Ibrahim Diallo was fired from his job by a machine algorithm that, once set in motion, no one in his company seemed to be able to override however high they were in the administrative structure.
The story of Mr Diallo’s sacking by machine began when his entry pass to the Los Angeles skyscraper where his office was based failed to work, forcing him to rely on the security guard to allow him entry.
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[UPDATE: If you want to get a\look at the deliberate callousness and cruelty of the government’s behavior, read this sad and infuriating account by a public defender assigned to the detained parents who have been separated from their children.]
It turns out that the government has not only been separating immigrant children from their parents, it may have been been drugging and otherwise abusing them up too, according to a news article based on a report by Reveal of the excellent Center for Investigative Reporting from court filings protesting the practices. A lawsuit has been filed that charges that some immigrant children in detention centers who have been separated from their parents have been sent to shelters with long histories of abuse and are being forcibly injected with drugs to make them docile.
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Michelle Wolf laments the recent deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain and uses the occasion to reflect on the idea that social media seems to drive people to imply that their lives are better than they really are, and thus can depress others who are struggling.
A man accepted a Facebook friend request from an attractive woman he had not known before and before long, after several messages were exchanged, got a request from her for a video chat and he agreed. After several failed attempts, they managed to connect and things quickly got hot and heavy.
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[UPDATE: It appears that Trump is going to sign an executive order to end the child separation policy. Given that he and attorney general Sessions, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephen Miller, and Kirstjen Nielsen have been saying for days that this was not their fault and that they were forced to adopt the cruel policy because it was the law that was enacted by the Democrats and that it was up to Congress to change the law, this action would reveal it for the lie that it always was. But being caught in obvious lies does not bother this crew nor their supporters. They have no shame.]
It looks like the Trump administration which, as a matter of policy, tries to ramp up the cruelty of its actions against immigrants of color because it plays well with its base, is surprised that the level of anger against its tactic of forcibly separating immigrant children from their parents is rising. Increasing numbers of Republican elected officials are distancing themselves from the policy and even Trump bootlickers like British prime minister Theresa May are voicing concerns. And how bad must it be when even French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, a Trump soul mate if there ever was one, says that she disagrees with the policy of separating children from parents?
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The strange and disturbing world of the ‘incels’ (involuntary celibates) has come into the limelight following the violent acts by some of them. After the recent killings in Toronto by a self-proclaimed incel Alek Minassian who killed 10 people by mowing them down on the sidewalk with his vehicle, mostly targeting women pedestrians, Jack Peterson who had until then also identified as one, tried in interviews to defend the group, saying that they were not violent nor did they hate women but were adopting an ironic pose. The reaction from his fellow incels was not what he expected.
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Stephen Colbert attacks the policy.
TONIGHT! There is the right side of history and then there is the side of history where the Trump admin defends their policy of separating children from their parents. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/Wneh1PHgzR
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) June 19, 2018
The second Test match between the West Indies and Sri Lanka that ended yesterday in a draw saw another charge of ball tampering. Readers may recall the outrage in March following the discovery that three Australian players, including the captain, had tried to secretly use sandpaper to roughen up one side of the ball, a clear violation of the rules. All three received various punishments (see here and here and here). The charge this time is against the Sri Lankan cricket captain Dinesh Chandimal who was accused of eating a ‘sweet’ (which is what a piece of hard candy is called by us cricket playing former colonials) and then using the sticky saliva to rub on the ball and thus change its condition. He has denied the charge and there will now be an inquiry.
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The forcible separation of children, even those who are toddlers, from their parents at the borders and putting them in cages seems to threaten the Trump administration with being a step too far. The photographs and videos of the grim sight and the newly released heartbreaking audio recordings by ProPublica of children sobbing uncontrollably and calling for their parents seems to be too much to stomach for even some of Trump’s most ardent supporters. Even the evangelical zealot, Trump fan boy, and outright bigot Franklin Graham who had hitherto not allowed any daylight between him and Trump said “It’s disgraceful, and it’s terrible to see families ripped apart, and I don’t support that one bit.” Laura Bush has also come out against it, as have some other conservatives. Big majorities oppose these actions, with the only demographic group supporting it being Republicans.
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He makes two points: One is that there is no law that demands it be done as Trump and his people maintain, and that the Bible is a terrible basis for any governmental action.