Glenn Kirschner – Justice Clarence Thomas violates federal financial disclosure laws; DOJ MUST investigate!
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – April 11, 2023
Thom Hartmann – Proof Trump Committed Wire Fraud?
Mrs. Betty Bowers – God Gets Salty About Guns (It is on YouTube – but one must sign in “to confirm your age.”
Fox Has Been Visiting Her Favorite Person For Years
Beau – Let’s talk about Missouri libraries….
Yesterday, it was pretty quiet (she said thankfully.) I”ve been working on some doll clothes latelt, which has the advantages that the pieces are small (therefore light), they go fast (compared to human-sized sweaters), and they can be done with small amounts of yarn (with the caveat that, if I overestimate the amount of yarn I have, I may have to do some emergency re-designing.) Another disadvantage is that the stitches are so small they can be hard to see. That is less of a problem when the yarn is smooth and more of problem when it is fuzzy, of course, but the fuzzy yarns can be so effective in those little projects that I can’t resist using them sometimes.
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Short Takes –
NM Political Report – Homeless shelters aren’t equipped to deal with New Mexico’s most troubled foster kids. Police see it for themselves.
Quote – More than 1,100 times from January 2019 through June 2022, someone at a shelter housing foster kids in New Mexico called emergency dispatchers for help with runaways, violent outbursts, disorderly conduct or mental health crises. Many of the kids placed in these shelters by CYFD have severe mental health or behavioral problems, including PTSD and depression, but shelters don’t provide psychiatric services. Kids break down, get into fights, destroy property, threaten staff or run away. Sometimes they say they want to kill themselves or try to. In these moments of crisis, it’s police and paramedics, not mental health professionals, who intervene.
Click through for full report, which is a joint product of ProPublican and a BGO called “Searchlight New Mexico.” If this is happening in New Moxico, you can bet it is also happening elsewhere. One word: priorities.
npr – Swimming pools and lavish gardens of the rich are driving water shortages, study says
Quote – More than 80 metropolitan areas around the world have faced severe shortages in the last two decades, a figure that’s only projected to rise, impacting more than one billion people in the next few decades. And the threat doesn’t discriminate between hemispheres or climates. Moscow, Miami and Melbourne, Australia, were among the most impacted in the last decade. For the purposes of the study, researchers zeroed in on just one location, Cape Town, South Africa.
Click through for full study. They used Cape Town because it was easy (for less than admirable reasons.) Humanity has known since before there was English to say it in that the love of money is the root of all evil (Radix malorum est cupditas, if anyone cares.) Beau of the Fifth Column (who appears regularly in the Video Thread) prefers to call it “power coupons.” Maybe we all should.
Food For Thought
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Starting tomorrow at sunset and running through Tuesday is Yom HaShoah (“Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day,”) and I was planning on sharing an article on it today. But tomorrow and Tuesday are also the last two days of tax season, and what I had in mind deserves more time and more attention than is likely to be available this weekend. So it will run next week. Instead, I’m sharing an article looking at the platform “Discord,” a (presumably unwitting) player in the most recent classified document scandal to hit the news.
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Brianna Dym, University of Maine
The Justice Department on April 14, 2023, charged Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member, with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. Media reports suggest that Teixeira didn’t intend to leak the documents widely but rather shared them on a closed Discord community focused on playing war games.
Some of the documents were then shared to another Discord community with a larger following and became widely disseminated from there.
So what is Discord and should you worry about what people are encountering there?
Ever since the earliest days of the internet in the 1980s, getting online has meant getting involved in a community. Initially, there were dial-up chat servers, email lists and text-based discussion groups focused on specific interests.
Since the early 2000s, mass-appeal social media platforms have collected these small spaces into bigger ones, letting people find their own little corners of the internet, but only with interconnections to others. This allows social media sites to suggest new spaces users might join, whether it’s a local neighborhood discussion or a group with the same hobby, and sell specifically targeted advertising. But the small-group niche community is making a comeback with adults, and with kids and teens.
When Discord was initially released in 2015, many video games did not provide players with live voice chat to talk to one another while playing the game – or required them to pay premium prices to do so. Discord was an app that enabled real-time voice and text chatting, so friends could team up to conquer an obstacle, or just chat while exploring a game world. People do still use Discord for that, but these days most of the activity on the service is part of wider communities than just a couple of friends meeting up to play.
Examining Discord is part of my research into how scholars, developers and policymakers might design and maintain healthy online spaces.
Discord first came onto my radar in 2017 when an acquaintance asked me to join a writer’s support group. Discord users can set up their own communities, called servers, with shareable links to join and choices about whether the server is public or private.
The writer’s group server felt like an old-school chat room, but with multiple channels segmenting out different conversations that folks were having. It reminded me of descriptions of early online chat and forum-based communities that hosted lengthy conversations between people all over the world.
The people in the writers’ server quickly realized that a few of our community members were teenagers under the age of 18. While the server owner had kept the space invite-only, he avoided saying “no” to anyone who requested access. It was supposed to be a supportive community for people working on writing projects, after all. Why would he want to exclude anyone?
He didn’t want to kick the teens out, but was able to make some adjustments using Discord’s server moderation system. Community members had to disclose their age, and anyone under 18 was given a special “role” that tagged them as a minor. That role prevented them from accessing channels that we marked as “not safe for work,” or “NSFW.” Some of the writers were working on explicit romance novels and didn’t want to solicit feedback from teenagers. And sometimes, adults just wanted to have their own space.
While we took care in constructing an online space safe for teens, there are still dangers present with an app like Discord. The platform is criticized for lacking parental controls. The terms of service state that no one under 13 should sign up for Discord, but many young people use the platform regardless.
Additionally, there are people who have used Discord to organize and encourage hateful rhetoric, including neo-Nazi ideologies. Others have used the platform to traffic child pornography.
However, Discord does maintain that these sorts of activities are illegal and unwelcome on its platform, and the company regularly bans servers and users it says perpetuate harm.
Every Discord server I’ve joined since then has had some safeguard around young people and inappropriate content. Whether it’s age-restricted channels or simply refusing to allow minors to join certain servers, the Discord communities I’m in share a heightened concern for keeping young people on the internet safe.
This does not mean that every Discord server will be safe at all times for its members, however. Parents should still take the time to talk with their kids about what they’re doing in their online spaces. Even something as innocuous as the popular children’s gaming environment Roblox can turn bad in the right setting.
And while the servers I’ve been involved in have been managed with care, not all Discord servers are regulated this way. In addition to servers lacking uniform regulation, account owners are able to lie about their age and identity when signing up for an account. And there are new ways for users to misbehave or annoy others on Discord, like spamming loud and inappropriate audio.
But, as with other modern social media platforms, there are safeguards to help administrators keep online communities safe for young people if they want to. Server members can label an entire server “NSFW,” going beyond single channel labels and locking minor accounts out of entire communities. But if they don’t, company officials can do it themselves. When accessing Discord on an iOS device, NSFW servers are not visible to anyone, even accounts belonging to adults. Additionally, Discord runs a Moderator Academy to support training up volunteer moderators who can appropriately handle a wide range of situations.
Unlike many other current popular social media platforms, Discord servers often function as closed communities, with invitations required to join. There are also large open servers flooded with millions of users, but Discord’s design integrates content moderation tools to maintain order.
For example, a server creator has tight control over who has access to what, and what permissions each server member can have to send, delete or manage messages. In addition, Discord allows community members to add automations to a server, continuously monitoring activity to enforce moderation standards.
With these protections, people use servers to form tight-knit, closed spaces safe from chaotic public squares like Twitter and less visible to the wider online world. This can be positive, keeping spaces safer from bullies, trolls and disinformation spreaders. In my own research, young people have mentioned their Discord servers as the safe, private space they have online in contrast to messy public platforms.
However, moving online activity to more private spaces also means that those well-regulated, healthy communities are less discoverable for vulnerable groups that might need them. For example, new fathers looking for social support are sometimes more inclined to access it through open subreddits rather than Facebook groups.
Discord’s servers are not the first closed communities on the internet. They are, essentially, the same as old-school chat rooms, private blogs and curated mailing lists. They will have the same problems and opportunities as previous online communities.
In my view, the solution to this particular problem is not necessarily banning particular practices or regulating internet companies. Research into youth safety online finds that government regulation aimed at protecting minors on social media rarely has the desired outcome, and more often results in disempowering and isolating youth instead.
Just as parents and caring adults tell the kids in their lives about recognizing dangerous situations in the physical world, talking about healthy online interactions can help young people protect themselves in the online world. Many youth-focused organizations, and many internet companies, have internet safety information aimed at kids of all ages.
Whenever young people hop onto the next technology fad, there will inevitably be panic over how the adults, companies and society may or may not be keeping young people safe. What is most important in these situations is to remember that talking to young people about how they use those technologies, and what to do in difficult situations, can be an effective way to help them avoid serious harm online.
This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 15, 2022.
Brianna Dym, Lecture of Computer Science, University of Maine
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, I am a firm believer that there is nothing wrong with the Internet which a race of humans smarter, better educated, and more conscientious than we are couldn’t handle. Unfortunately, that race is not what we have. And figuring out how to operate and regulate the Internet in such a way that those of us who are educated and conscientious have all the access we need nd want, while those who – are not – are protected from it (and we from them), and still fulfill the promise of the First Amendment – well, that is a nightmare. In fact, we need to protect ourselves, since there is really no one doing it for us.
The Furies and I will be back.
Glenn Kirschner – Jack Smith expands criminal probe, investigates Trump’s wire fraud by fundraising off the big lie
Thom Hartmann – Will Nasty GOP Policy Starve Poor Americans?
Farron Balanced – Jim Jordan Abuses His Power By Attacking Colleges For Fighting Disinformation
Titus and Bradley – The George & Gracie Show: “The 2nd Amendment” (O, man, this takes me back.)
Girl Is Determined To Earn This Cat’s Love
Beau – Let’s talk about confusion, conflation, and currency…. (If you get the Crooks & Kiars newsletter, you’ve seen ads trying to scare you about this.)
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Der Rosenkavalier,” by Richard Strauss. The hosts described it as a “poignant comefy,” which is probably as good a description as any. It’s very long, and the plot is too convoluted to try to summarize, even leaving out all the “life is what happens while you are making other plans” distractions (and there are many). But I can say that it involves a young man who is having an affair with an older woman, and also an older man (with little if any class) wanting to marry a young girl,”fresh from the convent.” I cannot think of another opera – or book, or play, or mavie, or anything – where the oler woman is not the butt of the comedy, but is presented with dignity,while the older man is comedically taken to the cleaners. It’s no wonder that divas are drawn to this role – as one host said, “She’s really the only adult in the story.” When I think this was written in 1911, by a male librettist and a male composer, I’m just in awe. At the same time, I am deeply impressed by the sheer number of women conductors the Met is featuring thos season. There have been a few women conductors in previous seasons – usually when the opera’s composer has pushed for it. Philip Glass, for example, is adamant that Karen Kamensik is the best conductor of his work ever. And another contemporary opera, “L’Amour de Loin,” was conducted by a woman insisted on by the composer. But this season, it just seems there’s a different woman conductor like every other week. And it hasn’t really been that long since an orchestral musician (IIRC in Vienna) told JoAnn Falletta that he wished he had died before being conducted by a woman. Opera has always given me joy, but what is happening now in the genre is adding to that exponentially.
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Short Takes –
The 19th – Houston public schools have a diverse, nearly all-women school board. A state takeover would oust them from office.
Quote – News that the state plans to install a board of managers to run Houston public schools has been met with public outcry, protests and legal complaints. Some are concerned that the school board appointees who will replace the trustees voters elected won’t represent the interests of the school district’s racially diverse constituents. Morath was put into place by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has backed school vouchers, book bans, restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring and other policies critics say undermine public education.
Click through for story. If Texas had a rational Governor (and legislature), I would be able to see both sides of this. But no, it is infested with Republicans. I suspect the 19th is viewing this from the same angle from which I am.
The Daily Beast – Expelled Tennessee Rep’s Friend Was Shot Dead—Then Set Ablaze
Quote – On Pearson’s second day in office, the whole world focused on horrific video released by the Memphis police showing multiple officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols. Pearson was a leading voice in the ensuing protests, but he did not forget [Larry] Thorn. He still took time to check on [Thorn’s mother, Lavonda] Henderson. And he joined the family and other friends who gathered in late March at the boarded-up church where the burnt body had been found, cellphone and wallet gone, car parked two blocks away. “He has been really there, really there,” Henderson said of Pearson. “It’s amazing.”
Click through for background. It’s not really necessary to have personal experience with gun death to be emotionally involved in wanting gun reform. But how much more emotinally involved one would be with personal experience than without it. Even once – let alone twice within a few months.
Food For Thought
You may have heard or read the shocking news that some Republican lawmakers are considering loosening the laws governing child labor. In fact, children have been found working in slaughterhouses, at an age when they still haven’t given up TV cartoons. Seriously? What century is this, anyway?
A photo of a little girl working in a factory helped spur the movement to ban child labor. Kids need to be in school, developing their intellects and social skills, not watching spools of thread or hacking animal corpses. Their minds and bodies are still growing. Forcing them to work stunts mental as well as physical growth. How can they learn when they’re working 16 hours a day? It is as though Big Business is grooming them for a lifetime of wage slavery.
We think of child labor as something that happens in developing nations, but it is happening right here in the United States. Companies such as Hearthside Food Solutions, General Mills, PepsiCo, Hyundai and Chipotle have been caught using child labor. This summons memories of the Gilded Age, when everybody in a family had to work just to make ends meet because wages were so low – and worker protections were a joke if they even existed. Many children lost limbs, eyes and even their lives handling manufacturing equipment or slaving away in mines.
There is no excuse for allowing – or forcing – children to work. While we condemn chocolate companies for allowing enslaved children to harvest cacao for our M&Ms and Hershey bars, we unwittingly support child labor here. We need to contact those companies that allow children to work when too young, or longer-than-reasonable hours, or in dangerous positions; and we need to demand that our elected representatives tighten regulations on underage workers.
And just who have been attacking child labor laws in the USA? Republicans, of course. They seek to roll back child labor legislation by increasing permissible hours and broadening the types of jobs kids can do – including hazardous jobs, such as the aforementioned slaughterhouse positions. In addition, the laws that Republicans have written shield employers from liability for injuries, illnesses or workplace fatalities involving very young workers. In other words, if Junior dies on the job, tough noogies Mommy and Daddy. Just as in Victorian times.
The kicker is the same people seeking to loosen regulations on child labor are pretty much the same people who fiercely defend embryos and fetuses. Die in an abortion, that is a horrible tragedy and a crime; rip your arm open in an abattoir and bleed out, or get crushed by heavy equipment, that’s only a statistic.
Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa AFL-CIO, stated “All of these protections have been put in place for a reason. Child labor law is there to make sure that kids are working in age-appropriate work activities or occupations that are appropriate for their age. We think this is a rewrite of our child labor laws in Iowa that are going way, way, way too far and has the potential to put kids in dangerous situations.” Children working in positions inappropriate for their age is just one of many reasons why we have unions, and why they are important. Kids belong in the classroom and the playground, not the factory.
Glenn Kirschner – NY AG Letitia James compels Donald Trump to sit for 2nd deposition in $250 million civil fraud suit
ABC News – Attorney General Merrick Garland announces probable cause arrest in connection with document leak
Ring of Fire – Republicans Introduce Legislation To Let Them Continue Harassing Alvin Bragg
Armageddon Update – No Justins, No Peace!
Tiny Possum Gives Her Brother Piggyback Rides
Beau – Let’s talk about a win in Nashville….
Yesterday, as you may already know (but if not will be happy to learn) the Supreme Court told the crazy judge in Texas that he cannot tell the FDA what to do with their special professional knowledge. This is only a temporary stay … but it was written by Alito, which to me looks promising. In other news, it snowed in Denver. It hadn’t here yet, but by today it’s supposed to. It’s not a weekend that I need to go anywhere, so I may not pay attention.
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Actually we have till the 18th this year (and I really don’t regard the IRS the way TC did)
Short Takes –
Daily Beast – Moms for Liberty Leader Allegedly Hijacked Dead Woman’s Facebook Page to Harass Foes
Quote – Pennsylvania mom Libby Leonard had been dead for a year and a half when her Facebook page began attacking another mother. “EVERYONE…Say Hi to a real DUMB worst word you can call a woman (because she earned it),” the March 14 post begins. “Can’t wait for her to meet her KARMA…It’s already beginning, but until then I think a taste of her own medicine is amusing. However, I will be sharing legally and EVERYWHERE.” Of course Libby didn’t write this. She was stabbed to death by her children’s babysitter in 2021. Instead, the post appears to have been authored by Nicole Prussman, a local leader of the right-wing group “Moms for Liberty” who had inserted herself in Libby’s life and marriage before her tragic demise.
Click through for story. Why is it that when Republicans (and American “Libertarians”) talk about “Liberty” and/or “Freedom,” they always mean taking away someone else’s?
Sentinel – BACK IN THE SADDLE: Second Chance bikes rides again
Quote – The redevelopment of Aurora’s East Bank Shopping Center had forced the nonprofit project to relocate, but at the time of his passing, Ernie was struggling to find a new spot for the shop that offered free bikes to children, homeless people and others in need. After Ernie’s death, [his daughter] Betty told the Sentinel how she promised her father that she would help carry on his legacy “come hell or high water.” Now, she’s making good on her promise and says Second Chance is gearing up to reopen out of a new storefront in Centennial.
Click through for more. Not the biggest story in the world, but a feel-good one to offset that first one.
Food For Thought
