating machines, they're called.
Well, Pelosi and the "small ball" nuts have just exhibited the same sort of activity.
The go home and solve your own nation's problems thing may be a trope, but like so many stereotypes the reason it resonates is that it has a kernel of truth in it.
Why should the US give "asylum" to someone who is going to come here and bring their corruption, which is why their nation of origin is collapsing, with them?
And Omar did exactly that, it appears. Not only does it appear she engaged in immigration fraud it appears she filed a fraudulent tax return as well -- for years. Either that or, it appears, she married her brother. Which was it Omar, and why won't you answer those questions?
Then there's The Dishwasher. Not barista, you see -- to be a successful barista you need a decent degree of skill. Which AOC does not have.
But as a matter of public policy if the "Squad" can manage to get enough people to vote for them that says more about that district and the corruption embedded within it than it says about them. Bringing that sort of corruption into the Halls of Congress is nothing new; witness Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters, both of whom are "enjoying" seven seats they have no right to have in California, as they've packed the state with illegal invaders who can't vote for them, but do make the votes of the citizens there more powerful. That's unconstitutional, incidentally, and Obama was more than happy to be the first President to explicitly try to hide that -- ever -- when he scrapped the "long form" census form.
No, the real issue here is that these four, "The Squad", are flat-out insane. They may indeed represent their districts but only a tiny fraction of the nation wants anything to do with their policies. Open borders, giving illegal invaders benefits you have to pay for that no citizen can obtain (housing, food, electricity, health care -- all adding up to a whopping $40,000 or more a year handed to them with no work required) and worse, throwing open the borders so that an unlimited number of people can do exactly that. Those are the more-moderate of their policies; these four also believe that someone who comes here illegally and has previously committed felonies in the United States should not be able to be deported and that if you're not native-born you should be able to ignore the orders of a Judge!
That has nothing to do with their race -- it has to do with their politics. They're nuts and only the crazies in this country align with their policy positions -- irrespective of race.
Let's face facts -- what Trump said was not racist. It was nativist but what's wrong with that? Is not The President the representative of people here in the United States legally?
This morning CBS is running tropes from the late 1800s and early 1900s -- long before the Civil Rights act -- trying to play the "go home and fix your own corruption" line as a racist statement, attempting to tie them together. The problem is that they're not the same statement; claiming that there's a "problem" that is fixed by ejecting people is not the same thing as telling someone who brings their corruption here into the United States to go home and solve their own nation's problems first rather than try to pollute the United States with it.
The Democrats, however, just like that hungry shark, can't help themselves. Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats have now literally married themselves to crazy -- and make no mistake about it, the views of these four people are nuts.
The poll numbers show this too; these four have views that poll under 20% and that's when the polling organization is one that has a hard-left, documented bent! I suspect a firm that tries to actually be representative (of which there probably are few; let's face it, pollsters are slanted like the rest of our crazy-politicized system today) would find "favorable" views more around ten percent.
How do you lose so badly that you can't even cheat your way into a House seat or majority? Attach yourself to crazy -- such as the idea that an unlimited number of people can come into the United States and take from the rest of the people here $50,000 a year worth of "free" this and that, from housing to food to medical care to free cellphones and onward and upward -- while everyone else is forced, at gunpoint, to pay for it. Never mind the raging anti-Semitism Omar has displayed along with allegations that she will not answer that she actually supports and sympathizes with both Sharia and Al-Qaida!
Trump did what the nuts couldn't do; he managed to poke the left into coalescing around the most-radical anti-American, pro-theft, pro-felony, pro-tax evading wing of the Democrat party -- and supporting those positions not just implicitly by party affiliation but, far worse for them, EXPLICITLY rallying around both them and the political positions they have staked out and demanded.
Space Me
Space Awaits 16*20 $110
in Musings , 193 references
Hint: It's ALWAYS The Converse
"I'm an anti-fascist" -- He's a fascist. In fact he'll beat you with a baseball bat or shoot you if you disagree with him.
"I'm for drug price reform!" -- He wants the drug companies to screw you up the ass.
"Medicare for all!" -- Actual medical care for none; Medicare Taxes for all.
"I care about children deeply!" -- On his zipper and up theirs!
"I.... did.... not... have.... sex... with... that... woman!" -- I got a knob-job from her under my desk.
"Drugs, if abused, might destroy your life!" -- Therefore I'll arrest you and throw you in prison for having them, which will destroy your life.
"Inflation is low and controlled" -- In anything you don't actually need, like a television. In those things you do need (food, medicine, car insurance, etc) prices have been doubling every 5 years or less.
"Wage gains are strong." -- Government deficits are rising faster; in real terms you're losing.
"I'm for the common people" -- She's all for you getting butt-raped, that is.
"You cling to your guns and are dangerous" -- He wants those guns so he can shoot you -- or someone else can rob,******and murder you -- while you're defenseless.
"I'm pro-choice" -- Actually, you're pro-killing, seeing as there are 1 million-odd fetuses destroyed a year.
"Separating children from their parents is immoral" -- Only when the parent, who committed a crime, is an illegal alien. When the parent is a US citizen then it's not only good it's expected because said "parent" obviously can't be bothered to obey the law while with their children.
"There is no such thing as an illegal." -- Uh huh. Their first act in America was to violate the law -- and for most, it wasn't their last by a long shot; they go on to rip off people's identities, engage in criminal tax evasion, fraudulently access medical and other social services and when ordered to leave go on the lam, refuse to comply with the lawful orders of a court and hide. Not that we should expect different from someone who's first act in the nation is to break the law.
"We're a great friend to the US" -- Except when we engage in illegal cartel behavior with our oil, or blast unarmed American ships, or participate in illegal price-fixing by our pharmaceutical companies.
"We support human rights" -- Can we go ask the Uyghurs about that face-to-face? No? Gee, I wonder why.
"That's an autonomous region!" -- Except for their elected officials and the laws in said region, of course.
"We're for free trade!" -- Starting with ripping off everything that's not nailed down, hacking your corporate computers and more.
"We're progressive!" -- Uh huh. It's progress to enslave people in forcing them to give what they have to others? It's progress to take over student lending and void bankruptcy options for those who borrow same? It's progress to force people to pay someone else's medical bills? It's progress to force girls in 10th grade to shower with boys in their locker room at school? It's progress to force girls to attempt to compete in track with boys spouting a penis, testicles, and massively greater muscle mass as a result of their genetics? It's progress to pass "people of color" in school or college who can't do the work?
Got it yet?
Just checking.