MAGA-Republican Criticisms of Student Loan Forgiveness Backfire, Bigly
President Biden calls out hypocrisy of MAGA-GOP outrage over helping students...
President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, announced this week, ran into criticisms from expected quarters. The outrage from the MAGA GOP was called out as hypocrisy at its worse, by Biden himself, in a televised speech. Columnist Heather Cox Richardson does a great job summarizing Biden’s counter-offensive in her column earlier today, listing the GOP congresspeople who are the most vocal critics of the student loan forgiveness, while not mentioning their own PPP loans that were completely forgiven (in amounts easily eclipsing the student loan amounts):
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said: “For our government just to say ok your debt is completely forgiven.. it’s completely unfair.” Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven.
Representative Vern Buchanan (R-FL) said: “Biden’s reckless, unilateral student loan giveaway is unfair to the 87 percent of Americans without student loan debt and those who played by the rules.” Buchanan had more than $2.3 million in PPP loans forgiven.
Representative Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said: “We do not need farmers and ranchers, small business owners, and teachers in Oklahoma paying the debts of Ivy League lawyers and doctors across the U.S.” Mullin had more than $1.4 million in PPP loans forgiven.
Representative Kevin Hern (R-OK) said: “To recap, in the last two weeks, the ‘Party of the People’ has supercharged the IRS to go after working-class Americans, raised their taxes, and forced them to pay for other people's college degrees.” Hern had more than $1 million in PPP loans forgiven.
Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) said: “Asking plumbers and carpenters to pay off the loans of Wall Street advisors and lawyers isn’t just unfair. It’s also bad policy.” Kelly had $987,237 in PPP loans forgiven.
Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said: Everyone knows that in a $60 Billion+ European land war, it's always the last $3 Billion that kicks in the door….” Gaetz had $482,321 in PPP loans forgiven.
Facebook Restricted a Planned Parenthood Post Telling People About Abortion Pills
Facebook restricted a post from Planned Parenthood of Michigan which contained factual information on abortion pills and which also included a link to an article on where to obtain abortion pills online. Abortion is legal in Michigan. As reported by VICE News, in June Motherboard reported that Facebook was removing posts from users who shared updates that say abortion pills can be mailed, and, in some cases, banning those users. Those similar sorts of content moderation issues are now expanding to established voices of authority on abortion, such as Planned Parenthood.
Facebook misinformation is bad enough. The “metaverse” will be worse.
“At the heart of all deception is emotional manipulation. Virtual reality environments, such as Facebook’s (now Meta’s) metaverse, will enable psychological and emotional manipulation of its users at a level unimaginable in today’s media.” As described more fully in this OpEd piece in The Washington Post, “The metaverse will usher in a new age of mass customization of influence and manipulation. It will provide a powerful set of tools to manipulate us effectively and efficiently. Even more remarkable will be the ability to combine tailored individual and mass manipulation in a way that has never before been possible.” This is Facebook’s vision for how they can tailor “reality” to make its users easy marks for manipulation and more effective monetization by Facebook/Meta.
And finally, Mark Zuckerberg admits to Joe Rogan that a simple hack to Meta's “smart glasses” could allow the user to secretly film others
“Smart glasses,” which Meta (Facebook) produces with Ray-Ban, were launched in September 2021 and come equipped with a small voice-activated camera and microphone in both corners of the glasses frame that allows users to take photos or videos. In a recent interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Facebook/Meta CEO Zuckerberg was asked by Rogan whether such a discreet camera could bring about privacy concerns "if people can just start filming things," presumably without being noticed. As reported by Yahoo News, Zuckerberg pushed back, saying the product comes with a light in the corner that flashes when videos or photos are being recorded. "That, I think, is a really important part of this," he said. However, Rogan countered, asking whether "a creep could just put a piece of tape over the light?” Zuckerberg acknowledged the possibility, saying, "I guess, in theory." Just ongoing examples of Facebook making the world a better place?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-admits-joe-rogan-205334691.html
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