🖋️ LongForm
Want to reduce the noice and just focus on things with a little more meat - the this category is for you. Like so much on this site we have a ‘WIP’ as i take some out - and put some in - but safe for at least starting in 2026.
Uber [ No Longer ] Alles
To lose 1 senior VP in a week is never good. To lose two is very careless.
Add to the growing woes captured on this thread just this week.
But there's more ... check out this:
How Uber Used Secret Greyball Tool to Deceive Authorities Worldwide
Uber has for years engaged in a worldwide program to deceive the authorities in markets where its low-cost ride-hailing service was being resisted by law enforcement or, in some instances, had been outright banned.
The list of all the other crap - JUST - from this week can be found here.
Is Uber Trying To Get More Crazy and Confused Than The Trump Administration?
Interesting to see that when I wrote ...
as I tried to summarise everything that is going on at Uber that is wrong ... someone else had the same idea.
A great summary - though not a fan of the color scheme!
Uber - Liars or Just A U-Turn?
Remember when Uber said ... not us ...
As Gruber writes:
The message to other women at Uber is clear: stay silent or we will come after you.
The Truth About Uber Continues To Surface ...
I wrote and published this post about the trials and tribulations (ok - not trials - YET) of Uber yesterday. It was a rapid summary of the fronts that they are fighting that came through my feeds just last week.
(It is worth a click through just to get a quick summary of the breadth of problems hitting the company.)
These posts came out yesterday - Monday 27th February.
Seriously? We are meant to believe that. Oh, that’s right - they demonstrate over and over again that they do not believe in background checks. (And anyway it was known who he was BTW - this is a very small valley).
And, in light of that, this becomes even more believable.
Another Tale of Rampant Sexual Harassment at Uber - Medium, another ex-staffer writing about the toxic Uber culture. This quote stood out to me from one manager to a subordinate, a woman and the writer of the article.
There is no place for ethics in this business sweetheart. We are not a charity.
Uber dismissed warnings about its illegal self-driving test for months, emails show - The Verge. (I wrote at the time, there was more to this and I still don’t understand why they weren’t prosecuted at the time. But I guess that is a different story.)
Oh … and the so often repeated story of how some Uber drivers are either totally ignorant of where places are, definitely lacking in ‘smarts’ and possibly just corrupt.
I Spy With My Little Eye - Something Beginning with 'T'
According to her attack-dog attorney, Charles Harder, the Mail’s allegations harmed her “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity†to cash in on the Trump presidency by selling Melania-branded “apparel, accessories, shoes, jewellery, cosmetics, hair care, skin care, and fragranceâ€.
As they Eye says ....
No need for the Mail to trash her reputation: her lawyer seems quite capable of doing it all by himself.
[For my American readers - for Private Eye - think 'Spy Magazine' - except edgier, unafraid, wittier and first published in 1961 - a full 27 years before Spy Magazine got going and hasn't stopped since - which Spy did in 1998.]
Let The Punishment Fit The Crime
Virginia man gets 11 years in prison for trying to join Islamic State
... not actually joining, and had he joined, not actually done anything ...
Gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion and fined $80,000, signaling the downfall of one of the most notorious criminals of the 1920s and 1930s.
Meanwhile - a quick Google search reveals that 11 years is what you get for
- A hit and run driver killing a little girl
- A meth dealer in Eugene
- Fraud
- Pimping
- Drug Trafficking
#JustSayin
Time Moves Faster When You Are Older
As we move steadily into 2017, I know that I am not the first to recognize that we are now 50 years away for the 1967 Summer of Love. Talk to a teen/twenty something ( don’t you just hate those ‘ennial tags?) … and I wonder if they would / could even comprehend what was going on back then.
Sure they listen to the music form that era … but to have a real understanding of Vietnam, The Kennedy and MLK assassinations, Civil Rights Movements et al … might be stretching it.
Why? Well, let’s put it into context.
Back in 1967, the equivalent would be to have that teen/twenty something understand everything that was going on in and around the FIRST WORLD WAR - much less the SECOND WORLD WAR.
In fact - when you think about it, the SECOND World War ended just twenty two years before the Summer of Love.
Twenty Two Years Ago the President of The USA was Bill Clinton and The Prime Minister of England was John Major.
People of my age can remember it all ‘like yesterday’. But for the newly emerging generations that are beginning to shape the future of this world - it all was a very very long time ago.
Which is all good - but let us not forget how we got here. The wars and the sacrifices made by millions. The shared experiences that shaped us.
He isn’t a teen/twenty something, so he should know better (but he doesn’t), but the current president of The USA is rattling his saber at pretty much everyone.
Hopefully, it will continue to just rattle because he won’t be able to work out how to take it out of its scabbard. But if he does ….
Slick By Name ... Slick By Nature
Absolutely brilliant. Back in England - in the middle ages - people would occasionally get ‘hoist by their own petard’ …. I believe Chick-Fil-A have just experienced that delight.
Yes, she is aware that Chick-Fil-A is a famously conservative, Christian-run company that has advocated against same-sex marriage and donated to anti-LGBTQ-rights causes through their charitable wing, The WinShape Foundation. Slick revealed that she explicitly decided to accept the company's offer to use the song so she could donate the proceeds to a charity that works against Chick-Fil-A's convictions: Lambda Legal, a non-profit legal organization working on behalf of LGBTQ community and HIV patients.
The Precursor To The Fall
Oh c'mon!
And for heavens sake grow up.
Conway says she gets 'different set of questions' on TV
Oh and honey, when you say ...
"It's a 'build you up to tear you down' kind of town."
Nobody - repeat NOBODY - 'built you up' - you did that all by your little old self.
And ...
"I'm focused on why we're here."
Can you tell us. Please. WHY are you here? Because I certainly don't see any added value.
I Don't Even Know What To Write ...
British MPs lined up on Monday to pour scorn on a “racist and sexist†Donald Trump, who they said should not be allowed to come to Britain for a state visit because of the risk it would embarrass the Queen.
... aah yes - your democracy at work ... 1.8 million people in the UK sign a petition that wants the state visit invite to the UK to be revoked - and
the conclusion was ...
... those close to ministers made clear that there would be no rowing back on the invitation to Trump and hit out at MPs.
I found this the most interesting
Labour’s Paul Flynn said that only two US presidents had been accorded a state visit to Britain in more than half a century and it was “completely unprecedented†that Trump had been issued his within seven days of his presidency.
... where a British Maths teacher who is Muslim was escorted off a plane in Iceland bound for New York - despite having all the valid papers and visas necessary for the school trip.
This was on the same day that the TSA let 11 people through screening at the same airport.
Tell me again about National Security Donald ...
Now We Know Where The Line Gets Drawn
After I wrote this at the beginning of the year, where ..
The Chicago Review of Books (had) made the decision to not review any books produced by Simon & Schuster during 2017.
The article asked the question 'Where is the line to be drawn?'
Now we know.
The Guardian today ...
Milo Yiannopoulos book deal cancelled after outrage over child abuse comments.
So actually as usual .. he self-destructed. But I am not sure that we can rely on this - eventually, even a douche like Milo will learn. (^^^ Yes - that is him up there. ^^^)
And Another Example Of Recurring History
Then on reading about who actually built Mar-a-Lago, it is revealed to be Marjorie Merriweather Post - who had some interesting ties back to Russia.
During the 1930s, the Soviet government under Joseph Stalin began selling art treasures and other valuables seized from the Romanov family and former Russian aristocrats after the Russian revolution to earn hard currency for its industrialization and military armament programs. Critics have claimed that these items were expropriated; however, Post and Davies's transactions were from the recognized governmental authority.
#JustSaying
Mar-a-Lago Finally Fulfilling Its Destiny?
Now that is an interesting piece of history - given where we are today ..
Mar-a-Lago is an estate and National Historic Landmark in Palm Beach, Florida, built from 1924 to 1927 by heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post. Post envisioned the house as a future winter retreat for American presidents and foreign dignitaries, and following her death in 1973 it was bequeathed to the nation. However, successive presidents declined to use the mansion, which was returned to Post's estate in 1980 and in 1985 was purchased by Donald Trump, later 45th President of the United States.
Remember When Serving Your Country Was an Honour ...
.. and not a way to make a quick buck - I offer this as an example.
The U.S. Marshals Service says it is providing security for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after a handful of protesters prevented her from entering a D.C. middle school.
Quite apart from the fact that the country is paying for security for someone in the Education Secretary role - surely that has to be a first - and reveals how reviled/divisive she must be …. but as I wrote here … she is the brother of Erik Prince … founder of Blackwater and the ‘go to’ guy for security in this fine totalitarian state - sorry - country - we live in.
Given that she, her husband, her brother, her father are all individually billionaires - don’t you think she could provide her own security … or at least pay for it.
AirBNB Facing Significant Law Suit
Denver-based AIMCO, one of the biggest landlords in the US, owns and manages over 50,000 apartments across the country. Real-estate research firm Green Street Advisors told the WSJ that this is the first time Airbnb has been sued by a major landlord. Other apartment owners might now feel emboldened to follow suit if the service refuses to cooperate with them.
The plaintiff says short-term rentals are against their leases, and Airbnb is helping its tenants break that rule. It also says the practice of renting to transients creates unsafe conditions for other tenants and that it has suffered loss of income, property damage, nuisance and disturbance.
Personally, have been waiting for something like this to break for a while. I don’t see AirBNB in the same category as UBER - but they are certainly approaching it. (BTW - that is a category that you do NOT want to belong to.)