The documents reveal the expansive plan the CDC had last year to use location data from a highly controversial data broker. SafeGraph, the company the CDC paid $420,000 for access to one year of data, includes Peter Thiel and the former head of Saudi intelligence [Turki bin Faisal Al Saud] among its investors. Google banned the company from the Play Store in June.
The CDC used the data for monitoring curfews, with the documents saying that SafeGraph’s data “has been critical for ongoing response efforts, such as hourly monitoring of activity in curfew zones or detailed counts of visits to participating pharmacies for vaccine monitoring.” The documents date from 2021.
Zach Edwards, a cybersecurity researcher who closely follows the data marketplace, told Motherboard in an online chat after reviewing the documents: “The CDC seems to have purposefully created an open-ended list of use cases, which included monitoring curfews, neighbor-to-neighbor visits, visits to churches, schools and pharmacies, and also a variety of analysis with this data specifically focused on ‘violence.’” (The document doesn’t stop at churches; it mentions “places of worship.”)

Location data broker SafeGraph stops selling information on visits to abortion providers

SafeGraph Provides CDC and 1000+ Organizations With Data to Fight the COVID-19 Crisis

Google Bans Location Data Firm Funded by Former Saudi Intelligence Head:

On its website SafeGraph says “We believe places data should be open for all.” In April 2017, Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, the former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, invested in SafeGraph as part of a $16 million Series A funding round. SafeGraph said it had “assembled the deepest policy thinkers.” Beyond Faisal Al Saud, SafeGraph said it had enlisted the help of former U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, author Sam Harris, Meghan O’Sullivan who ran Iraq and Afghanistan policy under President George Bush, former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Obama Mona Sutphen, and former German Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, among others. Peter Thiel is also an investor in the company.

More investors: SafeGraph Raises $16 Million Series A

Critics Warn Alito Draft Threatens Much, Much More Than Abortion Rights

May 3, 2022May 3, 2022 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

America Is Headed for Class Warfare + More

April 19, 2022April 19, 2022 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Nothing has revealed the class divide in the U.S. quite like runaway inflation and skyrocketing gas prices. But in addition to the economic impact the staggering incompetence of the Biden administration is having on the working class, there is a political one; it’s undeniably driving working class voters even further from the Democrats and toward the GOP.
America Is Headed for Class Warfare

“It’s just really hard to live”: Chicago workers describe impact of surging food and gas prices

The culture war is a class war in disguise

February 8, 2022February 8, 2022 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

By attacking marriage, family and education, progressive elites are kicking away the ladder from the working class.
The culture war is a class war in disguise

Despotism Is the New Normal: Looming Threats to Freedom in 2022

January 5, 2022January 5, 2022 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Despotism Is the New Normal: Looming Threats to Freedom in 2022

Mother Teresa, John Paul II, and the Fast-Track Saints by Michael Parenti

January 2, 2022January 2, 2022 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Mother Teresa, John Paul II, and the Fast-Track Saints

Democratic Party Betrayal, Abortion, and the Supreme Court

December 11, 2021December 11, 2021 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Democrats have been fooled into thinking that only the courts can protect abortion rights. In fact, legislation could protect abortion permanently, but their party has refused to do that. Now that SCOTUS control is lost because of their corruption and betrayals, they continue to spin lies that bamboozle the party faithful.
Democratic Party Betrayal, Abortion, and the Supreme Court

The Dangerous Myth of “Left Woke Fascism”

December 10, 2021December 10, 2021 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Dangerous Myth of “Left Woke Fascism,” by Kenn Orphan

Without a doubt, the politics of identity have long been used in order to maintain hegemony and neoliberal policies. It is a cynical, but effective, way to distract from issues of class and capitalist exploitation. And it has been used to silence people who may offer a differing point of view by unfairly casting them as racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. But the nonsense of “woke fascism” has been created by far-right ideologues and peddled by grifters like Bari Weiss, Bret Easton Ellis, Jordan Peterson and Glenn Greenwald who rake in tons of money off this ahistorical, erroneous and dangerous rubbish.
“Wokeness” is a new term, but it is derived from the mid 20th century. “Stay woke” was a phrase Black American workers used to encourage attention to civil and labor rights issues. It was later revived by activists in this century. As is the case of all progressive movements under capitalism, the term was co-opted by corporations as well as the police/surveillance/military sector to whitewash real systemic inequities with feel good, empty slogans or lifestyle choices which simply amounted to more profit for their particular brand.