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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
You may recall that in 2014 we wrote about a strange occurrence having to do with Chase Bank refusing to provide its banking services to Teagan Presley, a rather well known adult film actress. When it became clear that Presley wasn't the only performer to whom this was happening, it initially looked as though banks were engaging in a form of slut-shaming of adult film actors. It turned out, however, that it was the federal government doing the slut-shaming, with the emergence of the Department of Justice's Operation Choke Point. This DOJ policy that was developed to combat financial fraud somehow bled over the stencil lines and became a sort of banking morality police, encouraging banks to cut off services to industries like adult film, fireworks retail stores, and sellers engaged in what the DOJ deemed to be "racist materials." It's worth highlighting that all of these industries and actions, whether you like them or not, are legal, yet the DOJ was essentially attempting to extra-judiciously scuttle them through secretive federal policy. That should have terrified everyone, but didn't, and so the program went on.
Until recently. The justice department recently announced that Operation Choke Point will be ended.
The move hands a big victory to Republican lawmakers who charged that the initiative — dubbed "Operation Choke Point" — was hurting legitimate businesses. In a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd referred to the program as "a misguided initiative."
"We share your view that law abiding businesses should not be targeted simply for operating in an industry that a particular administration might disfavor," says the letter, obtained by progressive activist group Allied Progress and later provided to POLITICO by Goodlatte's office. "Enforcement decisions should always be made based on facts and the applicable law. We reiterate that the Department will not discourage the provision of financial services to lawful industries, including businesses engaged in short-term lending and firearms-related activities," it adds. A nearly identical letter was sent to Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).
I was more annoyed by their use of it against gun stores but good riddance regardless.
Previously:
Adult Film Stars' Bank Accounts Closed
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aristarchus on Sunday August 27 2017, @02:31AM (16 children)
No Comment.
You Nazi. I would mod you down, but the bank, or SoylentNews admin, has banned me from moderating, I guess because "no one is obligated to provide a service." So I guess, in the end, I have to agree with you! However, I can't mod you up, either. Sorry.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @04:30AM (3 children)
> or SoylentNews admin, has banned me from moderating
Was really admin, or just the mod system working automatically? See
https://soylentnews.org/faq.pl?op=moderation [soylentnews.org]
for details...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Sunday August 27 2017, @05:02AM
Was really admin, or just the mod system working automatically?
Well, when the admins revert some of those -10 mods, but not others, it's hard to tell....
(Score: 5, Interesting) by aristarchus on Sunday August 27 2017, @09:52AM (1 child)
Banning from moderation is not automatic. It is a deliberate action taken by admin to silence certain voices on SoylentNews. Same is true of the lifting of -10 spam mods. So here is what is completely absurd about my situation. I spam modded The Mighty Buzzard. I tend to think he deserved it, as do many soylentils, for posting things that add nothing to the discussion on the site, but then, that is exactly what he was suggesting I was doing. Evidently the mirroring did not become apparent to him.
But more to the point, I, a lowly 2400 year old philosopher, spam modded the one person that all soylentils has the power to rescind spam mods, and he takes umbrage at this? I mean, it is nice that TMB said (taking him at his word here) that he would not rescind his own spam mod, even though he could, and then would wait for some other senior ed to do the service for him, and of course ban me from moderation, which TMB hisself would never do, being all in favor or unrestricted free speech and all. Oh, the irony! Oh, the pathos! Oh, the cognitive dissonance!
Guess I will have do a journal entry about this, for the sake of all Soylentils. Unless my journalling privileges are revoked as well. Stay free, Soylentils! They can take our mods, but they can never take our fre #`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER")
(Score: 1) by Pax on Sunday August 27 2017, @12:43PM
" rel="url2html-6073">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIikqPmbgvI
that is all
(Score: 2) by tibman on Sunday August 27 2017, @04:35AM (5 children)
Were you doing something naughty with those mod points?
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @05:10AM (3 children)
He showed me his and then he asked if he could see my mod points.
It made me feel dirty and not in a good way.
(Score: 3, Troll) by aristarchus on Sunday August 27 2017, @10:25AM (2 children)
The Mighty Buzzard showed some of my moderations, or at least frequencies, without my permission and without any overriding reason of public interest. So I spam modded the sucker. What else could I do, seriously? Of course, he can override any spam mod, even one to himself, which both he and I knew. And now I am banned from moderation by the admins? Is this a site of free speech, or the private baliwick of The Maligent Buthtard? Inquiring minds want to know.
(Score: 1) by Pax on Sunday August 27 2017, @12:45PM
calling all wambulances!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @04:28PM
> What else could I do,
Oh, lots of things you could do, for example:
+ nothing (turn the other cheek), after all these centuries you should have the patience for this(!)
+ reply with a plea that others mod TMB's post down
+ use a different mod, save "spam" for stuff that is not related to SN at all
And really, I think the community will manage with one less person moderating. For myself, I always browse at -1 and use the mod ratings sort of like a quick and dirty poll.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday August 28 2017, @12:26PM
His last 3 can be seen here:
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=21179&cid=556926
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=21177&cid=556921
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=21198&page=1&cid=557396#557396
If it is a member of staff who has performed the moderation, that member of staff does not get to decide if spam moderation is fair, so there's always a second opinion.
aristarchus can be a very insightful poster when he choses to be, there's no desire to see that silenced. However, when he has extended irrelevant conversations with himself (I think I've seen a sequence of 5 posts pretending to be a conversation between different A/Cs) that's little more than pollution.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Sunday August 27 2017, @05:04AM (4 children)
You Nazi. I would mod you down, but the bank, or SoylentNews admin, has banned me from moderating, I guess because "no one is obligated to provide a service." So I guess, in the end, I have to agree with you! However, I can't mod you up, either. Sorry.
Only a few degrees of separation between that and a certain "shadow ban" policy that is highly popular in these parts!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by aristarchus on Sunday August 27 2017, @09:22AM (3 children)
Funny thing is, my karma is back up to normal, but I have no idea if this was due to a rescinding of the illegitimate spam mods, or a surge of support from soylentils. I prefer to believe it was the later. In any case, I have no idea if those who spam modded me are similarly banned from modding now, nor any real idea who they are. But if I was prevented from negatively modding by a low karma, and certain devs seem to have access to exactly what my rate of negative mods is, and now I am banned from modding at all? Well, problem solved in either case. Off to find more motherfucking white supremacist Nazi alt-right news pieces, there are a lot out there, though you would never know it from SoylentNews! !
Semper Fi, DeathMonkey! Fiat iustica, ruat coelum!
(Score: 1) by Pax on Sunday August 27 2017, @12:48PM (2 children)
once again I refer you to the appropriate services
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPdmTJUreys [youtube.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @01:24PM (1 child)
Actually, if voices are being silenced around here, I want to hear about it. So drive that wambulance up your ass.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @01:38PM
I have never seen a post by Pax before. Is it a bot? Or a sockpuppet? Or an AI spawned by youtube that Elon Musk was warning us about?
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday August 27 2017, @07:11PM
Filthy Heisenberger.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.