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15 votes
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Still alive
10 votes -
The rise and fall of Roe v. Wade
Part 1 (55 minutes): The hosts take on one of the Supreme Court’s most famous decisions, Roe v. Wade. In this first episode of a two-part series, they look at the legal and factual origins of Roe...
Part 1 (55 minutes):
The hosts take on one of the Supreme Court’s most famous decisions, Roe v. Wade. In this first episode of a two-part series, they look at the legal and factual origins of Roe v. Wade. They also discuss how Roe was weaponized by the conservative legal movement to rally against an interpretation of the Constitution that allows for flexibility in favor of a far more rigid approach.
Part 2 (61 minutes):
In the second part of a two-episode series on abortion rights, the hosts discuss Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 case in which the Supreme Court made it easier for states to restrict abortion access so long as abortion regulations don’t create an “undue burden.” The vague standard set lawmakers on a new path of attacking abortion access and fueled anti-abortion groups’ efforts to spread stigma and misinformation, setting up Roe v. Wade for a death by a thousand cuts.
(it's impossible to link to podcasts in a simple or easy way...if anyone has a better way of doing this I'm all ears...)
5-4 (pronounced "five to four", as in the vote total of a closely-divided court case from 9 justices) is one of my favorite podcasts. It's lawyers dissecting Supreme Court cases in a way that is very understandable to non-lawyers, from an explicitly and unabashedly left-wing perspective.
This is an extremely informative primer on the entire arc of abortion rights in the US, from the actual case everyone has heard of (Roe v Wade in the 1970s) to the case in the 1990s that actually superseded Roe and a case from last year that was seen as a victory because it upheld a previous case but it also contained a poison pill that significantly weakened that precedent.
8 votes -
US President Joe Biden's first executive order will require masks on federal property
19 votes -
TrackBiden: The first 100 days
22 votes -
Efforts are under way to designate the site of a 60,000 year old submerged forest off the Alabama coast a marine sanctuary
11 votes -
US President Donald Trump revokes rule preventing White House staff from lobbying
11 votes -
Richard Feynman and the bomb
8 votes -
Space Launch System green run hot fire test
4 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 20
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23 votes -
One in eight California households is past due on their water bill, and the total debt is over $1 billion
11 votes -
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declares China's treatment of Uighurs 'genocide'
15 votes -
What Parler saw during the attack on the Capitol: Curated videos, arranged on a timeline
23 votes -
How the most hyped US oil merger in a decade went bust
4 votes -
Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman on her career-defining US address and paying homage to Maya Angelou
10 votes -
For the first time in NFL history, a woman will officiate at the Super Bowl
6 votes -
In 1978, to emulate the exuberant and stylistic luxury of the Lincoln Continental, Volvo launched its own facsimile of the traditional American land yacht, the 262C
5 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 19
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15 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 18
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18 votes -
Stupid times call for stupid jokes
4 votes -
Annika Sörenstam defends accepting award from Donald Trump – Swede received medal for freedom the day after US Capitol riot
6 votes -
How Israel built a nuclear program right under the Americans' noses
7 votes -
400,000: The invisible deaths of Covid-19
10 votes -
Umphrey's McGee - Zonkey (2016)
5 votes -
The "whitewashing" of Black Wall Street: A century after the Tulsa, Oklahoma massacre, Black entrepreneurs in the city’s Greenwood district feel threatened with erasure yet again
8 votes -
US President Joe Biden indicates plans to cancel Keystone XL pipeline permit on first day in office, sources confirm
31 votes -
Finding a foothold for Nordic skiing in rural Alaska
5 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 17
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17 votes -
Margo St. James, advocate for sex workers, dies at 83
7 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 16
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13 votes -
When capitalists go on strike
5 votes -
The unsettling truth of the story behind "Mostly Harmless", the hiker whose mysterious death fascinated the internet
16 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 15
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19 votes -
The history of sourdough in Alaska, and why long-time residents are called "sourdoughs"
6 votes -
The bootleg sake of Prohibition-era Seattle
4 votes -
A new documentary details the FBI's relentless pursuit of Martin Luther King Jr
5 votes -
Nearly 1.6 million Illinois Facebook users to get about $350 each in privacy settlement
7 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 14
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13 votes -
Andrew Yang is running for Mayor of New York City
26 votes -
The Great Deplatforming: An alternate explanation for the Parler, et al, shutdowns
A common current narrative is that tech monopolists are suddenly acting of their own initiative and in concert to deplatform the burgeoning fascist insurgent movement within the US. I approve the...
A common current narrative is that tech monopolists are suddenly acting of their own initiative and in concert to deplatform the burgeoning fascist insurgent movement within the US. I approve the deplatforming strongly, though I suspect an alternative significant motivating and coordfinating factor.
An example of the "tech monopoly abuse" narrative is Glenn Greenwald's more than slightly unhinged "How Silicon Valley, in a Show of Monopolistic Force, Destroyed Parler"
Greenwald's argument hinges on emotion, insinuation, invective, a completely unfounded premise, an absolute absence of evidence, and no consideration of alternative explanations: an overwhelmingly plausible ongoing law enforcement and national security operation, likely under sealed or classified indictments or warrants, in the face of ongoing deadly sedition lead by the President of the United States himself, including against the person of his own vice president and credible threats against the President-Elect and Inauguration.
Such an legal action is, of course, extraordinarily difficult to prove, and I cannot prove it. A critical clue for me, however, is the defection not just of Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Stripe, and other tech firms, but of Parler's legal counsel, who would have to be an exceptionally stealth-mode startup to fit Greenwald's, or other's, "it's the tech monopolists" narrative. I've tempered my degree of assurance and language ("plausible" rather than "probable"). Time will tell. But a keen and critical mind such as Grenwald's should at least be weighing the possibility. He instead seems bent only on piking old sworn enemies, with less evidence or coherence than I offer.
This is the crux of Greenwald's argument. It's all he's got:
On Thursday, Parler was the most popular app in the United States. By Monday, three of the four Silicon Valley monopolies united to destroy it.
I'm no friend of the tech monopolists myself. The power demonstrated here does concern me, greatly. I've long railed against Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple, among other tech monopolists. Largely because as monopolies they are power loci acting through their occupation of a common resource, outside common control, and not serving the common weal. Hell: Facebook, Google (YouTube), Reddit, and Twitter played a massive role in creating the current fascist insurrection in the US, along with even more enthusiastic aid and comfort from traditional media, across the spectrum. Damage that will take decades to repair, if ever.
But, if my hypothesis is correct, the alternative explanation would be the opposite of this: the state asserting power over and through monopolies in the common interest, in support of democratic principles, for the common weal. And that I can support.
I don't know that this is the case. I find it curious that I seem to be the only voice suggesting it. Time should tell.
And after this is over, yes, Silicon Valley, in its metonymic sense standing for the US and global tech industry, has to face its monopoly problem, its free speech problem (in both sincere and insincere senses), its surveillance problem (capitalist, state, criminal, rogue actor), its censorship problem, its propaganda problem (mass and computational), its targeted manipulation adtech problem, its trust problem, its identity problem, its truth and disinformation problems, its tax avoidance problem, its political influence problem.
Virtually all of which are inherent aspects of monopoly: "Propaganda, censorship, and surveillance are all attributes of monopoly" https://joindiaspora.com/posts/7bfcf170eefc013863fa002590d8e506
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24771470But, speaking as a space alien cat myself, Greenwald is so far off base here he's exited the Galaxy.
Update: 2h30m after posting, NPR have mentioned sealed indictments and speculated on whether the President might be charged, in special coverage.
Late edits: 2022-1-23 Typos: s/inconcert/in concert/; s/would bet he/would be the/;
19 votes -
Jacksonville Jaguars hire Urban Meyer to be Head Coach
9 votes -
Visual investigations: How a Presidential rally turned into a Capitol rampage // Insurrection at the Capitol: A timeline of how it happened
12 votes -
Despite the pandemic, venture capital investments in US-based companies set records in 2020, with almost $130B raised and 318 mega-rounds worth $100M or more
4 votes -
A not-so-modest proposal to nationalize the defense industry
15 votes -
The scary power of the companies that finally shut Trump up
25 votes -
FBI uncovers Al-Qaeda plot to just sit back and enjoy collapse of United States
39 votes -
Declassification of secret document reveals US strategy in the Indo-Pacific
7 votes -
Bakersfield, California just ended chronic homelessness
11 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 13
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18 votes -
Jahari Massamba Unit - Pardon My French (2020)
3 votes