Random Politics Thread

[The Cat]

 

[Red Herring]

That is terrifying. I use an ad blocker, thanks for giving us a heads up. I don't know how the ads work, but that is fucked the fuck up. I'm gonna reach out to the other mods and someone will get back to you. If that doesnt happen let me know.

It's been a week and so far I haven't heard from anyone. These two screenshots were both taken in the last few minutes:

 

[Red Herring]

And another one...

 

[Virtual ghost]

Speaking of these kinds of topics:


German court orders X to hand over election data in legal blow to Musk’s platform

France opens probe into Musk’s X over algorithm

 

[The Cat]

And another one...

View attachment 32217

Still waiting to hear back from Highlander. >_< I've reported your first mention and I'll report this one. But with my clearance, I have no access to the ads, though I'd rather not have ads at all if this is the ads that we're stuck with.

 

[SensEye]

I'm certainly no expert in ad servers, but aren't ads customized to each user based on their browsing history/habits? I also use an adblocker so don't see them, but I turned mine off and I was getting ads for a) a local university b) some pc gaming stuff c) some random clothing outlet. All stuff that kind of makes sense to me in a general sort of way based on my geographic location and recent browsing history.

So I think Red Herring is seeing these ads because she is probably reading political articles including ones discussing the Afd, so the ad server is feeding her those ads. The ad server can't tell whether she is pro or anti Afd, all it knows she has interest in the party.

I don't think you will have any ability to fix this, unless you ditch the ads all together. But I also don't think many visitors would see the ones RH is beefing about.

 

[Red Herring]

I'm certainly no expert in ad servers, but aren't ads customized to each user based on their browsing history/habits? I also use an adblocker so don't see them, but I turned mine off and I was getting ads for a) a local university b) some pc gaming stuff c) some random clothing outlet. All stuff that kind of makes sense to me in a general sort of way based on my geographic location and recent browsing history.

So I think Red Herring is seeing these ads because she is probably reading political articles including ones discussing the Afd, so the ad server is feeding her those ads. The ad server can't tell whether she is pro or anti Afd, all it knows she has interest in the party.

I don't think you will have any ability to fix this, unless you ditch the ads all together. But I also don't think many visitors would see the ones RH is beefing about.

Well, I am not the only one getting political adds like this. So ist @Virtual ghost. And it is worth mentioning that when I browse political news articles in Germany I get adds for all sorts of parties (including ones I am not interested in) EXCEPT for the AfD. To me that suggests that there is a way of excluding them.

Also, this seems to be based on location more than on interest.

 

[Virtual ghost]

“And so, you know, I think if he really knew the work there, he wouldn’t be telling 10,000 people not to come and do that work,” he added…
Bill Gates said he was worried that scaling back the USAID could result in literally millions of deaths.”

bill gates elon musk USAID closure: Bill Gates 'little disappointed' with 'super smart' Elon Musk. Here's why - The Economic Times

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates says he is a “little disappointed” by Elon Musks efforts to shutter the United States global aid agency. Bill Gates defended the U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID), a key federal program that Musk announced was being shuttered this week as part of his...

m.economictimes.com

“If PEPFAR (The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) was stopped abruptly it would result in maybe 10 millions deaths”

Not really, because if US will not offer aid the odds are that someone else will. Crippling the aid program simply means that pretty much all soft power of US is one sale. In a sense this is pure backyard sale, grab what you can before others do it.

 

[Coriolis]

Speaking of these kinds of topics:


German court orders X to hand over election data in legal blow to Musk’s platform

France opens probe into Musk’s X over algorithm

Good. Let our allies go after him if we can't manage to, even if there is cost to us in the near term. Sort of the world stage equivalent of "friends don't let friends drive drunk". I've been appalled at the sort of appeasement that has come from places like India recently. The treatment of those deported Indians would easily justify recalling their ambassador, if not more.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Good. Let our allies go after him if we can't manage to, even if there is cost to us in the near term. Sort of the world stage equivalent of "friends don't let friends drive drunk". I've been appalled at the sort of appeasement that has come from places like India recently. The treatment of those deported Indians would easily justify recalling their ambassador, if not more.

I am not sure that the truth is that pretty and so noble. First of all Europe is generally much more serious about the rule of law that applies to all. What in a way means that this is natural response. While on the other hand current European leaders have to go all in to prevent what has happened in US.

Looking at Trump, Europe’s far right vows to ‘reconquer’ the continent

In other words the best is to cut this in the roots as much as possible. It isn't coincidence that Herring is going nuts over the adds on this forum.

 

[Coriolis]

I am not sure that the truth is that pretty and so noble. First of all Europe is generally much more serious about the rule of law that applies to all. What in a way means that this is natural response. While on the other hand current European leaders have to go all in to prevent what has happened in US.

Looking at Trump, Europe’s far right vows to ‘reconquer’ the continent

In other words the best is to cut this in the roots as much as possible. It isn't coincidence that Herring is going nuts over the adds on this forum.

Nobility isn't necessary, nor what I suggested. Simple pragmatism will suffice. Making fact-based decisions in the best interest of one's country. History shows that appeasement doesn't work. As you say, "cut this in the roots", or nip it in the bud as we say, as soon as possible.

 

[Red Herring]

The current head of the Max Planck Society has stated that they have recently reveived twice the usual number of American applicants for leading research positions here in Germany. He considers the US a "huge talent pool" and will tour the country with the explicit intent of convincing scientific top talents from America to cross the pond and come to us. In a way the current anti-science environment in the United States is a golden opportunity for Europe.

Historically this could even lead to a reverse braindrain. Germany murdered so many of its great talents or forced them into emigration in the 1930s and 40s and in some ways never recovered from that. A good number of American artists, scientists and thinkers in the middle of the last century were European refugees.

 

[Red Herring]

And again

 

[Virtual ghost]

The current head of the Max Planck Society has stated that they have recently reveived twice the usual number of American applicants for leading research positions here in Germany. He considers the US a "huge talent pool" and will tour the country with the explicit intent of convincing scientific top talents from America to cross the pond and come to us. In a way the current anti-science environment in the United States is a golden opportunity for Europe.

Historically this could even lead to a reverse braindrain. Germany murdered so many of its great talents or forced them into emigration in the 1930s and 40s and in some ways never recovered from that. A good number of American artists, scientists and thinkers in the middle of the last century were European refugees.

This happens every time a Republican takes the big chair in US (when it come to 21th century). Therefore it is reasonable to expect that this will happen once again (perhaps even at the record numbers this time). I mean anti intellectual mindset of Trumpism is probably the most destructive element of the whole mindset. Since it insures that things go wrong in the big picture and when they do that is hard to repair. In other words brain drain is evidently one such element of the story. Plus for many citizenship in EU is perhaps the only way how they can get affordable healthcare or the means to send their kids to college (what aren't small "bonuses"). In other words intellectuals are much more likely to recognize the value of that even if they never had such bonuses. Therefore this is totally reasonable result to expect. Especially for those that are in "controversial" fields such as green technology or medicine.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Nobility isn't necessary, nor what I suggested. Simple pragmatism will suffice. Making fact-based decisions in the best interest of one's country. History shows that appeasement doesn't work. As you say, "cut this in the roots", or nip it in the bud as we say, as soon as possible.

Something like that.
In other words from European perspective Musk is foreign tycoon that has decided to openly meddle into various European elections. What many see as unacceptable (especially due to who he is supporting). Just recently I linked the article that says that the sale of his cars is down 59% in Germany. What shows that people are recognizing him as a open threat to their way of life. From what I have seen over the last 24 hours some other countries have also shown the data. In France the drop is 63%, while in Scandinavian countries is around 35%. What means that there is surely a big drop all over the continent. What also suggests big drop in places like Canada (for obvious reasons). I mean this is all happening because EU and Musk can't really co-exist, the ideological differences are simply too big. To EU and it's public Musk libertarian approach to everything is simply unwanted and toxic. Plus accepting it would mark leaving behind many of the Europe's social traditions that go back for centuries. While on the other hand to Musk and people like him EU represents serious ideological threat. Rules based order that works, since that crashes the whole concept that only a complete deregulation can bring prosperity. Plus there are practical aspects of all this: since the internet is only one that means that EU laws regarding it can regulate the internet globally. What is the last thing that certain people want and therefore they have started to support people that want to dissolve EU from within.

What means that this is cultural and trade war that simply isn't possible to fully avoid. The only real question is how intense this is going to get when we consider everything that is going on globally. However for liberal American such as yourself all of this provides a certain distraction that could allow you to take back some ground at home. But however this ends up the trip there will be messy, that is certain.

 

[The Cat]

 

[Totenkindly]

The NSA's "Big Delete"

Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) is planning a "Big Delete" of websites and internal network content that contain any of 27 banned words, including "privilege," "bias," and "inclusion." The "Big Delete," according to an NSA source and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular...

popular.info

Confirming that as far as my experience is going, this is all true.

Aside from chaos caused by the intended consequences, there's many unintentional consequences of being forced to scrub a ton of information so quickly especially when words are used in other contexts legitimately than the ones that the administration does not like.

In addition, there's a lot of forced removal of items unrelated to public-facing information documents, including Jira and Confluence sites, which is also causing issues.

Currently it is a huge distraction from mission-critical work because the timeframe is ASAP rather than on a reasonable timeframe.

(Confluence is project-management / team workspace related software, Jira is a helpdesk / bug & issue tracker.)

...
Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) is planning a "Big Delete" of websites and internal network content that contain any of 27 banned words, including "privilege," "bias," and "inclusion." The "Big Delete," according to an NSA source and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular Information, is creating unintended consequences. Although the websites and other content are purportedly being deleted to comply with President Trump's executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion, or "DEI," the dragnet is taking down "mission-related" work. According to the NSA source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, the process is "very chaotic," but is plowing ahead anyway.

A memo distributed by NSA leadership to its staff says that on February 10, all NSA websites and internal network pages that contain banned words will be deleted. This is the list of 27 banned words distributed to NSA staff:

Anti-Racism
Racism
Allyship
Bias
DEI
Diversity
Diverse
Confirmation Bias
Equity
Equitableness
Feminism
Gender
Gender Identity
Inclusion
Inclusive
All-Inclusive
Inclusivity
Injustice
Intersectionality
Prejudice
Privilege
Racial Identity
Sexuality
Stereotypes
Pronouns
Transgender
Equality

The memo acknowledges that the list includes many terms that are used by the NSA in contexts that have nothing to do with DEI. For example, the term "privilege" is used by the NSA in the context of "privilege escalation." In the intelligence world, privilege escalation refers to "techniques that adversaries use to gain higher-level permissions on a system or network."

The purge extends beyond public-facing websites to pages on the NSA's internal network, including project management software like Jira and Confluence....

 

[Totenkindly]

Do evangelicals have standards after all?

Trump Enrages Christian MAGA By Naming ‘Heretic’ Pastor to White House

President Donald Trump angered some of his Christian supporters on Friday when he named a televangelist who even some conservative evangelicals have labeled a “heretic” as part of his White House administration. The president signed an executive order establishing a White House Faith Office and...

www.yahoo.com

I'm only laughing because she was dominant in his first term as well and of course she is a prosperity televangelist.

I'm also a bit aghast that they called Jonathan Cain (her current husband) the guitarist for Journey, when he was originally brought on as the keyboardist (guitar was a secondary instrument) and widely known as the guy who penned or co-penned their most famous hits (ballads included) with very overt keyboards for them back in the 80's. Obviously this article was written by someone in their 30's or younger lol.

 

[The Cat]

If you've got RWers in your life you're still hoping to reach...
​

 

[Coriolis]

The NSA's "Big Delete"

Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) is planning a "Big Delete" of websites and internal network content that contain any of 27 banned words, including "privilege," "bias," and "inclusion." The "Big Delete," according to an NSA source and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular...

popular.info

Confirming that as far as my experience is going, this is all true.

Aside from chaos caused by the intended consequences, there's many unintentional consequences of being forced to scrub a ton of information so quickly especially when words are used in other contexts legitimately than the ones that the administration does not like.

In addition, there's a lot of forced removal of items unrelated to public-facing information documents, including Jira and Confluence sites, which is also causing issues.

Currently it is a huge distraction from mission-critical work because the timeframe is ASAP rather than on a reasonable timeframe.

(Confluence is project-management / team workspace related software, Jira is a helpdesk / bug & issue tracker.)

I suspect many groups outside the government have been downloading and saving alot of this content, some starting well before Trump took office. I am directly aware of the actions of a couple. Have you heard of any network or outlet where the information is being made available to the public?