Commenter Gloria DryGarden sent me a cut/paste from a Facebook poster named Connie Willis who posts a daily news roundup called “CW Daily”. I’ll post it below to see if it’s your cup of tea.
I’m not on Facebook (have a fake account for work purposes), but I think it (and most social media) presents a dilemma about participation. On one hand, Facebook especially is how older folks in a lot of areas get their news. On the other hand, fuck Zuck.
Share your thoughts about that or anything else in this open thread.
IT’S A COUP–Trump Moves to Completely Take Over Government
February 2, 2025
By Connie Willis
Sorry to be the bearer of such bad news, but Trump is moving so fast to dismantle the federal government and the rule of law that it may all be over by Monday morning, so I have to report it today:
First, during the campaign, Trump assured us he had no intention of seeking retribution on his political enemies. Now he has:
–fired everybody who worked on the January 6 investigation.
–fired everybody who worked for Jack Smith.
–fired all the top officials at the FBI.
–fired every prosecutor who worked on any investigation into Trump.
–instituted a mass purging of professional law enforcement–dozens and dozens of agents.
–dropped charges against Republican Representatives Jeff Fortenberry and Andy Ogles. (“In a dictatorship there will be those who the law binds but does not protect and those who the law protects but does not bind.”)
–Trump dismissed all 51 agents who said Hunter’s laptop was tampered with and contained Russian disinformation.
–Trump then signed an order preventing them all from entering federal buildings.
–88 FBI agents who worked on Trump cases were physically escorted out of Washington field offices this weekend.
–At least three different FBI senior officials, including Brian Driscoll, the acting FBI head, “forcefully resisted” the firings.
–Many government workers are surprised by the lengths Trump is going to to exact revenge. According to Mark Bergman, “the most common refrain I’m hearing from people who left but are still talking to people on the inside is: ‘I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn’t think it was going to be this bad.’ There’s certainly shellshock.”
–There is now talk that Trump intends to fire 6000 people of the 13,750 employed by the FBI. And that those who aren’t will be told that they can only stay if they will carry out the orders of the President regardless of whether they’re lawful or not.
–“Dismissing potentially hundreds of FBI agents would severely weaken the Bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the bureau and its new leadership for the future.”
–Jamie Raskin: “In another repulsive affront to the rule of law and our nation’s law enforcement officers, the Trump Administration today moved to fire scores of FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors simply for enforcing the law and impartially carrying out the largest criminal investigation in American history which they had been assigned to work on. On Day One, the unpopular President Trump pardoned the members of violent militias and street gangs who beat police officers to a pulp with pipes, flagpoles, and broken furniture when they attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to overturn the Presidential election Trump had lost by more than 7 million votes, 306-232 in the elector college. Today, shockingly but not surprisingly, Trump takes aim at the career FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors who investigated and prosecuted the violent insurrectionary assault on our police officers to block the peaceful transfer of power, as well as those FBI agents who were assigned to investigate Trump’s efforts to illegally retain classified records at his Mar-a-Lago club, defy judicial subpoenas, obstruct justice, conceal evidence, and lie to law enforcement…Trump doesn’t care about the requirements of democracy, national security, and public safety. His agenda is vengeance and retribution. If allowed to proceed, Trump’s purge of our federal law enforcement workforce will expose America to authoritarianism and dictatorship.”
The other horror story is the scariest one yet. Trump has handed Elon Musk the car keys to our entire government:
–While Trump spent the weekend at Mar-a-lago golfing, Elon Musk and his cronies demanded (and forcibly took) access to all the federal employee data systems at the Office of Personnel Management.
–According to Reuters, “Elon Musk’s team has hijacked massive datasets of government worker dates of birth, home addresses, Social Security numbers, length of service, performance evaluations, revoking access of the OPM officials.”
–The guy in charge, David Lebryk, the Acting Head of the Department, tried to fight them, then quit (or was removed) over their demand for access and his refusal. Update: According to the New York Times, he resisted, then was put on leave by Trump and then forced to resign Friday. (It’s a coup, people.)
–Senator Ron Wyden: “NEW: Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE ‘full’ access to this system. Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk’s own companies. All of it.”
–Musk aides locked federal employees out of the system, which contains the personal data of millions of federal employees, including dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades, and length of service of government workers.
–Senior career employees have had their access revoked to the department’s data systems.
–Musk’s team moved in, installed sofa beds, and is working around the clock to do whatever it is they’re doing. Nobody knows what that is because there is no oversight. One official said, “We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems. That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”
–According to the New York Times, Musk and his people have been caught plugging in external hard drives inside the OPM, Treasury Department, and GSA. They attached the hard drives to the systems, giving them access to all that data and making it possible to take all that data with them. It also gives them the ability to erase data, redirect funds, and steal data.
–Not only that, but they’ve got access to all the files that handle the sending out of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid payments ($6 trillion dollars worth.) Is this not only a power grab, but a money grab, and they’re going to magically “vanish” everybody’s Social Security payments?
–The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins: “This man is in regular secret contact with Vladimir Putin. Get his grasping mitts off the U.S. Treasury and NOW.”
–This data also includes all the information about government contractors that compete directly with Musk’s companies.
–At the same time they have been holding meetings with various departments to discuss codes and projects with people who have no official access to any of this.
–All of the people Musk has got working there are his hand-picked buddies from his own businesses, including one twenty-year-old and one eighteen-year-old.
–In the meantime, OPM has sent out memos encouraging civil servants to consider buyout offers to quit and take “a dream vacation.”
–And then yesterday (note that this is all happening on a weekend when it’s harder to get to the courts to stop it) the brand new Treasury Secretary granted Musk and his thugs full access to all the data. New York Times: “Treasury Secretary gave representatives of DOGE full access to OPM. It gives the Trump administration another mechanism to attempt to unilaterally restrict disbursement of money approved for specific purposes by Congress.”
–“Representatives for the Treasury Department, DOGE, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.”
–Adam Cohen: “If Elon Musk and his unsanctioned team of techno-thieves and pirates are interfering with any payments designated by Congress, that’s a flat-out crime.”
— As David Burback said, “This sounds like a bad movie. It’s so hard to believe but does seem to actually, possibly be happening that the core of U.S. government private information on U.S. citizens and businesses and confidential government operations is being carted off by unvetted, malevolent, possibly foreign actors.”
–News Eye: “The world’s richest man has been given full access to the federal treasury, which controls trillions in payments and holds sensitive personal data on millions. This is happening. This is a state coup.”
And now today:
–As we find out more, it just gets worse and worse. Josh Marshall at Talking Points memo says the people accessing the databases are refusing to ID themselves except by first name. They seem to be Peter Thiel and Elon Musk proteges, but it’s not even clear they’re U.S. citizens.
–Musk not only locked regular employees out of the databases and computer systems but out of their own offices.
–They could have messed with the systems functioning OR erased data OR redirected funds OR otherwise mucked these systems up, through ignorance, incompetence, or malice.
–Daily Kos: “Musk’s people tried to steal data or whatever their business was, clandestinely? Why? There are laws and regulations about protecting personal privacy. Most likely explanation, they were acting illegally and they knew it.”
–According to the New York Times; “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency full access to the federal payment system late Friday…handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending.”
–Musk is issuing stop payments on his own initiative. (He has NO authority to do that and no government authority of any kind.)
–Elon Musk now has absolute control over his own contracts and those of people who would dare to compete with his products.
–Senator Ron Wyden: “These payment systems simply cannot fail and any politically motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy.”
–Josh Marshall also says the Musk takeover is considerably worse than is being reported by the press.
–They are reviewing the U.S. federal budget and deciding which parts aren’t necessary, and will unilaterally cut those funds.
–According to the New York Times, they have begun demanding access to data and systems at other federal agencies.
–“The United States is now run by a ketamine addicted dictator from South Africa.”
–Bowie Maroney: “Musk is raping and pillaging our government agencies.”
–swmmckay: “This form of coup was not on my radar. I hope the nation survives long enough for Nuremburg-style trials.”
–Trump just fired the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (So people won’t have any recourse to get their money back?)
–Katie Mack: “If they were doing this to a single bank they would be immediately arrested but the Treasury of the entire United states doesn’t even have a guard at the door?”
–And we are finding out what they intend to do with all that data. Mike Flynn–WTF? MIKE FLYNN IS IN ON THIS?–just tweeted that Musk is shutting down the entire Lutheran Services chain of senior living facilities in North Dakota, calling them nothing but money laundering. (They’re going to defund nursing homes and throw old people out on the streets to save money. Of course they are. And they’re going to decide. Even though that’s totally illegal–only Congress can decide what funding goes to. And none of these people have any government authority. And once again, WHAT THE HELL IS MIKE FLYNN DOING INVOLVED WITH ALL THIS?)
–And surprise, surprise, now there are issues with the Social Security website. People are unable to access their own accounts. And all the communications networks of the OMB are suddenly offline.
–Elon Musk, meanwhile, is tweeting that he is cutting $4 billion a day. (How? By slashing programs and sending the money directly to his own bank accounts?)
–This is also a major national security threat.
–THIS IS A COUP! There is no other way to look at it. Musk has taken control of the entire U.S. Treasury payment system. He has no authority to do any of this. He is not an elected official, his “department” doesn’t exist, and what he is doing is blatantly illegal. And terrifying. This is just as much a forcible takeover of the government as the January 6th attempt on the Capitol. And this time there are no Capitol police to stop them.
–Daily Kos: “Last week they tried to freeze all payments and lost bigly in the courts, so now they decided to just seal all the money. Billionaires are now in control of the government. We no longer have a democracy as of now.”
–Kara Swisher called it “Hostile takeover of the federal government by a private citizen of unlimited means with no restrictions and no transparency.”
–Ruth Ben-Ghiat: “This is a national emergency.”
What you can do:
–Contact the Treasury Department directly and demand that Secretary Scott Bessent immediately revoke Musk’s access to these systems. Phone number: 202-622-2000.
–Trudy Gonzales: “If you ae worried your Social Security, Medicare, or VA disability check won’t be coming out due to Elon Musk’s access to Treasury department systems, CALL CONGRESS 1-202-224-3121 ASAP.”
(Note: All this carnage, isn’t even counting the trade war Trump started yesterday by slapping tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, which I’ll report on tomorrow. If we still have a country left by then.)
Best line of the day, from Tea Pain: “Name one thing Trump has done since elected that Vladimir Putin wouldn’t approve of.”
—
Follow CW Daily for a comprehensive political news summary.
Kelly
copying this up from below:
Top notch science blogger Derek Lowe is tracking the vandalism at NIH and NSF
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/what-s-happening-inside-nih
DebG
Is this Connie Willis the sci-fi writer? She lives in Greeley, Colorado. Her husband is or has been a faculty member at University of Northern Colorado.
A Ghost to Most
Fight fascism. Kill ALL your social media.
Old Dan and Little Ann
This is all well and good for non maga creeps. I made the mistake of commenting on a “friend’s” post last night because he got a kick out of JFK Jr. video “owning” Bernie Sanders about taking money from pharmaceuticals. I posted several comments trashing Jr. and i was overwhelmed with idiots saying, “Your boy, Bernie this. Your boy, Bernie, that.” It was so fucking stupid. My overall point was JFK is a slimeball and I was never a Bernie Sanders person. I checked back in today and the post had vanished. I considered that a minor victory. If I had posted the above screed into the thread it would have been read by nobody. These people are fucking clueless.
Old School
It’s a good list.
I’m not on Facebook. I didn’t realize users were into long-form media.
Ohio Mom
TL/dr
If you want to be read on Facebook, be brief
A dozen short pieces might be read, but not such a long piece.
The worst part of Facebook are the comment threads. Most of them need a remedial civics class and psychotherapy, though I don’t known how successful a therapist would be with people with anti-social personality disorder.
Nelle
@Old Dan and Little Ann: RFK jr?
Belafon
I will have to find the link and forward it.
The problem with the people who think Trump is doing right thing is that when his actions hit them full force they won’t know what to do other than look for someone else to blame.
WTFGhost
My thoughts are too dark to share – no need to get banned trying :-)
Belafon
@Ohio Mom: If you want to overwhelm the population, do all of the stuff she described.
ErikaF
Yes, this is Connie Willis, the award winning science fiction writer (and all around great person! and so is her husband!). She sends out newletters pretty much daily to an email list.
catclub
@WTFGhost: I feel ya, buddy.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
There is a significant difference in experience with Facebook on a computer and on a phone.
If you’re diligent about blocking and basically actively manage your Facebook settings, click on items you don’t want to see again in a way that lets you tell Facebook to stop, you can minimize the amount of crap you can get flooded with…
If you stick to your computer and even then, you have to be active and diligent with the account
Phone? It’s a cesspool. If that were my only way to access it, I’d bail like a lot of people.
Many of us involved in neighborhood orgs pretty much have to use Facebook as a main communication method. Instagram to a lesser extent but necessary given the gentrification that’s happening. Next Door? Never because that’s where the worst of the gentrifiers sit. If there was ever a stereotypical social media platform that lives down to it’s reputation, it’s Next Door.
Scout211
Deleted. Wrong thread.
NotMax
@Scout211
A federal judge has also issued a temporary restraining order that Treasury cease allowing Musk and his minions’ access to their computer systems.
Don’t let that word temporary rattle you. It’s a standard step before fuller briefing requesting a preliminary injunction.
Trollhattan
The hits just keep coming. This is hilarious!
hrprogressive
MAGA and the Fascist Republican Party want the Coup, and the rest of us don’t have a coherent strategy for stopping it.
Chris
Do older people get their news from Facebook?
Anyways, my personal experience is that Facebook is crap. It’s been circling the drain for a long time, but in the 2020s it’s really hit rock bottom. I have about three hundred friends, but the number of people I see in my feed actually posting anything is like a dozen, tops. Even those guys are increasingly crowded out as the place becomes nothing but bots. (Familiar cycle: the more bots there are, the less human activity people see, therefore fewer and fewer of them post, therefore more and more the place is nothing but bots…) It’s turned into a right-wing puke funnel, and an aggressively right-wing puke funnel at that: one of my most common experiences is hiding an offensive post from my feed, blocking the account it came from, returning to the Facebook feed… and promptly finding the exact same post, now ostensibly from a different account. Even without the politics, though, the system increasingly just fails at the most basic tasks. We all know that the one thing Facebook is supposed to be good for is reminding people of their friends’ birthdays, right? Well, I’m increasingly getting notifications of people’s birthdays… one or several days after they happen.
Even before Zuckerberg became a Trumpie, I’d pretty much figured I was going to leave it. If I wait until this summer, though, I can leave it on the twentieth anniversary of the day I got it. And I like being poetic, so that’s my current plan.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@DebG: I wondered the same thing, but when I looked, it’s not. It’s a Connie Willis who’s a reporter.
I once took a two week writing workshop up in the mountains over Taos where Connie was a teacher
ETA: Erika F says it is. Maybe she has more info?
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
I just tried calling my 2 senators and rep and was able to leave messages for the rep (Jared Huffman) and Alex Padilla. Schiff’s phone message box was completely full. Sounds like they are getting lots of calls.
Saw a post on Instagram yesterday saying the Senate switchboard had been overwhelmed, with them getting 1500 calls a minute, as opposed to the usual 50 a minute (the numbers may not be perfectly accurate, since I’m doing this from memory, but you get the idea). My experience tracks with this.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@ErikaF: Are you sure? There are several Connie Willises on Facebook. One is a reporter.
Kay
A coalition of labor unions just got a court order barring Musk from dept of labor files.
Unfortunately, I DO think they have complete access to all of our federal student loan records.
TBone
I used to post plumber jokes & memes on Fascistbook a lot because it is a sewer. It was fun for trolling the RWNJs who could never resist coming on my page to argue. Then my continuous, daily bashing of Donold using some raunchy language and very “inappropriate” memes got me thrown into FB jail one too many times and when I knew The End was coming, I doubled down on my “misbehavior,” laughing all the way. Happy ending!
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Nelle: I should have started by looking up the video. I just watched the real one. He must have come across an AI audio version. Yikes. It tricked me. The video I just watched is video of Bernie grilling jfk jr. about vaccines. The one he posted was the exact same video but with jfk jr. grilling Bernie about pharmaceutical money.
Ohio Mom
I used to get very local news on my FB page, when I stopped there on my way to browse FB marketplace.
By very local I mean things like posts from my neighborhood Buy Nothing Group, announcements about new nearby museum shows, someone posting a question on the area’s autism moms group’s page, news of local restaurants’ closings and openings — that sort of thing.
Ever since Election Day though,my page is one right-wing site after another. I keep blocking them but another one is always at the ready. Attempts to follow my local groups don’t seem to go through.
It’s creepy and annoying.
ErikaF
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I am absolutely certain it is Connie Willis the sf writer. I received that email from her on Feb 2 – I’m on her email list.
TBone
This new Jonathan Pie installment is epic! I lol’d almost all the way through (funny because true but, if you don’t like dark humor, it will not be your cuppa tea):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qj-gAUaUF-4
Parallels to the current USA situation also too.
For the unfamiliar, JPie is a UK news reporter, ostensibly. Then he starts telling the truth, which makes up most of the segment before he goes back into character as a news reporter.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@ErikaF: There you go, then. I knew she was interested in politics. Even 15 years ago, when I did that writer workshop, she was following Kos and Raw Story
Lobo
sixthdoctor
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Nelle: Maybe it did happen after all. Sorry for any confusion.
Lobo
Your Apocalypse Talking points to your House Rep. from TPM:
Editor can be finicky sometimes
Ruckus
Social Security website still works for me.
And yes, putting a man who takes his own wealth above everything and everyone else on the planet is not a good thing whatsoever. Having him control the aged out old fart who somehow got reelected after the useless 4 yrs he spent in office last time is not a good thing. This country should not be run by aged out old farts who have never actually done anything positive in their lives or the wealthiest man in the world, whose life revolves around the roll of thousand dollar bills he likely has stuffed up his exit orifice and was in no way elected to any office whatsoever.
TBone
@sixthdoctor: WOO HOO!!
🎶
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0hiUuL5uTKc
ETA Fuckin’ A!
tobie
@sixthdoctor: Bravo to Katherine Long. Tom Krause was the other Spec Govt Employee allowed in the court order to ‘read only’ Treasury’s electronic files. If someone can find racist rants from him, maybe all DOGE workers can temporally from Treasury.
Kelly
Trump is still bragging he brought water from the PNW to Southern California. This time he’s at this morning’s National Prayer Breakfast. Via Aaron Rupar
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lhjlirknnz2r
No Nym
I left FB about ten years ago. I am not on social media, which is I guess what drove me to start piping up here again. With or without social media, I feel I am screaming into a void.
la caterina
@sixthdoctor: Now let’s do the rest of Musk’s goons
Also, too: give that reporter a Pulitzer!
Elizabelle
@ErikaF: I love Connie Willis. Reading Doomsday book (again) now. We too live in interesting times. With the Silicon Plague upon us.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ruckus: Eloquently put!
Ruckus
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
I’m not sure they are fucking clueless.
Ignorant, foolish, selfish – sure. Misunderstanding of any clues they trip over – likely. Have anyone else ever in their minds in any way other than how to take money from them – really? Arrogant – absolutely. Any trace of positive humanity – can’t seem to find any. Selfish – in every way, shape, form, concept, direction, effort. Yep.
But then if the above weren’t true they wouldn’t be them…..
NotMax
@la caterina
Turn off the bigot spigot!
ErikaF
@Dorothy A. Winsor: No problem. I’m mainly a lurker so I definitely don’t mind the verifying. I’ve been to several sf cons with Connie, and have had the privilege of being on sf con panels with her (I’m not worthy!) She’s definitely interested in politics!
Kay
@sixthdoctor:
Woo hoo! Good work.
Kelly
I’m not on Facebook but Mrs Kelly is. Out here in the Oregon boondocks FB is the best we can do for local news. It’s a small enough community that Mrs Kelly knows who the local bullshitters are. Worth noting one of the worst bullshitters on right wing hobby horses like masks, vaccines, bus loads of antifa is the best source on where the sirens are headed.
DebG
@ErikaF: I got to meet her once, about 24 years ago. She was wonderful indeed! It’s great to see her leading the fight, especially in Greeley.
Chris
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I think that might explain it. Most of my Facebook interactions are on my phone, and it is, as you say, a cesspool.
Kay
So Elons assistants are insanely racist. There’s a shocker.
Betty
Just saw an excellent video on Nicolle Wallace’s show featuring the Acting FBI Director. He looks much stronger than Christopher Wray in defending the agency. Not sure what will happen to him if Patel gets in.
Kay
@Betty:
Christopher Wray, the potted plant.
Scout211
Haha. In reality it was from the California foothills to the Central Valley.
But no worries, his emotional support printer will only hand him print-outs that make him out to be a hero for defeating the water.
Ruckus
@No Nym:
I left FB longer ago than that, it was turning into a club that I absolutely did not want to belong to.
Screaming into a void happens in humanity every so often. The stars align, the moon is dark, the world seems to only give assholes the positive side of life. But sooner or later they screw themselves (and many, many, many victims along the way) and end up, often in a cell or finding out how a rope around the neck feels while supporting their entire weight. But they often do a hell of a lot of damage getting to that end. In our current climate they often can get a lot of power along the way and screw, hurt, damage significantly, kill a few or a lot before the end, because there are far more of us now than 50 or 100 years ago. Far more to be taken advantage of or get in their way. Far more to think this is normal humanity – and it may be, because this is/how humanity has been for a very long time. In this country with it’s local openness it has been a bit harder, but money will often win out because money is often worshipped far more than any human. And in current life is maybe not as important as it used to be but then maybe it still is, if one has an amount that some will worship. And they will because they think they want to be worshipped. In reading history it seems like maybe being worshipped is not all that and a candy bar. Because has it ever ended well for the person being worshipped?
Chris
@Kay:
There’s a rumor on Tumblr (so take it for everything that’s worth) that the studentloan.gov website is being shut down tonight.
Regardless of whether this particular rumor is true or not, it’s probably a good idea to download what one can. I downloaded my printable account information, tax document, account history, and the “all loan details” information, hoping that’s enough. (The first of these is the only one that actually shows my name and my current balance on the same document, but printed the others to be on the safe side).
Kelly
@Scout211: and the mountains between the water and LA are rugged enough that I5 through there is called the Grapevine
Kay
The main NYTimes editorial today is “what happened to the Democrats?”
Its a joint effort – two conservatives and a liberal.
If you’re still buying that newspaper understand they pump this garbage out on the daily. You may as well donate to the RNC – skip the middleman.
Chris
@Ohio Mom:
Yep, same here, except it was going on for some time before election day. Like all of media, Facebook really stepped up the fascist propaganda between 2020 and 2024. It was bad four years ago, but even then it was nothing like now.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Thank You!
lou
@Elizabelle: So do I! My favorite is To Say Nothing of the Dog.
Belafon
@Kay: They’re also probably easy targets for some beautiful Russian women.
Betty
I am pretty sure it was little Mark who put the stop payments on us overseas Social Security beneficiaries. I still can’t get any answers, but I will resubmit our annual status forms in case some bureaucratic snafu means our compliance didn’t get registered in the system.
Kay
@Chris:
Great! Just as students are filling out the FAFSA. Not that anyone Trump hired ever had or needed a student loan.
I’m so grateful for the lawsuits. They’re a good measure too. When they openly defy a court order we’ll know its a completed coup and “politics” is no longer relevant.
VFX Lurker
On January 20th, my Facebook account automatically followed the Idiot and the Couchf–ker without any effort or consent on my part. I blocked/unfollowed both in a blind rage.
If Meta made you auto-follow unwanted people, and you did not catch this, the algorithm could be trying to “feed” you content you do not want.
Click on your FB avatar, then go to Settings and Privacy->Activity log->Connections->Followers->Who you’ve followed and unfollowed. Check “your” activity around January 20th.
Ruckus
@Chris:
That might be for 2 reasons.
One, who is the largest group on FB now? I haven’t been on for years and it used to be a main site for me. And from people on here it seems that most of the like minded humans have left, some also relatively long ago.
Two, it’s just not worth the time or any effort whatsoever. I’d rather twiddle my thumbs or nap than go on FB. More productive.
Kay
@Chris:
I say “openly” defy a court order because I don’t know if they’re complying. They all lie all the time. If they get caught defying or openly defy, that’s the last guardrail falling.
Sister Golden Bear
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Worth noting that for Facebook on the phone, if you tap on the “More” icon and then select “Feeds” you get a choice of which newsfeed to see. It defaults to “All” which is absolutely enshittified, but the “Friends” feed actually just shows you stuff from your friends. “Favorites” will likewise show only posts from favorites (not entirely sure how that works, and “Groups” will show only posts from groups you’ve joined, likewise “Pages” only from pages you’ve liked/subscribed to. It’s a bit less convenient to have to switch among them, but it evades the dreaded algorithm throwing slop at you.
There’s equivalent choices under “Feeds” in the list link on the left side of the screen.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: Gasp!! I did Nazi *that* coming, did you?
Elizabelle
@lou: Just bought that one!! And one set during the London Blitz. (Did you read that one?) Have not started either yet.
Lobo
@lou:
Are you sure it wasn’t titled: To Say Nothing of the Doge?
Scout211
@Kelly: Yes, it’s called the grapevine, but you got the history of the name wrong
Kelly
@Scout211: interesting thanks
TBone
@Chris: I used laptop yesterday to try to join my local Dem Committee closed FB Group (in hubby’s nym). It is still a sewer on computer versus phone, IMO.
It irks me that my local Dems are cool with posting all their updates there (my Township officials do the same thing). The local Dems have a cool website they could use instead…
Captain C
@Kay:
If the FTFNYT had any self-awarness, the answer would be, “WE happened to the Democrats, what with our one-sidedness, fake both-sidesism, and general preference for clickworthy horserace bullshit instead of honest reporting.”
UncleEbeneezer
Like any social media (and most of them are owned/run by horrible people) Facebook can be extremely useful for crucial, local updates and community. The only reason we were fairly well prepared for the Eaton Canyon Fire was because we had been following Altadena Weather and Climate and the host, Edgar McGregor had been warning us about the coming windstorm for two weeks beforehand. His use of Facebook probably saved many lives. During, after and ever since, Facebook has been hands-down the best place to get recovery information, real time updates, resources, advice and fundraising etc. And it’s allowed us to stay connected to our community, even from here in Taos. Yesterday I created a grieving/mourning/processing private group for victims of the fire. I was part of a group called Grief Without Belief (for atheists/agnostics) after my Mom died in 2012 and it was such a great thing. It’s important to have a space where you feel like you can talk, vent, whatever with people who know what you’re going through.
Kay
@Captain C:
If you’re a real reporter or news person this is your time to shine, right? Go find out what Donald Trump and his henchmen are doing to the federal government behind closed doors! Pulitzer stuff.
But no. The NYTimes is hosting the 15th boring discussion on why they all hate Democrats.
UncleEbeneezer
@Chris: You just gotta get your settings right. I don’t see any of that shit. Hell, since 2016 the only presence of Trump or MAGA shit on my FB has been from activists signal-boosting the threats.
ErikaF
@Elizabelle: Definitely check out The Road to Roswell. It’s a road comedy story involving UFO nuts and actual aliens, with gov’t agents and normal people caught in the middle. One of the best uses of “teach the alien English” I’ve seen in a very long time.
Peale
@UncleEbeneezer: Its one of those things that starts benignly. Like I used to follow my local sports team pages, which means I like sports, no? Then over the summer its all right wing sports crap all the time. Did you know that Trevor Hauer has successfully sued MLB for $2.0 billion and will be starting next week? Did you know that the Amateur Boxing Federation successfully sued all the trans boxers and took back hundreds of millions of prize money from them? (who knew women’s boxing had such large purses?). Did you know that the Chiefs have banned Taylor Swift from ever coming to a football game again? Lawrence Taylor agrees: there needs to be a veterans month long before there is a pride month.
So lesson is: limit your interests and follows on facebook to things that can’t be turned into right wing misinformation. Which is pretty much everything these days.
Peale
@Kay: Heck. We don’t even need any help in that area. Pretty much every thread we post we have someone coming up with a new reason to hate the Democrats. We do it on our own!
Captain C
@Kay: Fits in with their tradition of missing scoops (Watergate) and Pulitzers for dictator stenography (Duranty and his Holodomor denial).
hedgehog mobile
@DebG: Yes
UncleEbeneezer
@Peale: I really only use it to interact with people/groups I have vetted. And I have very tight privacy controls.
frosty
@lou: That rang a bell. I’ve read that one and Doomsday! Probably because of reccos here a couple of years ago.
frosty
@Sister Golden Bear: Yes, then it floods the feed with “sponsored” and “I think you’d like.” Ugh.
Raven
@frosty: Since I was diagnosed I get tons of multiple sclerosis posts.
Doc Sardonic
Brief news announcement folks…..
JFK and JFKjr are both fucking dead……Neither can run HHS.
Q was wrong on that one as most of the other shit.
Ruckus
@Kay:
I’d bet that most of the NYT customers are not the poor and run down/over humans on this planet.
They write their crap for the monied.
Now how many small town newspapers still exist? I used to deliver the smallish town newspaper of the city I grew up in and it was about 10-15% of the thickness of the LA Times (or likely most any of the big city newspapers.
Ohio Mom
@VFX Lurker: Oh yeah, I had to block Trump too.
Tehanu
@DebG:Is this Connie Willis the sci-fi writer?
Yes, indeed it is.
@lou: All of Connie Willis’s books are worth reading. I think Doomsday Book is one of the greatest historical novels I’ve ever read, not just one of the greatest science fiction novels.
@ErikaF: I loved The Road to Roswell too. I don’t really have a “favorite” one, but I’ve re-read Blackout and All Clear several times — those are the London Blitz book, in 2 volumes, not really separate books.
Bupalos
TRUMP IS ONE OF THEM.
Don’t. Give. Them. ANY. Feedback.
Bupalos
@Bupalos: This is an attempt to think about how we could harvest paranoia and fear on “both sides.”
Bupalos
@Bupalos: Also gettin’ real.
for quite a while we’ve had the privilege and delusion of thing about online discourse as disconnected from reality.
and it still is in the old way… you can spout “FUUUUUUUUCK YOOOU” to your heart’s content without any realworld effect. But in the new way… they’ve actually been watching you and honing their game for some time. Elmo can do his haw haw.crying emogies because HE’s BEEN WATCHING WHAT THE ONPINE HUMANS WILL DO for some time now.
He’s BERY BERY confident.
Donatellonerd
@ErikaF: link to join her mailing list, please? (quit FB a year ago)
thx
ErikaF
@Donatellonerd: I can send you her email address in a pm (she keeps it curated since there’s a lot of her friends on it). She does post this to CW Daily on Facebook, which is public if you dare the FB hell, so you can follow it there as well. FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/cwdailynews