theranos bio
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NEW DOKU?
'You Can See Everything’: An honest look at the lies that built tech empires
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an 920
theranos founder Holmes to claim mental condition affecting ‘issue of guilt’
While a legal decision about her behavior as CEO lies…
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https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/experts-say-splitting-california-3-states-just-another-silicon-valley-fantasy
...If it were to pass, the measure would have to receive approval from California Legislature and the United States Congress. It would not be an easy journey, and many experts are already critical of it, but if the 2016 presidential election has taught America anything, it is that rich people are pretty good at getting their way in politics.
“The obstacles would be large,” historian Michael Kazin, co-editor of Dissent magazine and a professor at Georgetown University, told Salon in an email. “The only way this would happen, I think, is if the referendum wins a huge majority and if neither national party thinks it would gain an advantage over the other . Neither of those is likely.”
Despite its low probability of passing, the proposal, and the reasons why rich people seem so interested in breaking up the Golden State, are worth examining in closer detail. Indeed, the Three Californias proposal seems symptomatic of the sense of entitlement innate to many high-profile Silicon Valley leaders, as I have previously written about in the context of sexual harassment in the tech industry. Draper epitomizes the financier who thinks his political ideas are innately superior and that he is above the law.
Experts I spoke with agreed.
“What this shows is that with relatively low signature requirements and a few million dollars, virtually any proposal can get onto the ballot -- especially if it's symbolic and taps into general public disgruntlement with government,” Renée Van Vechten, a political scientist at the University of Redlands, told Salon in an email. “How such a break-up would proceed is anyone's guess, so imagining who would benefit specifically is a fair bit of fiction.”
“The organized tend to be well-funded and heavily-resourced, meaning they have disproportionate amounts of disposable time, money, knowledge, ownership of or influence over large parts of the economy, understanding of government processes, etcetera... typically these are business interests, labor unions, and elites who have the most to lose through a disruption to the status quo and will go into protection mode if their livelihoods or interests are threatened,” she said. “Those entities can and do use government processes to their advantage, or they hire persuaders (lobbyists) who can do it for them.”I asked Van Vechten if the proposal would benefit the rich; she said yes, however, anyone who was politically well-organized would benefit — a category that generally includes the rich.
Draper has the resources for this initiative. He donated $1 million, chump change for someone with an estimated $1 billion net worth. He comes from Silicon Valley money and royalty; Fortune magazine called the Drapers “the industry’s first family.”Draper is a cryptocurrency enthusiast; he reportedly won an auction by the US Marshals of nearly 30,000 Bitcoins, which were seized from the online black market Silk Road. He is an investor in Skype and Tesla. He was also an investor in the infamously perjurious biotech startup Theranos, and recently publicly defended its CEO Elizabeth Holmes — who was recently indicted on fraud charges — saying she did “a great job.”
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