US Elections 2020 IV: The Two Gentlemen of Corona

[Ferris]

I love the signature on each one. Like "yep, I'm pleased with that and think it is good so I'll add the seal of approval!"

Cracks me up.

[jenna appleseed]

Fucking hell, somebody has reincarnated Bruce Forsyth as a car.

My Brucie the car.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/26/toxic-polarisation-politics-joe-biden

WORSHIP GREYNESS

MAY THINGS NEVER DRAMATICALLY CHANGE

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

One comment quietly disarms the whole endeavour

Yes, but to put an end to polarisation there needs to be an end to what feeds it

[evilcommiedictator]

The toxic polarisation of our politics can be reversed, but it will take humility
- Martin Kettle

Someone with the name Martin Kettle has not spent enough time with his head stuck down the toilet, clearly

Many therefore assert that those more unified and civil days are simply over. Some on all sides actually welcome this, thinking that the downward descent of the old, unified, liberal capitalist state in the early 21st century presents a cathartic opportunity to clear the debris and failures of the past and create a ground zero for a different kind of brave new future.

My answer to those zealots is to be very careful indeed about what they wish for.

Yeah,

The key is to prioritise listening and then talking to others. Michael Sandel's recent book The Tyranny of Merit argues that humility must be central to the reconstruction of the notion of the common good, without which no "we" society can prosper. People don't need to be humiliated or denied a voice by being told they are bad, stupid, bigoted or unsuccessful. The aim should be to find things we can all agree about, perhaps including such things as fairness, patriotism, helping one another and trying to agree about facts.

TrYiNg To AgReE aBoUt FaCtS

[Mr Farenheit]

[steve98]

#DiaperDon is trending and the poor dear's goin' nuts. O boy, this'll be good (Hopefully he's not so angry he'll nuke us all... hopefully)

[steve98]

He's Tweeting that:

"For purposes of National Security Section 230 must be immediately terminated!!!"

Fucking hell. So far beyond satire it's... I dunno.

[idunnosomename]

Someone with the name Martin Kettle has not spent enough time with his head stuck down the toilet, clearly
Yeah,

TrYiNg To AgReE aBoUt FaCtS

Imagine having to live with a lifetime of this though

[MojoJojo]

More on the Kraken lawsuits here: https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/sidney-powell-mocked-scorned-ridiculed-and-more-over-clumsy-rambling-typo-filled-kraken-lawsuits/

It's quite staggeringly inept, but the MAGAs are lapping it up. Presumably Powell is going all in to grift as much as she can get her hands on before she gets disbarred.

I'm a bit frustrated about this. The MAGAs say all the obvious mistakes are because it's all been OCR'd - I don't have proof of this but it would make sense, and it's certainly more plausible than no one noticing two big, obvious typos in the heading. But none of the press mention this and just go "hur hur hur".

But this raises the question why isn't there a clean version of the document out there? Sidney Powell surely has a non OCR'd version, and you'd think it would be in her interest to have a version out there that doesn't make her look incompetent. I don't know if it's crazy to suggest it's actually a bit of media manipulation designed to keep the debate polarised and avoid any critical analysis of the claims in the media. The only sources actually reporting on the contents are right wing one, left wing reports are all just focussed on the spelling/typing errors.

[Jittlebags]

[Ferris]

I'm a bit frustrated about this. The MAGAs say all the obvious mistakes are because it's all been OCR'd - I don't have proof of this but it would make sense, and it's certainly more plausible than no one noticing two big, obvious typos in the heading. But none of the press mention this and just go "hur hur hur".

But this raises the question why isn't there a clean version of the document out there? Sidney Powell surely has a non OCR'd version, and you'd think it would be in her interest to have a version out there that doesn't make her look incompetent. I don't know if it's crazy to suggest it's actually a bit of media manipulation designed to keep the debate polarised and avoid any critical analysis of the claims in the media. The only sources actually reporting on the contents are right wing one, left wing reports are all just focussed on the spelling/typing errors.

That's kind of the point though? If it went through an OCR then fair enough - I'm inclined to believe there is a better reason than sheer ineptitude for those kind of typos.

...but I absolutely believe the ineptitude of not checking it and publishing the version you haven't reviewed after it went through an OCR. Also things like paragraph breaks wouldn't be scrambled by an OCR, so what's going on there?

And that's before you get onto the content of the thing, which is complete pish. So if you are a mainstream media outlet, do you help them broadcast their message by drawing attention to it and offering a get-out by blaming technology (while ignoring the other glaring errors and blatant bad faith in the documents), or do you ignore it all together?

Bearing in mind one of the plaintiffs in the Georgia suit found out he was a plaintiff by reading the document on twitter. This isn't credible stuff so you have to be careful before giving it credence in the popular press.

[Cuellar]

But why did it go through an OCR?

[Urinal Cake]

When you call the US President a name that's a matter of National Security. He also went off at a reporter because he didn't treat Trump with enough deference as President. Trump is going to crash once he becomes a laughing stock without any goons to scare people. Maybe the Proud Boys will be his volunteer army.

[jobotic]

State of that carpet


What's Section 230?

[phantom_power]

I am having flashbacks to trying to fit my legs under the table when I have a parents session at my kids school

[Ferris]

State of that carpet

What's Section 230?

Legal statute protecting social media from the laws usually reserved for publishers. As I understand it, "platforms" like twitter/Facebook (currently) are not legally responsible for stuff people post on there. They can moderate it, but aren't legally required to do so (and aren't on the hook if someone tweets out legally questionable stuff).

Repeal 230, and social media becomes the same as a major newspaper. If someone uses twitter to defame you, you can take twitter to court (in addition to whoever tweeted) for allowing the tweet to be posted.

It'll massively change current social media models because they'll have to figure out a way of moderating every post (which will potentially knacker their profit margins).

He won't do it because he'd be booted off there in an instant if twitter was legally responsible for what he posts, along with the majority of toxic maga lunatics. It's a (hollow) threat he trots out when twitter starts blocking his tweets. He's just admitting they're getting to him - they should tweet "U MAD" and move on because he wouldn't dare change the legislation as it may impact him.

[Attila]

First the image made me snort here in my office, then there's the file name...

If only Hans were president.

[MojoJojo]

That's kind of the point though? If it went through an OCR then fair enough - I'm inclined to believe there is a better reason than sheer ineptitude for those kind of typos.

...but I absolutely believe the ineptitude of not checking it and publishing the version you haven't reviewed after it went through an OCR. Also things like paragraph breaks wouldn't be scrambled by an OCR, so what's going on there?

Apparently, the court system (PACER) is old and crap and is designed around the idea that court documents would be paper and it would scan these and publish the scans. It can only publish images, essentially. courtlistener is a website that automatically gobbles those images up, runs them through OCR and publishes them in a more friendly pdf format, and it's those that everyone is looking at - Sidney Powell hasn't released anything to the public herself. Tbf, it's just occurred to me that judges might not take kindly to attorneys privately releasing stuff to the press.

And that's before you get onto the content of the thing, which is complete pish. So if you are a mainstream media outlet, do you help them broadcast their message by drawing attention to it and offering a get-out by blaming technology (while ignoring the other glaring errors and blatant bad faith in the documents), or do you ignore it all together?

Bearing in mind one of the plaintiffs in the Georgia suit found out he was a plaintiff by reading the document on twitter. This isn't credible stuff so you have to be careful before giving it credence in the popular press.

Yeah, I understand that, but it would be reassuring to have someone explaining why this is piss other than spelling mistakes.

[Dex Sawash]

But why did it go through an OCR?

The Hugo Chavez vote tabulators are sitting around idle most of the time. They're just proving the point.

[greenman]

Get that steel drum out of the oval office.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Ha, my first thought on seeing that image was that someone had photoshopped Trump into one of the homemade Oval offices from "how the other half lives..." thread.  So I had to do an image search...

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1332082855946706944

[

[Ferris]

Apparently, the court system (PACER) is old and crap and is designed around the idea that court documents would be paper and it would scan these and publish the scans. It can only publish images, essentially. courtlistener is a website that automatically gobbles those images up, runs them through OCR and publishes them in a more friendly pdf format, and it's those that everyone is looking at - Sidney Powell hasn't released anything to the public herself. Tbf, it's just occurred to me that judges might not take kindly to attorneys privately releasing stuff to the press.
Yeah, I understand that, but it would be reassuring to have someone explaining why this is piss other than spelling mistakes.

The Michigan suit doesn't have a court filing mark so it is the pre-filed version ie directly from the legal team. No OCR shenanigans there. I think that's the same for Georgia also, but not bothered to check because I'm lazy.

Re: explanations, I'd agree if there was more substance but these are essentially nuisance suits without merit. Papers aren't covering them and focusing on spelling mistakes, they just aren't covering them at all. I reckon that is fair enough honestly.

[Spoon of Ploff]

Honestly thought that had been Photoshop'd so he was sat behind the tiny desk. Have they sold all the other furniture in the Whitehouse?

Fake Edit: oh, yeah... like JaYB said basically.

[daf]

[Mr Farenheit]

[Spoon of Ploff]

[El Unicornio, mang]

[steve98]

D'you do requests Sir?... "Memory"... from Cats?... The musical?

[darby o chill]