WOBIK Blog

The Federalist, by Paul Rowan Brian — April 12, 2019

Excerpt:

Advanced technology isn’t just getting out of control, it’s being used as a means of control—big time. That’s the key message of Shoshana Zuboff’s new book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight For A Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, where the Harvard professor emerita and business analyst argues that Big Tech is determined to fully commodify, control, and co-opt human experiences to provide raw behavioral data that sustains its massive profits and power.

Put simply, Zuboff contends that surveillance capitalism is the constant tracking, analysis, and attempted modification of human behavior for the profit of tech giants who trade in what she terms “behavioral futures markets,” places where knowing what people are very likely to do tomorrow or next year is of enormous value to those trying to sell a product or service.

Surveillance capitalism renders human behavior by tracking, measuring, and analyzing from your smartphone to your smart home—from browsing the internet to private messages or emails with a colleague. This relatively new, dominant force intrudes through cookies and privacy permissions that in most cases must be accepted for a service to work properly or at all, including, for example, many smart home security systems.

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View the complete article including links at:

https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/12/meet-surveillance-capitalism-our-terrifying-new-economic-order/

RealClear Politics, by Ian Schwartz — April 11, 2019

Excerpt:

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“The guardians of speech are now its enemies,” the FNC host said. “The people charged with policing power are now colluding with it. There’s a reason you see John Brennan on NBC all the time. They’re all on the same team. We’re not saying any of this to defend Julian Assange. We just want to be absolutely clear about who hurts this country more. It’s not him.”

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: If you’ve watched the coverage of this story today on television, you likely came away with the understanding that Julian Assange is some form of Russian spy, who is in trouble because he stole classified documents from the United States government. But that’s factually wrong. It’s not true. Saying so isn’t a defense of Assange. We’re not here to promote him, or excuse any number of things he’s said over the years that we disagree with. But just so it’s clear: Whatever his sins, Assange did not steal documents from the US government. He did not hack the DNC’s servers, or break into John Podesta’s gmail account. There is no proof he is working for the Russian government, or ever has. Assange has never been charged with any of that, and wasn’t today, no matter what they tell you.

 
If you’re upset about the theft of classified documents from the US government, and there’s reason to be, we already know who did it: A 22-year-old Army Private named Bradley Manning, now called Chelsea. In 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to stealing secret material, and got 35 years in prison. A few years later, Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence. This allowed Manning to leave jail decades early, go back on TV as a commentator, and run for political office. So if your real concern is America’s national security, you ought to be angry at Barack Obama. And yet, strangely, nobody is. 

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View the complete article including video and links at:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/04/11/tucker_carlson_what_was_julian_assanges_crime_he_embarrassed_everyone_in_power_humiliated_hillary_clinton.html

Laura Loomer — Published on Apr 8, 2019

SAYS “PENDULUM IS SWINGING”

The Post & Email, by Sharon Rondeau, April 10, 2019

Excerpt:

(Apr. 10, 2019) — On Tuesday night’s “Hannity,” host Sean Hannity began by saying that in regard to exposing malfeasance within the U.S. intelligence community connected to the Trump-Russia “collusion” narrative, “an avalanche is coming.”

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View the complete article including video, images, links and comments at:

https://www.thepostemail.com/2019/04/10/hannity-an-avalanche-is-coming/

New York Post, by Reed Tucker — April 9, 2019

Excerpts:

She was one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actresses. But Audrey Hepburn had a role that few knew about: spy.

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The maddeningly private actress, who died in 1993, had dropped hints about her work with the Dutch Resistance during World War II, and now a new book puts the whole story together, providing an in-depth look at her life during the conflict.

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The biggest surprise to many will be Hepburn’s work with the Dutch Resistance against Nazi occupation. She certainly seemed like an unlikely hero.

For starters, she was just 10 years old when World War II broke out. For another, her parents were infamously pro-fascist — though the realities of Nazi occupation would ultimately change her mother’s mind.

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In the summer of 1944, Hepburn began volunteering for Dr. Hendrik Visser ’t Hooft, a handsome 39-year-old physician and former Olympian. It was here her ties to the underground Resistance were formed. Visser ’t Hooft was an anti-German leader, and the hospital where he worked was the center of the Resistance in the area, with doctors helping to forge identity documents to assist those in hiding.

One of Hepburn’s contributions was dance. She began performing at illegal, by-invitation-only nighttime events designed to raise money for the Resistance. These nights were called “zwarte avonden,” or “black evenings,” because the hosts were forced to black out the windows so as to not be discovered by the enemy.

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View the complete article including images and links at:

https://nypost.com/2019/04/09/hollywood-legend-audrey-hepburn-was-a-wwii-resistance-spy/

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Breitbart, by Allum Bokhari — April 8, 2019

Excerpt:

Under pressure from left-wing journalists and activists, Amazon is purging right-wing authors from its store, including a book co-authored by English Islam critic and independent commentator Tommy Robinson.

The web retail giant has become the dominant market player in book sales, accounting for nearly 50 percent of physical and 83 percent of e-book sales in the U.S. As such, Amazon has the power to effectively cut an author off from the vast majority of the books market.

Amazon began its new round of purges by targeting the white nationalist fringe. In February, the tech giant banned a number of books from white identitarian Jared Taylor, and a book called The White Nationalist Manifesto by Greg Johnson.

This followed bans on Holocaust revisionist books in 2017, and a purge of all books by controversial pickup blogger and author Daryush “Roosh” Valizadeh in 2018.

As with financial blacklisting, a censorship spree that starts by targeting extreme ideas quickly moves towards the censorship of more mainstream ones. In early March, the online retailer banned Muhammed’s Koran: Why Muslims Kill for Islam, a Chronological Koran and critique of the Islamic religion co-authored by British populist Tommy Robinson.

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View the complete article including image, video, links and comments at:

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/04/08/amazon-is-on-a-digital-book-burning-spree/

Daily Mail, by Lauren Fruen For Dailymail.com — April 6, 2019

• He tweeted his thanks to Trump while criticizing Obama in a series of posts
• Washington was at the White House to celebrate a prison reform bill 
• The actor shared pictures and videos of himself from inside The East Room
• Congress passed the First Step Act which gives judges more discretion when sentencing some drug offenders and boosts prisoner rehabilitation 
• His comments provoked a mixed reaction online with some praising the actor
• But responding to the backlash Washington wrote: ‘I may have 99 problems with 45, but mass incarceration ain’t one of them’
• He was fired from Grey’s Anatomy in 2007 for making a homophobic slur 

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View the complete article including images and links at:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6893717/Greys-Anatomy-actor-slams-Obama-praises-Trump-inviting-White-House.html