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workinclasszero's JournalPalmer Luckey’s politics were hiding in plain sight
Palmer Luckeys politics were hiding in plain sightBy Kristen V. Brown 9/25/16 9 AM
On Friday evening, a little more than 24 hours after the revelation that boy wonder and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey was the moneyman behind a strange scheme to bring down Hillary Clinton using the power of memes, the 24-year-old near-billionaire posted an apology to Facebook.
Luckey had, he explained, given $10,000 to a pro-Trump, nonprofit organization called Nimble America because it had fresh ideas for how to communicate with young voters. But he asked people to stop renouncing their support for Oculus, as his views dont represent that of the virtual reality headset company he sold to Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion.
http://fusion.net/story/350541/how-palmer-luckey-became-a-trump-supporter/
Marijuana legalization is facing a major challenge from the alcohol industry
Marijuana legalization is facing a major challenge from the alcohol industryBen Gilbert Sep. 16, 2016
Big players in the alcohol business are pushing back on a major marijuana legalization initiative.
Massachusetts is one of five states with a ballot initiative this year that could legalize recreational use of marijuana, and the alcohol industry is leading the charge to stop the initiative. In Massachusetts, a political action committee that represents 16 of the state's beer distributors is among the top three donors to an anti-legalization group, The Intercept's Lee Fang discovered.
Boston Beer Company (the folks behind Sam Adams) are also worried about the potential for Massachusetts cannabis legalization, Fang pointed out. "Certain states are considering or have passed laws and regulations that allow the sale and distribution of marijuana. It is possible that legal marijuana usage could adversely impact the demand for the Companys products," the company noted in an SEC filing back in February.
http://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-legalization-massachusetts-from-alcohol-2016-9
Scope of Trump's falsehoods unprecedented for a modern presidential candidate
Scope of Trump's falsehoods unprecedented for a modern presidential candidateMichael Finnegan 9.25.2016
Donald Trump says that taxes in the United States are higher than almost anywhere else on earth. Theyre not.
He says he opposed the Iraq war from the start. He didnt.
Now, after years of spreading the lie that President Obama was born in Africa, Trump says that Hillary Clinton did it first (untrue) and that hes the one who put the controversy to rest (also untrue).
Never in modern presidential politics has a major candidate made false statements as routinely as Trump has. Over and over, independent researchers have examined what the Republican nominee says and concluded it was not the truth but pants on fire (PolitiFact) or four Pinocchios (Washington Post Fact Checker).
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-false-statements-20160925-snap-story.html
Stop-and-Frisk and Donald Trump’s Promise of a Police State for Black People
Trump's embrace of racist policing tactics is a terrifying master plan.
By Chauncey DeVega / Salon September 23, 2016
First, his black outreach campaign is simply one more example of the tired, fake, insincere, and ineffective efforts by Republican presidential candidates to win over non-white voters with the goal of appearing more moderate for the general election. In this cynical ploy, a faux-courting of non-white voters is a way of making independent and center Right-wing white voters feel more comfortable with the extreme and retrograde conservatism and racism of the current Republican Party.
Second, and most importantly, Trumps promise to create a nationwide stop-and-frisk program targeting black and brown people is red meat for the basket of human deplorables that is his base.
As shown by a litany of public opinion polls and other research, Trump supporters are racists, bigots, authoritarians, misogynists, and extremely hostile to African-Americans and other people of color.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/stop-and-frisk-and-donald-trumps-promise-police-state-black-people
Facebook Faces Backlash Over Oculus Founder’s Alt-Right Ties
Facebook Faces Backlash Over Oculus Founders Alt-Right TiesJanko Roettgers Senior Silicon Valley Correspondent
Facebooks virtual reality (VR) subsidiary Oculus found itself under fire Friday after reports surfaced that Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has been secretly bankrolling a right-wing internet campaign to attack Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Several VR developers even said that they would stop building games for Oculus until Luckey left the company.
News about Luckeys double life broke when the Daily Beast reported that he has been bankrolling an organization called Nimble America. The group, which recently incorporated, wants to take some of the same Anti-Clinton memes that have been circulating on social media and bring them to a wider audience.
http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/oculus-backlash-palmer-luckey-alt-right-1201869275/
Palmer Luckey, Millionaire Founder of Oculus Rift, Loves Donald Trump and Dates a Gamergater
Palmer Luckey, Millionaire Founder of Oculus Rift, Loves Donald Trump and Dates a GamergaterBryan Menegus Yesterday 11:54amFiled to: OCULUS
Its been an open secret for some time that Palmer Luckey, the 24-year-old founder of VR company Oculus Rift and heir apparent to the future of gaming, is a strange guythe type who argues with his customers on Reddit and casually cosplays as My Little Pony characters. Turns out, he also appears to be an active supporter of Donald Trump and the alt-right, and in a long-term relationship with an avid Gamergater.
Hes also faved tweets mocking SJWs or Social Justice Warriorsa concept encompassing a sort of liberal boogeyman for members of the alt-right. For the alt-right, censorship is everything up to and including criticism of outright bigotry, and SJWs are painted as ineffectual proponents of everything from racial tolerance to nanny state politics.
Luckey is also in a longterm relationship with Nicole Edelmann, aka Nikki Moxxi, a cosplayer, vocal member of the GamerGate movement, and active Trump supporter.
http://gizmodo.com/palmer-luckey-millionaire-founder-of-oculus-rift-love-1786994094
As Palmer Luckey Backtracks, Developers Turn on Oculus Rift
As Palmer Luckey Backtracks, Developers Turn on Oculus RiftHis misguided political donation could have serious impacts on Oculus and Facebook.
by David Z. Morris @davidzmorris SEPTEMBER 24, 2016, 12:54 PM EDT
To understand the extremity of the response to Luckeys political donation, its important to know that Nimble America is not simply a pro-Trump campaign group.
Though their activities so far have been limited, their stated goal is to be a non-profit dedicated to shitposting in real life. Shitposting generally refers to content that is defamatory, misleading, offensive, or, preferably, all three. In other words, beyond supporting any particular candidate, Palmer Luckey has contributed, directly and knowingly, to the intentional degradation of American political discourse.
Its also notable that one of the endorsements of Luckey offered to would-be Nimble America supporters came from Milo Yiannopoulos, the inflammatory mouthpiece of the so-called alt-right.
http://fortune.com/2016/09/24/palmer-lucky-backlash-oculus/
U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and Kremlin
U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and KremlinMichael Isikoff Chief Investigative Correspondent September 23, 2016
U.S. intelligence officials are seeking to determine whether an American businessman identified by Donald Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers has opened up private communications with senior Russian officials including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president, according to multiple sources who have been briefed on the issue.
The activities of Trump adviser Carter Page, who has extensive business interests in Russia, have been discussed with senior members of Congress during recent briefings about suspected efforts by Moscow to influence the presidential election, the sources said. After one of those briefings, Senate minority leader Harry Reid wrote FBI Director James Comey, citing reports of meetings between a Trump adviser (a reference to Page) and high ranking sanctioned individuals in Moscow over the summer as evidence of significant and disturbing ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin that needed to be investigated by the bureau.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-s-intel-officials-probe-ties-between-trump-adviser-and-kremlin-175046002.html
Green Party's Jill Stein Seeks to Woo Young Voters From Clinton
Green Party's Jill Stein Seeks to Woo Young Voters From Clintonby ALEX SEITZ-WALD SEP 24 2016, 5:18 AM ET
ORONO, Maine -- As Hillary Clinton and her allies scramble to keep young liberal voters inside the Democratic Party, Green Party nominee Jill Stein is doing her best to coax them out.
Stein, who won just one-third-of-one-percent of the vote when she ran in 2012, has set an internal goal of reaching 5 percent this time. It's a far shot from winning, but that kind of showing -- along with a more robust effort by another independent candidate, libertarian Gary Johnson -- could pose a huge headache for Clinton.
Stein's efforts will require lots of new converts, and the strategy to get them is simple: Target the remnants of the Bernie Sanders movement by convincing young Clinton skeptics that the Democratic Party is too compromised to be reformed from within -- no matter that Sanders now is saying the opposite.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/hillary-clinton/green-party-s-jill-stein-seeks-woo-young-voters-clinton-n653211
Palmer Luckey: The Facebook Near Billionaire Secretly Funding Trump’s Meme Machine
Palmer Luckey: The Facebook Near Billionaire Secretly Funding Trumps Meme MachinePalmer Luckeyfounder of Oculusis funding a Trump group that circulates dirty memes about Hillary Clinton.
GIDEON RESNICK BEN COLLINS 09.22.16 8:00 PM ET
A Silicon Valley titan is putting money behind an unofficial Donald Trump group dedicated to shitposting and circulating internet memes maligning Hillary Clinton.
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey financially backed a pro-Trump political organization called Nimble America, a self-described social welfare 501(c)4 non-profit in support of the Republican nominee.
Luckey sold his virtual reality company Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, and Forbes estimates his current net worth to be $700 million. The 24-year-old told The Daily Beast that he had used the pseudonym NimbleRichMan on Reddit with a password given to him by the organizations founders.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/22/palmer-luckey-the-facebook-billionaire-secretly-funding-trump-s-meme-machine.html
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