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| Parker has lost its hosting |
Kevin Liptak at CNN warns that Donald Trump may “lash
out” at “Big Tech” today, and make announcements in a speech that major media
(outside of “conservative” media) will not carry. As I noted on a review of an
Atlantic article in the Books blog in January 2019, on paper his emergency
powers are considerable, including practically shutting down the entire
Internet. As a practical matter, it
might be possible to stop this with immediate invocation of the 25rh Amendment,
which Pence has 24 hrs to decide on today.
(Later: Fox reports that Trump will speak at
1:30 PM today).
The Wall Street Journal, with Ryan D. Tracey and John
McKinnon, discuss the increased pressure on Congress to roll back downstream
liability protections of Section 230, and I have discussed various proposals on
these blogs recently (one of which is to protect hosting with common carrier
language). Biden has reportedly doubled down on his idea that Section 230
should be repealed outright, to prevent radicalization and “stochastic
terrorism” (a term that the “communist” Non-compete YouTube channel was using
before anyone else did, as also did Countrapoint.)
I’ll not that Parler is gone this morning, but Gab is
still there. I don’t know why they went
after Parler first, unless it is because Gab seems to have built its own
infrastructure.
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| Cloudflare intercepts Gab access |
I have indicated that I will pin down my own plans
more soon, probably right after the Inauguration when things are settled down a
bit more. I cannot dismiss the possibility of sudden disruption of the services
that I use.
My main concern is to be able to wind up with a
simpler, consolidated presence in 2022, along with the completion of a few
projects that right now are largely offline.
If there were a sudden shutdown and restart, I would
hope to continue with the plans I had laid out.
I’m not entitled to more time because others didn’t get out of losses and
hardship either. However, it my sites
were taken down because they were seen as “gratuitous” or “inessential”, they
could not be continued, and the ability to set up the simpler presence I have
contemplated would be in peril.
There are other things to say about all this. I am, as of today, eligible for vaccination
as a member of group 1B (I am age 77), and the logistics of getting the vaccine are
uncertain. The vaccine of choice is likely to be Moderna, which means two shots
21 days apart, and then a period of two weeks afterward before I am considered
fully protected. But after a minimum of
5 weeks (toward the end of February) I would be able to move about and function
safely, although wearing a mask to protect others while indoors (we don’t know
if the vaccine sterilizes one from infecting others for sure).
That would mean that I ought to be willing to volunteer
in person for activities like food banks.
I used to do that with Community Assistance in Arlington once a month,
although I was not particularly useful. I
do have a hip issue that can make prolonged standing an issue. I have driven delivery for Food and Friends,
but continuing to do so presented a security issue which I won’t get into right
now. But after successful vaccination, I
should deal with this stuff.
There is something about my background that makes “fighting”
impossible, at this stage of life. Please
respect that. Of course, I realize the
dangerous implications of having to say this, when the world has become
unstable.
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