As you'll see below, I've been on Zuckerberg watch the past couple days, so I haven't had much time to process the
political Viking funeral of Paul Ryan. Nobody deserved to go out in shame more than Ryan did; I'm sad it didn't come when he lost his Speaker's gavel or, worse, when he lost his seat. (I don't buy that "see I'm popular!" poll he released showing him up 21 points on Randy Bryce, but even if it were true, a 55% re-elect for a 20-year Congressman and national leader isn't that good). He deserved to go out the way Thomas Foley did in 1994, after he was targeted by Newt Gingrich and doomed to defeat in his eastern Washington district.
Ryan was a
con man and a liar armed with terrible, unpopular ideas that he somehow grifted the national media into thinking were responsible. His budgets were innumerate, hiding the class warfare and mass suffering they would have caused with phony numbers. His philosophy was bankrupt, hated by those who actually divined its intentions. His concern for anyone who couldn't buy him a
$350 bottle of wine was fake, and his great dream in live was to take away their safety net as they crashed to Earth. And he was actually a bad politician, swinging his home state and even his home district further away from Republicans when he became the vice presidential nominee.
But make no mistake: Ryan won. His sensibilities matched the pain demands of the
Washington Post editorial board, who joined his call to starve the poor. And while he didn't reach his cherished goals of crushing Social Security and Medicare, he did force a Democratic administration into the smallest percentage of public investment since the Eisenhower era. He did deliver one of the most imbalanced, gimmicky, gift-style tax cuts to corporate America in history. He did preserve most of the last giant tax cut, which was more larded on the rich. Because Washington can be amoral and stupid, Paul Ryan was seen as its one-eyed king, its boy wonder. And the inequality statistics don't lie as to his success. We'll spend the next generation burying the Ryan era.
LINKS TO MY STORIES
At
The Intercept, how Andrew Cuomo failed student borrowers by only uniting the Democratic caucus after the damage was done. (
Read the story at The Intercept)
At
The New Republic, a modest proposal to ban the modern practice of targeted digital advertising. (
Read the story at The New Republic)
At
The Intercept, Day 1 of the Zuckerberg hearings found a Senate unwilling to do its job and govern. (
Read the story at The Intercept)
At
The Intercept, Day 2 of the Zuckerberg hearings coincided with a more important hearing for a nominee to the agency that oversees Facebook, and found Senators angry at Zuck. (
Read the story at The Intercept)
APPEARANCES
I was on
Democracy Now talking about the Facebook scandal and the Zuckerberg hearings.
Watch here.
I was on the
Nicole Sandler show discussing the Zuck hearings.
Listen here.
PROGRAMMING NOTE
I'm away next week, partially at
this conference on digital monopolies. This could be the last newsletter for a little while. Try to maintain on your own!
SHARING THE WEALTH
Other good Facebook/Zuckerberg takes from
Zeynep Tufekci,
Matt Stoller and Sarah Miller,
Harold Feld, and
Kevin Roose.
Let's not let Google off the hook either; they're improperly
collecting data on children watching YouTube videos.
Sure Paul Ryan's gone, but what about that great Republican bench-
never mind.
Did you know about the other data breach this week at
Delta Airlines?
Great Toys "R" Us/private equity rant from
Congressman Bill Pascrell.
The libertarian who
made the case for regulation, by accident.
Blockchain is
terrible and useless.
Merger news: the U.S.
waves through the Bayer-Monsanto merger; mergers
degrading the quality of primary care. CVS already
using its market power.
Mike Pompeo could actually
lose the vote for Secretary of State, if Democrats unite.
China's
evasion of trade rules through surreptitious shipping.
Online sex trafficking bill becomes law; it's the first chink in the armor for Big Tech, but it could
enable censorship and put sex workers at risk.
Is
this all that different from funding non-bank loan originators during the housing bubble, only at a much smaller scale?
California going to
all-payer rate setting?
Outsourcing,
now with numbers.
Netflix
rigging the books to ensure executive bonuses.
RIP Mitzi Shore. I never did the main stage at The Comedy Store but played the Belly Room a few times. (yes I did stand-up comedy)
Onward!
David
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