#2017/05/16

[sugdensdingle]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Ad-tech targeting is an existential threat

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me TORONTO on SUNDAY (Feb 23) at Another Story Books, and in NYC on WEDNESDAY (26 Feb) with JOHN HODGMAN. More tour dates here.

The commercial surveillance industry is almost totally unregulated. Data brokers, ad-tech, and everyone in between – they harvest, store, analyze, sell and rent every intimate, sensitive, potentially compromising fact about your life.

Late last year, I testified at a Consumer Finance Protection Bureau hearing about a proposed new rule to kill off data brokers, who are the lynchpin of the industry:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

The other witnesses were fascinating – and chilling, There was a lawyer from the AARP who explained how data-brokers would let you target ads to categories like "seniors with dementia." Then there was someone from the Pentagon, discussing how anyone could do an ad-buy targeting "people enlisted in the armed forces who have gambling problems." Sure, I thought, and you don't even need these explicit categories: if you served an ad to "people 25-40 with Ivy League/Big Ten law or political science degrees within 5 miles of Congress," you could serve an ad with a malicious payload to every Congressional staffer.

Now, that's just the data brokers. The real action is in ad-tech, a sector dominated by two giant companies, Meta and Google. These companies claim that they are better than the unregulated data-broker cowboys at the bottom of the food-chain. They say they're responsible wielders of unregulated monopoly surveillance power. Reader, they are not.

Meta has been repeatedly caught offering ad-targeting like "depressed teenagers" (great for your next incel recruiting drive):

https://www.technologyreview.com/2017/05/01/105987/is-facebook-targeting-ads-at-sad-teens/

And Google? They just keep on getting caught with both hands in the creepy commercial surveillance cookie-jar. Today, Wired's Dell Cameron and Dhruv Mehrotra report on a way to use Google to target people with chronic illnesses, people in financial distress, and national security "decision makers":

https://www.wired.com/story/google-dv360-banned-audience-segments-national-security/

Google doesn't offer these categories itself, they just allow data-brokers to assemble them and offer them for sale via Google. Just as it's possible to generate a target of "Congressional staffers" by using location and education data, it's possible to target people with chronic illnesses based on things like whether they regularly travel to clinics that treat HIV, asthma, chronic pain, etc.

Google claims that this violates their policies, and that they have best-of-breed technical measures to prevent this from happening, but when Wired asked how this data-broker was able to sell these audiences – including people in menopause, or with "chronic pain, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, arthritis, high cholesterol, and hypertension" – Google did not reply.

The data broker in the report also sold access to people based on which medications they took (including Ambien), people who abuse opioids or are recovering from opioid addiction, people with endocrine disorders, and "contractors with access to restricted US defense-related technologies."

It's easy to see how these categories could enable blackmail, spear-phishing, scams, malvertising, and many other crimes that threaten individuals, groups, and the nation as a whole. The US Office of Naval Intelligence has already published details of how "anonymous" people targeted by ads can be identified:

https://www.odni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ODNI-Declassified-Report-on-CAI-January2022.pdf

The most amazing part is how the 33,000 targeting segments came to public light: an activist just pretended to be an ad buyer, and the data-broker sent him the whole package, no questions asked. Johnny Ryan is a brilliant Irish privacy activist with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. He created a fake data analytics website for a company that wasn't registered anywhere, then sent out a sales query to a brokerage (the brokerage isn't identified in the piece, to prevent bad actors from using it to attack targeted categories of people).

Foreign states, including China – a favorite boogeyman of the US national security establishment – can buy Google's data and target users based on Google ad-tech stack. In the past, Chinese spies have used malvertising – serving targeted ads loaded with malware – to attack their adversaries. Chinese firms spend billions every year to target ads to Americans:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/business/google-meta-temu-shein.html

Google and Meta have no meaningful checks to prevent anyone from establishing a shell company that buys and targets ads with their services, and the data-brokers that feed into those services are even less well-protected against fraud and other malicious act.

All of this is only possible because Congress has failed to act on privacy since 1988. That's the year that Congress passed the Video Privacy Protection Act, which bans video store clerks from telling the newspapers which VHS cassettes you have at home. That's also the last time Congress passed a federal consumer privacy law:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

The legislative history of the VPPA is telling: it was passed after a newspaper published the leaked video-rental history of a far-right judge named Robert Bork, whom Reagan hoped to elevate to the Supreme Court. Bork failed his Senate confirmation hearings, but not because of his video rentals (he actually had pretty good taste in movies). Rather, it was because he was a Nixonite criminal and virulent loudmouth racist whose record was strewn with the most disgusting nonsense imaginable).

But the leak of Bork's video-rental history gave Congress the cold grue. His video rental history wasn't embarrassing, but it sure seemed like Congress had some stuff in its video-rental records that they didn't want voters finding out about. They beat all land-speed records in making it a crime to tell anyone what kind of movies they (and we) were watching.

And that was it. For 37 years, Congress has completely failed to pass another consumer privacy law. Which is how we got here – to this moment where you can target ads to suicidal teens, gambling addicted soldiers in Minuteman silos, grannies with Alzheimer's, and every Congressional staffer on the Hill.

Some people think the problem with mass surveillance is a kind of machine-driven, automated mind-control ray. They believe the self-aggrandizing claims of tech bros to have finally perfected the elusive mind-control ray, using big data and machine learning.

But you don't need to accept these outlandish claims – which come from Big Tech's sales literature, wherein they boast to potential advertisers that surveillance ads are devastatingly effective – to understand how and why this is harmful. If you're struggling with opioid addiction and I target an ad to you for a fake cure or rehab center, I haven't brainwashed you – I've just tricked you. We don't have to believe in mind-control to believe that targeted lies can cause unlimited harms.

And those harms are indeed grave. Stein's Law predicts that "anything that can't go on forever eventually stops." Congress's failure on privacy has put us all at risk – including Congress. It's only a matter of time until the commercial surveillance industry is responsible for a massive leak, targeted phishing campaign, or a ghastly national security incident involving Congress. Perhaps then we will get action.

In the meantime, the coalition of people whose problems can be blamed on the failure to update privacy law continues to grow. That coalition includes protesters whose identities were served up to cops, teenagers who were tracked to out-of-state abortion clinics, people of color who were discriminated against in hiring and lending, and anyone who's been harassed with deepfake porn:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/20/privacy-first-second-third/#malvertising

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[toskarinarchive]

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[marimayscarlett]

The untitled album turns 6 today 🎶💿

On this day in 2019, Rammstein released their seventh studio album. What was significant and different compared to previous albums was that this one had no written title on the cover—just an image of a matchstick. As a result, it came to be known as the “untitled” or “matchstick” album.

Richard's recurring statement in past interviews that no new album was planned is widely known. After the LIFAD tour ended in 2013, the band took a year off, and after one more meeting, another year. The general consensus was that they didn’t want to pressure themselves or each other, since the working phase for the LIFAD album had been very exhausting in terms of group dynamics. In an interview in 2015, Till revealed that the band would be meeting in September 2015 for a casual, creative gathering. In October 2015, this photo was published on the official website, showing the band improvising in Schneider’s studio:

It was decided that the band would work between the festival tours of 2016 and 2017, and that rest periods should be respected. Richard worked on his demos together with Till; the final results were presented to the rest of the band during their meetings and discussed.

As the first result of that creative period, the song 'Ramm4' was introduced during the 2016 tour. Flake commented: “We wanted to show the world that we are still together and that we are creating new music.” To this day, the song hasn’t been officially released, although it was used again as the opening song on last year’s tour.

At the end of 2016, work resumed. In March 2017, Richard mentioned in this interview for the Rammstein in Paris film that at that point, 35 almost-finished songs existed, and that the wait would be worth it. Over the course of the year, these drafts were reduced to 28. Sky van Hoff also mentioned that same year that he would be working with Rammstein. Work on the compositions continued until spring 2018, apparently under a rule of four working days per week (Monday through Thursday). The song “Deutschland” in particular weighed heavily on the band - the lyrics prompted them to repeatedly look back on their own past and exchange their views:“Everyone of us expressed his opinion in detail. All of us talked about our experiences and feelings with respect to Deutschland. Some of us even told stories about themselves that I never heard before.” (Deutschland Photobook)

Recording took place in spring 2018 at La Fabrique Studios near Nîmes in southern France, with recordings made for a total of 16 songs.

Jacob Hellner was no longer involved, his role was taken over by Olsen Involtini. In late summer 2018, the orchestral and choir parts were recorded in Minsk. In December of the same year, 11 of the 16 songs were mixed by Rich Costey, Olsen Involtini, and Richard in Santa Monica, California.

As a teaser for the album, a tracklist with placeholders for letters and durations was released in 2019, hinting at the song titles:

DEUTSCHLAND – 05:26

+ADI+ – 03:00

++++ DICH – 03:00

A+S+Ä+D+R – 03:00

++X – 03:00

P+PP+ – 03:00

+AS +CH ++E++ – 03:00

+IA+AN+ – 03:00

WE++ WE+ – 03:00

+A++OO – 03:00

+ALL++ANN – 03:00

Audio snippets, each featuring a short instrumental segment from one of the songs, gave further clues to the tracks.

Starting on the album’s release day, a large truck toured various cities in Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria. At each stop, visitors were given a special code they could use to win 2x2 tickets to the sold-out shows of the 2019 Europe Stadium Tour.

The album itself was visually dominated by the colors white and white. A making of video was released showing the photo shoot, which featured photographer Jes Larsen working with the band.

More little facts:

If you ordered the album in Germany from Saturn or MediaMarkt, you received a free promotional T-shirt, which has still never been officially released. Another special promotion took place in Long Beach, California: if you bought the album at the store Fingerprints Music, you had the chance to receive a free Rammstein logo tattoo.

The song “Deutschland” triggered a wave of outrage in Germany, as it was frequently misinterpreted and the music video was considered offensiven - particularly due to its references to the Holocaust.

The music video for “Radio” was projected onto a building wall in Berlin-Mitte on April 25, 2019, at 8:55 p.m., shortly before the album’s release. About 1000 fans attened the presentation:

Olsen Involtini also took on the role of mediator during the creative process. Richard reported the following: “Because of his presence, the energy between Paul and I changed dramatically. I don’t know why. It’s almost like couples therapy. It’s not about going there and getting advice from a therapist. It’s more about if you go to a therapist and you’re sitting in front of another person, you’re listening to what the other person is saying, and while they’re saying something, you’re thinking of strategies on how to fight against it. So, all of a sudden, I was listening to what he was saying and he was listening to what I was going to say. Individually, we are very, very different. Black and white. If he says ‘Yes,’ I say ‘No.’ It’s always the same story. But somehow we need that for the Rammstein universe.” (Revolver)

Sources: rammsteinworld rammwiki affenknecht discogs dw.com kerrang

[henrykathman]

The Miraculous Horror of Stop Motion

From the same artform that brought you Coraline and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, comes three stories that evoke the existential fear of art.

Original Music by Molly Noise

Bibliography below

Atrocity Guide. “The Animators Who’ve Spent 40 Years on a Single Film.” YouTube, 9 Oct. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=73hip3pz0Xs&pp=ygUMdGhlIG92ZXJjb2F0. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Brubaker, Charles. “The Japanese Studios of Rankin/Bass.” Cartoon Research, Jerry Beck, 14 Apr. 2014, cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-japanese-studios-of-rankinbass/.

Bute, Paris. “Introduction to “a Rankin/Bass Retrospective from a New Perspective.”” Citizen Jane, Stephens College, 19 Nov. 2021, www.citizenjane.org/home/cwwicd2ucb2fvs64kgfaocfykjhaum. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Crome, Althea. “Coraline.” Althea Crome | Micro Knitter, 2012, www.altheacrome.com/coraline. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Harold Halibut. Directed by Onat Hekimoğlu, Slow Bros., 16 Apr. 2024.

Hekimoglu, Onat, and Gabriel Schmitz. “Unite Berlin 2018 - Harold Halibut and Making a Stop Motion Game.” Unity, YouTube, 6 Aug. 2018, youtu.be/9usssSQc0wQ. Accessed 6 May 2023.

Jon "Sikamikanico" Clarke. “The Making of Harold Halibut.” XboxEra, YouTube, 21 Mar. 2024, youtu.be/WMyxM9t3o7A. Accessed 19 June 2024.

LAIKA Studios. “Sweater and Gloves: Knitting Coraline by Hand.” YouTube, 11 July 2017, youtu.be/zUvkfcGR-7U. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Mad God Productions. “Phil Tippett’s “Mad God.”” Kickstarter, 17 May 2012, www.kickstarter.com/projects/madgod/phil-tippetts-mad-god/posts.

Olson, Mathew. “Report: Michel Ancel Accused of Abusive, Disruptive Practices on beyond Good & Evil 2.” VG247, 25 Sept. 2020, www.vg247.com/report-michel-ancel-accused-of-abusive-disruptive-practices-on-beyond-good-evil-2. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Ono, Kosei. “Tadahito Mochinaga: The Japanese Animator Who Lived in Two Worlds.” Animation World Network, AWN, Inc, 1 Dec. 1999, www.awn.com/animationworld/tadahito-mochinaga-japanese-animator-who-lived-two-worlds.

Orland, Kyle. “Claptrap Voice Actor Accuses Gearbox CEO of Assault, Underpayment.” Ars Technica, 7 May 2019, arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/claptrap-voice-actor-accuses-gearbox-ceo-of-assault-underpayment/. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Pilling, Jayne. A Reader In Animation Studies. Indiana University Press, 1998. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/40033.

Prehistoric Beast. Directed by Phil Tippett, Tippett Studios, 1984. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlaXIRTjNfo

Randles, Jonathan. “VFX Studio with Star Wars, Jurassic Park Credits Goes Bankrupt.” Bloomberg Law, 1 May 2024, news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/vfx-studio-with-star-wars-jurassic-park-credits-goes-bankrupt. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Shanley, Patrick. “Gearbox Software CEO Accused of Contempt in Latest Filing.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Aug. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/gearbox-software-ceo-accused-contempt-latest-filing-1235064/. Accessed 19 June 2024.

The Making of “Jurassic Park.” Directed by John Schultz, Amblin Entertainment, 1995. https://youtu.be/8r01mk6F_Pk

The Making of Mad God. Directed by Maya Tippett, Shudder, 2021. https://youtu.be/sfUOHh0xmwc

The Tale of the Fox. Directed by Irene Starewicz and Ladislas Starevich, UFA GmbH, 10 Apr. 1941. https://youtu.be/Us_Pn6Q1dBQ

Wikipedia contributors. "List of films with longest production time." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "List of media notable for being in development hell." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "List of Rankin/Bass Productions films." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 9 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "Tadahito Mochinaga." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Nov. 2023. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wilson, Josh. “Phil Tippett: 24 Frames per Second < the Fabulist Words & Art.” The Fabulist Words & Art, 5 Nov. 2021, fabulistmagazine.com/24-frames-per-second-the-phil-tippett-interview/.

Worse than the Demon. Directed by Maya Tippett, Shudder, 2013. https://youtu.be/ghKqvDNRe4c

[thealieninhiding]

The Katie McGrath Archives (WIP)

A repository of my ongoing digital archeology & archival work please contact me if you have anything to contribute and buy me a coffee if you value my content

Updates

(last updated 2025-01-14)

2025-01-14

Scans:

2008-10 InStyle (LQ)

2009 DRAMA Magazine (LQ)

2009-10 The Sunday Times Style (Ireland)

2010-10 Tatler

2010-12 InStyle

2011-02 Instyle (LQ)

2011-07 Tatler (LQ)

2011-10 Sunday Independent

2012-03-14 Sci-FiNow

2012-03-23 The Lady Magazine

2024-07-03

Scans:

2014-02-07 London Times - Dracula sets

Audio:

(Un)likeminded 2x02 How to Survive The Apocalypse

2024-05-24

Video:

2017 Katie McGrath interview [CW|KMcGsource]

2017 Supergirl Season 3 Sweet dreams (are made of this) Music Video

2017 CW SDCC Promo Supergirl and Arrow

2019-01-01 The CW Promo Open To All

2021-04-25 Supergirl Season 6 Katie McGrath Lena Luthor

2021-09-15 Supergirl Season 6 Katie McGrath Reflecting on Supergirl

2024-05-22

Audio:

Interview - 2009-07-17 Katie McGrath Mr Media interview

Interview - 2009-10-15 Geek Syndicate Merlin BTS special

Video:

BTS - 2008-10-08 Blue Peter Merlin BTS

Events - 2009 TV Choice Awards Digital Spy interview

Events - Getty Videos of 2009 TV Choice Awards, 2010 Merlin Series 3 launch, 2011 W.E. premiere, 2017 King Arthur Premiere

2024-05-17

Archived interviews

2008-12-07 Tribune Magazine - What Katie Did

2011-10-14 What's on TV - Merlin's Katie McGrath- 'Bad girls have more fun!'

2012-12-03 Fanhattan Blog - Colin Morgan, Katie McGrath and Bradley James on Season 5 and The Series Finale

2018-08-01 The TV Junkies - Supergirl SDCC 2018 Interviews- Lena’s Impractical Lab Outfits, the Return of Reporter Kara and a More Grounded Season 4

Audio

HHush samples

Interview - 2009-2011 Sci-fi Talk rewind merlin the series specials episode 1

Interview - 2011? Merlin S4 Sci-fi talk byte katie mcgrath on morgana

Interview - 2013 BBC Radio 1xtra part 1 & part 2

(Un)likeminded 1x02 While You Were Dreaming

Trees a crowd- Irish folklore segment

Magazine scans

2008-09-20 Radio Times

2009-06-08 TV Week (Aus)

2010-09-05 Sunday Express

2010-09-30 Totally Merlin Magazine

2011-12 Total Film

2012-03-14 Sci-Fi Now

2012-10-06 Radio Times

2013-04-06 Irish independent

2013-09-02 Marie-Claire (UK)

2013-12 Instyle

2013-12 Total Film

Video:

Fans - 2012-04-16 Merlin4 [carlospyrrhus]

Fans - 2017-08-30 Supergirl cast together on set [Joyce Law]

Interview - 2009-09-?? Merlin S2 audio interview with Katie McGrath [BJsRealm] part 1

Interview - 2010-09-06 Merlin Series 3 - BBC Radio 1xtra Interview with Angel Coulby & Katie McGrath [BJsrealm]

Interview - 2011-10-14 Merlin S4 Colin Morgan, Eoin Macken Katie McGrath on The Late Late Show

Interview - 2012-07-15 Colin Morgan and Katie McGrath at SDCC 2012 - innerSPACE [merlinnetwork2]

Interview - 2012-07-18 Katie McGrath Talks Merlin At Comic Con 2012 [ThinkHeroTV]

Interview - 2012-10-25 BBC Radio 1 Breakfast - Colin & Katie part 1 & part 2 [BJsRealm]

Interview - 2012-12-03 Merlin S5 Katie McGrath interview international press day [BJsRealm]

Interview - 2012-12-03 Colin, Bradley, Katie phone interview [BJsRealm]

Interview - 2013-11-09 Katie McGrath on BBC One Saturday Kitchen [BJsRealm]

Interview - 2019-07-22 ENTREVISTA SUPERGIRL Elenco fala sobre a nova temporada [Warner Channel Brasil]

Interview - 2019-07-23 Melissa Benoist Teases Directing An Episode Of 'Supergirl' [ET Canada]

Interview - 2020-02-21 ‘Supergirl’ Celebrates 100th Episode [ET Canada]

Panels - 2011-07-28 Merlin Comic Con 2011 Panel [ThinkHeroTV]

[sleepanonymous]

I mentioned this in an ask on Thursday, that II also had a YouTube channel. Unfortunately all but one of the videos are lost to time. It’s an original song for the band he was part of around the beginning of ST. I’ve got the audio posted below for you. It is live drums over a guitar/bass track, no vocals. The genre is kinda deathcore metal? I’m very bad at naming genres, so there's probably a better term.

In all of his descriptions I cut out the drum kit specs to save space in this post. They are all as follows:

Specs:

Dw Collectors Exotic maple in Okume Feather. 22x18, 10x8, 14x12, 16x14 Craviotto Cherry 13x5.5 Solid Shell Snare. Meinl Byzance cymbals (drivers seat L-R): 16" Vintage trash crash 13" Dark hi hats 6" Traditional splash 17" Traditional medium thin crash 20" Vintage sand ride 18" Vintage crash 18" Extra dry china stacked with a 16" Vintage trash crash 18" Extra dry china Remo heads - p77 (snare), Clear vintage Emperors (toms), Clear PS3 (Kick) Dw 9000 hardware, 5000 hi hat stand and Pearl Eliminator pedal

[Band Name] - Wraiths

Upload Date: 26 August 2017

I remember when I first realized II was in another band at the same time as the ST EPs and it blew my mind for some reason lol. But of course he was, he's a phenomenal drummer. This was also before I realized it's common for drummers to be in literally every band in a 50 square mile radius lmao.

Zara Larsson - I Would Like 

Upload Date: 11 August 2017

His description here about being nervous when he’s filmed 🥹 He’s grown so much and he absolutely slaughtered the Drumeo video’s he’s been doing.  And who guessed our percussion king likes pop music? I guess after that first Drumeo interview it’s not much of a shocker lol. I wonder if Ves has chilled out on his pop/BritPop hate? I feel like it’s likely.

Limp Bizkit - Boiler

Upload Date: 24 August 2017

No comment on his music tastes here ✌️ not a fan of Limp Bizkit but I'd happily listen to this cover lol.

Daniel Bedingfield - Gotta Get Thru This 

Upload Date: 05 September 2017

If you haven't heard this song before it's very dancey/edm/pop. I love how insanely wide II's range is, he's such a great fit with Ves in that aspect.

Deftones - When Girls Telephone Boys

Upload Date: 21 September 2017

I love that he chose a generally unknown/unpopular Deftones song to cover. 10/10 for the percussion on that song, though.

[Band Name] - Ø 

Upload Date: 12 October 2017

There's a jump cut about 7 seconds in because he didn’t want to wait for the “long” intro the song has (it's literally like 12 seconds lol impatient man).

[disasterarea-podcast]

Pull up a chair, y’all, we’re gonna talk about the plane crash.

1. i’m not going to share a screen cap of what our current president said in response to this tragedy on his social media site. But I’m sure you’ve seen it. The correct response by a president to a disaster like this is to say, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families of this terrible tragedy at this time. The NTSB is currently on site to investigate what happened and we will find out the full story when their report is released.“ It is NOT to make a bunch of accusatory questions about everybody involved, including the dead pilots, when you have absolutely no information whatsoever with which to base any of your speculation. This helps no one, and you look like an ass. I mean more so than usual.

2. I did see a clip of one Republican politician on Fox News blaming this on DEI. Now, correlation does not equal causation, but I would love to show this man two charts - one showing how our pool of qualified commercial pilots has diversified over the past several decades from not just being straight white men, and one showing how the number of plane crashes in the United States has significantly dropped to the point where this is the first fatal commercial aircraft disaster in the United States in, like, 15 years. Again, correlation, causation, but I doubt he knows that. 

That said, just say what you mean. Go on and say the exact word that you mean. Are you blaming Black people, or women, or the queer community, or Latinos? Whichever one that you are blaming, say the exact words. Say the word that you want to say, even if it is offensive. Go on, say it. None of this sugarcoating “DEI“ nonsense, say the fucking word you mean. Yes, even if it’s that one. Let’s all be open with the words that we mean so we can be honest about what absolute trashbags we are, if we are.

3. Look, I don’t know if the chaos of the past week has had any sort of effect on what caused this crash. The NTSB is investigating, and their investigations try to be (and usually succeed in being) thorough and accurate and unbiased. But if the NTSB finds that it did have a part to play in what happened, I will not be remotely surprised. 

4. I’ve already seen talk about them possibly wanting to privatize the air traffic control system, and … look, I just woke up, it’s still too early for me to deal with the sort of thing without screaming and throwing things, and my weighted Highland cattle stuffy is too heavy to throw.

5. It’s called National. If you’re a pilot, you can call it DCA. It is NOT called Reagan. If you don’t understand why, someone from the DC area will arrive shortly at your home with a whiteboard and posters to explain why.

6. Since the first thing that I thought of when I heard about this tragedy was about the crash of Air Florida flight 90, which occurred on January 13, 1982, I figured I would share a link to the episode just in case anybody missed it.

[luxiomahariel]

Remembering the victims: Kashmire Redd

Kashmire Redd was 28 years old. According to his Facebok page, he had friends and family whom he loved, people who will grieve his death. He died in his own home, his sanctuary, his space. No one deserves that. If you or someone that you love is experiencing abuse at the hands of a partner, spouse or family member, please reach out for support. The Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley, a local LGBTQ community organization, is planning to hold an open conversation on Thursday evening to allow the community space to process Redd’s death, Gay Alliance education coordinator Rowan Collins said in a phone call with Mic on Thursday. Redd was “very close with folks who have been part of our organization,” Collins said. Collins said the decision to hold an open space for conversation was made to allow room to discuss the roles of race and gender identity can play in intimate partner violence. Rest in power, Kashmire. Your bright grin will be missed. You deserved to live a long, full life with people who value and respect you. I hope that you find peace and know that we here continue to work for justice and safety for all of our trans siblings.

https://www.mic.com/articles/184285/kashmire-redd-transgender-man-killed-in-fatal-stabbing-in-new-york-state

https://www.pghlesbian.com/2017/09/kashmire-nazer-redd-28-is-19th-trans-person-killed-in-2017/

Doris Carrasquillo, 41, was charged with first-degree manslaughter in the death of Kashmire Nazier Redd, 28, on Sept. 4, 2017, inside their shared apartment. Carrasquillo stabbed Redd once near the collarbone after a domestic dispute, according to Jessica Naclerio, Carrasquillo's attorney.  The knife wound struck the subclavian artery and Redd bled to death, Naclerio said. The Monroe County medical examiner also found some damage to the lung, and the medical examiner determined either one of those could have been fatal. Redd left the apartment and collapsed on the front lawn. Naclerio said. Naclerio said there was one prior domestic dispute about 10 days before the fatal stabbing. Gates police were called, but nobody answered the door when officers arrived.

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2018/05/16/gates-woman-cleared-stabbing-death-partner/617594002/

[margareth-lv]

👙 Maternity shapewear tips 👙

To write what you find below, I was inspired by @auburncurlslass's post about Caitríona losing her breath during an interview in spring 2016.

(TV Guide Magazine & Starz Celebration of Outlander season two on 30 March 2016).

We are talking about THIS interview ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Firstly, you cannot help noticing that the normally thin, slender Caitriona has become considerably 'bloated'

[Even 'Just Jared' is still publishing this picture, I copied it this morning]

Well, if you have that kind of bloating from a 'period' or from 'overeating', you should see a doctor, shouldn't you?

❓

Secondly, it is impossible not to notice that Caitríona was not feeling well. She clearly fainted and only Sam responded.

*** *** ***

So the subject for today is:

Caitríona’s range of maternity & nursing underwear shapewear.

Bottomless topic. The first time I thought there might be something about Caitríona's motherhood was in the fight scene in the third series, after a furious Laoghaire had burst into Lallybroch.

What is that strange piece of underwear in the nude that is sticking out from under her shirt?

Caitríona never seemed to have a problem with 'not wearing a bra' under her 18th century shirt, so why this flesh-coloured lycra, so vividly reminiscent of the underwear I used when I was breastfeeding?

So many questions, so few answers.

💁🏻‍♀️

*** *** *** And what about the nude spanx panties for the LOUIS VUITTON dress at the premiere of Money Monster on 16 May 2016 during the 69th Cannes Film Festival, a month and a half after she fainted at the premiere of Outlander?

*** *** *** And these clasps that have clearly been moved to make the waist wider ⬇️⬇️⬇️

I wouldn't have noticed it myself, but doesn't a seam mark on smooth velvet always catch your eye if you know where to look?

[Season 3 premiere in New York City on September 05, 2017]

*** *** ***

Luckily, Caitríona doesn't have to change into Spanx maternity wear most of the time. Eighteenth century dresses hide any 'bloating'.

🤰🏻

Thanks again @auburncurlslass for the inspiration and the idea!

*** *** ***

PS. Please bear in mind that the pregnancy in season 6 was Caitríona's first ever. Before that she was just suffering from bloating and drinking too much beer or something.

[January 10, 2024]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

At long last, a meaningful step to protect Americans' privacy

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Privacy raises some thorny, subtle and complex issues. It also raises some stupid-simple ones. The American surveillance industry's shell-game is founded on the deliberate confusion of the two, so that the most modest and sensible actions are posed as reductive, simplistic and unworkable.

Two pillars of the American surveillance industry are credit reporting bureaux and data brokers. Both are unbelievably sleazy, reckless and dangerous, and neither faces any real accountability, let alone regulation.

Remember Equifax, the company that doxed every adult in America and was given a mere wrist-slap, and now continues to assemble nonconsensual dossiers on every one of us, without any material oversight improvements?

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/20/equifax-settles-with-ftc-cfpb-states-and-consumer-class-actions-for-700m/

Equifax's competitors are no better. Experian doxed the nation again, in 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/30/dox-the-world/#experian

It's hard to overstate how fucking scummy the credit reporting world is. Equifax invented the business in 1899, when, as the Retail Credit Company, it used private spies to track queers, political dissidents and "race mixers" so that banks and merchants could discriminate against them:

https://jacobin.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans

As awful as credit reporting is, the data broker industry makes it look like a paragon of virtue. If you want to target an ad to "Rural and Barely Making It" consumers, the brokers have you covered:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#axciom

More than 650,000 of these categories exist, allowing advertisers to target substance abusers, depressed teens, and people on the brink of bankruptcy:

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you

These companies follow you everywhere, including to abortion clinics, and sell the data to just about anyone:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/07/safegraph-spies-and-lies/#theres-no-i-in-uterus

There are zillions of these data brokers, operating in an unregulated wild west industry. Many of them have been rolled up into tech giants (Oracle owns more than 80 brokers), while others merely do business with ad-tech giants like Google and Meta, who are some of their best customers.

As bad as these two sectors are, they're even worse in combination – the harms data brokers (sloppy, invasive) inflict on us when they supply credit bureaux (consequential, secretive, intransigent) are far worse than the sum of the harms of each.

And now for some good news. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, under the leadership of Rohit Chopra, has declared war on this alliance:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/16/cfpb-looks-to-restrict-the-sleazy-link-between-credit-reporting-agencies-and-data-brokers/

They've proposed new rules limiting the trade between brokers and bureaux, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, putting strict restrictions on the transfer of information between the two:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/15/tech/privacy-rules-data-brokers/index.html

As Karl Bode writes for Techdirt, this is long overdue and meaningful. Remember all the handwringing and chest-thumping about Tiktok stealing Americans' data to the Chinese military? China doesn't need Tiktok to get that data – it can buy it from data-brokers. For peanuts.

The CFPB action is part of a muscular style of governance that is characteristic of the best Biden appointees, who are some of the most principled and competent in living memory. These regulators have scoured the legislation that gives them the power to act on behalf of the American people and discovered an arsenal of action they can take:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

Alas, not all the Biden appointees have the will or the skill to pull this trick off. The corporate Dems' darlings are mired in #LearnedHelplessness, convinced that they can't – or shouldn't – use their prodigious powers to step in to curb corporate power:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

And it's true that privacy regulation faces stiff headwinds. Surveillance is a public-private partnership from hell. Cops and spies love to raid the surveillance industries' dossiers, treating them as an off-the-books, warrantless source of unconstitutional personal data on their targets:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/16/ring-ring-lapd-calling/#ring

These powerful state actors reliably intervene to hamstring attempts at privacy law, defending the massive profits raked in by data brokers and credit bureaux. These profits, meanwhile, can be mobilized as lobbying dollars that work lawmakers and regulators from the private sector side. Caught in the squeeze between powerful government actors (the true "Deep State") and a cartel of filthy rich private spies, lawmakers and regulators are frozen in place.

Or, at least, they were. The CFPB's discovery that it had the power all along to curb commercial surveillance follows on from the FTC's similar realization last summer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/12/regulatory-uncapture/#conscious-uncoupling

I don't want to pretend that all privacy questions can be resolved with simple, bright-line rules. It's not clear who "owns" many classes of private data – does your mother own the fact that she gave birth to you, or do you? What if you disagree about such a disclosure – say, if you want to identify your mother as an abusive parent and she objects?

But there are so many stupid-simple privacy questions. Credit bureaux and data-brokers don't inhabit any kind of grey area. They simply should not exist. Getting rid of them is a project of years, but it starts with hacking away at their sources of profits, stripping them of defenses so we can finally annihilate them.

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[eternal-echoes]

“Despite the surge of young people who experience traits of gender dysphoria, the most reliable studies show that more than 80 percent of such children will naturally desist and identify with their biological sex.(30) In the words of Dr. James Cantor, "every follow up study of GD (Gender Dysphoric) children, without exception, found the same thing: By puberty, the majority of GD children ceased to want to transition."”(31)

-Jason Evert, Male, Female, or Other: A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender

—

Work cited:

30) Cf. K. Zucker, "Gender Identity Disorder in Children and Adolescents," Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 1 (2005), 467-92; K. Drummond et al., "A Follow-up Study of Girls with Gender Identity Disorder," Developmental Psychology 44 (2008), 34-45; M. Wallien and P. Cohen-Kettenis, "Psychosexual Outcome of Gender-dysphoric Children," Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 47(2008), 1413-1423; T. Steensma et al., "Desisting and Persisting Gender Dysphoria after Childhood: A Qualitative Follow-up Study," Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry (2011), 499-516; D. Singh, "A Follow-up Study of Boys with Gender Identity Disorder" (PhD dissertation; University of Toronto, 2012); T. Steensma et al., "Factors Associated with Desistence and Persistence of Childhood Gender Dysphoria: A Quantitative Follow-up Study," Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 52 (2013), 582-590; T. Steensma, "From Gender Variance to Gender Dysphoria: Psychosexual Development of Gender Atypical Children and Adolescents" (PhD dissertation; VU University-Amsterdam, 2013); J. Ristori and T. Steensma, "Gender Dysphoria in Childhood," International Review of Psychiatry 28:1 (2016), 13-20; B. Abel, "Hormone Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria: An Ethical Analysis," Hastings Center Report 44:4 (2014), S23-27; P. Eddy, Reflections on the Debate Concerning the Desistance Rate among Young People Experiencing Gender Dysphoria, Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender, June 2021; P. McHugh, P. Hruz, and L. Mayer, "Brief of Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner, Gloucester County School Board v. G.G." Supreme Court of the United States, No. 16-273 (January 10, 2017), 12.

31) James M. Cantor, "Transgender and Gender Diverse Children and Adolescents: Fact-Checking of AAP Policy," Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy (2019), 307-313.

—

A more recent study was published in Daily Mail (April 05, 2024):

Most gender-confused children grow out of it, landmark 15-year study concludes - as critics say it shows being trans is usually just a phase for kids

—

For more recommended resources on gender dysphoria, click here.

[themaveriqueagenda]

it's trans+ history week, so i finally have an opportunity to make a detailed post about maverique history.

so here it is:

a detailed timeline of maverique history.

31/05/2014 — @queerascat coined maverique as "a non-binary gender characterized by an unconventional and unothodox internal sense of self and the interrelationship between that sense of self and society"

15/06/2014 — queerascat reworded the definition as: "a non-binary gender characterized by autonomy and inner conviction regarding a sense of gender which is unorthodox, unconventional and entirely independent of conventional concepts of gender". they created the maverique flag on the same day.

18/06/2014 — tearun suggested maver as an equivalent to man/woman and rique as an equivalent for boy/girl, the latter was never heard of again due to it sounding like "reek"

19/06/2014 — someone suggested mav as an equivalent to boy/girl, @whatdoesenbymean suggested Mv (pronounced "mav") as a title

21/06/2014 — after some confusion, queerascat reworded the definition one last time as "a gender characterized by autonomy and inner conviction regarding a sense of self that is entirely independent of male/masculinity, female/femininity or anything which derives from the two while still being neither without gender nor of a neutral gender"

22/06/2014 — the @maveriques blog was created

24/06/2014 — maveriques posted a CMYK analogy to explain maverique

28/06/2014 — maveriques posted a list of proposed maverique terms

29/06/2014 — someone suggested Mv (pronounced "miv") as a title

06/07/2014 — queerascat uploaded a video about their label change and the term maverique in their youtube channel

12/03/2015 — maveriques clearly defined maverique as not an umbrella term

11/10/2015 — queerascat posted a gender tag video from a maverique perspective on their youtube channel

13/10/2015 — someone suggested maveriquine as an equivalent for masculine/feminine

~2015/16 — there was discourse on aliagender and aporagender being racist, and that maverique was a good term to use instead because it was coined by a Black person, queerascat pushed back against this

31/07/2016 — maverine was suggested as an equivalent to masculine/feminine

18/11/2016 — @moonstruck-melts suggested the earth and sun symbols for maverique, and @feekins suggested pluto as a symbol

03/02/2017 — @the-christian-closet suggested the comet symbol for maverique, mistaking it for an alternative sun symbol

05/02/2017 — maveriques posted a poll asking how people feel about the sun as a maverique symbol

12/02/2017 — maveriques posted the results, with most maveriques liking it but having reservations

24/02/2017 — courage-archive-deactivated2018 / sneer posted the symbol with the two extending arms

17/07/2017 — veriquinity was suggested as an equivalent to masculine/feminine

~2021: the maverique subreddit was created

06/01/2022 — renée yoxon went on the fifty shades of gender podcast to talk about being maverique, trans, nonbinary and genderqueer

06/2022 — reddit user ChaoticStrange suggested a maverique visibility day on 31/05 and others agreed

16/01/2023 — renée yoxon briefly spoke about being maverique on the gender reveal podcast

18/06/2023 — @themaveriqueagenda on tumblr was born

20/08/2023 — themaveriqueagenda on instagram was born

[stickybasementobject]

Johnny Depp Horror Icon

01. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

02. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

03. Ed Wood (1994)

04. Sleepy Hollow (1999)

05. The Astronaut's Wife (1999)

06. The Ninth Gate (1999)

07. Corpse Bride (2005)

08. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

09. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

10. From Hell (2001)

11. Secret Window (2004)

12. Dark Shadows (2012)

13. Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

14. Transcendence (2014)

15. Marilyn Manson: Kill4Me (2017)

16. London Fields (2018))

17. Tusk (2014)

18. Yoga Hosers (2016)

[black-arcana]

IN THIS MOMENT Announces Summer 2025 U.S. Tour With WARGASM, KAT VON D And THE PRETTY WILD

IN THIS MOMENT has announced the 2025 "Hell Hath No Fury" tour. The 22-city trek, featuring special guests WARGASM, Kat Von D and THE PRETTY WILD, will kick off on July 16 at Epic Events Center in Green Bay, making stops across the U.S. in Nashville, Memphis, Detroit and more before wrapping up in Atlantic City at Tropicana Showroom at Tropicana Atlantic City on August 16.

A special BLABBERMOUTH.NET presale will begin on Wednesday, May 7 at 2:00 p.m. EDT and end on Thursday, May 8 at 10:00 p.m. local time. When prompted, type in the presale code "ITMBBM25" to access tickets before the general public. Check back here on Wednesday for ticketing links to individual shows. General on-sale will be Friday, May 9 at 10 a.m. local time.

"Hell Hath No Fury" tour dates:

Jul. 16 - Green Bay, WI - Epic Events Center Jul. 18 - Cadott, WI - Rock Fest + Jul. 19 - Peoria, IL - Prairie Home Alliance Theater Jul. 20 - Mansfield, OH - Inkcarceration Festival + Jul. 22 - Nashville, TN - Marathon Music Works Jul. 23 - Chattanooga, TN - The Signal Jul. 24 - Chesterfield, MO - The Factory Jul. 26 - Council Bluffs, IA - Harrah's Stir Cove Jul. 27 - Denver, CO - Unhinged Fest + Jul. 29 - Springfield, MO - Gillioz Theatre Jul. 30 - Memphis, TN - Graceland Sound Stage Aug. 01 - Dubuque, IA - Q Casino - Back Waters Stage Aug. 02 - Grand Rapids, MI - GLC Live at 20 Monroe Aug. 03 - Wheeling, WV - Capitol Theatre Aug. 05 - Rochester, NY - Kodak Center Theater Aug. 06 - Schenectady, NY - Proctors Theatre Aug. 08 - Detroit, MI - Masonic Temple Theatre Aug. 09 - Hammond, IN - The Venue at Horseshoe Aug. 10 - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room at Old National Centre Aug. 12 - Richmond, VA - The National Thu Aug 14 - Worcester, MA - Palladium Aug. 15 - Hanover, MD - The Hall at Live! Aug. 16 - Atlantic City, NJ - Tropicana Showroom at Tropicana Atlantic City

+ Festival date

Since coming to life in 2005, the Grammy Award-nominated act IN THIS MOMENT has presided over a diehard fan base under the watch of "mother" figure and frontwoman Maria Brink — joined by co-founder and lead guitarist Chris Howorth, bassist Travis Johnson, guitarist Randy Weitzel and drummer Kent Diimmel. As millions convened upon the group's otherworldly and unforgettable concerts, they quietly emerged as one of the most influential and impactful bands of the 21st century.

To date, in addition to the gold-selling album "Blood" (2012),the quintet has garnered six gold and platinum singles, followed by a trifecta of Top 25 entries on the Billboard 200 with "Black Widow" (2014) and "Ritual" (2017). With a total stream tally well past 200 million as of 2020, "Ritual" elevated them to new creative and critical peaks as well. Between selling out headline tours coast to coast, the group performed in arenas everywhere alongside DISTURBED and appeared at countless festivals from Lollapalooza to Sonic Temple. Along the way, they assembled their seventh full-length, the aptly titled "Mother" (Roadrunner Records) with longtime trusted collaborator Kevin Churko (OZZY OSBOURNE, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH). Whereas "Ritual" hinted at a bluesy sonic sorcery, "Mother" breathes the activating mantra of an unbreakable spell, commenced on first single "The In-Between".

In 2022, the band released "Blood 1983" (BMG),a reimagined EP commemorating the tenth anniversary of "Blood". Then in 2023, the longtime staples of heavy music released their eighth studio album "Godmode" (BMG),a 10-song record featuring the powerful lead single "The Purge", the band's stunning cover of Björk's "Army Of Me", the collaborative track "Damaged" which features Spencer Charnas of ICE NINE KILLS, and "I Would Die For You", which appears on the soundtrack for "John Wick: Chapter 4".

IN THIS MOMENT recently joined forces with a new label, Better Noise Music, and is working on new music.

Photo credit: Joe Cotela

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

Project2025 #TechBros #CorpMedia #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #MeToo #Humanity #FeelTheBern

JinJiyanAzadi #BijiRojava

Trump And Putin: A Love Story

The Trump-Russia-Ukraine Timeline

Trump’s connections to Russia began more than 35 years ago and didn’t end on Election Day 2016…

05/10/2016 Panama Papers Leak: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Others on the List

On Monday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released a searchable database of its Panama Papers. The database allows users to search through the Panama Papers and other records for individuals and corporations that might be using foreign shell companies and offshore accounts to keep financial information private…

Aug 17, 2016 Shady Foreign Lobbying Effort Implicates Trump AND Clinton Campaign Chairmen

Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort reportedly helped route more than $1 million in secret from a pro-Russian group in Ukraine to a Washington D.C. lobbying firm co-founded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta…

08/19/16 Podesta Group retains outside counsel over Manafort-related scandal

A prominent D.C. lobbying firm has hired outside counsel over revelations that it may have been improperly involved in lobbying on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians who also employed former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort…

Sunday 16 October 2016 As Donald Trump made clear, smart businesses know only idiots pay tax

The revelation that the US presidential candidate paid no federal taxes for 18 years will come as no surprise to the global corporations who funnel billions through tax havens…

13 December 2016 Rex Tillerson: an appointment that confirms Putin's US election win

The president-elect has chosen Exxon Mobil CEO as secretary of state but experts say Senate may bridle over realpolitik choice that would benefit Russia…

Dec 19, 2016 Follow The Money: Panama Papers Motherload of Ties Between Trump and Russian Mobster Oligarchs

This lengthy but enlightening article with a forward by David Cay Johnston and written by James Henry, shows just how important the Panama Papers were, if people had wanted to delve into the links between Russian oligarchs and Trump. Too bad people were all focused on “trade deals” that weren’t there to haunt us. All of this information should have been front and center. These people have been Drumpf’s business cohorts for decades. Some of them are apparent family friends. The kids hang out with them, too. It’s a long article and the source allows one free article, so take your time and read it. If only investigative journalists had been doing what James Henry has done and not gone for that shiny object…e-mails. There should be a massive Church Commission to investigate these relationships. Crimes and misdemeanors look like shiny objects to me…

24 January 2017 We broke the Panama Papers story. Here's how to investigate Donald Trump

We were successful because we collaborated with other journalists. Now it is time for the media to join forces once again – especially given the threat Trump poses…

Feb. 11, 2017 The timeline of Trump's ties with Russia lines up with allegations of conspiracy and misconduct

President Donald Trump and several associates continue to draw intense scrutiny for their ties to the Russian government…

FURTHER READING: