Category Archives: Fail!

Trump commerce secretary’s business links with Putin family laid out in leaked files

Wilbur Ross stands to profit from company run by Russians, some of whom are under US sanctions

Source: Trump commerce secretary’s business links with Putin family laid out in leaked files

 

 

In 2014, Ross led a €1bn takeover of the Bank of Cyprus, a favoured destination for Moscow oligarchs seeking to store their wealth. The bank’s biggest shareholder at the time was the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. In 2008, as the US began to fall into a financial crisis, Rybolovlev bought a Florida mansion from Trump for $95m. The future president had paid $41m for it four years earlier.

Also invested in the bank takeover was the billionaire Russian industrialist Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg, who owns the world’s biggest collection of Fabergé eggs, attended the now infamous December 2015 dinner in Moscow for the Kremlin TV channel RT, where Trump’s future national security adviser Michael Flynn was photographed next to Putin.

Ross sat on the senior leadership team of Bank of Cyprus alongside Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, a former KGB colleague of Putin’s who is also on the board of several state corporations in Moscow.

And in 2015, while Ross was vice-chairman of the bank, its Russia-based businesses were sold off to Artem Avetisyan, a Russian businessman who had been appointed by Putin to lead an agency responsible for strengthening ties between the Kremlin and business.

It’s no accident that sexual harassers rise up the ranks | Jessicca Valenti

For too long, we’ve lauded men’s domination and aggressiveness as a sign of leadership rather than possible red flags

Source: It’s no accident that sexual harassers rise up the ranks | Jessicca Valenti

Harvey Weinstein, for example, was well-known for being a bully. He yelled and demeaning the people around him, including men. Leon Wieseltier, formerly of The New Republic, was called “thuggish” and “gleefully mean.”

Roy Price, ousted at Amazon for harassment, wasn’t just accused of sexism in his interactions with women but in the way he chose programming. And Mark Halperin, accused by multiple women of harassment, once argued that there was “nothing illegal” about Donald Trump’s alleged groping.

This isn’t to say that we should only be wary of men who yell or hold explicitly sexist views. NPR is arguably one of the most progressive bastions of media around, yet when senior vice president Michael Oreskes was known to harass women, he was simply given a “father-son talking to” by another editor.

What would happen if we stopped viewing these kinds of behaviors as the remnants of men from “another era,” stopped excusing them as less-than-charming side effects of idiosyncratic brilliance?

It’s true, there’s nothing illegal about being a boor or a sexist jerk. You can’t fire someone for being an asshole. But you can notice particular kinds of bad behavior and flag them as a problem, rather than a boon, for a man’s career

No, 30,000 migrants haven’t disappeared in Germany ‘without a trace’

When Bild reported on Thursday that 30,000 rejected asylum seekers had gone missing without a trace in Germany it was soon picked up in the international media. The only problem? It isn’t true.

This is not the first time Bild has produced bogus reporting on refugees this year. In February the tabloid was forced to admit that a report on mass sexual assaults by migrants in Frankfurt over New Year had been completely made up.

Source: No, 30,000 migrants haven’t disappeared in Germany ‘without a trace’

These are the Russian Facebook ads that aimed to influence the US election – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The US House Intelligence Committee releases some of the roughly 3,000 Facebook ads bought by Russian operatives to interfere in the US presidential election.

Source: These are the Russian Facebook ads that aimed to influence the US election – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A Refusal to Compromise? Civil War Historians Beg to Differ – The New York Times – Still trying to normalize slavery and anti-Americanism?

After Reconstruction was rolled back and Jim Crow segregation instituted in the South, a growing number of white Americans depicted the Civil War as a tragic family disagreement, rather than a battle over principle.In 1913, veterans from both sides gathered at Gettysburg for a “Great Reunion,” where President Woodrow Wilson gave an address that included no reference to slavery or secession. The era also saw a surge in the construction of Confederate monuments, including many outside the former Confederacy.Mr. Blight, the author of “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory,” said that Mr. Kelly’s remarks were themselves part of this “reconciliationist” tradition.“It reflects a very old set of ideas about the meaning of the Civil War,” Mr. Blight said. “Everybody was right, and nobody was wrong. Everybody was noble, everyone fought for their conscience, you don’t have to worry anymore about what they fought for.”“It takes all responsibility away,” he said. “That’s your compromise.”

Plot behind Caceres murder in Honduras, says legal panel | News | DW | 31.10.2017

Records had shown multiple communications between suspected gunmen and an unnamed DESA official, according to GAIPE findings reported by Associated Press.An international outcry ensued after the murder of Caceres who with her movement Copinh led indigenous Lenca peoples in opposing the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam project.Construction was subsequently suspended when investors, including a Dutch bank and a Finnish fund, froze funding.

Source: Plot behind Caceres murder in Honduras, says legal panel | News | DW | 31.10.2017

Scott Pruitt’s EPA Just Shut the Door on Independent Scientists | Earthjustice

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt decreed that scientists who receive EPA funding for their research may no longer sit on key scientific advisory boards. This policy will freeze out many academic experts who rely on public grants to conduct independent studies. Pruitt also dismissed independent scientists from several important scientific bodies and replaced them with industry insiders.

Source: Scott Pruitt’s EPA Just Shut the Door on Independent Scientists | Earthjustice

The 14 Stereotypes That Facebook Assigns To All Of Us: SFist

Zuckerberg and company seem stuck in a cushy Silicon Valley mindset that assigns actual reality to the milk-and-cookies stereotypes that investors and advertisers are comfortable with. The monster they’ve created is being used for far more sinister purposes than what falls within purview of the company advertising parameters. Facebook remains flat-footed and clumsy in response to troll accounts that literally call for U.S. violence, and internationally, use of Facebook to cause real-life mass violence.There is a popular Silicon Valley notion that tech execs like Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and Sergey Brin are the best and brightest minds of our era. But if their platforms are being used in ways they didn’t anticipate and still can’t control, well, doesn’t that inherently make them not best and brightest minds of our era?

Source: The 14 Stereotypes That Facebook Assigns To All Of Us: SFist

Donald Trump blasts aide at centre of Russia probe George Papadopoulos as a ‘proven liar’ – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Mr Trump sought to dismiss George Papadopoulos, who has provided key evidence in the first criminal case connecting Mr Trump’s team to alleged intermediaries for Russia’s Government.”Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!” Mr Trump tweeted. Mr Trump had called Mr Papadopoulos an “excellent guy” last March and tweeted a picture with him at a “national security meeting” in Washington.

Source: Donald Trump blasts aide at centre of Russia probe George Papadopoulos as a ‘proven liar’ – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)