The Stuttering Lede, Vol. V
"There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice." Montesquieu
The other day I had a short and surprisingly heated exchange with a very close friend regarding the political and more importantly moral positions our friends largely take. The root of the “argument” was my father’s nonchalant use of a racist slur, one that I specifically called out in an essay just the day before. It was inexcusable for my father to use such a term1 but I do understand that for his generation the Soviet indoctrination was and still is much stronger than for my generation. I was wrong, I was thinking about my spouse and myself as examples, but we are outliers for GenXers born and raised under the Soviet regime. That’s what I mentioned to my friend, stating that I firmly believe that vast majority of GenX who were born in the former USSR, regardless of where they are now, are just as xenophobic and racist as our parents - Mother Russia has a very powerful grip. As an example, I offered to see how many of our friends will come to the defense of Pavel Durov, Telegram’s CEO who was recently arrested on a laundry list of charges. My friend, to my utter shock, immediately proved my point by claiming that the arrest is anti-free speech and…. Yeah, I guess I am not the only Frankenstein’s monster around. We’ll dedicated a bit of today’s newsletter to the “free speech” warriors like Durov and Musk.
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Today in History
On this day, 19 years ago, New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina.
Happy Skynet Day to all who celebrate.
Mental Health
Surgeon general's new warning: Parents are stressed out. Ya think?
Gut health tied to psychological resilience: New research reveals gut-brain stress connection.
Tech
OpenAI and Antropic agree to deals with the feds, just not regulations. Shocker.
Meanwhile, contentious California AI bill passes legislature…
The judge Elon Musk bizarrely called 'Brazil's Darth Vader' gives Twitter 24 hours to comply with court order or get shut down.
Bacteria helping to extract rare metals from old batteries in boost for green tech.
Tech and Politics
In an official statement, the Army is defending its staff member who found herself in a confrontation with Trump campaign employees at Arlington National Cemetery:
I don’t remember an entire branch of the U.S. military releasing a statement regarding a presidential candidate desecrating a national cemetery. Do you know how egregious of an act you have to carry out to piss off the military?
Of course some of his minions are beyond the grotesque. There is no bottom to Donald Trump or the people around him.
The above article by NPR posted on Twitter prompted the following message if/when you clicked on it:
Everything about this is insane and ludicrous, but this part? OMFG, did they think they would get away with that??
While the “controversy” may seem confusing, here’s a simple breakdown for those in need.
So much for Twitter being an "independent free speech platform." Roman Sheremeta writes: “Two sanctioned Russian oligarchs helped Elon Musk to purchase Twitter. Musk's connection to Russia has been obvious for some time. But the latest reveal of direct Russian investments in X is very troubling. Here are some evidence of Musk's connections to Russia.”
People should understand that platforms moderate content primarily so that they can reduce their own possible legal liability from blatantly illegal content posted by their users. It's a point that Durov and Musk clearly don't get. A certain percentage of users will always be criminals and/or perverts, so if you're a platform you don't want any of their online misdeeds to stick to you. Hence Pavel Durov ending up in a French jail cell and facing 10 years in prison.
Elon of course, among many of his accomplishments is a person who regularly interacts with and boosts people who are obsessed with something they refer to as “the Jewish question.”
Durov of course famously bragged about graduating from special military propaganda program back in his college days… and then there’s his “rumored” work with and/or for GRU…
2024 Elections
First female Native American Governor? How do I sign up to help?
The U.S. sets higher standards for those who want to join the country than to lead it. If Trump were an immigrant, here are 21 awkward questions he’d have to answer truthfully to get a green card or become a U.S. citizen.
It’s a travesty that a Democrat needs to win the popular vote by 5%+ to even have a chance of winning the Electoral College.
The new Trump election interference indictment highlights just how much harder SCOTUS made Jack Smith's case. Lisa Rubin explains why.
Trump’s ugly, shameless new offer to RFK Jr. hands dems a big weapon.
Abba (ABBA!!!!) demands Trump campaign stop using their music at campaign rallies.
General Politics
If you like crazy conspiracy theories, Barack Obama is a worse abuser of American intelligence than Donald Trump – or any other president. The fix was always in.
An Israeli freed from Gaza returns to a Bedouin village targeted for demolition.
The Indigenous Maasai in Tanzania have been forcibly displaced by the government - now they are being erased from voter rolls.
New York City's "law and order" mayor is really more of a chaos agent. I would have used stronger words. Much stronger.
H.R. McMaster said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping handily manipulated Donald Trump.
Oregon, which has one of the highest vaccine exemption rates for school children, is having its worst measles outbreak in over 30 years. Entirely among the unvaccinated. Antivaxxers don’t care about children; they’re selfish, ignorant adults forcing children to get preventable diseases.
Lina Khan is on a serious roll. The Mars family are all tax cheats who have lobbied hard to make America worse by ensuring the idle inherited rich like themselves never pay taxes. @FTC sued Care.com for deceiving caregivers and trapping families into paid memberships.
Russia
Ukraine can use Dutch F-16s for strikes against Russia. "We have not imposed any restrictions on the use and range of the F-16s, provided that the laws of war are observed," Royal Netherlands Air Force General Onno Eichelsheim told NOS. If only US would stop playing appeasement with fascism and allow Ukraine to use their weaponry to it’s full potential.
Two top Ukrainian officials will present the Biden administration with a list of targets in Russia in face-to-face meetings this week, in an attempt to push the US to lift restrictions on the use of American weapons against Moscow. Let’s pray that the reason will finally prevail.
A court in Yakutsk has fined three local journalists for sharing hyperlinks to Meduza. Two of these reporters were convicted of multiple offenses, putting them at risk of felony charges and prison.
Humor
“The worst is not death but being blind, blind to the fact that everything about life is in the nature of the miraculous. The language of society is conformity; the language of the creative individual is freedom. Life will continue to be a hell as long as people who make up the world shut their eyes to reality.”
Henry Miller
