Steve Holmes

@bottyguy@triangletoot.party
18 Followers
132 Following
542 Posts
WhereDurham, NC USA
HowSometimes I ride my bike to work, it feels good.
CaveatsExcept for when a car hits you
What could possibly go wrong? DOGE to rapidly rebuild Social Security codebase.

A safe and proper rewrite should take years not months.

Ars Technica
Der Spiegel beats the #BrokenTimes and #BrokenPost with its appropriate news judgment. I don't think this needs translation.
The GDP of Russia is 2.2 trillion dollars. That is an economy about half the size of California. That is who the USA is now surrendering to in the Ukraine war. That is how much of a coward Trump is.

Some wingnut I've never spoken to before (or again (foreshadowing!)) accused me of living in an "echo chamber" because I block people.

Fuck the "echo chamber" discourse. I reject it entirely.I am not here to wear an ascetic's hair shirt because you think that surrounding myself with dickheads builds character.

Block early and block often. I expanded on this in some detail in my "On Blocking" post from a few years back, but it bears repeating. Especially now.

https://jwz.org/b/ykcn

Honestly, "Google couldn't verify your identity" is probably the nicest thing a corporation can say to you.

Hen in the Fox House: Jorge Velázquez and Ramiro González Better Served Democracy than Bret Baier

https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/10/17/hen-in-the-fox-house-kamala-harris-alludes-to-what-you-and-i-both-know/

Hen in the Fox House: Jorge Velázquez and Ramiro González Better Served Democracy than Bret Baier - emptywheel

Bret Baier's interview of Kamala Harris was probably only the third most important TV yesterday. On Univision, before a viewing audience that includes far more undecided swing voters, Trump refused to answer three questions few journalists have ever asked him, including why he did nothing as his rioters attacked the Capitol and how mass deportation will lead food prices to rise.

emptywheel
Screenshot showing many stories on polls, one tiny headline on policy

So it was only a hundred years ago - 1924 - when someone figured out the Sun, and all the rest of the stars, were made mostly of hydrogen with some helium. All the other elements were in trace amounts.

She was a student at Harvard named Cecilia Payne.

At the time the consensus was stars were made up of pretty much what Earth was made of.

It took 4 more years for a man to confirm the discovery before it was widely accepted, with him as discoverer.

It's all hers now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Payne-Gaposchkin

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin - Wikipedia

No. Fucking fuck this.

Her defiance didn’t kill her. “It” didn’t kill her.

He did.

He fucking killed her.

How is this hard?

Fucking George Will. His "optimum" outcome is Harris as President & a Republican Senate, thus what "conservatives" always want: deadlocked, ineffective government.
Post-debate, the optimum 2024 political outcome comes into view https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/09/12/kamala-harris-presidency-republican-senate/
Post-debate, the optimum 2024 political outcome comes into view

A Harris presidency, tempered by a Republican-led Senate, might finally revive a more normal politics.

The Washington Post
×

No. Fucking fuck this.

Her defiance didn’t kill her. “It” didn’t kill her.

He did.

He fucking killed her.

How is this hard?

@Daojoan I contacted @Reuters about that this morning for that very reason - *HE* killed her. The headline makes it seem like her "defiance" killed her.

@akamran @Daojoan @Reuters that is precisely what it says.

it doesn't matter what you think you're saying; the casual browser sees "if you're a woman, defiance will get you killed".

f*ck's sake.

@pavsmith @akamran @Daojoan @Reuters

counterpoint: when I first saw the graphic, I couldn't figure out why they were referring to her her ex as "it", and didn't get it until I read the post text.

The point I'm trying to make: Some may read the headline and assume she is dead because she defied her ex. In reality, she is dead, she defied her ex, and the two are probably but not necessarily related. In another timeline, where she didn't act as defiantly, she may have been just as dead. That's how partner abuse often plays out.

@Daojoan

Unbelievable. 😞

@Daojoan

The headline on Reuters is similarly passive, as if it was her fault for failing to protect herself, and the murderer isn't even mentioned.

@FediThing @Daojoan where did her life go? Our news staff is baffled!
@FediThing @Daojoan Reuters’s purpose is to report facts as blandly and unemotively as possible. Other news outlets (newspapers, TV, radio, web, etc.) pay Reuters to use their news feed, and add flavour and opinion to it as befits their publication style and politics.
@witewulf @FediThing @Daojoan surely "he killed her" is the most straightforward take here. Suggesting that her defiance was what killed her *is* inserting opinion.
@chaucerburnt @witewulf @FediThing @Daojoan They'd probably have to stick an 'allegedly' in there.
@ariaflame @witewulf @FediThing @Daojoan I gather he's dead, so can probably skip that bit

@ariaflame @chaucerburnt @witewulf @FediThing @Daojoan

making up excuses for reuters?

@serapath @chaucerburnt @witewulf @FediThing @Daojoan Just a comment on journalism's tendency to stick in 'allegedly' for any criminal who hasn't been formally convicted.
@ariaflame @serapath @chaucerburnt @witewulf @FediThing @Daojoan which is good they have to do that, because innocent until proven guilty
@ariaflame @serapath @chaucerburnt @witewulf @FediThing @Daojoan I know, anticipatory penalties are all the rage recently, and isn't that nice
@Profpatsch @ariaflame @serapath @witewulf @FediThing @Daojoan The legal presumption of innocence is an important principle, but given that he managed to kill himself in the process of murdering her, perhaps not one that needs to be argued in this thread?

@witewulf @Daojoan

She was deliberately burnt to death by her violent ex-boyfriend, that's what they should be putting in the headline.

"Hours later Cheptegei's former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, doused the runner in petrol and set her on fire, according to her family and police."

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/olympic-runner-cheptegei-defied-her-violent-ex-she-lost-her-life-anyway-2024-09-14/

@Daojoan you forgot to blame her for being a woman

@Daojoan
What in the *fuck?!*

They might as well have just said "she was asking for it."

@Daojoan the patriarchy is alive & well.
Relationship & substance abuse need to be included in school curriculums. Early.
Abuse women cannot simply decide to leave.
It’s complicated.
@Daojoan especially incredible headlines in this day and age!
@Daojoan Ugh, that really is an egregious one.
@Daojoan You wouldn’t want to blame the MAN, now would you?

@Daojoan

When an unfair system wants to keep pay inequity...

Keep a system of threats & intimidation to disenfranchise women...

Keep an exploitive social hierarchy with a permanent bottom rung...

To bolster the egos of the mediocre...

To force women into silence & even compliance in suffering using forced birth...

To thwart any progress that advances women like literacy & schooling...

Building a malign influence narrative that "women brought it on themselves" is how injustice is grown.

@Daojoan
Where was this?
This actually takes a deliberate effort. "How do we remove *him* from any suggestion of an actual crime?🤔"
@Quantillion @Daojoan wouldn’t be surprised if some of the editors were thinking he was a victim of relationship issues just like her and that absolves him of his violence
@Daojoan "It" is appropriate here. It dehumanizes and immasculates that bastard. And yeah, that's an "incorrect" usage of the word "bastard" too. It's called irony. He's a "fatherless SOB." Another term that's probably not literally correct either. It's called sarcasm. It's when someone is properly put in their place, and in this case, I think it was very well played.

@JustRosy @Daojoan dehumanizing bad people puts everyone at risk, it gives the impression that people who do shit like this are some super evil maniacal monsters or whatever when in reality they usually *seem* like normal people

Also just issues surrounding dehumanizing people in general and all the absolutely atrocious shit that’s lead too …y

@Daojoan this type of victim blaming really pisses me off

I get big "This wouldn't have happened if she had obeyed her man and been greatful" vibes from this headline. They can piss off with that kind of bullshit

Was the author a man by any chance?

@viralobscurity @Daojoan Hmm. We don't know it wouldn't have happenned. Maybe he was always going to find an excuse.

@Daojoan

The headline and imputation is disgusting, agreed.

But, who/what was the source publication?

The editorial staff need to be called out.

@Daojoan , agreed. You should give a link to the article, so that everybody may complain to the publication.

@Daojoan
And where did that happen? In the famous country of "Africa".
🤦

Ignorant f*ckers

@Daojoan

I did a search for the phrase, in quotes:

“Rebecca Cheptegei defied her violent ex. It killed her”

It came up with a link to one person.

I did that same search on LinkedIn.

It came up with a post by that person and by someone else.

Both LI accounts seem a bit odd.

Both posts added a hyphen after the search term.

IMO the phrase is clickbait.

@Daojoan This is one of the examples where malice looks like incompetence but is not. The wording is intentional.

Not sure what exact hidden agenda this wording chases but am sure it makes me nauseous.🤮

@Daojoan Is there a link to the article?

@Daojoan and yet if you contact them and say “You need to correct your dangerously misogynistic headline. If you decide to refuse, it might get you killed”, you would be accused of making threats to kill, and probably be arrested.

I wonder what the difference is?

@Daojoan That is the most blatant piece of victim blaming I've ever seen. If she had been sweet and obedient, she would have been fine? WTF?!
@Daojoan Also, she was actually from Uganda, not Kenya. But who cares? @RickiTarr
@Daojoan this sort of messaging is exactly why women develop a fawn response. We are made to believe that it'll all be so much better if we play nice and not "provoke" men. And then when women do that, they're giving "mixed messages" or "friendzoning" and that's the excuse made on behalf of men when they kill us anyway.
@Daojoan hear hear. Weak language. Say it like it is - he murdered her.
@Daojoan I misread this as Rebecca ChatGPT and it really didn't make no sense. But this is even worse

@Daojoan

Oh god, and so what is the message here ? Don't defend yourself and everything will be fine ?

WHAT.

Damn it, words are important !

@Daojoan please don't misunderstand the mandatory policy of not defying your ex