As discussed previously, this is my weekly Twitter roundup. Note that tweets of articles generally include header images from the articles, which are not included here unless they happen to be available under a free license. Most are not. But I now add most of my commentary here, where I’m not restricted by the message length.

diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week

I also don’t generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.

9:04 – Mon 04 October 2021

You cannot have AI ethics without ethics from the Montreal AI Ethics Institute

In Facebook’s case, they control what is allowed on their platform but do not have legal responsibility for the content that’s eventually put on there.

This is a bit obvious, but still good analysis.

12:03 – Mon 04 October 2021

If we are only organizing for elections, we are not going to win the world that we need…No one politician is the answer. No one president is the answer. You are the answer, mass movements are the answer.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

As much as I hate editorializing on the quotes, I can’t not back her on this. I see this throughout the media personalities in progressive media. They didn’t get their person in the White House, so they’re suddenly more than happy to repeat right-wing talking points, because it makes the winner look bad. The lady has it right: The fight doesn’t begin or end with elections; they’re only one means to an end.

9:02 – Tue 05 October 2021

R. Kelly was aided by a network of complicity — common in workplace abuse — that enabled crimes to go on for decades from The Conversation

Members of the network of complicity fall victim to such storytelling and myth-building.

This, of course, goes well beyond a musician who abuses individuals. It’s part of companies and political campaigns, where people want to “prove their commitments” to charismatic leaders.

12:02 – Tue 05 October 2021

The air was soon full of flying shot, shell and canister–and a groan here and there attested their affect. …the roar of musketry and the crashing, pounding noise of guns and bursting shells was deafening…

Adolfo Fernandez Cavada

9:05 – Wed 06 October 2021

Anita Hill: What It Was Like for Me to Watch Christine Blasey Ford’s Testimony from The Atlantic

Like then-Senator Arlen Specter, who had interrogated me, Mitchell was a prosecutor, and she questioned Ford as if Ford were on trial.

It’s almost a shame that we’re only reading this now, but I still can’t help but appreciate Hill’s take on those hearings.

12:04 – Wed 06 October 2021

It was a beautiful country through which we had just passed, but it had presented no charms to weary eyes that were compelled to view it through a line of hostile bayonets.

Federico Fernández Cavada

Another comment on someone else’s quote, but I can’t help noticing that this is the comment of a Latino man in the American South. Cavada had been captured by the Confederacy, in this case…

9:03 – Thu 07 October 2021

To Save Jobs and Fund Infrastructure, Close This Loophole from OtherWords

This allows wealthy private equity, real estate, and hedge fund managers to claim the fees they receive for their services as capital gains, which are taxed at a rate of just 23.8 percent, instead of the top marginal income tax rate of 37 percent.

An important aspect of this scam, which probably isn’t mentioned in the article because it was considered too obvious, is that the managers are charging companies that they own for advice on how best to provide the owners with a quick buck.

12:05 – Thu 07 October 2021

If man were to be deprived of the faculty with which he makes his first mistakes, he would undoubtedly be deprived of that which later produces great deeds.

José Antonio Páez

9:01 – Fri 08 October 2021

“Are you calling me a racist?” from Pluralistic

Of all the brain-worms that prey upon the conservative mind, none are quite so powerful as the “no tax” pathology.

Again, probably unspoken because it’s considered obvious, but the idea that paying taxes is bad is central to right-wing views. It’s the justification for openly racist policies (“I shouldn’t need to pay for you”) and the “gateway drug” that hooks young people struggling to get by, paycheck to paycheck. The problem, they’re told, isn’t that companies emboldened by a lack of labor organizing are underpaying them; instead, the problem is that the government charges money to access an economy that’s only strong because rules are enforced. But the goal is to eliminate those rules, period.

12:01 – Fri 08 October 2021

Of all the tough decisions in life, choosing between the job you need and the family you love should not be one of them.

Tom Perez

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, here are any additional articles that didn’t fit into the week, but too weird or important to not mention.

Afghanistan’s Impoverished People Live Amid Enormous Riches from Citizen Truth

Hanif’s home province of Badakhshan—and its neighboring areas—suffer from great poverty, the rates upwards of 60 percent. When he talks about failure, Hanif has his home province in mind.

One of the big lessons in geopolitics appears to consistently be that nobody is poor because of circumstances. People are poor because wealthy people hoard the country’s wealth. People go hungry, because the wealthy divert food supply chains.

Utilities Took $1.25 Billion in Pandemic Aid Then Shut Off Power to Households Nearly 1 Million Times: Report from Common Dreams

For what taxpayers spent bailing them out, 15 companies… could have forgiven all unpaid accounts—hundreds of times over in some cases.

This shouldn’t be surprising. After all, the Trump administration removed as many conditions on the aid as they could think to justify. So, of course utilities took the money and treated it as a gift to management.

Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.