The Tyranny of Big Tech: The Sultans of Big Data and Human Liberty

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Josh Hawley, the Senator from Missouri, has fired a powerful salvo against the Mega Tech Corporations-- Google, Twitter, Amazon and FaceBook. The book is a broadside against the erosion of human rights and freedom as a consequence of Big Data and Big Mega Tech Corporations which collect and manipulate the data. Hawley wants all these corporations to be brought under the Anti Trust Laws, as they have become monopolies and as such contravene the Anti Trust Laws passed in the early decades of the last century.  He spends nearly half the book on the Robber Barons who were the virtual industrial aristocracy of USA as it was emerging as an important economic power. He argues that if the Steel and Railroad magnates could be stripped of their monopolistic hold, it stands to reason that these later day Corporations too should be brought under the ambit of the anti trust laws.

However, these Companies do not produce anything tangible. They enjoy huge profits without production. Economics cannot explain why FaceBook is today a multi billion dollar establishment. And it produces nothing. It sells nothing. And yet its profits are huge. Since these Corporations do not produce anything tangible bringing them under the anti trust laws may for that very reason be difficult. Some US states have begun steps to curtail the power and reach of these Sultans of Big Data. But these attempts are few and lack a central focus. Hawley has identified what he thinks is a chink in the armour: the lack of competition and the virtual monopolies these tech companies have acquired in their respective domains.

All these four tech companies have one feature in common: they acquire and store huge amounts of personal data about their users. FB for instance has a user base several times bigger than the population of more than half the countries of the planet put together, And Mark Zuckerberg is quoted as saying that the Corporation is "built to accomplish a social mission". It is precisely this messianic ideology of the Mega Tech Companies that makes them suspect. Unlike political parties that carry out their mission in public, these Big Tech Corporations are shrouded in a veil of secrecy. And the alliance with "Wokeism" makes companies like Twitter engage in political brinkmanship without any concern about public good or welfare. The huge capitalization of these tech giants protects them from public scrutiny and gives them unprecedented power over the political sphere. The fact that Donald Trump was deplatformed by Twitter is not surprising. What was remarkable was that they chose to wait till the results of the controversial elections were declared. Josh Hawley himself is at the cross hairs of the Big Tech Giants fr his role in rallying opposition to the declared victor in the November 2020 Presidential Elections. Twitter is at the moment engaged in a heated battle with the Government of India over its partisan role in what is now called the "tool kit controversy" in India. It is still too early to say who will blink--Twitter or Government of India. The point here is compliance with National Law. Do States have the ability to police these digital East India Companies. 

All these Mega Tech Corporations collect Data in the form of personal data, online transactions, communications, bank details, geo locational data  surveillance data etc. While much of the data stored is probably useless, the data points provide the basis for the prediction of behavior and it is here that the political reach of Big Data comes into play. In USA where 85 % of the population has smartphones and is online 24*7, Data stored when shared with political action groups can tilt the outcome of elections. It is certainly possible that the hostility towards Dona; Trump uniformly displayed by these tech giants played an important role in the Elections. 

Hawley is a conservative and hence he sees the danger of Constitutional Rights and Liberties eroded largely as a fall out of the hunger for Big Data. With statistical Data Mining Programmes it is possible to use the aggregate data for marketing political campaigns and consumer behaviour. The Algorithms are powerful enough to seize changes in behaviour. After the January 6th 2021 Protests the FBI was given access to the Data from Banks located in the bloocks around the Capitol and all those who visited Banks for purely banking transactions were now parsons for interest for the FBI.

Josh Hawley has written an important book. I have no doubt that just as it took a few voices in the wilderness to raise the anti Slavery Movement, the anti Big Tech Movement will also gather strength. What is at stake here is the future of Humankind.

George Floyd and the Death of American Democracy

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Police officer kneeling on his neck

USA is erupting in a race war that should show to the world the ugly face of American Liberlism. White liberalism has presented itself as a friend of the Blacks and has essentily hi jacked the Black Lives Matter Movement for serving its own decietful political agenda. This may sound strange, but the fact is that unlike the Ku Klaux Klan and the Southern Red Neck, who do not present themselves of friends of the Blacks, the white liberal is said to be  alet to discrimination, oppression and inequality, slogans that they deploy to deflect attention from any attempt at scrutinizing their record vis a vis the Blacks. In the Universities, the white liberals thunder to ther students about the "politics of race" "racial profiling" " white privilege" etc a rhetoric tht sometimes seduces the blacks to support the white liberal agenda: the Woke Agenda. And the same is replicated across the world. The support extended by these miserable white liberals to the agitations against a perfectly legal and democatic Citizenship Ammendment Act (CAA) passed by the Indian Parliament to extend the benefits of citizenship to the dispossessed minorities in the Islamic Republics in th neighbourhood of India also stems from the same perverted understanding of the moral centrality of the "white" race in negotiating the complex problems of the world today. A control over the acedemia and the Press has made woke liberalism thrive in the exalted ether of Post Colonialism. Now back to USA.

The American Police treats the Native Aerican and the Black Americans as the enemy or in woke lino, the "Other". Barack Hussein Obama made the situation worse for the African Americans by creating a huge industry of Prisons for Profits and by introducing madatory sentencing for non violent crimes such as drug dealing. A life imprisonment for being caught with 5 gms of drugs is unfair to say the least and that was the contribution of the dreamboy of the woke liberals, Obama. There are three basic problems within the African American community: lack of educational opportunities and skills, lack of positive role models and excessive state intusion in the lives of African American communities and the Police or th social welfare organs of the American state are the most egresious invaders of Back social and cultural space. Black mothers are routnely threatened to have their babies taken away for "neglect" and that too because she has to work to support the baby in the first place and most work spaces for low skilled jobs do not have creches or day care centres.

White liberals who are so eloquent about Inequality and are likely to have read a rave review of Thomas Pikketty have not said anything worthwhile on the Skilling of the African American youth. I remeber when I was a Ph D student at a well known American University I studied History and got my PhD in Medieval History way back in 1987) an African American gratudate student who went by the unfortunate name E Pluribus Unnum was repeatedly discouraged and humiliated until he exhausted his savings from doing a construction job in New York and then he faded away. The man responsible was one with an implacable liberal credentials. And I can say that when it comes to frothing at the mouth with liberal platitudes, there cannnot be anyone better than white liberals with their manifestos denouncing Inequality Racism Oppression and the like and they carry this toxic ideological cocktail into academic witngs in the name of post colonialism. All the while we must remember they are the poducts of white privilge and use that privilege to batten themselves at the expense of others,

There have been nearly 100 deaths this year alone of Black men who have been killed by policemen. Is their training at fault? We have no answer? Is the system of White Privilege so entrenched that the woke liberals cannot do anything maningful? I cannot udndertand how political leaders like Nancy Pelosi who has been so hyperactive against Donal Trump has done nothing for the under privileged in her own society. Even here after the killing of Geoge Floyd she was busy denouncing Trump who said quite categorigally tht rotest should not deenerate into Anarchy. Now the rioting that is taking place in New York, Washington, Richmond, Los Angles and scores of other cities is bringing a collapse of American society which is already been battered by COVID 19.

American Racism has two faces the ugly face of the KKK and the pretty face of the Woke Liberals and I feel I am safer with one whose malefesence I understand.

Deep State and Democracy: Something wrong in the way US Democracy is functioning

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

One of the fundamental attributes of a mature democracy is the civilian control over the Military and Intelligence Services. In USA, it is quite clear that President Donald Trump is the elected President. However, what is surprising is that within less than a month of his assumption of the Office of President, he is being dragged into a unholy mess in which the Media, the Academia and the Intelligence Community all seem to be working in tandem. His popularity or unpopularity is not the issue. The viciousness with which he is being attacked and the studies and co ordinated manner in which he is being undermined in less than a month in Office leads me to suspect that there is something more than mere political posturing.

Donald Trump is certainly an obnoxious man. But that does not disqualify him from holding an elected post. President Barack Obama, had poetry on his lips and blood on his hands and the American public was quite exited over him. Perhaps, the fact of being black and sophisticated had something to do with his popularity. Obama was ruthless in his pursuit of the American objectives or where they American objectives. He sustained the Sunni USA Alliance against Iran even though he made a fairly good deal to restrict Iran's nuclear ambitions. He created the ISIS and set it loose against the last progressive state in the Middle East, Syria and turned a blind eye to the atrocities against the Christian and other sectarian populations in Syria. His policy of undermining the fledgling Democracy in Egypt was sold to his subject population by demonising the Muslim Brotherhood and this organization is certainly less of a problem than ISIS. Obama came to India as a guest of the Prime Minister of India, and had the temerity to say some scathing things about Narendra Modi and his Government. Trump has not had the time even to put together his policy platform and all hell is breaking loose.

Russia is not at war with USA and so having conversations over any diplomatic or strategic issue with Russia is not a crime and certainly not any act of treason. Robert Flynn the National Security Advisor, The alleged involvement of Russia in the hacking of the Democratic Party Server is a ruse to create a cloud of illegitimacy over the election of Trump. In fact what the hacked emails of Podesta brought to light was the systematic rigging of the primaries against Bernie Sanders who if nominated would have defeated Donald Trump. Instead, foreign involvement in the political affairs of USA has become the war cry which is being used to hammer the Presidency of Trump. The American Media went along with the Bush Administration when he used it to create a cloud of suspicion over the Weapons of Mass Destruction allegedly held by Saddam Hussein. We in India were clear that it was a just a ploy. But the Deep State created such a miasma of war and terror over this issue that questioning the narrative from the White House and the theatrics of Colin Powell was considered un American and suspicious. Something similar is happening now. The Deep State is unhappy with Trump and is trying to create hurdles for him and his policies.

Trump has said that he would like to have Russian support in the war against ISIS and why is the Deep State afraid of this. It is now quite certain that ISIS cannot be defeated militarily. It has to be dealt with politically by forging an alliance of like minded countries. USA and its Deep State is willing to allow terrorism to flourish and American security threatened all over the world than to take the logical step toward stability. The ban against immigration from 7 countries is not a Muslim ban as there are 40 muslim countries and this policy was initiated by Barack Obama. Further, it was Barack Obama's policy of wanton and sustained bombing that led to the collapse of these countries. Trump rightly want this "American Carnage" to stop. Why is the Deep State not allowing the American Carnage to be checked if not totally halted.

There are wheels within wheels. One need not be a conspiracy advocate to connect the dots. Obams's record of ruthless and wanton bloodshed is not questioned at all and the cries for revoking the Nobel Peace Prize are still muted. Trump has incurred the hostility of the nebulous and faceless cluster of financial, strategic, academic and military interests whose face, at least in public is the elected President. Trup is the first American President who has confronted what Eisenhower had long feared, "the Military Industrial Complex". At this rate I suspect that he will not be allowed to complete his terms and physical removal is also a possibility as the Intelligence Community has gone rogue.

Clinton, Trump and the Circus of American Presidential Politics

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

The American elections are a phenomena well worth watching. Without being unduly judgemental one can say that the campaign is both entertaining as well as infuriating at times. Here we, in India are used to semi literate foul tongued politicians like Mani Shankar Ayer, Manish Tewai, Laloo Prasad Yadava, Nithesh Kumar, Katheria, Khejriwal and others. So the comparison can only be of degree and quality. The Congress breed of dynastic fascists have their own brand of invective to hurl against their opponents. The BJP retaliates by launching a tirade against corruption, "Italian Mafia" etc. So we are used to foul language, insensitive remarks and down right abuse. So what is so surprising that we should even write about the endless stream of abuse and insults spewing out in torrents from the mouths of the two important Presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.

The Presidential campaign started  with Mr Trump declaring to the world in general that "Crooked Hilary" is not to be trusted. He raised serious questions about her "ethics" as if ethics has ever been a factor in US politics. The immediate provocation for this rather large charge against Hilary is the ongoing FBI investigation into the use of a private server during the time she occupied, without honor or distinction, the office of the Secretary of State, as the Foreign Minister of US is often termed. Just before leaving office she deleted more than 30,000 emails stating that they were private in nature. Later it was disclosed that she raised more than 100 million dollars for the Clinton Foundation from donors in the Middle East even as she served as the Foreign Minister. Just imagine what would have happened if an Indian Minister had done the same. Salman , the Foreign Minister under the discredited UPA regime is still facing flak for the scandal over his Trust.

Hilary Clinton was not fazed. She breezed through the crisis and the American Media has been extremely kind to her by not raising any awkward question. I always marvel at the utter absence of an adversarial press in US. In India, Freedom of the Press is measure by the adversarial position it takes vis a vis the NDA Government. BJP bashing in general and Narendar Modi trolling in particular have become the bench marks of a free press here in India. Hilary Clinton was not questioned with the same passionate intensity with which Mr Donald Trump is question, over Trump University, for instance. Hilary Clinton thunders against the failed business projects of Trump but does not take any questions over the character, or better still, the lack of it in Mr Bill Clinton. The Monica Lewinsksy Scandal which almost brought the Presidency of BIll Clinton down making him the only President in over a century to be impeached is not brought out to embarrass Hilary Clinton. Imagine the same thing happening here. Impossible. Kumaraswamy, Deve Gowda's son still faces questions over his long term relationship with the starlet, Sandhya.

The two candidates revile each other in a manner that would make bazzar women, exemplars of perfect behaviour. Of  course, I do not mean any disrespect to bazzar women who are certainly better behaved than these two. Crooked Hilary has become the given name of Hilary Rodham Clinton and that has to be said with a vicious smirk. And Clinton cannot be out done: Trump will bankrupt USA like his casinos. The Press does not badger Hilary over her false statement made over the attack on the American Ambassador in Libya but hounds Mr Trump for his Tax Returns and he wards off the searching prying questions by saying that he is under audit, a statement that is at best half true. On the Orlando tragedy Trump has been quite honest even at the cost of political correctness. He has blamed Islamic terrorism for the attack, while Hilary taking her cue from Hussein Obama soft pedals the whole Islamic aspect of the tragedy. Trump has been consistently been saying that immigration from terrorism infested countries needs to be put on hold. And that is certainly a step that cannot be faulted and to make him sound like a dangerous demagogue for stating the obvious is certainly disingenuous.

The American elections are fun to watch. And certainly we hope that the Americans do not vote for another term in which the failed policies of Obama will continue.