Tag: Lobbyists

U.S. Press Starts To Figure Out College TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

U.S. Press Starts To Figure Out College TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance

One, the bans are generally designed to agitate a xenophobic base and give the impression the GOP is “doing something about China.” But the party that couldn’t care less about rampant corruption or privacy violations isn’t doing much of anything meaningful to thwart China. In fact, letting adtech, telecom, and app companies run rampant with little oversight runs contrary to any such goal.

Two, the bans distract the public and press from our ongoing failure on consumer privacy and security issues. Banning TikTok, but doing nothing about the accountability optional free for all that is the adtech and data-hoovering space, doesn’t actually fix anything. China can just obtain the same data from a universe of other international companies facing little real oversight on data collection.

Three, the ban is really just about money. Trump gave the game away with his proposal that TikTok be chopped up and sold to Oracle and Walmart. That cronyistic deal fell through, but it’s pretty clear that this moral panic is designed to either help TikTok’s competitors (Facebook lobbyists are very active on this front), or force the sale of the most popular app in modern history to GOP-allies. At which point they’ll engage in all the surveillance and influence efforts they pretend to be mad about.

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Climate Activism Isn’t About the Planet. It’s About the Boredom of the Bourgeoisie | Opinion

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Ms. Cat’s Chronicles.

The downfall of capitalism will not come from the uprising of an impoverished working class but from the sabotage of a bored upper class. This was the view of the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942. Schumpeter believed that at some point in the future, an educated elite would have nothing left to struggle for and will instead start to struggle against the very system that they themselves live in.

Climate Activism Isn’t About the Planet. It’s About the Boredom of the Bourgeoisie | Opinion

Here is the Truth: Medicare Advantage Is Neither Medicare Nor an Advantage

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Right now, well-funded lobbyists from big health insurance companies are leading a campaign on Capitol Hill to get Members of Congress and Senators of both parties to sign on to a letter designed to put them on the record “expressing strong support” for the scam that is Medicare Advantage.

Here is the Truth: Medicare Advantage Is Neither Medicare Nor an Advantage

[2020] Republicans blasting China forget that the GOP enabled Beijing’s rise

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

As a deadly pandemic wreaks havoc in an election year, Republicans are leveling relentless attacks against China. To be sure, Beijing’s initial response to the coronavirus outbreak was littered with errors, egregious injustices and conspiracy-mongering.

Republicans blasting China forget that the GOP enabled Beijing’s rise

Related:

What Republicans did 15 years ago to help create Donald Trump today

Urged on by their presidential standard-bearer, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, and by nearly all of the business lobbyists who represented the core of the party’s donor class, three-quarters of House Republicans voted to extend the status of permanent normal trade relations to China. They were more than enough, when added to a minority of Democrats, to secure passage of a bill that would sail through the Senate and be signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

The origins of the anti-Qatar lobby on the World Cup Parts 1 & 2

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

As the World Cup gets fully underway, we can review the massive international campaign to make sure it never happened. The campaign was – obviously – not a success, but it involved at least seven countries and a host of lobby groups, PR firms, think tanks, and front groups. The first part of this investigation looks at the role of “Israel” which started the ball rolling back in 2014.

The origins of the anti-Qatar lobby on the World Cup

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The anti-Qatar lobby Part 2