Saturday, December 10, 2022

Flotsam and Jetsam - Twitter Litter and Sinema Stuff

We weren't really done digesting the Twitter file that Bari Weiss dropped, showing that the upper ranks of Twitter did, in fact, have a campaign of censorship against conservative ideas and people, when Matt Taibbi came along with the third tranche of files showing how the Twitter decided to ban Donald Trump and how the government had its hands in the mix. Careful Elon, we're on the edge of information overload. You might want to space it out a little farther.

 Mediaite admits ‘Conservatives Were Not Conspiracy Theorists’: Colby Hall Calls Bari Weiss’s Twitter Files Thread More ‘Embarrassing’ for Company Than First. Robby Soave at Reason says Bari Weiss Twitter Files Reveal Systematic 'Blacklisting' of Disfavored Content. Ace, The Twitter Files, Part II: The Shadowban Protocols. Ben Whedon at JTN, Second wave of Twitter docs reveal 'blacklists' and 'shadow bans.' "Weiss subsequently outlined how conservative personalities or individuals with "disfavored" positions would end up on internal blacklists to stunt the spread of their messaging." Also, New document dump undercuts ex-Twitter execs' repeated denials of viewpoint bias, shadowbanning.  Rajan Laad at Am Thin thinks The latest 'Twitter Files' reveal a culture of censorship and secret blacklists at Twitter. Jonathon Turley, Twitter’s Trust Bust: New Documents Show How “Trust” Executives Misled Congress and the Public. At PM, Jack Dorsey LIED about shadow banning, Twitter Files reveal. "We don’t shadow ban, and we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints. We do rank tweets by default to make Twitter more immediately relevant (which can be flipped off),"At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 12.08.22 (Evening Edition) Twitchy has Elon Musk Drops Adam Schiff For Lying About Hate Speech On Twitter, also, Conservatives (And Liberals) React To Twitter Files II Revelation That Yes, Twitter Was Shadowbanning Despite Denials, also Hogewash, About Twitter. Althouse, From absolutely not to everybody already knew that.. Glenn Greenwald@ggreenwald "Conservatives: The reach of our tweets is being limited by a progressive Twitter workforce. Dems: That's an insane conspiracy theory. Bari Weiss: Here are the docs proving this. Dems: Everyone knew this already. It's an -- all together now -- nothing burger." At Da Wire, Twitter’s Underhanded Actions Targeting ‘Libs Of TikTok’ Revealed In New ‘Twitter Files’ Release. RCP, Bhattacharya: Twitter Harmed Science By Banning Debate on COVID, Censorship Led To Tremendously Bad Policies and at Breitbart, Stanford’s Dr. Bhattacharya: I Want to Know if Government Officials Told Twitter to Blacklist Me, They Have Directed Censorship Before. At the Wombat's  In The Mailbox: 12.09.22 Twitchy, ALL THE TWITTER DUMPSTERS ARE IN FLAMES AND IT’S AWESOME, Louder With Crowder: Elton John throws hissy fit announcing he’s leaving Twitter and Twitter users are bringing the jokes, and Twitter Files Part Two dropped, and it names specific conservatives who were blacklisted and Mark Steyn: Shadowbans and Light. Sundance at CTH, Latest Release of Twitter Files Highlight the Mechanics of Controlling Platform Information, With Former U.S. Intel Officials. Charles Lipsom at Spec World, The Twitter Files are damning to the government. "They show a coordinated attempt to suppress speech and cover up Hunter Biden’s laptop." At NewsMax, White House Denies Involvement in Twitter Censorship, but why would anyone believe them? From  the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 12.08.22 (Evening Edition), Herr Professor Jacobsen at LI, #Twitterfiles Part 2: “Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics.” AtTwitchy, NBC News’ Ben Collins offers an emoji to express his disinterest in Twitter Files Part 2 A yawn, Jeremy James@jeremyljames "NBC News "senior reporter" yawning at actual journalism pretty much encapsulates the state of corporate media right now. 

Althouse, Matt Taibbi is back with another set of tweets, this time focusing on Donald Trump. Twitchy, And here … we … GO! Matt Taibbi drops SCATHING thread detailing how Twitter ‘removed’ Trump. "None of this was EVER about trust or safety. It was politics and TRUMP." Ben Whedon at JTN again, Third Twitter document dump details decision to ban Donald Trump. Ace, The Twitter Files: The Road to the Removal of Donald Trump, Update: Mike Huckabee Was Nearly Banned for Making a Joke. From the Wombat's  In The Mailbox: 12.09.22  Herr Professor Jacobsen at LI, #Twitterfiles Part 3: Twitter Regularly Interacted With FBI/DHS To Restrict PRE-ELECTION Tweets. "Matt Taibbi: “During this time, executives were also clearly liaising with federal enforcement and intelligence agencies about moderation of election-related content… [W]e didn’t see one reference to moderation requests from the Trump campaign, the Trump White House, or Republicans generally.”" Sundance again, DHS Partnered Social Media Surveillance Systems Delivering Mutual Benefits

The Brownstone Institute (cited at Haut Hair), Now we know how Musk could fire half his staff "These people were not working for the platform. They were working against it. And to what end? To keep the schools closed. To force people to get the jabs. To keep the travel restrictions in place. To keep people in masks and living in terror of a virus. This all really happened." Insty cites the WALL STREET JOURNAL: Elon Musk Slashes Bureaucracy, Giving Twitter a Chance to Soar.

Mr. Musk is trying to cure a degenerative corporate disease: systemic paralysis. Symptoms include cobwebs of corporate hierarchies with unclear reporting lines and unwieldy teams, along with work groups and positions that have opaque or nonsensical mandates. Paralyzed companies are often led by a career CEO who builds or maintains a level of bureaucracy that leads to declines in innovation, competitive stature and shareholder value.

Mr. Musk set his new tone immediately. He eliminated a 12-member team responsible for artificial-intelligence ethics in machine learning, the entire corporate communications department, and a headquarters commissary that cost $13 million a year (despite prior management’s pandemic decree that Twitter employees would be “remote forever”).
At PM, John Podesta’s 'niece' QUITS Twitter Trust & Safety Council as Elon Musk takes on child exploitation. "Lesley Podesta, a woman who claimed to be the niece of John Podesta, resigned from Twitter's Trust and Safety Council on Thursday." NYPo, Twitter refused to remove child porn because it didn’t ‘violate policies’: lawsuit. Althouse, cites the New Yorker, "Twitter has long been referred to as a 'hell site,' but the weeks that followed Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company marked a nadir for social media..."
"... or perhaps a climax, depending on how prone you are to Schadenfreude. The majority of discourse on the platform focussed on the platform itself and its theoretically impending doom. The situation called to my mind ThĂ©odore GĂ©ricault’s 1819 painting 'The Raft of the Medusa' which pictures the aftermath of an infamous shipwreck with the few living sailors struggling to climb up a mound of corpses on a decaying raft. In this case, no one was coming to the rescue, especially given that Twitter’s content moderation and safety staffs had been decimated by layoffs."

Twitchy, Jack Dorsey tried to fact-check Elon Musk about what wasn’t a ‘crime’ at Twitter (it was a BAD idea). Evita Duffy at Da Fed, These 7 Trump-Critical GOP Senators Have No Plan To Deal With Unconstitutional, Election-Altering Censorship. "Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mike Rounds and John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Mitt Romney of Utah." From the Wombat's  In The Mailbox: 12.09.22, The Lid: Adam Schiff Picks A Fight With Elon Musk …OUCH! That Was A Mistake. Front Page, Biden Administration Persecutes Musk for Opening Up Twitter "When free speech and transparency represent kryptonite."

Stacy McCain on the Griner/Bout prisoner exchange, Not Since ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ Has Anyone Made a Worse Trade Than This. Yep.

Center Square AZ, Arizona senator leaves Democratic Party, declares to be independent. Breitbart, Sinema: I’m Leaving Democrats and Becoming an Independent, Won’t Be ‘Stuck into One Party’s Demands of Following Without Thinking’. From the Wombat's  In The Mailbox: 12.09.22, The Geller Report: Sinema LEAVES DEMOCRAT PARTY Switches To Independent In Senate Shake-Up. Ace, Kyrsten Sinema Will Leave the Democrat Party, Register as an Independent. "She hasn't said if she'll continue caucusing with the Democrats yet, but she has said she will not caucus with the Republicans." Beege Wellborn at Haut Hair says Ho, boy - Kyrsten Sinema declares her independence. Sundance, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema Changes Political Status to “Independent”, But the Senate Dynamic Will Not Change. Tom Knighton, Tilting at Windmills, Senima's decision to leave Dems interesting, "In part because she's not the only high-profile defection." At NYPo, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema branded ‘the worst’ by Democrats after party switch. Politico crows Top progressive firm drops Sinema as a client, "Authentic has dropped the Arizona senator after she announced she was leaving the Democratic Party." Atop Da Hill, Bowman on Sinema leaving Democratic Party: ‘Bye Felicia’, a cultural reference I wasn't aware of before. Fox, AOC hits Sinema for leaving Democratic Party, registering as an independent: 'People deserve more' "AOC said that she's 'grateful' the nomination has opened up, as Sinema is up for reelection in 2024." On Da Hill, Gallego, potential Arizona Senate hopeful, hits Sinema after party switch. Capt. Ed at Haut Hair, The I-word: Will Manchin follow Sinema -- and take control of the Senate?

What would happen if both Manchin and Sinema move into the Independent column — and refuse to caucus with either party initially? Instead of a 51/49 split in the Senate, it suddenly becomes 49/49/2; if King decides to join, then it becomes 49/48/3. That would force both caucuses to bargain for their support in a leadership fight, one that would keep Kamala Harris on the sidelines and require whomever wins to stick to their bargains. The two or three senators in the center would have far more power to dictate policy outcomes and to punish welchers than they do at present. If they get betrayed, the Independent caucus could trigger a leadership fight by swinging to the other side and starting the process all over again.

That could be amusing.

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup.

No comments:

Post a Comment