or for (as my students tell me) “vibing” to as they chill or do other things. Breaks in pattern and variations distract from the vibe and demand attention.
When I was in college I had what my housemates called "Mike's math tape". Everything on it was loud, 4/4 time, muddled lyrics. I dug it out and put on the headphones when I had to do math proofs or work through complicated bits of code. Reputedly, the housemate who had taken it upon himself to manage my social life once told a female friend of mine on the phone, "No, you can't talk to him. He's in there with the math tape on, covering page after page in that cramped little handwriting. You could parade through naked and he wouldn't notice."
russell - As an aside, this has always been one of my issues with antifa and similar. The folks they want to fight would like nothing better than an opportunity to get into it with them. It’s kind of what they live for.
I think it's important to see this in context. There's more than one sort of antifa group and more than one way in which they get involved in violence. (There's also non-violent antifa groups, but no one really talks about them in these discussions.) The ones that most get talked about in the media, social and otherwise, are the black bloc types who are the (much less prevalent) equivalent of the right wing action clubs. They are looking for action and want to provoke, and are ready and willing to engage in violence if that seems to be the order of the day.
There's also, though, the antifa types who see themselves as mutual aid groups, who are there to offer medical support and protection to other groups they are in solidarity with. They are not wanting to provoke, and they are willing and ready to go into a violent situation and respond with as much force as necessary to protect the people who have been caught in the violence being brought against them by the aforementioned action clubs and counter protesters, and occasionally from law enforcement when situations start to escalate. They are functioning as shields between the oppositional violence and the peaceful, marginalized folks who are there to protest that use of organized force.
It's really hard to tell the difference between these two groups in typical edited video that has been cut down to the spectacle and stripped of the context. And jerkfaces like Andy Ngo make a living off of providing a stream of videos that work to paint all such encounters as being the first type, when a lot of what is being shown are people of the second type working to defend against the violence brought to them by the action club Ngo is working with.
In the absence of the second type, though, a lot of marginalized people would be on the receiving end of the violence with no one there to aid them, and no guarantee of police protection, since the police are busy protecting property.
MAGAs do not want to share the world with anyone else. Not sharing is the point of the movement
Nous mentioned the soundtrack by which his students live. I have the impression that people form their musical tastes early and tend to stick fairly closely for the rest of their lives.
That's my experience. I have expanded by learning new artists, but the sound is all in the country/rock/folk/blues range.
It seems bizarre now but when I was in high school, parties consisted of groups of young people in someone's apartment near campus, stoned and silent while listening intently to music. That's how I heard Abraxis, Abbey Road, American Beauty, Volunteers.
The idea of getting together at someone's home to listen to records seems utterly incongruent now.
Times change.
I was standing in the grocery the other day when I heard Mick Jagger wailing, "You're enough to make a dead man come!" And I thought, "In about ten years, that will be nursing home music."
Hey, that's actually a really good breakdown of reggaeton. Clear and succint and accurate.
I am completely ignorant of Bad Bunny's work because (a) rap leaves me behind because I have a hearing impairment that makes it basically impossible for me to make out lyrics in recorded music, and (b) reggaeton drives me nuts - it's not just that it's repetitive, the repeating cell is so small that there is no (to my ear) breathing room.
Plus I live near a couple of large Latin communities and the way I hear reggaeton is typically being cranked from some guy's car at a volume level that makes the doors of my car vibrate from the massive bass. I want to take those guys aside and say "You're gonna be stone deaf by the time you're 40" but I'm more than sure they wouldn't care. They're having fun now, 40 is a long way off.
I miss salsa. At least that gives you both sides of the clave.
All of that said, BB seems like a very interest artist and social and cultural persona. I'm not a sports guy and will likely not watch the Super Bowl, but I'm both amused and delighted that he was the NFL's pick for the half time show.
In my wildest dreams I would never have predicted the NFL as a socially forward-looking organization. I suspect they know who their viewing audience is.
MAGAs just gonna have to learn to share the world with everybody else.
John Lennon's words are, I think, appropriate in the current situation.
When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor
There are situations when there are no other options, but I don't think we are anywhere close to that now.
As an aside, this has always been one of my issues with antifa and similar. The folks they want to fight would like nothing better than an opportunity to get into it with them. It's kind of what they live for.
Why give them what they want?
For folks heading out to No Kings tomorrow, stay safe and to whatever degree you can bring joy to it. I'm sorry to say I won't be out there, I have another commitment for the weekend of long standing.
But all of that aside, as a purely strategic matter, it’s a really bad idea to give Trump any reason to send the army into your city or town.
I think this is exactly right. This is a battle which must be fought with brains, with serious strategy, not (very understandable) kneejerk, impulsive emotion. And, as an aside, that's also one of my justifications for acting with (my definition of) civility.
The repetitiveness of reggaeton is a feature, rather than a bug, for most fans of the genre. It's meant for dancing to in a hot, sweaty club, or blasting in the car, or for (as my students tell me) "vibing" to as they chill or do other things. Breaks in pattern and variations distract from the vibe and demand attention.
A lot of modern popular music is meant to be a background soundtrack for the listeners' noisy lives. It takes a couple weeks for my students to learn how to actively listen and to match speeds with music that is trying to be more than just a simple expression of a single thought or feeling, strung together in a playlist full of similar songs.
Well, I've gone from having no clue who he was to having a great deal of respect! Thank you for all the insights, LJ. That's said, I don't like the music. If there wasn't a video to watch, I think the music would be repetitious to the point of boredom or annoyance--but that's my reaction to the sound, not to BB as a person, his lyrics, or the message.
If I were to formulate a hunch about "Yonaguni," I'd say that there are a few different synergies at work there. Given El Conejo Malo's gender fluidity, we might consider how Yonaguni, as a feminine coded island holding of Japan might stand in for a similar dynamic between Puerto Rico and the US.
Of course it also lets him cross over into the Kpop and Jpop audiences while stepping around the US (and, as you note, English language lyrics). Between reggaeton and the Asian pop scenes one could really capture an international audience and maintain a US presence all without ever having to make a single move to acknowledge the US mainstream.
Grand jury would not indict, which has become a way for regular folks to resist bullshit acts of overzealous or punitive prosecution by the current DOJ.
Ironically, the guy was a DOJ employee, and was subsequently fired.
One point to make regarding doxxing in our current environment is that any real harm done to an ICE agent will just become an excuse for the feds to double down.
Trump is looking for any excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to legally (for some readings of "legally") deploy the military domestically. Which would basically be ICE on steroids.
Trump has an army, folks opposed to his policies don't. And Trump is eager for any pretext to use it, against people in this country who are opposed to his policies and actions.
I'm opposed to doxxing, of anyone and of any kind, for all of the obvious ethical reasons. But all of that aside, as a purely strategic matter, it's a really bad idea to give Trump any reason to send the army into your city or town.
Actual, you know, convictions for assault might be persuasive. But just getting charged? Not so much, considering how often the charges get dropped. Not to mention that even those that get to court don't have the kind of high success rate other kinds of cases routinely have.
Here is where I am today as regards calling a thug a thug.
This week we had folks in the Young Republicans organization telling us they love Hitler and who should be sent to the gas chanbers. The folks involved included a Vermont state Senator and the head of staff of a NY Assemblyman. The latter was the guy who "loved Hitler".
Not fringe people.
Today I see that Mike Davis, former chief counsel for Chuck Grassley, former clerk for Gorsuch, and current head of the conservative Article III Project, decided to call House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries "George Soros' house slave" in a post on X.
We also have a photo from the office of Congressman Dave Taylor, (R) Ohio, showing a picture pinned to a bulletin board with an American flag modified to include a swastika.
Plus all the ICE bullshit. Plus all the "manosphere" crap.
If you don't want to be called Nazis, don't be Nazis.
If you don't want to be associated with Nazis, don't associate with Nazis.
If you don't want to be called fascist, don't behave like a fascist regime.
If you don't want to be called thugs, don't send thugs in your employ into our cities and neighborhoods to abuse people.
If you don't want to be called misogynist, don't joke about rape being "epic".
A hit dog will holler.
I'm not interested in dialog with people who consider folks who don't look like them are some lower order of being. I don't even know where the conversation could begin.
I'm not referring to bc, I do not get that vibe from him.
But it's rampant in the right wing. Which owns the (R) party and the "conservative" name right now.
If you don't like that, you need to take it back from them. I can't do that, you can.
Clean your damned house. You have rats in the walls.
I’ll also note, for everyone’s edification, that the much more modest increase is for charges of assault. I take every one of these charges with a grain of salt.
I can't remember the specifics, but didn't the feds recently try to get someone charged for throwing a sandwich at some kind of officer (maybe not ICE) and then couldn't get the charge to stick?
From NPR: https://www.npr.org/2025/10/10/nx-s1-5565146/white-house-claims-more-than-1-000-rise-in-assaults-on-ice-agents-data-says-otherwise
While the number of assaults on ICE agents have increased, there is no public evidence that they have spiked as dramatically as the federal government has claimed.
An analysis of court records shows about a 25% rise in charges for assault against federal officers through mid-September, compared with the same period a year ago.
I'll also note, for everyone's edification, that the much more modest increase is for charges of assault. I take every one of these charges with a grain of salt. I have colleagues who were involved in peaceful protests who had been charged with resisting arrest just because they tried to keep themselves from falling as several officers attempted to wrestle them to the ground. The officers involved were all using more force than required in an attempt to intimidate. It was ugly, and disproportionate and it was being directed at people who were pointedly non-violent. Some of the protesters were charged with assault because officers were struck by elbows a two or three of them bore down on single protesters. Was it the middle aged black woman's elbow or was it the elbow of one of the other officers? Doesn't matter. If there is a bruise, the person involved is getting a charge filed. A felony charge can be used as leverage to get a plea deal that the DA can use later on to bolster their "tough on crime" pose come election time.
And that's with local agencies who are relatively restrained compared to the ICE bullshit.
Also, while it's not doxxing proper, several of those colleagues have had their names and photos posted online and featured on mobile billboards that have been driven around the campus by right wing activist groups. They hardly have to post a faculty member's home address when the classes they teach and the location of those classes are available to any student enrolled at the university. The university says that all they can do is offer already-available mental health counseling and make the involved faculties' campus profiles available only to the university community at large. The university is afraid that anything more will be seen as an attack on the RW activists freedom of speech and attract more nuisance actors to the campus, creating more danger and a lot of bad PR when the RW media jumps on board.
On the flip side, I've had a former colleague outed by name in a major news outlet for being a pseudonymous alt-right influencer. As far as I can tell that has just boosted his views and gotten him invited to speak at the big conservative activist conventions.
What TonyP just said, particularly this masterfully sly section:
Maybe the facts ARE exactly what the “official government website” (with its “Democrats have shut down the government” banner) says they are. I get more suspicious when it comes to statistics. Have there been vastly more cases of ICE-doxxing than, say, judge-doxxing? Have more ICE agents than judges been harmed as a result of being doxxed? I don’t know what “official” government statistics show, but I have a hunch the present government might fudge them a bit.
And to be picky, I don’t think there is anything to support Noem’s claim that there has been a 700% increase in these incidents.
I doubt that she has the wit for this herself, but there might be someone on staff who does. Percentages are a great way to exagerate an increase from, for example, 1 incident nationwide last year to 7 this year. Both numbers are small enough, given the total numbers of people involved, that the variation might well be nothing more than statistical noise. But it makes for great scare headlines this way.
People should be able to do their jobs without having their home addresses published.
The challenge today is this. If someone can capture your face, they can probably find some facial recognition software to get your name. I don't know how readily available such software is, but it's definitely nor restricted to police departments. And, once someone has your name, getting your home address is difficult only if the name is common enough that there are multiple possibilities. With a name like mine**, it's trivial.
Someday we may work out ways to provide a little more privacy. But for the moment, we are in stalker heaven. (And I'm wondering, now that I think about it, how the Witness Protection Program deals with this.)
** Both the other people in the country with the same first and last names are 1st cousins. No prize for guessing our grandfather's name.
I am anti-fascist. One implication of that is: I want criminals locked up, not people who the government says are criminals. Lawyers surely understand the distinction. So when bc points me to government sites which lay out accusations of doxxing, I appreciate it -- but I don't take it for granted that I'm getting the whole story there. Since I am personally in no position to "get the whole story", I am content to let courts do it. Back when Gitmo was a hot topic, I pointed out that habeas corpus is not merely a defendant's right, it's also one of mine: if the government, acting in my name, wants to lock somebody up, I want to know the reason why. Anti-anti-fascists may feel differently, of course.
Being anti-fascist does NOT mean I dismiss everything some Acting US Attorney says about any particular case. Maybe the facts ARE exactly what the "official government website" (with its "Democrats have shut down the government" banner) says they are. I get more suspicious when it comes to statistics. Have there been vastly more cases of ICE-doxxing than, say, judge-doxxing? Have more ICE agents than judges been harmed as a result of being doxxed? I don't know what "official" government statistics show, but I have a hunch the present government might fudge them a bit.
Being a layman, I can accept that The Law forbids publishing certain personal information about some categories of federal employees. Maybe that includes IRS clerks, maybe not, but either way I haven't heard about an epidemic of IRS clerks being doxxed. Running afoul of The Law by posting flyers like "This Revenuer lives in your neighborhood" doesn't seem to be worth the trouble for anybody. So maybe the doxxing of "brave" ICE agents is motivated by their high-handed brutality, not their official "duties", as others have pointed out.
BTW, as a layman, I can not claim to know what the Hatch Act has to say about partisan propaganda on "official government websites", but also as a layman I have to say: yeesh!
Being a naturalized citizen, I have to write a whole 'nother wall of text on immigration policy, but for the moment I only have time to ask: is it true or false that you have to be on US soil to ask for asylum?
--TP
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Weekend music thread #02 Bad Bunny”
or for (as my students tell me) “vibing” to as they chill or do other things. Breaks in pattern and variations distract from the vibe and demand attention.
When I was in college I had what my housemates called "Mike's math tape". Everything on it was loud, 4/4 time, muddled lyrics. I dug it out and put on the headphones when I had to do math proofs or work through complicated bits of code. Reputedly, the housemate who had taken it upon himself to manage my social life once told a female friend of mine on the phone, "No, you can't talk to him. He's in there with the math tape on, covering page after page in that cramped little handwriting. You could parade through naked and he wouldn't notice."
On “What’s up, doxx?”
russell - As an aside, this has always been one of my issues with antifa and similar. The folks they want to fight would like nothing better than an opportunity to get into it with them. It’s kind of what they live for.
I think it's important to see this in context. There's more than one sort of antifa group and more than one way in which they get involved in violence. (There's also non-violent antifa groups, but no one really talks about them in these discussions.) The ones that most get talked about in the media, social and otherwise, are the black bloc types who are the (much less prevalent) equivalent of the right wing action clubs. They are looking for action and want to provoke, and are ready and willing to engage in violence if that seems to be the order of the day.
There's also, though, the antifa types who see themselves as mutual aid groups, who are there to offer medical support and protection to other groups they are in solidarity with. They are not wanting to provoke, and they are willing and ready to go into a violent situation and respond with as much force as necessary to protect the people who have been caught in the violence being brought against them by the aforementioned action clubs and counter protesters, and occasionally from law enforcement when situations start to escalate. They are functioning as shields between the oppositional violence and the peaceful, marginalized folks who are there to protest that use of organized force.
It's really hard to tell the difference between these two groups in typical edited video that has been cut down to the spectacle and stripped of the context. And jerkfaces like Andy Ngo make a living off of providing a stream of videos that work to paint all such encounters as being the first type, when a lot of what is being shown are people of the second type working to defend against the violence brought to them by the action club Ngo is working with.
In the absence of the second type, though, a lot of marginalized people would be on the receiving end of the violence with no one there to aid them, and no guarantee of police protection, since the police are busy protecting property.
On “Weekend music thread #02 Bad Bunny”
MAGAs do not want to share the world with anyone else. Not sharing is the point of the movement
Nous mentioned the soundtrack by which his students live. I have the impression that people form their musical tastes early and tend to stick fairly closely for the rest of their lives.
That's my experience. I have expanded by learning new artists, but the sound is all in the country/rock/folk/blues range.
It seems bizarre now but when I was in high school, parties consisted of groups of young people in someone's apartment near campus, stoned and silent while listening intently to music. That's how I heard Abraxis, Abbey Road, American Beauty, Volunteers.
The idea of getting together at someone's home to listen to records seems utterly incongruent now.
Times change.
I was standing in the grocery the other day when I heard Mick Jagger wailing, "You're enough to make a dead man come!" And I thought, "In about ten years, that will be nursing home music."
"
Hey, that's actually a really good breakdown of reggaeton. Clear and succint and accurate.
I am completely ignorant of Bad Bunny's work because (a) rap leaves me behind because I have a hearing impairment that makes it basically impossible for me to make out lyrics in recorded music, and (b) reggaeton drives me nuts - it's not just that it's repetitive, the repeating cell is so small that there is no (to my ear) breathing room.
Plus I live near a couple of large Latin communities and the way I hear reggaeton is typically being cranked from some guy's car at a volume level that makes the doors of my car vibrate from the massive bass. I want to take those guys aside and say "You're gonna be stone deaf by the time you're 40" but I'm more than sure they wouldn't care. They're having fun now, 40 is a long way off.
I miss salsa. At least that gives you both sides of the clave.
All of that said, BB seems like a very interest artist and social and cultural persona. I'm not a sports guy and will likely not watch the Super Bowl, but I'm both amused and delighted that he was the NFL's pick for the half time show.
In my wildest dreams I would never have predicted the NFL as a socially forward-looking organization. I suspect they know who their viewing audience is.
MAGAs just gonna have to learn to share the world with everybody else.
On “What’s up, doxx?”
John Lennon's words are, I think, appropriate in the current situation.
There are situations when there are no other options, but I don't think we are anywhere close to that now.
As an aside, this has always been one of my issues with antifa and similar. The folks they want to fight would like nothing better than an opportunity to get into it with them. It's kind of what they live for.
Why give them what they want?
For folks heading out to No Kings tomorrow, stay safe and to whatever degree you can bring joy to it. I'm sorry to say I won't be out there, I have another commitment for the weekend of long standing.
I'll be there for the next one.
"
But all of that aside, as a purely strategic matter, it’s a really bad idea to give Trump any reason to send the army into your city or town.
I think this is exactly right. This is a battle which must be fought with brains, with serious strategy, not (very understandable) kneejerk, impulsive emotion. And, as an aside, that's also one of my justifications for acting with (my definition of) civility.
On “Weekend music thread #02 Bad Bunny”
The repetitiveness of reggaeton is a feature, rather than a bug, for most fans of the genre. It's meant for dancing to in a hot, sweaty club, or blasting in the car, or for (as my students tell me) "vibing" to as they chill or do other things. Breaks in pattern and variations distract from the vibe and demand attention.
A lot of modern popular music is meant to be a background soundtrack for the listeners' noisy lives. It takes a couple weeks for my students to learn how to actively listen and to match speeds with music that is trying to be more than just a simple expression of a single thought or feeling, strung together in a playlist full of similar songs.
This life brought to you by The Algorithm.
"
Well, I've gone from having no clue who he was to having a great deal of respect! Thank you for all the insights, LJ. That's said, I don't like the music. If there wasn't a video to watch, I think the music would be repetitious to the point of boredom or annoyance--but that's my reaction to the sound, not to BB as a person, his lyrics, or the message.
"
If I were to formulate a hunch about "Yonaguni," I'd say that there are a few different synergies at work there. Given El Conejo Malo's gender fluidity, we might consider how Yonaguni, as a feminine coded island holding of Japan might stand in for a similar dynamic between Puerto Rico and the US.
Of course it also lets him cross over into the Kpop and Jpop audiences while stepping around the US (and, as you note, English language lyrics). Between reggaeton and the Asian pop scenes one could really capture an international audience and maintain a US presence all without ever having to make a single move to acknowledge the US mainstream.
On “What’s up, doxx?”
then couldn’t get the charge to stick?
Grand jury would not indict, which has become a way for regular folks to resist bullshit acts of overzealous or punitive prosecution by the current DOJ.
Ironically, the guy was a DOJ employee, and was subsequently fired.
One point to make regarding doxxing in our current environment is that any real harm done to an ICE agent will just become an excuse for the feds to double down.
Trump is looking for any excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to legally (for some readings of "legally") deploy the military domestically. Which would basically be ICE on steroids.
Trump has an army, folks opposed to his policies don't. And Trump is eager for any pretext to use it, against people in this country who are opposed to his policies and actions.
I'm opposed to doxxing, of anyone and of any kind, for all of the obvious ethical reasons. But all of that aside, as a purely strategic matter, it's a really bad idea to give Trump any reason to send the army into your city or town.
Things are bad enough as it is.
"
...and to get ahead of any posts about quick concrete in protesters' milkshakes:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/how-a-dubious-claim-of-cement-milkshakes-in-portland-became-a-right-wing-meme/
There have to be plenty of officers who believe that meme, though, and will act accordingly.
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
russell - Clean your damned house. You have rats in the walls.
A fitting metaphor. The GOP, like Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls," have a lot of racism and xenophobia on display.
On “What’s up, doxx?”
GftNC
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/us/politics/trump-sandwich-assault-indictment-justice-department.html
To be fair, it was a Subway salami sandwich, which isn't really their best offering.
"
Actual, you know, convictions for assault might be persuasive. But just getting charged? Not so much, considering how often the charges get dropped. Not to mention that even those that get to court don't have the kind of high success rate other kinds of cases routinely have.
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
Here is where I am today as regards calling a thug a thug.
This week we had folks in the Young Republicans organization telling us they love Hitler and who should be sent to the gas chanbers. The folks involved included a Vermont state Senator and the head of staff of a NY Assemblyman. The latter was the guy who "loved Hitler".
Not fringe people.
Today I see that Mike Davis, former chief counsel for Chuck Grassley, former clerk for Gorsuch, and current head of the conservative Article III Project, decided to call House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries "George Soros' house slave" in a post on X.
We also have a photo from the office of Congressman Dave Taylor, (R) Ohio, showing a picture pinned to a bulletin board with an American flag modified to include a swastika.
Plus all the ICE bullshit. Plus all the "manosphere" crap.
If you don't want to be called Nazis, don't be Nazis.
If you don't want to be associated with Nazis, don't associate with Nazis.
If you don't want to be called fascist, don't behave like a fascist regime.
If you don't want to be called thugs, don't send thugs in your employ into our cities and neighborhoods to abuse people.
If you don't want to be called misogynist, don't joke about rape being "epic".
A hit dog will holler.
I'm not interested in dialog with people who consider folks who don't look like them are some lower order of being. I don't even know where the conversation could begin.
I'm not referring to bc, I do not get that vibe from him.
But it's rampant in the right wing. Which owns the (R) party and the "conservative" name right now.
If you don't like that, you need to take it back from them. I can't do that, you can.
Clean your damned house. You have rats in the walls.
"
From Propublica, via LGM
13 links, so being an admin has it's perks.
On “What’s up, doxx?”
I’ll also note, for everyone’s edification, that the much more modest increase is for charges of assault. I take every one of these charges with a grain of salt.
I can't remember the specifics, but didn't the feds recently try to get someone charged for throwing a sandwich at some kind of officer (maybe not ICE) and then couldn't get the charge to stick?
"
From NPR: https://www.npr.org/2025/10/10/nx-s1-5565146/white-house-claims-more-than-1-000-rise-in-assaults-on-ice-agents-data-says-otherwise
I'll also note, for everyone's edification, that the much more modest increase is for charges of assault. I take every one of these charges with a grain of salt. I have colleagues who were involved in peaceful protests who had been charged with resisting arrest just because they tried to keep themselves from falling as several officers attempted to wrestle them to the ground. The officers involved were all using more force than required in an attempt to intimidate. It was ugly, and disproportionate and it was being directed at people who were pointedly non-violent. Some of the protesters were charged with assault because officers were struck by elbows a two or three of them bore down on single protesters. Was it the middle aged black woman's elbow or was it the elbow of one of the other officers? Doesn't matter. If there is a bruise, the person involved is getting a charge filed. A felony charge can be used as leverage to get a plea deal that the DA can use later on to bolster their "tough on crime" pose come election time.
And that's with local agencies who are relatively restrained compared to the ICE bullshit.
Also, while it's not doxxing proper, several of those colleagues have had their names and photos posted online and featured on mobile billboards that have been driven around the campus by right wing activist groups. They hardly have to post a faculty member's home address when the classes they teach and the location of those classes are available to any student enrolled at the university. The university says that all they can do is offer already-available mental health counseling and make the involved faculties' campus profiles available only to the university community at large. The university is afraid that anything more will be seen as an attack on the RW activists freedom of speech and attract more nuisance actors to the campus, creating more danger and a lot of bad PR when the RW media jumps on board.
On the flip side, I've had a former colleague outed by name in a major news outlet for being a pseudonymous alt-right influencer. As far as I can tell that has just boosted his views and gotten him invited to speak at the big conservative activist conventions.
On “Opinions on settings”
I think I'll pass for now, lj!
"
Tony P and GftNC, those are cookies from your browser. I'd be happy to make you both subscribers!
"
I presume I'm not a subscriber. And my handle and email are also automatically filled in.
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
What TonyP just said, particularly this masterfully sly section:
Maybe the facts ARE exactly what the “official government website” (with its “Democrats have shut down the government” banner) says they are. I get more suspicious when it comes to statistics. Have there been vastly more cases of ICE-doxxing than, say, judge-doxxing? Have more ICE agents than judges been harmed as a result of being doxxed? I don’t know what “official” government statistics show, but I have a hunch the present government might fudge them a bit.
On “Opinions on settings”
Am I a "subscriber"? Or is it just my Firefox browser that's filling in my name and email automatically?
--TP
On “What’s up, doxx?”
And to be picky, I don’t think there is anything to support Noem’s claim that there has been a 700% increase in these incidents.
I doubt that she has the wit for this herself, but there might be someone on staff who does. Percentages are a great way to exagerate an increase from, for example, 1 incident nationwide last year to 7 this year. Both numbers are small enough, given the total numbers of people involved, that the variation might well be nothing more than statistical noise. But it makes for great scare headlines this way.
People should be able to do their jobs without having their home addresses published.
The challenge today is this. If someone can capture your face, they can probably find some facial recognition software to get your name. I don't know how readily available such software is, but it's definitely nor restricted to police departments. And, once someone has your name, getting your home address is difficult only if the name is common enough that there are multiple possibilities. With a name like mine**, it's trivial.
Someday we may work out ways to provide a little more privacy. But for the moment, we are in stalker heaven. (And I'm wondering, now that I think about it, how the Witness Protection Program deals with this.)
** Both the other people in the country with the same first and last names are 1st cousins. No prize for guessing our grandfather's name.
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
I am anti-fascist. One implication of that is: I want criminals locked up, not people who the government says are criminals. Lawyers surely understand the distinction. So when bc points me to government sites which lay out accusations of doxxing, I appreciate it -- but I don't take it for granted that I'm getting the whole story there. Since I am personally in no position to "get the whole story", I am content to let courts do it. Back when Gitmo was a hot topic, I pointed out that habeas corpus is not merely a defendant's right, it's also one of mine: if the government, acting in my name, wants to lock somebody up, I want to know the reason why. Anti-anti-fascists may feel differently, of course.
Being anti-fascist does NOT mean I dismiss everything some Acting US Attorney says about any particular case. Maybe the facts ARE exactly what the "official government website" (with its "Democrats have shut down the government" banner) says they are. I get more suspicious when it comes to statistics. Have there been vastly more cases of ICE-doxxing than, say, judge-doxxing? Have more ICE agents than judges been harmed as a result of being doxxed? I don't know what "official" government statistics show, but I have a hunch the present government might fudge them a bit.
Being a layman, I can accept that The Law forbids publishing certain personal information about some categories of federal employees. Maybe that includes IRS clerks, maybe not, but either way I haven't heard about an epidemic of IRS clerks being doxxed. Running afoul of The Law by posting flyers like "This Revenuer lives in your neighborhood" doesn't seem to be worth the trouble for anybody. So maybe the doxxing of "brave" ICE agents is motivated by their high-handed brutality, not their official "duties", as others have pointed out.
BTW, as a layman, I can not claim to know what the Hatch Act has to say about partisan propaganda on "official government websites", but also as a layman I have to say: yeesh!
Being a naturalized citizen, I have to write a whole 'nother wall of text on immigration policy, but for the moment I only have time to ask: is it true or false that you have to be on US soil to ask for asylum?
--TP
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.