Funny events in anti-woke world

[XsjadoBlayde]

Inside the Movement to Root Out Nonexistent Election Fraud in Texas

Weston Martinez can’t provide evidence for his claims of fraud in the 2020 election, but he is drawing crowds of right-wing activists across Texas.

www.texasmonthly.com

When Mellisa Brown took the stage at an event for “patriot” poll watchers in North Texas early in October, she had just lost a lawsuit challenging the election results in her hometown, Killeen. Earlier this year, Brown ran for reelection to the city council of the town, an hour north of Austin, and lost by 26 votes. Though she provided no evidence of fraud, she sued the opponent who won the seat, alleging county administrators had mismanaged the election and demanding the results be “declared void and a new election ordered by the court.” The court sided with her opponent and ruled that Brown had to pay $7,500 as a “sanction” for her frivolous suit. But the few dozen right-wing activists who’d gathered in Midlothian, a small city south of Dallas, celebrated her as a winner.

For nearly an hour, Brown described in detail how she had requested, compiled, and analyzed voter reports, voter lists, and data from the Secretary of State’s office. She argued there were inconsistencies and unexplained errors that suggested fraud in her race. And she patted herself on the back for her plucky efforts to seek relief. “I’ve learned how to write like the best attorney in the country,” Brown, who represented herself in court, said. “The great thing about the law is you get to copy everyone else. You don’t have to come up with your own original anything.”

The folks in the audience, who paid $25 a ticket to attend the event, applauded and sought, in turn, to follow Brown’s lead. The event host, a local right-wing activist group, promised to add Brown’s election-fraud “research” and approach, which they dubbed the “Mellisa Brown method,” to their upcoming training sessions for poll watchers and others seeking to promote “election integrity.” One speaker recommended that the audience study another set of trainings by Laura Pressley, an election denier whose allies filed a lawsuit challenging the results of a failed 2019 anti-fluoride ballot measure in Fredericksburg that was defeated in court in early October.

The audience, who had been promised barbecue on event fliers, instead enjoyed pizza and drinks as activists and organizers presented their research on alleged election fraud for hours. Finally, around 7:30 p.m., the headlining speakers took their seats for a roundtable discussion. The event’s main draw was one of Texas’s preeminent deniers of the 2020 election results, Weston Martinez, a longtime Republican activist from San Antonio who unsuccessfully ran for Texas land commissioner earlier this year. Martinez was joined on stage by Jameson Ellis, a failed Republican congressional primary candidate in Houston who’d challenged U.S. representative Dan Crenshaw, and Seth Keshel, a retired U.S. Army captain who said he’d collaborated with disgraced Army lieutenant general and QAnon conspiracy peddler Michael Flynn on “research” regarding election fraud in 2020.


Martinez began by thanking participants in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol for “their service,” then told the audience that election fraud is not limited to the state’s blue counties, which he referred to as “Sodom and Gomorrah.” In Martinez’s telling, both Democrats and RINOs (Republicans in name only) are throwing elections, and only God-fearing patriots can prevent our electoral system from being corrupted by traitorous elements. “It’s not Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “It’s patriots and traitors.”

The plan Martinez outlined for activists in Midlothian was to get involved as poll watchers, election judges, or amateur election-fraud investigators ahead of the November 8 general election. Martinez also told me he’s pushing for changes to state law that would allow sheriffs to appoint “election investigators” who would have the ability to tell the federal government to “get the hell out” if officials tried to “sequester a voting location.” (Martinez did not specify exactly which agency of the federal government he was referring to or under what jurisdiction it would have the right to sequester a voting location or confiscate voting equipment—ironically, something that President Donald Trump reportedly directed his lawyers to do in key swing states.) Keshel, meanwhile, encouraged his followers to organize “drop box tailgate parties,” where they would stand guard at mail-in ballot delivery sites.

“Some people have gone home and said, ‘We’re not going to continue to do this because we’ve tried for two years and nobody’s put Trump back in office,’ and they failed to recognize that the damage done at the top of the ticket goes all the way down,” Keshel said gravely. “Complacency is the enemy of liberty. What that means is for the thirty or so folks that are here. We have thirty bullets that we can throw out there, not literally, but metaphorically . . . so what that means is all the people you’ve heard today, take a cue from them.”

Though widespread voter fraud has never been proven in an election in this century, the rhetoric of the movement alleging such fraud is not just bluster. Despite the GOP winning every statewide race in Texas in 2020, the state has become an epicenter of efforts to root out what many Republicans regard, or pretend to regard, as efforts to steal elections. Activists have already derailed standard election-equipment tests conducted by administrators by heckling them with conspiracy theories. Facing unprecedented threats and harassment, around a third of Texas election administrators have quit in the past two years.

While activists speak as if they are on the fringe—Keshel claimed he had been “shadow banned” from social media platforms in the state—they’ve made significant inroads with mainstream Texas Republican politicians. In April, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton gave an address in Houston at an “election integrity” gala to an audience of election-fraud conspiracy theorists, including Martinez. Multiple high-level Texas Republican officials have either hosted screenings or remarked positively about the widely debunked election-fraud conspiracy documentary, 2000 Mules, over the last several months. Two of the key figures in the film were recently jailed for contempt of court after refusing to name the key source of their wild election-fraud claims.

While barnstorming, Martinez has also suggested he’s in close contact with John Scott, Texas’s Secretary of State, who will oversee the November election. At a recent event in McKinney, Martinez claimed that he’d had a “private meeting” with Scott in September to discuss election fraud. Officials in the Secretary of State’s office deny such a meeting occurred but acknowledge Scott engaged with Martinez at a public event. “Weston Martinez came to a public press conference on September 20th in Austin and spoke to the Secretary there,” wrote assistant secretary of state for communications Sam Taylor in an email to Texas Monthly. “There were journalists and members of the public in the room.”

When it comes to providing evidence of the fraud of which he speaks so confidently, or even explaining how it might work, Martinez often struggles. At the event in McKinney, Martinez claimed that there had been fraud in dozens of counties, and he estimated that between 275,000 and 375,000 votes in Bexar County, home to San Antonio, were fraudulent. None of his numbers are rooted in meaningful statistical analysis; the Bexar County claim is a wild extrapolation from a highly publicized incident of alleged voter fraud that some on the right wing say involved thousands of votes.

Martinez said that large-scale cheating primarily involves the rigging of voting machines, a revelation he claims was found in analyses of the 2018 and 2020 primary elections, though the report he provided did not support the scope of his claims. He tried to explain how fraud occurs through a series of convoluted analogies that left some in the McKinney crowd confused. Citing primary-election numbers, he claimed that results were too consistent across races, comparing the phenomenon to the unlikelihood of catching fourteen different fish that were all nearly identical in weight, and suggesting that the consistency was evidence of fraud.

When an older woman in the audience asked Martinez to explain the metaphor, he instead tried his hand at three new ones, including one comparing voting machines to a scale at a butcher’s shop rigged to always measure a pound of meat, even if a slice is actually a quarter pound light or heavy in either direction. A man in the audience piped up dejectedly and reasoned that there wasn’t much point in getting involved: if results could be changed as easily as Martinez had suggested, he asked, what could he even do to help?

Judge Curbs Actions of Election-Monitoring Group in Arizona (Published 2022)

The group may not take photos or videos of voters, openly carry firearms near ballot boxes, or post information about voters online, a federal judge ruled.

www.nytimes.com

A federal judge in Arizona has sharply curtailed the activities of an election-monitoring group in the vicinity of ballot boxes, including taking photos or videos of voters, openly carrying firearms, posting information about voters online, or spreading falsehoods about election laws.

The group, Clean Elections USA, has the stated goal of preventing voter fraud by staking out ballot boxes to ensure that people don’t behave as “mules” by illegally casting multiple ballots. In recent weeks, self-described “mule watchers” — some armed — have gathered around outdoor ballot boxes in Maricopa County to take pictures of voters and, in some cases, post those images online.

Last week, the League of Women Voters sued the group, saying that its actions amounted to “time-tested methods of voter intimidation,” and seeking an injunction to halt its activities. Early on Tuesday before a hearing on the matter, Clean Elections USA said it had agreed to cease some activities, including refraining from openly carrying guns or wearing visible body armor within 250 feet of ballot boxes, as well as following or interacting with voters within 75 feet of the boxes.

But the temporary restraining order issued by Judge Michael T. Liburdi, who was appointed by former President Donald J. Trump, goes well beyond that agreement, prohibiting the group “and other persons in active concert or participation with” it from taking photos or videos of voters or disseminating information about voters online, and also from “making false statements” about Arizona’s statutes regarding early voting in interviews or on social media. Lawyers for Clean Elections USA had resisted those limits, claiming they impinged on the group’s First Amendment rights and, in the case of comments made by its founder, Melody Jennings, would amount to unconstitutional prior restraint.

“It is imperative we balance the defendants’ right to engage in First Amendment-protected activity with the plaintiffs’ right to act without intimidation or harassment,” said Judge Liburdi after a marathon hearing in Phoenix punctuated by testimony from a Mesa, Ariz., man who said he and his wife were menaced when they went to vote last month.

According to the man, who testified without revealing his name publicly for fear of harassment, eight to 10 people filmed the couple and told them they were “hunting mules.” Images of him and his car were posted online and Ms. Jennings subsequently appeared on the podcast of Stephen K. Bannon, the former Trump adviser, saying they had caught a mule and “blasted it out viral.”

Judge Liburdi called his experience particularly compelling, and noted that it went well beyond testimony from last week in a parallel case against Clean Elections USA. In that lawsuit, brought by the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and Voto Latino, the judge declined to enjoin Clean Elections USA’s activities, saying he had not seen any evidence that real harm had befallen any voters. That ruling is being appealed in the Ninth Circuit.

In his concluding remarks on Tuesday, Judge Liburdi pointed to incorrect statements made by Ms. Jennings in posts on social media and in interviews that only spouses could return ballots on behalf of voters in Arizona, when in fact housemates and caregivers are legally permitted to do so in the state.

“This does not prohibit Miss Jennings from correctly stating what the law is,” said Judge Liburdi, noting that he would also draft a preliminary injunction against Clean Elections USA in coming days. “I just have a problem with her stating it incorrectly in a way that is intimidating or coercive to voting behavior.”

On Monday, the Justice Department filed a brief on the issue, noting that while it had no opinion on the lawsuit itself, the Constitution does not protect voter intimidation and that harassing or trying to harass people casting ballots could violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Underscoring the urgency of the moment, lawyers for the League of Women Voters noted that Tuesday was the last day to mail in early ballots under Arizona statute, making ballot boxes the only option for people who wish to vote before Election Day.

Tuesday was the last day to mail in early ballots in Arizona, making ballot boxes the only option for people who wish to vote before Election Day.Credit...Rebecca Noble for The New York Times


Alexander Kolodin, a lawyer who represents both Clean Elections USA and Ms. Jennings, said in court that he would most likely appeal the latest ruling. Although Clean Elections USA had voluntarily agreed to the restrictions on weapons, as well as on talking to, yelling at, or otherwise confronting or following voters, he argued that the restrictions on photography, online posting and discussing Arizona voting laws infringed on free speech.

Mr. Kolodin noted that a substantial press contingent had begun gathering near ballot boxes in Maricopa County over the past few weeks and that they had posted photos and videos of voters. “The Washington Post is intimidating voters,” he said.

With that in mind, he told the judge his clients were unfairly being singled out. “It seems like our clients are on trial for the entire state or anybody who wants to participate in ballot box monitoring or even share their views,” Mr. Kolodin said.

At the heart of those views is the false belief that illegal votes cast at drop boxes were responsible for President Donald J. Trump’s defeat in the 2020 elections, a theory espoused in the discredited conspiracy-laden documentary “2000 Mules.”

Ms. Jennings, in podcast interviews, has said she was inspired by a “teaser” for the movie that was released last spring. By the time “2000 Mules” was released in May, she had already built a significant following on the social network Truth Social based on her proposal to station observers at ballot boxes around the country. She has said she is recruiting volunteers to watch ballot boxes in every state, but has not indicated where other monitors might be active.

A Christian pastor and counselor based in Tulsa, Okla., Ms. Jennings has criticized the media’s coverage of Clean Elections USA. In a Monday interview on “War Room,” Mr. Bannon’s show, she said she was “tired that nobody comes and asks what it’s about.” Ms. Jennings has not responded to multiple requests for comment from The New York Times.

Pinny Sheoran, president of the League of Women Voters of Arizona, also provided sworn testimony at Tuesday’s hearing, describing how the activities of Clean Elections USA and similar groups had frightened her members, who feared they could be followed or even physically assaulted it they sought to deposit a ballot in a drop box. To address those concerns, the group had spent time and money aiming to educate Arizona voters that they had a legal right to vote, she said.

“Today’s U.S. District Court decision is a victory for the voters of Arizona who have the right to cast their ballots free from intimidation, threats or coercion,” she said in a statement after the hearing.

 

[Gergar12]

It is not complex and super simple. Clearly for some reason Zionist Israel has been corrupted no different then Russia, and China for some time now.
The reality what should have been a peaceful resolution via Gaza Strip has only created more violence for some dumb reason. ZI is not going to admit it's fault and it is up to people to find ways to stop fueling ZI income by any means they could. This also means keeping employees out of other nations who will tap the rest of the world for funds. If you have not noticed many ZI people travel back and forth between nations. Point taken many people across the world see ZI as an idealistic place to live which even more problematic. The ZI nees to be drained because as of now it is like something out of a horror movie.



Give us an example . Beyond that USA does not care as long as the nation is not hostile. If Africa United and just gave the world the middle finger it would be a better place already.


Please stop going Pakistan. Pakistan is adjacent to the India confederacy. They might be their own game but they respect the other.
Turkey is allied with ZI because as I mentioned before people from ZI vacation there. Go look it up. "Israel top vacation spot" and I doubt
they would ruin that relationship.
Egypt since power shifts have become hostile and probably going down the road of Venezuela. It is not a happy place anymore.

Nope 1980s Japan, the USSR, and current-day China were or are being countered by policymakers in Washington. They were countries that surpassed the US's threshold of 50% of GDP. If Africa ever became unified and approached 50% of US GDP, Washington would soon change it's tune.

As for Turkey, just because Israelis vacation there doesn't mean Israel is loved by Turkey. You have to look at the bigger picture. Your letting your emotions on this issue get to you. You need a clear head, something only the USSR, and Japan had in challenging the US, and no middle east country has done with Hezbollah, and Iran being close, but on the verge of collapse due to economic, and social woes.

China, and Xi for example are deeply insecure about their geopolitical position, you cannot buy friends in Geopolitics in Asia due to elite race realism. You cannot steal experience, naval tradition or knowhow. And when China's business elites are all leaving China for western countries vs staying in China and improving their strategic position that is a worrying sign for China.

If you try to invade Israel you will need nukes. Not to use them since the wind may push radioactive particles into Palestine, but to deter Israeli nukes on large armor formations by a hypothetical Arab military force.

 

[Gergar12]

I agree that Israel is more South Africa than Third Reich, though China isn't the Third Reich either, though they are a lot closer to it than I'd like.

Most of the US's foreign aid goes to Israel, in the form of money that can only be spent on buying military gear made in the US. That it, the US is subsidising their arms industry by giving free stuff to Israel. Take that away, and those companies would have to face the invisible hand of the free market or whatever.

Also, the USS Liberty thing was a mistake. A horrendous mistake that puts a lot of people in a really bad light, but a mistake.

Israel was able to win the six days war by itself. Now they did use American and French weapons. But the IDF and Israeli economy are no slouch. Almost everyone on the center to left underestimates them. Without US aid they would still be a middle power with the military of a great power.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Twould seem guns around polling stations do have a whole history and data on how they're used for intimidation. Quell surprise.

Scholar: The History (and Impact) of Guns at Voting Sites

In swing states such as Florida, Nevada, and Wisconsin, people are allowed to carry guns while they are voting.

www.snopes.com

A couple in Mesa, Arizona, was dropping off their ballots on Oct. 21, 2022, for the forthcoming midterm election when they saw two people carrying guns and dressed in tactical gear hanging around the Maricopa County drop box. The armed pair left when officers later arrived.

It wasn't an isolated incident. A lawsuit filed Oct. 24 by Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and Voto Latino noted that on several occasions "armed and masked individuals" associated with the group Clean Elections USA had gathered at drop boxes in the county "with the express purpose of deterring voters."

[Read more: Verbal Threats, Disruptive Acts: What Voter Intimidation Looks Like]

Voter intimidation is a crime in Arizona – as it is throughout the country. In the case of Maricopa County, a judge ruled on Nov. 1 that the actions of the individuals – who present themselves as anti-voter fraud activists – crossed the line and issued a restraining order. Under the order, people associated with Clean Elections USA are now barred from openly carrying firearms within 250 feet of a ballot box. Concealed firearms will be permitted, though, and the restriction only affects individuals connected to Clean Elections USA.


The presence of armed individuals at voting sites adds to concerns over the prospects of election-related intimidation and violence, which have deepened in recent years.

As Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the nonpartisan Carnegie Endowment, recently reported to the congressional committee looking into the Jan 6. attack on the Capitol, political violence "is considered more acceptable" by the public than it was five years ago.

False charges of stolen elections – such as those repeatedly made by former President Donald Trump – are "a major instigator of political unrest," Kleinfeld noted, although she added that extremists in both political parties have reported a greater willingness to resort to political violence.

These concerns are far from hypothetical: As of this fall, more than 1,000 threats to election officials – some explicitly mentioning gun violence – were under review by federal law enforcement agencies. Responding to the situation in Arizona, the Department of Justice on Oct. 31 noted that the presence of armed individuals raises "serious concerns" of voter intimidation.

Such concerns are fanned by the fact that only seven states ban all gun-carrying at polling places. Five more states bar the carrying of concealed guns at polling places. But in swing states like Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, people are allowed to carry guns even while they are voting.

The lack of a federal ban on firearms at voting sites has prompted Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., to introduce in Congress the Vote Without Fear Act, proposed legislation that would "prohibit the possession of a firearm within 100 yards of any federal election site."

Pitched Battles, and Voter Intimidation

To be sure, election-related violence is a part of America's past. For example, the anti-immigrant Know-Nothing party of the 1850s often employed armed violence using an array of weapons, and Democrat-Whig party battles erupted in the 1830s. Throughout the middle of the 19th century, such cities as Philadelphia, Baltimore and New Orleans at times witnessed pitched battles between warring political factions at election time. And lethal violence was used extensively after the Civil War to systematically terrorize and disenfranchise Black voters in the South.

Yet many people in the United States also believed from the start that guns and violence were contrary to the values of a democratic nation, especially, though not limited to, during times of elections. As early as 1776, Delaware's state Constitution stated: "To prevent any violence or force being used at the said elections, no person shall come armed to any of them." It further stipulated that, to protect voters, a gun-free zone would be put in place within a mile of polling places for 24 hours before and after election day.

In its state Bill of Rights of 1787, New York decreed that "all elections shall be free and that no person by force of arms nor by malice or menacing or otherwise presume to disturb or hinder any citizen of this State to make free election."

In my own research on historical gun laws, I found roughly a dozen states that specifically barred guns during elections or at polling places in laws enacted between the 1770s and the start of the 20th century. But even more importantly, from the 1600s through the 1800s, I found that at least three-quarters of all Colonies and later states enacted laws criminalizing gun-brandishing and display in any public setting – and that would certainly include voting stations at election time.

As I discuss in my new book, "The Gun Dilemma," early American lawmakers well understood that public gun-carrying, by its very nature, was intimidating. And that extended not only to brandishing a gun, meaning displaying one in a threatening manner, but also to mere gun display – simply showing a gun in a public setting.

Modern studies confirm this understanding. Analysts in fields including psychology and criminology have concluded that the mere presence of guns increases aggression and violence. To cite a different analysis, a study of over 30,000 demonstrations in the U.S. from 2020 to 2021 found that when guns were present, protests were over six times more likely to turn violent or destructive.

Creating an 'Island of Calm'

According to polls, wide majorities of Americans oppose public gun-carrying. A 2017 study reported that from two-thirds to over four-fifths of respondents opposed public gun-carrying in various settings, including at the polls. And as recently as 2018, the Supreme Court affirmed that Election Day polling places should be "an island of calm in which voters can peacefully contemplate their choices."

Both history and modern research support the conclusion that the presence of guns in public defeats this goal. Indeed, they can induce "great fear and quarrels," or so said New Jersey in a law passed in 1686.

Robert Spitzer, Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the Political Science Department, State University of New York College at Cortland

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

At last an accessable summary of Thiel. Has been an intentionally stealthed concern for a whiles now. Which makes them even more in need of a constant critical spotlight.

 

[Gamertrek]

Nope 1980s Japan, the USSR, and current-day China were or are being countered by policymakers in Washington. They were countries that surpassed the US's threshold of 50% of GDP. If Africa ever became unified and approached 50% of US GDP, Washington would soon change it's tune.

Seriously that was 198X not now.

China at that point in history was literally having public executions and prior to that literally was waging war against the US via the Korean War. China only real respect to the US was WWII, which is part why China is the worlds factory ( why living in China and being able to gain access to tech would be cheaper ). That being said China even before that was threaten with the order to limit birth-rates which in part was influenced by westerners. That is right the whole "Birth control" movement in China was western influenced ( I forget the name of the order ). Another factor about China is the amount of livable space across the continent where the majority of people live inside the big cities and barely populate the lands outside those cities.

Now you bring Russia to mind. Once again your wrong on that because Russia ( former federation etc USSR states ) was never threaten by the US or western shores to begin with at all in any way. Russian Revolutionary movement are the same people responsible for the Central-Banking-Party in the US, and the same people responsible for Zionist Israel, and the same people responsible for the various problematic situations across the globe.

That is pure conspiracy to think the US would have that much of an impact on the world on purpose. Yes I agree with 9/11 the value of the dollar decreased and anybody holding U dollars ( IOUs ) instead of gold was also affected.

As for Turkey, just because Israelis vacation there doesn't mean Israel is loved by Turkey. You have to look at the bigger picture. Your letting your emotions on this issue get to you. You need a clear head, something only the USSR, and Japan had in challenging the US, and no middle east country has done with Hezbollah, and Iran being close, but on the verge of collapse due to economic, and social woes.

Again Iran never challenged Israel. They launched a rocket as a distraction and US troops ( which did not have to and just guarded UAE ) went on the charge against Iran.

Saying Turkey is not going to attack ZI is childish and immature. They have a business relationship.

China, and Xi for example are deeply insecure about their geopolitical position, you cannot buy friends in Geopolitics in Asia due to elite race realism. You cannot steal experience, naval tradition or knowhow. And when China's business elites are all leaving China for western countries vs staying in China and improving their strategic position that is a worrying sign for China.

Their is no "elite" bs. You need get that out of your skull.

If a business wants to drop ship and move to another location while keeping ( what I assume ) are "sweat shops" and "factories" locally then let them. Living in China ( as with western nation ) is impossible for many people in general because of the politics involved. Clearly duh people see things coming ahead and if they want to jump-ship and leave then let them leave. Everybody by now should know that "China surpassing the US" will never happen at all, because every purchase is US dollars. You can not even "own" land in China asides leasing it and renewing that lease. Then one day for some reason they bring back all your money or just send a bunch of goons to throw you out like if you have no rights or never lived their at all.

The same inhumanity was practiced in Detroit via the foreign take-over of markets. Even now places in the mid-west ( which is a target for investors ) have
been attempting to purchase property from states with strict laws ( like NY ) and do the same thing but unsuccessfully. Yes there is a movement to create neighborhoods in the United States with nothing but Chinese. I have "people related to people who married into my family" ( yup ) who are having children living like this. Just to live somewhere where everybody is Chinese related even if they are diverse. I get and I am tired of that feeling of "racism,
discrimination, self-hate, derogatorily, disdain from them Who attempts to keep us in the dark about their situation, and how they are living or if we could work with them in any way at all. It is like dealing with them is dealing with that person in a classroom who ask you for tools but when it comes to actually being conversational they become ignorant. I mean hey they do not want my two cents but they can not STFU about their kids or whatever small business venture. Point I am trying to make is that duh right now in the mid-west, etc their are tons of reality properties being soaked up not by people but big Chinese companies.

If you try to invade Israel you will need nukes. Not to use them since the wind may push radioactive particles into Palestine, but to deter Israeli nukes on large armor formations by a hypothetical Arab military force.

That is one of the worst scenarios. If you have read ( or played videogames ) go read up on the nuclear reactor leaks, and bombs that keep on killing from Desert-Storm and the 1982 Oil Crisis. When you use nuclear weapons the radiation does not vanish it keeps on killing for years afterwards. It makes the area around it unlivable and partially is in the wind ( as with Japan and it's air-purifier requirement in every house and home ). In fact it is so bad to use nukes your literally claiming the people and those in the area expendable. It is like when slaves in Triangle-Trade was deemed unfit, too-old, or badily damaged they would throw them into a lime-pit with rotting corpse, mosquito's, and all sorts of nasty vile stuff. Nobody deserves that.
Next your going to say WWI Mustard gas which was already out-law along with biological weapons. In fact the inventor of the mustard-gas wife hung herself after finding out where her husband was using science for. Yes I agree ZI is putting itself into that position and is selfish doing so pretending thy would not be affected by such infiltration. That is beyond vile. It is has to be reasonable solution. No Sars propaganda or bs like that. No poisoning the land or making the place unlivable for eons.

 

[Schadrach]

Of course the rich would equate "paying a fee to speak" with "fixing free speech".

It's not even "paying a fee to speak", it's "paying a fee to get enhanced visibility and a little checkmark next to your name".

 

[Gamertrek]

It is called "public access channel". In fact what is funny about that channel is the fact it had X_rated material ( probably still ) during later times of the Morning.

Nowadays we have you tube or even Twitter to Yahoo answers. Even those could be considered to be compromised

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Another qanon murder.

Wheatland man guilty of murder: Influenced by conspiracy theories, Banks had ‘hit list’ of potential victims

As the spread of conspiracy theories and disinformation continues to creep into every corner of American life, the consequences of movements such as QAnon have shown to be fatal –

www.appeal-democrat.com

As the spread of conspiracy theories and disinformation continues to creep into every corner of American life, the consequences of movements such as QAnon have shown to be fatal – the most recent well-covered example being the attack on Paul Pelosi at his home allegedly by a man who fell deep into the conspiracy rabbit hole.

On Oct. 28, a Wheatland man, 44-year-old Rory Banks, who also seemed to be affected by misinformation online, was found guilty by a Yuba County jury for the May 12, 2021, murder of 55-year-old Ralph Mendez. The jury found that Banks was guilty of burglary and the premediated murder of Mendez.

At around 12:45 a.m. on that day in May of last year, the Wheatland Police Department received a 911 call related to a shooting that had taken place in the 200 block of G Street in Wheatland, the Appeal previously reported. Mendez was found by law enforcement officers with a gunshot wound. Lifesaving measures were performed but he was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the department.

After an investigation, Banks was determined to be the shooting suspect.

“Banks broke into Mendez’s home, waking Mendez and his 88-year-old mother. Banks executed Mendez, shooting him in the torso and the head,” Yuba County District Attorney Clint Curry said in a statement. “Banks then used Mendez’s home phone to call 911. Wheatland Police officers arrived within minutes, finding Banks covered in blood in the driveway, with a pistol on the ground nearby. Banks surrendered and confessed to the murder.”

He was taken into custody without incident and booked into Yuba County Jail for murder and residential burglary. The weapon used in the fatal shooting was recovered at the scene.

“This was not a random act,” Wheatland Police Chief Damiean Sylvester said at the time. “We believe the victim was targeted by the suspect.”

In fact, according to evidence presented during the trial, it was determined that what Banks had done was not random, but was the act of a person convinced certain conspiracy theories were real.

“Rory Banks set out just after midnight on May 12, 2021, armed with two handguns, four knives, OC spray, strobe lights, a hit list with four names and addresses, and an intent to murder every person in Wheatland listed on California’s sex-offender registry,” Curry said. “Banks did not know any of them personally, but appointed himself judge, jury, and executioner.”

Curry said Mendez was one of four men on Banks’ kill list.

During the trial, Banks’ attorney argued that Banks should be found insane or receive a lesser punishment of voluntary manslaughter because Banks believed he was defending the community from sex offenders – that belief is part of a conspiracy theory often pushed by supporters of QAnon. At the trial, the jury heard from two psychologists who examined Banks.

“We are thankful the jury upheld the rule of law in this case,” Curry said. “While no one likes sex offenders, you can’t lower yourself to their level, murder someone in cold blood, and think you’re going to get a pass.”

Banks’ association with QAnon and theories surrounding it were brought up during the trial. It was even revealed that Banks had a QAnon sticker on the back of his vehicle.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, “QAnon is a decentralized, far-right political movement rooted in a baseless conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by the ‘Deep State,’ a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. … While not all QAnon adherents are extremists, QAnon-linked beliefs have inspired violent acts and have eroded trust in democratic institutions and the electoral process. Many QAnon influencers also spout antisemitic beliefs and the core tenets of ‘Pizzagate’ and ‘Save the Children,’ both of which are QAnon-adjacent beliefs, play into antisemitic conspiracy theories like Blood Libel.”

Curry said that Banks mentioned that he spent a lot of time on Telegram, an online messaging platform that is used by several QAnon influencers.

Curry said Banks said he was always on his phone, “doing research.” That “research” was what led Banks to believe some of the wild claims found online.

The jury ultimately found that Banks was legally sane at the time of the murder and also found that Banks personally discharged a firearm and used information from the sex offender registry to kill Mendez.

Banks is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 19. He faces an “indeterminate sentence” of 55 years to life for the murder, and up to 16 years for the burglary conviction.

The investigation of the case was led by former Wheatland Police Officer Justin Prince – now a Yuba County Sheriff’s Department deputy – and Yuba County Sheriff’s Department Detective Brendan Mallory. Chief Deputy District Attorney Shiloh Sorbello tried the case to the jury.

But hey, there's no need for that to dampen our 5 year anniversary celebration, eh?

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Cue shock and/or horror at your own discretion.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/03/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs-silence-blind/

Ohhh, they're trying to up their anti-copypaste techniques for their paid articles now. Sadly that only encourages my thieving determination.

With rumors of impending layoffs by new owner Elon Musk swirling inside Twitter on Wednesday, an employee noticed that the Google Calendar of one of their new bosses was publicly viewable. On it was an entry at 5 p.m. that day titled “RIF Review” — an acronym for Reduction in Force, or layoffs.

Another Twitter employee was able to view a group on Slack, the workplace chat tool, in which company administrators appeared to be finalizing the precise number of workers to be laid off, and how much they’d receive in severance.

By day’s end, word had spread across the company that layoffs — half the staff — would probably come Friday, and that Musk would require Twitter’s remaining employees to return to the office full-time. But that word didn’t come from Musk, or anyone on his leadership team. It came via Blind, the anonymous workplace gossip site that some Twitter employees say has become their best, and often only, source of information about what’s going on inside the company in the chaotic, surreal week since Musk acquired it for $44 billion.


Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the company’s leadership has not confirmed the layoff plans.

Since Musk closed the deal on Oct. 27, employees say, they have not received a single official communication from anyone in a leadership position at the company. They have not been told that Musk completed the purchase, that their CEO and top executives were summarily fired, or that Musk dissolved the board and installed himself as chief executive.


Instead, they have read about Musk’s dramatic plans to overhaul the company via media reports, Musk’s tweets, back-channel private chats and Blind. Twitter’s formerly open corporate culture, centered on all-staff meetings and freewheeling Slack channels where employees and managers shared ideas, plans and jokes, has turned suspicious and secretive, several Twitter employees told The Wasington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they feared retribution.



“It’s like Twitter’s culture has been completely turned inside out overnight,” one employee said. “Mass trauma event over here.”

The last official communication to the Twitter staff came the day before Musk took over, when Twitter’s head of people, Leslie Berland, sent a cheery email with the subject line “Elon office visit.”

“If you’re in SF and see him around, say hi!” Berland wrote. “For everyone else, this is just the beginning of many meetings and conversations with Elon, and you’ll all hear directly from him on Friday.”

But workers did not hear directly from Musk on Friday, when his planned introduction to the company was quietly canceled, or anytime since. The company’s regular all-hands meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, disappeared from everyone’s calendars on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Berland left the company, according to people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Berland’s apparent departure, along with those of several other executives in recent days, was not announced either internally or externally, leaving employees to speculate on Blind about which of their bosses have quit or been fired.

Since Friday, employees have posted memes and comments on the company Slack noting each day that has passed without word from management. One person posted an image of a skeleton with a caption that read, “me waiting on updates from leadership,” according to documents obtained by The Post.

In lieu of communicating with employees, Musk and his new deputy Jason Calacanis, who appeared in a company directory over the weekend, have been brainstorming, focus-grouping and announcing new products and policies in public, via their personal Twitter accounts. Twitter’s employees have quickly learned to follow their new leaders’ Twitter feeds for updates essential to their work.

It’s on Twitter that Musk confirmed that he had appointed himself chief executive, three days after taking ownership. It’s also where he has floated plans to charge users $8 a month for a verification badge, among other benefits; announced that he’ll form a content moderation council to review Twitter’s speech policies; and sought to soothe skittish advertisers that he won’t let Twitter become a “free-for-all hellscape.”


On the company’s Slack boards, employees have been posting Musk’s tweets about new features, asking whether they should begin working to implement them or continue standing by, according to another employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal matters. When Musk tweeted what features the company’s paid subscription tier should have, it caught most employees in the department running that product by surprise, the employee said.

“We’re all working for the Trump White House,” the worker said, comparing the atmosphere to Donald Trump’s administration, where tweets from the president announcing policies that hadn’t been discussed internally could come at any time.

The culture shock at Musk’s Twitter represents a collision between the company’s famously relaxed work environment and the walled-off climate typical of Musk’s companies, where leaks are punished swiftly and underperformers may be subject to “rage firings.” It’s also the product of fear of job losses, which was stoked when The Post reported before his takeover that Musk had told bankers he planned to cut as much as 75 percent of the company’s workforce.

Inside Tesla and SpaceX, two of Musk’s other companies, workers are bound by the expectation that they will not speak of their work outside the company — knowing that a lens is trained on their celebrity CEO at all times. They are measured by their output and ability to execute on tight deadlines, and minor disagreement with the CEO can sometimes escalate into questions about fitness for the job.


At Tesla, some leaks are investigated vigorously, and an employee was fired after he published videos to his YouTube channel showing the company’s Full Self-Driving Beta software in action — even though the videos did not reveal internal secrets, CNBC reported.

While some Twitter employees say they have languished since Musk took over, unsure of what to work on, other teams have been ordered to develop new products on tight deadlines. An internal email obtained by The Post on Tuesday showed that the company is aiming to launch a paid-video feature, which could be used to monetize adult content, within one to two weeks, despite an internal assessment that it poses a high liability risk.

Blind has emerged as a way for Twitter employees to share what they’re hearing with others in the company anonymously, reducing the risk that they’ll be punished for saying the wrong thing on company tools such as Slack or email. Launched in 2015, Blind has caught on with Silicon Valley tech companies, each of which has its own private channel that workers can access only by verifying their company email address.


It’s there that many Twitter employees are hearing of the latest fired executive or layoff rumor and commiserating over the bizarre turn their professional lives have taken.

One Blind post from a Twitter worker, viewed by The Post on Wednesday, said simply, “This level of silent treatment is totally unprofessional.” Another Twitter employee replied, “It’s not silent treatment it is psychological warfare.”

The sense that it’s no longer safe for managers to share information with the staff via Slack was reinforced by an anecdote that appeared on Blind this week.

On Tuesday, Twitter’s chief of accounting, Robert Kaiden, had posted a Slack message — viewed by The Post — explaining some basic details of the company’s plan for paying out employees’ vested stock shares after Musk purchased them. By Wednesday, his Slack account showed that it had been deactivated. A post on Blind said he had been “walked out” of the Twitter building.

As with all the other executives who are rumored to have left since Musk took charge, Twitter declined to comment.

Not all is bad tho.

 

[Silvanus]

Cue shock and/or horror at your own discretion.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/03/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs-silence-blind/

Ohhh, they're trying to up their anti-copypaste techniques for their paid articles now. Sadly that only encourages my thieving determination.





Not all is bad tho.

Your dedication is appreciated.

So, not only is he an intolerable dickhead and an ethics-void confidence trickster, but he's a hypocrite too: the talk of the importance of 'free speech' is all outward appearance while he refuses to stick to those principles in his own companies.

I'm also really getting the impression that he's deeply insecure. Firing people over minor disagreements or because someone posted a perfectly-normal email or video without his approval? It all fits with the picture of a man who would accuse someone else of being a paedophile solely because they didn't want to use their damn submarine.

Someone asked me recently whether I thought Musk or Bezos was worse. I said I think Musk is probably worse on a personal level but that Bezos had done more harm. Still... looks like the race is still on!

 

[Baffle]

Firing people over minor disagreements or because someone posted a perfectly-normal email or video without his approval?

Yeah, he's quite famously a control freak.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

...the talk of the importance of 'free speech' is all outward appearance while he refuses to stick to those principles in his own companies.

Like many megalomaniacs, his definition of "free speech" is "everyone is entitled to my opinion".

 

[Baffle]

And here come the Twitter jobs cuts: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63495125

 

[BrawlMan]

Another qanon murder.

Wheatland man guilty of murder: Influenced by conspiracy theories, Banks had ‘hit list’ of potential victims

As the spread of conspiracy theories and disinformation continues to creep into every corner of American life, the consequences of movements such as QAnon have shown to be fatal –

www.appeal-democrat.com

But hey, there's no need for that to dampen our 5 year anniversary celebration, eh?

From the first article you linked.

While not all QAnon adherents are extremists...

Bullshit.

think Musk is probably worse on a personal level but that Bezos had done more harm. Still... looks like the race is still on!

And here come the Twitter jobs cuts: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63495125

I find them both equally disgusting and repugnant.

 

[Chimpzy]

How about some levity?

Bolsonaro supporter protests election by attempting to block a truck. Truck wins.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Oh no, not more lawsuits...

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Twitter Inc. was sued over Elon Musk’s plan to eliminate about 3,700 jobs at the social-media platform, which workers say the company is doing without enough notice in violation of federal and California law.

A class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court.

Twitter intends to start cutting staff Friday, the company said in an email to employees. Musk plans to get rid of half the workforce, making good on plans to slash costs at the platform he acquired for $44 billion last month, people with knowledge of the matter have said.

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act restricts large companies from mounting mass layoffs without at least 60 days of advance notice.

Twitter Latest: Musk Begins Job Cuts as Ad Buyers Hit Pause

Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit asks the court to issue an order requiring Twitter to obey the WARN Act, and restricting the company from soliciting employees to sign documents that could give up their right to participate in litigation.


“We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who filed Thursday’s complaint, said in an interview.

Liss-Riordan sued Tesla Inc. over similar claims in June when the electric-car maker headed by Musk laid off about 10% of its workforce.

Tesla won a ruling from a federal judge in Austin forcing the workers in that case to pursue their claims in closed-door arbitration instead of in open court.

Musk described the Tesla lawsuit as “trivial” during a discussion with Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait at the Qatar Economic Forum in June.

“We will now see if he is going to continue to thumb his nose at the laws of this country that protect employees,” Liss-Riordan said of Musk. “It appears that he’s repeating the same playbook of what he did at Tesla.”

The case is Cornet v. Twitter Inc., 22-cv-06857, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

And here come the Twitter jobs cuts: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63495125

Musk is cleaning house because he doesn't want Twitter; he wants "X", his idea of a WeChat clone, so that he can have even more people to accuse of pedophilia.

 

[Baffle]

Musk is cleaning house because he doesn't want Twitter; he wants "X", his idea of a WeChat clone, so that he can have even more people to accuse of pedophilia.

Paedophiles do love free speech so I reckon they might flock there. No, wait, I'm mixing up paedophiles and libertarians again. Easily done.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Paedophiles do love free speech so I reckon they might flock there. No, wait, I'm mixing up paedophiles and libertarians again. Easily done.

Now that's unfair, libertarians find it extremely important that people recognise the difference between a paedophile and a hebephile.