00:00 Immigration slashes wages, living standards
08:00 Does scale of big business hurt the little guy?
48:00 Football woes, Dallas Cowboys crash to lowest ratings since 2009 in Dallas
58:00 Tucker Carlson vs Creepy Porn Lawyer
1:11:00 SMALL FRY By Lisa Brennan-Jobs (memoir by daughter of Steve Jobs)
1:20:00 BOOK CLUB: A.N. Wilson’s: After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World
2:05:00 Derek Black rejects his father Don Black’s white nationalism in new book
2:20:00 Beauty industry is more diverse (all six women pictured are black)
2:26:00 KMG’s happiest memory
00:00 Election movie
1:10:00 Psychopath Free book
1:34:00 Brett Kavanaugh’s teen sex life
1:40:00 Julia Baird on Australia’s slut shaming
1:58:00 Dalai Lama says Europe should stay European and refugrees should go home
2:00:00 Civic nationalism and does Vox Day long for the apocalypse?
2:11:00 President Trump on Puerto Rico’s death toll
2:17:00 Lugenpresse (German for lying press)
2:26:00 Director Alexander Payne’s trajectory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_(1999_film)
I was confidently informed that the Republicans were the anti-sex party. Now it turns out they intend to forcibly impregnate spinsters (#HandmaidsTale) & actually enjoyed consensual intercourse as adolescents (#BrettKavanaugh). Has the world gone topsy-turvy? #DianneFeinsteinhttps://t.co/pUx1J7rDU7
00:00 Google’s left-wing bias
20:00 Stephen Miller’s Reform rabbi at 9yo goes after Miller again
52:00 Serena Williams’ outbursts at US Open, cartoon controversy
1:22:00 Tonight Show cancels Norm McDonald for downplaying #MeToo
1:28:00 Angry lesbian Aussie comic Hannah Gadsby
1:35:00 Lyz Lenz disses Tucker Carlson in CJR
1:47:00 Tenured prof suspended for revealing his university’s fake publishing racket (pay for publish)
1:54:00 Quillette: Academic Activists Send a Published Paper Down the Memory Hole
2:00:00 Bob Woodward – not as great as I thought
A video recorded by Google shortly after the 2016 presidential election reveals an atmosphere of panic and dismay amongst the tech giant’s leadership, coupled with a determination to thwart both the Trump agenda and the broader populist movement emerging around the globe.
The video is a full recording of Google’s first all-hands meeting following the 2016 election (these weekly meetings are known inside the company as “TGIF” or “Thank God It’s Friday” meetings). Sent to Breitbart News by an anonymous source, it features co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, VPs Kent Walker and Eileen Naughton, CFO Ruth Porat, and CEO Sundar Pichai. It can be watched in full above. It can and should be watched in full above in order to get the full context of the meeting and the statements made.
It was reported earlier this week that Google tried to boost turnout among the Latino population to help Hillary Clinton, only to be dismayed as the usually solid Democratic voting bloc switched to the GOP in record numbers. This video shows a similar level of dismay among Google’s most high-profile figures.
These individuals, who preside over a company with unrivaled influence over the flow of information, can be seen disparaging the motivations of Trump voters and plotting ways to use their vast resources to thwart the Trump agenda.
Co-founder Sergey Brin can be heard comparing Trump supporters to fascists and extremists. Brin argues that like other extremists, Trump voters were motivated by “boredom,” which he says in the past led to fascism and communism.
The Google co-founder then asks his company to consider what it can do to ensure a “better quality of governance and decision-making.”
VP for Global Affairs Kent Walker argues that supporters of populist causes like the Trump campaign are motivated by “fear, xenophobia, hatred, and a desire for answers that may or may not be there.”
Later, Walker says that Google should fight to ensure the populist movement – not just in the U.S. but around the world – is merely a “blip” and a “hiccup” in a historical arc that “bends toward progress.”
CEO Sundar Pichai states that the company will develop machine learning and A.I. to combat what an employee described as “misinformation” shared by “low-information voters.”
Key moments from the video can be found at the following timestamps:
(00:00:00 – 00:01:12) Google co-founder Sergey Brin states that the weekly meeting is “probably not the most joyous we’ve had” and that “most people here are pretty upset and pretty sad.”
(00:00:24) Brin contrasts the disappointment of Trump’s election with his excitement at the legalization of cannabis in California, triggering laughs and applause from the audience of Google employees.
(00:01:12) Returning to seriousness, Brin says he is “deeply offen[ded]” by the election of Trump, and that the election “conflicts with many of [Google’s] values.”
(00:09:10) Trying to explain the motivations of Trump supporters, Senior VP for Global Affairs, Kent Walker concludes: “fear, not just in the United States, but around the world is fueling concerns, xenophobia, hatred, and a desire for answers that may or may not be there.”
(00:09:35) Walker goes on to describe the Trump phenomenon as a sign of “tribalism that’s self-destructive [in] the long-term.”
(00:09:55) Striking an optimistic tone, Walker assures Google employees that despite the election, “history is on our side” and that the “moral arc of history bends towards progress.”
(00:10:45) Walker approvingly quotes former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s comparison between “the world of the wall” with its “isolation and defensiveness” and the “world of the square, the piazza, the marketplace, where people come together into a community and enrich each other’s lives.”
(00:13:10) CFO Ruth Porat appears to break down in tears when discussing the election result.
(00:15:20) Porat promises that Google will “use the great strength and resources and reach we have to continue to advance really important values.”
(00:16:50) Stating “we all need a hug,” she then instructs the audience of Google employees to hug the person closest to them.
(00:20:24) Eileen Noughton, VP of People Operations, promises that Google’s policy team in DC is “all over” the immigration issue and that the company will “keep a close watch on it.”
(00:21:26) Noughton jokes about Google employees asking, ‘Can I move to Canada?’ after the election. She goes on to seriously discuss the options available to Google employees who wish to leave the country.
(00:23:12) Noughton does acknowledge “diversity of opinion and political persuasion” and notes that she has heard from conservative Google employees who say they “haven’t felt entirely comfortable revealing who [they] are.” and urged “tolerance.” (Several months later, the company would fire James Damore allegedly for disagreeing with progressive narratives.)
(00:27:00) Responding to a question about “filter bubbles,” Sundar Pichai promises to work towards “correcting” Google’s role in them
(00:27:30) Sergey Brin praises an audience member’s suggestion of increasing matched Google employee donations to progressive groups.
(00:34:40) Brin compares Trump voters to “extremists,” arguing for a correlation between the economic background of Trump supporters and the kinds of voters who back extremist movements. Brin says that “voting is not a rational act” and that not all of Trump’s support can be attributed to “income disparity.” He suggests that Trump voters might have been motivated by boredom rather than legitimate concerns.
(00:49:10) An employee asks if Google is willing to “invest in grassroots, hyper-local efforts to bring tools and services and understanding of Google products and knowledge” so that people can “make informed decisions that are best for themselves.” Pichai’s response: Google will ensure its “educational products” reach “segments of the population [they] are not [currently] fully reaching.”
(00:54:33) An employee asks what Google is going to do about “misinformation” and “fake news” shared by “low-information voters.” Pichai responds by stating that “investments in machine learning and AI” are a “big opportunity” to fix the problem.
(00:56:12) Responding to an audience member, Walker says Google must ensure the rise of populism doesn’t turn into “a world war or something catastrophic … and instead is a blip, a hiccup.”
(00:58:22) Brin compares Trump voters to supporters of fascism and communism, linking the former movement to “boredom,” which Brin previously linked to Trump voters. “It sort of sneaks up sometimes, really bad things” says Brin.
(01:01:15) A Google employee states: “speaking to white men, there’s an opportunity for you right now to understand your privilege” and urges employees to “go through the bias-busting training, read about privilege, read about the real history of oppression in our country.” He urges employees to “discuss the issues you are passionate about during Thanksgiving dinner and don’t back down and laugh it off when you hear the voice of oppression speak through metaphors.” Every executive on stage – the CEO, CFO, two VPs and the two Co-founders – applaud the employee.
(01:01:57) An audience member asks if the executives see “anything positive from this election result.” The audience of Google employees, and the executives on stage, burst into laughter. “Boy, that’s a really tough one right now” says Brin.
Tenured prof is suspended without pay from his university after exposing the widespread practice of paying-to-get-published at his institution https://t.co/YCi0FAQWAr
I’m awake, watched this again and I’m angry again.
It’s just appalling how happy these assholes are to destroy the moral and cultural foundations of the country for ratings, a quick buck, or some partisan edge. https://t.co/Crl7Ms2KEI
I wrote about the porn industry from 1995 to 2007. ReactionaryMBA tweets: “Can you do a show on what you learned?”
I was interviewed for the 2011 documentary “After Porn Ends” about the lives of porn stars after they leave sex work.
Luke: “When you are involved in this industry, you lose your humanity. You are no longer treated as a human being by 80% of people out there. You are now scum. They may want to do certain things with you, but you’re still scum. They may be thrilled to have a roll in the sack with you, but when you leave, they will want to burn the sheets.”
“Happiness and success in life boil down to the quality of your bonds with other people. Having anything to do with the adult industry hacks away at those bonds, so you are isolated, alienated, pushed away to the margins, not treated as a human being, that’s a recipe for disaster.”
“Hookers are people looking for a quick buck with the least amount of effort so they turn tricks. Being a porn star is being part of the world’s oldest profession.” Porn stars are hookers without shame.
“People who are well adjusted and have good life skills and are doing something meaningful with their lives, they are not in the industry to begin with. People in the industry are broken, twisted souls without a lot of great job skills. They are turbulent souls. They are always going to be twisting and turning in the wind.”
“Is it possible to lead a normal life after you get out? This is forever. This is the scarlet letter. It never goes away. What tends to happen is that it isolates you and you so develop a fear of being rejected and so you put up walls between you and other people. When you are isolated, you are less likely to suffer rejection, but you are also isolated and living on the edge.”
“Here are some people you talked to who are leading normal lives? How the hell would you really know? Are they going to tell you about all the times they’ve been rejected and isolated and the horror and shame that their children confront and that their spouses confront and the shame that they’ve put their families through and the relationships permanently broken and all the burned bridges behind them because they’ve done sex work? Most families aren’t proud when their daughters become hookers.”
Here are a few of my other reflections.
* Most people equate what is legal with what is moral. If you legalize porn, people who make it and consume it will think it is not so bad.
* Porners will always push the limit. When they could get away with it, with child porn for example, they sold child porn until 1977.
* Society will always struggle to contain the contagion of a sex industry. There will always be STDs of the body and of the soul and they will invariably affect those who come into close contact with sex workers. The media likes to talk about cases of AIDS in porn, but there is AIDS of the soul. You can watch videos of where people catch AIDS and you can watch videos where people’s souls die.
* Pornography is the antithesis of civilization. It unleashes forces that tear down the restraints that make civilization possible.
* No matter how much you legalize sex work, like with drugs, you will always have to declare some of it illegal (such as with children).
* It verges on the impossible to have a normal life and work in the sex industry. Individuals who use it will inevitably feel a decrease in their ability to pray and to connect to God (and often other people). If you masturbate, you will quit praying. If you pray, you will quit masturbating. The two activities are not compatible. One will win out.
Posted inDrugs, Personal, Pornography|Comments Off on When Porn Still Mattered: The Luke Ford Story
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff)
