Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

“woke” is the new caravan.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

He really is that stupid.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Saudi Arabia / We Knew What They Were, But There’s Knowing and There’s KNOWING

We Knew What They Were, But There’s Knowing and There’s KNOWING

by | 181 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Apologies for so many twitter links in this post.

This article (The Guardian) covers some of the same information, though not nearly as clearly, and it doesn’t connect the dots like this twitter thread does.  An except from the middle of the article:

On 28 September 2015, Twitter received a complaint from a Saudi user that their accounts had been compromised. But, the lawsuit alleges, the company did not act to bar one of the Saudis who was later accused – Ali Hamad Alzabarah – from having access to confidential user data, even though he had accessed the user’s account previously.

Saudi Arabian authorities, the lawsuit alleges, would formally follow up with Twitter once it received confidential user data from its agents working inside the company, by filing so-called EDRs – or emergency disclosure requests – in order to obtain documentation that confirmed a user’s identity, which it would then use in court. Often those EDRs were approved on the same day.

In May 2015, when two Twitter users tweeted about the kingdom in a way that al-Asaker found objectionable, Albabarah accessed the users’ data within hours. EDRs about the users were then sent, and automatically approved by Twitter, the lawsuit alleges.

Between July and December 2015, Twitter granted the kingdom information requests “significantly more often” than most other countries at that time, including Canada, the UK, Australia and Spain, the lawsuit alleges.

On 5 November 2015, just days before Twitter was confronted by the FBI about its concerns about a Saudi infiltration of the company, it promoted Alzabarah – now a fugitive living in Saudi. In response, Alzabarah sent his Saudi government contact, al-Asaker, a note, conveying his “unimaginable happiness” for the promotion. The note, the lawsuit claims, is evidence that Alzabarah believed al-Asaker had “arranged” or “been influential” in connection to the promotion.

Someone on twitter requested a twitter unroll, so I imagine that will be coming soon,, and I will link to that when it’s available.

Threadreader rollup:

Disgusting.  Despicable. There aren’t enough awful words to describe how I feel.

This image, of course, was the first thing I thought of after reading about this.

We Knew What They Were, But There's Knowing and There's KNOWING

 

Reader Interactions

181Comments

  3. 3.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    I think “shocking but not surprising” applies, as it does so often these days.

    The Saudis are not our friends.

  4. 4.

    Patricia Kayden

    Truly horrific. Contrast this to the fact that Elon refused to voluntarily turn over Trump’s tweets to the DOJ.

  7. 7.

    Steeplejack

    This will be a bracing read for those who dismissed Jack Dorsey as a harmless crunchy-granola hippie. And, yes, there should be concerns about his involvement in Bluesky.

  8. 8.

    moonbat

    @Josie: I sure as hell do. Bluesky is also funded by venture capital money (whose capital?) maybe KSA are concerned about capturing the political activists who have decided that Twitter is a toxic waste dump by investing in its competitors. They already know Dorsey is (ahem) cooperative.

  9. 9.

    CaseyL

    @Josie: ​

    I continue to be appalled at how many people are eagerly signing up for Dorsey’s latest social media fling.

    just as I am at how many people are happy signing up with Zuckerberg’s Threads.

    Appalled, but not surprised. People want a global communications tool, and if the biggest ones are offered by people and organizations up to their waists in other peoples’ blood, well…too bad, so sad, where do I sign up?

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    FYI, don’t be surprised if this post disappears for a while when I get home at 11. I’m sure people will be commenting and David Anderson’s anniversary post so I’ll just pull this one and post it later but unfortunately I am stuck waiting for Henry for 25 minutes so that won’t happen for a while.

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL: Spoutible is the only one I’ve seen so far in that isn’t owned by a zillionaire or venture capitalists. Am I wrong about that?

    I for one, have no interest in putting money in the pockets of our American oligarchs. I really think there’s another way to describe them anymore.

  15. 15.

    moonbat

    @Josie: Me too. And it is sad how little it gets mentioned in the list of Twitter alternatives popping up now. The user interface is almost exactly like Twitter’s so no learning curve. It has almost every feature Twitter has and some cool ones it doesn’t. It’s user funded and it takes its commitment to protecting user data and protecting users from targeted harassment seriously.​

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    @moonbat: I would have to guess that there’s somebody with money, pulling strings behind the scenes to make sure that the cool kids that promote these things are promoting the ones they are.

  18. 18.

    montanareddog

    @moonbat: Dorsey/Musk/Zuckerberg/Kushner and their ilk are not merely unpleasant assholes with too much money. They are literally dangerous. They send people to their deaths for money and power

    ETA: meaning I agree with you. I want nothing to do with any of the shit they are selling.

  19. 19.

    cmorenc

    This could potentially also be the future for US citizens as well if Trump wins in 2024 and begins his promised scorched-earth vengeance campaign against anyone he thinks his enemy or crossed him.  His toady AG will have a long list of people to fabricate felony charges against, and RWingers may have captured ownership of enough social media sites, eager to help Trump’s Injustice Dept sniff them out.

  20. 20.

    moonbat

    @WaterGirl: ​
      That’s my guess. The man who created it also happens to be black so doesn’t fit with the tech bro stereotype of pasty faced media mogul. But what Christopher Bouzy has created there is a seriously good alternative to all the rest as far as I’m concerned. And he keeps improving it, listening to user suggestions, and making sure it is a safe space. And it’s growing, albeit slower than it should.

  22. 22.

    tobie

    @moonbat: Exactly. The KSA infiltration of Twitter happened during Jack Dorsey’s tenure. I’ve been reluctant to join Bluesky and this news all but cements my decision. I’m sticking with the fediverse for the time being.

  23. 23.

    CaseyL

    @WaterGirl: 

    I’m only on Mastodon, but a lot of people find Mastodon off-putting because first you need to chose an instance (server/home base) to sign up at; the search tools aren’t that great; and there’s no algorithm so you have to go out and look for people to follow (I found the Federated/Live feeds great for that).

    But I love the place.

  24. 24.

    moonbat

    @montanareddog: Exactly. I left Twitter for good when I found out that the ad revenue Musk was making by having my eyes on his pages was being paid out in revenue to Nazis and folks who repost child pron.

    Yeah, followers are nice, but they ain’t nice.

  26. 26.

    LiminalOwl

    WaterGirl, thanks for this horrifying info.

    I just joined Bluesky but will leave again. Wish I understood Mastodon.

  27. 27.

    cmorenc

    @Mike in NC:

    The silence of GOP congresscritters who are so gung-ho to investigate the business dealings of Hunter Biden is deafening – Kushner was in deep financial doo-doo to the tune of a bad $2B investment in a NYC building, until he got bailed out by foreign money.

  29. 29.

    Immanentize

    @moonbat: I like Spoutible. It works well and new good features are being rolled out every month or so. I like their word cloud feature of what’s trending because it is rather funny sometimes (“raisins?”)

    But C. Bouzy just cannot resist small scale spats. Advice to all (perhaps suggested by someone here?)

    “You do not need to get into every fight you are invited to.”

  30. 30.

    New Deal democrat

    @JPL: I am sure that is true, but the #1 institutional priority for the Supreme Court is not to have parties before them more or less openly flout their rulings, so I suspect Alabama is in for a rude awakening.

  31. 31.

    Marcopolo

    @JPL: After the last SCOTUS ruling on this I don’t think this gets a rehearing.  Btw, is this in federal (as opposed to state) courts because it is only about congressional districts?  I feel (too busy to check atm) there are states where these redistricting issues have been dealt w/ through the state court system (WI/NC for example).

  32. 32.

    New Deal democrat

    A side note: if you want to read people who post on Twitter without actually going to the site, do a google search of, e.g., “Joe Blow twitter “ and Joe Blow’s most recents Xits will appear. Since most people only post a few items a day, you can usually pick up everything without rewarding Musk with page views.

  33. 33.

    moonbat

    @Immanentize: Because of the aforementioned tech bro-ing while black issue, Bouzy gets a lot more flak for everything than he should. And he fights back. I really can’t fault him for that, though I don’t often get into the nitty gritty of the beefs he gets into. His first tech company was one that detects bots targeting people for harassment online, so he knows a thing or two about how narratives can be created and spread through social media.

    I suppose he should ignore it when people accuse him of stealing code, etc. or get an anger translator like Obama so he won’t be seen as an “Angry Black Man.”

  34. 34.

    FlyingToaster

    Reality check:

    Dorsey is not running a damn thing at Bluesky.  He’s on the board, along with a number of other venture capitalists.  He’s also badmouthing Bluesky in the media, since the bsky team is ignoring him.

    If your worry is venture capital control, you are correct.  If your worry is Jack Dorsey, you haven’t been paying attention, which is fine, since @jack is a waste of time and oxygen.

    AT Protocol (which is what Bluesky is sitting on top of) is a competing federation protocol to Mastodon’s ActivityPub.  Neither protocols are going to be particularly amenable to governmental intrusion w/o warrants, since any gov will have to figure out which server hosts the account, then serve the warrant, and then risk being told, “we’re not in your country, so eff off” or “we don’t collect that data, so eff off”.

    Spoutable has to show that it will scale.  I have a Bluesky account, and not a Spoutable account, although I signed up for both the same day back in February when I last posted to Twitter. Most of the other possibles (e.g., Post, etc.) seem to have more targeted purposes/audiences.

    Bluesky is having some problems with scaling, with user safety, and with figuring out exactly where they want to position themselves. It has also become the Trans Bar, like Xitter is now the Nazi Bar.

    Threads (which, like Facebook and Instagram, I am without) seems to have become the celebrity announcements board.

  36. 36.

    Marcopolo

    @New Deal democrat: I’ve been using nitter to view posts—just google the users twitter handle (sorry not sorry won’t use the current name) plus nitter & I get a link to click.  Or you can go to nitter & use the search function there w/ the user’s handle.  It’s not up all the time (assume Musk doesn’t like & tries to block it) but when it works you can see all of the posts in a timeline along w/ comments.

    Example using Elie Mystal

  38. 38.

    CaseyL

    @Marcopolo: ​

    Nitter works great for me. I’ve also found that, once you view a specific person on Nitter, you can enter their user name and their Nitter “account” comes up so you can go directly to it, rather than have to go to Nitter home page and do a search.

  39. 39.

    Gwangung

    @FlyingToaster: I think this is a fair assessment. It’s fine to be wary of Dorsey, but I’m not seeing a lot of his specific influence there.

    I am seeing the usual tech bro influence there, and that should be taken with a great deal of thought, but I think a large scale social media platform is going to have a lot of that influence no matter what these days.

  41. 41.

    Marcopolo

    @CaseyL: plus no fricken ads…tho to be clear to folks nitter stopped working for a few weeks in August before it returned so don’t get too hooked on it.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    @Mike in NC:

    Will we ever know why the Saudi despots gave Kushner $2B? Probably not.

    Kushner hasn’t invested any of it yet. I think he’s waiting and hoping his father in law gets back in so he can manipulate markets/insider trade. The repulsive Trump/Kushner families are waiting for the edge they get when daddy is President. Yet another reason to beat them.

  44. 44.

    moonbat

    @Gwangung: ​
     Pay no attention to that billionaire investor who sits on our board. He has NO influence how the company is run. Okaaaay…
    My question is: If the folks who REALLY run Bluesky have such pure intentions, why did they take his blood-soaked money in the first place?

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    I will continue to believe the competence of 46 and his Administration.

    They miss the days of stenography.

     

    Most of all, they miss the days where they could HIDE SERIOUS POINTS OF THE STORY IN ORDER TO PUT THEM IN A BOOK.

     

    They couldn’t do their phucking jobs – IN REAL TIME– and inform the American public of the dangers of Dolt45 and his evil crew. Because, they kept that shyt – FOR THEIR PHUCKING BOOKS.

     

     

    Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) posted at 7:50 AM on Tue, Sep 05, 2023: One reason some reporters have it out for Biden? He has broken their perverse incentive loop of book deals, cable bookings, and social media fame. https://t.co/1IX9KFz50D (https://twitter.com/KaivanShroff/status/1699042335911248117?t=8hsTrMqBlfhqA26kyuFeww&s=03)

  47. 47.

    Brachiator

    @montanareddog:

    Dorsey/Musk/Zuckerberg/Kushner and their ilk are not merely unpleasant assholes with too much money. They are literally dangerous. They send people to their deaths for money and power.

    Trust no one.

    There are people on Twitter who depend on anonymity to protect themselves and others from despotic governments. But it seems that everyone has a price, and there are governments which will do everything they can to get information on and to oppress its citizens.

    There is no easy answer to this. But I deeply respect the people who have uncovered the despicable actions of the Saudi government.

  49. 49.

    Geminid

    @Marcopolo: There is a similar lawsuit in South Carolina. If it succeeds, the result might not be two majority Black Congressional districts, but Nancy Mace’s 1st CD could be drawn closer to 50-50 Republican/Democrat.

  50. 50.

    Peke Daddy

    Now, Elmo Sunk wants biometric data, education and employment history for “security” reasons. Uh huh.

  51. 51.

    rikyrah

    UH HUH

    UH HUH

     

    Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) posted at 8:11 AM on Tue, Sep 05, 2023:
    NEW: A lawsuit filed by Bill Bar & Karl Rove’s legal group and others seeking stricter rules for mail-in ballot signature verification in Arizona will proceed. The judge denied requests from the state and voting rights groups to dismiss the case.
    https://t.co/ISjL1UXi01
    (https://twitter.com/DemocracyDocket/status/1699047624370786530?t=Ek94H5M8IfKPwsLNby8hdQ&s=03)

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl:  Please don’t pull the post.  I guess you decided not to, but jackals can multitask.  As you know, not every post pulls in every jackal.

  56. 56.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Tuberville might be holding up promotions because he’s waiting to see if Trump wins so they can stack the military with Trump cultists in case they lose the next one so they can remain in power indefinitely.

    I think from here on out we have to add “waiting for Trump to possibly win” to all GOP moves of any kind. We know they’ll overturn an election. We all saw them try.

  57. 57.

    Jackie

    @Marcopolo: It will go to the SCOTUS AGAIN; hopefully they’ll say words to the effect of “we already told you to create a new congressional district, and refuse to pander any further.”

  58. 58.

    schrodingers_cat

    This is unsurprising, Twitter and Facebook have been cooperating with the BJP government India since the CAA protests and then the Farmer agitation since before the pandemic. It is the cost of doing business in despotic and quasi-despotic regimes.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    Florida parents are taking advantage of an expanded school voucher program championed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R), according to messages from private Facebook groups obtained by Popular Information. The private Facebook messages reveal how parents are using the new Personalized Education Program (PEP), which provides about $8,000 annually to thousands of homeschooled students to get taxpayer-funded theme park passes, big-screen TVs, and other items with an attenuated connection to education. PEP is limited to 20,000 students for the 2023-24 academic year but will expand dramatically in future years, increasing by 40,000 students annually.

    In one exchange posted in a private Facebook group last month, a parent inquires if anyone has had luck getting passes to Disney World approved through the program. Another parent responds that she was able to get passes for Disney World and Universal Studios paid for with taxpayer funds.

    None of the voucher programs are regulated so public money is going to this junk in many red states.
    And homeschoolers don’t take standardized tests so they aren’t included in national score collection.
    We’re going to have a huge cohort of completely uneducated people we’re not even counting.

    Florida could still have pretty good test scores but they’ll be junk because they don’t count the new huge category of publicly funded homeschool kids. They won’t be an accurate picture of how well Florida citizens are educated. They will tell you how well Florida PUBLIC school kids are educated.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    Other approved expenses for all homeschooled students this academic year include swing sets, foosball tables, air hockey tables, skateboards, kayaks, standup paddleboards, dolls, and stuffed animals.
    Jeanne Allen, founder of the National Center for Education Reform and a proponent of vouchers, defended these kinds of expenditures in an interview. Allen said, “young people today… expect 21st century approaches to learning and recreational opportunities for their physical and mental well-being.”

    They fought all attempts to regulate this tax funds giveaway and are now paying two Right wing orgs to “regulate” the programs, so yet another layer of grift. They also got jobs for cronies out of it.

  66. 66.

    Marcopolo

    @Jackie: see, that’s why I don’t think it gets heard.  if it gets appealed that far SCOTUS can reject hearing it again & say it’s already settled.  (Obligatory not a lawyer disclaimer tho).

  67. 67.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    Tuberville might be holding up promotions because he’s waiting to see if Trump wins so they can stack the military with Trump cultists

    These are not politically appointed posts.  They’re internal promotions in the military.  If he waits for Trump, the officers being promoted won’t change.  It’s about abortion rights and performative assholery.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Tuberville might be holding up promotions because he’s waiting to see if Trump wins so they can stack the military with Trump cultists in case they lose the next one so they can remain in power indefinitely.

     

    I’m not disagreeing with you, Kay. But, he still should become the poster child for The GOP Hates the Military.

    If he has another reason, other than trying to control the bodies of female Service Members or female family of Service Members, then he can tell us.

  70. 70.

    Mike in NC

    @cmorenc:  Our local weekly rag has been running lots of Letters to the Editor from MAGA morons whining about Hunter Biden. I had to respond that Hunter Biden played no role in trying to overthrow the elected US Government, unlike the adult children of the lunatic who attempted to install himself as dictator-for-life. Trump’s kids are apparently very busy showing up at various neo-Nazi rallies around the country.

  72. 72.

    Jackie

    “Republicans have quietly been coming to grips with the likelihood that Donald Trump will keep winning the Republican nomination until he dies if he doesn’t retake the White House next year — and either outcome could cost the GOP down-ballot,” The Messenger reports.

    “It’s a grim sort of arrested development for Republicans, with Trump positioned as a modern-day Adlai Stevenson, Democrats’ losing nominee in 1952 and 1956. The worry is that Trump’s baggage and bombast will disincentivize center-right and independent voters from participating in general elections, with repercussions down the ballot — reversing the old coattails rule of politics, which holds that a strong name at the top of the ticket lifts all boats in the party.”

    “But in the inverted world operatives are bracing for, it’s Trump’s name forever sinking their boats in statewide battles by depressing voter turnout.”

    Oh jeez… the thought of TIFG being on the ballot for all eternity… Anything in The Constitution that says a presidential candidate has to be alive?🤔

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    Nicholas Grossman (@NGrossman81) posted at 1:24 PM on Mon, Sep 04, 2023:
    “The media won’t talk about Biden’s advanced age” is instantly disproven by googling “Biden too old” or “Biden age,” so the complaint seems more like “no matter how much media talks
    about Biden’s age, he won’t stop running for reeelction and most Dem voters won’t tell him to.”
    (https://twitter.com/NGrossman81/status/1698764002363416711?t=59L6XptE-revZ3ZqLdzPvA&s=03)

  75. 75.

    smith

    A whole batch of lawsuits are underway challenging GQP redistricting, and if even half succeed, it could make a big difference in 2024.  I guess we should be thankful that even the Roberts Court can see how egregious many of these maps are.

  78. 78.

    Scout211

    @Frankensteinbeck: These are not politically appointed posts.  They’re internal promotions in the military.

    With one exception.

    The new Chair of the joint chiefs, AF General Brown has not been confirmed by the Senate even though he breezed through the committee hearing. The Chair is appointed by the President.

  80. 80.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @rikyrah: The real story here is despite four years of pushing the narrative that Biden is too old, it’s not just universally accepted as a matter of fact

    ETA: And why did he only become too old when he got the nomination. Before that I distinctly remember he was the only one who could save us from Trump.

  81. 81.

    Warblewarble

    What did “hidden genius” Jared Kushner know about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi , and what was  Nikki Haleys role?

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    @FlyingToaster: I don’t know anything about social media platform security, but MajorX4 who posts here does, and IIRC, back when people where scrambling around for Twitter alternatives and discussing that here, he raised concerns about security at Spoutible.

    Have you heard anything about that? Maybe M4 will check in and share some thoughts, but I wondered if anyone else was aware of the issue.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    @rikyrah:

    I hate to make light of Tuberville harming out national security, but

    Generals and admirals are being forced to perform two roles simultaneously

     
    Sounds kinky.

  87. 87.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Baud: If the media bamboozles us into electing another Republican President next year, they’ll see how uppity I can be

    ETA: I can think of no greater endorsement of Biden for reelection than the disdain of the press.

  88. 88.

    Jackie

    @smith: Marc Elias is a man on a mission! Thank goodness he’s on our side!

    I know he has critics in the Biden administration, but I’m behind him 1000%!

  94. 94.

    Yarrow

    @rikyrah:  Apparently the first votes didn’t go well for Paxton. Heh. It’s pretty incredible when Republicans in Texas want to get rid of their long time Republican AG.

  95. 95.

    sdhays

    @Kay: I think I saw they recently made their first investment. But mostly he’s just collecting exorbitant fees for nothing.

  96. 96.

    smith

    @Frankensteinbeck: These are not politically appointed posts.  They’re internal promotions in the military.

    Career attorneys at DOJ are also not politically-appointed posts, but during the administration of Bush the Lesser, that’s exactly how hiring and promotion decisions were made. Really, there is no reason to expect any GQP administration to respect the idea that any federal posts remain above political considerations. If/when they regain power they will politicize many key posts in the civil service, something they started at the end of TFG’s administration. No reason they won’t try it with the military.

  97. 97.

    The Pale Scot

    I know that I willed be pillered for writing this…

    DELETED

    edited by WG to delete the offensive suggestion. (I checked with Cole before deleting.)

  98. 98.

    rikyrah

    UH HUH

    UH HUH

     

    Michelle_BYoung (@michelle_byoung) posted at 7:00 AM on Tue, Sep 05, 2023:
    These dude bros DGAF about Biden’s age any more than they cared about Trump’s or Reagan’s age. What they HATE is a Black woman is in the position of VP & becomes ascendant should anything happen to Biden the age thing is a red herring to justify the misogynoir & it’s transparent https://t.co/xA4lLJmKP1
    (https://twitter.com/michelle_byoung/status/1699029737954267266?t=faS6nOkveQNbZFKc7Cfs2Q&s=03)

  101. 101.

    Yarrow

    Regarding Bluesky, as a refresher here’s Major Major Major Major’s post about it from July 3. He addressed the Jack issue in the post and comments and didn’t seem as concerned about it as some people. Not sure he addressed Saudi or venture capital money issue.

  103. 103.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kay: There’s no might about it. I absolutely 100% believe that the GOP is blocking these promotions so that if Shitgibbon or some other Nazipublican wins in 2024, he can fill those positions with Rightwingers who will be happy to order US soldiers to shoot Americans if we dare object to the next successful coup.

  105. 105.

    artem1s

    @Villago Delenda Est: ​ 

    We invaded the wrong fucking country in 2003.

    Bandar Bush disagrees. Please remember all of this when people start to gush over what a great upstanding representative Darth Cheney Jr. is. She’s got all kinds of ulterior motives for knocking TIFG off his perch at the top of the GQP.

  106. 106.

    MinuteMan

    @cmorenc: Given the number of laws this country has and the ways that the often vague wording can be stretched in the hands of a zealous prosecutor (even an honest one), they really don’t need to fabricate anything.

  108. 108.

    Citizen Alan

    @Frankensteinbeck: If the positions are held open until a GOP president takes office, is there anything that prevents him from promoting fascist sympathizers over those who have been denied into positions to have us all killed?

  109. 109.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Citizen Alan: If someone on our side were to put a similar unilateral hold on all appointments.

    But we like when things function correctly, so won’t happen.

  110. 110.

    Bill Arnold

    Anyone who is seriously worried about meatspace consequences for social media posting should consider making an anonymous account (or more than one), using a burner phone and a dedicated email address made with that phone, always accessing both the social media account(s) and email address with at least Tor (Tor over a (paid) VPN is better, and other proxies in the chain can also help).
    If the social media company wants 2FA or to ping your phone occasionally for verification, it is entirely not secure vs doxxing attempts by highly-tech-capable malevolent actors, both state or non-state and that social media company should be treated as a threat. (Exception – 2FA using the dedicated secure email account.)
    Then learn and 100 percent practice the discipline of e.g. never re-using verbiage used elsewhere, never mentioning anything about the local weather or other local events, never providing any details about oneself or family, no images without serious metadata (and other geolocation) scrubbing, etc.

  112. 112.

    Jackie

    The Texas Senate on Tuesday rejected all of Ken Paxton’s efforts to dismiss the articles of impeachment against him prior to a trial, moving forward with the historic event.
    The pretrial motions required a majority vote. The most support a motion to dismiss received was 10 out of 30 senators.
    Setting the tone, The Senate denied Paxton’s first two motions by votes of 24-6 and 22-8.
    The first motion asked the Senate to throw out all of the articles of impeachment for lack of evidence. Twelve Republicans joined all Senate Democrats in the vote to essentially move forward with a trial.
    The second motion asked senators to exclude evidence from before Paxton’s current term. That motion struck at the heart of one of Paxton’s main arguments — that he cannot be impeached for any actions he allegedly took before he was reelected last year.

    https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/05/ken-paxton-impeachment-motion-votes/

    Oh I hope there are media cameras to record Paxton’s expressions!

    ETA: Both he and TIFG threatened to primary all who voted against him.

  114. 114.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Jackie: that he cannot be impeached for any actions he allegedly took before he was reelected last year.

    The voters have had their say.  That these matters weren’t fully revealed or adjudicated before the election is not the concern of the Texas legislature.

  115. 115.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Bill Arnold: even paranoids have enemies.

    This is all good advice. Alas few people will follow it.

    Computer security is, in general, abysmally bad. Threats come from inside and outside. Penetration by state actors is no surprise, it is to be expected.

  116. 116.

    Betty Cracker

    @The Pale Scot: Yikes. There’s a reason rape is considered a war crime. It’s not a penalty any decent person should suggest, let alone in the context of “redeeming humanitarian values.”

  117. 117.

    WaterGirl

    @Kay: I think you might just be right about trying to stack the military like they stacked the courts, and makes me feel sick to my stomach.

  119. 119.

    Yarrow

    @Jackie:  It’s being shown live on Texas stations. You might try looking for one of those “plus” apps that larger TV stations seem to be putting out now. They’ll probably have livestream coverage of it. Here’s a link about the one for the ABC station in Dallas, for instance. But other larger cities’ stations may have their own as well. You might also be able to watch it on any of those stations’ websites.

  122. 122.

    Ramalama

    @moonbat:

    Pay no attention to that billionaire investor who sits on our board. He has NO influence how the company is run. Okaaaay…

    I’m kind of thinking this way too and wonder if all these EU countries that are spinning out their own instances to run Mastodon are also hedging their bets and using BlueSky and Spoutable?

    Before any joker gives me another google fu link: Yes, I could do a deep dive and check for myself but not gonna drop into a blackhole.

  123. 123.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @WaterGirl: I think you might just be right about trying to stack the military like they stacked the courts …

    Can anyone doubt it by now? These are the people we share the country with. Their intentions are clear.

  125. 125.

    Captain C

    If stupid Shrubya had accepted the deal with the Iranians in 2001 or 2003 (basically everything we wanted except for regime change), we likely wouldn’t have to deal with any of this shit, as it would have been much easier to tell KSA to fuck right off.  To say nothing of if Gore had been elected and able to put a serious dent in carbon usage.

  126. 126.

    Scout211

    @Bill Arnold: See this is why I don’t sign up with any social media accounts.  What you have described I am positive is good advice and if followed, will keep users safe.  So thank you for posting that.

    But for me, it sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher. 🤣

    It’s best that I stay off of social media.  It’s a foreign language that I never learned and probably never will. I am happy to read what jackals post here from social media but will avoid signing up on any of them myself.

    And get off my lawn, youngsters!  😉

  127. 127.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: I think that when those concerns were raised by people here, it may have been a case of giving the group you like the benefit of the doubt and giving the group you don’t care for the negative benefit of the doubt.

  128. 128.

    Bill Arnold

    @Peke Daddy:

    Now, Elmo Sunk wants biometric data, education and employment history for “security” reasons. Uh huh.

    For verified accounts, as far as I’ve read.
    It’s pretty heavy handed for them, though, given twitter’s history of cheerfully complying with doxxing requests by authoritarian governments. I expect that a lot of currently-verified accounts will refuse.

  129. 129.

    cain

    @Jackie:

    You can bet that he’ll keep running even from prison. He will not allow anyone else to run for President accept for him and his cult will do the same – even otherwise, his cult members will keep sending money to him not to the GOP to keep funding his legal bills to get out of federal prison.

    ETA – you know Michael Cohan is probably both laughing at all the rubes and also thinking “thank god I got out and figured it out before I really got into trouble”

  130. 130.

    MisterDancer

    @WaterGirl: As someone really excited about Spoutable, I did pause joining due to a number of concerns, it’s security among them.

    From my POV, those concerns have been resolved, and I do have an account there, if unused (I’ll announce it here if/when I start utilizing it.)

  132. 132.

    cain

    My experience on mastodon has become so much better than twitter that even my professional engagement (i’m a technical marketing) is better. Yeah, it’s a bit more work – but so far it’s been pretty good. I’ve had at least one post that went viral – not at the level of twitter but good enough.

  133. 133.

    frosty

    @Bill Arnold: Good advice but far too late for me. Hell, I’m identifiable from B-J comments. I know I’ve mentioned my college and general location. Plus all the OTR posts.

    The only data I entered into FB was my birthday: 1/1/1905. There’s plenty of info in the posts though.

  134. 134.

    trollhattan

    @Bill Arnold: Guessing various state abortion gestapos are, uh, “working” with Twit and FB-Insta on tracking out-of-state travel by their child-bearing age fillies. Probably the cell providers themselves.

  135. 135.

    trollhattan

    @cain: Cohan is the Martha Stewart of Trumpers, did his time  w/o complaining then stopped acting like a member of the cult.

  136. 136.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker:  What I vaguely recall is that M4 said Bouzy bought an off the shelf social media platform that had been designed by or had connections to Russia, and tweaked it to make Spoutible. I don’t remember the specifics but I think his concerns were around something like that.’

    Also, I think the name Spoutible is dumb. Or is it Spoutable? If people can’t spell the name of your platform correctly without having to look it up then that’s a bad name.

  138. 138.

    MisterDancer

    @Bill Arnold: Anyone who is seriously worried about meatspace consequences for social media posting should consider making an anonymous account (or more than one), using a burner phone and a dedicated email address made with that phone, always accessing both the social media account(s) and email address with at least Tor (Tor over a (paid) VPN is better, and other proxies in the chain can also help).

    As someone who’s had multiple “anonymous” accounts on services (mostly Instagram) crash/burn over the years under those sorts of ideas? I would not recommend trying it, in this day and age, for a lot of services. Hell, even services like Etsy will block you just for being on a VPS that they detect, much less coming off a Tor relay!

    It’s not that it can’t work, it’s that the advice cannot support someone who is detected and the service demands, for example, a photo ID to re-enable. It really is a techie solution to a problem that does not support average users well, and thus not one I’d push people to try. Usability and maintainability must be part of any approach, and I don’t see much of that approach as having those attributes, as much as I concur it’s what people should be doing.

    That said — I do endorse dedicated email addresses and certainly app-based 2FA (not via email and certainly not SMS, although many services give little choice).

  139. 139.

    MisterDancer

    @Yarrow: Also, I think the name Spoutible is dumb.

    People “back in the day” griped like mad about Twitter’s name, among services still flying.

    I just don’t take that stuff to heart, these days.

  140. 140.

    smith

    @trollhattan: This is another way in which the Dobbs decision will ultimately come back to bite them — all those nice respectable Republican ladies who assumed that they would continue to have access to down-low abortions by simply going out of state are going to have a rude awakening when it turns out that they, too, have lost their bodily autonomy and the right to privacy, not just those dirty sluts.

  141. 141.

    Soprano2

    @JPL: They think what they did will satisfy the “I like beer” guy, and that he’ll flip his vote to let them do what they did.

  143. 143.

    MisterDancer

    @moonbat: I suppose he should ignore it when people accuse him of stealing code, etc. or get an anger translator like Obama so he won’t be seen as an “Angry Black Man.”

    Why? I’m an Angry Black Man, and I have a right to that anger. If Black Men have to back down to be seen as viable in the tech sphere (which I do work in, so I know of what I speak here), what the actual fuck was anything my Parents marched and bled for about?

    It’s one thing to Be Professional, and build good product. It’s another to play Respectability Politics.

  144. 144.

    Geminid

    From Laura Rozen (@lrozen):

       President Biden announces former US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew as his nominee to be the US Ambassador to Israel.

    Experienced observers say that Mr. Lew is well qualified for the post. I’m glad he’s willing to take on such a tough job.

  146. 146.

    tobie

    @cain: I’ve been quite happy on Mastodon too. No fighting, lots of valuable information and links. It took some time for me to follow enough hashtags and individual accounts to have a good timeline but I do now. I haven’t tried the other alternatives, so I have nothing to compare my experience to, but I feel the issue of choosing an instance gets far too much attention. It doesn’t matter what instance you’re on. Just follow people and themes you find interesting.

    One small tidbit for those considering a switch: go to the appearance tab when you open the account and change from a black background to a white one (with black print). It’s tons more readable.

  148. 148.

    Soprano2

    @JPL: This from the same kind of crowd who constantly whined about how Hillary wouldn’t leave Bill after she knew he was cheating on her.

  149. 149.

    moonbat

    @MisterDancer: ​  That’s what I’m saying. I cannot imagine the shit that man has had to go through in order to be successful in a business that is so white male dominated. If he needs to throw some elbows to make his point and not let other people tell him who he is, Go right ahead, as far as I’m concerned.​

    Always be wary of the Tone Police. In my experience they only show up to weaken your message

  151. 151.

    Geminid

    @tobie: Ambassador to Israel is an especially tough job with the current government. The US government got along pretty well with the previous Bennet/Lapid coalition.

  152. 152.

    tobie

    @Geminid: I can think of few things more difficult in life than having to deal with the Netanyahu administration. Kudos to Jack Lew for taking on this challenge. What he’s doing is truly a service to the nation. There’s no upside in it for him.

  153. 153.

    Jackie

    @cain: I have a soft spot for Michael Cohen. I know he’s no saint, but he’s repentant for his past – and he truly loves his wife and family. I hope every wish he has re TIFG comes true!

  154. 154.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Well that is horrifying! Can you imagine the outcry if public schools were purchasing PS5’s for their students, as well as $800 Lego sets? I hope there’s some blowback from this investigation of the program.

  155. 155.

    Bill Arnold

    @moonbat:

    Heck yeah! You can exchange it for your principles in one easy transaction.

    Well, sure. But since money is fungible, all money is blood money, unless bloody strings are completely removed or cut.

  156. 156.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Like with abortion, every time they put vouchers to a referendum vouchers lose, so now they just jam them thru GOP statehouses. They’re really unpopular.

    In Ohio they specifically exempted voucher kids from the standardized test requirements public school kids are mandated to take. They intend to flim flam the public by not measuring or counting non public school kids but hiding it doesn’t CHANGE it. They’ll still have shittier education and a less well educated workforce.

    They exempt them from measurement because the results from private school vouchers are disastrous. They do much worse than public schools. Ohio knows- we’ve had vouchers for 20 years.

  157. 157.

    Jackie

    @Yarrow: The name Spoutable reminds me of a preschool children’s tv program popular 10+ yrs ago when my grandkiddos were imps. I picture a sketch of a cartoon blue whale spouting 🤷🏼‍♀️

  159. 159.

    Geminid

    @tobie: Netanyahu is mad that Joe Biden won’t invite him to the White House, so he has curtailed his cabinet members’ interactions with US officials. The Defense Minister recently visited New York City but was prohibited from meeting with his counterparts in DC.

    President Biden will likely meet Netanyahu at the UN later this month. I hope he tells the PM off. Netanyahu’s coalition only won the last election because two opposition parties failed to clear the 3.25% threshold for Knesset representation.

    Polls show Netanyahu and his partners would be crushed if new elections were held. That’s why the coalition parties are hanging together even though they despise each other, and most Israelis despise them.

  160. 160.

    CaseyL

    The Saudis are also banking on another Trump Administration. Between them and Tuberville holding up promotions to keep the positions vacant (on instructions from FSM-knows who, because he’s dumb as a stump and just does as he’s told), I’m getting worried they know something we don’t about the election in 2024.

    I’m exceedingly grateful to voters for keeping election saboteurs out of office in 2022, and to Marc Elias for battling against voter suppression and nullification every day, in every court, in nearly every damn state.

  161. 161.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    It’s really wacky Right wing reasoning. Pul your kid out of school and the state will give you 8k as a reward.

    It’s like a truancy subsidy. At the same time that myself and America’s juvenile judges are trying to get kids to stay in school the zany Right wing want to hand their parents 8k a year to keep them out of school and watching that 55 inch tv all day.

    Ohio has these garbage “voucher schools” now. Crap “schools” set up in strip malls because they get no strings attached 7k a year per kid from the state. There’s going to be a fire or other disaster. Kids are going to die. I walked thru one in my town that was for kids with autism. It’s a storefront from the 1930s. A big room in front and then a warren of tiny firetrap rooms behind. I said “there is going to be a fire”. And there is.

    It’s going to be an absolute disaster for kids. But it came out of the Center For Education Reform or whatever- one of their low quality think tanks: make-work jobs for Right wingers so they all swallow it whole.

  163. 163.

    trollhattan

    @Geminid: They should openly not-like the president harder. I’d prefer not to abet a government hurtling towards permanent fascism.

  167. 167.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: One problem here is that unless it blows up, Netanyahu’s 4-party coalition will not have to face new elections until 2027. Israel has no by-elections, much less midterms; if a Knesset member dies or resigns, their party picks a replacement.

  168. 168.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: It’s like a religious belief with them that private and religious schools are automatically better than public schools, and that all homeschooled kids get a better education too because their parents really care about their education. I’m sure that’s true for some people, but not all. Someone here told me that a lot of homeschooling now is all the online stuff, that basically they sit in front of a computer all day getting lessons. Isn’t that the thing public schools did during the pandemic that conservatives say is so bad for kids? LOL I heard part of a 1A program last week about homeschooling and “microschools” that would make your hair stand on end. It’s out of Detroit, MI. When the homeschool woman was asked if the kids had to take the same tests as public school kids, she talked all around the question, which to me means the answer is “no”. I’m not against homeschooling per se, but those kids need to be tested every year to make sure they’re keeping up with grade level, just like public school kids are.

  169. 169.

    trollhattan

    @Geminid: I think they’re screwed. With the defanging of their supreme court and ongoing addition of ultra-orthodox immigrants, the moderate-to-liberal Israelis are headed to permanent minority status. What’s next for the West Bank Palestinians?

  171. 171.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: The Israeli Supreme Court is not defanged yet; Netanyahu has only been able to pass one of his “judicial reform” measures.

    As to immigrants, they are not neccesarily going to be Netanyahu backers, and in any event there are no big influxes like those of the 1990s in prospect. And the Russian immigrants of that era did not turn out to be as conservative as many people think they are.

    One oppostion party, Yisrael Beitanyu (Israel is Our Home) is composed largely of Russian immigrants, and they will not support Netanyahu’s government. They are fairly conservative, but there is a big Secular/Religious divide and they are firmly on the Secular side, and deeply resent Netanyahu’s Ultra-Orthodox partners.

    At least in the last election, the opposition had a turnout problem, not a basic numbers problem. It was the 5th election in 4 years, and there was a lot of cybicism and apathy. The Ultra-Orthodox, or “Haredi” parties were highly motivated though. They’d been out of government for the first time in years and feared for their subsidies and draft exemptions, so the rabbis told them to be sure to vote and they did. But the two parties probably would have jumped ship and joined a coalition without Netanyahu if he had fallen short of 61 MKs.

  173. 173.

    Matt McIrvin

    @tobie: I like Mastodon too but I would be remiss not to mention that it has its discontents. It seems like the audience that was already there prior to Twitter starting to implode was very white (though with a lot of LGBT people), and a lot of people coming in were Black Twitter regulars wondering if Mastodon would be a congenial place for a similar community, and they have the experience of getting this nuclear defensive pushback when they complain about things they think should be different.

    (And it’s not just white Americans doing the pushback, a lot of it is Europeans for whom all this seems completely alien. But there’s a lot of: who are these outsiders trying to tell us what to do? Pre-Elon Musk, a lot of the Mastodon community were people who bought into Mastodon norms about the way things were done. The intentional lack of a quote-tweet equivalent is this big particular sore point.)

  174. 174.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: As for the West Bank Palestinians, there is no consensus even among Israel’s “liberal” parties in favor of a two-state solution. Meretz, the only real “peace” party, declined from 12 MK’s before the suicide bombing campaign 20 years ago to 6 MKs afterwards, and they were blanked in the last election when they fell 1/10 of a per cent below the 3.25% threshold.

    There are prominent opposition members like former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot who publically advocate for “Separation,” a euphemism for a Palestinian state. But even they are not pressing the issue because they don’t believe the Palestinians have yet given up on the dream of one state “from the Jordan to the Sea.” So among Israel’s 75% Jewish population, the consensus is that the Palestinian question is one to be managed, not solved.

  175. 175.

    Matt McIrvin

    @cain: I think Mastodon is designed to discourage virality on the Twitter level. But the people who engage with your posts are much more likely to be real people and much more likely to be engaging sincerely because they were interested.

    I remember noticing that on Twitter, the easiest way to get likes and retweets was just to make a banal reply to a famous person’s popular tweet. Whenever I had one that went big (for me) I was kind of ashamed about the content.

  176. 176.

    wjca

    @Citizen Alan:

    To which Alabama’s response will be “How many battalions does Justice Roberts have?”

    Which will demonstrate that they are too young to remember newreel pictures of the 82nd Airborne forcing Little Rock to integrate their high school.  TIFG wouldn’t have ordered that.  But I’m betting Biden would.

  178. 178.

    The Pale Scot

    Sorry WG, I had cocktails with Desiree Cousteau and Danielle Martin, both women were smart as a whip/ They treated me like the 19 yr kid camera geek I wiz

  180. 180.

    Ruckus

    I have twit, mast and spout accounts. I have of course used twit a lot longer and more than the other two, and I feel that it WAS the good site because it had at least reasonably solved most of the problems that a site that does what it does has, if only because of the time and effort that had been put into it.

    Twit is twit, other than elon has managed to screw it up a bit, if for no other reason than he put his name on it. Mastodon I really just not interested in. It seems cliquish – and far more than the other two, likely because it is so many instances tied together. (Nothing specific gives me that vibe, just the overall setup) Spoutable is actually pretty good in being what twit was or at least was trying to be. Now that it basically has one boss who has the final say, to me that is somewhat a concern. It’s Bouzy’s house that he lets us into and that has possible issues. But it is his house, his rules. And he does seem to want it to work and work very reasonably well. And he seems to be very good at his efforts.

    I am like others seriously thinking of deleting my twit account. And yes I will call it that till the day I leave. Then I won’t call it anything.

  181. 181.

    Embir

    @Mike in NC: It isn’t about the $2b – the Saudis assume they will get that back eventually. It’s about standard VC compensation known as 2 & 20. 2% of the investment annually in fees, 20% of profits. In this case since it hasn’t been invested Jared is waltzing home with $40 million a year for at least 5 years. Don’t bet on there being profits, but $200m isn’t chump change for doing nothing with the money (not that he isn’t doing something for the Saudis – it just doesn’t involve investment that money….)

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