Meet 'Paul Gosar the Titan slayer' -- Arizona's white nationalist icon and 'an awful human being'

James E. Garcia, Arizona Mirror
November 11, 2021

PAUL GOZAR ONE SICK FUCK 

Congressman Ruben Gallego got it right when he recently described his House colleague, Paul Gosar, as “Just an awful human being."

Gallego was commenting on the news that Gosar had posted an altered anime video of himself on Twitter, which he's since removed, that depicted him executing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, by slashing the back of her neck with a sword and nearly decapitating her, and then attacking President Joe Biden — the animated version of “Gosar" freezing a split second before his blades make contact with the president's head.

Gosar, a Prescott Republican and white nationalist icon, later said it all a big joke.

It was. A very sick and repugnant joke.

White supremacy is for extremely fragile people (and) sad men like him, whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior, because deep down he knows he couldn't open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself.

– Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY

And while his “joke" may not mean that Gosar actually wants to kill Ocasio-Cortez, it's the latest illustration of just how far Gosar and a growing contingent of the Republican Party are willing to go when it comes to trivializing and often outright encouraging violence against anyone who disagrees with them.

Gosar has also described the throngs who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to block the certification of Biden's 2020 election as “peaceful patriots." Really? Those peaceful patriots left more than 140 Capitol and D.C. police officers injured, and one officer dead. Others also died as a result of the attack.

But in case you're wondering, Gosar's mock-murder of Ocasio-Cortez isn't really about politics, in the same way that rape isn't really about sex.

This isn't Gosar's way of saying he disagrees ideologically with the congresswoman's progressive stances on issues like climate change, universal pre-K or paid family medical leave.

Gosar's assault on Ocasio-Cortez is about race and gender — and especially race.

Ocasio-Cortez is everything Gosar and his ilk detest and fear: an intelligent Brown woman with power.

Gosar wouldn't dare circulate an anime video of him pretending to behead Rep. Lynn Cheney, and not because she's a fellow Republican — though she's recently turned her back on many of her Republican colleagues — but because she's a white woman, and even the most racist members of today's Trumpian GOP wouldn't stand for it.

“After all, Paul," I can just imagine some of them saying, “you wouldn't want to encourage anyone to do anything crazy now would you? You know, like chop Lynn's head off!!!"

Nevermind that that's precisely what Gosar's cartoon caricature of himself does to Ocasio-Cortez.

The video also goes out of its way to tie Ocasio-Cortez, who was born in Bronx, to the theme of illegal immigration.

The video repeatedly cuts to grainy clips showing immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, as Border Patrol agents, including some galloping on horseback, valiantly “defend" America.

And just so you know how dangerous these immigrants are, the video screen is splattered with anime blood stains, though I'm not sure if the implication is that the immigrants have sparked a murderous bloodbath or if “Gosar the Titan slayer" is slashing them as they cross.

Either way, the message is clear: Menacing Brown immigrants are invading the U.S. and our evil villain, Ocasio-Cortez, is leading the charge. But never fear, hard-right, neo-fascist white America, Gosar is here!

For her part, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted soon after landing in Scotland to attend an ongoing global climate conference about the “creepy" colleague “who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups" that shared his fantasy of killing her: “This dude is just a collection of wet toothpicks anyway. White supremacy is for extremely fragile people (and) sad men like him, whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior, because deep down he knows he couldn't open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself."

Ocasio-Cortez predicted that Gosar, given the Republican Party's recent track record, is unlikely to face any serious consequences for what's become his pattern of reprehensible behavior.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for a Congressional ethics inquiry and criminal investigation into Gosar's depiction of violence against Ocasio-Cortez and Biden.

Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu added this: “In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired."

Even the congressman's sister, Jennifer Gosar, has labeled him a “sociopath" and demanded that he be held accountable.

But Gosar won't be held accountable. He won't be fired by the Republican Party. He won't be castigated by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. And he won't be voted out by a majority of voters in his shamefully gerrymandered Arizona district.

Why? Because Gosar is a white supremacist, male member of a political party that's now dominated by white supremacists and whose core agenda has almost nothing to do anymore with so-called traditional Republican values.

The party's singular agenda today is the preservation, at all costs, of this country's historically white, male-dominated power base, and Gosar has become a sociopathic foot-soldier for cause.


Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.

ROFLMAO

Fugitive MAGA JAN 6 rioter pleads for asylum on Belarus State TV: 'I’m not strong enough to withstand torture'

John Wright
November 11, 2021


MAGA rioter Evan Neumann has become "a convenient pawn" for Russian President Vladimir Putin since fleeing from California to Belarus to avoid prosecution for repeatedly assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Neumann appeared on state television in Belarus on Thursday, during a special called "Goodbye, America," where he bemoaned "political repressions" in the U.S. and "claimed that the criminal charges against him are totally unfounded," the Daily Beast reports.

"He accused the federal government of staging an elaborate set-up on Jan. 6 and claimed that the doors of the Capitol 'were opened from the inside and we were invited to come in,'" the site reports, adding that Neumann is seeking political asylum in Belarus because he says the U.S. is no longer a country of law and order.

Neumann claimed in the interview that he would "face certain torture" if he returns to the U.S. "I'm not strong enough to withstand torture," he said.

"Ironically, Neumann's flagrant resistance to lawful authority led him to seek asylum in authoritarian Belarus—often described as 'Europe's last dictatorship,'" the Daily Beast notes, adding that for Belarusian and Russian state TV, Neumann has become "a convenient pawn for besmirching the U.S. government."

"Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, repeatedly used the Capitol insurrection to take jabs at the U.S.'s election integrity and to claim that the rioters are facing 'political repressions,' in an attempt to deflect from domestic issues plaguing Russia and Belarus under their authoritarian leadership," the site reports. "Russian state TV is already using Neumann's saga as a basis to claim that the Kremlin is more lenient towards the protesters than the U.S. government."

Neumann was charged in July on six counts, including assaulting officers and violent entry, after he was identified in video recorded during the riot, but he had already sold his Mill Valley home for $1.3 million and fled to Ukraine before going to Belarus.

Italy grants citizenship to top Afghan woman prosecutor

11 November, 2021

Italy granted citizenship to Afghanistan's first woman chief prosecutor who fled her country when the Taliban took over

Italy was one of five countries most involved with NATO's US-led mission in Afghanistan [Getty]

Italy has granted citizenship to Afghanistan's first woman chief prosecutor after she fled the Taliban takeover of her war-torn country, a minister said on Thursday.

Maria Bashir, 51, was evacuated in September after the United States withdrew its last troops on August 30.

As chief prosecutor in the western province of Herat since 2009, she had battled corruption, violence against women and child marriage.

The US State Department recognised her with an award in 2011 for showing courage in the face of Taliban threats, and Time magazine listed her among its 100 most influential people the same year.

Justice Minister Marta Cartabia said Italy, through giving her Italian nationality, wanted to show its "support to all the other Afghan women, who continue to fight for their freedom and rights at a high price".

Cartabia had welcomed Bashir when she landed in Italy on September 9.

As it approved the decision late on Wednesday, Italy's cabinet said Bashir had "worked closely with the Italian authorities while they were in (Afghanistan), contributing to reinforcing institutions and, more generally, the rule of law".

In comments relayed by the ANSA news agency, Bashir said she was "honoured" and hoped to be able to continue working for Afghan women, "with the help of our Italian friends".

Bashir lived under Taliban rule in the 90s, which she described in 2010 to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime as "a particularly grim time for women".

"Everybody was scared to go to work and I, too, had to stay at home. So, I started a secret school at home, for the neighbourhood girls," she told the UN body.

Italy was one of five countries most involved with NATO's US-led mission in Afghanistan along with Germany, Britain and Turkey.

In early September, Rome said it had evacuated almost 5,000 Afghans following the Taliban takeover.

UK caves, allows Assange to get married in jail

12 Nov, 2021 00:29
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FILE PHOTO: Julian Assange and partner Stella Moris 

are seen in an undated photo shared by Moris on social media November 11, 2021. 

© Twitter / @StellaMoris1 / screenshot

Imprisoned WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange will tie the knot with the mother of his children at a maximum security UK prison, after Stella Moris sued the “creepy” British government for denying them the right to marry.

“Julian and I now have permission to marry in Belmarsh prison,” Moris tweeted on Thursday evening, explaining that the UK government “backed down” 24 hours before the legal deadline.

“I am relieved but still angry that legal action was necessary to put a stop to the illegal interference with our basic right to marry,” she added.

Moris, who has two sons with Assange, filed a lawsuit against Justice Secretary Dominic Raab and Belmarsh Governor Jenny Louis on Friday, arguing that “creepy elements of the UK government” engaged in “unfair, irrational and sinister” behavior to illegitimately interfere in their plans.

READ MORE: Assange & fiancée sue ‘creepy elements of UK government,’ and here’s why

Assange and Moris have been engaged for five years, and have been asking officials at the maximum-security prison for permission to arrange a wedding since May. When they finally received a reply, they were told the matter was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

As the CPS represents the US government in the extradition proceedings against the Australian-born publisher, putting them in charge of the marriage basically gives Washington veto powers, which is “completely outrageous,” Moris told Democracy Now.

Speaking with the Independent, Moris said the interference with the marriage request was a bid to “break [Assange] psychologically” and that there were no legitimate reasons for it.

“It’s a really basic, essential thing, a human thing, and it’s not for the intelligence services, our politicians or anyone else,” she said

Night sky glows in North Carolina as ‘incredibly bright’ meteor ignites at 33,000 mph

Mark Price
Thu, November 11, 2021

An “incredibly bright” meteor traveling at 33,000 mph lit up the night sky over eastern North Carolina, before burning up over Edgecombe County, scientists say.

More than 200 eyewitness accounts came from at least 11 East Coast states and Washington, D.C., late Wednesday, Nov. 10, according to the American Meteor Society.
Photos and videos posted on social media show the fireball briefly turned night into dusk as it neared the ground.

“At its brightest, the fireball rivaled the Full Moon, suggesting it was caused by an object roughly 45 pounds (20 kg) in weight and 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter. The low speed could imply an asteroidal origin,” the society said in a release. “It survived only 3.5 seconds before disintegrating 28 miles (45 km) above Macclesfield (in the Rocky Mount metro area.)“

The society added: “The brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event.”

Witnesses began seeing the meteor around 9:12 p.m., including some who admitted being frightened by the flash.

It appeared just minutes after a Falcon 9 rocket launch, leading some to confuse the meteor for a rocket on social media. However, the society said, “nearly all of the witnesses were outside the view (of) the launch.”

Meteors are expected this time of year — September through November — as “the Earth passes through a broad stream of debris left by Comet Encke,” NASA says.

“The dust associated with the comet hits the Earth’s atmosphere at 65,000 mph and burns up, creating the Taurid meteor shower,” NASA reports.

“Most years the shower is weak, and only a few Taurid meteors can be seen each night,” NASA said. “Other years, the Taurids can put on a show.”

The story of the Edmund Fitzgerald endures

Tom Emery
Wed, November 10, 2021

The Edmund Fitzgerald sunk in Lake Superior on today's date in 1975 taking 29 men with her.

It was far from the deadliest shipwreck in the history of the Great Lakes. But none are more enduring.

November 10 marks the anniversary of the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 729-foot ore carrier in Lake Superior that was lost amid one of the worst storms in Great Lakes history on Nov. 10, 1975. All 29 men on board the Fitzgerald were lost and researchers still debate the cause of the wreck, which remains in the public consciousness.

“I think that’s one of the reasons that the Fitzgerald stays with people,” said Bruce Lynn, executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. “No one really understands why it sank, and it’s still a mystery. It’s sort of the age old, man-versus-elements aspect.”

The Fitzgerald, which was based in Milwaukee, was the flagship of the Columbia Transportation division of Cleveland mineral concern Oglebay Norton. It was launched on June 7, 1958 and quickly became one of the most revered ships on the lakes. Though it was no longer the longest ship on the inland seas by 1975, it was still considered the “Queen of the Lakes” both on and offshore.

The ship regularly made ore runs between upper Lake Superior and ports southward, and on the morning of Sunday, Nov. 9, 1975, loaded at Superior, Wisc. for another routine voyage. In the past week alone, the Fitzgerald had sailed from Toledo to Silver Bay, Minn., loaded for a run to Ashtabula, Ohio, and sailed back to Superior to load again for a scheduled run to the Detroit area.

The Fitzgerald finished loading 26,000 tons of taconite pellets, which held substantial qualities of iron, and left Superior just after 2 p.m. in mild conditions. By evening, though the weather started to deteriorate, and by Monday afternoon and evening, recorded gusts of 90 miles per hour were coupled with blinding snow squalls and 30-foot seas.

"It’s hard to compare the bad storms throughout the years, and shipping has changed over time, with better weather reporting and safety procedures,” remarked Lynn. “But there’s no doubt that the 1975 storm was clearly one of the worst.”

One of the few options was to reach safety in Whitefish Bay in northern Michigan. Trailing behind the Fitzgerald was another giant ore carrier, the Arthur M. Anderson, which kept in radio contact with the Fitzgerald during the storm.

Seeking some protection, the Fitzgerald hugged the northern shoreline of Lake Superior, but around 3 p.m., the ship is believed to have sailed over Six Fathom Shoal, a treacherous reef that was not properly documented on industry maps. Shortly after, Fitzgerald captain Ernest McSorley radioed the Anderson that he had “a bad list” to starboard and indicated his pumps were not keeping up.

Many, including Anderson captain Bernie Cooper, believe the Fitzgerald suffered damage in the incident that may have proven fatal. Around 4 p.m., the storm disabled both of the Fitzgerald’s radars, and to make matters worse, the weather also knocked out the light beacon at Whitefish Point, at the top of the bay.

Around 7:10 p.m., with the Fitzgerald nine miles from Whitefish Bay and traveling at reduced speed because of the horrific conditions, the Anderson made its last radio contact. McSorley’s last words were “we are holding our own.”

Shortly before that, Cooper reported two massive waves as high as 35 feet that rocked his ship. Cooper and others since have wondered if the enormous waves caused the Fitzgerald, riding low from its earlier damage, to be lifted from the rear and driven downward into the frigid, swirling water.

No distress calls from the Fitzgerald were made, and only fragments of debris, including remnants of two lifeboats and several unused life preservers, were found in a three-day search. The ship was later discovered laying in two sections at the bottom, with debris and its load of pellets spilled in between.

In a highly controversial finding, a Coast Guard Marine Board of Inquiry determined in 1977 that hatch covers on deck had not been properly tightened, causing water to infiltrate the ship. The finding has been bitterly denounced by many mariners and researchers.

"The truth is, we really don’t know why the Fitzgerald went down,” commented Lynn. “There are a number of theories, and it’s a tough call. It’s still being debated today.”

In 1976, Canadian folk-pop singer Gordon Lightfoot wrote The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which further captured the imagination of the North American public and helped ensure the ship’s place in lore. The haunting melody and lyrics launched the song to #2 on the Billboard charts and remains a favorite on classic radio today.

The Fitzgerald is the last major shipwreck on the Great Lakes, where Lynn and others estimate that over 6,000 ships have been lost. However, small planes and watercraft are routinely reported missing on the five lakes.

Lynn says the Fitzgerald is “by far, the most famous shipwreck on the lakes. It’s the one that most visitors to our museum talk about, and our exhibit on the Fitzgerald draws the most attention. The Lightfoot song, the mystery that surrounds the ship, it’s a combination of factors. It’s a really good story, and one that still resonates.”

Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Illinois. He may be reached at ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: The story of the Edmund Fitzgerald endures

Edmund Fitzgerald and Crew - Rare Footage

 

The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in vehicle simulator

Archaeologists find pre-Columbian mass grave in Peru

 

Archaeologists find pre-Columbian mass grave in PeruChan Chan was a citadel of the Chimu culture, which flourished between the years 900 and 1450 on the north coast of Peru before falling to the Incas (AFP/Handout)

The mass grave contained the remains of about 25 people, mainly women and children (AFP/Handout)


Thu, November 11, 2021

Archaeologists have found an ancient mass grave containing the remains of pre-Columbian men, women and children in the citadel of Chan Chan in northern Peru, a member of the team said Thursday.

They found the remains of some 25 people, mainly women and children, as well as dozens of ceramic vessels and objects such as needles used in textile work, archaeologist Jorge Meneses told AFP.

The tomb was discovered about three weeks ago at Chan Chan, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the capital Lima.

The human remains are all but intact, said Meneses.

Chan Chan was a citadel of the Chimu culture, which flourished between the years 900 and 1450 on the north coast of Peru before falling to the Incas.

Chan Chan means "resplendent Sun" in the Chimu language.

The citadel was constructed in an area of some 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles), had ten walled palaces and some 30,000 citizens at its height.

It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, but also on its list of World Heritage in Danger.

Pre-Columbian remains and artefacts are frequently discovered in Peru.

Last month, workers laying gas pipes on a street in Lima stumbled on the remains of a gravesite that included 2,000-year-old ceramic burial vessels.

cm/fj/mlr/dw

Mexico loses bid to stop auction of pre-Hispanic artifacts

Wed, November 10, 2021

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Christie’s auction of pre-Hispanic artifacts went ahead Wednesday despite the Mexican government’s appeals to stop it, the latest round in Mexico’s losing battle to stop such sales.

Christie’s Paris branch auctioned off 72 sculptures and figurines from the Maya and Olmec cultures despite Mexico’s claim that the pieces were national treasures and part of its national heritage. Fifteen other items failed to sell.

One stone Maya carving, traditionally known as an “Axe” because of its shape, went for almost $800,000 (692,000 euros). The Christie's catalogue described the piece as a “sculpturally-carved with a bearded dignitary with his head dramatically thrown back and struggling with a sinuous, mythical rattle snake.”

The Mexican government said a dozen of the artifacts put up for sale were fake, but most of those sold anyway.

Mexican officials had demanded Christie's stop the sale, which included other artifacts from the Taino and other cultures, and launched a social media campaign under the slogan “#my heritage is not for sale.”

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said that the majority of items in the auction reached the market by illegal acts and that “this type of actions represent an attack against culture, not only that of the peoples to who it belong, but against the understanding of the history of humanity and its cultures.”

Leonardo López Luján, who has overseen the excavations in Mexico City's Templo Mayor, wrote on his Twitter account that “this is a never-ending story.”

“It's proven that the old, recurring method of sending letters and demands does not have any effect, other than pretending that something is being done,” López Lujan wrote. “Complex problems are solved with complex strategies.”

Mexico has failed to stop several auctions, including a sale of pre-Hispanic sculptures and other artifacts by Christie’s Paris earlier this year.

The Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History protested the Christie’s Paris sale in February. The collection included a 1,500-year-old stone mask from the ancient city of Teotihuacan and an ancient statue of the fertility goddess Cihuateotl, apparently from the Totonac culture. The auction brought in more than $3 million.

Paris auction houses often sell Indigenous artifacts that are already on the art market, despite protests from activists who say they should be returned to their native lands. Christie's said the Mayan sculpture, for example, had been bought by a European collector from on in the United State around 1970.

That appears to pre-date a 1972 Mexican law that forbids export or sale of archeological or significant cultural artifacts.

 A large manufacturing company that employs over 600 people is closing its Dayton-area plant.

By John Bush
Senior Reporter, Dayton Business Journal

Nov 11, 2021

Tenneco announced Thursday it intends to shutter its shock absorber manufacturing facility in Kettering. The nearly one million-square-foot plant, which currently employs 648 people, is expected to completely close before the end of 2023.

“This difficult decision is part of the company’s need to realign its manufacturing footprint to respond to changing market conditions and capacity requirements,” Tenneco stated in an email to the Dayton Business Journal. “The North America conventional shock market has significant over-capacity. Adjusting the size of its operations to match the current market demand, as well as what is anticipated in the future, is necessary to strengthen Tenneco’s long-term sustainability in the North America shock market.”

The company added it has “a great team in Kettering,” and that it recognizes the impact this action will have on its employees, who are represented by a union.

“We will work to provide transition assistance for all affected team members, including some opportunities to transfer to other Tenneco locations,” Tenneco stated. “The company and union will be meeting in the coming weeks to bargain on these topics.”

Kettering City Manager Mark Schwieterman said Tenneco called Thursday morning to notify them of the closure. When asked if the city is attempting to negotiate with Tenneco to avoid the closure, Schwieterman said they did not have much discussion about what could be done to keep them in Kettering.

“The information given to us is really about a capacity situation,” Schwieterman said. “They have excess capacity for manufacturing, and the capacity for the market they serve is over capacity, so they can meet their demands without the Kettering plant.”

Schwieterman said Tenneco plans to continue operating at the Kettering facility until it closes at the end of 2023.

The closure deals a big blow to the city of Kettering, as Tenneco was one of its 20 largest employers. Schwieterman acknowledged the city’s tax base will take a hit, but he said they are mainly thinking of the workers who will be affected by the company’s decision to close.

“The city of Kettering, Montgomery County and the state of Ohio will all work together to do what we can to assist people that are impacted by this decision,” he said. “Our concerns go out to the families that work there.”

Schwieterman said the closure of the Tenneco plant could present an opportunity to bring in another large end user to the 940,000-square-foot facility, which would hopefully fill some or all of the jobs that were lost.

“We’re a resilient community, and we’ll work with Tenneco and the landlord to make the best out of this situation and prepare ourselves for redevelopment of that site once Tenneco leaves,” he said. “This will give us an opportunity, once again, to prove we can attract jobs to the region.”

Kettering Mayor Donald Patterson said the city “always had a good relationship with Tenneco,” so they were “shocked and sad” to learn of their plan to leave the city.

“Our hearts go out to the employees who will be impacted over the next 24 months, and we are working to prioritize and put plans in place to make sure those people are provided the assistance they need to find new jobs,” Patterson said. “We have solid relationships with state and county agencies that will assist the employees, and we have talented people working to bring new businesses and jobs to Kettering. We have proven time and again that relationships lead to resiliency. This occasion is no different. We will do our utmost for the impacted employees and to welcome new opportunities for the continued health of our city.”

Julie Sullivan, executive vice president of regional development for the Dayton Development Coalition, said “our hearts go out to the employees and their families affected by today’s announcement.”

“While today’s news is difficult, I am confident these individuals will find new opportunities in our region,” Sullivan said. “They have highly valuable skills, and we and our workforce development partners will help them connect to new employers. We will work closely with our partners in Kettering and the building ownership to market the facility to new users. This is an excellent heavy industrial facility and we don’t have enough of this type of site in our region or across the state.”

Tenneco came to Kettering in 2008 when it purchased the former Delphi Corp. plant. It initially employed 400 people, but over the years the company made significant investments in the plant that led to additional jobs, capacity and equipment. In 2018, Tenneco announced a $61 million investment and 300 new jobs in Kettering as part of its plan to make the site a “center of excellence” for shock absorbers and other component parts.

Since arriving in Kettering, Tenneco has consistently been listed among the region’s top employers and manufacturers, according to DBJ research.

Lake Forest, Illinois-based Tenneco designs, manufactures and markets automotive products for original equipment and aftermarket customers. In 2020, its revenue was $15.4 billion and it employed 73,000 people, though that number will decrease with the closure of the Kettering plant. Despite the closure, Tenneco still has around 270 sites worldwide.

Facebook's latest crisis is the product of an employee revolt about how Mark Zuckerberg and the social network manage its real-world harm

Katie Canales

Thu, November 11, 2021, 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in New York City on Friday, Oct. 25, 2019. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

• Facebook is in the midst of a PR firestorm after leaked materials shed light on internal research into the harms it can cause.

• Part of that scrutiny has notably come from company insiders, including whistleblower Frances Haugen.

• Their stories signal that there are many more employees conflicted about working at the firm.

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is currently swept up in another storm of scrutiny - and a notable portion of it is coming from inside the company itself.

Employees-turned whistleblower Frances Haugen and Sophie Zhang have detailed harrowing accounts before Congress about their time at the company, and other insiders are cited as sources in books detailing turmoil and alleged misconduct.

Then there's the massive trove of documents shared by Haugen appearing to show multiple instances of employees growing angry with how the platforms handle misinformation, divisiveness, and other potential sources of real-world harm. Yet they say their concerns were dismissed in the name of profits and growth.

Together, stories like Haugen's and Zhang's raise the question: How many more are there like them inside Zuckerberg's company?

Haugen seems to believe she's not alone. She's stressed the importance of keeping the company's moves transparent and encouraged more of the company's 58,000 employees to keep watch.

"If people just hate Facebook more because of what I've done, then I've failed," she told the Wall Street Journal in October. "I believe in truth and reconciliation - we need to admit reality. The first step of that is documentation."

'We started to feel like we were part of a cover-up'

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. Matt McClain-Pool/Getty Images

In Zhang's case, the former data scientist said she asked the company's VP of Integrity for more safety guardrails in foreign markets to prevent political manipulation. She said she was told there are limited resources and that she was later fired in 2020 for "poor performance."

And there's more evidence of employee discontent building on that, thanks to the leaked documents.

In one instance, multiple employees posted on internal message boards taking issue with Facebook quietly allowing 5.8 million noteworthy figures, like politicians and celebrities, to evade certain rules on its platform.

"This kind of special treatment has always made me uncomfortable," one employee posted, according to the leaked documents.

Other employees worried that an algorithm tweak, made in 2018 to boost slumped engagement, would elevate political divisiveness and outrageous posts. Zuckerberg vetoed implementing solutions broadly across the platform because it could have caused people to spend less time on it.

"This is an increasing liability," one data scientist wrote.

Company representatives have repeatedly said the documents do not paint an entire picture of the company's business development investments, internal research, and efforts to mitigate harm.

But the evidence doesn't end with the trove of documents.

Take "The Ugly Truth," a new book from New York Times journalists Cecilia Kang and Sheera Frankel. The authors said they spoke to 400 sources, including executives, investors, and current and former employees, as well as their friends and families.

In the book, the authors thanked the many sources for speaking to them, pointing out that many of them are still at the company and "trying to change things from within."

Some of those sources said executives instructed employees to remove all mention of Russian hacks surrounding the 2016 presidential election from a 2017 white paper about security concerns. One employee said they "started to feel like we were part of a cover-up," according to the book.

It's Zuck's world. We're just living in it.

Responsibility for most decisions by the company lands squarely on one person: Zuckerberg.

Virtually no investor proposals or board motions are green-lit without his approval.

The leaked documents never directly implicate Zuckerberg as the reason many safety proposals or solutions never reached the finish line, but it hasn't stopped Haugen from insinuating as much.

"There is no one currently holding Mark accountable but himself," she told Congress. "The bucks stop with Mark."

Risky business: Climate change turns up the heat on insurers, policyholders

Noor Zainab Hussain and Carolyn Cohn
Thu, November 11, 2021,


Risky business: Climate change turns up the heat on insurers, policyholders

FILE PHOTO: Firefighters battle to save homes at the Camp Fire in Paradise

(Reuters) - Tony and Jhan Dunn never thought they would leave California, where they grew up, built a life together and planned to retire.

But after a wildfire swept through their Northern California town of Paradise three years ago, burning their home to the ground, they could not get insurance to buy another.

"We basically got priced out of California," Dunn, a retired planning specialist, told Reuters from the couple's new home in North Carolina.

There are thousands of homeowners and businesses from California to Australia in a similar position because the insurance industry, known for its readiness to cover anything from Bruce Springsteen's vocal chords to alien abductions, has trouble factoring in climate change.

The tried and tested approach, where decades' worth of historical data serve to estimate future claims, falls short when weather patterns change and hurricanes, floods, heat waves or snowstorms become more extreme and unpredictable, industry experts say. And the British hosts of the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow acknowledged on Wednesday that current pledges to cut greenhouse gases were not enough to avert climate catastrophe.

Insurance broker Aon said in a report last week that "highly anomalous" floods in Germany and China this year caused record insured losses in those regions.

"Insurers are pulling out because nobody wants to be in the business of losing money," says Attila Toth, chief executive at specialist risk analytics firm Zesty.ai. "And if they don't trust their traditional models, then they are concerned that they will be losing money."


Zesty.ai, whose customers include Farmers Insurance, reinsurer Berkshire Hathaway and Aon, uses artificial intelligence trained on more than 1,400 wildfire events to produce climate change risk scores for any individual property.

In the same vein, reinsurance broker Willis Re is using data from AI firm Cloud to Street to help clients price flood reinsurance.

Insurance statistics show an urgent need for such innovation.

For example, the average number of large U.S. wildfires has risen by 30% over the past 15 years and by nearly a fifth in just the last five, according to Lloyd's of London insurer Chaucer.

In all, insured losses for so-called "secondary" perils such as floods and wildfires - rather than more closely modelled perils such as hurricanes - nearly doubled over the past decade, data compiled by Swiss Re shows.

The reinsurer expects no let-up, forecasting a 30-63% rise in insured losses for all types of natural catastrophes in advanced markets by 2040. China, Britain, France and Germany, could even see those soaring between 90% and 120%.

Given the momentum, it is no surprise that traditional models cannot keep up, Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chairman of insurance market Lloyd's of London told Reuters.

"If you’ve reached an exponential part of the curve where suddenly, something’s accelerating, it’s almost certain that we are underpricing the risk that we’re taking."

FEELING THE HEAT

Policyholders are already feeling the heat, with coverage getting costlier or harder to come by.

Broker Marsh estimates U.S. property insurance rates have risen by 10% in the third quarter.

In California, non-renewals of homeowners' insurance policies rose 31% from a year earlier in 2019 to more than 235,000, the state's Insurance Department's most recent data showed. The data for 2020 could be similar, according to Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog LA.

Across the northern border, the Insurance Bureau of Canada warned on its website homeowners might not be able to buy a new insurance policy if they have suffered a fire.

Among those pulling back from home insurance in California are some household names such as Liberty Mutual, Nationwide and State Farm. Liberty Mutual said it was a "difficult but necessary step to reduce overall exposure to wildfires," a sentiment echoed by other insurers.

Some insurers aim to reduce their exposure by helping clients become more resilient. Commercial insurer AXA, for example, offers a consulting service for clients such as manufacturers, identifying their vulnerabilities and suggesting remedies, such as erecting flood barriers, its chief risk officer Renaud Guidee told Reuters.

"This is really an alignment of interest."

U.S. insurer Chubb is also working with clients to help them make their infrastructure sturdier, said Paul J Krump, Vice Chairman, Chubb Group, Global Underwriting and Claims.

Reinsurers, with their global scope and long history of underwriting catastrophe risks, also have a role to play in helping the industry adapt to climate change, analysts say.


Ernst Rauch, chief climate and geo scientist at Munich Re, said the group had the expertise and willingness to take on climate risk.

The 141-year-old company set up a team to work on natural catastrophes and climate change in the 1970s after noticing loss patterns starting to change for weather related events, Rauch said.

"We observed a continuation of years with losses significantly higher compared to the last 35 years or so. And that's reflected in our models," he said.

Yet there was a gap between what the reinsurer considered a fair premium and what insurers were prepared to pay.

"We can only transfer this risk on our balance sheet if we get the premium which we need to cover these risks, based on our own assessment," Rauch said.

Ratings agency S&P Global warned even reinsurers could be underestimating their exposure to climate risk by as much as 50%, describing their efforts to account for climate change as "nascent" in a recent report.

Industry experts also say disasters such as hurricanes in Florida with a long history of causing severe damage, are more closely modelled than floods or wildfires, which have only in recent years begun to cause major losses.

That calls for reinsurers and independent risk modelling firms such as RMS and KCC to try new ways of approaching natural catastrophes.

One such approach is scenario modelling, where insurers are provided with a number of possible climate impacts on their portfolios over years, to take account of "the whole range of uncertainty," said Laurent Marescot, senior director, EMEA and CIS, at RMS, which sells its risk models to insurers.

Another involves machine learning, which can be used to take existing models of floods in a particular region, for example, and map them to other parts of the world, Marescot said.

But any developments in making insurance more available and affordable will come too late for the Dunns.

"It was sad because we both spent our whole lives in California, we both grew up in San Diego," Tony Dunn said. "I never had any intentions ever of leaving California."


(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Carolyn Cohn in London; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Elaine Hardcastle)

John Kerry predicts U.S. 'won't have coal' by 2030, but new report raises doubts

David Knowles

·Senior Editor

Thu, November 11, 2021

GLASGOW, Scotland — Climate envoy John Kerry told the U.N. Climate Change Conference Tuesday that the United States would likely phase out coal power within the next nine years, but quitting coal may be tougher than he assumes. 

“By 2030 in the United States, we won’t have any coal,” Kerry said during a press conference. “We will not have coal plants.”

A report released Thursday by Ember, an independent energy think tank, shows the U.S. is still among the world's top coal users. 

The U.S. currently ranks fourth in terms of per capita coal use among the world's nations, according to the report, behind only Australia, South Korea and South Africa. The average U.S. citizen emits nearly three times the amount of carbon dioxide from coal as the world average. China is by far the biggest producer of coal, but with a population of over 1.4 billion people, it ranks fifth in per capita use.  

For the past two weeks, coal has been depicted in Glasgow as public enemy No. 1 in the effort to reduce greenhouse gases in an effort to keep temperatures from rising above 1.5°C over preindustrial levels. 

“Phasing out coal from the electricity sector is the single most important step to get in line with 1.5C goal,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has said of coal, which is the dirtiest fossil fuel in terms of carbon emissions. 

During the first week of the conference, more than 40 countries signed on to an initiative led by the United Kingdom to phase out coal as an energy source over the next two decades. The U.S., where coal accounts for 19 percent of electricity generation, was not among them. Still, officials hailed the pledge, which was the first of its kind. 

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry. (Jeff J. Mitchell/Pool via Reuters)

“The end of coal is in sight,” Kwasi Kwarteng, the U.K. business and energy secretary, said in response to the pledge. “The world is moving in the right direction, standing ready to seal coal’s fate and embrace the environmental and economic benefits of building a future that is powered by clean energy.”

The U.S. did, however, join 19 nations in committing to stop financing coal-fired plants abroad by 2022. 

Kerry’s remarks on the end of coal power in the U.S. may have a familiar political resonance in states that are still reliant on the fossil fuel. In the 2016 presidential campaign, then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton famously cheered the demise of coal.

“We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” she said at a rally. 

Her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, pounced on the comment and made his support of coal power a central plank of his campaign, rushing out T-shirts, signs and baseball caps that read “Trump digs coal.”

U.S. consumption of coal continued to plummet throughout Trump’s term, however, falling to a 60-year low in 2020. But thanks to soaring gas prices, coal use is expected jump by 20 percent over the next year in the U.S., bringing with it a rise in carbon emissions. Although that may end up saving consumers money in the short term, climate hawks and officials at COP26 aren’t celebrating. 

Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon responded in a statement to the Ember report on per capita coal use by calling out nations that continue to lag on transitioning away from it. 

“If the world does not take the necessary steps to cut emissions and fund climate adaptation, the future will be bleak. There can be no place for coal when the potential of renewable energy is growing exponentially,” he said. “OECD countries including the U.S., Germany, South Korea and Japan need to align with the 2030 target to phase out coal entirely. This will be a true demonstration of global leadership.”

U.S. Senate Democrat Manchin opposes $4,500 EV union tax credit

Thu, November 11, 2021,

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said on Thursday he opposes a proposal in President Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion social spending and climate legislation that would give union-made U.S. electric vehicles a $4,500 tax incentive.

Manchin's comments came at an event where Toyota Motor Corp said it would invest $240 million in its West Virginia engine and transmission plant to build hybrid transaxles. Manchin represents the state.

His opposition was first reported by Automotive News, which quoted him as saying that the union-made vehicle incentive was "wrong" and "not American." He told the publication: "We shouldn’t use everyone’s tax dollars to pick winners and losers."

Toyota has been heavily lobbying against the proposed $4,500 electric vehicle tax credit for union-made vehicles.

The social spending and climate bill being considered in Congress includes up to $12,500 in tax credits for U.S.-made EVs, including the $4,500 union provision. The bill is a key pillar of Biden's domestic agenda.

Vehicles would have to be made in the United States starting in 2027 to qualify for any of the $12,500 credit.

The EV tax credits are backed by Biden, many congressional Democrats and the United Auto Workers union and would disproportionately benefit Detroit's Big Three automakers - General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler-parent Stellantis NV - which assemble their U.S.-made vehicles in union-represented plants.

Foreign automakers have harshly criticized the decision to give union-made vehicles a big leg up, while 25 ambassadors recently wrote lawmakers opposing it.

The Senate is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans and Manchin is a key voice on a number of provisions in the spending legislation.

Tesla Inc and foreign automakers like Toyota do not have unions representing U.S. factory workers and many have fought UAW efforts to organize U.S. plants.

Toyota said on Thursday that large parts of the world are not ready for zero-emission vehicles, which is why it did not sign a pledge this week to phase out fossil-fuel cars by 2040.

Six major carmakers, including GM, Ford, Sweden's Volvo Cars and Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz, signed the Glasgow Declaration on Zero Emission Cars and Vans, as did a number of countries including India.

Toyota and No. 2 global automaker Volkswagen AG, as well as crucial car markets the United States, China and Germany did not.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Peter Cooney)

Clashes, arrests mark first day of strike in Bolivia

Online News EditorNovember 9, 2021

La Paz, Nov 8 (EFE).- Clashes between protesters blockading roads, and police and groups that tried to disperse the demonstrations on Monday marked the first day of an indefinite strike in Bolivia that ended with more than 100 arrests.

The intensity of the strike in protest of a law on a national strategy to combat the legitimization of illicit profits and the financing of terrorism was especially felt in seven of the nine regions of the country where the protesters blocked several roads, including Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, La Paz, Tarija, Potosí, Oruro and Beni.

Clashes also broke out in eastern Santa Cruz, the country’s economic powerhouse, between demonstrators and supporters of the ruling Movement Toward Socialism party who were trying to remove the blockades.

The protesters said that people wearing hoods came in vans and lit firecrackers to unblock the roads, before leaving.

Police also arrived early to unblock the streets and used tear gas at some sites, according to local media reports.

The Pro Santa Cruz Civic Committee said that about 90 people were arrested in that region alone and confirmed that the strike would continue for a second day.

In Cochabamba’s Suticollo area, protesters erected barricades out of mud and stones to prevent the passage of heavy transport.

“The police do nothing when the masistas blockade, but when real people are in the streets they have brutally grabbed us and gassed us,” one of the protesters told Efe.

At least 20 arrests were registered in various parts of Cochabamba amid police crackdowns.

Clashes also broke out in Tarija, in southern Bolivia between demonstrators and groups trying to unblock the roads.

Beni, one of the poorest regions of the country, complied with the strike demanding that the government repeal the law and confirmed that it would strike for only 48 hours.

Some incidents were also reported in La Paz and Oruro.

“It is a strike without any grounds,” said Vice Minister of Communication Gabriela Alcón, adding that all “issues are being addressed” by the government.

Vice Minister of Internal Affairs Nelson Cox said that 125 people were arrested throughout the country on the first day of the strike.

Several detainees were in possession of sharp weapons and tear gas, according to Cox.

“We regret that there were blockades with belligerent attitudes, there is a level of violence in people who have been at the blocking points,” he added.

Cox said that it was an “absolutely regular” day except in Santa Cruz and that the police ensured smooth movement of traffic.

The strike occurred on the same day that Bolivian President Luis Arce completed a year in office. EFE

jpr-ja-ysm/pd/t

Anti-govt Protesters Take To The Streets Of Bolivia

Several cities in Bolivia experienced a day of social unrest Monday due to protests called by the opposition.

Last Updated: 12th October, 2021 
Written By Associated Press Television News

Several cities in Bolivia experienced a day of social unrest Monday due to protests called by the opposition.

Civil and trade organizations took to the streets in "defense of democracy" and to show their discontent against policies promoted by President Luis Arce's government in the largest anti-government protests since the crisis of 2019 that led to the resignation of then President Evo Morales.

Police attempted to disperse protesters with tear gas.
Arce, a supporter of Morales, is pushing for judicial proceedings against the opponents of such protests.

Monday's street demonstrations were mainly directed against Morales, leader of the ruling Movement to Socialism (MAS) and who remains active in politics.

To counter the opposition, MAS has called for a march on Tuesday in La Paz in support of Arce on Tuesday.