Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

There's been a lot of justifiable criticism of the "I'm An Important Player" speech last week by Facebook's Mark Suckerberg Zuckerberg, positioning himself as a champion of free expression.  (Check out here,  here, and here.) This is what Inc's Jason Aten has to say, in part:

It doesn't matter whether Facebook actively censors certain viewpoints, the result is actually far worse. Facebook is deciding--on your behalf yet without your input--what you should see based entirely on what it thinks is best for you. Not only do most people not want tech companies deciding what is true, I don't know anyone that wants those same companies deciding what is best for them.

I get that Facebook is in a difficult position. Its platform is enormous, and it's increasingly difficult to create policies that prevent abuses by bad actors. On the one hand, the company wants to allow free expression up to the point where it could actually cause harm. (That's Zuckerberg's explanation, anyway.) At the same time, Facebook seems to completely ignore the fact that it already directly affects which forms of expression you are exposed to every single day.

And, it does so in a way that is most profitable for itself.

That isn't free expression by any definition. And the fact that Zuckerberg publicly promoted the company's commitment to free expression without addressing that obvious fact tells you everything you need to know.

The sanctimonious little fart is determined to enable the liars and manipulators to spread their poison to the people on his platform who never bother to watch a newscast or read a paper that might disabuse them of the crap Facebook's algorithms decide to provide them.  Zuck believes in free expression as long as it's making him enormous profits.

Conservative economics columnist Robert Samuelson comes out for Trump's impeachment and removal:

The lesson of the Syrian debacle is that Trump is increasingly impervious to outside evidence and influence. No one knows what he will do, except that, reflecting his background as a reality-TV star, he aims to dominate the daily news cycle every day. This means he constantly needs new and more incendiary material. He incites his “base,” because he’s good at it and enjoys it. Inevitably, this dragged him toward impeachment.

According to the Constitution, the House first votes on the charges, which — if approved — would move to the Senate for trial, where a two-thirds majority would be required for conviction. It is widely assumed that few Republicans, if any, will support it, but events are moving so fast that this could change. I hope it does. Though scary, impeachment and removal are the lesser evils.

The corrupt decision to host the next G-7 summit at Trump's Doral roach motel bedbug palace stemmed from The Dumb Don's generous spirit, we're told:

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Sunday defended President Trump’s decision — reversed in a tweet late Saturday — to host next year’s G-7 summit at his resort hotel near Miami, saying the president “still considers himself to be in the hospitality business. [snip]

“At the end of the day he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business, and he saw an opportunity to take the biggest leaders from around the world and he wanted to put on the absolute best show, the best visit that he possibly could, and he was very comfortable doing that at Doral...”

"Hospitality business!"  Well, he's certainly not in the presidentin' business.

Here's your little piece of Huckleberry bullshit pie for today:

[Sen. Lindsey "Huckleberry"] Graham also said he believed the United States and Kurdish forces long allied with Washington could establish a venture to modernize Syrian oil fields, with the revenue flowing to the Kurds. “President Trump is thinking outside the box,” Graham said of Trump’s thinking on oil.

“The president appreciates what the Kurds have done,” Graham added. “He wants to make sure ISIS does not come back. I expect we will continue to partner with the Kurds in eastern Syria to make sure ISIS does not re-emerge.”

Trump "thinking outside the box" would suggest he's capable of thinking in the first place. Oh, and the Kurds can't wait to "partner" with Trump again, we're certain of that!

Here's a little counterprogramming to Huckleberry's vision:

A video by the Kurdish news agency showed a convoy of armored vehicles driving through the northeastern city of Qamishli. People in the street hurled potatoes at the vehicles, shouting, "No America," and "America liar," in English.

"Like rats, America is running away," one man shouted in Arabic. Another shouted obscenities and talked of babies in Kurdish-held who have died in the Turkish offensive.

Partners!

As usual, we'd strongly recommend a visit to our blogging brother Infidel 753's excellent link round- up for much more variety and scope than what we can provide here.