Inside Mnuchin’s far-fetched plan to rebuild TikTok from scratch + Controversial former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick could buy TikTok with help from Sam Altman

Inside Mnuchin’s far-fetched plan to rebuild TikTok from scratch

Mnuchin said he has discussed his pitch with an assortment of billionaires and big businesses, including the tech giant Oracle and the former head of the Activision Blizzard video game empire Bobby Kotick, the two people said.

Dan Wang*, a visiting scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center who studies Chinese tech and policy, said Mnuchin’s proposal would probably hit a dead end in China, which has shown no interest in consenting to a forced sale and could use its “highly discretionary” political system to block the deal.

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Controversial former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick could buy TikTok with help from Sam Altman

Bobby Kotick spent 33 years as CEO of Activision, during which time he faced plenty of controversy. His departure from the company in December following Microsoft’s acquisition was met with celebrations from gamers and developers. There were tales of his interference with the development of Activision games over the years and his role in killing off Blizzard titles in China.

Kotick was also accused of leaving a voicemail threatening to kill an assistant in 2006 and was the subject of a flight attendant’s sexual harassment lawsuit in 2007. He faced allegations of incidents involving rape and harassment stretching from the mid-2010s through 2021, and Kotick and Activision had to pay a $35 million settlement last year after failing to maintain adequate controls to report and address misconduct within the company. Activision Blizzard also paid $54 million in 2021 to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit in California.

The alleged $15 million golden parachute Kotick received upon leaving Activision did little to endear him to the public, too.

*Dan Wang (not the dissident).

Mossad-linked Mnuchin wants to buy TikTok

The Phony War on American Culture

The Phony War on American Culture

Consider how gender is one focus of their culture war campaign. Transgender people hardly affect our personal lives, despite the Republican campaigns to make it a voting issue. In America, only 1.3 million adults and 300,000 children identify as transgender out of a population of 332 million. Only 36 transgender athletes compete in college sports that include over half a million participants. Yet the Republican legislature in Kansas recently banned transgender girls from female high school sports, despite having only three transgender girls out of 41,00 competing in the state. Indeed, they should be respected and accommodated in some way. Yet, GOP legislators are considering a flood of bills to restrict transgender behavior, flooding email boxes with requests for donations, blasting isolated events on Fox News, and making them campaign issues.

Sean Penn’s Disaster-Relief Charity Ended Up a Money Mess

Sean Penn’s Disaster-Relief Charity Ended Up a Money Mess

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CORE Labor violations and complaints

CORE staff complained that they were forced to work 18-hour days, six days a week, without the opportunity to take breaks. Responding to the staff concerns, Penn excoriated the employees, writing in an email that “in every cell of my body is a vitriol for the way your actions reflect so harmfully upon your brothers and sisters in arms”. Penn suggested that employees leave their work instead of complaining about conditions.[16] In October 2021, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint that Penn and CORE violated federal labor law. According to the charge, Penn “impliedly threatened” his employees with reprisals.[17] A 2021 California lawsuit sought civil damages, claiming that CORE failed o pay overtime and minimum wges, provide rest periods, reimburse for business expenses, provide detailed wage statements, and timely pay employees. [18]

In 2022, a former CORE worker who provided support during COVID relief efforts in Georgia sued CORE for unpaid wages. According to the complaint, CORE deliberately misclassified staff as contractors to avoid paying overtime. CORE’s contracts require binding arbitration, which prevents a collective action by multiple employees and keeps the proceedings private.

Sean Penn’s Haiti relief charity paid $126,000 on travel in a single year including the actor’s first-class flights because of his ‘celebrity status’, tax records reveal