Wednesday Wondering 11.15.23 - Unenforceable Ethics

There was a horse loose on the plane. That feels like a great summation of the energy 2023 has brought. India got Musk to do what they wanted, US Special Forces members were killed, and venture capitalists are profiting from teens making fake nudes to humiliate their peers. But besides all that, how did you like the play Mrs. Lincoln?

Three Indian cities among world's 10 most polluted after Diwali (Reuters) The aggregate effect of fireworks being lit off during holidays celebrated by over a billion people, is a scaled issue that we’re probably going to need to confront. And that includes what Americans do during July 4th as well.

How India tamed Twitter and set a global standard for online censorship (WaPo) & Twitter Gave Us an Indispensable Real-Time News Platform. X Took It Away. (Politico Opinion) What did we say? The coverage of Twitter’s slow moving car crash reinforces the hypothesis that this is happening on purpose. And if someone wants to send this to a big boy pants journalist to chew on, we wouldn’t stop you.

Plane forced to return to JFK Airport after horse on board gets loose (ABC News) There’s a horse loose on the plane is semi-equivalent to a horse being loose in a hospital. Somehow equal flavors of dangerous, but totally different situational variables.

5 US SpecOps Troops Killed in Helicopter Crash in Mediterranean (NYTimes) & Netanyahu rejected ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza, sources say (The Guardian) & TikTok tells advertisers #Israel is trending, but not Palestine (Semafor) The Pentagon admitted that the US had troops on the ground, to help secure hostages in Gaza after video emerged of a Palestinian speaking to a soldier in English. We will just need to wait until the details on this event are declassified to discover what truly happened. Also, TikTok doing TikTok stuff.

(Editor’s Note: MiddleEastEye is a known biased source, but after the video was released by them & Al Jazeera, the Pentagon admitted that US Special Operations personnel are on the ground in Israel and have been for weeks.)  

Separating Fact from Fiction on Social Media in Times of Conflict (Bellingcat) & Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook: Israel and Gaza Edition (WNYC Studios - Podcast) This is not about who is right and who is wrong, these resources are about how to parse the information firehose that’s gotten increasingly fetid and radioactive.

Election offices are sent envelopes with fentanyl or otherwise. Authorities are investigating (AP) & As Overdose Deaths Mount in NY Prisons, Treatment Programs Crawl (NYS Focus) Fentanyl sent to election officials raises the domestic terrorism alarm. Fentanyl use and overdose death in the New York State prison system, has gone largely ignored.

Fake Nudes of Real Students Cause an Uproar at a New Jersey High School (WSJ) & A16z Invests in Civitai, Which Profits From Nonconsensual AI Porn (404 Media) & Mark Zuckerberg personally rejected Meta’s proposals to improve teen mental health, court documents allege (CNN) It’s not just Instagram’s unique ability to manufacture eating disorders. Deepfakes are going to ruin the lives of thousands of teens, and it looks like the only people who care are the ones trying to profit from them.

A guide to the friends and patrons of Clarence and Ginni Thomas (WaPo) & The Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics, but it has no means of enforcement (AP) Citizens United has Destroyed America: Why is Nobody Talking About It? (The Hartmann Report) Citizens United, Clarence, and Ginni Thomas continue to wreak havoc on America’s legal & political landscape. In case you weren’t keeping score, here’s a great tabulation of right-wing terrorism the USA has suffered in 2023, alone.

Labor Unions are Industrial Policy (BIG Newsletter) & Julie Su Wants ‘Basic Dignity and Respect’ for Retirement Savers (American Prospect) & Biden shouldn’t run. The Democratic field is stronger than you think (WaPo Opinion) Fiduciary protections, union victories, and retirement fraud protection, Oh My! The Democratic Party has a lot of accomplishments to boast about in the upcoming election cycle, and running Biden would distract from all of them. The most pro-labor, anti-monopoly, and pro-growth administration in a generation could get derailed by political ads showing Gen Z & the Leftorium calling him Genocide Joe. 

You Can Now Film in NYPD Precincts, Thanks to This YouTuber (Hell Gate NYC) The most New York way to fight for your right, was all captured on short form video. Is this an activist/artistic cousin of the LA artist who fixed street signs maybe?

Quote of the Week

The point is that the relative freedom we enjoy depends on public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it. If public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.~George Orwell, Freedom of the Park (1945)

Poem of the Week

Vibe of the Week

It’s so dark all the time. The US Chamber of Commerce must be stopped. The air smells of grifts, cults, and those who would profit by distracting us from suffering. The days get shorter, but only for the next 35 days right?

Keep your head up,

T

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