Substack Problems Open Thread
Most of you probably suffered through Substack’s downtime yesterday. Sadly for me, that was my time set aside for article writing this weekend, so I won’t have a full piece out until Monday or Tuesday at this point. (Spoiler alert: It’s about why freedom enriches us!) During the downtime, let’s talk about whatever you want! Obviously the Trump raid (not a raid!) is still a huge deal, and the fumbling and backpedaling by the FBI is hilarious to watch — or would be if it were in a movie.
A few months ago, I asked if you really thought the Bidens were the only family with a multi-national graft ring revolving around high-ranking government positions. Just in case there was any doubt left:
The CDC quietly changed its recommendations, and now vaccinated and unvaccinated people are treated exactly the same. Oh, and if you don’t have symptoms you don’t need to worry.
Man, I could have sworn that I heard people talking about that a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time ago! The bad cat has a great article about this issue.
This is almost unbeliavable, but……..government:
Also disquieting are the accounts of monitoring software breaching students’ after-school lives. One associate principal I spoke to for this story says his district would receive “Questionable Content” email alerts from Gaggle about pornographic photos and profanities from students’ text messages. But the students weren’t texting on their school-issued Chromebooks. When administrators investigated, they learned that while teens were home, they would charge their phones by connecting them to their laptops via USB cables. The teens would then proceed to have what they believed to be private conversations via text, in some cases exchanging nude photos with significant others—which the Gaggle software running on the Chromebook could detect.
After this was first reported by Wired, Gaggle said in a statement that it does not scan private texts on charging phones, but that a phone’s photos do get uploaded to a school’s account (and scanned) when the student plugs their phone into a school-issued laptop. The associate principal I spoke to says he advises students not to plug their personal devices into their school-issued laptops.
Or they could stop spying on children’s private pictures?
And finally, Biden’s considering a new press secretary, claiming he has the perfect outlook for the job:
Have a great weekend out there!
Seen some articles pop up with a copy of the warrant issued to raid Trump’s compound. They’re presenting it as if it conveys some sort of legitimacy, but the warrant itself is missing the key piece of information- the affidavit which provided the probable cause for the search. Without it, it’s basically just a list of what to look for and when they can do it. Naturally, the rumors posing as news are speculating on who is the traitor in Trump’s inner circle: Ivana? Kushner? Does it have something to do with Ivanka’s death? Oooo boy, it’s a mystery! (More like an ARG to my eye…)
Meanwhile, top story on Yahoo tonight is how extremist messaging is expanding in the wake of the “raid”. “Civil war” is trending again, at the highest levels since November 2020. I don’t know what game (or most likely games) are being played here and I can’t help but wonder if all of this isn’t being organized by parties sympathetic to Trump, as he’s getting more traction off of this than anything in awhile. Similar to the Project Veritas raids, this all seems very bold and pretty stupid for the current regime. Why draw more attention to Ashley’s diary? Why raid Trump for materials that by all accounts so far look like the feds were already aware of the contents? It’s possible it’s just pettiness, but I think the full story here is very complicated (or a ready made distraction. Or both!)
Either way, anything that distracts from the vax problems (and Trump’s support of that) seems to benefit the whole crooked system. How are those excess deaths looking? Still high…
Dunno if this is the kind of commentary you’re looking for but Substack is clearly having issues dealing with the volume of comments on popular blogs -- essentially, unless you are one of the first few people to comment on an article (or replying to one of those people), your comment is shoved so far below the fold that no one will ever see it, which reduces the incentive to comment in the first place. I am guessing that you, SC, have also noticed this as I frequently see your comment at the top of many Substacks we both frequent :-). It would be useful I think to perhaps have random comments from below the fold popped up periodically to see if they get any interaction. Anyway, whether this was the kind of commentary you’re looking for or not, keep up the good work! You are a warrior for rationality and freedom and I appreciate it.