around the web

more on the great reset (so-called) and fourth industrial revolution (so-called)

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• Wrong Kind of Green examines the "social dilemma," not so much the Netflix movie (probably best avoided) but the way Big Social aims to turn the planet into a micromanaged, globalist, resource-extracting hell, using "humane technology" propaganda as cover. (Much as King Leopold of Belgium milked the Congo under the banner of humanitarianism.)

• The mighty Zuck worries that low population growth in the US dooms his company, which requires a steady supply of suckers being born, so he's turned his dead, pasty face towards Africa, which promises a baby explosion in the years ahead.

• It's hard to beat these people. While you are having your morning coffee, enjoying life, they are up and about, thinking of new ways to exploit you. Hitler was like that, too, but somehow Gates, Bezos, and Zuckerberg get a pass. Tessa Fights Robots summarizes Wrong Kind of Green's arguments nicely. She shades into Covid paranoia, but the pandemic has turned about to be a better, more pressing emergency than global warming, for purposes of advancing the techno-kleptocratic agenda, so it doesn't hurt to be a bit skeptical.

around the web

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• Just because the Covid truthers are wrong about this being a manufactured crisis, doesn't mean evil technocrats aren't waiting in the wings, hoping it will provide a technological "reset" that benefits the largest and most vile corporate actors. Wrong Kind of Green analyzes the writings of one Klaus Schwab, head of the Davos-based World Economic Forum, who is bubbling over with creepy hopes and prognostications for a globalist, transhumanist, privacy-invading future, existing mainly for the purpose of enhancing profits (or what Schwab calls "value") for the One Percent. Know your enemy -- this is him.

• A Hofstra professor retired and had time to look more critically at what major media outlets were saying about Russia, Syria, Venezuela, "election interference," etc and discovered it was all a pack of lies. Now his friends don't want to talk to him.

• Comedian Jimmy Dore has fun with the Jeffrey Toobin whackoff story, lampooning a report from a local LA newscaster who tries to normalize Toobin's bizarre behavior. Since it's a CNN commenter doing it, it must be something that could happen to any of us, right? The LA newscaster actually says "There but for the grace of God go I." [YouTube]

ads on my vimeo pages - ugh

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Note: this post was originally titled "Amazon Fire puts ads on my Vimeo pages." It took me several emails to Vimeo customer service to determine that Vimeo is actually the source of the ads. See Update 2 below.

amazon_fire_ad_on_vimeo_page

Pardon the bad photo but this was eyebrow-raising. I've been using an Amazon Fire tablet (given to me as a gift) in order to test the responsiveness of my page layouts on a mobile device.*
I popped over to my Vimeo account and discovered obnoxious ads on pages with my "art" videos. I thought with a Vimeo Plus account ($7 a month) this wasn't supposed to be happening. I've gotten conflicting responses from Vimeo customer support. Kaitlin F. says that, yes, "...we do have limited display advertising below the player on some vimeo.com pages. As a Plus member, you won’t see display ads when you’re logged in to your account. However, Basic members and logged-out viewers will see display ads on your page." I asked how long they'd been doing this and got a reply from Bri W.:

Vimeo never displays ads on any part of our platform. It sounds as though you are visiting your video page via the web browser within Amazon Fire, which is the most likely source of the ad placement.

A friend has suggested that Amazon has some backdoor deal with Vimeo, where Vimeo allows them a certain amount of screen real estate, which Amazon uses to send me targeted ads on my Fire tablet. This way both entities have plausible deniability as to who is serving me ads.

Is it possible for the Fire to inject ads on pages of companies they don't have a licensing arrangement with? Anyone familiar with the dark arts of web development and marketing, please drop me a line if you know.

I find this all pretty disgusting.

*i.e., pages of this blahg are supposed to change size and shape depending on what type of screen they're viewed on

Update: Customer support person "Rachel" continues the straight talk:

I can confirm that Kaitlin's previous message is correct, and there is a slight misunderstanding with our last email to you. We do have limited display advertising on Vimeo, however as a Plus member, when you are logged in viewing your own videos or any other videos, you won't see display ads on your page.

Our last message meant to explain that we don't display any third party ads within the Vimeo platform.

If a viewer is on a Basic membership or are logged out, they will see display ads from Vimeo on your page. If you are looking to remove the Vimeo ads on your video page for viewers, our Pro membership offers this.

My increasingly frustrated reply:

Please see the attached photo. (It's an ad for "sidestage.com" placed within my list of personal videos.)

Is this a "display ad"? Is it being served by Vimeo?

I don't understand the distinction you are making between a "display ad" and a "third party ad."

Isn't the ad for sidestage.com both a display ad and a third party ad?

In either case I don't like seeing it and don't think I should have to pay more to get rid of it.

I'll ask my original question -- when did you start doing this? I've never seen ads before on my pages.

Update 2: More straight talk from Customer Support person "Jess":

I think the confusion lies more with the distinction between a Vimeo page and the Vimeo Platform.

We never display advertising of any type on videos in our player (within the Vimeo platform), however as we mentioned Basic members may see display ads on a Vimeo page.

OK, It's pretty clear that Vimeo shows ads to anyone who isn't a member, unless a member, who doesn't want his audience to see ads, pays more than I'm currently paying. This has nothing to do with Amazon. Vimeo doesn't like to admit they're doing this, hence all the bafflegab about "the distinction between a Vimeo page and the Vimeo Platform." Staff claims that serving ads is not a recent practice but they "don't have an exact date of when this started."

around the web (election edition)

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Left-leaning commentator Benjamin Studebaker makes the case against Biden in the general.

Along similar lines, Chris Hedges' rant from 2016 on Democracy Now! is airtight (then and now). [YT - starts at 1:37] Jimmy Dore cuts it off after his speech so I don't know if Amy Goodman replied. She was later a Russiagate scammer so am guessing she was flabbergasted by so much unvarnished truth pouring out of one person's mouth.

James Howard Kunstler is so mad about the Russiagate scams and Democratic incompetence (such as engineering the nomination of a right-wing near-vegetable), he's actually going to vote Trump. JHK's to my right on race and immigration issues but he writes as a lifelong Democrat fed up with the mendacity.

Economics prof Michael Hudson explains how debt jubilees worked in ancient societies (pre-Roman Empire) and why something like that would help to get us out of our present mess.