TSN Open Mic for the week of 12/26/2022
There’s a phenomenon where someone writes an essay about this or that but someone else wants to discuss something that has not yet made it to Ten Second News.
This is unfair to everybody involved. It’s unfair to the guy who wrote the original essay because, presumably, he wants to talk about his original essay. It’s unfair to the guy who wants to talk about his link because it looks like he’s trying to change the subject. It’s unfair to the people who go to the comments to read up on the thoughts of the commentariat for the original essay and now we’re talking about some other guy’s links.
So!
The intention is to have a new one of these on the Sidebar every week. If you want to talk about a link, post it here! Or, heck, use it as an open thread.
And, if it rolls off, we’ll make a new one. With a preamble just like this one.
Boxing Day news dump.
The one that I kinda thought was interesting was #16.
Did you know that Twitter hired contractors in the Phillipines to be moderators? I did not know that.Report
Finally, the cow paste posters get their moment in the spotlight. LOL.Report
Twitter Files Episode #2,396; In Which We Make Fetch Happen!Report
No, this is not about the crazies on the right — it’s about legitimate disagreements with the official US govt policies and recommendations, and the challenges Twitter (and other social media) faced with how to react to pressure to police “misinformation”. It’s actually an interesting read, for those who can set aside the whole us-vs-them dynamic for a bit — could make for a good discussion about what Twitter did right or wrong or the best they reasonably could.Report
My whole problem with the presentation of this thread is that it starts out with Trump administration pressure about panic buying but then goes after Biden almost exclusively and perports to show more heavy handed context moderation under Biden the Trump. Which may it may not be true but as a reader you can’t tell. But because of the linear nature of the tweets it appears that things got worse under Biden. Which may or may not actually be true.
The other thing the thread shows – but the author studiously avoids – is how the moderation by AI is very imperfect, and how Twitter appears to have tried to overcome that with imperfect humans. That would be an excellent story but all we are left with is “Twitter midst bad under Trump on Covid but major bad under Biden.” Which I do t think is true, helpful or revealing in any real way.Report
I would avoid even the appearance of a “Both Sides Do It” kind of argument. There are people in these comments that see such an admission as a fallacy in and of itself.
That said, I prefer to start with a general principle and then apply it generally rather than look at teams and then try to reverse-engineer something.Report
But this doesn’t allow the vague and hazy inchoate “anti-establishment” types on the internet to get their rocks off.Report
The only thing this whole moronic Twitter files thing has demonstrated is that a frightening percentage of Americans get there news from ill-informed dimwits who post there.Report
That’s a frighteningly common practice across all of the IT and social media space.Report
The interesting thing to me is that we can finally see why the US maintained such an outlier of a covid strategy for children. It seemed obvious to me that we were following different policies, but I couldn’t understand why the average citizen didn’t notice.
Our threads keep coming back to the question of percentages banned by political leaning, and it’d be nice to see the data. I’m not sure it’s possible though, due to the sheer number of cases and the difficulty in classification. I’d like to see the percentages on the special cases, at least. Seeing as Twitter denied any shadow banning, though, and conservatives were claiming that it was real, the point goes to the right for now.Report
Greg Abbot shows us what Republicans are, episode the umpteenth:
Migrants bused from Texas arrive at VP’s house on frigid Christmas Eve
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2022/12/25/migrants-dc-christmas-eve
But luckily for the migrants, DC is full of liberals:
Volunteers scrambled to meet the asylum seekers after the buses, which were scheduled to arrive in New York on Christmas Day, were rerouted due to the winter weather. In a hastily arranged welcoming, a church on Capitol Hill agreed to temporarily shelter the group while one of the mutual aid groups, SAMU First Response, arranged 150 breakfasts, lunches and dinners by the restaurant chain Sardis.
“D.C. continues to be welcoming,” the network’s core organizer, Amy Fischer, told The Washington Post. “Whether it’s Christmas Eve, whether it’s freezing cold outside or warm outside, we are always ready to welcome people with open arms and make sure they have a warm reception in this community.”Report
Where is Richard Widmark when we need him?Report
I’ve seen it said that if you just plainly and honestly tell people about Republican policies, they will refuse to believe you, convinced it must be wild hyperbole.
Like, “The Republican Governor will round up a group of terrified refugees and dump them in a faraway city in subfreezing weather without support services. On Christmas Eve. And then go to church and performatively pray to Gawd while listening to a story about refugees turned away from shelter. And a chorus of conservative pundits would smirk and chortle over the cleverness of the stunt.”
No one would believe this. A Hollywood script editor would throw it out the window as too over the top.Report
Took me a minute or two, but I finally got it. Ooooo. Nasty. But funny as hell.Report
So while I agree overall with the heartlessness, I am going to pick a nit – lots of Americans got stranded in lots of places as well by the storm. Many are only just now getting where they were trying to go. If indeed these folks were going to NYC then I suspect NYC was ready for them – albeit a readiness that should be coordinated by the federal authorities whose job it is to handle immigration.Report
There are, as the article makes clear, networks of immigrant aid support groups in every city, and they know each other, and regularly communicate.
The organizers of these busses could easily have contacted the DC group and arranged to meet them somewhere for an orderly transfer and suitable provisions. But they chose not to.
They didn’t even need to take them to New York. New York and DC are farther away from Texas than San Diego or Tucson, where the weather is milder, and there are also support and aid organizations.
Everything here was by plan and choice. The chortling response from the usual rightwing pundits underscores the point which is, as always, the cruelty.Report
Another Putin critic somehow falls out a window and dies:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64101437Report
You will never guess who has been to Russia many times!!
https://www.alternet.org/george-santos-been-to-moscow/Report
If Santos is a Russian plant, he is either a very reckless one or Putin is really getting careless and wants his spies to reveal who they are to mock the United States.Report
Both concepts may be true.Report
It seems law enforcement is now interested. Too bad McCarthy needs every one of his votes just to become Speaker.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1145950468/n-y-rep-elect-george-santos-is-being-investigated-for-lying-about-his-pastReport
The article didn’t even hint at what he’s being investigated for.Report
My guess is the various agencies – from County to Federal – are looking at a variety of things from his questionable finances to his lying about his resume – which may be fraud under some statute. If they had settled on an issue then it would likely be characterized as such.Report
I don’t see how lying on a resume could be a crime. On an official document, sure. But just lying in day-to-day life isn’t a crime. Even questionable finances aren’t a crime, although they may indicate one. More broadly, I don’t like the idea that a person is discovered to be immoral so he’s investigated for illegalities. And I don’t want to see criminal investigations triggered by breaking political news. That should set off anyone’s corruption radar.Report
How do you feel about Hunter Biden?
Using those lies to obtain things of value – be it campaign donations or a Congressional seat – may violate fraud laws. Granted those are generally civil penalties not criminal ones, but at the state and county level they are generally investigated by the same agencies.
Then I presume you believe John Dunham’s investigation was a waste of taxpayer funds?Report
– Hunter Biden should be investigated for criminal matters, not for being an awful person.
– You just said that lying to obtain a Congressional seat may violate fraud laws. Do you not see the danger in this formulation?
– I don’t remember the Durham investigation, so I looked it up. The executive branch has the authority to investigate the executive branch. I don’t know if funds were wasted, but that’s not what I’m talking about.Report
The genesis of the Hunter Biden investigation was political opposition research by the Trump campaign which (before his laptop was found) included allegations of improper but not illegal double dealing in Ukraine. You know the thing that Mr. Trump was impeached for the first time? After all is said and done he MAY be indicted on tax fraud charges, if that. but the investigation started for political reasons, not allegations of criminal wrong doing. Do you see a problem with that in light of your other statements?
If you lie about your qualifications to represent your constituents, how do they trust you to do their business? That aside, if you take in campaign contributions based on who you allege yourself to be, and then it turns out you are someone else, you are receiving those funds under false pretenses. Again that may be a civil matter, but its critical to the functioning of democracy.
Dunham’s investigations were triggered by Trump’s displeasure at having his dirty political laundry aired by the Mueller Report (a breaking political story if ever there was one).Report
I should have said “Hunter Biden should be criminally investigated for criminal matters, not for being an awful person”. Opposition research is a different matter.
Santos’s opponent failed at opposition research. The voters didn’t have the negative information. But the voters did what they’re supposed to, and made their choice on the basis of available information. Santos won. The criminal justice system shouldn’t be a redo.
Back to the other point. Are you familiar with the concept of “proving too much”? The argument you make about a candidate lying on a resume could be expanded to include lying in general. Why wouldn’t the courts be called in to verify every candidate’s statements? And how would such a thing not turn political?
On the last point, if you’re right about the facts then the investigation wasn’t caused by political news reporting per se, but by the revelation of potential improper action.Report
There are also possible campaign finance violations, some of which go back to his earlier campaigns. FWIW, I don’t see a state crime here off the top of my head, but that’s not something I would be in a position to opine responsibly about unless I did a lot more work than I am inclined to do. If the responsible authorities come up with something, I’ll look at it and might have something useful to say then. For now, I’ll wait and see.Report
It looks like he used campaign funds to pay rent and live the high life including spending $14,000 at one Italian restaurant in Little Neck, Queens. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/nyregion/george-santos-campaign-finance.htmlReport
The money is the story here. It is so blantant you wonder if they didn’t think this guy would win and was just moving money through his campaign for other purposes.Report
I think no one expected he would win. He was defeated soundly in 2020 but then had a series of lucky events.
1. The debacle of NY’s redistricting made the district slightly more Republican friendly;
2. Blue suburbs of Long Island (or even NYC itself) are not blue like the West Coast or Massachusetts. This part is harder to articulate but they are generally socially liberal but not in a hippie crunchy way. They are also more economically conservative. You can’t be a fire and brimstone preacher damning women for having abortions or gay people for being gay but discussing systemic racism does not go far either. Plus they get more concerned about “crime.”
1a. Related, Bay Area suburbanites have a lot less antagonism towards SF and Oakland than all other New Yorkers have towards NYC.
Long Island switched back red this year after 20 years of being light blue (before that it was a Republican stronghold) I suspect it is not permanent but it was something.Report
It shouldn’t matter if he wins. What matters is violation of law.Report
Some how the “psychic” did not see a defamation lawsuit coming: https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2022/12/a-tiktok-psychic-claimed-to-have-solved-the-university-of-idaho-murders-her-suspect-is-suing.htmlReport
In yet another sign of the times, more local newspapers are going digital only. While its a trend that we all need to embrace, given what we found out about internet access in 2020 during the pandemic, moving to all digital takes trusted local news sources out of some people’s hands.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1143410955/newspaper-alabama-digital-journalism-birmingham-huntsville-mobileReport
A breakdown of Hollywood’s loss in stock value in 2022. I wouldn’t have thought theaters and streaming would crash at the same time, but it happened. Disney’s big enough to survive the the bursting of the superhero bubble, but Warner might not.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/hollywood-stocks-take-big-hits-in-2022-1235285948/Report
The copyrights on early versions of two Disney properties, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh, have expired or soon will. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/business/mickey-mouse-disney-public-domain.html
Making commercial use of them, however, will be tricky. Winnie’s distinctive red t-shirt did not appear until later publications still under copyright. And although Steamboat Willie will enter the public domain, Disney had already released the movie to YouTube, making it unlikely that anyone could profit from reproducing it. Also, the Mickey in the public domain will be the thin, mute, rat-like and rather nasty version in the movie, not the more familiar, chubby, squeaky-voice and benign version we all know and many of us love.
Some years ago, most of the Sherlock Holmes stories were ruled to be in the public domain, though some later stories, which will come into the public domain in 2023, were then still under copyright. As a result, if you wrote a Sherlock Homes story, you couldn’t use character elements first revealed in the later stories, like Watson’s previously unrevealed athletic talents. But soon …..John Watson, rugby star!Report
The Conspiracy Theorist in me has noted the upcoming “Blood and Honey” film as a way to get the public to say something like “maybe copyright protection isn’t so bad?”
Report
Looking forward to it.Report
Pope Emeritus Benedict has died:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/31/pope-benedict-dead/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f001Report
A portrait of a careerist and empty soul. Also one of basic authoritarianism because she felt respected was owed instead of earned: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/31/us/politics/elise-stefanik.htmlReport