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Comment Re:They just dont get it (Score 1) 209

I'm not sure you know what a samurai is. Read the Smithsonian's article: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smithsonianmag.com...

And Britannica's: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.britannica.com%2Fbio...

And CNN's: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2F2019%2F0...

Comment Re:They just dont get it (Score 3, Informative) 209

The fact is there was no black samurai's in the past in Japan.

Wrong: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F...

Here are more foreign-born samurai: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F...

Submission + - Musk to "fix" Community Notes for contradicting Trump (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by smooth wombat
smooth wombat writes: The man who espouses "free speech" has announced he will be "fixing" Community Notes on Twitter because they repeatedly contradict what Trump says. He claims a cabal of governments and media are using Notes to game the system.

Musk's attack on Community Notes is somewhat surprising. Although he has always maintained that Community Notes aren't "perfect," he has defended Community Notes through multiple European Union probes challenging their effectiveness and declared that the goal of the crowdsourcing effort was to make X "by far the best source of truth on Earth." At CES 2025, X CEO Linda Yaccarino bragged that Community Notes are "good for the world."

Yaccarino invited audience members to "think about it as this global collective consciousness keeping each other accountable at global scale in real time," but just one month later, Musk is suddenly casting doubts on that characterization while the European Union continues to probe X.

Perhaps most significantly, Musk previously insisted as recently as last year that Community Notes could not be manipulated, even by Musk. He strongly disputed a 2024 report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate that claimed that toxic X users were downranking accurate notes that they personally disagreed with, claiming any attempt at gaming Community Notes would stick out like a "neon sore thumb."

Submission + - Teen on Musk's DOGE Team Graduated from 'The Com' (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes: Brian Krebs writes, "Wired reported this week that a 19-year-old working for Elon Musk‘s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was given access to sensitive US government systems even though his past association with cybercrime communities should have precluded him from gaining the necessary security clearances to do so. As today’s story explores, the DOGE teen is a former denizen of ‘The Com,’ an archipelago of Discord and Telegram chat channels that function as a kind of distributed cybercriminal social network for facilitating instant collaboration."

Submission + - Musk Shows Us What Actual Government Censorship On Social Media Looks Like (techdirt.com)

Submitted by theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes: Self proclaimed "free speech absolutist" Elon Musk is now suppressing free speech on Twitter. Over the weekend, Wired reported on the inexperienced twenty-somethings between 19 and 24 working for Musk who have been given unprecedented access to sensitive government systems.

When someone posted these government employees’ names on Twitter, Musk first declared it “criminal” to name government employees (it isn't) and then he followed it up by having the comment removed.

Submission + - Techdirt: A Coup Is In Progress In America (techdirt.com) 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A coup is underway in the United States, and we must stop pretending otherwise. The signs are unmistakable and accelerating: in just the past 48 hours, Elon Musk’s DOGE commission has seized control of Treasury payment systems and gained unauthorized access to classified USAID materials, while security officials who followed protocols were removed. Career civil servants across agencies are being systematically purged for having followed legal requirements during previous administrations. The president openly declares he won’t enforce laws he dislikes, while Congress watches in complicit silence. This isn’t happening through tanks in the streets or soldiers at government buildings—it’s occurring through the systematic dismantling of constitutional governance and its replacement with a system of personal loyalty to private interests. Those who resist are being removed, while those who enable this transformation are being rewarded with unprecedented control over government functions. The time for euphemisms and careful hedging has passed. We are watching, in real time, the conversion of constitutional democracy into something darker and more dangerous. To pretend otherwise isn’t prudence—it’s complicity.

Submission + - Musk says he 'deleted' IRS easy filing team (rawstory.com)

Submitted by echo123
echo123 writes: Musk says he 'deleted' IRS easy filing team that let Americans file taxes for free online

= = = = =

In a post on X, unelected government official Elon Musk revealed that he has cut the staff of the Internal Revenue Service that oversaw the system that allows Americans to file their taxes for free easily on its website.

A right-wing MAGA influencer called the "direct file" tax program a "far left government wide computer office" that was "built by Elizabeth Warren."

He claimed, "Direct file puts the government in charge of preparing people's tax returns for them," he claimed.

Musk responded by saying, "That group has been deleted."

Thus far, the website remains active.

The Treasury Department said on its website, "Direct File is a historic new IRS service that allows eligible taxpayers to prepare and file their tax return online, for free, including access to help from dedicated IRS Direct File customer support representatives."

It was available in both Spanish and English and wasn't a mandatory program for anyone. Those who didn't trust the system could still fill out their taxes by hand and mail them.

Submission + - California Reservoir Dams Opened At Trump's Order 2

Submitted by Petersko
Petersko writes: At the order of the President, 2.2 billion gallons of water were released from reservoirs in Central California on Friday. The goal, according to his posts on Truth Social, was to provide water to "farmers throughout the state, and to Los Angeles."

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2025%2F02%2F03...

"There are two major problems, water experts said: The newly released water will not flow to Los Angeles, and it is being wasted by being released during the wet winter season."

“They were holding extra water in those reservoirs because of the risk that it would be a dry summer,” Heather Cooley, director of research for California water policy organization the Pacific Institute. “This puts agriculture at risk of insufficient water during the summer months.”

According to Trump, an additional 3 billion gallons will follow.

"The US Army Corps of Engineers and the White House did not respond to CNN’s request for comment."

Submission + - CDC orders massive retraction of scientific papers on political grounds (substack.com) 2

Submitted by Mr. Dollar Ton
Mr. Dollar Ton writes: The CDC has apparently instructed its scientists to retract or pause the publication of any research manuscript being considered by any medical or scientific journal, not merely its own internal periodicals. The move aims to ensure that no “forbidden terms” appear in the work.

The policy includes manuscripts that are in the revision stages at journal (but not officially accepted) and those already accepted for publication but not yet live.

In the order, CDC researchers were instructed to remove references to or mentions of a list of forbidden terms: “Gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female,” according to an email sent to CDC employees (see below).”

If true, Lisenko would give fat thumbs up to the new administration.

Submission + - Tesla Reported Zero Federal Income Tax on $2 Billion of U.S. Income in 2024 (itep.org) 1

Submitted by theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes: Tesla, the most valuable automaker in the world valued at over $1 trillion, did not pay any federal income tax last year. Tesla’s annual financial report, released this morning, shows the company enjoyed $2.3 billion of U.S. income in 2024 on which it reports precisely zero current federal income tax. Over the past three years, the Elon Musk-led company reports $10.8 billion of U.S. income on which its current federal tax was just $48 million. That comes to a three-year federal tax rate of just 0.4 percent – more than 50 times less than the statutory corporate tax rate of 21 percent.

Submission + - Elon Musk reveals Elon Musk was wrong about Full Self-Driving (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes: Sean O'Kane for TechCrunch writes, "For nearly nine years, Elon Musk has promised Tesla vehicles had the hardware needed to support a self-driving car. This week, he made his latest admission that many are not. Musk said on a conference call Wednesday evening that Tesla cars equipped with so-called Hardware 3 will need an upgrade before they can support unsupervised self-driving software the automaker is still developing. These Hardware 3 vehicles, sold between 2019 and 2023, are equipped with the older version of the computer that powers the company’s “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” driver assistance software. 'I think the honest answer is that we’re going to have to upgrade people’s Hardware 3 computer for those that have bought Full Self-Driving,' he said. 'That’s going to be painful and difficult, but we’ll get it done.'"

Submission + - Tesla's profits slide over 70 percent in the fourth quarter (theverge.com)

Submitted by theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes: Andrew J. Hawkins for the Verge writes, "It’s one week into Elon Musk’s new role as chief cost-cutter for the Trump administration, but today, his side hustle as CEO of Tesla takes center stage with the release of the company’s latest earnings report. During the fourth quarter of 2024, Tesla said it earned $2.3 billion in net income on $25.7 billion in revenue. That represents a 1.9 percent increase year over year compared to $25.2 billion in revenue in Q4 2023 and a 70 percent decrease in net income."

Submission + - Elon Musk admits to paying others to "boost" his game characters to top of ranks (washingtonpost.com) 1

Submitted by ubermiester
ubermiester writes: From WaPo: Musk "...boasted to Joe Rogan that he ranked among the world’s best players of the role-playing game 'Diablo IV'" and bragged "about how quickly he had conquered the global leaderboards of another game, “Path of Exile 2,” blasting “through the ‘toughest’ content, popping monsters like balloons.”

But the gaming community "suspected that he had pursued a widely mocked tactic known as “boosting,” paying strangers to play his character and rake in loot so that, when he logged in, he could face challenges with the most powerful gear."

"Musk fought the allegations before ultimately confessing in messages this month. “It’s impossible to beat players in Asia if you don’t,” he wrote. A few days later, his character could be seen chasing treasure through the game’s sulfuric caverns while Musk was in the Capitol Rotunda, attending President Donald Trump’s inauguration."

“Elon lost the trust of all gamers overnight,” Dan Nelson, a programmer in Philadelphia, said in an X post liked more than 100,000 times. “Boosting your account and lying about it is the worst offense. incredibly cringe, fragile ego on full display.”

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