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| George Orwell |
CEO Mark Zuckerberg needs to rid Facebook of the sinister and ominous-sounding department names and employee titles.
Whistleblower Frances Haugen started working at the social media platform as product manager for civic misinformation.
That sure sounds as if she oversaw spreading misinformation, disinformation, lies, distortions, and conspiracy theories, which is what Facebook critics accuse it of doing.
Haugen then went on to the “counter-espionage” unit. Give us a break, Mark. You set Facebook up for failure.
Zuckerberg should follow the lead of George Orwell and rename its various business units after the ministries of Oceania in the novel 1984.
Rather than civic misinformation, Zuckerberg should revamp Facebook units as the Department of Truth, Department of Peace, Department of Love and Department of Plenty.
Those names would certainly throw federal regulators for a loop.
Of all the indignities suffered by the former president, this one must hurt the most as Forbes booted the leader of the MAGA pack off its list of America’s 400 richest people.
Donald Trump has been on a five-year losing streak at Forbes. Since he launched his 2016 presidential bid, it's been downhill financially.
According to Forbes, Trump is worth $2.5B. That resulted in a plunge from the No. 339 slot a year ago, leading to his eviction from the magazine’s roster of the super-rich.
Forbes blames Trump for his ouster from the magazine’s exclusive club. It points out that had the president complied with ethics laws that cover other executive branch officials, he would have made the 400 List cut in 2021.
At a press conference nine days before taking office, Trump noted that the president is exempt from the conflict-of-interest statute.
“I could actually run my business and run the government at the same time,” he boasted. “I don’t like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I wanted to. I would be the only one that would be able to do that.”
Forbes notes that had Trump sold his assets and invested the funds in an index fund tracking the S&P 500, he would be worth $4.5B today and sitting pretty on the 400 List.
Trump, though, decided to run his business and government at the same time.
Both the Trump Organization and the US suffered for it.
Trump paid with a financial shortfall and the country is still paying for it in the form of more than 700K COVID-19 deaths.
Inquiring minds want to know why Cambodia is paying Qorvis Communications a whopping $70K a month for PR services. Or at least, Radio Free Asia wants to know.
RFA picked up the O’Dwyer's story of Sept. 22 that Qorvis, a unit of Publicis Groupe, landed a contract to “provide strategic communications and media relations services in support of increasing public awareness along with travel and tourism” for Cambodia.
The move, according to RFA, is an “attempt by the increasingly autocratic government of prime minister Hun Sen to try to salvage Cambodia’s tarnished reputation over human rights violations and crackdowns on the country’s political opposition, independent media and NGOs, which prompted US sanctions and the suspension of trade privileges with the European Union.”
An opposition leader told RFA that Cambodia should clean up its act rather than spend money for PR. It should restore democracy by holding free and fair elections and restore human rights, said Un Sam An, a leader in a banned political party.
Qorvis has deep experience working with companies with shady human rights records. It has earned (and still earns) millions from Saudi Arabia, which hired the firm in the days following the 9/11 terror attacks.
Melania Trump's bolt-out-of-the-blue April 9 appearance to claim she had no relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is not going to boost her -12 percent popularity rating. It may make it worse... Mentioning "Avignon," home of the antipopes, to the Vatican's US ambassador is like shouting "Remember the Alamo" on the streets of Mexico City.
Donald Trump served up his tastiest TACO on April 7 when he postponed his threat to wipe out Iran’s civilization for the blocking of Strait of Hormuz.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian yanks privileges from Congress that is more interested in saving puppies from Sharia law than in paying TSA agents... Responders to RFPs will soon have to spell out their AI plans... France's TotalEnergies totally caves to Trump's pathetic fixation on strangling the offshore power business in the US.
New York’s 34-year-old mayor Zohran Mamdani recovered nicely from the rookie PR mistake that he committed on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day.
Kudos to Joe Kent for resigning his position as director of National Counterterrorism Center because he feels Iran posed no threat to the US. But he diminished his point by over-the-top attack on Israel and its American lobbyists... Pope Leo urged media not to turn their war coverage into a video game... Dissed by European allies, Trump should beg his Board of Peace members to send ships to Strait of Hormuz.
