This Is Fine

12:21 AM

Should I know who this Alex Morse is?

He's a primary challenger to Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee

So the story here is that this guy believed by fabricating (according to the article) a misconduct story against Morse he'd get a job interning for Neal

Tim Stone

2:23 AM

The President has posted a video, and folks,,,

> I’ve stayed quiet about the Morse story because I have complicated feelings about it, but the detail about this guy essentially trying to entrap him in order to get an internship with Neal....just join the FBI man

lol

fair

> Dabo Swinney reiterates "I'm all for a players association. A union is a different conversation." He did not elaborate

> Gov. DeSantis (R-FL) is now comparing reopening schools to the Navy SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden.

lmfao come on my dudes

Stormblessed

5:41 AM

They're still tweeting from Herman Cain's zombie Twitter account

Tim Stone

Never 👏 stop 👏 Tweeting 👏

Stormblessed

Tim Stone

I didn't actually check but I hope it's not the train video

Yuuki

@TimStone As much I support Clemson because I lived there and it's my dad's alma mater, Swinney is a super poop butt.

Stormblessed

I guess maybe they're trying to make his website like Roger Ebert but for crazy political pundits

Memor-X

7:32 AM

@Stormblessed whelp, if it wasn't evident enough it is now, the Verified checkmark isn't even worth shit since you can have a verified twitter account tweet and be dead at the same time

Nzall

8:26 AM

@Stormblessed Let's hope the dead won't be voting

Tim Stone

1:45 PM

> Larry Kudlow today: "So much of the Democratic asks are really liberal left wishlists we don't want to have -- voting rights, and aid to aliens, and so forth. That's not our game."

Larry buddy we know but thanks for saying it I guess

> Trump admits he's sabotaging the Postal Service so universal mail voting will be impossible during an election that will be conducted amid a pandemic this November

Frank

@TimStone Saying the quiet things out loud again.

Tim Stone

> Records for “antifa.com” show the site was registered in the Russian Federation from 2013 through last July. Starting last November, the site’s registration was moved to Panama

lmfao

okay

but even if not

like come on

antifa.com gtfo

> The Trump Administration wants to change the definition of a showerhead to let more water flow, addressing a pet peeve of the president who complains he isn’t getting wet enough

Wow brave of him to lose the Shapiro household vote

BradC

2:03 PM

Yuuki

2:50 PM

@TimStone i hate that i know this reference

Wipqozn

3:07 PM

BBC News - Israel and UAE strike historic deal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-53770859

MBraedley

@TimStone Thanks for saying the quiet part out loud.

Wipqozn

3:35 PM

cbc.ca/news/world/…

more details

> Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached a historic peace deal on Thursday that will lead to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two Middle Eastern nations in an agreement that U.S. President Donald Trump helped broker.

> Under the agreement, Israel has agreed to suspend applying sovereignty to areas of the West Bank that it has been discussing annexing, senior White House officials told Reuters.

Nzall

@Wipqozn ... Did Trump just take credit for peace in the Middle East?

Wipqozn

@Nzall Yes, but I guess the US was actually involved.

No idea how much Trump was involved, although I assume it ranged somewhere between "none at all" and the US ambassadors telling them "Look, Trumps fucking crazy, if you don't agree to this he'll probably nuke you."

Nzall

3:59 PM

So apparently, the UK is undergoing a major educational crisis involving the A levels. Because COVID canceled the exams, teachers had to estimate the grades for their students based on prior performance. However, these (accurate) estimates were then "adjusted" by an algorithm that changed up to 40% of the grades downwards based on prior results from the school

Guardian live blog over the scandal: theguardian.com/education/live/2020/aug/13/…

Mad Scientist

@Nzall That looks a bit like someone decided "we can do that with AI" and threw an untested black box algorithm at the problem.

Nzall

@MadScientist AFAIK it's pretty much that

Also, it's not just prior results from that school, it's a load of factors, but prior results were a part of it

Mad Scientist

I don't understand what the algorithm is even supposed to do, why do the teacher estimates still need an adjustment?

and why can this even downgrade 3-4 grades, that makes no sense at all

Tim Stone

@Wipqozn I mean we told Israel that it was fine to do the annexing in the first place so uhh

I guess

That counts?

Wipqozn

@TimStone yaaaay

Like how you won Vietnam

Tim Stone

4:32 PM

@Yuuki The internet, it's bad!

BradC

5:16 PM

The Post Office Is Deactivating Mail Sorting Machines Ahead of the Election

> The United States Postal Service is removing mail sorting machines from facilities around the country without any official explanation or reason given, Motherboard has learned through interviews with postal workers and union officials. In many cases, these are the same machines that would be tasked with sorting ballots, calling into question promises made by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that the USPS has “ample capacity” to handle the predicted surge in mail-in ballots.

Wipqozn

5:29 PM

> The postal workers Motherboard spoke to said having machines removed, replaced, or modified is nothing new, but this time it seems to be more widespread, include a larger number of machines at their respective facility, and potentially impacts the facility’s ability to process large numbers of mail, including ballots, in a short time span.

I predict

THis election

is going to be a giant shitshow

I also predict Trump is going to win again due to election fraud

BradC

@Wipqozn that's safe money at this point; it already is

Wipqozn

> While the consequences of this new policy are mostly unclear for now, it neatly fits with the sudden, opaque, and drastic changes made by DeJoy, a longtime Republican fundraiser and Trump donor, in the less than two months he’s been postmaster general.

@BradC tbh if he wins and it turns out to be for exactly the reasons we all predict...then...well

French Revolution

The French Revolution (French: Révolution française [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛːz]) was a period of social and political upheaval in France and its colonies beginning in 1789 and ending in 1799. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy; established a republic; catalyzed violent periods of political turmoil; and finally culminated in a dictatorship under Napoleon, who brought many of the revolution's principles to areas he conquered in Western Europe and beyond. Inspired by liberal and radical ideas such as equality before the law, the Revolution influenced the decline of absolute monarchies while replacing...

I mean I legit don't know what other option is available to the American people, since the GOP have made it clear they'll let him do whatever the fuck he wants, and the GOP have a long history of election fraud anyway lol

BradC

Yeah, one of the harshest lessons we are still learning is that systems, no matter how well designed, are only as good as the willingness of those people in power to actually do something about it

@Wipqozn yeah, I think your prediction of a shitshow is guaranteed. I hope that your prediction of the outcome will not come to pass

I'm not quite sure what I would do if Trump is re-elected; I believe that would mark the literal end of our democracy

BradC

6:14 PM

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in response to Trump calling her a "poor student":

> Let’s make a deal, Mr. President:

You release your college transcript, I’ll release mine, and we’ll see who was the better student.

Loser has to fund the Post Office.

Tim Stone

> The candy corn tastes like a full-course meal with all the trimmings: green beans, stuffing, ginger-glazed carrots, cranberry sauce and sweet potato pie

We deserve all of this

BradC

@TimStone Watch out for the blueberry pie desert phase, there are still some issues being worked out...

Stormblessed

6:34 PM

something's up with Firefox on my computer I got recently

occasionally Twitter links just completely stop working

like I just can't go to Twitter lol

BradC

@Stormblessed blocked as a malicious site :)

Stormblessed

I really have no idea why

BradC

bad for your mental health

Stormblessed

never has happened for any other site

I guess Dell is trying to protect me

doesn't happen on any other device

pretty funny

Tim Stone

> Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to drop lawsuit over Atlanta mask mandate

> Not an apology, not even an acknowledgment of what she actually said, just the claim that "The problem is our government lies to us so much to protect the Deep State, it's hard sometimes to know what is real and what is not."

(Majorie Greene ~~thinks~~ thought maybe no plane hit the Pentagon and it was a missile)

WHOMST IS TO SAY

> The #Seahawks cut rookie CB Kemah Siverand this week after he was caught on video trying to sneak a female visitor into the team hotel, per sources

> The woman was wearing #Seahawks gear in an attempt to disguise her as a player, I’m told. It did not work

lol

> Apple has removed Fortnite from the App Store after Epic Games has added its own payment options

ahahahahaha

Nzall

7:06 PM

@TimStone As if the EU didn't have enough reasons for their antritrust case

Tim Stone

> TikTok and Its Employees Prepare to Fight Trump Over App Ban

I refuse to read the article to find out that they don't mean street justice with this weird phrasing

Stormblessed

7:24 PM

@TimStone what

Private Pansy

@TimStone "TikTok challenges Donald Trump to trial by combat"

Nzall

9:01 PM

AMAZING...

twitter.com/Slasher/status/1294005557930622989

This Epic commercial is just chef's kiss

Ave

Oh this is horrible.

Nzall

For those who don't get the context: Back when the Original Macintosh was released, Apple made pretty much the same commercial

Ave

Copying over directly from twitter: My challenge to Capital-G Gamers: Realize that companies aren't your friends, and that Epic is counting on your outrage to increase their profits. They obviously knew this'd happen, and the video, the posts, the lawsuit, it's all planned.

And well, epic is definitely going to settle this off court. They can't take on a decade long lawsuit (where a whole major platform is left without updates or new users), at least not without making investors very very angry.

Nzall

@Ave Sorry, but in this case I think Epic is in the right and Apple is in the wrong. I don't care that Epic is only trying to make money of this, what Apple is doing is anticonsumer and monopoly abuse

Ave

@Nzall Oh no, fuck apple too.

Wrigglenite

9:05 PM

What did I miss?

Ave

But this is not a fight where I pick sides. Fuck epic and apple equally.

Nzall

@Wrigglenite Apple kicked Fortnite out of the store because they dared to put in new payment methods

Wrigglenite

Meaning what?

Ave

@Wrigglenite Epic adds direct payment option to all platforms, violating pretty much every platform agreement. Apple kicks them off app store, epic sues them claiming antitrust and starts a huge edgy campaign called "#freefortnite"

Wrigglenite

Ah, I take it this is Epic not wanting to pay a share of its profits to Apple

"Fuck them both" sounds accurate

Ave

9:08 PM

@Wrigglenite yes, and to every other platform.

Wrigglenite

Comparing any situation to 1984 is getting old, it's like Godwin's Law

Ave

@Wrigglenite Yeah, it's just... annoying.

I also referenced that on twitter!

I do think that all these platforms should be more open. Almost all of my devices are rooted, jailbroken, hacked, whatever you call it. And they're much better this way. I do think that you should be able to run any code you want on a device you buy, and this is something that can safely (read: without risk of piracy) be done in many cases.

In a world where all devices come equipped with that, a middle ground would likely be reached pretty early on: Fortnite leaves app store and loses all its benefits, and they host all the binaries and such themselves (+ do their own DRM, if they want to do that) and end up getting their own payment system. This is actually what a lot of apps did on mac app store I believe.

Nzall

@Ave I agree, to a point. In my opinion, it should be legal to make any modifications to your device, regardless of hardware or software, BUT changes are at your own risk and you are not entitled to any support from the device manufacturer, not even to undo your changes

Ave

However, the fact is that this is not what epic is fighting for. Epic is not fighting for more open devices, or more relaxed app distribution rules on all these platforms. It is fighting for more profit.

Nzall

@Ave Even if they're fighting for more profit, there's a good chance this can lead to the other 2 results anyway

Ave

9:16 PM

And I believe that it'll settle off court. It'll likely be an exception for it, or it'll be a reduced rate for all apps above a certain user count. That is what some stores do, I know MSFT used to do that, and I was told that steam does that too.

That ^ would result in the bigger apps making more profit, and smaller apps having the same issues as always. No benefits to users either, except cheaper vbucks.

Tim Stone

@TimStone Hmm she also thinks Obama used MS-13 to assassinate Seth Rich

Mad Scientist

Why is Trump doing his press conferences at a time where I'm still awake

My brain cells are dying

Tim Stone

9:40 PM

> "To Joe, I would say stop playing politics with the virus. Too serious. Partisan politics has no place here," the president says while delivering an attack on his election opponent from the White House briefing room

lol

just, the worst hell

Also the Senate has gone on recess until September good luck everyone else

Unionhawk

yo this Ed Markey ad is sick

"We asked what we could do for our country. We went out, we did it. With all due respect, it's time to start asking what your country can do for you." is such a satisfying line vs a literal Kennedy

Tim Stone

I'll take it

> Israel West Bank annexation plan "not off table," according to US envoy

lmfao

Come on

You can't even pretend you don't want to war crime long enough to take credit for the "deal"?

> Trump arguing without evidence that Dems want to keep schools, which double as polling places, closed because then people can't vote

Narrator: Schools often close specifically to act as polling places so this is dumb in layers

> VP Mike Pence: "Sen. Kamala Harris said she would change the dietary guidelines of this country to reduce the amount of red meat that Americans can eat." Crowd boos. VP: "Well I've got some red meat for you: We're not going to let Joe Biden & Kamala Harris cut America's meat!"

ಠ_ಠ

> Asked if he regrets all of the lying he’s done to the American people, Trump doesn’t respond, calls on someone else

Unionhawk

10:07 PM

I mean to be fair that is an "Apu when will you stop selling spoiled meat" ass question

Tim Stone

I mean it's kind of funny because he gets irrationally mad at even the slightest critical feedback which if literally anyone had bothered to apply before this we might not be here

So you know, just a fun day in hell as usual

good times

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