Facebook as the NRA

Watching Emperor Zuckerberg 'testify' yesterday before the US Congress' House Financial Services Committee (C-Span) it occured to me that perhaps the Emperor was merely imitating a human being, and that his voicebox had been separated from his cerebral cortex so that the truth serum he'd been administered didn't have a chance to do its job.

Emperors are such big targets! They always have been, since the fall of the Roman Empire. Watching Zuckerberg testify one couldn't help but notice the Roman hair-do, either an homage to Caesar Augustus or to the B-movie actors of the 1950s who portrayed Roman emperors. The Emporio profile too, caught on camera when Zuckerberg turned right or left, is indeed worthy of being on the new $1 dollar bill soon to be issued by the US Treasury.

The best part of the 'hearing' was Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA. 45th District) asking Emperor Zuckerberg how many lobbyist's Facebook employed in Washington D.C. The Emperor didn't seem to know, or didn't want to answer. Katie said, "you have 60 Lobbyists, Mr. Zuckerberg."

Porter, newly elected in the recent Democratic sweep of the House, from a tradtionally Republican district in Orange County, also said, "I've only been here (in D.C.) for 90 days but I've never heard so many lies in my life."

Other news sources--FOX and MSNBC primarily--indicated that the USA was becoming the little country it always has been, the country our Founding Fathers envisioned. Republicans had invaded Mars, breaking into the same secret chambers they'd inhabited in the Benghazi hearing of 2014 and leaving behind cardboard boxes full of half-eaten pizzas; the President confirmed the US would leave the Paris Climate Accord; Steve Bannon returned to the USA from Italy and started a pirate radio show, broadcasting from his D.C. townhome, dispensing domestic political advice to Trump, including the wisdom of taking Nancy Pelosi seriously.

There's something unreal about Facebook, some the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it quality that is as creepy as the people who run the company. Were there to be any sort of corporate righteousness among the Emperor and his posse, given the de-stablization their platform has created in both democratic governments and banana republics, they would either shut the thing down or make their users submit to the same sort of rigorous vetting the gun purveryors make their users submit to. Is there any real difference between Zuckerberg's operation and The NRA's Wayne LaPierre? To claim that Facebook 'creates community', the Emperor's corporate motto, is hardly any different than gun manufactuers claiming their products create peace.

As far as 'messaging' is concerned, regarding the upcoming Presidential election, I came away from watching the Zuckerberg hearing, and then scanning the evening news, convinced that the Dems should not get all tangled up in collusion, quid pro quo, the emoluments clause and concentrate instead on the core issue of Incompetence, of which there are vivid, shocking national and international examples on the hour.

And to mandate that all Dem party candidates get off Facebook. I'd vote for that person.