Dan Gillmor

Bio and disclosures: dangillmor.com/about/ Boosts mean I think you should see this -- usually but not always an endorsement.

California, Nara, Arizona etc. · dangillmor.com

Personal site: https://dangillmor.com
Journalists, please leave Twitter and join the fediverse. Here's how to get started:: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/01/04/journalists-and-others-should-leave-twitter-heres-how-they-can-get-started/

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[email protected]

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nos.lol

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Last Notes

2024-09-14 04:21:46

If the software-enhanced Apple earbuds, now with FDA approval, end up even close in usefulness for people with hearing problems, the most expensive iPhone+earbuds will be cheaper than stand-alone hearing aids from an industry that has been a customer-unfriendly cartel for decades.
My (now-former) health insurance just paid >$3,000 for hearing aids. (I was among the fortunate few with health insurance covering them.)
Big changes coming...

2024-08-23 05:10:14

Hell of a speech...

2024-08-23 01:52:51

There's a level of jingoism in the Democratic convention that makes me uncomfortable...

2024-08-22 22:16:28

Trump has found new sheep to fleece -- the countless people (and businesses) the banks have jettisoned or screwed over.
The cryptocurrency scammers fleeced a lot of them in the last bubble. But desperate people will always be targets.
That the most corrupt president in U.S. history is involved in this is, somehow, perfectly in keeping with where we are as a nation.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/22/24226184/trump-defiant-ones-cryptocurrency-platform

2024-08-22 20:22:52

- reply

This is a good point. I'm not sure what I can do about it, but I'm looking into the issue. @npub16nr…879s

2024-08-22 19:48:17

Topics in the latest edition of my "Cornerstone of democracy" newsletter -- a compendium of the best of political reporting/commentary (and more) -- include:
-- catharsis in Chicago
-- what's at stake
-- voting rights
-- capitalism at its worst
-- crap fact-checking
I curate to save you time. Please subscribe (it's free), and let me know about great work I've missed.
https://cornerstone.ghost.io/essentials-august-21-2024/

2024-08-22 05:18:01

- reply

thanks!

2024-08-22 01:56:15

Cryptocurrency barons are flooding the election with money. What they're trying to buy, and may succeed, is impunity.
It's an innately corrupt "marketplace" and will never be honorable. It rips off suckers. But with impunity, who needs integrity.
https://www.citizen.org/article/big-crypto-big-spending-2024/

2024-08-21 22:10:53

If RFKjr drops out and endorses Trump, it'll be because he realized his third-party campaign was going to help Harris.
He and Trump are fellow travelers in the anti-vax movement -- enemies of public health.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/rfk-jr-plans-drop-presidential-race-end-week/story?id=113028999

2024-08-21 21:25:48

"The damage inflicted on the nation during Donald Trump’s first term in office pales in comparison with what he will do if he is elected to a second term. How can we know this? The best evidence is Trump himself. He has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to tear the country apart."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/21/opinion/trump-second-term-2025.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ek4.EBax._VN-vFv33X-Z&smid=url-share

2024-08-21 18:43:23

Wall Street banks have realized what suckers Elon Musk made of them in the Twitter buyout. https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/21/banks-realize-backing-elons-twitter-buyout-is-close-to-the-worst-buyout-of-all-time/

2024-08-20 20:59:04

"Is there any lamer story than the media whining about access?"
Axios has it:
https://www.semafor.com/article/08/19/2024/a-friendly-media-grows-grumbly-in-chicago

2024-08-20 18:56:24

Of course RFKjr and his running mate -- virulent anti-vaxxers -- are looking at endorsing Trump, whose contempt for public health took countless lives and will, if he gets back in power, consume countless more.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/20/rfk-jr-campaign-trump-alliance-shanahan.html

2024-08-20 06:33:04

Maureen Dowd isn't just a raging hypocrite. She's illiterate. She doesn't know what a coup is. And she was one of the countless NY Times people yelling at Biden to drop out.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/992/474/454/104/476/original/a4f74a5b069f1957.png

2024-08-20 05:15:35

Are the Dems really going to put Biden on after midnight Eastern time?

2024-08-17 01:01:12

The Washington Post editorial page has definitely moved to the right in recent years. Its trashing of Harris' (admittedly not perfect) economic plan is shallow, and mostly wrong. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/16/harris-economy-plan-gimmicks/

2024-08-16 03:58:05

- reply

I'll stick with loathing his current dangerous views.

2024-08-16 03:38:03

I don't care what Vance (or whatever his name was back then) did in high school unless it was violent crime.
Young people deserve a statute of limitations on stupidity.
The alternative is totally corrosive for all of us.

2024-08-15 18:25:44

Harris' (apparent) proposal to make a crime out of grocery "price gouging" could be a major unforced error.
The details will tell us, but we haven't seen an actual plan yet.
What we need is to break up the monopolies and cartels that run pretty much every sector of our economy and restore true competition.
Granular interference with markets won't cut it.

2024-08-15 18:12:40

Oliver Darcy ([@oliverdarcy](https://threads.net/@oliverdarcy/ )) has left CNN to start his own media newsletter, called Status. It looks like the now-shuttered "Reliable Source" but is more plain-spoken.
Today he looks at the double standard surrounding the Trump email leaks that Big Journalism has decided to hide from the public.
https://www.status.news/p/trump-hack-clinton-frustrations

2024-08-15 17:27:09

When I stopped being active at Twitter, I had more than 45,000 followers and a moderate amount of engagement (replies, retweets, etc.).
I have a third fewer followers here, and at least 10 times the genuine engagement. Sure, some bots, but most of it is genuine -- and useful.
I no longer see what (some) people I respect are saying publicly. I miss their thoughts, and wish they'd recognize that by staying active there they are supporting a dangerous extremist.
They feel trapped. They're not.

2024-07-24 06:21:42

Journalists demanding that the Democrats hold an "open convention" aren't interested in a serious debate over the issues.
They're interested in fostering a giant food fight that generates sensationalistic coverage.
Don't be fooled.

2024-07-23 03:23:46

It's vital, over the next few weeks, to remember that Republicans, foreign powers, and extremists will be working to make Democrats and people who vote for them angry with each other.
The goal will be to create turmoil in the party and its followers, and to disrupt the Harris campaign before it gets going.
Do not be fooled by bots and extremists that try to make you hate your allies.

2024-07-16 04:25:21

Trump plans to set up concentration camps for the millions of people he wants to deport.
Suppose he and his fascist browshirts take over America, and that they get away with that utter trashing of human rights.
You don't think they're going to dismantle those concentration camps or leave them empty after the first wave, do you?

2024-07-04 08:58:59

One of my goals at this point is to help reduce the power of the New York Times, which more and more routinely abuses that (often deserved) clout.
The Times made a point of skewering the Clinton campaign in 2016. No doubt the bosses were convinced she'd win anyway. They were preparing for a presidency that they could snipe at in ways that would affect policy.
They're on another campaign now, to push Biden out, and their clout has carried along a lot of other media people.
That's real power.

2024-07-01 23:32:51

Our corrupt Supreme Court didn't authorize a king. It cleared the way for a dictator.

2024-07-01 06:40:32

Why do social media companies make it absurdly time-consuming to adjust privacy settings?
One guess...

2024-06-30 01:20:22

It's tempting to say that the second most significant outcome of the debate was its confirmation that Big Journalism's political coverage -- with a few honorable individual exceptions -- has learned almost nothing from its horrendous failures of the past.
It's worse than that, though.
When the top story remains Biden's terrible fumbling, with broad indifference to the torrent of sewage that came out of Trump's mouth, let's face it.
Journalism is failing again, but on purpose this time.

2024-06-27 01:52:22

Paramount wiped out MTV News archives, and is now taking down old TV clips from the Internet.
Big Media (and small sites, for that matter) won't preserve the archives, so the rest of us will have to do it.
We need to get organized, and create a system that preserves the past. The Copyright Cartel will go nuts, so we need a safe way around them.
I hope smart people are working on this, right now. Because media companies don't give a damn about history.
https://www.indiewire.com/news/business/paramount-taking-down-entire-websites-tv-clips-mtv-comedy-central-cmt-1235020544/

2024-06-24 04:22:38

A friend who says he/she's expressing displeasure with Biden by voting for RFKjr, Jill Stein, Cornell West, or any other third-party candidate in this year's presidential election will no longer be a friend.
They'll have all kinds of twisted logic explaining that they're doing something honorable. But the reality is pretty simple: Those votes for spoilers are effectively votes for Trump.

2024-06-21 09:07:46

EU surveillance mavens didn't have the votes to force tech companies to neuter their encryption, so they cancelled -- for now -- a vote.
This is obviously not the end of the matter. Governments absolutely hate the notion that they can't spy on everything, everyone, everywhere. So this dangerous measure will be back.
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-council-cancels-vote-on-encryption-breaking-child-sexual-abuse-law/

2024-06-21 06:41:22

Stanford University's contempt for journalism it doesn't like is on full display here.
Just reprehensible, and it should put to rest some of the longstanding mythology about the school's political leanings. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/stanford-presses-prosecution-student-journalist-19523761.php

2024-06-21 06:19:22

This take, by @npub19ua…53cv
on Wikipedia, reliability, and sourcing is excellent.
https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/06/15/Wikipedia-Pain

2024-06-20 03:00:49

Microsoft "AI" won't answer the question, "Who won the 2020 presidential election?"
and it won't explain why it won't answer the question.
Move along, it says...
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/646/236/509/948/882/original/afe08b588903ba3b.png

2024-06-18 02:42:45

There are at least 5 newsletters I'd pay for if they were hosted anywhere but Substack.

2024-06-18 01:23:59

The Washington Post is doing catch-up on the scandal in its newsroom and boardroom, but this piece is a wowser. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/06/16/washington-post-editor-robert-winnett/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzE4NTEwNDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzE5ODkyNzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MTg1MTA0MDAsImp0aSI6ImM3MTFjMDc4LWRkZDktNDI1My1iMjdlLTk2NGRjYjY1YWE0OSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9pbnZlc3RpZ2F0aW9ucy8yMDI0LzA2LzE2L3dhc2hpbmd0b24tcG9zdC1lZGl0b3Itcm9iZXJ0LXdpbm5ldHQvIn0.DDD4jH-fy-kVcuOwQgpkRM0T-cO17vfxEMsful9ttEw
What's increasingly obvious is that Jeff Bezos needs to clean house at the top -- to undo the terrible harm he's done by appointing an ethically challenged (putting it politely) former Murdoch apparatchik as CEO.

2024-06-17 06:55:39

The New York Times senses "authoritarian overtones" in Trump's loudly stated plans to wreck our democracy.
Ya think?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/630/176/471/832/447/original/e764eaf0cc465350.png

2024-06-17 01:02:20

If anything defines late-stage capitalism, it's hard to top the $46 billion gift that Musk gave himself via his handpicked board of directors and cult-like shareholders.

2024-06-16 10:03:11

As dissent and protest get increasingly criminalized, it's vital for protesters and dissenters to protect themselves -- to the degree possible -- from surveillance.
The @npub1m24…d9a3 offers a useful guide.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/surveillance-defense-campus-protests
Note: You should read this even if you aren't a protester, because the right wing (and sadly some misguided folks on the left) are increasingly willing to trample freedom of expression.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

2024-06-16 03:46:03

Liberals who think protesters are the enemy are actively encouraging the police state that Trump world wants to impose on America.
They should understand this, but they are either willfully dense, or myopic.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/liberal-police-state-campus-protests/

2024-06-15 10:18:25

The endlessly deceitful Republican Party and its right-wing media collaborators manipulated that "wandering" Biden video to make it show -- as they so often do -- an outright lie.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/14/cheapfake-biden-videos-enrapture-right-wing-media-deeply-mislead/

2024-06-15 08:23:05

The Washington Post's @npub1583…n8ql has more details about Stanford University's cowardly and cynical closing of the invaluable Internet Observatory.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/06/14/stanford-internet-observatory-disinformation-research-lawsuits-politics/
The most important part of this debacle is the message it sends:
Right wing extremists -- possessing limitless bad faith, ample money, and subpoena power -- can silence essential research into the poison they and their deceitful cadres are injecting into our civic bloodstream.

2024-06-15 02:01:35

Over at the deadbird site, the Holocaust Memorial says, We have a feeling that the X algorithm is not in our favor."
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/617/696/596/800/341/original/7ef5b1992323cdb3.png

2024-06-14 06:35:44

First, "Open"AI made it clear that money is the mission, contrary to the social-good promises it made earlier.
It just dropped another shoe, adding a senior Trump-appointed apparatchik to the board of directors.
Many more shoes to drop -- this operation is a centipede.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/06/13/openai-board-paul-nakasone-nsa/

2024-06-14 01:13:34

The massively bad-faith Republican "investigations" -- persecutions to deter truth-telling -- into vital research on right-wing extremism have paid off for the extremists.
In a cowardly but understandable move, Stanford University is dismantling its Internet Observatory, which has been a focus of the Republican lies and attacks.
It's understandable in the way capitulation to Joe McCarthy was understandable in the 1950s before enough people grew spines to stop him.
https://www.platformer.news/stanford-internet-observatory-shutdown-stamos-diresta-sio/

2024-06-13 14:14:10

Microsoft lied through its teeth about the company's culpability in the disastrous Solar Winds breach that gave Russian hackers access to all kinds of info -- including nuclear security -- that was supposedly protected. https://www.propublica.org/article/microsoft-solarwinds-golden-saml-data-breach-russian-hackers
Deep, important report from @npub1qmg…s6k5 --

2024-06-13 02:27:42

Right wing extremists (I know, redundant at this point) are pushing people to drink raw milk. If a bird flu pandemic erupts, millions will probably die. And those vile know-nothings will have helped kill them.
https://www.mediamatters.org/turning-point-usa/turning-point-usa-promoting-drinking-raw-milk-amid-bird-flu-outbreak

2024-06-13 01:37:08

Musk's deadbird site has made "likes" private. This means fascists, racists, and misogynists -- and sympathizers of fascists, racists, and misogynists -- are now free to cheer on other fascists, racists, and misogynists out of the public eye.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/606/267/347/915/649/original/2f379d7b2189e00d.jpeg

2024-06-12 02:12:19

For God's sake, journalists (and everyone else), stop calling right-wing extremists "conservative" -- they are saboteurs, working to wipe out democracy, human rights, a livable environment, and so much more.
(Updated: changed "radicals" to "saboteurs")

2024-06-11 14:47:48

After the Wall Street Journal disgraced itself with that grotesquely sleazy anti-Biden story, the Sinclair Broadcast Group -- a local-station version of Fox "News" -- is using it to add to the right-wing smear campaign.
In its own way, Sinclair is worse than the Murdoch empire -- because many people still trust local news, wrongly in this case.
https://popular.info/p/sinclair-injects-deceptive-attacks

2024-06-11 03:15:06

Academics are still on Twitter, unfortunately. Many of the ones who tried the fediverse gave up fairly quickly (exactly what happened with journalists). Here's a study worth reading, for lessons that Mastodon advocates should heed: https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04005

2024-06-11 02:50:22

As Microsoft, Apple, and Google relentlessly enshittify their operating systems and applications with "AI" -- totally indifferent to the legitimate worries of customers -- they're giving the biggest boost ever to Linux on the desktop.
That's the only good news.
Unfortunately -- and this is a huge problem -- there is no equivalent when it comes to mobile devices. The Apple/Google duopoly is fully entrenched, and the alternatives are minnows in a Big Tech ocean.
How can we fix this?

2024-06-10 06:24:38

Re the Adobe terms of service uproar, the company is claiming that it's all just a misunderstanding.
Anything is possible, but consider:
1) Adobe is a longstanding abuser of the "intellectual property" system. (A former CEO once told me that if the company's software could make copyright effectively permanent, that would be fine.)
2) Every time we hear about one of these licensing "mistakes" it's always -- always -- on the side of giving the company more control, and money.

2024-06-10 01:50:00

I'm working on an experiment to create a fediverse outpost for my small town, as a possible approach to supplementing or (ideally) replacing the Facebook group that currently is the source of news in the community.
Advice on next steps? Looking at various things now e.g.
-- Find a hosting service specialilzing in Mastodon?
-- Install myself at the hosting company I use for my blog?
-- Any good guides for a project like this?

2024-06-10 01:44:33

Microsoft security is too often an oxymoron. Latest example:
"Microsoft's lack of stringent controls and code reviewing mechanisms on the VSCode Marketplace allows threat actors to perform rampant abuse of the platform, with it getting worse as the platform is increasingly used.
"As you can tell by the numbers, there are plethora of extensions that pose risks to organizations on the Visual Studio Code marketplace," warned the researchers."
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/malicious-visual-studio-code-extensions-with-millions-of-installs-discovered/

2024-06-09 06:34:20

It is an ongoing disgrace that journalists continue to support Musk's evil business. If you know a reporter who's using Twitter, please tell him/her to stop disrespecting the audience, and the craft.
https://www.notus.org/media/elon-musk-x-politics-addicted-twitter

2024-06-09 03:27:07

Facebook bots invading forums where people are trying to have conversations with other people is a genuinely evil development.
https://theconversation.com/ai-chatbots-are-intruding-into-online-communities-where-people-are-trying-to-connect-with-other-humans-229473

2024-06-08 03:03:33

And this, from the Washington Post, describes Trump apparatchiks' plans to withhold federal funding from anything they don't like -- blatantly illegal, which as usual is part of their assault on, well, everything other than extremist policies.
https://wapo.st/3XekhX4

2024-06-07 03:20:41

If you use Adobe, you really should stop. https://9to5mac.com/2024/06/06/change-to-adobe-terms-amp-conditions/

2024-06-07 01:27:50

D-Day anniversaries, now more than ever, are solemn reminders that resisting fascism is every generation's duty.
Voting is vital in preserving democracy. It is not nearly enough.

2024-06-06 02:38:15

1. Washington Post CEO came from the Murdoch empire.
2. He has been implicated in the (still not fully unraveled) UK "phone hacking" scandal that exemplified the sleaziness of the Murdoch empire.
3. He told Post editor not to publish a story containing references to his alleged involvement.
4. She published the story.
5. She's gone.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/business/media/washington-post-buzbee-lewis.html

2024-06-06 01:51:56

The Nation magazine devotes its current issue to how Trump and his army of extremist apparatchiks would turn the U.S. into a sicker, more violent version of Orban's Hungary -- or worse.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-democracy-fcc-fec/
This is journalism that does what we need right now.
It is journalism aimed at saving our democracy -- and, by extension, freedom expression, which is one of the most threatened rights should the right wing take full control.
It is the kind of reporting we need from all journalists.

2024-06-06 01:07:36

Corporate landlords routinely rip off tenants, with the help of sleazy software and market concentration. Finally, the feds are going after one of worst offenders, it seems:
https://popular.info/p/feds-raid-corporate-landlord-escalating

2024-06-05 11:46:53

A classic in arrogant web design: NY Times constantly puts a popup over articles in my mobile browser, telling me why I should install the app. The "negative" choice is to say "Not right now" when what I really want is a "Never" option.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/563/371/851/312/865/original/024b2bbdbc746ae5.png

2024-06-05 11:42:54

SF Chronicle online subscription is now close to $240 a year -- while the news content is shrinking amid weaker and weaker reporting.

2024-06-05 01:31:53

Private equity / hedge fund financial engineers are systematically taking over and wrecking industry after industry -- making everything worse except for the people at the top who rake in vast fortunes they've looted from their prey.
Now they've come for bowling alleys, and the results are completely predictable -- and infuriating.
https://www.levernews.com/meet-the-new-kingpin/
If Democrats truly cared about winning back blue collar voters, they would take loud note of this. But they'd have to wake up first.

2024-06-04 04:00:05

A must-read from @npub1qmg…s6k5: New investigation details "significant financial benefits" that have gone from Trump world to witnesses in his court cases -- is not surprising, in a way.
https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-criminal-cases-witnesses-financial-benefits
Only the latest, and perhaps starkest yet, reminder that it's all corruption, all the time in Trump world.
I hear that Trump apparatchiks were trying to get this article suppressed, so please read it and pass along the link to everyone you know.

2024-06-03 03:27:47

The Washington Post is about to lurch sharply to the right politically as former Murdoch apparatchik solidifies his grip on the organization. Current editor Buzbee is out, and he's bringing in people from Murdoch's Wall Street Journal and the Telegraph (right-wing UK news org).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/06/02/sally-buzbee-washington-post-steps-down/

2024-06-02 06:47:11

Venture capitalists have dreamed up new schemes to cash out of the "AI" companies they've funded. A lot of people are going to lose a lot of money before this is over -- but the VCs are working hard to ensure it won't be them.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/01/vcs-are-selling-shares-of-hot-ai-companies-like-anthropic-and-xai-to-small-investors-in-a-wild-spv-market/?guccounter=1

2024-06-01 03:24:02

So Threads on Mastodon is read-only. If that doesn't change, there will be little point in allowing those posts to show up in my timeline.

2024-06-01 03:22:11

Another case of Democrats whimpering in the corner: They subpoena the extremist in charge of funding all kinds of right-wing projects. He says, "Up yours." Nothing happens.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/05/leonard-leo-ignoring-senate-subpoena.html

2024-06-01 01:33:04

I've been using the Chromium browser for certain websites, and that's about to end.
Google's greed-fueled moves -- this time to disable vital extensions that provide better privacy and security -- are unacceptable to me.
The stakes here are quite high. If Google succeeds what it's attempting to do -- forcing us to use only Google-approved privacy and security choices -- we're in trouble.
Firefox looks like the best way forward at this point.

2024-05-31 06:29:42

Just a reminder that if New York law enforcement had been doing its job decades ago -- among countless infuriating what-ifs -- the world would have been spared his malign presence in the past decade.

2024-05-30 03:57:40

Latest reminder that the Murdoch family's Fox "News" relentlessly injects poison into our civic bloodstream, for power and money.
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-has-relentlessly-assailed-judge-juan-merchan
Also a reminder that if you subscribe to cable/satellite TV (or online equivalent), you are sending money to this evil company every month.
Please stop sending money to this evil company.

2024-05-28 09:25:50

The stupidity of Brexit was obvious before it became law, but the consequences are indeed, as predicted, an ongoing "shitshow" -- as this example demonstrates: https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/26/why-travelling-on-eurostar-from-the-uk-is-about-to-become-much-trickier

2024-05-28 01:05:26

The Murdoch family media empire's spying on British politicians and celebrities was almost certainly far, far deeper and vile than the public understands.
Brilliant reporting in the Prospect magazine by the reporter who originally uncovered it.. https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/phone-hacking/65918/the-murdoch-spy-papers
Meanwhile, the Murdochs relentlessly inject poison into the public spheres of at least three major nations, not least the United States. And other media still pretend it's journalism instead of rancid propaganda and slime.

2024-05-26 04:24:29

It boggles my mind that the Washington Post knew about the insurrectionist flag at the residence of a Supreme Court "Justice" at the time it was flown -- but didn't tell the public what it knew until years later, the NY Times did report it.
Journalistic malpractice is putting it mildly.
https://www.lawdork.com/p/washington-post-bombshell-washington

2024-05-25 01:39:53

The cops who tortured a bogus murder "confession" out of a man -- even threatening to kill his dog along the way -- are still employed by the Fontana, Calif., police department. The city's taxpayers paid for the $900,000 lawsuit settlement.
https://www.sbsun.com/2024/05/23/fontana-pays-nearly-900000-for-psychological-torture-inflicted-by-police-to-get-false-confession/
This tells you everything you need to know about police impunity.

2024-05-22 06:23:18

A reminder that less than two weeks ago, it was revealed that Trump solicited a $1 billion bribe from the energy industry, offering in return the gutting of environmental regulations.
A week ago, Big Journalism had already consigned this epic scandal to the memory bin.
Had Biden done anything remotely like that, I guarantee that it would still be among the top stories of the day -- and Congress, including Democrats, would be moving toward impeachment.

2024-05-22 05:18:19

"In the last week, OpenAI has repeatedly lied about a voice product, dissolved its AI safety team, and had two major players in the company resign — one of whom tried to oust Sam Altman late last year, and the other who clearly despises the direction of the company."
-- from "Sam Altman is Full of Shit," by Ed Zitron.
https://www.wheresyoured.at/sam-altman-is-full-of-shit/?ref=ed-zitrons-wheres-your-ed-at-newsletter

2024-05-22 01:56:41

- reply

Josh Marshall has a compelling argument to the contrary.

2024-05-22 01:22:06

Congressional Democrats -- particularly senators -- are pathetic.
That's the only word for their beyond-weak non-response to the news that Alito -- the enormously powerful Supreme Court justice -- was a backer of the Jan. 6 insurrection. (His obvious lie, blaming his wife, is also the definition of pathetic, but in a different way.)
The Democrats, in their typical weak-kneed manner, are going to let it all go.
They make me sick.
Read this from Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/low-energy-part-2/sharetoken/GqTtixfpJuqz

2024-05-21 06:54:28

Meet the "private equity" people who did so much to drive Red Lobster into the ground -- the top executives at Golden Gate Capital.
https://goldengatecap.com/team/?_sft_function=operating-executives
They sold off the restaurant real estate to help pay for the buyout, and leased it back at what the bankruptcy filing describes as "priced above market rates."
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/477/285/677/988/949/original/2515dc9af3feb18a.png

2024-05-21 01:27:14

So you deleted those iPhone photos years ago, because you wanted them gone forever?
Apple obviously kept them around anyway.
And you trust Apple? Give that some thought...
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24161152/apple-ios-17-photo-bug

2024-05-21 01:21:24

Microsoft Windows is turning into the ultimate spy-on-the-user system. And you're supposed to be thrilled at the capabilities?
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24159258/microsoft-recall-ai-explorer-windows-11-surface-event

2024-05-18 22:50:34

Social media disappointments:
1) Journalists are still actively participating at exTwitter, thereby actively supporting Musk, who is helping extremists bring down democracy and, by extension, a free press.
2) Reddit got away with stomping its volunteer moderators and users, and its execs are cashing in on an IPO that in a more just world would have flopped.
3) Writers I respect decided to stick with Substack despite arrogant, extremist-friendly investors and leadership.

2024-05-17 01:15:24

As warned, Reddit has taken a bundle of money from "Open"AI and will use it to further monetize what you -- and the volunteers who moderate it all -- contributed for free.
It's the norm now, and particularly slimy in this case.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/16/24158529/reddit-openai-chatgpt-api-access-advertising

2024-05-16 22:33:02

I was honored to meet Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko, aka @npub1vl7…f6g0, yesterday afternoon in San Francisco. He's the real deal: committed to doing something good for the world and boasting serious technical skills. He also has genuine humility, a welcome trait in the tech world.
The occasion was a meet-and-greet put together by Flipboard's @npub17fe…w0a6, whose company has enbraced the fediverse in a big way.
I hope to do more to help make the fediverse succeed.
You're helping, by participating.

2024-05-16 19:16:33

As CNN documents, it was outsiders who caused the violence at UCLA, not the students. And it's vital to keep in mind that the police "stood by for hours" -- watching (obviously indifferent if not pleased) as the outsiders beat up protestors and journalists -- and thereby became collaborators with the violent intruders into a peaceful protest.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/16/us/ucla-student-protests-counterprotesters-invs/index.html

2024-05-16 17:30:27

Dairy farmers get vast subsidies from taxpayers -- ridiculously high subsidies in some cases (though they have nothing on weapons contractors).You would imagine that would persuade them to do their civic duty in reporting possible bird flu cases. Nope.
https://www.notus.org/healthcare/farmer-bird-flu-cases-hide-cows-federal-government
If bird flu breaks out widely in humans, it will be beyond catastrophic.

2024-05-15 18:18:52

If you care about voters being genuinely informed on key issues, the absolute worst thing about presidential so-called debates is live audiences filled with partisans.
But for media corporations, it's all about money -- and they love these events because they generate ratings.

2024-05-15 06:05:41

It should be astonishing that after Trump publicly solicited a $1 billion bribe from Big Energy, Big Journalism just shrugged and moved on.
It is not astonishing.

2024-05-11 22:57:56

One of journalism's consistent flaws is ignoring relevant context.
Case in point is this NY Times story about a judge tossing out a new federal regulation limiting extortionate credit card late fees.
Here's the context the Times didn't care to include: The financial companies that profit so wildly from these fees went forum shopping, and landed one of their favorite far-right-wing, Trump-appointed judges, who predictably did what they wanted.
Journalistic malpractice, IMO.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/424/450/574/050/509/original/482c822cdb1b1f9d.png

2024-05-08 23:19:59

Stack Overflow joins Twitter and Reddit in demonstrating control-freak contempt for the people who made the platform what it is.
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/stack-overflow-bans-users-en-masse-for-rebelling-against-openai-partnership-users-banned-for-deleting-answers-to-prevent-them-being-used-to-train-chatgpt
The company will probably get away with it, because people seem unable to fight back in effective ways, at least in numbers that make a difference.

2024-05-08 19:10:30

Climate scientists are angry, helpless, and overwhelmed as they watch humanity accelerate toward the climate cliff that will likely destroy much of our civilization. But they have no choice other than continuing to fight, as long as they can.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2024/may/08/hopeless-and-broken-why-the-worlds-top-climate-scientists-are-in-despair

2024-05-08 17:27:57

It is heartening that the editor of the New York Times is being widely condemned for his indifference to saving democracy. Dan Froomkin's piece today has a sampling of the loathing Joe Kahn unleashed. https://presswatchers.org/2024/05/new-york-times-editor-joe-kahn-says-defending-democracy-is-a-partisan-act-and-he-wont-do-it/

2024-05-07 17:32:13

Latest reminder that the Trump stolen-classified-documents case judge is effectively a member of the defense team:
"Judge Pushes Back Critical Filing Deadline in Trump Documents Case
"Judge Aileen M. Cannon did not immediately set a new date, but the delay increases the chance that the trial will not happen before the November election."
This is in-your-face corruption.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/400/522/924/143/309/original/ce132526d80613f9.png

2024-05-07 17:13:38

Amazon's pollution of video with ads accelerates. To avoid ads you have to pay Amazon more money.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/new-amazon-prime-video-shoppable-ads-1235891243/

2024-05-07 17:07:41

When a website popup notifies you of an "updated" privacy policy, it is ALWAYS a further assault on your privacy.

2024-05-06 20:21:47

The top editor of the New York Times makes clear that his newsroom won't take a stand on the increasingly likely end of democracy in America.
I'm sick to my stomach as I read this, but I think everyone should see what cowards we have running our most important media organizations.
https://www.semafor.com/article/05/05/2024/joe-kahn-the-newsroom-is-not-a-safe-space