[News] Post a Political News Story

Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day. This thread is for 'smaller' stories that don't call for their own thread. If a story blows up, please start a new thread for it.

I didn't say anything about using it to prevent the PB themselves organizing. Just sharing what was shared with me from pnw activists friends who have voiced those concerns, and who use twitter to identify pb'ers and communicate who they are amongst themselves, which I did mention.

There are about a dozen threads this could go in (including [gasp] some in the Games and Platforms section!) but this seems like a good place to leave it.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google engaged in anticompetitive, monopoly-style tactics to evolve into four of the world's most powerful, unrivaled corporate behemoths, according to congressional investigators, who called called Tuesday for sweeping updates to federal laws so that Washington can bring Silicon Valley back in check.

Personally, I think those four companies should be broken up and that we shouldn't stop at just those four.

I’d like them to actually pay a fair amount of tax in the jurisdictions they operate in. And not to treat their workers like sh*t.

Interesting that they did not mention Microsoft in the bunch. I know Microsoft has softened somewhat in recent years with regards to its anti-competitive practices. But the are still a large player and one of the most mind bogglingly wealthy companies in the world.

fangblackbone wrote:

Interesting that they did not mention Microsoft in the bunch. I know Microsoft has softened somewhat in recent years with regards to its anti-competitive practices. But the are still a large player and one of the most mind bogglingly wealthy companies in the world.

Microsoft seems to have learned a bit of a lesson from their previous encounters with anti-trust rulings.

But yeah, break them up. And Disney. And Comcast. And etc.

The whole notion of vertical integration in the media production space is just bad. They figured this out decades ago when studios owned theaters, but now studios own the modern equivalent: streaming platforms. And in the case of Comcast and AT&T/Warner, even access to streaming platforms.

All of this was already illegal until conservative hack judge Bork reinterpreted the existing anti-trust laws to enrich his buddies. It would be nice to go back to how they were intended.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

There are about a dozen threads this could go in (including [gasp] some in the Games and Platforms section!) but this seems like a good place to leave it.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google engaged in anticompetitive, monopoly-style tactics to evolve into four of the world's most powerful, unrivaled corporate behemoths, according to congressional investigators, who called called Tuesday for sweeping updates to federal laws so that Washington can bring Silicon Valley back in check.

Personally, I think those four companies should be broken up and that we shouldn't stop at just those four.

I get really upset about this stuff. Mrs Rawk thinks I’m overreacting.

Capitalism needs to be replaced by a more democratic system.

You are not overreacting. Surveillance Capitalism is the new feudalism.

https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-de...

Mixolyde wrote:

You are not overreacting. Surveillance Capitalism is the new feudalism.

https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-de...

That was a very long article and I didn’t read the whole thing. It might even be the introduction to the book.

In the article he alluded to the conspiracy theory where people believe that Facebook is listening to their verbal conversations and then serving them ads based on what they hear. He seemed to imply that it’s true. This is a peeve of mine. The new tracking cookies are about a billion times more efficient than listening to conversations could ever be. FB wouldn’t waste their time or take that big of a risk when they already have a system in place which is basically unstoppable. See Occam’s Razor.

It is long. The really relevant parts to this conversation are toward the end where talks about how the anti trust laws got perverted and allowed monopolies to take hold again and keep themselves in power. And how to break them up again.

Facebook bans QAnon

Facebook has announced a complete ban on QAnon groups and accounts on its platform, a "significant escalation" after weeks of foot-dragging on the subject.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Facebook said its staff had begun removing content and deleting groups and pages, but that "this work will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks".

"Our Dangerous Organizations Operations team will continue to enforce this policy and proactively detect content for removal instead of relying on user reports," the statement added.

The company made a show of deleting some prominent QAnon material in August, but the pro-Trump political cult has only grown in prominence since.

farley3k wrote:

Facebook bans QAnon

Facebook has announced a complete ban on QAnon groups and accounts on its platform, a "significant escalation" after weeks of foot-dragging on the subject.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Facebook said its staff had begun removing content and deleting groups and pages, but that "this work will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks".

"Our Dangerous Organizations Operations team will continue to enforce this policy and proactively detect content for removal instead of relying on user reports," the statement added.

The company made a show of deleting some prominent QAnon material in August, but the pro-Trump political cult has only grown in prominence since.

While this is, at face value, a good move it still seems like a game of whack-a-mole and the moles are everywhere. Too little too late me thinks.

Twitter needs to step up.

Does the Dangerous Organizations Operation Team call themselves the DOOTs?

The Detroit News: Feds say they thwarted militia plot to kidnap Whitmer

The FBI says it thwarted what it described as a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and federal prosecutors are expected to discuss the alleged conspiracy later Thursday.

The alleged plot involved reaching out to members of a Michigan militia, according to a federal affidavit filed Thursday.

"Several members talked about murdering 'tyrants' or 'taking' a sitting governor," an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. "The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message."

Gremlin wrote:

The Detroit News: Feds say they thwarted militia plot to kidnap Whitmer

The FBI says it thwarted what it described as a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and federal prosecutors are expected to discuss the alleged conspiracy later Thursday.

The alleged plot involved reaching out to members of a Michigan militia, according to a federal affidavit filed Thursday.

"Several members talked about murdering 'tyrants' or 'taking' a sitting governor," an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. "The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message."

Ugh- The fact that these people are emboldened enough to think that kidnapping/murdering a governor would be ok is just nuts. I cannot wrap my head around it.

Gremlin wrote:

The Detroit News: Feds say they thwarted militia plot to kidnap Whitmer

The FBI says it thwarted what it described as a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and federal prosecutors are expected to discuss the alleged conspiracy later Thursday.

The alleged plot involved reaching out to members of a Michigan militia, according to a federal affidavit filed Thursday.

"Several members talked about murdering 'tyrants' or 'taking' a sitting governor," an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. "The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message."

The affidavit's quite a read:

The conspirators often communicate via encrypted online platforms and use “code words” or phrases to describe their plans in a self-proclaimed effort to avoid law-enforcement detection. For example, on July 24, 2020, CHS-2 and GARBIN contacted FOX by telephone. The call was recorded by CHS-2. FOX said he had researched the Governor’s office online, and he believed that the Governor kept only a ceremonial office in Lansing. FOX wondered aloud whether the group just needed to “party it out, make a cake and send it,” in what CHS-2 believed was a coded reference to sending a bomb to the Governor. FOX discussed the need to train for the next three months to be ready to engage. FOX stated, “In all honesty right now . . . I just wanna make the world glow, dude. I’m not even f*ckin’ kidding. I just wanna make it all glow dude. I don’t f*ckin’ care anymore, I’m just so sick of it. That’s what it’s gonna take for us to take it back, we’re just gonna have to everything’s gonna have to be annihilated man. We’re gonna topple it all, dude. It’s what great frickin’ conquerors, man, we’re just gonna conquer every f*ckin’ thing man.” FOX and GARBIN further discussed the need for the government to collapse because it has become so tyrannical.

Nothing like wannabe Founding Fathers talking about their high-minded ideals of wanting to watch the world burn because their gyms got shut down during a pandemic that's killed over 200,000 Americans.

Also, as someone who lives in Ohio, I'm *really* interested to know who the f*ckers met with in Dublin.

This is the kind of stuff that is scary and I am convinced more of this is going on and will continue to.

Because there's always a tweet:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/BZUEU2c.png)

Wasn't it Michigan where armed "protestors" swarmed the capitol building and the police didn't stop them? I can't imagine why they'd feel emboldened to put together a kidnapping or assassination plot.

I'm surprised Barr isn't recruiting them.

Wonder if Barr will recommend digging out sedition charges like he did with the BLM protesters. Not holding my breath despite the fact that it might actually be appropriate in this case.

When did Maria Baritromo become such a shill? I mean I know she moved from CNBC to Fox News but she is doing such a disservice to herself spewing and enabling Trump nonsense.

Turns out that Mitch McConnell does actually have a lick of sense.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said Thursday that he had been avoiding the White House since midsummer because of concerns that officials there were not taking proper precautions to guard against the spread of coronavirus.

“My impression was that their approach to how to handle this was different from mine and what I insisted that we do in the Senate, which is to wear a mask and practice social distancing,” Mr. McConnell told reporters.

The Kentucky Republican said he had not visited the White House since Aug. 6, when he met with President Trump to discuss the status of negotiations over additional stimulus legislation.

Another way to phrase it that I've seen floating around: the Senate Majority Leader has been refusing to go to the White House because he fears for his life.

My first thought, without yet reading the details:

The window of opportunity may be closing. Gotta hurry up with that guilty plea to have a shot at a nice juicy pardon in the next few months.

Gremlin wrote:

The Detroit News: Feds say they thwarted militia plot to kidnap Whitmer

The FBI says it thwarted what it described as a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and federal prosecutors are expected to discuss the alleged conspiracy later Thursday.

The alleged plot involved reaching out to members of a Michigan militia, according to a federal affidavit filed Thursday.

"Several members talked about murdering 'tyrants' or 'taking' a sitting governor," an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. "The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message."

Separately, Nessel on Thursday announced state charges against the seven other individuals pursuant to the state's anti-terrorism act, "all of whom are in custody and linked to the militia group Wolverine Watchmen."

The group's full name is "Wolverine Punisher Batman Watchmen."

Rat Boy wrote:
Gremlin wrote:

The Detroit News: Feds say they thwarted militia plot to kidnap Whitmer

The FBI says it thwarted what it described as a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and federal prosecutors are expected to discuss the alleged conspiracy later Thursday.

The alleged plot involved reaching out to members of a Michigan militia, according to a federal affidavit filed Thursday.

"Several members talked about murdering 'tyrants' or 'taking' a sitting governor," an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. "The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message."

Separately, Nessel on Thursday announced state charges against the seven other individuals pursuant to the state's anti-terrorism act, "all of whom are in custody and linked to the militia group Wolverine Watchmen."

The group's full name is "Wolverine Punisher Batman Watchmen."

Their symbol is a Punisher skull under a stylized Spartan helm set against the outline of Michigan with crossed ARs and the words 'Molon Labe' above and below.

Reaper81 wrote:

Their symbol is a Punisher skull under a stylized Spartan helm set against the outline of Michigan with crossed ARs and the words 'Molon Labe' above and below.

I legitimately can't tell if you're serious or riffing on the joke.