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Martin Nutty

1/ Today the kicks off in earnest with ’s re-election bid announcement

There is 560 days to the . Much will happen, conditions will change but it as suggests a continuation of the battle for the soul of America

I’ll use this thread to comment periodically on the election over the next 80 weeks. It’s a long road to , but the stakes couldn’t be higher

youtu.be/ChjibtX0UzU

6) Meanwhile the candidate accused of rape in a current civil suit trial plays golf in .

While Mr claims he will return to to defend himself, he has opted NOT to attend the trial. While the geography was different, the usual MO was on full display, made for assertions without reference to fact or logic

irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/05

The Irish TimesDonald Trump says civil rape case in New York is ‘political attack’By Jack Horgan-Jones

7) is not hirable for most jobs. Like many, conservative pundit, Charlie Sykes, is mystified that many Americans consider to be a plausible candidate for control of the nuclear codes or top secret clearance

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/

8) The will be the first election where generated imagery, audio and video will be deployed.

Donie O'Sullivan recently flagged a campaign add which used AI generated imagery to stoke fears about fictional dystopian future resulting from a re-election

This ad was created by the not some outsourced hacked media shop. A shameful moment for the Party

cnn.com/2023/05/02/politics/ai

9) The show was on last night. He served up a big dose of red meat to true believer supporters who were predominant in the town hall format audience.

While that makes going into the primary process, the campaign will be fought for the middle swing 30%. Many will not be enamored by , rioter embrace or the rape verdict

nytimes.com/2023/05/11/us/poli

The New York TimesFive Takeaways From Trump’s Unruly CNN Town HallBy Shane Goldmacher

10) has had a busy 24 hours trying to justify why it hosted

Should be hosted by legitimate news operations? I think yes, but not in the circus like town hall environment

@rbreich is out with a good piece indicating that "libertarian", was the likely driver behind the decision to host . I find this suspicion to be highly plausible

robertreich.substack.com/p/aft

Robert ReichWhy did CNN do it?By Robert Reich

11) File this one under . Hardly surprising when understaffed and under resourced is used as a broadcast platform. Seems like lacks risk assessment skills, fairly important if you wish to be .

This latest mess will do little to improve the credibility of his crumbling network

npr.org/2023/05/24/1178070208/

13) is now facing 2 different criminal court dates in New York and Federal court in Florida. It’s likely that more indictments are forthcoming: election tampering in Georgia and then the conspiracy

bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

BloombergDonald Trump Charged in Florida Over Secret Documents CaseBy Chris Strohm

14) Speaker in reacting to the indictment seems to misunderstand that the charges come from the Department of Justice and not .

I can understand the confusion given how yearned to leverage the DOJ to pursue political vendettas. Seems McCarthy’s understanding of the separation of power is similar

15) The candidacy of in forces us to confront the ugly realities that have been unleashed on American

David Brooks at the reflects on the nature of ’s tyranny and how it has flooded our discourse with cruelty, corruption and selfishness

nytimes.com/2023/06/15/opinion

The New York TimesOpinion | I Won’t Let Donald Trump Invade My BrainBy David Brooks

16) There is no arguing, ’s Supreme Court appointments resulted in a court which has greatly limited abortion access. The court has earned the unfaltering support of many evangelicals

Such Christians seem to be comfortable in overlooking Trump’s more problematic non-biblical complaint behaviors. For Trump the overturning of was a purely transactional vote gathering effort

nytimes.com/2023/06/26/us/poli

The New York TimesAudio of Trump Suggests He Discussed Classified Iran Document: Listen NowBy Maggie Haberman

@mnutty

For years I’ve been beating a drum that we should normalize the cryptographic signing of mainstream content, for example politicians signing with their own identities to certify that a quote or video clip is real and accurate.

Not only would that help assure that a quote wasn’t taken misleadingly out of context, but in this new age it would help protect against outright deepfakes.

Unfortunately, I’ve often heard journalists respond that such a norm would interfere with journalistic independence, and lead to people being skeptical of journalists.

I think such responses get it exactly backwards.

In any case, yep, I’m still beating the drum, but sadly I think the ship has sailed and we’re now entering the more dangerous waters without that protection in place.

@volkris @mnutty we can crypto out the wazoo, but it is only a bandaid on a festering wound. Sowing distrust has been a business model for far too many public figures, and that idea is contagious. And signing stuff still doesn’t deal with Brandolini’s Law: Firehose Edition

@walintro

There is no panacea. But at least it would be nice to at least be able to say, senator I am pretty sure this video is real and not a deep fake seeing as it has a signature that matches your personal key.

Was his key hacked? Did he give it to a staffer that abused it to embarrass him? Did a quantum computer simply bypass it? Maybe. But at least it’s something other than simply hearing him deny that it really is him in a deep faked video.

A Band-Aid on the festering wound that is humanity is still an improvement :-) Well, that’s probably darker than I really would put it myself.

@mnutty

@volkris @mnutty Signing and verifying human-generated content should have been top-priority last year already.

@gimulnautti

I think so, and just to clarify in case I’m unclear here, it’s not just that it’s not prioritized, but in my experience I’ve heard from professionals actively arguing against the idea.

@mnutty

@volkris @gimulnautti

I’m not sure what the concern is over digitally stamping one’s on journalistic work. Maybe it’s seen as slowing the publication process or just tediously onerous?

Given the nature of and the potential for fakery, it seems judicious to want some kind of authentication process

@mnutty

The concern I’ve heard expressed is that if a reporter is asking, say, a politician to sign a report, to certify it as authentic, then the reporter will feel pressure to play nice with the politician to “earn” that signature.

I understand the concern, but I think the pros outweigh the navigation of that task.

It can even stand as a form of review that’s both annoying and fruitful at the end of the day, if it leads to the hassles of revisions that end in a better report.
@gimulnautti

@volkris @gimulnautti

I suppose the question in this case is whether a should be obliged to have a subject sign off on their report. In my view, that is unecessary,

I think its important for the journalist to put his or her own stamp of validation on their work to avoid fakers that might be impersonating the reporter

@mnutty

So I’d say the signature should be context dependent.

For example, if a reporter is quoting an expert or public figure verbatim, I’d like to see their signature attached to see that they agree that they were properly quoted.

Or if the piece is a technical explainer, the reporter might get a few subject matter experts to attach signatures, publicly attesting that they reviewed the material and it’s solid.

Just a run-of-the-mill report or newsbrief though? Sure, the reporter’s own signature might be fine; track down others might be overkill. Well, we might want editors’ signatures too, just for fun.

But the main thing that comes to my mind with this is the quotation signature. It doesn’t happen every day, but far too often over the years I’ve seen reporters literally leave out a word like “not” and end up reversing the meaning of the quote.

The signing process would have had the speaker catch the misquotation, hopefully.

@gimulnautti

@mnutty The big issue is abortion. He boasted he got rid of it.

@Historyan2

I agree. I think the Dems will be delighted with his chest thumping on . That is an issue that resonates more across party lines than any other, especially amongst women

The overturn of and the ongoing attacks on women's is a shameful episode in the history of American misogyny

@mnutty Couldn't happen to two nicer guys.

@mnutty Musk doesn't want a credible network. He wants a mouthpiece to further his narcissistic goals and racist roots.

@gdeihl

Hopefully the mouthpiece continues to shrink although I will admit to being dissapointed by how sticky the platform has proven to be

@mnutty Good thread. Although I focus on #ClimateChange, batshit crazy politics and the money that creates this destructive system must be aired out. Musk is mental. His appeal has always eluded me.

@gdeihl

has been involved in two enterprises, Tesla and SpaceX which are remaking their industries

Whether the success of these companies resulted from or despite Musk is a matter of debate

The accrued wealth has a fascination for many and the ambition of his projects has stoked interest in the man who seems to be descending into increasing levels of delusion likely bolstered by sycophantic minions who enable his inflated self regard

@mnutty I like your psychoanalyses, lol. He appears to be an opportunistic bully to me, with an inflated reputation of brilliance. I haven't seen it. I don't relate to other people's admiration of wealth, which seems to drive way too much behavior in this country.

@gdeihl

In my view, there is too much emphasis on asset wealth. When basic needs are met, the incremental benefit of more money is questionable, indeed great wealth can shut people off from the more profound wealth of close human relationships which I believe is where happiness lies.

@mnutty I agree. My priority is always time over money and people over possessions. Wealth as a motivator has driven the destruction of this planet, other people and innocent creatures. My life revolves around writing about #ClimateChange and waking people up now,

@mnutty His incompetence for his job is mind blowing! Or is he so afraid of the freedom caucus that he tweets this BS?

@heideroosje

In addition to the Freedom Caucus, I also think the massive base is driving this willful ignorance

@mnutty But that he tries to please them in this way is very, very chilling.

@heideroosje

Yeah you'd hope for better, that an attempt would be made to steer the base away from unreality, but all we get is pandering

@mnutty His moron base just eats it up, don’t they?

#Musk was certainly whipping that angle up yesterday - because he is also a moron.

@adamjcook

There is little one can do to change the minds of fans. I see as three evenly divided blocks. Stalwart Dems, Trump Fans and in the middle those that are persuadable.

These are the folks that we want to talk to as we face down another presidential election in 2024

@mnutty

There may be little that can be done to change Trump fans’ minds, but there are ways to stop throwing them meat and encouraging them.

Ignore Trump and he and his followers will wander off.

As the Internet adage goes, don’t feed the trolls.

@adamjcook

@volkris @adamjcook

Well I'd suggest that 1930s politics in Germany tell us otherwise. Ignoring somebody when they willfully subvert the law and attempt to overthrow democracy doesn't seem like a smart idea from my perspective.

Now if you think didn't break the law and don't value the law, then you position makes sense, at least not if yiou care about democracy

@mnutty

Really? You think 1930s Germany ignored the political figures rising? I’d say the exact opposite happened, as figures gained more and more attention.

I think you have your history backwards.

@adamjcook

@mnutty

In the US system of government, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President,” and since indictments are executive branch actions, they DO come from Joe Biden.

The Department of Justice is the agency that the president acts through for this kind of thing.

The DoJ is not a fourth branch of the US government. It is part of the president’s executive branch, part of the president’s administration.

@volkris

Traditionally the President has a hands off roll with the DOJ. He gets to appoint the Attorney General. Most Presidents opt to maintain distance least they be perceived as interferring in the judicial process.

That changed in the presidency when attempted to find an AG who would do his bidding directly. initially proved to be the right man for that job. Now is attempting to tar with the same thing, projection at its worst

@mnutty

That a president may choose to allow his subordinates to operate without close oversight is itself a reflection of the president’s authority over his branch.

And it does become problematic: we trust presidents to restrain this powerful law enforcement organization. Presidents traditionally letting them operate as they wish is giving them quite a lot of flexibility to exercise that power against the public.

But we need to be absolutely clear on this: The president is legally responsible for his Department of Justice, and should the DoJ misbehave the president must stand accountable and even impeachable over it.

It is an error for us to buy the idea that law enforcement can do what it wants without accountability for the president that it reports ti.

@mnutty ok i personally can't stand David Brooks but sounds like he is on target this time

@gvelez17

I have mixed reactions to his columns. Sometimes agree and sometimes not. I wish more of the conservative commentariat were like him

@mnutty A great day for America. Well, I hope so.

@heideroosje

That remains for time to tell us. The fact pattern that has been leaked in the news media looks damning, and if proven to be true in a court of law should result in a conviction

@ScottCommandos
I’ve been astonished by ’ willingness to go to battle against the Magic Kingdom. I have to remind myself that has been in the crosshairs of the for decades and so this seems to be the intersection of the and

@mnutty@mastodon. @mnutty re 2) regarding Kamala Harris. Apologies, I can’t read the article as I don’t have NyT subscription- but is it a bit rich of the media to say she needs to be more visible when they give 90% of their airtime to Trump?

@LexiGirl

I think VP Harris has been thrown a couple of very difficult tasks, notably stabilizing the migrant border challenge. IMHO opinion, she has not used the VP pulpit to articulate an approach to this thorny issue.

I get that the media is addicted to dysfunction, I don’t expect the VP to occupy the same media space, sadly she is mostly invisible