Another anti-musk, anti-twitter rant

Posted just now in response to yet another OP that just sticks a twitter link out there like it is "real news".

I hate to beat this drum. But just posting a link to Musk's fouled platform is a disservice.

Since so many here on DU say that they get their "news" from twitter - be aware - Musk is in control of what you see and will track you.

If you like Musk - fine - keep on just posting twitter links. But don't expect any thinking people to follow them to see the content.

But if you understand that he is not in this to forward accurate news clips, then you are participating in his propaganda network.

Posted by erronis | Sun Jan 22, 2023, 08:08 PM (6 replies)

Salon: Making excuses for dictators is nothing new: "Mr. Republican" and the Nazis

https://www.salon.com/2023/01/07/making-excuses-for-dictators-is-nothing-new-mr-republican-and-the-nazis/
(via Digsby: https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/07/the-american-nazi-history/)

Readers may be familiar with Rachel Maddow's explosive new podcast, "Ultra." It tells the incredible story of a German spy who infiltrated Congress in 1940-41, inducing two dozen congressmen and senators to spread Nazi propaganda in floor speeches, op-ed columns and constituent mailings. Simultaneously, armed extremist groups began training for a violent takeover of the country. In many ways, the eight-decades-old story is a disturbing forerunner of the Trump era.

Contrary to our nostalgic memories of unity, America was deeply divided over the war in Europe, military aid to Britain, and whether fascism was the wave of the future that we might as well submit to. While political division on the eve of entry into the war was not uniformly partisan (some prominent Democrats supported isolationism), the GOP was by far the party that stood for America First and strict noninvolvement in foreign conflict.

That members of Congress would willingly become conduits for Nazi propaganda shows that for some, sincere concern to stay out of war was not their only motivation. There was surprisingly strong domestic sympathy for Hitler and the fascist powers. Those who actively worked for Germany crossed the line into subversion and treason, but even mainstream proponents of isolationism showed a tolerant understanding for fascism that, decades later, seems either shockingly naïve or disgracefully callous.

It is easy enough to write off Father Coughlin or Charles Lindbergh for their overt antisemitism and admiration of totalitarian regimes. But there is one America Firster who to this day is almost universally celebrated by the GOP as a statesman exemplifying pure, principled conservatism: three-time aspirant for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Robert A. Taft. He was such a pillar of the GOP that he was dubbed Mr. Republican.

Posted by erronis | Sat Jan 7, 2023, 04:00 PM (7 replies)

Secret Commandos with Shoot-to-Kill Authority Were at the Capitol

Source: Newsweek

On Sunday, January 3, the heads of a half-dozen elite government special operations teams met in Quantico, Virginia, to go over potential threats, contingencies, and plans for the upcoming Joint Session of Congress. The meeting, and the subsequent deployment of these shadowy commandos on January 6, has never before been revealed.

Right after the New Year, Jeffrey A. Rosen, the acting Attorney General on January 6, approved implementation of long-standing contingency plans dealing with the most extreme possibilities: an attack on President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence, a terrorist attack involving a weapon of mass destruction, and a declaration of measures to implement continuity of government, requiring protection and movement of presidential successors.

...

On the morning of January 6, most of these forces staged closer to downtown Washington, particularly after intelligence was received indicating a possible threat to FBI headquarters building or the FBI's Washington Field Office. FBI tactical teams arrived on Capitol Hill early in the day to assist in the collection of evidence at sites—including the Republican and Democratic party national headquarters—where explosive devices were found. FBI SWAT teams and snipers were deployed to secure nearby congressional office buildings. Other FBI agents provided selective security around the U.S. Capitol and protection to congressional members and staff.

The presence of these extraordinary forces under the control of the Attorney General—and mostly operating under contingency plans that Congress and the U.S. Capitol Police were not privy to—added an additional layer of highly armed responders. The role that the military played in this highly classified operation is still unknown, though FBI sources tell Newsweek that military operators seconded to the FBI, and those on alert as part of the National Mission Force, were present in the metropolitan area. The lingering question is: What was it that the Justice Department saw that provoked it to see January 6 as an extraordinary event, something that the other agencies evidently missed.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-secret-commandos-shoot-kill-authority-were-capitol-1661330

Posted by erronis | Wed Jan 4, 2023, 07:35 AM (11 replies)

A newspaper vanished from the internet. Did someone pay to kill it? WAPO

Cross posted in GD at https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217463717 based on request.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/14/hook-charlottesville-vanished-archive/
Archived: https://archive.vn/lr6Rl

The Hook, a beloved Charlottesville weekly, closed a decade ago but its archives lived on — until its 22,000 stories were suddenly taken offline in June. Former staffers have theories about its mystery buyer.

One day in early June, a swath of Charlottesville’s history all but vanished from the internet.

Thousands of stories reported by the Hook — a defunct local paper whose online archives nevertheless had continued to inform historians, residents and public officials — disappeared. Anyone trying to read old stories about the university town’s sagas, scandals and sundry crimes was greeted by the same error message: “Sorry!”

In many ways, the erasure of the alternative weekly, whose print and online journalism ranged from nightlife listings to deep investigative work, isn’t unusual. Historians have long warned about the decay of digital news archives, which are increasingly falling victim to mishandling, indifference, bankruptcies and technical failures.

But some of the Hook’s founding journalists suspect the archive didn’t simply expire from natural causes. They think someone paid to kill it.

One of those people was Curtis N. Ofori, now a D.C.-based investment banker and accountant. Ofori was a 21-year-old junior at U-Va. in 2004, when another student accused him of raping her in her room. After an investigation, an associate dean wrote that Ofori “used very bad judgment,” but said the university “was not able to conclude at the clear and convincing level” that he committed sexual assault, and so found him “not guilty,” according to a copy of a letter detailing its findings. Police investigated, but city prosecutors declined to file charges, Ofori’s lawyer would later state in a letter to the Hook.

The tipster had noticed that beginning in January — shortly after Spencer thinks the Hook’s archive was sold — an entity calling itself Experiential Solutions began sending takedown requests to Google, complaining that various news sites, blogs and discussion forums were infringing on the Hook’s copyrights. As catalogued on a Harvard University-hosted database called Lumen, the requests continued through late August and targeted 18 different web pages that reference alleged violent incidents at U-Va. The vast majority of the pages have one common denominator: the Ofori case.

An analysis by The Post found that 14 of the 18 targeted pages referenced Ofori, his accuser or her mother, or linked to Hook articles that did. Three of the pages cited the Hook’s 2011 article detailing the rape accusations. One of Experiential’s complaints targeted the same Russell document that Ofori tried to get delisted from Google in 2020. Google acted on at least 10 of Experiential’s complaints, removing those pages from search results.

From the comments section:

I didn't know that Curtis Ofori was (allegedly) a rapist, and never would have...but now I do. And I'm pretty sure this story is going to be at the top of any search results for him forevermore.

So if his goal was to hide his past (alleged) sexual assault, well...great job, Curtis Ofori. Now the whole nation knows that you're so afraid of your past that you'll literally destroy an entire paper's archives just to hide it.

Thank goodness for Archive.org, at least until Ofori gets ahold of that, too.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150907001809/http://www.readthehook.com/102337/unsilenced-how-mother-fought-protect-her-daughter-and-yours
Yes, this. It's difficult to understand how someone could report this story and not make reference to The Hook's continued existence on the Internet Archive. Which is, of course, precisely why the Archive was created in the first place.

Posted by erronis | Fri Dec 16, 2022, 12:20 PM (1 replies)

A newspaper vanished from the internet. Did someone pay to kill it? WAPO

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/14/hook-charlottesville-vanished-archive/
Archived: https://archive.vn/lr6Rl

The Hook, a beloved Charlottesville weekly, closed a decade ago but its archives lived on — until its 22,000 stories were suddenly taken offline in June. Former staffers have theories about its mystery buyer.

One day in early June, a swath of Charlottesville’s history all but vanished from the internet.

Thousands of stories reported by the Hook — a defunct local paper whose online archives nevertheless had continued to inform historians, residents and public officials — disappeared. Anyone trying to read old stories about the university town’s sagas, scandals and sundry crimes was greeted by the same error message: “Sorry!”

In many ways, the erasure of the alternative weekly, whose print and online journalism ranged from nightlife listings to deep investigative work, isn’t unusual. Historians have long warned about the decay of digital news archives, which are increasingly falling victim to mishandling, indifference, bankruptcies and technical failures.

But some of the Hook’s founding journalists suspect the archive didn’t simply expire from natural causes. They think someone paid to kill it.

One of those people was Curtis N. Ofori, now a D.C.-based investment banker and accountant. Ofori was a 21-year-old junior at U-Va. in 2004, when another student accused him of raping her in her room. After an investigation, an associate dean wrote that Ofori “used very bad judgment,” but said the university “was not able to conclude at the clear and convincing level” that he committed sexual assault, and so found him “not guilty,” according to a copy of a letter detailing its findings. Police investigated, but city prosecutors declined to file charges, Ofori’s lawyer would later state in a letter to the Hook.

The tipster had noticed that beginning in January — shortly after Spencer thinks the Hook’s archive was sold — an entity calling itself Experiential Solutions began sending takedown requests to Google, complaining that various news sites, blogs and discussion forums were infringing on the Hook’s copyrights. As catalogued on a Harvard University-hosted database called Lumen, the requests continued through late August and targeted 18 different web pages that reference alleged violent incidents at U-Va. The vast majority of the pages have one common denominator: the Ofori case.

An analysis by The Post found that 14 of the 18 targeted pages referenced Ofori, his accuser or her mother, or linked to Hook articles that did. Three of the pages cited the Hook’s 2011 article detailing the rape accusations. One of Experiential’s complaints targeted the same Russell document that Ofori tried to get delisted from Google in 2020. Google acted on at least 10 of Experiential’s complaints, removing those pages from search results.

From the comments section:

I didn't know that Curtis Ofori was (allegedly) a rapist, and never would have...but now I do. And I'm pretty sure this story is going to be at the top of any search results for him forevermore.

So if his goal was to hide his past (alleged) sexual assault, well...great job, Curtis Ofori. Now the whole nation knows that you're so afraid of your past that you'll literally destroy an entire paper's archives just to hide it.

Thank goodness for Archive.org, at least until Ofori gets ahold of that, too.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150907001809/http://www.readthehook.com/102337/unsilenced-how-mother-fought-protect-her-daughter-and-yours
Yes, this. It's difficult to understand how someone could report this story and not make reference to The Hook's continued existence on the Internet Archive. Which is, of course, precisely why the Archive was created in the first place.

Posted by erronis | Wed Dec 14, 2022, 02:28 PM (8 replies)

Goodbye to the Once and Former Shitty Crustpunk Bar - EmptyWheel

Please read to understand why Democratic UnderGround should not be posting links to twitter content.

Unfortunately, Elon Musk figured out how to get inside this OODA loop.

He bought the bar. He was simply faster at doing this than Paul Singer was back in 2019.

And now the once-beloved shitty crustpunk bar which many of us could comfortably call home is now a goddamned Nazi pub.

The longer you stay there, the more that shit rubs off on you: you’re one of the Nazi watering hole’s patrons.

You’re a Nazi by association.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/12/09/three-things-goodbye-to-the-once-and-former-shitty-crustpunk-bar/

An excellent piece by Rayne.

Posted by erronis | Fri Dec 9, 2022, 04:52 PM (6 replies)

Big lies may have big consequences : Narain Batra

https://vtdigger.org/2022/11/09/narain-batra-big-lies-may-have-big-consequences/

I find his analysis particularly acute. We can only fight lies with truth - not by trying to control the lies.

Donald Trump and Liz Cheney are both the offspring of American democracy and historically it has always been a struggle between such people. In closed authoritarian societies, if a lie is repeated 10 times, as the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels asserted, it will become believable — but not for long, as the postwar Germans discovered. And as My Pillow guy Mike Lindell, Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others too would discover soon.

Nobody has a monopoly on truth; therefore, the First Amendment, in essence, says: Speak up fearlessly so that truth might emerge.

In the marketplace of ideas, when robust and uninhibited discussion about public issues leads to inaccurate information or misinformation, the remedy is not censorship or suppression of the information, however outrageous it may be.

Relentless fight against falsehood is the only way, but it requires people of tremendous moral courage, time and patience, and financial resources to dig out the truth and punish the liar.

The Jan. 6 Committee, the bipartisan select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, is an exemplar of the collective moral courage for the truth to be established, regardless of the consequences, so that American democracy renews itself as it did after the Watergate, which brought down Richard Nixon.

Donald Trump and Liz Cheney are both the offspring of American democracy and historically it has always been a struggle between such people. In closed authoritarian societies, if a lie is repeated 10 times, as the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels asserted, it will become believable — but not for long, as the postwar Germans discovered. And as My Pillow guy Mike Lindell, Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others too would discover soon.

At the core of American democracy is a dynamic system of fundamental rights that empowers the individual, limits the government, and decentralizes and distributes power. But no fundamental right is absolute because your right to free speech might interfere with someone’s right to a fair trial, invade someone’s privacy and cause emotional harm, or ruin someone’s business reputation. If the First Amendment’s broad tolerance for all kinds and shades of speech leads to defamation, damage to one’s reputation, threat to security or emotional hurt, the price can be very high.

The conspiracy theorist and Infowars host Alex Jones found out that the First Amendment does not protect the reckless disregard of truth, deliberately telling lies, or what the Supreme Court called “actual malice.” The jury asked Alex Jones to pay $965 million in damages to the Sandy Hook Elementary School families for telling lies about the shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six educators on Dec. 14, 2012. It took about a decade for justice to be done, but that’s how the justice system in a democracy works. Libel is a strong antidote against reckless liars taking shelter under the First Amendment umbrella.

Alex Jones is a small fry compared to a most politically powerful global media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox News not only allowed the spread of the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election; but also accused Dominion Voting Systems of using a faulty algorithm that made it possible for voter fraud to occur and steal the election from Donald Trump.

Moreover, Fox News hosts said without any evidence that the Dominion Systems, the Toronto election technology company, was a cover for the Venezuelan communist government of late Hugo Chavez.

In an interview with Anderson Cooper on CBS “60 Minutes,” Dominion Systems’ John Poulos said the Fox News’ deliberate and reckless falsehood has not only damaged the company’s reputation, but also: "People have been put into danger. Their families have been put into danger. Their lives have been upended and all because of lies. It was a very clear calculation that they knew they were lies. And they were repeating them and endorsing them."

Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp., is rather complicated because it raises the question of the freedom of the press under the First Amendment, and the media’s right to report news, especially about a prominent politician’s allegations about electoral machine-enabled voter fraud.

Then-President Donald Trump’s tweets were always a source of media news regardless of their authenticity. Neither Fox News nor any other media company could have ignored it when, for example, Trump tweeted, "We have a company that's very suspect. Its name is Dominion. With the turn of a dial or the change of a chip, you could press a button for Trump and the vote goes to Biden. What kind of a system is this?”

Good journalism is based on: Trust but verify, and then report. Fox News should have known.

Dominion’s case argues that Fox News hosts knew the allegations against the company were baseless; nonetheless, they recklessly and knowingly went on repeating them and also allowed their invited guest speakers to do so. Moreover, according to the case, they wouldn’t have done it without the knowledge of Fox Co. chairman Rupert Murdoch and CEO Lachlan Murdoch. Their irresponsible actions not only caused tremendous harm to the company’s reputation, the suit alleges, but they also jeopardized the safety of their employees.

When the case goes to trial, the crucial question before the jury will be: Did Fox Corp.’s top executives know that the voter fraud allegations against the Dominion Voting Systems Corp. were false, but nevertheless allowed Fox News hosts and guests to keep broadcasting the lie?

More importantly, what role did major news media organizations such as Fox Corp. play in the 2020 presidential elections in diminishing voters’ trust in the electoral system and, consequently, people's faith in democracy?

Posted by erronis | Wed Nov 9, 2022, 03:28 PM (3 replies)

U.S.A. the Envy of World After Ten Billion Dollars in Campaign Ads Changes Almost Nothing

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/usa-the-envy-of-world-after-ten-billion-dollars-in-campaign-ads-changes-almost-nothing

Borowitz, people.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (The Borowitz Report)—The United States of America has become the envy of the world after a ten-billion-dollar expenditure on political advertising changed virtually nothing.

People around the globe marvelled at a democracy so robust it could withstand an outlay of cash greater than the gross domestic product of nations such as Tajikistan, Montenegro, and Somalia.

“In my country, I would worry that spending ten billion dollars on campaign ads would result in the entire government being ousted,” a resident of Tajikistan said. “But America is such a great nation that you can spend that much and the results are barely detectable.”

“When you imagine what you could do with ten billion dollars, you immediately think of building new roads or schools,” a citizen of Montenegro said. “But America’s roads and schools must be in excellent shape, if they can afford to spend ten billion dollars on elections instead.”

“Ten billion dollars could pay for a lot of solar panels, wind farms, and other measures to mitigate climate change,” a resident of Somalia said. “Thank heavens Americans realized that political advertising is the thing that makes them No. 1 in the world and decided to spend it on that.”

Posted by erronis | Wed Nov 9, 2022, 01:35 PM (3 replies)

Shankar Vendantam (Hidden Brain): You don't actually know what your future self wants

https://www.ted.com/talks/shankar_vedantam_you_don_t_actually_know_what_your_future_self_wants

Excellent TED presentation. I'd post in the video forum but my prior attempts don't work there.

All about understanding ourselves as we age and understanding that we (usually) won't know who we'll be in 10 or 20 or 30 years.

Posted by erronis | Fri Oct 7, 2022, 02:23 PM (1 replies)