Thanks to the LA times for this photo of previous bigfoot days in Willow Creek
Google: drug dealer
I have seen spam ads from pharmaceutical outlets offering to sell me pills on the side of my Gmail account. I never really thought about the fact that Google has to take money for all those sketchy side advertisements. Whoops. Turns out that they spent a few years slanging pills for international drug dealers.
As early as 2003, Google “was aware of these advertisements by Canadian online pharmacies, and that these pharmacies were in fact unlawfully shipping prescription drugs into the United States,’’ Neronha said. Google actively assisted the pharmacies in developing advertising strategies that would enhance their sales, and its own revenues, he said.
via Google to pay US $500m in drug ad inquiry – The Boston Globe.
No problem. They’ll pay up — giving the United States $500 million in a settlement. Probably a tiny portion of the money they made selling pills.
1. Compare these kinds of settlement deals to the problems that your average “drug dealer” would face. Street drugs? Most street drugs have their origins in pharmaceutical work these days! Want to see something terrible? Perhaps the most scarring documentary I’ve seen in a few years is Vanguard’s “Oxycontin express.” Showcasing a single county in Florida (Dade) which has become the legal pill capitol of the US, the documentary shows the terrible personal impact and the economic profit involved.
2. I think that the prohibition against buying international pharmaceuticals is part of the financial lock down of US citizenry’s declining dollar. A response to lots of prescriptions, less health insurance coverage — the cheap imported medicine seems appealing. And a threat to pharmaceutical companies who can sell in the USA. It seems especially hypocritical given the history of the US suing other nations for making generic versions of US AIDS drugs.
Filed under communication, documentary, health, media
Archive: old top ten august 19
-
Weekly Top Ten August 19 2011
1. ZZ Top – Fandango
2. Curren$y – “What means the world to me.”
3. Strolling on the beach
4. Dry hopped IPA at Redwood Curtain Brewery
5. Family vacation photos
6. Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka Flame – “Mud Music”
7. Drunk skype parties
8. Michael Jackson roller skating party
9. bicycle riding
10. Fresh blackberries
Filed under documentary
Samples for Black Moon’s Enta da Stage
Hey folks, you should respect the Boot Camp Clik. You might not like the BCC, but you should respect.
The breakout album for the crew (even before there was a Clik) was Black Moon’s Enta da stage. Hip hop is Read has run down the beatminer’s great sample hits here. I vote for the Ronnie Laws flip . . . but I’m a sucker for the Laws bros.
Recorded at NYC’s famed D&D Studios, Enta Da Stage’s soundscape is basement rap at its finest. The album epitomizes the aesthetic of raw boom bap, with DJ Evil Dee (and Mr. Walt) truly mastering the art of hard drums, snapping snares and low, deep basslines which can only be described as “subterranean”. Enta Da Stage was Da Beatminerz’ introduction to the world – and what a great first impression they made! The brothers’ crate digging skills are hoisted up for display, well represented by some impressive gems provided by the likes of Lee Michaels, Ten Wheel Drive, John Klemmer, The 9th Creation, Donald Byrd and Ronnie Laws – just to name a few. You can imagine it was quite a pleasure scooping these tracks up for Sample Set #172.
Filed under funk & soul, hip hop
Making terrorist (headlines)
Fascinating series of articles about FBI informants in Mother Jones. One of my favorite quotes so far:
Here’s how it works: Informants report to their handlers on people who have, say, made statements sympathizing with terrorists. Those names are then cross-referenced with existing intelligence data, such as immigration and criminal records. FBI agents may then assign an undercover operative to approach the target by posing as a radical. Sometimes the operative will propose a plot, provide explosives, even lead the target in a fake oath to Al Qaeda. Once enough incriminating information has been gathered, there’s an arrest—and a press conference announcing another foiled plot.
If this sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because such sting operations are a fixture in the headlines. Remember the Washington Metro bombing plot? The New York subway plot? The guys who planned to blow up the Sears Tower? The teenager seeking to bomb a Portland Christmas tree lighting? Each of those plots, and dozens more across the nation, was led by an FBI asset.
Filed under media, propaganda
Whad’ya know? Clyde Stubblefield
You might expect Mr. Stubblefield, who has appeared on some of the greatest drum recordings in history, to have gone on to fame, or at least to a lucrative career playing sessions. But for the last 40 years he has happily remained in Madison, Wis., playing gigs there with his own group and, since the early 1990s, playing on the public radio show “Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know?”
via VIDEO + INFO: Clyde Stubblefield, The Funky Drummer – NEO•GRIOT.
Filed under funk & soul
Black Star
Thanks to the liberator magazine for the image.
Filed under colonialism, memorial, resistance
Engagement with ol’ friends (frenemies?)
The day the story of this young woman, who claimed to have been beaten by “Obama Thugs”… a common way of Ghettoizing Obama supporters, was revealed as a hoax, I suggested that Omri may want to add an UPDATE signaling that this woman had behavioral health issues and was thus not more evidence of Obama’s ‘Thug (Political) Life.’ His position was that he didn’t care about its accuracy… that this is a strategic game, and that if I want to pronounce opposition I should ‘get a blog.’
Well. I have.
I let this one go… having other concerns, and wary of losing friends, but since the ethical purity of anti-Obama rhetoric is supposedly a premise that can be assumed, I think it’s time to be honest.
via Omri Ceren’s Racist Website « WaspInABottle.
WaspinaBottle is stronger than I am. I follow Omri on Twitter, but can’t quite RSS his web page. But Wasp is willing to engage with a thoughtful discussion about what this kind of anti-obama racism means in regards to the people who die in events like the Tulsa riots. Read it and get it together because the dinner tables, water coolers and bars are going to be productive spaces to clash with racism in the next few months.
Filed under communication, race
Life of refinement 