Akron Beacon Journal
Destructive influence on democracy
The Jan. 6 insurrection, which sought to overturn the U.S. presidential election, resulted in deaths, traumatized lawmakers, staff, journalists and law enforcement personnel. Yet, 147 Congress members still voted to reject the legitimate election results; they furthered the lies that had incited the mob, sought to disenfranchise millions of voters, and betrayed their constitutional duty to certify a free and fair election.
That terrible day prompted a national reflection on the systems and structures that made the attack possible. Some corporations changed their political donation practices. But each is doing it differently: Some stopped supporting specific politicians, some completely ended political giving and some only temporarily halted political giving. According to the Popular Information newsletter, some have already resumed donations to these traitors.
10 Sunday AM Reads
Avert your eyes! My
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Inside an International Tech-Support Scam: How a computer hacker infiltrated a phone scam operation exposing fraudsters and their schemes The person who answered asked if he could access Jim’s computer to diagnose the problem. Jim granted access, but he was ready; he had created a “virtual computer” within his computer, a walled-off digital domain that kept Jim’s personal information and key operations safe and secure. As he played along with the caller, Jim recorded the conversation and activity on his Trojan horse setup to find out what he was up to. It took mere moments to confirm his hunch: It was a scam.(AARP)
I love Turrell’s work, thanks for the links. I’d love to see the Roden Crater one day. First came across his work in NYC at MoMA PS1 about 12 years ago, last saw it at MONA in Hobart a couple years ago where he has a few permanent installations. There’s one you need to book a bit in advance because it only accommodates a small number of people at a time; hope to see it when I go back there in a couple of months. I always find his work captivating, and absorbing. Good to spend time with, which luckily in many cases you can.
This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg granted a rare, live, hourlong interview to a tech journalist, where he revealed the company’s plans for a slew of new audio products. Normally, such a scoopy, wide-ranging interview would be a coup for the media company that landed it. But in this case, there was no traditional media company: The interviewer was Casey Newton, who writes a Substack newsletter called Platformer, and the setting was a new Discord server that Newton and seven other independent writers have created called Sidechannel. A thousand people paying subscribers to at least one of the newsletters tuned in.
Corporate PACs Resume Giving To GOP Insurrectionists
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who voted to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election, is in charge of his party s effort to regain a majority in the Senate. Despite his attempts to throw out President Joe Biden s electors, several corporate PACs gave tens of thousands last quarter to his group â including some PACs that pledged not to.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which Scott chairs, disclosed its finances on Tuesday for the first three months of 2021 to the Federal Election Commission. It reported receiving more than $750,000 in contributions from political action committees associated with corporations and trade associations.