The news thread

[Toy Revolver]

  Salman Rushdie warns against U.S. censorship in rare public address 9 months after being stabbed onstage 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/salman-rushdie-rare-public-address-free-speech/

no one on earth has earned more of a right to be heard on this issue and he says we need to reject censorship from the right and the left

amen 🙏

[SGR]

i think that americans are already fleeing to mexico at close to the same rate they're coming here

it's just when you add all the central american countries that the numbers get skewed

spanish speaking immigrants don't seem problematic to me

i think constantly calling it a "crisis" is racist af tbh

not to mention, it was our fucked up policies that made those places difficult to live in

Is it possible, advisable, or even ethical to make immigration policy the responsibility of our top economists instead of our politicians? (i.e. de-politicize immigration, and make it a matter of balancing the fine line of economic input and social output and optimize that?) Just something I've wondered given our declining domestic birth rates. Obviously I don't think the right-extreme ("let's put a hold on all immigration") or the left-extreme ("let's have open borders") are the correct solutions. There's gotta be a happy medium.

P.S. I don't think "crisis" is the racist buzzword, but rather "invasion" is. The latter implies they're coming here to conquer our country - which they're obviously not doing. They're coming here by and large to better their own lives and the lives of their family.

[Toy Revolver]

California liberals are so full of shit. Fucking shameless. California is more likely to split into three states than for this to happen.

[Toy Revolver]

I don't think "crisis" is the racist buzzword, but rather "invasion"

lol true invasion is worse but crisis is still racist

invasion is klan level bs

[Psy-Fi]

California liberals are so full of shit. Fucking shameless. California is more likely to split into three states than for this to happen.

Dave Chappelle - Reparations

[Guybrush]

^

no one on earth has earned more of a right to be heard on this issue and he says we need to reject censorship from the right and the left

amen 🙏

Hear, hear!

Wholeheartedly agree with this.

[Toy Revolver]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/17/tech/montana-governor-tiktok/index.html

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill Wednesday banning TikTok in the state.

Gianforte tweeted that he has banned TikTok in Montana "to protect Montanans' personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party," officially making it the first state to ban the social media application.

i guess there's no first amendment in montana

[Psy-Fi]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/17/tech/montana-governor-tiktok/index.html

i guess there's no first amendment in montana

The US government doesn't like any competition when it comes to gathering personal data.

Especially when it comes to gathering personal data on people living in the US.

The fact that TikTok is a Chinese company just ruffles their feathers even more.

[Toy Revolver]

The US government doesn't like any competition when it comes to gathering personal data.

Especially when it comes to gathering personal data on people living in the US.

The fact that TikTok is a Chinese company just ruffles their feathers even more.

i don't live in montana but i did i'd be a lot more worried about the local government than china

[SGR]

I don't really worry about the privacy concerns/personal data collection. I don't know if banning it is the right move, but TikTok is the most popular app and social media platform for a reason. Its algorithm that feeds content to the user is really, really good. And TikTok's biggest demographic, at least in the US, are teenagers. So the idea that a foreign company (that likely is influenced in some ways by the Chinese government) has this big of a channel to influence the hearts and minds of American youth should at the very least give us pause.

All of these social media algorithms in general (not just TikTok, but our own American social media companies) should get more scrutiny from lawmakers and ethics groups. They all want to increase engagement and increase screen-time, and it's no secret that years ago, Facebook did prime its algorithm to show you things that you either disagreed with or would make you upset to increase engagement. Unfortunately, most of the dinosaurs in our Senate and Congress haven't the faintest clue how any of this stuff works. I'd be willing to bet Dianne Feinstein couldn't even tell you what TikTok is.

[Janszoon]

I'd be willing to bet Dianne Feinstein couldn't even tell you what TikTok is.

It's a watch company, right?

[Toy Revolver]

So the idea that a foreign company (that likely is influenced in some ways by the Chinese government) has this big of a channel to influence the hearts and minds of American youth should at the very least give us pause.

we should be grateful

[Psy-Fi]

Speaking of gathering personal data...

Give up your personal data and get a free 55-inch TV

[Lisnaholic]

Yep, Sen Feinstein should have stepped down months ago. In her time, she fought the good fight, I think, but has now outstayed her welcome on account of being too old and too sick to do her job. In her way, she is as shameless as George Santos, with what I see as a pigs-at-the-trough mentality: I got a nice salary, thanks to the taxpayer, and nothing will induce me to quit voluntarily. Judge R Bader Ginsberg took the same approach: stayed in the Supreme Court until she died (during Trump presidency) and gave her seat to Kavenaugh, right? If she had retired honourably during Obama's presidency, the SCOTUS majority would surely have been tipped in the liberal direction and those abortion rulings would've gone a different way. Good for you, Bader Ginsberg! Your last year on the court came at a pretty high price for America.

Well, that was more of a rant than I expected! I actually came here to post this: not news, but about a news commentator. I don't really know anything about this guy, but I see behind him 2 guitars, Winston Churchill and Joan Didion, which is quite an intriguing cultural mix, amIright?



Any other notable back-wall displays that you've seen while consuming the news?

[Janszoon]

'Oh my God, she bit me': Tourist bitten by woman inside a Broadway bar

This happened in Kid Rock's bar in Nashville.