Proving that America has lost trust with its allies, the European Union handed down a blistering verdict regarding United States surveillance powers aka Privacy Shield. This is the second time, it has been determined that EU data would not be safe from snooping under a transatlantic data protection deal.
The EU’s top court ruled Thursday that an agreement that allows thousands of companies — from tech giants to small financial firms — to transfer data to the United States is invalid because the American government can snoop on people’s data.
The ruling to invalidate Privacy Shield will likely complicate business for around 5,000 companies, and it could require regulators to vet any new data transfers to make sure Europeans’ personal information remains protected according to the EU’s stringent standards.
The ruling suggests tinkering around the edges will not be enough and that substantive changes to U.S. surveillance powers will be needed for a new deal.
It will no longer simply be assumed that tech companies like Facebook will adequately protect the privacy of its European users’ data when it sends it to the U.S. Rather, the EU and U.S. will likely have to find a new agreement that guarantees that Europeans’ data is afforded the same privacy protection in the U.S. as it is in the EU.
Privacy activists hailed the court ruling as a major victory, while business groups worried about the potential to disrupt commerce, depending on how the ruling is implemented. Companies like Facebook routinely move such data among their servers around the world and the practice underpins billions of dollars in business.
“It is clear that the U.S. will have to seriously change their surveillance laws, if U.S. companies want to continue to play a major role on the EU market,” said Max Schrems, an Austrian activist whose complaints about the handling of his Facebook data triggered the ruling after years of legal procedures.
He first filed a complaint in 2013, after former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the American government was snooping on people’s online data and communications. The revelations included detail on how Facebook gave U.S. security agencies access to the personal data of Europeans.
Though the legal case was triggered by concerns over Facebook in particular, it could have far-reaching implications not only for tech companies but also businesses in sectors like finance and the auto industry.
Things like emails or hotel reservations between the U.S. and Europe would not be affected because there is no way to conduct that business without data crossing the border. But in other cases, such as with Facebook, for example, messages between Europeans would have to stay in Europe, which can be complicated and require their platform to be split up, Schrems said.
Companies use legal mechanisms called standard contractual clauses that force businesses to abide by EU privacy standards when transferring messages, photos and other information. The clauses — which are stock terms and conditions — are used to ensure the EU rules are maintained when data leaves the bloc.
The Court of Justice of the EU ruled Thursday that those clauses are still valid in principle. However, it declared invalid the Privacy Shield agreement between the U.S. and EU on data transfers over concerns that the U.S. can demand access to consumer data for national security reasons.
It said that in cases where there are concerns about data privacy, EU regulators should vet, and if needed block, the transfer of data. That raises the prospect that EU regulators will block Facebook, for example, from transferring any more European data to the U.S.
The European Commission said it was studying the ruling and stressed that a system is needed to allow data transfers while also protecting privacy. It said it was in touch with its counterparts in the U.S. on how to proceed.
“I see it as an opportunity to engage in solutions that reflect the values that we share as democratic societies,” European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said the U.S. was “deeply disappointed” by the ruling and we “hope to be able to limit the negative consequences to the $7.1 trillion trans-Atlantic economic relationship.”
Experts said the full impact on businesses will largely depend on how authorities respond.
“EU regulators will need to adopt a pragmatic approach to enforcement, allowing businesses a period of grace in which to implement alternative arrangements,” said Bridget Treacy, data privacy partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in London.
Government surveillance of personal data is something the U.S. in its turn accuses China of doing through tech companies like Huawei. And it highlights the growing importance of data as the basis of modern business and politics.
Data drives much of the world’s largest companies, like Facebook, Google, Alibaba and Amazon, and is also prized for national security to prevent extremist attacks, for example. Mining large sets of people’s data has also become crucial to winning elections, such as the use of Facebook data for Donald Trump’s presidential victory in 2016.
Alexandre Roure, a senior manager at Computer & Communications Industry Association, said the decision “creates legal uncertainty for the thousands of large and small companies on both sides of the Atlantic that rely on Privacy Shield for their daily commercial data transfers.
“We trust that EU and U.S. decision-makers will swiftly develop a sustainable solution, in line with EU law, to ensure the continuation of data flows which underpins the trans-Atlantic economy.”
The ruling was cheered by privacy campaigners across Europe, with Estelle Massé, privacy lead at digital rights NGO Access Now, saying in a statement that the European Commission had been “irresponsible” to adopt the Privacy Shield in the first place.
“From the get-go, the Commission ignored the legal opinion of data protection experts and civil society, who urged against this deal’s adoption. Time and time again, we reiterated that not suspending the deal was a big mistake.”
Reaction from industry was mixed.
Thomas Boué, a policy wonk at influential tech lobby BSA | The Software Alliance said the invalidation of the Privacy Shield is “removing one of the most flexible and trusted compliance mechanisms, which are widely used by SMEs for transatlantic business.”
He called on data protection authorities to release guidance and to hold off enforcing the ruling for a grace period like they did after Safe Harbor was struck down.
If you believe recent estimates, the video gaming industry is now expected to reach $180 billion in profits by the time 2021 rolls around, putting it well above the likes of film and music put together right this second. Five hundred million people watch some form of competitive gaming online on platforms such as Twitch or YouTube, and the prize pools and revenues made by tournaments across the world has surpassed the likes of the MLB, EFL Championship, American Open, Wimbledon, and even the once-mighty NBA.
This is obviously really cool.
Everyone wants to know how to get paid to play games, which has continued to help launch the Esports industry to new heights. And even high-profile celebrities aren’t exempt from this rule anymore, starting up their very own businesses within the community and investing in their favourite games through various teams. Influencers like these are going to be the key in breaking the traditional view of gaming being something reserved for socially-awkward nerds living in their parents’ basements, so here’s our quick take on some of the most high-profile celebrity investors in the video game world.
Drake – 100 Thieves
Canadian rapper Drake really needs no introduction. The multi-Grammy winning machine has made a bit of a name for himself as being a savvy investor in the world of sports, thanks mainly to his continued work with current NBA champions Toronto Raptors, and took the plunge into Esports with an investment into the 100 Thieves organisation back in 2018.
Along with the likes of the Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and entertainment hotshot Scooter Braun, the investment gave 100 Thieves an injection of roughly $25 million and the North American group have gone onto found top ten teams in games ranging from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Call of Duty and Fortnite.
Ashton Kutcher – Unikrn
Actor, model, producer, serial investor and all-around good guy Ashton Kutcher made his first mark in the world of Esports when he put his money behind Esports betting site, Unikrn back in 2015. Along with fellow billionaire and television personality Mark Cuban, Kutcher helped make up a total investment round of $10 million for Unikrn, and the site has gone onto sponsor orgs like BIG Clan and put together some truly unique ways of taking video game wagering to new and exciting levels.
Michael Jordan
Team Liquid is one of the most successful and recognizable groups in the world of Esports, boasting teams that make up the top ten in Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Dota 2, Fortnite, Hearthstone, and Apex. With an estimated total earnings haul of $33 million to their collective names so far, Liquid has been instrumental in shaping the world of modern competitive gaming, investing in Youth Academies, Player Houses, Training Academies, and various physical and mental coaches for their players.
One of their biggest investors is basketballing legend Michael Jordan, who invested into their parent company, aXiomatic, in 2018. The six-time NBA Champion knows a thing or two about successful sports teams and his initial investment, which helped make a round of funding worth $26 million all in, soon paid dividends with the company’s groundbreaking Alienware Training Facility most notably undergoing some serious refurbs in the wake of the investment roundup.
Coincidentally, Jordan isn’t the first Basketball superstar to invest in aXiomatic and Team Liquid. His famous 1992 Olympic teammate, Magic Johnson, has also invested in the group in the past and the two have helped paint Team Liquid as one of the snazziest and star-studded lineups, both in and out of the world of virtual sports.
I write most often about my favorite show for the last fifteen years, “Supernatural.” But before “Supernatural” took over my life, I was a lifelong “Star Trek” fan, literally since I was a child. I’ve watched most of Trek’s incarnations, and loved both “The Next Generation” and “Voyager.” So, I was delighted to run across a hilarious little video by Robert Picardo (who played the iconic role of the holographic Doctor on Voyager) – that was inspired by an equally hilarious video by TNG’s Brent Spiner (Data).
The pandemic and being in isolation has changed the entertainment landscape in every way possible, mostly not for the better (other than delaying the ending of “Supernatural” perhaps, but that’s another story), but one thing it has brought fans is some unique social media offerings of all kinds from their favorite creative people – including these two videos. Both Brent Spiner and Robert Picardo have current projects going on that are exciting, but I’m they took the time to share a few minutes of poking fun at their profession, the idea of celebrity, and themselves!
We discovered that we’re both from Philly before we actually started the interview.
Check out the ‘Director’s Cut’ of his video and then dive on in the interview!
Robert Picardo: James Darren from Deep Space 9, who’s a great guy, is also a Philly guy – and proud of it!
Lynn: Rightly so. I loved your video, it was hilarious! It’s also very catchy. I knew you could sing, since you sang on Voyager, which I think helped it be very aesthetically pleasing, and the lyrics are also very witty. How did it come about? Did you write and conceive of it yourself?
RP: Yes I did. My friend and colleague from “Star Trek” TNG, Brent Spiner, who played the character Data {who was an android and probably the most famous and popular AI character in Star Trek, simply because their show was the first of the reboots and I think had the biggest audience when they were on of all of the subsequent series). Brent, about 6 weeks ago on twitter, uploaded a hilarious 2 min or so singing parody that I highly recommend you watch…
Lynn: Oh, I did! When I saw yours and it mentioned Brent’s, I immediately went looking for his – it’s a hilarious spoof of himself and of celebrity and it’s awesome.
RP: And really he did that as a gift to his social media fans. It was just something he decided to do – it was shot during the lockdown with appropriate precautions. He thought it would be fun to give something humorous like that to his fans. I was very impressed.
Lynn: Me too!
RP: Meanwhile, a mutual friend of both Brent’s and mine named James Marlowe – his main business is to produce big corporate events for large tech companies like Apple and Facebook. He has a whole staff of people he had on salary and none of them were working because these events were all being cancelled. I had shot before with his little crew of five or six people to do videos for these events, so that’s how I know James and Brent also knows him. He called and asked if I’d seen Brent’s video. I said I watched it and it’s hilarious and he said, would you like to answer it? I said, what do you mean? And he said well I have a crew that’s at your disposal. I’m paying them and they’ve got nothing to do. I said, I can’t think of a single thing, but thanks for the offer.
Lynn: (laughing)
RP: So I hung up the phone and I thought about it. I thought that Brent’s was so colorful and fun and joyous, I thought wouldn’t it be amusing if I did something entirely different that looked sort of like a lament, like film noir in black and white, a joke lament, like an actor bitching about his career.
Lynn: Yes, exactly.
RP: I loved the song that I recorded it to, obviously a classic from the Great Depression, ‘Brother Can You Spare a Dime’. I wrote the lyrics almost immediately. I think I was happy with the verses, but there’s only so many words you can rhyme with Spiner, when you think about it…
Lynn: I know, when you sang “I wasn’t a whiner” I immediately burst into laughter already because it was so perfect.
RP: I wasn’t happy with my bridge. I think I went to bed that night and woke up in the middle of the night and re-wrote the bridge. I told our friend James that I had an idea for the video and he said, how do you want to shoot it? I said well, ideally I’d be ambling along a beach and then we’ll need a scene in a diner. He made a few phone calls and said we’re in lockdown, it’s just not possible to shoot outside in a public space and all restaurants were closed. Then he mentioned a friend with a very large beautiful old house and a big lawn, on nine acres, about a three hour drive from where I am. I had shot there years before with James and remembered it, and he said my friend is willing to let us use his place. So I said that’s great, his yard is so big we can fake me walking through a park.
Lynn: It worked!
RP: I said, here’s what I need. I need a trash can because I want to rummage through trash, and a few other things I needed, and then I got the Walmart hat and the paper diner hat. We wanted it to look very 1950s.
Lynn: It does, it has that look to it.
RP: We did it on a shoestring, we shot it in about five hours. I even got the drone shot that I begged for! James and I had a long talk on the phone, shot by shot what I was picturing in my head, and he’s a very fast director. His crew was great and we just knocked it out. To record the song, I bought a USB microphone and recorded the song in my closet.
Lynn: (laughing) But you know what? It sounded great! Do you have directing and filmmaking experience, because it seems like you really knew what shots you wanted and you set it up really well, with the drone shot and everything.
RP: I do. I’m in the Director’s Guild, I directed on the “Star Trek” series a few times. I wasn’t really interested in pursuing a career in television directing, though, it’s pretty high stress. You don’t have a lot of creative freedom because normally directors are guests on shows unless you’re part of the creative team that creates the show. So it didn’t appeal to me to continue, but yes, I have directed and that was helpful. Once I decided that the video was basically going to be me sleeping on a couch like I was — what do you call it? Like squatting at a friend’s house…
Lynn: Like couch surfing…
RP: Yes, and then I’ll wake up and sing the first verse there and then be in the bathroom or in front of the mirror getting ready to go, then I’ll be outside and rummage through a trash can — and I really want to show the back of the “Star Trek” backpack and make the joke that I’ve got like a swag bag (laughing).
Lynn: Yes, like from a con! It was those little touches – the backpack, the Walmart hat – that really made it hilarious. There are all these little touches that are just priceless.
RP: Thank you. And one of James’ staff, the editor, came up with the idea of making the magazine. That was not part of my original vision, and that was a terrific add. It became a three part joke in the video. So yeah, I’m very happy with how it turned out and we had great fun doing it. Brent Spiner is a terrific guy and was one of the first people to like it when he saw it online. He took it in good humor
Lynn: What has fan reaction been?
RP: They’ve loved it, we got about 40K views in 4.5 days. I started a YouTube channel two weeks ago with this in mind and wanting to make other original videos, so it was a good time to start it. I have other videos I’ve been making, in addition to clips from some of the different performances in my career. Years ago I created a character with a comedy troupe in LA, the Acme Comedy Theatre, called Alphonso. I said I wanted to do every woman’s nightmare of the guy who sits next to her in a bar and won’t leave her alone, that’s what I want to create. Someone completely self-absorbed who thinks he’s God’s gift to women, no matter how old or how ridiculous he is. So I do a series of videos called ‘your future in love with Alphonso’.
Lynn: (laughing)
RP: I’m going to upload once a week. If Hugh Hefner and Robert Guccione had a love child in the 70s, that’s who Alphonso would be. His view of the male/female relationship is at least 40 years stale. It’s fun.
Lynn: One of the best things to come out of quarantine is that so many creative people are doing all kinds of different original content and putting it out there for people who are also quarantined to enjoy. None of us are living our normal lives, so I love that all this unusual content is being put out there by such creative people.
RP: Well, if you love to perform and there’s no outlet to perform, then you can only do so many zoom cocktail parties with your friends where you’re telling them jokes!
Lynn: So true.
RP: So, you want to do something a little bigger. I have a couple of Alphonsos in the pipeline. My daughter is a professional editor, so it’s kind of a family affair. The titles for the videos are created by my older daughter, who works in visual effects and specializes in digital correction.
Lynn: Digital correction?
RP: She calls it making impossibly beautiful actors and actresses more beautiful.
Lynn: Ohhhh yes. [Thinks about the impossibly beautiful “Supernatural” cast…]
RP: So motion graphics is not her thing, but as a favor to Dad for Father’s Day, she designed some titles for me that move, and my younger daughter has been editing the videos. Next week’s video I’ll have a sit down dinner where me, Robert, has made dinner for his Italian cousin, Alphonso. So it’s me playing both parts at either end of the table, and I’m excited about those. It’s just for fun.
Lynn: I found the video you just posted really funny, like I said, but it was also interesting to me as a psychologist who writes about celebrity and fandom. I’ve talked to so many actors about the profession and it really is a tough profession in a lot of ways. In most jobs, if you work hard, you can keep working your way up pretty consistently. But even if you work really hard, in acting it’s often not like that – it’s constant ups and downs, and over time it’s not necessarily up up up unless you’re Tom Hanks or something. So the video also struck me as reflecting some of the difficulty of that – it’s tongue and cheek and I laughed all through it, but there’s an undercurrent of melancholy to it.
RP: Absolutely. Actors love to bitch about their careers, no matter how successful they are. There’s an old joke which I first heard in my early 20s – how do you make an actor complain? Give him a job. So actors complain all the time, no matter what. I quote my friend Ethan Phillips, my good friend from the “Star Trek” cast, who’s one of the most hilarious people when he bitches about his career. I remember calling him years ago on the phone and he said, “I apologize for the echo, I’m speaking to you from inside my career.”
(both laughing)
RP: So yes, complaining about your career. The day that I first met Brent Spiner face to face, they said Brent, have you met Bob Picardo? And he turned to me and said, you got my part in Tribute. That was a play I did with Jack Lemmon when I was 24 years old. I was meeting Brent more than 16 years later, at age 41, and he remembered that he had auditioned for that part and wished that he had gotten it because he was a big Jack Lemmon fan, as I was. It was Jack Lemmon’s return to Broadway after he’d been a movie star, in the late 70s, and it was a plum part. But Brent was basically kidding on the square, meaning he knew that he was joking but he knew I was the actor who got the part that time. So there’s an element of truth in complaining about your career no matter how it’s going. The video is really like a dream, sort of like a bad dream
Lynn: Like a nightmare, but a funny nightmare.
RP: Yeah, I mean, right now I am working. I’m playing a recurring character, a bad guy, for a series on BET starring Ernie Hudson called The Family Business.
Lynn (silently): Good title (momentarily stuck thinking about “Supernatural”)
RP: It sort of bills itself as the Black Sopranos. Ernie plays the father in a multi-generational crime family. They have a legitimate business selling cars, but they’re really drug dealers. So it’s a very glossy kind of sexy pulp violent kind of show — they call it the Black Sopranos for a reason. It’s great because it’s the first time I’ve worked on a show where I believe I’m the only white actor in the series regularly, and off camera as well, the crew is almost exclusively African American and Latino. It’s been a really warm and wonderful experience to be so graciously welcomed into this production and I’m having a great time doing it. I’m a Roman Catholic Italian but of course I’m playing a Jewish gangster.
Lynn: I feel like you can pull that off.
RP: Ever since I played a rabbi in the Coen Brothers movie, “Hail Caesar,” I’ve had a run on playing either rabbis or something like that. You’re always rediscovered every fifteen minutes in show business. I’ve gone from playing a holographic projection to a rabbi.
Lynn: That’s wonderful, for a creative person to be able to keep reinventing yourself all the time.
RP: Mm hmm. It’s definitely better than the opposite! (laughing)
Lynn: For sure. I have a lot of empathy for actors. When my son was acting, he was a kid and didn’t really care, but every time he didn’t get a role I worried about his feelings being hurt. It takes a lot of ego strength to be an actor.
RP: No argument there. Also, in retrospect, I was just a very lucky young man. I graduated my third year at Yale after having been pre-med for half the time I was there and decided to be an actor, and I went to New York at twenty and waited tables for maybe two years, but by 23 I had booked my first leading role on Broadway. And then the second was that play with Jack Lemmon. And a lot of that is just plain luck, being at the right place at the right time. And if I hadn’t been that lucky, you never know if you would have stuck it out.
Lynn: It’s true. Certainly many people don’t.
RP: I had a lot of good breaks early on and then I made the most of them, I was very committed and worked hard so that I didn’t mishandle any of those opportunities. As I said, there is a great deal of luck involved in any actor’s career, certainly getting started.
Lynn: I think that perspective you just articulated, how much you’ve thought about this, is why you could make this video, which is actually very complex with both the humor and the underlying messages.
RP: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. One of my favorite things is the Fiddler On the Roof moment at the end (laughing), quoting Tevye at the end, in If I Was A Rich Man.
Lynn: Priceless moment. Can I ask one question about your character in Voyager before we end?
RP: Absolutely.
Lynn: I asked my son earlier today, who grew up with “Star Trek” and is a big fan too, what stood out for you about the character of the Doctor? He said that the Doctor was the first character in Voyager to embody the long tradition in “Star Trek” of considering the question of what makes a human human, and exploring how a non-human would approach that question. Spock, Data – it’s one of the fundamental themes that “Star Trek” explores in every series. But unlike Spock and Data, where the humor was often derived by the viewer, the Doctor was humorous. He had this dry somewhat cynical sense of humor, and that was a significant change and an important aspect of the character.
RP: That’s very astute. I think your son is very astute. Certainly when I got the role, because I wasn’t knowledgeable about Star Trek, I thought I’d gotten the dullest role. I had no idea I’d lucked into what would be the best role. He started with no affect whatsoever and then grew a personality over seven years.
Lynn: He really did.
RP: So, I was very fortunate. I think what was very unique about my character, even over Data in a way, is that he did not have to obey any of the rules that Star Fleet officers do. They have to be strong and brave and true. My character, because he was designed for one application only, if you took him outside of his area of expertise, he didn’t have to be brave. He could be cowardly, he could be disinterested, he could be rude. I could have all these negative qualities that you don’t normally see in a character in a Star Fleet outfit.
Lynn: Oh, that’s true.
RP: And that made him, I think, fun for the audience. And I could overplay and underplay on a dime, I could do something that was very broad and silly, and then play a moment that was very dramatic, and the audience could accept that. I got to be the most facially expressive, I think, in that role, and there were all sorts of freedoms that I had that the other cast didn’t have. Then when Seven of Nine came aboard, I made the suggestion to the producers that wouldn’t it be great fun if the Doctor decided that he would be the best one to teach Seven how to be human again. That he was a better teacher of being human than any actual human! It appealed to his arrogance and self importance, to his ego, but also I said we could have role playing exercises where I could teach her appropriate behavior for different circumstances. And they took that idea and turned it into a four-year arc with the Doctor and Seven that gave me some of the best comedy scenes, but even some romantic ones. When we did our My Fair Lady episode, for example.
Lynn: Yes!
RP: Where the Doctor falls in love with his own pupil. So there was a lot of really nice outgrowth from that one suggested premise. It paid off for many years and it was a lot of fun.
Lynn: It sounds like they were very open to creative input. And because the character was who – and what – he was, they had the freedom to go in all sorts of directions.
RP: Yes. And I didn’t even audition for that part! I asked to audition for Neelix and was turned down.
Lynn: You’re kidding!
RP: I tested for Neelix and thank God I didn’t get it because I could never have handled that makeup for seven years! But then they came back to me after auditioning and testing me for a part I was more interested in, and they asked, would you look at the role that we originally asked for? I literally said to my agent, I don’t get the joke, but I’ll try. And I got the part and then discovered the joke very quickly (laughing). So it was very lucky. Any time an actor can get a seven year job when they turn forty, it’s a gift from God!
Lynn: Obviously those casting directors had some good instincts. Looking back now, I can’t imagine anyone else in that part.
RP: Well, according to my children, part of it is I also have resting bitch face.
Lynn: (laughing)
RP: When my face is at rest, I look unhappy, so I think that helps me.
And on that note, he had to run to his next interview.
RP: It’s been a pleasure, Lynn. Enjoy Philadelphia for me!
I am. And I’m still enjoying his video too – stay tuned for more on his YouTube channel!
Remember when Donald Trump claimed that anyone who left his administration couldn’t work for a lobbying firm for at least a year? Neither does he as nothing has been done about the forty people doing just that. As his approval numbers have dropped to 38%, those around him continue raking in money during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Forty lobbyists with ties to President Donald Trump helped clients secure more than $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid, among them five former administration officials whose work potentially violates Trump’s own ethics policy, according to a report.
The lobbyists identified Monday by the watchdog group Public Citizen either worked in the Trump executive branch, served on his campaign, were part of the committee that raised money for inaugural festivities or were part of his presidential transition. Many are donors to Trump’s campaigns, and some are prolific fundraisers for his reelection.
They include Brian Ballard, who served on the transition, is the finance chair for the Republican National Committee and has bundled more than $1 million for Trump’s fundraising committees. He was hired in March by Laundrylux, a supplier of commercial laundry machines, after the Department of Homeland Security issued guidance that didn’t include laundromats as essential businesses that could stay open during the lockdown. A week later, the administration issued new guidance adding laundromats to the list.
Dave Urban, a Trump adviser and confidant, has collected more than $2.3 million in lobbying fees this year. The firm he leads, American Continental Group, represents 15 companies, including Walgreens and the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, on coronavirus issues.
Trump pledged to clamp down on Washington’s influence peddling with a “drain the swamp” campaign mantra. But during his administration, the lobbying industry has flourished, a trend that intensified once Congress passed more than $3.6 trillion in coronavirus stimulus.
While the money is intended as a lifeline to a nation whose economy has been upended by the pandemic, it also jump-started a familiar lobbying bonanza.
“The swamp is alive and well in Washington, D.C.,” said Mike Tanglis, one of the report’s authors. “These (lobbying) booms that these people are having, you can really attribute them to their connection to Trump.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Shortly after Trump took office, he issued an executive order prohibiting former administration officials from lobbying the agency or office where they were formerly employed, for a period of five years. Another section of the order forbids lobbying the administration by former political appointees for the remainder of Trump’s time in office.
Yet five lobbyists who are former administration officials have potentially done just that during the coronavirus lobbying boom:
— Courtney Lawrence was a former deputy assistant secretary for legislation in the Department of Health and Human Services in 2017 and 2018. She became a lobbyist for Cigna in 2018 and is listed as part of a team that has lobbied HHS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and at least two other agencies. Cigna did not respond to a request for comment.
— Shannon McGahn, the wife of former White House counsel Don McGahn, worked in 2017 and 2018 as a counselor to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. She then joined the National Association of Realtors as its top lobbyist and is listed on disclosures as part of a team that has lobbied both houses of Congress, plus six agencies, including the Treasury Department. The Realtors association did not respond to a request for comment.
— Jordan Stoick is the vice president of government relations at the National Association of Manufacturers. Stoick’s biography on NAM’s website indicates that he is “NAM’s lead lobbyist in Washington,” where he started working after serving as a senior adviser in the Treasury Department. Disclosures indicate that Stoick and his colleagues lobbied both houses of Congress plus at least five executive branch agencies, including Treasury.
“NAM carefully adheres to the legal and ethical rules regulating lobbying activity, including ensuring that its employees comply with all applicable prohibitions on contacting their former employers,” Linda Kelly, the organization’s general counsel, said in a statement.
The group also said that the disclosure was filled out in a way that lumped the work of multiple lobbyists together in one entry and that the filing “in no way means every lobbyist contacted every listed office.”
— Geoffrey Burr joined the firm Brownstein Hyatt after serving as chief of staff to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The firm’s lobbying disclosure for the first quarter of 2020 includes Burr on a list of lobbyists who contacted the White House and Congress on coronavirus-related matters on behalf of McDonald’s.
— Emily Felder joined Brownstein Hyatt after leaving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she worked in the legislative office. Felder is listed on a disclosure from the first quarter of 2020 that shows she was part of a team that lobbied Congress and the White House.
A spokeswoman for the firm said both Felder and Burr abide by the Trump administration’s ethics rules, which limit their lobbying to the House and the Senate.
“We are confident that our lobbyists are in compliance with all lobbying rules and applicable prohibitions and did not violate their Trump Administration pledge,” spokeswoman Lara Day said in a statement.
Public Citizen’s Craig Holman, who himself is a registered lobbyist, said the group intends to file ethics complaints with the White House. But he’s not optimistic that they will lead to anything. Last year, he filed more than 30 complaints, all of which were either ignored or rejected.
“There does not appear to be anyone who is enforcing the executive order,” Holman said.
Fox News crops Donald Trump out of Jeffrey Epstein photo. Melania Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell left in.
Original photo uncropped. Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell
FOX News Apologizes For Accidental Crop
FOX News was forced to admit to ‘accidentally’ cropping Donald Trump out of an image with Jeffrey Epstein.
In a statement on Monday, Fox News said, “On Sunday, July 5, a report on Ghislaine Maxwell during Fox News Channel’s ‘America’s News HQ’ mistakenly eliminatedPresident Donald Trump from a photo alongside then Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell. We regret the error.”
TV icon, Carl Reiner, famous for creating “The Dick Van Dyke Show” has died at the age of 98.
Reiner’s assistant Judy Nagy said he died Monday night of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills, California.
He was one of show business’ best-liked men. The tall, bald Reiner was a welcome face on the small and silver screens: In Caesar’s 1950s troupe, as the snarling, toupee-wearing Alan Brady of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and in such films as “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming” and “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”
In recent years, he was part of the roguish gang in the “Ocean’s Eleven” movies starring George Clooney and appeared in documentaries including “Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age” and “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.”
Tributes poured in online, including from Steve Martin, who said: “Goodbye to my greatest mentor in movies and in life. Thank you, dear Carl.” Actor Josh Gad called Reiner “one of the greatest comedic minds of all time” and Sarah Silverman said ”his humanity was beyond compare.” Actor Alan Alda tweeted: “His talent will live on for a long time, but the loss of his kindness and decency leaves a hole in our hearts.” Billy Crystal added “all of us in comedy have lost a giant.”
Reiner directed such films as “Oh, God!” starring George Burns and John Denver; “All of Me,” with Martin and Lily Tomlin; and the 1970 comedy “Where’s Poppa?” His books include “Enter Laughing,” an autobiographical novel later adapted into a film and Broadway show; and “My Anecdotal Life,” a memoir published in 2003. He recounted his childhood and creative journey in the 2013 book, “I Remember Me.”
But many remember Reiner for “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” one of the most popular TV series of all time and a model of ensemble playing, physical comedy and timeless, good-natured wit. It starred Van Dyke as a television comedy writer working for a demanding, eccentric boss (Reiner) and living with his wife (Mary Tyler Moore in her first major TV role) and son.
“The Van Dyke show is probably the most thrilling of my accomplishments because that was very, very personal,” Reiner once said. “It was about me and my wife, living in New Rochelle and working on the Sid Caesar show.”
The pilot, written by Reiner, starred himself as Rob Petrie, and aired in July 1960. When the show was reworked (CBS executives worried Reiner would make the lead character seem too Jewish), Van Dyke was cast and the program ran from 1961 to 1966. One famous fan, Orson Welles, was known for rushing to his bedroom in the afternoon so he could be near a TV when the show was on.
“Although it was a collaborative effort,″ Van Dyke later wrote, ”everything about the show stemmed from his (Reiner’s) endlessly and enviably fascinating, funny, and fertile brain and trickled down to the rest of us.”
The story line had Petrie as the head writer for “The Alan Brady Show,” a comedy-variety series not unlike “Your Show of Shows,” in which Reiner, as Brady, was the egocentric star. Petrie’s fellow writers were character actors Morey Amsterdam as Buddy Sorrell and Rose Marie as Sally Rogers.
It was an early parody of the Caesar show, which would later be dramatized in the film “My Favorite Year” and Neil Simon’s play “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.”
Besides acting in and producing the “Van Dyke” series, Reiner wrote or co-wrote dozens of episodes. Although the show was the best of good clean fun, it wasn’t clean enough for network censors. Reiner often battled network officials over the sleeping arrangements of Rob and his wife; the Petries slept in twin beds. He wanted them to sleep in a double bed.
Reiner joined the classic comedy revue “Your Show of Shows” in 1950 after performing in Broadway plays. Much of Reiner’s early work came as a “second banana” — although, as Caesar once put it, “Such bananas don’t grow on trees.” He performed in sketches — satirizing everything from foreign films to rock ‘n’ roll — and added his talents to a writing team that included Brooks, Simon, Woody Allen and Larry Gelbart.
“As second banana,” he told TV Guide, “I had a chance to do just about everything a performer can ever get to do. If it came off well, I got all the applause. If it didn’t, the show was blamed.”
It was during the “Show of Shows” years that Reiner and Brooks started improvising skits which became the basis for “The 2000 Year Old Man.” Reiner was the interviewer, Brooks the old man and witness to history.
Reiner: “Did you know Jesus?”
Brooks: “I knew Christ, Christ was a thin lad, always wore sandals. Hung around with 12 other guys. They came in the store, no one ever bought anything. Once they asked for water.”
After the pair performed the routine at a party, Reiner said Steve Allen insisted they turn their banter into a record. The album, “2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks,” appeared in 1960 and was the start of a million-selling franchise.
The duo won a Grammy in 1998 for their “The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000” and Reiner won multiple Emmys for his television work. In 2000, he received the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for Humor. When the sound system failed at the start of the ceremonies, Reiner called from the balcony, “Does anybody have four double-A batteries?”
Besides “All of Me,” Reiner directed Martin in “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” “The Man With Two Brains” and “The Jerk.”
Reiner was the father of actor-director Rob Reiner, who starred as Archie Bunker’s son-in-law on “All in the Family” and directed “When Harry Met Sally…” Rob Reiner said in a tweet Tuesday that his “heart is hurting. He was my guiding light.”
Carl Reiner was born in 1922, in New York City’s Bronx borough, one of two sons of Jewish immigrants. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood, where he learned to mimic voices and tell jokes. After high school, Reiner attended drama school, then joined a small theater group.
During World War II, Reiner joined the Army and toured in GI variety shows for a year and a half. Back out of uniform, he landed several stage roles, breaking through on Broadway in “Call Me Mister.”
He married his wife, Estelle, in 1943. Besides son Rob, the couple had another son, Lucas, a film director, and a daughter, Sylvia, a psychoanalyst and author. Estelle Reiner, who died in 2008, had a small role in Rob Reiner’s “When Harry Met Sally…” — as the woman who overhears Meg Ryan play-acting in a restaurant and says, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Carl Reiner’s greatest disappointment was “Bert Rigby, You’re a Fool,” a 1989 musical he wrote and directed that starred Robert Lindsay, a British actor Reiner believed could be a new Dick Van Dyke. The film flopped, and Reiner’s career as a director faded.
Reiner, inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame, remained involved in other entertainment projects. In the 1990s, he reprised the Alan Brady character for an episode of “Mad About You.”
His death was first reported Tuesday by celebrity website TMZ.
Whether you were born in 1940 or 2000, the chances are high that many of your best childhood memories include watching a favorite Disney movie. In fact, ever since the first feature film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” was released in 1937, children from across the globe became infatuated with Disney’s magic. It is not only children that love Disney movies, however. Innumerable adults also find solace in these memorable movies, and will even list anything theme-related at the top of their Christmas and birthday wish lists. Although it may seem difficult at first to come up with the perfect gift for a Disney movie fan, a few basic guidelines will soon earn you the title of most conscientious gift-giver around.
Everyone loves a nostalgic Disney movie
In an age where movie streaming and downloads have taken the place of VHS tapes and DVDs, not many gifts will impress a Disney movie fan as much as a selection of some of the most memorable Disney movies of all time. Mickey classics such as “Fantasia,” “Fun and Fancy Free,” and “The Prince and the Pauper” will all make a welcome addition to any movie collection. Other animated titles that will evoke a healthy dose of nostalgia include “The Fox and the Hound,” “The Rescuers,” “The Aristocats,” and “The Jungle Book.” Although Disney might be best known for some of the most unforgettable animated movies in history, there are many superb live-action films that are also worth rewatching. They include “Mary Poppins,” “Flight of the Navigator,” “The Parent Trap,” and “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.”
Give a gift that keeps on giving
If you truly want to give someone a gift that keeps on giving, sign them up for a subscription box service. Subscription boxes have skyrocketed in popularity in the USA in recent years. Today, there is a box for everyone, including the die-hard Disney fan. There are countless themed boxes to choose from. Some of the most popular include the Mouse Merch Box, which is filled with the best Disney merchandise and delivered to your door every quarter. Other hot favorites include the Disney Bedtime Adventure Box and the super-lavish Disney Magic Box, which is filled to the brim with customized items such as mugs, backpacks, and Disney park merchandise.
Vintage merchandise makes for the perfect gift
Collectibles and memorabilia not only form an important part of the Disney brand; they also make great gifts for passionate Disney fans. If your budget allows you to peruse online auctions, you will undoubtedly come across valuable trinkets such as vintage records, figurines, Disney comic books, newspaper clippings, and autographed photographs. If you are looking for a more affordable gift with a vintage feel, head on over to Etsy. Here you will find a plethora of vintage Disney merchandise, ranging from nostalgic sticker sets and bottle stoppers to personalized passport covers and paper dolls. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, you will even be able to invest in a range of fabric face masks with a variety of different vintage Disney prints on them.
Disney movies have enthralled us since the 1930s and will undoubtedly continue to do so for many years to come. By picking super-nostalgic gifts for a true Disney movie fan, you can help them enjoy the magic even when they are not in front of a TV screen.
Apple CEO Tim Cook called it a “historic day for the Mac,” Monday as he detailed the upcoming macOS future. At the end of 2020, the company will release its first Mac with Apple silicon.
Cook expects a two-year transition as there are still upcoming Intel-powered Macs in the pipeline. Rather than try to do it all at once, the company is taking a more gentler approach. Smart idea in case anything goes glitchy.
The biggest change this brings for ARM-powered chips is that iOS and iPadOS apps will be able to run natively on macOS in the near future.
“Most apps will just work,” says Apple, meaning you’ll be able to run native macOS apps alongside native iOS apps side by side for the first time.
Apple on Monday provided a glimpse at upcoming software changes designed to make the iPhone even easier to use and also announced a long-anticipated shift to a new type of chip to power its line of Mac computers.
iOS 14
The preview of the next version of the iPhone’s operating system, known as iOS 14, highlighted Apple’s annual conference for computer programmers and mobile app makers. The event, which was delayed for three weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, took place in virtual form via a webcast from the company’s Cupertino, California, headquarters.
In recognition of the pandemic, Apple’s next iPhone operating system will include an option to put a face mask on a personalized emoji. Upgraded software for the Apple Watch will also detect when wearers wash their hands.
Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off Monday’s session with remarks that acknowledged the nationwide protests triggered by George Floyd’s death last month at the hands of Minneapolis police, as well as the social and business challenges posed by the worst pandemic in a century.
But most of the presentation revolved around an array of new features that, for instance, could help iPhone users manage their apps better, find new ones, and use their phones to unlock and start their cars remotely. (Though that last feature will initially only be available for a 2021 BMW model.)
Apple also promised an upgraded version of its digital assistant Siri intended to make it smarter and less cumbersome, helping it fend off rival voice-activated concierges made by Google and Amazon.
MacChips
Apple also said its Mac computers will begin using its own chips as it phases our the Intel processors that have powered the machines for the past 15 years. Some Macs will have the Apple chips before the end of the year, but the full transition away from Intel chips won’t be completed until 2022.
There had been speculation that Apple would unveil apps that rely on augmented reality, or AR, a technology that melds digitally projected images with the real world. Although Cook has been hyping AR has the next big wave in technology, it hasn’t caught on in the mainstream yet and Apple didn’t drop any new bombshells about it during Monday’s event. Instead, the company disclosed a few relatively minor features in its AR platform for iPhones and iPads in a written summary.
AR Headset Expectations
Apple is widely believed to be working on an AR headset and internet-connected glasses that could be released in the next two to three years. True to its secretive nature, Apple hasn’t disclosed any plans for its own line of AR devices.
The company gave no indication whether the pandemic-driven disruptions in work in the factories that make iPhone parts will delay the release of the next model. The company typically unveils its next iPhones in early September and then starts selling them toward the end of the month.
Analysts believe the release of the iPhone 12 will be come later than usual, but are expecting it still will be on sale well before the pivotal holiday shopping season. Earlier this month, the CEO of chip maker Broadcom, Hock Tan, told analysts he expected a delay in the production of a product made by a major North American smartphone maker. Broadcom is a major supplier for the iPhone.
Apple is expected to roll out as many as four different iPhone 12 models this year, including its first version that will be able to work on the next generation of ultrafast wireless networks known as 5G.
Investors are betting heavily that Apple could emerge even stronger from the pandemic and the associated recession. The company’s stock hit a new all-time high Monday before closing at $358.87 — a gain of 22% so far this year that gives Apple a market value to give the company a market value of more than $1.5 trillion.
Patagonia Takes A Break From Facebook Ads
The outdoor gear company Patagonia is the latest company to announce an advertising boycott of Facebook and its Instagram app for the month of July — or longer — saying the social media giant has “failed to take steps to stop the spread of hateful lies and dangerous propaganda on its platform.”
Patagonia joins The North Face and the outdoor gear company REI, which have announced similar boycotts in recent days. It is not clear how much the boycotts will affect Facebook’s advertising revenue, which was nearly $70 billion in 2019, making up nearly all of its total revenue for the year.
According to Facebook’s ad library, Patagonia spent nearly $1 million on ads about social issues or politics between May 2018 and June 2020. The ads got the “social issues” moniker because they were about environmental issues.
A representative for Facebook did not immediately respond to a message for comment on Monday.
Call For Boycott
Last week, civil rights groups called on large advertisers to stop Facebook ad campaigns during July, saying the social network isn’t doing enough to curtail racist and violent content on its platform.
The groups in the “#StopHateforProfit” campaign, launched Wednesday, include Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color Of Change, Free Press and Common Sense.
The groups say Facebook amplifies white supremacists, allows posts that incite violence and contain political propaganda and misinformation, and doesn’t stop “bad actors using the platform to do harm.”
The big tech companies have struggled over how to manage the floods of posts and videos that users put on their platforms every day. Facebook has been under fire for deciding to leave up posts by President Donald Trump that suggested police-brutality protesters in Minneapolis could be shot.
For those that didn’t grow up as drive-in movies were gasping their last breath, you can see what your parents and grandparents were talking about. While the Coronavirus has deadened many things, it’s also brought back things from the past that we didn’t realize we were missing.
Sitting in a car in front of a massive screen with whom you want in your car is close to being at home, but it also lets you breathe in some fresh air. It also gives a whole never experience with movie going.
Fun escapists films like “Jaws,” “Black Panther” and “Back to the Future” are just a few of the modern popcorn classics coming to the drive-in this summer.
Tribeca Enterprises, IMAX and AT&T on Monday announced the initial lineup for its summer series of films, comedy and football, running every weekend from July 2 through Aug. 2 in cities like Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Miami and Seattle.
There will be themed nights dedicated to sports (“Space Jam” and “Love & Basketball”), music (“Selena” and “Straight Outta Compton”), kids’ favorites (“Inside Out” and “The Lego Movie”), James Bond (“Goldfinger” and “Casino Royale”) and high school (“Mean Girls” and “Superbad”).
A July 4 celebration will include screenings of “Field of Dreams,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Apollo 13.” Other films include “The Dark Knight,” “BeetleJuice,” “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” and “Do The Right Thing.” Kid-friendly content will be shown during matinee times with more mature fare in the evenings.
“It’s in Tribeca’s DNA to bring people together in times of need,” said Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Film Festival co-founder and CEO. “The car provides that perfect vehicle that takes us back to another time — a time that some of us might not even remember! But it was a way to bring our industry and audiences together to have some summer fun.”
Rosenthal and Robert De Niro founded the organization in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Drive-ins have been part of their mission since the beginning and when the pandemic interrupted traditional moviegoing, they started planning.
“We love going to the movies. We don’t want to lose going to the movies,” Tribeca CCO Paula Weinstein added. “This is an alternative to bring people together to remind them, even if you’re six feet apart in a car, how great the collective experience is watching movies together.”
Most indoor theaters have been closed across the country since mid-March because of the pandemic and many are gearing up to open by mid-July. It’s made the drive-in freshly relevant, given some indie films a chance to break through the noise and even provided a unique space for a movie premiere. Other forms of mass entertainment have been jumping on the drive-in bandwagon too: Live Nation on Monday announced its first-ever drive-in concerts series in the U.S. for July.
The Tribeca Drive-In series is not exclusively for movies either. There will also be live stand-up comedy and even some NFL-hosted events, the details of which will be announced later. Venues will include beaches (Nickerson Beach in Nassau County, New York, and Orchard Beach in the Bronx), stadiums (AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California) as well as conventional drive-in locations.
Tickets, which are free for essential workers, are currently on sale. A percentage of proceeds will be donated to Black Lives Matter.
AMC Listens To The People
Many big business forget about listening to their customers, but movie giant AMC learned a quick lesson when they claimed masks wouldn’t be mandatory upon reopening. They found out quickly that just because the White House is trying to pretend COVID-19 away doesn’t mean Americans are stupid.
The nation’s largest movie theater chain changed its position on mask-wearing less than a day after the company became a target on social media for saying it would defer to local governments on the issue.
AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron said Friday that its theaters will require patrons to wear masks upon reopening, which will begin in mid-July. Customers who don’t wear masks won’t be admitted or allowed to stay.
“We think it is absolutely crucial that we listen to our guests,” Aron said. “It is clear from this response that we did not go far enough on the usage of masks.”
Rival chain Regal followed AMC’s lead. Spokesman Richard Grover said Friday that moviegoers must wear masks in all its theaters as well.
AMC Theaters wasn’t the first to say it would defer to officials on the mask issue. That policy was identical to what Cinemark announced earlier this month. Cineplex Inc., which has a 75% box office market share in Canada, said they will leave it up to moviegoers to decide if they wear a face mask inside their theaters. Company spokeswoman Sarah Van Lange said they are taking the lead from public health authorities and provincial guidelines. She said employees will be required to wear masks.
Most major retailers require masks for customers only where local rules mandate it.
But the AMC plan hit a nerve for many on Thursday and #boycottAMC quickly became a trending topic on Twitter.
The outrage was further flamed by one of Aron’s comments in an interview with the Hollywood trade Variety that implied that taking a hard stance on mask-wearing was a political matter.
“We did not want to be drawn into a political controversy,” Aron said. “We thought it might be counterproductive if we forced mask wearing on those people who believe strongly that it is not necessary.”
He also said that he thought the “vast majority of AMC guests will be wearing masks” and that he planned to lead by example and would be wearing a mask himself.
The interview came on the same day that California started requiring people throughout the state to wear masks in most indoor settings and outdoors when distancing isn’t possible.
While public health officials say wearing a mask is important in helping stop the spread of COVID-19, not wearing one has become a political statement for people who say it violates their freedom or exaggerates the threat of the coronavirus. President Donald Trump has pushed back against masks, even as the virus has killed more than 100,000 Americans this year.
Earlier Friday, Alamo Drafthouse, which operates around 40 locations in the U.S. said that it would be requiring that guests wear masks at its theaters, with a caveat for eating and drinking. Those without masks, it said, would be given one. AMC plans to sell masks for $1.
Most indoor U.S. theaters have been closed since mid-March because of COVID-19. But both independent locations and major chains are readying to reopen within the next month.
AMC said it will open 450 of its U.S. locations on July 15, with the goal of having most of its theaters in operation by July 24 for the opening of Disney’s “Mulan” and Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” the following week.
Big caveat: Don’t be surprised if those plans go asunder as the Coronavirus is on the rise in a big way in America. Hopefully, they can put these films into drive-ins for a different type of event film. They deserve it.
As most American continue using Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, little do they realize what has been happening behind the scenes of the social media giant.
The Justice Department proposed Wednesday that Congress roll back long-held legal protections for online platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter, putting down a legislative marker in President Donald Trump’s drive against the social media giants.
The proposed changes would strip some of the bedrock protections that have generally shielded the companies from legal responsibility for what people post on their platforms.
“When it comes to issues of public safety, the government is the one who must act on behalf of society at large. Law enforcement cannot delegate our obligations to protect the safety of the American people purely to the judgment of profit-seeking private firms,” Attorney General William Barr said in a statement.
The legislative changes would ensure that the internet companies’ legal immunity becomes an incentive for them “to be responsible actors,” Barr said. They “are targeted at platforms to make certain they are appropriately addressing illegal and exploitive content while continuing to preserve a vibrant, open, and competitive internet.”
In a politically charged flourish last month, Trump signed an executive order challenging the protections from lawsuits under a 1996 telecommunications law that have served as the foundation for unfettered speech on the internet.
Trump lashed out at Twitter for applying fact checks to two of his posts. He said the fact checks were “editorial decisions” by Twitter amounting to political activism — and that such actions should cost social media companies their liability protection for material posted on their platforms. He accused Twitter of interfering in the 2020 presidential election.
But Trump, with an estimated 60 million followers on Twitter, has used that platform to verbally eviscerate opponents and promote himself. He has long accused the tech titans in liberal-leaning Silicon Valley of targeting conservatives by fact-checking them or removing their posts.
Conservative politicians argue that the social media platforms have abused their legal protection and should lose their immunity, or at least have to earn it by satisfying requirements set by the government. In addition to alleged censorship of political views, accusations commonly leveled by conservatives include anti-religious bias and a tilt against abortion foes.
GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who’s one of the most outspoken critics of Big Tech, proposed a bill Wednesday that would withhold immunity from the companies unless they update their terms of service to promise “to operate in good faith” by not selectively censoring political speech. They would be fined $5,000 for violating the promise.
Tech industry groups have opposed the Trump initiative, saying it would stifle innovation and speech on the internet.
Reducing the immunity protections “will make it harder, not easier, for online platforms to make their platforms safe,” Jon Berroya, interim president and CEO of the Internet Association, said in a statement. “The threat of litigation for every content moderation decision would hamper (our) member companies’ ability to set and enforce community guidelines and quickly respond to new challenges in order to make their services safe, enjoyable places for Americans.”
The companies are granted liability protection under the 1996 Communications Decency Act because they are treated as “platforms,” rather than “publishers,” which can face lawsuits over content. Without that shield, companies could face lawsuits from people who feels wronged by something someone else has posted.
One of the administration’s requests is that Congress strip the civil immunity protections for tech companies that may be complicit in unlawful activity on their platforms. For example, the proposal would remove the legal protection if an online platform purposefully solicited third parties to sell illegal drugs to minors, exchange sexually explicit photos or video of children or engage in other criminal activity.
The Justice Department said its proposals are aimed “at incentivizing platforms to address the growing amount of illicit content online, while preserving the core of Section 230’s immunity for defamation.”
The administration contends that the broad immunity should not apply to companies that don’t “respect public safety by ensuring its ability to identify unlawful content or activity occurring on its services,” according to a department memo obtained by media outlets.
“Further, the provider must maintain the ability to assist government authorities to obtain content (i.e., evidence) in a comprehensible, readable, and usable format pursuant to court authorization (or any other lawful basis),” the document says.
The big tech companies already are under close scrutiny by regulators and in Congress following a stream of scandals, including Facebook’s lapses opening the personal data of millions of users to Trump’s 2016 campaign. Regulators at Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, and a House Judiciary subcommittee, are pursuing antitrust investigations of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple.
Civil Rights Groups Call For Facebook Ad Ban
Several civil rights and other advocacy groups are calling on large advertisers to stop Facebook ad campaigns during July because they say the social network isn’t doing enough to curtail racist and violent content on its platform.
The groups in the “#StopHateforProfit” campaign, launched Wednesday, include Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color Of Change, Free Press and Common Sense.
“It is clear that Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, are no longer simply negligent, but in fact, complacent in the spread of misinformation, despite the irreversible damage to our democracy. Such actions will upend the integrity of our elections as we head into 2020,” said NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson in a statement.
The groups say that Facebook amplifies white supremacists, allows posts that incite violence and contain political propaganda and misinformation, and doesn’t stop “bad actors using the platform to do harm.” They want to apply public pressure on Facebook to “stop generating ad revenue from hateful content, provide more support to people who are targets of racism and hate, and to increase safety for private groups on the platform.”
Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment.
The big tech companies have struggled over how to manage the floods of posts and videos that users put on their platforms every day. Facebook’s employees recently publicly criticized Zuckerberg for deciding to leave up posts by President Donald Trump that suggested police-brutality protesters in Minneapolis could be shot.
As it faces criticism for its policy of allowing politicians to post false information, including about voting, the company is launching an effort to boost U.S. voter turnout. If you recall, Zuckerger had a very private dinner with Trump back in December. Since then, Trump has had free reign to say whatever he wants without any Facebook interference.
Today changed as the social media machine removed Trump campaign ads that featured a symbol once used by Nazis.
“We removed these posts and ads for violating our policy against organized hate,” said Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesman. “Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group’s symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.”
Facebook Removes Hundreds More Hate Groups
After it was heavily reported by media outlets about the hate groups still proliferating on Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant finally acted.
Facebook has removed another 900 social media accounts linked to white supremacy groups after members discussed plans to bring weapons to protests over police killings of black people.
The accounts on Facebook and Instagram were tied to the Proud Boys and the American Guard, two hate groups already banned on those platforms.
The company announced Tuesday that it recently took down 470 accounts belonging to people affiliated with the Proud Boys and another 430 linked to members of the American Guard.
Nearly 200 other accounts linked to the groups were removed late last month.
Facebook officials have said they were already monitoring the groups’ social media presence and were led to act when they spotted posts attempting to exploit the ongoing protests prompted by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Some of the accounts belonged to men reported to have participated in a brawl with protesters in Seattle, Facebook said. The company did not divulge details of the account users — such as their specific plans for protests or where in the U.S. they live.
“In both cases, we saw accounts from both organizations discussing attending protests in various US states with plans to carry weapons,” the company said in a statement. “But we did not find indications in their on-platform content they planned to actively commit violence.”
Both the Proud Boys and American Guard had been banned from Facebook for violating rules prohibiting hate speech. Facebook said it will continue to remove new pages, groups or accounts created by users trying to circumvent the ban.
Americans have been sending Donald Trump and his 2020 campaign many messages, but maybe this is one he will hear concerning the Coronavirus. While the White House is pretending it all away, Covid-19 is still growing in the south and southwest America at alarming speeds. With 200,000 people expected to die from the virus by October 2020, even Trump supporters are learning quickly that it could be them next.
Vice President Mike Pence says the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic is “a cause for celebration,” but a new poll finds more than half of Americans calling it fair or poor.
Gallup Poll
The Gallup and West Health survey out Thursday found that 57% of U.S. adults rated the national response to COVID-19 as fair or poor, particularly in light of the fact that America has the world’s most expensive health care system.
The numbers amount to a flashing warning for President Donald Trump and his White House team, eager to change the narrative from projections that show a growing number of U.S. pandemic deaths to a story of American resilience and economic revitalization that reinforces his reelection bid.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion article published Wednesday, Pence castigated the news media for focusing on rising COVID-19 cases in states like Texas and Arizona.
“We’ve slowed the spread, we’ve cared for the most vulnerable, we’ve saved lives, and we’ve created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future,” wrote Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force. “That’s a cause for celebration, not the media’s fear mongering.”
23 Percent Excellent
The poll found that only 23% of adults rated the national response as excellent or very good, while an additional 20% rated it as good.
“We always assumed that we have the best — how could the U.S. not have enough masks, and gloves, and gowns?” asked Dr. Georges Benjamin, head of the nonprofit American Public Health Association.
“The answer is that we have always made the assumption we had all that stuff without properly planning,” added Benjamin, who reviewed the results of the poll.
The survey comes at a time of uncertainty about the future of the pandemic in the U.S.
200K Deaths By October 1
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington is now projecting about 200,000 deaths by Oct. 1, a sizable upward revision from an organization whose modeling has gotten favorable reviews from White House experts. Several states that embraced reopening are seeing increases in coronavirus cases, and there’s concern that massive demonstrations over police killings of African Americans may also accelerate the spread.
“I think what we observed in terms of the COVID response is a divided and distracted leadership, and what these numbers reflect is that America woke up to that,” said Tim Lash, president of the West Health Policy Center, which focuses on lowering health care costs.
Gallup survey director Dan Witters said the lackluster reviews of the coronavirus effort are pronounced among people with higher levels of education. Sixty-five percent of college graduates rated it fair or poor, compared with 49% of people with a high school diploma or less.
“As you move into the more educated stratum of the population … the response becomes significantly more negative,” Witters said. Among people with a postgraduate degree, 72% said the COVID-19 effort was fair or poor.
The poll also indicated a split by race and ethnicity. Witters said black people and other minorities were significantly more likely to give the national response low marks (66%) compared to white people (51%). African Americans have experienced a disproportionate share of deaths and serious complications from the virus.
The survey reinforces public perceptions of a partisan divide over COVID-19, with 44% of Republicans calling the government’s response excellent or very good, compared to only 6% of Democrats. Among political independents, 57% rated the response as fair or poor, while 20% said it was excellent or very good.
There was widespread agreement, however, on one point: By 88% to 11%, Americans want the government to negotiate the prices of coronavirus treatments with the pharmaceutical industry. That sentiment cuts across party lines.
The Gallup and West Health survey is based on telephone interviews from May 11 to 22 with a random sample of 1,016 adults ages 18 and older in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. For results based on the entire sample, the maximum margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
With Trump’s upcoming Tulsa rally coming Saturday, health officials are wondering how much more the number will rise in Oklahoma. Even more important, does the president even care?
Many documentarians find that the story often comes to them, and the reaction to George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis has found many. No one expected the country to react as it did, so you can expect a slew of documentary films to hit over the next several years.
Christopher Frierson wasn’t expecting to be tear-gassed at a recent protest in Brooklyn, but he’s glad his camera was on. As a documentary filmmaker, he has covered many protests and never experienced anything like he did that day when a thrown water bottle was met with that kind of police response.
Frierson was not deterred, however. In fact, he went back the next day to interview the officers who sprayed him and the others in the crowd.
Cameras Ready
He’s one of a handful of documentarians, from Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) to Alexandra Pelosi (“Outside the Bubble”), who have brought out their cameras to capture the historic nationwide protests, despite the danger, the pandemic and even the lack of a plan for how to ultimately use the footage. Expect plenty of Academy Award nominations for the docs that will be hitting.
“When there is something happening in your environment, you have to shoot it,” said Frierson, whose “Don’t Try to Understand: A Year in the Life of Earl ‘DMX’ Simmons” was supposed to premiere this spring. “If you have a camera, you got to shoot it.”
That was James’ thought too. He had actually finished and debuted a few episodes of “City So Real,” a mosaic of present-day Chicago, at the Sundance Film Festival a few months earlier but re-started filming when the pandemic began. He thought maybe a postscript would be useful. When the unrest erupted after George Floyd’s death, he pivoted again.
His son, Jackson James, a cinematographer on the series, has been shooting some of the protests there. James has also been out, although not as much as he’d like, and doing more interviews remotely when possible.
“I’m being very careful about what takes us out to film,” James said. “Normally I would have been out doing a lot more.”
Protest Surprises
The decision to film on the ground is not one that any are taking lightly. Pelosi decided to film a protest outside of the White House last week on the evening President Donald Trump decided to walk out the White House gates for the first time. It took a turn when she says officers on horseback started shooting what she described as chemical bullets at the peaceful gathering, and she found herself in the line of non-lethal fire.
“I couldn’t see for like five minutes because I got shot by this thing,” said Pelosi, the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and director of more than a dozen documentaries.
Filmmaker Ashley O’Shay was putting the finishing touches on her documentary “Unapologetic,” about the Movement for Black Lives in Chicago through the lens of two young women who are queer and black, when the Floyd protests began. She hesitated to venture out in Chicago because of the pandemic.
Safety Worries
“I was concerned about my safety and health,” she said. “(But) it’s important for me that we have black artists, people of color artists, behind the camera to capture these stories, to make sure that the people closest to the community are the ones that are deciding how the story is told.”
O’Shay said she isn’t likely to add to her film, but she does hope that it can be used to help as a historical document.
“My film is about a movement that is very much so living and ongoing,” she said. “I don’t want people in this moment to forget about black women and forget about trans voices and gender non-conforming voices and people (who) are even further on the margins than black men themselves.”
She and other filmmakers are hoping to capture the context that isn’t seen on the evening news. O’Shay filmed moments of the aid and the community efforts happening on the ground on Chicago’s South and Westside. James went back to check in with some of his subjects, from a business owner reopening his barber shop to a mayoral candidate delivering groceries to relatives. And Frierson went back to talk to the cops who tear-gassed him. What he found was contrition, remorse and a dialogue.
Good People
“The majority of those people are good people. And that goes against the narrative that everybody wants me to say or whatever. But it comes down to communication with them,” he said.
A black female cop told him, “’We’re not all bad actors, just like you are not all bad actors…’ And then she said, ‘Vote. If you want things to change, vote.’”
Although few have specific plans for how to use their footage, James expects there will be a number of documentaries about this moment. He said many were already out filming around the pandemic and exploring issues of race and equality.
Organizations are also stepping up to help documentarians brave the moment. The national nonprofit organization American Documentary is creating a fund to support the mental health wellness of black, indigenous and people of color artists who work in the documentary space. It launches June 15.
Who Tells The Story?
Who gets to tell the story of the moment is a delicate matter for some. Firelight Media executive director Stanley Nelson said in a recent interview with Indiewire that filmmakers of color should tell their own stories, and that, “It’s incumbent on white filmmakers to help them do that.”
James agreed with Nelson’s sentiment.
“We always need more opportunity for black and people of color filmmakers to be telling stories,” James said. “But this is also a story of America writ large and what needs to change in America writ large. And for that, we kind of need all hands-on deck as far as I’m concerned.”
Georgia has known for a long time that it has a voting problem, and last week it was proven right again. Last summer the strange election hack that affected Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp was just another blip in a state with a messy voting history.
Faulty software or poorly calibrated vote-tabulation scanners used to count mailed-in ballots in this week’s chaotic Georgia primary may have prevented thousands of votes from being counted, election officials and voting integrity activists say.
The issue was identified in at least four counties, DeKalb, Morgan, Clarke and Cherokee, according to officials who discovered them, including activists who have sued the state for alleged election mismanagement.
Systemic Problem
“The fact that it is in multiple counties tells me that it’s probably systemic,” said Richard DeMillo, a Georgia Tech computer scientist who has testified for the plaintiffs, because identical scanners and software were used to count all absentee ballots across the state. DeMillo said the only way to know for sure is through audits.
A top Georgia voting official, voting implementation manager Gabriel Sterling, said Friday that he had seen no evidence yet of the issue and found it difficult to believe the reports were “an active description of what is happening on the ground.”
“These are activists who have an ax to grind,” he said.
Nearly 1.1 million Georgians voted by mail for Tuesday’s primary, which had been delayed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cascading Failures
In-person voting Tuesday was beset by cascading failures. Voters waited up to five hours to cast ballots at some polling places due to equipment problems, poll worker unfamiliarity with a new voting system and social distancing measures taken because of the virus. Many voters also showed up to vote in person because absentee ballots they requested never arrived by mail.
The scanners and ballot-marking devices used in all 159 Georgia counties Tuesday are part of a voting equipment package the state purchased for $120 million from Dominion Voting Systems after a federal judge ordered it to scrap an outdated, untrustworthy system.
Four Counties Find Problems
In post-election reviews Wednesday, election panels in all four counties detected unregistered votes while examining ballot images flagged by the vote-tallying scanner’s software for anomalies.
In Morgan County, Republican-dominated and just southeast of Atlanta, panelists discovered at least 20 votes on scanned ballot images that the program had not recorded, said Jeanne Dufort, a Democrat on the panel. She said it appeared the votes did not register because ovals that were supposed to be filled in were instead checked or marked with X’s.
All three panelists agreed to add the unregistered votes to the electronic tally, said Dufort. But on Thursday, the county elections board voted 3-2 not to audit the rest of the roughly 3,000 absentee ballots. The other two panelists, both Republicans, did not return emails and phone calls seeking comment.
“It is a head-in-the-sand approach,” Dufort complained.
In Clarke County, vote review panelist Adam Shirley estimated at least 30 ballots out of about 300 flagged for anomalies had votes that “the system had not marked at all, that had not processed at all.”
Review All Absentee Ballots
Shirley, a Democrat, recommended a review of all 15,000 absentee ballots.
In an email Friday to fellow board members, county election board chair Jesse Evans said the problem should be addressed before results are certified.
He quoted Shirley as saying “it’s not just possible but probable that a ballot whose voter had clearly but not completely marked their vote would not have its votes counted by the software” and that he was disturbed the software did not flag the uncounted votes.
Sheer Luck
“We only noticed them by sheer luck as we were adjudicating other, flagged contests on ballots,” Shirley wrote to Evans.
In Cherokee County, the problem was detected in less than 5% of the flagged ballots, said an elections official who spoke on condition they not be further identified, citing fear of political harassment. The official said the number of flagged ballots was in the hundreds.
Uncounted Votes Found
In DeKalb, County, review panel member Elizabeth Burns estimated finding between 20-50 uncounted votes on 530 flagged ballots and said her team had so far only reviewed half its 100,000 absentee ballots. Like Shirley, she said her team had stumbled upon the issue. She said she wondered if other counties were even aware of it.
“Maybe not everyone has been as thorough as us and noticed this,” she said.
“The detection of this major problem was only because of diligent citizen oversight. The officials charged with the duty to fully test the equipment recklessly failed to responsibly do so, or to audit it,” said Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, which is demanding in court that the state scrap the ballot-marking devices.
Let The State Deal With That
Dominion spokeswoman Kay Stimson referred questions to the state, but said in an email that her company’s systems “are designed to support robust post-election audits, and we support them as a recommended best practice for elections.”
Sterling, the state official, said authorities are willing to consider audits if merited.
Voting security expert Harri Hursti said inadequate pre-election testing may be the cause of the issue. A fix could be as simple as adjusting the contrast settings in the image-capturing software. Or it could be a different coding issue.
Amber McReynolds
Amber McReynolds, CEO of the nonprofit Vote at Home that promotes voting by mail, said it may have been possible to avoid the unregistered vote issue by placing the software at the highest sensitivity for discerning markings. The Dominion election system used in Georgia is used in many states with tough standards like Colorado, she said.
It was, however, denied certification by Texas, which cited “multiple hardware and software issues” identified by state-appointed examiners. They cited a complex installation process and one called the suite “fragile and error prone.”
The system is proprietary, however, and Hursti said it has never been subjected to an independent security review.
