tag > Politics
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Facebook is losing another board member, and is appointing a former Treasury official as its lead independent director (Business Insider)
Facebook named Robert Kimmitt, a former deputy Treasury secretary and US ambassador to Germany, as its lead independent board director on Thursday. "We've been looking for a leader who can bring significant oversight and governance experience," Mark Zuckerberg said of Kimmitt's appointment. Another board member, Jeffrey Zients, will be stepping down at the company's next shareholder meeting. The moves are the latest in a series of significant shakeups on Facebook's board in recent months.
Robert M. Kimmitt (born December 19, 1947) was United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush. He served from 1991 to 1993 as United States Ambassador to Germany and was awarded the U.S. Defense Department Distinguished Public Service Award as well as Germany's Order of Merit. r. Kimmitt was a managing director of Lehman Brothers from 1993 to 1997.
Kimmitt was on the CIA National Security Advisory Panel (1997).
Jeffrey Zients (born November 12, 1966) is an American chief executive officer, management consultant, and entrepreneur. Zients is currently the President of The Cranemere Group. From February 2014 to January 2017, he served as Director of the United States National Economic Council and President Obama's Economic Advisor. While working at Bain, Zients reported to South African Mary Menell; they later were married in South Africa with Menell's parents' family friend Nelson Mandela in attendance.
Facebook Is ‘Just Trying to Keep the Lights On’ as Traffic Soars in Pandemic (NYTimes)
The social network is straining to deal with skyrocketing usage as its 45,000 employees work from home for the first time.
Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan and Bill Gates to fund $25M coronavirus research group (cbs)
That’s 0.04% of their net worth. In other words, it is the cost of a PR campaign.
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Inside China’s controversial mission to reinvent the internet (FT) (unpaywalled)
Huawei is developing the technology for a new network: "The New IP proposal could embed a system of centralised rule enforcement into the technical fabric of the internet. Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia have previously shown support for Chinese proposals for alternative network technologies".
US officials reportedly agree to cut off Huawei from global chip suppliers (CNet)
Proposed rules may require foreign companies that use American chipmaking equipment to secure a license before supplying some chips to Huawei.
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Bill Gates Wants Socialist Medicine to Combat Coronavirus — Without the Socialists (jacobinmag)
Bill Gates says the private sector is ill-prepared to respond to pandemics and that governments need to ratchet up their spending by the billions and take charge. Too bad he’s still opposing the democratic-socialist movements that could do just that.
Bill Gates, the CIA, Jacques Attali ... they had warned of a global epidemic (leparisien) (English translation)
The risk of a new pandemic has been mentioned many times over the past fifteen years. And some projections are cause for concern.
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Wann endet Fracking? (When does Fracking come to an end) (Telepolis, DE only)
Der Ölpreiskrieg zwischen Russland und Saudi-Arabien könnte das Ende der US-Fracking-Industrie einläuten. Die amerikanische Ölindustrie bereitet sich nicht nur wegen der Corona-Pandemie auf schwere Zeiten vor. Ab dem ersten April werden die seit drei Jahren geltenden Förderlimits der OPEC aufgehoben. Dann dürfen sämtliche Länder soviel produzieren, wie sie wollen. Der aktuelle Preis für ein Barrel Rohöl von 25 US-Dollar könnte unter 10 US-Dollar fallen. Das gilt allerdings als unwahrscheinlich. Für die Frackingindustrie ist selbst der aktuelle Preis viel zu niedrig, um am Leben bleiben zu können.
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Thinker of the day: Paul Feyerabend (1924 - 1994)
Feyerabend defended the idea that science should be separated from the state in the same way that religion and state are separated in a modern secular society (Against Method (3rd ed.). p. 160.). He envisioned a "free society" in which "all traditions have equal rights and equal access to the centres of power" (Science in a Free Society. p. 9.). According to Feyerabend, science should also be subjected to democratic control: not only should the subjects that are investigated by scientists be determined by popular election, scientific assumptions and conclusions should also be supervised by committees of lay people. He thought that citizens should use their own principles when making decisions about these matters. He rejected the view that science is especially "rational" on the grounds that there is no single common "rational" ingredient that unites all the sciences but excludes other modes of thought (Against Method (3rd ed.). p. 246.).
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Is Marijuana an ‘Essential’ Like Milk or Bread? Some States Say Yes (NYTimes)
With the coronavirus pandemic spreading rapidly across the country, millions of Americans are being told by state and county officials to take refuge at home, and only venture out to get things they really need. And in many places, marijuana makes the list. Over the past week, more than a dozen states have agreed that while “nonessential” stores had to close, pot shops and medical marijuana dispensaries could remain open — official recognition that for some Americans, cannabis is as necessary as milk and bread.
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Acclaimed German virologists question the corona hysteria
Corona virus COVID-19- hype and hysteria? Demystification of the nightmare - by Prof. Dr. med. Sucharit Bhakdi - Professor an der Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz und war 22 Jahre lang Leiter des dortigen Instituts für Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Hygiene.
Am Telefon zur Corona-Virologie: Professor Karin Mölling, Virologin am Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik in Berlin und hat einen Lehrstuhl am Institut für Medizinische Virologie an der Universität Zürich. (KenFM)
Corona Virus: Prof. Hornegger im Gespräch mit Prof. Christian Bogdan
Related: 12 Experts Questioning the Coronavirus Panic (off-guardian)
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Coronavirus: S'pore Government to make its contact-tracing app freely available to developers worldwide (straitstimes)
The Singapore Government will be making the software for its contact-tracing application TraceTogether, which has already been installed by more than 620,000 people, freely available to developers around the world. In a Facebook post on Monday (March 23), Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan said that the app, developed by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) and the Ministry of Health, will be open-sourced.
#Comment: Once the biological virus is gone, rest assured that all these highly intrusive surveillance and social engineering tools will stay around and rapidly expand. Cybernetic totalitarianism might be the dominate game globally for years to come. The opportunity for systemic abuse and catastrophic failure is mindbogglingly giant.
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The secret WHO chief is Bill Gates (Die Zeit, 2017 - DE Only)
The most important organization in world health, the WHO, has a problem: it is broke and therefore dependent on donations. Does it lose independence?
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After series of cuts, India axes Bayer's GM cotton royalty (Reuters)
India has axed the royalties that local seed companies pay to German drugmaker Bayer AG for Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) cotton, a government order said, after cutting them back since 2016.95% of cotton grown in India is by Monsanto; 75% debt of farmers is on account of input costs; over 3.2 lakh Farmer Suicides due to debt.
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Softbank Looking to Cut Alibaba, Sprint Share Stakes (Variety)
Softbank, the giant Japanese investment group that has made huge bets on the sharing economy, is looking to cut its stake in Alibaba, according to reports. And possibly in Sprint too. On Monday, Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of the heavily indebted Softbank, said that he would raise or monetize $41 billion of assets, in order to put the group on a sounder financial footing.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that more than a third of the total would be raised by selling a $14 billion tranche of shares in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. That would represent about 3% of Alibaba’s total equity capital, which is traded in New York in ADR form and, in a secondary listing, as shares in Hong Kong. Softbank has long been an ally of Alibaba and has made vast paper profits on its 25% Alibaba holding. But the dire performance of Softbank’s other investments has depressed Softbank’s share price so much that at one point recently its holding in Alibaba was more valued more highly than the entire Tokyo-traded Softbank group.
SoftBank’s Son Still Betting on Himself After Go-Private Talks (Bloomberg)
SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son is continuing to bet on himself, even after he reportedly considered and then abandoned the idea of taking his conglomerate private. Son discussed the idea with investors including Elliott Management and the Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund Mubadala in the past week, the Financial Times reported, before moving ahead with a plan to sell assets instead.
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Arab nations sound alarm over oil tanker moored off Yemen (thenational)
Six Arab countries are urging the UN Security Council to exercise “maximum efforts” to persuade Yemen’s Houthi rebels to allow the United Nations to inspect a tanker moored in the Red Sea while loaded with over a million barrels to prevent “widespread environmental damage, a humanitarian disaster and the disruption of maritime commerce”. In a letter to the council circulated on Thursday, they warned that in the event of an explosion or leak “the possibility of a spill of 181 million litres of oil in the Red Sea would be four times worse than the oil disaster of the Exxon Valdez Exxon, which took place in Alaska in 1989”.
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Recent Corona News
- IBM, Amazon, Google and Microsoft partner with White House to provide compute resources for COVID-19 research (Techcrunch)
- Business unusual: Time for tech to move fast and fix things (aljazeera)
- China’s factories work 24/7 to build medical ventilators for Milan, New York amid spreading global Covid-19 pandemic (SCMP)
- Coronavirus Stimulus Offered By House Financial Services Committee Creates New Digital Dollar (Forbes)
- Am Telefon zur Corona-Virologie: Karin Mölling (KenFM, Excellent DE Only Interview)
- Corona virus COVID-19- hype and hysteria? Demystification of the nightmare! (Interview with Prof. Dr. med. Sucharit Bhakdi)
- Italian professor repeats warning coronavirus may have spread outside China last year (SCMP)
- Satellite images show resurgence of air pollution over China (ctvnews)
- Traffic and Pollution Plummet as U.S. Cities Shut Down for Coronavirus (NYTimes)
- Older people would rather die than let Covid-19 harm US economy – Texas official (Guardian)
- Warmer Weather May Slow, but Not Halt, Coronavirus (NYTimes)
- India to be under complete lockdown for 21 days starting midnight: Narendra Modi (econtimes)
- Why are the infection rates so high in Italy? (fefe)
- Canadian doctor who works in Gaza makes 3D-printed face shields for COVID-19 (cbc)
- German Government Corona Hackaton
- Coronavirus Treatment Developed by Gilead Sciences Granted “Rare Disease” Status, Potentially Limiting Affordability (intercept)
- The Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic: The Real Danger is “Agenda ID2020” (globalresearch)
- Welcome to the Virosphere (NYTimes)
- Afro-Jazz-Star Dibango ist tot: Makossa-König und Saxo-Genie (SZ)
- Last groups of Russian medical experts arrive in Italy (TASS)
- Russia sends aid to Italy to cope with COVID-19 and backs NATO dialogue (TASS)
- Russia helps Italy to fight coronavirus without any strings attached — Kremlin (TASS)
- Antibiotic resistance: the hidden threat lurking behind Covid-19 (Stat News)
- Statistikprobleme beim Coronavirus - Die große Meldelücke (Spiegel)
EU Shrugs Off US Sanctions, Gives Millions In Coronavirus Aid To Iran (ZeroHedge)
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We're Living in 12 Monkeys - Documentary by Truthstream Media
#Technology #Documentary #Cryptocracy #Augmentation #Politics #ALife
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New Coronavirus Stimulus Bill Introduces Digital Dollar And Digital Dollar Wallets (Forbes)
As the markets continue to drop and the U.S. looks to Congress for agreement on a massive stimulus package to save the economy from impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the newest offer by House Democrats includes a very forward-looking kind of stimulus: the creation of a ‘digital dollar’ and the establishment of ‘digital dollar wallets.’ In what will send shock waves through the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, particularly for those following central bank digital currencies around the world, this signals the U.S. is serious in establishing infrastructure for a central bank digital currency.
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Why Trump should trigger NATO’s Article 5 vs. COVID-19 - by Frederick Kempe (Atlanticcouncil)
"If NATO could bend Article 5 to combat a non-state terrorist actor striking the United States, why not also to combat the Chinese-originated COVID-19, which by Friday had infected more than 28,000 individuals and killed more than 1,200 among NATO allies. Given current transatlantic divisions, there is far greater need now than after 9/11 for a symbolic gesture of unity."
Corona: Vatican allows general absolution (vaticannews)
In face of the Corona crisis, the Vatican allows priests in all affected areas to issue general absolution. And it offers coronavirus sufferers and healthcare workers the opportunity to get a complete indulgence.
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Japan asked the international media to change how we write their names. No one listened (CNN, 2020)
In a full-page spread on March 2, 1979, the Los Angeles Times introduced its readers to Pinyin, a Chinese romanization system it said was changing the "familiar map of China." In the new system "Canton becomes Guangzhou and Tientsin becomes Tianjin." Most importantly, the newspaper would now refer to the country's capital as Beijing, not Peking. Now, Japan wants its turn.
As the country marked the dawn of the Reiwa Era last year with the coronation of Emperor Naruhito, its foreign ministry felt it was an opportune time to request that the names of Japanese officials be written differently. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's name, for example, would become Abe Shinzo, with his family name coming before his given name — just as the international media prints the names of Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
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Human Capital Markets, Digital Identity, & the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (wrenchinthegears, 2020)
My current efforts are focused on raising awareness around pay for success deals, privatized welfare, Blockchain contracts, smart cities, and predictive analytics derived from Internet of Things sensors. These elements are combining to create predatory human capital investment markets within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. I’m excited to talk to you about these goals, particularly target 16.9, digital identity, and how it relates to global finance and the profiling of families.
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Coronavirus Is Speeding Up the Amazonification of the Planet (onezero)
A woman works at a packing station at the 855,000-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York City, on February 5, 2019. Photo: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images This Amazonification is already underway. The consumer shift to online retailers away from meatspace malls and boutique shops has been the subject of hand-wringing and prognostication for years, and, if anything, the evolution was moving slower than many feared. Walmart, after all, remained the world’s largest retailer long after fears of Amazon’s dominance had become mainstream. Warehouse automation, a key goal of Amazon, was advancing but not yet leaving humans out in the cold by any stretch of the imagination. Yet Amazon caught up in 2019, and if anything, this coronavirus-fueled surge may accelerate its supremacy over the retail market.
