Eric J. Korpela @SETIEric@social.cleverlibre.org

This has mostly been reported as "trans women banned from women's chess" but it's much more sinister. (as if it weren't already.)

ALL trans people are targeted by this ruling. Trans men will be stripped of all chess titles won, which can only be returned to them by “changing the gender back to a woman” (from the ICF’s ruling). ALL transgender chess players will be marked as trans in their files.

If you play or know anyone who does take a stand on this. It's ugly.

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/international-chess-org-trans-women?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

This week Biden forgave federal student debt for 804,000 borrowers. A judge upheld the decision—proving yet again that Biden has authority to cancel student debt.

Furthermore—if we can bail out Wall Street with $10T & cancel $2.1T in billionaire taxes & cancel $800B in PPP loans—then we can cancel $1.7T in predatory student loans.

We've bailed out corporations and billionaires long enough. Let's elevate working people.

These days, I have more faith that Germany will keep Holocaust deniers and fascists at bay than my fellow Americans.

While the vandalism and book burning is disturbing, the planned demonstration, already in the works, offers a chance for good people there to feel solidarity.

Windows shattered at headquarters of Holocaust memorial site foundation in Germany

https://www.jta.org/2023/08/16/global/windows-shattered-at-headquarters-of-holocaust-memorial-site-foundation-in-germany via @JTAnews #antisemitism #islamophobia #racism #hate #AfD #Nazis #incels #violence #history #politics

“Stay and fight” is so ludicrous. Fight for what? Fight with what? Users have no leverage against Musk. None. It’s just more insipid rationalization by people who just can’t bear to think about having to lose any part of their follower counts. It’s actually a chance to expand them and make them more meaningful.

@dangillmor I think Musk overall is incredibly stupid on many issues. One thing he is not stupid at, however, is con artistry; he knows what lies sell and what lies don’t, and has a rather good sense of what he can get away with doing.

As for the NYT: the undue reliance of it and other journalistic organizations on Twitter has always baffled me. Twitter is a terrible substitute for discussion and proper public relations for many reasons; treating it as anything else should in an ideal world be called out as journalistic malpractice.

Scummy scammers have always been that way:

"Equifax invented the business in 1899, when, as the Retail Credit Company, it used private spies to track queers, political dissidents and "race mixers" so that banks and merchants could discriminate against them".

Equifax "doxed every adult in America and was given a mere wrist-slap, and now continues to assemble nonconsensual dossiers on every one of us"

@pluralistic says they might be brought to heel:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Ah, yes, retrofitting the Kanye hot-take on American slavery for the holocaust. There is not a single person in the entire Trumpista movement who is not a rotten-souled piece of shit. https://themessenger.com/politics/former-trump-adviser-criticizes-jews-for-not-fighting-back-during-holocaust-michael-flynn

Fellow #LawProfs, will you join me in inviting Scholastica to the fedi?

Scholastica still posts all of its journal-opening updates on Twitter--and, as far as I can tell, only on Twitter.

It would be unfortunate if our colleagues, especially the newer ones, felt it was necessary to remain on Twitter to see those updates.

I just submitted a note using their "contact us" form. Maybe if they hear from enough of us, they'll come over.

#LawFedi #LegalScholarship

Breaking: Trump will release a report next week totally exonerating him from his 91 indictments, along with his health care policy and his taxes.

Finally, I want to show you what an accurate headline would have looked like. And I want you to notice two things.

First of all, notice how much punchier it is. It's shorter, taking up about half the space of the original headline, leaving more room for the actual, you know...story.

Second, notice that it contains ALL THE DETAILS the original did. There is no information contained in the original NYT headline which is not conveyed by this one. In addition, my headline arguably conveys MORE, and more ACCURATE information than the original.

This is frequently the case for Propaganda Headlines. The tactics outlined here usually result in unwieldy, lengthy sentences which weasel around the facts of the case, rather than just saying the unvarnished truth.

In other words, it takes MORE words to be LESS truthful. It's the worst of both worlds.

🧵/end

More fun with #sidneypowell: she didn't just write down her criminal scheme, she put it in a contract
#trump

Ben Shapiro: we shouldn’t indict trump because “running for office now carries the legal risk of going to jail”

Also Ben Shapiro: "If we start treating [presidents] as criminals, maybe they'll think twice before they act so criminally in the future."

Same fool that wrote a book on why Obama should be prosecuted under RICO

Republican brain rot

mikes hard pepto bismol

This AP story demonstrates how eager some political reporters are to say Trump’s crimes don’t matter. It says the electorate is divided. It says “about half” approve of the indictments. It quotes three of the people polled: all Republicans.

In fact, only a dwindling minority are still able to defend Trump. If you skip the prose and look at the ACTUAL POLL RESULTS, you learn that only 15% of those polled said Trump did “nothing wrong” in Georgia and 21% at the Capital.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-poll-georgia-elections-b6140eed88b3153e41dbf9e008d5a21b

Did you see this piece in the Guardian? Senior managers at Vice apparently blocked a story about how the Saudi government helps families harass and threaten transgender Saudis living overseas. Vice now gets a lot of Saudi money, and it seems like the editorial independence of their news team was part of the deal.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/aug/15/vice-blocked-news-stories-that-could-offend-saudi-arabia-insiders-say

lololol, a comment on the video says something like "see, here's why plug-and-charge is so great. You don't always have your phone or wallet with you, but -" and I'm gonna need to stop you right there, bud.

Yes. Yes I do.

I do the ol' pocket pat every time I grab my cars keys.

Rich people ain't what they used to be. As the Titanic was sinking, Benjamin Guggenheim got women and children on the lifeboats, then dressed up to go down with the ship. Elon Musk picked a fight with another dork and then faked a shoulder injury to get out of it.

Jail. Farage.

ok but does this come in human sizes

I'm trying to return my laptop to Lenovo and they keep telling me that I can't request an RMA until I receive my laptop and I asked them what do they mean (since I'm holding it in my hands right now) and they said it won't ship out until next month due to shortages and I wont be charged until it ships. I confirmed my credit card hasn't been charged yet so I asked them to cancel my order. We'll see what happens I guess.