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JOEL KOTKIN: There may be no more peace in the valley

Members of the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco and other activists protest outside San Francisco City Hall in January 2014. They demanded regulation of employee shuttles for companies like Google, Facebook and Apple. Private shuttle buses have created traffic problems.

JEFF CHIU, ASSOCIATED PRESS

The rise of todays progressive-dominated Democratic Party stemmed from a brilliant melding of minorities, the poor, the intelligentsia and, quite surprising, the new ultrarich of Silicon Valley. For the past decade, this alliance has worked for both sides, giving the tech titans politically correct cover while suggesting their support for the progressives message can work with business.

Not only did tech overwhelmingly favor President Obama with campaign contributions but Obama also overwhelming won the Silicon Valley electorate, taking the once GOP-leaning Santa Clara County with 70 percent of the vote. After the 2012 election, a host of former top Obama aides including former campaign manager David Plouffe (Uber) and press spokesman Jay Carney (Amazon) have signed up to work for tech giants. Perhaps even more revealing was the politically inspired firing last year of former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich for contributing to Californias Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage.

Yet, despite these ties and PC eruptions, this alliance between the ideologically and the technically advanced shows signs of unraveling. This reflects, over time, what Marxists might have referred to as contradictions between two very different worldviews: the disruptive, acquisitive, aggressive spirit inherent in entrepreneurial capitalism and the increasingly egalitarian, property-controlling instincts of the progressive Left. To many progressives, the Silicon Valley elite are no longer scrappy up-and-comers, but increasingly resemble a new oligarchy.

Like the nobles of the Middle Ages or the corporate hegemons of the industrial era, Silicon Valley billionaires are increasingly asked to take responsibility for many of societys ills. These include a wide range of issues, from feminism and race to privacy and, most critically, class inequality. Supporting gay marriage or measures to fight climate change may no longer be enough to win over progressives.

Arguably the most widely acknowledged conflict at least the raciest involves sex discrimination. From its inception as a cradle of technology, the Valleys culture has been highly masculine. Indeed, roughly 26 percent of tech industry workers are women, well below their 47 percent share of the total workforce. Nor is this likely to change soon: only 18 percent of computer science graduates are women, down from 37 percent in the mid-80s. Stanford researcher Vivek Wadhwa describes the Valley as still a boys club that regarded women as less capable than men and subjected them to negative stereotypes and abuse.

This pattern of sexual discrimination and outright misogyny has been cited in a recent suit brought by Ellen Pao, a former employee, against one of the Valleys premier venture-capital firms, Kleiner Perkins, which, she alleged, maintained a workplace steeped in sexism and locker room arrogance.

The recent attack by feminists on video games is also roiling that industry, long one of techs most profitable sectors. Some industry executives, bowing to pressure from feminists, have agreed to tone down and even alter their games story lines to makes them more acceptable to womens groups. But theres also strong blowback among game designers, who feel they may be forced to toe the party line, even in their essentially frivolous industry.

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JOEL KOTKIN: There may be no more peace in the valley

The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation has threatened to sue the Director of Media and Publicity, PDP Presidential campaign organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, for alleging that the campaign of the APC presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd,), is funded by terrorist groups, such as the outlawed Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

In a statement in Abuja on Saturday, the APCPCO accused Fani-Kayode of perpetuating the religious politics that his principal, President Goodluck Jonathan, is well known for, giving him one week to retract his defamatory comments or face the law.

Never before in Nigerias history has the issue of religion been applied to such sinister purposes as we have seen during the years of President Jonathans government, said Malam Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity of the APCPCO.

When all fails, they whip out the religious card.

Shehu expressed relief that Nigerians were no more being fooled by what he called this PDP game.

According to him, Buhari has transcended all the religious smears and, together with his running mate, Yemi Osinbajo, who is a respected pastor, has been able to show the Nigerian people that Nigerias growth and development is not about religion, but about a genuine desire to change the lot of the countrys citizens and move the entire nation forward.

He said, A majority of the worlds Muslims, including Buhari, do not approve of the Al-Qaeda, and being Muslim does not translate into being pro-ISIS. Again and again, Buhari has shown commitment to ridding our country of these vermin, who claim to be killing in the name of Allah, but who, in actual fact, are messengers of Satan.

APCPCO hinted that when the organisation sues Fani-Kayode for his baseless and libellous claims next week, the party will ask that the PDP campaign spokespersons international passport be impounded by way of injunction.

It added, There are some campaigners, who obviously intend to escape from Nigeria after the handover of government from Jonathan to Buhari on May 29.That must be the reason why they can boldly make many of the reckless, irresponsible and defamatory statements that they have been mouthing off so flippantly throughout this campaign season.

Either that or these people do not believe in our countrys judicial system. They dont believe that one day; it will catch up with them.

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APCPCO to sue Fani-Kayode for linking Buhari with terrorists

The All Progressives Congress has alleges plot by the Peoples DemocraticParty-led Federal Government to use the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to arrest key figures of the APC in order to undermine the fortunes of the opposition party before the general elections, which start on Saturday.

APC believes that the move is part of the plans of the ruling party to decimate the opposition and gain an undue advantageahead of the polls.

It addedthat those to be picked up by the President Goodluck Jonathan-led government includeanyone, who is suspected of being a financier of the APCall in efforts to decapitate the main oppositionparty, which is undoubtedly cruising to victory in the forthcomingelections.

APC said, And as part of the offensive against the APC in the days ahead, thereis a plan to freeze the accounts of companies, individuals andorganisations believed to be financing the party, with the ultimate objective of crippling the party, so it wont be able to sustain itsactivities, like paying its agents on election day and otherlogistics.

I am sure the question playing on your lips are: Why would anyone wantto arrest APC leaders at this time? What have they done to warranttheir arrest? Will there still be a level playing ground for the elections if the main opposition party is decimated just days to thepolls?

Well, we can tell you that this planned arrest is orchestrated by thesame people who have sponsored a series of protests to the EFCC, onthe basis of the same documentary against Asiwaju, which they also masterminded. It may sound like an intrigue, but that is exactly whatit is.

Mohammed recalled that the party had on March 9, raised the alarm that there was a plan to arrest suspected financiers of the APC, a plan, he said, was denied.

Definitely, the current move to arrest Asiwaju and anyone they suspectto be a financier of our party fits into the alarm we raised and theopen threat by Governor Lamido. How predictable can a government be?

It is clear that the momentum has swung to the side of our party, withjust a week before the Presidential and NationalAssembly elections. It is clear that Nigerians have rejected the PDPand have embraced our party, the APC, as the agent of the change thatNigerians so much desire.

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APC alleges moves to arrest Tinubu, party financiers

March 22, 2015 : UMAR MUHAMMED and KAYODE IDOWU 85 Comments

Maj-Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (retd.)

The presidential candidate of the All progressives Congress, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Saturday told Nigerians not to make the mistake of voting the Peoples Democratic Party in the forth coming general elections.

He stated this in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital, during the North-Central zonal grand finale rally of the APC, adding that the 16 years of PDP rule in the country was a waste.

Buhari said, Our Nigerian Airways, shipping line, railways, refineries, all collapsed under 16 years of PDP rule in the country. Nigeria goes to import fuel for consumption abroad, trucks are killing our people on our roads on daily basis.

The presidential candidate also called on the thousands of supporters at the event to vote APC right from the presidential to the state House of Assembly level for a change to good life in the country.

The retired general said if he was elected as president of the country, he would not cheat people of the country, as refineries, roads, agriculture, roads, and other infrastructure would be revamped for the improvement of lives of the citizenry.

He tasked all the supporters of the party in the country with ensuring that they obtained their Permanent Voter Cards before the elections.

Meanwhile, Governor of Yobe State, Ibrahim Gaidam, on Saturday said Buhari was excused from having a political campaign in his state due to the spate of insecurity in the area.

Speaking at a rally of the APC in Damaturu, Gaidam said contrary to reports that he did not see eye-to-eye with the presidential candidate of his party, the insecurity of the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway was the reason Buhari was excused.

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Never vote PDP again, Buhari tells Nigerians

Femi Fani-Kayode | credits: Photo file

The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation on Saturday threatened to sue presidential spokesperson, Femi Fani-Kayode, for claiming that General Muhammadu Buhari is getting funding for his election campaign from terrorist groups, such as Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

The APCs threat was contained in a statement signed by its Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, in Abuja.

It accused the Director of Media of the PDPs presidential campaign of perpetuating the religious politics that his principal, President Goodluck Jonathan is well known for.He gave Fani-Kayode one week to retract his defamatory comments or face the law.

But Fani-Kayode, while reacting to the APC threat insisted that the party should answer the question posed to them on whether their presidential candidate, Buhari, can guarantee that not one dollar of Al-Qaeda, ISIS or ISIL (terrorist groups) money has been used to support his presidential campaign.

The APC statement partly read, Never before in Nigerias history has the issue of religion been applied to such sinister purposes as we have seen during the years of President Jonathans government. When all fails, they whip out the religious card.

Shehu expressed relief that Nigerians were no more being fooled by what he called this PDP game.

According to him, Buhari has transcended all the religious smears and, together with his running mate, Yemi Osinbajo, who is a respected pastor, has been able to show the Nigerian people that Nigerias growth and development is not about religion, but about a genuine desire to change the lot of the countrys citizens and move the entire nation forward.

The statement also said, A majority of the worlds Muslims, including Buhari, do not approve of the Al-Qaeda, and being Muslim does not translate into being pro-ISIS. Again and again, Buhari has shown commitment to ridding our country of these vermin who claim to be killing in the name of Allah, but who, in actual fact, are messengers of Satan.

The APC campaign gave advanced warning that when it takes the matter of Fani-Kayodes claims to the court next week, it will ask that the PDP spokespersons international passport be impounded.

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APC to sue Fani-Kayode for linking Buhari to terrorists