Corporate bullying like this is why journalists need to forge ahead with holding the platforms accountable with bills like CJPA.

The platforms have skimmed from our work, bought off publishers with “charitable” grants, then act like bullies the moment they face accountability.

https://twitter.com/andymstone/status/1663951770052067338

Journalism policy is complicated, and different groups have taken different positions on CJPA. We are supposed to air out those disagreements with civil debate.

But censorship threats like Meta’s have only one goal — to end debate.

I was sitting around today thinking about how you’re not going to be able to find all the intellectuals in one place anymore and concluded that we’ll have to go back to reading magazines or something. techcrunch.com/2023/03/28/twi… It’s this crap situation where we demolished a lot of the mid-sized publications where you might find interesting writers, and now we’re demolishing the big-sized app where you could find interesting writers, and now starting next month you can find them ?????

Hegel was a genius obviously, but what amazing marketing luck that Napoleon was smoking the Prussians at Jena right at the exact same Hegel was finishing his book and realizing he had reached the universal end of human history. Like Fukuyama made me think the “end of history” was the moment liberal democracy wins everywhere, but for Hegel it’s more like “the end of history is when I, specifically Hegel, realize that Napoleon’s victory has brought mankind to self-realization by me specifically, Hegel”

Unfortunately, because something in my personality is deeply damaged, the messier this app gets, the more likely I am to use it more.

https://twitter.com/realspinker/status/1590487418251407360

I don’t read this app to be noble. I work at the newspaper to be noble. I post on Twitter to roll around in filth and pay occult worship to the psychic forces of thumos!

Texas law, in its own way, requires public schools districts to play a part in helping financially prop up gun manufacturers.

To be eligible for underwriting Texas school bonds, banks have to certify that they don’t refuse to do business with gunmakers. news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/te… Notable detail under the present circumstances. news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/te…

Jeff Bezos busted unions so that the personal wealth he gained as a shareholder from paying his workers lower wages would, among other things, fund his trip to space.

https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1417475051604127748

In the old days you had a bunch of Ford lineworkers up in Michigan paying NASA to do it.

No.

https://twitter.com/APStylebook/status/1417191450379538439

AP S’tylebook

When journalists talk about Wall Street harvesting newspapers for organs, this is what we’re talking about. The Chicago Tribune already has layoffs to hit a 10% profit margin. Now a hedge fund comes in and wants immediate 20% profit margins. And all the rest of us are the losers.

https://twitter.com/davidfolkenflik/status/1362569460796846086

Even if you’re an uptight fiscal conservative who thinks ruthless hedge fund management is just what can whip your local newspaper into its tightest shape so the profits can be sunk into needed growth, I have news for you about where that cash is going. dfmworkers.org/in-court-filin…

Okay one last plague thread for the night, but I promise it’s a good one: I wanted to know what happened to the Spanish influenza after it waned in 1919, and it turned out that it just became another seasonal flu that circulated among people each year.........UNTIL......... Did you know that flu strains replace each other? one will circulate for decades and decades, and then a new one comes along and the other one disappears? That’s what happened to Spanish flu in 1957.

But then something absolutely fucking crazy happened. mbio.asm.org/content/2/5/e0…

Looking at academic studies of the effectiveness of social-distancing during the Spanish flu of 1918-1919. The cities that did it early and did it consistently fared better than the cities that were laxer. When they stopped (see bottom bars), sometimes the flu surged back. Source on this: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1768418…

While Twitter was down, I was searching the L.A. Times archives for stories about the Spanish flu and found, like, the quintessential 1919 newspaper story. Here's some 1919 newspaper influenza dataviz:

Don't worry about the coronavirus right now. Worry about the flu, which has killed ~10,000 Americans since October.

“The likelihood of an American being killed by the flu compared to being killed by the coronavirus is probably approaching infinity.” latimes.com/california/sto… Also I just found this really helpful CDC infographic about the differences between seasonal flu (the existing flu everybody gets all the time) and pandemic flu (when there's a new type of flu). cdc.gov/flu/resource-c…

"Newly uncovered documents show the consulting giant helped ICE find 'detention savings opportunities' — including measures the agency’s staff sometimes viewed as too harsh on immigrants." nytimes.com/2019/12/03/us/… uhhhh nytimes.com/2019/12/03/us/…

NEW: Katie Hill’s husband was shopping around “the whole story” about their divorce, shortly before naked photos of her were given to GOP consultants who had previously worked for Hill’s 2018 opponent, Steve Knight.

With @finneganLAT: latimes.com/politics/story… @finneganLAT A spokeswoman for Steve Knight just sent me his statement in response to our story about how former campaign advisors had received naked pictures of Katie Hill. The nuance he seems to be highlighting here is that they didn't work for his *2018* campaign.

Subcontracting. Boy, I don't know.

https://twitter.com/vicjkim/status/1187500628240527360

I would not describe "contract hits" as being central to our business; actually, we are merely a platform, a marketplace, where contract hits can be negotiated more efficiently. Our IPO will be $40 billion dollars and we hate AB5.

https://twitter.com/zneeley25/status/1187501552925204481

Rare morning sighting of the @latimes parking lot kitties, who eat our food for free and stare at us sullenly and then run away. proposal: the cats should let us pet them

I dug into in a lot of Census/USCIS/ polling data to do this story on the voting power of naturalized citizens – which has grown a lot over the last 20 years! They cast more than 8% of ballots in 2018, and that number will likely be even higher in 2020. latimes.com/politics/story… Polls show that these new Americans tend to be pretty liberal voters, and the turnout for naturalized Latinos and Asian Americans is several points higher than their natural-born counterparts. latimes.com/politics/story…

New: As Trump seeks reelection, a growing army of immigrant voters stands in his path.

Naturalized citizens cast more than 8% of the ballots in 2018 — double their share since 1996 — helping put Texas, Georgia and Arizona closer in reach for Democrats. latimes.com/politics/story… Naturalized citizens’ voting power has been growing every election cycle, and there are signs Trump’s immigration stances may be *accelerating* that trend, by spurring lawful permanent residents to naturalize so they can vote. latimes.com/politics/story…

64-30. The Arizona Republic has a union, you guys. And it’s @azrepublicguild. People are crying. 😭😭🥰

It does seem like the incentives for whistleblowing are a bit perverse, because if you do it the proper, legal way, you become fairer game for journalists to identify you, whereas if you just leak the same stuff to journalists, we’ll generally conceal the source and protect you.

https://twitter.com/ericschultz/status/1177292992106901504

Like, if the whistleblower had just broken the rules and talked to a reporter under condition of confidentiality, they’d probably be a hell of a lot safer than they are right now. latimes.com/politics/story…

I, too, would like the high-quality services provided to me at no cost.

https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1172434260176732161

This Row Of Audis Wants To Be Free