Linked List: May 27, 2022

Friday, 27 May 2022

Remembering Ray Liotta in ‘Goodfellas’ 

Glenn Kenny, writing for The New York Times:

There’s a moment early in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 gangster classic Goodfellas that always tugs at my heartstrings. Scorsese’s movie is brutal and cleareyed and unsentimental, yes. But Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, the viewer’s docent into the criminal world, injects a note of tenderness that’s all the more effective for coming out of the mouth of a slick sociopath. (The movie is based on the true-crime book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi; the real Hill attained some celebrity in the wake of the picture’s release.)

It’s during the voice-over when Henry recalls as a boy envying the wiseguys who hung out at the pizza parlor and taxi stand across the street from his home. The guy who runs the pizza joint is Tuddy Cicero, brother of the mob underboss Paulie Cicero, for whom Henry will be working soon. Narrator Henry says the gangster’s full name and pauses. Then, in an exhalation that has low but strong notes of love and nostalgia, he adds, “Tuddy.”

‘Not a Damn Thing’ 

Michael C. Bender, reporting for The New York Times:

Unbeknownst to the public, however, Mr. Trump again pushed inside the White House for significant new gun-control measures more than a year later, after a pair of gruesome shooting sprees that unfolded over 13 hours. Those discussions have not previously been reported.

On Aug. 3, 2019, a far-right gunman killed 23 people at a Walmart store in El Paso. Early the next morning, a man shot and killed nine people outside a bar in Dayton, Ohio. Both assailants used semiautomatic rifles.

At the White House the next day, Mr. Trump was so shaken by the weekend’s violence that he questioned aides about a specific potential solution and made clear he wanted to take action, according to three people present during the conversation.

“What are we going to do about assault rifles?” Mr. Trump asked.

“Not a damn thing,” Mick Mulvaney, his acting chief of staff, replied.

“Why?” Trump demanded.

“Because,” Mr. Mulvaney told him, “you would lose.”

Mick Mulvaney now works for CBS News, which I’m sure is proud to employ him.

The Facial Recognition Search Engine Apocalypse Is Coming 

Kashmir Hill, reporting for The New York Times:

For $29.99 a month, a website called PimEyes offers a potentially dangerous superpower from the world of science fiction: the ability to search for a face, finding obscure photos that would otherwise have been as safe as the proverbial needle in the vast digital haystack of the internet.

A search takes mere seconds. You upload a photo of a face, check a box agreeing to the terms of service and then get a grid of photos of faces deemed similar, with links to where they appear on the internet. The New York Times used PimEyes on the faces of a dozen Times journalists, with their consent, to test its powers.

PimEyes found photos of every person, some that the journalists had never seen before, even when they were wearing sunglasses or a mask, or their face was turned away from the camera, in the image used to conduct the search.

I’d never heard of PimEyes before, but suspect we’ll be hearing about it more going forward. I also suspect this is a losing game of whack-a-mole. Machine learning is clearly already good enough to do this with spooky accuracy, and it’s only going to get better. Should we try passing legislation to strictly regulate facial recognition search? Sure. But I suspect it’s futile, particularly given the global nature of the internet.

Atlanta Apple Store Employees Drop Bid for Union Vote Next Week 

Josh Eidelson, reporting for Bloomberg:

The labor group trying to organize Apple Inc. employees at an Atlanta store is withdrawing its request for an election, citing what it alleges are illegal union-busting tactics by the company.

The Communications Workers of America said it took the step “because Apple’s repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act have made a free and fair election impossible,” according to an emailed statement Friday. The labor group also cited Covid-19 infections among staff at the store, located at the city’s Cumberland Mall, which it said “have raised concerns about the ability of eligible employees to vote and the safety of in-person voting.”

Translation: the vote was going to fail.

Complaining of illegal tactics is one thing, but crying “can’t vote because of COVID” feels like flailing for an excuse. I don’t know how many Cumberland Mall store employees currently have COVID (and Bloomberg, notably, doesn’t say either), but the store is open with normal hours. Throughout the entire pandemic, Apple has aggressively closed stores proactively.

As for those purported illegal tactics:

“Apple has conducted a systematic, sophisticated campaign to intimidate them and interfere with their right to form a union,” the CWA said. Under NLRB rules, a union’s choice to withdraw from an election generally means the vote is canceled and the union would have to wait at least six months before petitioning again to represent the same group of workers. [...]

In complaints filed last week with the National Labor Relations Board, the CWA accused Apple of violating federal labor law by forcing workers in Atlanta and New York City to attend “captive audience” meetings about unionization. Existing precedent allows companies to hold such meetings, but the labor board’s current general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, views them as inherently coercive and illegal. And she’s pursuing cases that could change the precedent.

I’d like to hear details about these “captive audience” meetings, but no such details seem to be available.

Texas Police Lieutenant Says Cops Were Reluctant to Engage Gunman Because ‘They Could’ve Been Shot’ 

Kipp Jones, writing for Mediaite:

A Texas Department of Public Safety official said responding officers were cautious as they entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas because “they could’ve been shot.”

Nineteen children and two teachers were murdered after authorities say an 18-year-old male entered with a rifle 12 minutes after he crashed a car near campus. The New York Times reported the shooter was inside the school for about an hour before officers finally breached the classroom he was in and shot and killed him.

Reporters demanded answers during a contentious press conference Thursday afternoon. State law enforcement officials addressed the public a day after some parents with children in the school said they were prevented from going in by officers.

One girl inside the room reportedly bled for an hour after she was shot. She died at a hospital. It is unknown if that hour might have saved her life.

The Uvalde police department, you’ll be unsurprised but infuriated to know, has a SWAT team whose sole apparent purpose is to pose menacingly, armed with military rifles, body armor, and camouflage, for photos on their Facebook page, on which they brag about their training.

The Good Guys With Guns Did Nothing While Texas Gunman Murdered 19 Fourth Graders and 2 Teachers; Unarmed Mother Rescued Kids on Her Own 

Douglas Belkin, Rob Copeland, and Elizabeth Findell, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (News+ link):

“The police were doing nothing,” said Angeli Rose Gomez, who after learning about the shooting drove 40 miles to Robb Elementary, where her children are in second and third grade. “They were just standing outside the fence. They weren’t going in there or running anywhere.” [...]

Ms. Gomez, a farm supervisor, was also waiting outside for her children. She said she was one of numerous parents who began encouraging — first politely, and then with more urgency — police and other law enforcement to enter the school sooner. After a few minutes, she said, U.S. Marshals put her in handcuffs, telling her she was being arrested for intervening in an active investigation.

Ms. Gomez said she convinced local Uvalde police officers whom she knew to persuade the marshals to set her free.

A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service said deputy marshals never placed anyone in handcuffs while securing Robb Elementary’s perimeter. “Our deputy marshals maintained order and peace in the midst of the grief-stricken community that was gathering around the school,” he said.

Ms. Gomez described the scene as frantic. She said she saw a father tackled and thrown to the ground by police and a third pepper-sprayed. Once freed from her cuffs, Ms. Gomez made her distance from the crowd, jumped the school fence, and ran inside to grab her two children. She sprinted out of the school with them.

An astonishing and infuriating tale of maternal love and heroism, and police cowardice and incompetence.

Yankees and Rays Collaborate Social Media Accounts to Talk About Gun Violence in America 

Joon Lee, reporting for ESPN:

While their players competed against each other on the field, the social media teams for the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees collaborated Thursday night in an effort to raise awareness about gun violence in the United States.

In wake of the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, both teams opted to use their platforms to provide “facts about gun violence in America” instead of providing any live commentary about Thursday’s game.

“We all deserve to be safe — in schools, grocery stores, places of worship, our neighborhoods, houses and America,” the Rays posted prior to first pitch. “The most recent shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde have shaken us to the core. This cannot become normal. We cannot become numb. We cannot look the other way. We all know, if nothing changes, nothing changes.”

Added the Yankees, who have more than 3.6 million Twitter followers: “The devastating events that have taken place in Uvalde, Buffalo and countless other communities across our nation are tragedies that are intolerable.”

Eventually, a straw breaks the camel’s back.