UPDATE: Blogger unpublished this post and told me "Your content has violated our Illegal activities policy." This post is about a news item that appeared in NPR. Reports about crime are not illegal!
UPDATE 2: Blogger reevaluated this post and sent me email that said:
We have re-evaluated the post titled "A corporation buys a whole town in California, and the plan is to make it all about marijuana. " against Community Guidelines.... Upon review, the post has been reinstated.
8 hours after that, I received email about this same post, saying:
As you may know, our Community Guidelines (https://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy) describe the boundaries for what we allow-- and don't allow-- on Blogger. Your post titled "A corporation buys a whole town in California, and the plan is to make it all about marijuana. " was flagged to us for review. We have determined that it violates our guidelines and have unpublished the URL http://althouse.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-corporation-buys-whole-town-in.html, making it unavailable to blog readers.
ADDED: Here's the NPR article I was blogging about at the time: "No Pipe Dream: Cannabis Company Buys California Town." I wondered what had happened to that town, Nipton, because the company's plan was about "bottling water (from a nearby aquifer) infused with CBD," and these days, there's a water shortage.Come on, Blogger! Don't you have a way to keep the SAME POST from getting unpublished? Am I in some kind of cycle of doom? This post should be immune from future flagging.
UPDATE 3: This post was very quickly reinstated after I requested review again. Let's see if it gets unpublished again.UPDATE 4: It got unpublished again, almost immediately! I am in a cycle of doom! Wake up, Blogger! I may have to do a new post shining light on this problem. I'm actually suspicious that the corporation — American Green — is out to get me because I was critical of its commercial product.This post is CRITICAL of a marijuana company, and it is CRITICAL of an NPR news report that presents it in a positive light. How can my post possibly be considered to promote criminal behavior? If anything, I am applying a HIGHER standard of adherence to criminal law than American Green and NPR. Marijuana is legalized in Nevada and California, but not at the federal level.
Googling Nipton, I see "Tiny California town with less than two dozen residents sells – again":
The tiny desert town attracts stargazers, motorcycle riders, he town currently has a population of 15 – 20 people. It has been sold several times before. In 2017 it was bought by a large cannabis company for $5 million. The company tried to rebrand it as Magical Nipton. The company had ambitious plans to turn it into a cannabis retreat. It spent a lot of money on infrastructure, built several eco-cabins, comfy teepees for visitors, installed massive public art pieces, and did restoration work on some of the historic structures.
That's what I blogged about in 2017.
But the cannabis retreat didn’t materialize...
I guess the pipe dream that NPR said was "No Pipe Dream" turned out to be a pipe dream.
... so the town reverted to its previous owner. That was Roxanne Lang....
So, I guess I'm not worried that American Green is nudging Blogger to censor me.
Now, we're told, the town has been sold again, this time to "a group out of Las Vegas." Forgive me for not being paranoid enough to worry about the group out of Las Vegas. You know, that's one of the medical issues marijuana can help you with, not being paranoid enough.
UPDATE: Reinstated again. Let's see if it lasts.
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Althouse says...
This post is CRITICAL of a marijuana company, and it is CRITICAL of an NPR news report that presents it in a positive light.
you are NOT ALLOWED to be critical of those things. Continued criticism of NPR (or, industries that nancy pelosi has invested in) WILL GET YOU BANNED
oh! i see your confusion!
The "Illegal activities " you were engaged in, was criticizing your masters
Stop IT! leave your masters alone. The ONLY reports about NPR (or, the democrat grass industry) that are allowed are POSITIVE ones
Gee, maybe these "tech corporations" shouldn't have the power to censor you, professor.
Surely, you'd agree that in the United States it should be legal for you to argue for or against laws regarding marijuana use. Where did these corporations get this power from to censor US citizens?
If we cannot, then can we really claim we're a nation that value's free speech?
What is Professor Reynold's remark? "Orwell never intended 1984 as an instruction manual" or something?
If I understand correctly, though, the problem isn't the censorship so much as the "cycle of doom" -- a problem about lack of due process (and common sense).
I've noticed similar waffling behavior on Facebook censorship. This makes me wonder if these censors know what they want to do at all. Is there an endpoint, or is this some free floating temper tantrum?
At some point, you’ll discover that you have been labeled extreme right wing by the blogger AI system, which seems to have very sentient bots with an agenda. This will be but the first of many increasingly annoying ways to censor you. Several popular YouTube lawyers are getting takedown (unpublished) notices that suggest a vague violation of terms without clarity of remedy to allow publishing including conflicting written opinions on what terms were violated if any.
When your business model can only be profitable if you don't hire as many workers as you need but instead rely on algorithms to make judgement calls, you get a system that makes strange, seemingly nonsensical decisions and can easily be gamed.
The censorship is just getting started, on the pretext that the censorship is targeting "illegal activities".
The censorship's next target will be "misinformation".
The next target will be anything that might hurt the feelings of a "marginalized person".
The censorship's next target will be anything that criticizes the Democrat Party.
The censorship's ultimate target will be anything that might support Donald Trump.
======
Our country's universities are training and certifying the future censors, who will be happy to work in censorship careers.
Is it stupefying blasts of intoxication or intoxicating blasts of stupefaction?
I forget…
In the unnuanced algorithms versus the nuanced humans, apparently the algorithms don’t get word that they have been overruled.
The post is mostly critical of NPR for writing a puff piece about the corporation's plan to take over a town and "use the local aquifer in the manufacture of bottled water infused with CBD. The town is on the northeastern border of Mojave National Preserve, and 60 miles from Las Vegas, and this is about water, a big issue right now.
I wrote: "I think what you've got here is a big corporation that wants to make a lot of money tapping the aquifer and got NPR to do a puff piece on them — a puff the magic eco-tourism piece."
I stepped on multiple toes! And I'm getting accused to promoting crime.
Considering that the Althouse blog has the most readers on all of Blogger, that’s a hell of a problem.
But Blogger won’t censor you if you write a post favorable to the Left’s grooming of kids to the trans community.
Big Tech’s censorship speech is a real threat to democracy. Much more so than anything Trump ever did.
Here's the NPR article.
Your little backwater of social media is now caught in the leftie propaganda algorithms. Soon posts about weed won't be the only posts that are blocked.
It's how social media works now. Good luck trying to 'shine light' on this...
Althouse said: I am applying a HIGHER standard of adherence to criminal law than American Green and NPR.
No pun intended.
And I'm getting accused to promoting crime.
Welcome to the other side of the cultural divide.
Oh, I forgot to add ... racist!
It's easy to assume corporate overlording but's just as likely the people populating the algorithms like to smoke weed and don't like people saying anything negative about it.
It's just that easy...
Pot is like climate change and abortion for the Left. They are all major beliefs and sacraments. No criticism is allowed. All heretics must be censored and burned at the digital stake.
Fuck’em. All of them. The Left must be crushed.
Ann Althouse is now officially an Enemy of the State and a witch who must be cancelled. Recall that cartoon of you in that Madison lefty paper? You were on a broomstick!
Chances are the censors are stuck in a marijuana-addled cycle of doom.
One of Trump’s biggest mistakes was not defunding NPR. America shouldn’t have state-owned radio.
gilbar at 7:48 AM
The ONLY reports about NPR (or, the democrat grass industry) that are allowed are POSITIVE ones
gilbar might be right.
The real reason why your blog article is being censored is because it seems to criticize NPR.
Change the heading?
MaryJane - the new American doll?
The usual defense against the woke is mockery but here they have the edge on you through silencing without recourse.
"No pun intended."
True. I absolutely did not intend that pun.
Dave Begley said...
Ann Althouse is now officially an Enemy of the State and a witch who must be cancelled.
Recall that cartoon of you in that Madison lefty paper? You were on a broomstick!
She turned me into a newt! I mean, i did get better; but Still! And what about that hat?
"A corporation buys a whole town in California, and the plan is to make it all about marijuana."
Tegridy.
Cannabis is a sacred cow. Cannabis got a bum rap! Cannabis is good for everything! Precious cannabis can do no wrong!
Don't you dare knock The Precious.
If the post reappears at any point today capture all the pages as screen shots. However, from what you have described, it probably isn't your post itself that is the problem, but something inside the comments section.
My stepson lived in Bend, Oregon several years ago. When hooch was legalized several small towns in the surrounding region jumped in with both lips. They are now ghost towns.
I like that this showdown between me and Google is taking place on the streets of Nipton, a dusty Western town with a population of 15. I feel like Clint Eastwood.
If you want to test Google, post about this: The National Tragedy of Hunter Bidens Laptop.
American Green is a microcap of less than $10m. LOL.
"Considering that the Althouse blog has the most readers on all of Blogger...."
Is that true? It seems unlikely to me.
Get off Google.
John LGBTQBNY Henry
"I feel like Clint Eastwood."
The analogy fails- Eastwood was always Goliath in those showdowns. You are more like Marty McFly vs Mad Dog Tannen.
Althouse writes, "Am I in some kind of cycle of doom?"
The wages of cruel neutrality. Fence sitting may seem wise, but it comes at the price of splinters in your ass.
Being under the thumb of faceless and inscrutable power is the essence of so-called progressivism.
It's what happens when you cross a pet project of the left. It's pretty funny that they come after you for what you wrote. It's not even about what you wrote. They're coming at you because they don't like your attitude. Attitude judgement is very big these days.
I don't like your attitude.
Nipton, California's future might lie in making it a microdosing destination. This has become the latest, greatest thing for baby boomer liberals with too much money and a willingness to believe that they are still a step away from entering the Age of Aquarius. Cannibis going legal is not actually working out as people had predicted. Like much of the world, it's results are more chaotic. With an upcoming generation of mind-messed young people hitting the streets (and schools) it'll be fun and exciting.
Quick trivia: What did the last 4 or 5 (or 10?) school shooters have in common?
"showdown between me and Google is taking place on the streets of Nipton, a dusty Western town"...
with the obligatory soundtrack
"One of Trump’s biggest mistakes was not defunding NPR. America shouldn’t have state-owned radio."
Why not? There are plenty of privately owned radio and tv stations to counter what you presume to be state propaganda. What about the corporate propaganda of the privately owned broadcast outlets? NPR is not harming the manifold private outlets, it is not forcing them out of business or blocking their transmission.
The American right are hysterical (in all senses) paranoiacs.
My grandmother lived with us when we were growing up. She was a Republican for life because the Republicans gave women the right to vote. The first president she voted for was Calvin Coolidge. My dad was a Yellow Dog Democrat and chairman of the town's Democrat Party. They were both very knowledgeable about politics, and the political debates at our dinner table were legendary.
My brother and I have continued the tradition. There is no animosity between us. Our mutual friends appear to enjoy the give and take. One day on Facebook a mutual friend asked what my grandmother would say to my brother if she were still alive. I replied, "Nothing until she had had him kidnapped and reprogrammed." That got me suspended. A couple more stupid things like that got me silenced for a few days but not him, even when he threatened to drown me. I've stopped interacting with him on Facebook. Which I guess is Facebook's goal, but while the things we say to each other are in jest and don't reflect any anger between us, the double standard was causing an issue. It's like he has a license to attack his sister, and I can't defend myself.
"My stepson lived in Bend, Oregon several years ago. When hooch was legalized several small towns in the surrounding region jumped in with both lips. They are now ghost towns."
This is intriguing. Can you elaborate?
And do they have to ruin every obscure desert ghost town with their grubby publicity?
Nipton? First thought, town was started as one of FDR's relocation camps. But seems not.
Was there anything in the comments section of the 2017 post that was questionable? Can a post get flagged if it had a comment that was considered a violation?
R
You give Blogger too much credit. Their computer algorithm keeps kicking you out, and when you manage to get the attention of actual people they let you back in. But apparently their system doesn't have (but needs) a flag to tell the algorithm to leave it alone. Or it is something new in the comments, as someone said.
Perhaps your comment section has put you on their naughty list.
Welcome to the world of conservatives on Facebook and Twitter.
I see Althouse being interviewed by Tucker Carlson. 🫣
As they say you get what you pay for
"You give Blogger too much credit. Their computer algorithm keeps kicking you out, and when you manage to get the attention of actual people they let you back in. But apparently their system doesn't have (but needs) a flag to tell the algorithm to leave it alone. Or it is something new in the comments, as someone said."
Oh, no, you're completely misunderstanding me!
I know it's a computer algorithm, but when I'm invited to change the post and hit the "review" button, I choose to write something that I want to see published in the post after it comes back on. They're prompting me to remove something criminal, which of course, isn't there. So I write something that is accurate and readable for my audience. Then I hit review, and generally it works and the post comes back on. It's irrelevant to me whether any "actual people" read any of this. I'm just triggering a review, and, in this case, seeing that the review would work and I'd get taken down again. I wrote updates to document what happened and made this new post too. I don't know who at Blogger would see this, but I have the ability to tweak them or embarrass them. This is the biggest blog on Blogger. I don't presume that means they care, but actual higher ups there have given me personal service in the past, and I think I'm calling attention to a problem that they might want to deal with, not just for me, but for all Blogger bloggers.
Hey, I got banned from Twitter for suggesting that Glenn Kessler and Taylor Lorenz wear face masks to cover up their clown noses, so it doesn't take much.
It sounds like you are now in the Google echo chamber.
The good news is they can't fire you.
fire you
fire you
Dang. The best I've been able to achieve is to receive an automated warning (on reddit, for hate speech) when I used the word "tranny".
In a discussion about cars.
You've entered your own 'Bad Day at Black Rock' (1955) with you in the Spencer Tracey role. But it's not the townspeople trying to hide their terrible secret, but social media who fear exposure.
'This post is CRITICAL of a marijuana company, and it is CRITICAL of an NPR news report that presents it in a positive light.'
Maybe Blogger wanted your opinion to be positive?
Marijuana.
Puff piece.
Golf clap.
Ann says: " This is the biggest blog on Blogger. "
I did not know that. Congratulations!
You have succeeded in proving that size and reach are no protection from the mighty algorithims, nor visibility any guarantee of being heard.
If you can be censored, what hope have those of us in the comments section? Or with single-digit follower counts on Twitter? Why bother to speak?
Hmmm. Fuels my suspicion that all these claims from various social media and tech companies that their goal is to have 'algorithms' block and ban things is entirely bogus. They're doing basic keyword searches and some basic image processing, and there is likely some level of automation as evidenced by the repeated rejection, but ultimately a human being looks at every single one of those posts and applies some decidedly non-algorithmic logic to leave the block in place or remove it.
Hump said: "My stepson lived in Bend, Oregon several years ago. When hooch was legalized several small towns in the surrounding region jumped in with both lips. They are now ghost towns."
Robert Cook responded: "This is intriguing. Can you elaborate?"
I can. I was in error. It was Washington state (he also lived in Bend, Oregon). While visiting him in Sequin, WA., I would drive him to work near the Olympic National Forest. While driving through the small towns he would point the ones that embraced legalizing MJ and how they were now shells of their former selves.
It wouldn't surprise me to find Althouse is the biggest blog on Blogger- Blogger is ancient technology and might not have many new bloggers at all- Althouse is the biggest because it is the longest running one left, or one of the longest running left.
Wow, going back and reading the comments from 2017 made me remember that comments used to be really GOOD here. In fact, that is why I came here.
Considering where it is, would've thought Nipton was already the home of crank.
Blogger Robert Cook said...
NPR is not harming the manifold private outlets, it is not forcing them out of business or blocking their transmission.
Why should people have money taken from them at gunpoint (A/K/A taxes) to finance govt radio? As you note, there are thousands of alternatives. Include the Internet and stream, millions.
Why is it moral for the goverment to do that which is immoral, and generally illegal, for an individual citizen to do? ie; Take money at gunpoint from fellow citizens.
John LGBTQBNY Henry
Blogger has been doing this for a while, so I've been expecting this. Love that term "unpublished", it is so mealy mouthed Silicon Valley.
Why not? There are plenty of privately owned radio and tv stations to counter what you presume to be state propaganda.
Because they are spending my taxes on that sh!t. Supporting a fascist state has never been on my list of things to do.
"Blogger unpublished this post and told me 'Your content has violated our Illegal activities policy.'"
Was that first notice in an email or a notice on your Blogger dashboard.
I'm just wondering what would have caused the system to go back 5 years to delete a post, regardless of the rightness or wrongness of their interpretation.
You'ce obviously invoked the wrath of WeedLord VegasHitler.
“ Was that first notice in an email or a notice on your Blogger dashboard.”
Both, simultaneously.
I’ve had this happen to old posts maybe 4 times. Never like this one though, with the repetition.
I briefly misread that as "Am I in some kind of cycle of dumb?" Both are true.
It bears reminding that CBD, the hemp-derived medication the town planned on selling, contains virtually no THC and imparts no "high" It's legal, and not even WebMD objects to it.
I suffered severe neuropathic foot pain for more than 20 years. At least three nights a week I was prevented from sleeping by the pain, which could last for twelve hours. No prescribed medications could deal with it.
So six weeks ago I tried CBD oil. It took a week to kick in, but I haven't that pain since. Seriously.
So don't knock it, man. And don't think people who use it are stoners, man.
My damaged is not brain.
"I can. I was in error. It was Washington state (he also lived in Bend, Oregon). While visiting him in Sequin, WA., I would drive him to work near the Olympic National Forest. While driving through the small towns he would point the ones that embraced legalizing MJ and how they were now shells of their former selves."
But I'm still left wondering: why and how would the legalization of marijuana lead to a town becoming a shadow of its former self?
69!
We are all in the AI vortex now, the playthings of larger, stupider forces.
I'm going to chill out, and hope for rain.
Robert Cook posed a question: "But I'm still left wondering: why and how would the legalization of marijuana lead to a town becoming a shadow of its former self?"
According to my stepson, marijuana stores popped up on a every street corner. Much like San Francisco, people fled.
I would like to see the new Congress do an investigation of how social media AI work, asking perhaps whether the AI is enforcing a monopoly or maybe it would be better to ask whether it is privileging cis-het men. Something. Anyhow, then you get in the algorithm and ask it questions by posting and seeing what the algorithm does and then when a person enters the chain calling in that person and asking what their standards are in order to determine if they favoring cis-hets. You see, you could run this sequence that just happened to you and make the AI show its "reasoning" since it de-published an article by a woman and a post by a woman about the article by a woman. Now the article is describing the activities of a capitalist man, the owner of the cannabis company, who is engaged in the typical takeover activity Clint going on in towns visited by Clint Eastwood. Perhaps the algorithms out there is the Wild Digital West are structured to favor such privileged people. There's a lot of people that would like to know how the thing works and who it favors. And this could be a good case on the Privileges and Immunities clause, asking what the privileges of AI are.
I read through the comments on the old post- nothing there that should have gotten the post taken down- no progressive trip wires that don't exist in every other comment thread. The only thing in that old thread that was outrageously stupid was Life Long Republican Chuck claiming that no news organization would stoop to doing a puff piece for a corporation. Now, that was some funny shit, and the only explanation is that Chuck was already 3 gin bottles to wind when he wrote it.
Ha. I skimmed through the 2017 comments thread. I miss Buwaya. The most amusing were Chuck's about the unlikelihood of corporations etc buying good coverage in the media-- they reminded of what I thought were his best, when he argued for days that... the thing is that I don't really recall. Something about an NPR affiliate's production of a news story that NPR broadcast but that wasn't really by NPR because it was the affiliate's. Something like that. Days. Weeks even....
But it is interesting to watch the progress of Althouse's conversation with Blogger.
You'd think that after 5 years stare decisis would be in effect.
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