Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged blogging, Bluesky, imaginative fiction, internet, left-right myth, politicians, Twitter | Leave a Comment »
Fuck everything about this. – anonymous BMW owner
There are many ways for cops to enrich themselves at others’ expense:
[Cops typically] use…their authority to line their own pockets…[but] members of Georgia State Patrol…[came up with a new scam: they] filed or attempted to file insurance claims against drivers they…in[tentionally rammed with malicious intent to cause a wreck]…a…tactic…[euphemized as the “]PIT maneuver[“. They were caught when a superior over]hear[d them teaching others about this new scam]…to receive a “check”…[the cops] sent crash reports to [shyster] Tina Maddox, who then issued demand letters to insurance companies seeking payouts for alleged injuries such as stress, soreness and anxiety…despite not reporting injuries at the time of the incidents…[the scammers] received…settlements of $25,000 each, [of which the shyster skimmed off a third. When interrogated, Hunter Waters admitted to getting three settlements]…Tyler Byrd…admitted to submitting more than a dozen crash reports…and receiving two [payou]ts…Isaiah Francois…expected a settlement but [had] not rec[eived it yet]…The…demand letters…never identified the claimants as [cops, n]or [admitted] that the[y had intentionally caused] the [accidents]…Joseph Curlee [is] a supervisor who was aware of the practice, took no action to stop it and even consulted Maddox about filing a claim of his own…In…an…“extremely unusual” [outcome]…all four [conspirato]rs have been fired…
Is a shiny new status symbol really worth being spied on and harassed?
BMW…suddenly started pushing ads for Spider-Man: Brand New Day onto [its] dashboards…and some drivers who forked up to $160,000 for a [status symbol] aren’t very happy about being spammed when they start their cars…BMW has been pushing increasingly intrusive videos onto its dashboard…[one owner explained] “They started off with mostly just celebratory videos, which slowly became ads about their own products, and now…third-party ads…with the screen controlling almost every feature of the car, you’re essentially forced to watch the ad before you can interact with your own property.” Several commenters compared the…ad to Apple’s famously backfired 2014 stunt of putting a U2 album into the iTunes libraries of more than half a billion customers. BMW’s press release branded the [intrusive, unwanted commercial] “a special surprise”…[even though the] company previously [lied] it wouldn’t sell ads on its dashboards…
Thanks to the Trump regime, Tim Ballard’s partners in profiteering have salvaged their scam:
A…[rescue industry] profit[eer] in Utah whose [disgraced] founder [became notorious for]…sexual abuse [of his marks] has [been corruptly handed] a federal contract to provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children in [concentration camps, netting the con-men]…$244,034,658…seven times…[their total assets] in 2025…Our Rescue conducts [grotesque theatrical “]operations[“] to [frame people as “]sex traffickers[” in foreign countries where officials can easily be paid off to look the other way while their citizens’ lives are destroyed for the self-aggrandizement of soi-disant “heroes”, because US officials recognized his “operations”]…as stunts to lure donations…[while callously discarding its minor] victims…[by condemning them] to…an orphanage in Haiti where…[they] are raped and subjected to forced abortions…the [current] CEO is Derek Benner…a [veteran] of [Father]land Security…[who] set up a fake university in Michigan to lure foreign nationals…[so they could be robbed of millions, then deported for] obtaining student visas [to attend]…the school…the [government had tricked them into thinking was real]…
Some readers implied I was a crank when I predicted this exact development 13 years ago:
…hundreds of [US cop shops are now]…deploy[ing] autonomous…surveillance drones…capable of following a single vehicle across an entire city, capturing footage through apartment windows, and generally [spy]ing [on people] from the sky without [a warrant. These]…surveillance [programs are euphemized] as…”drone-as-first-responder“(DFR) programs…[using] fire departments and other [actual] first responders [as cover for the fact that] the vast majority are [spying for] law enforcement [purposes]…The automated drone push comes as…residents are packing city council meetings across the country to demand restrictions on…mass surveillance…as new surveillance tech empowers the state to violate privacy in entirely fresh ways…Flock…boasts that its automated “first responder” drones…can read license plates from above up to 2,000 feet away…
See also “Panopticon” below.
Women should assume any man wearing pervert glasses is up to no good:
A woman who accompanied a friend to a post-op [breast lift] appointment [strenuously objected] when she saw…the doctor was wearing…[pervert] glasses…“Why, why, why are you wearing [those] in this room with a patient’s titties out?”…The doctor[‘s idiotic defense was]…that he likes to see his text messages coming in…“There’s no reason for you to be worried about texts when you’re in here,” she said…he…then f[ollowed that with a series of disingenuous excuses culminating with]…“[I have] a nine-year-old and a wife,” [to] which…she [replied] “Am I supposed to believe that every man with a wife and kids is a saint?”…
Fascists will destroy society to make a few more bucks:
Flock S[surveillance]…cameras…are…stationary, [so]…to track where a vehicle travels…Flock would need mobile ALPR coverage. That is why it planned [a collaboration] with Nexar, a dashcam company, [to]…expand…its network to around 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and…delivery…vehicles…turn[ing] their vehicles into mobile surveillance platforms…the [scheming corporations were not able to agree on the division of loot, but that is only a temporary reprieve]…Uber [and] Lyft drivers would [not] have been [asked for their consent to be part of the fascist panopticon. Rival copsucking corporation]…Axon…al[ready] supplies ALPR cameras to [cop shops] for use in p[igmobiles]…and…two ALPR companies now owned by Motorola, Vigilant…and…DRN…install…[ALPRs] in [repo men’s] vehicles…
Being kin to a cop is no protection from his violence:
A…[typical and representative] Philadelphia [cop named]…Kenroy Cummings…[murdered his uncle] and fle[d his fellow cops]…on Friday, July 24…[the victim,] Shakair Moncrieffe, began to threaten hi[s son]…the boy [ran away and told] other family members, including…Cummings, [who decided]…he [was justified in shooting] Moncrieffe in the head multiple times…[which he] later [absurdly claimed]…was in self-defense…Cummings [then] fled the scene in a…[car]…at…over 100 mph and weaving in and out of traffic…[as fellow cops pursued. The boss hog thought the most important fact] was [that Cummings was not wearing his magical clown costume when he callously murdered another man]…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged advertising, cops, fascism, Georgia, imaginative fiction, lawyers, Out of Control, Panopticon, Pennsylvania, Policing for Profit, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, rescue industry, robots, scams, Served Cold, surveillance, The Cop Myth, Utah, Welcome to the Future | Leave a Comment »
One really nice thing about the climate here at Sunset is that when I pick blackberries, I can wear a long-sleeved top to protect my arms from the thorns; in Louisiana and Oklahoma it’s much too hot for that. So when I noticed late last week that there were plenty of ripe blackberries, I put on this old work shirt of Matt’s that I have used as a light jacket for almost 15 years, and in half an hour I had what you see here. And this represents only about a third of what was there; because I’m the only one eating them I didn’t bother with anything but the biggest, nicest ones. Another nice thing was that, since it was overcast (as it so often is here), I was not fooled into picking some of those that were still somewhat red, as happens regularly when it’s very sunny; as you can see, all of these were at the peak of color, which is also the peak of sweetness. On Saturday I made a blackberry pie, and it was one of the best ones I’ve ever made, as sweet and flavorful as one could wish. There are also lots of plums on the trees, and it looks like I’ll be getting enough tomatoes and apples for my needs as well. So because I know this year’s weather was a fluke of the changing climate and it may not be this way next year, I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Posted in Diary | Tagged Sunset | 2 Comments »
Computers can be useful tools or servants, but they are not human; they have no feelings and no dignity, and humans have no more obligation to treat them as equals than we have toward any other machine. If you don’t think humans need to get the consent of a power saw or dishwasher before using it, you also shouldn’t think computer programs are owed good manners. Yet since the 1980s, humans have been presented with an ever-increasing number of circumstances in which we are confronted by machines whose owners and operators apparently expect others to treat them as though they were sentient beings. It was already bad enough when the machines were merely recordings of human voices intended to guide customers through an ersatz replacement for a phone operator by advising us to press this number to speak to that human; by the ’90s they started expecting us to talk back to them, then in this century humans began to be replaced by machines at every step of the process, so a computer operator would switch callers through to other computers which can virtually never do what their corporate owners pretend they can.
But now that we’re several years into the chatbot invasion, a large number of people have not only conceded their right to be helped by other people, but actually expect others to do the same. Sorry, but no. When a computer answers a phone I’ve called, I do whatever is necessary to get to a human operator, and when a computer calls me I immediately hang up and block the number, because in my view if something isn’t important enough for a human to make that call, it also isn’t important enough for me to waste my valuable time with. As if it isn’t bad enough that we’re expected to treat objects as equals, many people apparently feel comfortable taking a subordinate position to objects! I can no longer use social media without philistines presenting things shat out by chatbots as “art” or “writing”, and though I block strangers who do this, a few of those who have succumbed to this aesthetic disorder are people I otherwise enjoy talking to. It’s just too much, so I’ve decided on a more aggressive policy: I’ve already muted a number of phrases such as, “I asked ChatGPT…” yet I am still assailed by people who have surrendered so much of their human dignity that they consider deluxe autocomplete an “authority”. So from here on out, I’m going to block anyone who quotes a chatbot at me, and I’m only going to give one warning before I do it.
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy | Tagged artificial stupidity, ethics, psychology, robots | 1 Comment »
Jail erodes every aspect of a person’s agency. – Lindsey Krinks
I recently watched all the Charlie Chan movies Chekhov had in his collection. The low-budget Monogram Chan pictures of the 1940s weren’t as good as the 20th Century Fox ones of the 1930s, but though Mantan Moreland, who played Chan’s chauffeur in the ’40s pictures, was typically paired with Benson Fong as “Number Three son” for comic relief, a couple of the films included guest appearances by Moreland’s former vaudeville partner Ben Carter, allowing the two to show off the very funny ‘indefinite talk” routine which made them famous. The links above the video were provided by Jesse Walker, Anarres Ansible, Mistress Matisse, IncarcerNation, Nun Ya, T. Greg Doucette, and IncarcerNation again, in that order.
- R.I.P. John Crowley.
- The ultimate online art search.
- Artificial stupidity vs. the marmots.
- Teen murdered by cops for being thirsty.
- Cops hound teens to death over petty theft.
- Another triumph for the police suicide-assistance service.
- Violently sweeping the failure of the American dream under the rug.
From the Archives
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- Swedish model is not decriminalization of any kind, “partial” or otherwise.
- Trump claims to love the military, yet his regime keeps harming veterans.
- If only there were a concise term for “having sex with someone helpless”.
- Clearview was invented as a tool to use against migrants and minorities.
- Cop deals with problems exactly as trained to; reporter calls it “unusual”.
- Once bitcoin exchanges got in bed with government, this was inevitable.
- 41% of cops admit to beating their wives; some don’t stop with beating.
- If you need this to control your teen offspring, you’ve already lost them.
- Cop deals with problems exactly as trained to, and everyone is shocked.
- The 100% predictable results of bad laws are coming right on schedule.
- Using women’s murders as an opportunity to moralize via scare quotes.
- Cops really don’t care how many false positives these systems shit out.
- Censors, ambulance-chasers, and imbecilic judges vs the Constitution.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, William Friedkin,Robbie Robertson, and more.
- More states need to protect vulnerable people from this evil nonsense.
- The hotel industry is going to regret having collaborated with fanatics.
- It looks like British subjects will soon need a VPN to access Wikipedia.
- The entire “troubled teen” industry needs to be sued out of existence.
- Texas tacitly admits it wants women with problem pregnancies to die.
- Government wants total control of both internet & financial system.
- Funny how many cops who are willing to pay prefer underage girls.
- Why are people shocked when men paid to behave violently, do so?
- One of the most flagrant abusers of this unconstitutional practice.
- It’s lovely to be told that it really is OK to be a little bit frivolous.
- Another credulous regurgitation of prohibitionist propaganda.
- This is such a sterile way to say, “repeatedly raped them”.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- In surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- Cops, “environmentalism”, Jim Lovell, and much more.
- “Prostitution” is such a handy excuse for surveillance.
- Seems like there’s more to this than we’re being told.
- These companies need to be bankrupted by lawsuits.
- No religion has a monopoly on preachy molesters.
- The open internet is becoming a thing of the past.
- Texas wants to have its blood and drink it as well.
- A curated selection of tweets from summer 2024.
- Working to eliminate a few stubborn roof leaks.
- Republics take work, and most people are lazy.
- All types of prohibition are doomed to failure.
- Cops, satire, horror movies, and much more.
- This raid was not remotely “unprecedented”.
- Laws are for the peasantry, not the rulers.
- What is wrong with doctors who do this?
- Granddaughter of Throwback Thursday.
- Better late tomatoes than no tomatoes.
- Another fine example of McNeill’s Law.
- And now for a word to my sponsors.
- Phrenology for tech worshipers.
- In remembrance of Jim Larkin.
- A year of perfect fruit weather.
- Bride of Throwback Thursday.
- Cop is a cop is a cop is a cop.
- Throwback Thursday’s Army.
- Note that little word “yet”.
- Rapist cops of the week.
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged animals, artificial stupidity, California, cops, imaginative fiction, internet, language, psychology, Tennessee, Texas, universal criminality, video | Leave a Comment »
Body-worn cameras are…used…to present the police to the public in the most favorable way possible. – Christopher Schneider
I’ve been skeptical of the notion of body cameras as a police “reform” for well over a decade:
…ICE [goons] will be equipped with much-delayed body cameras by the end of next month…but…the [boss goon will] restrict the public release of footage unless “it is in the best interests of the agency”…[It should be obvious that] none of the [footage] in…[cases where goons murder a citizen will be released]…taxpayers who put up more than $30m for the cameras [will] still be kept in the dark about [murders and other atrocities while]…releas[ing] recordings that reflect well on the agency’s image…
A woman who sleeps with a cop endangers her entire family:
A Texas [cop named Chad Eberle was] arrested in Mexico [for murder]ing three people and critically injuring the mother of his child…[when the victims tried to stop him from abducting] his three-year-old son. Two women and one man were killed…and…the child’s…mother was…shot in the head and remain[s] in critical condition…Eberle was [caught] while attempting to cross from Mexico into Texas…The three-year-old was unharmed…
Privacy as we once knew it is a thing of the past:
USA Today Co. has made a de[vil’s bargain] with [fascist surveillance] company Palantir to analyze and monetize user behavior...CEO Mike Reed [barfed buzzwords like “]activate audience data[“]…and… “actionable intelligence” [at investors to dazzle them with bullshit]…USA Today Co. owns more than 200 local newspapers…along with its national daily USA Today. The [surveillance collusion] with Palantir comes as search traffic continues to fall [due to corporations like Palantir selling chatbots to the very stupid]…Axel Springer — which owns Business Insider, Politico, Bild, and The Telegraph — and Fox News [are] also [collaborating] with Palantir…to…[spy on their readers, and] Thomson Reuters…supplies [them] data…
Facebook is the most antisocial corporation other than those who run prisons:
Over the last nine months, Mark Zuckerberg…has run dozens of paid ads that include explicit [computer]-generated child [porn] and images of minors alongside sexually suggestive statements…some [of the] ads linked out to so-called nudify or undressing apps…the ads [have] run…across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and…Threads…[and represent] the second time in recent weeks that paid [child porn] ads…have been found on [Zuckerberg]’s platforms…this isn’t content posted by third parties…[but rather] ads that were reviewed, approved, and allowed to run…[until they were caught, but] have now been removed [according to standard Facebook] policies on [getting caught red-handed by journalists]…
Lest you think Zuckerberg is merely looking the other way rather than intentionally spreading poison:
A[n Australian] white nationalist…neo-Nazi…is being paid by Facebook…to produce content…Hugo Lennon…has been receiving revenue through Facebook’s “Content Monetization” program since September 2025…[by making propaganda] videos…referencing white supremacist concepts like replacement theory and remigration. The Noticer, a[n]…Australian…website that regularly promotes white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideologies, has been making money through the same Facebook revenue program since November 2025…[even though it] is currently suspended from [Twitter]…because it [is so violently]…hateful…Monica Smit, the founder of the anti-vaccine…group Reignite Democracy Australia, joined Facebook’s content monetisation program in September 2025…[but has] been earning advertising revenue through Facebook from as far back as 2017…[by selling] “radiation protection” bracelets…
The inevitable result of sexual predators being given power over women:
An…Oregon woman has filed a $300,000 lawsuit [because] two [cops] used a body-worn camera to surreptitiously record her as she urinated…[after they demanded] she…provide a urine sample in response to fabricated [DUI and drug possession]
charges…six weeks later, the…District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges without explanation, [making the victim, Tami] Nuxall[, suspicious]…the city of Enterprise and its entire three-member police force…Shannon Stillman…Jacob Curtis and…Kevin McQuead…have…a [long history of harassing]…Nuxall, [who]…lives less than half a mile from the police station…[it started in] 2023, when she was ticketed
for failing to carry proof of insurance…and…Curtis…pulled a gun on her and her children…[boss hog McQuead’s idiotic defense was that] Curtis was…[only threatening her life “]for a short time[“. Naturally]…she told city council members that police were “out of control” and…in the [next] 15 months…she was stopped and ticketed…more than any other time in her life…six times in [all, and] half of those cases were dismissed…
Your “leaders” call this “correction”:
Inside LA County’s only jail for women, brown or foul-smelling liquid flows from the taps where the women [are supposed to] get their drinking water. They shower under rusty pipes and on floors covered in mold. Gnats, worms, and maggots regularly crawl out of sink drains and…[broken] toilets…run day and night…The Sybil Brand Commission of Institutional Inspections…called the situation “an ongoing and unresolved public health crisis”…[more than] half of the [victims of this atrocity]…are [legally innocent]…
This was always the endgame, regardless of claims to the contrary:
A teenage girl has been arrested in North Carolina for “assault with a deadly weapon” after allegedly taking abortion pills 31 weeks into her pregnancy, which prompted her to go into labor. The teen’s boyfriend has also been arrested, and charged with negligent child abuse…the “deadly weapon” appears to refer to…abortion pills…[which cops claim] signaled her “intent to kill”…Instead of being allowed to rest and receive medical care just days after going into labor, the 18-year old was arrested and jailed…then forced to show up for a court hearing…There is no crime here. Yet, by attacking [a frightened girl] with this mishmash of charges, cops are trying to make self-managed abortion a crime…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny | Tagged abortion, advertising, artificial stupidity, Australia, California, cops, Creepy Coppers, disease, domestic violence, drugs, Enshittification, Facebook, fascism, illegal aliens, Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, porn, prisons, propaganda, Shame Shame, surveillance, Texas, The Cop Myth, The Prudish Giant, The Vultures Descend, Torture Chamber, Welcome to the Future, yellow journalism | Leave a Comment »
Ignorant people are panicking over a BBC article from August 6th:
Artificial Intelligence has been used to design brand new viruses that are fully functional and can replicate in the laboratory…The resulting 16 novel viruses were created to infect bacteria and pose no threat to people…The technology works similarly to large language models…which predict sequences of text…[but] Evo1 and Evo2…were trained on genetic codes from viruses, bacteria, plants and people…then refined to produce a type of virus, known as a bacteriophage, which infect only specific species of bacteria…Stanford researchers picked the most promising 302 [computer] designs and synthesised them in the lab. Of these, 16 proved effective at killing E. coli bacteria…Developing new phage could lead to new ways of treating infections that have become resistant to antibiotics…
If technologists and reporters don’t want the ignorant majority to freak out when machine learning systems are used to do something they are actually good for, they need to stop using the same marketing term to describe them as con men use to describe chatbots. It’s true that the system described in this article is far closer to being “AI” than deluxe autocomplete is, but that ship sailed several years ago; if you insist on still using the word “gay” to mean “happy”, you have only yourself to blame if people think you mean “homosexual”.
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, Words | Tagged advertising, artificial stupidity, disease, drugs, language, scams, STEM, vaccines | Leave a Comment »
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Tyranny | Tagged artificial stupidity, blogging, California, censorship, cops, Hollywood, language, left-right myth, politicians, propaganda, psychology, racism | Leave a Comment »
The freedom to read is fundamental to a free society. – John Adams*
When will amateur women learn cops are dangerous sex predators?
An Illinois [cop named]…Douglas Lee…was stripped of his [magic] powers and [arrested for]…drugging a woman while she was out with friends, taking her to a hotel…[rap]ing her…[then dump]ing her in her car [and leaving her in a parking lot] overnight…Lee…frequently visited the bar where [his victim] worked as a bartender [so she foolishly believed she knew him and drank]…a shot [he gave her]…the [next] thing she remembered…was [waking]…up in her car around 10:45 AM the next day [with]…her pants…inside out, her bra…on the passenger seat and her shirt…tucked into the pocket of her jacket…One [of her] friend[s told her] she had seen [her]…dancing [with Lee]…video footage…showed Lee [taking] the woman [out of] the bar [and when confronted he said she wanted it]…
I’d really like to be wrong once in a while:
For more than a decade, New York City has been amassing…DNA samples…without…consent or any court involvement as a routine matter, specifically for inclusion in its “Suspect Index,” a rogue database not authorized by law…includ[ing] samples from people who…have been expressly excluded as suspects in a crime, [people] who have never been charged with a crime…and exonerated or acquitted individuals. The Suspect Index currently contains 34,872 profiles…routinely collect[ed]…in an orchestrated, surreptitious manner through ruses involving straws, bottles, or even cigarettes, without…a court order…….from those who are merely brought in for questioning and even from children it tricks…
Psychopath Grady Judd never misses an opportunity for self-aggrandizement:
A [Florida] preacher…had sex with at least one underage boy and an adult man without telling them he was HIV-positive…Timothy Chaneyfield…[met] the…14-year-old boy…on a dating app before…[taking] their chats to Instagram, which [reported him] to [NCMEC]…Sheriff Grady Judd[, in his typical fashion, made the incident all about himself, using the opportunity to call someone far less dangerous than he is]…“a menace to society”…[and pretending] he [did not understand why]…authorities in Baltimore[, where Chaneyfield was when the arrest warrant was issued, did not want to play stupid cop games instead of simply letting Judd arrest him when he got back to Florida]…
A Trumpist stooge declares that the First Amendment does not apply to Arkansas:
Arkansas Act 372 amends state laws by including librarians and booksellers among those who can be criminally charged [if any authoritarian Froot Loop anywhere in the world points at any book in their stock while barfing the magic words]…“harmful to minors”…Librarians and booksellers could face up to a year in prison if they’re [declared] to have “distributed” [magically abjured] material to those under the age of 18…[which] includes simply having the book sitting on a shelf…The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas…[permanently enjoined the law] in January 2025, [but wannabe censors appealed to the]…Eighth Circuit [and Trumpist henchman] L. Steven Grasz…[singlehandedly] overturn[ed] that court’s decision…[thus forcing] librarians and booksellers [to censor their entire collections or risk state violence]…
*Not the Founding Father, but an Arkansas attorney.
Giant fascist corporation makes it even easier for cops to lie:
Axon…has cornered the body cam market and is now…pitching products…that use [chatbots] to automate [cop] report writing…Draft One has been pitched as a time-saver…[that can] “potentially free up 25% of an officer’s time.” Considering a lot of [cops] spend most of their time engaged in pretextual stops, this…just means [cops] will be able to violate rights more frequently with no perceivable benefit to public safety. Then there’s the problem…[of chatbot] hallucinations…[such as the chatbot-generated] report…[that] claimed a Heber City [Utah cop] had shape-shifted into a frog…The other problem..is that [chatbot-generated reports also] generat[e] a new layer of plausible deniability. If errors are found, cops can blame it on the algorithm…[and] if cops aren’t writing their own reports, they can’t [honest]ly claim these statements are their own under oath…
There are good reasons warrantless surveillance is unconstitutional:
…in Wapello County, Iowa, the…usage policy…tells police…“DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE IN YOUR REPORT OR COMPLAINT UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY”…It is not just local police in small communities who are creating policies designed to obfuscate Flock usage…police in multiple states [are] told to “be as vague as permissible” about…Flock because their searches c[an] be obtained using public records requests…The [illegal] guidance…is reminiscent…[of] tha[t] on some other secretive police technologies. For years, police tried to hide the existence of cell site simulators (popularly known as Stingrays), going as far as to drop criminal cases where it was likely that a judge would expose information about them…
The cop euphemism for lying in reports and courts about use of illegal surveillance is “parallel construction“.
Scenes from the early days of a dark age:
In January, [the mad emperor] posted two clips from a popular YouTube account [falsely claim]ing…[that] Walmart was closing hundreds of California stores…Gavin Newsom’s communications team [debunked] the posts on [Twitter, but]…the YouTube channel…[Trump parroted i]s mostly populated by sensational [computer]-generated videos that purport…to show various companies leaving California, grocery stores running out of food, and school teachers quitting en masse. The…videos…look decent enough t[o fool chatbot-addled idiots, who don’t]…realize or care that they [are slop]…Newsom’s office…worked with YouTube to identify more than 700 accounts since January that were subsequently removed for violating the company’s terms of service through its…new support system for public figures, creators, and journalists that flags when someone’s face is used without their permission in deepfakes…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged Arkansas, artificial stupidity, California, censorship, cops, disease, drugs, Enshittification, Florida, Google, I Saw My Brain, If Men Were Angels, Illinois, Iowa, law, libraries, Micromanagement, New York, Panopticon, politicians, propaganda, rape, scams, surveillance, Thought Control, To Molest and Rape, Under Duress, Utah, Welcome to the Future | Leave a Comment »
Chekhov and Yellowbird gave me this cool egg rack last Christmas. Typically, I use it to hold regular “large” size eggs (and put the extra-large and jumbo ones in the basket at the bottom). But right from the start I realized that it would be an excellent way to hold undersized pullet eggs once the young hens started laying. And as you can see, they have! When I first started keeping chickens 20 years ago, I realized that when a recipe calls for x number of eggs, that meant large-grade eggs, so if I wanted to use pullet eggs in a recipe more would be required. So while I still had my last carton of store-bought eggs around, I measured the volume of a typical egg and discovered it to be 1/4 cup. So if a recipe calls for 3 eggs, that really means 3/4 cup of eggs, and if I want to use pullet eggs I just crack them into a measuring cup until I get to the right amount. If I’m cooking something less finicky (for example, just regular scrambled eggs) I just use 2 for 1 at this stage, then later when they are just small rather than tiny I move to roughly 3 for 2. And if I want to use normal-sized eggs for whatever reason (or give them to friends), the eggs from the mature chickens are still stored in the cupboard like usual.
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous | Tagged animals, recipes, Sunset | Leave a Comment »
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