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crickets
crickets's Journal
crickets's Journal
June 14, 2023
Related article: Top Senate Dem: Congress 'must move quickly' on artificial intelligence legislation
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/chuck-schumer-ap-senate-washington-ceos-b2341644.html
https://archive.ph/wip/5Nuuz
Terrifying. Also, how is an extortion call like this not considered a crime?
Mother testifies about fearing her daughter was kidnapped after AI voice scam call
Artifical intelligence-generated voice phone call scams are on the rise
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ai-scam-call-kidnap-congress-b2357618.html
https://archive.ph/aKbuD
An Arizona mother recounted the horrifying moment she heard her teenage daughter plead for her life over the phone as an unknown man’s voice threatened to harm her if he did not receive $50,000. She also shared the terrifying rage she felt after when she learned it was just an artificial intelligence voice scam. [snip]
Ms DeStefano recalled: “I knew she was safe and I was furious. I lashed at the men for the horrible attempt to scam and extort money. They continued to threaten to kill Brie. I made a promise that I was going to stop them and they were never going to hurt my daughter or anybody else again. At that point, I hung up and collapsed to the floor in tears of relief.”
After, Ms DeStefano reached out to the police but they told her it was a “prank call” and since no crime had actually been committed they could not do anything about it. [snip]
As part of her testimony, Ms DeStefano asked Congress to create legislation to regulate AI and impose consequences for those who use it for nefarious reasons – like the call she received.
Ms DeStefano recalled: “I knew she was safe and I was furious. I lashed at the men for the horrible attempt to scam and extort money. They continued to threaten to kill Brie. I made a promise that I was going to stop them and they were never going to hurt my daughter or anybody else again. At that point, I hung up and collapsed to the floor in tears of relief.”
After, Ms DeStefano reached out to the police but they told her it was a “prank call” and since no crime had actually been committed they could not do anything about it. [snip]
As part of her testimony, Ms DeStefano asked Congress to create legislation to regulate AI and impose consequences for those who use it for nefarious reasons – like the call she received.
Related article: Top Senate Dem: Congress 'must move quickly' on artificial intelligence legislation
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/chuck-schumer-ap-senate-washington-ceos-b2341644.html
https://archive.ph/wip/5Nuuz
Terrifying. Also, how is an extortion call like this not considered a crime?
June 12, 2023
For a media intent on disseminating facts and truthful information, this would be part of the job, of course. But that's not what media pundits are hired for in the main, and most of the talking heads we see these days are pundits, not journalists. 'News' channels no longer care about the news, just about hooking an audience and raking in the profits. That one cost of those profits might be the demise of the country isn't being added to bottom line calculations.
Which brings up the question: what is the media's job?
So what should media do? Ignore a major political party completely? No. But avoid live interviews with consistently dishonest people. Record the interviews and fact-check them thoroughly. Consider not sharing their dishonest statements with your audience. Also, tell your guests that if they keep lying, you won’t invite them back.
For a media intent on disseminating facts and truthful information, this would be part of the job, of course. But that's not what media pundits are hired for in the main, and most of the talking heads we see these days are pundits, not journalists. 'News' channels no longer care about the news, just about hooking an audience and raking in the profits. That one cost of those profits might be the demise of the country isn't being added to bottom line calculations.
June 11, 2023
Originally published October 27, 1992
The three scandals of the day were BCCI, INSLAW, and IRAQGATE. As Hartmann's piece also points out, Barr was well-known and deeply disliked and distrusted for decades after eeling his way through many dirty dealings, long before his second stint as AG. Thinking about Iran-Contra and how Oliver North & co. walked away from it mostly unscathed still makes me furious.
✔ And another from back in the day:
https://www.villagevoice.com/2023/01/27/attorney-general-william-barr-is-the-best-reason-to-vote-for-clinton/Originally published October 27, 1992
A federal judge accuses the Justice Department of trying to “shape” a case involving illegal loans to Iraq. The House Judiciary Committee blasts federal attorneys for compromising their reputation for impartiality in the investigation of a computer-software theft. CIA officials charge a deputy attorney general with advocating the suppression of evidence in a sensitive sentencing hearing.
To even the most avid scandalmonger, these may sound like the ravings of a fevered Orwellian imagination. But in fact they are all part of a litany of wrongdoing leveled at George Bush’s Justice Department in the past two months alone. And at the center of the criticism is the chief articulator of Bush’s imperial presidency, the man who wrote the legal rationale for the Gulf War, the Panama invasion, and the officially sanctioned kidnapping of, foreign nationals abroad — Attorney General William P. Barr. [snip]
Barr first met Bush in the CIA. In 1976, having shifted to the agency’s legislative office, he helped write the pap sheets that director Bush used to fend off the Pike and Church committees, the first real embodiments of Congressional oversight of the CIA. Intimates say the experience was formative for Barr, turning him into an implacable enemy of congressional intrusions on executive prerogative. [snip]
The truest measure of Barr’s extremism, however, lies in the coils of three unfolding national scandals. The central question they pose is: How far will he go to protect his master? The answer, some feel, already exposes Barr to the risk of a grand jury investigation and maybe worse. [more]
To even the most avid scandalmonger, these may sound like the ravings of a fevered Orwellian imagination. But in fact they are all part of a litany of wrongdoing leveled at George Bush’s Justice Department in the past two months alone. And at the center of the criticism is the chief articulator of Bush’s imperial presidency, the man who wrote the legal rationale for the Gulf War, the Panama invasion, and the officially sanctioned kidnapping of, foreign nationals abroad — Attorney General William P. Barr. [snip]
Barr first met Bush in the CIA. In 1976, having shifted to the agency’s legislative office, he helped write the pap sheets that director Bush used to fend off the Pike and Church committees, the first real embodiments of Congressional oversight of the CIA. Intimates say the experience was formative for Barr, turning him into an implacable enemy of congressional intrusions on executive prerogative. [snip]
The truest measure of Barr’s extremism, however, lies in the coils of three unfolding national scandals. The central question they pose is: How far will he go to protect his master? The answer, some feel, already exposes Barr to the risk of a grand jury investigation and maybe worse. [more]
The three scandals of the day were BCCI, INSLAW, and IRAQGATE. As Hartmann's piece also points out, Barr was well-known and deeply disliked and distrusted for decades after eeling his way through many dirty dealings, long before his second stint as AG. Thinking about Iran-Contra and how Oliver North & co. walked away from it mostly unscathed still makes me furious.
June 3, 2023
Jesus' parables were sometimes more subtle in condemning the hypocrites of his day than people give him credit for. It's amazing how his teachings remain timely because so many who claim to follow him still don't. get. his point.
Try to love everybody, and treat them the way you'd want to be treated. He went out of his way to explain that there are no exceptions. Why the heck do so many people find that so hard to understand?
Me too about the first part, although
I didn't really include enough of the second story, though it's at the link.
People may forget (myself included) that a priest and a Levite passed him by before the victim was aided by the Samaritan, as well as the significance of those chosen as examples. The first two were of a social class generally held in high regard, while Samaritans were looked down upon as pagan and heretical. Jesus' point was that a person's actions were more important than their station in society or birth into one of the Jewish tribes.
The Good Samaritan, then, was not a real person. He was a symbol. A religious man wanted to limit who a neighbor was, and thus justify himself. Instead, Jesus flipped the question. He used the backdrop of the Jews’ hatred for Samaritans to show that everyone was his neighbor, even those considered an enemy.
Jesus' parables were sometimes more subtle in condemning the hypocrites of his day than people give him credit for. It's amazing how his teachings remain timely because so many who claim to follow him still don't. get. his point.
Try to love everybody, and treat them the way you'd want to be treated. He went out of his way to explain that there are no exceptions. Why the heck do so many people find that so hard to understand?
June 2, 2023
There is a certain subset of 'Christians' who really, really dislike this message from Jesus. So they just ignore it.
Screw Paul. I prefer to remember the parable of the Good Samaritan.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2010:25-37&version=NIV
All those Sunday school classes paid off in learning the Bible, which is useful in a way I guess, but I couldn't wait to get away from many of the people. They do not practice what they preach, and these days what they preach... oof.
Yep. These are the goats among us.
The Sheep and the Goats - Matthew 25:31-46
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025%3A31-46&version=NIV
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
There is a certain subset of 'Christians' who really, really dislike this message from Jesus. So they just ignore it.
Screw Paul. I prefer to remember the parable of the Good Samaritan.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2010:25-37&version=NIV
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
All those Sunday school classes paid off in learning the Bible, which is useful in a way I guess, but I couldn't wait to get away from many of the people. They do not practice what they preach, and these days what they preach... oof.
June 2, 2023
https://twitter.com/ZcohenCNN/status/1664018119151558657
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/james-comer-house-republicans-fbi-biden-investigation-giuliani-rcna87269
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/documents-gop-wants-from-fbi-may-have-roots-in-rudy-giuliani-s-ukraine-conspiracy-reports/ar-AA1c05lb
What. a. joke.
Will they ask Rudy to come by to answer a few questions? 🙄
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1664018119151558657.htmlhttps://twitter.com/ZcohenCNN/status/1664018119151558657
Zachary Cohen @ZcohenCNN
More: The document at center of this dispute has origins in a tranche of docs that Rudy Giuliani provided to DOJ in 2020, sources tell @evanperez.
The allegations, many originating from sources Ukraine, included 1 claiming evidence of corruption involving Biden when he was VP.
Quote Tweet
5:16 PM · May 31, 2023
More: The document at center of this dispute has origins in a tranche of docs that Rudy Giuliani provided to DOJ in 2020, sources tell @evanperez.
The allegations, many originating from sources Ukraine, included 1 claiming evidence of corruption involving Biden when he was VP.
Quote Tweet
Zachary Cohen @ZcohenCNN
·
May 31
News: FBI Director Chris Wray, in a Wednesday call, offered to let House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer view an internal law enforcement doc R’s believe will shed light on allegation that then-VP Biden was involved in criminal scheme w/ a foreign national, 2 sources tell us.
Show this thread
5:16 PM · May 31, 2023
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/james-comer-house-republicans-fbi-biden-investigation-giuliani-rcna87269
Now seems like a good time to point out that the information in these documents amounts to just accusations. Comer knows this because, as Dunham explained in another letter to him sent Tuesday, the FBI provided a deputy assistant director of its Directorate of Intelligence to brief the Oversight Committee’s staff last month on what FD-1023s contain and why they can’t be disseminated. Moreover, Dunham pointed out that recording information from a source “does not validate the information, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information known or developed by the FBI.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/documents-gop-wants-from-fbi-may-have-roots-in-rudy-giuliani-s-ukraine-conspiracy-reports/ar-AA1c05lb
"I’d worried that Giuliani was an unguided missile, and Ukraine, a morass of misinformation," Barr also wrote. "I was determined to steer the department clear of them as best I could and, if we had to deal with them at all, do so with the utmost caution." [snip]
Barr later wrote that during the first Trump impeachment, "Giuliani embarked on yet another round of grandstanding. He went about claiming he had compiled significant evidence relating to the Bidens that he wanted to present to the Justice Department. While anyone is free to present evidence to the DOJ, the fact Giuliani was making such a public display obviously made his motives suspect."
He said that Giuliani tried a tactic of "giving just enough evidence to law enforcement to have some allegation investigated, then claiming one’s adversary was 'being investigated.'"
Barr later wrote that during the first Trump impeachment, "Giuliani embarked on yet another round of grandstanding. He went about claiming he had compiled significant evidence relating to the Bidens that he wanted to present to the Justice Department. While anyone is free to present evidence to the DOJ, the fact Giuliani was making such a public display obviously made his motives suspect."
He said that Giuliani tried a tactic of "giving just enough evidence to law enforcement to have some allegation investigated, then claiming one’s adversary was 'being investigated.'"
What. a. joke.
June 2, 2023
This is a false equivalency.
Disagreement with one's allies does not necessarily mean alliance with one's enemies. For instance, at no time were Elizabeth Warren and the Republican party allies on the issue. Warren, Fetterman, AOC, Sanders, etc. were in no way agreeing with the MAGA nutjobs in voting no. Their reasoning was worlds away from that of the opposition, and as the bill still passed easily, in no way did their actions aid the Republican cause.
A monolithic political party that does not allow for disagreement and discussion is not representative of the people; it's the arm of despotism.
The source linking progressives with the MAGAs is you. Your angst is self-induced and unnecessary.
I would disagree that national elections are not won and lost in towns like Macon, GA. Every single one of those GA votes was vital in turning our state blue, and to blithely dismiss them is a mistake. The DNC spent decades making that mistake in GA. Thank goodness that in 2020 the candidates themselves (Warnock and Ossoff) did not. They went after every vote they could get, and they needed all of them. Macon and other little towns like my own do matter at election time. They absolutely do.
June 2, 2023
No paywall/gift link: https://wapo.st/43hlg8Q
Breaking the spirit of children with "blanket training" that begins in babyhood, corporal punishment and the use of fear to "train" obedience, using the girls as the family laborers with no say in their own lives, the coverup of boys and men who molest girls around them, including their own sisters, the elevation of the teachings of the sick IBLP "Christian" sect: the litany of what was wrong with the Duggars and their TV show is long and heartbreaking. It's tempting to turn away, but to do so is dangerous. The teachings of this cult still thrive in so many families long after TLC was finally forced to turn of the cameras.
TLC got what they wanted of the Duggars, though: gobs and gobs of money. At what price for those involved and for the direct and indirect influence the show has had?
See also: https://democraticunderground.com/100217963276
7 takeaways from "Shiny Happy People," the new Duggar family documentary
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2023/06/02/duggar-shiny-happy-people-amazon/No paywall/gift link: https://wapo.st/43hlg8Q
The thesis of the four episodes, which feature interviews from daughter Jill Dillard and her husband, Duggar family friends and former IBLP believers, hinges on this relationship — arguing that Josh’s crimes were a reflection and a product of a wider culture of abuse, both within the family and the religious group they belonged to. [snip]
The Holts said they found out about Josh’s alleged abuse after [Josh and Kaeleigh] started dating in 2003, when Josh was 15 — five years before “19 Kids and Counting” debuted on TLC. [snip]
“The women and girls in this family, they are really the draw of that show,” said Danielle Lindeman, a sociology professor who appears in the docu-series. “The Duggar women are doing the labor, literally doing the labor, but they’re being shut out of who has the money and who has the power.”
The Holts said they found out about Josh’s alleged abuse after [Josh and Kaeleigh] started dating in 2003, when Josh was 15 — five years before “19 Kids and Counting” debuted on TLC. [snip]
“The women and girls in this family, they are really the draw of that show,” said Danielle Lindeman, a sociology professor who appears in the docu-series. “The Duggar women are doing the labor, literally doing the labor, but they’re being shut out of who has the money and who has the power.”
Breaking the spirit of children with "blanket training" that begins in babyhood, corporal punishment and the use of fear to "train" obedience, using the girls as the family laborers with no say in their own lives, the coverup of boys and men who molest girls around them, including their own sisters, the elevation of the teachings of the sick IBLP "Christian" sect: the litany of what was wrong with the Duggars and their TV show is long and heartbreaking. It's tempting to turn away, but to do so is dangerous. The teachings of this cult still thrive in so many families long after TLC was finally forced to turn of the cameras.
The arrangement was mutually beneficial: Jim Bob made no secret of viewing the popular cable show as an opportunity to minister to the masses. And he was successful, the documentary argues: popularizing a sect of Christianity that had been largely underground until that point.
TLC got what they wanted of the Duggars, though: gobs and gobs of money. At what price for those involved and for the direct and indirect influence the show has had?
See also: https://democraticunderground.com/100217963276
June 2, 2023
Quote from the show: "The girls were really the engine that kept this juggernaut going."
And they weren't paid a dime. TLC and IBLP owe those girls a LOT. The first episode was hard to sit through, especially knowing what we know about the family now. Josh, in particular, is tough to take, along with all of the patriachal and culty garbage the family is steeped in. Apparently the Josh situation was not unique in the culture. It's an open secret. I don't know whether I'll get through another episode or not.
How a new docuseries pieced together the most damning exposé of the Duggars yet
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2023-06-01/shiny-happy-people-prime-video-duggar-family-documentary
No paywall: https://archive.ph/s5tr5
If you casually watched an episode or two of “19 Kids and Counting” on TLC in the 2010s, you might have assumed that parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar had it all figured out. The show presented a cheerful, sitcom version of life in a huge, fundamentalist Christian family in which the biggest problems were logistical: Just how did Michelle Duggar do 10 loads of laundry a day [she didn't - Jessa did] or grocery shop for a family of 21?
That wholesome illusion was punctured in 2015, when allegations that eldest child Josh Duggar had molested numerous young girls, including several of his sisters, became public. And it unraveled completely in December 2021, when Josh, by then a father of seven, was convicted of possessing and receiving child pornography, charges for which he is now serving a 12½-year prison sentence.
New docuseries “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” goes beyond the placid reality TV façade to examine the family’s connections to the Institute in Basic Life Principles, an ultraconservative, highly influential religious ministry. Its founder, Bill Gothard, promoted total female submission to male authority, urging his followers to shun birth control, short skirts and public school. He resigned in 2014 amid allegations of sexual misconduct involving numerous women and girls.
Premiering Friday on Prime Video, “Shiny Happy People” makes the case that “19 Kids and Counting” and spinoff “Counting On,” which aired for a combined 21 seasons and were among TLC’s highest-rated programs, put an anodyne gloss on the Duggars’ extreme fundamentalism and essentially functioned as a televised ministry for IBLP.
That wholesome illusion was punctured in 2015, when allegations that eldest child Josh Duggar had molested numerous young girls, including several of his sisters, became public. And it unraveled completely in December 2021, when Josh, by then a father of seven, was convicted of possessing and receiving child pornography, charges for which he is now serving a 12½-year prison sentence.
New docuseries “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” goes beyond the placid reality TV façade to examine the family’s connections to the Institute in Basic Life Principles, an ultraconservative, highly influential religious ministry. Its founder, Bill Gothard, promoted total female submission to male authority, urging his followers to shun birth control, short skirts and public school. He resigned in 2014 amid allegations of sexual misconduct involving numerous women and girls.
Premiering Friday on Prime Video, “Shiny Happy People” makes the case that “19 Kids and Counting” and spinoff “Counting On,” which aired for a combined 21 seasons and were among TLC’s highest-rated programs, put an anodyne gloss on the Duggars’ extreme fundamentalism and essentially functioned as a televised ministry for IBLP.
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