spd

@spacetimedonut
5 Followers
62 Following
214 Posts

So, apparently the #Republicans who run the #HouseOversightCommittee are claiming, in a generally partisan report, that #COVID came from a lab in and that the "real" #coverup within the Trump administration was that. While that would be interesting, and I'm certainly not opposed to looking into it, they don't seem to have any evidence, and Democrat members of the committee released a scathing counter statement.

This is an example of what we keep saying, that part of how #Fascism prevents counter-discourse is by creating an environment of #misinformation and conflicting reports where people don't know what to believe. Rather than coalescing around evidence to get actual conclusions, we see a partisan fight over a single theory.

I'm just going to fall back to what I've been saying this whole time: if we think it came from a lab, this needs to be investigated and found with facts. Otherwise, it doesn't necessarily matter where COVID came from, what matters is the need to respond to it.

🚨Pay Attention to what happened in Korea!

Yesterday, the president of South Korea attempted a coup, declaring martial law and ordering the military to arrest legislative leaders. His efforts were thwarted by a combination of immediate street protests, a parliament that acted quickly to overturn his orders and security forces that ultimately stood down and followed the Constitution. This act of democratic resilience suggests some important lessons for us as we enter #TFG presidency and confront his threats to purge and misuse the military.

Elon Musk asks court to block OpenAI conversion from nonprofit to for-profit
Musk says for-profit OpenAI harms public interest—and his own company, xAI.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/elon-musk-asks-court-to-block-openai-conversion-from-nonprofit-to-for-profit/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
Elon Musk asks court to block OpenAI conversion from nonprofit to for-profit

Musk says for-profit OpenAI harms public interest—and his own company, xAI.

Ars Technica
Must-read, "This merger of state and tech power isn't just another shift in the landscape. It's a fundamental challenge to democratic governance in the digital age. The work of protecting democratic values in this new landscape has only just begun."
https://www.techpolicy.press/on-the-coming-merger-of-tech-and-state-power/
#geopolitics #ICT #IT #Tech #state #democracy @geopolitics
On the Coming Merger of Tech and State Power | TechPolicy.Press

Taylor Owen writes that the merger of state and tech power is a fundamental challenge to democratic governance in the digital age.

Tech Policy Press
'Brain rot' named Oxford Word of the Year 2024 - Oxford University Press

After more than 37,000 votes on our shortlist, we're pleased to announce that the Oxford Word of the Year for 2024 is 'brain rot'.

Oxford University Press
Let's combine "defensible" and "tenable" to create a new word: Deftenable (pronounced "deft-en-able")
This combines:
- The "def" from defensible, suggesting the ability to defend
- The "ten" from tenable, carrying the connotation of power to hold
So "deftenable" would mean something that is both defensible through reasoning AND maintainable through power/strength. It could describe a position, argument, or situation that has both logical merit and practical sustainability.​​​​​​​​
Norms and institutionalism are not deftenable positions. Clinging to them is how we lose #democracy
There seems to be a lot of denialism on fediverse. The American people turned their back democracy and freedom. Why do you all have a hard time accepting that? This is #decline
Are the American people:
Willfully ignorant
0%
Poorly informed
100%
Poll ended at .
Keep an eye on state and local initiatives to protect rule of law and democracy. This is a nascent interstate project launched by the governors of #illinois and #Colorado. https://govsfordemocracy.org/ #Democracy #RuleOfLaw
Governors Uniting to Strengthen Democracy

Since America’s founding almost 250 years ago, the nature and scale of the threats to our democracy have changed more than the founders ever could have imagined, from cyberthreats to fast-moving disinformation campaigns. Grounded in the belief that hope alone will not save democracy and that we must actively work to protect and strengthen it, Governors Safeguarding Democracy is a first of its kind nonpartisan alliance of governors united in their efforts to uphold and fortify U.S. democracy.

Governors Safeguarding Democracy