Society's Child
The fine was announced on Wednesday after the EU found the US company guilty of using its Android mobile operating system to block rivals.
"Today, mobile internet makes up more than half of global internet traffic. It has changed the lives of millions of Europeans. Our case is about three types of restrictions that Google has imposed on Android device manufacturers and network operators to ensure that traffic on Android devices goes to the Google search engine," said European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager.
Shares dropped nearly three percent during Monday trading as Musk faced a disastrous weekend that included reports showing he donated nearly $40,000 to Republicans. He is also contending with a possible lawsuit from a diver involved in a rescue mission pulling a soccer team from a cave.
Analysts are handicapping Tesla and Musk's ability to wade through the controversies long enough to helm Tesla's battered ship.
Comment: Musk seems to be blind to the fact that his inflammatory comments on social media aren't doing him, or his company, any favours.
See also:
- British rescue diver claims 'this isn't over' after being labeled a 'pedo' by Elon Musk
- Elon Musk faces wrath of twitterverse after being exposed as Republican PAC donor
- Elon Musk turns his philanthropy efforts to assisting Flint water crisis victims
- Elon Musk touts building 'escape pod' to rescue stranded Thai footballers - 'Can be built in 8 hours'
- Former Navy Seal dies in Thai cave rescue operation; Elon Musk offers help
- Elon Musk keeps role as Tesla chairman vowing to solve Model 3 production problems
- Tesla shareholder urges to oust Elon Musk as board chairman
Like in his "Da Ali G Show," Cohen wearing a disguise met with senior politicians under the premise of filming an unknown foreign news show. But where his infamous Borat and Bruno played off of stereotypes that punched down, in this series he impostures hardline characters whose influence has increased under the Trump administration, namely a right wing blogger and a terrorism expert.
Comment: Nothing new here - US officials routinely sacrifice morality, critical thought, and common sense for a pat on the head from the Israeli lobby.
There is a growing concern that the UK was complicit in civilian deaths by supporting a US-led drone program that was committing unlawful acts - making British personnel open to prosecution, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report said.
"In its current form, assistance to partners is putting the UK and its personnel at risk of criminal liability. UK use of force or assistance to partners in drone strikes outside situations of armed conflict are not protected by combatant immunity, therefore making personnel liable to prosecution for murder."
Britain has been a key player for the US-led campaign in Syria and Iraq - assisting in their drone program since 2014 - involvement that had "raised some serious questions about the legality, efficacy and strategic coherence," according to the APPG report.
The chair of the parliamentary drones group, Professor Michael Clarke, said the UK was working with countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar that "do not work on standard NATO rules."

Indy reporter Alejandro Alvarez: "There’re about 100 protesters huddled in Lafayette Park, awaiting Trump’s return from #Helsinki2018. They’re chanting stuff like 'you’re the puppet,' 'Benedict Arnold has got to go,' and holding up LED-lit signs like these..."
I still marvel at the fact that these weapons exist, just as armed and just as ready, and we just go about our lives like it's perfectly normal. They're even more prone to malfunction than they were back then, because so many parts of the system are much older now. All it would take is something failing to work the way it's meant to or somebody making a mistake or miscommunication that hadn't been adequately anticipated and prepared for, and it could set into motion a chain of events from which there is no coming back. We've already come within a hair's breadth of nuclear annihilation on more than one occasion due to such occurrances, and yet people still act like preventing that from ever happening isn't the single most important priority for our entire species.
Comment: Ironically, Michael Moore, who signed the Common Ground document, is among those who are offended by the summit:
Don't miss the whole Putin and Trump press conference:
Post-summit Trump-Putin press conference (full text): First step toward renewing US-Russian friendship?
Evin Yadegar, according to her husband Hanibal, was undergoing a manic episode due to her bipolar disorder on February 26, 2017. He explained that she never would've hurt anyone and was merely trying to find a safe place after a confrontation with a hotel security guard.
According to Sheriff Adam Christianson, the security guard reported that Evin Yadegar had begun an argument and a subsequent physical altercation occured. When a deputy arrived, he saw Yadegar's vehicle pulling out of the parking lot.
According to the release from the San Jaquin County District Attorney's Office, the killing came after a low speed chase when Yadegar left the hotel during the argument with a security guard.
During the interview, Bourdain was asked whether or not he thought Bill Clinton should have been removed from office after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Bourdain said that despite Clinton being "A piece of sh*t," who was "Entitled, rapey, gropey, grabby, disgusting" should have still kept his job. This was despite "the way that he - and she [referring to Hillary Clinton] destroyed these women and the way that everyone went along" was "screaming in apparent hypocrisy and venality."
Bourdain went on to note how "When you're in the room, you think wow, she's [Clinton] really warm and nice and funny." However, Bourdain explained, "but the way they efficiently dismantled, destroyed, and shamelessly discredited these women for speaking their truth."
Bourdain noted that the sex Clinton had in office was "unforgivable," but was minor compared to every thing else and he noted that the sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky wasn't enough to get Clinton thrown out of office.
The security experts from the Idaho laboratory were in Texas to take dangerous radioactive materials from a non-profit research lab in the area. For that purpose, they'd brought tiny disks containing plutonium and cesium with them, for calibration.
However, when the two had retired to their hotel rooms for the night, the car they left in the parking lot was raided. When they returned in the morning, their rented Ford Expedition's windows were shattered and the nuclear materials gone.
An immediate police investigation, assisted by the FBI, failed to produce any clues as to the whereabouts of the stolen radioactive materials. Police have not come up with any clear fingerprints on or inside the car, nor they were able to retrieve any usable surveillance footage. On top of that, law enforcement also failed to find any witnesses to the crime.
Comment: No tracers attached to the radioactive samples?

Palestinians on their way to Al Aqsa for Friday prayer at Qalandiya military checkpoint, July 28, 2017
"Gold has distributed videos on social networks, in which she harasses IDF soldiers and Border Police officers in Hebron, accusing the soldiers of apartheid and oppression, and that their actions do not conform to Jewish values."My denial of entry received an enormous amount of coverage in Israeli and American Jewish media. Though I am disappointed I was not able to get into the country, I am glad that what happened to me contributed in a strong and positive way to the conversations that are taking place right now in Israeli and diaspora Jewish communities around Palestinian rights and democracy. But, refusing to allow me into the country is only a small glimpse of Israel's border policies.
Since Israel's founding in 1948, predicated on the forced displacement of around 750,000 Palestinians, it has been an official policy of the state to deny re-entry to those who were expelled.

The training center of the Lithuanian State Security Department, claimed to be a CIA ‘black site’, in Antavilis near Vilnius
In May of this year, Lithuania and Romania were found responsible for knowingly allowing the torture of prisoners at secret CIA facilities on their territories, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled.
The ECHR decision referred to the cases of Saudi-born Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, both of whom are currently held at the US Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
The two governments will have to pay €100,000 ($117,000) to each man, the court decided. Lithuania and Romania have three months to file an appeal, should they wish to contest the ruling.












Comment: It looks like the EU lowered their suit from the $11 billion originally reported. While it's good that the EU is taking steps to try and control their monopoly, none the less, it's likely this is a minor setback in Google's bullet track toward complete and total domination of the online world.
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