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Cory Doctorow

21 Apr, 13 tweets, 2 min read

Some reflections on former President George W Bush's remarks on the Today Show, that "What's really troubling is how much misinformation there is and the capacity of people to spread all kinds of untruth.

businessinsider.com/george-w-bush-…

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Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

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Seriously, fuck that guy.

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See also:

* "Thinking through Mitch McConnell's plea for comity"
pluralistic.net/2021/01/30/mem…

* "Further, on Mitch McConnell and comity"
pluralistic.net/2021/01/30/mem…

eof/

ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2021/04/21/re-…

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More from @doctorow

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

23 Apr

Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Laundering torturers' reputations with copyfraud; Foxconn's Wisconsin death-rattle; John Deere's dismal infosec; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/rep…

#Pluralistic

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https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1385434226435051523

Laundering torturers' reputations with copyfraud: Eliminalia, where "we erase your past and help you build your future."

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1385434226435051523

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1385617036861005826

Foxconn's Wisconsin death-rattle: Imagine losing your family home for a GOP media op.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1385617036861005826

Read 16 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

23 Apr

@JohnDeere

As far back as 2015, the agribusiness monopolist @JohnDeere was taking steps to ban farmers from fixing their own tractors, arguing that copyright law made trafficking in tools to effect these repairs a felony.

web.archive.org/web/2015042817…

1/

The company took this to the US Copyright Office, saying that farmers couldn't fix their tractors because they don't OWN them, despite paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for them - software in tractors means they can only be licensed, not owned.

wired.com/2015/04/dmca-o…

2/

Deere bolstered this argument with a paternalistic warning that farmers are just not qualified to service tractors, prompting electronics specialist Willie Cade - grandson of a legendary Deere engineer - to speak out against the company.

securityledger.com/2019/03/opinio…

3/

Read 20 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

23 Apr

@ScottWalker

No one epitomizes the hollowness of the pose of the "hard-nosed businessman" than @ScottWalker, the union-busting thug who, as governor of Wisconsin, signed up to give away $3b to the Taiwanese electronics giant @foxconnoficial, who promised a massive new factory.

1/

This was an obviously bad deal right from the start. For literally decades, Foxconn had been tricking rubes like Walker into handing over vast public subsidies for electronics plants that were then drastically scaled down, or canceled altogether.

nakedcapitalism.com/2017/08/foxcon…

2/

But Walker - presently joined by Trump - didn't care. All he cared about was being able to maintain the pretence that "business-friendly" policies (smashing unions, eliminating worker protections) would attract "investment" that would make everyone better off.

3/

Read 20 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

23 Apr

Seppuku (Harakiri) (1962)

dir. Masaki Kobayashi

Cinematography: Yoshio Miyajima
wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/649225786…

Read 10 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

23 Apr

The wildest forensic stories are the ones where you pull at a loose thread and discover that you've got hold of a the tip of the tentacle of some kind of cthulhoid monster from the depths of hell. That's the story of #Eliminalia, global fraudsters for hire.

1/

The story starts with Qurium, a secure hosting provider that focuses on at-risk civil society groups, the kinds of people who piss off dictators with their own snatch-squads they can use against their enemies.

2/

@makaangola

Two of Qurium's clients are @makaangola and @theelephantinfo, who had done extensive reporting on corruption in Angola related to Isabel dos Santos ("Africa's richest woman") and Vincent Miclet ("the Gatsby of Africa").

qurium.org/forensics/dark…

3/

Read 27 tweets