All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Username taken]

It has been crazy today. Reports of racial slurs, Swastikas being posted, Kanye being reinstated.

It will be over the cliff by the end of the weekend.

Just a quick clarification, Kanye wasn't kicked off Twitter, he was suspended.

Despite what right-wing hacks cry about, Twitter isn't really fast to kick people off their platform.

[Mister Mets]

Yesterday, same-sex marriage became legal in all of Mexico, after lawmakers in the state of Tamaulipas (estimated population of 3.528 million in 2020; the easternmost state to border Texas) voted to legalize these unions.

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-ca...b04a1fb556178a

[Username taken]

General Motors has temporarily stopped adverts on twitter.

https://sports.yahoo.com/tesla-compe...225648602.html

They want to see the outcome of Musk's actions.

[babyblob]

General Motors has temporarily stopped adverts on twitter.

https://sports.yahoo.com/tesla-compe...225648602.html

They want to see the outcome of Musk's actions.

I hope this is the first of many.

[Dalak]

What's absurd and silly are conservatives defending racism in 2022.

Agreed. That and moving the goalposts to "Racism has to be exactly the same as the 60's/70's for it to matter" due to all the more modern examples being brought up in a desperate effort to "be right". Things are better today but the GOP is actively trying to bring us back to the 60's in many ways, what else do you think MAGA is all about? When was America so great that now it's lost it? When people were free to treat those they saw as inferior in horrible ways without consequence of course.

[Iron Maiden]

This is scary. I can't think of any US politician who looks more fragile than her. It's scary that someone might not hesitate to attack an old woman, regardless of any politics. And that people, who like to call themselves good, polite christians, would not have any problem with it.

I was just watching a news report of a local station saying how the guy just took a hammer and smashed the back door of their home to get in. Her husband struggled with the guy and Mr Pelosi was struck several times in the head with the hammer and also has severe injuries to his arms. He was operated on to repair a skull fracture. This is just horrific. And those goons on Gutfield and all that other trash on Fox News tried to wiggle out of all of it. Anyone knows who saw some of the footage of the mob that gained access to the Capitol saw that they were stalking the halls calling out "Where's Nancy". This is horrific and disturbing.

[Tendrin]

I was just watching a news report of a local station saying how the guy just took a hammer and smashed the back door of their home to get in. Her husband struggled with the guy and Mr Pelosi was struck several times in the head with the hammer and also has severe injuries to his arms. He was operated on to repair a skull fracture. This is just horrific. And those goons on Gutfield and all that other trash on Fox News tried to wiggle out of all of it. Anyone knows who saw some of the footage of the mob that gained access to the Capitol saw that they were stalking the halls calling out "Where's Nancy". This is horrific and disturbing.

We've been telling people where this would go for a long time now and entirely too many stuck their fingers in their ears.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Well in pure comedy the Republicans plan to push impeachment on Joe Biden once they take the House. Even if none of things they claim even meet the standard for it.

They are basically doing it since Democrats did it with Trump...twice.

[CaptainEurope]

So on the day that Davide Depape, the man who wanted to kill Nancy Pelosi and nearly killed her husband, is revealed to have your average MAGA posting history of covid denial and Big Lie conspiracies, Elon Musk publicly reached out to twitter poster catturd, who has almost a million followers and is one of the main spreader of your average MAGA posts of covid denial and Big Lie conspiracies.

[Tendrin]

So on the day that Davide Depape, the man who wanted to kill Nancy Pelosi and nearly killed her husband, is revealed to have your average MAGA posting history of covid denial and Big Lie conspiracies, Elon Musk publicly reached out to twitter poster catturd, who has almost a million followers and is one of the main spreader of your average MAGA posts of covid denial and Big Lie conspiracies.

Comedy is now legal again.

*heavy sigh*

[Mister Mets]

Paul Pelosi secretly called police, and spoke in code so the attacker wouldn't recognize what he was doing. The police arrived in two minutes. The San Francisco District Attorney says that the attacker attempted to kill Paul Pelosi when police arrived.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins revealed this week that Paul Pelosi very likely saved his life by “speaking in code” when he dialed 911 while engaging with a hammer-wielding intruder who was reportedly looking for his wife, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Police identified the suspect in the assault as 42-year-old David DePape. Reports on his alleged past social media postings indicate DePape was prone to conspiracy theories, especially related to the 2020 presidential election and the Covid pandemic. DePape reportedly yelled “where is Nancy?” multiple times after breaking into Pelosi’s San Francisco residence. He eventually engaged with the Speaker’s 82-year-old husband before being detained by police.

Jenkins appeared on CNN’s OutFront on Friday evening to reveal more details about the case, including the fact that Pelosi very likely saved his own life by speaking in code to a 911 operator while he was engaging with the suspect.

Jenkins told CNN’s Erin Burnett: All I can tell you right now is that it is, really thanks to Mr. Pelosi having the ability to be able to make that call and truly the attention and the instincts of that dispatcher to realize that something was wrong in that situation and to make the police call a priority so that they got there within two minutes to respond to this situation.

Speculation about DePape’s motivation has run rampant over his past social media posts, but Jenkins insisted the motive is not yet known. Jenkins did say that it appears the intruder intended to kill Pelosi during the attack. Police said Friday they responded to the home after over concerns about Pelosi’s 911 call and found Pelosi and the intruder fighting over the same hammer.

“But we do know that at the point at which the police arrived, he did turn and use that hammer against the speaker’s husband in a manner that appeared that he was intending to kill him,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins thanked the operator who spoke to Pelosi for “responsiveness” and revealed that DePape also sustained minor injuries during the scuffle. Pelosi is meanwhile recovering from surgery for a skull fracture after the attack.

This was quick thinking and a horrific situation for an 82 year old man.

[Tami]

Paul Pelosi secretly called police, and spoke in code so the attacker wouldn't recognize what he was doing. The police arrived in two minutes. The San Francisco District Attorney says that the attacker attempted to kill Paul Pelosi when police arrived.



This was quick thinking and a horrific situation for an 82 year old man.

I agree though I would not be surprised if he had thought about the possibility ahead of time and figured out how to handle it. Especially after January 6.

It is not unusual for me to occasionally run through worse-case scenarios and try to figure out how I would handle them. I've thought of everything from traffic accidents or getting hit by a car while crossing the street, to being in the wrong place at the wrong time when someone with a gun decides to shoot up a supermarket or someplace similar.

For him, married to someone who was the target of a mob trying to hunt her down, I can see him taking the time to think about possible situations like this. That's actually the best approach, hope nothing bad happens, but be as prepared as possible in case it does.

Still, he acted quickly and intelligently in a situation that might have had others paralyzed in fear.

[Tami]

You’ve decided to quit Twitter. Here’s what you can use to replace it.

The fast-moving feed of news, commentary and arguments has already seen some changes, including a rise in hate speech. Musk has made it clear that he intends to overhaul the site. Massive job cuts and his own position on free speech could lead to more widespread harassment and misinformation. Musk has also suggested that he would allow former president Donald Trump back on the site.

A number of companies are scrambling to fill the potential void. After the sale closed, a surge of people said they were moving to Mastodon, an open-source alternative that has tried to catch on as a less toxic Twitter for years. Mastodon gained 22,139 new accounts this past week and 10,801 in the day after Musk took over, said Mastodon chief executive Eugen Rochko. The site now has more than 380,000 monthly active users, while Twitter has 237.8 million daily active users.

Even if all of Twitter agrees to relocate, there is no one exact copy or one app that will hit all the same spots. As with Facebook, ditching Twitter can mean scattering your online presence across multiple other apps. Leaving Twitter could also mean cutting things out of your online life permanently, like late-night doomscrolling or arguing with strangers online for sport. And maybe, just maybe, that’s okay.

Here are the options you can consider.

If you can't access the article and want to read the whole thing, PM me.

[Tami]

How to lock down your Twitter data, or leave, as Musk takes over

Back up your tweets
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If you’re considering leaving Twitter, or are not sure but want to be ready, you can start by backing up all your old tweets. Twitter offers a backup option. Go to Settings → Your Account → Download an Archive of Your Data. After you jump through a few security hoops, you’ll be able to download your information as a zip file. Some third-party tweet-deletion tools also offer backup features.

Delete your tweets
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Once you’ve safely backed up your data, you can delete your past tweets if you want to continue using the site but minimize the data it has. Twitter only lets you delete one tweet at a time and doesn’t have a built-in feature for deleting in bulk or on a schedule. We recommend using a third-party tool such as Tweetdelete.net. You can set it to delete your tweets older than a week up to a year, or you can start fresh and delete them all at once. It can also delete all your old likes. Twitter says deleted tweets will “no longer be publicly available,” but it’s unclear how long they’re saved on Twitter’s servers and therefore accessible by the company. Twitter also preserves any quote tweets that show your original post, so those will live on.

Delete your account
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If you are truly done with Twitter, you can delete your account, but there are a few caveats. If you’re deleting your account to make sure the company no longer has access to your data, it’s not a one-click solution. Twitter will hold on to your data for at least 30 days in case you change your mind and want to reactivate the account, and some content will linger, such as sent DMs. To delete your account, go to Settings → Your Account → Deactivate Your Account. Select 30 days for the Reactivation Period and click Deactivate. After that time, Twitter says, it will remove your data from its systems.

Stop using Twitter DMs
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Privacy and security experts have been calling on Twitter to make its direct messages encrypted for years. The company hasn’t, and the result is an unusually exposed trove of sensitive communications.

If you’ve used Twitter DMs for private conversations, you can delete an individual message from your account, but it will still exist for the other people in the conversation. However, Twitter says that if both parties delete the same DMs, the messages are deleted from Twitter’s systems. If you are using Twitter for anything other than casual chats, switch to an encrypted messaging service such as Signal.

Lock down your Twitter privacy and anti-harassment settings
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Twitter under Musk could relax rules on harassment and what posts are allowed or grounds for suspension. A cut in staffing could also impact moderating. The company has worked for years to try to address its problems concerning bullying, hate speech and inappropriate content with new settings and rules. Twitter users who are worried about what happens if those gains are reversed can start by applying the strongest protections currently provided.

Be extra vigilant about misinformation
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One other possible side effect of a Musk-led Twitter could be a rise in misinformation, experts say. Musk himself has been known to tweet misleading information, including saying “kids are essentially immune” to covid.

[Malvolio]

You’ve decided to quit Twitter. Here’s what you can use to replace it.








If you can't access the article and want to read the whole thing, PM me.

If I leave Twitter, I will probably have a lot more time to get things done.