Eric J. Korpela @SETIEric@qoto.org

Publicly posting the names and identities of front-line employees involved in content moderation puts them in harm’s way and is a fundamentally unacceptable thing to do.

The U.S. Supreme Court justices are the only judges in the country who are not governed by a code of ethics. This needs to change.

Here are three reforms that the Court can make now to shore up its legitimacy: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/supreme-court-ethics-reform

In preparation of Elon Musk's report on the Hunter Biden laptop and Twitter, please read my original piece on the laptop. The big issue was that the NY Post & Rudy Giuliani were using the existence of the laptop & iffy material on it to advance Russian disinfo that had been concocted to hurt Biden & help Trump. Giuliani was even working with a Russian agent to spread this false info. The laptop was part of this larger op.

https://motherjones.com/politics/2020/10/giuliani-and-the-new-york-post-are-pushing-russian-disinformation-its-a-big-test-for-the-media/

“I’m going to stay and fight”

No you’re not. It isn’t a battleground. It is owned by one man who will do what he likes as long as he can and he’s able to continue to do so because you are creating statistics he is using to sell ad space and make it look like the platform is more active than ever.

You are enabling him, even with your “fighting.” Wake up. That’s what he wants. It HELPS him. You’re literally working for the man free of charge. #birdsite #twitter #TwitterMigration

@aravosis

Alt Right Elon just reinstated Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin to twitter

To all of you “resister” accounts still there? You are making that platform viable. There is no staying and fighting. That’s a distraction

You are simply writing a blank check to neo-Nazis.

So the beef behind the laptop thing is there's a block of Americans who won't vote for a candidate whose kids have been accused of any sort of corruption -- and those voters could have been persuaded to vote for... Donald Trump?

@shelenn
Yep, that's certainly true! Which I think makes it especially important that things like widely shared Blocklists have relatively reasonable content. :)

Now seems like a good time to talk about how far-right extremists are using the Overton Window theory to force their ideas into the mainstream. The premise here is that today’s fringe ideas/beliefs can become tomorrow’s normal by shifting the boundaries of acceptable discourse. You do that by introducing people to more & more extreme ideas, so everything else seems reasonable in comparison.

eg, when “praising Hitler” becomes the comparison point, low-key bigotry suddenly doesn’t seem so bad. 1/

Proof that the new "fediblock" on the wiki run by Paula intentionally suppresses counter-evidence and proof towards block entries. Despite the fact that I provided tons of proof that show the "evidence" provided for a block against QOTO is false they refuse to updatte the block with the additional evidence and effectively suppresses countner evidence.

This is why there needs to be Due process like im trying to build with the #UFoI and not just one dictator named paula cherry picking what evidence she thinks is valid and blocking the rest.

Here is a link to the discussion if you want to see it first hand (screen shots included). I highly recommend everyone leave a comment expressing your concerns for visibility:

https://joinfediverse.wiki/Talk:FediBlock

#fediblock #mastoadmin

If you are outraged about Congress' handling of the railway strike, join me in demanding that President Biden sign an executive order guaranteeing at least seven days of paid sick leave for railroad workers.

If these workers are vital to the economy, why not treat them as such?

All the talk of leaving the birdsite vs. staying on the birdsite to “fight” makes me think of Barry Lopez:

“The amount of energy that goes into the defeat of an enemy is energy that would be better spent in doing something that makes the enemy irrelevant.”

Proboscidean (Mammoth) tusk section for #FossilFriday and #FieldPhotoFriday.

I was digging through a layer of #Pleistocene sandy overburden to reach a fossiliferous #Miocene strata, when my trowel hit something hard. It turned out to be the largest section of mammoth/mastodon tusk I have ever found. It measures approx. 2m long. Later analysis of the Schreger Lines in the tusk confirmed it was Mammoth.

Location : Peace River, #Florida, Bone Valley Formation.

#paleontology #fossils

Final point: all the VSPs who daydream about a calm, charismatic leader who charts a reasonable middle course on policy & eschews overt partisanship ... got what they wanted. Straight out of central casting. His name was Barack Obama. Did it magically heal the country?

ICYMI: A failed GOP congressional candidate in Arizona filed a lawsuit demanding that Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) be prevented from certifying the state's election results and that the results be "annulled."
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/failed-gop-congressional-candidate-sues-to-annul-arizona-election-results/

NEW: The Mississippi Ethics Commission appears ready to declare the Mississippi Legislature is NOT a "public body" under the law and thus not subject to the Mississippi Open Meetings Act.

The decision shields the House GOP Caucus meetings from the public.
https://www.mississippifreepress.org/29460/ethics-commission-rejects-staff-mfp-push-to-open-house-caucus-meetings-by-2-votes