Elon & Twitter

[SO16]

Irrelevant. The law requires that the information be transmitted. Elon knows the law. That said, there are ways to get anonymity within the bounds of the law (the planes are required to transmit their ICAO hex ID, type, position, speed, etc., once every second). This is for safety reasons as other planes can pick up this data and use it to send alerts to pilots of impending mid-air collisions. But they are NOT required to transmit their passenger manifests. If Elon is too stupid to figure out how to get anonymity, then he should talk to Tim Cook or Bernard Arnault, who have both figured it out.

While this is true, it generally wasn't a problem until Elon made a mockery of the blue check mark by allowing anyone to buy it for $8.

I wasn't commenting on whether this was legal or not. Clearly it is legal, as he owns the company. I was commenting on this:

That was your statement, not Elon's. But the problems you pointed out are all things Elon does or advocates. Legal? Yes. But you never claimed that they were illegal, just that they were problems. And I agree.

So? Public data, transmitted on the public airwaves. If I go driving on the road past your house, I do not have any recourse if you set up a camera that reads license plates and posts on a website whenever my vehicle goes by your house. I have no expectation of privacy in public places, and all cars are required to have license plates on them. The light waves that reflect off of said license plate and are picked up by cameras on public property, or on private property that you own, are also public information. There is also no expectation of privacy when transmitting data on the public airwaves.

Public data or not, it is against the spirit of it and it’s also just as LEGAL for Elon to ban the account.

Saudis and others have the same complaints about this doxxing. Maybe they all need to contact Tim Cook or Bernard since supposedly they figured it out. (Or maybe no one really cares about where Tim is.)

The initial verified check was a failure. It’s since gotten a bit better.

At the end of the day, Elon can do what he wants with Twitter. And I think he wants to have Twitter be a success and it’s looking like it will be in the long run.

 

[SO16]

Those points were made in the context of your own post which said these things are problems with extreme wokeness. So you seem to have lost track of that context.

Guess so.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Elon buying Twitter has literally saved the world. He is tackling all three on Sack's list.

Crazy how the lab leak hypothesis and possible NIH funding of gain of function research was never discussed before Elon bought Twitter.

I do admit that I never thought Elon would blame China for starting the pandemic given his business interests there. It actually gets me into conspiratorial thinking that this is all a CCP psyop. haha. I look at Twitter too much...

 

[jabloomf1230]

Does it really matter whether COVID-19 escaped from a lab or not? We all know that messing around with biologic agents without proper containment is stupid. Just like letting trains with toxic chemicals roar through inhabited areas without proper safeguards. Tell Elon to find another tree to bark up.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Does it really matter whether COVID-19 escaped from a lab or not? We all know that messing around with biologic agents without proper containment is stupid.

Of course it matters.

And if it’s such common knowledge that dicking around with gain of function is a bad idea, clearly no one had the good sense to tell the dude that bungled the AIDS outbreak in the 80’s.

 

[Daniel in SD]

And if it’s such common knowledge that dicking around with gain of function is a bad idea, clearly no one had the good sense to tell the dude that bungled the AIDS outbreak in the 80’s.

It's not common knowledge, some people think the benefits outweigh the risk. Everyone agrees that scientists in virology labs should avoid getting infected with viruses, man-made or natural.

 

[30seconds]

Of course it matters.

And if it’s such common knowledge that dicking around with gain of function is a bad idea, clearly no one had the good sense to tell the dude that bungled the AIDS outbreak in the 80’s.

Your sources of information are incredible for their consistency. Remarkable really how they always point to some grand conspiracy and how wrong they mostly are.

 

[DrGriz]

Being “woke” isn’t the problem.

It’s the extremes and what they advocate that are the problem. (Ie cancel culture, overreaction to Dave Chapelle, going back and shunning everything that was considered comedy in the past, getting people fired, quietly suppressing views they don’t agree with, etc.)

So "overreaction to Dave Chapelle" is a big, earth-shattering, deal in your world? Really? Who gives a ****?

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Does it really matter whether COVID-19 escaped from a lab or not? We all know that messing around with biologic agents without proper containment is stupid. Just like letting trains with toxic chemicals roar through inhabited areas without proper safeguards. Tell Elon to find another tree to bark up.

Also, don't sell your dead bats to market vendors.

 

[STS-134]

Oh silly me, I forgot that the hallowed blue check is exclusively for the Vichy elites and their fluffers. My bad.

I think the general idea is that celebrities are worth impersonating from a financial perspective, so Twitter would actually verify that celebrities are who they say they are, and give them a blue check mark. Most people aren't interesting enough to impersonate, and wouldn't gather enough followers to make it worth doing financially. But anyone can setup an account and claim to be Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson.

Of course it matters.

And if it’s such common knowledge that dicking around with gain of function is a bad idea

The only way you actually learn stuff is by "dicking around". It's just not a good idea to do it in the middle of an urban area so that if there's an accident, it won't spread beyond the grounds of the lab. If you want to talk about one of the stupidest locations for a scientific experiment in human history, go back in time and talk to Enrico Fermi about Chicago Pile-1, the world's first nuclear reactor that he put right here: Google Maps
He's lucky that he didn't spread radioactive fission products all over the north side of Chicago (or even blow up the neighborhood). And it's not like nuclear scientists are never wrong; they were VERY wrong about the yield of the Castle Bravo test, where they incorrectly assumed that Lithium-7 (60% of the lithium in the weapon) would be inert, and its participation in the reaction caused the weapon to yield more than double its expected energy output. This put the lives of the people who were supposed to monitor the explosion in danger and caused an international incident when it killed some people on the crew of a Japanese fishing boat which was supposed to be out of range of the fallout. But at least they weren't testing that one in the middle of Chicago. As for Wuhan and possible gain of function research being conducted there, I think it was sloppy, but it wasn't malicious, just like I don't think Enrico Fermi had any malicious intent with regard to the residents of Chicago when he did his experiments there. So if you're going to point fingers at the PRC, it shouldn't be for doing gain of function research in the first place or having a possible accident, but for not choosing a suitable site to do the research and, if there was an accident that allowed a virus to escape, for covering it up instead of warning everyone ASAP.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Remarkable really how they always point to some grand conspiracy and how wrong they mostly are.

Believe what you want but the reality is that you don’t need formal conspiracy when interests converge.

 

[bkp_duke]

The changes at the irs are intended to go after rich tax cheats. It doesn't apply to anyone making less than 400k.

Here's a HINT:
Those of us making 400k rarely cheat on our taxes. The tax code is simply laid out so that some things like building a business, investing, and real estate are incentivized with lower tax rates than wages.

The problem is the system (which BOTH parties have equal hand putting into place).

Those of us with 400k+ incomes always use CPAs and tax attorneys to do our taxes. Why, might you ask? Because (in case you didn't know), they have to SIGN on our taxes that they prepared them. Doing so literally has legal ramifications for those CPAs and tax attorneys, so they are incentivized to NOT CHEAT, because if the tax return is audited, they are on the hook as well.

 

[30seconds]

Here's a HINT:
Those of us making 400k rarely cheat on our taxes. The tax code is simply laid out so that some things like building a business, investing, and real estate are incentivized with lower tax rates than wages.

The problem is the system (which BOTH parties have equal hand putting into place).

Those of us with 400k+ incomes always use CPAs and tax attorneys to do our taxes. Why, might you ask? Because (in case you didn't know), they have to SIGN on our taxes that they prepared them. Doing so literally has legal ramifications for those CPAs and tax attorneys, so they are incentivized to NOT CHEAT, because if the tax return is audited, they are on the hook as well.

So there is no need to review anyone taxes as long as they are signed by a CPA?

 

[bkp_duke]

So there is no need to review anyone taxes as long as they are signed by a CPA?

Don't put words into my mouth. That's not what I said.

But since you asked, here are the stats:

What Are the Chances of Being Audited?

Find out more about IRS audit rates and your chances of being audited.

www.nolo.com

Your odds of getting audited go up about 10X as your income goes up.

The only thing that protects the CPAs when those returns are audited is if the CPA prepared them and the client left out meaningful information. CPAs keep an audit trail (pun intended) with their clients so during an IRS audit they can show if a client provided them with info or not.

 

[Crutonius]

Here's a HINT:
Those of us making 400k rarely cheat on our taxes. The tax code is simply laid out so that some things like building a business, investing, and real estate are incentivized with lower tax rates than wages.

The problem is the system (which BOTH parties have equal hand putting into place).

Those of us with 400k+ incomes always use CPAs and tax attorneys to do our taxes. Why, might you ask? Because (in case you didn't know), they have to SIGN on our taxes that they prepared them. Doing so literally has legal ramifications for those CPAs and tax attorneys, so they are incentivized to NOT CHEAT, because if the tax return is audited, they are on the hook as well.

I've got to say I don't quite think you're making much of a point here. Surely you aren't trying to imply that anyone in that income range just doesn't commit tax fraud?

 

[JRP3]

Your odds of getting audited go up about 10X as your income goes up.

Looks like the highest audit rate is when your income goes down to zero.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Looks like the highest audit rate is when your income goes down to zero.

And that’s why you don’t divide by zero.

 

[bkp_duke]

Looks like the highest audit rate is when your income goes down to zero.

That's REPORTED income of zero. I.e. someone says they have not received anything.

That could span the spectrum of a billionaire reporting nothing, down to someone homeless reporting nothing.

I.e. - reporting nothing is in and of itself what we call an "audit flag". Other audit flags are deducting part of your home as a "home office". This one gets abused all the time and it's not uncommon for the IRS to audit you, show up, and literally take measurements of the space you are claiming.

 

[bkp_duke]

I've got to say I don't quite think you're making much of a point here. Surely you aren't trying to imply that anyone in that income range just doesn't commit tax fraud?

What I'm trying to say is the following:

People (here and elsewhere) seem to think that the "rich" must all cheat on their taxes, and that's how their are rich. Sure, that happens, but my POINT is that there are a lot of "checks and balances" in place to already catch that.

No, the RICH are rich usually because they take advantage of the tax code and know how to (legally) use it.

You want the rich to "pay their fair share" (huge debate on how you define that, we'll shelve that), then hiring 80k more auditors isn't going to do jack. You should instead change the tax code to tax real estate and investment transactions at higher rates. That will bring in multiples more income than those 80k IRS agents.

 

[Daniel in SD]

You want the rich to "pay their fair share" (huge debate on how you define that, we'll shelve that), then hiring 80k more auditors isn't going to do jack. You should instead change the tax code to tax real estate and investment transactions at higher rates. That will bring in multiples more income than those 80k IRS agents.

I am curious about that. It should be possible to figure out almost exactly how much cheating will be found by adding 80k more agents through random auditing of tax returns. In fact I'm sure this has already been done. Personally I'd rather everyone comply with the tax code rather than raising taxes (since I don't cheat on my taxes and will likely never be audited).