The state does not have a free-floating power to restrict…ideas.
– Judge Kevin G. Ritz
How long will America ignore the costs of its sick worship of police violence?
…In the decade to 2024, the number of Americans killed by police jumped [from] about [one in twelve violent deaths in the decade ending in 2018 to] one in ten [now]…the problem [is getting closer to that of Brazil, the world’s] wors[t, where 25% of all violent deaths are at the hands of police]…barely a dozen [cops] each year [in the entire US] are charged with a crime after [murdering] a civilian…
Another look at the totally-predictable results of bad laws:
A new study…shows total abortion bans in nine states [Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia] are forcing doctors across multiple specialties to delay or withhold standard pregnancy care…doctors are delaying treatment for conditions like early pregnancy loss, ectopic pregnancy and…serious maternal illness because of legal uncertainty—not clinical judgment…The…delays…“endanger patients” and “undermine patient autonomy and physician-patient trust”…Pregnant women in states with total abortion bans are nearly twice as likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum period…and pregnant Black patients face more than three times the mortality risk compared to their white counterparts…the average economic cost of abortion restrictions will be $140 billion this year…
Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:
A [typical and representative California screw named Richard Phillip Bardouski was] convicted…of molesting three [young] relatives…more than a decade ago…[as usual, the] District Attorney [used the occasion to bloviate about how this typical behavior was somehow shocking]…Two of the victims came forward in 2023 and reported they were molested between the ages of 4 and 9…[and] the third victim…was assaulted in 2010 around the age of 14. Bardouski was living in Montgomery, Alabama…and [was] extradited to California…
Every study shows that chatbot usage harms brain function:
As more professionals begin to rely on [chatbots] in their work…their hard-earned skills atrophy…[chatbot]-driven “deskilling” is [already] happen[ing] in medicine, computer science and other fields…A study of physicians…who specialize in endoscopy…[last year demonstrated] how quickly [computerized] tools can erode human abilities…[and now] researchers at…Anthropic…designed a randomized controlled trial in which 52 software engineers were asked to perform a basic coding task…half…were prompted to use a…[chatbot and] all…were asked to complete a quiz about what they had learnt from the task. Th[os]e…who had [let a chatbot do the work] did significantly worse on the quiz than those who hadn’t: the average score was 50% in the [chatbot] group versus 67% in the [actually-doing-the-work-themselves] group…Tapani Rinta-Kahila [of] the University of Queensland…[compares this to the way] GPS navigation systems have eroded people’s navigation skills…To prevent [chatbot]-driven skill erosion, people need to [stop using fucking chatbots, as any fucking idiot could have predicted]…
The actual story here is that a few cops are actually being prosecuted:
…Local news reports from around the country repeatedly detail police abusing the Flock surveillance system…to stalk their partners…ex-partners[, or intended victims they don’t even know]…The cases highlight the fact that Flock can be used to track the whereabouts of individual people, that police do not get a warrant in order to use the system, and that, if they have access to the system, they [will routinely abuse it]…for any reason they want…The known cases of police stalking are [without a single shred of doubt] a vast underreporting of the overall abuse, because they largely include only cases in which the behavior was so egregious that it led to [cops] being fired, arrested, or both…a Flock [mouthpiece ludicrously claimed that it’s not their fault their fascist warrantless surveillance system is used for warrantless surveillance, because]…private citizens, journalists, and stalking victims…have [been able to later discover the abuse by]…public records [requests or via the third-party]…website HaveIBeenFlocked.com…[which] Flock has repeatedly tried to get…taken down…
In the 20th century, this was called a “price-fixing cartel”:
A new federal lawsuit [has been filed against] gas station companies across California [who] are engaged in an illegal conspiracy…to raise prices. The…lawsuit [includes] the corporate owners of over 1,700 California gas stations — including Marathon…7-Eleven, Walmart, and Circle K — [who] are using Kalibrate, an [algorithm designed]…to extinguish retail price competition…[by] coordinat[ing] high prices…gas stations that use Kalibrate software charge between 6 cents and 30 cents more per gallon…gas stations traditionally “competed for customers by aggressively undercutting one another’s retail prices”…[but] Kalibrate encourages gas station owners to abandon this system and allow [its] software to automatically determine prices…[by] connect[ing] directly to gas station signs and pumps…Kalibrate’s interface…[includes] a feature that allows gas stations to coordinate a “restoration,” [a euphemism for]…an area[-wide joint] price…[hike which any Kalibrate user can] initiate…to…“squeeze out profits” [from marks]…in [defiance of]…a…California…law…[which] “was [specifically] enacted to make clear that companies cannot evade liability for fixing prices by delegating their illegal trusts to an algorithm”…The new law was passed in response to companies like RealPage, which uses an…algorithm to [hike] rents in apartment buildings…cost[ing] renters $3.8 billion in 2023…
Court declares that minors are chattel, so adults have no privacy rights:
A federal appeals court has signed off on Ohio’s ban on people under age 16 using social media without parental consent…[which] means all Ohioans could soon have to show ID to use such platforms…Similar laws have been either temporarily or permanently blocked by federal courts in other states, such as Arkansas, Louisiana, and Utah. That makes the 6th Circuit’s decision something of an aberration—and a worrying sign…[considering that] the 6th Circuit judges think [having people’s identities permanently linked in government records to social media accounts] constitute[s] only “a marginal burden”…
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!
