Favorites November 11th 2022

Ontario, September 2018

Rob Lee @RALee85

Every time Ukrainian troops retake a town that was under Russian occupation, we see these kind of scenes. Something to keep in mind when people tell Ukraine they need to stop their advances or negotiate away territory occupied by Russia. That would mean abandoning Ukrainians.

Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof

Amazing footage of the first Ukrainian troops reaching Kherson’s main square. https://t.co/XsTb8S81fD

There are other videos, for no particular reason I found this one quite moving. The fact that there weren't happy crowds like this waiting for the Russians should really say something to anyone who believed Russia's aggression had any justification. Also good news, Israel may have begun providing weapons to Ukraine.

Nate Cohn @Nate_Cohn

The main thing that stands out to me about this election: idiosyncratic results by state. In some states, Democrats excelled. In others, the red wave materialized. The stakes of abortion/democracy by state explains a lot of it.

nytimes.comWhy Some States Went in Different Directions in MidtermsAbortion rights and antidemocratic stances were more relevant or pressing in some places than others.

Maybe there's an extent to which voters are now more willing to vote based on what's at stake for them rather than thinking of every election as a referendum on the current president.

Borzou Daragahi 🖊🗒 @borzou

A 75-year-old Iranian cleric has emerged as an unlikely champion of a protest movement led by young men and women seeking to throw off the shackles of the country’s Islamic theocracy. My piece

independent.co.uk‘Where is the freedom?’ Elderly cleric speaks up for Iran’s protest movementMolavi Abdolhamid is leader of Iran’s Sunni minority. He has become an increasingly outspoken defender of the protesters

He “…is Iran’s top Sunni Muslim cleric as well as a spiritual and political leader for the country’s ethnic Baluch population". Gotta admit, I’ve never heard of the ethnic Baluch population of Iran, but they do seem quite upset. Protests against the government in Iran continue.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

One thing I am updating on is that ads seem more potent than I would have thought. Dems overperformed specifically in the key races where they spent a lot of money on carefully optimized advertising. https://t.co/9oBqzedVaS

Dave Wasserman @Redistrict

If your pre-election bingo card had a roughly R+4 national House vote and the House still not callable by the Friday after the election...congrats, you win.

Yglesias has argued that Democrats don't take earned media seriously enough, and that politicians should try to make public statements that are as on message as their advertising is. His update here is that the ads really do make a big difference, especially when they use very well tested messages. This is something that's been discussed on the Data for Progress podcast.

Randall Munroe @xkcd

Y2K and 2038 xkcd.com/2697

Unix has used a 32 bit signed integer seconds to represent time, 2038 is when that representation runs out of space.

Popehat @Popehat

If your employer's lawyer ever tells you that you won't get in trouble for doing what the company is asking you to do, make sure to ask them, preferably in writing, if they represent YOU and if they are giving you legal advice. They love that.

Ryan Gallagher @rj_gallagher

New: Elon Musk's lawyer has sought to reassure Twitter employees they won't go to jail if the company is found in violation of a Federal Trade Commission decree that outlines steps Twitter must take to protect users’ personal data. With @KurtWagner8 https://t.co/i81hImYEFd

Note, it's not even Twitter's lawyer telling them this, it's Musk's lawyer. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

Brian Hanlon @hanlonbt

Seems bad to unilaterally disarm. Why don’t Democratic states revert to gerrymandered maps, but create an independent redistricting trigger, modeled on the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact? https://t.co/Hu9aT9e5Gg

Taniel @Taniel

Of the 4 most populous states, the two Dem-run ones (CA + NY) are using independent or court maps. The two GOP-run ones (FL + TX) are using maps strongly gerrymandered by the GOP. The House majority right there.

I'm a big fan of the national popular vote interstate compact, and I think structuring other 'disarmament' situations the same way would be smart.

Threads

• Interesting thread explaining how someone summarized 45k tweets in response to Musk's request for complaints. TL;DR: fit together a bunch of different AI text analysis tools.

• Thread of very funny videos found by training TikTok's algorithm for surreal content, I especially like the the garage one.

• Nina Totenberg uncovered a squabble within the Federalist Society, Lisa Rubin explains what seems to be happening. TL;DR: the Federalist society seems to be trying to push out one of it's founders for not being in favor of the Independent state legislature theory, which could really mess up how US elections work.