Arotrios

Any citizen of the social internet knows the feeling: that irritable contentiousness, that desire to get into it that seems almost impossible to resist, even though you know you’ve already squandered too many hours and too much emotional energy on pointless internet disputes. If you use Twitter, you may have noticed that at least half the posts seemed intent on making someone—especially you—mad. In his new book, Outrage Machine, the technology researcher Tobias Rose-Stockwell explains that the underlying architecture of the biggest social media platforms is essentially (although, he argues, unintentionally) designed to get under your skin in just this way. The results, unsurprisingly, have been bad for our sanity, our culture, and our politics.

On this topic, an increasingly popular one as the social media economy convulses in response to Twitter’s Elonification, the preferred tone is either stern jeremiad or, for the well and truly addicted commentator (usually a journalist), a sort of punch-drunk nihilism much like that of someone who declares he’ll never quit smoking even though it’s going to kill him. Rose-Stockwell, by contrast, keeps his cool, pointing out that social media is full of “angry, terrible content” that makes our lives worse, while carefully avoiding any sign of partisanship or panic.

Looks like we've had a wave of porn bots hit recently. Screenshot is a sampling of what's popping up on my threads feed when sorted by new.

A heads up to @ernest and to folks with magazines that might get hit by these guys. Looks like they're submitting from a couple of different domains, so it's difficult to block them from the user side, and some admin action might be necessary.

EDIT: ernest has removed the accounts and content, looks like all is well.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell in July to its lowest level for the month since 2017, preliminary government figures showed on Thursday, boosting President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's stature on environmental policy ahead of a summit of rainforest nations.

Gabriel Trujillo was unstoppable when it came to studying nature. Botany, his passion, led him to explore lots of places while cataloging plants and their behaviors. In June 2023, that research took him from California to the mountains of Sonora in northeastern Mexico in hopes of finding Cephalanthus occidentalis, a shrub that was crucial to his work. That trip would also end with his violent death.

Trujillo’s body was found with several bullet wounds on Thursday, June 22, on the side of a road connecting San Nicolás to Tepoca, in the municipality of Yécora. The 31-year-old scientist had been killed three days prior, on June 19, the same day his family had reported him missing.

After losing communication with Trujillo, other biologists in Sonora and California started to look for him. They called around, organized a WhatsApp group, traveled to the area where he was last seen, and interviewed people who knew about his stay in Sonora. Even though they started receiving death threats, they didn’t stop until he was found.

While this isn't cover news, in the spirit of the sub, I'd like submit the work of Douglas Dixon, who wrote several books, including the bestiary After Man in 1981, about how the animal world would evolve after the end of human civilization. The link above goes to the fandom version of his bestiary.

Key Takeaways:

• Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front on August 3 and reportedly advanced in some areas.
• Russian forces conducted a series of drone strikes on August 3, primarily targeting Kyiv.
• The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) took down Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) Commander Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky’s August 2 speech, possibly due to his disclosure of Russian casualties in Ukraine.
• Russian prosecutors reportedly classified the investigation into ardent Russian ultranationalist and former FSB officer Igor Girkin on August 2.
• Russian forces conducted offensive operations along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line, near Bakhmut, along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line, and in the western Donetsk-eastern Zaporizhia Oblast border area on August 3 and made advances in certain areas.
• Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front on August 3 and reportedly advanced near Kreminna and Vuhledar.
• The Kremlin is attempting to establish favorable conditions to attract additional volunteers to serve in the Russian Armed Forces.
• A report from Yale University’s Conflict Observatory supports ISW’s longstanding assessments that Russian and occupation authorities are using forced passportization measures to consolidate social and legal control over occupied areas of Ukraine.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representatives Barbara Lee (CA-12), Summer Lee (PA-12), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), and Rashida Tlaib (MI-12)introduced the Oppose Limitless Inequality Growth and Reverse Community Harms (OLIGARCH) Act to tax extreme wealth, reduce inequality, and combat the threat to democracy posed by aristocracy.

High levels of inequality plague the United States, with the richest 0.1% of US households holding 20% of the country’s wealth in 2018. This extreme wealth disparity causes inequality to grow, with the rich getting richer every day. During the pandemic, while most Americans suffered extreme financial and emotional losses, America’s roughly 700 billionaires added over $1 trillion to their collective net worth. The wealthy hold the most political power in the U.S. today.

The OLIGARCH Act is put forward to combat these extreme disparities and ensure true democracy. This legislation establishes a wealth tax with four brackets, designed to wax and wane with wealth concentration, intensifying during periods of rising inequality, but tapering off to near non-existence when median household wealth increases and inequality moderates to an acceptable level. While aiding in closing the wealth gap, the bill also outlines specific enforcement measures to combat tax evasion, including a requirement for at least a 30% audit rate on households covered by this tax, and establishes penalties for substantial valuation understatements. The bill ensures accountability and is an effort to restore democracy.

"Inequality in the United States is worse in 2023 than it was during the Gilded Age. It is unacceptable that millions of hardworking people remain impoverished, while the top 0.1% hold over 20% of the nation’s wealth,” said CongresswomanBarbaraLee. "The OLIGARCH Act is the solution we need to close the exorbitant wealth gap in America and create a tax system where everyone pays their fair share. This level of wealth is not just a source of economic injustice, but a major threat to democracy: the richest 400 people in the U.S. have 22,000 times the political power of the average American. At a time when the GOP is pushing for even deeper tax cuts, I am proud to introduce this vital bill with my progressive colleagues to hold billionaires accountable and make democracy work for the people, not the oligarchs.”

Congresswoman Summer Lee said,“Right now, the 400 richest Americans have 22,000 times the political influence of the bottom 90%. Our teachers, firefighters, and nurses are paying more in taxes than Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg. We allow billionaires to buy elections and Supreme Court Justices in exchange for tax cuts favorable rulings–and corporate PACs are spending millions to keep working class Black women like me out of Congress. Oligarchy is blocking climate justice, racial justice, Medicare for All, Student Loan Forgiveness, worker power, fully funded public schools, fair pay for teachers, and reflective democracy. With a mandate from nearly ¾ of Americans - Democrats, Republicans and independents - who want the wealthiest to pay higher taxes, I couldn’t be prouder to co-lead the introduction of the OLIGARCH Act to tax the richest of the rich and give power back to the people where it’s always belonged.”

“Our residents are struggling while economic inequality is reaching record highs,” said Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. “The richest 0.1% now have more than five times the combined wealth of 50% of Americans. This extreme concentration of wealth only makes it harder for our neighbors to thrive. The same billionaires are threatening our democracy with their political contributions that taint any opportunities to change the status quo. It’s time to tax the rich and get big money out of politics.”

“In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, no one should struggle to put food on the table and afford healthcare while billionaires fly around in their private jets and CEOs make hundreds of millions of dollars a year,” said Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D. (NY-16).“When the richest 0.1% of households hold 20% of the country’s wealth, there is undoubtedly a problem. The extreme wealth inequality we see today, which disproportionately impacts Black and brown families, is a result of centuries of discrimination towards working class, vulnerable communities while allowing tax breaks for the rich and wealthy. I’m proud to join my colleagues Reps. Barbara Lee, Summer Lee, and Rashida Tlaib to introduce the OLIGARCH Act and address this inequity. It’s time the billionaires and ultra-wealthy pay what they owe to the American people.”

“Extreme wealth inequality has become an existential threat to our country,” said Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc. “American oligarchs have used their wealth to accumulate an unprecedented level of political power, which they’ve then used to amass even greater wealth. Without decisive action, this vicious cycle of concentrated power and money will dismantle our system of democratic capitalism, and with it, our way of life. We must stop this cycle by passing the OLIGARCH Act as soon as possible.”

The OLIGRACH Act specifically establishes four tax brackets:

• 2% for all wealth between 1,000 and 10,000 times median household wealth;
• 4% for all wealth between 10,000 and 100,000 times median household wealth;
• 6% for all wealth between 100,000 and 1,000,000 times median household wealth;
• 8% for all wealth over 1,000,000 times median household wealth

This wealth tax is largest when the gaps are extreme, and shrinks when the gaps are closing, allowing for it to adapt to a changing economy and maintain equality. Ultimately, the OLIGARCH Act benefits everyone in America.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

This bill is cosponsored by House Representatives Nadler (D-NY), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Grijalva (D-AZ), Omar (D-MN), Schakowsky (D-IL), and Huffman (D-CA).

The OLIGARCH Act has been endorsed by Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), American Family Voices, Americans for Tax Fairness, Center for Popular Democracy, Coalition on Human Needs, Demand Progress, Economic Policy Institute, HedgeClippers, Institute for Policy Studies-Program on Inequality, Main Street Alliance, MoveOn, Our Revolution, Oxfam, People’s Action, Patriotic Millionaires, Progressive Democrats of America, Responsible Wealth Project of United for a Fair Economy, Social Security Works, Strong Economy for All Coalition, Take on Wall Street, Unrig Our Economy.

Shoutout to @Harry who originally posted the link.

The situation in Ukraine still favors Kyiv despite the limited progress made in the counteroffensive so far. Ukrainian forces attempted a limited mechanized penetration of prepared Russian defenses in the south in early to mid-June, but failed to break through the Russian lines. They then switched to slower and more careful operations while disrupting Russian rear areas with long-range precision strikes. Ukraine began the next, reportedly main, phase of its counteroffensive on July 26 with a determined drive to penetrate Russian lines in western Zaporizhia Oblast. It’s far too soon to evaluate the outcome of that effort, which is underway as of the time of this writing, but it is vital to manage expectations. Ukrainian forces are fighting now to break through the first line of long-prepared Russian defenses. Several lines lie behind it, stretching for many miles. Ukrainian progress will very likely alternate periods of notable tactical advances with periods, possibly long periods, of pause and some setbacks. Much as we might hope that the road to the Sea of Azov will simply open for Ukrainian forces the odds are high that fighting will remain hard, casualties high, and frustration will be a constant companion. All of which is normal in war.

But the Ukrainian counteroffensive can succeed in any of several ways. First, the current Ukrainian mechanized breakthrough could succeed, and the Ukrainians could exploit it deeply enough to unhinge part or all of the Russian lines. Second, Russian forces, already suffering serious morale and other systemic problems, could break under the pressure and begin to withdraw in a controlled or uncontrolled fashion. Third, a steady pressure and interdiction campaign supported by major efforts such as the one now underway can generate gaps in the Russian lines that Ukrainian forces can exploit at first locally, but then for deeper penetrations. The first and second possibilities are relatively unlikely but possible.

The third is the most probable path to Ukrainian success. It will be slower and more gradual than the other two—and slower than Ukraine’s Western backers desire and expect. It depends on the West providing Ukraine with a constant flow of equipment likely over many months so that Ukraine can maintain its pressure until the Russian forces offer the kinds of frontline cracks the Ukrainians can exploit. It is not primarily a matter of attrition. The slow pace of the pressure campaign Ukraine had been using before July 26 is designed to minimize Ukrainian losses. It is not primarily oriented towards attriting Russians either, but rather towards steadily forcing the Russians out of their prepared defensive positions in ways that the Ukrainians can take advantage of to make operationally significant advances. It is still maneuver warfare rather than attritional warfare, just at a slower pace. It therefore requires patience, but it can succeed.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a damning report confirming that party affiliation in Ohio and Florida was a risk for dying of Covid-19.

...in the summer of 2021, after vaccines were available to all adults, the excess death rate among Republican voters began to increase relative to the excess death rate among Democratic voters; in the fall of 2021, the gap widened further. Between March 2020 and December 2021, excess death rates were 2.8 percentage points (15%) higher for Republican voters compared with Democratic voters (95% PI, 1.6-3.7 percentage points).

After April 1, 2021, when all adults were eligible for vaccines in Florida and Ohio, this gap widened from −0.9 percentage point (95% PI, −2.5 to 0.3 percentage points) between March 2020 and March 2021, to 7.7 percentage points (95% PI, 6.0-9.3 percentage points) in the adjusted analysis, or a 43% difference.

I've posted on this topic previously, but this article goes into further detail, especially regarding the spike in GOP deaths relative to Dems after vaccination was available.

Direct link to the AMA study for reference

ORLANDO, Fla. — Diversity, equity and inclusion programs were abolished Tuesday from Walt Disney World’s governing district, now controlled by appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an echo of the Florida governor’s agenda which has championed curtailing such programs in higher education and elsewhere.

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said in a statement that its diversity, equity and inclusion committee would be eliminated, as would any job duties connected to it. Also axed were initiatives left over from when the district was controlled by Disney supporters, which awarded contracts based on goals of achieving racial or gender parity.

Glenton Gilzean, the district’s new administrator who is African American and a former head of the Central Florida Urban League, called such initiatives “illegal and simply un-American.” Gilzean has been a fellow or member at two conservative institutions, the James Madison Institute and the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network, as well as a DeSantis appointee to the Florida Commission on Ethics.

“Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race or advance the notion that we are not created equal,” Gilzean said in a statement. “As the former head of the Central Florida Urban League, a civil rights organization, I can say definitively that our community thrives only when we work together despite our differences.”

An email was sent seeking comment from Disney World.

Last spring, DeSantis, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, signed into law a measure that blocks public colleges from using federal or state funding on diversity programs.

DeSantis also has championed Florida’s so-called “Stop WOKE” law, which bars businesses, colleges and K-12 schools from giving training on certain racial concepts, such as the theory that people of a particular race are inherently racist, privileged or oppressed. A federal judge last November blocked the law’s enforcement in colleges, universities and businesses, calling it “positively dystopian.”

The creation of the district, then known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, was instrumental in Disney’s decision to build a theme park resort near Orlando in the 1960s. Having a separate government allowed the company to provide zoning, fire protection, utilities and infrastructure services on its sprawling property. The district was controlled by Disney supporters for more than five decades.

Richard Foglesong, a Rollins College professor emeritus, said he was surprised that the matter was decided internally, rather than by a public vote of the five members appointed by DeSantis to the district’s board who have promised repeatedly to be more transparent than their predecessors.

“This is an issue of public importance,” said Foglesong, who wrote a definitive account of Disney World’s governance in his book, “Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando.”

The DeSantis appointees took control of the renamed district earlier this year following a yearlong feud between the company and DeSantis. The fight began last year after Disney, beset by significant pressure internally and externally, publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades, a policy critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”

As punishment, DeSantis took over the district through legislation passed by Republican lawmakers and appointed a new board of supervisors to oversee municipal services for the sprawling theme parks and hotels. Disney sued DeSantis and his five board appointees in federal court, claiming the Florida governor violated the company’s free speech rights by taking retaliatory action.

Before the new board came in, Disney made agreements with previous oversight board members who were Disney supporters that stripped the new supervisors of their authority over design and development. The DeSantis-appointed members of the governing district have sued Disney in state court in a second lawsuit stemming from the district’s takeover, seeking to invalidate those agreements.

Key Takeaways:

• A dispute among prominent voices in the Russian information space highlights the Kremlin’s sensitivity to Russian reporting about setbacks in Crimea in particular and possibly in Ukraine in general and has further exposed fault lines within the milblogger community. This dispute, alongside the accompanying allegations, suggests that the issue of strikes against Crimea is a distinctly neuralgic point in the pro-war Russian information space.
• The highest echelons of the Russian military command may have directed milbloggers to stay silent about problems that can be directly blamed on the Russian military command.
• Russian forces conducted a drone strike on the night of August 1-2 that destroyed port infrastructure in Odesa Oblast including 40,000 tons of grain.
• Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) Commander Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky announced the formation of up two new VDV regiments and the reestablishment of the 104th VDV Division by the end of 2023. Teplinsky’s announcement indicates that he maintains his position and the public support of the Russian MoD following rumors of his arrest, possibly as a result of his affiliations with the Wagner Group, in mid-July.
• The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) officially provided weapons and vehicles to the Belgorod and Kursk Oblast Territorial Defense forces on August 2, reallocating conventional military assets as a part of the Kremlin’s efforts to steadily expand Russia’s internal security capabilities following the Wagner Group’s armed rebellion on June 24.
• Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front and reportedly advanced near Bakhmut on August 2.
• Russian forces conducted offensive operations along the Kupyansk-Svatove line, near Kreminna, around Bakhmut, and along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line and advanced in some areas.
• Russian civilians are increasingly targeting military registration and enlistment centers across Russia as a result of what Russian sources claim are targeted scam calls.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed the Kremlin narrative of “Novorossiya” and announced Russian government initiatives to provide books to occupied territories of Ukraine on August 2.

The four count indictment Special Counsel Jack Smith handed down against Donald Trump alleges that on Jan. 6, approximately two hours after the mob broke into the Capitol, “the Defendant” joined others in the outer Oval Office to watch the attack on television.

“See, this is what happens when they try to steal an election. These people are angry. These people are really angry about it. This is what happens,” the Defendant said.

This is what Trump wanted. He wanted his supporters to be angry, furious, and incensed if he lost the 2020 election. This was the whole point. This is what Trump wanted from the moment he began lying about a “stolen” election months BEFORE the 2020 election. He wanted violence. He wanted chaos. He wanted his supporters to be so damn pissed off that they would use violence to keep him in office.

He wanted, as Smith spelled out in the indictment, “...to create an intense atmosphere of mistrust and anger.” This was always his plan. Violence was always his ace in the hole if everything else he tried to do to keep himself in power failed.

Please don’t breeze past this fact: The former President of the United States believed violence was ultimately how he could execute his attempted coup. He incited that violence for months, and he exploited that violence on Jan. 6.

You can’t read this 45-page indictment and not understand that Donald Trump tried everything he could to overturn the election results, knowing his argument was based on nothing, and that he’d use his power as Commander in Chief of the armed forces to remain in office. (I repeat: Trump wanted to use the military.)

“This was his plan all along. He wanted, he needed, depended upon, encouraged, and incited violence. And he was prepared to order the military to act violently on his behalf.”

Per the indictment, when Trump was warned by his Deputy White House Counsel on Jan. 3 that there was no “outcome-determinative fraud in the election,” and that if Trump remained in office there would be “riots in every major city in the United States,” the unnamed co-conspirator 4 responded, “Well [Deputy White House Counsel], that’s why there’s an Insurrection Act.”

The indictment paints a picture of Trump and his co-conspirators systematically trying everything possible to overturn the election results—making false claims, pushing election officials in various states to ignore the vote counts, creating slates of fraudulent electors, and then pressuring top officials in the Justice Department to lie and conduct sham investigations.

None of it worked.

Trump’s penultimate play to stay in power was to pressure the vice president to fraudulently alter the election results. And Trump, true to form, repeatedly threatened violence to try to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence to do something he had no authority to do.

On Jan. 5, in one of the last of his many attempts to pressure the VP, Trump “grew frustrated” and told the VP that if he didn’t do what Trump wanted he’d “have to publicly criticize the VP.” Upon hearing this, the VP’s chief of staff “was concerned for the Vice President’s safety and alerted the head of the Vice President’s Secret Service detail.”

With none of his overtures to the VP working, Trump and his co-conspirators employed their final play to keep Trump in power: They unleashed the dogs of violence.

On the morning of Jan. 6, he directly incited his supporters to engage in violence to stop the proceedings at the Capitol. In his speech that morning, he lied to his supporters. He falsely told them that the vice president had the authority to stop the proceedings and that the VP might in fact alter the election results. Co-Conspirators 1 and 2 also lied about the VP in their speeches that morning to the same crowd. Trump then directed his supporters to go to the Capitol to obstruct the certification proceeding and exert pressure on the VP to take the fraudulent actions Trump already knew the VP had previously refused to do.

Violence. This was the traitor’s final play.

It's really what underlined everything Trump had done and said from that moment in July 2020 when he said the only way he could lose the election was if it were stolen. He planted the seeds of violence before a vote had even been cast. In the indictment, Jack Smith says the whole point of the Defendant’s lies was to be “destabilizing.” To cause violence.

“We fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Trump charged his supporters that morning as he pointed them to the Capitol and told them to go “take back their country.” And of course, the coward promised to go to the Capitol with them, but never did.

When violence unfolded at the Capitol, Trump refused to stop it. He smiled and watched it.

People have long been confused about why Trump just sat there in the White House all afternoon, completely unperturbed by what was happening. There should be no confusion: This is what he wanted. This was the plan.

And during the violence, he continued to spur it on, attacking the VP by tweet, accusing him of not having the courage to act. “See...this is what happens when you steal an election...these people are angry,” said the President of the United States, knowing it was all a lie.
A photo including Pro-Trump Supporters at the U.S Capitol Building

Later that night, the indictment alleges, Trump and his cronies further exploited the violence of that day. “As violence ensued, the Defendant and Co-Conspirators exploited the disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on these claims.” They were still calling lawmakers to further perpetuate the Big Lie, even after the violence at the Capitol.

One of the most frightening lines in the indictment was a reference to a Jan. 4 conversation between the defendant's senior counsel and co-conspirator 2, during which the senior advisor said no one would support the defendant’s proposal to have the VP alter the election results, and if VP did it, “You’re going to cause riots in the streets.” Co-Conspirator 2 responded that there had previously been points in the nation’s history where violence was necessary to protect the republic.
A photo including activists and allies at the New York Public Library calling for the Indictment of Donald Trump

In other words, violence was “necessary.” This, in essence, was Trump’s doctrine.

Judge Tonya Chutkin, who’s been chosen to preside over Trump's trial for this indictment and who has presided over a number of the trials for the Jan. 6 defendants, said this during one of those earlier Jan. 6 trials: “It has to be made clear that trying to violently overthrow the government, trying to stop the peaceful transfer of power, and assaulting law enforcement officers in that effort is going to be met with absolutely certain punishment.”

This is what Donald Trump did. This was his plan all along. He wanted, he needed, depended upon, encouraged, and incited violence. And he was prepared to order the military to act violently on his behalf.

It's bad enough that Trump refused to concede and accept his election loss. It’s bad enough that he refused to participate in the peaceful transfer of power. It’s bad enough that he lied about the election and tried to pressure others to engage in fraudulent activities to overturn the election. But it’s traitorous that he relied on the threat of violence rather than concede he lost a free and fair election in the United States of America.

We cannot, we must not become so inured to Trump’s madness that we normalize what he’s done. He tried to violently overthrow our government, and as Judge Chutkin said, he “must be met with absolutely certain punishment.”

Trump’s ass belongs in jail.