Gobble gobble, keepy uppy // What's Good: Nov. 17, 2023
The First Amendment, Sam Altman, and Isaac Chotiner.
Hello, good evening, happy Friday. Today is the release of the Bluey video game, and next week at the Macy’s Day Parade there will be a Bluey float with a Keepy Uppy balloon. Have I mentioned I love Bluey? Anyway. I can’t afford the game right now, but I look forward to playing it SoonTM. Hope they make another/a longer one.
Santos stuff
Yeah, listen, I don’t know, just read the thing.
Concerns out of Calumet
How do we find ourselves in this position:
As Calumet City prepared to ticket a Daily Southtown reporter for allegedly harassing city employees as he worked on gathering information for a news article, Mayor Thaddeus Jones also asked police to seek a court order prohibiting the reporter from entering City Hall or contacting city employees, records show.
No paperwork was filed in Cook County Circuit Court, however, attempting to secure an order of protection against the reporter, Hank Sanders, an attorney for Calumet City said Tuesday.
Calumet City cited Sanders under municipal ordinances, alleging he harassed city employees. The three citations carried fines of $750, plus an additional $250 for each day that passed and fines were not paid.
I just think maybe you should not issue tickets to reporters for doing reporting.
Pound the desk
If you don’t have the facts or the law:
Former President Donald Trump's attorneys moved for a mistrial in the ongoing civil fraud case on Wednesday morning, alleging an "appearance of bias" by the presiding judge and his principal law clerk.
The mistrial motion hit the docket on Wednesday, as Trump's defense witnesses continue to testify in a civil fraud trial filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James that could sink the former president's business empire in New York.
Before trial began, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered the dissolution of the New York corporations owned by Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump, and two of his business associates.
Stop talking to Isaac Chotiner
Unless you are an asshole, in which case, please continue:
For decades, Daniella Weiss has been one of the leaders of Israel’s settlement movement. Weiss became involved in settlement politics in the wake of the 1967 war. In the early seventies, her family moved to the settlements in the West Bank and she later served for a decade as mayor of Kedumim, a community in the north. She has also been arrested numerous times, including for assaulting a police officer and interfering with an investigation into the destruction of Palestinian property. More recently, she has been affiliated with the Nachala settlement organization, which helps younger settlers establish illegal outposts in the West Bank, an initiative that’s controversial even among the settler community. (Weiss is a neighbor and an ally of Bezalel Smotrich, the extremist minister of finance, who has said that the Palestinian people do not exist and that Palestinian communities need to be erased; he also lives in Kedumim.)
Weiss and I recently spoke by phone. Since the Hamas massacre of October 7th, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government—in addition to invading Gaza—has, with its allies in the settler movement, become increasingly aggressive in the West Bank. Sixteen Palestinian communities have been removed from their land, and a hundred and seventy-five Palestinians have been killed. I wanted to talk to Weiss to understand the extremism of the settler movement, and her ultimate intentions for the West Bank. During our conversation, edited for length and clarity, we also discussed how her religious attitudes shape her view of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, why human rights should not be considered universal, and why she should not be expected to mourn for dead Palestinian children.
What a lede!
Real-time developments
Seriously what the fuck:
WEST BANK – There are days when you head out to report a story, and you think you know where it's going. And then it spins in an entirely different direction.
This is the story of one such day last Tuesday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank – the other Palestinian territory.
Speech isn’t free
You might have a right to say something, but money talks:
Apple and Disney have paused online advertising campaigns on X, formerly Twitter, after owner Elon Musk said he agreed with a social media post accusing “Jewish communities” of pushing “hatred against whites,” according to sources familiar with both companies’ moves.
Warner Bros Discovery, Paramount Global and Lions Gate Entertainment are also suspending campaigns on the social media service, spokespeople for the company confirmed. Additionally, a spokesperson for Comcast, which owns Bravo and Xfinity and is also the parent company of CNBC, said Friday that it is pausing its online advertising campaigns on the real-time messaging service.
Apple’s move was first reported by Axios and Disney’s by The New York Times.
Alternative paths
Adios to Sam Altman:
Earlier this year, I asked Sam Altman whether decisions made by OpenAI’s leaders might one day lead to unemployment among the masses. “Jobs are definitely going to go away, full stop,” he told me. He couldn’t have known then that his would be among the first. In a blog post released this afternoon, OpenAI—the artificial-intelligence juggernaut for which Altman was the CEO—announced that he would be leaving, effective immediately, because, according to the statement, “he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board.”
The statement did not specify the nature of Altman’s alleged misrepresentations, but they must have concerned serious matters to merit such a dramatic and public rebuke. Altman did not reply to multiple texts seeking comment, but in a post on X (formerly Twitter), he said that he’d loved his time at OpenAI, and that it was transformative for him “personally, and hopefully for the world a little bit.”
Sanctioned sanctions
Sorry but this is very funny:
The ransomware group known as Alphv and BlackCat claims to have breached the systems of MeridianLink, a California-based company that provides digital lending solutions for financial institutions and data verification solutions for consumers.
The cybercriminals claim to have stolen a significant amount of customer data and operational information belonging to MeridianLink, and they are threatening to leak it unless a ransom is paid.
In an apparent effort to increase its chances of getting paid, the malicious hackers claim to have filed a complaint with the SEC against MeridianLink, accusing the company of failing to disclose the breach within four business days, as required by rules announced by the agency in July.
The rules are not yet in effect, but when they are, I think this is hilarious. Sad, obviously, but you have to admire the enterprising spirit.
You deserve some good animal content
https://twitter.com/ServalEveryHr/status/1725694395087769857
https://twitter.com/twaniimals/status/1725693849555664943
https://twitter.com/CAPYBARA_MAN/status/1725682666903634133
https://twitter.com/twaniimals/status/1725675182029726141
https://twitter.com/twaniimals/status/1725657978576007243
https://twitter.com/OregonZoo/status/1725638017002725606
https://twitter.com/ServalEveryHr/status/1725633993234669573
https://twitter.com/raccoonhourly/status/1725627390565474420
https://twitter.com/twaniimals/status/1725609735846572370
https://twitter.com/RedPandaEveryHr/status/1725603777330188538
Have a good weekend.
Addendums
No, Defenses of Osama bin Laden Didn’t “Go Viral” on TikTok. Who is Mira Murati? The interim CEO of OpenAI is building ChatGPT after Sam Altman’s shock ouster. 2 dead, including gunman, in shooting at NH Hospital, police say. 4chan users are generating images with Nazi imagery and other “propaganda” via Microsoft Bing’s AI tool. Jezebel’s Closure Is More Than Just a Media Story. FTC Warns Over a Dozen Influencers to Disclose Paid Posts on Aspartame—or Face Big Fines. Workers At EA And Sega Say They’re Being Targeted For Organizing, And They’re Fighting Back.