#walter your ethics know no bounds

[nowwheresmynut]

i finally finished watching Fringe, what now

i am

bereft

[lepus-arcticus]

52. Interlude

That night, wading through the undergrowth in the boreal chill, Walter Skinner believed. 

He saw it all and he believed; saw the ship slip from its shimmering veil, massive and magnificent in the endless, glittering night; saw the bodies rise; saw light, saw heat, saw his agent rapt and limp in the ecstasy of surrender. 

He saw it all, and he felt anew the awe and terror of Vietnam, the helicopters and the fire and MK-NAOMI, the sputter of an M60, khaki dark with blood. He saw it all, and he felt the quiet peace of inevitability, and then the sick sweetness of wonder, or perhaps the end of wondering. 

He stared into the sky as the tears gathered without falling, stared as the invaders blinked away into an abrupt and infinite void. He stared until there was nothing left but the slow creep of dawn’s mist, the sound of his own ragged breath. Stared until there was nothing left to do but stumble back through the pines to the car, to Mulder’s keys still dangling from the rental keyring in the ignition, to his jacket crumpled in the back seat. 

Walter sees it all, again and again. 

He closes his eyes, and he sees it all, sees nothing but his promise, made in earnest and then helplessly, flagrantly broken. 

-

When the sunrise begins to stain the wood paneling of his office, burning away the homey shadows in a flame of honey and bronze, he swills back the last of his whiskey and makes the trek, coatless, to the steaming coffee cart across the street. He is not drunk. He is never drunk, even after his best efforts, but the cool morning air slaps him sober anyway. 

He stands in line, pays the burly, ageless Serbian woman manning the cart her due, and wrestles a lid onto the paper cup. Black, no sugar, no cream. He stalks back through the wind with his coffee to the Hoover, picturing Scully at home in the great concrete belly of the building, tilting endlessly at her strange and unclassifiable work, reluctant to leave its orbit. 

He glances at his watch as he shoulders past security. He’s still got twenty ‘til their meeting. 

Jesus Christ, she shouldn’t even be here. It’s bad for the baby. She should be resting, goddamn it, should have her feet propped up on a pillow or three, should be eating fucking bonbons with her stubborn head wrapped up in a fluffy towel. She should at least be on desk duty, not running around Idaho brandishing scalpel and SIG-Sauer like some sort of modern day dual-wielding hedge knight. 

As usual, he abstains from the elevator, and takes the stairs back up. The mild exercise helps him squash his chivalrous irritation, helps him put it back into context. Maybe he’s just more of a sexist than he thought he was. Or maybe he just knows his agent. Maybe, that night in the hospital, he looked down into her wet blue eyes and saw rage and fear and unbridled joy as she wept, saw a woman, a lover, a mother. It was a revelation; he hadn’t even seen her cry when her sister was killed. 

She’s a warhorse, that one. She’s Joan of Arc. At the very least, she’s one hell of an agent. 

He guards himself against sentiment; he does not yearn. But in his weaker moments, he allows himself to wonder. He knows that he is no Fox Mulder, no crusader or revolutionary. War’s vicious hand had already beaten the thirst for adventure and glory out of him by the time Dana Scully was ten years old. He’s no longer the kind of man that could inspire the love and loyalty of a woman like her, and maybe he never was. 

But hell, he still believes in doing the right thing; believes in America, even after all he’s seen. He’s got the patience to play the game by the rules, the muscle to bend them. He knows his place, his role in all of this.

Some men are bound for greatness. Some must be content to be good. 

-

Nothing about Dana Scully has ever been cliché, but he can’t help but think that in this newly fertile iteration, she really does glow. Across from him, coolly delivering her account of the events in Burley, she’s pale and dewy, clearly fighting through a bout of morning sickness. He thinks she might be wearing less makeup. Her cheeks are beginning to fill out, her cider hair shines with health. She is beautiful beyond all reason, beyond all sense. When she finishes her narrative, he has to clear his throat in order to speak. 

“And Agent Doggett?” He prompts, watching her face carefully. He likes John Doggett, likes his weary moxie, his work ethic. He recognizes within him the familiar clarity of loneliness. 

Scully purses her lips for a quick moment, the only indication that he’s hit a soft spot. “He’s a good agent, sir,” she clips. “He’s thorough and seems to have a respect for what we—what I—do. But…” 

“But he’s no Mulder,” he finishes for her. 

She blinks, slowly, unevenly, and looks down at her hands, knotted together in her lap. 

“Listen, Agent Scully, I couldn’t very well leave you alone down there,” he says. “Not while you’re… not in your present condition.” He pries off his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose, knowing that he sounds like the worst kind of man. “Not that you’re…” 

“It’s okay,” she says, saving him. “Thank you.” 

She still won’t meet his gaze. 

“Scully… off the record. We haven’t given up. We’re still working hard to find him,” he says, leaning forward, reaching for some sort of simpatico, some way to scale the wall between them. “Frohike—”

“Frohike can’t do a goddamned thing,” she interrupts, her voice thin and sharp. She lifts her shining eyes to his, trapping him in the vortex of their whirlpool blue. “If Mulder couldn’t bring me back when I was taken, then there’s nothing that any of us can do to bring him back now. We have to wait. I’ve been thinking. It’s the only way. I have to be—” 

“Exactly, Dana. Now is the time for patience.” The use of her first name seems to shock her back into herself. Her pink tongue darts out to wet her lips. 

“Your only job right now is to wait,” he continues. “To focus on your work, on your pregnancy. I won’t have you doing anything rash or stupid. That’s Agent Mulder’s job.” 

She can’t restrain a small, sad, girlish smile, and the sheepish pleasure and relief that rushes through him is entirely inappropriate. Juvenile. Undeserved. 

“Which, by the way, is waiting for him when he returns, once he is ready,” he says, forging onward. “Doggett’s position is temporary. I just feel better knowing that there is someone looking out for you, someone you can rely on, to turn to when you need something. John Doggett is a good man. You can count on him.” 

She does not respond. Silence fills the room. 

“I, uh, I have something for you,” he says. He rummages in a drawer, extracts an overstuffed manila envelope, slides it across the desk. She stares at it for a moment before claiming it, drawing it into her lap and unspooling the clasp. 

“The investigation no longer requires these items as evidence,” he says, by way of explanation. 

Scully reaches inside and pulls out a worn leather wallet. A badge. A ring of keys and a lockpick jackknife lashed together with a Liberty Bell keychain. 

She opens the badge and rubs her manicured thumb over Mulder’s photo. It’s an act so intimate and heartfelt that it hurts him to observe it. He studies his own hands instead, large and square and calloused from long, punishing hours in the Gold’s weight room down the block from his condo. 

There’s a soft metallic click. He looks up. 

There is a single key on his desk. 

“This is my apartment key,” Scully says. “Hold it for Mulder until he gets back, will you?” 

She stands, and her waist is still tiny, her secret still safe. She is proud, sweet, noble, peculiar. He is not in love with her, but he could be, if he let himself. “Thank you for looking out for me, Walter.” 

He watches her disappear through the door, back to the basement, back to the shadows. He savours the sound of his name on her lips.

- 

Incrementum

[dinafbrownil]

Does the Federal Health Information Privacy Law Protect President Trump?

Within one day, President Donald Trump announced his COVID diagnosis and was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment. The flurry of events was stunning, confusing and triggered many questions. What was his prognosis? When was he last tested for COVID-19? What is his viral load?

The answers were elusive.

Picture the scene on Oct. 5. White House physician Dr. Sean Conley, flanked by other members of Trump’s medical team, met with reporters outside the hospital. But Conley would not disclose the results of the president’s lung scans and other vital information, invoking a federal law he said allows him to selectively provide intel on the president’s health.

“There are HIPAA rules and regulations that restrict me in sharing certain things for his safety and his own health,” he told the reporters.

The law he’s referring to, HIPAA, is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which includes privacy protections designed to shield personal health information from disclosure without a patient’s consent.

Because this is likely to remain an issue, we decided to take a look. In what cases does HIPAA restrict the sharing of information — and is the president covered by it?

Experts agreed that he is, but several noted there are exceptions to its protections — stirring debate over the airwaves and on Twitter regarding what information about the president’s health should be released.

Explaining the Protections

HIPAA and the rules for its implementation apply to medical providers — such as doctors, dentists, pharmacists, hospitals — and most health plans that either provide or pay for medical care.

In some cases, the law permits the sharing of medical information without specific consent, such as when needed for treatment purposes or billing. Examples include doctors or hospitals sharing information with other physicians or facilities involved in the patient’s care, or information shared about tests, drugs or other medical care so bills can be sent to patients.

Other than that, without specific patient consent, the law is clear.

“The default rule under HIPAA is that health care providers may not disclose a patient’s health information. Period,” said Joy Pritts, a consultant in Washington, D.C., and a former privacy official in the Obama administration.

The experts we consulted all agreed that Trump’s doctors are bound by HIPAA. Since he is their patient, they cannot share his medical information without his consent.

Patients can allow some information to be released while demanding that other bits be withheld.

That may be why the public has been given only select details about Trump’s COVID-19 status, such as when Conley discussed the president’s blood pressure reading but not the results of his lung scans.

Trump “can pick and choose what he wants to disclose,” Pritts said.

So it is up to Trump to give his doctors the green light to report to the public on his condition.

“HIPAA does not prevent the president of the United States from authorizing the disclosure of all publicly relevant information,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University. “He can share it if he wanted to and he can tell his doctors to share it.”

Elizabeth Gray, a teaching assistant professor of health policy and management at George Washington University, said that because Conley shared some medically private information with the American public, there must have been a conversation between the president and his doctors about what was OK to include in their press briefings.

“He would have had to have given his authorization,” said Gray. In other words, Trump OK’d the details his doctors mentioned, but when follow-up questions were asked, she said, HIPAA was “a shield” because “the president hadn’t authorized the release of anything else.”

Still, beyond HIPAA, other factors could lead to less-than-complete disclosure of the president’s health.

For starters, Trump is the commander in chief, and his personal physician is a member of the military.

“If your commander in chief says, ‘I’m giving you a command — forget about HIPAA,’” said Thomas Miller, a resident fellow with the American Enterprise Institute.

Pritts and others also said the president’s physician may not be covered by HIPAA if his care is provided by the White House medical unit, which does not bill for its services or involve health insurance.

But, “whether covered by HIPAA or not, a physician has an ethical obligation to maintain patient confidentiality,” Pritts said.

And Leaks?

It’s also important to note that HIPAA applies only to health care professionals and related entities working within that sphere.

So, when Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary, tweeted on Oct. 5 that a journalist had violated HIPAA (he misspelled it as “HIPPA”) by reporting that a member of the White House press shop had COVID-19, he was wrong, said the experts.

“Journalists are not bound by HIPAA,” said Gostin.

Gray likened HIPAA in that way to a door.

“Behind that door is health care information. Hypothetically, only doctors have access to that information, and HIPAA prevents health care providers from unlocking that door,” she said. “But, once the info gets out of that door, then HIPAA no longer applies.”

And the information is likely to come out — sooner or later, said Miller. “Leaking will take care of most reporting and disclosure” about the president’s health, he said.

The Exceptions

Within HIPAA are a couple of exceptions identifying when health information can be disclosed without the authorization of the patient.

For example, the law does allow for disclosure if it “is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public.”

Might that apply here, given that Trump took a ride around Walter Reed in a government SUV with Secret Service agents, or returned to a White House filled with other employees?

Jonathan Turley, a professor of public interest law at George Washington University Law School, said he doesn’t think the public health exemption would apply in this case.

“If a patient is contagious and noncompliant, doctors can make disclosure in the interest of public health,” Turley wrote in an email. “However, the team of doctors stated that they felt that it was appropriate to send President Trump back to the White House to continue to recover.”

Moreover, Turley noted that nothing was withheld that would have qualified for this exception. “The world knows that the president is COVID-positive and still likely contagious,” he wrote. “It is unclear what further information would do in order to put the world on notice.”

Some experts, however, expressed a different view. They argued that the details of when the president last tested positive would provide insight into who may have been exposed and how long he should be considered infectious and asked to isolate. Even so, the law’s public health exemption is usually interpreted to mean such information would be shared only with state and local health officials.

There are two HIPAA exceptions that apply specifically to the president, said Gray.

“They could make that disclosure to people who need to know, to the Secret Service or the vice president, but it is essentially only to protect [the president],” said Gray. “There is also an armed forces exception, but disclosures are in regards to carrying out a military mission, which doesn’t apply here.”

What about national security?

Miller, at AEI, said concerns about national security could be among the reasons for more disclosure, such as questioning a president’s ability to carry out duties. But HIPAA wasn’t designed to address this point.

Some argue that because the president is not just an average citizen, he should waive his right to medical privacy.

“The president is not just an individual; the president is the chief executive,” said Charles Stevenson, an adjunct lecturer on American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University. “The president loses a lot of privacy because our political system, our governmental system demands it. The president always has to be available to the military and that means the state of his health is a matter of national security.”

Historical precedent

Trump is one in a long line of presidents who have not been completely transparent in sharing their medical information.

“There’s a pretty strong tradition of these things being obscured,” said John Barry, an adjunct faculty member at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. And no federal law requires a president to provide this information.

One of the most notable examples is President Woodrow Wilson, said Barry.

Wilson likely caught the so-called Spanish influenza in 1919, which was kept secret. Later that year, he had a severe stroke that disabled him, the gravity of which was also hidden from the public.

President John F. Kennedy used painkillers and other medications while in office, which wasn’t made public until years after his death.

And when President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, he was much closer to death than his White House spokesperson described to the public. There were also questions about Reagan’s mental acuity while in his final years in office. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease five years after his final term.

Why would White Houses want to obscure health information of presidents?

“Every White House wants the public to think the president is healthy, strong and capable of leading the country,” said Barry. “That’s consistent across parties and presidencies.”

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/hipaa-federal-health-privacy-law-protection-president-trump/

[felinevomitus]

L-R: Jonas Golland, Cos Chapman, David Gadsdon, Gardyloo Spew. Photo courtesy of the band.

I am Meat was formed by Jonas Golland and Kazuya Ohtani as part of their university project in 2011. David Gadsdon, who was moonlighting as a stand-up comedian at the time, was drafted in to front the band. While Golland and Ohtani composed the frenetic music, Gadsdon’s lyrics underpinned the songs by constructing elaborate narratives populated by abhorrent protagonists. On stage, the frontman would embody these characters by dressing up in various costumes and delivering the vocals in a confrontational style. 

When Ohtani moved back to Japan, the band continued to operate, with Gardyloo Spew (SPeW) joining on alto saxophone and Cos Chapman (Rude Mechanicals, An Infernal Contraption) on bass. The shifting lineup saw the band move away from the theatrical cabaret that defined them in the beginning to the queasy jazz-punk outfit they later became. While Spew’s riffs gave the songs a new melodious edge, Chapman’s bass worked hard to ground Golland’s flitting drumming. Having no guitar opened up the mid-range and ensured that Gadsdon’s lyrics took centre stage.

The band finally disbanded in 2014, citing exhaustion as the principal cause for their demise. Luckily, their experiments in punk, jazz and cabaret were committed to tape. Six years later, I am Meat’s eponymous debut finally sees the light of day. Like their live shows, the album exudes a sense of paranoid urgency where the vocals, rhythm section and saxophone conspire to reflect our chaotic world. Ilia Rogatchevski caught up with the band to examine their motivations.

The band broke up back in 2014, why release the record now or even at all?

Jonas Golland: Better late than never seems a veritable excuse, but we feel the album is worth it. This was the release that captured most of the songs of the four members. It was also the highest quality and, in the early noughties, production values dwarfed the urgency. Recorded music is a wafer these days. One touch-up of vocals or saxophone levels leads to another, until our release show had no actual album. We hoped no one would notice. 

David Gadsdon: With the rise of streaming, albums aren’t given as much prominence in the digital world as they once were. I longed for this to be the record it is, because, in my mind, this collection of songs shares similar thematic concerns. Most of them were played at our first gig and it felt like a betrayal to leave any of them behind. The bottom line is that it’s so good to finish something and set it free. It draws a line under what you’ve done and allows it to live a life of its own.

I am Meat started off as a trio called The Protagonists of David Gadsdon. Can you tell us more about the early days? 

DG: I was doing a monthly stand up gig at the Boogaloo pub in north London in 2009. Jonas came to see me perform. I didn’t meet him until I was outside. He started saying my name over and over in order to memorise it. It was a disturbing encounter. From there I was invited to do some improv recordings with him, which I had never done before, to pieces of his pre-recorded music. They were much more comedy sketches and jazzy lyrics than songs, but the intention of making each a different character was still embedded in the concept of the band at that time. 

Flash forward to 2011. Jonas had decided, based on our recording sessions, to put together a band as part of his dissertation at university. I was probably the natural choice to do it with, as was Kazuya Ohtani, who was living and studying with Jonas at the time. By this point the music started to edge towards spoken word songs with a cabaret influence to them, like Kurt Weill or The Dresden Dolls. 

JG: As a trio we debuted at the Kings Head, Acton, to an unsuspecting student crowd from Tech Music Schools. The good response was played down by professor Simon Carter: “It's a bit niche, innit?”

Who are these characters that you mention and how do they manifest themselves in the music?

DG: A mulch of people. Some of them are fictional like ‘The New Growth’, some are based on people I know. Others are takes on famous people, like Walter Sickert in ‘Mr. Nemo’. There's a part of me in all the characters, although I draw a line with associating myself with the truly awful ones. 

Some of your characters express chauvinistic tendencies. ‘Mr Nemo’ is certainly one. Having had a prolonged break between the writing and publication of these songs, how do you reflect on their content in 2020?

DG: I’m glad you’ve brought this up. It’s been on my mind a lot. Post #MeToo, there is a lot of focus on men doing grossly inappropriate, if not actually immoral, things. I can’t help but reframe the way I see the characters in that context. There is definitely a lot of toxic masculinity in some of them; Mr. Nemo is downright diabolical and I had to stop performing him live because I hated the character. My focus was to puff up the characters and then deconstruct their machismo.

The lyrical content of ‘Teenage Sluts’ suggests that the protagonist is male, but the song is written and sung by a woman. Is there more to this song than carnivalesque inversion of traditional gendered perspectives?

Gardyloo Spew: The perspective inversion came from an angered place somewhere in the depths of my mind. Some have interpreted the lyrics as an anti-feminist attack when in fact it is the complete opposite. At the time of writing, I had a friend who was a heavy porn abuser and this triggered me very strongly. The reaction I had had come from my own past experiences of being objectified and abused. I wanted to attempt to understand the state of mind of the abuser.

Corrupted states of mind seem to be one of the principal themes on this album. Do you still see the individual as inherently corruptible? 

DG: I think the temptation of corruption is evident in everyone’s life. Being in certain positions makes you more prone to it. The rich and powerful are bound to fall prey to corruption more easily, because they are trying to protect the hierarchical systems that give them such exclusive privilege. The burden they place on the people beneath them creates an additional temptation to give in to whatever dubious ethical or moral failing they may feel seduced by. That does not mean you cannot fight against it. 

I certainly wouldn’t say that we are in a better place now than when I wrote the songs. What with the increase in police brutality against black people, the trampling of queer rights and the inequalities between the genders, it seems we are in a much worse place than before. These systems can’t help but fail us, because one size does not fit all. The challenge of maintaining your individual integrity is as strong a fight as it’s ever been. But you can choose that path and you can decide to do the right thing. 

‘I am Meat’ is out now on Ex Gratia. Follow I am Meat on Facebook and Instagram.

Ilia Rogatchevski Originally published by Joyzine, 29 June 2020.

[deniscollins]

Bowing to the Inevitable, Advertisers Embrace Advocate Role

What would you do if you were a CEO proud of your company’s diversity, including a senior team mostly made up of women and ethnic minorities, while most of your customers associate with President Donald Trump’s sentiments: (1) advertise your women and minorities accomplishments, or (2) don’t advertise them? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

For decades, advertisers have striven to stay away from any topic that might prove controversial or divisive. Times have changed.

That was a recurring theme during the recently concluded Advertising Week New York, an annual industry conference in Manhattan that has turned into its own global enterprise. (Next year, regional versions of the event will be held in Mexico City, London, Tokyo and Sydney.)

The responsibility of companies, particularly advertisers, to advocate on social issues and to provide a moral compass in a fraught political environment came up repeatedly during the week.

To be sure, advertising is not traditionally seen as a moral arbiter — just last month, California attorney general’s office said it had reached a settlement with Gatorade over allegations that the brand made a mobile app for teens and young adults that cast water in a negative light — but American companies are in a new postelection era, when advocating for diversity can be seen as a political statement.

While appearing on a panel of chief executives discussing diversity and inclusion, J. Clifford Hudson, the chief executive of Sonic Drive-In, which franchises its restaurants and is based in Oklahoma City, said he has been stymied on how public to be about efforts made within his company after a report last year showed that more Sonic customers associated with President Trump than any other presidential candidate. That was “to my surprise,” he said, “with believe me, no effort on our part whatsoever.”

Mr. Hudson said he was proud that most of his senior team is made up of either women or ethnic minorities but he has wondered, “Do I do that quietly or do I become more public about it?” He added, “The for-profit private sector is going to be playing a stronger role in the next number of years at trying to reset the bar, for fear that the bar shifts in such a way that it’s not healthy for society.”

A separate panel focused on the representation of women in commercials and highlighted recent research from the advertising company J. Walter Thompson New York and the Geena Davis Institute that showed men get far more screen time in ads compared with women, who are less likely to be depicted as funny or even employed.

“People don’t trust government and big authorities, they’re looking for companies to take courageous stands and really do more good in the world,” said Debra Bass, president of global marketing services at Johnson & Johnson Consumer. “We know advertising creates stereotypes which shape culture and it’s our responsibility to change culture so more women will have education and economic empowerment and less abuse.”

That prompted Jeffrey Rothman, vice president of marketing strategy and innovation at Dannon, to bring up the yogurt brand’s sponsorship of the N.F.L., which recently dealt with President Trump’s criticism of sideline demonstrations by the league’s players during the national anthem.

“We’re in an environment where, wherever you stand on the political spectrum, I think it’s clear to all of us right now that we’re looking to actors outside of our government to help drive the social justice agenda,” Mr. Rothman said. “To be part of an organization like ours and in this partnership with the N.F.L. is allowing us to start to do that.”

Video — from clips on a smartphone to Netflix on television — was also a hot topic. Tara Walpert Levy, vice president of agency and media solutions at YouTube and Google, and Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing solutions at Facebook, each gave presentations that highlighted the draw of videos, and by extension, video advertising, on their sites.

Both companies have been smarting lately. Major brands like AT&T and Coca-Cola pulled ads from YouTube earlier this year after they were discovered on videos promoting offensive content like hate speech. More recently, Facebook disclosed that Russians had used fake accounts and online ads to fan divisive issues during the presidential campaign. The social network has also had to respond to the revelation that advertisers were able to target users who used terms like “Jew hater” to describe themselves.

Still, video is too enticing for issues like those to scare advertisers away.

“You just have what I would actually liken to a gold rush in the content space,” Rob Master, vice president of global media, categories and partnerships at Unilever, which owns brands like Dove soap and Lipton tea, said during a presentation. “The amount of money pouring into producing and developing content is unbelievable,” he said, naming Facebook, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Fox and Hulu.

Marketers are watching that, as well as how younger generations are using their smartphones, and figuring out where they might fit in, he said.

“What is the commercial model for a video on a phone or on the web across these different platforms?” Mr. Master said. “Today, some platforms call video what I would call a digital moving billboard. So how do we think about that in terms of media — how do you plan or buy for that?”

There were also, of course, discussions that did not touch on seismic industry or societal shifts.

During a panel on Instagram, the actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who sells goods under a namesake label, described how she decides to make work-related posts to her highly-followed account.

“I feel sort of honor-bound to the people who follow me to not exploit the relationship, not to trade on the relationship,” she said. “I feel better talking about the business on our business pages frankly.” But when it does happen, she said, “I try to be very thoughtful and plot out those occasions where I invade the personal with business.”

Snapchat introduced a new way for advertisers to reach its audience — essentially, by placing a branded three-dimensional product into whatever users are filming through the Snapchat app.

Imran Khan, Snap’s chief strategy officer, said that Snapchat users were creating more than three billion pictures and videos a day.

“The problem with text is that text never captured your true voice — text might grab your attention but it never captured your imagination,” he said. “As a result, the way we communicate is changing, it’s becoming visual. With texting, I always had to translate my feelings over text. Now with camera, I can do that instantly.”

[learnprogress]

WATCH: Just After Ethics Chief Resigns, He BLEW THE LID Off Of Trump’s Scandal

The government ethics chief became fed up with the Trump administration and resigned this week. But he exposed some of President Trump’s biggest scandals before leaving.

Walter Shaub announced his resignation earlier this week. He was completely fed up with the Trump administration’s unethical behavior.

Shaub took the opportunity to reveal some of that unethical activity to CBS News, though. And Trump is likely profiting from the presidency, just as we’ve long suspected.

Shaub said, “I can’t know what their intention is. I know that the effect is that there is an appearance that the businesses are profiting from his occupying the presidency.”

Shaub argued that appearance matters as much as reality. Trump needs to do more to eliminate his many conflicts of interest.

Furthermore, as the old saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And this administration continues to blow a lot of smoke.

Shaub also said that the U.S. needs to send a message to the rest of the world. They need to see that the world’s leading democracy won’t tolerate these types of scandals.

Shaub continued, “So even aside from whether or not that’s actually happening, we need to send a message to the world that the United States is going to have the gold standard for an ethics program in government, which is what we’ve always had.”

The U.S. used to be a shining example of ethical behavior in government. Not because our leaders are perfect, but because we have ethics laws to hold them accountable.

Congress, however, has failed to do that with Trump. Congressional Republicans have allowed the Trump administration to do whatever they want.

“It almost doesn’t matter whether they are profiting or not, America should have the right to know what the motivations of its leaders are.” argued Shaub. But it’s pretty clear what Trump’s motivations are.

Trump has refused to fully divest himself of his businesses by placing them in a blind trust. This way, he can use his office to increase his profits and benefit himself directly.

POLL: Is Trump profiting from the presidency?

Ethics chief Walter Shaub just resigned over President Trump’s many conflicts of interest.

That’s because Trump has at least the appearance of profiting from the presidency.

Do you think that Trump is using his office to fatten his wallet?  Share your thoughts in the poll below.

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He started doing that on day one by visiting many of his resorts on the weekends. Those resorts could then charge more for a chance to rub shoulders with the president.

As president, Trump’s also in a position to change tax laws and trade deals. And he can change those policies to benefit himself and his family.

Not to mention that Trump can force government entities to use services from his businesses. Trump’s corruption knows no bounds.

You would think that the resignation of Shaub would finally get the GOP’s attention. But so far they remain silent on Trump’s many conflicts of interest.

They also can’t even get to the bottom of Trump’s ties with Russia. Our Congress has failed us.

But we can spread Shaub’s warnings about Trump to the American people. Please help us do just that by sharing this story on Facebook.

The post WATCH: Just After Ethics Chief Resigns, He BLEW THE LID Off Of Trump’s Scandal appeared first on Learn Progress.

from WATCH: Just After Ethics Chief Resigns, He BLEW THE LID Off Of Trump’s Scandal