Mammon category archive
“Just the Equifax, Ma’am” 0
Thom and his guest discuss the Equihacks.
But Where Are the Trolls?
Send in the Trolls.
Don’t Bother, They’re Here.
0
In a long and thoughtful piece, Josh Marshall explains why he sees the Trump-Russia investigation and the issue of Russian bots on the Zuckerborg heading for a collision. He delivers this trenchant observation almost as an aside:
He goes on to expand on this theme later in the article:
Facebook is so accustomed to treating its ‘internal policies’ as though they were something like laws that they appear to have a sort of blind spot that prevents them from seeing how ridiculous their resistance sounds. To use the cliche, it feels like a real shark jumping moment. As someone recently observed, Facebook’s ‘internal policies’ are crafted to create the appearance of civic concerns for privacy, free speech, and other similar concerns. But they’re actually just a business model.
Marshall also senses a rising public resentment against the intrusiveness of “Big Data.”
Follow the link. It’s worth your while.
Plus ca Change (Updated) 0
Addendum, Later That Same Day:
The Charlotte Observer reports on how coastal real estate developers are trying to weasel out of being honest about the dangers of flooding.
The Pusher Men 0
These days, they wear suits and file expense reports.
The Power of Google, Reprise 0
Several days ago, I noted Josh Marshall’s musings on Google’s dominance of the Inner Webs and his concern that, with great power comes great temptation to abuse that power.
The Value of Labor 0
Robert Reich disputes those who argue that the working and middle classes’ income has fallen in real terms because the value of their labor has fallen. Here’s a bit:
(snip some more examples)
But they did the reverse: They spent more and more of their ever-growing wealth and power on rigging the game to their own advantage.
(Wording corrected.)
Carrion Crows 0
El Reg reports:
“One thing we’ve learned at the Federal Trade Commission is that scams often follow the news – especially when there’s a natural disaster, like Hurricane Harvey, in the headlines,” the warning said.
The robocalls claim that the target’s flood insurance premiums are “past due,” and in order to have any coverage for damages caused by Hurricane Harvey they need to make an immediate payment.
Hoist on the Elmer Gantry 0
In The Roanoke Times, John Freivalds muses on the monetization of the miraculous.
Fly the Fiendly Skies 0
Visit my local rag for news of yet more United fiendliness. (I may have mentioned this before, but my ex once had a great flight via United Airlines. United couldn’t get a plane off the ground, so she got reaccommodated to other airlines in both directions.)
