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leutjaneausten · 1 year

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March 16, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 17

Yesterday, Tamar Hallerman and Bill Rankin of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, investigating the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election in that state, heard yet another recording of former president Trump pushing a key lawmaker—in this case, Georgia House speaker David Ralston—to convene a special session of the legislature to overturn Biden’s victory.

One juror recalled that Ralston “basically cut the president off. He said, ‘I will do everything in my power that I think is appropriate.’ … He just basically took the wind out of the sails.” Ralston, who died last November, did not call a special session.

This is the third such recorded call. One was with Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, and another was with the lead investigator in Raffensperger’s office. Ralston had reported the call, but it was not public knowledge that there was a recording of it.

Hallerman and Rankin interviewed five members of the grand jury, which met for 8 months and heard testimony from 75 witnesses. The jurors praised the elections system, and one said, “I tell my wife if every person in America knew every single word of information we knew, this country would not be divided as it is right now.” Another said: “A lot’s gonna come out sooner or later…. And it’s gonna be massive. It’s gonna be massive.”

The special grand jury recommended Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis indict people involved in the attempt to overturn the election. The cases are now in her hands.

Yesterday, prosecutors in New York met with Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress whom Trump allegedly paid $130,000 to keep their sexual liaison quiet. Also yesterday, Trump fixer Michael Cohen testified before a grand jury about the hush-money payment. Cohen’s testimony suggests that Manhattan district attorney Alvin L. Bragg is considering an indictment on a felony charge for misrepresenting the nature of that payment.

Trump has a new lawyer in that case, Joe Tacopina, who has been making the rounds on television shows to insist that Trump isn’t guilty. Tacopina’s job isn’t easy, and he is not necessarily helping, telling MSNBC’s Ari Melber that Trump didn’t actually lie about the hush payment when he lied about it because he was not under oath and he didn’t want to violate a confidentiality agreement.

Also in New York, Trump has asked a judge to delay the $250 million civil case against him, his three oldest children, and the Trump Organization, for manipulating asset valuations to get bank loans and avoid taxes. New York attorney general Letitia James, who brought the suit, said the defendants had had plenty of time to prepare and that Trump is trying to move the case into the election season, at which point he will insist it must be delayed again.

Katelyn Polantz, Paula Reid, Kristen Holmes, and Casey Gannon of CNN reported today that the federal grand jury investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents has interviewed dozens of Mar-a-Lago staff, from servers to attorneys. Special Counsel Jack Smith continues to try to get Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran to testify after prosecutors learned that on June 24, 2022, Trump and Corcoran spoke on the phone as Trump had been ordered to produce the missing documents and the surveillance tapes of the area.

Prosecutors want Corcoran to have to testify despite the attorney-client privilege he claims, using the “crime-fraud exception,” which means that discussions that aided a crime cannot be kept secret.

In the face of this mounting legal pressure, Trump took to video to demand: “The State Department, the defense bureaucracy, the intelligence services, and all of the rest need to be completely overhauled and reconstituted to fire the deep staters.” Then, he said, his people need to finish the process he began of “fundamentally revaluating [sic] NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.” “[T]he greatest threat to Western civilization today is not Russia,” he said, but “some of the horrible USA-hating people that represent us.”

This speech was not simply a defense of Russia and its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. In his attempt to undermine the legal cases against him, Trump has endorsed the “post-liberal order” whose adherents reject the American institutions that defend democracy. In their formulation, American institutions they do not control—“the State Department, the defense bureaucracy, the intelligence services, and all of the rest,” for example—are corrupt because they defend the ideas of equality before the law, a free press, religious freedom, and so on. They must be torn down and taken over by true believers who will use the state to enforce their “Christian nationalism.”

In that formulation, the FBI and the Department of Justice are persecuting good Americans who were trying to protect the country on January 6, 2021. And yesterday, Zoe Tillman of Bloomberg reported that Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., sent a letter on October 28 last year to Chief Judge Beryl Howell warning that as many as 1,200 more people could still face charges in connection with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Today, the House Republicans announced an investigation, run by Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), into the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. The January 6th committee asked Loudermilk to talk to it voluntarily to explain why he gave a tour of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021, a time when the coronavirus had ended public tours. One of the people on that tour showed up on a video the next day threatening lawmakers.

Loudermilk told Scott MacFarlane and Rebecca Kaplan of CBS News that Americans have “very little confidence” in the report of the January 6th committee, “[a]nd there’s good reason. I mean, you even consider what they did to me, the false allegations that they made against me regarding the constituents that I had in my office in the office buildings—accusing me of giving reconnaissance tours.”

Loudermilk, who chairs the House Administration subcommittee on Oversight, says his committee will work “aggressively” to explain why Capitol security failed on January 6 and will seek interviews with people involved, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). He says his panel will “be honest, show the truth, show both sides.” Representative Norma Torres (D-CA), the top Democrat on the panel, notes that Loudermilk has not informed the Democrats even of the dates on which the committee is supposed to meet.

Politico’s Heidi Przybyla today reported on a February 2023 “bootcamp” for Republican staffers to learn how to investigate the Biden administration. The camp was sponsored by right-wing organizations including the Conservative Partnership Institute, which is led by Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and other right-wing leaders and which raised $45 million in 2021 alone. Sessions included “Deposing/Interviewing a Witness” and “Managing the News Cycle.”

At one of those investigations yesterday, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who sits on the Homeland Security committee, said she intended to divulge classified information, saying: “I’m not gonna be confidential because I think people deserve to know.” She claimed that drug cartels had left an explosive device on the border; U.S. Border Patrol chief Raul Ortiz later posted a picture of the “device” and said it was “a duct-taped ball filled with sand that wasn’t deemed a threat to agents/public.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to administer.

Today, Sanofi, the third major producer of insulin in the United States, announced it will cap prices for insulin at $35 a month. Sanofi, Eli Lilly, and Novo Nordisk produce 90% of the insulin in the U.S. The producers have faced pressure after the Inflation Reduction Act lowered the monthly cost of insulin to $35 a month for those on Medicare.

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pennsylvaniaprelawland-blog · 4 years

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TikTok, Data Security, And The Trump Administration’s Imminent Ban

By Grace White, Villanova University Class of 2023

July 28, 2020

Since its introduction, TikTok, a video-sharing app, quickly gained traction with teenagers and young adults. A place to learn quick dances, share lip-syncing videos, get a laugh, and more, TikTok has become all the rage, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a source of community, entertainment, and a creative outlet in an unprecedented time of separation. Based on the videos themselves, it may be surprising that the app has come under scrutiny based on concerns about security. The U.S. government has now taken action to prevent a security breach, but it is unclear what exactly will happen to TikTok.

The version of the platform popular right now was relaunched in August 2018 by ByteDance, a technology company based in Beijing, China [3]. It is the result of a merger with an older, similar app, but it was only this newest version that was available internationally. In the past year, TikTok has taken off, with accelerated growth in the past ten months.

Concern about TikTok is not a new development, but it is reaching a pivotal point. The safety of the app has been in question for over a year. In November of last year, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States launched a review of ByteDance’s acquisition of Musical.ly, which resulted in the creation of TikTok. The investigation has been ongoing, but the most likely results would be to force ByteDance to sell the app or cease operations in the U.S. [6]. This would have a nationwide impact on TikTok users. A major motion by the Federal Trade Commission against TikTok in 2019 fined the app almost $6 million over the collection of minors’ data and privacy settings that potentially put children in danger [1].

In the months since the investigation began, TikTok has had several controversies. In December, Check Point, a security firm, discovered bugs with privacy concerns, which have since been fixed; in March, it was found that TikTok was accessing data copied into the smartphone clipboard, potentially giving the app access to sensitive information [1]. These bugs have been resolved and the company claims no information left the app, but it is not the end of the concerns.In June, Amazon asked employees to delete TikTok on devices that have access to their work email [2]. Despite the request being rescinded, it caused a spike in anxiety over ByteDance’s data practices [7].

Data collection is not unique to TikTok with companies such as Facebook and Twitter collecting similar data from users.It could still be dangerous if the wrong information were to be leaked. Information collected by TikTok includes location data, IP address, device information, browsing history, TikTok message content; additional phone data such as GPS location, age, phone number, photos or videos taken on the app, and payment information, if a user opts into such collection. This information goes into determining what videos are suggested to a user, along with the person’s interactions with videos on their feed [1]. U.S. politicians are afraid that the information may be collected by the Chinese government and used for espionage against the United States [10]. The creators of TikTok claim that the information is not used maliciously [4] and has never been sent to the Chinese government. Even though these statements may be true, it is still a great source of concern. Through TikTok, China is aggregating massive amounts of data from American citizens; this fact combined with the country’s history of intellectual property violations and general data theft feels, for some, like enough to view the app as a danger.

In July, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the government was considering a ban on the app. Information collection in this case is such a concern because of China’s history of data abuse, particularly the fact that Chinese apps have frequently sent information to advertisers [1]. This claim was partially substantiated when the House of Representatives voted 336-71 to stop federal employees, including members of Congress and their staff, from downloading TikTok on any government-issued device [4]. This decision was made as part of a defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, passed in the House on Tuesday, July 21st [5]. This was one of the first legislative steps in limiting use of the app.

As mentioned earlier, the Trump Administration is considering a complete ban on TikTok. The US would not be the first country to do so, as India already did so [8]. The privacy concerns appear to necessitate quick action, and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff said a ban could come in “weeks, not months” [4]. A ban of the app would likely have to be through regulation of the Google and Apple app stores, and then have networks block the app on internet connections [11].

The act of actually banning the app is not a black and white decision. In the 1990s, a series of cases involving a cryptographer name Daniel Bernstein eventually decided that code qualifies as speech and is protected as such under the First Amendment [12]. Because of this protection, there is some speculation that adverse legal action may follow the ban, though some regulation of code is allowed [9]. Despite all of that, the top priority for the U.S. government is to maintain the safety and privacy of users, so action is a real possibility in the near future. Another route may involve the ongoing investigation through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, potentially forcing TikTok to “restructure” [11].

A ban of this sort could hurt teens who compose most of the app’s users, some of whom have earned a fanbase and thus, an income from their videos. In addition, banning TikTok has some other implications on free speech from this angle. The app has been an effective medium for spreading information, especially during the pandemic and ignition of the Black Lives Matter movement. Information will likely just move to a different app, but such a move may be unpopular with young adults who have found community on TikTok. To prevent those conversations may seem hypocritical coming from a country that condemns international violations of this principle [9].There are different opinions on if banning TikTok is the appropriate decision.

Until the Trump Administration passes direct action impacting TikTok, no one can say for certain what will happen to the platform. In order to keep American data safe, investigations, partial or total bans may be on the horizon for this app. It has taken over teen culture in the past year with its quick entertainment, but time may be up for TikTok.

________________________________________________________________

[1] McMillan, Robert, Lin, Liza, and Li, Shan. “TikTok User Data: What Does the App Collect and Why Are U.S. Authorities Concerned?” (July 7, 2020). The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-user-data-what-does-the-app-collect-and-why-are-u-s-authorities-concerned-11594157084

[2] Lorenz, Taylor. “What if the U.S. Bans TikTok?” (July 14, 2020). New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/style/tiktok-ban-us-users-influencers-taylor-lorenz.html?searchResultPosition=1

[3] “TikTok” (n.d.). Wikipedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok

[4] Lima, Cristiano and O’Brien, Connor.“House votes to ban TikTok on federal devices” (July 20, 2020).Politico.https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/house-tiktok-federal-phones-374315

[5] Rodrigo, Chris Mills. “House-approved defense bill would ban TikTok from government devices” (July 21, 2020). The Hill.https://thehill.com/policy/technology/508412-house-approved-defense-bill-would-ban-tiktok-from-government-devices

[6] Tan, Shining. “TikTok on the Clock: A Summary of CFIUS’s Investigation into ByteDance” (May 13, 2020). Center for Strategic & International Studies. https://www.csis.org/blogs/trustee-china-hand/tiktok-clock-summary-cfiuss-investigation-bytedance

[7] Isaac, Mike and Weise, Karen.“Amazon Backtracks FromDemand that Employees Delete TikTok” (July 10, 2020). New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/technology/tiktok-amazon-security-risk.html

[8] “Everything You Need to Know about the US Possibly Banning TikTok” (July 9, 2020). WSJ Noted. https://www.wsj.com/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-u-s-possibly-banning-tiktok-11594315979#:~:text=India%20recently%20banned%20TikTok%20and,tool%20for%20the%20Chinese%20government.

[9] Jarvis, Jacob. “Trump’s Proposed TikTok Ban May Threaten Free Speech: Experts” (July 11, 2020). Newsweek.https://www.newsweek.com/trump-tiktok-ban-free-speech-1517125

[10] Wong, Queenie and Hautala, Laura. “Trump pushes a TikTok ban: Everything you need to know” (July 22, 2020). CNET. https://www.cnet.com/news/trump-pushes-a-tiktok-ban-everything-you-need-to-know/

[11] Huddleston, Tom. “How the government could ban TikTok – and what else you need to know” (July 10, 2020). CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/10/could-the-us-government-ban-tiktok.html

[12] Eck, Hannah. “Is Code Free Speech?” (July 27, 2018). PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/is-code-free-speech/

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blvirisms-blog · 7 years

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I Only Wrote This Down To Make You Press Rewind || SQUAD

blair let out a groan. "are we done yet?"

naomi "we just got here." she continued to unpack the rest of her things, "please don't tell me you're going to be whining the whole time."

daniel "c'mon guys," he grumbled. "if you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say it at all."

blair "i don't know why anyone wants to unpack, it's fucking disgusting here."

verena "you seriously want to leave? this is exactly what we came here for-- this is where the fun stuff happens!"

naomi "exactly. and i think we could all use some fun right now." she said, referring to the whole cristian situation.

daniel "oh, now you want to have fun?" he rolled his eyes. "what do you have in mind?"

verena "hey, you literally just said, 'if you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say it at all.'. or does that not apply to you?"

naomi rolled her eyes, "anyways, there's a church over there. could you get any more sinister? a church in murderville. there's gotta be something there."

daniel "that was constructive." he rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to naomi. "good thinking – let's gear up and go."

verena shrugged her shoulders. "i don't know... sounded pretty negative to me, but what do i know!" grabbing her backpack, vee threw it on and got ready to head out.

naomi "jesus christ can we please go one day without arguing. please. i'm tired of it." she said, gathering her things and making sure they were all set before turning to daniel "lead the way captain."

blair she let out a snort but grabbed her backpack and stood up.

daniel let out a long sigh as he grabbed his backpack and camera. "let's just go," he murmured, starting towards the door.

naomi "do you ever wonder what actually happened here? like i know that's the big question but... it's weird. which is sad 'cause this placed look pretty neat." she started up conversation, looking at all the abandoned shops the lined the street, "it's like a town from a movie."

verena "i think about what it was like to have been here when this place was still a town with people... like was is a nice little town? or did it always have this off putting vibe?"

blair "i'd rather not think about it actually," she mumbled, sliding her hand into daniel's.

naomi held tightly onto harley's leash, not wanting for her to run off (as if she would, the group had heavily trained her for this) "i like to think it was a nice little town. it gave people the chance to be like... regular people i guess? y'know if you forget about the fact that they were all criminals."

daniel "nah, i think it always had some kind of eerie vibe to outsiders – not townies." daniel chimed in, filming as they walked along. "cristian is gonna regret pulling that bullshit after seeing this footage."

naomi "is it weird to say that i would have wanted to meet some of them? our documentary would be so much interesting if they were still, y'know, alive."

blair "naomi, sometimes i think you're just trying to get us killed."

daniel "i'm all for that, but you know we wouldn't live, right?" he chuckled.

verena "that would definitely make our documentary way better-- probably even get us a feature on the news if not a movie deal!"

blair "can you all stop? seriously, you're all nuts."

naomi "i mean like... never mind. what's the plan when we get to the church?"

daniel "whatever," daniel mumbled, shrugging his shoulders. "but i guess we can split into groups of two and scope the place out."

naomi "i mean like... never mind. what's the plan when we get to the church?"

daniel "whatever," daniel mumbled, shrugging his shoulders. "but i guess we can split into groups of two and scope the place out."

naomi his words weren't all that surprising. "fine. as long as i get to take harley."

blair looked at him like he had six heads. "seriously?"

verena " ooh yeah, i'm with naomi. not that you two would ever separate, but just so were clear."

blair "seriously? fine."

naomi "if you wanna do it. i, for one, don't want to but daniel calls the shots, right?"

daniel "it'll be fine." he assured. "we'll have walkies talkies and be able to keep in touch just in case of anything."

naomi "alright. that's it then." she said as the walked up the steps of the old church. her grip on the leash tightened more as she looked around, noticing how creepy it looked. "damn... okay i guess this is where we part our ways?"

daniel "guess so," he shrugged, giving everyone a nod. "but let's test the walkies first and then go."

blair "please tell me we're not using code names this time."

verena "if we are remember, i'm blue falcon!"

daniel "like i said – it's required when using the walkies." he nodded. "just call me soaring eagle."

blair rolled her eyes. "why?"

naomi "ooh i want icy cobra!"

daniel "well?" he asked, turning towards blair. "pick a name, babe!"

blair "i don't know, just make one up for me i guess."

daniel "how about pink panther?" he grinned.

blair "like the diamond?"

verena rolled her eyes. "sounds good. let's do this!"

naomi "i think we should take a picture of harley before we get to it. since.. y'know it's her first paranormal investigation." naomi said the last part in a baby voice, crouching down to pet her.

blair "let's see if we can make it a selfie."

daniel "i'm down for a family photo."

naomi pulled her phone out, going to the camera app "okay then let's do this."

blair leaned over behind harley. "alright harls, let's say cheese."

daniel "alright, enough selfies – let's get goin'."

blair "aww, one more," she grinned as harley licked her face.

naomi "i want to save my battery. maybe later." she said, putting the phone into her back pocket "meet back here in ten? twenty minutes?"

blair pulled out her phone and snapped one last picture before standing back up.

daniel "sounds good," he gave a nod. "keep your walkies on."

verena saluted the male, "aye aye captain!"

naomi "okay. stay safe." she smiled, letting harley lead her and verena towards the back of the building.

daniel held the walkie talkie up to his mouth as he and blair moved along the hall of the church. "soaring eagle and pink panther checking in, over." he grinned, glancing over at blair. "how sick is this place?"

naomi "icy cobra and blue falcon are all good. find anything? over." naomi replies, sitting down in the chair with harley by her side as verena continued to poke around.

verena giggled silently at how awesome their code names sounded coming through the walkie talkies. "can totally check this off the ol' bucket list !"

blair "it's going to make me sick if that's what you mean," she chuckled.

daniel "nothing too much yet, but gonna check a couple of rooms they have, over." daniel replies back, carefully searching around. "oh c'mon – breathe in the creepiness! isn't it awesome?"

blair looked around. "i don't think awesome and creepy should really be used in the same sentence."

naomi didn't reply to daniel and she got up from her seat, "remember the journal we found?" she asked verena, pulling it out of her backpack, "maybe there's something here that can help us put some of the pieces together."

daniel "but you know what should?" he asked as a smirked pulled across his lips. "you and sexy," he chuckled.

blair let out a snort. "that's original."

verena gave naomi a look, not wanting to believe the things they had found to be true. "if there was ever a place that could help us figure out what happened, this seems like a pretty good place to start."

daniel "oh c'mon," he sighed out as his lower lip poked out into a pout. "you need to loosen up – and maybe i've got an idea." he smirked, reaching out to take hold of her hand.

naomi nodded, flipping the small book open and reading the entries, "well there's nothing about the church services but...." she raised an eyebrow "it talks about their town meetings and how 'cruel' the mayor was." she looks up at verena "what does that mean?"

blair "if your idea is pretending to sacrifice me to satan then you and i have very different definitions of good ideas," she grumbled as he took her hand.

verena shrugged her shoulders, her head turning so she could keep her eyes out for anything. "it means that i hope that sick bastard isn't here."

daniel "although that sounds extremely interesting," he began speaking as he pulled her closer. "it wasn't quite my idea."

naomi let out a laugh "not physically. but in spirit." she joked, continuing to go through the book "okay.. more cryptic shit about the hospital and the neighborhood. guess we'll find more there than here."

blair scoffed, smacking his chest. "then what are you doing?"

daniel "i'm trying to make out with my girlfriend in a creepy ass church," he scoffed rolling his eyes. "so is she gonna stop complaining for five minutes or what?"

blair rolled her eyes and pressed her lips to his.

daniel "you think we should record this?" he teased.

verena "he better not be or he's gonna have to catch these hands!" looking over naomi's shoulder, she looked at the journal they'd found. "yeah-- who knows, we might get lucky and find something cool here too!"

blair "you're an asshole, you know that?" she huffed.

naomi "like what? i joked with micah that there might be a demons for dummise book around here. wouldn't that be something."

verena "nah, cristian isn't here to read it so, i doubt the ghosts would leave it around here!"

naomi "damn you really came for him." naomi laughed, calling harley to come to her side, "what if i do that thing they do in the crime shows where they get the dog to smell something and it leads them to person. what if harley here finds us something?"

verena " well, the ass just ditched us! i have no problem talking shit about him." looking around the eerie room, vee's eyes narrowed as she noticed a chained up door. "you think you can break in there?"

daniel "yeah, but you love me." he grinned, chuckling quietly. "c'mon," he murmured, bringing up his camera as he began to record. "how epic of a hook up spot would this be? how many people can say they've hooked up in a potentially haunted church?"

naomi looked in that direction and snorted "do i look like i can? no but there's no harm in trying." she walked over to the door, twisting the doorknob only to find it locked. "of course" she pushed against it but i wouldn't budge. "help?" she looked over at verena.

verena "on one condition. if i go flying through this door too, your ass better not tell every one /and/ show them video. got it ?"

blair "not many people would hook up in a haunted church. probably because they're, i don't know... smart?"

naomi "okay.... no promises but i'll try my best. seriously though this door has me both intrigued and frustrated."

verena "no! you have to promise! i kept the secret about the journal, you can not throw me under the bus just once." crossing her arms over her chest, verena looked at the other.

naomi "okay fine i promise i won't tell anyone if you wipe out."

daniel "it might not even be haunted," he shrugged, looking around. "it's old, smelly, run down – but we don't know if this place is haunted yet." daniel chimed.

blair "oh, i thought that was you," she teased.

verena smiled and moved over to the door. " okay, on the count of three... one, two, three."

naomi pushed against the door along verena, hearing a crack sound before it opened. she stumbled forward, catching herself on the wall as she looked over at the other "you good?"

daniel "funny," he rolled his eyes. "how about we make ourselves comfortable on some of this old, shitty furniture, yeah?" a smirk then pulled across his lips as daniel began to take a few steps back.

verena was close to falling on her face yet again, but was able to right her footing before that happened. looking at the other, vee nodded. "yeah, im good. are you okay?"

blair "i don't know, when was your last tetanus shot?"

naomi "perfect" she dusted herself off, calling harley only to have her walk in after them. "good girl. hey vee, some light maybe? oh shit that rhymed" naomi laughed to herself "i'm amazing."

daniel "i think before i left for school." he chuckled. "c'mon, lighten up! this is our only time away from everyone else."

blair "fine, fine," she huffed, taking the camera from him. "say hi," she grinned.

verena pet harley as she walked by, turning on her flash light and flashing it in naomi's direction "wow, looks like you have a back up career as a poet."

daniel flashed a toothy grin to the camera. "ladies and gentlemen, i think i'm finally about to get some this week." he teased as he continued to make his way over to the nearest piece of furniture - an old, dusty couch. "i bet you when i sit down, a cloud of dust will appear."

blair "dream big hot stuff," she chuckled, following him. "it's weird being on this side of the camera."

naomi bowed slightly "i'll be here all week." she let her eyes get adjusted to the darkness as she looked around for something. "you find anything over there?"

daniel plopped down on the couch, a cloud of dust rising into the air just as he suggested. "please tell me you got that on film." he then padded his lap, a smirk pulling back onto his lips. "get over here, camera girl."

verena squinted her eyes as she tried to see through the darkness. "no.. not really. give it a minute for our eyes to adjust."

blair "oh, i did," she rolled her eyes. she handed him the camera before straddling his lap.

naomi nodded (not that verena could see her) "do you ever wonder how we got to this point? like... all eight of us turning to the supernatural to make friends? people probably think we're weird as fuck."

daniel took the camera from her hand, immediately setting it down before his own hands found her hips. "now does this seem haunted to you?"

verena snorted out a laugh. "yeah, because we are weird as fuck naomi. we're absolutely nutty to want to got investigate abandoned and haunted locations."

blair "it looks fucking dusty so i wouldn't doubt it," she grinned.

naomi "i know. is this considered a cult?" her eyes finally catch sight of something and she reaches over to see what it is. her hands pat it but she can't see it. "uh vee, some light please?"

daniel "we've been in plenty of dusty places before and they weren't haunted." his shoulders rose into a shrug. "although we've never been in a place with a vibe like this."

blair "true. i definitely don't like the vibe," she shivered.

daniel "but maybe that means we'll get lucky and find something cool. or at least i get lucky within the next couple of minutes." he smirked.

verena flashed the light in naomi's direction. "well, i surely hope we aren't a cult."

blair chuckled. "well i'm hearing a lot of talk and not seeing a lot of action."

naomi laughed before looking down at where her hands were. her jaw dropped and she didn't know what to say, frozen as she stared at the dead body in front of her.

daniel "well excuse me," he mumbled, tightening his grip on her hips and pulling her into him as close as possible.

verena wanted nothing more than to scream and run out of the room, but she was frozen in her place. "naomi, back away from that..."

naomi retracted her hands (which were shaking from fear, disgust and shock) she took a step back and swallowed them lump in her throat "g-get daniel. now."

blair "better," she mumbled against his lips.

verena hurried out of the room, calling out daniel's name as she searched the church. "dan-- oh my god are you two serious right now? ya know what, it doesn't matter. daniel, we found a dead body!"

blair at the words 'dead body,' blair groaned, knowing that was the end of whatever they were doing. "A real dead body?"

daniel "yeah, yeah." he mumbled, pressing his lips against hers only moments before he heard verena calling his name. a long sigh left his lips, "seriously? or are you two messing around?"

naomi stayed glued in her spot, still in shock from having touched up on a dead body.

verena crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at the other. "no, i just came sprinting through a creepy ass church to tell you about a fake dead body." rolling her eyes she looked to daniel. "seriously. lets go! naomi is by herself!"

blair let out a huff and climbed off his lap.

daniel stood up from his place on the couch, grabbing the camera before starting off towards the door. "alright, show us the supposed body."

blair followed along behind him, casually dusting off his butt as they walked.

verena gave him a pointed look. "for someone who claims to enjoy this kind of stuff, you sure seem upset about us actually doing our job and finding crazy shit."

blair "that's because you've never had the blessing of seeing me naked," she teased.

verena "i would rather die here in this church than have to see you crusty ass naked blair." leading the two back to the room, vee entered the door way. "you good naomi?"

blair "that could be arranged," blair grumbled.

naomi shook her head "i'm going to throw up." she gagged, finally coming out of her shock state as she pushed pass all three of them and back into the hallway.

verena turned towards daniel, her arm draping over naomi's shoulder only for her to walk out of the room. "daniel, you better get your girl before you have another problem on your hands."

daniel "everyone just relax!" he exclaimed, his stomach had now jumped to his throat at the scene. "so there was nothing else? just a - body?" his voice was about shaky but he did he best to maintain his cool.

blair covered her mouth at the sight of the body before turning around and following naomi out into the hallway.

naomi was leaning against the wall, trying her best not to let all the contents of her stomach come out. she heard someone join her and opened her eyes. "and you guys thought we were joking" before she could say anything else, she saw something at the end of the hall. "b-blair did you see that?"

blair was about to respond when she noticed something move out of the corner of her eye. she thought it was her imagination until naomi brought it up. she quickly grabbed naomi's arm and dragged her back over to the group. "guys, we're not alone," she whispered.

daniel froze, but only for a moment. "alright, we just need to stay calm." he breathed out. "there are four of us. we've just got to stick together."

naomi wiped the tear that had fallen out "i wanna go back. now daniel. get us out of this!"

daniel "fine!" he grunted back, swallowing thickly. "i'll distract whatever it is that's out there and you guys go. i'll catch up."

blair "absolutely not," blair hissed, lacing her fingers in his.

naomi "are you sure?" she asked, looking at him and then at blair.

daniel "i'll be right behind you," he nodded before glancing over to blair, unlacing their hands. "as soon as i go into the hallway - run."

blair shook her head frantically. "no," she grabbed him.

naomi grabbed blair's free hand and pulled on it roughly "blair, please he'll be fine. let's go."

daniel "i'll be right behind you, i promise." he did his best to assure her. "you've got to get out of here."

blair felt her eyes burn as they filled with tears as naomi pulled her away.

naomi felt bad for blair but she knew daniel was more than capable of handling himself. she urged verena to follow and made sure harley was too "we'll go out the back. the motel isn't far."

daniel flashed her a smile, before he started towards the door. "as soon as i'm in the hall – go." he instructed, his heart beating out of his chest. "ready?"

blair fought the urge to break away and grab him but naomi had a grip on her and she could feel harley pushing behind her as if telling her to go.

naomi ran outside with blair, verena and harley, looking around her to see if anyone else was outside. "do you see anyone?" she asks, turning to face blair only to see her tear stained eyes, "blair, listen its gonna be okay." she said urgently but in a soft tone. "let's just go. he's got this and you know he does."

daniel took a breath before darting off, "go!" he called out as he turned and enter the hallway, clashing with the entity that had been watching them.

blair was sobbing now. usually against anyone seeing her cry, she no longer cared. "no, i can't -" she cried out, trying to push her way back into the building.

naomi sighed and chased after her, pulling her back softly. "okay blair, let's say i let you go in there. you get hurt or worse. how do you think he's gonna feel knowing you didn't listen to him?" she tried to reason.

naomi "nothing will so stop thinking like that."

verena "we have to go! daniel will be fine-- you have to believe that!" vee was more than anxious to get out of there and didn't want to leave anyone behind, but would if they wanted to act like a fool.

daniel yelled out in pain, his voice echoing throughout the church. something had struck his leg and an intense pain kicked in. but that didn't stop daniel from fighting off /whoever/ it was he was going against. he did his best to kick them off, scrambling to get out of the church. "go! go!" he screamed as he pushed his way out.

blair "NO!," blair screamed out at the sound of his. she ran toward him when she knew damn well she should be running the other way

verena 's eyes widened as she saw daniel rushing behind them, his jeans stained with blood. ditching the others, she ran over to help him walk, doing her best to bare his weight. "let's get out of here!”

naomi blair and verena were already helping him so she did her best to try to guide them in the right direction.

daniel "i'm fine!" he insisted, his adrenaline rushing from the encounter. "we've gotta go – we've gotta get out of here."

verena keeping up with his stride as well as his weight should have been difficult for her, but with everything that had been going on, she was fast enough and strong enough to help get him out of there. "naomi, do you remember how to get back?"

naomi "yeah, but if we keep along the main street they might see us. do we take the hidden shortcut or not?" she asked, looking back every few seconds to see if they were being followed.

blair was failing miserably at being calm. "how do we know whoever it is doesn't know about a shortcut?"

daniel constantly kept checking behind them, glancing over his shoulder to see if they we're being followed. "take the fastest way!"

naomi "i don't know." she took daniel's orders and turned down an alley, waiting for them to catch up before leading the rest of the way back to the motel.

verena hadn't even thought of anyone getting injured as being a serious possibility, but now that one of them was, her perspective was much much different. "open the door-- hurry up!"

blair as soon as they were in the motel, she opened the door to their room, leading him in carefully.

daniel the full fledge pain of his injury started to kick in and he couldn't help but to wince in pain. "he fucking sliced my leg!" he cried out.

blair "take him into the bathroom," she instructed through tears.

verena helped get daniel to the bathroom. "does anyone have a first aid kit?"

naomi "i do." she went through her bags before finding one and taking it to the bathroom where daniel and verena were. "what happened?" she asked, staring at him.

daniel dropped down onto the toilet, his head falling back as his eyes shut, doing his best to fight through the pain. "i don't know – i kind of just blacked out." he shakily breathed out. "but i had my camera."

verena carefully pushed ripped the denim of his pants, exposing the gnarly gash in his leg. "this is gonna need stitches."

blair came into the bathroom and fell to her knees in front of him, handing him a bottle of whiskey and taking his shoes off. "the pants need to come off," she insisted, opening his pants.

verena pushed herself off the ground, giving blair space. "do you need any help blair?"

blair skillfully pulled his pants off, barely touching the wound. "i need sanitizer first," she mumbled, holding up her semi-bloody hands.

verena rummaged through the kit and retrieved the sterile liquid, placing the bottle in her hands.

naomi walked back into the room, getting his camera and turning it back on before making her way into the bathroom. "who is this?" she asked as she watched the footage he had captured "did you hear him talk or anything? what did he cut you with?"

daniel "naomi – give me a sec, okay?" he breathed heavily, the pain becoming unbearable. "please, just do something!"

blair "vee's right," she nodded a she poured sanitizer on her hands. "you need stitches. i don't have anything to numb it with so i suggest you down that," she motioned to the whiskey, trying to keep it together.

naomi stayed quiet, the sight of his blood making her feel dizzy. "i'll just.. i'll just wait out here."

daniel "you want me to let you stitch my leg up? no way in hell." he shook his head. "i rather cut my fucking leg off."

blair "we're not cutting your fucking leg off, now shut up and drink the whiskey!"

verena "stop being a baby daniel! if we don't do the stitches your leg is gonna get infected and an amputation is a best case scenario!"

blair "naomi," she called out. "grab me one of his belts, please." she turned to verena, "sterelize a needle."

daniel "being a baby? next time you can be the one to get fucking slashed by a psycho." he hissed. "you're not seriously about to do this are you?" he asked, turning his attention to blair.

naomi went to where daniel kept his stuff and grabbed a belt, walking into the bathroom again and setting it beside her. "calm down. she knows what she's doing okay?"

verena did as she was asked and sterilized the needle. "you're are going to have to relax or it's going to be much worse."

daniel took the bottle of whiskey, swiftly bringing it to his lips and downing as much as he could. "just do it." he coughed.

verena handed blair the needle as well as the medical thread used to sew wounds shut. "naomi, bring that video back in here. he's gonna need a distraction!"

blair wrapped the belt above the wound, making it as tight as possible before pulling on the gloves from in the kit. she pulled out gauze, pouring peroxide on it. "this is going to sting, okay?" she wiped the wound as carefully as possible before taking the needle and thread from verena.

naomi shook her head "don't think that's a good idea" she replied nervously, looking away from the needle.

blair threaded the needle carefully. "vee, i'm going to need you to come here and hold his leg up like this, can you do that?"

verena glanced at naomi. "well you can't just stand there!" turning her attention back to blair, she did as instructed, holding his leg as carefully as she could.

blair "and naomi i need-" she took a deep breath. "i need you to sit on his lap."

naomi "woah, wait what?!"

verena looked from blair to daniel and back to blair. "uh... you wanna switch? i took sewing class in high school, how hard can it be?"

blair "thank you but i'm the only one who has experience with stitches." she turned back to naomi. "sit. on. his. lap," she seethed through clenched teeth.

naomi did as blair said, awkwardly sitting on his lap. "i'm so sorry." she told him, trying her best not to bother him or blair.

verena made a face, glad she hadn't had to become a lap dog in order to fix the guys leg. "the lord works in mysterious ways eh naomi?" she knew she shouldn't be joking, but she couldn't help it.

blair "verena, i will punch you."

verena "hey! focus on your boyfriend before he bleeds out!" vee shot naomi a wink before giggling silently.

naomi was in a too much of an awkward position so she just kept her mouth shut as she waited for blair to do it "or for fucks sake blair get it over with!"

blair focused on his leg, sewing it up through his outbursts of pain. she added liquid bandage on top to hold the stitches in and then instructed them to bring daniel over to the bed as she cleaned up. “you guys should probably get some rest,” she mumbled, locking the door behind them before turning off the light and crawling into the bed next to him.

#tw:blood #tw:needles #tw:stabbing #tw:surgery #tw:dead bodies #event three #⌜ ˟ ˚ ɪᴛ’s ᴜs ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ᴛʜɪs ᴍᴇss — sǫᴜᴀᴅ ˚ ˟ ⌟

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prfm-uk · 7 years

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Get to Know Me Uncomfortably Well (Filled Out)

@southeastasyano wanted me to completely fill out these 100 questions and a bonus one, and an anonymous asker wanted me to answer just a few. So here ya go! Go on and stalk me, young ones.

For the questions below the cut, I tag: @southeastasyano, @fukigen-na-boy, @prfm-au, @prfm-us, @housekinoame, @cosmog-explorer, @jenmarii, @chrism-sol, @p-r-f-m, @securitylucy, @a-chan-san and @jeffhardys!

What is your middle name? I never use it on my passports or regularly, but I do have a middle name. But I don’t wanna say it >///<

How old are you? I am currently 17 years old!

When is your birthday? June 24th!

What is your zodiac sign? Cancer (yes, I’m that mentally unstable b*tch)

What is your favorite color? Green all the f*cking way!!

What’s your lucky number? 3

Do you have any pets? I had two fish, but they died when I was 11 :’(

Where are you from? While I was born in London, United Kingdom, my family originates from Sri Lanka

How tall are you? I am 6 foot 1 inch.

What shoe size are you? I am only UK size 7.

How many pairs of shoes do you own? I own only five pairs of shoes.

What was your last dream about? It was a dream in which my best friend committed suicide... Yeah, it was grim, and was more of a nightmare :(

What talents do you have? I am pretty good when it comes to learning foreign languages, and I play piano maybe kinda semi-decently well? I can also do that thing where I can show the red bit inside my eyes, and I can fit my whole fist in my mouth.

Are you psychic in any way? Ask @prfm-us

Favourite song? ‘New Americana’ by Halsey or ‘I Know Places’ by Taylor Swift or ‘Warm Blood’ by Carly Rae Jepsen...

Favourite movie? It would have to be ‘The Emoji Movie’

Who would be your ideal partner? James Wright <3 Well, he is my bf so, um, yay?

Do you want children? Yup, I’d love to see my kid go through life and me be like “ha, I remember when I went through that shizz”

Do you want a church wedding? Well, I’m a Buddhist and I don’t know how they do weddings, so I guess I’d be fine with a civil ceremony of sorts..?

Are you religious? Not at all, and I’m not really sad about it either.

Have you ever been to the hospital? So many f*cking times, honestly. Some weren’t as bad, whereas there is one in particular that will always be my worst ever day alive.

Have you ever got in trouble with the law? Nope, I’m pretty submissive with the law, I’m too scared of punishment haha

Have you ever met any celebrities? When I was in primary school, I was chosen to go meet the Queen and that was pretty cool. We gave her like this bouquet of flowers and she didn’t seem very appreciative. (Just kidding, I love you, Lizzie)

Baths or showers? I prefer baths, but I always have showers because otherwise I might never come out.

What colour socks are you wearing? I’m wearing black socks which say “Thursday” in green font. And yes, it is Thursday where I am, my OCD is too much.

Have you ever been famous? Well, Kyary tweeted my video once and I f*cking YELLED, but no, I’m pretty irrelevant!

Would you like to be a big celebrity? No haha, I wouldn’t be able to handle that much attention to be honest.

What type of music do you like? Electropop, I guess is what it is. I also like modern 80s pop (does that make sense) and also EDM.

Have you ever been skinny dipping? No, haha, I think that just isn’t a very common thing in Britain.

How many pillows do you sleep with? Just one, under my head.

What position do you usually sleep in? I sleep like a fetus does in the womb. Enjoy that mental image.

How big is your house? 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Not amazing, but my family is somewhat well-off.

What do you typically have for breakfast? Basic cereal, generally.

Have you ever fired a gun? Yup, I spent a short while in my school’s combined cadet force before deciding that it wasn’t for me.

Have you ever tried archery? No, I think I have terrible hand-eye co-ordination anyway haha

Favorite clean word? If you mean normal, random word, then my favourite is kumquat.

Favorite swear word? My favourite swear word on it’s own is c*nt because I love how it rolls off the tongue, it just sounds like pure spite. In an insult, definitely f*cknut or f*cktard is a common resort for me.

What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? 4 days, powered by a coffee each day. And I wasn’t even tired, people basically forced me to have coffee.

Do you have any scars? I have one on my leg from a surgery where they put a metal screw in my hip to make sure that it grew straight (well I didn’t turn out straight, but my leg did). Also, I still have a few old ones on my thighs and wrists...

Have you ever had a secret admirer? Ahahahahahaha, as if anyone would go to that effort over someone like me.

Are you a good liar? If I do say so myself, yes, I am. Or was I lying there?!?!?!?!

Are you a good judge of character? Ask @prfm-us

Can you do any other accents other than your own? I can do an LA valley accent..?

Do you have a strong accent? I have a strong British accent, and then I have a semi-strong Essex accent layered on top, so words like “fam” and “lit” just sneak their way into my speech.

What is your favourite accent? Canadian and Australian are my favs!!

What is your personality type? Unstable, but caring..? <3

What is your most expensive piece of clothing? I have a £45 tie that someone gave me as a bday gift. Yes, I don’t get spending tons on clothes...

Can you curl your tongue? I can do it into a U shape and that weird W shape thingy.

Are you an innie or an outie? Innie. Is this really helpful information to you?

Left or right handed? Right handed!

Are you scared of spiders? DON’T GET ME STARTED. I get terrified of the world’s smalliest spiders and I will legit scream and chuck my phone across the room and everyone else will just be confused.

Favorite food? Profiteroles..?

Favorite foreign food? Um, maybe, poutine? Tim Horton’s? Basically I love Canada.

Are you a clean or messy person? Clean, always clean. I cannot function in a messy environment.

Most used phrase? “I put the SAD in Social Anxiety Disorder”. Yes, I am too real sometimes.

Most used word? Well, it’s probably “the”, “a” or “lopsided”

How long does it take for you to get ready? Literally around ten minutes.

Do you have much of an ego? I mean, I don’t have a shred of self-confidence, so no..?

Do you suck or bite lollipops? I don’t know what this shows about my gay self, but I suck... yeah.

Do you talk to yourself? When I’m intensely lonely or need to calm myself down.

Do you sing to yourself? All the time. I cannot listen to any music without dancing and/or singing to it.

Are you a good singer? Hell no!

Biggest fear? Losing those who are closest to me. Oh, and f*cking spiders.

Are you a gossip? Nope, I guess i’m just not in that circle.

Best dramatic movie you’ve seen? I can’t name the best I’ve ever watched, but I recently watched a British-made film called “I, Daniel Blake” and I really liked it.

Do you like long or short hair? Short hair.

Can you name all 50 states of America? No, I’m British.

Favourite school subject? German or Physics!

Extrovert or Introvert? Introvert 100%

Have you ever been scuba diving? Yup, I’ve been in Sri Lanka

What makes you nervous? The dark and silence.

Are you scared of the dark? Oh, I just accidentally answered that. Yes, I am.

Do you correct people when they make mistakes? Only when it’s appropriate, I don’t want to bother people!

Are you ticklish? VERY ticklish! If you touch my neck, I’ll be on the floor in a few seconds.

Have you ever started a rumour? No haha I’d get baited out so quickly.

Have you ever been in a position of authority? I was an editor for my school newspaper? I mean, it wasn’t that thrilling at all

Have you ever drank underage? In the UK, the legal drinking age is 18, I’m 17, and although I’ve never gotten hammered or drunk vodka and stuff like that, I have had very light alcohol for the taste!

Have you ever done drugs? God no, and I intend never to!

Who was your first real crush? Ugh, it seems so immature when I see it now, but there was this cute guy called Josh in my class who kept paying so much attention to me, so I asked him out, and he was like “How’d you know I was gay? Oh, and I’m not interested”. Yeah, I cried that night haha

How many piercings do you have? None!

Can you roll your ‘R’s? I can <3

How fast can you type? Around 75 words-per-minute (I used an online typing test just now!)

How fast can you run? I think I run pretty slow! In school, I was just average, in the middle, but I’m not going to be winning any fun-runs :P

What colour is your hair? Jet black, but any other colour would look out out place on my brown skin :D

What colour are your eyes? A relatively dark brown, but they are still visibly brown in the sun.

What are you allergic to? Nothing, as far as I know :)

Do you keep a journal? I keep a kinda mood tracking thingamajig through an app called ‘Pacifica’. It’s great for anyone tackling stress or any mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar, etc. But other than that, I don’t keep a journal as such, no.

What do your parents do? My father is a physiotherapist, and my mother is a fraud investigator; she works for the government to find people who are illegally claiming benefits.

Do you like your age? No, because it’s too ‘in the middle’! If I was below the age of 14, I’d be able to relax and be pretty carefree, and if I was above the age of, say 25, I wouldn’t be studying random crap that will never come up in the future and will actually be doing worthwhile things. Instead, I’m 17 and I need to study stuff that won’t come up even in my degree, and it’s almost impossible to find motivation right now.

What makes you angry? People making mistakes when I literally warned them not to; they were just that f*cking ignorant.

Do you like your own name? Some people know, but no, I don’t like my name. I feel like it just sounds a weird, so whenever I tell someone my name, I always include some disclaimer like ‘Oh, it’s a weird Asian name’.

Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? Nope, I haven’t thought of any! I mean, unless I name my kids Dan and Phil...

Do you want a boy a girl for a child? Call me sexist, but I want a boy!

What are you strengths? I can fit my whole fist in my mouth, and I’m pretty good at languages.

What are your weaknesses? I’m quite sensitive and sometimes I get carried away with jokes.

How did you get your name? Well, my parents called over some kinda psychic name-giver as soon as I was born, and they’d use my star sign, read my palm and use God knows whatever info they could make up, and then name me based on it. That gave me ‘Yasath’, which I’m pretty sure means ‘treasure’ or something.

Were your ancestors royalty? No, but they were pretty high up in government jobs :]

Do you have any scars? That’s Question 39, so just refer back to that :3

Colour of your bedspread? It is white and brown. Hey, it’s like me! Sorry, bad joke.

Colour of your room? It has generic, textured cream (I think) wallpaper.

Does it ever get better? I like to think so, and it’s usually the only shred of hope I have left. But if you think it will never get better, then it won’t ever get better, because you won’t let it get better! So yeah, just have that small light at the end of the tunnel in mind whenever you’re starting to lose hope in yourself <3

Jeeeeeeez, that was long! I hope someone enjoyed that at least haha

#me #random facts #stalk #tag #filled out #prfmuk tags #sorry it's so long!#that's what she said

12 notes · View notes

savetopnow · 6 years

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2018-03-27 14 BUSINESS now

BUSINESS

Business Insider

UAE says Qatari fighter jets flew dangerously close to 2 civilian aircraft

Here's where the future of retail is headed in 2018 (TGT, WMT, AMZN)

It's getting tougher for Trump to find new lawyers to join his defense team in the Russia investigation

The US will reinstate a question about citizenship status for its 2020 Census

THE EVOLUTION OF ROBO-ADVISING REPORT: How automated investment products are disrupting and enhancing the wealth management industry

Harvard Business Review

Taming the Epic To-Do List

Using AI to Invent New Medical Tests

Research: The Industrial Revolution Left Psychological Scars That Can Still Be Seen Today

How Black Women Describe Navigating Race and Gender in the Workplace

Is the Confidence Gap Between Men and Women a Myth?

Inc

3 Simple Ways to Optimize Yourself for Maximum Productivity

With 5 Quick Clicks You Can See All the Data Facebook Has On You. (I Was Truly Stunned By What I Found)

Bitcoin Slips Further on More Bad News, But 1 Expert Says Investors Are Reading It All Wrong

American Airlines' CEO Says the Least Important Customers Get the Worst Planes

How the Innovative Company Behind Peeps Hatches 2 Billion Chicks a Year

New York Times Business

A Top Candidate for New York Fed’s Leader: San Francisco’s

Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards, Indictment Says

Itineraries: Hotels Hope That Tax Law Will Revive Corporate Meetings

The Trade Issue That Most Divides U.S. and China Isn’t Tariffs

Stormy Daniels Attracts 22 Million Viewers to ‘60 Minutes’

Reddit Business

What major would you recommend?

Trivia App HQ Partners with Nike to Giveaway $100K and Exclusive Air Max Shoes

2% discount on invoice? Which industries actually do this?

Top Performers: Stop Giving Away Your Time for Free

Wall Street roars back as trade war fears fade | Reuters

Reddit Startup

Where to get qualified legal advice for an early stage start up?

Should I Turn my Personal Project into a Startup?

Sam Altman and co often talk about how starting your career at a start-up is smarter than at a big firm (Google etc.). Does the same apply for non-technical graduates? Advice needed!

Where to focus development pre-funding?

Co-founder or just a high level employee?

The Economist Business and Finance

Ukraine convinces Ryanair to return

Markets think trade war is good for “absolutely nothing”

Dropbox goes public

The EU wants to tax tech giants’ revenues

Indian drugmakers need a new prescription

Wall Street Journal Business

Avon Gives Activist Group Board Seat, Avoiding Proxy Fight

Larry Nassar's Former MSU Boss Arrested and Jailed

Arizona Governor Suspends Uber's Self-Driving Cars From Roads

U.S., States Step Up Pressure on Facebook

Trump Administration Seeks Freer Hand for U.S. Companies in China

Yahoo Finance

The Latest: Australia expels 2 Russian diplomats

Lawyers Explain Why It Might Be Smart Not To Have Donald Trump As A Client

Lawmaker Says Rumor Swirling That Ryan Will Resign; Speaker's Aide Says Otherwise

Jimmy Carter Calls Trump's Hiring Of John Bolton His 'Worst Mistake' Yet

He Begged ICE To Let Him See His Daughter Graduate. But He's An Easy Target For Removal.

#business

0 notes

vinayv224 · 5 years

Link

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what’s happening in the world. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions.

Rundown of the Trump-Ukraine scandal so far; the British prime minister sends mixed messages on a Brexit delay.

How we learned to spell Volodymyr Zelensky

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Text messages show top diplomats discussed using the prospect of a White House visit to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Burisma, a company with links to Hunter Biden. Then one diplomat expressed alarm about withholding military aid in exchange for “assistance with a political campaign” before another suggested taking the conversation offline. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

Here’s a full transcript of the texts, which include Kurt Volker, then the special representative to Ukraine, stressing the importance of getting President “Zelensky to say that he will help [the] investigation.” [NYT / Charlie Savage and Josh Williams]

There’s a lot that’s damaging in here: References to a quid pro quo, US officials coaching Ukrainians on how to mention an investigation into the Biden case in statements, and phrasing that suggests the diplomats were trying to cover their tracks. [Washington Post / Philip Bump]

Meanwhile, US Sen. Ron Johnson said that the US ambassador to the EU told him there was indeed a quid pro quo (and Johnson said he then confronted Trump, who denied it). [Wall Street Journal / Siobhan Hughes and Rebecca Ballhaus]

Since Thursday, the scandal has mushroomed even further out of control for Trump. [Vox / Alex Ward]

This week brought revelations that the Trump administration asked multiple world leaders to investigate the Bidens, the FBI’s 2016 probe into the Trump campaign and Russia, or both. [Vox / Matthew Yglesias]

Trump continues to defend his call with Zelensky. But the scandal is about a lot more than just one call — it’s about the actions of multiple US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, who was reportedly sent to tell Ukraine that aid was dependent on investigating “corruption.” [Washington Post / Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe, and Ashley Parker]

The House impeachment inquiry has also started to bear fruit: The texts were from the first batch of documents the State Department turned over to investigators. [Politico / John Bresnahan]

Meanwhile, polls are recording a significant spike in support for Trump’s impeachment, particularly among Democrats. [FiveThirtyEight / Perry Bacon Jr.]

In case you’re wondering, here’s why “Zelensky” is spelled with two Ys on Zelensky’s passport but usually is not in English-language media. [Hanna Kozlowska / QZ]

Johnson puts Brexit extension on, off, and under the table

The UK government said in court documents it will request an extension from the EU on the Brexit deadline — as Parliament demanded — if an agreement isn’t reached by October 19. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson continues to insist there will be “no delay” on Brexit. [The Guardian / Heather Stewart, Severin Carrell, Daniel Boffey, and Lisa O’Carroll]

The current Brexit date of October 31 was already the second extension the EU reluctantly granted to try to make a deal. [Vox / Jen Kirby]

Johnson has stated he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than request an extension, even if that means a potentially economy-damaging “no deal” exit from the EU. [BBC]

The Brexit countdown began in March 2017 when then-British Prime Minister Theresa May evoked Article 50 of the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon, a provision that allows member states to leave the confederation. [Vox / Jen Kirby]

Johnson may have had a change of heart on a Brexit delay, despite his public stance. [Foreign Policy / Owen Matthews]

Miscellaneous

The appearance of black women in Todd Phillips’ film Joker makes a powerful but likely unintentional statement. [HuffPost / Zeba Blay]

Who decides when and if a home is historic is surprisingly contentious. [Wall Street Journal / Kris Frieswick]

New York district attorneys and the Department of Justice are duking it out over Trump’s taxes. [Politico / Toby Eckert]

How one woman demanded accountability during the Kavanaugh hearings and doesn’t regret a thing. [Vox / Ana Maria Archila]

Trump brings up the idea of a government broadcast station. [Newsweek / Daniel Moritz-Rabson]

Verbatim

“I don’t know if that’s a real request or him just needling the press knowing that you guys are going to get outraged by it.” [Sen. Marco Rubio on President Trump publicly imploring China to look into his 2020 challenger Joe Biden]

Watch this: Billionaires, Explained

Learn about why there are more billionaires than ever — and what they do with all that money. Stream Billionaires, Explained now on Netflix.

Plus: Our Netflix show, Explained, is back for its second season! Catch new episodes each Thursday.

The Hong Kong government tried to ban face masks. Protesters are already defying it.

Greta Thunberg is traveling from Canada to Chile without leaving the ground

Eddie Murphy is better than ever in Dolemite Is My Name, a bawdy comedy about comedy

Amazon’s video app should be coming back to Apple. But get ready to see more streaming fights.

The economy is slowing down. That’s bad for Trump.

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sheminecrafts · 5 years

Text

Open sourcing analysis, plus US, China and HQ2

The big news today is that — finally — we have Amazon’s selection of cities for its dual second headquarters (Northern Virginia and NYC). Then some notes on China. But first, semiconductors and open sourcing analysis.

We are experimenting with new content forms at TechCrunch. This is a rough draft of something new – provide your feedback directly to the authors: Danny at [email protected] or Arman at [email protected] if you like or hate something here.

Pivot: Future of semiconductors, chips, AI, etc.

Last week, I focused on SoftBank’s debt and Form D filings by startups. On Friday, I asked what I should start to analyze next. There were several feedback hotspots, but the one that popped out to me was around next-generation chips and the battle for dominance at the hardware layer.

As a software engineer, I know almost nothing about silicon (the beauty of abstraction). But it is clear that the future of all kinds of workflows will increasingly be driven by capabilities at the hardware/silicon level, particularly in future applications like artificial intelligence, machine learning, AR/VR, autonomous driving, and more. Furthermore, China and other countries are spending billions to go after the leaders in this space such as Nvidia and Intel. Startups, funding, competition, geopolitics — we’ve got it all here.

Arman and I are now diving deeper into this space. We will start to post once we have some interesting things to share, but if you have ideas, opinions, companies or investments in this space: tell us about them, as we are all ears: [email protected] and [email protected].

Open-source analysis at TechCrunch

Since I launched this daily “column” last week, I have included the text near the top that “We are experimenting with new content forms at TechCrunch.” One of those forms is what might be called open-source journalism. Definitions are fuzzy, but I take it to mean working “in the open”: allowing you, the audience of this column, to engage in not just feedback around finalized and published posts, but to actually affect the entire process of analysis, from sourcing and ideation to data science and writing.

I am thankful to work at a publication like TechCrunch where my readers are often working in the exact sectors that I am writing about. When I wrote about Form Ds last week, a number of startup attorneys reached out with their own thoughts and analysis, and also explained key aspects of how the law is changing around SEC disclosure for startups. That’s really powerful, and I want to apply it to as many fields as possible.

This thesis is ultimately intentional — now I have to operationalize it. There aren’t good tools (yet!) that I know of that allows for easy sharing of data and notes that doesn’t rely on a hacked together set of Google Docs and Github. But I’m exploring the stack, and will publish more things publicly as we have them.

Amazon HQ2 – the future of corporate relations with cities

Amazon’s long process for selecting an HQ2 is finally over, and the official answer is two: Northern Virginia and NYC. Tons of words have been spilled about the search, and I am sure even more analysis will strike today about what put those two locations over the top.

To me, the key for mayors is to start using these reverse searches (where a company seeks a city and not vice versa) as leverage to actually get resources to fund infrastructure and other critical services.

This is a theme that I discussed about a year ago:

Take Boston’s bid for GE’s new headquarters. Yes, the city offered property tax rebates of about $25 million , but GE’s move also pushed the state to fund a variety of infrastructure improvements, including the Northern Avenue bridge and new bike lanes. That bridge adds a critical path for vehicles and pedestrians in Boston’s central business district, yet has gone unfunded for years.

Ideally, governments could debate, vote, and then fund these sorts of infrastructure projects and community improvements. The reality is that without a time-sensitive forcing function like a reverse RFP process, there is little hope that cities and states will make progress on these sorts of projects. The debates can literally go on forever in American democracy.

So if you are a mayor or economic planning official, use these processes as tools to get stuff done. Use the allure of new jobs and tax revenues to spur infrastructure spending and get a rezoning through a recalcitrant city council. Use that “prosperity bomb” to upgrade old parts of the urban landscape and prepare the city for the future. A healthier, more humane city can be just around the corner.

Take DC. The city has seen one of the best-run Metro systems deteriorate to abysmal levels over the past few years due to a complete dumpster fire of organizational design (the DC transit agency WMATA is funded by inconsistent revenue sources that ensure it will never be sustainable). Here is an opportunity to use Amazon’s announcement to get the tax framework and operations figured out to ensure that real estate, transportation, and other critical urban infrastructure are designed effectively.

China’s mobile internationalization

Timothy Allen/Getty Images

Talking about second headquarters, the technology industry clearly has separated into poles, one based around the United States and the other based around China. Two articles I read recently gave good insights of the benefits and challenges for China in this world.

The first is from Sam Byford writing at The Verge, who investigates the native OS options that Chinese consumers receive from companies like Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, and others. The headline is much more shrill than the text, so don’t let that frighten you.

Byford provides an overview of the lineage of Chinese mobile OSes, and also notes that what might look like design gaffes in Western consumer eyes might be critical needs for Chinese buyers:

But what is true today is that not all Chinese phone software is bad. And when it is bad from a Western perspective, it’s often bad for very different reasons than the bad Android skins of the past. Yes, many of these phones make similar mistakes with overbearing UI decisions — hello, Huawei — and yes, it’s easy to mock some designs for their obvious thrall to iOS. But these are phones created in a very different context to Android devices as we’ve previously understood them.

The article is perhaps a tad long for what it is, but Byford’s key viewpoint should be repeated as a mantra by any person connected to the technology sector today: “The Chinese phone market is a spiraling behemoth of innovation and audacity, unlike anything we’ve ever seen. If you want to be on board with the already exciting hardware, it’s worth trying to understand the software.”

Of course, while China may be a huge country, its leading technology companies do want to globalize and expand their user bases outside of the Middle Kingdom’s borders. That may well be a challenging proposition.

Writing at Factor Daily, Shadma Shaikh dives into the failure of WeChat to break into the Indian market. The product lessons learned by WeChat’s owner Tencent could be applied to any Silicon Valley company — cultural knowledge and appropriate product design are key to entering overseas markets.

Shaikh gives a couple of examples:

Another design feature in the app allowed users to look up and send add-friend requests to WeChat users nearby. During initial onboarding when users were just checking app’s features, many would tap the “people nearby” feature, which would switch on location sharing by default – including with strangers. Once location sharing with strangers was switched on, it wasn’t very intuitive to turn it off.

“Women used to get a lot of unwarranted messages from men, which was a major turn off and many of them left the platform,” Gupta says. “China probably didn’t have this stalking problem.”

And

In China, where the internet was cheaper than in India in 2012, sending video files of, say, 4 MB was not a challenge. WhatsApp compresses a 5 MB photo to 40 kilobytes. WeChat did not compress the files and took many minutes and data to send and receive media files.

Internationalization will never be easy, but the lessons that Silicon Valley has slowly learned over the past two decades will need to be learned again by Chinese companies if they want to export their software to other countries.

Reading Docket

Eliot Peper’s new science fiction novel Borderless

Daniel J Hopkins’ The Increasingly United States (about how U.S. elections are more national and less local than ever before).

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theinvinciblenoob · 5 years

Link

Pivot: Future of semiconductors, chips, AI, etc.

Open-source analysis at TechCrunch

Amazon HQ2 – the future of corporate relations with cities

This is a theme that I discussed about a year ago:

China’s mobile internationalization

Timothy Allen/Getty Images

Byford provides an overview of the lineage of Chinese mobile OSes, and also notes that what might look like design gaffes in Western consumer eyes might be critical needs for Chinese buyers:

Shaikh gives a couple of examples:

“Women used to get a lot of unwarranted messages from men, which was a major turn off and many of them left the platform,” Gupta says. “China probably didn’t have this stalking problem.”

And

Reading Docket

Eliot Peper’s new science fiction novel Borderless

Daniel J Hopkins’ The Increasingly United States (about how U.S. elections are more national and less local than ever before).

via TechCrunch

#IFTTT #TechCrunch

0 notes

technicalsolutions88 · 5 years

Link

Pivot: Future of semiconductors, chips, AI, etc.

Open-source analysis at TechCrunch

Amazon HQ2 – the future of corporate relations with cities

This is a theme that I discussed about a year ago:

China’s mobile internationalization

Timothy Allen/Getty Images

Byford provides an overview of the lineage of Chinese mobile OSes, and also notes that what might look like design gaffes in Western consumer eyes might be critical needs for Chinese buyers:

Shaikh gives a couple of examples:

“Women used to get a lot of unwarranted messages from men, which was a major turn off and many of them left the platform,” Gupta says. “China probably didn’t have this stalking problem.”

And

Reading Docket

Eliot Peper’s new science fiction novel Borderless

Daniel J Hopkins’ The Increasingly United States (about how U.S. elections are more national and less local than ever before).

from Mobile – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2zMaHhA ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM: https://techcrunch.com/

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

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cryptnus-blog · 6 years

Text

Joe Lubin talks Tether

New Post has been published on https://cryptnus.com/2018/08/joe-lubin-talks-tether/

Joe Lubin talks Tether

Tether is the biggest controversy in crypto right now. But Joseph Lubin, cofounder of Ethereum, does not buy the accusations against Tether.

Tether is a “stablecoin” pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. Tether tokens are meant to be a way for investors or vendors to get out of bitcoin by exchanging it for tether. The price of tether has stayed at or right near $1 for its lifetime.

But accusations have swirled around the company, Tether, which claims all tethers are backed by U.S. dollars held in bank accounts, but will not publicly identify its banks. In December 2017, the CFTC subpoenaed Tether and Bitfinex, a huge bitcoin exchange that began offering tether in 2015; the two companies share a CEO. And in June, a University of Texas research paper concluded that the run-up in price of bitcoin at the end of 2017 was mostly due to market manipulation of tether.

To quell the doubts around its reserves, Tether tapped former FBI director Louis Freeh and his D.C. law firm Freeh, Sporkin & Sullivan, to conduct an investigation of its compliance, including a check of its bank balances. Freeh’s firm found that on June 1, Tether indeed held $2.545 billion in two banks, enough to match all tethers in reserve, plus a $7 million cushion. Tether publicly posted the Freeh report in June, but the many vocal skeptics were not satisfied. In August, the Wall Street Journal highlighted the “opaque way in which tethers are created,” which intensified scrutiny of Tether. Many cryptocurrency enthusiasts and onlookers are convinced the company is an elaborate scam.

Joseph Lubin doesn’t agree.

Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

“Tether’s an interesting project,” Lubin told Yahoo Finance on our Final Round show on Tuesday. “Based on our analysis, which involves just talking to a bunch of people in the space, we do believe that tethers are backed 1 to 1 by U.S. dollars in bank accounts… With respect to market manipulations, I’m not sure that market manipulations are related to Tether directly, if they do exist.”

Lubin, whose company Consensys is developing decentralized apps built on blockchain, is one of the more respected veterans in the crypto space. Ethereum, which he cofounded, is a smart contracts platform and the vehicle for most initial coin offerings (ICOs). The native token of Ethereum, ether, is the No. 2 cryptocurrency by market cap, though its price has fallen 70% in 2018.

Lubin’s apparent defense of Tether may surprise those who are convinced that the token, and the company behind it, are in some way fraudulent. Or it may carry some weight with the skeptics.

But Lubin also cautioned about Tether, “It’s still not 100% solid in terms of a story, from my perspective. I expect many other price stable tokens will arise and take its place.”

As for the current cryptocurrency correction, with all the major coins seeing big drops in 2018 so far (especially ether), Lubin predicts, “I think there’ll be a series of irrationally exuberant price spikes up, followed by corrections, probably… Each spike will, I believe, bring in a wave of new activity and bring fundamental infrastructure to the ecosystem.”

—

Daniel Roberts covers cryptocurrency and blockchain at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @readDanwrite.

Crypto market crash prompts people to post suicide hotline on Reddit

Exclusive: Former FBI director Louis Freeh talks Tether investigation

Bitcoin VC: ‘People are going to lose a lot of money’ on new coins

Beware: An ICO is not like an IPO

The 11 biggest names in crypto right now

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mikemortgage · 6 years

Text

Summer reads (for the entrepreneur who actually takes time off)

Taking time off is important to refresh and recharge as you build your company, and part of that relaxation can include reading books that can help on your entrepreneurial journey. I put a call out to entrepreneurs in my network to get their advice on the best books to help inspire and inform you this summer, whether you’re on a dock at the cottage, on a plane, or on your balcony deep in the downtown core.

My first pick is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, a former New York Times reporter who has written several books about productivity. The Power of Habit focuses on the science behind habit formation, and how you can form habits in your personal life and apply them within your company to improve efficiency and increase profits. Case studies include tales of products such as Febreze, which was launched by Procter & Gamble. The product was initially a dud, but after examining the habits consumers form around cleaning rituals, they were able to tap into them and make the product a huge success. It also highlights how habit formation helped aluminum manufacturer Alcoa improve safety at their warehouses, which in turn helped them increase sales. Duhigg’s second book, Smarter Faster Better, is a study in productivity.

My second pick, Bad Blood, is a cautionary tale about what not to do at your startup. The book chronicles the true story behind blood-testing startup Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes, once hailed as the next Steve Jobs. Written by John Carreyrou of the Wall Street Journal, who led the investigative reporting that ultimately led to the company’s downfall, it does an incredible job of highlighting how Theranos used lies to build up a billion-dollar valuation, deceiving investors, customers and partners in the process.

A few of my other favourites for entrepreneurs include Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, which chronicles his entrepreneurial journey and Zappos’ famous focus on delivering excellent customer service; Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss, which highlights advice from entrepreneurs and other successful people in their fields about everything from how to say no to productivity tips; and Built to Sell by John Warrillow, which highlights how to start and build a business that’s well-positioned to sell.

Entrepreneur Daniel Rodic, the co-founder of Exact Media, recommends the book The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, which focuses on how to turn obstacles into opportunity. “At all stages of building a company, you are constantly presented with what appears to be insurmountable obstacles. Our brains are traditionally conditioned to fear, run away or fold in the face of this never-ending pressure,” Rodic says about the book. “Holiday gives you a framework on how to thrive because of these crises. Through this book, I discovered that what matters most is not what the obstacles are, but how I see and react to them.”

I also just picked up Holiday’s new book Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue, which chronicles the lawsuit Hulk Hogan brought against Gawker (and led to its downfall) — which was revealed to be secretly funded by investor Peter Thiel as revenge. I expect it will be quite the page-turner.

Candice Faktor, the founder of investment firm Faktory Ventures, lists Man’s Search for Meaning as her favourite book. It’s the story of psychologist Victor Frankl’s experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and like Holiday’s book about obstacles, Faktor says this book analyzes why some people overcame adversity better than others, and he boils it down to the pursuit of meaning in one’s life.

“While this may seem like a heavy, depressing read for the cottage, it is quite the opposite. It is a short read packed with inspiration, optimism and so much wisdom,” Faktor says. “I often lean on his wise words as I work with entrepreneurs and think about my own entrepreneurial journey. The best entrepreneurs find deep meaning in their work. Frankl offers sage advice on how one’s mindset can help even in the most dire of circumstances.”

A poll on LinkedIn surfaced other recommendations, including Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech by Sara Wachter-Boettcher, about the biases built into technology. “We lack diverse teams and the processes to ensure that our products are unbiased. Every entrepreneur needs to be conscious of this because our companies are building the future of society — and that society should be accessible for everyone,” said Stefan Kollenberg, co-founder and CMO of Crescendo, who recommended it.

Other top picks included several books by prominent founders and leaders — Shoe Dog by Nike’s Phil Knight, Onward by Starbucks’s Howard Schultz, Winning by the infamous former GE CEO Jack Welch, and Lost and Founder by Moz founder Rand Fishkin. Rounding out the recommendations were books by other investors and leaders, including The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz, which highlights the Andreessen Horowitz co-founder’s advice for startup founders; Radical Candor by former Google executive Kim Scott, which highlights how to use honesty to be a better manager; The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, which pioneered the idea of rapid iteration for startups; and Measure What Matters, which outlines John Doerr’s goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).

Those are only some of the recommended books, but hopefully they allow you to get some inspiration and key lessons while you recharge your batteries this summer.

• Erin Bury is managing director at Eighty-Eight, a digital marketing and design agency in Toronto.

Twitter.com/erinbury

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nchyinotes · 6 years

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War, Journalism and Whistleblowers: 15 years after Katharine Gun's truth telling on the verge of the Iraq War

March 2 2018

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/war-journalism-and-whistleblowers-15-years-after-katharine-guns-truth-telling-on-the-verge-of-the-tickets-42350362073#

“15 years ago, as a GCHQ employee, Katharine Gun leaked a memo revealing US spying operations on UN security council members. This simple act of bravery helped to galvanise the mass movement of opposition to the Iraq War. It also served as a telling reminder of the essential role played by the press in speaking truth to power and upholding the fabric of democratic life. A generation on, the legacy of that leak is writ large in a resurgent politics of resistance to the warfare and surveillance state on both sides of the Atlantic. This unique event brings together a panel, including Katharine herself, to discuss the lessons of that leak, and ask: What can and should we be doing - journalists, scholars, activists, citizens, policymakers - to do justice to the immeasurable public service performed by whistleblowers?

Speakers include: Katharine Gun (former GCHQ linguist and analyst responsible for the 2003 leak); Thomas Drake (former senior executive of the US National Security Agency); Duncan Campbell (award winning journalist, author and TV producer); Matthew Hoh (former US Marine and State Department official serving in Afghanistan and Iraq); Jesselyn Radack (national security and human rights attorney representing Ed Snowden among other whistleblowers); Silkie Carlo (Director of Big Brother Watch and leading voice in the campaign against the UK's repressive surveillance and official secrecy laws). We will also be airing an exclusive video message from Dan Ellsberg who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971.”

Thoughts: This was easily the best event I’ve been to on this gap year so far (and i’ve been to A LOT). I had actually come in with no expectations and not much knowledge of whistleblowers or any of the speaker's, and I had decided to come based on curiosity and proximity of location. So I definitely didn’t expect to be so overwhelmed by how emotional and intense this night was. Hearing everyone’s stories (for the first time) was inspiring, and left a deep impression on me. And it was amazing to be in the company of the supportive community that was gathered there - people respect and believe in human rights and equality, and people who are dedicating their lives to putting forth the truth, who truly care and are fighting for a better world and future. The audience engagement was actually what made this night so emotional. When the third question was asked by a young woman, who was an Iraqi journalist, she began to cry when asking what she could do as a journalist to stop the destruction in her country. Katharine started crying as well, and said that she had failed. She cried several more times throughout. There was also an audience member at the end who about how he tried to blow the whistle at the UN, who has been chronically unemployed for 24 years since. Listening to the people talk about the consequences whistleblowing had for them, and the injustices they faced (Jesselyn had a miscarriage, chronic unemployment despite extremely qualified), there is also what they said about what we can all do, and it all felt very pessimistic, and I felt slightly overcome with a feeling of dread and despair. It was hard not to feel utterly depressed at the world / what I was hearing. But I think events like these are so important because they’re inspiring, and they lend support and renewed motivation and validation hopefully, for people who have blown the whistle and who may need the courage in the future. The solidarity between the panel members was palpable. And it was hard for me not to feel like tearing up when Tom Drake said that he wouldn’t be here with Jesselyn. Before this, I think I had taken for granted all the major whistleblowers I had heard about and what they had given for the public interest - Snowden, Wikileaks, Panama Papers, #metoo, NHS. I never thought much about the individuals themselves, and the toll this would take on them or the emotional resilience required. Really eye opening, and I hope to educate myself further about whistleblowers protections (which was barely touched on in my employment law module!), and to look for volunteering options where I can help.

NOTES

Act of truth telling by people (not apps or systems)

People willing to risk their lives and jobs to speak truth to power (telling secret stories of surveillance)

Free press + whistleblowing under threat

Duncan

Katherine: Difficulties in the way journalists interpreted/presented her material

Dnotices (?) - used to terrify journalists until reforms of 1980s, penalty for journalists to receive info (as heavy as source)

1960s - gave us daniel ellsberg (vietnam war) - from the post!!

British official secrets act

Tom kiok - appalling agreements between blair & bush after afghanistan invasion??, never published, both sides were jailed (journalist + source)

Reality winner - compromised by magazine set up by snowden ??

Newspapers: NYT published disinformation supporting iraq war and didn’t publish stories brought to them around tom

Espionage act, the daily telegraph ?

Katharine

Why didn’t 100s of other people who received the email at GCHQ do the same thing?

Memory has important part in people’s decision making processes

Remembered horrific scenes of retreating iraqi soldiers waving white flags in surrender and being blitzed by US aircraft (turkey shoot?) - when she was 13

Despair at the lack of humanity

Iraq suffered 10 years of sanctions

Poor people of iraq had suffered 10 years of war, then 10 years of sanctions = terrible sanctions

When bush/blair suddenly focused on iraq, everyone was just like what, why? What does it have to do with 9/11 stuff?

While at GCHQ, conference in san diego - invited to board US aircraft carrier, was told by extremely young naval officers that they would deploy this in 3 days to iraq

Started some personal investigation into realities of what was going on in iraq

Saw target iraq + war plan iraq books in local bookshop

Clearly there was no case whatsoever

Duplicitous nature - lots of fudging on the issue

Jan 31 2003 - memo from NSA, asked for all domestic and diplomatic nations on UN council, for all gambit of knowledge that would be favourable to US goals (“not GBR of course, haha”)

Assumption that of course GCHQ would do it, this is what we want you to do. Not even an ask.

Thought about it over the weekend, but already made up her mind because felt like an impending train of disaster and she had to stop the wheels from turning.

Printed it off next monday in office

Creedence to journalists that took a punt on the email, because they were very concerned about reality of it (she did it anonymously) - brave step in publishing

Govt held her on ?? without bail / charge

Liberty found out who she was and gave her lots of support/advice

Lost all her friends immediately

Couldn’t go to work

Did deliberately to make life miserable for her

Charged in nov 2003 - plead guilty or not guilty?

Didn’t feel guilty, felt justified in what she’d done → pleaded not guilty

Only defence: public interest/necessity

Asked AG for all his legal advice

Dropped charges in 3 weeks, claimed they had no evidence (but she had confessed?)

Wasn’t willing to have legality of war discussed in war room.

15 years on, don’t feel any safer - what has the war on terror achieved? Even more concerned, raising a child in this world.

We need to support whistleblowers bc they’re really under attack, journalists who are doing their job, investigatory powers act (challenged in court) - prevent them from grabbing more power because they’ve taken so much already

Norman

Daniel ellsberg - pentagon papers

Someone unknown made it possible for observer newspaper to illuminate truth about manipulations, deceptions, extent to which US/GB are willing to go to drive the war train to get the dogs to war (poodle??) in iraq

Became a huge admirer of katharine gun before we knew what her name was

Daniel ellsberg speaking about katharine gun

First person prosecuted in US (espionage act), don’t have an act like UK (official secrets act)

1) Clearly higher than top secret classification document

Someone very high in GCHQ was clearly dissenting progress toward an illegal war

Cable from NSA asking GCHQ to help in intercepting of communications of every member of security council of UN

Rely on british to commit criminal acts for them (bc they were explicitly not allowed to)

2) This was not history, this was a current cable, and before the iraq war had actually started

Intimidation, blackmail, knowing private wants - intention was to coerce UN security council vote, with material tapped

She only actually had accidental access, wasn’t that high ranking

She acted almost immediately on pursuit of illegal war on illegal means

Dan regrets not putting out the documents available to him in 1964, years before he actually gave them - of bombing, war

Didn’t have precedent to instruct him on that

Could have been much more constructive in preventing that war if acted immediately

If US had gotten wind of it before, would have probably gotten an injunction. Was hardly covered in the US, whereas lots of

US had to give up plan of getting supporting vote in UN

Blair and govt went against earlier promise to not go ahead with war unless it was supported by the council, without legitimating precedent

One of the only few whistleblowers who didn’t wait, and wasn’t dealing with historical material. Judgment that what she was being asked to do was wrong, revealing what she knew was wrong.

“Information that bears on deception or illegality in pursuing wrongful policies or an aggressive war. Consider acting in a timely way to whatever cost to yourself.“

Tom drake

9/11 was a seminal event for many people (probably up on this panel)

Shadowy beast - had joined this system (the NSA)

9/11 triggered a whole host of secret decisions at highest levels of government, and he happened to be there.

Chosen to go there due to NSA outside stakeholders saying you need new blood - is generally quite inbred??

Became the justification for public consumption (esp by dick cheney)

“never let a crisis go to waste”

C change occurred in secret

Very first priority after 9/11 was this was the excuse to invade iraq

He began to inquire as to what was the intelligence, as plans for war were basically set

Part of job is to understand what was going on

Crypto Linguist background - asked arab linguist what we have on iraq, bc intelligence is supposed to be non political, not manipulated or framed, or made up lol

NSA itself had blanket surveillance of basically any electronic signal in iraq at this time

Kept coming back to him that there was no intelligence (threats) on iraq

Culminated in someone who shared with him later that the intelligence between invasion of iraq was a lie ??

Culminating meeting? Before formal decision was made, clearly a pretence, where general colmon powell made trip to UN and proceed with what US knew was slam dunk intelligence

Made clear that despite doubts of powell, intelligence regarding weapons of mass description was absolute/etc/slam dunk

Those on the outside to give expertise stayed silent

Crucial to get passage of second resolution as ultimate cover for US led coalition in invading iraq

Jesselyn

Representing hacktivists, journalists, whistleblowers

Was a whistleblower herself, same era as Katharine, on info that had been suppressed on war on terror, and prosecution of first so called american taliban

Justice department attorney in ethics office

Placed under investigation but no reason why, placed under bar’s no fly list

Miscarriage, 100k money she didn’t have

Prosecuting tom drake for espionage - one of the most serious charges against an american, 4th time someone who wasn’t a spy had been prosecuted for it (3rd was dan ellsberg)

Over a dozen people under obama ended up being pursued under this act

Trump has renewed this with vigour, going after reality winter (25) to make an example of her

Tries to keep these cases very secret, that’s why espionage act is being used to keep behind

Matthew

She tried to save the lives of millions of people, many of whom were his friends

Wars in syria, libya, yemen

Thanked her parents in the audience - Strength, integrity

Whistleblowing is continuous, you don’t need state secrets on your computer screen to

VFP carrying banner of “never again”

Aligned against a media that takes part in glorification of war, honours militarism

Deification that occurs - has to stand up and get clapped at all sports games

It’s standing up and speaking the truth about the greeds of war + who’s profiting from them

By choosing to come here and tweet out a picture of katharine is participating in standing up for the truth

Back end - if you don’t act on your conscious or do what is right, moral injury/guilt of it is devastating, and it’s seen in US veterans community (iraq/afghanistan 6x likelier for suicide) - need to do something rectify your mind and soul (for participating in an unjust/wrong organised killing)

PTSD is the lowest rate of suicide, it’s by combat related guilt, v well documented

Silkie

Prev. on legal team for liberty

Campaigner

Met & was inspired by tom + jess 5 years ago in holland, was just starting out as a journalist, couple months after snowden

Change from public & govt since snowden - to reinstate same abuses of power

Necessary for a free society, whistleblowers as last resort to protect those values. We don’t have a democracy otherwise.

Official Secrets Act - v punitive legislation that protects power for sake of power (no accountability), no balancing of whether state secrets need to be protected for national security

We need accountability for good governance

Reaction in UK to snowden has been the worst

Law commission suggested new legislation to punish/deter whistleblowers, sentences increased, journalists punished too

Investigatory powers act - new surveillance legislation, most authoritarian surveillance regime of any in history, almost limitless power

To collect data, intercept communications, hack devices on a bulk basis (potentially population wide)

BBW has ongoing legal action against mass interception, mostly passive

Optic nerve program 2008, GCHQ - to train facial recognition program

Hard to envision more enabling program for state to commit abuses of power

State surveillance framework is one of easiest ways for govt to grow & expand its power, its one of the symbols of power in digital age - information is power

Bulk surveillance regime after 9/11 isn’t really effective / doesn’t really work - there was actionable intelligence recorded before the plot, but it wasn’t seen or picked up (probably because of millions of info being processed all the time)

If we protect, maintain, uphold democratic values within us

Changing political futures

Court of public opinion is what always wins, despite government

Panel

Journalists that do justice in the stories that whistleblowers have to tell, esp. In UK, are few and far between

Guardian editorial published today against Leveson inquiry - serious questions about so called free press

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/01/the-guardian-view-on-leveson-part-two-look-ahead-not-behind

Julian assange never mentioned

Iraqi journalist - she was only 13 when iraq war happened, what she can do to prevent further destruction in her country as a journalist

Refuse to accept continuous lies churned out by so called humanitarian about protecting ME from despotic leaders - if that was such a concern, why not in Yemen or saudi arabia

Katharine feels like she’s failed

Appalled at people anti iraq that are pro syria

Destruction isn’t being reported the way war policy is now - subjugation + punishment for people in ME (who will not be subjected to american control)

Implications of military men with no political responsibility, risen in ranks of organised murder - now in civilian posts (of government)

Organise + demand an end to it

Anyone voting for Clinton or Trump was voting for war, they were both war parties

Continue to resist on the ME people behalf

Observer failed as well - only published memo 1.5 months after it was given to them?

This is an ongoing story - katharine was not called by any inquiry, we don’t know who authorised the memo or the GCHQ operation, why the case was dropped, who made those decisions + on what basis

Funding model for whistleblowing organisations

Work way below what a normal lawyer/advocate’s salary would be

Desperately need the funding

Liberty - legal representation to whistleblowers

Public funding + support

Immediate danger of safety, employment opportunities after?

Tried to blow the whistle on UN, and hasn’t had paid employment for 24 years

Often bankrupted, blacklisted, broken - chronic unemployment despite degrees, resumes, experience in govt. People best serving the government are the whistleblowers.

Hard to get through airport security

If you have the opportunity to employ a whistleblower, please do so

After you going through the government ringer of being called a traitor, terrorist sympathiser

Tom drake works full time at Apple, had total support from them

Trying to find professorship

Business he started failed bc no one willing to partner

People have tried to help him - as an engineer, consulting in silicon valley

In severe debt, 2nd mortgage, was a senior exec

Tom would not be here today without jesselyn.

Life goes on

You can choose your conscience > career, freedom

We are all in this together

I hear the bells of history in my years each and everyday

Power does tend to corrupt, absolute power corrupts. You want to keep, expand power. It’s a pathology.

At risk from these power structures

Many people who profit from power - literally and figuratively

Those who are expendable, doesn’t matter that they’re human, they deserve what they get. Collateral damage. Form of organised genocide.

UK-US, deep transnational state relationship [1946, secret signal intelligence relationship], work in tandem and have for years

Permanent war and conflict society/economy

Nurses & care workers on abuse of elderly, office workers on accounting fraud, bank staff on banking things - don’t get publicity that we give them. We need more publicity to be given at every level, show that this is the right thing they do, support them at whatever low level. We assume whistleblowing has to be at highest hierarchy.

Doomsday book - nuclear war leaks dan ellsberg never got to dump?

US proposed complete annihilation of china even if they had nothing to do with war ??

Hire a firm to discredit you

Rawest, emotionally charged meeting - duncan

I did what i could, and you can be proud of that

People who tried to tell the truth about palestine has been silenced in the most systematic way (labour party) - has to do with military us policy. Mortecai monunu??? Whistleblower

Ted (theodore) hall

Manhattan project, scientists

Katharine: Depriving them of their moral authority

Save the world club

Intellectual struggle when choosing to whistleblow/reveal things

Jesselyn - when she whistleblew was the first time she slept soundly. How to do it, who to go to - how to do it most successfully, safely, loudly.

Most whistleblowers don’t have internal debates about what to do, have known in their gut what they should do.

Moral responsibility of journalist or editor? Haven’t even trained journalist to look at that.

Support & looking at long term consequences of putting everything on the line - who are your personal support networks, what would life actually look like?

USA has destroyed 3 generations of iraqi lives

When your own country has become an empire and engages in the utter destruction/insanity

After 9/11, USA declared the whole world a battlefield

Media democracy festival

#whistleblowing #law #activism #london #2018 #journalism #event

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