Sergei Brin is on The List

[Strelnikov]

....As is Bill Gates and Leon Botstein of Bard College, as is a former Norwegian PM. It's bad, really bad....

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article ... iates.html

Sergey Brin, Google co-founder

According to a court filing, Epstein advised Brin from 2004 to 2007, including guidance on how to set up a tax shelter — a tax-saving trust for Brin’s kids called a grantor-retained annuity trust, or GRAT — with bankers at JPMorgan Chase. Brin had become a client of the bank in 2004 following a referral from Epstein and subsequently held more than $4 billion in accounts there. The Wall Street Journal notes that Epstein helped billionaire and Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black set up a similar tax shelter. Epstein’s relationship with Brin came to light in an August 2023 court filing by the U.S. Virgin Islands in its civil suit against JPMorgan over the bank’s relationship with Epstein. -- New York Magazine.

[Bbb23sucks]

Shouldn't this be moved to the Off Topic forum?

[Strelnikov]

Shouldn't this be moved to the Off Topic forum?

Nope, because Google and Wikipedia are joined to the hip via Google infoboxes, which heavily use Wikipedia as a source.

[ericbarbour]

Nope, because Google and Wikipedia are joined to the hip via Google infoboxes, which heavily use Wikipedia as a source.

Agreed. One of the earliest "king's pronouncements" that Wales did in 2001 was promulgate a "What Google Liked" list. Wiki-pooters continue to use and prefer the Goog for finding the "references" for their often-crap content. And in return, Goog has openly and slavishly supported WP and the WMF whenever possible. Larry'n'Sergey are two of the greasiest billionaires the Valley has ever produced--but few people realize it, because unlike Musk, they don't go around tweeting stupid things.

Do I really need to dump a list here? Very well.

2009

August 27: Sergey Brin and his wife donate $500k to Creative Commons.[24]
In 2009, Google books almost twice the revenue in the US as the entire music recording business.

2010

February 17: Google gives the WMF a $2 million "gift"[25].
During 2010, Google spends $5.2m in lobbying[26]. Opensecrets.org shows donations to Google's political action committee -- a "who's who" of Google top management. It also donates money to the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society. [27] "What most readers don’t know is that the Berkman Center and many of its leading professors have financial and personal ties to Google and other tech companies—ties that are not disclosed when these academics speak or publish, and that I discovered after auditing a class with Zittrain. "

2011

August 24: Google would have to pay $500 million to settle federal government charges that it has knowingly shown illegal ads for fraudulent pharmacies in the United States, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday. The fine was for ignoring laxer rules over several years for doing what SOPA would have allowed a court to impose at an earlier stage. As finally revealed in this 2013 Wired article, an FBI sting against Google's AdWords department successfully proved that Google ad-sales representatives would cheerfully assist advertisers in breaking the law. In this case, the federal government forced convicted online-pharmacy con-artist David Whitaker to repeatedly start phony Mexican drug sellers and pressure Google salespeople into helping him break the laws covering online prescription drug sales. It ended up costing Google a $500 million fine, the largest criminal corporate fine in history at the time, plus it forced a drastic change in how they sold advertising. Note this comment: "After announcing Google’s $500 million forfeiture, the US attorney for Rhode Island, Peter Neronha, told The Wall Street Journal that the culpability went far higher than the sales reps Whitaker had worked with. Indeed, he said, some of the company’s most powerful executives were aware that illegal pharmacies were advertising on its site. “We simply know from the documents we reviewed and witnesses we interviewed that Larry Page knew what was going on,” Neronha said. (Google has denied this, according to press accounts, and Neronha declined to be interviewed for this story.)"
October 4 to October 6: Italian Wikipedia blackout.
November 18: [28] Media announce that Google's Sergey Brin has donated half a million dollars to Wikipedia.
December 9: Creative Commons board meeting [29]. But who attended? (Note that board member Esther Wojcicki is the mother of Susan, a senior VP at Google, and Anne, who is married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The first dedicated set of Google servers were set up in Susan's garage in Menlo Park.)[1]
December 10: Jimbo Wales first raises the topic of an anti-SOPA blackout on Wikipedia.
December 14, 2011 Joint open letter denouncing SOPA by Brin, Wales and others around December 14.

And on and on. Not to mention the "special treatment" Google employees and management receive in their WP biographies.

[Bbb23sucks]

I'm not sure if this is off-topic or not, but I get those sketchy download button ads from Google daily. Sometimes I put them into virustotal.com and half the time, they're malware. Recently, I've been getting ads for supposed "news sites" that when clicked literally lead to fake virus pop-ups. And most of the ads that aren't those are just normal scams.

[Strelnikov]

I'm not sure if this is off-topic or not, but I get those sketchy download button ads from Google daily. Sometimes I put them into virustotal.com and half the time, they're malware. Recently, I've been getting ads for supposed "news sites" that when clicked literally lead to fake virus pop-ups. And most of the ads that aren't those are just normal scams.

No it's on-topic, Google has been melting down to the point where normal people are complaining that the search engine algorithm has turned into trash. The download trash come-ons are the sign of too much automation from The Goog.

[Archer]

I'm not sure if this is off-topic or not, but I get those sketchy download button ads from Google daily. Sometimes I put them into virustotal.com and half the time, they're malware. Recently, I've been getting ads for supposed "news sites" that when clicked literally lead to fake virus pop-ups. And most of the ads that aren't those are just normal scams.

Install an ad-blocker like ublock origin or ABP. I can't imagine using the internet without some means of blocking ads.

Google has been melting down to the point where normal people are complaining that the search engine algorithm has turned into trash. The download trash come-ons are the sign of too much automation from The Goog.

Most search results are practically adverts, taking the user to the webpage of some or other large company. The remainder are links to a limited set of "social media" sites (nearly all of which are terrible), or bizarre, generic, mediocre websites that seem to exist for no reason except to serve as placeholders.

[Archer]

Are none of these people implicated? Surely, if Epstein ran a "sex-trafficking enterprise" he must have had clients, yet we only ever hear about Epstein's "associates" or "contacts" or "those linked with Epstein". The media is always vague when describing the relationship between these people and Epstein. What a complete debauch.

There's this article, dated Janurary https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ew-charges. It reads "No one beyond Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell is directly implicated in the sex-trafficking conspiracy – and that seems unlikely to change". What a bizarre statement to make. How is it even possible to prove that Epstein and Maxwell are guilty of sex trafficking without also proving the existence and identity of at least one 'client'? That doesn't make any sense.

[ericbarbour]

Install an ad-blocker like ublock origin or ABP. I can't imagine using the internet without some means of blocking ads.

Unfortunately, most people look at websites with smartphones, most using Google's Chrome browser. It is difficult to find really effective ad blockers for Chrome especially on Android phones. And they often require "rooting" the phone to install, because of the fucked-up way Android is built.

Many of the ad-blocking companies, such as ABP, have DEALS with advertising companies to let some ads thru. Look at the Google Play Store if you don't believe me--many of the ad blockers allow some ads thru, or don't actually work very well, or are outright scams. The "Total AdblocK" company apparently went out of business recently. People were recommending it, then it "mysteriously disappeared" one day. Can't imagine why.

The YouTube app is separate from the web browser, it is difficult to control or block ads on, and it was built that way intentionally.

The situation is similar for iOS devices. Apple "discourages" certain web blockers on the Apple Store. The "approved" ones are usually in marketing relationships with online advertisers....including the biggest of all, Google/Alphabet.

Are none of these people implicated?

Trump is constantly mentioned as being one of Epstein's "good buddies". He's not being "implicated", just mocked online for being listed in Epstein's flight logs. The majority of rich people Jeffy "socialized with" are not suffering any real repercussions from it. The usual excuse is that prosecutors can't find any real, solid evidence that Epstein and Maxwell were "providing sex services" to most of them. They covered the tracks.

Epstein was making video recordings of some of the sex abuse. No one can find the recordings, just the cameras remained.

Try reading this. Yes, the Wikipoots hate Epstein and want to show him in the most unfavorable light, but the federal plea deal in 2007 is something no one can deny. Certain people in the US government tried to PROTECT him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_E ... roceedings

[Archer]

Install an ad-blocker like ublock origin or ABP. I can't imagine using the internet without some means of blocking ads.

Unfortunately, most people look at websites with smartphones, most using Google's Chrome browser. It is difficult to find really effective ad blockers for Chrome especially on Android phones. And they often require "rooting" the phone to install, because of the fucked-up way Android is built.

Many of the ad-blocking companies, such as ABP, have DEALS with advertising companies to let some ads thru. Look at the Google Play Store if you don't believe me--many of the ad blockers allow some ads thru, or don't actually work very well, or are outright scams. The "Total AdblocK" company apparently went out of business recently. People were recommending it, then it "mysteriously disappeared" one day. Can't imagine why.

The YouTube app is separate from the web browser, it is difficult to control or block ads on, and it was built that way intentionally.

The situation is similar for iOS devices. Apple "discourages" certain web blockers on the Apple Store. Because they too are in relationships with online advertisers....including the biggest of all, Google/Alphabet.

AFAIK firefox mobile will let you install an ad blocker (or any extension on their website) and does not require rooting your phone. I do not use the youtube app. Why would you need to when you can access it from your browser? I've been using ublock origin for many years and it has never really caused any problems. You can disable it on a per-website basis if need be. Any decent ad blocker will let you use any set of blocklists and make user-defined rules.

Are none of these people implicated?

Trump is constantly mentioned as being one of Epstein's "good buddies". He's not being "implicated", just mocked online for being listed in Epstein's flight logs. The majority of rich people Jeffy "socialized with" are not suffering any real repercussions from it. The usual excuse is that prosecutors can't find any real, solid evidence that Epstein and Maxwell were "providing sex services" to most of them. They covered the tracks.

Epstein was making video recordings of some of the sex abuse. No one can find the recordings, just the cameras remained.

Surely Maxwell has more information and might know where to find hard evidence like this. They should waterboard her until she talks.

Try reading this. Yes, the Wikipoots hate Epstein and want to show him in the most unfavorable light, but the federal plea deal in 2007 is something no one can deny. Certain people in the US government tried to PROTECT him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_E ... roceedings

I'm sure some did try to protect him. They ought to be thrown under the jail as well. Really most of America's political class ought to be wearing orange jumpsuits, for a variety of terrible misdeeds.

Incredible that all of these people claim to have been unaware of Epstein's 'business'. That's rather unlikely, no? There's also this list https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article ... tacts.html. Am I supposed to believe all of these people he was schmoozing with had no involvement, let alone their claims of being entirely unaware?

I suppose nymag's article isn't that bad, in and of itself. It's great they're publishing the info but the language they use is very vague and large networks like cnn, fox, msnbc, etc. have mostly ignored this full-blown scandal. It's a tremendous reproach toward the mass media and if nothing else I hope it wises up the public a bit and shatters the credulous, unspoken presumption that "if x happened they'd report it".