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GW Hayduke

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Everything posted by GW Hayduke

  1. Because Biden's team didn't publicly announce the discovery within 7 days after making the discovery, there could be a cover up? They notified NARA and provided them with the documents. NARA then informed the DOJ. That appears to be the textbook, exact way to handle a situation like this -- and the exact opposite of a "cover up." Plus, the DOJ has an apparent policy that they don't announce major investigative steps close to an election, so they aren't covering anything up. And we know they never fuck that up.
  2. I agree the situation is problematic for the admin, but why are people pointing this out?
  3. This isn’t true. Bernie lost a primary. It was simple. Right wing propaganda and bernie bros on the lower end of the critical thinking spectrum pushed that false narrative. I find it interesting to look back and see how similar it is to today’s big lie pushed by trump. I get that you may be influenced by right wing propaganda but ideally you would move past it.
  4. I can see him filing a civil lawsuit against Twitter for trying to influence the 2020 election, and then Elon has his attorneys in court confess to Twitter doing just that. Trump is able to show the world that he is indeed, officially, without a doubt, a victim. Elon gets to continue and overhaul all the safeguards at Twitter, and when Elon is accused of putting his thumb on the 2024 election the incel crowd and Anastasia get to chant Both Sides.
  5. An attorney should probably weigh in, but I understand an indictment comes from a grand jury and a charge comes from a prosecutor. I may be wrong, but I thought we only had an arrest and that a prosecutor hasn’t decided yet whether to press charges
  6. I agree. But IMO Elon is highly likely a bad actor (and thus twitter will be if it already isn't) and I doubt he would hesitate to use twitter's algorithms to influence elections. I doubt he would hesitate with providing user info of dissidents to authoritarian states. He may even have an in-house Cambridge Analytica - make those services available to the highest bidder.
  7. "The end game is engagement." "It boils down to money." This is more dangerous than that. The end game is power. It boils down to influencing US elections. To controlling who appoints SC justices, who decides whether we oppose Russia's territorial expansions or leave NATO, who decides whether we tax the rich, who decides whether we erode US institutions. Elon has clearly come out on the side of the GOP. It might have started out just with engagement clicks and money but that isn't what is at risk now.
  8. Evaluating a situation and seeking to understand a person’s methods and purpose shouldn’t be equated as supporting that person. Try and be less sensitive.
  9. Try to keep up. No where have I indicated anything along the lines of being "impressed by someone's wealth that you'd be willing to look past just about anything they do in order to give them the benefit of the doubt and positive reinforcement." Yes. I understand you feel that understanding people use of culture war to mask economic realities in today's political system is whitewashing. Being aware of how people pull the strings in our society isn't whitewashing. Why would anyone think otherwise?
  10. The world doesn’t need to be as simple and emotional as you make it out to be. Sorting journalism as “both sides” vs whatever or sorting a public figure as “right wing nut job” or whatever, doesn’t add a ton of value. I’m not willing to simply wave my hands and dismiss Elon as a mentally ill person acting irrationally and driven by the whims of dopamine. You can though. You can point and laugh at the monkey as he does his dance. That monkey though currently controls one of the major social media sites with outweighted influence over the news and narratives in our society. Understanding that culture war is nefariously used by billionaires to sort our politics isnt whitewashing. It is kind of basic politics 101 in today’s society. It is an an acknowledgment that billionaires and others use it to mask economic realities. That shouldn’t be offensive.
  11. Your question is why would a billionaire use misinformation, culture war, and propaganda to influence a segment of the US population? If there isn't an obvious answer to you, then you probably should start consuming more "both sides" journalism.
  12. That is probably a big part of it. There is also someone else out there with apparent narcissistic tendencies, and that person also didn't fit neatly into our politically sorted view when he came to power. It is likely that a type of person and a type of group is simply attracted to narcissistic leaders. I think it adds value to ponder whether people like Elon are acting purposely in narcissistic ways and whether they are purposely pushing culture war/conspiracy buttons. And if so, what is that purpose? What are they trying to do? What if it isn't just a simple personality order or mental illness? I think they are both motivated by power, money, and influence. One person is willing to burn our political institutions, our position in the world, and the constitution for his power and grift. Elon seems willing to spend $44 billion, convert twitter into a propaganda machine, and put his other companies and reputation at risk. He was the richest guy in the world. Why does he need more power? What is he going to do with it? Maybe if is just mental illness but what if it is not?
  13. Yes, it is clearly black and white framing. MSNBC and Fox News is probably the proper speed for that debate - that he is either a "right wing conspiracy nut job" or not. Feel free to put him in that category. Feel free to sort everything in the US using that framing. That is fine I suppose. However, hopefully folks want a little more from their media - a little more from the journalistic outlets they consume - a little more when they seek to understand the world - a little more than just team politics.
  14. You are disagreeing with the framing of the analysis in the times article. Your frame is black and white. That is fine. Many are only comfortable with that world view. For others, the article provides an informative perspective. That is why I provided the text of the article.
  15. Folks should read the article. It describes how he socially has been libertarian, against widespread covid restrictions, for addressing climate change, and has now since taking over twitter has been against the left on cultural/conspiracy issues. It draws a distinction between "against the left" vs. "independent" vs. "for the right." https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/10/business/media/elon-musk-politics-twitter.html
  16. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that a GOP donor provided funds for her “tax the rich” media op. It is hard for me to see how any serious progressive with any understanding of political messaging would have gone along with this. This was a right wing propagandist’s wet dream.
  17. Because there would be no way a temp suspension of the filibuster rule would work. If the Dems suspended it, the GOP would know about it, and they would just suspend it whenever the GOP wanted to pass something. I think ending or reforming it is needed. Suspension just doesn’t make much sense
  18. That is brilliant. Why don't they just suspend it when the Dems are in control and then right before handing it back to GOP, they can switch it back again. That will totally work!
  19. Brittney Griner is a US citizen and therefore has a much higher inherent value than a Russian citizen. It is as simple as that.
  20. Exactly. Plus this is one the reasons Twitter was worth $44 billion to Elon. Even if Elon hasn’t had enough time to fully weaponize Twitter, this situation appears to be a success for Russia, the GOP, and right wing propagandists
  21. Totally agree. The dehumanization of huge swaths of US citizens is a very sad and alarming thing to see by supposed educated people. This division seems to be exactly what Putin wanted.
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