Quote by H.L. Mencken: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep …”
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
How NOT to use a chart to make a point
How to embarrass yourself – with a chart. DCCC sent this out saying “Thank you Joe Biden” – for a 2 cent or 1/2 % decrease in prices after a massive run up in prices. This is basically cherry picking the Y-Axis to make it look like there was a large drop. Chart mutilation is a common method of propaganda.
How Twitter encourages smart people to look dumb
“Science by TwitterTM” is when smart people post things quickly without giving it necessary thought and reflection, and end saying things that are wrong or readily misconstrued. This is often followed by a string of tweets attempting to clarifying what was said.
Twitter and Youtube appear to have banned the sharing of images of people in public settings
Twitter, and Youtube a week ago, appear to banning the use of photos or videos that may include anyone for which you do not have a signed release form. This would appear to ban the posting of photos or videos you have taken in public settings, such as a public parade, outdoor sports activity, showing other people while hiking on a trail, and other examples.
Israel government spy agency will track phones of those diagnosed with Omicron
Privacy issues galore but it’s all for a good cause, of course: The Israeli domestic intelligence agency has been granted temporary permission to access the phone data of people with confirmed cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant in order to trace who those people met recently. The agency was given similar powers during earlier waves of the pandemic. Using emergency legislation, the Israeli cabinet voted on Sunday to permit the spy agency, the Shin Bet, to track Omicron patients’ phones…
CNN staff tried to dig up dirt on Gov Cuomo accusers
Sad day for mainstream media and CNN. CNN used its resources to try and dig up dirt on the accusers of Gov. Cuomo. Specifically, CNN host Chris Cuomo – the brother of the Governor – orchestrated an attempted media hit on the Governor’s accusers. Unbiased reporting? Chris Cuomo still works for CNN…
Oh: School district compiled dossiers on parents and their children if they complained about district policies
An Arizona school district is accused of maintaining extensive dossiers on 47 parents – and their children – for having merely spoken out against district policies. The data was kept in a private but shared Google Drive folder and is said to have included names, photos, personal information, vehicle license plates, photos of children, screen captures of social media posts, and copies of legal documents such as mortgage and divorce papers.
Snopes confirms social media post and then mislabels it false
Snopes is a “fact checking” web site, also known for a co-founder who wrote fake articles for the site and plagiarized content from others, which now fact checks a social media post, finds most of it largely correct, and then labels the post “false”. They relied, in part, on a CDC report that is easily seen to have cherry picked data to produce a misleading, if not active disinformation report. But Snopes does not fact check the obvious deficiencies in the CDC report.
Youtube plans to remove “dislikes” on videos
Starting today, Youtube will begin removing the “dislike” count from videos, saying that too many people had participated in “dislike” mobs to downvote videos (often political videos). The dislike button will remain, and content creators can see the count, but the count will no longer be visible to others.
Data broker gave phone location records to government, for Covid tracking
Government has used third-party services to track the locations of all smart phones in a given area. This is made possible by apps that collect location data (but may not make this clear to users) and sell it to data brokers. Data brokers, in turn, have then provided this information to the police and other government agencies, and the example here, gave it to public health authorities. Your smart phone is a literal 24×7 surveillance device to track you in real time.