Category: Images

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• Forget Tech Bro Fantasies of Self-Driving Cars and Just Invest in Buses Already
• https://newrepublic.com/article/162280/autonomous-vehicles-public-transportation-uber-lyft Follow @newrepublic

What we need are not more energy-efficient cars or self-driving cars or, as president of Lyft, John Zimmer fantasized, privately owned fleets that are available for hire, but fewer cars entirely. We need people biking, walking, taking buses and trains and subways, or otherwise riding in something besides a free-ranging, 3,000-pound metal exoskeleton with an error-prone operator, digital or human. If safety is often cited as a prime reason for developing autonomous vehicles—about 36,000 Americans die in car accidents every year—then perhaps a better way of saving lives is to have fewer cars on the road, replaced by mass transit and other public options.

In contrast to all the hype and expense of autonomous vehicles—along with the regulatory and technical and economic uncertainty—bicycles, sidewalks, and public transport work exceedingly well. They are known quantities that can be strengthened and made more accessible with a fraction of the resources that have been poured into A.V. research. They are safe and enhance the urban experience. They contribute few, if any, emissions and don’t enrich a handful of oligarchs at the expense of the common interest.

Excerpted : Jacob Silverman/May 3, 2021 The New Republic

Court Painter, in a fit of lockdown inspiration, undertook a series of wildflower paintings. He remarked that wild flowers are much like him….wildly temperamental and pleasing to the eye!

Isn’t that wild!?

Asked during an interview with Sky News Bill Gates was asked if he thought it “would be helpful” to have COVID vaccine recipes be shared, Gates quickly answered: “No.”

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In response to this “No”the following is excerpted from April 29 The.Ink post with Anand Giridharadas in conversation with Megan Tompkins-Stange

MTS: As the former CEO and largest shareholder of Microsoft, you might think that Bill Gates is a capitalist, but that’s not exactly the case. In the classical definition of capitalism, private actors accumulate and exchange assets through the free market, at prices determined by supply and demand. Gates’ version of capitalism would better be called monopolistic. He has consistently sought to distort free markets in order to advance his own corporation’s accumulation of wealth, power, and preeminence.

Microsoft achieved its dominance by using intellectual property laws to prevent its competitors’ products from running on its Windows operating system, creating a proprietary monopoly in the software industry. Gates’ wealth is a direct result of the patents that codified Microsoft’s intellectual property.

As such, it isn’t surprising that one of Gates’ core beliefs is that intellectual property needs to be protected at all costs — and that eliminating patent restrictions for vaccines violates this guiding principle.

Even though Gates sanctifies intellectual property rights, surely he would be willing to override this view in order to protect poor countries from Covid. Indeed, given that his foundation prominently proclaims that “all lives have equal value,” one might expect this — even more so given that Gates is a self-identified utilitarian, someone whose moral values elevate the ends (saving lives) over the means (compromising a principle).

But this is where it gets more complicated. As a philanthropist, Gates is a founding member of a cohort of benefactors who believe that pursuing profit is not incompatible with social good. This philosophy has been on the rise at least since 1970, when Milton Friedman famously argued that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” and is now best described as “MarketWorld,” as Anand Giridharadas coined in Winners Take All, or “doing well by doing good.”

MarketWorld marinates prosocial values in market-based flavors, preferring “social impact” to “charity” and “investments” to “grants.” Gates’ alignment with this cohort means that he is far more likely to advocate for patents, even in a crisis like Covid.

Megan Tompkins-Stange teaches public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!). She is the author of “Policy Patrons: Philanthropy, Education Reform, and the Politics of Influence.”

Anand Giridharadas from The Ink <anandwrites@substack.com>author of Winners Take All

Not to just pick solely on Bill Gates ,two other billionaire monopolists of note are Jeff Bozos of Amazon and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. Court Painter took special care to render their images in the best possible light.

Two politicians are among several people charged for attending a large service in Aylmer, Ont., at the Church of God Restoration in defiance of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. MP Derek Sloan and MPP Randy Hillier, who both represent Kingston-area ridings as Independents, are scheduled to appear in Elgin County provincial offences court in June, CBC News has learned. 

The two, who have been vocal about their opposition to COVID-19 public health measures, attended the large Sunday service in the southwestern Ontario town. Sloan, Hillier and eight others were charged after the service. The church, as a corporation, has also been charged with failing to comply with the Reopening Ontario Act. 

If found guilty, Sloan and Hillier could be ordered to pay up to $100,000 or spend up to a year in jail. 

Corporations could face fines up to $10 million. 

Source:CBC News · Posted: Apr 27/21

Donald Trump makes his debut in National Portrait Gallery’s presidents exhibition

A painting of former president Donald Trump by Court Painter has been installed in the America’s Presidents exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

When the National Portrait Gallery reopens , visitors will have the first opportunity to see a President Donald Trump portrait by noted and admired political & celebrity portraitist Court Painter.

Court Painter’s dazzling rendering of the former president depicts him seated in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk as a riot ensues outside the windows and security personnel exert their presence heroically.

“There’s always a sense of transition when we install a new presidential portrait,” the gallery’s curator of painting and sculpture, said of the exhibit . “We are a museum that reflects art history and biography, and we are able to celebrate the presidents with portraits that are historical documents.”

Court Painter undertook a series of The Donald’s portraits once assured he was a bone fide celebrity by TMZ. This newest portrait of The Donald is now in the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection. The portrait will be on view while The Donald official portrait is being chosen from the Resolute series of flattering portraits completed in the past year by Court Painter on his own nickel.

The museum is not sharing details of that commission choice nor on the one of former first lady Melania Trump, except to say that the process is underway.

Court Painter is an award-winning fine portrait painter whose portfolio includes portraits of political figures and close celebrity friends.His portraits of The Donald have “both artistic and celebrity merit”, a bystander commented.

“I like the composition of the painting,”the bystander continued. “It is an angle we don’t often see. You get a view of the raging mob outside the oval office window and you can almost see the condensation on the windows and feel the sweat of exertion on the crowd’s brow while The Donald remains stoic!”

“We love that Court Painter not only depicts the individual Donald and his authoritarian celebrity presence , but also brings much riotous history, much anger, resentment and overall bad feelings as possible to the painting surface…and that’s just in his face.”

Additional portraits of The Donald are available directly off the rack with attractive discounts.

Why the Liberals Have Become the Most Anti-Internet Government in Canadian History : Michael Geist, April 16/21

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The Liberals led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were first elected in 2015 on a platform that emphasized transparency, consultation, and innovation. With promises of entrenching net neutrality, prioritizing innovation, focusing on privacy rather than surveillance, and supporting freedom of expression, the government left little doubt about its preferred policy approach.

Today’s Liberal government is unrecognizable by comparison as it today stands the most anti-Internet government in Canadian history:

• As it moves to create the Great Canadian Internet Firewall, net neutrality is out and mandated Internet blocking is in.
• Freedom of expression and due process is out, quick takedowns without independent review and increased liability are in.
• Innovation and new business models are out, CRTC regulation is in.
• Privacy reform is out, Internet taxation is in.
• Prioritizing consumer Internet access and affordability is out, reduced competition through mergers are in.
• And perhaps most troublingly, consultation and transparency are out, secrecy is in.

The Department of Heritage to date has refused to publicly release in-house documents outlining the bill. 

“We haven’t had a public-wide consultation,” said Minister Guilbeault.

 “If body cameras are necessary to curb police violence, then it’s because police department can’t properly control its officers. If more control measures are necessary, the funding for those measures should come out of the existing police budget, and not from increasing the budget.

If we lived in a world where bad behaviour actually had consequences, this might play out differently. Imagine if every time a cop improperly stopped a black person, the department budget was dinged a million dollars; if every time someone died in police custody, the budget was cut by 25%, and so on. You could bet that then the police brass would figure out how to control their officers.”

Halifax Examiner APRIL 23, 2021 BY TIM BOUSQUET

It must run in the family… How can Ontario be so lucky!