All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Dan Rather: Elon Musk Pushes Lies and Fake News | Diane Ravitch’s blog

Dan Rather warns about the danger of one-man control of a major social media company. He had Elon Musk in mind. Musk is supporting Trump, and he is using Twitter, his personal megaphone, to help Trump and smear Harris.

I have been locked out of Twitter since mid-July, because Twitter says I am underage. Really! So I am no longer influenced by Musk propaganda. But millions of other people are.

Rather writes on his blog “Steady”:

Imagine having the ability to instantly lob information, true or not, to millions of people across the globe. Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), has that ability. One would hope that with that power would come responsibility. In a perfect world, the owners of social media companies would be fair-minded and objective. Alas.

For all the talk of social media reform after 2016 and the Facebook fiasco when misinformation ran rampant across that platform, it now appears that Musk has decided not only to support the Republican candidate for president but to personally help spread misinformation about voting and the election.

Plus, in 2024, Musk has more powerful tools than Facebook ever imagined eight years ago. Artificial intelligence is coming into its own, and the dangers it presents to our democracy are profound.

Musk has recently released an AI chatbot, which, if you don’t know, is basically a computer that can simulate a human conversation. Musk named his Grok, and within hours of President Biden bowing out of the race, it created a post that read: “The ballot deadline has passed for several states for the 2024 election,” naming nine states: Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington. The message suggested that Kamala Harris had missed the filing deadline to get on the ballot in those states.

Source: Dan Rather: Elon Musk Pushes Lies and Fake News | Diane Ravitch’s blog

Facing Political Violence in the Wake of Extremism – Ignite Peace

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, anti-government hate groups have been growing since 2008 and in 2023 they reported the highest number of active anti-LGBTQ+ and white nationalist groups they have ever collected. Ohio itself is home to the second highest number of extremist anti-government groups.

Source: Facing Political Violence in the Wake of Extremism – Ignite Peace

♫ The Beat Goes On ♫ | Filosofa’s Word

According to Wikipedia, “The song was recorded using the renowned group of Los Angeles session musicians who, in time, came to be known collectively as “The Wrecking Crew.” The arrangement is credited to Harold Battiste, but Wrecking Crew bassist Carol Kaye asserts that at the session she devised the distinctive syncopated bass line that is featured on the released recording, replacing the original walking bass line in the prepared arrangement.”

This song charted at in Canada, in the U.S., and in the UK.

The Beat Goes On

Sonny & Cher

Source: ♫ The Beat Goes On ♫ | Filosofa’s Word

‘Something’s really warped in him’: Trump buried by Morning Joe over ‘shocking’ new claim – Raw Story

Late Thursday Trump told a crowd at his Bedminster Golf Resort that the Presidential Medal of Freedom is more worthy of admiration than the Congressional Medal of Honor traditionally given to war heroes.

He then set off a wave of outrage by saying of the Medal of Honor recipients, “They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.”

“And it is just appalling that he would speak of America’s heroes that way,” he continued. “I mean, the heroes, many who made the ultimate sacrifice for the country, and he simply does not get it. He doesn’t understand. There’s a connection there that’s not being made, and, you know, you saw it where for years he was president and, boy, if he ever became president again, I would really worry about this country because of that emptiness, that lack inside of him, that lack of empathy, that lack of patriotism. It’s just not there. It’s not there.” Source: ‘Something’s really warped in him’: Trump buried by Morning Joe over ‘shocking’ new claim – Raw Story