Saturday, June 18, 2022

ARIZONA'S ANDY BIGGS: More Than A Weekly Newsletter

It's Andy being Andy all over again!... he's fighting his own far-right battles using familiar fringe talking-points over-and-over again on his agenda featuring his own new podcast platform with video clips for click-bait with a cast of supporting characters, and selected share-this-post from social media. Biggs is not facing voters this election year, but most of the candidates running for in-state offices are aligned with Trump's Save America and Save America political action committees funding by The Big Rip-Off after The Big Lie.
THE BIGGS IDEA 
US President Donald Trump shows the facial mask of  Representative Andy Biggs as he arrives to deliver remarks on immigration and border security at the international airport in Yuma, Arizona on August 18, 2020. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Happy Friday!
I spent most of my week in Washington D.C. as the House was back in session. It was a busy week, so I hope you’ll read below to learn about the important happenings:

Second Amendment Coalition Meeting in Arizona

Today, I met with the East Valley Second Amendment Coalition for a roundtable discussion
dedicated to preserving and promoting the right of Arizonans to keep and bear arms. 
This group, comprised of leaders in the pro-Second Amendment community, regularly meets to discuss local, state, and federal actions that affect Arizonans’ Constitutional rights.
I was honored to join my friends below to discuss how we can best fight the onslaught from the Left and secure our right to bear arms.

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January 6 Prisoner Press Conference 

On Wednesday, I joined Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), and Troy Nehls (R-Texas) at the Patriot Freedom Project’s press conference on the treatment of January 6 prisoners at the D.C. jail. 
The District of Columbia refuses to address the abuse, solitary confinement, and horrid conditions for dozens of individuals being held in the D.C. Central Detention Facility. These defendants are being treated worse than other prisoners in the jail. Conditions are so bad that a local task force recently issued a plan to shut down both of the jails and open a new facility. 
Many of these defendants have remained in prison for more than a year. But John Earl Sullivan, an Antifa-BLM Leader who was filmed inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, only spent one day in jail. 
No American should accept these conditions. Our system of justice should be free from political bias and treat individuals equally and in accordance with the crimes alleged.  
The trials that are now starting for these inmates are anything but impartial. These inmates will not get a fair trial with Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecuting them and Biden-sympathizers in the jury. 
When Republicans take back the House in the fall, we will conduct as much oversight as possible into this matter. It’s time to hold the District of Columbia and Biden’s DOJ accountable. What’s happening to these defendants is unacceptable and un-American.
Click the image below to view my speech.

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Floor Speech on Protecting Second Amendment Rights 

On Wednesday, I gave a speech on the House floor opposing the Democrat gun control talking points that conveniently ignore several recent incidents where armed, law-abiding citizens saved countless lives. For instance, a woman in West Virginia recently used a pistol to block a shooter from killing innocent people in a crowd. Good men and women with guns can save us from many tragic situations.  
Click the image below to watch my speech.  

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Protecting the Courageous Men and Women of the U.S. Border Patrol 

Yesterday, I sent a letter along with 25 other Republican members of the House of Representatives demanding a briefing from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on reports that Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas, who were falsely accused of “whipping” illegal aliens will be disciplined. 

Disciplining Border Patrol agents to pander to open borders advocates is a slap in the face to these dedicated men and women.  

President Biden promised to make ‘those people pay’ and now it appears that Secretary Mayorkas is following through on that promise. There is not a shred of evidence suggesting any wrongdoing by these agents.

Since Day One, President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have left these courageous agents in the dust. Their policies have created a historic border crisis and have crushed the morale of the Border Patrol.

Punishing these individuals for trying to secure the border amid the worst border crisis in American history sends the message to all DHS employees that they will be punished for merely doing their jobs. Secretary Mayorkas must explain his actions to Congress.

The full letter may be read here

The letter was published in Fox News and the Daily Caller. Their articles may be read here and here

Demanding Answers from the U.S. Military Over Pride Month Initiatives 

On Tuesday, I sent a letter along with 13 other Republican members of the House of Representatives to Secretary of the Department of Defense (DOD) Lloyd Austin demanding a full cost breakdown of DOD’s use of taxpayer dollars to promote Pride Month.

The Left’s woke LGBTQ agenda has infiltrated the U.S. military under the Biden regime. The U.S. military is designed to defend our nation and our freedoms. It is unacceptable to use taxpayer money to advance a social agenda and virtue signal.

Adversaries like China and Russia are mocking the Biden Administration’s leadership priorities. We should be promoting our military capabilities—not rainbow bullets. Secretary Austin must provide a breakdown of how taxpayer money is being spent during Pride Month and how these initiatives enhance military readiness.

The full letter may be read here

The letter was published in the Daily Caller and Hannity.com.

These articles may be read here and here

Letters and Legislation

Bills Cosponsored

H.R. 8123, No Taxpayer Funding for CZARS Act (Roy, R-TX)

H.Res. 1183 - Denouncing domestic terrorist violence against religious organizations and domestic terrorist violence against groups and organizations providing pregnancy support for expectant mothers, and for other purposes (Babin, R-TX)

Letters Led

Letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin relating to the June 1, 2022 posts by the Marine Corps and Space Force on Pride Month. Congressman Biggs specifically asked the secretary, how much money the department will spend this month on Pride Month related activities. Here is the story from Daily Caller.

Letter to Sec. Mayorkas regarding reports that Border Patrol agents accused of whipping illegal aliens are going to be disciplined.

Letters Cosigned

Letters to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Attorney General Garland, and Secretary Mayorkas requesting documents related to the Biden administrations efforts to target parents.

Letter calling on Biden Administration to reduce barriers to U.S. agriculture production.

Letter to President Biden demanding they reverse course on a recent tariff exemption for Southeast Asian solar panel components.

Letter to Attorney General Garland requesting that he assist, or pick up the slack, where rogue prosecutors have declined to prosecute crimes with a federal nexus.  

Letter to OMB expressing opposition to a proposed rule implementing Biden’s Executive Order requiring  project labor agreements for large-scale construction projects.

Letter to AG Garland urging him to investigate acts of domestic terrorism against U.S. Supreme Court Justices and Pro-Life organizations around the country that have been attacked in the wake of the leak of the Dobbs v Jackson Health Clinic decision.

Letter urging the Administration to immediately deploy a whole of government response and work directly with stakeholders to resolve the shortage around the country of medical dye used in CT scans and MRIs.

Letter AG Garland expressing concern about the recent attacks on Pro-Life organizations and pregnancy centers in Arizona that have been vandalized and destroyed. This letter asks what DOJ plans to do to deter violence and prosecute violent offenders in Arizona.

 Top Tweets 

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Top Media Appearances of the Week

This week, I joined Fox News’ Harris Faulkner to provide my instant reaction to President Joe Biden’s remarks on the state of the U.S. economy. Click below to watch the full segment.

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I joined Frank Speech’s Emerald Robinson to discuss my thoughts on the illegitimate January 6th Committee's nationally televised hearings and the poor conditions January 6 defendants face in the D.C. jails. Click below to watch the full segment. 

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I joined KFYI’s (Phoenix, AZ) James T. Harris to discuss President Joe Biden’s disastrous economic policies that have led to historic inflation in our country. Click below to hear the full segment.

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What’s the Biggs Idea? Podcast w/ Rep. Thomas Massie 

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On Thursday, I recorded another episode of my podcast “What’s the Biggs Idea?” in its new, live video format. The episode was live-streamed on my Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube pages and garnered thousands of views in 24 hours. 

Representative Thomas Massie, who represents Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District and serves on the House Judiciary and Transportation Committees, was this episode’s guest. We discussed how to better protect our Second Amendment, the House passage of gun control bill H.R. 7910, and the Uvalde mass shooting. 

We’ll be posting more episodes soon. Check out our social media pages for more updates. 

Click below to view the podcast. 

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Definition of the Week 

This week, the January 6th Committee held two nationally televised (but lowly-rated) hearings. The Committee's continued obsession with the politics of this day is shameful--especially as they have failed to condemn the destruction, violence, and costs associated with the BLM and Antifa Riots of 2020. 

What occurred during these riots in 2020 is appalling. They lasted seven months, inflicted billions of dollars of damage to hundreds of small businesses, and led to the murders of 20 individuals. If there would be a committee to investigate anything, it should be to address these riots. But Democrats and RINO’s remain silent. 

Courtesy of Michael Knowles’ Speechless, here’s what we think is the latest definition: 

BLM and Antifa Riots of 2020 (NOUN): Riots that were far more destructive than the January 6 protest but won’t be condemned or mentioned by Democrats, RINO’s, and the mainstream media.

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Washington, DC
S171 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2635
District Office
2509 S Power Rd, Suite 204
Mesa, AZ 85209
Phone: (480) 699-8239

 

 

Friday, June 17, 2022

OUTRAGE AT PAY HIKE FOR PHOENIX POLICE

Of the country’s 10 largest forces, Phoenix police department ranks number one for use of deadly force, according to analysis by Mapping Police Violence. Police shootings hit record levels in 2018 in Phoenix, the country’s fifth biggest city, topping New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.
The department, which has a budget of $850m, has hundreds of vacancies.

Outrage at pay hike for Phoenix police under investigation over use of force

<div class=__reading__mode__extracted__imagecaption>Attorney General Merrick Garland, with assistant attorney general for civil rights Kristen Clarke, announce the DoJ’s investigation into the Phoenix Police Department, on 5 August 2021. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP<br>Attorney General Merrick Garland, with assistant attorney general for civil rights Kristen Clarke, announce the DoJ’s investigation into the Phoenix Police Department, on 5 August 2021. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP</div>

"Community advocates say money should be spend tackling city’s extreme heat, homelessness and mental health crises

A bumper pay hike for Phoenix police has been condemned by community advocates who argue the money should be spent tackling the city’s extreme heat, homelessness and mental health crises.

At a heated city council meeting on Wednesday, several public speakers questioned the $19.8m salary windfall given the continuing Department of Justice investigation into the city police department over allegations of excessive use of force, retaliation against Black Lives Matter protesters, discriminatory policing and inappropriate treatment of homeless and disabled people.

The federal investigation was launched by attorney general Merrick Garland in August 2021 amid mounting evidence of disproportionate use of violence against people of color and rising rates of police shootings.

“There is such a crisis of poverty and unhoused people in the city, yet every year more money goes to a police department which is fundamentally corrupt, under investigation and which has shown no changes in the culture from when they arrested protesters on false charges,” said resident Christopher Martinez.

But city officials argued that the salary bumps, which range from 20 to 67%, will help recruit and retain officers to the beleaguered department and improve policing. It was approved by the Democratic led city council by eight votes to one.

“You’re not twiddling your thumbs, you’re doing really important work out there and it is fair that our compensation reflects what we are doing,” said Mayor Kate Gallego.

Councilman Carlos Garcia, the lone vote against the pay hikes, said: “We’re embarrassed weekly on the nightly news, we pay out millions in lawsuits [against the police]. “We continue to prioritize and fund this department and then expect them to do things that they’re simply not trained for, and the results have unfortunately been loss of life.”

. . .Continue reading >> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/17/outrage-pay-hike-phoenix-police-under-doj-investigation

We Just Keep Throwing Billions At Telecom Monopolies In Exchange For Half-Completed, Shitty Broadband Networks

What the Journal just weirdly omits is that consistently terrible U.S. federal and state broadband policy is the byproduct of 30 years of lobbying by regional monopolies. Every shred of U.S. telecom policy dysfunction exists to the direct benefit of entrenched giants that don’t want to try very hard.
We can’t measure broadband gaps accurately.
We can’t track where subsidies go very well.
We can’t protect consumers from very obvious telecom pricing scams.
Policymakers in both parties rarely if ever acknowledge that monopolies exist or that consolidation exists.
Fri, Jun 17th 2022 05:25am -
 
We Just Keep Throwing Billions At Telecom Monopolies In Exchange For Half-Completed, Shitty Broadband Networks
The future is here but it's not evenly distributed

 

Telecom monopoly lobbyists are already hard at work trying to ensure that this money all goes to them (for their perpetually half-delivered networks) and not to any potential competitors. That’s proven to be particularly easy in some states where telecom monopolies effectively control the legislatures.

The State of Broadband in America, Q4 2020

So yeah, the U.S. government is a mess, Congress can’t function, and a lot of states aren’t much better. But that’s not necessarily because government itself is inherently flawed, it’s because this is the desired outcome from a generation of lobbying by monopolies that like things precisely how they are. Big news outlets and politicians alike avoid mentioning this because it’s in their financial best interests to avoid it."

RELATED

Introduction:

The 'Digital Divide' Didn't Just Show Up One Day. It's The Direct Result Of Telecom Monopolization

from the can't-fix-what-you-don't-acknowledge dept

 
Insert: "We've noted for a while that the entirety of DC has a blind spot when it comes to discussing the U.S. broadband problem. As in, U.S. broadband is plagued by regional monopolies that literally pay Congress to pretend the problem isn't happening.
That's not an opinion.
Image result for community. broadband ANIMATED GIF

Panel Two: Broadband Infrastructure Needs
Where are the gaps in broadband infrastructure in our country?
What can be done to improve access for the underserved and the unserved?

John Brown, CISSP, President / CTO,  CityLink Telecommunications NM, LLC
Jonathan Chambers, Partner, Conexon LLC.
Christopher Mitchell, Policy Director, Next Century Cities
Matt Rantanen, Director of Technology, Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association
Jory Wolf, Vice President, Digital Innovation, Magellan Advisors

Presentation on PAWR: Bill McGuire, US Ignite, PAWR Project Office

Lunch and Keynote

Breakout Session One: Models 101
What are the ways in which a counties, cities, or towns might successfully bring broadband to their communities?

Mitch Drake, Executive Engagement Leader, Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc.
Mark Feest, General Manager, Churchill Communications
Mark Goldstein, President, International Research Center
Andrew T. Gonzales, PIO/Telecom Manager, Kit Carson Electric Cooperative
Virgil Turner, Director of Innovation and Citizen Engagement, Montrose, CO

more

This is a map of America’s broadband problem

A county-by-county look at the broadband gap

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

FATAL ENCOUNTER FOR UNARMED ANGEL BENITEZ TWO YEARS AGO...Mesa Police Settle Lawsuit

This news story was last updated 6:20 AM yesterday at 6:20 AM, Jun 16, 2022
Angel Benitez, 21, fatally shot multiple times killed by Mesa police officers on Sept. 25.                
> The $250,000 settlement contract was signed in January 2022
> ABC15 obtained a copy of the agreement in March 2022

Mesa settles lawsuit in police shooting of an unarmed man

Angel Benitez

MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has paid out $250,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit involving the police shooting of an unarmed man.

Angel Benitez, 21, was killed on September 25, 2020.

officers found Benitez in a Panda Express parking lot asleep in a car reported stolen. Officers at the time mentioned they did not see a weapon in the car. Police said Benitez woke up and drove off, and they said he later refused to pull over for a traffic stop.

Mesa police later found him parked in a Tempe apartment complex near Evergreen Road and University Drive.

Some witnesses claimed Benitez had his hands up and was complying with officers. Officers said he reached toward his waistband, which they perceived as a threat.

Multiple officers opened fire.

Benitez had no weapons. He died.

Benitez’s mom filed a federal civil rights lawsuit The $250,000 settlement contract was signed in January. ABC15 obtained a copy of the agreement in March.

“No amount of money will bring back the life of Angel Benitez," said the family's lawyer Benjamin Taylor. "However, we are glad this settlement brings a sense of justice to his family who have suffered tremendously since Angel’s tragic death.”

RELATED CONTENT

Protesters march through downtown Mesa to denounce death of Angel Benitez

Followed closely by the hum of a drone and four police officers on bicycles, around two dozen protestors gathered in downtown Mesa Saturday night to demand justice for Angel Benitez. . .On Oct.1, the Tempe Police Department, which is leading the investigation, released footage from the body worn cameras of three of the officers involved the morning of Sept. 25. Based on the video, more than a dozen shots were fired and it is not clear how much time passed before Benitez received medical attention.

Oct 2, 2020 · Five officers of the Mesa police department shot at least a dozen lethal and non-lethal rounds at 21-year- old Angel Benitez, according to ...
Jan 27, 2022 · The Maricopa County Attorney's Office says its office won't file charges against a group of five Mesa police officers involved in a deadly ...
 

You’ll have to scroll for a very long time to get through this list of police shooting victims

Fatal Encounters https://fatalencounters.org/

The project, similar to others maintained by the Guardian and Washington Post, is necessary due to a massive gap in the information we have about police shootings in America. The FBI and Bureau of Justice Statistics are each supposed to track police killings. But a 2015 study by RTI International found that each agency misses nearly half of police killings in the US, and together they still miss more than one quarter.

Fatal Encounters seeks to remedy our gap in knowledge as police shootings — and the vast racial disparities behind them — get more attention in the news. For this story, we’ve pulled some of that data to break down the demographics of this population and some of their personal information. 

A step toward creating an impartial, comprehensive and searchable national database of people killed during interactions with police

Fatal Encounters intends to help create a database of all deaths through police interaction in the United States since Jan. 1, 2000. We are not a finished product. We’re just the first step toward creating an impartial, comprehensive and searchable national database of people killed during interactions with police. We expect other media organizations, law enforcement, universities, artists and activist groups will advance our work, and that’s why we let anyone use the data for any reason for free.

This site will remain as impartial and data-driven as possible, directed by the theory that Americans should be able to answer some simple questions about the use of deadly force by police: How many people are killed in interactions with law enforcement in the United States of America? Are they increasing? What do those people look like? Can policies and training be modified to have fewer officer-involved killings and improve outcomes and safety for both officers and citizens?

YouTube deleted a Jan. 6 committee video that included Trump’s election lies.

A welcome instance of content moderation - two sources, one more complete than the other. 
The message on the video page has since been changed to “This video is private,” which may mean that YouTube would allow the committee to upload a version of the clip that makes clear that Trump’s claims are false."

YouTube Edits Trump Clip From Jan. 6 Hearing, Citing Falsehoods

A Fox News video of&nbsp;Donald Trump displayed on a screen during a hearing&nbsp;in Washington, on&nbsp;June 13.&nbsp;

A Fox News video of Donald Trump displayed on a screen during a hearing in Washington, on June 13. 

Photographer: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Bloomberg

AMERICAN CAPITALISM AND THE SHREDDED SOCIAL FABRIC

French economist Thomas Piketty says inequality is a political choice. The solution? Wealth taxes well beyond anything dreamed up by Bernie Sanders . . .Piketty’s 753-page book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, published in 2013, sold 2.5 million copies worldwide and helped put inequality on the global agenda. But his latest, the even thicker Capital and Ideology, may prove still more influential. The book is nothing less than a global history of inequality and the stories that societies tell to justify it, from pre-modern India to Donald Trump’s US.
> It arrives just as anger about inequality (some of it generated by Piketty’s work) approaches boiling point

 

Thomas Piketty Thinks America Is Primed for Wealth Redistribution

<div class=__reading__mode__extracted__imagecaption>Mads Perch

In 2013, the French economist Thomas Piketty, in his best seller “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” a book eagerly received in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse, put forth the notion that returns on capital historically outstrip economic growth (his famous r>g formula). The upshot? The rich get richer, while the rest of us stay stuck in the mud. Now, nearly a decade later, Piketty is set to publish “A Brief History of Equality,” in which he argues that we’re on a trajectory of greater, not less, equality and lays out his prescriptions for remedying our current corrosive wealth disparities. (In short: Tax the rich.) If the line from one book to the other looks slightly askew given the state of the world, then, Piketty suggests, you’re looking from the wrong vantage point. “I am relatively optimistic,” says Piketty, who is 50, “about the fact that there is a long-run movement toward more equality, which goes beyond the little details of what happens within a specific decade.”

In the time since “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” was published, there has been a huge proliferation in the number of American billionaires.

Something like 130 new ones were added between 2020 and 2021 alone. That happened in the context of growing public discussion — and anger — about economic inequality. So what the hell happened? What enabled the ultrawealthy to flourish in the face of such widespread antipathy? Let me put this very clearly: I understand that each year and each decade is tremendously important, but it’s also important not to forget about the general evolution. We have become much more equal societies in terms of political equality, economic equality, social equality, as compared with 100 years ago, 200 years ago. This movement, which began with the French and U.S. revolutions, I think it is going to continue.

NOW IS THE TIME TO SPREAD THE WEALTH

       

Of course there are structural factors that make it difficult: (1) the system of political finance, (2) the structure of media finance, (3) the basic democratic institutions are less democratic than they should be.

This makes things complicated. But it’s always been complicated . . .OK, so you’re saying that the long-term trend is toward more equality. But in 1990 there were 66 U.S. billionaires. Now there are more than 700. Over the last 40 years or so, chief-executive pay is up more than 900 percent, even accounting for inflation. The average worker’s pay over the same period is up only 12 percent. You believe we should be thinking of those facts as road bumps on the path to greater economic equality? If you take the big picture, yes. But the other lesson from the big picture, from history, is that it takes major political mobilization to keep moving in the direction of equality. In the United States today, the democratic institutions, the rules of the game, are set up in a manner that, indeed, the rich are entrenched. But if you look at opinion polls about a billionaire tax in the U.S. — among Democratic and also Republican voters — you have huge approval. So is the political system able to respond to this, or is it rigged? The lesson from history is that when the political system is rigged, at some point you have a reaction, you have a mobilization.

. . .but do you believe America is at a place where a phrase like “wealth redistribution,” which is what you’re talking about, is broadly politically plausible? When you say Americans don’t like redistribution, some certainly don’t like it, but in the 20th century, high, progressive taxation of income and inherited wealth was to a large extent invented in the United States. That’s why it always makes me skeptical when people say, Americans don’t like this, don’t like that. Look at history! There’s no deterministic reason why a given country should be this or that. Sometimes, in my country and in the U.S. also, people tell you, “Look, we are not Swedes.” This is used as an argument to say that there is a culture of equality in Sweden, which we would never have.

But Swedes themselves weren’t always “Swedes.” Exactly. Sweden until 1910, 1920 was one of the most unequal countries in the world, with a special sophistication in the way inequality was organized . . .

This is only a half-joking question: Let’s say in the United States the billionaires get sick of being the bad guys and don’t want to be taxed the way Biden is proposing, so they move to Ireland or some other tax haven. Then what happens? But that’s the point: These people don’t live in an autarchy. They rely on the rest of the world, which means that we have to impose rules on the conditions in which they can enjoy these assets — which were produced by the collective. All wealth is collective by nature in the sense that it relies on the work of hundreds, thousands, millions of engineers, technicians, the accumulation of knowledge. Then, private property is a social construction that we invent in order to organize economic and social relations. It’s a very useful social invention as long as you keep under control how much you can accumulate, how much power you can concentrate, etc. But none of these assets are their assets. They are a product of a collective process. No one invented anything by himself or herself. . .

That kind of ontological argument might be a hard sell for some Americans. For some, but this has nothing to do with the American spirit, American values. It has something to do with a small subset of people who are just pushing their interests. If you ask the American public about who is working hard, is it the normal people or the elite? Whose effort created everything? You will be surprised by the answer.

My sense is that in the very recent past a lot of the growth in wealth has resulted from entrepreneurship rather than the accumulation of inherited wealth. That’s in conjunction with skyrocketing rates of return for the wealthy. Do those factors have any implications for how we understand the accumulation of capital generally or specifically? If you go back to the beginning of the 20th century, late 19th century, you also had lots of new innovation and new wealth. We invented the automobile, electricity, trans-Atlantic radio. People in every time period tend to say today is different, this is big innovation, new wealth, but in a changing economy where we make technological discoveries, you always have this process. But the thing is, if it’s not regulated, if we don’t design institutions in order to spread the wealth — on the contrary, we have an institutional setup where you accumulate wealth by using public infrastructure, public education, the health system, and then once you have accumulated the wealth, you push a button and you transfer it somewhere else. . .

[    ] There are many dramas we associated with Trump, but part of the drama is that he has been able to tell the middle class and lower middle class, “Look, we are going to continue with tax dumping, but I’m going to protect you in another way by protecting you against Chinese and Mexicans, the Muslims.” He was able to be elected on an ideology where you don’t redistribute between the rich and the poor but rather you protect Americans, especially white male Americans, against anybody who looks foreign. The risk is that neoliberalism is replaced by this form of neo-nationalism in order to avoid redistribution. Sometimes people like Trump can be successful with this strategy because it’s a much clearer message than saying, “Let’s look at the history of progressive taxation.”

You mentioned oligarchs. In America, we don’t like to think that we have them — that’s for a country like Russia. Instead we like to think we have entrepreneurs who achieved through merit. But the similarities are obvious: They’re all taking advantage of the free global movement of capital and have a disproportionate amount of political influence. Do you see America as being as securely in the grip of the oligarchic class as other countries we think of as being less democratic?

. . .To me, maybe the best comparison between the U.S. is not so much with Russia today but with Europe and the Belle Époque before 1914: a system which is nominally democratic but where the concentration of wealth is so high and lacking proper rules about political finance, political influence, that the democratic system is not enabled to have a common-sense reaction to this excessive level of inequality that, in the long run, is not good for U.S. prosperity. Particularly because when other countries get more educated than the U.S., then its economic leadership will be gone forever. U.S. economic leadership came from mass education, not from a small elite of billionaires. They have never been the source of U.S. prosperity, and they will never be. . .

[    ] . I was talking about a progressive wealth tax with a rate of 5 percent per year or 10 percent per year on billionaires. She looked at me like, Wow, that’s too much. Joe Biden today, a centrist Democrat — who voted for the Tax Reform Act of 1986 — is coming in with a wealth tax. Things can change pretty fast."

Reference >> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview.html

 

BONANZA OF NEW REPORTS FROM. BLEEPING COMPUTER

Hardly another day goes by until there are more ...

Microsoft: June Windows updates may break Wi-Fi hotspots

"Microsoft is investigating a newly acknowledged issue causing connectivity issues when using Wi-Fi hotspots after deploying Windows updates released during the June 2022 Patch Tuesday.

The Wi-Fi hotspot feature allows users to share their Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or cellular data Internet connection with other devices on their network.

Looking Around GIF - Looking Around Animal GIFs

According to a new entry on the Windows release health dashboard, Windows devices where one of the June updates has been installed might be unable to use the Wi-Fi hotspot feature.

"When attempting to use the hotspot feature, the host device might lose the connection to the internet after a client device connects," Microsoft explains.

The complete list of Windows versions affected by this known issue includes both client and server platforms:

  • Client: Windows 11, version 21H2; Windows 10, version 21H2; Windows 10, version 21H1; Windows 10, version 20H2; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2016; Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB; Windows 8.1; Windows 7 SP1
  • Server: Windows Server 2022; Windows Server, version 20H2; Windows Server 2019; Windows Server 2016; Windows Server 2012 R2; Windows Server 2012; Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1; Windows Server 2008 SP2

Redmond is currently investigating these Wi-Fi hotspot connectivity problems and will provide a fix to address them with an upcoming Windows update.

Workaround: turn it off

Searching Wifi Slow Internet GIF - Searching Wifi Wifi Slow Internet GIFs

Microsoft has also shared a workaround for affected customers using their Windows PC as a mobile hotspot until a solution to this issue is available.

Unfortunately, although it will restore Internet connectivity on your Windows device, this requires finding another way to connect to the Internet using your other devices.

"To mitigate the issue and restore internet access on the host device, you can disable the Wi-Fi hotspot feature," Microsoft recommends.

Looking Around GIF - Looking Around Animal GIFs

This month's Windows updates may also cause backup issues on systems running multiple Windows Server versions, with some apps failing to backup data using Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

This known issue is due to security enforcement introduced to address a privilege escalation security flaw (CVE-2022-30154) in the Microsoft File Server Shadow Copy Agent Service (RVSS)."

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China matrix fingerprint

Sophos Firewall zero-day bug exploited weeks before fix

Chinese hackers used a zero-day exploit for a critical-severity vulnerability in Sophos Firewall to compromise a company and breach cloud-hosted web servers operated by the victim.

  • Apple hacker

    iCloud hacker gets 9 years in prison for stealing nude photos

    A California man who hacked thousands of Apple iCloud accounts was sentenced to 8 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and computer fraud in October 2021.

  • robot

    New MaliBot Android banking malware spreads as a crypto miner

    Threat analysts have discovered a new Android malware strain named MaliBot, which poses as a cryptocurrency mining app or the Chrome web browser to target users in Italy and Spain.

  • WordPress

    730K WordPress sites force-updated to patch critical plugin bug

    WordPress sites using Ninja Forms, a forms builder plugin with more than 1 million installations, have been force-updated en masse this week to a new build that addresses a critical security vulnerability likely exploited in the wild.

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