DL Open Thread: Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019
Trump Bails On Doral. Read it for the Madman’s tweets. My fave?: “….Therefore, based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020.” Actually, we know that this was a Golf Course Too Far, even for the Rethugs.
Justin Amash: Hillary Is A Trump Asset. I agree, and for the reasons he cited. Clinton is also a Gabbard asset.
West Virginia Governor Even More Corrupt Than Trump? I don’t know. How do you quantify such a thing?
Warren Vs. Facebook. I know which side I’m on. Warren’s capitalism is my kind of capitalism. Break up the monopolies.
This Is What Happens When A Rethug Runs A Chapter Of The NAACP. LaMar Gunn paints himself as the ‘victim’, but just watch him try to parlay this into electoral success. Maybe he’ll, you know, ‘succeed’ this time.
What do you want to talk about?
I’m with Warren as well, break up the monopolies and start prosecuting white collar crime. The laws have been on the books a long time, but as ever it’s not the laws, it’s the enforcement. A big part of the problem dates back to Eric Holder letting hundreds of bankers pay fines instead of jail time. The Savings & Loan Crises saw over 100 bankers in the clink, the 2008 recession, spurred by banks and their lending practices did not see even a dozen go to jail.
Facebook is a monopoly in so far as there is no other “next great thing” out there yet. Perhaps there never will be. Even so, if you break up Facebook, you effectively balkanize the entire social spectrum of social media, which obviously leads to its demise (perhaps not a bad thing, but still) because it will eliminate the entire foundation for Facebook.
This is essentially, what happened in 1982 when they broke up AT&T into all those Baby Bells (and where are they all now?). It might be better to declare Facebook a “common carrier” in accordance with the provisions of the Communications Act of 1934, like the FCC did with the Internet service providers as a means to ensure net neutrality (not withstanding that the FCC in 2017 removed that designation).
Monopolistic enterprises are not inherently bad. Just as non-monopolistic enterprises are not inherently good. You have to first determine whether or not a monopoly serves the public interest. If it does, you might want to use regulation to ensure that public interest as oppose to breaking it up. In this interconnected world of ours, we need the internet of things to be able to work in harmony. Imagine a world full of mulitple Facebooks.
Yes there are aspects of Facebook services which might be carved off into its own viable entity (Instagram), but one of the reasons a service like Instagram was acquired by Facebook is to facilitate integration and ease of use by Facebooks customers.
I’m in favor of the business model that also operates in the public interest, in a manner that serves those interests as opposed to slaving those interests to the business model. If that’s a regulated monopoly, so be it. It’s no different than the concept of Medicare For All – a monopoly. If it best serves the publics interests, then so be it.
“One of the reasons a service like Instagram was acquired by Facebook is to facilitate integration and ease of use by Facebooks customers.”
You’re smarter than that. The main reason it was acquired was so that it wouldn’t supplant Facebook. The reason Facebook wants control is so that all advertising dollars flow to it.
I’m afraid you don’t have a malicious enough mind to understand the world of business.
Sensible Moderate Democrat: we have to beat Trump, I’ll vote for whoever the Dems nominate.
Me: so you are ready to withstand the smear campaign Republicans are going to launch.
Sensible Moderate Democrat: yes
Me: what if the nominee is Warren?
Sensible Moderate Democrat: …not her though. She wants to take away my healthcare.
They need to be careful about how they discuss healthcare. Retirees are easily moved to panic if someone tells them the Democrats are going to screw up their Medicare by giving it to illegals and minority moms who already get too many slices of government cheese.