Single Parents Finding Love: Over Zoom, of Course Because dating with kids wasn’t tricky enough before the pandemic. ........... There are nearly 19 million single-parent families in the U.S., and some of those parents, naturally, are looking for partners. They want the nervous butterflies you get on the first date and the inside jokes you share by the fifth. They want loyal companionship, deep conversation and someone else to load the dishwasher once in awhile. .............. It’d be nice to find that person that I want to be quarantined with.” ............. “But the loneliness of single parenting three kids during a pandemic took over, and I was just happy to have another adult to spend time with.” .......... “It would be unreasonable to ask single parents to sit at home and wait for some unknown time when the pandemic is over and they can date again,” she said. “That’s basically solitary confinement.” .............. For parents who share custody, there’s a whole other set (or sometimes several sets) of germs to contend with. Mooradian’s kids go back and forth between her house and her ex-husband’s house, where his girlfriend lives. “Then her kids go back and forth between that house and her ex’s house, and the ex has a girlfriend too,” she said. “It’s a whole chain effect.” .......... On Father’s Day, her brother invited the whole family over — except her. “He said I was too high-risk because I was dating,” she said. .................. ‘I’m a single parent juggling work and two amazing kiddos.’ Covid-19 has accelerated people self-identifying as single parents in a really big way.” ............. He and Carlson have been texting and plan to take an online workout class together from their respective homes. Afterward, they said, they’ll meet for a drink. Over Zoom, of course.
Bidencare Would Be a Big Deal Don’t dismiss it because it isn’t Medicare for All. .......... substantially expanding coverage and reducing premiums for middle-class families. ......... under Biden’s plan, 15 million to 20 million Americans would gain health insurance. And premiums would fall sharply, especially for middle-class families. Editors’ Picks A Columnist Makes Sense of Wall Street Like None Other (See Footnote) The Army Rolls Out a New Weapon: Strategic Napping Hold Me, Squeeze Me, Bite My Head Continue reading the main story .......... the plan would also provide significant aid for long-term care, rural health, and mental health. ............ True, America would still fall somewhat short of achieving what every other advanced country has — universal health care. But we’d get a lot closer
Trump Is Killing the Economy Out of Spite So what will he do if he loses the election? ......... Nobody knows what chaos, possibly including violence, he may unleash if the election doesn’t go his way. ......... Trump hasn’t even lost yet, but he abruptly cut off talks on an economic relief package millions of Americans desperately need (although as of Thursday he seemed to be backtracking). And his motivation seems to have been sheer spite. ............. We’ve already lost around 900,000 jobs in state and local education. ........... Unless the federal government steps in, there will be huge unnecessary suffering. There’s also a macroeconomic case: If families are forced to slash consumption, if businesses are forced to close and if state and local governments are forced into extreme spending cuts, the economy’s growth will slow and we might even slide back into recession. ........... warnings about the dangers of failing to provide more relief aren’t just coming from progressive Democrats; they’re coming from Wall Street analysts and Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. ......... The main stumbling block, I’d argue, has been the adamant refusal of Senate Republicans to consider aid to state and local governments .......... Why would Trump choose this, of all moments, to torpedo economic policy? ........... What this looks like, instead, is vindictiveness. .......... he’s already acting like a deeply embittered man, lashing out at people he feels have treated him unfairly, which is basically everyone. And as usual he reserves special rage for smart, tough women; on Thursday he called Kamala Harris a “monster.” ............ getting a relief deal would have required accepting a compromise with that “nasty” woman Nancy Pelosi. And it seems that he would rather let the economy burn. ........... Trump has always been vindictive; what will he do if and when he has nothing left but spite?
Some Republicans Seem to Think This Isn’t Going to Go Their Way Why else would Amy Coney Barrett need to be installed so quickly? ....... She apparently was closely connected to a conservative Christian group called People of Praise that has a history of stressing a husband’s role as head of the household. ............. And hey, have you noticed that Republican senators are starting to come down with the coronavirus? Two Judiciary Committee members, Mike Lee and Thom Tillis, are sick and now presumably infectious. (Earlier, Lee was at Trump’s Judge Amy party, where he seemed to be hugging about half the attendees.) So Mitch wants to let folks do their committee work from home if they prefer, in the basic Zoomish method we have all come to know and hate. ............ “A virtual hearing is virtually no hearing at all” ......... the Senate will have to actually get together in person and vote. McConnell will need almost all of his Republicans to show up, no matter what their viral condition. ....... Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, one of the ailing, says he’ll “go in a moon suit if necessary.”
House Democrats say Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple enjoy ‘monopoly power’ and recommend big changes After a 16-month investigation into competitive practices at Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust has released its findings and recommendations on how to reform laws to fit the digital age. The report concludes that the four Big Tech companies enjoy monopoly power and suggests Congress take up changes to antitrust laws that could result in parts of their businesses being separated. Republicans have voiced objections to some of the bolder proposals in the report, such as imposing structural separations. ............... major changes for Big Tech companies, such as spinning off or separating parts of their businesses or making it harder to buy smaller companies. ........... the 1.3 million documents they scoured throughout the investigation. ........ nearly 450-page report ........ imposing business structures that make different lines of business functionally separate from the parent company. For example, this could include a scenario such as forcing Google to divest and separate from YouTube, or Facebook doing the same with Instagram and WhatsApp ........... a type of “Glass-Steagall” law for the internet, referring to the 1930s law that separated commercial from investment banking. ............ Preventing dominant platforms from preferencing their own services, instead, making them offer “equal terms for equal products and services.” ......... Requiring dominant firms to make their services compatible with competitors and allow users to transfer their data. ............... Strengthening private enforcement by eliminating forced-arbitration clauses and limits on class-action lawsuits. ............ The Democratic report found that the four tech companies enjoy monopoly power in their respective domains. ........... While there is no way to reverse engineer what would have happened to Instagram were it to remain independent, the question of whether Facebook bought Instagram to squander a growing competitor has been a recurring one for many antitrust observers. .......... then-Instagram chief Kevin Systrom “wanted Instagram to grow naturally and as widely as possible. But Mark was clearly saying ‘do not compete with us.’ ... It was collusion, but within an internal monopoly.” ............. Amazon has monopoly power over most of its third-party sellers and many of its suppliers .............. “Amazon’s market power is at its height” when it comes to its relationship with third-party sellers on its platform. .......... “Publicly, Amazon describes third-party sellers as ‘partners.’ But internal documents show that, behind closed doors, the company refers to them as ‘internal competitors.’” .............. “Amazon’s dual role as an operator of its marketplace that hosts third-party sellers, and a seller in that same marketplace, creates an inherent conflict of interest. This conflict incentivizes Amazon to exploit its access to competing sellers’ data and information, among other anticompetitive conduct.” .............. Amazon reached its dominance partly through acquiring competing sites such as Diapers.com and Zappos as well as adjacent businesses to add customer data and “shor[e] up its competitive moats.” ............ Apple’s monopoly power exists in the market for software app distribution on iOS devices .............. Apple uses its control of its operating system and app store “to create and enforce barriers to competition and discriminate against and exclude rivals while preferencing its own offerings.” .................. Apple uses its market power “to exploit app developers through misappropriation of competitively sensitive information and to charge app developers supra-competitive prices within the App Store.” ............ Last year in the United States alone, the App Store facilitated $138 billion in commerce with over 85% of that amount accruing solely to third-party developers. .......... Google’s dominance as operating “as an ecosystem of interlocking monopolies.” By linking together various services with extensive user data, Google is able to reinforce its dominance ................ “Google exploits information asymmetries and closely tracks real-time data across markets, which—given Google’s scale—provide it with near-perfect market intelligence. In certain instances, Google has covertly set up programs to more closely track its potential and actual competitors, including through projects like Android Lockbox.” .......................... Google has been able to maintain its dominance with high barriers to entry, including the default position it’s secured in many browsers and devices ........... Google allegedly boosted its own vertical offerings by misappropriating content from third parties ........... Google has been “blurring the distinction between paid ads and organic results” since capturing its monopoly in general search while stacking its results page with ads. .............. “As a result of these tactics, Google appears to be siphoning off traffic from the rest of the web, while entities seeking to reach users must pay Google steadily increasing sums for ads,” according to the report. “Numerous market participants analogized Google to a gatekeeper that is extorting users for access to its critical distribution channel, even as its search page shows users less relevant results.” .............. data portability and interoperability
QAnon’s Creator Made the Ultimate Conspiracy Theory There’s no fact the sprawling movement can’t dismiss—and no madness it can’t imagine. ............ Most of those who believe in the convoluted QAnon conspiracy theory hold that the pandemic is fake, and so the move could only indicate that the president was going undercover, and that the final revelation was coming. .................. It has been called everything from a virulent conspiracy theory to a mass delusion, a cult, and a complete scam, and yet it’s growing daily. It seems set to send some faithful followers to Congress, it has earned the tacit acknowledgement of the president, and it still maintains a core following of about 600,000 people on Facebook alone, despite efforts by the platform to ban QAnon outright. QAnon followers have attempted political violence, and links between apparent acts of domestic terrorism and the movement are increasingly apparent. ............ In February and March, just 3 percent of Americans surveyed by Pew Research said they had heard or read “a lot” about QAnon. By September, more than 30 percent told Civiqs the teachings of the elusive pseudonymous leader Q were partly or mostly true. QAnon is growing, and fast. ............. In many ways, QAnon is the culmination of Trump’s America: paranoid, deeply critical of journalists and experts, obsessive in its defense of the president. Zoom out, though, and QAnon is the amalgam of decades of doomsday cults and new religious movements. It is the ideological successor of the satanic panic of the 1980s, and of older, even darker ideas like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It has more in common with the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo than the Republican Party of Dwight D. Eisenhower. From its modest origins on a far-right message board, it is now a behemoth, absorbing a set of ideas that have long lurked below the surface. ............. It has vacuumed up every paranoid thought and half-baked idea about power, government, and society. While it hasn’t predicted the end of the world, Q warns its followers that a “storm is coming.” The ultimate battle between good and evil is around the corner. Apocalyptic vibes radiate through all of Q’s messages. ................... QAnon traces its lineage back to a single, disproven conspiracy: that, in 2016, a pedophile ring tied to the Democratic Party had been exposed. John Podesta, Anthony Weiner, and Hillary Clinton were all involved, satanism was at play, and Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington, D.C., was the headquarters for the whole operation. .................. Scroll through the thousands of posts from Q and its followers, and you’ll see that there’s no new conspiracy under the sun. Every theory, from John F. Kennedy’s assassination to mind control, can fit neatly into QAnon. In Q’s world, where the deep state knows no bounds and shows few scruples, it seems evident that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were an inside job. That the few dynasties that secretly run the world’s banking system are real and active. That even the British conspiracy theorist David Icke’s stories of lizard people could be true. ............... In the dark recesses of the 4chan and 8chan message boards, these theories have long been bandied about. The core tenets of QAnon are not so much novel as they are a reflection of what the users of these boards wanted to see. ................. But QAnon doesn’t just repeat 8chan drivel—it borrows from decades of conspiracies and remixes them into something modern and new. Its followers, meanwhile, crowdfund their own additions to the conspiracy, which Q regurgitates back to them. It gives adherents the distinct feeling that they are uncovering some secret, like detectives on a case. ...................... every newspaper headline or oblique tweet is, for QAnon followers, proof positive of their predictions. Every negative story about Q is evidence of the deep state pushing back. Every Trump tweet can be a coded message encouraging QAnon to work harder. ................ theory: that Q is, currently, 8chan owner Jim Watkins. .............. “He knows Christianity is a way, in the United States, to get something to go big,” Brennan told me. He said that “the time I knew him best, between 2015 and 2018, I never saw him go to church, I never saw him read a hymn.” ............ a favorite expression of conspiracy theorists, borrowed from the Matrix movies, is “take the red pill.” ........... At their least damaging, these movements are a home for disaffected and frustrated people looking for a comforting alternative to a society in tumult. At their worst, this detachment from reality inspires acts of terrorism. .......... Those cults needed to build that world from scratch. QAnon, however, has picked up existing movements and communities, like a snowball rolling down a hill and collecting debris. By bringing in existing movements, enveloping them into its mass, QAnon absorbs a quasi-credibility and an existing fan base. ......... The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, one of the world’s most enduring conspiracy theories. Written around the turn of the 20th century, the text contends in its introduction that the “hidden hand” of some 300 Jewish elders control all of Europe. .............. The Protocols was useful propaganda for Adolf Hitler. ........... several modern conspiracy theorists, including Lyndon LaRouche, a perennial candidate for American high office and father of much monetary policy quackery. LaRouche died last year, but the political action committee bearing his name has gone all in on Trump, despite his movement once being notionally left-wing. ....................... Many familiar with David Icke know him for his theory that the ruling class is, in fact, a space-and-time-traveling reptilian super race. ........... it lists the three families: The House of Saud, George Soros himself, and the Rothschilds. .............. LaRouche, Icke, and the Khazar theory may be punchlines to the general public, if they’re recognized at all, but they have found a vehicle to the mainstream in QAnon. ..................... QAnon is different, and it shares a troubling similarity with The Protocols: It is a forgery and a conspiracy designed to protect power, not challenge it. It teaches its masses that the powerful are actually vulnerable and must be defended. .............. The movement has appeared in a perfect storm. It is joined at the hip to the man in the White House, but it is also preying on a generation steeped in moral panics. ................ It’s a story of fear, warning that pipelines of trafficked children run through the United States, and that no child is safe. ........ The 8chan owner’s son tweeted the debunked theory that COVID-19 was a lab-made bioweapon three times between January and February, while Q dropped the theory that the pandemic was preplanned in mid-March. Beyond that, there is something for the anti-vaccine crowd. Lots for the climate change deniers. Even conspiracy theories normally more identified with the left, like 9/11 truthers, have something in QAnon. ............... QAnon is the culmination of more than a century in magical thinking ......... a reality where everyone in power has a dark purpose, but where the final battle of good versus evil is fast approaching. This is the end of history. We’ve never seen a movement that ties together a constellation of delusions and beliefs like this.
