Now, if I were a conspiracy theory nutcase, I'd perhaps argue that this was somehow Google trying to "silence" me for calling out its awful moderation practices.
I'm just writing about this [case of poor moderation on Google's part] because it's so... fitting.
Nah. You'd point out that you're in league with the Google, teaming up to create false-flag support for your own arguments because Common Law and stuff and things. The government! Potato salad!
Re: 'The dev- I mean mexican made me pull the trigger!'
For just a moment I was tempted to make a joke ... but no, just a titch too pissed to go that route.
I try to restrict my commenting to (usually bad) jokes and sarcastic one-liners. Giving in to thoughts of bloody-minded revenge & venting gut feelings of anger tend to be the sort of thing done by people I neither like nor respect, and my rational mind puts on the brakes when I start veering into that territory. In this case, though? Nothing funny... and I'm having a hard time not imagining someone grabbing Swartz, smuggling him into the Mexican side of Nogales, and leaving him hog-tied in the middle of town with a bow stuck to his forehead.
Unjust, counterproductive, and hypocritical - yes. But hell, that picture of the cliff & wall...
And the program has wasted resources 5,000 times to achieve zero wins on the national security front.
The problem isn't that the Quiet Skies operation is inherently useless, it's just that it's missing the key element of any national security program: creating terrorists to catch in order to rack up the wins. The TSA really should have brought in someone from the FBI to help 'em out when they were developing the program. Never underestimate the value of solid system design.
True, Pai's willing to get pretty deep in the muck if he thinks there's a way he can profit. But...
When it came to the DDoS being exposed as a sham, instead of trotting out some sort of "bureaucratic miscommunication" non-explanation explanation for the mess he started shouting "It was them! Everybody but me was lying!". While I agree with some commenters that this might be an excuse/opportunity to unload a few underlings that he's not fond of by placing the blame on them, it still doesn't seem like it'd instill faith in the next person he asks to do something sleazy: who's gonna trust him when he says "I've got your back"?
He cost Sinclair a merger and probably some money that'll be going to Tribune. Given the current political climate, Pai will probably come thru the corruption investigation with a little cosmetic scuffing but none the worse for wear, and would have done the same without tanking the merger by handing it over to an ALJ; he just panicked and covered his own ass. He wasn't willing to risk taking even a small beat-down for the Sinclair team, and I'd imagine that sorta thing sticks with a guy.
I'm probably reading way too much into a couple of minor events, but I've got some sort of weird "optimism" thing going on today...
So... earlier this week, Pai was throwing many of his coworkers (old & current alike) under the bus in order to avoid taking any responsibility for the fake DDoS attack. Now, the ALJ move he made to look good in the face of the corruption investigation not only resulted in his buddies at Sinclair losing out on the merger, but also getting their asses sued.
I don't imagine these actions are a comfort to others who, up to this point, have been counting on Pai to be their 'go-to guy' when they need him.
(anyone here old enough to remember the McCarthy hearings/trials bullshit?)
I don't think there's anyone alive who could make "Have you no common decency, sir!?" resonate with an audience of any significant size anymore, anyway... unless they end it with a "/sarc" tag (or the phrase "Goodnight from everyone here at Last Week Tonight").
Wray needs to stop complaining about the tech sector until his own agency can demonstrate its ability to approach the issue with facts, verified numbers, and intellectual honesty.
If they could do that, there wouldn't be an issue to discuss. They'd just shut up and move on.
Yeah, the brevity of my comment and the tangential cheap snarkiness of the addenda clouded my own point, too: not only is law enforcement an organizational structure with members who can join and leave at will (making it a false equivalence with race & a host of other things), the police are in fact granted rights and powers above and beyond those enjoyed by the rest of us. In other words the elevated status of LEOs doesn't just mean that criticism of them is valid, it's demanded as a check on their power.
...the proposed First Amendment exception it is about to discuss is plausible or constitutional because other exceptions already exist. Not so. Though First Amendment analysis can be complicated at the margins, the core exceptions to First Amendment protection are well-known and well-established.
Is it an indictment of US public education to admit that I learned about the origin of the word sabotage from Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country rather than in school?
Is it an indictment of myself to admit that it was only about ten minutes ago that I learned that Valeris' etymology lesson wasn't entirely accurate?
This is one of those articles that's so nuanced & complex that it doesn't really seem to have a fun or easy way to jump in with a comment. I've been working on one that starts "In Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica, it's stated that...", but I think that might be going too far off on a tangent.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
The Most John-Oliverian Content of the Week by TD staff goes to Tim Cushing for:
On the post: Google Moderation Team Decides My Piece About The Impossible Nature Of Content Moderation Is 'Dangerous Or Derogatory'
Now, if I were a conspiracy theory nutcase, I'd perhaps argue that this was somehow Google trying to "silence" me for calling out its awful moderation practices.
I'm just writing about this [case of poor moderation on Google's part] because it's so... fitting.
Nah. You'd point out that you're in league with the Google, teaming up to create false-flag support for your own arguments because Common Law and stuff and things. The government! Potato salad!
On the post: FBI Tried To Get Google To Turn Over Identifying Info On Hundreds Of Phone Owners
Re: Re: Are our pro-criminals that dumb?
On the post: Appeals Court: No Immunity For Border Patrol Agent's Murder Of 16-Year-Old Mexican Citizen
Re: 'The dev- I mean mexican made me pull the trigger!'
For just a moment I was tempted to make a joke ... but no, just a titch too pissed to go that route.
I try to restrict my commenting to (usually bad) jokes and sarcastic one-liners. Giving in to thoughts of bloody-minded revenge & venting gut feelings of anger tend to be the sort of thing done by people I neither like nor respect, and my rational mind puts on the brakes when I start veering into that territory. In this case, though? Nothing funny... and I'm having a hard time not imagining someone grabbing Swartz, smuggling him into the Mexican side of Nogales, and leaving him hog-tied in the middle of town with a bow stuck to his forehead.
Unjust, counterproductive, and hypocritical - yes. But hell, that picture of the cliff & wall...
On the post: TSA Admits 'Quiet Skies' Surveillance Program Is Useless, Promises To Continue Engaging In Useless Surveillance
And the program has wasted resources 5,000 times to achieve zero wins on the national security front.
The problem isn't that the Quiet Skies operation is inherently useless, it's just that it's missing the key element of any national security program: creating terrorists to catch in order to rack up the wins. The TSA really should have brought in someone from the FBI to help 'em out when they were developing the program. Never underestimate the value of solid system design.
On the post: Tribune Kills Merger, Sues Sinclair For Its 'Unnecessarily Aggressive' Merger Sales Pitch
Re: Re:
True, Pai's willing to get pretty deep in the muck if he thinks there's a way he can profit. But...
When it came to the DDoS being exposed as a sham, instead of trotting out some sort of "bureaucratic miscommunication" non-explanation explanation for the mess he started shouting "It was them! Everybody but me was lying!". While I agree with some commenters that this might be an excuse/opportunity to unload a few underlings that he's not fond of by placing the blame on them, it still doesn't seem like it'd instill faith in the next person he asks to do something sleazy: who's gonna trust him when he says "I've got your back"?
I'm probably reading way too much into a couple of minor events, but I've got some sort of weird "optimism" thing going on today...
On the post: Tribune Kills Merger, Sues Sinclair For Its 'Unnecessarily Aggressive' Merger Sales Pitch
So... earlier this week, Pai was throwing many of his coworkers (old & current alike) under the bus in order to avoid taking any responsibility for the fake DDoS attack. Now, the ALJ move he made to look good in the face of the corruption investigation not only resulted in his buddies at Sinclair losing out on the merger, but also getting their asses sued.
I don't imagine these actions are a comfort to others who, up to this point, have been counting on Pai to be their 'go-to guy' when they need him.
On the post: Rep. Kevin McCarthy Continues The Parade Of Stupid Anti-Internet Grandstanding
Re: Idiotic stupid incomprehensible nonsense
Of course it does! You're obviously an adherent of Strunk & White's The Elements of Lunacy - Sophomoric Crackpot ed.
On the post: Facebook's Censorship Of Legit Activists Shows The Policing Of Propaganda Is Going To Be A Fucking Mess
Re: Re:
I don't think there's anyone alive who could make "Have you no common decency, sir!?" resonate with an audience of any significant size anymore, anyway... unless they end it with a "/sarc" tag (or the phrase "Goodnight from everyone here at Last Week Tonight").
On the post: FBI Boss Chris Wray: We Put A Man On The Moon So Why Not Encryption Backdoors?
Wray needs to stop complaining about the tech sector until his own agency can demonstrate its ability to approach the issue with facts, verified numbers, and intellectual honesty.
If they could do that, there wouldn't be an issue to discuss. They'd just shut up and move on.
On the post: UK Judge Says Accurate Journalism Is An Invasion Of Privacy In Cliff Richard Case
Re: Re: Re: Useful information
Tell me more about this total lack of ability to express your opinions and have your voice heard.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Yeah, the brevity of my comment and the tangential cheap snarkiness of the addenda clouded my own point, too: not only is law enforcement an organizational structure with members who can join and leave at will (making it a false equivalence with race & a host of other things), the police are in fact granted rights and powers above and beyond those enjoyed by the rest of us. In other words the elevated status of LEOs doesn't just mean that criticism of them is valid, it's demanded as a check on their power.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re:
On the post: If You're A Journalist Hiring Lawyers To Intimidate Publishers Into Killing Stories About Your Misdeeds, You're A Hypocrite
Re: "Exists or doesn't"
I took this as a reference to what's discussed in Ken White's Trope Three: 'Not all speech is protected', along the lines of
Plain URL: https://www.popehat.com/2015/05/19/how-to-spot-and-critique-censorship-tropes-in-the-medias-coverage -of-free-speech-controversies/
On the post: Miami Cops Forced To Give $20,000 Back To Person They Stole It From After Screwing Up Their Supposed Drug Bust
Re: Note to self:
On the post: Report Shows U.S. Citizens Helped Coordinate Online Disinformation Assault From Macedonia
Re: Re:
Is it an indictment of US public education to admit that I learned about the origin of the word sabotage from Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country rather than in school?
Is it an indictment of myself to admit that it was only about ten minutes ago that I learned that Valeris' etymology lesson wasn't entirely accurate?
Plain URL: https://www.etymonline.com/word/sabotage
On the post: On Speech And Subpoenas, New York Giveth And Taketh (Now, The Bad News On Journalist Protection)
Re: Crickets
This is one of those articles that's so nuanced & complex that it doesn't really seem to have a fun or easy way to jump in with a comment. I've been working on one that starts "In Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica, it's stated that...", but I think that might be going too far off on a tangent.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re:
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re: Re:
There might be a cycle to user perception of funny and/or insightfullness. Then again, the cycle might belong to us, the commentors.
My LOL-vote humor was rooted in absurdity and caricature... I can't figure out why, but that sorta thing seems to have died out in late 2016.
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