Chinese brokers launder hundreds of millions for global crime groups | FT Film
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Historian and scholar Timothy Snyder, who wrote On Tyranny and this amazing pieceabout the fascism of Trump and the conservative movement, wrote about a crucial difference in how the media are covering Biden versus how they cover Trump.
From Timothy Snyder again, this time on what lessons we can draw on to prevent America’s collapse into fascism.
4. Big business should support democracy. In the Germany of the 1930s, business leaders were not necessarily enthusiastic about Hitler as a person. But they associated democracy with labor unions and wanted to break them. Seeing Hitler as an instrument of their own profit, business leaders enabled the Nazi regime. This was, in the end, very bad for business. Although the circumstances today are different, the general lesson is the same: whether they like it or not, business leaders bear responsibility for whether a republic endures or is destroyed.
I loved his succinct conclusion:
It’s simple: recalling history, we act in the present, for a future that can and will be much better.
“Do not obey in advance” is Snyder’s very first lesson from his 20 Lessons from the 20th Century about fighting authoritarianism:
1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You’ve already done this, haven’t you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.
Yesterday MWM covered allegations that emerged from a Senate Estimates hearing on Tuesday night that the national manager of the ‘Open Arms’ veteran and family counselling service had dismissed a misconduct complaint against herself “on behalf of the Minister.”
In even more sensational testimony, Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie quoted from a complaint to the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security that the department’s security chief, former intelligence officer Rodger McNally:
“… appears to be engaged in a targeted vendetta against people who lawfully used the FOI process for its intended purpose and exposed DVA’s toxic culture to the scrutiny of a Royal Commission.”
These are very serious allegations, and it seems the department is taking them very seriously too. So seriously, in fact, that they referred the investigation to … the HR department.
According to an email from the department’s Chief People Officer Katrina Jocumsen yesterday, the matter is now “closed.” Stay tuned, because MWM has opened an investigation into the investigation.
Veterans Affairs refers unlawful spying investigation to … its HR department
States Set Minimum Staffing Levels for Nursing Homes. Residents Suffer When Rules Are Ignored or Waived.
How a Biden administration initiative to improve nursing homes’ staffing is floundering due to lax enforcement.
How thousands of Americans got caught in fintech’s false promise and lost access to bank accounts CNBC (Li). Today’s must read because crazy. Also a warning NEVER to bank with a company with a cute name. We have our own version of this lesson. I thought my merchant processor had a boring suitable name like First Data but they branded themselves Clover. Beware!
Jacinta Allan seeks suspension of CFMEU construction division from Victorian Labor party
Scammers swiping billions each year Associated Press
Fox News Suffers Blow as Billionaire Joins Lawsuit Against Network New Republic
New York Times - Even Misinformation experts do not know how to stop it – “Researchers have learned plenty about misinformation and how it spreads. But they’re still struggling to figure out how to stop it…
Holding the line against misinformation and disinformation is demoralizing and sometimes dangerous work, requiring an unusual degree of optimism and doggedness. Increasingly, however, even the most committed warriors are feeling overwhelmed by the onslaught of false and misleading content online.
Researchers have learned a great deal about the misinformation problem over the past decade: They know what types of toxic content are most common, the motivations and mechanisms that help it spread and who it often targets. The question that remains is how to stop it. A critical mass of research now suggests that tools such as fact checks, warning labels, prebunking and media literacy are less effective and expansive than imagined, especially as they move from pristine academic experiments into the messy, fast-changing public sphere.
A megastudyconducted last year — the largest ever for testing interventions, with more than 33,000 participants — found mixed results. Interventions like warning labels and digital literacy training improved the ability of participants to judge true or false headlines by only about 5 to 10 percent. Those results are better than nothing, its authors said, but it pales in comparison to the enormous scale of digital misinformation.
“I find it hard to say that these initiatives have had a lot of success,” said Chico Q. Camargo, a senior lecturer in computer science at the University of Exeter who has argued that disinformation research needs reform. Political experts worry that disinformation peddlers, equipped with increasingly sophisticated schemes, will be able to easily bypass weak defenses to influence election results — an increasingly urgent concern, as voters in countries around the globe head to the polls in hotly contested elections.”
The Sell: Tax fraud conviction sees 1880s cottage up for auction
The Picton home of Lauren Cranston, the convicted subordinate participant in Australia’s largest tax fraud and money laundering scheme, has been listed for July 27 auction.
The Picton home of Lauren Cranston, the convicted subordinate participant in Australia’s largest tax fraud and money laundering scheme, has been listed for July 27 auction.