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Shou Zi Chew, the Chief Executive Officer of the social media app TikTok, did not have a pleasant Thursday 23rd March. A member of the global elite, with an MBA from Harvard and Goldman Sachs on his CV, the Singaporean businessman would not have been used to the hard time he received live on American TV.

Chew spent it being grilled by members of the United States Congress. In a rare case of bipartisanship, Republicans and Democrats were equally rude to him and dismissive of his defence of TikTok. Almost all questioned whether or stated that it was a security threat to the United States, due to its Chinese origins and ability to extract user data. It was referenced how Byte Dance employees, Byte Dance being the owner of TikTok, had accessed two journalists TikTok data, seeking to find the source of leaks at Byte Dance.

One of his weaker arguments was that Tik Tok was not in fact Chinese, being headquartered in Singapore. This argument is rather undercut by the Chinese governments vigorous defence of TikTok and Byte Dance. After all, if TikTok is not Chinese, why would the Chinese government care? What is interesting is not the hostility of Congress, which is understandable as Chinese-US rivalry grows, but rather the progressive media/legal/activist forces that seek to defend TikTok. There are various groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, who are likely to go to court to fight a ban on TikTok if one is imposed by Congress. These are the same progressive types, especially in the US and UK, who have a pathological aversion to the US software company Palantir.

So why would progressives defend or overlook an app from an authoritarian state, which governments around the world are banning from government devices, but target a US-originated company that works with governments across the West and has specifically set out not to work with authoritarian regimes? The original sin of Palantir in the eyes of progressive opinion was to be founded to work with Western security forces. For these progressives the fact that the CIAs venture capital arm was an early investor and Peter Thiel was a founder is not proof that Palantir is a serious firm, but rather that it is tainted by the deep state and a sinister billionaire. Thiel is a tech billionaire who does not follow the woke Silicon Valley consensus. Palantir has even moved its headquarters out of Silicon Valley and relocated to Colorado, due in part to constant protests outside its old offices by progressive activists.

Ordinary people, who are not progressive activists, might point out that the West needs world class software engineers working on national security and not more software on how to make cat videos on YouTube more appealing. In a world of a rising China, an aggressive Russia and disruptive Iran, surely the West needs companies like Palantir even more than ever, just as the West needs spy agencies and satellites? Some people might suggest Peter Thiel is not actually a sinister billionaire, but rather a visionary who foresaw the need for a Palantir type company before anyone else. Even the progressive activists tacitly acknowledge the force of the national security argument by not taking on Palantir head on in relation to its defence work but seeking other ways to undermine it.

One example is Palantirs involvement in the NHS. There is a dedicated No Palantir in our NHS campaign. This campaign is supported by Liberty, War on Want and a group called Coventry against Racism. The progressive activists seem content for uninformed journalists to write articles about Palantir secretly seeking health data, when they must know full well that Palantir is not a social media company that harvests information. In fact, its national security background means that data security is part of its corporate DNA.

The merits of whether Palantir should be involved in the NHS seem never actually to be discussed. Namely after a failed twenty-year model of the NHS hiring consultants to produce bespoke IT that has not worked, but been very lucrative for those consultants, surely an outside expert provider should be tried? This never seems to be addressed in the media, being lost in inaccurate stories about how a wicked and sinister software company is coming to steal your health data and privatise the NHS. The idea that using Palantir software is akin to privatisation is laughable, but reflects the progressives bias. It is a bit like claiming that hospitals buying MRI scanners, instead of building their own from scratch, is really a plot to privatise the NHS. If Palantir has something to offer the NHS, it should be considered on its merits. The progressives fight with Palantir should not interfere with anything that helps the overstretched NHS modernise, digitise, and tackle its problems.

Why do these double standards in relation to TikTok and Palantir matter? China is a rising global power and there is growing concern in the West that its authoritarian politics is not compatible with liberal democracy. If the West is to face this challenge it will need software and technology companies to match Chinas growing expertise in these areas. In short, progressives should grow up, stop obsessing about Palantir and be more concerned about the threat that China and its tech companies pose to global freedom.

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TikTok vs Palantir: China and the progressives - TheArticle

WASHINGTON Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, helped lead progressives Wednesday in promoting federal legislation they say would bring more humanity to the countrys treatment of immigrants and push back on Republican efforts to have state and local authorities or even everyday citizens assume the role of immigration law enforcers.

The path weve been on for decades of building more private prisons, putting more kids in cages, spending tens and hundreds of millions of dollars on border militarization, hasnt worked, Casar told reporters Wednesday.

Their proposal would end mandatory no-bond immigration detention, repeal laws allowing for criminal prosecution of unauthorized entry into the United States and limit the time in which federal authorities can initiate removal proceedings for civil violations.

It would provide an opportunity for those already deported to return and it would repeal laws used to justify having local authorities enforce immigration rules.

Casar said that would chip away at the foundation for Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbotts multibillion dollar immigration-and-drugs dragnet at the southern border.

This law would make it very clear that federal immigration officials should be doing immigration and our local police forces, state police forces should be focused on keeping us safe from violence, Casar said. They shouldnt be chasing immigrants all around the state.

Abbotts office did not respond to a request for comment but in a news release last week said Operation Lone Star has turned back thousands of migrants seeking to enter the country illegally and resulted in more than 26,000 criminal arrests.

It said the operation continues to fill the dangerous gaps left by the Biden administrations border policies.

Figures on arrests from the operation have included some individuals busted for low-level drug offenses unrelated to the border.

Casar said the progressives proposal also would shut down efforts such as Texas House Bill 20, which would create a Texas Border Protection Unit and allow citizen volunteers after mandatory training to make arrests.

Casar described that as bounty hunter vigilante squads.

The legislation hes promoting wont go anywhere this session with Republicans in control, but it represents a response from left-leaning Democrats to a slew of hardline GOP immigration proposals.

It also comes as the Biden administration has sought to stem the flow of migrants across the border with new policies that some have compared to those of President Donald Trump.

House Republicans made combatting illegal immigration a central part of their 2022 midterm campaign message but have struggled to get on the same page in writing bills since taking over the majority.

Nearly all Republicans in the Texas delegation backed a package of proposals focused on physical barriers and tougher enforcement. That plan includes a bill sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, that would require Department of Homeland Security to turn away all individuals at the border that cannot be detained for the pendency of their proceedings.

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, has vowed to fight Roys proposal.

Bring unchristian anti-immigrant bills to the floor and I am a NO on the debt ceiling, Gonzales tweeted Wednesday.

The debt ceiling represents a powerful leverage point because the economic fallout from not addressing it would be significant and the razor-thin House GOP majority makes every vote crucial.

While the details of their legislation remain in flux, Republicans continue to hammer the Biden administrations handling of the border.

Both of Texas Republican senators lit into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday when he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. John Cornyn pressed Mayorkas to apologize to the parents of children who have died from fentanyl overdoses.

Senator, my heart is with the family of every victim of a drug overdose death, Mayorkas responded.

Cornyn accused the secretary of evading responsibility and said he has lost all credibility.

You should be fired, but you havent been fired because you were carrying out the policies of the Biden administration, and weve seen nothing but death and destruction as a result, Cornyn said.

Mayorkas touted record seizures of fentanyl at ports of entry and efforts to do more.

Democrats on the committee noted the U.S. immigration system was broken long before the Biden administration, but Republicans kept venting their frustration at the secretary.

Sen. Ted Cruz fired off a series of yes-or-no queries and repeatedly cut off Mayorkas attempts to offer broad responses, accusing him of filibustering to avoid answering the questions.

Cruz told Mayorkas his own Border Patrol agents feel hes undermining them.

They despise you, Mr. Secretary, because youre willing to let children be raped to follow political orders, Cruz said. This is a crisis. Its a disgrace. And you wont even admit this human tragedy is a crisis.

The committees chairman offered Mayorkas a chance to respond to Cruzs statement.

What the senator said was revolting, Mayorkas said. Im not going to address it.

Your refusal to do your job is revolting, Cruz shot back.

See more here:
Greg Casar leads attack on Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star - The Dallas Morning News

When you think of a Super PAC, the image that comes to mind probably isnt a few dozen people gathered at a community center in historic Filipinotown in downtown Los Angeles snacking on sliders and vegan tacos. But the founders of theYouth Interest PAC arent looking to act or spend like traditional war chests in US politics. Theyre launching this political action committee to fund progressive campaigns that its founders sayyoung people care about: gun control, tackling climate change, battling far-right disinformation campaigns, and training a new generation of political organizers.

Sim-Marcel Bilal, 22, and Lorenzo De Felitta, 18, two LA activists who worked on the successful campaign for the new progressive LA controller Kenneth Mejia, founded the super PAC, which launched on February 5. They want to take the samescrappy Gen Z techniques they employed in that race viral online campaigns, Twitch streams, clear messaging around the breakdown of city funds and taxpayer dollars, brazen attacks on the establishment, and a strong ground game on the road ahead of the 2024 elections.

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We were fed up with young people being used as political pawns for any politician that just wants to run. We're often an afterthought when it comes to the political process, even though progressive candidates or Democrats depend on us to win elections, but they wait till the last minute to either engage with us or don't keep the promises that they make to us, Bilal toldTeen Vogue.

The result ischildren keep getting shot up in schools. You can't walk anywhere. I grew up doing so many different gun drills and active shooter drills in school. It's just really sad to see every single year how many lives are lost to gun violence, to police violence, to everything, Bilal said. A lot of times, politicians or progressive candidates that run can't take on establishment power because theres so much collective money running against them. So we started this PAC to basically fund, not just candidates that are running on progressive values and interests for young people, but to also teach young people how to organize and become activists in their communities.

From Left: Youth Impact PAC founders Sim Bilal and Lorenzo De Felitta, outreach and communications coordinators Danielle Nunez and Shekinah Deocares at the launch event for their youth-issues Super PAC at The Robinson Space in downtown Los Angeles on February 5, 2023.

The team is rounded out by two other Mejia campaign alums, Shekinah Deocares, 25, and Danielle Nunez, 26. They plan to launch campaigns on gun control, public safety, climate change, and human rights in pivotal states like Louisiana, Texas, and Arizona, as well as train other leaders to build networks to campaign for these issues.

Deocares, a community organizer, said she was profoundly impacted by the 2020 campaign for Proposition 22. Corporations led by Lyft and Uberspent over $200 million to win the ballot measure that allowed California to classify gig workers as independent contractors instead of employees.

At the time, she was working at the Pilipino Workers Center with people who were either undocumented, gig workers, or both, and she saw how the deeply financed campaign worked to deprive them of full-time employee benefits, further destabilizing the fragile economic situation for many in the community.

People with money will use the language that we use, or token representation, to pass laws that harm us. We cant afford to have that continued system where all of the labor and suffering is on us, but all of the power and control is with those who dont have the same interests, Deocares said. She remembers seeing a commercial that featured a Black woman saying she needed a gig to be able to provide for her child, which Deocares considered deceptive advertising.

We did not have the money to go up against their ads and marketing. It was just one of thousands of moments where it's obvious who has money affects whether people survive and exist like humans, Deocares said. I dont think its a fair fight at all.

The reason we created this PAC is that were going to inherit this world, but were often overlooked, she added.

Youth Interest PAC cofounder Sim Bilals dog, Jeju, takes a break from hosting duties at the launch.

But does it seem contradictory for a group of young people who lean heavily into theBernie Sanders brand of democratic socialism, to adopt the very establishment, Big Money tool of a Super PAC?

De Felitta addressed the question head-on at the launch: We all know that banks are a tool of capitalism and white supremacy. Is there a good bank out there? Unfortunately not. We found the least bad bank.

Later, Bilal told me that finding a bank had been a major holdup. A credit union wouldnt be able to handle the millions of dollars they want to raise ahead of the 2024 elections. After vetting, he said they settled on Amalgamated Bank, which isunionized and majority union-owned, has clear progressive values, andhas pledged not to lend to fossil fuel companies.

Similarly, the Youth Interest PAC founders say they will refuse contributions from fossil fuel companies, police and the prison industrial complex, the military-industrial complex, and unsustainable corporate money. Nor will they support candidates who accept contributions from those sources. Instead, theyre courting grassroots donors, young people and their families, civic groups, and sustainable and environmentally focused investors and business owners.

When I pointed out that those arent necessarily avenues to sizeable donations, De Felitta responded, As progressives, we know how to use our money efficiently, noting that theyhandily beat the opponent in the controller race who had campaign coffers nearlyfour times the size of theirs.

Alison Gash, an associate professor of political science at the University of Oregon and co-author ofDemocracy's Child: Young People and the Politics of Control, Leverage and Agency said that Gen Z has been effective at organizing political campaigns that dont require deep funding. Look at what you can do with small donations, Gash said, referring to the success Barack Obamas first presidential campaign had withcrowdsourcing smaller donations. The community organizing approach to this is really savvy because ultimately you want those dollars spent to be transferred into votes. That's the key, right? So if you're engaging directly with other young people in asking for money, then using that money directly representing young people through the filter of young leaders, you're a lot more likely to get those folks to vote than you are in other ways.

The Youth Interest PAC leaders also plan to use funds to pay young people who are working on political campaigns. Being paid to work on the Mejia campaign, Deocares said, made a big difference. She found it liberating, underscoring the importance to compensate young people for their labor in politics.

We plan on running more issue-specific campaigns relevant to the state and paying local youth with specific skill sets to engage on the ground. When necessary, if we choose to support specific candidates we'll run independent campaigns hiring our own local youth staff to target youth voters and other key demographics, Bilal said.

Since they cant pay to fund campaigns or candidates directly, they will likely grant stipends to the young activists working on the campaigns that align with Youth Interests goals, Deocares added.

She emphasized that their Super PACs approach to money is unique: Were not lining our own pockets or buying candidates to help us make more money. Having money and spending money is not our end game. Were identifying candidates that youth in local areas support. Were investing in people and actions.

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The Youth Interest PAC, Founded By Mejia Campaign Alums, Will Fund Progressive Campaigns - Teen Vogue

A political group, South East/Igbo APC Progressives Roundtable (SIAPRO) has appealed to the Yoruba and compatriots in Lagos State to overlook any provocation, disrespect and or insult that they may have endured flowing from the last election cycle in the state.

The group said, Lagos State is no less Yoruba land as Anambra State is Igbo land just like Lagos is not a no mans land, just like Ebonyi State is not a no mans land.

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, the convener, Dr Uche Diala, said any contrary view to these is as irresponsible as it is provocative, adding that these are facts that must be stated clearly.

Diala said Igbo have been known for ages to be noble guests who do nothing but add value to their hosts in a symbiotic relationship, adding that Igbos have never been known to be a burden to their hosts.

He explained that was the reason why regions, states, villages, hamlets, and families across the length and breadth of Nigeria (South, North, and West) are filled with noble, peace-loving, and hardworking Igbos, a multitude who have fully settled in and have no plan of leaving.

Diala said nowhere else in Nigeria is that bond of friendship, deep integration, and all round success more pronounced and enduring than in Lagos State.

It is therefore heartbreaking what happened in Lagos recently where largely misguided Igbos with little or altered sense of history embarked on a fight that was needless, tactless, and profitless.

An Igbo proverb says obiara be onye abiagbula ya a visitor should not be a burden or source of misfortune to his host. Unfortunately, some of our brother Igbo Lagosians allowed external negative influences to drive them to almost remove the seats from their own buttocks, he said.

As progressive democrats, he said the group believes that every Nigerian has a right to aspire to any political office that he or she is qualified for and to vote and be voted for wherever one resides and pays taxes and will not support any action to deprive anyone of such rights but the place of ako na uche (tact and wisdom) must always be preserved.

In view of all the above, with every sense of sincerity, and responsibility, we hereby publicly appeal to and urge our Yoruba brethren and compatriots in Lagos to overlook any provocations, disrespect, and or insults that they may have endured flowing from the last election cycle.

Friendship is a burden that weighs both ways. The mutually beneficial and long-term relationship between Igbos and Yorubas in Lagos is cemented in intertribal marriages, long-term, intricate, and rewarding business relationships, and decades of successful political collaboration cannot be jettisoned because of some individuals who have no or poor sense of history, he said.

He noted that the group is aware of some recent unhealthy and unproductive utterances by some individuals of significant standing in Igbo society.

It is trite Igbo wisdom that age and status compel a certain level of responsibility and restraint in words and conduct.

We condemn such comments that seek to deepen the divide and create unnecessary tension and bad blood and responsibly urge such individuals to desist forthwith in the interest of peaceful co-existence and national unity, he added.

He lamented the gradual and shocking decline and recession of the Igbo nation and the southeast geopolitical zone since the 2015 general elections that saw the electoral loss of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

This is due to a combination of factors, including wrong political calculations, deception, lies, and fake news and propaganda amongst others. The consequence of this is a gradual and continued isolation of the southeast and Igbos in the politics of Nigeria, he said.

Original post:
Igbo Progressives Beg Yoruba In Lagos To Overlook Provocation - Leadership News

They gathered in the community center of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh on Tuesday night like the remnants of a battered army trying to regroup and rally.

The occasion was a meeting of the newly formed Peoples Coalition, a collection of 16 North Carolina progressive groups committed to promoting economic and social justice. The theme was mobilizing against the actions of the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

The warm-up music included Gil Scott-Herons early 1970s song, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Many in the crowd of about 75 people were old enough to remember when it was an activists anthem.

The Rev. Nancy Petty, Pullen Memorials pastor, opened the meeting with a moment of silence for the three adults and three children killed Monday in the Nashville school shooting and all victims of gun violence. Earlier in the day, the state Senate voted to override Gov. Roy Coopers veto of a bill that makes it easier to buy a handgun. That contrast expressed a gulf much wider than the 1.5 miles between the church and the Legislative Building.

Petty said the pandemic had halted in-person meetings and slowed progressive activism, but she said that lull is over. We are back and we are ready to be back, she said.

Petty noted that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Moral Monday protests that united advocacy groups in opposition to actions by the legislature. She said it was time to reignite that resistance. Many North Carolinians, she said, are coming together as a Peoples Coalition refusing to let our lawmakers pass their dangerous agenda without a struggle and a fight.

Other speakers also spoke against the actions of Republican lawmakers, but the prospects for blocking those actions are bleak. Republicans, now in their 13th year in power, gained seats in the last election and are one vote shy of veto-proof majority.

Meanwhile, the election also gave Republicans a 5-2 majority on the state Supreme Court, replacing a 4-3 Democratic majority that had supported voting rights and rejected gerrymandered election district maps. Its likely the newly constituted court will approve new voting restrictions and redrawn district maps that will heavily favor Republican candidates in 2024.

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Sailor Jones, associate director of Common Cause North Carolina, alluded to those setbacks in addressing the audience. This time, my friends, the courts will not save us, Jones said. Who will?

We will, the audience responded, but it sounded more like a wish than a promise.

Yet a counter movement has to start somewhere. The Peoples Coalition hopes it is starting in the capital city. They plan to hold more town hall meetings around the state.

State legislative leaders from both parties were invited, but did not attend, though two Democratic state lawmakers did state Sen. Lisa Grafstein of Wake County and state Rep. Greg Ager of Buncombe County.

Grafstein, a civil rights lawyer, told me after the meeting that Democrats eventually will regain a legislative majority as voters respond to Republican overreach, much as they did to the Supreme Courts abortion ruling.

I genuinely do believe we will get it back, she said.

But, for now, belief is about all that progressives have.

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-829-4512, or nbarnett@ newsobserver.com

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Boxed out by GOP gains, NC progressive groups seek to reignite resistance | Opinion - Yahoo News