Yesterday, I got to thinking about “The City at the Edge of Forever – Episode 29 of Season I of the original Star Trek, it first aired in the spring of 1967. It made a deep impression on me. Just the thought of having to make a decision like that gave (and still gives) me the heebie-jeebies. But there is also trmendous relief associated with realizing one does not personally required to make that decision. Except that we are. Any election (not just Presidential) in which there is a spoiler candidate requires every eligible voter to make exactly that decision, and do it without the benefit of an omniscient entity who can show us exactly what the future will be on both sides of that decision. I can still hear in my mind the dialogue (Kirk) “But she was right!” (Spock) “Yes, she was. But she was right at the wrong time.” ooking back 57 years, I probably don’t have the exact words. But the meaning is exact. If you want to view it, it can be streamed free (but with ads) here, [You may need to turn on the sound and tell it to restart] or paid at Paramount Plus (you mught be able to get it on free trial) or Apple TV if you use either of those. If you just want to refresh your memory of the plot, Wikipedia is the place – and thrown in you get production history, information on all kinds of production disagreements, history of the music used, and a whole lot more, if you want it. And yes, I deliberately put together this and today’s cartoon.
Not only did the GOP (in the House) kill the National Security bill this week, but the GOP (all of them, even non-elected ones) are working overtime to make sure that security spending stays higher than is manageable. They yell at us for “Tax and spend,” but to me spending money you don’t have, and don’t have any idea how to get, is far more irresponsible.
At least something good happened (besides the Appeals Court verdict)- “The Post-Conviction Justice Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office moved to exonerate the two men after an investigation with defense counsel found the teenage witnesses who testified at trial had been treated as suspects.” No, they haven’t been locked up since 1987, thank God- they were released, one in 2007 and one in 2011, but that’s still way to long, and until now, they didn’t have a citizen’s full rights. And they’re far more gracious about it than I would be.
Yesterday, after posting here (including the update), I felt enough better to look up today’s radio opera – it’s “The Magic Flute” in the abridged English language version aimed at kids – and who doesn’t love that! There are five-year-olds out there getting kicks out of singing the Queen of the Night’s aria (and pretty durned well, most of them.) Sure, it’s sexist, but no worse than Disney, and it does have goodies, baddies, and figures of pure humor of both genders, which even Disney doesn’t consistently do.
I also listened to the full RBG CD. You know how CDs come with booklets with some backstories and with lyrics sometimes – this comes with two booklets – one of each, lyrics and backstories. The poems were selected to give a mixture of history, humor, and heart. I thought the funniest one was about Ruth’s son Jamie stealing the elevator at his prep school (yes, the same James who now owns the record label which put it out) and the most heartbreaking was Marty’s note to Ruth written in hospital shortly before his death. But I will not argue with anyone who thinks the pot roast recipe is the funniest (I’d surely love to taste that pot roast.)
And Mary Trump posted and emailed this – I held it for a couple of hours but have found out it is a real story – it was carried at least by CNN and y’all may have heard it – but her viewpoint really is like no one else’s
I was thinking about looking for a cartoon … but so little happened on December 16 through history that “On This Day” was reduced to reporting that, on this date in 1997, Bill Clinton named his Labrador Retriever “Buddy.”
Glenn Kirschner – Another Trump lawyer – Jenna Ellis – pleads guilty & flips in GA; throws Rudy Giuliani under the bus [Has anyone ever heard before of an actual lawyer putting forward an “advice of counsel” defense?]
The Lincoln Project – Jim Jordan on Social Security
MSNBC – ‘Political earthquake’: Mark Meadows has been granted immunity according to ABC News
Liberal Redneck – The House GOP is Incompetent
Woman Spends 6 Months Getting Stray Cats To Trust Her
Beau – Let’s talk about Biden, hot takes, and security….
Yesterday was Flag Day, commemorating the day in 1778 when the Continental Congress (the second one) voted to accept the design. I wonder what they would think if they could see it today. And IMO it needs to be expanded again. DC, Puerto RIce, and the US Virgin Islands for starters. It’s time we gave all citiens full citizenship.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Crooks & Liars – Trump Admits Guilt During Asinine Speech Post-Arraignment
Quote – Former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissman was appalled…. “[T]hose statements that you just played are admissible as admissions, regardless of whether Donald Trump takes the stand or not,” Weissmann said. “Those are admissions. So, that is part of what he said is just a straight-out confession. It’s not a defense. It’s confession.”,,, Who knew being “too busy” was a proper legal defense for refusing to return top secret documents relating to our national security? Click through for story. I can’t guess whether he actually believes this is exculpatory or just thinks his base will believe so. I know that when I find myself thinking “I don’t have time for that,” it really means there are other things I’d rather do. And sometimes that is actually legitimate, if the thing I’d rather do gives me some needed benefit that the thing I “don’t have time for” doesn’t – but some of those things I “don’t have time for” really need to be done, and eventually I have to do them.
Denver Gazette “Out There” – Denver Zoo gets big donation after winning bet on Nuggets’ NBA Finals victory
Quote – Denver Zoo took to Twitter on Tuesday to thank Zoo Miami for their $2,500 donation to the Mile High City zoo’s efforts related to the bighorn sheep and mountain goats on Mount Evans. The donation was the result of the Denver Zoo making a bet with Zoo Miami based on the outcome of the Miami Heat versus Denver Nuggets NBA Finals match-up, which the Nuggets won on Monday night in a four-to-one series. Had the Heat won the series, the Denver Zoo would have been obligated to make a donation to the Zoo Miami sea turtle conservation effort. Click through for details. I’m not a betting person. If it’s something not terribly important, I may consider betting on what I don’t want (so that I win either way.) But I do realize many people are fascinated by gambles, and I have no objection to that fascination being used to publicize good causes. (There’s a cute pcture of a baby bighorn, BTW.
Yesterday, we resolved the car registration issue. Of course i don’t actually have the sticker yet. So when I go to see Virgil tomorrow, I will have in the car a copy of the entire email correspondence to explain the delay and prove i am actually in good standing in case I should be stopped. Of course I hope that won’t ne neessary – but but why take chances when one doesn’t have to? Also – not actually yesterday, but while I was preoccupied – I learned that what used to be “Elderhostel” is now named “Road Scholar.” If you weren’t familiiar with it, it’s a no-profit that books travel for older people. I would not call it exactly cheap (and some of it is downright pricey), but they do make it more affordable than if you were to try to book it yourself. So if anyone you know is considering leaving, not just a red state, but the whole country, it would be a resource to help check potential destinatins out. I did not register – I assume if one does, one would be able to see more than I was able to. Also yesterday, though, I received a package I wasn’t expecting yet – the window for delivery they gave me when I ordered was June 3 – July 3. It was 4 pairs of glasses for Barbie dolls (including one pair of sunglasses.) Hopefully not having to try to make glasses out of jewelry wie will inspire me to get busy on the justice robe for my RBG doll, and then will only need to make the collar. (The doll doesn’t look a whole lot like RBG, though she looks very much like the actress who played her in the biopic which IIRC was called “On Account of Sex.” And the sunglasses – well, I have pulled a bunch of red yarn out of my stash in anticipation of using them. 😉
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Letters from an American – May 31, 2023
Quote – But, as Josh Marshall pointed out in Talking Points Memo today, the Republican base no longer seems to care much about fiscal issues. Instead, they are pushing the cultural issues at the heart of illiberal democracy: anti-LGBTQ laws, antiabortion laws, anti-immigration laws. Former president Trump is making those themes central to his reelection campaign. Yesterday he released a video promising that on “Day One” of a new presidential term, he would issue an executive order that would end birthright citizenship. Our current policy that anyone born in the United States is a citizen, he claims, is “based on a historical myth, and a willful misinterpretation of the law by the open borders advocates.” He promises to make “clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward, the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic US citizenship.” Click through for full column. Donald Trump** promised/threatened to do away with birthtight citizenship on his first day (if he wins.) Here’s why that is, at the very least, unconstitutional.
emptywheel – LORDY, THERE ARE TAPES [OF TRUMP ACKNOWLEDGING HE HAD STOLEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS]!
Quote – First, it’s certainly possible this is one of the documents pertaining to Iran that WaPo has reported were among the ones obtained in the search in August 2022. If it is, then it would be a document that Trump transported back and forth from Florida — something that would make it easier for DOJ to charge this in DC instead of SDFL. Click through – I’m sure you know the basic part of this story. This may fill in some details.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Starting tomorrow at sunset and running through Tuesday is Yom HaShoah (“Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day,”) and I was planning on sharing an article on it today. But tomorrow and Tuesday are also the last two days of tax season, and what I had in mind deserves more time and more attention than is likely to be available this weekend. So it will run next week. Instead, I’m sharing an article looking at the platform “Discord,” a (presumably unwitting) player in the most recent classified document scandal to hit the news.
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What is Discord? An internet researcher explains the social media platform at the center of Pentagon leak of top-secret intelligence
Some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets were posted to a small online gaming community. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Since the early 2000s, mass-appeal social media platforms have collected these small spaces into bigger ones, letting people find their own little corners of the internet, but only with interconnections to others. This allows social media sites to suggest new spaces users might join, whether it’s a local neighborhood discussion or a group with the same hobby, and sell specifically targeted advertising. But the small-group niche community is making a comeback with adults, and with kids and teens.
When Discord was initially released in 2015, many video games did not provide players with live voice chat to talk to one another while playing the game – or required them to pay premium prices to do so. Discord was an app that enabled real-time voice and text chatting, so friends could team up to conquer an obstacle, or just chat while exploring a game world. People do still use Discord for that, but these days most of the activity on the service is part of wider communities than just a couple of friends meeting up to play.
Examining Discord is part of my research into how scholars, developers and policymakers might design and maintain healthy online spaces.
A little bit old school
Discord first came onto my radar in 2017 when an acquaintance asked me to join a writer’s support group. Discord users can set up their own communities, called servers, with shareable links to join and choices about whether the server is public or private.
The writer’s group server felt like an old-school chat room, but with multiple channels segmenting out different conversations that folks were having. It reminded me of descriptions of early online chat and forum-based communities that hosted lengthy conversations between people all over the world.
The people in the writers’ server quickly realized that a few of our community members were teenagers under the age of 18. While the server owner had kept the space invite-only, he avoided saying “no” to anyone who requested access. It was supposed to be a supportive community for people working on writing projects, after all. Why would he want to exclude anyone?
He didn’t want to kick the teens out, but was able to make some adjustments using Discord’s server moderation system. Community members had to disclose their age, and anyone under 18 was given a special “role” that tagged them as a minor. That role prevented them from accessing channels that we marked as “not safe for work,” or “NSFW.” Some of the writers were working on explicit romance novels and didn’t want to solicit feedback from teenagers. And sometimes, adults just wanted to have their own space.
While we took care in constructing an online space safe for teens, there are still dangers present with an app like Discord. The platform is criticized for lacking parental controls. The terms of service state that no one under 13 should sign up for Discord, but many young people use the platform regardless.
Additionally, there are people who have used Discord to organize and encourage hateful rhetoric, including neo-Nazi ideologies. Others have used the platform to traffic child pornography.
However, Discord does maintain that these sorts of activities are illegal and unwelcome on its platform, and the company regularly bans serversand users it says perpetuate harm.
Options for safety
Every Discord server I’ve joined since then has had some safeguard around young people and inappropriate content. Whether it’s age-restricted channels or simply refusing to allow minors to join certain servers, the Discord communities I’m in share a heightened concern for keeping young people on the internet safe.
This does not mean that every Discord server will be safe at all times for its members, however. Parents should still take the time to talk with their kids about what they’re doing in their online spaces. Even something as innocuous as the popular children’s gaming environment Roblox can turn bad in the right setting.
And while the servers I’ve been involved in have been managed with care, not all Discord servers are regulated this way. In addition to servers lacking uniform regulation, account owners are able to lie about their age and identity when signing up for an account. And there are new ways for users to misbehave or annoy others on Discord, like spamming loud and inappropriate audio.
But, as with other modern social media platforms, there are safeguards to help administrators keep online communities safe for young people if they want to. Server members can label an entire server “NSFW,” going beyond single channel labels and locking minor accounts out of entire communities. But if they don’t, company officials can do it themselves. When accessing Discord on an iOS device, NSFW servers are not visible to anyone, even accounts belonging to adults. Additionally, Discord runs a Moderator Academy to support training up volunteer moderators who can appropriately handle a wide range of situations.
Discord is another way for people to gather and communicate online. Discord
Stronger controls
Unlike many other current popular social media platforms, Discord servers often function as closed communities, with invitations required to join. There are also large open servers flooded with millions of users, but Discord’s design integrates content moderation tools to maintain order.
For example, a server creator has tight control over who has access to what, and what permissions each server member can have to send, delete or manage messages. In addition, Discord allows community members to add automations to a server, continuously monitoring activity to enforce moderation standards.
With these protections, people use servers to form tight-knit, closed spaces safe from chaotic public squares like Twitter and less visible to the wider online world. This can be positive, keeping spaces safer from bullies, trolls and disinformation spreaders. In my own research, young people have mentioned their Discord servers as the safe, private space they have online in contrast to messy public platforms.
However, moving online activity to more private spaces also means that those well-regulated, healthy communities are less discoverable for vulnerable groups that might need them. For example, new fathers looking for social support are sometimes more inclined to access it through open subreddits rather than Facebook groups.
Discord’s servers are not the first closed communities on the internet. They are, essentially, the same as old-school chat rooms, private blogs and curated mailing lists. They will have the same problems and opportunities as previous online communities.
Discussion about self-protection
In my view, the solution to this particular problem is not necessarily banning particular practices or regulating internet companies. Research into youth safety online finds that government regulation aimed at protecting minors on social media rarely has the desired outcome, and more often results in disempowering and isolating youth instead.
Just as parents and caring adults tell the kids in their lives about recognizing dangerous situations in the physical world, talking about healthy online interactions can help young people protect themselves in the online world. Many youth-focused organizations, and many internet companies, have internet safety information aimed at kids of all ages.
Whenever young people hop onto the next technology fad, there will inevitably be panic over how the adults, companies and society may or may not be keeping young people safe. What is most important in these situations is to remember that talking to young people about how they use those technologies, and what to do in difficult situations, can be an effective way to help them avoid serious harm online.
This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 15, 2022.
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, I am a firm believer that there is nothing wrong with the Internet which a race of humans smarter, better educated, and more conscientious than we are couldn’t handle. Unfortunately, that race is not what we have. And figuring out how to operate and regulate the Internet in such a way that those of us who are educated and conscientious have all the access we need nd want, while those who – are not – are protected from it (and we from them), and still fulfill the promise of the First Amendment – well, that is a nightmare. In fact, we need to protect ourselves, since there is really no one doing it for us.
