old thepete.com blog
moral compass online since 1998
Major Corporations Are Downloading Those 100 Million Facebook Profiles off BitTorrent
Who’s surprised? HANDS UP!
Read one reason this is bad. Another reason is this: why must corporations work so hard to make EVERY THIN DIME THEY CAN??
Yes, yes, I know “because they’re greedy” but that’s not a reason. That’s an excuse to be shitty.
“100 Million Facebook Users Data Collated into One Giant-Ass File” from thetechpete:
The harvest has begun.. Ron Bowes is from Canada, and he is a security consultant. Just this week, Mr. Bowes changed the world as we know it, perhaps ever damning the word “privacy” into the trash heap of history. And how did he do it? Using the very data that people knowingly and happily gave up themselves on Facebook..Bowes collated 100 million Facebook users’ names, addresses, and unique ID numberson a single 2.8 gig file and posted it online..Facebook also enabled this grand release of private data.
via coalspeaker.com
I would quit Facebook in a New York second if only I could convince my family and friends who treat the site like a religion to quit, too.
Maybe I should bite the bullet and set the good example. The problem with that is simple: FB as lame as it is, is great for networking. Plus, it saves me money on business cards—I barely give them out. I just tell them the socnets I’m on and they find me if they want to.
I just wish Zuckerberg wasn’t such a douche with our stuff.
See, I get that I make my info public.
What I don’t like is how Facebook and other socnets make it so easy for other things to be done with my info.
I don’t know if it there needs to be a law against it or if Facebook and other socnets should be forced to give us the ability to not just block all info from being public but to also prohibit the info from being copyable by anyone. I put my content out there for people to view it where I want them to—I don’t like the idea of my content being in some massive list or on some other site that doesn’t share revenue with me. This may be a brave new world, but I’ve got bills to pay, just like everyone else. Let me control my shit—the least you can do is pay me for it when you use it.
Target Donates $150,000 To Fund Anti-Gay Politics.
Welp. Looks like I’m boycotting Target.
A friend of mine posted this on Erika’s facebook. I’m really glad I saw this before I moved, so I can avoid there store when I shop for my new house stuff.
From the article.
Follow the money. At least, that’s the message delivered by an article at sfist.com by Matt Baume, who tracks $150,000 from Target’s coffers, through a political action committee (PAC) known as Minnesota Forward, all the way to Tom Emmer, who himself supports a Christian rock band in Minnesota that travels around the state saying that it’s moral and righteous for religious people to kill gays and lesbians.
For those into algebra, it looks a little like this: Target + Minnesota Forward + Tom Emmer = Support for a rather dangerous and radical political philosophy that diminishes LGBT people to pests that should be murdered. And Target is cool with this?
Sign the Petition demand answers for this.
Oh, HELL NO. What the FUCK, Target? You’re done.
seriously? the religious right was boycotting them a few years back because they were “pro-gay” - they’ve donated to gay rights causes and AIDS charities and such in the past too…now I’m just confused.
maybe instead of trying to be picky about which amoral-by-design corporations we consume from, we ought to switch to production instead. Swadeshi Movement style…
I think this might have more to do with bashing the founding family of Target and Emmers competition for governor, Mark Dayton. Either way, it’s pretty ridiculous.
OK, let’s boycott Target—but then where will we shop? Wal-Mart? K-Mart? Actually, there’s really no source for anything we buy that doesn’t eventually connect back to some sort of horrible thing. Whether it’s hating gays or paying pennies for hours of labor or buying conflict minerals or oil from terrorist regimes, there isn’t a dollar in our bank accounts that hasn’t paid for someone’s misery somewhere in the world.
If there was a source for every day items that sold products that are made entirely within the US with materials originated inside the US, I’d agree with a boycott. But boycotting Target just means you’re going to add support to some other company that is just as bad in the same or different ways.
We’re living in an era of extremist capitalism, where the shortest route to profits is the highway (or low-way) nearly every damn company takes.
In the end, which is worse? Hating gays or not caring about human dignity at all?
Either ramblings of conspiracy theorists or .. we better watch what we eat. We really, really better watch what we eat.
And, as a population, we need to smarten up.. there are dangers in the chemicals we injest.. There are complications with too many articifial sweeteners..
Activity Post website details some of the ways we may be getting posioned.
Yeah, I don’t think it matters whether there is a conspiracy or not—all that matters is that there may as well be. Just keep your eye on the ingredients labels on the food you eat. Just do it and see if you don’t start to worry. Or hit the above link to ActivistPost.com and get really worried.
“Apple CEO Steve Jobs came up with a two-part solution. Part 1: There is no problem. Part 2: Even though there is no problem, we’re going to give everyone a free case, which should insulate the antenna and prevent the interference that we just told you isn’t actually occurring. But if you’re still not happy, you can give back the phone for a full refund. Jobs’s snotty tone made it clear that he was pretty fed up with all the whining about a problem that he says doesn’t exist. This is classic Apple behavior. No matter what the whole world can see with its own eyes, just keep saying that it isn’t true, and maybe, eventually, everyone will believe you. By refusing to acknowledge the problem, Jobs just reinforced the image of Apple as a company that is in deep denial and unable to admit a mistake—a company that has for so long been able to bend reality to suit its needs that it now has lost touch with reality itself.”—
Lyons, on the iPhone 4 announcement
This isn’t Steve Jobs. It’s not Apple. It’s business. Seriously. This isn’t news. This isn’t even commentary. Remember how BP reacted when their party in the Gulf started?
So, really, isn’t this kind of “cynical” attitude just ignoring the bigger problem of corporations wholesale lying to us across the board? Why pretend Steve Jobs is doing anything but protect his shareholders’ profits?
This is a systemic problem. Every company lies when they get caught doing something wrong. Lyons’ article should have been two sentence long:
“Bullshit, Steve. Tell us the truth.”
With maybe a third saying:
“Thanks for the free case, though.”
But if his article was that short, I guess Lyons wouldn’t get paid as much.
It’s Website666.com’s 666cast: episode 14—how capitalism is breaking it’s promise to innovate.
It’s the “Capitalism Doesn’t Innovate” rant. You know it had to happen—look around you—do you see any jet packs? Any flying cars (OK, so that’s ONE.) No, of course, you don’t—because capitalism doesn’t innovate like we were all promised it would. Have a listen to the latest episode of the 666cast and find out why I think this is so.
Please subscribe to the feed.
“In Which the Nation’s Top Execs Make a Not-So-Subtle Request that Obama Stop Regulating them So Damn Much”
Fareed, on “Obama’s CEO Problem:”
The Federal Reserve recently reported that America’s 500 largest nonfinancial companies have accumulated an astonishing $1.8 trillion of cash on their balance sheets. By any calculation (for example, as a percentage of assets), this is higher than it has been in almost half a century. And yet, most corporations are not spending this money on new plants, equipment, or workers. Were they to begin loosening their purse strings, hundreds of billions of dollars would start pouring through the economy. And these investments would likely have greater effect and staying power than a government stimulus.
[snip]
Now, let me be clear. I think there is a strong case for a temporary and targeted government stimulus….But government spending can only be a bridge to private-sector investment. The key to a sustainable recovery and robust economic growth is to get companies to start investing in America. So why are they reluctant, despite having mounds of cash lying around? I put this question to a series of business leaders over the past few days. They were all expansive on the topic, and all wanted to stay off the record, for fear of offending people in Washington.
Economic uncertainty was the primary cause of their caution. “We’ve just been through a tsunami, and that produces caution,” one said to me. But in addition to economics, they kept talking about politics, about the uncertainty surrounding regulations and taxes. Some have even begun to speak out publicly. Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, complained last Friday that government was not in sync with entrepreneurs. The Business Roundtable, which had supported the Obama administration, has begun to complain about the myriad new laws and regulations being cooked up in Washington.
This shit makes me mad.
So, corporations not only have the ability to be bailed out by the USG when they get too greedy, they also have the same rights as a human being.
BUT THAT’S NOT ENOUGH.
BP has proven time and again that they don’t give a crap about the disaster they caused and there are corporations that have the gall to say that the USG is over-regulating? Hell, in my eyes (and in the eyes of many others) the USG isn’t regulating enough.
This is worse than Bizarro World. This is Planet Corruption.
Seriously—why is it that the USG has to be “in sync” with business? Why can’t business be “in sync” with what humanity NEEDS??
Imagine a world where, instead of mega-corporations trying to convinces to buy things we don’t need and eat things that aren’t healthy for us, they tried to find ways to fulfill needs we actually have.
Yeah, never mind—I can’t imagine that world either…
And here’s EPISODE 10 of the 666cast! In it I go over some stuff I’ve been blogging about, including SAD REALITY #1!! And as a special bonus, you get SAD REALITY #2, as well!
SPECIAL BONUS: No sound of me doing the dishes in the background this week! YES!
Please subscribe to the feed.
What do you think?
The Power of Branding Vs. Common Sense: this chart shows how most of us spend 80% too much for drugs with zero benefits.
Fight the BRAND. Buy generic and stop making the rich richer.
via: http://www.pdviz.com/the-rip-brand-vs-generic-drugs
Obama Won’t Want To Read This (via underpaidgenius):
Bob Herbert, An Unnatural DisasterThe oil companies and other giant corporations have a stranglehold on American policies and behavior, and are choking off the prospects of a viable social and economic future for working people and their families.President Obama spoke critically a couple of weeks ago about the “cozy relationship” between the oil companies and the federal government. It’s not just a cozy relationship. It’s an unholy alliance. And that alliance includes not just the oil companies but the entire spectrum of giant corporations that have used vast wealth to turn democratically elected officials into handmaidens, thus undermining not just the day-to-day interests of the people but the very essence of democracy itself.Forget BP for a moment. When is the United States going to get its act together? Will we learn anything from this disaster or will we simply express our collective dismay, ignore the inevitable commission reports (no one pays attention to study commissions), and bury our heads back in the oily sand?President Obama said on Thursday that his administration was “moving quickly on steps to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again.” Well, he can’t ensure anything of the kind. And, in fact, his corporate-friendly policy of opening up new regions for offshore drilling (that policy is only temporarily halted) will all but guarantee future disastrous spills.The U.S. will never get its act together until we develop the courage and the will to crack down hard on these giant corporations. They need to be tamed, closely monitored and regulated, and constrained in ways that no longer allow them to trample the best interests of the American people.
The catch? Our government IS the corporations. Thanks to the way politicians and government appointees just rotate in and out of their positions and back again, we forget that the what we’re asking is for the very people we want to be regulated to regulate themselves. Think about Dick Cheney moving from the Reagan/Bush admin to Halliburton and then back to the Bush/Cheney admin. Think about how Treasury Sec under Bush, Hank Paulson, just before becoming the Treasury Sec, WAS THE CEO OF GOLDMAN SACHS.
How the hell do we let this go on? Because the reality is, we don’t have a democracy. If the big corps want something done they either buy lawmakers or swap them out with their own people. This is the major problem with our system—We The People aren’t understanding that everything we are told are lies—deliberate obfuscations meant to trick us into thinking things are being done when they aren’t and have no hope of being done because the system is rigged.
