09 May, LVI A.S.

1. The Devil’s Advocate

Time Stamp: 28:57​

• What Makes a Witch?
  • According to The Compleat Witch, or What to do When Virtue Fails otherwise known as The Satanic Witch and The Satanic Bible
    • Common credentials:
      • Inherited ability
      • ‘Proper’ astrological signs
      • Names and Birth Numbers
      • E.S.P. powers
      • Unobtrusive birth marks and blemishes
      • Unusual conditions at birth
    • Results and how they are received is the the most important factor
    • Pedigrees are meaningless if they don’t produce
    • Witch must be a woman
    • Own your Look
      • Understand the Command to look through sex, sentiment and /or wonder
    • Make a pact with the Devil
    • Make use of your talents
    • Have perspective and do not fall sway to popular culture

2. Infernal Informant

Time Stamp: 49:58​

• Online speech shield under fire as Trump Facebook ban stays
  • https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-technology-business-government-and-politics-db5c35f10814f028605fe7c9741393c1
  • Lurking beneath Facebook’s decision on whether to continue Donald Trump’s suspension from its platform is a far more complex and consequential question: Do the protections carved out for companies when the internet was in its infancy 25 years ago make sense when some of them have become global powerhouses with almost unlimited reach?
  • The companies have provided a powerful megaphone for Trump, other world leaders and billions of users to air their grievances, even ones that are false or damaging to someone’s reputation, knowing that the platforms themselves were shielded from liability for content posted by users.
  • Now that shield is getting a critical look in the current climate of hostility toward Big Tech and the social environment of political polarization, hate speech and violence against minorities.
  • The debate is starting to take root in Congress, and the action this week by Facebook’s quasi-independent oversight board upholding the company’s suspension of Trump’s accounts could add momentum to that legislative effort.
  • Under the 1996 Communications Decency Act, digital platform companies have legal protection both for content they carry and for removing postings they deem offensive. The shelter from lawsuits and prosecution applies to social media posts, uploaded videos, user reviews of restaurants or doctors, classified ads — or the underworld of thousands of websites that profit from false and defamatory information on individuals.
  • Section 230 of the law, which outlines the shield, was enacted when many of the most powerful social media companies didn’t even exist. It allowed companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to grow into the behemoths they are today.
  • Republicans accuse the social media platforms of suppressing conservative voices and giving a stage to foreign leaders branded as dictators, while Trump is barred. Democrats and civil rights groups decry the digital presence of far-right extremists and pin blame on the platforms for disseminating hate speech and stoking extremist violence.
  • “For too long, social media platforms have hidden behind Section 230 protections to censor content that deviates from their beliefs,” Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, has said.
  • On this, Trump and President Joe Biden apparently agree. Trump, while president, called for the repeal of Section 230, branding it “a serious threat to our national security and election integrity.” Biden said during his campaign that it “immediately should be revoked,” though he hasn’t spoken about the issue at length as president.
  • Facebook, with a strong lobbying presence in Washington and a desire to have an input into any changes, has stepped out in favor of revisions to Section 230. Congress should update the 1996 law “to make sure it’s working as intended,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said. And he’s offered a specific suggestion: Congress could require internet platforms to gain legal protection only by proving that their systems for identifying illegal content are up to snuff.
  • Some critics see a clever gambit in that, a requirement that could make it more difficult for smaller tech companies and startups to comply and would ultimately advantage Facebook over smaller competitors.
  • Spokespeople for Twitter and Google declined to comment on the prospects for legislative action on Section 230 following the Facebook board ruling; a spokesperson for Menlo Park, California-based Facebook had no immediate comment.
  • The decision announced by the Facebook oversight board upheld the suspension of Trump, an extremely rare move that was based on the company’s conclusion that he incited violence leading to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot. But the overseers told Facebook to specify how long the suspension would last, saying its “indefinite” ban on the former president was unreasonable. The ruling, which gives Facebook six months to comply, effectively postpones any possible Trump reinstatement and puts the onus for that decision squarely back on the company.
  • Trump was permanently banned after the riot from Twitter, his favored bullhorn. But it was Facebook that played an integral role in both of Trump’s campaigns, not just as a way to speak to his more than 32 million followers but also as a fundraising juggernaut driving small-dollar contributions through highly targeted ads.
  • Critics of Facebook generally saw the oversight board’s ruling as positive. But some view the board as a distraction by Facebook to skirt its responsibility and to stave off action by Congress or the Biden administration. What must be addressed, critics insist, are the broader problems for society from the fearsome power, market dominance and underlying business model of Facebook and the other tech giants — harvesting data from platform users and making it available to online advertisers so they can pinpoint consumers to target.
  • That’s where the debate over changes to Section 230 comes in, as a key area for new regulation of social media.
  • Gautam Hans, a technology law and free-speech expert and professor at Vanderbilt University, said he finds the board to be “a bit of a sideshow from the larger policy and social questions that we have about these companies.”

• Woman killed when man lands on her after jumping from downtown San Diego structure identified
  • https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/woman-killed-when-jumper-landed-on-her/509-5f2e1515-61b8-4645-a672-3969438d82c1
  • Police on Monday released the identity of the woman killed in a freak accident Sunday night. Police said Taylor Kahle, 29, was killed Sunday around 7:45 p.m. when an apparently suicidal man jumped from an East Village parking structure and landed on her.
  • The man described by the coroner to be in his 20s to 30s plunged from the ninth floor of the building and fell onto Kahle of San Diego as she was walking with a friend in the 1000 block of J Street shortly before 7:30 p.m. Sunday, according to the county Medical Examiner’s Office.
  • Kahle died at the scene.
  • The man who leaped off the structure was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
  • A memorial where friends were paying tribute to Kahle continued to grow in the East Village on Monday night.
  • Her boss, Laurel McFarlane, of McFarlane Promotions, said Kahle was on a second date with a man she met online. They had gone to the zoo earlier that day and out to dinner that night. 
  • “I just want people to know she is an incredible person. This tragedy does not define her,” said McFarlane. 
  • She said Kahle started as a shy intern eight years ago and found her voice and moved up to senior event manager. 
  • “I encouraged her, I pushed her in things she didn’t always want to but it was incredible to watch this young lady blossom into this beautiful person,” said McFarlane. 
  • She said Kahle adored her rescue dogs Roo and Stella and her father. She moved to Chicago for a short while but moved back home to take care of her dad who needed help after a surgery.
  • “It was her and her dad and it just gives you one person to love you with all your heart. To give you courage and strength and her dad was that for her and I was too and she was for me,” said McFarlane.
  • The man with Kahle was uninjured, police said.

3. Creature Feature

Time Stamp: 1:10:17​

• Boys from County Hell
  • https://www.shudder.com/movies/watch/boys-from-county-hell/86a8ad021fdceae5
  • https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10262380/, 6/10
  • https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/boys_from_county_hell, 84% Tomatometer, 62% Audience Score 
  • Log Line: A crew of hardy road workers, led by a bickering Father and Son, must survive the night when they accidentally awaken an ancient Irish vampire.
  • Strange events unfold in Six Mile Hill — a sleepy Irish town that claims to have been traveled by the famed author Bram Stoker — when construction on a new road disrupts the alleged grave of Abhartach, a legendary Irish vampire said to have inspired Dracula. Deadly and sinister forces terrorize the work crew led by Francie Moffat and his son Eugene, a free-spirited young man who prefers pints to pickaxes, and they’re forced to fight to survive the night while exposing the true horror that resides in the town’s local myth.
  • Written by Chris Baugh & Brendan Mullin
  • Director: Chris Baugh
  • Cast:
    • Jack Rowan – Eugene Moffat
    • Nigel O’Neill – Francie Moffat
    • Louisa Harland – Claire McCann
    • Michael Hough – SP McCauley
    • John Lynch – George Bogue
    • Fra Fee – William Bogue
  • Abhartach
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhartach
    • There is a place in the parish of Errigal in Derry, called Slaghtaverty, but it ought to have been called Laghtaverty, the laght or sepulchral monument of the abhartach [avartagh] or dwarf (see p. 61, supra). This dwarf was a magician, and a dreadful tyrant, and after having perpetrated great cruelties on the people he was at last vanquished and slain by a neighbouring chieftain; some say by Fionn Mac Cumhail. He was buried in a standing posture, but the very next day he appeared in his old haunts, more cruel and vigorous than ever. And the chief slew him a second time and buried him as before, but again he escaped from the grave, and spread terror through the whole country. The chief then consulted a druid, and according to his directions, he slew the dwarf a third time, and buried him in the same place, with his head downwards; which subdued his magical power, so that he never again appeared on earth. The laght raised over the dwarf is still there, and you may hear the legend with much detail from the natives of the place, one of whom told it to me.
      • -Patrick Weston Joyce, The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places
    • In some modern versions of the story Abhartach rises from his grave to drink the blood of his subjects,[2] while the chieftain who slays the revenant is named as Cathain. The hero variously consults an early Christian saint instead of a druid, and is told that Abhartach is one of the neamh-mairbh, or walking dead, and that he can only be restrained by killing him with a sword made of yew wood, burying him upside down, surrounding his grave with thorns, and placing a large stone on top of the grave.