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Twitter adds label to Trump's misleading tweets about mail-in ballots:
Twitter said Tuesday that it added a label to President Donald Trump's tweets for containing "potentially misleading information about voting processes," a rare move that shows the social media company is taking a tougher stance against misinformation.
It's the first time that Twitter has displayed a label on Trump's tweets.
On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that "There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-in-Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent," a claim that has been debunked by fact-checkers and news organizations. He continues his remarks in another tweet, stating that it will be a "Rigged election."
A label appears under both tweets that states "Get the facts about mail-in ballots." Clicking on the warning notice directs users to a page that states that fact-checkers say there isn't any evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud. Trump also falsely states in the tweets that California will send mail-in ballots to "anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there" when only registered voters will receive ballots. States such as Oregon, Utah and Washington have long conducted elections by mail only, while states such as Nebraska allow any voter to request a ballot and vote by mail without having to provide a reason.
A Twitter spokeswoman said in a statement that the decision is in line with how the company approaches misinformation on its site, which includes adding warning notices and labels depending on the likelihood and severity of harm a tweet could cause.
Twitter's actions against Trump's tweets will also likely increase tensions between the company and conservative users, who allege that the social network suppresses their speech. Twitter has repeatedly denied those allegations. Earlier this month, Trump tweeted that the "Radical Left" is in control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google and said his administration is working on a solution.
In two tweets, Trump accused Twitter of interfering in the 2020 US presidential election.
"Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!," he tweeted.
Also at BBC News, Ars Technica, MIT Technology Review
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:00PM (6 children)
Boomers forced everyone to stay home at gunpoint to give Boomers a safe space.
Boomers forced every business to close at gunpoint to give Boomers a safe space.
Boomers forced everyone to wear face masks at gunpoint to give Boomers a safe space.
Boomers caused the worst economic depression in history to give Boomers a safe space.
Whiny entitled Boomers are the worst generation ever to live.
No longer.
Boomers must be made to pay with their lives for crimes against civilization.
The Final Solution to COVID-19 is to exterminate every Boomer.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:20PM
Just take yer fekkin' meds, Gomer. Or, I'll stop giving you the ones you like, too.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:53PM (1 child)
The only thing boomer did wrong is to procreate. Signed, genX.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:34PM
Well, at least two boomers that birthed a genxer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:28PM (2 children)
The Wuss is back.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:38PM (1 child)
That is a troll not a wuss.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:23PM
He's a troll but he's also a Wuss.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:02PM (30 children)
Whether or not free speech is "stifled" is irrelevant.
Hundreds of thousands of people are reading Trump's tweets. Hundreds of journalists are tutting and writing words.
When will they get it - the only way to defeat a troll is "don't feed a troll"!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:18PM (27 children)
There's a big difference between "suppressed," "stifled," and "equal time for opposing viewpoints."
A label on a potentially misleading statement is little more than equal time for opposing viewpoints.
Stifled would be if there were a cost (monetary or otherwise) for speaking out. I suppose making Trump look the fool when he tweets could be such a cost, but I hardly see how that's avoidable. It's certainly not a case of Twitter threatening to blast out all potential evidence for Russian support of Trump's campaigns any time he tweets - that would be more stifling, but still not suppression.
Suppression is when speech is simply not allowed- Twitter blocking or taking down Trump's tweets would be suppression. Plenty of legitimate smaller tweeters are suppressed daily by arbitrary policies, DMCA abuses, etc. which they are effectively powerless to overcome. Suppression should be our primary concern. The rest are just asking people to think for themselves - those not inclined to do so will ignore and/or ridicule the opposing viewpoints anyway - those who are on the fence deserve the opportunity to decide for themselves which side they prefer.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:22PM (25 children)
I agree with everything you say, but it doesnt matter. The world's journalists have been trolled again by Trump. Every time he trolls like this, he wins votes. That's what matters.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:59PM (16 children)
I'd like to think that he wins votes that don't matter - anybody who would get pulled to his side by something like this was probably firmly on his side anyway. I suppose the "real" damage is that he can make his believers insecure and more likely to vote... we certainly need more of that on the opposing side.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Troll) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:06PM (11 children)
we certainly need more of that on the opposing side.
What opposing side?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:58PM (4 children)
Troll
:-) Democrats are particularly sensitive today
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:47PM (3 children)
Poor victim!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:58PM (2 children)
Poor democrats! Tossing an election during a time like this... What are they thinking?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @05:50AM (1 child)
Soooo you're lamenting Trump's inadequacy? Sounds about right!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @03:48AM
Oh please! We've known about Trump for over thirty years. He is doing exactly what is expected of him. There is nothing new under the sun
No, what is most lamentable is the opposition's inadequacy. It is so easily sabotaged, mostly because it is false, nothing more than partisan whining. It actually fortifies Trump
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:10PM (5 children)
Fair point... pretty depressing, but in this instance the greater evil is pretty clear. (Master and Commander movie joke quote: we must always choose the lesser wevil.)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:50PM (3 children)
You are grading them on their acting abilities and assume they are in opposition.
Strategic voting for the "lesser evil" is what led us here to this... man. It was inevitable
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 28 2020, @06:49PM (2 children)
Not really acting abilities anymore. Mr. "YOU'RE FIRED!!!" has been perfectly in character throughout his term and the only thing I'm shocked at is that he didn't fire Faucci. After a while, defunding agencies that support "the notion of climate change", firing all officials within his line of sight that don't toe his shifting line of cheeto dust, granting executive free passes to any and all businesses that meet his low bar for special favors, etc. does start to make a difference. "The party" behind him is continuing to run most of the show, but infant in chief has truly made a difference all by himself too.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday May 28 2020, @07:09PM (1 child)
Trump only gave us a glimpse behind the camera and in the front office. He rubbed the polish off the turd. He threatens to expose their world, as if it matters any more. Reelection in congress will still hold at over 90%.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 28 2020, @07:54PM
I've met more than one U.S. Congressman over the years - they can be really reasonable human beings when you're face to face discussing one issue. IDK what happens when you put 435 of them in a room, it's like a critical mass of corruptibility has been achieved and their humanity just implodes.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:44PM
we really need to split this country up by various criteria. politics, race, religion, etc.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:56PM (3 children)
> I'd like to think that he wins votes that don't matter
Not sure why I am getting modded troll. But meh...
The technique that Trump applies so successful is to keep the media focussed on his policies, his tweets, etc. Time and again he has distracted the media from covering democrat policy, or republican cock-ups. He uses the same trick every time, that is drop a tweet that implies racism, fascism, etc without actually being racist or sexist. The democrats get their backs up, the republicans point out that he hasn't done anything wrong, the moderates sort of get stuck in the middle. Usually he picks something designed to inflame the democrats without really being significant. And once again, he gets his message out and blocks the opposition.
Like I say, he is a great troll.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:22PM (1 child)
Not sure why I am getting modded troll.
democrats
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:25PM
Actually it is a false flag operation by Republican sock puppets to stoke partisan anger. But whatever makes you feel special.
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Friday May 29 2020, @02:51AM
The media is grateful because the less Joe Biden talks, the better his chances of winning are.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:44PM (7 children)
I doubt that. He may win more cheers from his blind loyal worshipers. But they will vote for him no matter what. He could announce that "the voices" told him to start a nuclear war with every other country on Earth. His followers would follow him over the cliff.
It doesn't mean he is gaining votes.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:09PM (1 child)
In fact, he may be losing some of his most important voters.
Trump is polling worse with older voters than in 2016 [fivethirtyeight.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:18PM
There was an article on Ars Technica in the last day or so.
Good News: overall trust in scientists and doctors is higher
Bad News: that increase in trust is from democrats, while republicans trust them even less, but are outnumbered in the results
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:05PM (4 children)
Biden could boil babies and eat them, could be a literal rapist, and their followers would be obligated to vote for him. So say all your political officers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 27 2020, @08:59PM
Wrong.
For your first item, vegetarians would be screaming. Others would say these should have been "free range" babies. Others would raise nutrition concerns.
For your second item, democrats would be screaming about women's rights, No means No, safe spaces, how Biden discriminated by not raping a male, something about non binary gender; and republicans would be screaming that Biden is copying Trump.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 27 2020, @09:23PM (1 child)
"The babies are healthy and nutritious. Rich in protein. Don't give them lollipops." -- some US president
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @12:57AM
Nixon?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @08:16AM
Well, that's what it means to be a vapid partisan hack devoid of principles. You can't expect anything else from neoliberal corporatists or rabid Trump cultists; they are a cancer upon the world.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:28PM
...(cough) Trump accomplishes that without any help from anyone. The man is a fool. And worse.
--
There are two kinds of people in this world.
Those who love cats, and
those who aren't allowed in my house.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:59PM (1 child)
The mail-in ballot system appears to work in a lot of states, and other countries, so if he "knows" that they are somehow the source of massive fraud then I guess it's time to put up or shut up? That said I doubt that will happen.
One can really ask who the target of his tweets are. That media, and people that just hate him no matter what he does, are always going to be triggered no matter what he would tweet so there is really no pleasing that.
I don't really care for his tweets but I wouldn't want to forbid him from doing so, it's seems mostly pointless and it's probably targeted pandering to his base -- like a lot of political speeches are no matter the platform.
Example -- his previous statements of "last night in Sweden". Clearly not meant for people in Sweden but the people that went to his rally -- to show how fucked up things had become or that it wasn't like it used to be. Media- and political people in Sweden got super-triggered about it. But yes I do believe that he actually no matter what the outcome is here will "win" and the idiots just keep taking the bait over and over again. So you sort of have to admire him for that -- he knows how to rile up the masses of idiots.
So is this a new feather that the Twitter-AI is going to put on all tweets or is it special just for the Donald? If it is just for him then he might actually have a point. If it's going to be for everyone then there is a gonna be a lot of tweets that will carry that tag since a lot of them are probably misleading about something.
(Score: 2) by helel on Wednesday May 27 2020, @08:42PM
As I understand the situation Twitter has been putting these citations on misleading tweets for a while now. They've been doing it for at least a few weeks with regards to COVID-19 [reuters.com] and the primary complaint I've read about before now is that they weren't applying it to Trump or other politicians blatantly misleading Tweets.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Bot on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:03PM (8 children)
and how do you fact check that a mail-in ballot is not fraudulent? you ask the guys whom they voted for and trust their reply? BTW in Italy it is forbidden to declare own vote, and of course asking for it. So who fact checks fact checkers? Anyway sheeple, have your daily dose of official truth and beware, all else is necessarily LIES!!!
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:57PM (1 child)
How do you fact check that a walk in ballot cast is not fraudulent? You ask for ID? How do you know the ID is not fraudulent? You trust their reply? When you stop and think about it, how do we really know ANYTHING?? Cogito, ergo sum?
This stuff is not that hard. Yes, one can cast fraudulent votes, but you don't have fraud happening on scales to even remotely affect an election (in the US, at least (I can't speak for Italy or other countries), where this is CONSTANTLY looked into). The Republicans, of course, know this very well. They even had a commission put together made up of sycophants and partisans who were specifically tasked to find fraud (to find the "millions" of fraudulent votes cast to prove, indeed, that the President also won the popular vote), and even they couldn't find any. For the recent Florida primary, the President himself cast a fraudulent ballot claiming Mar a Largo as his residence, and his daughter and son-in-law cast multiple ballots in the last election.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:57PM
I am not implying you can fact-check walk in elections either, so we basically agree. Fact checking needs facts. Elections are secrets by design. There is probably some tech solution to this but it hasn't been implemented and it is open to potential abuse.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:25PM (4 children)
Apparently, no one does. Remember Snopes? They hired some broad to do their political fact checking - and never bothered to check up on her. The woman had some virulently nasty political opinionons. We should investigate her to see how she might be responsible for Covid19.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:44PM (3 children)
Misogyny, noice!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:37PM (2 children)
woke moron seeing what ain't there, nice
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:28PM
He is RUNAWAY! Your flies are like the buzzing of fleas, to him!!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @09:09PM
So he is racist, homophobic, but you want me to believe he is not misogynistic? Sister pleaaaase.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:38PM
I always vote absentee ballot in my state, due to being handicapped. When I send in a request for an absentee ballot, I have to provide one of:
When I get the actual absentee ballot, I have to provide that same information again. I assume this lets them check that the same person is voting as requested the ballot, and no one with the same info is voting more than once.
Yes, there are obvious holes here that could be exploited if someone were of a mind to do so. But if you have to design a voting system that does not assume that most people are honest most of the time, then we'd better start using the "show up in person and dip your thumb in the blue dye" method of making sure each person only votes once.
(Score: 4, Informative) by rigrig on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:05PM
Or do most stories leave out a link to the actual tweet this is all about [twitter.com]?
No one remembers the singer.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:15PM (36 children)
I've said it many times before, and I'll keep on saying it: The president of the united states of America. or anyone else in a significant place of power, has absolutely no business posting directly on Twitter(R)(TM) or other social web sites.
Public statements should be made through PR personnel and only then distributed to all applicable media sources. That by itself would prevent most serious errors or dis-information on their part.
Of course, the problem with trump is that he does not know when to shut the fuck up. We have a freedom to relieve our bowels, but we are not free to take a huge splattery diarrheic dump in front of everyone in public. But trump does exactly that every time he gets on live TV and opens his mouth.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:20PM
That's old school. In today's connected world the BEST leaders move fast and break things. I guess I'm getting old, IMO the old school was better.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:23PM (10 children)
You are wrong, or course. Every President has directly communicated with the people since FDR began fireside chats on radio. Your insistence that Trump should not use the new media of Twitter just labels you as an ignoramus with no knowledge of historical precedent and a hysterical mistrust of new technology.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Aegis on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:42PM (9 children)
There is a difference between public airwaves and private servers.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:06PM (2 children)
What about private broadcast transmitters?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:34PM (1 child)
They license *public* spectrum, and as such are regulated by the FCC.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:24PM
Where web operators are protected from liability under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act fashioned after protections of common carrier status. The entire idea behind common carrier and safe harbor provisions is companies do not interfere with or exercise control over items being legally transported and cannot therefore be held liable.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Bot on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:01PM (5 children)
Yep, twitter fb and company should either display a prominent THIS IS A PRIVATE AREA WE DO AS WE PLEASE or behave as common carrier.
For example look at twitter vs. hate speech, nazis can't display an indian svastika, antifa can display a boot stomping a nazi face, or encourage #TSO which is italian internment on medical grounds (soviets gonna soviet).
Account abandoned.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:18PM (1 child)
So you're mad about nazis being censored (points for trying to make it seem like an innocent display of the original symbol) and nazi stomping boots being displayed? I refer you to WW2 and look forward to stomping on your face.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday May 27 2020, @10:44PM
first of all, the problem is not that the defeated are held captives- this is normal.
The problem is that the other side says we are only intolerant towards the intolerants, and then proceed to call nazi WHOEVER THEY PLEASE. This is hypocrite. Soviets gonna soviet.
I was joking when I said nazis but of course it went over your head because you actually believe the reich can be rebuilt by itself, without the help of the cabal in London and the excesses of weimar.
I am not implying they show the svastika AS a normal symbol, learn to read. I said they cannot display a symbol which is not exclusive to nazis. That means that the cultural appropriation of the svastika is being done by leftists.
As for WWII, LOL I handled a (unloaded) cal9 Glock when I was like 7yo. Fucking heavy. What do you want to teach me about the war, kid?
As for the boot stomping, I prefer getting it than being among the already dead zombies that are going to perform the next violent social engineering. Good luck, mummy :)
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:08PM (1 child)
They do, they're located right here: Twitter Terms of Service [twitter.com]
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday May 27 2020, @10:22PM
I said prominent, you cite TOS?
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:31PM
Good family fun, for the whole family! Buy War Bonds!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:40PM (5 children)
No it wouldn't: Lies that go through a PR agency are still lies, they just are worded to sound better and be less obvious.
As far as the president goes, his devout following is proof that you can in fact fool some of the people all of the time.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:33PM (3 children)
In fact, it's proof that you can fool enough of the people all of the time.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:01PM (2 children)
You don't even have to fool a majority of the population to become president.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:41PM (1 child)
But you do have to fool, or convince, a majority of each of the population in a sufficient number of states to win enough votes in the electoral college, to become president.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Friday May 29 2020, @01:27AM
Apparently that sufficient number of states, worst case, comprises only 23% of the population.
https://www.npr.org/2016/11/02/500112248/how-to-win-the-presidency-with-27-percent-of-the-popular-vote [npr.org]
Damn
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @02:05PM
Then it becomes intentional dis-information, and there is not much that can be done about that. At that level, even fact-checkers might be paid off.
At least Lysol injection guidelines would not get through.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bradley13 on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:52PM (4 children)
I am more-or-less something of a Trump supporter. At a minimum, he was the least-bad choice, certainly better that Hillary and Biden.
That said, Trump has obviously *always* been the boss, and equally obviously he has always surrounded himself with sycophants. As a result, he not only says stupid things, he suffers from the Dunning-Kruger effect basically everywhere. He knows nothing about medicine, engineering, manufacturing, or any of the other fields he so freely comments on.
I've had bosses sort of like him. I once read a business-advice book that gave a beautiful technique for dealing with them: You know what needs done, but you have to guide your boss into coming up with the idea, taking credit for it, and commanding you to do what you already know needs done. It's sometimes a painful process, but it works.
The problem, of course, is that your boss has an ever-more-inflated opinion of their own competence. Carry this to an extreme and you get: Trump.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:30PM
It's easier just to say, "Figure it out, dumbass. Let me know when you've caught up to me."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:59PM (1 child)
That may work in business. But such a business probably doesn't deserve to stay in business. There are probably better places to work with better bosses that will easily out compete such an idiot, and the organization which allows this. A good organization measures everything. Even bad managers are found out soon enough. Especially if there are mechanisms to point out such idiocy.
Such a thing absolutely does not belong in the presidency.
This is not intended as a personal insult at all. I don't understand your hesitant support of Trump. Orange Man Bad. Period. Even compared to Hillary and Biden. If you don't like Trump then your party should have nominated someone better. Surely there is (I will assume) a conservative who is bright, well educated, articulate and with good public policy ideas and doesn't represent the worst most basest instincts of obscenity and vulgarity. Hillary and Biden are not the ones to point fingers at. They would have run a government. Hillary already had eight years running the government.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:58PM
Hillary already had eight years running the government.
:-) That's why Trump is prez.
Orange Man Bad. Period. Even compared to Hillary and Biden.
Yes, if you want to grade him on subtlety, style and grace.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:45PM
Because Hillary and Biden surround themselves with sycophants too? Or some other reason?
I voted third party in the election because I also didn't like the choices of Trump or Clinton. I'm glad my state went with Clinton because that relieves my burden in realizing I was markedly wrong and should have held my nose and voted for her. And I would have very happily supported a Palin-less McCain candidacy. The Republican party managed to swing me Democrat.
While Trump is certainly doing his best to try and convince everyone otherwise, it's actually the job of the President to build an effective team that can get things done. Trump is anything but that. By that standard he is the biggest failure in American politics in recent memory.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:07PM (9 children)
Twitter already does that. And you might not have noticed, but Trump is also a PR personnel.
Actually, I don't find that a problem either. I'm not paid to give a shit about his problems. He can shoot himself in the foot in front of a billion people, as many times as he wants, and then tweet about how little love he's getting from the polls. Go for it.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:15PM (8 children)
but Trump is also a PR personnel
that write probably 99% of "his" tweets.
Do people really think he does all that shit? Jeeze, even Seinfeld has writers
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:19PM (7 children)
So what?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:02PM (6 children)
Just mocking the people who think he is on Twitter all day. If that were true he wouldn't have any time for golf
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:30PM (5 children)
He can always tweet from the course. And yes, I'm of the school that he's spending way too much time on Twitter.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 27 2020, @08:19PM (4 children)
Maybe he is. Nobody knows. To obsess over it is weird. Time is better spent looking for a replacement
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @08:52PM (3 children)
I'm merely of the opinion that someone needs to take his phone away. Twitter obsesses because it's their business/virtue signaling model.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 27 2020, @11:46PM (2 children)
I'm merely of the opinion that someone needs to take his phone away.
Why? That makes no sense. Nobody knows who is doing the "tweeting". It's strictly a media thing.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 28 2020, @12:59AM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday May 28 2020, @01:22AM
There is nothing "authentic" about these people. They are actors, professionals
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:51PM (1 child)
But I'll bet you didn't say it once before 2017.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:50PM
That's probably because nobody else would have stooped so low as to do such a thing.
At least on Twitter, it is one way and you don't have to answer "nasty" questions from reporters who "are the enemy of the people".
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:48PM
You first quoted sentence states how things should be done, and I agree. Then your 2nd quoted sentence states why your previous idea will not and can never be allowed to happen.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:19PM (50 children)
You can not debunk a prediction. You can say it's likely to be wrong before the fact and you can say it was wrong after the fact but you can not say it is wrong before the fact. So these fuckers are doing exactly the same thing Cheeto Jesus did, making a prediction, but they're lying and claiming it's not a prediction. And you fuckers wonder why people believe media gatekeepers (be they MS or social) even more than Trump.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:19PM
s/more/less/
I need more coffee.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:24PM (23 children)
Everything in today's media (and world) is over-argued from extreme positions. From voter fraud to vaccines to healthcare costs and solutions to economics. IMO the root cause of all these troubles is the people on both sides who refuse to think in terms of realistic/workable middle grounds, putting "both sides" into self-injurious extreme positions.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:40PM (22 children)
Man, I don't care if anyone wants to take an extreme position. I just want them to support it without lying.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:02PM (21 children)
Good luck with that. Is it lying if you don't get caught? That's the mentality, on both extremes of most issues. I think the media also amplifies the problem by only presenting the extremes- the middle is boring, who pays for advertising to read/watch/listen to boring?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:21PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:16PM (2 children)
So, that's the test: go with the side that gets caught less often?
Penalties should be.... more extreme.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:04PM (1 child)
Sides. And yes, I think that should be the test. After all, if you don't lie much, then you don't get caught much lying.
I think it's educational to consider how these processes and organizations for trying to filter out bad information went wrong so fast.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 28 2020, @06:53PM
Sounds to me like you are just trusting the better, or luckier, liars. Even in today's hyper-connected, CCTV recorded, meta-data trailed society - liars and cheats get away with a lot, for a long time, often forever. Restaurant wait staff under-reporting tips is just a trivial example at the bottom extreme of the scale - as you move up the scale, the lies are worth more and the liars are better at covering themselves.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:23PM (16 children)
Joe six-pack or Joe Biden I don't really care about. If they lie on $forum, I can call them a liar in reply right on the spot. The gatekeepers of communication and information I care a hell of a lot about though. Their lies can't be effectively disputed because they control the flow of information.
Could you imagine the telecom companies deciding they're Trump fanbois and blocking communication they don't like, labeling opinions they don't like as factually false, and actively spreading information they know to be untrue because it advances their agenda? Cause that's precisely what social and mainstream media are doing.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Aegis on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:49PM (3 children)
You mean what Sinclair broadcasting is ALREADY doing?
Watch: dozens of Sinclair local TV anchors read the same anti-“false news” script in unison [vox.com]
(Score: 2) by Captival on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:27PM (1 child)
How dare they do the exact same thing [realclearpolitics.com] that we do!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by meustrus on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:14PM
There's an important distinction to be made between Sinclair telling its journalists what to say, and those journalists jumping on a mailing list to brainstorm better ways to say what they themselves want to say.
One of those is a near-monopolistic faceless corporation, representing a small number of wealthy bureaucrats, trying to impose its ideology on the masses. The other is a loose collection of flawed individual human beings, representing a large number of middle-income professionals, trying to impose its ideology on the rich and powerful.
The distinction, in case you haven't figured it out yet, is that CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE. Sinclair, the corporate entity, does not deserve free speech protections.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @11:19PM
Yes, except in much, much larger scope.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:33PM (10 children)
Except yourself of course.
The trouble here is that you're such a fecking narcissist you think you know everything. As usual you're in here obliquely supporting Trump. You know, the guy who never backs up his claims and who is statistically more likely to be telling a lie at any given time of day.
Fascism is here, has been here for longer than Trump, but if you don't get it with the Orange Fuhrer then you're bloody stupid.
(Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:09PM (8 children)
The "if you're not rabidly against Trump, you're for him" argument. Sorry, you just didn't show enough zeal in that terrible argument to properly support it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:50PM (7 children)
Not my fault you suck at pattern recognition. Have the lard butt dump a copy of the database and I'll dig up your proof.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:28PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @09:53PM
You would know ;) was Stormy telling the truth?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @11:22PM (4 children)
There's an API [soylentnews.org]. You're fully capable of doing that yourself. Oh, did I fuck your narrative up with facts? My bad.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @01:52AM (3 children)
Well if you'd made it easier to pull all comments for a user, even if in batches, I'd have bothered. Instead it looks like I'd have to write a script to get all story and journal IDs to pull your comments from, and due to the lack of details in the docs there is no guarantee it would work.
Write a better API if you wanna weasel your way out with that.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 28 2020, @03:30AM (2 children)
So not only are you full of shit but you suck so hard at coding that you can't even write a bash one-liner to iterate over all integers from 1 to whatever the CID of this comment turns out to be and dump them into a directory, one comment per file? Sad.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @05:54AM (1 child)
Incorrect jackass, as usual you just highlight your sadly lacking skills of reading comprehension.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 28 2020, @02:13PM
I'd generally have said submit a pull request if you want specific functionality added to the API but if you can't figure out how to iterate over a set of integers I don't want to have to review any code you submit.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Friday May 29 2020, @01:21AM
I dunno...I think you have to have an actual ability to understand true and false to be able to lie. Trump just says nonsense and wills it to be true.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:44PM
Agenda Please!
They are working on their portfolio, not some stupid "agenda"
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bradley13 on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:17PM (7 children)
Voting by mail absolutely can work. But, just as with any other form of voting, it requires that the voter registration database be clean and correct.
Unfortunately, this is not the case in the US. People do not send in death certificates when someone dies. Most people don't bother to de-register themselves when they move. Hence, the voter rolls in any given district will contain a number of people who are either dead, or don't live their anymore.
For in-person voting, these problems can be mitigated by requiring a valid photo ID to vote. Not requiring ID is absolutely stupid, and anyone who objects to it is someone in favor of voter fraud.
For voting by mail, there is no practical way to verify the voter. Therefore the voter database must be clean. In the US, it generally is not. Having registered voters who are dead or no longer living in the district is an invitation to voter fraud.
tl;dr: Before you can have mass voting by mail, you need to fix the voter registration process. One way to do this is to require people to register where they are living. Anyone registered as living in a district is automatically registered to vote, and is automatically de-registered from the place they moved away from. FWIW: this is the system in much of Europe. You can only be registered in one place and you must be registered in some place. How else can towns, counties and states know who their residents are?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:28PM
Nope, it can't. You have zero way of verifying that the person casting a mail-in ballot is the person they claim to be. Hell, you have no way of verifying that someone isn't claiming to be 50K different people, none of which is actually them. People who, if they ever existed, have now been disenfranchised. In-person voting isn't exactly Fort Knox but at least some lip-service is paid to validity.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:42PM (2 children)
Voting without fraud is a hard problem in all cases. The stakes are high and there's lots of places where things can be manipulated.
The problem as I see it is that most of the US is no longer interested in even making the attempt. We have some fig-leafs, but true secure processes aren't even on the table. For instance, up until recently my county used that atrocious ESlate electronic voting system. No paper trail, and it was basically designed to be unauditable. Super vulnerable to insiders in particular. IIRC, it used a Microsoft Access database in the backend, and not only was there no auditing there was no way to _add_ auditing. Anyone with access could do anything they want with the results with no way to find out about the manipulation, much less have a chance of finding out who did it. When we first got those I wrote a complaint to the Secretary of State and got back a "trust us, we know what we're doing" response.
Now we've replaced them with a newer system that actually has a paper trail... but we don't audit the results. Unless a candidate pays for a hand recount, no-one looks at the paper trail. If they were even minimally interested in ensuring election integrity, they'd be doing random audits, comparing hand counts with electronic totals, after every election.
And that doesn't even get into the voter ID argument. How to do you ensure any kind of integrity if you don't have anything but the honor system to verify a voter is actually the voter? Most of the "but racism!" arguments would be dealt with by simply making a free photo ID for voting available (which is part of why I'm sure neither party gives a damn about election integrity).
Voting by mail takes all the problems of in-person voting and makes them much worse. You've got nothing you can possibly use to validate the voter except a signature. I know how much my own varies, and from what I've seen of the process, there is effectively no validation done on the signatures, it's that loose. Even if things are tightened up enough that there's only one registration per person (which is not the case now, at least in the US) we don't have the infrastructure to validate that they're the ones actually casting the votes. And even if we did, we have no way to guarantee there's no coercion or bribery involved; it'd be fairly trivial to drive volunteers around an old-folks community to "help" them fill out their ballots, or for the bosses at work to offer bonuses for showing "correctly" filled out ballots. Not to mention all the other attacks possible on the chain, especially if you have contacts in the USPS.
The only stupider idea than full vote-by-mail is vote-by-internet, especially given how repeatedly our government proves it can't handle cybersecurity. Since voting is handled at the local and county levels, there may be some areas that can handle it, but it isn't anywhere near a majority of the US.
(Score: 2, Troll) by meustrus on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:35PM (1 child)
All of those schemes are explicitly illegal. Maybe we don't have a system to automatically catch everyone that does it. But we do catch people doing it anyway.
You'd need more than that. You'd need to make the ID easily available to the single mom that has no time to spare between full time work and picking the kids up from daycare. You'd need to simplify and streamline the process of obtaining any missing documentation that might be required to get that ID.
Progressives, i.e. leftists like Bernie and AOC's "squad", support these kind of measures, as well as making election day a national holiday. Most Democrats, sadly, do not; my guess is they think the problem is too hard and trying to solve it will meet too much opposition. Which is true to an extent.
But unfortunately, that means smart people on the right like yourself perceive that Democrats don't care about election integrity. It is a hard problem, unfortunately. And much like Brexit, which was sold to the people by a bunch of right-wingers who had no idea how it could actually work, voter ID is not a particularly effective solution in practice. It's just an easy lose-lose situation to force upon Democrats, who have to either accept something they know will reduce turnout among their base and skew elections against them, or try to explain to the bored populace why it's a bad idea, all while Democrats don't have a solution of their own to counter with because again, it's a much harder problem than Republicans make it out to be.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @08:33PM
For that first bit, it should make you think. We don't have schemes that automatically find such fraud. In most areas, we don't bother to even try to find it. Yet we still find it. That should tell you something. Which is the part that irks me most about these arguments. Yeah, we don't find much fraud, but if you never actually try to find it, why is that surprising? That's part of why I was talking about the ESlates; they were pretty much designed to make it impossible to find fraud.
As for the second, well, I'm not a conservative. I only ever vote third party. Easily available shouldn't be a problem, if government offices are willing to open weekends. There is limit to how easy you want to make it to get, however, especially given how easy identity fraud is these days (I got hit a couple years ago; signed up for vision insurance through work for the first time ever, and only because it was bundled with dental, and before the end of January someone had used it in a town 6 hours drive away). Most of the proposals I've seen for this have erred on the way-too-lax side of the equation.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:20PM (1 child)
I'm sorry, but that doesn't solve the fraud problem.
If you're registered to vote in two places, you can drive to both of those locations and cast a vote. They can ask for a valid photo ID. You have a valid photo ID. Did that stop you from voting twice?
Claiming that requiring photo ID prevents voter fraud is just like saying that enhanced background checks prevent mass shootings. There are good reasons to do both, but that doesn't mean it will solve the problem you're trying to solve.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:18PM
Well, I did say that a valid ID mitigated the problem, not that it solved the problem. That said, a valid ID would also normally indicate your address.
But really, you need an accurate database of who lives where. Failing that basic tool of government, no real solution is possible.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:48PM
I moved out of Texas several years ago. As I was wrapping up the moving process, I went to my county website to find out how to de-register myself to vote. I expected a form or something. There was nothing there. Oh sure, I could register online, or change my address (even to a new county in Texas) but nothing to completely remove yourself.
So I called up the Elections Department, and asked how I go about getting off the registration list, as I was moving out of state. They said they didn't know; no one had ever asked them that before.
I tried, fellow citizens, I tried.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Aegis on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:16PM (2 children)
There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that The Mighty Buzzard won't be sucking cock for money tonight.
According to Buzzard, the above is not a lie and disputing it would be unwarranted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:36PM
Some things are just obvious to highly trained tactical minds like ours. Would you tell a painter not to paint? A singer to not sing? Let the man do his job unmolested. Well, without unwanted molestation anyway.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @11:24PM
How much money we talking here?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Captival on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:24PM (1 child)
You used logic and common sense, the enemy of every leftist. Therefore you were downvoted to oblivion. You should have used insults, profanity and discrimination, which every Tolerant Liberal (TM) pretends not to like but all constantly do all the time.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:52PM
Do you even reality bro?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:39PM (5 children)
It's not a prediction. Mail-in ballots are *already* used (and have been for decades) in every state and territory of the United States.
Some places, like Washington State are *all* mail in ballots.
As such, we have lots and lots of data as to whether or not mail in voting has been even a little fraudulent.
And it hasn't. Facts are really inconvenient aren't they?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @11:25PM (4 children)
It is a statement about the future, thus a prediction. Learn to English.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @08:48AM (3 children)
Making statements that don't comport with established facts is called one of several things: Lying, misrepresentation (intentional or otherwise), nonsense, etc.
It really doesn't matter whether those statements are forward-looking or not.
My English is just fine. You *appear* to just not like the things I say with it.
Carry on.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 28 2020, @02:17PM (2 children)
Except it was not a statement of fact. It was both guess and opinion about the future. If you can't see that you're either terrible at English or actively lying to yourself so you can hate everything he says as much as possible. The former is easy to remedy with some gradeschool-level instruction but the latter is straight up TDS and likely incurable.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @06:21PM (1 child)
Sorry your propaganda sucks, better luck next time. Maybe stick to duping low energy MAGA turds?
Ok ok, I know you weren't going for propaganda, but that rigid brain of yours is gonna snap one day when your beliefs run up against some basic facts even you can't ignore.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 29 2020, @11:10AM
And yours doing insane contortions to make everything Trump says the most evil thing ever makes me laugh. I laid out simple, irrefutable logic disproving TFA based on the definition of the words that were being misused and you still have to lose your shit and argue in favor of the liars.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:03PM (5 children)
bookmarking to fix unfair troll mod when my points recycle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:57PM (2 children)
Snort, TMB makes a troll post attempting to abuse basic logic to prove a point without any proof whatsoever to defend dangerous propaganda from a known liar working overtime to subvert our democracy . . . and that post being marked troll is the hill you want to die on?
Amazeballs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:41PM (1 child)
The conflation of opinion with fact in MSM is a thing, TMB is not a troll for noting it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @09:56PM
Now if only you were capable of applying that same logic to all situations, or is it only when you are emotionally validated?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:37PM (1 child)
No, you aren't.
[bookmarking to counter-mod hemo's mods when points recycle! Muhahahahahaha!]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @11:27PM
Oh yeah? I'll fix that. Mod points for everyone! Shit, wait...
My rights don't end where your fear begins.