Via #Alternet Apr 01, 2025
Speaker #MikeJohnson is facing #bipartisan criticism—and public ridicule—after abruptly shutting down the #HouseOfRepresentatives on Tuesday afternoon for the rest of the week. The move came after a #Republican proposal with bipartisan support, which would allow members with newborns to #vote remotely, disrupted his legislative agenda. Johnson, who often portrays himself as a devoted family man, opposed a rule change to accommodate new parents
#AlterNet, which promotes itself as "credible, alternative journalism" had the headline: "Karoline Leavitt bashes media after SNL lampoons Elon and Rubio 'feud'." It was no better than Fox News because its article simply repeated the lies that were told by Trump's press secretary Leavitt. That was not an alternative to Trump, and it was not credible. #media #politics
Lindsay Beyerstein at #Alternet: Delusion: The mental state that drives Trump's hardcore supporters. #uspoli
https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/the-mindset-that-fuels-trump-supporters-with-scary-accuracy/
Via #AlterNet on Feb 05, 2025
#FarRight state #Senator and #Trump supporter #MarkFinchem has cited the #Arizona #Constitution to try to get out of a speeding ticket. But the clause protects lawmakers from arrest — not a citation.
also, unable to use #InternetArchive in my blocktastic #Firefox set-up because of [need for a] #Google log-in [which is one of the main companies that I have deliberately blocked]
so far, just #wikipedia and the ... the #BBC are openable
( Channel4 (UK) is also affected by Google's reach )
( Project Gutenberg also enGoogleyified )
( alternet.org doesn't require Google log-in but does have Google and others sneakily in the huge Consent pop-up that no sane person would go through - eBay is there - the names appear as non-options in the list of Vendor preferences with slider options and it presents an ellipsised "more" that you press to see the non-options they are forcing through including #GoogleAdvertising - very bad form, Monsieur Alternet! ) #Alternet
((nb: ellipsis is the three dots "..." "…"))
( there is also autoplay news from Connatix which snuck by the autoplay block - info.connatix.com successfully added to block list )
OpenAI gewinnt erste Runde im Urheberrechtsstreit gegen Raw Story
OpenAI konnte im Rechtsstreit gegen Raw Story und AlterNet einen ersten Erfolg erzielen. Die KI-Firma steht mehreren Klagen gegenüber, weil sie urheberrechtlich geschützte Inhalte zum Trainin
https://www.apfeltalk.de/magazin/news/openai-gewinnt-erste-runde-im-urheberrechtsstreit-gegen-raw-story/
#News #Tellerrand #AlterNet #Copyright #DMCA #Gerichtsurteil #KITechnologie #Klage #OpenAI #RawStory #Sprachmodelle #Urheberrecht
#報道機関 による #OpenAI への #著作権 #訴訟 が棄却される
GIGAZINE
#ChatGPT の開発元であるOpenAIは複数の著作権訴訟に直面しています。新たに、ニュースサイトの ｢ #Raw_Story ｣ と ｢ #Alternet ｣ によるOpenAIへの訴訟が棄却された ...
https://gigazine.net/news/20241108-openai-raw-story-alternet/
Via #Alternet, October 27, 2024
Excerpt:
"#Trump waited to make sure that #Bezos did what he said he was going to do, and then met with the #BlueOrigin people. Which tells us that there was an actual deal made, meaning that Bezos communicated, or through his people, communicated directly with Trump, and they set up this #QuidProQuo.”
https://www.alternet.org/trump-washington-post-editor/
PSA: If you shove a paywall in my face, I'm going to "vote with my feet."
Since there is nothing of value I gain from visiting your website (c.f. the paywall you shoved in my face), I'm going to ban you.
I've just banned AlterNet from my Mastodon timeline. If you post something from them, it is going to be hidden and marked with the label "Objectionable source."
Why Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will lose the election.
Get ready for a wave of millions into the race, ready to influence voters with a deeply dishonest smear campaign.
Read this article from AlterNet by Tom Hartmann about several times this happened earlier this year.
'Joke of a state': Texans resorting to fast food app to track outages slam utility company
After the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Beryl, millions of Texans were left without power. And once again, residents of the Lone Star State were unable to count on Texas' flagship utility company for either prompt service restoration or even reliable communication.
Some Texans frustrated with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and main power company CenterPoint Energy (formerly Reliant Energy) not providing residents with an outage tracker found a better alternative — the app for Texas-based fast food chain Whataburger. X/Twitter account @BBQBryan posted a viral tweet Monday night showing a screenshot of the Whataburger app's locations in the Houston Metro area, with locations that were open colored in orange and the ones that were still closed colored in grey.
"The Whataburger app works as a power outage tracker, handy since the electric company doesn't show a map," @BBQBryan wrote in the tweet that has since been viewed more than seven million times. "Still nearly 1.9 million power outages."
That tweet spawned a flurry of angry reactions on social media, with some Texas-based X users using the outage tracker as a jump-off point for a larger conversation about how Texas' GOP-dominated government has failed to provide reliable infrastructure for residents.
"Whataburger has been more helpful in tracking outages than CENTERPOINT ENERGY," tweeted Texas-based progressive activist Olivia Julianna. "This is ridiculous. What a joke of a company and joke of a state to continue to let these major outages happen without investments into burying power lines or upgrading electric infrastructure."
#USPol #Politics #News #Texas #Whataburger #Hurricane #ClimateChange #Alternet
'You’d be in jail': Trump VP hopeful slammed for claiming 'we’re living under a dictatorship'
North Dakota Governor Doug Bergum was confident in his ability to become the 2024 GOP nominee over Donald Trump. Now, he's not only vying to be the former president's running mate, but he's a top contender.
In his effort to secure his spot as Trump's VP, Bergum is slamming President Joe Biden's leadership in the process.
During a Wednesday Fox News interview, the Republican leader said, "Under Joe Biden, we're actually living under a dictatorship today," the Republican governor said, "where he's bypassing Congress on immigration policy, he's bypassing Congress on protecting our border, he's bypassing Congress on student loan forgiveness — he's defying the Supreme Court. I mean, that's what dictators and authoritarians do is they don't follow our Democratic processes, they just assert their own liberal view."
An authoritarian is someone who amasses power to amass more power, often exploiting gray areas in the law to do it — or ignoring the rule of law outright. In some senses of the definition, Trump fits the mold, says Meredith McGehee, a government ethics expert who formerly headed the bipartisan political reform group Issue One. For example: Trump ignored dozens of court rulings saying he had lost the 2020 election as he tried to stay in power anyway.
#USPol #USPolitics #Politics #News #Trump #Biden #DougBergum #DonaldTrump #JoeBiden #NorthDakota #Alternet
Via #Salon
#DonaldTrump is no longer attending his #HushMoney trial alone, now enjoying a growing crew of #GOP hanger-ons who are helping him circumvent his gag order by acting as "#surrogates" outside the courthouse. As #Alternet notes, Trump's entourage may be pleasing to the former president, but it's now annoying Judge #JuanMerchan.
#ElectionInterference #BusinessFraud
https://www.salon.com/2024/05/15/merchan-was-visibly-annoyed-by-courthouse-entourage-of-politicians/
Johnson would contest 2024 election results under the same 'circumstances'
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says he has a “duty” and “responsibility” to contest the results of the presidential election if there is a question about the process complying with the U.S. Constitution and vowed to do so again this year as he did in 2020, if the same “circumstances were presented.” The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up the 2020 case with Johnson’s claims, and his argument was dismissed by a constitutional expert as being on “the far-right fringes of American legal thought.”
Johnson joined an increasing number of top GOP lawmakers this past week who were asked if they will accept the results of the 2024 election, especially if the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, loses. Up until the 2020 election amid Donald Trump’s interference, the United States had enjoyed the regular, peaceful transfer of power for more than 200 years.
Before being elevated to Speaker, Johnson was a little known Louisiana Republican back-bencher who happened to be the “congressional architect of the effort to overturn the 2020 election, advocating an interpretation of the Constitution so outlandish that not even the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority could swallow it,” according to Michael Waldman, a constitutional attorney and president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
That effort came in the form of an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, signed by 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives, including Johnson.
#USPol #Politics #News #GOP #MikeJohnson #Coup #Insurrection #Election #Alternet
https://www.alternet.org/the-right-wing/mike-johnson-election-results/
Trump battled to go to son’s graduation – so why is he speaking at a fundraiser that day?
Last month Donald Trump falsely told reporters Justice Juan Merchan had blocked him from attending his youngest son’s high school graduation, refusing to give him the day off from his required attendance at his New York criminal court case.
Justice Merchan had actually told Trump he would take the request under advisement, but Trump quickly ran to reporters painting the judge as heartless.
On April 15 Trump said, “it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son who’s worked very, very hard and he is a great student.”
“It looks like the judge isn’t going to allow me to escape this scam. It’s a scam trial,” Trump alleged.
The Associated Press reported, “Trump then furthered his criticism of the judge on his Truth Social platform, writing in one post both that he ‘will likely not be allowed to attend’ and that ‘the Judge, Juan Merchan, is preventing me from proudly attending my son’s Graduation.’ He wrote in another post less than two hours later that he is ‘being prohibited from attending.'”
None of that was accurate.
Last week Judge Merchan granted Trump the day off from court to attend his son’s high school graduation.
But The Lincoln Project and others on Tuesday posted the announcement for “Minnesota’s 2024 Lincoln Reagan Dinner With Special Guest DONALD J. TRUMP” on Friday, May 17, 2024
@gratefuldread Unfortunately #AlterNet is a paywall site (at least for some of their content) which is unfortunate because I used to really like them. @anio@quitter.no
Via #JuliaConley on #AlterNet
#RobertFKennedyJr's stated platform in the 2024 presidential race centers on promoting an "honest government," a "clean, healthy #environment," and the protection of #CivilLiberties—but his #NewYork State director last week boiled down the Independent campaign's true goal at a meeting with #Republican voters: ensuring former President #DonaldTrump wins the #2024election.
Even Trump-supporting 'hardline conservatives' are being purged by MAGA purists: report
Many Never Trump conservatives have argued that if Republicans go too far to the right in U.S. House races, they risk being replaced by Democrats in swing districts. Yet MAGA Republicans aren't backing down from their push for what they consider MAGA purity.
In an article published on March 18, Daily Beast reporters Sam Brodey and Reese Gorman emphasize that even "hardline conservatives" are at risk of being labeled RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and being ousted from the U.S. House of Representatives via aggressive GOP primary challenges.
Brodey and Gorman cite Rep. Mike Bost (R-Illinois) as a perfect example. As pro-Trump and far to the right as Bost is, they observe, he is facing a "brutal political dogfight" with hyper-MAGA primary challenger Darren Bailey.
"Some of the incumbents are familiar primary targets, like Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Don Bacon (R-NE), considered among the most centrist members of the GOP conference," the Daily Beast reporters explain. "Some are being challenged simply because they aren't loud or combative enough — or even if they cast a vote in favor of funding the government, which is now a punishable offense in the MAGA base."
Brodey and Gorman continue, "But many are as conservative and Trump-supporting as Bost, if not more so. Rep. William Timmons (R-SC), who has a 95 percent lifetime score from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, is facing an aggressive primary challenge. Some arch-conservatives are being targeted because they backed Ron DeSantis for president, like Reps. Bob Good (R-VA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), while others are being challenged in part because they didn't support Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) in his bid for the House speakership last fall."
The wave of #lawsuits reflect a #MediaIndustry-wide concern that #GenerativeAI will compete with established publishers as a source of information for internet users, while further sapping away dwindling #advertising revenues and undermining the quality of #OnlineNews. #Microsoft
The #Intercept, #RawStory and #AlterNet sue #OpenAI for copyright infringement | #AI
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/28/media-outlets-sue-openai-copyright-infringement
'Put an end to the chaos': GOP leaders in swing state say party is 'on the verge of imploding'
Infighting within the Republican Party's ranks has not only been apparent in the halls of Congress: It's now also threatening the stability of the GOP's operations in a state that's played a deciding role in the last two presidential elections.
According to a Saturday report in the New York Times, eight of Michigan's 13 Republican congressional district Republican Party chairs have now co-signed a letter asking Michigan GOP chair Kristina Karamo to resign and "put an end to the chaos." The letter came after approximately 40 of the party's state committee members called for a meeting to discuss Karamo's future by the end of the year. However, that meeting has yet to take place. Meanwhile, the Mitten State's Republican leaders are growing more anxious by the day about their party's outlook next year.
"The Michigan Republican Party is on the verge of imploding. I have more money in my campaign account than the state party has in its,” State Representative Mark Tisdel said. “Sooner or later, the creditors are going to come calling.”
#USPol #USPolitics #Politics #News #Michigan #GOP #Republicans #MIGOP #KristinaKaramo #Karamo #Alternet
