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Re: Happy New Year Everyone. Any Guesses On 2017 Markets And/Or Global Activities?
Palantir's history is one of going after China. The Thiel/Omidyar combo backed Trump on this one. A big reason is philosophical. Russia is more amenable to oligarchs, is the only major country without a progressive tax system, and lets them run privatization experiments. The Omidyar Network most generally seeks to wrestle assets of any kind from state control and privatize them. That's their biggest MO. The Chinese state-owned-enterprises are the white whale for these guys. Meanwhile, they are working very hard to privatize the US education system, for example. But they operate all over the world. They want to expand property rights and make everything auction-able--from the highways to the oceans to the air and everything in between. Think of them as 'market-extremists.' Anti-democratic to the core. They want to shut down NSA spying so Palantir can do it instead. It's not the action they care about so much as whether it is public or private. And of course, they profit and get a piece of it every time they can take something private. Of course, this requires a massive information campagin. And they are working on six continents.
Take a look at what they're doing with the International Land Coalition or any other number of organizations that are working to impose US-style (not even Commonwealth-style) land/mineral rights in other countries. Or look at how they use various media initiatives--like Omidyar's "good governance" group "Enough is Enough Nigeria," which spends most of its time and money trying to eliminate fuel subsidies and privatize everything under the auspices of increasing government transparency or something. Or watch how they are pushing for stricter IP laws and enforcement everywhere. Or watch how the Indian Institute for Human Settlements under the guise of easing poverty in a rural-urban transition spends all its time and money building land record systems, surveying, and establishing deed offices to re-create the US land-ownership system. It's easier to see this stuff in action in the developing world, but they're doing similar things here as well. A big other push they are making worldwide is for the elimination of cash and the total transition to electronic payment systems. Of course, they're heavily invested in all the major ones, so it's win-win.
But, of course, a lot of these things they want are very good for billionaires and far off owners of the companies that benefit, but not so good for your average worker. So how do you sell someone an idea that's bad for them? Well, controlling information is a great way to start.
Bezos' first order of business was to fire the WaPost's experienced publisher and replace her with Fred Ryan, Ronald Reagan's Chief of Staff. Then he fired Ezra Klein et all and brought in the Volkoh Conspiracy crew. He took a heavy-handed approach to controlling the editorial board from Day 1 and didn't even pretend to hide it. When the billionaire sole-owner boss tells the publisher, "Go after Russia," and he tells the Editor, "Go after Russia," they're going to go after Russia. Just like if he says, "Be more like Buzzfeed," they're going to be more like Buzzfeed.
Can you imagine the pre-Bezos WaPost publishing a story like this? Or how about a story like this? What real editor of a real paper that did real journalism would print this type of click-bait trash? Or how about the WaPost blatantly printing articles that are just Amazon ads in disguise every day. Don't believe me? Here's one from today. And here's one from yesterday. And here's one from the day before yesterday...in fact, there's even a plug-in at GitHub to highlight all the conflicts of interest that come up in WaPost articles.
If the editors are willing to stoop so low as to do that, you think they wouldn't follow other general orders from the boss?
I'm not making this stuff up...
Originally posted by jk
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what is your theory of omidyar's motivations? what is the worldview he is propagating and why?
Take a look at what they're doing with the International Land Coalition or any other number of organizations that are working to impose US-style (not even Commonwealth-style) land/mineral rights in other countries. Or look at how they use various media initiatives--like Omidyar's "good governance" group "Enough is Enough Nigeria," which spends most of its time and money trying to eliminate fuel subsidies and privatize everything under the auspices of increasing government transparency or something. Or watch how they are pushing for stricter IP laws and enforcement everywhere. Or watch how the Indian Institute for Human Settlements under the guise of easing poverty in a rural-urban transition spends all its time and money building land record systems, surveying, and establishing deed offices to re-create the US land-ownership system. It's easier to see this stuff in action in the developing world, but they're doing similar things here as well. A big other push they are making worldwide is for the elimination of cash and the total transition to electronic payment systems. Of course, they're heavily invested in all the major ones, so it's win-win.
But, of course, a lot of these things they want are very good for billionaires and far off owners of the companies that benefit, but not so good for your average worker. So how do you sell someone an idea that's bad for them? Well, controlling information is a great way to start.
do you really think bozos gets involved on such a granular detail? i would think that instead there's a wapo cultural value about suspicion of russian aggression. i wonder if people on the editorial staff have any idea of why they are pursuing that value quite so vigorously.
Can you imagine the pre-Bezos WaPost publishing a story like this? Or how about a story like this? What real editor of a real paper that did real journalism would print this type of click-bait trash? Or how about the WaPost blatantly printing articles that are just Amazon ads in disguise every day. Don't believe me? Here's one from today. And here's one from yesterday. And here's one from the day before yesterday...in fact, there's even a plug-in at GitHub to highlight all the conflicts of interest that come up in WaPost articles.
If the editors are willing to stoop so low as to do that, you think they wouldn't follow other general orders from the boss?
I'm not making this stuff up...
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