Big Tech At War: Act 1, Scene 1.

This years started with a bang, and so much for all the hopes about 2021 as a better year than 2020.

You already know all about the riots in Washington DC; I bet that most of you are following the political downfall and the legal actions against the perpetrators. It looks like we have the start of the first war campaign made by the big tech companies, using Parler as the intended target.

Now, this is interesting for many different issues. This post of mine is intended to set some points together; I already know that there will be more to come. For a summary of all the related facts, I suggest reading this article (LINK). It’s from CNN, so you can drop all the bias against right-wing sources.

The first thing to be considered is the role of the app stores. Whatever your business is, you have to go through Google Play or Apple Store. The whole concept of gatekeepers was already discussed many times in the last ten years, so I will pass. Bear in mind that any app, no matter how successful, could be dropped (or suspended) from these stores any day.

BRITISH AIRSHIP PILOTS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR (Q 67698) A British airman dropping a bomb. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205314988

The reaction of the Parler users has been defiant. You block the app? No problem, I will go thru a browser. Several tech-savvy posts about how to keep on your phone the Parler app are available, so a simple search will show you what to do. A word of warning, I haven’t tried any of such solutions (I’m not a Parler user), so be considered.

The second act of this little dirty war came later, with the decision from Amazon to zone out the Parler site from their AWS hosting service. For those who still don’t know, Amazon controls a huge share of the hosting market. They give a week’s notice, just the time needed for the news to circulate worldwide. So we have Google, Apple, and Amazon on the same side. Wow, it looks like overkill to me.

If you put yourself on the Parler side, business speaking, this is huge. The big players in the market just kick you out of the field, with many the media scene doing a standing ovation. I’ve lost count of the related posts on social media, not to mention hashtags and such. The message is quite clear: step out of the lines, you will be burned to the ground.

Now, I cannot predict the future. I know for sure many people will move to Parler and leave Twitter and Facebook for good. I also know a bigger number of good guys and gals who are ready to call for judiciary actions against Parler because it is “on the wrong side.” What I see here is another kind of polarization, with more fuel pumped on a fire that shows no signs of calming down.

Finally, we get another landmark. January 2021 will be marked as the start of internet-related corporate wars. Sorry, I’m not happy about that.

White noise – a media story

One of the definitions of “white noise”, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, could be “meaningless or distracting commotion, hubbub, or chatter“. The point of this post is to apply such a definition to mainstream media, using the riots in Washington DC as an example.

The starting point is the basic facts; thousands of people, namely Trump supporters, started a public protest outside the main buildings of Capitol Hill. A few hundred of them entered the premises and clash with the local security, forcing the interruption of political activities and causing some damages. The intervention of the Washington DC Police Department, National Guard, and others prevented further problems and the crowd dispersed. There were five casualties, a number of minor injuries, and a score of arrests.

When facts like that happen, the first duty of the mainstream media is to report what’s going on, giving all the available details to the public, in order to provide their audience the meaning to understand the situation. Later, the same media may perform every kind of analysis and/or commentary. In an ideal world, the mainstream media should be impartial and employ the best experts available in the specific matter. We all know that it just didn’t happen. Not in the US, not elsewhere.

A riot in the US federal capital, right in the very heart of the greatest democracy in the world, should be a very delicate subject, a matter so important to cause great attention and the biggest caution to handle. People in the media industry should be aware of this. Maybe they are. What we get, since the first news flash on the subject, is nothing but a frenzy – a headless run to affirm a political message before everything else. While I can understand the emotional burst, not to mention the outrage, I still think that professionals should be professionals, no matter the circumstances.

The biggest US all-news network, followed by all their Western counterparts, started with a barrage of political considerations while the whole situation was still to be assessed, in the same moments when officers and aides did their best to secure the safety of all personnel inside the Capitol buildings. With all evidence, it was more important to deliver the message well before understanding the facts. As seen from abroad, it was a sad show. At the same time, it was a great display of incompetence.

How an ordinary Joe like me could ever trust such media? What alternatives are available to a common man to understand what’s going on? Please, do not mention social media. And again, do not come to my door with the “X network is better than the Y rivals” idea. The aforementioned “white noise” becomes so dominant to suppress the few that are trying to do their job properly and I’m getting sicker every time I try to make sense of what they’re saying.

What If Trump Goes To War

(Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)

At the end of his first mandate as POTUS [1] Donald Trump is shifting gears in the foreign policy of the USA, playing hardball on four different tables.

The Czar, the Sultan and the Uncle Sam

As predicted, things are getting hairy all over again in Syria, a place where too many conflicts are going on. The casus belli this time is the little town of Manbij, in the northern part of the country. Actually is controlled by Kurds, with logistic support from the US. Russians and Americans found themselves together against the will of the Turkish government to seize the town, a move that greatly enraged the leadership of this regional power. Check here the story, from Stars and Stripes.

The War Is Not Over (2)

There are many conflicts that are out of the media beat, including the ongoing confrontation in Ukraine between national government, Russian-sponsored separatist and Russian armed forces. Said conflict is in progress since 2014, with a significant portion of Ukraine – the Crimea region – de facto annexed by Russia in spite of every international treaty.

Numbers don’t lie – the basics in the Clinton defeat

There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of reasons for losing a political campaign even if every effort has been done and huge sums of money have been invested to achieve the result.

Look at this infographic, it’s quite simple to understand.

The comparison of the last three rounds of presidential elections is crystal clear. The Democrat’s number of voters is falling down like a brick. The enthusiasm of 2008, with the victory of Barack Obama, has been widely lost in 2012 and it’s gone with the wind this year.

Aftermath

Photo by Anthony Quintano

So be it, we have a final result. Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States of America and the GOP get a solid majority in Senate and in the House of Representatives. America turned “red” big time, we can say that next year will start a new era for the American politics.

America 2016, the end of the presidential race

United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This will be the last post about the upcoming presidential election in the USA, I promise! A few days from now, we will finally know who will be the next president and what will happen from January it’s anybody’s guess.

The starting point of this post is about what happens a minute after the definitive results will be known. In a normal democratic competition, the loser will recognize the outcome and proceed to congratulate with his/her competitor. This should happen at any level, from the bottom to the top. About a week ago, we got a presidential candidate that denied such recognization if he doesn’t get elected.

Don’t blame the robot

July 8th, 2016 will be remembered for the so-called first use of a robot to attack (and kill) a gunman in Dallas, TX. I’m reading this all around the internet today, with a number of Skynet-like hypothesis and dramatic questions involving the militarization of the police procedures all around the USA.

Well, I know for sure that fact-checking is not a prominent trait in many news outlets, not to mention the great mass of the social media horde. The point is not to state who came first, or more properly, what killed first. It’s about knowing what’s happening in the world and having the instruments needed to understand it.

The new Captain America – Hail what?

I have to say that I was amazed by the last marketing move from Marvel. With a single comic, the new “Steve Rogers Captain America” by Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz, they got the attention of the whole internet. Try to imagine this. One story, a “new” idea, the equivalent of a multi-million dollar campaign in a matter of a few days. Wow.

I write “new” because it’s not the first time that Captain America gets on the wrong side of the fence. He’s been brainwashed or mind-controlled more than a few times, sometimes with dire results. So why all the rage right now? Could he really be bad to the bone? I mean, we’re talking about an iconic character, that’s right, but it’s the same character that has been killed at least twice.