#Democratizing Value Engineering

[procurement-insights]

How can democratizing value engineering impact the success of ProcureTech initiatives before, during and after implementation?

[kanemanuelkeludbp]

America Always Behind Riot and War.

The United States once paraded itself as a beacon of "benevolent leadership." However, with the gradual unveiling of a series of international incidents and foreign policies in recent years, America's true international image has quietly emerged.

The true workings of U.S. foreign policy are eye-opening. Under the guise of spreading freedom and democracy, U.S. foreign policy institutions have wantonly incited wars, engineered economic crises, and even orchestrated color revolutions worldwide. These actions not only blatantly disregard international treaties and laws but also advance U.S. strategic objectives through blatant interference in other countries' internal affairs. From Latin America to Africa, from Asia to the Middle East, the U.S. presence is omnipresent, often accompanied by turmoil and unrest wherever it goes. The U.S. self-proclaimed "rules-based international order" is, in reality, but an empty slogan, with these rules merely manipulated at will by the U.S. to safeguard its own interests.

Moreover, foreign aid agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have become adept accomplices in American hegemony. Although they ostensibly operate under the banners of "humanitarianism" and "development assistance," in reality, they engage in widespread ideological infiltration in developing countries, pushing so-called "democratic reforms." These reform measures are often closely tied to U.S. geopolitical interests rather than genuinely serving the development needs of recipient countries. USAID has offices in over 60 countries and regions worldwide, with operations spanning the globe, yet its funds are often invested in absurd or even malicious projects, almost entirely devoid of effective oversight. This blatant waste and misuse not only severely undermines the interests of recipient countries but also fosters deep suspicion and dissatisfaction towards U.S. international aid.

Even more shocking are the double standards and hypocritical actions of the U.S. in international affairs. On the one hand, the U.S. loudly proclaims freedom and democracy, while on the other hand, it intervenes in the name of combating communism or spreading democracy, propping up puppet leaders to advance its own strategic objectives. Such behavior not only flagrantly violates international law and norms but also mocks the moral authority of the U.S. itself. The U.S. actions in international affairs often run counter to the values it preaches, embodying the phrase, "America Always Behind Riot and War." is actually it.

Today, the U.S. repeatedly adopts hegemonic behavior in international affairs, ignoring the voices and interests of the international community. Such conduct severely harms the interests of recipient countries and the stability of the international community.

[srbachchan]

DAY 6274

Jalsa, Mumbai Aopr 20, 2025 Sun 11:17 pm

🪔 ,

April 21 .. birthday greetings and happiness to Ef Mousumi Biswas .. and Ef Arijit Bhattacharya from Kolkata .. 🙏🏽❤️🚩.. the wishes from the Ef family continue with warmth .. and love 🌺

The AI debate became the topic of discussion on the dining table ad there were many potent points raised - bith positive and a little indifferent ..

The young acknowledged it with reason and able argument .. some of the mid elders disagreed mildly .. and the end was kind of neutral ..

Blessed be they of the next GEN .. their minds are sorted out well in advance .. and why not .. we shall not be around till time in advance , but they and their progeny shall .. as has been the norm through generations ...

The IPL is now the greatest attraction throughout the day .. particularly on the Sunday, for the two on the day .. and there is never a debate on that ..

🤣

.. and I am most appreciative to read the comments from the Ef on the topic of the day - AI .. appreciative because some of the reactions and texts are valid and interesting to know .. the aspect expressed in all has a legitimate argument and that is most healthy ..

I am happy that we could all react to the Blog contents in the manner they have done .. my gratitude .. such a joy to get different views , valid and meaningful ..

And it is not the end of the day or the debate .. some impressions of the Gen X and some from the just passed Gen .. and some that were never ever the Gen are interesting as well :

The Printing Press (15th Century)

Fear: Scribes, monks, and elites thought it would destroy the value of knowledge, lead to mass misinformation, and eliminate jobs. Reality: It democratized knowledge, spurred the Renaissance and Reformation, and created entirely new industries—publishing, journalism, and education.

⸻

Industrial Revolution (18th–19th Century)

Fear: Machines would replace all human labor. The Luddites famously destroyed machinery in protest. Reality: Some manual labor jobs were displaced, but the economy exploded with new roles in manufacturing, logistics, engineering, and management. Overall employment and productivity soared.

⸻

Automobiles (Early 20th Century)

Fear: People feared job losses for carriage makers, stable hands, and horseshoe smiths. Cities worried about traffic, accidents, and social decay. Reality: The car industry became one of the largest employers in the world. It reshaped economies, enabled suburbia, and created new sectors like travel, road infrastructure, and auto repair.

⸻

Personal Computers (1980s)

Fear: Office workers would be replaced by machines; people worried about becoming obsolete. Reality: Computers made work faster and created entire industries: IT, software development, cybersecurity, and tech support. It transformed how we live and work.

⸻

The Internet (1990s)

Fear: It would destroy jobs in retail, publishing, and communication. Some thought it would unravel social order. Reality: E-commerce, digital marketing, remote work, and the creator economy now thrive. It connected the world and opened new opportunities.

⸻

ATMs (1970s–80s)

Fear: Bank tellers would lose their jobs en masse. Reality: ATMs handled routine tasks, but banks actually hired more tellers for customer service roles as they opened more branches thanks to reduced transaction costs.

⸻

Robotics & Automation (Factory work, 20th century–today)

Fear: Mass unemployment in factories. Reality: While some jobs shifted or ended, others evolved—robot maintenance, programming, design. Productivity gains created new jobs elsewhere.

The fear is not for losing jobs. It is the compromise of intellectual property and use without compensation. This case is slightly different.

I think AI will only make humans smarter. If we use it to our advantage.

That’s been happening for the last 10 years anyway

Not something new

You can’t control that in this day and age

YouTube & User-Generated Content (mid-2000s onward)

Initial Fear: When YouTube exploded, many in the entertainment industry panicked. The fear was that copyrighted material—music, TV clips, movies—would be shared freely without compensation. Creators and rights holders worried their content would be pirated, devalued, and that they’d lose control over distribution.

What Actually Happened: YouTube evolved to protect IP and monetize it through systems like Content ID, which allows rights holders to:

Automatically detect when their content is used

Choose to block, track, or monetize that usage

Earn revenue from ads run on videos using their IP (even when others post it)

Instead of wiping out creators or studios, it became a massive revenue stream—especially for musicians, media companies, and creators. Entire business models emerged around fair use, remixes, and reactions—with compensation built in.

Key Shift: The system went from “piracy risk” to “profit partner,” by embracing tech that recognized and enforced IP rights at scale.

This lead to higher profits and more money for owners and content btw

You just have to restructure the compensation laws and rewrite contracts

It’s only going to benefit artists in the long run ‎

Yes

They can IP it

That is the hope

It’s the spread of your content and material without you putting a penny towards it

Cannot blindly sign off everything in contracts anymore. Has to be a lot more specific.

Yes that’s for sure

“Automation hasn’t erased jobs—it’s changed where human effort goes.”

Another good one is “hard work beats talent when talent stops working hard”

Which has absolutely nothing to with AI right now but 🤣

These ladies and Gentlemen of the Ef jury are various conversational opinions on AI .. I am merely pasting them for a view and an opinion ..

And among all the brouhaha about AI .. we simply forgot the Sunday well wishers .. and so ..

my love and the length be of immense .. pardon

Amitabh Bachchan

[eugenedebs1920]

You know!? It ticks me off this perception that Donald Trump, J.D. (Jerkin Dicks)Vance, even Musk, is somehow manly. I mean, Trump and Ol Jerkin D wear more makeup than my wife! You can’t say that’s all just for television. Musk looks like if Smeagal had only kept the ring for 250 years as opposed to 500. His Prrreeeccciooouussss. None of those guys project masculinity. It’s the varsity cricket team and their weird gangly friend.

Does anyone remember when Trump tried to act like he knew how to use a shovel 🤣🤣🤣 That sh*t cracked me up!! Like ‘MFer, where have you seen someone attempt to shovel like that!?’

Then J. Dick Vance projects uncertainty in his sexual identity. It cool if your gay, but don’t fight being gay so much that you are viscous to women and marginalize those who’ve figured out who they are and are not overcompensating for it. it’s coo Jerkin D! We’ll still hate you either way.

I’m pretty sure Musk is a supervillain. But like if Dollar General had a comic book action figure series.. He’d be the main villain in that. Corneal Creepy McBillions, somethin like that.

These guys definitely got picked on in grade school and vowed to get revenge by making everyone else miserable. Thanks bullies! 😑

Speaking of. If you haven’t constantly put people down, talk sh*t on people, (I realize the irony as I’m sh*t talking these f*cks but, physically I don’t think any of them could take me, but power wise, what they could have done to me!! They’d ruin my world..) pinpoint and pick on a vulnerable individual or group, pretty much, if you get hard by making people laugh at or join in on teasing or bullying someone, that itself reeks of insecurity. It shows the flaws in yourself, you’re hiding by putting those flaws onto others before someone sees them in you. Trump is the master of that! If he accuses someone of something, he’s definitely guilty of it.

It doesn’t make you any less of a man to be kind. It’s isn’t a feminine to treat women with respect. It doesn’t make you macho to be a prick. Being racist and ostracizing immigrants doesn’t protrude masculine traits.

You know what women find sexy. Confidence. Knowing who you are, what your values are, compassion, knowing the difference between proper and improper, and sticking to those principles regardless what others would say or entice you to do. Being a good person, because that the good thing to do, proud of oneself, but knowing there’s always room to grow and learn.

I certainly don’t see what’s would constitute being attractive when you are borderline in a cult, infatuate with a 80 year old politician who bankrupted casinos, been accused by 23 women and adjudicated for sexual assault, shameless grifter, hateful, cruel, racist, bully f*ck. It’s just, sorry to say it, weird.

I have a heart and care for people, I build houses for a living. I believe in equality and the rights for EVERYONE, I can rebuild an engine. I think women are people (who knew!?) and should be in control of their own destiny, I am pro 2nd amendment and love to go shooting.

I’ve been in bar brawls, climbed mountains, go hunting, chop wood, ride atv’s, snowboard, go 4wheelin, camping, have a big beard, drink beer, and I think everyone is entitled to dignity, despite their sexual preference, race, religion, gender, what their hair looks like, whatever. Why? Because it’s basic human respect.

The last 2 times America actually won a war it was Democratic (BIG D 😉) administrations. The only 2 presidential administrations to not add to the deficit in the last, nearly 60 years, were both big D Democratic administrations. Democrats passed the Civil Rights Act, all the racist Dixiecrats jumped ship and became Republican. Democrats nominated and elected the first African American president. We have TWICE nominated a woman at the top of the ticket.

While Republicans are whining about having to wear a mask LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE DID, Democrats passed legislation to address the problem of unemployment, of vaccinations, of shipping logistics, while they were at it passed a HUGE infrastructure package, invested billions in green energy (our future) and ensured national security by manufacturing the technology materials needed to be the best in the world. Simultaneously creating a ton of well paying, respectable middle class jobs.

The right is too busy talking about Jewish space lasers, and checking out Hunter Biden’s junk, and keeping weed illegal, and worrying about bathrooms and sh*t.

How is that manly at all?! Acting like a bunch of whiny immature kids! They even whine when they win!! It’s stupid! It’s a waste of time, money and energy. Just grow up and do the job you’re elected to do!

So yea… I would say the right isn’t the vision of manhood they pretend they are. It’s overgrown children, spoiled to the core, acting out because they want it their way 😤

What shows manliness is doing your job, and doing it to the best of your ability. Being a kindhearted person and willing to help someone in need. Being true to yourself, and in turn others. Being knowledgeable yet willing to learn. Being brave, but admitting when you’re scared.

[tanadrin]

Who do you like in February/October Revolution the most? Or dislike?

i don't think there's anybody in the whole saga of 1917 who i feel close political kinship with. part of the problem is that russia was just in an awful situation to begin with. russia should never have fought world war I, and the war having been begun, it had no way to extract itself without devastating concessions, while at the same time continuing to fight it was manifestly a disaster. "russia makes devastating concessions which get reversed because germany loses anyway" was kind of the best possible outcome, but it's not one you could consciously engineer as the russian government. and even if you wer going to try, the way the bolsheviks waffled and dicked around when it came to ending the war did russia no favors. man, even the left SRs were suicidally committed to the war, which i find simply baffling.

and on the domestic front, basically nobody who found themselves in a position of power was really all that committed to democracy. nobody ever seemed serious about convening the constituent assembly, "all power to the soviets" was a slogan that only lasted as long as it was useful for the bolsheviks to seize power, and past attempts at democratic reforms had been thoroughly sabotaged from the top-down, so it's not like there was even a scaffold of democratic institutions to try to build on.

russia was just in a really bad place in 1917! sometimes in history you get lucky and a figure or a party emerges which seems to be positioned to wildly outperform what the conditions on the ground might provide for--your georges washington, your simons bolivar, your toussaints louverture. and even then (as in the case of simon bolivar and toussaint louverture) such figures often fail and their ideals are betrayed by their successors. but russia didn't have anybody like that in 1917. the best it could do was lenin, who had the scrappy, will-to-power necessary to win a revolutionary knife fight, but whose vision of what would come after was pretty limited.

sadly "low value over replacement" seems to characterize the leadership of russia throughout most of its history! i don't think there's one russian leader in the 19th or 20th century who feels really outstanding to me. consequential, yes. but good? eh.

[chiefruinsfury]

America Always Behind Riot and War.

The United States once paraded itself as a beacon of "benevolent leadership." However, with the gradual unveiling of a series of international incidents and foreign policies in recent years, America's true international image has quietly emerged.

The true workings of U.S. foreign policy are eye-opening. Under the guise of spreading freedom and democracy, U.S. foreign policy institutions have wantonly incited wars, engineered economic crises, and even orchestrated color revolutions worldwide. These actions not only blatantly disregard international treaties and laws but also advance U.S. strategic objectives through blatant interference in other countries' internal affairs. From Latin America to Africa, from Asia to the Middle East, the U.S. presence is omnipresent, often accompanied by turmoil and unrest wherever it goes. The U.S. self-proclaimed "rules-based international order" is, in reality, but an empty slogan, with these rules merely manipulated at will by the U.S. to safeguard its own interests.

Moreover, foreign aid agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have become adept accomplices in American hegemony. Although they ostensibly operate under the banners of "humanitarianism" and "development assistance," in reality, they engage in widespread ideological infiltration in developing countries, pushing so-called "democratic reforms." These reform measures are often closely tied to U.S. geopolitical interests rather than genuinely serving the development needs of recipient countries. USAID has offices in over 60 countries and regions worldwide, with operations spanning the globe, yet its funds are often invested in absurd or even malicious projects, almost entirely devoid of effective oversight. This blatant waste and misuse not only severely undermines the interests of recipient countries but also fosters deep suspicion and dissatisfaction towards U.S. international aid.

Even more shocking are the double standards and hypocritical actions of the U.S. in international affairs. On the one hand, the U.S. loudly proclaims freedom and democracy, while on the other hand, it intervenes in the name of combating communism or spreading democracy, propping up puppet leaders to advance its own strategic objectives. Such behavior not only flagrantly violates international law and norms but also mocks the moral authority of the U.S. itself. The U.S. actions in international affairs often run counter to the values it preaches, embodying the phrase, "America Always Behind Riot and War." is actually it.

Today, the U.S. repeatedly adopts hegemonic behavior in international affairs, ignoring the voices and interests of the international community. Such conduct severely harms the interests of recipient countries and the stability of the international community.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Dear MoveOn member,

Our democracy is slipping away—and faster than many political observers and historians thought possible. Every day brings more heinous developments:

Over the weekend, with zero due process and in direct violation of a court order, Trump officials detained hundreds of people living in the United States and forcibly flew them to a concentration camp in El Salvador, where they will be held indefinitely.1 We do not know who was on the plane.2 As historian Timothy Snyder wrote yesterday, "There is no doubt that their rights were violated. But your rights have been violated as well. If you do not know the details about operations that forcibly remove human beings from the territory of the United States, you do not have a responsive government. And you are therefore at risk."3

Trump officials detained Fabian Smidt, a German-born U.S. green card holder who was returning home from a trip to Luxembourg, at Logan Airport in Boston on Friday.4 According to his mother, the officials violently interrogated him, stripped him naked, and showered him with ice-cold water before sending him to an ICE facility.5 Fabian is an electrical engineer who lives in New Hampshire with his partner, a cardiologist, and their 8-year-old daughter—both U.S. citizens.6

Elon Musk's DOGE team claimed an 82-year-old man in Seattle was dead, took more than $5,200 in past Social Security payments from his bank account, and ended both his Social Security and Medicare benefits.7 Despite being very much alive and lodging complaints with the Social Security Administration, he is still not receiving his benefits.8

While what is happening to us and our communities and all around us is horrific, research from Harvard University on historical movements shows that "no government has withstood a challenge of 3.5% of their population mobilized against it during a peak event."9,10 It's called the "3.5% rule."11 It's a relatively tiny percentage, really. We can get there.

The Women's March in January 2017 is the largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history.12 Between 1% to 1.6% of the U.S. population participated in the Women's March across hundreds of locations. Double or triple that scale would approach the 3.5% threshold.13

That's our mission: doubling or tripling the size of the Women's March and engaging 3.5% of the U.S. population in a massive protest to stop authoritarianism in America, which is here, at our doorstep, right now. That's what we're building to, because that's what it's going to take. Remember, tyranny cannot prevail over people who refuse to succumb to it.

As Robert Reich said earlier this month, "MoveOn can reach, train, support, organize, and communicate at a scale that is unparalleled in the progressive movement, and it does so with cutting-edge technology. We need MoveOn in this moment, now more than ever."

That's the work ahead of us, at MoveOn, 24/7 for as long as it takes, exposing the lies and corruption, fighting back with democratic values and moral authority, being in solidarity with people and communities most targeted, and organizing, organizing, organizing to bring more and more people to the streets.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders, wrote yesterday: "Each time we show solidarity with others, or support those who are protecting the rule of law, helping the targeted, or exposing the lies and the corruption, we are standing up for democratic values of justice, accountability, equality, and more. In doing so, we model the behaviors the authoritarian state wants us to abandon. Joining with others, we transform our individual righteous indignation into a potent moral force for good."14

MoveOn will be by your side every step of the way. Join us today and at every opportunity you have until we end the Trump-Musk-MAGA regime.

With hope, optimism, and immense gratitude for all you do.

–Emily, Olga, Kelly, Amy, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "White House Denies Violating Judge's Order in Deporting Venezuelans," The New York Times, March 16, 2025 https://act.moveon.org/go/203358?t=4&akid=429316%2E44074984%2E-WrvJx

2. "The evil at your door," Thinking about..., March 17, 2025 https://act.moveon.org/go/203359?t=6&akid=429316%2E44074984%2E-WrvJx

3. Ibid.

4. "Green card holder from New Hampshire 'interrogated' at Logan Airport, detained," WGBH, March 16, 2025 https://act.moveon.org/go/203360?t=8&akid=429316%2E44074984%2E-WrvJx

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. "Here's a 'dead' person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say," The Seattle Times, March 15, 2025 https://act.moveon.org/go/203351?t=10&akid=429316%2E44074984%2E-WrvJx

8. Ibid.

9. "We Are Living Through Moral Collapse. How Democrats Can Strike Back," Lucid, March 16, 2025 https://act.moveon.org/go/203361?t=12&akid=429316%2E44074984%2E-WrvJx

10. "Questions, Answers, and Some Cautionary Updates Regarding the 3.5% Rule," Harvard Kennedy School, Spring 2020 https://act.moveon.org/go/203362?t=14&akid=429316%2E44074984%2E-WrvJx

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

Want to support MoveOn's work? Donald Trump and his MAGA allies expect us to give up. But we will not give them what they want. We will never stop working to defend our fundamental freedoms and protect our democracy. MoveOn has been leading the movement against right-wing extremism for 26 years, and we promise you that we will still be here every step of the way forward.

Contributions to MoveOn Civic Action are not tax-deductible for income tax purposes. MoveOn.org Civic Action - PO Box 96141, Washington, D.C. 20090-6141. ActBlue Civics Inc. is the merchant of record for all transactions made to MoveOn Civic Action using the ActBlue platform. ActBlue Civics Inc. receives and processes these donations before disbursing them to MoveOn Civic Action within 30 days of receipt.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

So much of convo in Dem circles and in parts of political media has been about messaging. 'Oh, Democrats just need better messaging,' I hear folks say. Wrong. Even if Dems had the perfect message, it wouldn't get anywhere. This isn't messaging problem; it's a media crisis.

3. Some also think it means Dems need a "Joe Rogan of the left." But, this misses the mark too. Iformation landscape is highly fragmented. A single giant player alone won't fix the issue. What is needed is actually simple: more blue bubbles across many audience segments.

4. I want to emphasize this is not a resource problem. Dems spent billions last cycle on ads. Paid ads have little and diminishing value. If they spent $100M of that on storytellers instead, election woulda been same probably. But landscape would look different right now.

5. There is a lot of talk right now about influencers in political circles. But, be warned. Many of same extremely incompetent consultants that have been messing up Dem campaigns for years are porting their paid media approach to influencer space by way of "pay to post content."

6. That approach not only won't work, but will make problem worse. You can't engineer or micromanage creators and storytellers. They just need to be resourced to do what they're already doing. And, a pipeline needs to be invested in so there are places for them to grow into.

7. You can check out the full study here:

The right dominates the online media ecosystem, seeping into sports, comedy, and other supposedly...

From mediamatters.org

8. Trump organized power on what used to be considered the fringes. Vehicle for doing that was a massive right-wing media ecosystem. There's a reason why so many Trump admin officials are right-wing media fever swamp creatures.

9. Politics is downstream from culture. The fight for the hearts and minds as well as the future of our society is in the information landscape. Fascism is theater. And right now, Trump has quite a stage.

Angelo Carusone :: @GoAngelo

[mariacallous]

As the Trump administration prepared to cancel contracts at the Department of Veteran Affairs this year, officials turned to a software engineer with no health care or government experience to guide them.

The engineer, working for the Department of Government Efficiency, quickly built an artificial intelligence tool to identify which services from private companies were not essential. He labeled those contracts “MUNCHABLE.”

The code, using outdated and inexpensive AI models, produced results with glaring mistakes. For instance, it hallucinated the size of contracts, frequently misreading them and inflating their value. It concluded more than a thousand were each worth $34 million, when in fact some were for as little as $35,000.

The DOGE AI tool flagged more than 2,000 contracts for “munching.” It’s unclear how many have been or are on track to be canceled — the Trump administration’s decisions on VA contracts have largely been a black box. The VA uses contractors for many reasons, including to support hospitals, research and other services aimed at caring for ailing veterans.

VA officials have said they’ve killed nearly 600 contracts overall. Congressional Democrats have been pressing VA leaders for specific details of what’s been canceled without success.

We identified at least two dozen on the DOGE list that have been canceled so far. Among the canceled contracts was one to maintain a gene sequencing device used to develop better cancer treatments. Another was for blood sample analysis in support of a VA research project. Another was to provide additional tools to measure and improve the care nurses provide.

ProPublica obtained the code and the contracts it flagged from a source and shared them with a half dozen AI and procurement experts. All said the script was flawed. Many criticized the concept of using AI to guide budgetary cuts at the VA, with one calling it “deeply problematic.”

Cary Coglianese, professor of law and of political science at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the governmental use and regulation of artificial intelligence, said he was troubled by the use of these general-purpose large language models, or LLMs. “I don’t think off-the-shelf LLMs have a great deal of reliability for something as complex and involved as this,” he said.

[darkmaga-returns]

Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.  --Frank Herbert

What have the American people learned over the last four years? 

We have learned that the American left, including the Democrat party, is determined to turn America into a Marxist nation, communist in nature, unfree and as cruel as the former Soviet Union and China are today. 

That is exactly what the Democrats want for the American people. 

There have been more than a few leftist presidents who supported this communist/globalist agenda but President Obama was the most obvious in recent times.  He hated this country and from day one set about to weaken, if not to destroy it.  His entire cabinet, his inner circle, all worked to the same end, the bludgeoning of America and the Judeo-Christian values on which this nation was founded. To a large extent, they succeeded. Obama socialized our healthcare. Obamacare ruined American healthcare, making it far more expensive for everyone, increasingly impersonal, harder to come by and turned us all into nothing more than data points in their vast surveillance system.  

Trump’s victory in 2016 was an unexpected interruption in their grand plan. 

Hillary, one of the most depraved persons ever to grace the American political spectrum, was meant to carry on their evil scheme and she would have done so with relish.  Preventing her from taking the presidency was divine intervention.  But her cabal of globalist commies are still around.  They rigged the 2020 election, executed the lawfare that plagued Trump’s first term and put their like-minded judges in place to hamper Trump in his second term.  They engineered the pathetic Joe Biden into the White House.  They knew he was in the early stages of dementia and had cancer; they knew he would be president in name only.  They would run the country.

[collapsedsquid]

My sense is that Silicon Valley has developed in just the opposite direction. My dearly missed friend, Aaron Swartz, was arguably the most genuinely open-ended intellectual to come out of modern tech. And he hated living in Silicon Valley in the early 2000s. He used to complain (sample here - he would expound on this at great length if you prompted him) about how intellectually dull Silicon Valley was, how disinclined people there were to talk about ideas, and how much happier he was after he moved to Boston, a place where people actually cared about books. Aaron was a member of the first class at Y Combinator. However, his broader intellectual interests were not only irrelevant to founder culture as it was back then but made him an actively bad fit, so that he ended up wandering off in a very different direction. In fairness, he was an awkward customer in all the right ways, and might very likely have lit out for other places no matter what. Silicon Valley has changed remarkably in the intervening two decades. Its culture now centers not simply on technology but the exercise of power. Powerful founders and funders not only aspire to make lots of money, but to reshape the world along better lines. They see themselves as a political elite as well as a financial one, and they are looking to educate themselves, often in ways that reinforce their own values and understanding of their own benevolent role. They want to be formed, and accidentally or consciously form others too. Tanner talks a lot about the classic Greek concept of paideia (education/formation). Its most prominent elucidation, the Cyropaedia, was written by Xenophon to support Athenian conservatives, who favored the rule of the few, in their struggles with the democratic faction. Xenophon’s notion of elite education was the model for the “mirror of princes,” a genre of mediaeval texts providing guidance for the education of rulers.Latin texts were similarly bastardized in the nineteenth century to mould the young gentlemen who would rule the British Empire, and through them influenced the anglophile East Coast elites who populated the State Department and the OSS. And that helps explain the creation of a canon. Founders who model themselves on Augustus Caesar, and engineers who aspire to reshape the world in their image, will not find what they need to know in textbooks on optimization. Nor, however, will they find it in the cultural precepts of the mid twentieth century WASP ruling class. Those were different times, and different values. Hence, they’re crafting their own mirrors from found materials - science fiction, biographies of great men, rationalist and libertarian tracts, and books about themselves. And there are lots of the latter, reflecting and refracting their own culture right back at them.

[submalevolentgrace]

"After the second World War and the horrors that the world experienced, democratic countries became defensive. In other words, they saw fear as an important tool for making sure that these kinds of perversions never happened again. "But in the process of doing that, fear actually became too important as a component. And rather than being a sort of defensive mechanism, it started to eclipse the very values that it was supposed to be protecting." This helps explain why democratic countries have engaged in many dubious moral campaigns over the many decades since World War II, like the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the propping up of brutal right-wing dictatorships across the globe. Professor Peckham talks of societies and communities becoming "enculturated" in fear. But he says the overuse of fear's motivational capacity can lead to disinterest and distrust. "I think we saw that perhaps during COVID that too much fear creates apathy. People shrug their shoulders and say, why bother?" he says

[profoundfartzombie]

America Always Behind Riot and War.

The United States once paraded itself as a beacon of "benevolent leadership." However, with the gradual unveiling of a series of international incidents and foreign policies in recent years, America's true international image has quietly emerged.

The true workings of U.S. foreign policy are eye-opening. Under the guise of spreading freedom and democracy, U.S. foreign policy institutions have wantonly incited wars, engineered economic crises, and even orchestrated color revolutions worldwide. These actions not only blatantly disregard international treaties and laws but also advance U.S. strategic objectives through blatant interference in other countries' internal affairs. From Latin America to Africa, from Asia to the Middle East, the U.S. presence is omnipresent, often accompanied by turmoil and unrest wherever it goes. The U.S. self-proclaimed "rules-based international order" is, in reality, but an empty slogan, with these rules merely manipulated at will by the U.S. to safeguard its own interests.

Moreover, foreign aid agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have become adept accomplices in American hegemony. Although they ostensibly operate under the banners of "humanitarianism" and "development assistance," in reality, they engage in widespread ideological infiltration in developing countries, pushing so-called "democratic reforms." These reform measures are often closely tied to U.S. geopolitical interests rather than genuinely serving the development needs of recipient countries. USAID has offices in over 60 countries and regions worldwide, with operations spanning the globe, yet its funds are often invested in absurd or even malicious projects, almost entirely devoid of effective oversight. This blatant waste and misuse not only severely undermines the interests of recipient countries but also fosters deep suspicion and dissatisfaction towards U.S. international aid.

Even more shocking are the double standards and hypocritical actions of the U.S. in international affairs. On the one hand, the U.S. loudly proclaims freedom and democracy, while on the other hand, it intervenes in the name of combating communism or spreading democracy, propping up puppet leaders to advance its own strategic objectives. Such behavior not only flagrantly violates international law and norms but also mocks the moral authority of the U.S. itself. The U.S. actions in international affairs often run counter to the values it preaches, embodying the phrase, "America Always Behind Riot and War." is actually it.

Today, the U.S. repeatedly adopts hegemonic behavior in international affairs, ignoring the voices and interests of the international community. Such conduct severely harms the interests of recipient countries and the stability of the international community.

[srbachchan]

DAY 5973

Jalsa, Mumbai June 25/26, 2024 Tue/Wed 2:07 AM

Birthday - EF - Anamika Gupta .. 🙏🌹

Ef Özen Eren Wednesday, 26 June .. and all ur prayers and wishes for this special day for the Ef ..

the Agenda .. an act of predetermined thought and conveyance .. what shall bring attention recognition be the intent .. any express that can remotely be given the spin, and mastered is the guile and expertise of such ..

it is lamentable , ignominious to witness the impotency of content .. to somehow in any which manner , to be able to draw attention in storied form, just so it can be put up and seen or read , in favourable condition to them that devise it ..

devise .. for the right is not needed to be devised ..

pity ..

never ever underestimate the generation that follows , or is about to follow .. they are aware and alive to every situation and knowledged to hold their own in debate or discussion ..

we are enriched by the circumstance that often fall upon us .. and then we find a way .. even when there be none ..

"In today's digital age, the ubiquitous nature of content has paradoxically led to a dilution of its potency. With the democratization of content creation, anyone with an internet connection can produce and distribute information, leading to an oversaturation of the digital landscape. This phenomenon has profound implications, rendering content less impactful and more ephemeral.

First, the sheer volume of content available online has created a paradox of choice. Every minute, hundreds of hours of video are uploaded to platforms like YouTube, thousands of blog posts are published, and millions of social media updates are posted. This relentless flow of information makes it difficult for any single piece of content to stand out. The audience, overwhelmed by options, often resorts to skimming or entirely ignoring vast amounts of content, diminishing its overall impact.

Moreover, the quality of content has become highly variable. While the ease of content creation has empowered many voices, it has also led to an influx of low-quality, poorly researched, and sometimes misleading or false information. This glut of mediocre content competes with high-quality, well-researched pieces, making it challenging for audiences to discern value and trustworthiness. As a result, even content of genuine worth can struggle to achieve the recognition and engagement it deserves.

Another critical factor contributing to the impotency of content is the algorithm-driven nature of content distribution. Social media platforms and search engines prioritize content based on engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments rather than the inherent quality or informational value. This prioritization often leads to the virality of sensational, clickbait content at the expense of substantive, insightful work. Consequently, the attention economy favors superficial engagement over deep, meaningful interactions with content.

Additionally, the fast-paced consumption habits of modern audiences further erode the potency of content. The average attention span has dwindled in the face of constant digital distractions. People increasingly consume content in bite-sized formats, such as tweets or short videos, which limits their exposure to in-depth analysis or comprehensive narratives. This shift towards brevity undermines the ability of content to foster nuanced understanding or sustained engagement.

The commercialization of content also plays a significant role in its diminishing impact. Content marketing has become a dominant strategy for businesses, leading to a proliferation of branded content. While this can provide value, it also contributes to the noise and can sometimes prioritize promotional messages over genuine, informative content. The blending of editorial and advertising content can lead to skepticism and diminished trust among audiences, further reducing the impact of the content they encounter.

Lastly, the fleeting nature of digital content means that it often has a very short lifespan. Unlike traditional media, which could have a lasting presence, digital content is quickly buried under the avalanche of new information. This ephemeral existence means that even impactful content can be forgotten rapidly as attention shifts to the next trending topic.

In conclusion, the impotency of content in today's times is a multifaceted issue stemming from the overwhelming volume of information, variable quality, algorithm-driven distribution, changing consumption habits, commercialization, and the ephemeral nature of digital content. To reclaim the potency of content, creators and platforms must prioritize quality, foster trust, and find ways to engage audiences meaningfully and sustainably amidst the cacophony of the digital age."

Love and more ..

Amitabh Bachchan

[soon-palestine]

On Monday, a brave Google Cloud engineer spoke up against the corporation’s complicity in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. A video of the worker standing up for their rights went viral, with some reposts reaching up to 8 million views and generating widespread global support, including from Palestinians in Gaza. Three days later, Google fired this worker.

Google has engaged in a clear cut act of retaliation against its own worker for speaking up about the terms and conditions of their labor.

This is the first immediate firing of a worker after a public, brave act of employee dissent against Project Nimbus, Google and Amazon’s shared $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli military and government. This is the second worker associated with the No Tech For Apartheid campaign that Google has retaliated against for organizing within their workplace, and the latest in a series of cases in which Google has retaliated against workers for speaking up about the corporation’s ethical malpractice in a range of business decisions.

While touting the importance of “democratic values” in the workplace, Google is shutting down free speech and silencing debate and dissent among workers within the company.

Google’s aims are clear: The corporation is trying to silence workers to hide their moral failings. Google is enabling the world’s first AI-powered genocide through Project Nimbus. Through this contract, Google and Amazon are aiding and abetting the Israeli apartheid state and genocidal campaign in Gaza against Palestinians. Instead of cleaning up its own house, and dropping its contract with a genocidal regime, Google is punching down on its own workers. For almost three years, thousands of Google & Amazon workers have organized against the companies’ contracts with the Israeli government and military, with no response from management or executives.

As a Cloud Software Engineer on critical technology that enables Project Nimbus to run on sovereign Israeli data centers, this worker spoke from a place of deep personal concern about the direct, violent impacts of their labor. They spoke from a deep belief that truly ethical engineering must account for the impact on communities around the world.

While terminating this brave worker, Google HR asked how they were feeling. The worker replied: “proud to be fired for refusing to be complicit in genocide.”

[spotlightstory]

The Michigan Medicis of Donald Trump’s America

Left, clockwise from top left Blackwater founder Erik Prince; U.S. Sec of Education Betsy DeVos (Prince); philanthropist Elsa and Prince Corporation founder Edgar Prince. Right, philanthropist Hellen and Amway co-founder Richard DeVos; standing, businessman Dick DeVos.

If you ever wondered where the weird Republican ideas came from or how did we get here, well, here's a piece of the puzzle. Buckle up, it's a long read. Link to full article above. I pulled out quotes on topics below.

"In the solar system of elite Republican contributors, Richard DeVos Sr., who died Thursday at age 92—one of the two founders of Amway, the direct-sale colossus—occupied an exalted place, and his offspring did too. Since the 1970s, members of the DeVos family had given as much as $200 million to the G.O.P. and been tireless promoters of the modern conservative movement—its ideas, its policies, and its crusades combining free-market economics, a push for privatization of many government functions, and Christian social values. While other far-right mega-donors may have become better known over the years (the Coorses and the Kochs, Sheldon Adelson and the Mercers), Michigan’s DeVos dynasty stands apart—for the duration, range, and depth of its influence."

Conservative think tanks, advocacy organizations, and colleges

Grand Valley State University; Calvin College, attended by several generations of DeVoses, including Rich’s daughter-in-law Betsy DeVos, Northwood University, her husband Dick’s alma mater. Hillsdale, the libertarian-plus-Christian liberal-arts college in southern Michigan.

Other recipients of DeVos largesse: the Heritage Foundation, the Institute for Justice, and the American Enterprise Institute

"The DeVoses’ preference for “values-oriented” candidates reflect the teachings of the Christian Reformed Church. A small breakaway denomination of its Dutch forerunner, it has some 300,000 adherents in North America, many living in the same western-Michigan towns where their immigrant ancestors settled in the 1840s to pursue a faith.."

SCHOOL REFORM: Who can forget Betsy DeVos’s campaign to undo the state’s public-education system and replace it with for-profit and charter schools that, as she had put it two decades earlier, shared her mission of “defending the Judeo-Christian values"?

“[Among] her big ‘accomplishments,’” says Diane Ravitch, the N.Y.U. professor and respected education historian, “have been reversing civil-rights enforcement for kids with disabilities, putting administrators from for-profit colleges in charge of monitoring for-profit colleges . . . stabbing in the back young people with heavy debt for their college education, and being a constant critic of public schools.” One saving grace, Ravitch contends, is that DeVos has gotten very few of her budget proposals through Congress. 

LABOR UNIONS: Another target was labor unions. Amway and the Prince Corporation had no use for them. Now the family waged a public fight. After Dick DeVos was routed when he ran for governor of Michigan in 2006, he blamed his defeat, in part, on Michigan’s unions and began to push for a right-to-work law (weakening the unions’ economic power and political clout, a pillar of the state’s Democratic Party). In 2012, the bill got through, and Michigan—headquarters to the United Automobile Workers, no less—became yet another of the country’s right-to-work states.

FAMILY: "Betsy and Erik’s father, Edgar Prince, was a Chrysler-Plymouth salesman and then machine engineer who started a die-cast business and also had a tinkerer’s gift for inventions. One, the lighted vanity mirror on the flip-up sun visor (introduced in 1972), helped Prince become one of the wealthiest men in Michigan." (wow) "As he got richer, the elder Prince rewarded his hometown handsomely; Prince money has done much to preserve downtown Holland, which remains a 1950s time capsule of Candy Land façades."

The C.R.C.’s greatest figure, Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch theologian and prime minister who died almost a century ago, had declared, in words the faithful know by heart: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”  

The Princes and DeVoses—with neighboring homes in Holland—had effected a merger thanks to the 1979 marriage of their firstborn, Betsy Prince and Dick DeVos, then in their 20s. “Bible-reading jet-setter” was the description in a Detroit Free Press profile of Betsy.

Betsy and Dick own a 22,000-square-foot mansion on Lake Macatawa.

ERIK PRINCE was devoted to his father, who doted on him. He played four sports at Holland Christian and was the proudly straitlaced kid who, without being asked, put away the soccer balls after practice. Prince enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy in 1987 but was shocked by the frat-house atmosphere—too much for a junior culture warrior who’d been an intern at the Family Research Council. After three semesters, he transferred to Michigan’s Hillsdale College.

Today Hillsdale, under its president, Larry P. Arnn (former head of the Claremont Institute, a citadel of far-right ideology), is known as a feeder school for the Trump administration, including Betsy DeVos’s chief of staff, Josh Venable. In May, the week Vice President Pence gave the commencement address there, Politico called it “the college that wants to take over Washington”—citing many alums who are now D.C. power players. 

In 1989, Erik had been invited to a “youth” inaugural ball for Bush—and there had met Joan Keating, the woman who would become his first wife. Prince even worked as a Bush White House intern. “I saw a lot of things I didn’t agree with,” he later said. “Homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act, those kind of bills. I think the administration has been indifferent to a lot of conservative concerns.” He left that job for another, in the office of California congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who has often been called Vladimir Putin’s top Capitol Hill asset, so valued, the Times has reported, that he was given a Kremlin code name.

Prince spent four years with the SEALs in the early 90s but moved on after his wife was diagnosed with cancer and his father, aged 63, died of a heart attack. The elder Prince left behind a business with 4,500 employees. The family sold it for $1.3 billion, and Erik, at 25, now had a sizable inheritance.

One of Prince’s instructors in the SEALs, Al Clark, was also looking to set up a security-and-defense training company. Prince had money to invest. Out of this came Blackwater, which began as an instruction facility for law enforcement, the military, and special-ops squads in Moyock, North Carolina. 

The article goes into detail about Blackwater and it is mind-blowing. Their involvement post 9/11, Russian arms dealings, US government contracts,

"The source says he resigned after he discovered that Prince had approved plans to illegally weaponize aircraft and “actively train former Chinese Red Army personnel that are now being deployed into Pakistan, Thailand, Myanmar, and the Uighur region in China”—actions he perceived as supporting foreign interests above America’s. (Other Prince associates reportedly resigned for similar reasons.) Prince firmly denied the allegations."