WHITHER AMERICA?

a painted November sky in Morro Bay

whither America?

     At this moment let's leave red and blue out of the picture and think about something that is in the best interests of everyone. There is a visitor to this nation that threatens us with a brain and heart killing disease, despite what is our politics, personal belief, color, ethnicity, identity or dream. What threatens us all is the lack of reasoning.

    Emotion has become our operating system and it is to our detriment. The evidence is everywhere; in the way people "talk" to each other either in social media or face to face,  political advertising plays to emotion, our tone is inflammatory and emotional, objectivity and analysis is drowned out by volume and emotion. And of course we are divided by just about everything and we are very poor at being civil in our disagreements. 

    The history of the US is the history of disagreement and competing forces, ideas, beliefs and philosophy but we've always held together at the center, found compromise and accord with that one tragic exception.

a house divided

       For the next 726 days of your life and mine we find ourselves caged in the reality of the 2020 Presidential election. Count them off if you wish, but it will be an enormous challenge to tune them out. For our well being, for our survival, we need to change the tone and begin thinking.

     Objectivity and analysis need to override emotion but that too will be a challenge.

hacking the human heart and mind

       Ponder this briefly-James Bridle is a British writer/artist/thinker who wrote THE NEW DARK AGE-Technology And The End Of The Future. I heard him interviewed recently where he makes the case the digital and networked world is increasingly influencing human behavior and especially in advertising and media. Algorithms impact almost every aspect of our social interaction and consumer behavior now. Bridle asks what happens when technology knows your likes and dislikes to such a degree that it can purposely hack your emotions-to the extent it can affect your pulse rate, your sense of well being, by controlling the information you see and hear.

      His concern is that an artificial intelligence, an algorithm will "reason" the best way to get you to do or like something is to manipulate you, relentlessly.

     We humans are and have been doing that to and with each other, maybe forever. But now we've become so emotional, so overloaded by loud and divisive voices, with so few places for retreat and sanctuary that we are a bundle of frayed nerves and trigger fingers and tongues. Add the sophistication of AI and we've just upped the chances of disaster. And that is made even more sinister when adversaries, like enemy powers or rogue agents try to intrude  like perhaps in our election cycles.

our hearts at the mid term

     A few tea leaves to read here-if a state is 2/3 white, Democrats lose, Republicans win. Educated women vote Democrat. White women without a college degree vote Republican. 

     Florida restores the right to vote to 1.4 million felons, most of whom are black. This in a state where the governors race was decided by some 74 thousand votes.

     In voting for House and Senate seats Democrats pulled 13 million votes more than Republicans.

     Suburbs and urban areas are consistently Democrat. Rural areas are consistently Republican. Educated professionals vote Democrat. What was once considered "blue collar" seem to be voting Trump Republican. The less education one has the more likely they are to vote Republican. That is almost a direct reversal of the way it was just a few years ago.

     There are of course other divides and the analysis will continue. Some things are certain-the government is divided.

     The House is under control of Democrats who will now have subpoena power. There are public matters they will push and that could include seeing this President's tax returns, exploring his families business ties and entanglement with the business of government, the Russian meddling inquiry, Jared Kushner's business interests, what and how did the White House limit the investigation into sexual assault allegations against Judge and now Justice Kavanaugh, the sexual assault allegations against the President.

      The Mueller investigation also hangs over both the White House and the US Capitol.

      How will we behave for the next 726 days? The President's news conference Wednesday morning didn't bode well. Do citizens still expect something called "Presidential behavior?" Do we still believe that a man or woman should "rise" to the office? Do we think that a free press asking hard questions still has a place in a free society? Do we still believe that all people regardless of color, ethnicity, gender and identity should be free? Do we still believe the confederacy was wrong? Do we still believe the Nazi ideology is outside the bounds of accepted human behavior? Do we still believe the conviction of Nazi war criminals outlawed that belief for all time? Do we still believe the KKK and other white supremacists have no place in a civil society? Do we believe that pandering to the basest among us is wrong?  Do we believe that a politics of ridicule, division and hate is wrong? Do we believe we should govern toward the center? Do we believe we should listen to each other? Do we believe we can find a middle ground and compromise? What do we believe is American?

       See you down the trail.

     

FACEBOOK- CRIME, MANIPULATION and FREEDOM

     Facebook has big problems. It is an existential crisis and it has spin off tentacles that reach to the very core of the US culture and into the private life of millions around the planet.
    The US Federal Trade Commission and some 6 congressional committees are investigating how 50 Million users had their personal data breached in an act connected to the king of deceit and hustle, president sleaze.
     Since news of the trump minions stealing data Facebook has lost nearly $50 Billion in market cap. That is the largest two day drop ever.  
      The data harvesting was done by Cambridge Analytica and their CEO has been suspended.
       While Facebook stumbles forward, Google is investing $300 Million in what it's calling the Google News Initiative, designed to support media by boosting real journalism and fighting misinformation. This is significant. 
       Facebook is full of fake news, was used by Russian efforts to affect the 2016 Presidential election and was used famously by Brad Parscale. He talked openly about swinging key and decisive Pennsylvania and Michigan voters for trump by feeding them tailor made information on Facebook. Now Parscale heads up the trump 2020 election. Are you picking up any cues here? Are you the least bit worried about the future-your future, and especially if you are a Facebook devotee?

       Google's promise of $300 Million to combat news fraud
comes as real and serious US and foreign journalists  begin to work on something called "Algorithmic Accountability."
        Two quick notes-sadly most people get their information from social media---old time media with gate keepers and fact checkers is loosing ground to the digital generation that is fast and cute. And most people are lazy about their information intake-too often relying on limited sources-going only for headlines and not substance-and often getting it from sources that feed their own bias or mind set. It is true for online media, but Fox News and MSNBC are prime examples of "silo" information and viewers on cable. We note too, fewer people are paying attention to television and most of those who do are older.
       But all generations are caught in this snare of algorithms.
It is computer intelligence and big data making decisions and doing so tenaciously and rapidly, beyond the control of you, or me or any human system. Algorithmic Accountability is a very important topic and story.
       After you research a topic you start getting ads on your computer about that-algorithms at work. Cambridge Analytica steals your personal data for the trump gang and heaven only knows what kind of bilge dredge you will get from the Parscale team or who ever else the trump gang may sell the information to. You also worry about the fact once your data is breached almost anyone can get to it and use it, including those pictures of your children or grand children or your private communication about your diagnosis, or your comments about despised cousin Gertie and etc. Mark Zuckerberg made millions while you shared your life and all your personal data on his little platform and you've been screwed. First by him, but then by the Russians, and the trumps, and the swindlers and the hustlers who can manage slick computers and algorithms.

more than annoyance

      But algorithmic manipulation raises questions about our future freedoms. Reporters have learned that since 2012 the New Orleans police department has used "predictive policing" in a pro bono relationship with Palantir Technologies.  Do you remember the film Minority Report, where Tom Cruse used that swipe technology to arrest people before they did something the computer predicted? That is predictive policing and it certainly raises important legal questions-not the least of which--Is the data any good-or right, and what happens to due process and rules of evidence?  
     Palantir tried to get into the Chicago PD, but they already had an algorithmic program of predictive policing developed by a university. Doesn't the concept of predictive policing sound as though it needs sober human oversight?There is no doubt that data analysis can help police determine high crime areas and likelihood of occurrence. Studying history does in fact help us decipher the future. However, as a free people who value liberties, we need to know what is going on when people begin to point artificial and machine intelligence in certain directions. And when machines function more rapidly and on a broader scale than our human minds, we need to make sure laws are firm and enforced. We've already experienced algorithmic abuse.

      Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea of Facebook back in college and created a world changing company. A personal note. I've never joined Facebook for a number of reasons but among them is this. Everything that Facebook has to make it valuable belongs to you. It is your information, photographs, writing, comments, your life and unbeknownst to you all of the underpinning data of your life. You willingly give that up and get nothing back for it, while Zuckerberg and company have become billionaires by selling your information. I said in the beginning if Facebook wanted to be right about things they would be like REI or another cooperative. You as a user could get value for the activity you generate and share. The more you used it, the more value you got back, either as stock, cash or some kind of cash value like coupons. 
     Friends have told me, "well, we get a medium or a platform, a network and connectivity." There is no such thing as a free lunch.
      We don't know what will happen to Facebook, or Zuckerberg and company. Nor do we know how the theft of of personal data for the trump gang will play into those investigations.  We don't know what Google's efforts will bring in their attempt to make social media more responsible or what the journalistic efforts at algorithmic accountability will yield. But I offer up a time worn journalistic wisdom. It was true way back when and it will be true to tomorrow, "follow the money!"  When you follow the money you always have a good story and more often than not, you find crime.
       And so we have again, Facebook has been an accomplice, at least. The US Presidential election, the national culture and you have been victimized. The story is not over.

        See you down the trail.