Tag: frank zappa

ECP NetHappenings Day 7 Who Controls the News

©1998 *Educational CyberPlayGround®
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WHO CONTROLS THE NEWS

The Petty Feud Between the NYT and the White House
This is stunning. A NY Times journalist says the publication’s chairman AG Sulzberger encourages that the organization cover the President negatively and highlight his age out of retribution for the fact that Biden hasn’t granted the Times an interview.

NYT largest shareholder

is oligarch Carlos SLIM

WaPo is owned by oligarch Jeff BEZOS

WSJ is owned by oligarch Rupert MURDOCH

 

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul, has a significant connection to Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States. During Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, Murdoch’s newspapers, including the New York Post and the Chicago Sun-Times, endorsed Reagan’s candidacy. This endorsement was seen as a significant boost to Reagan’s campaign, as Murdoch’s newspapers had a significant readership and influence in the United States.
In fact, The New York Times reported that Reagan’s campaign team credited Murdoch and the Post for his victory in New York in the 1980 United States presidential election. Additionally, Murdoch’s support for Reagan was not limited to his newspapers.

The essence of Christianity is told to us in the Garden of Eden story. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could still be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your fucking mouth shut and hadn’t asked any questions.” Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa on Evangelicals- “ Their goal is to take over the United States the way the ayatollah took over Iran.”
Zappa on Pat Robertson, religion and the Right Wing

By the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan as president and the growing involvement of the religious right in conservative politics, Goldwater’s libertarian views on personal issues were revealed; he believed that they were an integral part of true conservatism. Goldwater viewed abortion as a matter of personal choice and as such supported abortion rights. As a passionate defender of personal liberty, he saw the religious right’s views as an encroachment on personal privacy and individual liberties.DAY 7 of Donald Trump’s NYC Criminal Trial.

Donald Trump’s trial on 34 felony counts

That Trump’s lawyers are from St. Louis should not escape your attention.

Prosecutors say Trump is ‘angling’ toward jail time for pushing gag order limits in hush-money trial.

Prosecutors argued that Trump violated the order with a series of inflammatory social media posts aimed at witnesses and jurors.

Wow. Not backing off. Trump’s lawyer just told the Supreme Court Trump could assassinate his opponent and would still be immune from prosecution. Trump said he could shoot someone on 5th Ave and get away with it. Now he’s asking the Supreme Court to make that so.
Not a drill.

No ruling from the judge, but the DA wants Trump sanctioned for 4 more gag order violations. One of them was Trump’s recent interview with @6abc, in which he called Michael Cohen a “convicted liar.” The DA says we’re up to 14 violations in total. “Michael Cohen is a convicted liar, and he’s got no credibility…then he got in trouble because of things outside of what he did for me.”

David Pecker is back on the stand, talking about how he purchased damning stories about Trump to kill them and help his campaign. One of those stories was Karen McDougal’s – she didn’t want it published. “McDougal said… that she didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky.”

Once Howard negotiated a price of 150K from McDougal’s camp for the story, Pecker spoke to Cohen.
Cohen said that Pecker should pay for it, but Pecker was hesitant. Who would reimburse him?
Cohen again said “Don’t worry about it, I’m your friend, The Boss will take care of it.”

 

Christina Bobb is the lawyer overseeing the RNC’s “election integrity” efforts.

She was also just indicted by a grand jury for election-related crimes.

Trump’s crimes weren’t official acts.

Gorsuch gets Sauer to agree that POTUS can be prosecuted for private conduct. [The lawyers on the Florida case may be uncomfortable with that.]

Gorsuch seems to want to adopt Blassingame. Sauer says they should adopt Katsas’ Blassingame prosecution. Gorsuch grasps onto the “further proceedings” out.

Why did Richard Nixon need a pardon
if presidents had total immunity
from criminal prosecution?

Elie Mystal @ElieNYC

“John Roberts starts out with questions for Trump’s lawyer, D. John Sauer. Roberts doesn’t often use his prerogative to go first, deferring to Thomas who is more senior.
So… this is all a good sign that Roberts is not buying the core Trumpian argument.

I’m assuming Sauer is sick/recovering from having his vocal chords flayed by Ramsay Bolton. His vocal quality is going to be rough to listen to, but not as rough as the stupid words coming out of his mouth.

The opening round of questions is about the “official acts” question. Trump is arguing that [trying to steal the election] is an “official act” that the President is immune from prosecution. Roberts is saying that the trial is *about* whether the act is official.

KBJ: So what was up with the pardon for President Nixon? If everybody thought that presidents couldn’t be prosecuted, what was up with that?

I love her.

Gorsuch trying to segregate private conduct “for which no man is above the law” and public acts.

Alito wonders if the immunity Trump is asking for is too *robust.*
This right here is how he’s going to get to remand. If the president says that he’s acting officially, Alito wants a finding of fact to figure out if the act is official.

Alito says that perhaps you get immunity for official acts that are “plausibly” legal, Sotomayor says “plausible” may as well be “absolute” b/c there’s always a plausible reason. Alito says ordering Seal Team 6 to assassinate a rival is not plausibly legal.

I’m struck, again, that SCOTUS could have easily dismissed this Trump argument in December because it was as stupid then as it is now, but they’ve let it get this far to help Trump get to the election.

Kavanaugh: “where do you think the DC Circuit went wrong?”

My man Sauer is just getting beat up now. I think Simon Cowell is about to show up and tell him he needs a cup of tea.

Barrett taking a whack at the pinata now.

ACB just rattled off a list of things that would clearly not be official and Sauer had to agree to it all.

WHICH SHOULD END THIS CASE SINCE TRUMP IS ASKING FOR ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY… but whatever”

Kagan: If POTUS sells nuclear secrets.
Sauer: If it’s structured as official act. [Claiming he’d have to be impeached first, doesn’t ask about if he has stolen the docs first.]
Kagan: Order military to stage a coup?

MEANWHILE: NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT THIS
Bloomberg: chances of US bankruptcy in the next 10 years are 88%
https://www.centarzlata.com/en/sad-bankrot/

ECP NetHappenings BTC, Politics and Privacy

©1998 *Educational CyberPlayGround®
https://edu-cyberpg.com
©ECP Blog ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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ლ(ᗒ⏠ᗕლ) Twitter @CyberPlayGround
* CoSo http://Counter.social/@cyberplayground
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©1993 https://k12playground.com
© https://RichAsHell.com

“Someone said “30 years ago”, and my mind went to the 1970s, but they meant 1994, and now I need to lie down.”

BITCOIN

2/28/24 BTC right now 61,787.oo
https://www.tradingview.com/twitter-chart/?symbol=btcusd

OTC explained Prior to the launch of these EFTs, BTC soared to a peak of $49,040 on January 11.

  • The all-time high Bitcoin exchange rate is not $69,000 – that was in 2021 dollars. For a true all-time high we’d need to break ~$79,000.
  • Just remember, if you plan on selling any #BTC at $100k or $200k, you are VERY likely to never be able to gain that amount of #BTC back again !!
  • Fidelity now recommending a 1-3% crypto allocation in your portfolio.
    Gateway drug. What happens when that 1-3% becomes 3-6%?
    Slowly then suddenly.

BlackRock and now Fidelity both hold $1 Billion in #Bitcoin for their clients in just the first 6 days of trading.
Price reached $45k before ETF was launched. Bitcoin surpasses silver to become second largest ETF commodity in the US. Give it time to years end and it surpasses gold.

MAIN IDEA @stackhodler
#Bitcoin is a monopoly with the largest total addressable market of any product on earth.

There will never be another finite store of value backed by the world’s most powerful computing network, bootstrapped from scratch.

There’s only #Bitcoin

With the halving over a month away, it’s already pumping towards a new all time high.

A new ATH before the halving would be a first.

It would throw off all previous models.

Throw away everything you think you know about Bitcoin price action.

It’s time to reason from first principles.

What is the value of a finite asset that everyone needs?

What happens when trillions of dollars currently allocated to inferior stores of value bid for <21 million units?

What happens when Bitcoin is added to target date funds and everyone starts passively bidding Bitcoin whether they know it or not?

We’ve entered a new phase of Bitcoin adoption.

The capital that was sloshing around in previous cycles was a fraction of what is about to enter.

And the buyer is entirely different.

Don’t sell your #Bitcoin

Trade it for health, peace of mind, time with family and friends, memorable experiences, freedom from work you hate, etc.

But don’t try to get cute with trading.

Save in Bitcoin and thrive.

The ECB last week announced posted its first annual loss since 2004, of 1.3 billion euros, even as it also drew on its own risk provisions of 6.6 billion euros, as higher interest rates hit central banks’ securities holdings, per CNBC.

POLITICS

Today, Biden is signing an executive order aimed at better protecting Americans’ personal data on everything from biometrics and health records to finances and geolocation from foreign adversaries like China and Russia.”

ASK FRANK ZAPPA – Do you think the country is turning right?

8 MILLION new Gen=Z voters will be eligible in 2024
They all grew up with their school shootings.

Here’s Elon Musk’s brother outing them as being in the US illegally when they started their first business in California and applying for bank loans. Elon, then, nervously interrupts. He explains their immigration status at the time as a “grey area”. #ApartheidCylde
“We were illegal immigrants”
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1761451086202970112/vid/avc1/458×270/rV5MmcTToxnxjH8P.mp4

Joe Biden Pledges $1.7 Billion to End Hunger Across U.S.

In a breaking development, legal counsel has informed Tucker Carlson that the United States could potentially arrest him on sanctions violations due to his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

China’s largest developer headed into liquidation with ($333 billion in debt)…Evergrande’s $17 billion in USD bonds trading below a penny.:equity was halted at 16c. Total system wipeout as its CEO is also under police control. China’s so-called ‘miracle’ was just a mirage.#China

China’s Electric Vehicles Are Going to Hit Detroit Like a Wrecking Ball

This N.Y.U. Student Owns a $6 Million Crypto Mine. His Secret Is Out.
A legal dispute in a tiny Texas town unexpectedly reveals how Chinese nationals can move money to the U.S. without drawing the attention of authorities in either country.
Jerry Yu has the trappings of what the Chinese call second-generation rich. He boasts a Connecticut prep-school education. He lives in a Manhattan condominium bought for $8 million from Jeffrey R. Immelt, the former General Electric chief executive. And he is the majority owner of a Bitcoin mine in Texas, acquired last year for more than $6 million.
Mr. Yu, a 23-year-old student at New York University, has also become — quite unintentionally — a case study in how Chinese nationals can move money from China to the United States without drawing the attention of authorities in either country.
The Texas facility, a large computing center, was not purchased with dollars. Instead, it was bought with cryptocurrency, which offers anonymity, with the transaction routed through an offshore exchange, preventing anyone from knowing the origin of the financing.
Such secrecy allows Chinese investors to avoid the U.S. banking system, and the accompanying oversight of federal regulators, as well as sidestep Chinese restrictions on money leaving China. In a more traditional transaction, a bank receiving the funds would know where they were coming from and would be required by law to report any suspicious activity to the U.S. Treasury.

California’s new $20 min wage law exempts restaurants that bake and sell bread, where bread is defined to exclude bagels and croissants. Only benefits Panera. Newsom mega-donor owns >24 Paneras.
Newsom says “part of legislative sausage-making”.

SBF aims to get sentencing between 63-78 months after:
*Stealing >$8B in Customer funds
* Paying a $40M bribe to the CCP who is the biggest threat to American democracy
* “Donating” to corrupt Politicians globally

Electric Cars from China. BYD “Build Your Dream”
https://youtu.be/O1fGPck-fNM?si=wxLdYyGumxotph9N

Houthis knock out underwater cables linking Europe to Asia – report
The successful targeting of the four cables, which are believed to belong to the AAE-1, Seacom, EIG, and TGN systems, marks a serious disruption of communications between Europe and Asia.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-788888
The Houthi Terrorist Group in Yemen is now believed to have Damaged at least 4 Undersea-Communications Cables in the Southern Red Sea belonging to AAE-1, Seacom, EIG, and TGN Systems that run between Saudi Arabia and Djibouti; this Damage is believed to have been caused by a recent Attack is expected to cause a Serious Disruption in Communication between Areas of Europe and Asia.
The reported sabotage of undersea cables by the Houthis 🇾🇪 marks a strategic shift to unconventional warfare, targeting critical infrastructure to disrupt communications between continents. This escalates regional tensions and highlights vulnerabilities in global networks.
Houthi Forces Capture U.S. Navy Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Off Yemen
https://news.usni.org/2018/01/03/houthi-rebels-find-likely-u-s-navy-unmanned-underwater-vehicle

PRIVACY

AI and “I”
The more that I have considered this, the more that I have come to the
conclusion that AI systems should not use the first person term “I” in
their responses. The proper term should refer to the name of the firm
providing the AI, not an attempt to foist responsibility onto a
nonexistent entity. -L

Already drawing user anger, WordPress and Tumblr Plan to Sell User Content to AI Firms

Of course if you don’t have your server on wordpress.com (e.g., you self host), this is not (directly) an issue. Of course, other AIs will be sneaking around to try get your data no matter where you put it, because the AI firms believe they can take anything they want from you and turn it into their own profit centers. -L
https://gizmodo.com/wordpress-tumblr-plan-sell-user-content-ai-companies-1851291225

Google is paying publishers to use its AI to write stories instead of humans
https://www.adweek.com/media/google-paying-publishers-unreleased-gen-ai/

US targets Chinese-made container cranes in spy crackdown
Port and terminal operators must comply with new directive aimed at reducing cyberthreats

Google’s Apology for Its Gemini Image Debacle Reveals a Much Deeper
Culture Problem for the Company
https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/googles-apology-for-its-gemini-image-debacle-reveals-a-much-deeper-culture-problem-for-company.html

The last line in that article about Gemini’s really, really bad week
is perhaps the most important one, and something I’ve been trying to
get through to Google for many, many years:

“As Google is discovering, you need to build a culture where people
will tell you when you’re about to walk into a firestorm so you can
make the best decisions–even if they aren’t always the ones you
thought were right.” -L

Houthis knock out underwater cables linking Europe to Asia – report
Houthi Forces Capture U.S. Navy Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Off Yemen
https://news.usni.org/2018/01/03/houthi-rebels-find-likely-u-s-navy-unmanned-underwater-vehicle
The successful targeting of the four cables, which are believed to belong to the AAE-1, Seacom, EIG, and TGN systems, marks a serious disruption of communications between Europe and Asia.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-788888
The Houthi Terrorist Group in Yemen is now believed to have Damaged at least 4 Undersea-Communications Cables in the Southern Red Sea belonging to AAE-1, Seacom, EIG, and TGN Systems that run between Saudi Arabia and Djibouti; this Damage is believed to have been caused by a recent Attack is expected to cause a Serious Disruption in Communication between Areas of Europe and Asia.
The reported sabotage of undersea cables by the Houthis 🇾🇪 marks a strategic shift to unconventional warfare, targeting critical infrastructure to disrupt communications between continents. This escalates regional tensions and highlights vulnerabilities in global networks.