2024-10-06

more multi polar flood misinfo, smartphone depression, conservatives censored, MAGA Musk, Biden defends numbers, Helene and the Mormons hate Trump, US bombs Yemen, EPA pinches little meat, eating Elephant

etc

• Forecasters predict another hurricane will strike Florida by midweek

NC/TN Floods / Helene

• FEMA combats false rumors about Hurricane Helene relief, funding - The Washington Post

  Politicians and others have spread false information about the response to the storm on social media. For example, some have claimed that the agency has run out of disaster response money and that hurricane victims can only receive $750 in federal assistance. Several right-wing influencers have used their large online followings to amplify these claims on X, which has declined to remove these posts or label them as misleading. The trend underscores how election-year politics — combined with lax misinformation policies by major tech platforms — are complicating efforts to keep communities safe.

• Hurricane Helene conspiracy theories collide with election misinformation

  “There’s no question that this level of falsehoods would not be spread were there not an election a month away,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. The falsehoods started quickly and came from the top. Donald Trump, freshly landed in Georgia on Monday to see the storm’s devastation, claimed that the state’s governor, Brian Kemp, had not been able to reach Joe Biden to talk about disaster aid. Kemp had already said earlier in the day that he’d spoken to the president, who offered any help the state needed and said to call him directly. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) put up a webpage this week to knock down the swirl of rumors it has faced – a sign of the increased myths. The American Red Cross posted on social media to dispel various falsehoods about its work.

  Elon Musk, the owner of X and key Trump ally, claimed Fema was blocking flights trying to aid the area, calling it “belligerent government incompetence”. The transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, responded: “No one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights. If you’re encountering a problem give me a call.”

• After the deluge, the lies: Misinformation and hoaxes about Helene cloud the recovery - POLITICO

  Yet this devastation and despair is not enough for the extremist groups, disinformation agents, hucksters and politicians who are exploiting the disaster to spread false claims and conspiracy theories about it and the government’s response. According to former President Donald Trump, the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims. Far-right extremist groups warn on social media that officials plan to bulldoze affected communities and seize the land from residents. A tale straight from science fiction asserts that Washington used weather control technology to steer Helene toward Republican voters in order to tilt the presidential election toward Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. The claims, according to experts and local officials dealing with disaster response, say less about the reality of the widespread damage from Helene than they do about America’s fractured politics and the fear and distrust shadowing an election year marked by assassination attempts and escalating global tension.

  Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, X and SpaceX, posted that private relief flights to North Carolina were being blocked by the Federal Aviation Administration, a claim dismissed as false by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. State-run media and disinformation campaigns run by China and Russia have amplified false and misleading claims about the response to the storm. Both countries have used social media and state news stories to criticize responses to past U.S. natural disasters, part of a larger effort to stoke division and distrust among Americans.

• North Carolina is distributing Benadryl and EpiPens as yellow jackets swarm from Helene flooding.

• SpaceX Engineer In North Carolina Has Dire Warning: Biden-Harris' FEMA "Actively Blocking Shipments" For Relief  | ZeroHedge

• Joe Biden: why are you LYING and saying you and FEMA reconnected Canton with Starlinks, when it was me

• You just have to get permission. Because it doesn’t apply.

• Hurricane Helene: Fact vs. Rumor | NC DPS

  False information is being widely shared on social media channels, including AI-generated content and images. Nefarious actors and those with ill intent may be taking advantage of this situation by spreading false information. The public is encouraged to find trusted sources of information; share information from those trusted sources; and to discourage others from sharing information from unverified sources.

  Please do not self-deploy to Western North Carolina unless you are working with an organization already providing services on the ground.

  The FAA is not restricting access for recovery operations. The FAA is coordinating closely with state and local officials to make sure everyone is operating safely in very crowded and congested airspace. Learn more.

• Hurricane Helene and the Lost Mandate of Heaven

  There are estimates that it might take months to restore power to some areas. This is apparently in part because a large fraction of America’s stock of spare transformers were sent to the Ukraine.

  While the state dithered, schemed, bumped into itself, and got in the way, the self-organizing networks of civil society responded immediately, seamlessly, and nimbly. Civilian helicopters were the first to take to the air; relief supplies were collected and distributed by spontaneously organized rescue missions that got to work right away, without waiting for permission, authorization, or orders.

• Now they're saying that they're not allowed to deliver any more supplies anymore

• shipped where? FEMA has already shipped over 11.5 million meals

  FEMA has already shipped over 11.5 million meals and 12.6 million liters of water to aid response efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. We have over 5,600 federal personnel on the ground.

• The death & destruction is far worse than most know

  • right after the storm, the worst figures being tossed around were "2,00 dead", by the rankest disaster pron folks. The 1k number emerged shortly after and has been consistent for several days now, but only in rumor.

• N.C. Republican Pleads to End Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories on Helene Recovery

Horseshit

• It's Good to Be the King: how the mega-rich wall themselves off from government

• 'God-like' coding educator accused of harassment

• Rock-Star Law Firms Are Billing Up to $2,500 per Hour. Clients Are Indignant

• We only learnt of our son's online life after he died at 20

• The moral panic over social media and teen depression

  after pages and pages of these stories — more than three quarters of the way through the article — comes what I think is an important point, when Solomon writes that "research has failed to demonstrate any definite causal link" between smartphone or social-media use and depression. That's not because researchers aren't looking for such a causal link, because they definitely are, and have been for some time. But despite all of the studies, there is still an almost complete lack of any evidence that social media use causes anxiety or depression in young adults. So why do so many people believe it does? Because news articles keep telling them so. “Smartphones and social media are destroying children’s mental health,” the Financial Times wrote last spring, while the Guardian described the smartphone as “a pocket full of poison.” Many of these articles are based on books such as The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt, a psychologist at the Stern School of Business. Haidt talks about how smartphone use and social media have caused an epidemic of anxiety among young people, and provides a raft of research that he says proves this.

• Teen admits she cut off tanker that spilled chemical in Illinois, killing 5 people: "Totally my bad" - CBS News

  A federal report on a tanker-truck crash a year ago in central Illinois that spilled a toxic chemical and killed five people includes an interview with a 17-year-old Ohio girl who concedes that the truck was forced off the road when she passed it with the minivan she was driving.

• SF city attorney seeks injunction to stop Oakland from using new airport name

• The rise of perpetual cruises that offer the wealthy a new home at sea

• Auditors Fired After Found 18% of Longshoremen's Union Hires Had Mob Ties

• Long-extinct woolly mammoth will be brought back — within just 4 years, entrepreneur claims

celebrity gossip

• Inside the bro-ification of Mark Zuckerberg

• ack Doherty just crashed his brand new McLaren on stream

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Neo-Nazis head to encrypted SimpleX Chat app, bail on Telegram

• It's true, social media moderators do go after conservatives

  Since Elon Musk bought Twitter nearly two years ago – a $44 billion acquisition he tried to pull out of – the mogul has driven a narrative that moderation of the microblogging website disproportionately targeted conservatives, libertarians, and Trump supporters. A scientific paper published in the journal Nature this week confirms that was the case, with justification. The groups more likely to be subjected to moderation were also more likely to share misinformation from low-quality news sites.

Musk

• Brazil's top court says X paid pending fines to wrong bank

• Elon Musk Calls Himself "Dark MAGA" at Donald Trump Rally

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Hyundai opened its massive new Georgia EV plant as the first IONIQ 5 rolls out

• Fisker's abandoned HQ has hazardous waste, clay models left behind

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• State Education Department Seeks Bids for 55,000 Classroom Bibles

  • Specifics only met by a "Lee Greenwood Bible"... people bitch. Why not assemble your own edition meeting the specs and offer it under the name of whatever cause you want to promote?

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• A quarter million Comcast subscribers had their data stolen from debt collector

• Automattic demanded web host pay $32M annually for using WordPress trademark

• Android's handy theft protection features are now rolling out worldwide

• Rise and fall of IronNet, cybersecurity firm led by ex-NSA head Keith Alexander

• Adobe Cuts Perpetual License for Elements Down to Just Three Years

• Web Tech Needs Diversity

  • I was delighted to score Alphas back in the day, used them as routers partially for the diversity. Someone who got through a public x86 server then had to deal with an alpha router and then a Sparc backend.

• The blogosphere is in full bloom. The rest of the internet has wilted

• Google will stop linking to NZ news if law passes forcing it to pay for content

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Paper claims "AGI is intrinsically computationally intractable"

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• The FAA has determined that no mishap investigation is required for the Vulcan launch anomaly.

• ULA’s second Vulcan rocket lost part of its booster and kept going - Ars Technica

  The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial space launches in the United States, said in a statement that it assessed the booster anomaly and "determined no investigation is warranted at this time." The FAA is not responsible for regulating launch vehicle anomalies unless they impact public safety.

Crypto con games

• New HBO Documentary Claims Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Is Len Sassaman

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Let us pause to appreciate the remarkable U.S. economy

• Olive oil prices expected to halve from record high

• Are Folks In America That Stupid?’ Dave Ramsey Says Americans Should Be More Suspicious Of The Fed Rate Cuts Timing.

  Ramsey opened his discussion with a bold statement: “We just got word a few moments ago – surprise, surprise, 45 days from the election, the Fed dropped the interest rate ... That wasn’t possible four months ago or eight months ago, but right before the election, it’s possible. That's just sus."

• McDonald's says Tyson and other suppliers fixed beef prices

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Congress fights to keep AM radio in cars

Harris / Democrats

• Tech allies on track to raise $100M for Kamala Harris from Silicon Valley

• Donald Trump will sell America’s future to his Big Oil donors

• Ben Horowitz plans "significant" donation to Kamala Harris

Biden Inc

• anything the MAGA Republicans don't like they call fake

  President Biden reacts to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) saying the jobs report has fake numbers: "If you notice, anything the MAGA Republicans don't like they call fake. Anything. The job numbers are what the job numbers are. They're real."

Trump / Right / Jan6

• Two men have re-engineered the US electoral system in favor of Republicans

• Truth Social Users Are Losing Ridiculous Sums of Money to Scams

• Prominent Latter-day Saints urge fellow members to vote against Trump for religious reasons

  Thou shalt not vote for Trump. These prominent Latter-day Saints view that as a command from God. He fails the “character test” spelled out in the faith’s scriptures, they argue, and is morally “unqualified” to hold the nation’s highest office.

• Helene hit Trump strongholds in Georgia and North Carolina. It could swing the election. - POLITICO

  The challenge for Trump: The parts of western North Carolina and eastern Georgia that were flooded by the monster storm are largely Republican. In 2020, he won 61 percent of the vote in the North Carolina counties that were declared a disaster after Helene. He won 54 percent of the vote in Georgia’s disaster counties.

  After Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina in September 2018, the state extended the registration deadline and let counties relocate voting sites. But in 2020, when the elections board relaxed absentee voting requirements amid the pandemic, GOP lawmakers said the board had overstepped its authority and later changed state election rules. One change ended a grace period that allowed mail-in ballots to be received three days after Election Day.

• We hate Trump and Project 2025!

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Two Men Sentenced for Scheme to Defraud Apple Out of 6k iPhones

• Backdoors open for everyone U.S. Wiretap Systems Targeted in China-Linked Hack

  • Remember this the next time a government demands encryption backdoors.

• Migrant encounters at U.S.-Mexico border have fallen sharply in 2024

• Louisiana Law Is Sweeping Teens into Adult Court for Lesser Crimes

• FBI: Anniversary of October 7, 2023 HAMAS Attacks May Motivate Violence in the US

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• First Plutonium Pit for Nuclear Warhead Produced in the US in 35 Years Now Ready

• United States Provides Humanitarian Assistance in Response to the Escalating Crisis in Lebanon - United States Department of State

  The United States will provide nearly $157 million in new U.S. humanitarian assistance to support populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region. The United States provided nearly $386 million over the last year to support vulnerable populations in Lebanon and Syria impacted by the increase in conflict.

  • US to give $157 million in humanitarian aid in response to Lebanon crisis | Reuters

  • The United States Announces Humanitarian Assistance to Support Populations Impacted by the Conflict in Lebanon

  • We are committed to supporting those in need and delivering essential aid to displaced civilians

• US air strikes target Houthis in several cities in Yemen

  Forces from the US Central Command (CENTCOM), the military command responsible for US forces in the Middle East, “conducted strikes on 15 Houthi targets in Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen today”, it said on X on Friday.

World

• UK Banks Now Have Up to Four Days to Check for Scam Payments

Israel

• Al Jazeera investigation exposes Israeli 'war crimes' in Gaza

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Decoding the Language of Othering by Russia-Ukraine War Bloggers

• We should have given Ukraine more weapons earlier, says ex-NATO chief

• Why Russia is more likely to go nuclear in Ukraine if it's winning

• Why Did Russia Shoot Down Its Own Fighter-Sized S-70 Hunter Drone over Ukraine?

Health / Medicine

• Why an ADHD diagnosis can be a mixed blessing

• The brain has its own microbiome

• FDA clarifies policies for compounders as GLP-1 supply begins to stabilize

• The puzzling rise of cancer in younger people

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Scientists race to test vaccines in marburg virus outbreak

• As Bird Flu Spreads, Two New Cases Diagnosed in California

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Dozens of Meat Processing Plants Expected to Shut Down Under New EPA Rules | The Epoch Times

  The EPA announced a proposed rule change governing effluent, or wastewater, limits for meat and poultry processors in January of this year, followed by public comment in the spring. The agency’s final rule will go into effect in August 2025.

• Coal power plant demolition serves as poignant historical moment for the Navajo

• Life in America's Water-Inequality Capital. It Might Be About to Change

• Antarctica Turn Green

• Have black plastic in your home? It could expose you to toxic chemicals

• Drought-Stricken Countries Kill Elephants to Feed the Hungry

  • What if, instead of "preserving" elephants, we farmed them? We could have hundreds of thousands. People dislike cattle for the environmental impact: come up with a McHorton and take the market away.