By spocko, on August 6th, 2015% https://www.spockosbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/852-by-480.mp4
Following big shootings where people die the official NRA spokespeople lay low. In comments sections or on twitter we are told, “It’s too soon to push any agenda, the bodies aren’t even cold!”
However the one group of people that it’s deemed appropriate to hear from following an attack are the survivors.
But what is the media to do when the survivor isn’t ready to make a statement? In general most people don’t know how to handle a media onslaught, but following a traumatic event it’s even harder.
Yet they are expected to answer questions, first to the authorities, to understand what happened, and then to the media.
In this case one of the attack survivors knows enough about how shootings play out to ask the media not hound him and his family. Above is the video from the Tennessean.
Since Steven doesn’t want to talk anymore, who will fill in the void? NRA gun loving types. But will the papers reach out to people who survived Aurora?
I know the NRA hides after shootings and we are told, “It’s too soon after deaths” but I think now is the perfect time to jump into this with a . . . → Read More: Tenn theater attack survivor: Grateful to police. Asks media to leave him alone.
By spocko, on August 4th, 2015%
#SignsYoureRightWing No matter how powerful or rich you are, you are the real victim.
— Spocko (@spockosbrain) August 4, 2015
All Things Considered did a story yesterday about a Koch event attended by GOP presidential candidates. It’s really stunning to listen to some of their quotes.
Here is the link. Here are two audio bits I highlighted in the transcript below: From the story:
“The biggest contributor so far is hedge fund magnate Robert Mercer. He sent $11 million to a super PAC backing Ted Cruz. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told the Koch network the candidates really have no choice about raising money.”
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING at 1:48)
MARCO RUBIO: As long as newspapers and television stations keep charging people to speak out on politics, we’re going to have to keep raising money to pay for it.
Great narrative flip Marco! You are the real victim here. You had no choice but to accept the trucks of cash dumped on your doors! And besides, why should you have to pay for your “free speech?” (Hey, does this mean he wants the fairness doctrine back? )
“And Carly Fiorina, a former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, said the media isn’t . . . → Read More: Rubio: It’s the media’s fault we have to take billionaire’s money
By spocko, on August 1st, 2015%
‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, WWE legend, dead at 61
– CBCNews Saskatchewan
In honor of Roddy Piper’s life rewatch They Live. It showed greedy, ugly aliens taking over the media.Turns out it was a documentary. #Murdoch #Fox
— Spocko (@spockosbrain) July 31, 2015
One of my favorite films in the 80’s was “They Live.” Not just because of the science fiction aspect of it, but because of the biting satire.
On the surface it’s a standard “Aliens take over Earth” story, but underneath that it showed how some in the media and government really see Americans and what they want us to do.
When our heroes put on special glasses they could see the messages that were embedded in our media, all in black and white. (Video link)
Frank: What do these things want?
Gilbert: They’re free-enterprisers. The earth is just another developing planet. Their third world.
The main character, Piper, comes to town looking for work. He is directed to a camp of other men and women looking for work. His interview:
Female Interviewer: Last place of employment? Nada: Denver, Colorado. I worked there for ten years and things just seemed to dry up. They lost fourteen banks in . . . → Read More: Roddy Piper Dies. Rewatch his SF film “They Live.” Almost a documentary
By spocko, on July 21st, 2015% “Privacy” by Melanie Feuerer used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 United States License
It’s all about the Privacy.
Do some people deserve it less than others? Who decides?
Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked — Brian Krebs, @briankrebs Krebs on Security July 19, 2015
When people who are supposed to protect someone’s privacy fail, what should their responsibility be following the failure? How do you make “someone whole,” as they say in the insurance biz, following a privacy breach?
Hacks of OPM databases compromised 22.1 million people, federal authorities say — Ellen Nakashima, @nakashimae, The Washington Post, July 9, 2015
What are the valid reasons someone’s privacy is violated? National Security? Public safety? Potential violence? Donating to the wrong cause? Who gets permission? Who oversees this?
“I don’t care if the government listens to me, I don’t have anything to hide. If you don’t have anything to hide, what are you worried about?”
— US citizen comment I read in response to Snowden revelations
Are there standards and regulations that organizations should meet? Who enforces them? What are the penalties if they don’t?
If they don’t follow the standards should there be additional sanctions? Who decides?
“JPMorgan . . . → Read More: Why I care when people with ‘something to hide’ are hacked
By spocko, on July 17th, 2015% I’m a crappy chess player. This became clear to me when my 8 year-old nephew beat me while explaining, “The horsey piece can only move in an “L” way Uncle Spocko!”
One of the things they say you learn from chess is thinking several moves ahead, anticipating your opponent’s responses and acting accordingly. I learned this skill from life experience.
Right now I’m watching Mr. Robot. They are looking at the personal reasons people fight big institutions, as well as the human cost of those fights. That’s the part people don’t see, and it can be exhausting.
When I went about the process of defunding RW talk radio, I knew I needed to anticipate how they would respond to my actions. Then, how they would respond to my responses.
When I started alerting advertisers to the violent rhetoric, sexism and bigotry coming from the RW radio hosts I knew the radio station would use multiple excuses to keep the advertisers. First they discredited me, and then the information. Next, threats of arrest from law enforcement agencies, then hints of exposure of my identity. Finally legal threats, which they carried out. They threw around phrases like libel, tortuous interference with . . . → Read More: Fighting Evil Corp. There’s an App For That!
By spocko, on July 12th, 2015% I was in downtown Chicago this week by the river. A woman next to me was taking a photo, of Trump Tower. I asked her, “So are you voting for him?” She burst out laughing, “No!”
Donald Trump running for President is a massive gift to the media, almost as big as his ego. He also is a Trump Tower shaped gift to certain members to the Republican Party running for President.
Sam Seder predicted this months ago on the Majority Report and it’s coming true. Trump is great fun for the press. Look at it from their point of view. Would you rather cover Trump or Ted Cruz? (Cruz makes me feel like his Brylcreem is oozing out of my speakers when he talks)
Watching Rubio makes them thirsty and listening to Jeb Bush makes them sad. But Trump can be treated as both ridiculous AND serious which meets both tabloids and “Very Serious People” needs in the media.
Come for the Guns Stay for the Racism
I watched the GOP candidates speak at the NRA convention. Trump was energetic, funny and pivoted from “I love the 2nd Amendment” to CURRENCY manipulation in his speech!
It actually wasn’t . . . → Read More: Trump’s Clownish Run For President vs. Pat Paulsen’s
By spocko, on July 10th, 2015%
By spocko, on June 28th, 2015% The pilot of Mr. Robot is the most interesting TV show I’ve seen all year. (Watch it free at USA’s site here)
It has the potential to become as enlightening (and predictive) about how our current computer-connected corporate power elite function as Person of Interest did when dealing with the ramification of widespread surveillance and the morality (or lack of) in our detection and execution of possible terrorists.
My recap has spoilers, some you could tell from watching the extended trailer. Here’s the marketing blurb.
In MR. ROBOT, Elliot, a cyber-security engineer by day and vigilante hacker by night, is recruited by a mysterious underground group to destroy the firm he’s paid to protect. Elliot must decide how far he’ll go to expose the forces he believes are running (and ruining) the world.
The opening scene takes place in a urban coffee shop. Elliot, the lead character, is describing to the shop’s owner why he ending up finding the 100 terabytes of child pornography the owner had that was serving 400,000 users. We don’t see a single computer screen or keyboard during this, just Elliot and the owner.
It all started because he liked the fast wi-fi . . . → Read More: Mr. Robot Will Scratch The Corporate Justice Problem in Your Brain
By spocko, on June 22nd, 2015%
One of the things I love about radio and audio podcasts is that a good conversation or interview can be very enlightening.
President Obama on Marc Maron’s podcast. Photos by Pete Sousa
I recommend people listen to this Barack Obama interview by Marc Maron. Here is the link to listen or download.
I got a couple of things from the interview. First, was how Obama sees himself and his Presidency. The second was his thinking and decision making process. Third was how he goes about trying to implement change.
The hot topic on Twitter about the interview is the use of the n-word by the President. It was in context and about racism. I’m sure someone has already lost their mind over it, “Why is it okay for him to say it and not me!?” Yadda Yadda, bark bark, woof woof. Please. Spare me your disingenuous hysterics.
The end of the interview gave me some hope for the last part of his Presidency, but based on the first part, I’m not expecting something wild, just “a bit better.”
The most interesting insight for me was Maron’s observation at 27:34 that Obama agreed with. “There is an element of the . . . → Read More: Obama on Maron podcast. The Presidency is sort of middle management.
By spocko, on June 13th, 2015% All I know about lobbying I learned from the movie “The American President.” (During which I determined that Mrs. Spocko was more attractive than Annette Bening.)
The movie shows everything people think they know about lobbying: getting the vote count right, educating congress people, making deals, trade offs and pay offs with different groups in exchange for current or future votes, the unusual bed fellows (literally) and finally dealing with the expectations of, and exposure in, the media.
I saw that movie three times, so clearly I’m an expert on what the lobbyists will do next following this current vote on TPP.
Luckily I have some friends who actually were lobbyists and I talk and listen to them to see what really goes on. I wanted to know what they did after a failure and what they think the pro-TPP people will do next.
But first, what do WE do after success? One of my least favorite phrases after a victory or semi-victory is, “Now the hard work begins.” Screw you Negative Nelly! Bite me Pragmatic Patrick! Piss off Realist Rick!
I say, “Give the fighters a pat on the back! Give ’em a raise. Take a bow people . . . → Read More: Post-TPP action: Transparency Now!
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