Category Archives: internet
Google Engineer James Damore
There are certain things one doesn’t ask in polite elite society. Lucky for you you’re nowhere near there. You’re in Bokbluster, so I’ll ask:
Is it possible, on average, that girls don’t like math as much as boys? It’s possible, on average. Unless you’re Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard.
Is it possible, on average, that girls are less fond of computer engineering than boys? That’s a possibility too. Unless you’re another Harvard guy, former Google engineer James Damore.
Damore’s Downfall
Damore wrote a 10 page memo (screed to the politically correct among us) asking if it’s possible that women are underrepresented in engineering because of biology rather than bias.
Google management was having none of that. Here’s Google CEO Sundar Pichai:
To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK.
Coming down firmly on the side of bias, he fired Damore.
Trump Body Slams CNN Logo
No doubt you’ve seen the clip where President Trump body slams a CNN logo. Naturally, Trump retweeted it. The NYT has a good video back story to the tweet here.
The tweet was beneath the dignity of the presidency. But what else is new?
Media Condemns Trump Body Slam
I thought the clip was amusing. But others saw it as an incitement to violence against members of the media. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press issued a statement reflecting that view.
As it happens, I’m a member of the steering committee for RCFP. It’s an organization with a proud history defending unpopular speech. This is a case where we should have defended unpopular satire, not condemn it.
Here’s the RCFP statement:
On Sunday, President Donald Trump made a public statement on Twitter that glorified physical violence against members of the press.
Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, made the following statement:
“We condemn the president’s threat of physical violence against journalists. This tweet is beneath the office of the presidency. Sadly, it is not beneath this president.
“No one should be threatened with physical harm for doing their jobs. Journalists are your neighbors, they’re your friends. Journalists perform a critical function in our society, one the Founding Fathers felt was so necessary that they enshrined it first in the Bill of Rights.
“They wrote that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.’
“Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy. The press are the people’s window into the halls of power, and most importantly, they are the people’s check on that power. When the president attacks the press, he attacks the people.”
Check it Out
A New York Post headline called CNN The Most Busted Name in News.
As they say, “check it out.”
The Daily Caller published a litany of woe, calling it the network’s “month long nightmare.”
Project Veritas’s undercover sting reporter James O’Keefe managed to catch a CNN health and medical beat producer calling the network’s coverage of Trump “bullshit.” He still has his job. But three other CNN Journalists lost theirs. They were fired when a story about a Trump connection to a Russian investment fund was retracted.
Check it Out
The discredited “dossier” in the cartoon refers to a former British spy’s opposition research against candidate Trump. One of his more lurid claims was that Trump hired Russian prostitutes to perform a golden shower on a Moscow hotel bed previously occupied by Barack and Michelle Obama. BuzzFeed published the dossier and CNN was one of the first mainstream media outlets to report on the story.
Reality Show
Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic says this isn’t so much about fake news. It’s about a reality TV show starring Donald Trump. And it will lead to violence. Really.
Only Explanation for Hillary Loss: Russians Stole Election
Hillary lost the election to Trump. It could be that she was a weak establishment candidate while Trump tapped into a deep vein of voter anger and resentment.
Or it could be that Russians stole the election.
Russians
FBI Director Comey told the House Intelligence Committee that the latter explanation is under federal investigation. But he offered no evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign to rig the election. And Director of National intelligence Clapper has also said there is no evidence.
Comey also found no evidence to support President Trump’s early morning tweet that Obama wiretapped Trump tower.
CNN reports that there’s only one known crime in this caper. Someone in the government unmasked Michael Flynn’s name as a result of the intercepted phone calls of Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
While Comey was willing to discuss the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign he was unwilling to say if the Flynn leak was under investigation. That did not please Trey Gowdy.
Trump Media Relations
Media relations with President Trump hit a new low when he dubbed the press the enemy of the American People. Last August The Atlantic compared Trump’s authoritarian tendencies to the rise of Mussolini. And two days after the election in November the New Republic claimed Trump was already acting like an authoritarian.
But National Review says he’s less authoritarian than Obama.
Media Relations
Vox says authoritarian states ain’t so bad.
