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Fr. Robert R. Ballecer, SJ

@padresj

30 Jan

Early on I, like most of the tech press, framed privacy concerns of the Internet economy as "trading advertising for services."

I was slow to realize that our private info wasn't being used for advertising

... but as a way to SHAPE how we see the world.

wsj.com/articles/apple…

- THEY had internet services that could entertain, connect, & enable ME.

- I had personal information THEY could sell to companies wanting to target goods & services to a receptive audience.

Not only was it a consensual transaction, but it SEEMED as if we got the better deal.

After all, what were we REALLY trading?

Browsing patterns? Location data? Emails?

For most it was data that not only did we not care about, but we didn't know that data was being created in the first place.

That assumption was true... at first.

Then enter "Big Data."

Read 16 tweets

Fr. Robert R. Ballecer, SJ

@padresj

14 Jan

You could look at the past week & reasonably think MAGA/Q folk MUST know it's over.

But the thing about conspiracy theories is that they never end: they morph into new theories while maintaining that they've ALWAYS been right.

For MAGA/Q, it's "the plan" - Let me explain.

Right now the narrative running through the darker parts of the Internet involves "The Storm."

The Storm is a conspiracy theory that ALL of this - the election loss, the rhetoric, the insurrection, the 2nd impeachment - are part of Trump's master plan to root out the Deep State.

You see, in Trump's infinite wisdom he realized he could never MAGA as long as there were traitors in his own party.

So he came up with The Storm as a way to know who was truly a believer in MAGA, and who was a RINO.

This has all been an elaborate trap to catch those traitors.

Read 10 tweets

Fr. Robert R. Ballecer, SJ

@padresj

17 Aug 20

Not too long ago I was part of an exercise to determine how difficult it would be to identify people involved in protests w/just the metadata (including location) from the cellular network.

We had a semi-simulated data set that used real info w/swapped IDs

... It was CRAZY easy

Once we sorted the data, we could track movement patterns of the devices & see which devices were communicating & moving w/each other.

In our data set, the vast majority of devices were burners or otherwise obfuscated, but we quickly figured out which devices were daily drivers.

As it turns out, that's enough.

If you find the daily drivers (and that becomes STUPID easy if you have access to more metadata) then you have a real-ID reference point.

From there, you can spot all the devices that are moving or communicating w/the real-ID.

Read 6 tweets

Fr. Robert R. Ballecer, SJ

@padresj

3 Jul 20

There is a question I get asked quite a lot, & I'd like to address it.

There are many variations of the question - sometimes asked seriously, sometimes out of mockery - but the gist is always:

"If you're a priest, why don't you ACT like a priest?"

It's a good question.

Thing is... they're not REALLY asking,
"why don't you ACT like a priest?"

They're asking,
"why aren't you acting in the way I EXPECT a priest to act?"

... that expectation can be born from experience w/priests, or from preconceived notions of what the priesthood represents.

I know the "traditional" roles of a priest: pastor, confessor, counselor, administrator, etc. -- and those ALL important parts of the ministry of the Church.

However... if ALL priests ONLY did those things, our ministry wouldn't just be stunted... it would die on the vine.

Read 8 tweets

Fr. Robert R. Ballecer, SJ

@padresj

13 Apr 20

Ok... let's get serious about COVID inthe US.

Beyond politics, recriminations, or soapboxing - I think it's now pretty clear that COVID-19 isn't going away soon. Certainly not without a plan that risks the lives of billions across the planet.

So it's time to think long-term.

1. We're going to need some sort of universal basic income. It's no longer a fantasy option, but an absolute necessity. Too many of us (~80%) were living paycheck to paycheck w/virtually no savings.

Those people will start starving in a month.

2. The President must make full use of the DPA.

We are approaching a time at which it will be in the corporate interest to NOT produce anything b/c the price the public can bear is not profitable.

If he wants to be a "Wartime President", he needs to treat this like wartime.

Read 7 tweets

Fr. Robert R. Ballecer, SJ

@padresj

4 Apr 20

I'm going on a financial rant.
Fair warning to those who don't want more bad news about the economy.

...

There is no question that COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on the global economy, and the US in particular, but the truth is that the foundation for the meltdown started in 2017.

In Feb 2017, Trump said,

“We expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd-Frank b/c, frankly, I have so many people, friends of mine, who have nice businesses who can’t borrow money. They just can’t get any money b/c the banks just won’t let them borrow.”

thehill.com/policy/finance…

The specific reason WHY those banks wouldn't let Trump's friends borrow money was b/c of the Dodd-Frank regulations against loaning money to companies that were already heavy in debt.

The idea was simple:
Force companies to act responsibly by not allowing them to over-leverage.

Read 13 tweets

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