Google/YouTube wants it both ways, with dire consequences for freedom.
Eric George explains, for Prager University:
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Greenland
This is really a non-troversy, but hilarious nevertheless.
At the New York Times:
And the trolling on Twitter. Jon Gabriel got picked up by POTUS and it's awesome.
At the New York Times:
“Is this some sort of joke?” a former Danish prime minister asked. It was not. President Trump canceled his meeting with the prime minister of Denmark because she was not interested in selling Greenland.https://t.co/EV6R1sNnC4— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 21, 2019
And the trolling on Twitter. Jon Gabriel got picked up by POTUS and it's awesome.
Greenland in 10 years. pic.twitter.com/akqWowauyu
— jon gabriel (@exjon) August 15, 2019
I promise not to do this to Greenland! pic.twitter.com/03DdyVU6HA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2019
— jon gabriel (@exjon) August 20, 2019
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Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Populism Rises Because the Left Has Become Unbearable
This is really great.
It's Piers Morgan, who I've liked but stopped paying attention to after he went on his gun-control jihad while still at CNN.
In any case, he's seen the light. I doubt that's changed his opinion on guns, but he's quite lucid on the problem facing all of us today, all of us in the Western industrial democracies where leftist PC-culture is destroying liberalism.
At RCP, "Piers Morgan: Populism Is Rising Because Liberals Have Become Unbearable":
It's Piers Morgan, who I've liked but stopped paying attention to after he went on his gun-control jihad while still at CNN.
In any case, he's seen the light. I doubt that's changed his opinion on guns, but he's quite lucid on the problem facing all of us today, all of us in the Western industrial democracies where leftist PC-culture is destroying liberalism.
At RCP, "Piers Morgan: Populism Is Rising Because Liberals Have Become Unbearable":
The liberals get what they want, which is a humorless void where nothing happens, no one dares do anything or laugh about anything or behave in any way that doesn't suit their rigid way of leading a life. No thanks. So what's happening around the world? Populism is rising because people are fed up with the PC culture. They're fed up with snowflakery, they're fed up with people being offended by everything and they're gravitating towards forceful personalities who go: "This is all nonsense!"
Which, by the way, it is in most cases. So why are we surprised? I'm not surprised. It doesn't mean to say I agree with all of it, but it means I can understand it, and I understand why the liberals, my side, if you like, are getting it so horribly wrong. They just wanna tell people, not just how to lead their lives, but if you don't lead it the way I tell you to it's a kind of version of fascism. If you don't lead the life the way I'm telling you to then I'm going to ruin your life. I'm gonna scream abuse at you. I'm gonna get you fired from your job. I'm gonna get you hounded by your family and friends. I'm gonna make you the most disgusting human being in the world.
Christina Hendricks
I think the Other McCain used to love Christina Hendricks for Rule 5 blogging, heh.
At Celeb Jihad, "CHRISTINA HENDRICKS’ NUDE TITS ARE OUT OF CONTROL."
At Celeb Jihad, "CHRISTINA HENDRICKS’ NUDE TITS ARE OUT OF CONTROL."
Position Players Pitching
I love this development, actually. It adds so much fun and variety to the game, although it's not optimal baseball from the manager's perspective.
I posted last month, for example, "Orioles Beat Angels in 16 Innings: Outfielder Stevie Wilkerson, Pitching 55 MPH, Records the Save (VIDEO)."
At USA Today, and third baseman Wade Boggs, back in 1997, below:
I posted last month, for example, "Orioles Beat Angels in 16 Innings: Outfielder Stevie Wilkerson, Pitching 55 MPH, Records the Save (VIDEO)."
At USA Today, and third baseman Wade Boggs, back in 1997, below:
It's garbage time, all the time! MLB is seeing a historic spike in position players getting work on the mound. https://t.co/QYG7nQWT4A pic.twitter.com/mMIitzFZ5G
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) August 21, 2019
Today In 1997: Wade Boggs uses his knuckleball to pitch a scoreless inning in a #Yankees 12-4 loss to the #Angels at Anaheim Stadium! #OTD #MLB #History pic.twitter.com/XndILRH90m
— Baseball by BSmile (@BSmile) August 20, 2019
Megan Parry's Wednesday Forecast
It's lovely summer weather, especially if you're near the beach.
Here's the beautiful Ms. Megan, for ABC News 10 San Diego:
Here's the beautiful Ms. Megan, for ABC News 10 San Diego:
President Trump Blasts Jewish Democrats for 'Great Disloyalty' (VIDEO)
This is so stupid. Anyone with a brain understands exactly what Trump meant: If you're Jewish and voting Democrat, you're endorsing the vile anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hate agenda of the current Democrat Party, exemplified by the "squad." For media elites to turn this into the "dual loyalty" canard is reprehensible, but then, that's the state of partisan politics today.
The story's at the New York Times, of course, "Trump Accuses Jewish Democrats of ‘Great Disloyalty’."
Here's the video, and Caroline Glick's response below:
The story's at the New York Times, of course, "Trump Accuses Jewish Democrats of ‘Great Disloyalty’."
Trump Accuses Jewish Democrats of ‘Great Disloyalty’ via @juliehdavis https://t.co/ugcTHz0gBa— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) August 21, 2019
Here's the video, and Caroline Glick's response below:
I find it stunning that the left taking over the Democratic can libel the Jewish state, slander Israel's Jewish supporters in the US, use BDS to push American Jews out of public spaces and then attack @realDonaldTrump for calling them out.../— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) August 21, 2019
We are watching the Corbynization of the Dem party. Rather than protest and take the party back, American Jews are laying down and letting it happen and then deliberately misinterpreting Trump's words to accuse him of the very Jew hatred they refuse to fight on the left.../— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) August 21, 2019
Trump wasn't calling American Jews disloyal to America but to their interests as Jews. And he's right. American Jews have the right to the same freedoms as everyone else. BDS, that Tlaib, Omar, AOC, etc., are promoting aims to take those rights away.../— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) August 21, 2019
Trump speaks uncarefully but you have to really want to misunderstand him to believe he was calling Democratic Jews disloyal. Which brings us back to the Jewish Dems who don't want to see BDS, Tlaib, Omar, JVP, IfNotNow, etc. for what they are.../— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) August 21, 2019
Also at Memeorandum.By all means, stay in the Democrat party, but for heaven's sake, stop being doormats. Stop accepting the libels. Stand up for yourselves. BDS isn't about Israel. It's about you. Fight back.— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) August 21, 2019
What Happened to Bernie's Financial Backers?
Remember how in 2016 Bernie was touting his average $27.00 contribution as a key measure of the populist revolt against the Wall Street billionaires club?
Well, that was then.
Bernie's moment has passed. He's just one of a dozen or more socialists on the stage nowadays.
At the Los Angeles Times, "Bernie Sanders’ famed $27 donors are split in 2020’s sprawling Democratic field":
Sounds like a boxer passed his prime: "I coulda been a contendah!"
Keep reading.
Well, that was then.
Bernie's moment has passed. He's just one of a dozen or more socialists on the stage nowadays.
At the Los Angeles Times, "Bernie Sanders’ famed $27 donors are split in 2020’s sprawling Democratic field":
Bernie Sanders' famed $27 donors are split in 2020's sprawling Democratic field https://t.co/lZmUtzzYTR
— Seema (@LATSeema) August 21, 2019
Small-dollar donors made Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid one of the most successful insurgent campaigns in Democratic Party history, allowing him to be competitive with establishment favorite Hillary Clinton."Washed up."
But in the 2020 race, nearly 1.7 million, or more than 80%, of the donors who fueled his earlier run have stayed on the sidelines, according to a Times analysis of campaign finance disclosures through June 30.
The 2016 donors who are contributing this election cycle have given more than $32 million to the Democratic field. More than $16.2 million of that went to Sanders, making up about 45% of the money he has raised. But nearly as much went to his rivals, a sign of how split Democrats are as they try to figure out the best candidate to take on President Trump.
“Bernie’s washed up. I just think he’s too old,” Audrey Tieger, 68, said of the 77-year-old Sanders...
Sounds like a boxer passed his prime: "I coulda been a contendah!"
Keep reading.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Edward E. Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told
At Amazon, Edward E. Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism.
The '1619 Project' at the New York Times
This is really a lot, I'll tell you.
I read the hard-copy "1619 Project" at the New York Times Magazine yesterday.
I was actually looking forward to it, and it's interesting and impressive.
It's also wrong.
The main problem is with the central goal and agenda of the entire enterprise, "to reframe American history by considering what it would mean to regard 1619 as our nation's birth year."
That is, to "rewrite" history with America's "original sin" as the singular variable that explains all consequent history of the United States, from the landing of the first black slaves sold in Virginia to the present day of political polarization, incessant racist recrimination, and the politics of Twitter call-out culture. Racism, slavery, white supremacy --- this is the "master" paradigm to understand where we are today, and of course, the master variable that implies only one way forward, the leftist Democrat way, the progressive big-government way, that demonizes and destroys the history of the tremendous courage and sacrifice of all Americans in making this nation --- and our exceptional national experiment --- the greatest in human history.
Like I said, there's a lot on this.
Start with Damon Linker, at the Week, "The New York Times surrenders to the left on race":
Plus, Dan McLaughlin has an incredible Twitter thread, which would be better for students to learn in school that NYT's slavery project --- and I don't exaggerate.
At Twitchy, "Class is in SESSION: Dan McLaughlin’s thread on American history makes New York Times look even more desperate."
Also, via Memeorandum, at Slate, "Who Got the Maddest About the New York Times’ Slavery Coverage?"
The Pulitzer Center has the pdf of Sunday's magazine, so no worry about the Times' paywall.
I read the hard-copy "1619 Project" at the New York Times Magazine yesterday.
No universal healthcare.— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) August 14, 2019
Highest rates of mass incarceration.
The brutality of capitalism.
An epidemic of sugar in our diets.
No aspect of modern American life has been untouched by slavery. These essays in our #1619project explain how https://t.co/Lq2z4ZKgqg (thread)
I was actually looking forward to it, and it's interesting and impressive.
It's also wrong.
The main problem is with the central goal and agenda of the entire enterprise, "to reframe American history by considering what it would mean to regard 1619 as our nation's birth year."
That is, to "rewrite" history with America's "original sin" as the singular variable that explains all consequent history of the United States, from the landing of the first black slaves sold in Virginia to the present day of political polarization, incessant racist recrimination, and the politics of Twitter call-out culture. Racism, slavery, white supremacy --- this is the "master" paradigm to understand where we are today, and of course, the master variable that implies only one way forward, the leftist Democrat way, the progressive big-government way, that demonizes and destroys the history of the tremendous courage and sacrifice of all Americans in making this nation --- and our exceptional national experiment --- the greatest in human history.
Like I said, there's a lot on this.
Start with Damon Linker, at the Week, "The New York Times surrenders to the left on race":
The New York Times surrenders to the left on race. https://t.co/YovTlDKyUq pic.twitter.com/hmb1FOZq6Y— Damon Linker (@DamonLinker) August 20, 2019
This [project] turns historical scholarship into propaganda for a left-wing political movement.Also very good is Rich Lowry, at the New York Post, "The left's vile smear of America's founding."
Saying so doesn't at all imply that journalists should refrain from drawing on the work of historians. But it does mean that when they do draw on that work, they should do so with caution and a fair amount of historiographical sophistication, realizing that no single narrative of the past is the indisputably right one, and that new interpretations that break sharply from a past consensus often go too far. That's especially true when the new claims advance a radical political agenda.
And the 1619 Project is all about advancing a radical political agenda. The message it aims to convey is clear: The United States is and always has been, from its very origin, a racist country infected by a white supremacist ideology that has birthed and nurtured institutions and systems — from Congress to capitalism — that systematically disadvantage black Americans. Political actors of the present have a simple choice: They can either embrace (invariably left-liberal or socialist) policies that will begin the process of dismantling these pervasive forms of structural injustice — or they can oppose doing so and ensure that the injustices continue, with toxic racism remaining where it has been for the past four centuries, at the very center of American life. Those are the choices.
You're either part of the solution or part of the problem.
That line is a paraphrase of Eldridge Cleaver, an early leader of the Black Panthers, the revolutionary black nationalist organization founded in 1966, and it's fitting to refer to him here, since the publication of the 1619 Project represents the definitive triumph of left-wing activism over journalistic skepticism, circumspection, and restraint at The New York Times — and not just at the NYTM, since the newspaper has promised to publish more contributions to the 1619 Project in the coming days and weeks. As if the content of last Sunday's paper wasn't evidence enough of this development, the leaked transcript of a recent town-hall meeting at the Times gives us an added glimpse of how reporters and editors now think and talk about race. Here is a representative comment addressed to executive editor Dean Baquet:
Staffer: I just feel like racism is in everything. It should be considered in our science reporting, in our culture reporting, in our national reporting. And so, to me, it's less about the individual instances of racism, and sort of how we're thinking about racism and white supremacy as the foundation of all of the systems in the country. And I think particularly as we are launching a 1619 Project, I feel like that's going to open us up to even more criticism from people who are like, "OK, well you're saying this, and you're producing this big project about this. But are you guys actually considering this in your daily reporting?" [Slate]Racism is in everything. White supremacy is the foundation of all of the systems in the country. Those are fairly extreme, unmodulated statements. Did Baquet respond by pointing out that, while racism exists and needs to receive coverage in the paper, there are many other ways to talk about America and its history — by placing it in international context, by highlighting aspects of the American past that go beyond race, by raising issues of class and ethnicity and gender, by engaging with contrary intellectual, cultural, and economic currents, social trends, and ways of understanding?
The left’s vile smear of America’s founding https://t.co/6ipY4rFGV6 pic.twitter.com/P2ebM6FwGm— NY Post Opinion (@NYPostOpinion) August 20, 2019
Plus, Dan McLaughlin has an incredible Twitter thread, which would be better for students to learn in school that NYT's slavery project --- and I don't exaggerate.
At Twitchy, "Class is in SESSION: Dan McLaughlin’s thread on American history makes New York Times look even more desperate."
That's one of the more obviously ahistorical claims in this piece, if you know anything at all about the history of British or American abolitionism or the origins of the American revolution. https://t.co/HariFOnJEk https://t.co/4q5sdTrZf1— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 19, 2019
Also, via Memeorandum, at Slate, "Who Got the Maddest About the New York Times’ Slavery Coverage?"
The Pulitzer Center has the pdf of Sunday's magazine, so no worry about the Times' paywall.
Kendra Sunderland Bikini Smokin' Reefer
She's a crazy chick.
On Twitter:
And flashback, "Kendra Sunderland, Former Oregon State University Student, Arrested After Making Porn Video in Campus Library."
On Twitter:
I feel blessed 💕 pic.twitter.com/zO1LokyJe7— Kendra Sunderland (@KSLibraryGirl) August 20, 2019
And flashback, "Kendra Sunderland, Former Oregon State University Student, Arrested After Making Porn Video in Campus Library."
Olympia Valance
She's an Australian actress and model, and a smokin' hottie.
At Drunken Stepfather, "POTENTIALLY OLYMPIA VALANCE NUDE OF THE DAY."
And at the Fappening, "Olympia Valance Nude Leaked."
At Drunken Stepfather, "POTENTIALLY OLYMPIA VALANCE NUDE OF THE DAY."
And at the Fappening, "Olympia Valance Nude Leaked."
Monday, August 12, 2019
Our Poisoned Information System
From Charlie Warzel, at the New York Times, "Epstein Suicide Conspiracies Show How Our Information System Is Poisoned." (Via Memeorandum.)
The system is poisoned all right, but it's not like the Old Gray Lady is completely innocent here. Dan Gainor points out the two-year long Russia conspiracy hoax as an example.
In any case, FWIW:
The system is poisoned all right, but it's not like the Old Gray Lady is completely innocent here. Dan Gainor points out the two-year long Russia conspiracy hoax as an example.
In any case, FWIW:
Strong column by @cwarzel. Begs the question: would things improve if all journalists got off Twitter? https://t.co/qEptXGel4X— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) August 11, 2019
Imagine the dystopia that is a country divided in a hashtag battle accusing a former president and the current president of staging the suicide of a pedophile emperor to cover up their child molestation.#TrumpBodyCount#ClintonBodyCount— Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) August 10, 2019
This creates big incentives to game trending. Either:— Renee DiResta (@noUpside) August 10, 2019
1) press will cover it & amplify
2) press will debunk & still amplify, while creating controversy
3) press will very occasionally ignore,then conspiracy press will cover to ask why 🤔
if you make it trend, you make it true.
Mr. Epstein’s apparent suicide is, in many ways, the post-truth nightmare scenario. The sordid story contains almost all the hallmarks of stereotypical conspiratorial fodder: child sex-trafficking, powerful global political leaders, shadowy private jet flights, billionaires whose wealth cannot be explained. As a tale of corruption, it is so deeply intertwined with our current cultural and political rot that it feels, at times, almost too on-the-nose. The Epstein saga provides ammunition for everyone, leading one researcher to refer to Saturday’s news as the “Disinformation World Cup.”
At the heart of Saturday’s fiasco is Twitter, which has come to largely program the political conversation and much of the press. Twitter is magnetic during massive breaking stories; news junkies flock to it for up-to-the-second information. But early on, there’s often a vast discrepancy between the attention that is directed at the platform and the available information about the developing story. That gap is filled by speculation and, via its worst users, rumor-mongering and conspiracy theories.
On Saturday, Twitter’s trending algorithms hoovered up the worst of this detritus, curating, ranking and then placing it in the trending module on the right side of its website. Despite being a highly arbitrary and mostly “worthless metric,” trending topics on Twitter are often interpreted as a vague signal of the importance of a given subject.
There’s a decent chance that President Trump was using Twitter’s trending module when he retweeted a conspiratorial tweet tying the Clintons to Epstein’s death. At the time of Mr. Trump’s retweet, “Clintons” was the third trending topic in the United States. The specific tweet amplified by the president to his more than 60 million followers was prominently featured in the “Clintons” trending topic. And as Ashley Feinberg at Slate pointed out in June, the president appears to have a history of using trending to find and interact with tweets.
On Saturday afternoon, computational propaganda researcher Renée DiResta noted that the media’s close relationship with Twitter creates an incentive for propagandists and partisans to artificially inflate given hashtags. Almost as soon as #ClintonBodyCount began trending on Saturday, journalists took note and began lamenting the spread of this conspiracy theory — effectively turning it into a news story, and further amplifying the trend. “Any wayward tweet … can be elevated to an opinion worth paying attention to,” Ms. DiResta wrote. “If you make it trend, you make it true.”
That our public conversation has been uploaded onto tech platforms governed by opaque algorithms adds even more fodder for the conspiratorial minded. Anti-Trump Twitter pundits with hundreds of thousands of followers blamed “Russian bots” for the Clinton trending topic. On the far-right, pro-Trump sites like the Gateway Pundit (with a long track record of amplifying conspiracy theories) suggested that Twitter was suppressing and censoring the Clinton hashtags.
Where does this leave us? Nowhere good.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
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