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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:06:52 GMT -8
I fired the guy I hired to mow my lawn. He just didn’t cut it.
Here's One Way the QOP Limits Black Votes
The 2023 off-cycle election has concluded and it was, on balance, a smooth success. Turnout was high where it was expected to be, and low where it was expected to be, and by and large, administrators were prepared. There was a scattering of snafus and incidents, most of which were resolved without further issue.
There was, as is often the case, a glaring exception to the untroubled proceedings: Hinds County, Mississippi.
Hinds County is home to Jackson, a predominantly Democratic and Black city, which has had more than its share of adversity shoveled its way in recent years. And throughout that county, precincts repeatedly ran out of ballots. Polls open at 7 a.m. and at least one precinct — McLeod Elementary in North Jackson — was out of ballots before 9 a.m. Ultimately eight others (out of a total of 110 voting precincts) would also run out of ballots. Lines were up to two hours long in some places, and some voters simply left altogether as the county responded by delivering small batches of more ballots throughout the day.
Sure, turnout was high. But it was expected to be. The state has been the setting of a surprisingly competitive gubernatorial race.
Still, initial returns do not suggest to me that Hinds County’s turnout in 2023 — around 65,000 votes cast for governor — was significantly higher than the 2019 election of the same type, where more than 70,000 votes were cast.
The early numbers make explanations by local officials seem at least incomplete.
In an interview with local station WLBT, Hinds County District 5 Election Commissioner Shirley Varando blamed “unexpectedly large turnout as the problem.” “We’re running ballots as we speak because we’re trying to make sure every voter gets a chance to come out and cast their ballot for the people of their choice,” she said.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:08:22 GMT -8
Somebody Look in His Mattress. He Must Have His Money Stuffed Somewhere.
Hill Harper, the actor and author running for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat, filed a key disclosure form last week claiming that he earned no income last year or during the first 10 months of 2023.
What also makes the report remarkable is that Harper, who stars in the ABC drama "The Good Doctor," didn't list owning any bank accounts or holding any stocks, bonds, money market funds or cryptocurrency ― though he has touted the benefits of the digital currency and even founded a crypto trading platform in 2021.
Harper's report showing no bank account or income came after his campaign reported the actor has self-funded his Senate bid this year by donating and loaning his campaign about $463,000 total through Sept. 30.
Harper also reported nothing about positions or stakes in the companies that he lists on his resume on his campaign website, including the Roasting Plant, a downtown Detroit coffee shop he owns; the International House Hotel that he co-owns in New Orleans; rental properties that he owns in Los Angeles, Detroit and Newark, New Jersey; or the crypto-trading platform Black Wall Street Holdings Inc., of which he is founder and chairman.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:09:40 GMT -8
The Biggest Loser Claims the Second-Biggest Crowds
A Republican member of Congress "close to Donald Trump" relayed a story to ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl for his new book Tired of Winning in which Trump was compared to Adolf Hitler by the German chancellor — and took it as a point of pride.
Reading the clip of the story, MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace recalled that it was always assumed Trump was simply too stupid to know or understand the language he was using was echoing that of Hitler. But Karl's book makes it clear he knows exactly what he's doing, and he loves the idea of being a "big, strong leader," she said.
"One prominent member of Congress — a Trump ally — told me that the president, on two separate occasions, claimed [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel had complimented him on the large crowds he attracted when he spoke. 'She told me that she was amazed at the size of the crowds that came to see me speak,' Trump told the Republican Congressman," according to the book.
"She said she could never get crowds like that. In fact, she told me that there was only one other political leader who ever got crowds as big as mine," Trump reportedly said.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:12:05 GMT -8
The Army Took 106 Years to Fix This. It is 106 Years too Late for the Soldiers.
The US Army has overturned convictions of 110 black soldiers who were arrested after the 1917 Houston Riots.
A military review found the soldiers were not given fair trials and were "wrongly treated" because of their race.
Records will now be reclassified to characterise their military service as honourable.
The riots took place after months of racial provocations against members of a regiment known as "Buffalo Soldiers".
"By setting aside their convictions and granting honourable discharges, the Army is acknowledging past mistakes and setting the record straight," Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in a statement on Monday.
The 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment was one of four regiments of all black servicemen also known as "Buffalo Soldiers", a nickname dating back to the 1860s.
The Houston Riots took place on 23 August 1917 after months of racial tensions, including the violent arrest and assault of two black soldiers.
Amid rumours of additional threats to the soldiers from a white mob, a group of armed black soldiers assembled in the Texas city, where clashes erupted.
Nineteen people died in the violence, including civilians.
The army convicted 110 soldiers from the regiment on charges including disobedience of lawful orders, mutiny, and assault with intent to commit murder.
Ultimately, nineteen soldiers were executed, including 13 who were executed in secrecy within a day of being sentenced. Others were sentenced to life behind bars.
Historians say the process was "characterised by numerous irregularities", the Army said.
It remains the largest mass execution of American soldiers by the US Army.
In October 2020 and December 2021, the Army received petitions from retired general officers requesting clemency for all the soldiers.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:13:48 GMT -8
Some Reduction in Inflation. No Reduction in Inflated Egos.
Prices for consumers are growing at a slower pace, the U.S. government reported Tuesday morning, as overall prices in October were the same as what consumers paid in September.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says prices in October were unchanged as gasoline prices declined and shelter costs continued to rise. Its Consumer Price Index rose 3.2% compared to a year ago, the latest sign that inflation is slowing down as interest rates rise and the job market gives up some of the strength it has shown in the last few years.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:19:11 GMT -8
More Foreign Election Inteference
Vote checkers in New Zealand have been so overwhelmed by foreign interference that they’ve been forced to delay announcing a winner.
The contest is to choose the nation’s favorite bird and the interference is from comedian John Oliver.
Usually billed Bird of the Year, the annual event by conservation group Forest and Bird is held to raise awareness about the plight of the nation’s native birds, some of which have been driven to extinction. This year, the contest was named Bird of the Century to mark the group’s centennial.
Oliver discovered a loophole in the rules, which allowed anybody with a valid email address to cast a vote. So he went all-out in a humorous campaign for his favored bird, the pūteketeke, a water bird, on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight.”
Oliver had a billboard erected for “The Lord of the Wings” in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington. He also put up billboards in Paris, Tokyo, London, and Mumbai, India. He had a plane with a banner fly over Ipanema Beach in Brazil. And he wore an oversized bird costume on Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show.”
“After all, this is what democracy is all about,” Oliver said on his show. “America interfering in foreign elections.”
Forest and Bird said vote checkers had been forced to take an extra two days to verify the hundreds of thousands of votes that had poured in by Sunday’s deadline. They now plan to announce a winner on Wednesday.
“It’s been pretty crazy, in the best possible way,” Chief Executive Nicola Toki told The Associated Press.
New Zealand is unusual in that birds developed as the dominant animals before humans arrived.
“If you think about the wildlife in New Zealand, we don’t have lions and tigers and bears,” Toki said. Despite nearly nine of every ten New Zealanders now living in towns or cities, she added, many retain a deep love of nature.
“We have this intangible and extraordinarily powerful connection to our wildlife and our birds,” Toki said.
The contest has survived previous controversies. Election scrutineers in 2020 discovered about 1,500 fraudulent votes for the little spotted kiwi. And two years ago, the contest was won by a bat, which was allowed because it was considered part of the bird family by Indigenous Māori.
Toki said that when the contest began in 2005, they had a total of 865 votes, which they considered a great success. That grew to a record 56,000 votes two years ago, she said, a number that was surpassed this year within a couple of hours of Oliver launching his campaign.
Toki said Oliver contacted the group earlier this year asking if he could champion a bird. They had told him to go for it, not realizing what was to come.
“I was cry laughing,” Toki said when she watched Oliver’s segment.
Oliver described pūteketeke, which number less than 1,000 in New Zealand and are also known as the Australasian crested grebe, as “weird, puking birds with colorful mullets.”
“They have a mating dance where they both grab a clump of wet grass and chest bump each other before standing around unsure of what to do next,” Oliver said on his show, adding that he’d never identified more with anything in his life.
Some in New Zealand have pushed back against Oliver’s campaign. One group put up billboards reading: “Dear John, don’t disrupt the pecking order,” while others urged people to vote for the national bird, the kiwi. Oliver responded by saying the kiwi looked like “a rat carrying a toothpick.”
“For the record, all of your birds are great, and it would be an honor to lose to any of them when the results are announced on Wednesday,” Oliver said on his show. “The reason it is so easy for me to say that is that we aren’t going to lose, are we? We are going to win, and we are going to win by a lot.”
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:20:25 GMT -8
There Are NOT Fine People on Both Sides.
It didn’t take long after Donald Trump pledged to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country” for Republicans to have their talking point about why language reminiscent of Hitler and Mussolini was not a problem.
”Well, Hillary Clinton called her opponents deplorable at one point, so there’s language on both sides,” Fox News host John Roberts said in response to Juan Williams, a Fox News senior political analyst, bringing up Trump’s comments. Roberts was not alone in making that ludicrous comparison.
”Is that worse than ‘deplorables’? I don’t use that kind of language, but it’s a free country,” Sen. Lindsey Graham told HuffPost. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene went to the same place. “Are you kidding me? After Hillary Clinton called us all deplorables, people are actually offended by that?” she told HuffPost. “She basically said that half of the country was beneath her and beneath everybody else.”
“Deplorable” means “deserving censure or contempt” and “amentable.” Is it nice? No. But the direct meaning is that deplorable people should be censured, which is not exactly calling for violence. Additionally, Clinton was clear about who specifically she was talking about: “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” she said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.” The remedy she proposed was voting.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:22:21 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:35:24 GMT -8
The Biggest Loser is Losing Again
Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social has lost $73m since its launch in early 2022, a securities filing revealed on Monday, and is struggling to find additional funds.
The ex-president had announced the launch of his social media app in October 2021, saying it would “stand up to big tech” companies such as Twitter and Facebook that previously barred him.
Related: Ex-Trump lawyer says ‘boss’ was not going to leave White House
But a filing by Digital World Acquisition Corp, the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that plans to merge with Truth Social’s owner, Trump Media & Technology Group’s (TMTG), showed the social media company has been losing money heavily.
In 2022, Truth Social posted a loss of $50m, with net sales of just $1.4m. It lost $23m in the first half of this year, with net sales of $2.3m.
Digital World Acquisition also revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US’s top financial watchdog, was looking at the deal in a move that “could cause us to be unable to consummate the business combination”.
If the merger collapses, the filing states, Truth Social will struggle to find new funds. TMTG’s independent registered public accounting firm has indicated that the financial condition raises substantial doubt as to its ability to continue as a going concern, according to the filing.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:38:07 GMT -8
A Big Loss in Our Battle With Our Labor Shortage
Illegal border crossings from Mexico fell 14% in October from a month earlier, U.S. authorities said Tuesday, ending a three-month streak of big increases.
U.S. officials highlighted the resumption of deportation flights to Venezuela on Oct. 18, shortly after Venezuelans replaced Mexicans as the largest nationality appearing at the border. Arrests of Venezuelans plummeted 45% to 29,637 from 54,833, still second only to Mexicans.
Arrests for illegal crossings totaled 188,778 for all nationalities in October, down from 218,763 in September, which was the second-highest month on record. Arrests had more than doubled over the previous three months as migrants and smugglers adjusted to new asylum regulations introduced in May.
Arrests of Chinese rose slightly to 4,247, with 99% of them in the San Diego area, as more fly to Ecuador and make their way to the U.S. border amid a faltering economy at home.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:41:47 GMT -8
What a Family!
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 14, 2023 9:43:13 GMT -8
500 chatbots read the news and discussed it on social media. Guess how that went.On a simulated day in July of a 2020 that didn't happen, 500 chatbots read the news — real news, our news, from the real July 1, 2020. ABC News reported that Alabama students were throwing "COVID parties." On CNN, President Donald Trump called Black Lives Matter a "symbol of hate." The New York Times had a story about the baseball season being canceled because of the pandemic. Then the 500 robots logged into something very much (but not totally) like Twitter, and discussed what they had read. Meanwhile, in our world, the not-simulated world, a bunch of scientists were watching. The scientists had used ChatGPT 3.5 to build the bots for a very specific purpose: to study how to create a better social network — a less polarized, less caustic bath of assholery than our current platforms. They had created a model of a social network in a lab — a Twitter in a bottle, as it were — in the hopes of learning how to create a better Twitter in the real world. "Is there a way to promote interaction across the partisan divide without driving toxicity and incivility?" wondered Petter Törnberg, the computer scientist who led the experiment.
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