NEARLY AS WELL-INFORMED AS THEIR INTENTIONS ARE PEACEFUL: ‘Janes Revenge’ Abortion Zealots Threaten to ‘Shoot Up’ Catholic Newman Center With ‘New AR14 Rifles.’
Author Archive: Stephen Green
December 6, 2022
ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook Parent’s Oversight Board Criticizes ‘Cross Check’ Program That Protects VIP Users.
The report offers the most detailed review to date of cross check, which Meta has billed as a quality-control effort to prevent moderation errors on content of heightened public interest. The oversight board took up the issue more than a year ago in the wake of a Wall Street Journal article based on internal documents that showed that cross check was plagued by favoritism, mismanagement and understaffing.
The board’s report doesn’t take issue with the value of a secondary review system for moderating posts from high-profile or sensitive accounts. But the board said the program in practice has put Meta’s business interests over the program’s stated goals of protecting public discourse, and it noted that the highest levels of protection are generally reserved for accounts that might stir up trouble for Meta’s senior leadership.
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The Journal article last year found that under the cross check program, also known as “XCheck,” some VIP users were “whitelisted,” meaning they were exempted from some or all penalties for violating platform rules. Other accounts were given “remediation windows” in which they could remove violating posts without penalty or received watered-down punishments for misconduct.
Some Facebook users are more equal than others.
THAT’S BEEN THE LEFT’S ENDGAME FOR A VERY LONG TIME: Biden’s DHS Signals It Wants to Criminalize Political Dissent.
VIDEO: Russia’s Failure To Achieve Air Superiority. “One reason not covered: Russia seems to have used up a good portion of its high tech weapons in the opening phases of the war, and western sanctions mean that it can’t easily replace them.”
Once again, if you don’t have the time or inclination to watch a video, Lawrence Person has done a fine job of breaking out the bullet points.
Related: Ukraine Hits Airbase 600 Kilometers Inside Russia. “Ukraine’s ever-increasing range puts a whole lot of Russian infrastructure (military and otherwise) under potential threat.”
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: Will Trump really run in 2024? “Usually, Insanity Wrap is about the Left’s big crazy — but this week, maybe I’m the crazy one. But don’t worry, I still have all of the usual lefty nuttiness you’ve come to love and expect.”
- Woke teacher needs to put that clicker where the sun don’t shine
- Antifa is objectively — and violently — anti-women
- Meet Microwave Head Man
So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
There is much to ponder in this latest report on the Chinese military. The sources of Chinese future military effectiveness lie less in numbers of missiles or ships than in how they intellectually and organisationally prepare for war. They have long been thinking about weaknesses in Western military systems, and ways they might influence or destroy the West’s military and national security systems.
But just as we possess weakness, so too do the Chinese. Their reforms, as a recent Japanese report makes clear, are not yet complete. And the Russo-Ukraine War has shown fragilities in pre-war assessments about Russian military prowess. These factors need to be kept in mind when reading the report.
Therefore, there is no need for despair in reading about significant improvements in Chinese military capacity in the 2022 Pentagon report. The nations of the West have proven before that they can find and target weaknesses in large authoritarian nations.
Our weakness is that much of our leadership is in the tank for Beijing, or at the very least admires and tries to emulate their authoritarian regime.
STARLINK: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty Dang Impressive. “Just because folks in Allan Hills, Antarctica (and my location on Monument Hill) are delighted to have nearly weather-proof, high-speed internet available doesn’t mean that Starlink isn’t without its problems.”
MARGOT CLEVELAND: If A Legitimate Free Press Existed, The Twitter Files Wouldn’t.
The projection from these supposed reporters couldn’t have been any more ironic because had there been a widespread outbreak of journalism following the Post’s bombshell coverage of the Biden family scandal, Twitter’s censorship would not have happened — or, if it did, it would not have mattered.
Had journalists from legacy outlets and especially the supposed standard-bearers of journalism, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, approached the story with the seriousness it deserved, it seems unlikely Twitter would have dared censor the story. Or such censorship, had it occurred, would have been futile because journalists would be falling over themselves to report the latest details in a political scandal that suggested the Democrat candidate for president had participated in a pay-to-play enterprise with his son while vice president.
Real journalists would have tracked down and authenticated the laptop materials, as they did a belated two years later. Real journalists would have questioned Bobulinski and reported his collaborating statements. Real journalists would have demanded answers from Joe, Hunter, and James Biden, the president’s brother who also profited from the many deals; they would have sought answers on every detail suggesting corruption discussed in the emails and other materials recovered from the laptop. And real journalists would have pushed intelligence agencies, and the former members of them who signed on to a letter casting the laptop as Russian disinformation, on the basis for that claim.
I’m reminded of what Harry Reid said when he got caught lying about Mitt Romney’s taxes during the 2012 presidential campaign: “It worked, didn’t it?”
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Republicans Need to Avoid a RINO Stampede in 2023. “As soon as Mitch McConnell had secured another stint as Senate Minority Leader, he went into surrender mode, indicating that he was willing to cave to the Dems on some hot-button issues. Whatever conservative inclinations or fortitude McConnell picked up during the Trump years is long gone and he’s back to being Mitch the Useless Squish.”
YET ANOTHER BIDEN CRISIS-BY-DESIGN: Vaccine Mandate Is Hurting Recruiting, Top Marine General Says.
2024 PREVIEW: Trump Clarifies Statement Misrepresented as a Call to End to U.S. Constitution. “Donald Trump is sometimes his own worst enemy but, as we know from Russiagate, he is also grossly misrepresented in the media.”
COLORADO: Denver considers one-time pandemic bonuses. “City employees in Denver might see a one-time, $600 bonus for staying put.”
THE STUPID PARTY: Will GOP Commit Political Suicide With Bipartisan Amnesty Bill? “Ever since last month’s red trickle election, it seems as if the Republicans are trying to prove to the electorate that they shouldn’t have won big anyway.”
December 5, 2022
BREAKING: We Now Have the Full Transcript of Fauci’s Deposition in Social-Media Collusion Case.
UPDATE (From Ed): Fauci’s youngest daughter was working at Twitter during this time period:
Fauci and Grady’s youngest daughter is Alison Christine Fauci, who was born in April 1992. She and her sisters attended the private, all-girls National Cathedral School located in Washington, D.C.
After graduating from high school, Alison Fauci relocated to the west coast for college and has continued to live on that side of the country ever since. She attended Stanford University and majored in computer science.
Alison Fauci also competed on the rowing team. According to her profile on Stanford’s website, she competed all four years and racked up titles each year. During her senior season, Fauci was named the Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year, made the Pac-12 All-Academic first team and placed sixth at the NCAA Championships. She also helped Stanford win its first Pac-12 Championship and served as a captain during her senior season.
Alison Fauci graduated from Stanford in 2014 and accepted a job at Twitter. She works as a software engineer and, according to her LinkedIn profile, was focused on developing “ad formats for the Twitter for Android app.” (Her LinkedIn profile has since been made private or deleted).
The above Heavy.com article has a URL with the date of March 2020, but was updated on October 9th of this year.
THEY FEAR HUMOR EVERY BIT AS MUCH AS SOVIET APPARATCHIKS DID: Twitter’s former head of Trust & Safety claims Babylon Bee, Libs of TikTok make ‘people unsafe in the world.’
YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH AMMO: Army plans ‘dramatic’ ammo production boost as Ukraine drains stocks.
PRIVACY: How Chinese students came up with an ‘invisibility cloak’ that evades security cameras. “The InvisDefense coat can be seen by human eyes but is covered in a pattern that blinds cameras in the day and sends out unusual heat signals at night, according to the team.”
HEIST OF THE CENTURY, ANY CENTURY: Coinbase CEO Rejects FTX ‘Accounting Error,’ Says Funds Were Obviously ‘Stolen.’
OH, CANADA: Canada offered assisted suicide to a Paralympian veteran who wanted a wheelchair lift installed.
Christine Gauthier, a 52-year-old retired corporal who competed in the 2016 Paralympics at Rio De Janeiro, testified to lawmakers that a VA official had offered — in writing — to provide her with a medically-assisted suicide kit. The case officer remains unnamed but reportedly made similar offers to at least three other veterans, according to the Independent.
“I have a letter saying that if you’re so desperate, madam, we can offer you MAID, medical assistance in dying,” Gauthier said in a hearing before the House of Commons veterans affairs committee.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the incident in a public statement on Friday after Gauthier said she personally wrote him a letter on the issue.
We’ll see how serious Trudeau’s condemnation is when we see if anyone is seriously punished.
I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT: Is Trump Costing the GOP the Senate Seat in Georgia Again?