Getting TikTok Banned/Divested AND STATEMENT OF RAISON D’ÊTRE & MODUS VIVENDI OF OUR ORGANIZATION

[solutions]

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This morning’s weekly e-mail from John Karls documents –

(1) how our organization appears to be “the straw that broke the camel’s back” in getting TikTok banned/divested,

(2) why our organization exists,

(3) its modus vivendi, and

(4) its NYC Harvard Club pre-history from which it was molded.

Accordingly, it occurred that this weekly e-mail should be preserved by posting it on our website.

NB: Its attachment is available for download at viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2501&sid=f2f4f37de ... 38984c5576.


---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: Getting TikTok Banned + Short Quiz for “Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women" by Batya Ungar-Sargon -May 15
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Sat, April 27, 2023
To: To Each of Our 229 Members One-By-One
Attachment: RL-m419-Letter To Senate Commerce Committee Members Re TikTok Prohibition.pdf
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To Each of Our 229 Members One-By-One – for reasons explained in the 4 postings in Sec. 2 of www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org.


Dear Friends,

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Getting TikTok Banned (or Divested of Chinese Ownership)

All of us have heard how we often say that we are a non-partisan public-policy study/ACTION group but some of us probably haven’t focused on what that means.

In our 19 years of existence, the 58 ACTIONS we have taken are summarized in Section 1 of our website – please see viewforum.php?f=23&sid=8452c87a2f7426b7a21cb170349e621e.

And we are happy to report that our most recent was one that met with success.

Which may surprise some of you because Sec. D of the Suggested Discussion Outline for our April 17 meeting featured in our weekly e-mail of 2 weeks ago regarding Peter Schweizer’s “Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans” had not listed any proposed ACTIONS but contained the standard invitation for others to propose them – please see viewtopic.php?f=796&t=2495&sid=8452c87a ... 70349e621e.

This provoked “Solutions” to raise the issue of TikTok – please see viewtopic.php?f=796&t=2498&sid=8452c87a ... 70349e621e.

Which resulted in our sending the sample letter attached to this e-mail to each of the 27 members of the Senate Commerce Committee in the wake of our April 17 meeting.

The letters were sent USPS Certified Mail on Fri morning April 19 and a sample letter AND the 27 USPS tracking numbers were posted on our website before noon on April 19 – please see viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2501&sid=8452c87a2 ... 70349e621e.

Then our website which normally has only 40-50 visitors at a time day or night had more than 400 simultaneous visitors continuously from mid-afternoon on Fri April 19 until well past mid-night with the automatic tabulator at the bottom of the first page of our website recording that the number topped out at 439 visitors at 10:03 pm EDT – please see the bottom of index.php?sid=8452c87a2f7426b7a21cb170349e621e.

And the following morning, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on the Bill that was signed into law this past week that contained aid for Israel/Ukraine/Taiwan AND THE BAN (OR DIVESTITURE) OF TIKTOK.

Skeptics might think our ACTION was not “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and caused the ban/divestiture.

But there is rarely a gilt-edged* “thank you” missive in such situations.

And CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE such as what happened on our website Fri April 19 is routinely accepted as proof by Courts of Law and their juries.

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* “Gilt-Edged” Thank Yous and the Kosovo War vs. the Bosnian War

Please pardon a digression that is important for understanding the pre-history of our group’s functioning and raison d’être.

The NYC Harvard Club had several monthly foreign-policy groups and domestic-policy groups in which Yours Truly participated for many decades before he retired 22 years ago to ski.

NYC is the location of the United Nations, two world-class-university faculties (Columbia & NYU), the Council on Foreign Relations and, with only one major exception, the location of the home office of all of the Western World’s large multinational law firms.

Accordingly, it is no mystery why the members of our NYC Harvard Club groups were floating in and out of the top levels of the U.S. government.

And seemingly at least once a month, 1-2 of our members currently serving in the US Gov were contacting us to ask whether we had discussed a particular issue and, if so, what conclusion(s) had been reached – and, if not, could we please do so and report back.

AND YES, WE TYPICALLY RECEIVED “GILT-EDGED” THANK YOUS FOR OUR ADVICE WHICH WAS OFTEN IMPLEMENTED.

Yours Truly’s Proudest Achievement???

President Clinton had been very frustrated over his inability to halt the Bosnian War (1992-1995) which featured zillions of War Crimes by the Serbs including the Srebrenica Massacre.

[The U.N. had declared a “safe zone” complete with Dutch Peace-Keeping Soldiers where Bosnian Muslims were “guaranteed” safety from the Serbs. But in July 1995, a huge Serbian military force showed up and the U.N. Dutch “Peace Keepers” stood aside while the Muslims were butchered. As a U.S. Navy Officer (1967-1970), Yours Truly knows you “do your duty” even if your odds of success seem slim. And we will never know whether the Serbs were merely bluffing with the U.N.]

So you can imagine President Clinton’s frustration when Serbia, after butchering Bosnia before finally giving up conquering them, invaded Kosovo (another run-away province of the old Yugoslavia).

I’ve long since forgotten whether one of our colleagues was serving as an Ass’t Defense Sec’y or Ass’t State Dept Sec’y, but he asked us for ideas on how to halt the Kosovo invasion.

And our NYC Harvard Club group adopted my suggestion of (1) bombing the invasion route so the Serb forces could not be supplied, and (2) dropping leaflets on Belgrade to inform the citizenry which block would be destroyed that evening until Belgrade surrendered or ceased to exist.

Our colleague in the US Gov made one modification. Yes, he started bombing the invasion route but vis-à-vis Belgrade, HE TOOK OUT ALL THEIR ELECTRICITY-GENERATION PLANTS THE FIRST NIGHT. No communication, no transportation, no heat, no lights, no elevators, etc., etc. Serbia surrendered within 24 hours.

[Though Pres. Clinton then forced Kosovo to remain in Yugoslavia so that a precedent was NOT set that any dissident area in the world, no matter how small, could count on U.S. support for secession.]

Why this is our group’s pre-history???

When Yours Truly retired to ski 22 years ago, it was obvious that decision makers needed good advice from impartial observers rather than lobbyists.

And patterned our group after the monthly foreign/domestic-policy groups of the NYC Harvard Club.

BUT FIRST, unlike the NYC Harvard Club experts who could give good advice “off the tops of their heads,” we select a focus book each month and then our participants bring to bear any other material that they think relevant. [BTW, Yours Truly does NOT vote on the focus book except to break ties – please see viewforum.php?f=150&sid=1bc44cb59d52182 ... 3f82b7a888.]

AND SECOND, since we aren’t being asked by decision-making colleagues for our advice, it was necessary to invent the “Six Degrees of Separation E-mail Campaigns” pursuant to which, if there were at least six meeting participants with no more than one dissent after notice of the meeting to all of our now-229 weekly e-mail recipients, we would prepare an e-mail that our now-229 members could, with only a few keyboard key strokes, send to the decision maker AND TO ALL OF THEIR FRIENDS TO REQUEST THAT THEY DO THE SAME IN AN UNENDING “SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION” CHAIN TO DO THE SAME.

So there you have it – voilà.


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Our next meeting is Wed May 15 – 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm MDT via Zoom.


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THE SHORT QUIZ

Available at viewtopic.php?f=800&t=2505&sid=8452c87a ... 70349e621e.


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MAY 15 FOCUS BOOK

“Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women" by Batya Ungar-Sargon (Encounter Books Publishing 4/2/2024 - 211 pages sans notes & index - $19.67 + shipping or $18.69 Kindle from Amazon.com).

The Salt Lake COUNTY Library has available 0 of 2 print copies with no holds (and no audio-books or E-books) and the Salt Lake CITY Library has yet to acquire any copies.


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BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM AMAZON.COM (from the book’s dust jacket after the first two paragraphs from Amazon)

Second Class is the most important book you will read all year. A political realignment is coming, and it’s my hope that the end result will work in favor of our all-too-neglected American working class. When that realignment comes, Batya and her book will help lead the way.
— Greg Lukianoff, CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind

Who is the American working class? Do they still have a fair shot at the American Dream? What do they think about their chances to secure the hallmarks of a middle-class life?

While writing this book, Batya Ungar-Sargon visited states across the nation to speak with members of the American working-class fighting tooth and nail to survive. In Second Class, working-class Americans of all races, political orientations, and occupations share their stories—cleaning ladies, health care aides, cops, truck drivers, fast food workers, electricians, and more. In their own words, these working-class Americans explain the struggles and triumphs of their increasingly precarious lives—as well as what policies they think would improve them. Second Class combines deep reporting with a look at the data and expert opinion on America’s emergent class divide, in which the most basic elements of a secure and stable life are increasingly out of reach for those without a college education.

America has broken its contract with its laboring class. So, how do we get back to the American Dream? How do we once again become the land of opportunity, the promised land where hard work and commitment to family are enough to protect you from poverty?It’s not that hard actually. All it would take, as this book illustrates, is for those in power to once again respect the dignity of work—and the American worker.


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AUTHOR BIO PER AMAZON.COM

Batya Ungar-Sargon is the opinion editor of Newsweek and the author of Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy. She lives in Brooklyn.


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MAY 15 MTG INFO –

Wed May 15 – 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm MDT via Zoom.

Please RSVP by hitting your Reply Button and typing RSVP.

There is nothing further you need to do such as any special Zoom training. We will send all RSVP’s a few days in advance a URL and meeting name/password.


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We look forward to seeing/hearing each of you on Wed May 15!!! Please be well!!!

Your friend,

John K.

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