Data Hacking Elections

Democracy Now has an interview with a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower and others about data hacking of elections on the lines of Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. The cost to democracy and even self autonomy is very high... we are all being manipulated by our information consumption in ways we cannot untangle. It's very much worth viewing.

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/1/7/the_great_hack_cambridge_analytica

Do robots serve us or do we serve the robots?

Amy Goodman interviewed Shoshana Zuboff who wrote: “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power”. Her premise is that the frontier of capitalistic innovation is capitalizing prediction of individual (and likely) group behavior. These themes have explored in science fiction and coming to fruition in reality. We need to decide if we serve the interests of our (collective human) creations or do the controllers of these creations control our destinies?

Part 2 of this interview emphasizes the role of information control/secrecy in these developments... a theme I've been writing about for years.

For the sake of the nation...

My comment at an Alternet post:

IMHO, impeaching DJT is a necessary housekeeping for the sake of American democracy. Between Nixon (Watergate), Reagan (Iran-Contra), Bush 41 (Iran-Contra), Bush 43 (illegal wars, domestic spying, war crimes) and now DJT, there have been numerous egregious violations of the U.S. Constitution at the level of the Executive branch of the federal government. Every single violation has chipped away the founding principles of this nation. A presidential impeachment would do much to restore American and international faith in the rule of law. Unfortunately, our politics hates to air dirty laundry so it's not likely to happen. 

As to the Fall of the House of Trump, I'm stocking up on snacks to watch the action. It's small payback for his assaults on my psyche and our nation during his time in office. Let the show begin.

U.S. Department of Defense failed audit

My comment at TRNN:

We have enabled a rich and powerful Military-Industrial-Complex to legally bribe politicians, policy makers and regulators through campaign contributions, political action committees, think tanks, ideological foundations, revolving door employment, etc. In return, all American taxpayers are forced to pay for ever more expensive, excessive and often unnecessary military hardware (with a side effect of excessively militarized local police) while less advantaged taxpayers send their children to become war fodder by foreign hands or self-destruction by suicide. We pay with our treasure, we pay with our future in our children, we pay with the future of our grandchildren. 

MIC and the military get away with this degree of theft by hiding information. An audit is information about how the military spends its funds. Their audit failure is not an inability to track and report their spending; it reflects an unwillingness by the military to report their spending and allow themselves to be held accountable to our elected representatives. [BTW, elected representatives who have been bought by the MIC and eager the stories told by the military.] It's not about the defense of nation from enemies; it's the offense of military, especially MIC, against Americans and anyone who might interfere with their profits.

Information is power

TRNN did a segment about ballooning drug prices as an issue in the Maryland governor's race.

A commentor wrote: 

"...funding for research should be increased and any licensed, FDA-approved manufacturer should be able to make and sell the drugs, whose patent belongs to the government. This would introduce competition and drastically lower cost."

My response:

Public ownership of publicly funded intellectual property would resolve the problem of big pharma. Tight limits on private control of intellectual property would place severe limits on the corporate growth which would have positive impacts on income inequality. Severely minimizing state secrets would set limits on the power of the state. Information is power. If information were less controlled, the power of current institutions would be curtailed.

Brett Kavanaugh is playing semantics

DJT's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh supposedly said to Susan Collins that Roe v. Wade is 'settle law'. C&L posted Lindsey Graham's comments.

My opinion:

It is highly disingenuous for any nominee to the Supreme Court including Brett Kavanaugh to call any Supreme Court decision "settled law." For any American not sitting on the Supreme Court, all their decisions 'settle law' (as determined by the U.S. Constitution. Justices on the Supreme Court use their Constitutional power to 'settle'/'resettle' law according to their procedures. As a non-Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh can legitimately claim he personally considers Roe v. Wade 'settled law'. But as a potential Supreme Court justice, that statement is using semantics to deceive the public. Lawmakers know this; Brett Kavanaugh knows this and Brett Kavanaugh's nomination shepherds know this. It is the people most impacted by Supreme Court decisions who do not know this and in a democracy, that is reprehensible.

Information asymmetry

It has a name! Information asymmetry is the economic term for unequal information which results in a power imbalance. In a market situation, all information asymmetry changes the balance of power; competition between sellers, between buyers and between sellers & buyers is altered. A truly free market hinges on information transparency. See here for links to a deeper discussion.

Government anti-transparency

Reality Winner has been denied bail for 'allegedly passed[ing] a top-secret document to The Intercept that claimed that Russian military intelligence conducted a cyber attack on at least one U.S. voting software company just days before the 2016 election.'

This is part of an interview of Amy Goodman with Julian Assange. I have written positively about Julian Assange in the past. His actions during the 2016 presidential election brings up lots of questions about his motives. I don't know nor do I have sufficient information to form a reasonably informed opinion. But aside from his motives, releasing information for public perusal is an important mechanism of empowerment. Legitimate decisions can only be made by informed people. 

On that note, Reality Winner is a hero for informing the public of an event that was kept under wraps. She should not be imprisoned for enabling democracy.

Information transparency is better resistance

Ever since DJT assumed the position of POTUS, there has been a sustained effort to resist his words and actions from numerous groups on the left and progressive fronts. As an embodiment of concentrated power and wealth, DJT is very worthy of resistance... however, the resistors do not deserve the eventual outcome of resistance. What I mean is that movements need leaders and any position of leadership is imbued. The system we are fighting is one that concentrates power. A resistance that concentrates power to resist concentrated power will eventually fall into the same pattern of concentrated power... and the cycle continues endlessly. 

A much better way to fight the concentration of power is to distribute the power more equally. So resistance then becomes figuring out what makes individuals powerful so the what can be dispersed... and the answer is information. Controlling information is how individuals gain, hold and increase their power. Corporations (major stockholders) are rich and powerful because they control valuable intellectual property. Governments are powerful because they control information about corporations (regulation), foreign entities (spying) and the military (armaments, capabilities, deployment, etc). If valuable information were widely dispersed, no single or few individuals could concentrate power as  happens now. Increasing transparency makes better resistance.

Good Trump thing?

In a way, DJT has done Americans a service by shredding the coded civility that masks establishment political doublespeak. He has also fortified the divisions which the country needs to overcome in order to solve our problems. During a recent CNN Trump supporter panel, distrust of the media lead some to rely on uncorroborated social media for information. This degree of distrust and division destroys the general trust necessary for fundamental social interactions which, in turn, are necessary to build political movements needed to change the system. The cracks have widened into chasms. To cure these wounds, we need to build bridges and trust.

BTW, increasing transparency would automatically do this over time.

About time

Comment at TRNN. Economist Dean Baker finally starts talking about the impact of information control of intellectual property on income/wealth inequality:

"...unfortunately we're not having that discussion." 

(1) Not true. I have repeatedly commented on the corrosive effects of information control (including intellectual information) on economies and democracy. But I am *not* a prominent economist with a media presence. For that matter, I am not an economist at all. Everything I know has been picked up on wikipedia and listening to podcasts (Economic Update) so...
(2) Why has it taken *so* long for any professional economist to ask this question? The role of 'perfect information' in 'perfect competition' should be elementary economics. It's so basic and foundational, it should be a matter of debate in every economics class on the planet...
(3) This really suggests the entire field of economics has some serious flaws...
(4) [from another thread] ... economies are designed and determined by ideologues not economists. Capitalism, Keynesian economics, Marxism, Communism... all economic systems are ideologies. By adhering to a particular 'school of economics', economists aren't social scientists; they do not engage in the normal rules of science: test the predictions of a hypothesis and adjust theory(ies) to fit. Instead, economists and their followers are indoctrinated into an economic ideology and stand firm to defend it on any and all grounds with carefully constructed questions and statistics. In the end, each ideology produces a system where a small group of powerful people make the majority of economic policies that affect the lives all everyone in their purview. 

Improving education and campaign finance reform are often mentioned as ways to reform our current political/economic system. Reform of the field of economics from an ideologically driven exercise into a data driven system based science should be added to that list.

Search for <Intellectual Property Rights Protect Massive Profits of Corporations> here if link doesn't gets altered in the future.

Transparency for economics, transparency for democracy

From wikipedia:

In economics, perfect information is a feature of perfect competition. With perfect information in a market, all consumers and producers are assumed to have perfect knowledge of price, utility, quality and production methods of products, when theorizing the systems of free markets, and effects of financial policies.

-

In economics and game theory, complete information is a term used to describe an economic situation or game in which knowledge about other market participants or players is available to all participants. The utility functions, payoffs, strategies and "types" of players are thus common knowledge.

Inversely, in a game with incomplete information, players may not possess full information about their opponents. Some players may possess private information that the others should take into account when forming expectations about how a player would behave. A typical example is an auction: each player knows his own utility function (= valuation for the item), but does not know the utility function of the other players. 

***

This implies the defining feature of a free market is perfect information. Voting is also a type of market, as such, perfect information should be the defining feature of fully democratic participation. In real life, there is no such thing as perfect information... but we can strive for much better transparency.

Polluting for Profit

Comment at TRNN at post title, Coal Power Plants are the Largest Source of Toxic Water Contamination: 

Like all forms of industrial pollution, toxic byproducts of coal are driven by economic profit. Producers of polluting fertilizers & agricultural chemicals profit from the sales of these materials to farmers who use it to increase their farm profits. Fossil fuel & petroleum industry extract, process & sell their products for profit. Polluted water, air and climate (including climate change) are all byproducts of profit driven polluting industries. Americans need to understand that mitigating pollution and climate change is not anti-economic. It's a economic evolution analogous to the industrial revolution - change or be left behind. This is particularly important in light of the regressive policies of DJT. The U.S. dominated technological innovation in the past but DJT's retraction from already poor investment in science (cutting funding to FDA, EPA, anti-science rhetoric) and education will decimate any hope of American revival. DJT's business specialty is the making and selling of his brand, *not* cutting edge innovation. He's a good hire to put on a spectacle but lousy at the STEM fields which will drive the economy forward. The choice to pollute [ignore pollution] for profit is an economic decision. The choice to *not* pollute for the sake of profit is also an economic decision. We consumers have the power to influence that choice. Demand transparency; be informed consumers.

Open Insulin Project

Comment at Truthout interview about Open Insulin Project's attempt to create a cheaper insulin product for diabetes patients:

Regulations [patents] are tools of power [pharma] to control information [assign who gets to profit]. Secrecy and control of information are enemies of democracy. Transparency and informed choice gives power to the voter/buyer, not the candidate/seller.

Anthony DiFranco is attempting to re-generate the information [insulin patents] controlled by large pharma into marketable drugs. He will have the option of secret patents [like pharma] or open patents [any producer can use]. Open patents are more transparent and give consumers more informed choice.

States and corporations practice censorship

Comment thread at TRNN:

Gideon Levy was interviewed about: Israelis Shut Out Palestinian Calls for Freedom

SkepticalPartisan • 18 hours ago
This is why I support and watch independent journalism like TRNN. It's not only state sponsored/enforced censorship; MSM self censors their content on behalf of their financial interests. Secrecy and control of information is the enemy of democracy. Governments and private institutions use regulation to control information. Greater transparency enables informed choice which gives power to the voter/buyer, not the candidate/seller.

peepsqueek  to SkepticalPartisan • 11 hours ago
Can you think of anyone that does more censoring than Islamic Countries, repression of free speech and expression?
With the exception of Israel, all Middle East and North African Countries are signatories to the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 19: "There shall be NO crime or punishment EXCEPT as provided for in the Sharia."
Article 24: "All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Sharia."
Article 25: "The Islamic Sharia is the ONLY source of reference for the explanation or clarification of ANY of the articles of this Declaration."
The Jews of Israel are the only religious and ethnic minority int he Middle East that have the full right of self determination. The banner of Islam flies over 99.9% of the Middle East land mass. What would you be asking if the the situation was reversed?

SkepticalPartisan to  peepsqueek • 9 hours ago
You illustrate the exact point of my comment. Our media censors information about Israel - we do not know and cannot respond without knowledge. Israeli media also censors what their internal media reports to their residents/citizens. We have been told about censorship in Islamic Countries which enables you to comment and take a position. Information about Islamic censorship gives you the choice to act. There's little media coverage of Israeli censorship.
And yes, I agree and acknowledge Islamic Countries censor. My original comment applies across the board without regard to borders, boundaries or religions.

peepsqueek to  SkepticalPartisan • 7 hours ago
We know a lot more about Israel because they have a whole range of non-Government media and foreign press all over Israel. Israelis do not have to be afraid to speak to anyone, nor do they have to be afraid to criticize the Israeli government. There is freedom of association, speech, and expression, and Israeli Jews,

SkepticalPartisan  to peepsqueek • 7 hours ago
I am an anonymous commenter; my opinion is largely irrelevant. And yes, "Israeli Jews, Christians, and Arabs come and go as they please"... but only in undisputed parts of Israel; there is very little freedom of movement which also restricts associated in the Gaza and the West Bank. That is why I originally commented. I appreciate TRNN providing Gideon Levy the opportunity to give a Palestinian slant. I want TRNN to continue to seek and report unreported stories and viewpoints. Political coverage in the U.S. is largely limited to the very narrow spectrum defined by the two major parties; anything slightly left or up, down and sideways are either labelled extreme or ignored. The control of information removes choice and thus democracy from voters/consumers.
BTW, do residents of Gaza and the West Bank have their own media to tell their stories? Or are they dependent on Israeli and international media?

peepsqueek  to SkepticalPartisan • 7 hours ago
Gaza and the West Bank have never in history had their own newspaper. The first newspaper in the area was the Palestinian Post, which became the Jerusalem Post after Israel became an independent state.
As far as walls and fences, before the occupation and the walls and fences, who protected the Israeli civilian population from regular attacks? Now there are very few attacks. Who is protecting the civilian populations in the other 28 conflicts and border wars around the world today involving repressive Islamic regimes? Are they all freedom fighters and martyrs for Islam?
Just for balance and proper context, there are many walls and barriers involving Muslim Countries: Malaysia-Thailand border, Melilla border fence in Spain, Indo-Bangladeshi barrier, Indo-Burma barrier, Indian Kashmir barrier, Iran-Pakistan barrier, Kazakh-Uzbekistan barrier, Kuwait-Iraq barrier, Pakistan-Afghanistan barrier, Russia/Chechnya, Saudi-Yemen barrier, Arab Emirates/Oman, Saudi/Yemen, Turkmen/ Uzbekistan, Egypt/Gaza, Syria/Turkey, Sudan/Sudan, Kenya/Somalia, etc, and many more walls and fences within Muslim Countries to separate different sects from having at each other.

SkepticalPartisan to  peepsqueek • 6 hours ago
"...for balance and proper context..."
Thank you for your continual reinforcing of my original comment. Knowledge is power. Without knowledge of the barriers you describe, we have no foundation upon which to voice support or dissent; without a voice, our votes can only support the the story we are spoon fed. I would appreciate any efforts by TRNN to interview people affected by the barriers you list.

peepsqueek  to SkepticalPartisan • 6 hours ago
Without those barriers there was chaos-- religious, tribal, sectarian, and nationalistic violence. There are 7.5 billion people on the planet today, in a world with dwindling resources. Without these lines, there would be continuous violence and chaos. This is why the Western world does business with all these Middle East dictators and totalitarian governments that maintain some measure of control, even though they are repressive governments.

SkepticalPartisan  to peepsqueek • 6 hours ago
The political leaders of "the Western world does business with all these Middle East dictators and totalitarian governments". It isn't clear that the people and voters of the Western world would choose to do "business with all these Middle East dictators and totalitarian governments". Voters need information to make decisions. Without transparency, voters are choosing between packaging with no clue of what's inside, like choosing between multiple doors in a game show; they could all be hiding the same 'prize'.

Secrecy aids the powerful

This is a post at DailyKos with links briefly summarizing efforts by regulatory agencies and industry to avoid regulation and keep information away from the public. This is the Intercepted article.

We need universal whisteblower protection and much, much greater transparency.

some of the links in the post:

PoisonPapers.org

The Bioscience Resource Project

Center for Media and Democracy

Comments of the day

At Truthout, "Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson has compared people with pre-existing health conditions to cars that have been in accidents.":

Life is a pre-existing condition; it always precedes death. According to GOP reasoning, the pre-existing condition of life makes all living persons ineligible for medical insurance. It would seem we must die to become eligible.
/s

At Truthout, Corporate Agricultural Dumping: Growing the Wealth Gap:

Pressure to increase yields due to agricultural dumping also promotes greenhouse gas release and pollution through fossil fuel powered mechanization, transport & production as well as ever increasing use of agricultural chemicals.

At C&L, Trump's 'Pardons' Are A Threat To Democracy:

There is a big problem shared by Antonin Scalia's concept of Constitutional originalism and biblical literalism... language is symbolic. It is not possible for any language to be literally 'literal'. Written and spoken words are *always* subject to interpretation. 

The U.S. Constitution has a literal component in setting the framework of the U.S. government but it is also has an equally important aspiration component, just read the preamble. If DJT or any other politician is permitted to reduce the Constitution to only its literal elements (as would be the case if he pardons his family, cohort and himself), they would negate the founding values and precepts which have forged a collection of disparate individuals, ethnicities, languages and cultures into this country. We would turn in what Margaret Thatcher once said, "There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families."

At TRNN, Data, Algorithms & Artificial Intelligence: Where is AI Innovation Taking Society?:

"...intellectual property rights cover a lot of things like patents, trademark, copyright, industrial designs, so basically everything that we touch, at one point or the other, has been impacted by intellectual property." 

Intellectual property is the DNA of economies; just as change in DNA evolves new species, change of information/intellectual property evolves economies. Regulation of intellectual property (patents, trademark, copyright, industrial designs, etc.) determines who controls economies. Corporations and their executives derive their power from control of massive amounts of information (examples: Microsoft, big pharma). Issues of income, wealth and power inequality all derive directly and indirectly from the concentration of power through control of information. True reform requires much greater transparency.

Finally...

...an economists writes about the larger economic costs of information control. My comment at Truthout:

Controlling information and secrecy is pivotal to the imbalance of economic and political power at the root of many of today's problems. Current POTUS hides his tax returns, business relationships and lies at every opportunity. Former POTUSs prosecuted whistleblowers, spied on Americans, and lied to the world about weapons of mass destruction. Big pharma and chemical companies use patents and proprietary information to make enormous profits and hide injurious outcomes/information. Other industries profit from patent licencing and copyright of information. These all have costs to consumers, workers, voters, and citizens in various forms including purchase price, exposure to unknown chemicals, loss of right(s) to contest disputes (against private and public institutions) and loss of right(s) to make informed decisions. 

The greatest reform to our political and economic system can only come about through a massive increase in information transparency at all levels. Markets aren't free because consumers don't buy with full knowledge of the products (pollution controls, worker's rights/safety, social costs, etc). Citizen's aren't free because voters don't vote with full knowledge of candidates (candidates lie, financial support, etc). Whistleblower protect is a good starting point and we should expand from there.

Pharma as a Public Utility?

Truthout asks if Pharma should be treated as a public utility. My comment:

No. The value of pharma is information (drug patents) which are already regulated. Making them public utilities just adds another layer of regulation over existing regulation. Drug prices are high because pharma has 'bought' influence over current regulations; they are more than capable of 'buying' any new regulators/regulations. The better solution is to publicly fund all drug research and have the information publicly available. Any manufacturer with the appropriate facilities can then make any drugs. Ensure high quality manufacturing practices can be insured by requiring that the public can observe/visit/examine facilities at any time. Transparency is a better way to drop drug prices without risking safety.

Not the messenger

TRNN has a good video of whistleblower advocates calling to 'Stop Targeting the Messenger'. My comment:

Yes. Controlling information and secrecy is pivotal to the imbalance of economic and political power at the root of many of today's problems. Current POTUS hides his tax returns, business relationships and even visitor logs. Former POTUSs prosecuted whistleblowers, spied on Americans, and lied to the world about weapons of mass destruction. Big pharma and chemical companies use patents and proprietary information to make enormous profits and hide injurious outcomes/information. Other industries profit from patent licencing and copyright of information. These all have costs to consumers, workers, voters, and citizens in various forms including purchase price, exposure to unknown chemicals, loss of right(s) to contest disputes (against private and public institutions) and loss of right(s) to make informed decisions. Not only should whistleblowers *not* be prosecuted, the single most transformative reform of the current economic/political morass would be universal whistleblower protection.