When President Obama announced his support last week for a Federal Communications Commission plan to open the market for cable set-top boxes — a big win for consumers, but also for Google — the cable and telecommunications giants who used to have a near-stranglehold on tech policy were furious. AT&T chief lobbyist Jim Cicconi lashed out at what he called White House intervention on behalf of “the Google proposal.”
He’s hardly the first to suggest that the Obama administration has become too close to the Silicon Valley juggernaut.
Over the past seven years, Google has created a remarkable partnership with the Obama White House, providing expertise, services, advice, and personnel for vital government projects.
Precisely how much influence this buys Google isn’t always clear. But consider that over in the European Union, Google is now facing two major antitrust charges for abusing its dominance in mobile operating systems and search. By contrast, in the U.S., a strong case to sanction Google was quashed by a presidentially appointed commission.
It’s a relationship that bears watching. “Americans know surprisingly little about what Google wants and gets from our government,” said Anne Weismann, executive director of Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit watchdog organization. Seeking to change that, Weismann’s group is spearheading a data transparency project about Google’s interactions in Washington.
The Intercept teamed up with Campaign for Accountability to present two revealing data sets from that forthcoming project: one on the number of White House meetings attended by Google representatives, and the second on the revolving door between Google and the government.
As the interactive charts accompanying this article show, Google representatives attended White House meetings more than once a week, on average, from the beginning of Obama’s presidency through October 2015. Nearly 250 people have shuttled from government service to Google employment or vice versa over the course of his administration.
Photo: Paul Morigi/Getty Images
No other public company approaches this degree of intimacy with government. According to an analysis of White House data, the Google lobbyist with the most White House visits, Johanna Shelton, visited 128 times, far more often than lead representatives of the other top-lobbying companies — and more than twice as often, for instance, as Microsoft’s Fred Humphries or Comcast’s David Cohen. (The accompanying chart reflects 94 Shelton visits; it excludes large gatherings such as state dinners and White House tours.)
The information, Weismann said, “will help the public learn more about the company’s influence on our government, our policies, and our lives.”
Asked to respond, Google spokesperson Riva Litman referred The Intercept to a blog post written when the Wall Street Journal raised similar questions a year ago. In that post, Google said the meetings covered a host of topics, including patent reform, STEM education, internet censorship, cloud computing, trade and investment, and smart contact lenses. The company also claimed to have counted similar numbers of visits to the White House by Microsoft and Comcast — but it did not explain its methodology for parsing the data.
Google’s dramatic rise as a lobbying force has not gone unnoticed. The company paid almost no attention to the Washington influence game prior to 2007, but ramped up steeply thereafter. It spent $16.7 million in lobbying in 2015, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and has been at or near the top of public companies in lobbying expenses since 2012.
But direct expenditures on lobbying represent only one part of the larger influence-peddling game. Google’s lobbying strategy also includes throwing lavish D.C. parties; making grants to trade groups, advocacy organizations, and think tanks; offering free services and training to campaigns, congressional offices, and journalists; and using academics as validators for the company’s public policy positions. Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, was an enthusiastic supporter of both of Obama’s presidential campaigns and has been a major Democratic donor.
For its part, the Obama administration — attempting to project a brand of innovative, post-partisan problem-solving of issues that have bedeviled government for decades — has welcomed and even come to depend upon its association with one of America’s largest tech companies.
Google doesn’t just lobby the White House for favors, but collaborates with officials, effectively serving as a sort of corporate extension of government operations in the digital era.
In just the past few years, Google has provided diplomatic assistance to the administration through expanding internet access in Cuba; collaborated with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to bring Google Fiber into public housing; used Google resources to monitor droughts in real time; and even captured 360-degree views of White House interiors.
But perhaps most salient here is the fact that modern life requires so much information technology support that a sprawling operation like the White House has turned to tech companies — often in the form of ex-Google employees — when faced with pressing IT needs.
Practically every part of the government makes available some form of technology, whether it’s the public-facing website for a federal agency, a digital mechanism for people to access benefits, or a new communications tool for espionage or war.
Somebody has to build and manage those projects, and Silicon Valley firms have the expertise needed to do that. White House officials have publicly asked Silicon Valley for aid in stopping terrorists from recruiting via social media, securing the internet of things, thwarting cyberattacks, modernizing the Defense Department, and generally updating all their technology. We can reasonably expect yet more things are being asked for behind closed doors.
Photo: Philips Communications/Flickr
The disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov in October 2013 is the most obvious example. Within weeks of the site going live, Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, his top deputy Nicole Wong (a former Google deputy general counsel), and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough held meetings with Google personnel.
In Time magazine, Steven Brill detailed one of those meetings, between Park and Gabriel Burt, the chief technology officer at Eric Schmidt’s Civis Analytics. Civis was already working on Obamacare as a vendor for Enroll America, a nonprofit tasked with getting people subscribed on the insurance exchanges. Civis used reams of data to target communities with high levels of uninsured Americans so Enroll America could contact them. But now the site where they were supposed to sign up wasn’t working. So the White House turned to Civis for help with that as well.
Eventually, Mikey Dickerson, a site-reliability engineer with Google who previously worked on the Obama campaign, got hired to fix the site. Burt and Dickerson worked together to “form a rescue squad” for HealthCare.gov, according to Time. And most of the recruits came from Google. Later, Dickerson led the U.S. Digital Service, a new agency whose mission was to fix other technology problems in the federal government. Ex-Google staffers were prevalent there as well. Dickerson attended nine White House meetings with Google personnel while working for the government between 2013 and 2014.
Meetings between Google and the White House, viewed in this context, sometimes function like calls to the IT Help Desk. Only instead of working for the same company, the government is supposed to be regulating Google as a private business, not continually asking it for favors.
Much of this collaboration could be considered public-minded — it’s hard to argue with the idea that the government should seek outside technical help when it requires it. And there’s no evidence of a quid pro quo. But this arrangement doesn’t have to result in outright corruption to be troubling.
The obvious question that arises is: Can government do its job with respect to regulating Google in the public interest if it owes the company such a debt of gratitude?
Google doesn’t think its activities present an antitrust problem. It doesn’t feel constrained from holding incredible amounts of data. But should Google be in a position to make that determination itself? How much influence is too much influence?
Another potential conflict arises from the enormous amount of data that Google and the government each have stored on American citizens. Google recently acknowledged having mined the data of student users of its education apps, and has been accused repeatedly of violating user privacy in other contexts. An overly close partnership risks Google putting its data in the government’s hands or gaining access to what the government has collected.
When the federal government and a private company share the same worldview, get the same insights from the same groups of people, the policy drift can occur with nobody explicitly choosing the direction. It just seems like the right thing to do.
And there is no doubt that Google’s rise in Washington has coincided with public policy that is friendlier to the company.
Most notably, Google has faced questions for years about exercising its market power to squash rivals, infringing on its users’ privacy rights, favoring its own business affiliates in search results, and using patent law to create barriers to competition. Even Republican senators like Orrin Hatch have called out Google for its practices.
In 2012, staff at the Federal Trade Commission recommended filing antitrust charges after determining that Google was engaging in anti-competitive tactics and abusing its monopoly. A staff report that was later leaked said Google’s conduct “has resulted — and will result — in real harm to consumers and to innovation in the online search and advertising markets.”
The Wall Street Journal noted that Google’s White House visits increased right around that time. And in 2013, the presidentially appointed commissioners of the FTC overrode their staff, voting unanimously not to file any charges.
Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said the administration “has been a huge help” to Google both by protecting it from attempts to limit its market power and by blocking privacy legislation. “Google has been able to thwart regulatory scrutiny in terms of anti-competitive practices, and has played a key role in ensuring that the United States doesn’t protect at all the privacy of its citizens and its consumers,” Chester said.
At a congressional hearing earlier this month, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, citing the possibility of consumer harm, called on the FTC to reconsider the kind of antitrust charges against Google recently filed in Europe.
But Obama has argued that European regulators are being too aggressive toward Google out of a desire to protect companies that aren’t as capable. “In defense of Google and Facebook, sometimes the European response here is more commercially driven than anything else,” he told Re/code in February. “We have owned the internet. Our companies have created it, expanded it, perfected it, in ways they can’t compete.”
On the left, you will find the names of White House officials who met with Google staff; on the right, the names of Google staff who met with White House officials. Hover over their names to see their titles and the number of meetings they attended. Hover over each meeting to find out who else was present. Source: Campaign for Accountability; Data Visualization: Accurat.it
The accompanying visualization documents White House meetings involving employees from Google, Eric Schmidt’s investment vehicle Tomorrow Ventures, and Civis Analytics, a company whose sole investor is Schmidt.
Between January 2009 and October 2015, Google staffers gathered at the White House on 427 separate occasions. All told, 182 White House employees and 169 Google employees attended the meetings, with participation from almost every domestic policy and national security player in the West Wing.
The frequency of the meetings has increased practically every year, from 32 in 2009 to 97 in 2014. In the first 10 months of 2015, which is as far as the study goes, there were 85 Google meetings.
The most frequent visitor is Johanna Shelton, one of Google’s top lobbyists in Washington — officially its director of public policy. Shelton attended meetings at the White House on 94 different occasions.
The most Google-visited White House official is Todd Park, the U.S. chief technology officer from 2012 to 2014. In that short period, Park met with Google officials at the White House 22 times. Park’s replacement, current Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, was a former Google vice president. She had five White House meetings as a Google representative, then 10 Google meetings as a White House representative.
The comprehensiveness of Google’s outreach jumps out from the data. You would expect some contact between Google and top technology policymakers like Park, Smith, Aneesh Chopra, Susan Crawford, and Vivek Kundra. But Google’s presence as an economic force and a communications tool gives the company an interest in virtually every aspect of public policy.
Since 2009, Google has met with all three of Obama’s directors of the National Economic Council (Larry Summers, Gene Sperling, and Jeffrey Zients), one chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (Austan Goolsbee), and another official who would become CEA chair (Jason Furman, who was then deputy director of the NEC).
Company employees met with four Obama chiefs of staff (Rahm Emanuel, William Daley, Jack Lew, and Denis McDonough). Google also huddled with national security personnel like Michael McFaul (then at the NSC, later U.S. ambassador to Russia) and Tony Blinken (deputy national security adviser). Employees met with Heather Zichal, deputy assistant for energy and climate change, and White House science adviser John Holdren. They met with close counselors to the president like Pete Rouse, Valerie Jarrett, John Podesta, and Dan Pfeiffer. They met with then-communications director Jennifer Palmieri. And they met with the president of the United States 21 separate times — five times in the first term and 16 times in the first two-plus years of the second term. Even Jill Biden and Michelle Obama have taken meetings with Google employees.
The visitor logs only show the individuals in attendance at the meetings, not what the meetings were about. But it’s possible to make some educated guesses. The presence of Johanna Shelton at 94 meetings suggests that a significant chunk were devoted to lobbying on various Google priorities. But there are hundreds of other meetings in the logs that point to more of a consulting role.
Each line represents an individual’s move between Google and U.S. government agencies, congressional staff, or federal-level political campaigns. You can filter by direction to see only transfers from or to Google; by sub-organization; and by year. To reset the graphic, click anywhere that’s not highlighted. Source: Campaign for Accountability; Data Visualization: Accurat.it
The “revolving door” data, displayed in the above visualization, reveals 55 cases of individuals moving from positions at Google into the federal government, and 197 individuals moving from positions inside the government to jobs at Google. The data includes positions at firms that Eric Schmidt owns or controls — Civis Analytics, The Groundwork, and Tomorrow Ventures — along with two law firms and three lobbying firms that have represented Google. On the government side, staffers at Obama for America and a handful of other political campaigns were included.
The data includes individuals from Google appointed to government boards while maintaining their positions at the tech firm. Google board member John Doerr was appointed to the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in February 2011. Eric Schmidt has been part of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology since 2009. He was also more recently appointed to lead the Defense Innovation Advisory Board at the Pentagon, which occurred outside the time frame of the data.
But the bulk of the moves involved job changes. Google alums work in the departments of State, Defense, Commerce, Education, Justice, and Veterans Affairs. One works at the Federal Reserve, another at the U.S. Agency for International Development. The highest number — 29 — moved from Google into the White House. The State Department had the next highest with just five. The moves from Google to government got more frequent in the later Obama years; 11 occurred in 2014 and 16 in 2015, after only 18 in the entire first term.
On the other side, former staffers from 36 different areas across the government have found a willing employer at Google since 2009. Johanna Shelton was a senior counsel on the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications Subcommittee. Joshua Wright, a former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, rotated into a top position at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, one of the law firms that has represented Google.
Nineteen researchers and scientists at NASA, senior analysts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an “information assurance expert” at the National Security Agency, and 32 separate officials with the Obama for America campaign found their way to Google.
Former employees of 12 of the 15 cabinet agencies (Energy, Justice, Defense, Education, State, Treasury, Commerce, Agriculture, Labor, HHS, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs) now work at the tech company or its affiliates, led by 16 former Pentagon staffers. The exodus ramped up in the second term, hitting 41 in 2014, compared to just six in 2009.
Seven individuals made a full revolution through the revolving door, either going from Google to government and back again, or from government to Google and back again. This includes Julia Duncan, who left her job as White House personnel officer to go work in Google’s finance department in 2013, and a year later moved to the State Department’s Office of Food Security.
Nathan Parker, a staff software engineer at Google, did a stint in the U.S. Digital Service for four months before returning to Google HQ in Mountain View. Austin Lau was a planner and tech lead for Google India, then became a foreign service officer at the State Department before returning to Google to work on social impact partnerships.
A few individuals are listed twice: The aforementioned Mikey Dickerson moved from Google to the Obama campaign, back to Google, and then to the U.S. Digital Service, for example.
Illustration by The Intercept. Photo: Shutterstock
The government and Google shared engineers, lawyers, scientists, communications specialists, executives, and even board members. Google has achieved a kind of vertical integration with the government: a true public-private partnership.
Ex-Google staffers may not be directly involved in setting policy that affects Google, but they have access to decision-makers. They maintain ties to their former bosses. And Google employees with government experience have a network of friends and colleagues at federal agencies, House and Senate offices, the West Wing, and practically everywhere else.
Methodology:
The chart depicting White House visits is based on meetings between White House officials and employees of Google or companies controlled by Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google’s parent company, since President Obama took office in 2009 through October 2015. The data has been compiled from White House visitor records.
Large gatherings, such as state dinners and White House tours were excluded. Names were cross-referenced with lists of Google employees.
The jobs visualization was compiled from publicly available information including LinkedIn profiles, news sources, lobby disclosure records, and OpenSecrets.org data. Analysts gathered data by searching for profiles mentioning Google and terms related to government jobs. The data includes any job changes that occurred during Obama’s presidency, as well as moves from Obama’s campaign to Google in 2008.
If Big Business runs America, and Google ARE Big Business, then… OMG!
There are quite a few unpleasant words that might define this ongoing scenario. It probably would not be that difficult for Google to step in and just become the government, after all, they really don’t do much anymore but spend all of our wealth on making more wealth for the few and war on the many! Something I am sure Google could continue to do just as well as our already corrupt government. Hmm, what do they call that? Fascism isn’t it?
I’m not a naive guy. I’m a retired lobbyist and former presidential adviser. So, yeah, revolving door. But this strikes me as highly unusual. I’m not aware of any corporation that enjoyed this cozy a relationship with the White House. The number of Google employees who now serve in the Administration — and vice-versa — is off the charts. It really is quite extraordinary and more than a bit disturbing.
One corporation or another doesn’t matter, lobbyists are scumbags. Calling the kettle black.
Great article; you’ll see there is no spam link. Just; genuinely great article.
Greetings TI’ers:
This may be OT, but I think the articles about Erdogan have been archived by now. Haven’t checked out the article about Bacevich, so I’ll post this here as this thread is still active and some may find this of interest:
Turkey is detaining a Dutch journalist for criticizing Erdogan:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/24/dutch-journalist-ebru-umar-arrested-in-turkey-for-criticising-erdogan
What is not mentioned in the article is how Google has been able – since it’s beginning – to make money from creatives without permission or compensation. The majority of the content on You Tube is uploaded by third parties, against the wills and without compensation to the creators. Each stream is monetized though almost none of that makes its ways to the creators. Google has exploited a Safe Harbor provision of the 1998 copyright law and uses it for a matter it was never intended. At the same time they could prevent any unwanted uploads with their own Content ID software but choose not to for profit reasons. The end result is not only that video and audio artists lose money on what You Tube streams without their consent, but they are also unable to collect for their work else where since You Tube has already established the going rate for their work at $0. Artists can attempt to follow Google’s 47 step process (including accepting threats from Google they could be attacked legally) but the reality is that is futile since nothing stops another or a thousand more people of uploading that same work. Artists have tried numerous times to have this law changed but all the Google backed government elected leaders squash every attempt.
Excellent point. By extension, let’s not forget about Google Books and the rampant violation of copyright law inherent in scanning, without permission from authors or publishers, so-called ‘orphan’ books.
This involves back-room deals with major institutions like private universities, whose affiliates, students, and faculty are then let into the Books program for free while the rest of the world pays for access.
This is a truly excellent point, and illustrates the corrupt nature of the relationship between Google and the US government. Any other company that tried to get away with this would face prosecution, and the law would be changed immediately if it was preventing prosecution and preventing the protection of artists intellectual property rights.
This is what the true definition of Fascism is. Fascism is a Marxist economic system where the government ALLOWS business to operate, but under strict government control. Google is a willing Fascist participant. Google is willing to aid this Marxist government in the enslavement of the people.
The type of Fascism we have now is where the government operates under the strict control of the right wing elite and their corporations, working to fulfil their agenda of greed and selfishness.Google participates to aid mass surveillance, through enabling tracking and data collection. It also assists in helping to deliver the Digital economy, and to provide platforms for disruptive technologies which will further the profits of the elite at the expense of mass technological unemployment. This dystopia society has been created by the right wing elites, and is their establishment, it does not relate to Marxism orr resemble true Socialism. Socialism delivers fairness, and greater equality, and improved lives for everyone. Far right Fascism delivers inequality, oppression, militarization, racism and Islam phobia, creating fear and insecurity in communities. This is what we have today.
We are moving into George Orwell’s 1984 world. This is being led by the Left. I think the Left are the Socialist, Communist, and Liberals.
I recall back in the 1960’s, Communist used to boast of taking over America from within. The first step was to infiltrate America’s Education system. That has happened, in my opinion. Now almost all the Mass Media are graduates of those Professors, and Universities.
Most those are intellectuals. Peple who see themselves as much more intelligent than the average American. They want there idea to reign over all. The problem with those people is pride. They never admit their mistakes. Never apologize, and never take responsibility. Just use those mistake to reach out for more control.
Too bad the people are so easy to deceive. Most intellectuals are masters with words. They can spin and twist words so much almost any honest American can be convinced of their goals. But most their words are lies.
If I can control what you see and hear, I can control what you think. I believe that is the mantra of the Left.
All this is leading to One World Monetary System, and One World Government. Just like the Bible Prophesied.
Less government is good government. Letting the people decide issues is the best system. But more and more there is secrecy about everything. More and more decisions are made, for the majority, by a few powerful people. That is not the government our founders established.
Do you really think that things would be different if there was a Republican president? Google has given as least as much financial support to Republicans as Democrats. Did Google have any less power during the Bush years? Google was started by our military and has been a part of it since day 0. Believe me, the number of lefties that fear and despise Google are at least as many as those on the right.
Actually Walt, Google and FACEBOOK have been two if the biggest donors only to the Democratic Party. Their data, migrated to the Obama digital platform in 2012 empowered his re-election. Their expertise and their top digital engineers put at the disposal of the Obama campaign. They have developed the ability of “digital gerrymandering” and the Republicans are ten years behind ten years ago.
You are already in George Orwell’s 1984 World, dystopia. It is not the left wing that have led you there though. The World of corporatised and militarised governments, with their oppressive and intrusive mass surveillance technologies has been the creation of the elite, who are overwhelmingly right wing, and often far right, almost fascist in belief and behaviour. You do nothVe a left wing political party in the US, as both the Democrats and Republicans are corporatised, and both work within the same corrupted political system that is rife with corporate lobbying. Both political parties have a long record of only working for the agenda of the elite and their powerful corporations to deliver their agenda. The far right wing has deliberately targeted, disrupted and intervened to overthrow many democratically elected left wing governments and leaders, and does not respect democracy unless they the right wing are in power. They have used imperialism, aggressive military foreign policy, secretive trade agreements, and their technology companies to gain control of new territories. The right wing uses their control of the media and their intrusive mass surveillance technologies for oppression and control – they hate any form of dissent, and have a consistent record of persecuting activists, and journalists, whistleblowers that reveal their crimes, and dirty secrets. They have engaged in dirty wars of profit, ensuring that governments policies benefit their arms company sales. They have colluded with government to create secretive unfair trade agreements that benefit their powerful corporations which ride rough shod over other nations sovereign laws and environmentle legislation. So whilst you are correct in saying that what we now have is a 1984 style World, it is the right wing elite and their corporatised, militarised governments that have created this.
I am Khazarian aware, and have an intimate knowledge of the Protocols. I see and understand the fifth-column’s machinations. I know what they mean to do, and why. And so I am not confused, nor in fear, but prepared.
The only confusion and fear that I maintain is for my unknowing, and unprepared countrymen.
An American citizen, not US subject.
The Declaration of Independence forbids the desertion of the interests of any an all American individuals. The lack of consideration of the DOI in supreme court decision and congressional votes is a violation of American Independence.
We need a criminal statute for that violation.
You are the first person, in my readings of comments, that has actually stated that there is a difference between an American and a United States citizen.
Since most are unable to understand this difference, they are also unable to state our problem correctly.
This is news? Since Obama in 2008 and maybe earlier Google News never links to articles negative to Democrats! Only those links berating Republicans! You all are just catching on? Thanks to entertainment distractions the public is ill informed and apathetic which allows cronyism to the nth degree!
And thanks to Trump the public and press are more knowledgable regarding the discombobulation of the political process such as the confusing complex of obfuscating rules! Well everyone should know these rules – which ones I ask – oh yeah sure – well it has always been this way – the foundation of political office entrenchment!
Look up Agenda 21, that’s what the Oligarchs have planned for us, and it reeks of Huxley’s Brave New World. As far as all the ‘great things’ that come w/technology – they won’t mean a thing if we don’t have freedom or free will; and generally just take away from enjoyment of small things, or real things like nature, or cooking a meal using actual individual ingredients and a stove or fire!
Trump seems like the only one to trust, the fact that the uber rich and their paid for apparatchicks in DC (e.g. Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnel) try to undermine him at every step is a good sign, plus he’s a nationalist and wants to stop our being sold out by TPP & NAFTA and has not been bought by those that only want more power, more control and ever more wealth, which is why they hate him. Trump is rich but he’s street and relates better to the middle class and will not cave into pressure for cheap foreign labor by the google, facebook, apple, or anyone else apparently! Both the left and the neocons, and their uber rich friends in high places, want to both replace independent thinking americans with easier to control, less threatening third world migrants AND get ever more wealthy by offshoring our remaining productive jobs to third world countries, the latest being Vietnam, Malaysia and Japan (via TPP).
Hillary Clinton is big on controlling “hate speech” and wants to reverse the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC?. Clinton saying it should be reversed “once and for all, even if it takes a constitutional amendment.” I don’t want Hillary deciding what “hate speech” is and who should be arrested for it.
The New World Order and their associated Brave New World control over the unwashed masses STINKS but it’s clearly their long term plan.
AT&T obviously did not have enough campaign contributions to make it work for them.
This just in – Silicon Valley today is what Wall Street was in the ’90s. A denizen of the elite and privileged. They’ve ruined the business – but they sure do look great! So sick. Obama is a perfect companion for these jackwads. Been in the biz long enough to watch it all change. So sick.
It will be History making when the Jail doors shut on Obama’s Prison Uniform. No other President has gone out and tried to screw this Nation & the true tax payer like Obama. Once Obama’s true background comes out you will be sick to your stomach to think he held the top Jon in this Nation.
Well, I’m not sure you need all the charts.
The simple fact for years is that Google has been in bed with the CIA.
It’s a great front organization, and of course so much of its work – eg, maps – is of great value to CIA.
there is friendly relationship, where 2 bodies coexist separately. There is symbiotic, where one cannot exist without the other, thrive together and where we are now,. There is parasitic, where one organism begins to feed off the other and when the host is fully depleted and dead, the other moves on. What do you do when two parasites, like bacteria divy up the host as some bacteria actually do respecting each others space, while feeding on their host, in this case, the public?
Google and and the US government have been swapping spit , literally exchanging their DNA , via revolving doors, to the point, where both cannot survive without access to every cell in the body..every user and non user..where both parasites have become indistinguishable..including their rational for continuity. It costs to be the Boss, and while the feeding trough is half full or half empty the appetite for the world resources has more than doubled..and so will their appetite to direct themselves to wars to secure these resources. Essential to this amoeba is the suppression of resistance and opinions that would inhibit its growth. It doesnt like competition global or local, it wants total and absolute loyalty and cooperation..They become the torch bearers for what is wright wrong or moral..and the arbitrators of who is and who isn’t. Which for those disconnected and unmesmerized by the toys and gadgets, are a threat, much the same way savers saving for rainy days and not spending are a threat to the very financial and weapons making institutions working in synergy with them. Debt is good..Self sufficiency and free thinking bad.
For the POTUS and Google the infection is good and a healthy thing. Its an American thing he says..its our thing . In otherwords..its no less Italian than the Cosa Nostra..
Only their enforcers have a badge and a gun..and their Capos like Google, facebook, twitter ..do what they can to keep the family business in business by keep their eyes on us … sharing our homes with them without asking..they are the uninvited guest..who staid too long and has worn out its welcome..and we are too polite..to say clearly without excuse and equivocating…..Get Out..
It’s more than a middlin chance and sure sign we are infected..
You can bet the bottom line is that Google helping the Progressive/Socialist party win elections.
It’s far more likely that Google would be helping the Far Reich to win elections as the overwhelming majority of corporatised governments are right wing and strangely seem to implement policies which deliver the agendas of the right wing elite establishment, and their corporations.
I went down the list and one name missing and who has been at the WH numerous times is none other than Al Shaprton
The U.S. of Everything Is Rigged, Illegal (or pending).
You neglected to mention Julian Assange’s experience, documented in his book “When Google Met Wikileaks.” While under house arrest a few years ago, Assange tried to “go through the front door” and contact Secretary Clinton by telephone. He was put on hold by increasingly senior members of the State Department. But then, 20 minutes later, Google called him back. Now that’s influence.
NOTHING to see here, folks…nothing. Move along, move along now.
I said MOVE ALONG RIGHT NOW!
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html
Your article mentions Google funding “advocacy organizations”:
“Google’s lobbying strategy also includes throwing lavish D.C. parties; making grants to trade groups, advocacy organizations, and think tanks”
But the Washington Post article you link to, only mentions “Google fellows”, no specific names:
“Google “fellows” — young lawyers, writers and thinkers paid by the company — populate elite think tanks such as the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the New America Foundation.”
Would be useful to have names in order to relate the advocacy and think pieces that regularly appear on the websites of New America and Cato Institute, to specific “Google fellows”.
whats wrong with limiting government?
Obama needs a job in a year – now his aspirations for a techno-monarchy are realized through Google’s total reading of our user information. Petty scary things afoot in the global legislation of the sheeple. You were told that you were the nation of the free! But they don’t think that you would actually act on it!
How many of the complaints against Google are thinly veiled attempts at hobbling competition by Microsoft, Oracle, AT&T and other shady corporations?
The noose of technocratic oligarchy continues to tighten around the collective throats of mankind.
What’s the problem? So, advances in the Internet of Things are percolating to the top of government. This is the dream of the ages. What’s wrong with smart refrigerators saving electricity, government offices being efficient, even to the extent of pulling many diverse strands of government management into what are now called ‘smart cities,’ where electrical grids, water supplies and street traffic, among other things, can be monitored by technicians––some of whom may have been former Google employees, so what––bent over screens in the mayor’s office? At the Washington level, what’s wrong with Google’s helping Obamacare enroll more people into private, multiple payer insurance plans?
Most important, mayors and governors and presidents will now be able to keep in touch with the people themselves, as well as well as their things. What’s wrong with a smooth blending of society with technology and service providers, both public and private, to keep a nation happy and efficient? This is one way, and perhaps the only practical way, that all of us will ever be able to gain access to the top––by allowing the technicians to gain total access to us. Cooperation is a two-way street.
Forget the scare talk about “Brave New World” and “1984.” Cooperate with the bright minds of efficiency. This is how humankind will surpass its own brain power. And, remember, if it ain’t broke, don’t regulate it.
What’s wrong with TheInternet of Things ? do you really want everyday objects in your home, car and workplace monitoring you, collecting data, so that theBig Brothergovernment and intelligence agencies can record and track your every movement, your behaviour, your preferences, your relationships? Do you really want a World where you have absolutely no privacy ?
I don’t understand your use of the future tense in this matter.
No need for you to understand or look at the future, why not look at how technology is being misused today? Currently many workers are threatened with technological unemployment. Disruptive technologies are combining to wipe out over 29 percent of all jobs within the next five years. The reality to be faced is that smart machines, we self service, robots, delivery drones, driverless vehicles, 3D printing, robotics and artificial intelligence are all going to cause as technological unemployment. Who will gain from this, the elite and corporations, that will benefit from reduced labour and premises costs, whilst gaining from greater efficiency and productivity. Who will lose – workers, including many administrative, production, sales and customer services roles. Drivers, manufacturing staff, hospitality and retail, fast food staff jobs will all be threatened.
Currently without requiring a crystal all technology is also being used for mass surveillance and to spy on citizens all over theWorld including foreign political leaders. Technology is threatening privacy, and being used to threaten activists, political opponents, whistleblowers and journalists sources. technology is being used for industrial espionage and to disrupt democratically elected governments that are not suited to the global corporate agenda.
Hope this helps you to get your head round it ?
Use the technology or don’t use it.
If you do use it, then understand what it is capable of and mitigate it. It is as simple as putting electrical tape over the camera on your laptop to disabling the microphone driver… Just being a lame consumer and acting all surprised that you are carrying a portable recording device with you wherever you go is weak.
Grow up and take responsibility for yourself, it would do us all a lot more service than just complaining about the changes that are happening around us.
Its yourself that clearly lacks understanding of the nature of the pervasive, mass surveillance technologies of today. There is no option for anyone in today’s work place to opt out of using the Internet, and Smartphone technologies. The government and their intelligence agencies have gained back door access into applications and software, and they are hoovering up data from social media, and from links with the fibre trunking from ISPs. Even if an individual could stop using modern technology then this would not slow down or prevent the massive threat of technological unemployment which is coming . Disruptive technologies including 3D printing, smart machines, artificial intelligence, drone deliveries, driverless vehicles, and customer service software bots and robotics are all coming together.
I take full responsibility for myself but it seems that governments and their technology partners are not acting responsibly to ensure respect of private, and to ensure that technology is used in a good way to benefit everyone.
Your comments are immature, and to be Frank with you show a complete lack of knowledge, so I suggest that you grow up and get a better education.
I also have every right to raise my concerns and make complaints if the “changes that are happening around us” are destroying privacy and threatening livelihoods, and when technology is being used for mass surveillance, and to suppress freedom of speech. Who is the “us” that I would do “a lot more service” by remaining silent for. Please do tell me which large body of people you represent and have gained the consensus to speak for ?
You kiss the Google backside, but they are long standing bed partners of the CIA. You sleep with dogs you get fleas, or worse risk hiv.
Come on Gary, I’m still waiting for your reply. Or perhaps you have done me a favour ,and stuck the electrical tape you were so keen to mention, over your big ,uneducated and ignorant rude mouth?
Thanks to Silicon Valley our information technology beats that of all other nations. Think of them as another arm of the military, where we cannot afford to slip to second place. The more we support corporations like Google, the more they can support our country. But to maintain our lead in the information field, we must give technicians a free hand at practicing their trade. The beauty of massive domestic surveillance is that, while it does not disrupt the lives of our people who have nothing to hide, it provides a training ground for novice technicians and maintains at the ready an abundance of expert, supervisory IT specialists, should we ever need them in a real pinch.
“Arguing you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden
@perpetualWAR –
I LOVE that quote :-)
“The beauty of massive domestic surveillance is that, while it does not disrupt the lives of our people who have nothing to hide, it provides a training ground for novice technicians and maintains at the ready an abundance of expert, supervisory IT specialists, should we ever need them in a real pinch.”
Wait till some novice technician needs a training ground and uses you as a subject ‘in a pinch’.
Okay if you think that mass surveillance technology does not disrupt or harm the lives of people with nothing to hide then take Glenn Greenwald up on the offer he said that he makes to people that claim this :-
Provide Glenn with all the passwords to all of your email accounts, social media accounts and any dating sites you may use. Let him have access to your smartphone texts and instant messages, your Skype account, online medical, and banking transaction records. Then give him your permission to publish everything about you. This is exactly what our governments and their security agencies are collecting with their dragnet technologies today on each and every one of us. It represents an abuse of power, and is an oppressive Orwellian afront to privacy and freedom of speech.
“Nothin’ to see here folks. Move along”
No issues with a powerful corporation deeply embedded in a particular political party. As Buffet once mentioned, look at barriers to entry as buying opportunities. Govt, esp. the democrat party, favors Google. This is by definition cronyism, of course. FWIW, during the Nazi era, IGFarben was their Google.
If I want a baby sitter, I’ll hire one.
Otherwise, stay out of my business.
This article covers a lot of ground. Some of my impressions are as follows:
The US government likes to do business with large corporations for a variety of reasons. For one thing the US government prints the world’s reserve currency. So, for them, money is no object. They can afford to buy whatever they want. Large corporations like to do business with the US government for the same reason. Does this mutual attraction lock out smaller companies and ordinary citizens? Yes, obviously it does.
Also, Google has never annoyed me as much as Microsoft has. In other words, Google may be evil but they hide it well. Which brings us to the crux of the matter. Google is currently the best technology/business company currently extant in America and likely the world (sorry Intel). So basically, Google is succeeding mainly because other companies are failing i.e. they are idiots.
For example, my cable company ISP offers a free email service which is so horrible compared to GMail that I don’t even bother to use it. They could upgrade it and make it secure, but they don’t. They could also offer a VPN service, but they don’t. They are just leaving easy money on the table. Meanwhile, they keep trying to sell me products I don’t want ( like more vacuous TV programming ). Google would probably never make these kinds of idiotic mistakes.
So, because Google is smarter than other corporations, it is replacing them at the “commanding heights” of the economy.
It’s all about evolution Morpheous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxKYfTvZFb8
“Google may be evil but they hide it well”. My sister is getting raped, but my eyes are closed and I can’t hear it so no big deal right? Probably the most obtuse statement I have read in a while.
Id hate to break it to you but, Google is not smarter than every other company. Do you know how Google has become so big? A.) Lobbying, and if you don’t think having the ear of legislators and the president is a HUGE advantage then you’re even more of a moron than I thought. B.) ” Google is succeeding because other companies are failing”. Wrong again Jr. It’s actually the exact OPPOSITE. Do you think YouTube was failing company before Google bought it for $1,650,000,000? Do you think Google would buy it for that much if they did think it was? That’s just one of the 180+ of those stupid little guys that Google has acquired. I suggest you look them up, and see who was bought/taken over and what purpose they ended up serving to Google.
Yes, by having the best internet search engine in the world. Also, when their stock price is up, they use it to buy strategic assets. In other words the money pouring into Google has to go somewhere, like satellites and Google Maps, YouTube etc. Growth by acquisition is a legitimate business strategy and a lot of tech startups have the goal of getting acquired by a major corporation as a strategy.
Google’s search engine is still probably the best one out there, although I use DuckDuckGo for privacy reasons. Microsoft’s Bing by comparison can’t even properly search Microsoft, I need Google half the time just to get Microsoft products working. The value Google Search adds to the economy is enormous.
Google has invested in hardware and software across the board. And as far as YouTube goes , I use it daily instead of television. Google probably is smarter than every other company of scale. It is managing the information infrastructure of the world. There are huge data centers engaged in massive searching and indexing and cross referencing across multiple languages and political boundaries. I don’t think you really grasp what that means.
Managing the worlds data puts Google in a privileged position. Politicians want in on that.
Democrats invented a mythical relationship with the Bush Administration and Haliburton during those years because of past dealings with the company prior to any of them moving into the Whitehouse. Even today if you say Bush/Cheney…Democrats will say, “Haliburton”.
Yet, here is but one example of how extensive the Obama regime works directly within the walls of the Whitehouse with a company to dominate a market plotting to take over others with government assistance. And, no cover-up…like there is with so many of Obama’s government agencies and personnel. Where is the outrage?
There is no objection from the same Democrats because it’s Democrats doing the deed. The mere accusation of a Republican doing such dealings would make their heads explode. Again.
Authoritarianism can be characterized as strong central power with legitimacy based on emotion, identifying the administration as a necessary evil to combat “easily recognizable societal problems” such as racism and social justice, the suppression of opposing views, and a broad, loosely defined executive power with vague legal authority.
This has nothing to do with Obama’s concern for telecommunications and everything to do with his retirement plan. I can’t want to see in 2 years the chart of how many $500,000 speeches Obama has made at Google. He has learned well from the Clinton’s.
I have switched my default search engine to duckduckgo.com . Sounds silly but I just don’t like Google tracking everything I think and read.
I seem to remember Obozo said he would eliminate lobbyist from Washington..
Come on solar flare!!!! This will end there scheme and wipe out the scourge on this planet using tech to lead the peeps to the culling fields. Better google something about how to grow food and print it out now.
Young people should just be less cynical, all these problems can be solved just as President Obama has told y’all.Just shut your eyes, wish upon a star, and the entire dystopian society he has created, full of fear of mass surveillance and over exaggerated terrorist threats will just go away. If you happen to be in Yemen or Afghanistan, at school or in a market then do not be cynical or frightened as the coalition is all heart, and you should see the bombing as a humanitarian mission.
Welcome. Not back to the future but Forward to the Past.
This is how the planet societies evolve when there is lots of educated people who won’t work with there hands, all the stuff is built, and robots take care of the rest.
Nothing to do. People to rule.
There once was a lawyer from america
Who couldnt do good to take care of a
Planet to feed
So many in need
He made himself leader and imprisoned them
But we’re free right
So Google was in on the catastrophe? Advertising is one thing but shouldn’t they have reached out to the largest merchandisers for help ‘selling’?
Even with the government mandating people buy insurance they are going broke. Great work, that. This article hints why, Google helped them find the uninsured, who probably want to stay uninsured. On the other end, folks who were already insured were not enthralled with amounted to a catastrophic plan for the cost of a high end policy, not the $2,500.00 savings Obama promised.
Republicans suggested government create a catastrophic insurance pool for those who were not able to get insurance for a number of reasons and keep the best medical system in the world in tack. They are being proven they had the right idea. Overtime government gets its’ hands into private commerce they just muddle it up and make it more expensive.
what are you think ing this is bad idear
I thought the owner of this rag had a revolving door at the white house – that fascist guy Pierre?
I think that your confusing The Intercept with Fox News. I would book yourself in for a dementia check up if I was you.
It does not please me to admit a slave owner, Jefferson, had so much foresight in his seeing the greatest threats to our Republic as kings, religion and monopolies. He is probably remarking to his fellow Founders wherever they were paced after death, for their sakes God better not ne black, that coverage and analysis relating to the danger and proliferation of monopoly in its many hidden states needs to be a major focus, which could inspire the current generation to take its part in both saving and fostering democracy.
It’s all about one word “Fascism”
I have little faith in any of them…..
This article portrays google as the initiator of this relationship, but no one can say no to the government. They can try get the best deal from the interaction for their company. This may not be in the best interest of our country or liberty. The best interest of our country is never served by this administration.
I wonder if it would be possible to get information on how many time Google employees have met with each candidate for POTUS, from both parties.
dullard-in-chief got paid!
Getting paid is why all leftists get into politics
Well, since Google was originally financed by the CIA, and Obama is their titular chief, so to speak, then he’s simply cutting through the hierarchy when he sees them, right?
Google’s whole business is built upon obtaining private information that it can then monetize by selling to others, most publicly advertisers. I would not be surprised if the Obama administration or the people who move from Google to the government or the other way are accessing and sharing the vast trove of private information kept by the government (information that is supposed to be kept confidential) with Google.
“When the federal government and a private company share the same worldview, get the same insights from the same groups of people, the policy drift can occur with nobody explicitly choosing the direction. It just seems like the right thing to do.”
Brilliant paragraph!
How come there’s no competition to Google since it was designed by just two guys, the same for facebook youtube and watsapp? I heard mega.co.nz i
@Adrian –
Did your post get truncated?
Anyway, I hear your point about lack of competition. I have a couple of blogs, both on Blogger which is a Google thing. I looked for some alternatives but haven’t really found a good one. I actually started one blog at WordPress, but got frustrated with some features there that seemed to be lacking in the free version ( I couldn’t seem to even change font SIZE!!!. But particularly if I had a problem It was increasingly and finally almost impossible to get any help. At least with blogger, I can get some help, although recently I’ve had to almost beg!
Another thing also made me wonder about leaving blogger… we had to have an EU cookie notice put on our blogs that would be only visible for EU blog readers. I wonder that if I had been on another service with my own web space, say, would I have even known I needed that notice? (and not having any free webspace now was another consideration in so far staying on blogger).
Now as far as searching, I’ve tried some of those search engines like duck duck go and startpage, but I didn’t find their results to be very good. I’ve also tried Yahoo, but they keep messing with the site and making it worse and worse to use.
Sigh. Yes, I wonder why there isn’t completion. And if anyone has any alternative I should consider, would love to know.
I suspect Google’s dominance is the result of a vastly superior search engine. There is an article about its network search and mapping algorithm in the October 215 issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, for those of you with a technical bent and access to that publication. Sorry, but RMP articles are not easily summarized. At the risk of violating the copyright, here is the article abstract:
“In the past decade modern societies have developed enormous communication and social networks. Their classification and information retrieval processing has become a formidable task for the society. Because of the rapid growth of the World Wide Web, and social and communication networks, new mathematical methods have been invented to characterize the properties of these networks in a more detailed and precise way. Various search engines extensively use such methods. It is highly important to develop new tools to classify and rank a massive amount of network information in a way that is adapted to internal network structures and characteristics. This review describes the Google matrix analysis of
directed complex networks demonstrating its efficiency using various examples including the World Wide Web, Wikipedia, software architectures, world trade, social and citation networks, brain neural networks, DNA sequences, and Ulam networks. The analytical and numerical matrix methods used in this analysis originate from the fields of Markov chains, quantum chaos, and random matrix theory.”
@24b4Jeff –
Thanks. Oh yes, I do think that search engine has/has had a lot to do with Google’s success. Obviously, as I have found duck duck go and startpage sorely lacking. And Yahoo —- the search is not too bad, but they mess with the site a lot and dealing with those search assist things can be a real pain – worse than Google in that respect for sure.
But there are other things, too. In my case the blogs. When I started my first blog with blogger it wasn’t yet an google entity. Now it is and although I’ve wanted to get away from google at least somewhat, I haven’t found good alternatives for that. The most attractive ones you’d have to either pay for or have your own web space, which I’d need to pay for. And I just can’t see shelling out the money for that at this point. So I feel stuck…
Maybe as a society we should be looking again at how we let these monopolies develop. And how we can avoid that. Would that Taft and TR were here to school us.
Here is an article about Google’s use of page rank algorythms.
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~chazelle/courses/BIB/pagerank.htm
@Fred –
Thanks —– now if I can only make use of some of those recommendations :-)
This explains why the negative Obama information disappeared from searches.
So solving the insults to our worlds leaders should not really be a problem. maybe erdogan should just notify google and a few other sites. Then the NSA can “pre-determine” insults on the fly and prevent insulting posts from transitting the net. Then of course there is the “INSULT BEGONE” software that web hosts can use to filter out problem submits.
Of course when the prison system needs more slave labor, the optional criminal charges can be activated.
nice planet.
Great visualization, but where’s the there there?!
The Intercept hasn’t provided anything (anything) beyond correlation. And that’s been done before. A year ago, there were reports on the very frequent meetings between Google and Obama admin people.
Moreover, other organizations have donated more money. And there is a huge body of scholarly research on lobbying, donations, and influence.
The Intercept could do better than this if it were less concerned with appearance and more interested in depth of analysis.
perhaps the Obama Doctrine of Transparency was not clear enough so as to have a transparent meaning or, things are so transparent as to be invisible.
Who is “D. Teresa ?”
Given that Google is a progressive leftist company (you can tell because of their impossibly hypocritical nature of claiming to “not be evil” while simultaneously developing militarized drones), I’m sure they’ll have no problem with being nationalized.
If they’re so cozy with government they might as well be government. At least then we can use FOIA requests to find out what they’re actually up to.
What…? Come on David, John, Margot and Andrea. You write this article as if none of you have ever read the “Art of War”. I don’t know what I find more concerning; this article or the comment section. We wonder how many times these fine people go out to walk around and wonder exactly WHO made decisions 30 or 50 years ago to determine their gas station locations and zoning regulations and school bus monopolies and phone booth locations on the street. There is no privacy….NONE……zip….zero….nada..! You think you have privacy..BUT….you don’t. Does Google have a close relationship? Sure…..but so does BOEING or GE or McDonald’s Farm or Grainger.
SO……you inform the readers here that Google’s rep had a lot of meetings with the White House…how are your readers supposed to use this info to MAKE MONEY off of it..? Google and the Intercept is making money off of people reading the article..SO….just how are your readers to turn the table to enjoy their “apple pie”..?
Intercept…you are better than the NYT aren’t you..? Your readers deserve it.
Yeah, but Barak’s relationship is for nefarious reasons! Or has he earned your trust? Because as far as I am concerned any true law abiding hard working AMERICAN would find him to be the most despicable, racist, corrupt, scumbag LIAR we have ever had the misfortune of having as POTUS!
#BarakHatesAmerica
Personally I’d give that award to Ronald Reagan followed by GW Bush. O is 3rd.
Anyone who is tired of cronyism in this country should realize that, if we allow 1 single, feckless, irresponsible career politician to remain in office, even just 1, we will NEVER reduce the scourge of crony capitalism. We voters have the power to stop this, if only we all recognized it and took the appropriate action: RE-ELECT NO ONE! Even if you have to vote for someone in the opposing party, hold your breath and do it. Send every INCUMBENT home and start over. It certainly can’t get much worse if we elect opposing party senators and representatives; ALL career politicians are in bed together, spending money endlessly, allowing hordes of illegals into the country, and allowing cronyism to fester and grow everywhere. If we don’t act, we have only ourselves to blame.
Downright scary. It’s bad enough that congress, agencies and the president are proxies for corporations outside the government. Now they have relocated their offices. The lack of outrage in the UCA can only mean one thing, the population is in full boated victim mode and given up on personal power and ownership. Hence Sanders and Trump.
American has a new name, just hasn’t bothered to change the seals yet – the United Corporations of America.
swell.
You have hit the nail on the head. We truly are “One nation, under surveillance”. Technology bites and bites hard. Internet needed to stay outside of public reach, while the BBS’s went on, under the radar.
one nation under surveillance…
how accurate!
BBS’s…. interesting you would mention that (cough building 7)
@Barabbas –
First: “United Corporations of America” —- you got that right!
Second, you really have some good thoughts but I must take you to task just a little bit. I hate seeing the nutjob billionaire’s name mentioned in the same breath as the Senator’s. He may not have held elective office, but I can’t buy that he’s some “outsider” — he’s a billionaire and I’m pretty sure he got that way by being PART of the system, not outside it. And I think that anyone who feels he might be FOR the common people is sadly mistaken. I think he’s only for himself and the 1%ers deep down.
Not to mention the fact that he’s basically against pretty much everything I stand for: ya know, things like diversity, unity, respect for women, civil liberties, not beating other human beings up. I find it extremely concerning that anyone would support that despicable narcissist.
@feline16
Donald Trump is an outsider. Believe me.
Donald Trump does not hide his money from taxes, overseas and he does not oppose unions. At least that is his record.
The media want dems to be harsh against DT so the repubs can keep their fear game on the u.s.
I know of DT. He doesnt hate anyone. My choice goes Bernie, Donald, Hillary, none.
Both Bernie and Donald oppose wallstreet domination. Hillary does not. The biggest problem America has is the currency system which demands even fraudulent growth (inflation) and a pawnshop styled currency issuance system.
Feline, the u.s. currency wallstreet fed monopoly is a complete fraud and i can prove it. Having a female president is a welcome thing but Hillary has not convinced me of her break from wallstreet or the conjob they ran on America to rob everyone. This has to do with the future of all generations.
Thank you for responding and your honesty.
much love.
@barabbas –
Appreciate your response. I understand that we should be leery of anyone with close ties to Wall St., etc. That makes sense. But I just can’t believe that nutjob isn’t “connected somehow. And I’ve heard very much about his vindictive business dealings. This narcissist and the mentality that is swirling around his campaign really do concern me very much. You say he doesn’t hate anyone, but why has his campaign been called the most racist since G. Wallace (not me, but the head of Cato Institute said something like that)?
As I said downthread, I’ll just keep to myself any candidate I favor except to say I abhor that -so called candidate (his name is even anathema to me…)
Well, love back at you — and maybe we’d all better pray for this country (and world). We need help so much!
Hey guys am new here, pls can somebody welcome me?
take a hike
@Abia…
Sorry for truncating you screen name but I’m a terrible typist.
Welcome and post away!
Gooble the Goebels of the Obama/Dem party
If lobbying (bribing) elected officials were to become a felony, except for formal hearings for information purposes, our country would thrive on the free-market principles.
Obama has a girl friend…..?
First thing I wondered when I saw the Sheldon factoid. “128 times…lemme find out Obama’s gettin laid on the side…”
Well now we know the real reason (P|FL)OTUS will release a joint statement post-2nd-term about wanting “to go on with our separate lives”, “respect for our privacy at this trying time”, and “no comparison between this and that one girl with the dress and the internship”.
Sometimes it seems almost as if Google is really an extension of the government. They are certainly serving the purposes of the gov in terms of surveillance, data collection, etc. The fact Google was able to operate for years without running ads or taking in any income is remarkable. Palo Alto has become spook city, with Palantir taking over its retail space http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/12/the-cia-backed-start-up-thats-taking-over-palo-alto.html
It is much deeper than that. Google is a major player in the Global Corporate Oligarchy that runs all of the goverments of the world. Obama is just a useful idiot that is bought and paid for (same as Congress) and is being used to implement the Oligarchy’s plan of a one world government (open borders with no sovereignty is being played out here and in Europe and is only the beginning). It is already here, really, as well as the global centeral banking system which is in place. Google (no pun intended) Global Corporate Oligarchy to find out more.
Haven’t they ever heard of the good one…..APPLE?
Now we know why the elite and big corps are scared of Trump..the good old times will come to an abrupt end.
@Marty –
As I said to Barabbas upthread; I don’t think TBTB have a thing to worry about; he’s been part of the system —– how do you think he got to be some billionaire anyway.
Please don’t get fooled that this nutjob will be good for anyone. He’d be a danger to the country and the entire planet.
And Hillary won’t????
Warmonger in Chief
@perpetualWAR –
While I’m keeping my own counsel as to any candidate I might favor, what you say underscores why I’ve gotten more and more cynical regarding our politics of late. It’s all too much controlled by big corporations, the 1%ers, TPTB, what-have-you. Real concern for citizens is just all too rare. And as many would probably point out, a politician such as that would have a huge job even trying to get elected.
Yeah, we need someone to lead us to better policies. Will we get one?
And yes, I still hold in total disdain that dangerous, narcissistic nutjob. As I said before, he’s basically totally opposite from everything I stand for.
i listen to all you have to say and with earnest and concern.
i do know things others do not know.
i was an executive.
i am more leary of Hillary than Donald.
thank you for voicing out. much appreciated.
@barrabbas –
Always enjoy hearing from you as well. I guess I can point out again that it is such a shame we’re not getting better leaders. I know we’ve had some real losers in the past (one I can think of is W. Wilson — racist and male chauvinist). And I’ve lived through Nixon and Reagan. But I have never been so concerned about our country and the world as I am now. One thing that really gives me the most pause is the divisive attitudes around – both here in the U. S. and also in Europe. How can human beings treat the refugees, fellow human beings, so callously, for example? And don’t get me started on things like civil liberties and privacy…
IMO, I’d like to see leaders BRING US TOGETHER. I keep hoping and praying that somehow we can get it together.
I really wish old people still fussing about browser cookies would go write about something more relevant.
This is why Google supports trade deals, because the right to privacy idiocy that is allowing criminals to get search results erased.
Oh gee, what a rude post on so many levels.
But maybe you’ll see the light when some of YOUR data, your PRIVATE data gets used against you. And yes it is happening.
BTW in case you missed it, wasn’t there something about GCHQ surveillance being mostly on subjects NOT related to national security?
GET A CLUE!!!
Should be renamed the house that Obama sold!!
Had our elected politicians diplomatically escorted corporate lobbyists from their offices in the beginning, this country would be in a whole lot better shape. See “Our Enemy, the State”, by Albert Jay Nock.
Google know that Obama is for sale. He’s a Chicago politician. Lies, bribes, corruption, payoffs, quashed investigations, lost or destroyed evidence, perjury, obfuscation….
….all these flow through Obama’s veins where humans have blood. Huge corporations buy off these corrupt, lowlife scumbags all the time & Barry is a gigantically corrupt lowlife scumbag.
Well said.
“telecommunications giants who used to have a near-stranglehold on tech policy were furious. ” Obama actually did something good? wow!
Looks like a replay of how Microsoft got out of many of its antitrust difficulties in 2000-2001 by extensively lobbying the Clinton and Bush administrations:
“Simply stated, the EC finds that the company abused its dominant position, in part by contracts compelling Android licensees to preload Google apps and related services, including search. Microsoft ran into similar bundling headaches starting in the late 1990s with respect to Windows. Responding today, Kent Walker, Google general counsel, claims that licensees and consumers can choose to install third-party apps. Microsoft made like-claims during its antitrust defense here and in Europe; they fell flat.”
The European view from Margarethe Vestager, Competition Commissioner:
“‘Its strategy to protect and strengthen its dominance in general Internet search has two main elements: First, the practices mean that Google Search is pre-installed and set as the default, or exclusive, search service on most Android devices sold in Europe. Second, the practices close off ways for rival search engines to access the market, via competing mobile browsers and operating systems.”
Pretty standard monopoly-seeking behavior:
http://betanews.com/2016/04/20/deja-vu-googles-antitrust-offenses-are-like-microsofts-and-the-defense-too/
Google’s search engine does work pretty well, but any monopoly is dangerous – just look at corporate media in the U.S. That’s a bigger monopolistic threat, by far – so why is there never a mention of the need for antitrust legislation to break up media conglomerates?
A “Media Holding Company Act” that would require the sell-off of all media outlets is a good idea; the model is the “Public Utility Holding Company Act” that FDR passed in 1935, and Bush repealed in 2005. We’d be far better off if all the newspapers, radio stations and TV stations were independently owned and operated.
That is not why Microsoft had trouble and it is not why Google is having trouble.
The only monopolistic thing they do is telling phone makers that they cannot make other phones is they want access to the play store.
However it is unclear if this is enforced, but it is obviously not a legal requirement.
Microsoft did similar things to prevent PC makers from shipping computers with non Windows operating systems.
You should be upset that Microsoft requires secure boot capable BIOS on computers and they holds the default keys. So any PC maker that doesn’t add the ability to add your own certificate has locked you into Microsoft.
The case for antitrust against Google is certainly a good deal weaker than the case for antitrust against TimeWarner, Disney, NewsCorp, Tribune, etc.
So, run Linux. Pick one of the MULTITUDES of distros. Run way faster, out of virus way.
All BIOS is boot capable you moron – read a book and stop posing
One more part to consider in this is that Android is open source. Anyone can take the code and make whatever they want with it, and sell it market it however they’d like. If they want to create their own services for Android then they are welcome to do that. The name Android is trademarked and those makes using the code, without using google apps, need to call the OS by another name; such as Cyanogen or Replicant etc. Microsoft forbid OEM’s from selling machines without Windows by eliminating discounts for the OEM if they decided to sell a Linux computer.
Again, anyone can use Android without Google Apps without paying a cent in Licensing fee’s if they want to. Calling it Android or using Google services requires no money, but is withheld from their system. Currently those who use Cyanogen mod can easily download the Google Apps, and Google has not stopped this or made them incompatible.
At least we know Malia and Sasha will have good jobs at Google when they’re old enough. Maybe I should say Malia and Sasha will be getting nice paychecks from Google when they’re old enough. I didn’t mean to imply there would be any “work” performed.
thanks for the article!
Is this the same w.H. that whines about too much corporate influence in politics. They might hate Citizens United but they sure can take the expertise and manpower unlimited DIRECTLY from a corporation like Google.
They don’t need actual money to influence regulatory agencies and government watchdogs. Just direct meetings with the Administration that controls the agencies. No wonder E. U. is watching this mega corporation with a suspicious eye. They seem to be some type of shadow unelected government agency that even Congress can’t investigate.
Wonder if Obama loving Mother Jones Mag is even aware of this confluence of corporate power and government?
Well you know Google is nothing more than a CIA off shoot.
Really great work lots of detail – solid reporting.
Hardly anything to be said really There is a US led empire which would be called fascist in 20th century terms. Now, I guess there is some other name but it’s like Shakespeare’s rose, no?
The Empire has Apple, Google, FB and a long list of unaccountable transnational corporations – and don’t forget those unruly Saudi kings – as part of the Empire.
In addition to this powerful combination they control all the AI now coming on stream so will become even more orders of magnitude more powerful than the hoi polli.
Dystopia is right now today for 2/3rds of the human population unable to access clean water on a regular basis or even have a private place to relieve themselves. That dystopia is only going to spread to 80 then 90% of the human population not washed away are starved already by climate change.
We can hope that maybe the Empire will collapse from within but let’s be clear – there is no opposing force anywhere near as strong, brutal, and ruthless as is the Empire.
Let’s not forget Hollywood and the entertainment mega-corporations.
sick totalitarians
Total money corruption – wait till Hillary gets in. She will own the company.
It’s unexpected to me that a person reporting on the relationship between Google and the U.S. government, and who ostensibly believes concerns about data mining and profiling of users/people have a contact e-mail with a gmail domain.
Of course since all internet traffic is tapped at the backbone level by the three-letter agencies in the U.S., I can’t say that a different provider would make any real difference against such a threat vector.
Still..
“What they want” is pretty crystal clear. Trillions of $ to be made off climate change. While Bernie and Hillary draw everyone’s attentions to Wall Street corruption… they’re up to their eyes in Sand Hill Road carbon corruption. The picture becomes loud and clear when you also analyze the trifecta of Kleiner Perkins/Google, Brookings Institution and the Obama Admin.
This article covers the last 7.5 years well, but the rabbit hole goes much deeper… https://infamy.org #SiliconJihad
Happy Earth Day!
I appreciate the good journalism that was displayed here. Thank you for all your hard work and for raising important questions.
Google, FB, now 23 and Me are quasi Govt. agencies collecting ALL the free data people put out on the net about them selves and the Govt. does NOT need to get a warrant to get all this info on YOU.
Ain’t Utopia grand! Next stop… Fascism…
And this begs the questions what else the Obama Admin. gains from Google? Control of information to the masses…
It’s sad to see the Obama administration roll over for GOOG. While I recognize that there’s much good that’s come out of the company, they have shown a callous disregard for the needs of the writers, musician and artists. They see their work as something to be leeched upon. They sell ads against the work of the artists but they share nothing with the artists. Nothing has disempowered and empoverished the artists more than GOOG.
Waa waa waa
Musicians, artists and writers.
Oh brother. What a dilemma.
The risk and problems that can come from this sort of thing are a lot more substantial than supporting artists.
All I can say is — great f*cking work, guys. Thank you.
Yes Google most certainly needs to be broken up. I think the spike in lobbying has mostly to do with Google’s realization that they need to keep a close relationship with the government in order to avoid being targeted for anti trust.
Though I’d much rather see Amazon broken up first, but that’s just my preference.
It feels good to treat the symptoms.
Perhaps one day we’ll reduce the scope and power of the federal govt.
The left does not want a smaller or less powerful government. They want a larger and more benevolent government and don’t realize or accept that the more government does for you, the more coercive and intrusive it necessarily becomes. The left wants it to be more powerful to accomplish the left’s goals.
Secretive mass surveillance justified by the far reich as necessary so your people loving government can take care of you better, and do more for you. Hmmm yeah right, good luck trying to sell that one Virginia. I believe you, and I’m equally sure I might see Santa, and the tooth fairy one day !
It makes me feel a little nostalgic for the days when only the financial firms comingled so readily with the government. But Big Data is overtaking finance as the engine of the economy – eventually all retail and service businesses, including finance, will be driven by Big Data. Manufacturing, like agriculture, will become insignificant in terms of the overall GDP. So it is only natural that Big Data will run the government.
The new government will operate much more efficiently and therefore be able to assist a greater number of people. Big Data will be able to project an almost infinite number of scenarios into their analytical models and make choices for each individual. This will lead to the best outcome – not necessarily for the individual, but for society as a whole, as represented by Big Data. Americans need only ask what they can do for their country, and Google will provide the answer.
I don’t mean any insult by using the term ‘Google’. Alphabet is, of course, a much better name for a company that will control everything, from A to Z. ‘G’ for government is only a small part of their plans.
By the way, very well researched article – did Google provide assistance?
>”– did Google provide assistance?”
Don’t be silly, benitoe, of course they did. Human knowledge may be free, but access to it is only a Google away.
It makes me feel a little stupid for the days when I had no idea how start-up Google was going to make money on a ‘search engine’. Seriously, I thought Google was providing a free service out of the goodness of their hearts.
Now I know.
*Nowadays, unless I’m searching for a specific technical detail (e.g. a high output fuck-rod assembly), all I get from esoteric inquiries is multi-linked Advertisements from Google’s search engine … if I’m lucky there is a ‘wikipedia’ link on the first page of ‘results’, so I just click that.
Wikipedia has far more targeted editing by PR firms than Google does; the only exceptions are the more obscure scientific and historical pages that no corporation or government cares about. See this, for example:
““And then there’s Wikipedia, astroturf’s dream come true. Billed as the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, the reality can’t be more different. Anonymous wikipedia editors control and co-opt pages on behalf of special interests – they forbid and reverse edits that go against their agenda. They skew and delete information in blatant violation of Wikipedia’s own established policies with impunity, always superior to the poor schleps who actually believe anyone can edit wikipedia, only to discover they’re barred from correcting even the simplest factual inaccuracies.” – Sharyl Attkisson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYAQ-ZZtEU
That’s entirely correct – for example, I’ve tried to edit the wikipedia Afghanistan TAPI pipeline page to include information about the State Department’s role in promoting the pipeline from Condi Rice to Hillary Clinton to John Kerry – it always gets deleted fairly quickly. In contrast, a constructed Google search such as this gets 5000 hits:
“John Kerry” OR “Hillary Clinton” OR “Condoleeza Rice” OR “Condi Rice” state department “trans-afghanistan” pipeline
Limit that search by including site:wikipedia.org and you get 6 very general results, and their TAPI pipeline page isn’t one of them.
Wikipedia has become something of a joke, just as social media has. The big PR firms have taken to the Internet in a big way. Any corporation or government can hire them to camp out on wikipedia pages, social media, comment threads, etc.
“Americans need only ask what they can do for their country, and Google will provide the answer.”
————
So, Google is unable to provide an answer to the question: “What can their country do for them?”, right?
Here is an article that explains how search engines can be used to sway voting:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2015/10/could-search-engines-be-used-to.html
Combine the “perception management” capabilities of Google & Facebook to control voter “opinion” and the 2016 Election will not need any Ohio/Florida “magic counters”.
Dick Nixon must be salivating enough to put out the fires of Hell when he sees the tools available to Hillary now.
For example, here’s a tool that politicians and corporations use to keep their wiki pages on-message:
“Wikipedia Monitoring”
Wikipedia is a wonderful open-source community. That means anyone can edit any Wikipedia page. While most edits are done in good faith to improve the encyclopedia by dedicated volunteers, others edits can be malicious and can hurt you or your company. We offer a monitoring service that allows our team to vet edits to your page in real time to ensure that every edit accurate and benefits Wikipedia.”
That’s from one of the many available for-pay online wikipedia editing sites. Call now for a free quote. . .