I'm still pondering this bad news from a few days ago: Before the war, Russia had demanded that Google take down an app that allowed Russians to voice criticism of the Russian government. Google being Google — same as any other giant corporation — they took down the free-speech app, and made no public announcement.

Reliably, predictably, giant corporations will do the wrong thing, when doing the wrong thing is profitable. Maybe, arguably, they had to do what the Russian government instructed, but they didn't have to keep quiet about it, and they didn't have to do business in Russia in the first place.

These are profit-based decisions. Morality had nothing to do with it, and that ought to be illegal.

If corporations are allowed to exist at all, there should be a "good corporate citizenship" requirement. And it ought to be absolute.

When a corporation is shown to have done something repugnant to common decency, for a first offense the CEO should be arrested and charged. For a second offense, arrest and charge the entire Board of Directors. For a third offense, nationalize the company.

Illegal corporate behavior would include all sorts of things — pollution without funding reparations, clearly racist or sexist hiring, union-busting, pricing designed to drive competition under, or simply selling a product known to be shitty. Google's behavior in Russia — quiet cooperation with abhorrent government edicts — clearly qualifies, so arrest Sundar Pichai.

Just a pipe dream, sure. Getting "good corporate citizenship" through Congress, where almost everyone's funded by bad corporate citizenship, would be impossible.

It's still my best idea all week, though. Whether that makes it a good idea, well, you tell me.

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One room of this apartment is now completely empty and swept. Alert the media. Other rooms are getting emptier.

Loading the car and driving away is beginning to look... feasible.

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And now, news and amusements, from my internet history for yesterday…

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CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach interrogators torture techniques

A detainee at a secret CIA detention site in Afghanistan was used as a living prop to teach trainee interrogators, who lined up to take turns at knocking his head against a plywood wall, leaving him with brain damage, according to a US government report.

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World leaders ignore 'bleakest warning yet' on impacts of climate breakdown

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China shuts down city of 17.5m people in bid to halt COVID outbreak

Shenzhen is perhaps the nexus of cheap Chinese manufacturing, and a lockdown there could severely impact the world's easy supply of supply chain interruptions.

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• Russian state-TV employee speaks truth on live news broadcast

• Times when Putin tried to shake someone's hand

• Leaked Kremlin memo to Russian media: It is "essential" to feature Tucker Carlson

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Ginni Thomas, wife of Clarence Thomas, attended rally preceding Capitol attack

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Russian mogul is charged with donating illegally to U.S. campaigns

The prosecutors said the donations by the businessman, Andrey Muraviev, 47, were at the heart of an illegal campaign finance scheme conducted in the months before the 2018 midterm elections that also involved two Soviet-born businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, and two other co-defendants.
Mr. Parnas and Mr. Fruman were allies of Rudolph W. Giuliani, former President Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, and assisted Mr. Giuliani in his efforts to undermine Joseph R. Biden Jr. when he was a leading Democratic presidential candidate.

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"This is akin to a hostile takeover"

State officials ask residents of a small, predominantly Black town near the site of new Ford investment to forfeit their city charter or face takeover.

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Wisconsin lawsuit accuses 3 GOP congressmen of insurrection

The lawsuit, alleging a violation of the "Disqualification Clause" of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, says Johnson and U.S. Reps. Tom Tiffany and Scott Fitzgerald conspired to undermine President Joe Biden’s victory and sow public distrust of the outcome.

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The New York Times’ casually racist, arrogant chauvinism in two paragraphs

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Disney (sort of) apologizes for not standing up against Don’t Say Gay bill

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Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) signs law eliminating requirement for conceal carry permits

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Expressing unlikeable views often makes you unlikeable. That’s not censorship, it’s life.

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The totally dodgy backstory of the bank that just refinanced Trump Tower

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Capital One, Cox Enterprises, Exelon join the ranks of Sedition Caucus donors

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Google "hijacked millions of customers and orders" from restaurants, lawsuit says

Google uses "bait-and-switch" tactics to get customers to place takeout or pickup orders through "new, unauthorized, and deceptively branded webpages," according to the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Left Field Holdings, a restaurant company that runs Lime Fresh Mexican Grill franchises. On those pages, customers are prompted with large buttons to order with food delivery companies like GrubHub, DoorDash, or Seamless.

"Google never bothered to obtain permission from the restaurants to sell their products online," the lawsuit says. "Google purposefully designed its websites to appear to the user to be offered, sponsored, and approved by the restaurant, when they are not — a tactic, no doubt, employed by Google to increase orders and clicks."

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Who knew wastewater treatment, making sewage and poop water into something you can drink or swim in, could be so interesting?

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"I want to see God":

The man who fell through San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid

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"The Dentist,"

by Rose Amy Fyleman

I'd like to be a dentist with a plate upon the door

And a little bubbling fountain in the middle of the floor;

With lots of tiny bottles all arranged in coloured rows

And a page-boy with a line of silver buttons down his clothes.

I'd love to polish up the things and put them every day

Inside the darling chests of drawers all tidily away;

And every Sunday afternoon when nobody was there

I should go riding up and down upon the velvet chair.

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David Mamet files batshit amicus brief in Texas content moderation appeal

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One-word newscast, because it's the same news every time...

• cops

• cops

• cops

• QAnonsense

• QAnonsense

• Republicans

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Mystery links — Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:

—①—

—②—

—③—

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♫♬ Sing along with Doug ♫

"That Kind of Girl" — Mary Lou Lord

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The Dead

• Dan Graham

• ʇɹnH ɯɐᴉʅʅᴉϺ

• Conrad Janis

• Tony Walton

3/15/2022
Tip 'o the hat to All Hat No Cattle, Linden Arden, ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Captain Hampockets, CaptCreate's Log, John the Basket, LiarTownUSA, Meme City, National Zero, Ran Prieur, Voenix Rising, and anyone else whose work I've stolen without saying thanks.
Extra special thanks to Becky Jo, Name Withheld, Dave S., and always Stephanie...
Cranky Old Man