Spock Rocks

The Wallflowers - The Dive Bar in My Heart

Coronavirus Art - Washington, DC

Bill O'Reilly Accuser Breaks Her Silence

On October 28, 2004, Andrea Mackris, then a 33-year-old Fox News producer on the cusp of a promising career, didn’t want to accept her boss Bill O'Reilly's offer to settle her sexual harassment lawsuit against him for $9 million.

The money, along with a draconian non-disclosure agreement that Mackris said she has no memory of being shown until more than a decade later, was designed to buy her eternal silence about her headline-making lawsuit’s allegations. Backed up by audio recordings of O’Reilly’s late-night phone calls, the suit detailed the Fox News star’s persistent and menacing verbal assaults during her nearly four years of working for him. They included unwelcome demands for phone sex and mutual masturbation, as well as O’Reilly’s infamous alleged fantasy of soaping her down in the shower with either a “loofah” or a “falafel thing.”

Mackris recalled to The Daily Beast for the first time intimate and graphic details of O'Reilly’s alleged harassment, including lewd, menacing telephone calls and conversations in which she says he forced her to listen to his sexual fantasies about her. “I’m going to make you play," O’Reilly would tell Mackris. “Here was my boss, a man who held my career and future in his hands, acknowledging that he knew I’d never consented but he didn’t care,” Mackris said.

After the settlement of the Mackris lawsuit, O’Reilly continued to thrive at Fox News for more than a dozen years as management rewarded him with increasingly lucrative contracts while he co-authored a series of popular history books published by Macmillan, and even made multiple friendly television appearances alongside Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. That is, until his record of sexual misconduct and multimillion-dollar payouts to his victims finally caught up with him in a New York Times investigation that forced a reluctant Rupert Murdoch to cut O’Reilly loose with a statement praising him as “one of the most accomplished TV personalities in the history of cable news,” plus a $25 million golden parachute.

But even now, O’Reilly is by most accounts flourishing as the star of his eponymous subscription-supported streaming service, hosting a weeknight radio show on New York’s WABC, periodically appearing on Chris Ruddy’s Newsmax and Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, and continues to be celebrated as a broadcasting legend, as in a recent podcast interview by Talkers magazine publisher Michael Harrison.

 By contrast, Mackris, who was forced to give up her Fox News job as part of her lawsuit’s resolution, has lived a life mostly of quiet desperation, in which the settlement check has surely provided financial security and a degree of solace, but in the end hasn’t eased her struggle to obtain work in a profession she loved.

 

GOP Playbook

Brazilian COVID Crisis Grows Into a Corruption Scandal

Following an explosive set of allegations in Brazil, the probe of Jair Bolsonaro's COVID response has gone from a exploration of Brazil's failure to stop the coronavirus to a mounting threat to his presidency. Protests are growing in the streets. Bolsonaro is facing a criminal investigation. Some have questioned not only whether he can win next year's presidential election - but whether he'll still be president by the time it arrives.

At the center of the political drama is a classic corruption scandal. There are allegations of kickbacks, financial irregularities and an overarching question: What did the president know, and what did he do about it?

The Brazilian government, after stalling several vaccine purchases to haggle and fret over costs, made a harried deal this year to buy an unapproved Indian vaccine at a suspiciously expensive price. Documents submitted to congressional investigators showed Brazil paid more than 10 times the price that was originally quoted by Indian pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech for its vaccine, Covaxin. The deal was suspended last week.

The contrast between how government officials approached the Covaxin deal with how slowly they acquired other vaccines sparked corruption concerns inside the health ministry - concerns that Bolsonaro is accused of ignoring after he was informed.

Earlier this month, the Brazilian supreme court took the extraordinary step of authorizing a criminal investigation into Bolsonaro. Congressional investigators say there's no evidence to suggest Bolsonaro informed relevant authorities of the suspected malfeasance, which in Brazil could constitute a crime of dereliction by a public servant.

"This isn't a suspicion," Omar Aziz, a federal senator and leader of the inquiry, told the Brazilian newspaper Globo. "This is a fact. [Bolsonaro] hasn't disproven this. He didn't send anything to the police. . . . For any public servant, this would be a dereliction."

Bolsonaro, who still retains enough political support to fend off calls for his impeachment, has tried several tactics to distance himself from the scandal. He has denied any misconduct - both in the purchase of Covaxin and in his own behavior. "I'm incorruptible." Then he claimed ignorance. "I didn't even know how the Covaxin deal was going." Finally, he has worked to undermine the probe itself: "an embarrassment."

The accelerating momentum of the probe has brought the right-wing nationalist into the most vulnerable chapter of his presidency and injected an extraordinary degree of political uncertainty into a deeply polarized country reeling from record unemployment, a widening hunger crisis and the coronavirus deaths of more than a half-million people.

Bruno Brandão, the executive director of Transparency International in Brazil, said several past scandals during the Bolsonaro presidency did little to chip away at his support among anti-corruption hawks. But this one could be different.  "The dirtiness of corruption in the middle of a humanitarian tragedy is something more shocking and much closer to people's real suffering," he said. "Maybe indignation will finally overtake indifference."

 

What Anti-Vaxxers Sound Like

News From a Midlife Crisis

The Dee Gees (Foo Fighters) - You Should Be Dancing

Isn't It About Time That the Mega-Rich Pay Their Fair Share?

In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multi-billionaire and now the world’s richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes. He achieved the feat again in 2011. In 2018, Tesla founder Elon Musk, the second-richest person in the world, also paid no federal income taxes. Michael Bloomberg managed to do the same. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn did it twice. George Soros paid no federal income tax three years in a row.

ProPublica has obtained a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years. The data provides an unprecedented look inside the financial lives of America’s titans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg. It shows not just their income and taxes, but also their investments, stock trades, gambling winnings and even the results of audits.

Taken together, it demolishes the cornerstone myth of the American tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most. The IRS records show that the wealthiest can — perfectly legally — pay income taxes that are only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, their fortunes grow each year.

Many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, amassing little wealth and paying the federal government a percentage of their income that rises if they earn more. In recent years, the median American household earned about $70,000 annually and paid 14% in federal taxes. The highest income tax rate, 37%, kicked in this year, for couples, on earnings above $628,300.

The confidential tax records obtained by ProPublica show that the ultrarich effectively sidestep this system.   America’s billionaires avail themselves of tax-avoidance strategies beyond the reach of ordinary people. Their wealth derives from the skyrocketing value of their assets, like stock and property. Those gains are not defined by U.S. laws as taxable income unless and until the billionaires sell.

To capture the financial reality of the richest Americans, ProPublica undertook an analysis that has never been done before. The results show that they pay a true tax rate of only 3.4%.  It’s a completely different picture for middle-class Americans, who (from 2014 to 2018) saw their net worth expand by about $65,000 after taxes on average, mostly due to the rise in value of their homes. But because the vast bulk of their earnings were salaries, their tax bills were almost as much, nearly $62,000, over that five-year period.

These revelations come at a crucial moment. Wealth inequality has become one of the defining issues of our age. The president and Congress are considering the most ambitious tax increases in decades on those with high incomes. But the American tax conversation has been dominated by debate over incremental changes, such as whether the top tax rate should be 39.6% rather than 37%.  While some wealthy Americans, such as hedge fund managers, would pay more taxes under the current Biden administration proposals, the vast majority of the top 25 would see little change.

One of the billionaires mentioned in the article complained that that publishing personal tax information is a violation of privacy.  But the public interest in knowing this information at this pivotal moment outweighs that legitimate concern.

The consequences of allowing the most prosperous to game the tax system have been profound. Federal budgets, apart from military spending, have been constrained for decades. Roads and bridges have crumbled, social services have withered and the solvency of Social Security and Medicare is perpetually in question.

There is an even more fundamental issue than which programs get funded or not: Taxes are a kind of collective sacrifice. No one loves giving their hard-earned money to the government. But the system works only as long as it’s perceived to be fair.

 

 

 

Coronavirus Art - Warsaw, Poland

Malware Bought From Israeli Firm Used Against Journalists

Military-grade spyware licensed by an Israeli firm to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an investigation by 16 media partners.

The phones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 numbers that are concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and also known to have been clients of the Israeli firm, NSO Group, a worldwide leader in the growing and largely unregulated private spyware industry, the investigation found.

 Reporters were able to identify more than 1,000 people spanning more than 50 countries through research and interviews on four continents: several Arab royal family members, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians and government officials — including cabinet ministers, diplomats, and military and security officers. The numbers of several heads of state and prime ministers also appeared on the list.

 Among the journalists whose numbers appear on the list, are reporters working overseas for several leading news organizations, including a small number from CNN, the Associated Press, Voice of America, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Le Monde in France, the Financial Times in London and Al Jazeera in Qatar.

 The list included people close to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in October 2018 while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.  The investigation found that spyware was installed on his fiancée's phone days after his murder, and that his wife's phone was targeted with spyware between September 2017 and April 2018.   The phone of Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto also appeared twice on the list, including in the month before he was murdered.  The phones of two Hungarian investigative journalists, Andras Szabo and Szabolcs Panyi, were found to have been successfully infected with the spyware.  In India, more than 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and two ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government were reported to be on the list.

 The targeting of the smartphones is contrary to the stated purpose of NSO’s licensing of the Pegasus spyware, which the company says is intended only for use in surveilling terrorists and major criminals. The evidence extracted from these smartphones, calls into question pledges by the Israeli company to police its clients for human rights abuses.

 NSO describes its customers as 60 intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies in 40 countries, although it will not confirm the identities of any of them, citing client confidentiality obligations. The consortium found many of the phone numbers in at least 10 country clusters, which were subjected to deeper analysis: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Citizen Lab also has found evidence that all 10 have been clients of NSO, according to Bill Marczak, a senior research fellow.

 Forbidden Stories organized the media consortium’s investigation, titled the Pegasus Project, and Amnesty provided analysis and technical support but had no editorial input. Amnesty has openly criticized NSO’s spyware business and supported an unsuccessful lawsuit against the company in an Israeli court seeking to have its export license revoked. After the investigation began, several reporters in the consortium learned that they or their family members had been successfully attacked with Pegasus spyware. 

 

Remember These Two Twits?

Facebook is Driving Misinformation Leading to Low Vaccination Rates

President Joe Biden has warned that the spread of Covid-19 misinformation on social media is "killing people".  He was responding to a question from a reporter about the alleged role of "platforms like Facebook" in spreading falsehoods about vaccines and the pandemic.  "They're killing people," Mr Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday. "The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated."

The White House has been increasing pressure on social media companies to tackle disinformation. Facebook claims that it is taking "aggressive action" to protect public health.

U.S. health officials have warned that the country's current spike in Covid-19 deaths and infections is exclusively hitting unvaccinated communities. Earlier on Friday, Rochelle Walensky, director of the US public health body Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters: "There is a clear message that is coming through: this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated."

“There’s about 12 people who are producing 65 percent of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. “All of them remain active on Facebook, despite some even being banned on other platforms, including ones that Facebook owns.”

Facebook has faced criticism for its moderation, and misleading content about the pandemic is still widely available on its platforms.  In March, a report said anti-vaccine activists on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter had reached "more than 59 million followers, making these the largest and most important social media platforms for anti-vaxxers".

Earlier this year, NPR reported on how right-wing sourced misinformation is fueled by Facebook.  An NYU-based group, Cybersecurity For Democracy, was studying online misinformation, wanting to know how different types of news sources engaged with their audiences on Facebook. After the Capitol insurrection, researcher Laura Edelson said her team noticed a troubling phenomenon.  "The thing was, most of that spike was concentrated among the partisan extremes and misinformation providers.  And when I really sit back and think about that, I think the idea that on a day like that, which was so scary and so uncertain, that the most extreme and least reputable sources were the ones Facebook users were engaging with, is pretty troubling."

But we're not talking just one day of high engagement. A new study from Cybersecurity For Democracy found that far-right accounts known for spreading misinformation are thriving on Facebook, being more successful than other kinds of accounts at getting likes, shares and other forms of user engagement.  "It's almost twice as much engagement per follower among the sources that have a reputation for spreading misinformation," Edelson said. "So, clearly, that portion of the news ecosystem is behaving very differently."

The research team used CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool that measures engagement, to analyze more than 8 million posts from almost 3,000 news and information sources over a five-month period.  Each source was then evaluated on whether it had a history of spreading misinformation or conspiracy theories. What Edelson and her colleagues discovered is what some Facebook critics — and at least one anonymous executive — have been saying for some time: that far-right content is just more engaging. In fact, the study found that among far-right sources, those known for spreading misinformation significantly outperformed non-misinformation sources. 

Facebook has repeatedly promised (but seemingly has failed) to address the spread of conspiracies and misinformation on its site.   Edelson has called on Facebook to be transparent with how it tracks impressions and promotes content: "They can't say their data leads to a different conclusion but then not make that data public.  I think what's very clear is that Facebook has a misinformation problem," she said. "I think any system that attempts to promote the most engaging content, from what we call tell, will wind up promoting misinformation."

 

China Uses Predatory Loans and Infrastructure Projects to Snare Developing Countries

Roads to nowhere, abandoned railways and half-built bridges - China has been accused of using "debt trap" projects to ensnare poorer countries and expand its power worldwide.

With promises of loans and expansive infrastructure projects like roads, railways and bridges, many countries end up getting more than the bargained for with China.  Wooed by the glitzy sales pitch, many cannot afford to keep up with the return payments when China comes knocking like an international loan shark.  And then the building projects end up being abandoned or unfinished until the debt is settled - with the Communist Party more than happy to take their pound of flesh.

The initiative has seen China get its hands on resource rich mountains in Tajikistan and allegedly take a stake in a key port in Sri Lanka.  Experts are concerned that as debt mounts, many more of these projects will go unfinished - and Chinese lenders will seize control of land and strategic assets in lieu of repayment.

Countries such as Sri Lanka, Kenya, Montenegro, Laos and Kazakhstan have found themselves crippled by debt and reliant on Beijing.   One-in-five infrastructure projects in Africa are now funded by China and one-in-three are built by Chinese companies, with many lucrative deals demanding the use of Chinese construction firms, according to East African Monitor.

Shaun Breslin, professor of politics and international studies at Warwick University, said the West's "imposition of political conditions on aid and trade relationships has created a space for China to operate.  China has made much of its no strings attached economic relations with developing economies."

"But there have been increasing questions about the wisdom of becoming too reliant on Chinese finance and ending up in forms of debt dependence on China in various countries along the Belt and Road, and this might become more important," he added.  Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson once said Beijing "uses opaque contracts, predatory loan practices, and corrupt deals that mire nations in debt and undercut their sovereignty, denying them their long-term, self-sustaining growth".

Twenty One Pilots - Saturday

Coronavirus Art - Venice Beach, California

FBI Foils Iranian Plot to Kidnap American Journalist

Four Iranian intelligence officials have been charged with plotting to kidnap Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American author and activist.  The conspirators, who all live in Iran and remain at large, are also believed to have plotted to lure a person in the UK and three others in Canada to Iran.  All of the targets had been critical of Iran.

DOJ says the Iranian officials sought to lure the New York-based journalist to a third country where the abduction was planned.  The plotters even offered money to the writer's relatives in Iran to betray them, which they refused to do, the indictment contends.

They hired private investigators to spy on the target's Brooklyn home and family, and set up a live video feed of the property. They also planned to hire a military-style speedboat to evacuate Alinejad from New York City, and use international maritime routes to take her to Venezuela, an ally of Iran.

44-year-old Alinejad is a prominent figure on social media and hosts a program on Voice of America Persian. She runs the My Stealthy Freedom and White Wednesdays campaigns against the mandatory wearing of headscarves for Iranian women. In a public statement, she said, "I am grateful to FBI for foiling the Islamic Republic of Iran's Intelligence Ministry's plot to kidnap me. This plot was orchestrated under Rouhani. This is the regime that kidnapped & executed Ruhollah Zam. They've also kidnapped and jailed Jamshid Sharmahd and many others."

In 2019, the Paris-based dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam was enticed by Iranian agents to travel to Iraq, where he was kidnapped. He was executed last year after being convicted of sedition charges.

 

On the Lookout for Zoo Flu?

Nearly 200 campers who paid to take part in an overnight camping experience at a Nebraska zoo found out the next morning that they had to get rabies shots after they were exposed to a rabid bat found loose in the zoo in the middle of the night. 

Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium said that one of the 186 people participating in an overnight campout event at the facility woke up to a wild bat flying around her head, according to The Associated Press.   While an emergency medical official at the zoo said there were no bites or scratches found on the camper, the zoo located seven wild bats in the aquarium, one of which tested positive for rabies.  All of the seven bats found were euthanized. 

The zoo is now paying for campers to get rabies shots, and is also offering refunds for their participation in the camping events.  According to local ABC affiliate KETV, the zoo recommended that the guests get rabies shots based on guidance from both the Nebraska State Veterinarian and the Nebraska Department of Health.  

Sarah Woodhouse, the zoo’s director of animal health said, “It is not unusual for a wild bat to be infected with rabies, which is why you should never directly touch a wild bat.  The bats we identified were Little brown bats, a common bat species in Nebraska that anyone could find in their backyard or attic.”

The zoo said that while it had found no signs of any additional bats at the aquarium, it has decided to move all overnight camping events to a different portion of the zoo as workers investigate how the creatures were able to get into the area. 

Unprecedented Protests Erupt in Cuba

Thousands of Cubans have joined the biggest protests for decades against the island's Communist government.  They marched in cities including the capital Havana, shouting, "Down with the dictatorship!".  Images on social media showed what appear to be security forces detaining and beating some of the protesters.

Cubans have been angered by the collapse of the economy, as well as by restrictions on civil liberties and the authorities' handling of the pandemic.  The protesters were demanding a faster coronavirus vaccination effort with the country reporting a record of nearly 7,000 daily infections and 47 deaths.

Posts on social media showed people overturning police cars and looting some state-owned shops which price their goods in foreign currencies. For many Cubans, these shops are the only way they can buy basic necessities but prices are high.  "This is the day. We can't take it anymore. There is no food, there is no medicine, there is no freedom. They do not let us live. We are already tired," one of the protesters, who gave his name only as Alejandro, told reporters. 

Last year, Cuba's largely state-controlled economy shrank by 11%, its worst decline in almost three decades. It was hit hard by the pandemic and U.S . sanctions.

Thousands of pro-government supporters also took to the streets after the president went on television to urge them to defend the revolution - referring to the 1959 uprising which ushered in decades of Communist rule.  President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the protests were a provocation by mercenaries hired by the U.S. to destabilize the country.  "The order to fight has been given - into the street, revolutionaries!" he said in an address on TV.

The top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, Julie Chung, tweeted: "We are deeply concerned by 'calls to combat' in Cuba.  We stand by the Cuban people's right for peaceful assembly. We call for calm and condemn any violence."

 

Terror Attack at All-Star Game Thwarted by Alert Maid

Amid all the hubbub over Wimbledon, Copa America, the Euro Final, and the Virgin Atlantic launch, news of a potentially devastating near-miss attack is flying under the radar.

Denver police have confiscated more than a dozen weapons and 1,000 rounds of ammunition from a hotel near Coors Field, the site of Tuesday’s Major League Baseball All-Star game, thanks to a tip from an alert hotel maid.  The confiscation may have averted a potential mass shooting on the order of the Las Vegas massacre at a country music festival in 2017. A total of 61 people died in that incident when a gunman opened fire with high-powered weapons from a nearby hotel room.

In Denver, a housekeeper at the hotel called police after finding the weapons cache, according to ABC7 Denver. The Maven Hotel, the scene of the incident, is located just two blocks from the stadium where the game is to be held on Tuesday.  The room has a balcony overlooking the downtown area.

The weapons included 16 long guns, body armor, and ammo from the room. Three men and a woman were arrested and charged with weapons possessions. Three of the suspects were previous offenders, and three were also charged with intent to distribute drugs, the report said.

More ominously, one suspect had previously posted a cryptic Facebook message saying he would "go out in a big way."

“The investigation and arrests were the result of a tip from the public, serving as an excellent example of the critical role the community plays in public safety,” police said in a statement Saturday night.

 

We're Not Out of This Yet-- Get Your Fucking Shot!

Now comes astounding news that 99.5% of recent deaths from coronavirus are of individuals who were unvaccinated and could have been prevented with a vaccine.  What's wrong with these people?  If we don't get this epidemic under control, there is a real risk that a variant will emerge that will be resistant to the vaccines.  So here's where we are with emerging variants of the coronavirus:

Alpha Variant (aka, the U.K. variant): highly transmissible, higher chance of hospitalization/death.

Beta variant (aka, the South African variant): driving a second wave in South Africa

Gamma variant (aka, the Brazil variant): more likely to infect younger people, and more likely to result in reinfections.

Delta variant (aka, the India variant): currently the source of a second wave in the U.S.

Epsilon variant (aka, the California variant): out-competed by the more transmissible Alpha

Zeta variant (aka, the Rio de Janeiro variant): no longer a variant of concern

Eta variant (aka, the Nigerian variant): under investigation

Theta variant (aka, the Phillippine variant): no longer a variant of concern

Iota variant (aka, the New York city variant): out-competed by the more transmissible Alpha

Kappa variant (aka, the second Indian variant): under investigation

Lambda variant (aka, the Peruvian variant): newly designated a variant of concern

In the U.S., we are still fighting the Alpha variant, with the Delta variant driving a second wave in states where vaccinations are low.  Now, they have identified a Lambda variant which may ultimately present a new threat.  If we don't beat this virus down, it will keep producing variants-- which may end up being a greater threat than the original virus.  Schedule your vaccine as soon as possible folks-- whatever the fucking reason, deal with it and get the jab!

 

The Killers and Bruce Springsteen - Dustland

Homophobic Violence Forces Cancellation of Pride Events in Georgia

LGBT activists in Georgia have been forced to cancel a gay rights event after their office was stormed by far-right protesters.  Journalists and activists were also attacked ahead of the planned march in the capital, Tblisi, local reports say.  At least 20 journalists were reportedly injured in the violence, while an LGBT rainbow flag was burned in the street.

"We cannot risk human lives and take to the streets, which are full of violent attackers," Tblisi Pride announced.  The attacks have been condemned by a number of embassies, who have called for authorities to stop the violence.

Activists had organized five days of Pride events, but in a statement, Tbilisi Pride said local authorities had "not only failed to secure safety of the queer community and our supporters, but actively hampered us from exercising the right of assembly" ahead of the planned march.

In a joint statement, the US, UK, the EU and a number of other diplomatic missions called on Georgian authorities "to act swiftly to protect those exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of expression and assembly, to protect journalists exercising freedom of the press, and to publicly condemn violence".

Georgia's interior ministry had previously called on the organizers to cancel the Pride march due to safety concerns, while Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashviil described the event as "unacceptable for a large segment of the Georgian society".

However, another activist group said the government had failed to offer security to activists and journalists and was "responsible for today's violence".

 

Coronavirus Art - Vancouver, Canada

 

China's Elite are Leaving the Country Amid Xi Crackdown on the Inflience of Private Industry

 There's no doubt that China's economy is on a blistering pace-- factories are humming, foreign invested is flowing in, and international companies (bending the knee to government-fueled nationalism) are readily adapting their products and business practices to cater to the whims of local indignation over international reaction to the government's human rights abuses.  Despite such a bullish outlook, wealthy and powerful people atop some of the country's most prominent companies are heading for the exits.

After Xi Jinping took office as China's top leader in 2013, the authorities began going after business people and intellectuals with big online followings-- as they were seen as the likeliest challengers to the central government's power and influence over the nation. The police that year arrested Wang Gongquan, a prominent supporter of human rights causes, on charges of "disrupting public order."

Gongqua is a close friend of Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, the husband-and-wife team that runs Soho China, a leading property developer and the latest to start pulling up stakes across their homeland.  Pan and Zhang, recently struck a deal to sell a controlling stake in the investment giant Blackstone for around $3 billion, giving up up control over the company as even more high-profile entrepreneurs come under public and official scrutiny in China like never before.

China's most famous tycoon, the Alibaba found Jack Ma, has kept an uncharacteristically low profile since late last year, when the government began a regulatory crackdown on his companies and the wider internet industry.  Colin Huang, found of Alibaba rival Pinduoduo, resigned as chairman in March, less than a year after he stepped down as CEO.  In May, Zhang Timing, found of TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, announced he was handing over the CEO post to focus on long-term strategy.

Pan and Zhang of Soho China have been avoiding the spotlight more than they ever did during an earlier, freer era of China's economic revival.  As their real estate project began dominating the skylines of Beijing and Shanghai, the duo became the "it" couple in business and society circles.  Top entrepreneurs, government officials and intellectuals attended their parties. Pan was also one of the first Chinese business leaders to recognize the power of the internet, writing a popular blog in the 2000's and then becoming an influential voice on the Twitter-like social media platform Weibo.  

But soon after Xi Jinping took office, Pan Zhang began selling off property holdings in China and spending more time in the U.S.  Zhang and her family were part of consortium to buy a 40% stake in the General Motors building in New York City.  Chinese news outlets began questioning why Soho China was letting go of billions of dollars of assets in China.  Media reports soon began accusing Soho China of "fleeing" Shanghai by selling projects there.

Last year, Ren Zhiqiang, a retired property mogul and friend of Pan's was detained for an essay he shared with friends on a private chat group.  The essay criticized Xi's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.  Ren was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Pan and Zhang's social media accounts are filled with bland, friendly material-- book recommendations and photos of flowers.  Both of their accounts are set to display only the past six month's posts.  After Soho China announced the blockbuster sale of Blackstone on its Weibo account, Pan reposted the announcement on his personal account without comment-- in what many online commentators have called a "silent farewell."

"Souper" Horrible Kitchen Mishap

An Iraqi chef tragically died last week after falling into a vat of soup, which left him severely scalded across large swathes of his body.

The horrific accident occurred while Issa Ismail was helping prepare a wedding banquet at the Hazel wedding hall in Zakho, Gulf News reported.  While stirring a giant vat of chicken soup, the 25-year-old father of three reportedly slipped and fell into the pot, before tumbling to the floor.

The "seasoned" cook was immediately rushed to a local hospital, where medics spent several days trying to save his life. However, Issa died five days later after succumbing to third-degree burns that covered almost 70% of his body.

The chef’s alarming death sent shock waves across Iraqi media with many mourners attributing the incident to lax safety standards inside the nation’s restaurants and kitchens. Gulf News reported that the pot of soup was on the floor when the freak accident occurred.

The seasoned chef had been working as a cook for around eight years prior to the tragedy, the Sun reported. “The deceased… cooked food at wedding parties, mourning boards and various ceremonies, and for two years he has been working in two-party halls for 25,000 dinars per day (about $17),” one of the late chef’s relatives Zervan Hosni told Rudaw Media Network.  Internet observers said that the unfortunate chef really put his heart into his work.

The Truth of Independence

 

Hired by Machine, Fired by Machine: a Heartless Amazon

Stephen Normandin spent almost four years racing around Phoenix delivering packages as a contract driver for Amazon.com Inc. Then one day, he received an automated email. The algorithms tracking him had decided he wasn’t doing his job properly.  The 63-year-old Army veteran was stunned. He’d been fired by a machine.

Normandin says Amazon punished him for things beyond his control that prevented him from completing his deliveries, such as locked apartment complexes. He said he took the termination hard and, priding himself on a strong work ethic, recalled that during his military career he helped cook for 250,000 Vietnamese refugees at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas.

“I’m an old-school kind of guy, and I give every job 110%,” he said. “This really upset me because we're talking about my reputation. They say I didn’t do the job when I know damn well I did.”  Normandin’s experience is a twist on the decades-old prediction that robots will replace workers. At Amazon, machines are often the boss—hiring, rating and firing millions of people with little or no human oversight.

Amazon became the world’s largest online retailer in part by outsourcing its sprawling operations to algorithms—sets of computer instructions designed to solve specific problems. For years, the company has used algorithms to manage the millions of third-party merchants on its online marketplace, drawing complaints that sellers have been booted off after being falsely accused of selling counterfeit goods and jacking up prices.

Increasingly, the company is ceding its human-resources operation to machines as well, using software not only to manage workers in its warehouses but to oversee contract drivers, independent delivery companies and even the performance of its office workers. People familiar with the strategy say Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos believes machines make decisions more quickly and accurately than people, reducing costs and giving Amazon a competitive advantage.

Coldplay - Higher Power

Convicted Rapist Set Free on a Technicality

Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction in a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian who once went from being known as “America’s Dad” to "America's Rapist" after being accused of sexual assault by sixty women.  The court did not clear him of the charges or say that he was innocent-- it ruled that the prosecutor who brought the original case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby.

Cosby’s argument that the original prosecutor had made an agreement not to prosecute him was already  adjudicated in Cosby's trial and rejected by the judge, based in part on the fact that no such agreement existed in writing.  “There’s no other witness to the promise,” the judge in that case said to Castor’s effort to convince him that the agreement was a real thing. “The rabbit is in the hat and you want me at this point to assume: ‘Hey, the promise was made, judge. Accept that.’”

Cosby had already admitted in a previous civil case to pursuing sex with young women with the aid of Quaaludes, which can render a person functionally immobile. “I used them,” he said, “the same as a person would say, ‘Have a drink.’ ” He asked a modeling agent to connect him with young women who were new in town and “financially not doing well.” In the deposition, Cosby expressed the opinion that his behavior did not constitute rape; he apparently saw little difference between buying someone dinner in pursuit of sex and drugging them to reach the same goal.

Therese Serignese, whom Cosby had confessed to drugging and assaulting at a Las Vegas hotel in 1976, said the court ruling took her breath away. “I just think it’s a miscarriage of justice. This is about procedure. It’s not about the truth of the women,” she said.  The now 64-year-old Serignese said she took solace in the fact Cosby served nearly three years behind bars: “That’s as good as it gets in America” for sex crime victims.

Victoria Valentino, who accused Cosby of raping her in the 1960s, said her stomach was “lurching” and that his release was a deep injustice.   “I am outraged! Outraged! Stunned!” she told CNN. “My stomach is in knots. The work that we have done to uplift women has been overturned by a legal glitch. We now have a serial predator on the street.”

Patricia Steuer, who said that Cosby drugged and assaulted her in two separate incidents in 1978 and 1980, told The New York Times she was “a little stunned” by the ruling.  “I’m feeling sad because this is absolutely a perceived loss on my part,” Steuer told the publication. “I’m wondering what the 43-year ordeal that I went through was supposed to be about.”