Archive for the ‘Bureaucracy’ Category
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AP, BACKING HITLER: CONSENT AND COERCION IN NAZI GERMANY, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISTS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD J. TRUMP, EAST GERMANY, ECONOMY, EMPLOYMENT, EUROPEAN UNION, FACEBOOK, FBI, GESTAPO, JAMES COMEY, MEDIA, MEXICO, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI ATROCITIES, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PARDON, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT GELLATELY, RUDOLPH GIULIANI, SALON, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TARIFFS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TRADE WAR, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNEMPLOYMENT, UPI, USA TODAY, WEHRMACHT, WEST GERMANY
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 12, 2018 at 12:39 am
Everyone knows how World War II ended for Nazi Germany: With its Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, dead, and its capital city of Berlin in ruins.
Casualty figures range from 4.3 to 5.3 million dead Germans.
And for 44 years—from May 7, 1945, until November 9, 1989—Berlin was a divided city and Germany a divided nation. The Soviet Union ruled the eastern half. Germans—backed up by American military forces—ruled the western half.
Yet before all this unhappiness descended on the Fatherland, the vast majority of Germans enjoyed what they called “The Happy Time.”
This period began on January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor—and lasted until June 22, 1941.
For most Germans, those years—and especially the year between June, 1940, and June, 1941–were a time of prosperity and joy.
According to Robert Gellately’s 2002 landmark study, Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany, the Nazis operated a highly popular dictatorship. They didn’t try to cow people into submission. Instead, they set out to win converts by building on popular images, cherished ideals and long-held phobias.
And their efforts succeeded. The Gestapo owed its fearsome success to ordinary German citizens who voluntarily reported on “enemies” within their midst. These citizens saw themselves as patriots.
Nor, as has long been believed, were Nazi atrocities carried out in secret. From the media, Germans learned about the Nazis’ brutal campaign against the Jews, the concentration camps, and the Nazis’ radical approaches to “law and order.”
But as far as everyday Germans were concerned:
- The streets were clean and peaceful.
- Employment was high.
- The Communists and Jews were being locked up.
- The trouble-making unions were gone.
- Germany was once again “taking its rightful place” among ruling nations, after its catastrophic defeat in World War 1.
The height of “The Happy Time” came in June, 1940. In just six weeks, the Wehrmacht accomplished what the German army hadn’t in four years during World War 1: The total defeat of its longtime enemy, France.

Frenzied Germans greet Adolf Hitler
Suddenly, French clothes, perfumes, delicacies, paintings and other “fortunes of war” came pouring into the Fatherland. (Reichsmarshall Herman Goring, head of the Luftwaffe—air force—amassed his own private air collection from French museums.)
Most Germans believed der Krieg—“the war”—was over, and only good times lay ahead.
But Adolf Hitler had other plans.
On June 22, 1941, three million Wehrmacht soldiers slashed their way into the Soviet Union. The Third Reich was now locked in a death-struggle with a nation even more powerful than itself.

German soldiers in the Soviet Union
And then, on December 11, 1941—four days after Germany’s ally, Japan, attacked Pearl Harbor—Hitler declared war on the United States.
“The Happy Time” for Germans was over. Only prolonged disaster lay ahead.
Now, fast forward 77 years to the America of President Donald J. Trump. According to an official White House statement entitled “American Greatness,” issued on June 4:

Donald Trump
“Nearly 3 million jobs have been created since President Trump took office. The unemployment rate has dropped to 3.8, the lowest rate since April 2000, and job openings have reached 6.6 million, the highest level recorded. President Trump has restored confidence in the American economy, with confidence among both consumers and businesses reaching historic highs.”
Much of this jobs growth, however, was already underway during the closing years of the Obama administration. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from taking credit for it.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders doubtless spoke for millions of Trump supporters when she said, on June 4: “Since taking office, the President has strengthened American leadership, security, prosperity, and accountability. And as we saw from Friday’s jobs report, our economy is stronger, Americans are optimistic, and business is booming.
“The American people do not believe this strong economy is fantasy or unrealistic.”
Many Congressional Republicans have echoed this: The American people care only about the economy—and how well-off they are.
Only five days earlier—on May 31—the Trump administration had announced it would put steel and aluminum tariffs on longtime American allies Canada, Mexico and the European Union (EU).
Mexico, Canada and the EU immediately vowed to retaliate. For Americans, this will mean higher prices on such items as beer, baseball bats and cars. The EU has threatened to impose tariffs on motorcycles, bourbon whiskey, Levi’s jeans, peanut butter and cranberries.
A disastrous global trade war could be the ultimate result.
On June 4, Trump claimed, in a tweet: “As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself….”
And, making clear how far above the law he thinks Trump is, his attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, told the Huffington Post on June 3: “In no case can he be subpoenaed or indicted. I don’t know how you can indict while he’s in office. No matter what it is.
“If he shot [former FBI director] James Comey, he’d be impeached the next day. Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him.”
The Germans made a similar devil’s-bargain with Hitler—and paid dearly for it. Americans, by supporting Trump—or at least not opposing him—have made a similar devil’s-bargain.
And such bargains always end with the devil winning.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AP, BARACK OBAMA, BUSINESS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHANNING DUNGEY, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, EMARKETER, Entertainment, FACEBOOK, FORTUNE, HISTORY, INC.COM, INSTAGRAM, KU KLUX KLAN, Law, MARK ZUCKERBERG, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PEW RESEARCH CENTER, POLITICO, POLITICS, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT TOWNSEND, ROSEANNE BARR, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SNAPCHAT, TEENAGERS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UP THE ORGANIZATION, UPI, USA TODAY, YOUTUBE
In Bureaucracy, Business, Entertainment, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on June 8, 2018 at 12:10 am
And, on Facebook, the complaints just keep coming. [NOTE: The spellings are those of the complainants.]
- FACEBOOK BETRAYED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US ON HERE. SO MUCH SO THAT NOW WE HAVE AN IDIOT IN THE WHITE HOUSE AND IT’S YOUR FAULT YOU PUT HIM THERE. HOW DARE YOU TAKE 87 MILLION PEOPLE’S DATA, GIVE IT TO CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICS, WHO GAVE IT TO RUSSIA, WHO GAVE IT TO MANAFORT, WHICH MADE HILLARY LOSE AND TRUMP WIN. I HOPE THEY KICK YOUR ASS IN CONGRESS.
- FACEBOOK STINKS. Despite being repeatedly told that your website is hacked all the time, you do nothing. Today, my girlfriend received a completely naked photo from a stranger, reported it, and you deemed it fine. This is not fine. It’s disgusting. You are a lousy, immoral company with no security or protection for your users. You STINK!You should have a minus ten, not one star.
- total waste of time. I hate the way no can help you get access to your account but they will block the old account without contacting you.
- FB News Feed now shows only posts from the same few people, about 25, and repeat the same, because Facebook has a new algorithm. Their system chooses the people to read one’s posts. However, I would like to choose for myself.
- My husband’s account was hackef and he’s tried everything to get back into it and Absolutely NO HELP from Facebook to resolve this!! It has ALL of his family and friends blocked from his page including me!!

- FB Gestapo must be pushing fake news and stories.Every time I drop a link showing the claims are fake as a TV Preacher,FB notifies me my post has been marked as spam and they remove it.
- I have tried to contact FB about missing fundraiser donations and cannot get a reply.
- Tried to contact Facebook about something on one of the group sites and they never answered my complaint, now they have blocked the like button because I have pushed it too many times and now have put one of my comments to the spam. If they do not respond to my 2nd complaint, I will Be closing my Facebook account.
- SICK OF ADVERTISMENTS FROM FACEBOOK IN MY NEWS FEED IM NOT FUKIN INTERESTED
- I got blocked from posting videos and facebook live because I posted a video of me singing with the music video plating in the background… I would like to know why this happened…
- TAKE ME OFF THE BEING BANNED LIST OF POSTING I AM NOT A FREAKING TERROIST
- Reported a dozen times, and left phone msgs regarding a convicted Pedophile, child molester, registered on Megan’s Law website. Facebook will not do anything about it
- YOU CANT GET ANYONE TO ANSWER I AM SO FRUSTRATED I GIVE UP ITS TERRIBLE

- Brian Haner has been reported for being offensive. He was informed this is his second strike. He has 70000 followers and people have the right to UNLIKE if they are offended. No one has the right to get someone BANNED for expressing an “offensive” opinion. If Brian is banned because some uppity person can conplain and have their ONE opinion outweight the other 69999 opinions then I for one will leave to google+ and I will take as many people as I can with me.
- Complained about the marketing for Kary Oberbrummer self publishing book scheme that refuses to give you the costs up front. Facebook deleted all my comments and refuses to let me make anymore comments on the post. Just trying to warn people about the downside risk. Facebook censorship ! UNBELIEVABLE !
- My Facebook page or rather account got all screwed up. It started logging me in on my original very first Facebook account, how in the world do I delete it? I have pushed deactivate until my face is blood red and I am extremely sick because after I push deactivate then it says your session with Facebook has ran out please login again and then of course it logs me back into the old account! I would appreciate it so very much if someone would please give me an answer that works.
- They will not answer as to why I can not post anything for sale
- Can’t seem to find a way to contact Facebook. Probably the way they want it. I’m getting very obnoxious friends requests that I would like to stop but don;t see a way to do it. Not likely to hang around much longer but then I don’t think they care.
The 1970 epic, “Patton,” closed with the words: “All glory is fleeting.” Mark Zuckerberg and his self-satisfied honchos at Facebook should realize that social networking websites can also be fleeting.
Anyone who doubts this need only sum up a few once well-known names:
- Myspace
- Google+
- Friendster
- Posterous
- Yahoo Meme
- SixDegrees
- Classmates
- Yahoo Buzz
- Eons
- iTunes Ping
Mark Zuckerberg needs to quickly install some serious reforms in Facebook. Otherwise, in time, his name will be added to those CEOs of other failed social networking sites.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AP, BARACK OBAMA, BUSINESS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHANNING DUNGEY, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, EMARKETER, Entertainment, FACEBOOK, FORTUNE, HISTORY, INC.COM, INSTAGRAM, KU KLUX KLAN, Law, MARK ZUCKERBERG, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PEW RESEARCH CENTER, POLITICO, POLITICS, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT TOWNSEND, ROSEANNE BARR, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SNAPCHAT, TEENAGERS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UP THE ORGANIZATION, UPI, USA TODAY, YOUTUBE
In Bureaucracy, Business, Entertainment, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on June 7, 2018 at 12:18 am
Facebook is still the most-used social media platform in the world—with more than 2 billion users and a net worth of $500 billion.
But all is not well in Mark Zuckerberg’s Internet kingdom. And while he has chosen to ignore those evils plaguing Facebook, many of its users are infuriated by them.
So infuriated that many of them are threatening to move to other social media sites—such as Snapchat and Instagram.
Here is a sampling of complaints made directly to Facebook by its thoroughly enraged users. [NOTE: The spellings are those of the complainants.]
- Stop soliciting me for boosts and adds. It is annoying spam, the kind you encourage people to block. But, of course, we can’t block it since it’s you. Trust me, if I was ever inclined in the least to give you additiobnal money for anything, you effectively killed that urge thousands of unwelcome posts and reminders ago. You make Instagram look better every day.
- Same exact thing I went threw. 25 times they pulled my ad and 25 times I appealed it, not one time did I get a response. My ad was for dog training they said it didn’t meet Facebook policy because of animal sales, but in all 25 appeals, I explained, I’m not selling animals I’m selling a service. And I was even paying my own money to run the same ad on boost promo. They approved my ad for that and took my money, but can’t get my ad to run on a free market place.
- I keep getting my post that I am selling fabric rejected and it won’t let me appeal it because there are no posts listed.. Says I violated a commerce policy. What does fabric violate? I got a message from FB today and all it shows it was closed. NO EXPLANATION
- Hello, How do i reply to a message from you I have just had about a picture that I originally got off Facebook that is apparently now not allowed. I can’t delete it and if I try to answer it just buffers and is never sent.
- I voiced my opinion on gaffneynites and just because the republicans can say what they want I was taken off that group, they said nothing to the people who were harassing me, and they could say what they wanted, I don’t think facebook is fair when it lets one side say whatever they want to and you can’t, this is discrimination in my opinion, I thought this was suppose to be America free speech

- Facebook must get their act together, People do have an opinion, and if you get in so called “facebook jail” for having that opinion, what is the point of having a social media site???? Come on Facebook, get with the 21st century..
- I’m just trying to ask a question to a human and actually get a response. Not a list of 6 possible answers and asking if any of them were close enough to shut you up.
- No way to contact Facebook – times outs, no connection, all sort of excuses when you are posting a claim, or a request for contact!!Facebook is charging me for something I didn’t authorized to run, an add. Many months ago I stopped running all adds I had posted – mainly because of the difficulty (impossibility?) of reaching you managers, or whomever is responsible for billings!!! YOU JUST HIDE YOUR SELVES, AND AFTER STARTING AN ADD, one has no way of stopping it, changing it, no feed back at all!! I will never post a add on Facebook again!!
- Tried to contact fb to try and stop all these “friends requests” from all foreign people. Could not do, after all this bad publicity you would think they would be very wary.
- I just tried to contact Facebook concerning my account with a number provided on the Website. The service representative was very helpful until I turned down the $49.00 fee to fix my problem. When I said that was not acceptable, he hung up on me ….

- Contacting them is impossible. They want you gone, and you are gone. No explanation, and I have never giving them these five stars;; they made that up.
- it is very hard to find this contact method. it is totally impersonal. it allows for no dialogue. it seems to confirm that FB is too big for its own britches.
- is there a way to contact facebook as getting a little peeved with the service and will not pay for any more ads while i am unable to contact them.
- Never have a direct Help Desk to call…it appears as if You all are invisible.
- you cannot contact facebook to report a fault! what good is that?
- I CALLED 2 TIMES AND THEY WANT $100 SAY IT IS MY COMPUTER AND IT ISNT……..I Cant share and in jail almost 24/7. i was to be out at 12;20 yesterday…last time they did this and they restriction is over but still 3 more days!!!! idiots work here!!!!! never reply back either.
- this is terrible, i have to use someone else account to even contact support.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AP, BARACK OBAMA, BUSINESS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHANNING DUNGEY, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, EMARKETER, Entertainment, FACEBOOK, FORTUNE, HISTORY, INC.COM, INSTAGRAM, KU KLUX KLAN, Law, MARK ZUCKERBERG, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PEW RESEARCH CENTER, POLITICO, POLITICS, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT TOWNSEND, ROSEANNE BARR, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SNAPCHAT, TEENAGERS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UP THE ORGANIZATION, UPI, USA TODAY, YOUTUBE
In Bureaucracy, Business, Entertainment, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on June 6, 2018 at 12:29 am
Facebook is in big trouble. And much of it stems from its own greed and arrogance toward its customers.
An email recently sent to Winnie Liu, director of Facebook & Instagram Research, offers several telling truths.
The recipient—a friend of mine named Dan—had just been put in “Facebook Jail” for somehow offending its “Community Standards” (i.e., censorship) department.
The actual offense, of course, was not outlined. It never is.
When he tried to post something on Facebook, Dan got an automatic message: “You may have used Facebook in a way that our systems consider unusual, even if you didn’t mean to. You can post again in 24 hours.”
Notice the phrase: “You may have used Facebook in a way that our systems consider unusual.”
Well, did he or didn’t he commit an offense? If he didn’t, he shouldn’t have been banned from posting on Facebook. If he did, then he should have the right to know, specifically, what it was he posted that “may have” been considered “unusual”.

And what it is that “our systems consider unusual”? Did he defame someone? Post an obscene photo? Tell a joke that someone found offensive?
America’s criminal and civil justice systems are founded on specificity. If the police accuse you of robbing a bank, they need to have specific proof that you robbed it. Their merely saying “I think he’s a bank robber” isn’t evidence—and shouldn’t be counted as such.
Finally, if he “didn’t mean to” post something that Facebook’s “systems consider unusual,” then that should be a mitigating factor in itself.
Even in criminal law, room is made to distinguish intentional acts from unintentional ones, even when harm is caused.
So when Dan got an email from Facebook, inviting him to take part in an upcoming research survey, he decided to share his disgust with its blatant disregard for fairness:
- “Although Facebook users like me have made its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, worth $52 billion, he’s unwilling to make it possible for those users to directly contact Facebook’s censorship department when they find themselves booted off Facebook. Or when they can’t log onto it. Or when they’re being billed for ads they never posted.
- “Ideally, this should be done by phone. Certainly, with all the billions of advertising dollars Facebook rakes in, a comparatively small portion could be set aside to hire banks of phone operators to deal with situations like this.

By aflcio2008 (NM: Jewell Hall, AFT and Martin Heinrich) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
- “But if you’re not willing to do that, you could at least make it possible for frustrated users to contact Facebook via Instant Messaging.
- “As it is, Facebook’s censorship department operates as prosecutor, jury and judge. Its decisions come out of the blue, and whoever is accused of violating your ‘Community Standards’ is automatically found guilty, with no right to appeal or even explain the situation as s/he saw it.
- “These are the methods of a Star Chamber in a dictatorship. They are reprehensible to citizens of any free society. And Facebook should consider them equally reprehensible as affronts to free speech.
- “There have been numerous reports that Facebook’s censorship department has been manipulated by Right-wing Trump supporters to remove posts they don’t like, even of those posts don’t actually violate Facebook’s “community standards.” I feel reasonably certain this is what happened in my case.
- “Since Zuckerberg recently spent two days in Washington testifying before outraged Democrats, it isn’t in his—or Facebook’s—best interest that he be forced to account for such disgraceful manipulation.
- “I have seen numerous complaints by Facebook members about being put in ‘Facebook Jail’ for even the most trivial ‘offenses.’ One of these is ‘liking’ too many posts.
- “Others like myself have simply re-posted images or stories already posted on Facebook—and found themselves kicked off as a result.
“Last December I wrote Mark Zuckerman about these problems—and the dangers they represent for Facebook. Naturally, I didn’t receive even the courtesy of a reply. And it’s clear to me that he has no intention of making such reforms.
“So there’s really no point in your offering test respondents $75 apiece in Amazon gift cards. Since Facebook clearly refuses to address the issue that’s most outraging so many of its users—at least the ones I know—it can expect to see its audience continue to shrink.
“When I first got a computer in 1999, AOL was the ‘big dog on the block.’ No more. When a comedian now references AOL, it’s as a joke, to mock its now antiquated status.
“It’s unfortunate that some people—like those in charge of Facebook—stubbornly refuse to learn from history.”
Dan’s experience, however, is by no means rare. Nor is his high level of disgust with Facebook.
For some unknown reason, Facebook has chosen to publish many of its users’ opinions on their “Facebook experience.”
All that’s needed to access these opinions—which are almost entirely complaints—is to type “Contact Facebook” in the white subject bar in the upper left-hand corner of the page.
Parts Three and Four of this series will focus on those expressed views—and outrage.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AP, BARACK OBAMA, BUSINESS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHANNING DUNGEY, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, EMARKETER, Entertainment, FACEBOOK, FORTUNE, HISTORY, INC.COM, INSTAGRAM, KU KLUX KLAN, Law, MARK ZUCKERBERG, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PEW RESEARCH CENTER, POLITICO, POLITICS, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT TOWNSEND, ROSEANNE BARR, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SNAPCHAT, TEENAGERS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UP THE ORGANIZATION, UPI, USA TODAY, YOUTUBE
In Bureaucracy, Business, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on June 5, 2018 at 12:09 am
Fortune has some bad news for Facebook: “Facebook is losing U.S. teenagers to services like YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat.”
On May 31, The Pew Research Center released its survey of 743 teens and 1,058 parents with children ages 13 to 17. The subject: Which social networking sites are most popular with teenagers.
The survey found:
- 85% of American teenagers say they use the video-streaming service YouTube.
- 72% of teens use photo-sharing Instagram.
- 69% of teens use Snapchat.
- 51% of teens use Facebook, which came in fourth place.
- This is a decline of 20% in usage; when Pew Research surveyed teenagers’ use of social networking sites in 2015, 71% of them said they used Facebook.
And worse news may be coming.
According to the research firm eMarketer, in 2018, Facebook will lose two million users under the age of 25. And less than half of Americans between 12 and 17 will use Facebook at least once a month.

According to the website, Inc.com, a major reason lies in the increasing use of Facebook by adults: “What kid wants to hang out in the same place as their parents and grandparents?” On the other hand, Snapchat will gain 1.9 million new users and Instagram will add 1.6 million in the 24-and-under age range coveted by advertisers.
“In general terms we expect social network users under age 24 to show declining interest in Facebook as time goes on,” Karin von Abrams, principal analyst at eMarketer, told The Independent.
“Younger consumers in particular are looking for something beyond utility.
“They want novelty and exclusivity too; the search for the latest buzz in social media will continue to lead them away from Facebook.”
A headline in The Guardian put Facebook’s dilemma in the bluntest terms: “Is Facebook for old people? Over-55s flock as the young leave”.
In a March 12, 2018 story, Guardian reporter Mark Sweeney notes:
“It’s official: Facebook is for old(er) people. Teens and young adults are ditching Mark Zuckerberg’s social network as popularity among the over-55s surges, according to a report.
“…A surge in older users means over-55s will become the second-biggest demographic of Facebook users this year.”
Facebook is by no means in danger yet. As of the first quarter of 2018, it had 2.19 billion monthly active users.
Its creator and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, at 33, is now worth more than $69 billion, according to Forbes. And Facebook’s market value is now $500 billion, although it’s been public for five years. It generates the vast majority of its money from mobile phones.

President Barack Obama speaking with Mark Zuckerberg (right)
But a desire by teens to avoid a social network used by their parents and grandparents isn’t the only reason for widespread dissatisfaction with Facebook.
To cite what should be the Bible among corporate CEOs: Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation From Stifling People and Strangling Profits, by Robert Townsend.
First published in 1970, its writing is brisk and its tone is no-nonsense. According to the dust jacket of the paperback edition:
“This is not a book about how organizations work. What should happen in organizations and what does happen are two different things and about as far apart as they can get.
“THIS BOOK IS ABOUT HOW TO GET THEM TO RUN THREE TIMES AS WELL AS THEY DO. The keys that will accomplish this are JUSTICE…FUN…EXCELLENCE.”

One chapter in particular—“Call Yourself Up”—runs only a short paragraph. Yet it is a paragrah that Mark Zuckerberg should tape to his bathroom mirror and re-read every day:
“When you’re off on a business trip or a vacation, pretend you’re a customer. Telephone some part of your organization and ask for help. You’ll run into some real horror shows.”
If Zuckerberg were a Facebook customer, instead of its CEO, he would face “some real horror shows.”
A friend of mine named Dan recently had this experience on Facebook:
“On May 31, I was placed in what Facebook’s users commonly refer to as ‘Facebook Jail’ for 24 hours. My crime: Posting a commentary on the firing of Roseanne Barr for her racist tweet on May 29.
“Specifically: Another Facebook user had already posted a picture of a white woman using a cell phone to call police–and report that a black woman had just wiped out her favorite TV show. (This was clearly a reference to Channing Dungey, entertainment president of the American Broadcasting Company, who made the decision to dump Roseanne after Barr’s racist tweet.)
“Under that photo I had posted a picture of a Ku Klux Klan rally, with a caption to the effect: “Hey, ABC, you can’t fire Roseanne! She’s one of us!”
“Perhaps two hours later I was kicked off Facebook and sent a message that I had violated its “Community Standards.” The picture I had posted of the Klan rally was given, but not the caption I had posted with it.
“Anyone with half a brain should have realized that this was not an expression of support for the Klan but an attack on it—and on Barr for her Fascistic racism.”
Apparently, no one at Facebook had any understanding of irony. Nor could they tell the difference between a post attacking the racism of the Ku Klux Klan and celebrating it.
ABC, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AP, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, BARACK OBAMA, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHANNING DUNGEY, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DISNEY, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, FBI, HILLARY CLINTON, JAMES COMEY, JOHN GOODMAN, JOHN OLIVER, LECY GORANSON, MERYL STREEP, MICHAEL FISHMAN, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEIL YOUNG, NEWSWEEK, NPR, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT IGER, ROSEANNE, ROSEANNE BARR, SALON, SARAH CHALKE, SARAH GILBERT, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TV GUIDE, TWITTER, TWITTER RULES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VALERIE JARRETT
In Bureaucracy, Business, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on June 1, 2018 at 12:29 am
With one tweet, Roseanne Barr blew her newly-revised TV sitcom to bits—and made herself an outcast from the American Broadcasting Company.
Her mistake: Thinking that she could get away with the same racist, hate-filled insults that her idol, President Donald Trump, has long gotten away with on Twitter.
From June 15, 2015, when he launched his Presidential campaign, until October 24, 2016, he fired nearly 4,000 angry, insulting tweets at 281 people and institutions. The New York Times needed two full pages of its print edition to showcase them.

Donald Trump
Among these targets were:
- His Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton
- His fellow Republican Presidential candidates
- Actress Meryl Streep
- News organizations
- President Barack Obama
- Comedian John Oliver
- Obamacare
- Singer Neil Young
- The state of New Jersey
- Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
During his first two weeks as President, Trump attacked 22 people, places and institutions on his @realDonaldTrump account.
Then, on March 4, 2017, Trump accused former President Barack Obama of tapping his Trump Tower phones prior to the election:
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
“How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”
Thus, without offering a shred of evidence to back it up, Trump accused his predecessor—on Twitter—of committing an impeachable offense.

President Barack Obama
On May 9, 2017, Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey—for pursuing an investigation into Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
Just 72 hours after firing Comey, Trump threatened him via Twitter: “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
And Twitter’s reaction to such a blatant threat? Silence.
Trump had no such tapes.

James B. Comey
On February 17, 2017, Trump used Twitter to attack the Constitutionally-protected free press:
“The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
On July 2, 2017, Trump tweeted a video showing him punching a man with the CNN logo superimposed on his head during a WWE wrestling match.
And on August 15, the President retweeted a cartoon photo of a “Trump Train” running over a CNN reporter.
Yet Twitter’s Terms of Service state:
Hateful imagery and display names: You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. You also may not use your username, display name, or profile bio to engage in abusive behavior, such as targeted harassment or expressing hate towards a person, group, or protected category. We will begin enforcing this rule on December 18, 2017. [Italics added.]
Even foreign leaders have been unnerved by Trump’s obsession with Twitter. As CNN Political Analyst Julian Zelizer outlined in a July 3 article:
“Putting aside the specific content of the recent blasts from the Oval smart phone, the President’s ongoing Twitter storms make all leaders uneasy. The heads of government in most nations prefer a certain amount of predictability and decorum from other heads of state.
“To have one of the most powerful people in the room being someone who is willing to send out explosive and controversial statements through social media, including nasty personal attacks or an edited video of him physically assaulting the media, does not make others….feel very confident about how he will handle deliberations with them.”
On September 25, 2017, Twitter, Twitter’s top executives justified allowing these repeated violations of “Twitter Rules,” tweeting:
“We hold all accounts to the same Rules, and consider a number of factors when assessing whether Tweets violate our Rules.
“Among the considerations is ‘newsworthiness’ and whether a Tweet is of public interest. This has long been internal policy and we’ll soon update our public-facing rules to reflect it. We need to do better on this, and will.”
Twitter has never acknowledged publicly that Trump has violated any of its guidelines. It rarely even acknowledges Trump’s tweets.
Trump’s apologists have fiercely defended his tweetstorms, claiming they allow him to bypass the media and “communicate directly with the American people.”
One of those apologists is Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who said: “I believe it’s really important to have these conversations out in the open, rather than have them behind closed doors.”

Jack Dorsey
In April, 2017, Twitter announced that it had added 9,000,000 new users, its largest quarter-over-quarter jump in two years.
“We believe Twitter is the best at showing you what’s happening in the world and what’s being talked about,” said Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer.
“Having political leaders of the world as well as news agencies participating and driving that is an important element to reinforcing what we’re the best at.”
In short: Trump is good at attracting more Twitter users. and if the company needs to overlook his blatant and repeated violations of its “Twitter Rules,” so be it.
Twitter has been so plagued by trolling that potential investors like the Walt Disney Company have refused to taint their own reputations by partnering with it.
But Twiter executives refuse to end their Faustian pact with the biggest Twitter troll of all.
ABC, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AP, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, BARACK OBAMA, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHANNING DUNGEY, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DISNEY, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, FBI, HILLARY CLINTON, JAMES COMEY, JOHN GOODMAN, JOHN OLIVER, LECY GORANSON, MERYL STREEP, MICHAEL FISHMAN, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEIL YOUNG, NEWSWEEK, NPR, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT IGER, ROSEANNE, ROSEANNE BARR, SALON, SARAH CHALKE, SARAH GILBERT, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TV GUIDE, TWITTER, TWITTER RULES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VALERIE JARRETT
In Bureaucracy, Business, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on May 31, 2018 at 12:09 am
Behind the racism
And the tweet
Behind the venom
And the act
Lies the Hatred.
In less than 12 hours, Roseanne Barr demolished her hit show, Roseanne, and threw the lives of dozens of men and women into unemployed chaos.
A short timeline is instructive:
May 28, 2018 – 1:45 a.m.
Roseanne Barr takes to Twitter and tweets: “muslim brotherhood and planet of the apes had a baby = vj”
[“vj” stands for “Valerie Jarrett,” a former senior adviser and assistant for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs for President Barack Obama. The reference to “planet of the apes” is Barr’s way of comparing Jarrett—who is black—to an ape.]

May 29 – 6:29 a.m.
“It’s a joke.”
[Apparently, Barr has suddenly realized that posting such a racist, poisonous tweet just might not be a good career move. So she’s trying to defuse the bomb before it can explode on her.]
May 29 – 9:28 a.m.
“I apologize. I am now leaving Twitter.”
[Obviously, she’s really worried now.]
May 29 – 7:33 a.m.
“I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me–my joke was in bad taste.”
[This looks like standard boiletplate, perhaps crafted by someone familiar with corporate-speak. It’s clear that Barr or someone close to her not only recognizes the public relations dangers of her tweet but made an “I was only joking” effort to deflect those dangers. Barr’s idol, President Donald Trump, has often hurled despicable insults at people—and then claimed: “I was only joking.” Perhaps Barr believes—or at least hopes—the same tactic will work for her.]

Roseanne Barr (Pinterest)
May 29 – 9:15 a.m.
Channing Dungey, entertainment president of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), issues the following announcement: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”
Robert Iger, CEO of Disney (which owns ABC) tweets: “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.”
This was, of course, not the first time that Roseanne Barr had starred in her own series. From 1988 to 1997, she had portrayed Roseanne Conner, wife and mother of an Illinois working-class American family. John Goodman had played her husband.
Their three children (Becky, Darlene, and DJ) were played by, respectively, Lecy Goranson (and, later, Sarah Chalke); Sarah Gilbert; and Michael Fishman.
The series reached No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings, and became the most watched television show in the United States from 1989 to 1990.
The show remained in the top four for six of its nine seasons, and in the top 20 for eight seasons. In 2002, Roseanne was ranked No. 35 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
So when Roseanne pitched an updated version of her show to ABC in 2017, the network was naturally excited.
On May 16, 2017, ABC announced that it would revive Roseanne as a mid-season replacement in 2018, with the original cast returning. Eight episodes were ordered. In November, ABC ordered a ninth episode.
The rebooted version premiered on March 27, 2018, to an initial audience of 27.26 million viewers. On March 30, thrilled by the success of its premiere, ABC renewed Roseanne for another 13 episodes.
Thirteen new episodes of Roseanne represented steady work for dozens of men and women:
- Actors portraying the Conner family.
- Actors in minor roles.
- Costume designers.
- Writers
- Editors
- Makeup artists.
- Caterers.
- Sound techs.
- Lighting techs.
- Production assistants.
Then came Roseanne Barr’s tweet.
And, suddenly, all of these people found themselves unemployed—and uncertain about their futures in the fickle and often unforgiving entertainment industry.
Of course, the person most immediately—and rightly—blamed was Roseanne Barr herself. But she was by no means the only one worthy of condemnation.
A major portion of blame is owed the men who run Twitter.
According to “The Twitter Rules,” posted on the Twitter website:
We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up.
In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.
Context matters when evaluating for abusive behavior and determining appropriate enforcement actions. Factors we may take into consideration include, but are not limited to whether:
- the behavior is targeted at an individual or group of people;
- the report has been filed by the target of the abuse or a bystander;
- the behavior is newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest.
Abuse: You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice….
Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. Read more about our hateful conduct policy.
All of which leads to the question: Why hasn’t Twitter policed—and purged—the single greatest abuser of its “Twitter Rules”: Donald Trump?
ABC NEWS, ALAMO, ALIEN-SMUGGLING RINGS, ALTERNET, AMNEXTY INTERNATIONAL, ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA, AP, ARIZONA, BUZZFEED, CALIFORNIA, CBS NEWS, CNN, COLORADO, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVID CROCKETT, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, GOLIAD MASSACRE, illegal immigration, IMMIGRATIONS AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), JAMES BOWIE, JEFF SESSIONS, MEXICAN WAR, MEXICO CITY, MOSES AUSTIN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEVADA, NEW MEXICO, NEWSWEEK, NPR, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAM HOUSTON, SAN JACINTO, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SLAVERY, STEPHEN AUSTIN, TEXAS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THOMAS HOMAN, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DEPARTMENT, UPI, USA TODAY, USA TODAY MEXICO, UTAH
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on May 30, 2018 at 12:09 am
On May 8, 2018, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that a “zero-tolerance” policy toward people illegally entering the United States might separate families while parents are prosecuted.
“We don’t want to separate families, but we don’t want families to come to the border illegally and attempt to enter into this country improperly,” Sessions said. “The parents are subject to prosecution while children may not be. So, if we do our duty and prosecute those cases, then children inevitably for a period of time might be in different conditions.”
Children who are separated from their parents would be put under supervision of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, Sessions said.

Jeff Sessions
Thomas Homan, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting director, backed up Sessions’ “get tough” policy change: “Every law enforcement agency in this country separates parents from children when they’re arrested for a crime. There is no new policy. This has always been the policy.”
Since then, that policy has gone into effect. And it has generated widespread outrage by
- Civil liberties organizations; and
- Those who believe the United States should not have—or enforce—its immigration laws.
“Criminalizing and stigmatizing parents who are only trying to keep their children from harm and give them a safe upbringing will cause untold damage to thousands of traumatized families who have already given up everything to flee terrible circumstances in their home countries,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Americas director.
In fact, alien-smugglers have increasingly used children as a wedge against American immigration laws. Their strategy: “Surely, Americans won’t arrest innocent children—or the adults who bring children with them.“
The Trump administration is proving them wrong.
This is typical behavior for law enforcement agencies: When criminals devise new ways to defeat existing police measures, the police devise new ways to counter those methods.
Meanwhile, those who believe the United States should throw open its doors to everyone who wants to enter are missing—or ignoring—a vital historical lesson.
Ironically, Mexico knows even better than the United States the perils of unchecked illegal immigration.
In 1821, Moses Austin sought a grant from Mexico to settle Texas. After he died in 1821, his son, Stephen, won recognition of the grant by Mexico.
The Mexican government had been unable to persuade large numbers of its own citizens to move to Texas, owing largely to raiding by such fierce Indian tribes as the Comanches.
The government saw the Anglo settlement of Texas as its best hope to tame an otherwise untamable frontier.

Stephen Austin
Austin convinced numerous American settlers to move to Texas, and by 1825 he had brought the first 300 American families into the territory.
Throughout the 1820s, Austin helped ensure the introduction of slavery into Texas, even though, under Mexican law, this was illegal. Tensions developed between unchecked numbers of Anglo settlers flooding into Texas and the Mexican authorities in charge there.
(“GTT”—“Gone to Texas”—was often carved on cabin doors by debt-ridden settlers who decided to seek their fortune in Texas. And some of the most notorious criminals on the frontier—such as land swindler and knife-fighter James Bowie—joined them.)

James Bowie
Eventually, the irresistible force of unlimited Anglo illegal immigration rebelled against the immovable object of Mexican legal/military authority.
The result:
- The battle of the Alamo: From February 23 to March 6, 1836, about 200 rebellious Texans withstood a 13-day siege in a former San Antonio mission, only to be slaughtered to the last man by an army of 2,000 Mexican soldiers commanded by President (actually, dictator) Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Among the victims: James Bowie and former Congressman David Crockett.
- The massacre at Goliad: On March 27, 1836, 425-445 Texans captured after the battle of Coleto were shot en masse by Mexican soldiers.
- The battle of San Jacinto: On April 21, 1836, Texans led by General Sam Houston won a surprise Texas victory over Mexican forces who were caught in a mid-afternoon siesta. Santa Anna—who had fled—was captured the next day.
Mexico was forced to give up all rights to Texas—which, nine years after winning its independence, became a state.
But ongoing conflicts between Mexico and the United States over Texas led to the Mexican war in 1846.
This, in turn, led to a series of devastating American victories over the Mexican army, and the capture of Mexico City itself.

Territory (in brown) that Mexico lost after the Mexican War
Mexico suffered the humiliation of both military defeat and the loss of its land holdings within the American Southwest—which, up to 1848, it had controlled.
This territory later became the states of California, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and western Colorado.
And the United States finally spread “from sea to shining sea.”
So Mexico knows what it’s doing when it unloads millions of its own citizens—and those of other Latin and Central American countries—on the United States.
Mexico, in short, is a textbook case of what happens to a country that is unable to enforce its own immigration laws.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARMED ROBBERY, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLACK LIVES MATTER, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CRIME, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVID CAMPOS, ED LEE, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GANG ACTIVITY, GEORGE GASCON, GREG SUHR, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEROISM, HUFFINGTON POST, MARIO WOODS, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OAKDALE MOB, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR ED LEE, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on May 29, 2018 at 12:03 am
“I am extremely disturbed by the state of the law today, and yet I am duty bound to adhere to the law. Under current law, police officers do not have to retreat, police officers don’t have to use the minimum force necessary.”
So said San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, almost in tears, on May 24, 2018.
The reason: He could not file charges against the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) officers who shot a drugged-up, knife-slashing assailant to death on December 2, 2015.
The dead slasher: Mario Woods, a known gang member, armed robber and car thief.

Mario Woods
At 26, Woods—born on July 22, 1989—had a well-documented history of criminality:
- He was an active member of the notorious Oakdale Mob infesting the predominantly black Bayview-Hunters Point area of San Francisco.
- His gang-related activities included armed robbery; attempted armed robbery; shooting incidents; being a felon in illegal possession of a firearm; car theft; driving a stolen car; and being involved in an automobile injury accident while fleeing from police.
- In 2008, he pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon.
- In 2009, he was one of six gang members added to the provisions of a 2007 gang injunction against the Oakdale Mob.
- Under the terms of this injunction, Oakdale Mob members are forbidden to engage in gang-related conduct within a four-block safety zone.
- Among those prohibited activities: Possessing guns or dangerous weapons; possessing illegal drugs; loitering with intent to sell drugs; intimidating witnesses or victims; using threats to recruit or retain gang members; defacing property with graffiti.
- In 2012, he was sentenced to seven years in state prison for armed robbery. (He had already spent almost three years in County Jail.) He was released in 2014.
On December 2, 2015, San Francisco police officers took a report from a 26-year-old Bayview man who had been slashed in the left shoulder.
He and a female friend had been eating in a car parked in front of an apartment building. They saw a man “walking back and forth on the sidewalk talking” to himself, according to the police report.
The man—wielding a knife—reached into the passenger’s side of the car. The passenger opened the door to push the assailant away.
When he got out of the car, the man slashed him across the left shoulder. Bleeding heavily, the passenger fled to San Francisco General Hospital.
Two officers responded to the crime scene. Police radioed in a description of the attacker, and more officers joined in the search.
Minutes later, officers spotted Mario Woods, who matched the suspect’s description. When he saw the officers get out of their car, he pulled a knife from his jeans pocket and said: “You’re not taking me today.”
The two officers drew their pistols and ordered Woods to drop the knife.
“You better squeeze that motherfucker and kill me,” said Woods.
Still refusing to drop the knife, Woods was hit with three nonlethal beanbag rounds fired from a 12-gauge weapon.

12-gauge Beanbag shotgun rounds
A woman repeatedly yelled to Woods: “Oh, my God, drop it! Drop it!”
A fourth beanbag from a 40mm gun hit Woods. Although he crouched on one knee, he still held the knife. Then he quickly regained his balance and stood up.
A dose of pepper spray had no apparent effect on him.
A crowd gathered—and an officer moved toward them to warn: “Back up!”
Suddenly, Woods moved toward the crowd.
The officer stepped into Woods’ path, to keep him from reaching the bystanders.
As Woods kept advancing, the officer fired his pistol. So did four other officers, riddling Woods with bullets.
The autopsy revealed that Woods had methamphetamine, marijuana, anti-depressants, cough syrup, nicotine and caffeine in his system.
Two of the officers were black—as was Woods. But in Uber-liberal San Francisco, police are widely regarded with suspicion, if not outright hostility. Especially when a black suspect is involved.
Predictably, Black Lives Matter called for a protest and vigil on December 3, 2015.

On January 25, 2016, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee requested a federal investigation into Woods’ death.
And San Francisco Supervisor David Campos introduced a resolution to name July 22—Woods’ birthday—as “Mario Woods Day.”
On January 26, 2016, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed Campos’ resolution.
The effort sparked outrage from the San Francisco Police Officers Association (POA) which represents rank-and-file officers.
In a letter addressed to the Board of Supervisors, POA President Martin Halloran wrote:
“It will be a hurtful day to [the families of SFPD officers killed in the line of duty] if this city’s elected officials decide to recognize and honor an individual that preyed upon our most vulnerable citizens.”
Woods’ mother, Gwen, was elated by the vote: “Sometimes you have to stand up and look life in the eye. Everyone can’t be bullied.”
Except those her son victimized.
Since December 2—the date of Woods’ shooting—blacks had demanded the firing of Greg Suhr, chief of the San Francisco Police Department and a 35-year veteran of the force.
On May 20, 2016, Shur was forced to resign at the request of then-Mayor Ed Lee.
Thus do criminals become heroes and sworn law enforcement officers villains in San Francisco.
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, ANDREW JACKSON, AP, ARTHUR MILLER, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COLLEGE FOOTBALL, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DREW PEARSON, DWIGHT EISENHOWER, EDWARD R. MURROW, FACEBOOK, GEORGE C. MARSHALL, HARRY S. TRUMAN, JERRY SANDUSKY, JOE PATERNO, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, LOUIS FREEH, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NIKE, NPR, ORSON WELLES, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, REX TILLERSON, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UP, UPI, USA TODAY, YEVGENEY YEVTUSHENKO
In Bureaucracy, History, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on May 25, 2018 at 12:07 am
“One man with courage,” said the frontier general (and later President) Andrew Jackson, “makes a majority.”
Yet many “heroes” come out of the woodwork only after danger is safely past.
One such “hero” is Rex Tillerson, the former Secretary of State under President Donald Trump.
On May 16, he addressed graduates of the Virginia Military Institute:
“If we do not as Americans confront the crisis of ethics and integrity in our society among our leaders in both public and private sector, and regrettably at times in the nonprofit sector, then American democracy as we know it is entering its twilight years.”

Rex Tillerson
Tillerson’s remarks have been widely seen as a not-so-veiled criticism of his former boss, President Trump.
Tillerson had served as Secretary of State from January 20, 2017, until Trump abruptly fired him on March 13, 2018. There had been increasing tensions between the two, as Tillerson struggled to run foreign policy without interference by Trump.
It was during a visit to Chad and Nigeria that Tillerson learned of his firing—via a Trump tweet.
Tillerson’s remarks on the importance of truth would carry far greater weight had he shared them publicly while Secretary of State.
On May 9, the Washington Post’s Fact-Checker blog noted: During Trump’s 466 days in office, he had made 3,000 false or misleading statements. That works out to 6.5 falsehoods each day.
“I was never courageous,” the Russian poet, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, wrote in his poem, “Conversation With an American Writer.” “I simply felt it unbecoming to stoop to the cowardice of my colleagues.”
During the 1950s, many Americans found it easy to stoop to the cowardice of their colleagues.
From 1950 to 1954, United States Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) terrorized the nation, accusing anyone who disagreed with him of being a Communist—and leaving countless ruined lives in his wake.

Joseph R. McCarthy
Among those civilians and government officials slandered as Communists were:
- President Harry S. Truman
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Actor Orson Welles
- Playwright Arthur Miller
- Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow
- Columnist Drew Pearson
Finally, in 1954, McCarthy overreached himself and accused the U.S. Army of being a hotbed of Communist traitors. Joseph Welch, counsel for the Army, destroyed McCarthy’s credibility in a now-famous retort:
“Senator, may we not drop this?….You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Later that year, the Senate censured McCarthy, and he rapidly declined in power and health.
- Senatorial colleagues who had once courted his support now avoided him.
- They left the Senate when he rose to speak.
- Reporters who had once fawned on him for his latest sensational slander now ignored him.
- Eisenhower had sought McCarthy’s support during his 1952 race for President. He had even refused to criticize McCarthy for a totally slanderous attack on former Secretary of State George C. Marshall. As Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Marshall had advanced Eisenhower’s military career, even picking him as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during World War II.
- Now Eisenhower joked that “McCarthyism” was “McCarthywasm.”
Nor did mass cowardice end with the McCarthy era.
On July 12, 2012, former FBI Director Louie Freeh released a damning report on serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky.
Freeh had been hired by Penn State University (PSU) to discover the truth about its former superstar faculty member.
As the assistant football coach at PSU from 1969 to 1999, he had used the football facilities to sexually attack numerous young boys.

Jerry Sandusky
But Sandusky was regarded as more than a second-banana. He received Assistant Coach of the Year awards in 1986 and 1999, and authored several books about his coaching experiences.
In 1977, Sandusky founded The Second Mile, a non-profit charity serving underprivileged, at-risk youth.
“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State,” Freeh stated.
College football is a $2.6 billion-a-year business. And Penn State is one of its premiere brands, with revenue of $70 million in 2010.
PSU’s seven-month internal investigation, headed by Freeh, revealed:
- Joe Paterno, head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, was aware of a 1998 criminal investigation of Sandusky.
- So was president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz.
- In 2001, then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary reported to Paterno that he’d seen Sandusky attacking a boy in the shower.
- Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz then conspired to cover up for Sandusky.
- The rapes of these boys occurred in the Lasch Building–where Paterno had his office.
- A janitor who had witnessed a rape in 2000 said he had feared losing his job if he told anyone about it. “It would be like going against the President of the United States,” Freeh said at a press conference.
In 2011, Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period. On June 22, 2012, he was convicted on 45 of the 48 charges. He will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
On the day the Freeh report was released, Nike—a longtime sponsor for Penn State—announced that it would remove Paterno’s name from the child care center at its world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AP, BACKING HITLER: CONSENT AND COERCION IN NAZI GERMANY, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISTS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD J. TRUMP, EAST GERMANY, ECONOMY, EMPLOYMENT, EUROPEAN UNION, FACEBOOK, FBI, GESTAPO, JAMES COMEY, MEDIA, MEXICO, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI ATROCITIES, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PARDON, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT GELLATELY, RUDOLPH GIULIANI, SALON, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TARIFFS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TRADE WAR, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNEMPLOYMENT, UPI, USA TODAY, WEHRMACHT, WEST GERMANY
“THE HAPPY TIME” FOR HITLER’S GERMANY AND TRUMP’S AMERICA
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 12, 2018 at 12:39 amEveryone knows how World War II ended for Nazi Germany: With its Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, dead, and its capital city of Berlin in ruins.
Casualty figures range from 4.3 to 5.3 million dead Germans.
And for 44 years—from May 7, 1945, until November 9, 1989—Berlin was a divided city and Germany a divided nation. The Soviet Union ruled the eastern half. Germans—backed up by American military forces—ruled the western half.
Yet before all this unhappiness descended on the Fatherland, the vast majority of Germans enjoyed what they called “The Happy Time.”
This period began on January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor—and lasted until June 22, 1941.
For most Germans, those years—and especially the year between June, 1940, and June, 1941–were a time of prosperity and joy.
According to Robert Gellately’s 2002 landmark study, Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany, the Nazis operated a highly popular dictatorship. They didn’t try to cow people into submission. Instead, they set out to win converts by building on popular images, cherished ideals and long-held phobias.
And their efforts succeeded. The Gestapo owed its fearsome success to ordinary German citizens who voluntarily reported on “enemies” within their midst. These citizens saw themselves as patriots.
Nor, as has long been believed, were Nazi atrocities carried out in secret. From the media, Germans learned about the Nazis’ brutal campaign against the Jews, the concentration camps, and the Nazis’ radical approaches to “law and order.”
But as far as everyday Germans were concerned:
The height of “The Happy Time” came in June, 1940. In just six weeks, the Wehrmacht accomplished what the German army hadn’t in four years during World War 1: The total defeat of its longtime enemy, France.
Frenzied Germans greet Adolf Hitler
Suddenly, French clothes, perfumes, delicacies, paintings and other “fortunes of war” came pouring into the Fatherland. (Reichsmarshall Herman Goring, head of the Luftwaffe—air force—amassed his own private air collection from French museums.)
Most Germans believed der Krieg—“the war”—was over, and only good times lay ahead.
But Adolf Hitler had other plans.
On June 22, 1941, three million Wehrmacht soldiers slashed their way into the Soviet Union. The Third Reich was now locked in a death-struggle with a nation even more powerful than itself.
German soldiers in the Soviet Union
And then, on December 11, 1941—four days after Germany’s ally, Japan, attacked Pearl Harbor—Hitler declared war on the United States.
“The Happy Time” for Germans was over. Only prolonged disaster lay ahead.
Now, fast forward 77 years to the America of President Donald J. Trump. According to an official White House statement entitled “American Greatness,” issued on June 4:
Donald Trump
“Nearly 3 million jobs have been created since President Trump took office. The unemployment rate has dropped to 3.8, the lowest rate since April 2000, and job openings have reached 6.6 million, the highest level recorded. President Trump has restored confidence in the American economy, with confidence among both consumers and businesses reaching historic highs.”
Much of this jobs growth, however, was already underway during the closing years of the Obama administration. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from taking credit for it.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders doubtless spoke for millions of Trump supporters when she said, on June 4: “Since taking office, the President has strengthened American leadership, security, prosperity, and accountability. And as we saw from Friday’s jobs report, our economy is stronger, Americans are optimistic, and business is booming.
“The American people do not believe this strong economy is fantasy or unrealistic.”
Many Congressional Republicans have echoed this: The American people care only about the economy—and how well-off they are.
Only five days earlier—on May 31—the Trump administration had announced it would put steel and aluminum tariffs on longtime American allies Canada, Mexico and the European Union (EU).
Mexico, Canada and the EU immediately vowed to retaliate. For Americans, this will mean higher prices on such items as beer, baseball bats and cars. The EU has threatened to impose tariffs on motorcycles, bourbon whiskey, Levi’s jeans, peanut butter and cranberries.
A disastrous global trade war could be the ultimate result.
On June 4, Trump claimed, in a tweet: “As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself….”
And, making clear how far above the law he thinks Trump is, his attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, told the Huffington Post on June 3: “In no case can he be subpoenaed or indicted. I don’t know how you can indict while he’s in office. No matter what it is.
“If he shot [former FBI director] James Comey, he’d be impeached the next day. Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him.”
The Germans made a similar devil’s-bargain with Hitler—and paid dearly for it. Americans, by supporting Trump—or at least not opposing him—have made a similar devil’s-bargain.
And such bargains always end with the devil winning.
Share this: