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I feel like these types of things will be especially bad this year. They won't be able to catch those responsible fast enough to prevent impact on the primaries, but they should be looking to tie these to the Republicans, and disqualify them from the actual election. We know it's them. It's always them.
This kind of thing should be treated as sedition because it's a direct attempt to undermine democratic processes. People should be scared shitless to even think about fucking with an election.
Or if it's a foreign country it should be considered an act of war just as much as an airstrike.
I don't know about sedition, but there are already a ton of more specific laws regarding election interference. Things like deliberately telling voters the wrong date, location, or eligibility are usually covered.
The only thing new here is the highly convincing impersonation, which may (or may not) be covered by other laws.
Of note, this will almost entirely be state laws rather than federal. With a few restrictions, each state runs its own elections by its own rules. Which means the (criminal) charge in New Hampshire is different from the one in South Carolina, the one in Texas, etc. Rarely do the feds get involved.
That type of impersonation could be argued as civil fraud. Whoever did this deserves to catch RICO charges because what they're doing is basically racketeering.
imo its all that plus counts of impersonating a public official /identity theft
Or it’s Russia.
Yeah, that's what he said. The GOP.
Essentially the same thing.
Why is it so hard for phone companies to stop this? They explicitly allow unverified numbers to just call whoever on their networks. Is there really no way to stop number spoofing?
The same reason 5-6 model years of Hyundais are worth $0 now
It would be a minuscule cost to the company and they’re not legally required to implement it
Except due to the FCCs complete regulatory capture, the telecoms have now completely ruined voice calls as a form of communication to the extent that nobody even picks up calls on their personal lines anymore.
Remember when you could answer the phone and reasonably expect it would be relevant to your life?
Indeed. I screen every call now and check the voicemails.
What is this referencing?
Hyundai and Kia cut costs by excluding industry standard engine immobilizers in their vehicles.
Most cars have a chip in the key, which is read by the car when you insert it into the keyhole, to verify the key is legit. Even if you cut a new copy of the key, the engine won’t start without that chip. That’s an engine immobilizer. It also prevents people from just brute-forcing the keyway into turning, with something like a screwdriver. Because again, no chip means the car won’t start.
Hyundai and Kia decided to forego these, as a cost cutting measure. And now those Hyundais and Kia’s are virtually worthless (and nearly impossible to insure,) because car thieves know how easy they are to steal. In the past few years, as the methods have gotten posted on places like YouTube and TikTok, anyone with a screwdriver can go steal a Hyundai or Kia. And theft rates have skyrocketed, to the point that some insurance companies are outright refusing to issue policies for them because they know it’ll eventually be stolen.
As for why it was referenced here, my guess is that they were making a parallel about how the technology to prevent spoofed phone numbers already exists. But the companies have decided not to implement them, as a cost-cutting (and anti-competition) measure.
Currently, some phone carriers already offer caller verification. But that only works for internal numbers. For instance, an AT&T caller dialing another AT&T phone. But the companies have refused to cooperate, and allow competitors to access their internal verification systems. So for instance, if an AT&T customer calls a T-Mobile customer, both AT&T and T-Mobile can verify internal calls. But neither company wants to play nice with the other, so they refuse to verify each others’ numbers. So when a spammer spoofs a number, any kind of verification would only be effective if the spammer has the same carrier as the target.
Wooow. Holy shit. Those car makers really fucked up. Those class action suits should have mandates to replace the cars or install immobilizers.
I'm dubious that's all it is; for example, My '03 S10 has a purely mechanical key. In fact, if you have a GM vehicle with that little "chip" in the root of the blade...note that it's in a symmetrical key, so it could go in either way, and it's only got two pins. Because it's just a resistor. The car's security system is pretty much just an ohmmeter.
The fact that Hyundai and Kia chose not to include an industry standard anti-theft system, leading to them being piss easy to steal
I have my phone set to block all unknown number calls. I was getting around 40 calls per day.
Blocking spoofing isn't as simple as you might think. A LOT of legitimate phone traffic uses spoofing for VOIP calling.
In fact, back in 2005 the Madison River Telephone company (CenturyLink) tried blocking outgoing Vonage calls citing the CID spoofing, and the FCC stepped in and required that they allow it. It was the first real Net Neutrality ruling.
Oh, it’s not gonna be just robocall stuff. It’s gonna be a full-on inundation of deepfake videos, and they’re going to be pushing from one side way harder than the other.
Also, it allows you to say whatever you want and then claim it was a deep fake if someone calls you out. E.g. Roger Stone calling for the murder of Eric Stalwell and Jerry Nadler.
I don't think there are many things less democratic than disqualifying an entire party because of a few bad actors. The GOP could turn right around and do the same thing, "because Antifa". Dangerous, illiberal, antidemocratic, and union-ending.
Don't try and act like one side isn't a bunch of malicious, anti-democratic grifters. Democrats refuse to stand up to their dirty tricks and we continue to be buried in the feces Republicans are shoveling.
If I reverse the political parties, you sound just like a right-wing MAGA extremist on Gab. Dial down your bigotry and remember that you're in a country of diverse viewpoints and political beliefs. And that we ostensibly believe in democracy.
Removed, rule 3. You were 100% on point until the last line. Don't attack other users.
"It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (perjorative, perjorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (perjorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect!"
Removed, rule 3:
"It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (perjorative, perjorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (perjorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect!"
The word ostensibly is exactly the problem here. It means "portrayed as, but not actually."
So yes, the exact problem is that one party ostensibly believes in democracy.
This isn't conservatives vs progressive policies anymore. Until the GOP guts the MAGA rot from their ranks, they have lost all respect for democracy.
A "few bad actors" including the entire party leadership.
You say they "could turn around" as if they haven't been actively doing this for ages. The treaty is being broken by conservatives, and they do it proudly and with gusto. How long are the rest of reasonable people supposed to stand back and let the country be destroyed by these monsters?
What you want is for the non-conservatives to surrender. You want all the reasonable, sane people that want a better society to roll over and give up and let the ones who desire slavery and genocide back into power. This isn't the left versus the right -- this is the rising tide of fascism against everyone else. You are leaping forward to chasten the victims of the violence for their fantasy about some turnabout while not being clear in your condemnation of the aggressors shows a lack of moral fortitude.
A few bad apples indeed, because they have spoiled the bunch.
Yes, please read my mind and tell me what I want!
Actually, you're wrong in every regard. I want the extremists out of the GOP, and I want it to live up to its name. Additionally, your reading comprehension of what I wrote is way off base:
This was in response to the following:
I'm not talking about the Republican Party making an about-face on their current trajectory. I'm saying that as they are, they would love to use the exact same logic to disqualify the Democrats from being in the election. We have seen the weaponization of politics since 2016 only escalate, and it's clear that whatever tactics one party uses, the other will feel free to engage in as well. Best not to open that can of worms in the first place.
I'll say it again more clearly. Disqualifying an entire political party from participating in the elections is dangerous, illiberal, antidemocratic, and will result in civil war and the end of the United States. If you say that you want that, then you aren't thinking very hard about what you're saying.
Oh god forbid they investigate the source of this election tampering and, when it inevitably is discovered that a Republican was behind it, that Republican be punished in an appropriate way.
You made the decision entirely on your own that the other guy doesn't give a shit about the truth. But since he's clearly not a conservative, that's a bogus assumption -- non-conservatives care about the truth, he's just rightly confident that the GOP is actively trying to undermine democracy and is rightly saying that people who try to undefine the republic do not deserve its seats of power. That's why he's so sure an investigation will tie this to the perpetrators.
The Republicans you yearn for haven't existed since a conservative murdered Lincoln. Stop pining for a return to a better past that never really existed in the first place. Conservatism is the same toxic impulse as nostalgia.
I don't know where you get the idea that I don't think the other guy cares about the truth.
The assumption that non-conservatives inherently care for the truth is narrow-minded and provably false, just as the assumption that all conservatives inherently don't care for the truth is.
Being "rightly confident" without evidence is mighty foolish, and, might I add, arrogant.
Who's pining? I'm comfortable with being a centrist Republican for now, although I'll definitely be rethinking my party affiliation if Trump wins the primaries. That said, you leftists have made even the Democratic party highly unwelcoming to centrists and moderates like myself. I'm starting to wonder if we need a third party. We can call it "The Reasonable Party", and it would reject extremists from the right and the left.
I don't get the joke. Where are these alleged leftists who have any significant sway over the dems?
The only reason to identify yourself as a "centrist republican" over a dem in this day and age is because you hold a bunch of weird, conservative, bigoted views that you don't care to admit or because you're totally deluded about what these parties have stood for for the last few decades.
There's no platform in the modern republicans but MAGA and hate. It's been that way, one way or another, since at least Nixon. And while the dems have hardly held an uninterrupted tenure as being the camp for progressives, liberals, and practical socialists, there's no doubt they're the party of everyone who isn't fucking insane right now.
I don't respect your half-baked politics. You're identifying yourself as Republican on some weird-ass personal pride, as best I can tell, and you should stop.
You've got to be living under a rock to not see it. I'm not saying they have as much influence as the MAGA crowd have over the GOP, but still, it's undeniably there.
I identify myself as a centrist Republican because I am registered as a Republican and I am politically centrist. There's no more to it than that.
Centrism/moderatism is commonly derided by partisans on both sides, so I'm used to it. I assure you, however, that there is nothing "half-baked" about it. I am not wishy-washy or uncommitted to the political causes that I believe in. I am simply not as religious about it as you are. I can accept good points made by both sides and am more focused on being an American than I am on my political party.
No, it's definitionally half-baked.
My views aren't extreme or radical. They are principles. I believe in certain first principles and my understanding of the world flows from them. Principles such as the state having an imperative to become more effective and efficient over time, which defines my progressivism. Principles about the state having an obligation to not infringe in certain fundamental liberties held by all people, which define my liberalism. Principles like the state needing to exist to serve a just outcome for as many people as possible, which defines my socialism.
In some cases, there are tension between these principles. When that happens, you have to debate and investigate and come up with an answer about what is right and what is wrong. But being a "moderate" means you aren't committed to your principles. It is half-baked. It means abandoning that debate and instead taking a middle road. It means you only follow your principles sometimes. And people who only sometimes follow their principles are not respectable.
You're the one living in an alternate reality. The dems are the party of radical compromise. They're a party that has no choice but to only act with consensus because they have no power without it. That's why Biden is the current POTUS; he's the compromise king. Based on everything that you claim to believe in, the dems are your party. But you identify Republican. So either you're just plain wrong about what the parties are, or you have some secret terrible belief that is incompatible with the party of compromise. There is not one defensible belief a person can have which would get them ostracized from the dem caucus -- the only beliefs that would get you case out from that tent are ones of overt bigotry or total idiocy.
By whose definition?
In other words, you have no idea what the politics of moderates or centrists actually are. It's okay to acknowledge your ignorance; one can only gain knowledge by being honest about that which one doesn't know.
Or, in this case, being a centrist.
Centrism is the opposite of your views, which are that a belief that isn't religiously devoted to one side or the other must be "half-baked". Ironically, this type of extremism is something you have in common with the MAGA folks.
I'll leave you to your political extremism. I want no part of it.
You literally know not one of my positions yet are comfortable calling me an extremist. You can go ahead and stop pretending to be on the moral high-ground because you clearly aren't.
I'm here telling you your positions are welcome and can be included among the dems. They already are the "reasonable party" you so desire. You remain totally mum on what the politics you hold are that lead to your ostracism -- I'll go ahead and assume it's something pretty fucking hateful based on that. Because the alternative is that you care so deeply about the label you picked for yourself that you don't care at all about what that label means to literally eveyone else. It's a stupid, stubborn, and arrogant stance that the Republican party doesn't know what they stand for as well as you, some guy.
The Republicans are the no-compromise party. Your "centrism" is unwelcome with them. Come into the light and maybe you can help make the world better. If not, understand that people like me will believe you when you tell them who you are.
You, as a Democrat, have made it perfectly clear that none of my beliefs are welcome in your party. However, for now, the Republicans welcome some of my beliefs. But when Trump is nominated, I will reconsider.
Good day to you.
So it's queerbashing, then. Got it.
Okay, tell us who you think is behind these robocalls.
My guess is Russia. Either way, the comment I was replying to wasn't differentiating between the people sending these calls and Republicans in general.
"Republicans in general" defend "Republicans being terrorists".
Let's not split hairs.
#MittRomney
This actually wasn't a robo call, he just called people one after another doing a weirdly good Biden impression
No, launch them from a trebuchet into a volcano.
Republicunts had over 150 years since we smashed their asses in during the civil war to act right.
They can't. Too bad so sad.
You do realize that the Republican Party didn't exist in the Confederacy? It was originally founded in the United States just before the civil war and was the party that actually won the war and ended slavery. In fact, until the mid-20th century, the Democratic party was the conservative party of the United States and was responsible for instituting the Jim Crow laws.
Spiritual succession is a thing.
I don't see many confederate flags north of the mason Dixon line.
I also don't see any on democrat's porches or vehicles. Weird..