Facebook Unfriended, The Tweet Investigation

Unfriended: Facebook stock lost $120 billion in value yesterday on fears about privacy protection and a disappointing earnings report. It’s the biggest value loss for a company in market history.

Privacy invasion is Facebook’s number one product, so why the sudden worry about that is a mystery. And what disappoints investors is astounding. Facebook earnings were up 41 percent from the same quarter last year and the company made more than a $5 billion profit. It just wasn’t what analysts predicted and investors wanted.

Facebook has increased its employee count nearly 50 percent in the last year to tighten online security and it’s costing them.

The drop in Facebook also calls to question whether the tech darlings of the stock market — Apple, Google, Amazon — are worth the money investors have sunk into them.

The Trumpster Fire: CNN reports that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen says President Trump knew in advance of the Trump Tower meeting in which a Russian lawyer met with Donald Trump Jr. offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. Cohen says he’s now willing to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

If it’s true, it proves Trump lied when he said he didn’t now anything about the meeting.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told CNN, “There’s no way you’re going to being down the president of the United States on the uncorroborated testimony of a proven liar.

Robert Mueller is examining President Trump’s tweets about Attorney Gen. Jeff Sessions and fired FBI Director James Comey for evidence of obstruction of justice, The NY Times reports.

Mueller is looking at the tweets as part of a larger picture that could show obstruction. They include private remarks to Comey and Sessions; misleading White House statements; public attacks; and possible offers of pardons to witnesses.

Rudy Giuliani dismissed the notion of obstruction, telling the Times, “If you’re going to obstruct justice, you do it quietly and secretly, not in public.”

Not if you are Donald Trump.

His famous tweet about Comey:  “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

Trump faces a legal war on at least two fronts. Federal investigators in Manhattan are seeking to interview Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization. He was mentioned in the recorded phone conversation between Trump and Michael Cohen about a payoff involving former Playboy model Karen McDougal. In matters of hush money paid to McDougal and others, Weisselberg would likely know where the money came from and where it went.

The Roundup: A wildfire has blown up around Redding, Calif., burning dozens of homes. A firefighting bulldozer  operator was killed.Japan executed the last six members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult that was responsible for nerve agent attacks in 1994 and 1995. The group’s leader, Shoko Asahara, and six other members had already been executed. Japan still hangs its condemned prisoners, notifying them of their execution only on the day it happens. A federal judge in Oregon ruled this week that forcing transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond with their birth gender violates their civil rights. Hundreds of Syrian families have been told that family members taken into custody years ago for opposition to the government are dead. The presumption is they were murdered in prison.

Edukashun: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos continues to ease up on for-profit colleges. She’s getting rid of an Obama regulation requiring that the colleges must show that their graduates can get jobs and earn enough money to pay off their loans.

Cricket: Former international cricket star  and playboy Imran Khan yesterday won Pakistan’ parliamentary elections amid claims that the vote was rigged.

In a victory address, Khan promised to end corruption, protect the weak, and ensure equal rights. Pakistan is an American ally and what happens in its politics is always a concern. They have a history of overthrowing democratically-elected leaders.

The Obit Page: Oksana Shachko, a Ukrainian artist and a founder of Femen, the women’s rights group famous for its topless political protests, was found dead at home in a Paris suburb, an apparent suicide. She was 31. Along with the loosely organized rock group Pussy Riot, Femen has protested over sexual exploitation, income inequality, the Roman Catholic Church, and of course, Vladimir Putin.

Familiar Faces: Facial recognition software made by Amazon, which is used by some police departments, incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress with known criminals, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Either this is an enormous failure of technology or the members of Congress just haven’t been arrested yet.

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Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Page Two

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Wright Stuff

Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's Been Said

"In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have, no excuses."

-Andrew Cuomo, resigning as governor of New York after accusations of sexual harassment

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