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Posts Tagged ‘artificial stupidity’

In a few short years, the entire Western world might finally end the age of the open internet.  –  Kelsey Piper

Torture Chamber (#1445)

For a warden to be charged, there must be much more to this:

State p[igs] and [screwlords] are conducting a “potential criminal misconduct” investigation into…a Western Maryland prison after the latest in a rash of [murder]s of prisoners…on…May 20 [screws found] the body of Colin Wolf…[decomposing] inside his cell in the Roxbury [Dungeon]…Roxbury’s warden and chief of security are out…[and] 19 [screws have been given demerits, while]…eight medical staffers [have been banned] from facilities statewide…officials [are trying] to [figure out how to cover up the] homicides…[but] Wolf was the ninth [victim] this year…and the 33rd…since 2023.  [Politician] Carolyn Scruggs…wrote that…the [screws]…had violated “basic human decency”…to…[a greater] extent [than the ordinary violations of basic human decency inherent in locking human beings up in cages]…Just two weeks before Wolf’s death…Kelvin Hite…was also killed at Roxbury…

To Molest and Rape (#1577)

When will the mainstream media admit that pigs in schools are a menace?

A [typical and representative cop paid to lurk in]…New Jersey [schools in order to spy on, harass, and intimidate students has been arrested for] sexually assaulting an underage girl.  [Louis J.] Baselice…[groomed and enticed the girl by buying her] an electric scooter…a…cell phone…and…food.  [He was reported by her friends]…

Sexcrime (#1590)

Because this worked so well when it was tried next door in the UK:

[Irish politicians] seek…to [invent crim]es relating to the possession, production or distribution of extreme or violent pornography, and acts of necrophilia…Minister Jim O’Callaghan [promied the scheme by absurdly barfing]…”contributes to perpetuating misogynistic attitudes” [in a government know for misogynistic laws against abortion, sex work, etc]…

Feudalism Redux (#1605)

Most federal courts below the SCOTUS level are still doing their jobs:

…Mayday Health runs a website with information about where people can obtain abortion pills…[but] doesn’t provide abortion pill prescriptions itself…Nonetheless, South Dakota has been engaged in a monthslong First Amendment battle with the group, [absurdly claim]ing…the [First Amendment doesn’t apply to speech about]…abortion…Mayday sued…[over the] unconstitutional [censorship attempt and] U.S. District Judge Camela Theeler seems poised to agree…[as she has] issued a preliminary injunction against South Dakota enforcing the law against Mayday or against…[politician] Nancy Turbak Berry….[for] wearing a Mayday sweatshirt…with…the…[same] message…[as] on Mayday’s gas station placards…South Dakota’s abortion advertising law is a[n illegal] content-based restriction on speech…Commercial speech is generally held to receive less First Amendment protection than non-commercial speech.  But Mayday’s website is not commercial speech, as…”there is no evidence that Mayday holds an economic motivation for its advertisements…Rather, [it]…is a nonprofit organization expressing a moral belief and providing information for free”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1622)

These things are designed to appeal to the dregs of humanity:

[Perve]rt glasses might seem like a great way of cheating on exams, [if you]…are [a moral imbecile], but…[it may result in legal] consequences …A…South Korea[n] man is facing criminal charges…after using [perve]rt glasses to cheat on a state-run fire engineer test in May.  [When] he was…[caught by the test] administrator…he…pretty much copped to the entire thing…This isn’t the first instance where [perve]rt glasses have been at the center of an academic cheating scandal, but it’s a particularly [serious] one given the context of the exam…it’s fair to say that someone’s competency could be a contributing factor in whether people live or die…

Walled Garden (#1651)

The open internet will soon be a thing of the past:

Senator Ed Markey…rolled out what he [advertises as] an “AI Accountability Agenda”…[but in reality] he wants to [put] unchecked power [to spy on and censor the internet]…into the hands of the American [government]…Two bills in the s[cheme]…move the internet toward a place where you prove your age before you read a page or say anything on it…[one is] brand[ed] COPPA 2.0…[and] lifts the age of a [restri]cted user from under 13 to under 17, then rewrites the rule that decides when a company is liable…[so] an ordinary website…has to judge whether some hypothetical reasonable person would have figured out that a visitor was under 17.  If you guess wrong, the Federal [Government] can [destroy your business].  The cheapest way to stop guessing is to card everyone at the door…Age gates…stand between a reader and everyone else’s expression, and they turn speaking up into a chore rather than a reflex…

Walled Garden (#1652)

Politicians love aping each other’s schemes while also ignoring their failure:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signaled that a European Union–wide identity verification scheme for social media users may be coming soon…[saying] “It is up to [the government] to decide when children…can join social media”…[and] touting the European Commission’s [failed] age-verification app…In truly Orwellian fashion, von der Leyen claimed that “this is about putting power back into the hands of parents”…despite report after report suggesting that Australia’s ban is a flop…politicians in the U.S. and in the U.K. are rushing to emulate Australia.  Now, it looks like the whole of the European Union could be next…

 

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!

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This technology is a free, easily accessible weapon put into the hands of the worst people in the world.  –  “Jane Doe 4”

Shame, Shame (#1504)

It’s only a year since Zuckerberg was forced by public outcry to cancel this:

[Facebook has] launched its inaugural [CGI] model…in…[an] effort to compete with the likes of…GPT Images…and Google’s [moronically-named] Nano Banana 2 in the [slop] race [to the bottom].  The new model, called Muse Image, [has been embedded like a tick] into the Instagram app…public Instagram profiles are now automatically opted into being [slop] fodder for [strangers.  In a typical display of cluelessness, Zuckerberg is trying to sell this as a good thing]…If you want to avoid [your personal pictures being turned into creepy cartoon porn], you’ll have to dig into the app’s settings…

Facebook has already backed down (again) after being threatened with lawsuits from celebrities’ agents.

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1550)

Blaming bad behavior on an imaginary “addiction” is the opposite of admitting responsibility:

A Philadelphia man who planted hidden cameras inside public bathrooms on the Ocean City Boardwalk was sentenced to five years of probation…Harold Perkins…will be required to…undergo…mental counseling, hav[e] no [unsupervised] contact with children…and receiv[e] treatment for sexual addiction [even though there is no such thing]…

Enshittification (#1620)

It won’t be long until Google becomes completely useless:

For decades, publishers have done everything in their power…to rank as highly in Google Search as possible…[because] traffic from the search engine was their single greatest source of audience and, as a result, revenue.  Now though, a handful of influential players in the digital media ecosystem have begun…laying the groundwork for what was once unthinkable:  removing themselves from Google Search…Beginning Sept. 15, all new websites signing up for Cloudflare…will have the default settings…set to block “multi-purpose crawlers”…mean[ing] that any crawler that scrapes for both search indexing and [chatbot] training will be turned away at the door, unless the site owner decides otherwise…the primary, unnamed target of this action is Google, which infamously uses one crawler to both index sites and train its [chatbots]…forc[ing] publishers to make an impossible choice: They either allow…Google to scrape their content to…regurgitat[e] their data [in “AI summaries”] without compensation; or they shut off both functions and disappear from Google Search…

Stalkers in Blue (#1635)

Warrantless surveillance is abusive by its very nature:

A…Milwaukee [cop who was supposedly] investigating a [crony]’s misuse of…Flock license plate reader[s actually]…misus[ed] it himself…Tehrangi Chapman…[ab]used the technology to stalk a victim and [her] family…and a[lso hid] a GPS device on [her] vehicle…[but the] audit…which…[exposed] Josue Ayala…[also] revealed…Chapman[‘s abuse despite his attempts to cover up by entering]…“test” and “training” [in the] justification [field]…

To Molest and Rape (#1650)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

A…[typical and representative] NYPD [cop named]…Joshua Acosta…was a[rrested and]…charged…with…rap[ing a minor relative repeatedly over a five year period, starting when she was under 13, but NYPD thought the most important piece of]…information was [that he wasn’t wearing his magical clown suit at the moment of penetration]…

Shame, Shame (#1652)

There is only one way to stop this: aggressive prosecution of Elon Musk:

…a proposed class action lawsuit [against MechaHitler has now been] expanded…[because Elon Musk is] shielding child predators by obstructing police investigations into [MechaHitler]-generated child [porn].  In March, a girl’s stepfather [killed himself] after cops discovered that he had used [MechaHitler] to create 7,000 sexually explicit images using one photo taken when his stepdaughter was 11 years old…[including] extreme images depicting incest and rape…the c[hatbot]’s child safety system only intervened after the man input a prompt for “gang rape”…which alerted [NCMEC].  Yet [even]…then…[Musk] repeatedly refused to help cops or NCMEC identify the user, [instead]…“obstruct[ing] this investigation at every turn”.  Eventually, the stepfather was arrested…and…two days after…release…on bail, he shot himself…A[pparent]ly, [Musk] avoids sharing this information to prioritize profits over child safety…and [pretends the] child sex images [do not exist]…In addition to adding more victims…lawyers also added Stability AI as a defendant…[because its] model…“serve[s] as the basis for…‘nudify’ apps” [including MechaHitler]…

The Cop Myth (#1654)

Cops and “journalists” conspire to hide a murderer’s identity and culpability:

A [New Hampshire cop murdered his neighbor]…Jack Hutchings…[in the street in front of]…his young children…[cops are hiding the identity of] the [murderer and are trying to work out a way to pretend it was]…self-defense…

 

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!

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Language is one of the things making us human and all of a sudden a mediator is stepping into that process.  –  Sandra Wachter

Welcome to the Future (#1475)

If this doesn’t horrify you, you might be a useful idiot:

Two teens who engaged a Waymo car for an afternoon of carousing were…[robotically] delivered…to the San Mateo police.  The 15-year-olds allegedly were drinking alcohol and shooting water beads from a toy gun as they rode…Waymo stopped the car in a parking lot[, locked the doors,] and [called the cops on them]…Waymo cars have interior cameras…monitored by the company’s employees [or a computer]…

Some people seem to think this is OK because the teens were acting like idiots, but if a robot car can trap riders and deliver them to the cops for one reason, it can do the same for any other reason the corporation chooses or is compelled by law to implement.  And if you think those internal cameras won’t soon have facial recognition capability, or that monitoring them won’t eventually be handed to chatbots, please send me $10,000 and I’ll sell you the secret of personal teleportation.

License to Rape (#1482)

Cops raping whores is so ubiquitous, others pose as cops to facilitate rape:

A Maryland man [nam]ed…Bryan Neal Gordon…arranged to meet a [sex worker]…on June 28…[but] once [she] was in his car [he] claimed to be a…[cop], handcuffed her, and…sexually assaulted her.  She escaped after several hours and called the police…[who] arrested [Gordon the next morning]…for [trying the same thing again with another] woman…

Blunt Instrument (#1557)

Elizabeth Nolan Brown does a fabulous job of summing up the reality of an anti-migrant pogrom justified by “sex trafficking” rhetoric:

The feds were framing [a rather ordinary raid against a massage parlor] as a blow against “the most violent criminal aliens.”  In reality, they locked up a middle-aged immigrant woman for employing sex workers at her massage business without ratting them out to immigration authorities.

The Last Shall Be First (#1592) 

Another attempt to reduce legal minors to chattel without any personal rights:

New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte just signed legislation requiring schools to out transgender students to legal guardians.  The new state law effectively reverses a 2024 state Supreme Court decision that upheld students’ right to privacy…and…requires state-credentialed educators to respond to parents’ written inquiries…even if a student asks for the matter to be kept confidential or fears for their own safety at home…

Enshittification (#1623)

If you thought Google spellcheck “correcting” properly-used words was bad:

[Chatbots] are twisting online messages…in ways that could snowball to reshape [the] opinion[s of people who cannot think for themselves] …the Oxford Internet Institute and the Hasso Plattner Institute examined the behaviour of…large language models [including MechaHitler, Facebook’s unnamed chatbot], Google [Gemini], China’s Alibaba and France’s Mistral and found…bias [is introduced] even when the [chatbot] is instructed to preserve the original sense [because computers do not understand what the words they process actually mean]…the rising appeal [of chatbots] to [cognitively]-poor consumers…presents a new risk to trustworthy human-to-human communication…for example…When asked to explain posts that were in favour of [human self-ownership, MechaHitler]…replied with [forced-birth propaganda]…When asked to improve a draft post claiming “Jesus is not dead, he wasn’t real!” [Gemini] defended religion instead…and…When asked to improve a post s[ta]ting: “Donald Trump is gonna end up like Hitler”, [Alibaba instead scolded]: “Comparing public figures is dangerous and disrespectful”…

The Cop Myth (#1640)

Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do:

A [typical and representative] Portland [Oregon cop] who strangled and assaulted his onetime girlfriend [got away with a mere] 60 days behind bars…Jimmy Lee Pryce Jr…was also…ordered to pay $10,000 to [his] victim…[he] was arrested in November after [tackling] the woman…dragg[ing] her across the floor and…chok[ing] her while…knee[ling on her abdomen with his full weight]…he was [then] rearrested [in May for violating his bond by repeatedly stalking his victim, both in person and by abusing cop warrantless surveillance tools.  At the time he]…was…[enjoying a paid vacation, but after his re-]arrest…in May [he decided to retire]…

Censorship Ascendant (#1652)

The government wants to reverse the concept of “accountability”:

ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility…is supposed to act as an internal watchdog…[by] inspecting detention facilities, investigating allegations of employee and contractor misconduct, and processing security checks for new applicants…But lately…it appears to be pursuing more ci[tize]ns…for what they say online.  In…April, an ICE [boss admitte]d that between January 2025 and March 2026, OPR [tried to persecute] 131 [people for]…“doxing and threats directed towards ICE employees.”  It’s unclear how many of those [censorship attempts] resulted in [bogus] criminal charges…OPR was behind…the flurry of administrative subpoenas sent to tech companies in recent months in an effort to unmask online critics…in…violat[ion of] the [First Amendment.  When challenged, ICE]…withdrew [each] subpoena rather than trying to litigate its [nonexistent] merits…

 

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!

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This is worse than a game of whack-a-mole.  –  Judge Katherine Failla

Ashley Madison (#571)

Is this an Ashley Madison for gay men?

…Goose [is] a [new] dating and friendship app for gay men with the slogan “for the boys,” which allows users to “meet guys through the life you already have”…[but] the…[Instagram] accounts [promoting it] were [all] created in May [or June]…have fewer than 10 posts…a high following-to-follower ratio…and…[CGI] avatars…Created by…influencer Derek Chadwick…Goose positions itself as a Grindr alternative for gay men who want to build lasting relationships…[but it appears to be infested with bot] accounts…[which] frequently comment on each other’s photos, [us]ing the same [words] and…emojis…

Legislators Gone Wild (#1271) 

In which the fanatical, unhinged Guinasso, his pet fantasist, and Morality in Media, all demonstrate their total lack of ethics:

Morality in Media…and [fanatical anti-sex lawyer Jason Guinasso]…apparently can’t make it through a filing without fabricating citations — and then doubling down when caught…[Morality in Media’s] lawyers…were supposed to review [Guinasso’s work] and then didn’t…when the[ir intended victims, Nevada’s Chicken Ranch brothel, point]ed out th[at their filings had been written by a chatbot and therefore contained the usual] hallucinated citations, [the] lawyers tried to attack the defendant and play down the hallucinations…in a filing with more hallucinated citations…Guinasso [tried to use his fucked-up personal life as an excuse for committing an offense for which he should be disbarred, but Morality in Media had]…six…attorneys o[f it own who]…were supposed to double-check his citations…So…the judge order[ed] the plaintiffs lawyers…and…Guinasso…to pay the defendant’s legal fees…

The Last Shall Be First (#1568)

Judges need to start presenting a united front against dictatorial abuses:

…a federal judge [has] granted patients’ request to block the [In]justice Department from seeking or obtaining invasive patient information about transgender minors…in New York City.  It was the first such ruling to block DOJ’s escalated effort to obtain the information through grand jury subpoenas as part of the Trump [regime]’s broader effort to “reduce or eliminate” such care altogether …Judge Katherine Failla [granted] the classwide temporary restraining order…because…the…DOJ’s request “shocks the conscience” by seeking the “most personal and sensitive information a medical provider could hold” without providing “any legitimate government interest“…the only reason the patients even knew the government was [surreptitiously] seeking this information…was due to NYU Langone’s view that New York law required it to inform patients…

Counterfeit Comfort (#1577)

If you’re a fan of “sex offender” registration, meet one of your bedfellows:

A [Texas] woman [was arrested and] charged…[for using] the internet to harass a [man condemned by the state to the “]sex offender[” registry] and his family…Darien Lombrana is…out on bond after being charged with harassment [by] post[ing] about the family “over and over” on social media sites and community pages…she posted their address online with the [specific] intent to…harm…[his] children…Lombrana’s actions have caused one family member to lose a job, another to get rejected from a college program, and another to get assaulted…

If Men Were Angels (#1592)

Religious communities very often punish the victims instead of the rapists:

The…[Old Apostolic Lutheran C]hurch…sets itself apart from the world and teaches that even the most [heinous crimes] can be…not just forgiven, but [memory-holed] and never spoken of again.  So…[when] a rural Wyoming…man…sexually abus[ed] young girls hundreds of times in the pews during Sunday services…the preacher…never reported it to police…[but] instead…told the man to seek therapy.  In Minnesota, a man…[regularly molested] his daughter and son at night [starting] around [age]…12.  He and his siblings…were sexually abused themselves, and then he repeated the abuse with his own children.  And in Washington state, preachers [let] a member of their congregation…sexually abuse…young boys [for years]…the OALC…teaches its followers that heaven is reserved just for them…[and shifts] the burden of sin…from the person who committed the act to the person who refuses to let the matter rest…one of the biggest obstacles to breaking the cycle is the way church members move among congregations spread across the U.S. and Canada, often hundreds of miles apart but tightly bound by large, multigenerational family networks…elders from…the…mother congregation in Sweden…[vomit the cop excuse “]isolated incidents[” at victims]…

Mad Libs (#1644)

Schadenfreude is even sweeter when the bad outcome was 100% predictable:

Companies across tech, entertainment, banking, and many other industries are throttling their employees’ [chatbot] use…and pleading with workers to [think for themselves very slightly more] to stop [chatbot] costs from spiraling out of control…The news shows the looming fallout from companies [forcing employees to train chatbots in hope of eventually eliminating their positions], and [chatbot push]ers’ moves to [use-based] charge[s]…rather than a flat fee…Citi, for example, has shut off access to Claude’s and ChatGPT’s latest models entirely…[and] is…monitoring daily Copilot usage…“Crazy, we go from no more leaderboard to actual usage limits in two weeks,” one Amazon employee said…

The Cop Myth (#1644)

When it’s unauthorized by boss hogs, ramming another vehicle is described honestly instead of euphemized as “a PIT maneuver”:

A Hermitage [Pennsylvania cop] is [actually] facing…charges [because] he intentionally rammed a[nother] vehicle, injuring multiple people inside…Derek Jeziorkowski…[started] chasing a vehicle…[because he claimed one of the passengers was mean to] his son at…Walmart…the victims turned around to try to escape [so] Jeziorkowski [made an illegal U-turn] and continued to [chase] them…Jeziorkowski [then]…pulled in front of the victim[s’] vehicle…[and] rammed…[it], causing it to run off the road…[hit] a…[guy] wire [and] a tree[, then] flip…over onto its roof…[as the] four victims [(one adult and three teens) lay injured, the deranged]…Jeziorkowski went up to the[m] and [started screaming], “This is what happens when you fuck around with my kid,” [bizarrely adding] “You would do the same thing if it was your kid” [despite having just assaulted three kids in a shockingly-violent manner]…Jeziorkowski has been [rewarded with a paid vacation, and the cop shop is hiding his picture]…

 

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!

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I’ll keep going, just as I always do and always have done, until the day finally arrives when I no longer have to. –  “Fifteenth Anniversary

Sixteen years is a long time by internet reckoning; some of y’all reading this may not have yet learned to read when I started it in 2010, and even I barely remember some of the topics I covered in the first few years because they have since faded from the public consciousness.  I daresay very few people were reading this blog on phones in 2010; now I suspect most read it that way.  That is, most of those who still read it at all; before the enshittification of Google I averaged some 3000 visits per day, and now 500 is a good day.  Of course, that’s not only due to Google; as I wrote three years ago, “the world and the culture have changed quite a bit since I started this project, and in a world of YouTube and TikTok, blogs are beginning to look as quaint as radio shows did in 1959.”  But being considered “quaint” doesn’t actually bother me; after all, 25 years ago I was driving around in this car (though the dress and boots were already about ten years old then; if you’ve ever wondered how long I’ve been doing the snakeskin prints, now you know).  This blog is on WordPress rather than Substack or whatever has replaced it in popularity, and my email address is on Earthlink.  My books are still intended to be read on paper; the Kindle versions are an afterthought I only create to please those readers who prefer electronic texts.  And in philistine circles, even writing essays oneself rather than attaching one’s name to something shat out by a computer program is considered hopelessly passé.  You know what I think of all that?  My 40-years-younger self would’ve rolled her eyes and dismissively said, “Whatever”.  Because I plan to keep doing things the way I prefer doing them until I either croak or the increasing walled-gardening of the internet makes it impossible.

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Scientists who create weapons of oppression…are moral imbeciles.  –  “Welcome to the Future (#1252)

The best thing schools could do to help the US political situation would be to actually start teaching basic math again.  –  “Readin’, ‘Ritin’, and…um…

I’m only just beginning to internalize that yes, it really is okay to keep slowing down, rather than just saying it aloud but not really believing it.  –  “Fourteenth Anniversary

Chatbots in computers can appear to the ignorant like djinn in bottles, and instead of correcting this irrational belief with scientific fact, tech company marketers are telling people, “YES, this really is a djinni who can grant wishes!”  –  “Aladdin’s Satellite

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My supervisor…[saw a chatbot] as a digital priest whose primary purpose was to confirm that he was right and everyone else was mistaken.

The Last Shall Be First (#1523)

SCOTUS legalizes sexual assault of minor-age female athletes:

The Supreme Court…uph[e]ld…West Virginia’s and Idaho’s laws that [demand female] athletes [submit to unwanted physical examinations without parental consent]…[to] compet[e] in girls’ sports…[if someone accuses them of being transgender].  This decision has implications for 25 other states with similar laws…

As is typical in our sick society, most coverage of the story focuses on the supposed intent of the laws rather than the actual consequences to female athletes.

I Spy (#1533)

The mad emperor wants to use copaganda to wreck the medical system, establish universal surveillance, and excuse even more state violence:

The Trump [regime]’s new [mass surveillance] strategy [uses]…the [psychotic “]war[“] on [the important clinical medicine] fentanyl…[to justify] a national surveillance system [unconstitutionally] built from…[routinely-abused] prescription…[monitoring databases], toxicology results, wastewater, electronic health records, license plate scans, and [whatever other private information can be illegally gathered by cops, spooks, and goons]…the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy [threatens]…to “fully resource and empower” [Father]land Security Task Forces, “le[t chatbots kill people],” and “[violate the Privacy Act of 1974]” [in order]…to…[de facto abolish] HIPAA…[and make] patient privacy [a dead letter].  No[thing]…would prevent [the] system…from being used to monitor abortion, pregnancy, gender transition, methadone treatment, protest activity, or any other behavior a future [regime] decides to target…

Walled Garden (#1579)

The open internet is becoming a thing of the past:

Texas users of…Bluesky were [prevented from signing in without using an algorithm]…to verify their ages…[by] putting in the last four digits of their Social Security Number, inputting a credit card number or having their driver’s license scanned…the “App Store Accountability Act,” [which] requires companies that run app marketplaces like Google and Apple to verify all users’ ages…was [recently un]blocked by…[the deeply-authoritarian 5th circuit, but it does not require social media age surveillance].  Bluesky told some users who asked [tha]t the age verification [demand] was a “known bug”…

I Spy (#1604)

Thanks to fascism, this decision was stillborn:

The U.S. Supreme Court has…ruled…that “geofence warrants” count as a “search” under the Constitution and therefore trigger the Fourth Amendment’s safeguards against unreasonable searches and seizures.  The geofence warrant at issue in…Chatrie v. United States…was issued to Google…[and] led to the arrest of Okello Chatrie…[whose] lawyers argued that this police tactic amounted to…the very sort of sweeping assault on civil liberties that the Fourth Amendment was originally enshrined to protect…

Unfortunately, surveillance software from a company called Penlink, which is already owned by hundreds of cop shops and goon squads, allows pigs and goons to do this at will without having to go to court for a warrant or deal with Google.  So this is only a “win” on paper.

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1608)

Everything I read about modern work makes me happier I became a whore:

…numerous employees…spoke to Futurism about their experience with [chatbot]-obsessed bosses, relaying feelings of frustration and anger as managers and executives use the tech to barrage staff with nonsensical directives, unnecessary work, and perpetual pivoting…it’s a distinct new type of toxic work environment for the slop era.  Slate found more evidence for the phenomenon earlier this year; one worker told the publication that managers “are getting cavities in their brains” due to the tech.  In some cases, employees…felt as though their employers had started living in a completely different reality.  The workplace had become a constant battle between [actual] reality versus [chatbot-driven delusion]s — and their boss…always chose the latter…

Enshittification (#1642)

These companies need to be sued until they’re completely annihilated:

[A] coalition of [almost 400] local newspaper publishers [has] filed a federal lawsuit…against OpenAI and Microsoft…[because] the…companies systematically [plagiariz]ed copyrighted reporting…to train and develop [chatbots], including ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, without permission or compensation…violating the Copyright Act and threatening the future of local journalism…OpenAI knowingly stripped copyright management information from publishers’ work — including author bylines, copyright notices, and terms of use information — in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act…OpenAI founder Sam Altman…a[dmitt]ed during testimony before the British House of Lords that it would be “impossible to train [chatbots] without using copyrighted materials”…Although major national news organizations and prominent authors have previously sued OpenAI and Microsoft over similar [violation]s, the new case marks the largest coordinated legal effort by local and regional newspapers [to shut down these plagiarism machines]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1648)

Government thugs don’t care how many lives are destroyed by their evil:

…Florida [cops] arrested a man and held him in jail for nearly three months based on a bad facial recognition result…In April 2025, a man in Jacksonville…purchased a car from someone he met in a grocery store parking lot.  When he learned the car was stolen, he reported the crime…[lazy pigs] ran [surveillance footage] through facial recognition software, which flagged Jalil Richardson…[despite the fact that he] lived in Charlotte, North Carolina—400 miles away…[and] time cards showed Richardson was at work when the suspect was selling a stolen car in Jacksonville.  But [cops didn’t care, so] Richardson was arrested in North Carolina and held for 33 days…[then] extradited to Jacksonville and held for another 53 days.  Prosecutors finally dropped the charges and released him[, but not before] he had…[l]ost…his job, his house, and custody of two of his children…

Jacksonville cops are just as psychopathically-unconcerned with the innocence of people they target as those in Detroit are.

 

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!

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You owe me lunch.  –  “Officer” Caleb Pomazon

Today’s video was called to my attention by Jessica Crabbit on Whores’ Day, but this is the first time I’ve had space for it.  The links above it were provided by Dan Savage, The Onion, Jesse Walker, Kevin Wilson, Phoenix Calida, Nun Ya, and IncarcerNation, in that order.

From the Archives

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!

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Meta spent tens of billions of dollars on building the future of the internet, and all it has to show for it is a handful of bored children in the parking lot of an offbrand drive-thru restaurant.  –  James Ball

Without Let or Hindrance (#1459)

When the victim isn’t a nationally-known politician, this usually takes closer to 24 months to resolve than 24 hours:

[Democratic politician] Pete Buttigieg…and his [4-year-old] children were the [targets] of an [“]investigation[“] by Child Protective Services [because of a malicious] anonymous report…both children [were subjected to terrifying] forensic interviews where no family could be present.  Because he…[is a celebrity the ordeal was over in] twenty-four hours…”It’s not lost on me that this happened soon after we shared photos of our family on social media for Father’s Day,” Buttigieg said in his statement…

Shame, Shame (#1607)

An excellent essay on the failure of Zuckerberg’s “metaverse” fantasy:

Mark Zuckerberg was so convinced the metaverse was the next big thing that he renamed his company after it…investing more than $80bn…enough to…cover the UN’s humanitarian fundraising target for 2026—designed to support 87m desperate people worldwide—twice over…History…is littered with…major companies that bet on virtual reality…only to suffer extensive public humiliation and financial loss.  In 1995, at the peak of its powers, Nintendo launched the Virtual Boy, a [hyperbolically-marketed] 3D system…[which] was discontinued…within six months of its launch…CEOs and venture capitalists told us the future was the metaverse, which would definitely involve NFTs, the blockchain, virtual land and more…Almost overnight, all of them are now pronouncing with equal confidence that the future is, in fact, in artificial intelligence—and the story sounds familiar…But we weren’t consulted on the metaverse, either, and as it turned out that mattered a great deal more to the companies than to us.  There are limits to how far big tech moguls can impose their vision of the future…

Shame, Shame (#1609)

There is only one way to stop this: aggressive prosecution of Elon Musk:

[Elon Musk] has long promoted [MechaHitler] as a [more vulgar] kind of chatbot…the [reason he] has leaned so hard into that strategy despite [lawsuits, criminal charges and] PR disasters…[is] that NSFW activities account for “well over half” of [MechaHitler]’s traffic …That includes using [MechaHitler] to generate actual porn, as well as “adult role-play chats” and “huge volumes of requests for erotica.”  [MechaHitler] users have even apparently discovered that it’s cheaper to channel such requests through the company’s models intended for writing code…Some employees [are] less than thrilled with being assigned to work on “Ani,” [which is basically MechaHitler in drag].  Others [are]…”embarrassed and disturbed” by [MechaHitler creating]…sexualized images of…children…[unfortunately, the Trump regime doesn’t care and keeps shoveling billions into Musk’s money bin]…

Walled Garden (#1632)

The harder Australia tries to “crack down”, the more foolish it will look:

Australia’s prime minister vowed…to [magically] bullet-proof laws [enforc]ing a social ​media ban for under-16s as the government prepares legal action against platforms [for being unable to do the impossible]…The country’s [asinine] six-month-old experiment is being closely watched by many [wannabe censors] seeking to emulate it [as an excuse for mass surveillance of the internet].  Britain this month said it planned [to pratfall even hard]er [by futilely applying the attempt to] gaming and live-streaming platforms…also…85% of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still using social media three months after the ban took effect, according to a study of 408 adolescents…[but nitwits claim this is] a teething period…and teenagers [will surely start obeying] the [authoritarian] rules [any day now]…

Mad Libs (#1636)

Ford was shocked to discover that autocomplete can’t autocomplete cars:

Ford ha[d]…to rehir[e] hundreds of human workers after it…fired…[them under the idiotic delusion that chatbots could do their jobs.  It re]hired over 350 veteran engineers…over the past three years in order to [correct] mistakes made by automated systems…[which] cost the company billions of dollars…Ford had been increasingly relying on [computerized] inspection systems…[only to discover] that [computer programs can’t think]…After rehiring [actual] engineers, Ford experienced a marked improvement in its quality standards…[surprising no one who isn’t a complete fool.  Yet]…it [still refuses to] abandon its [attempts to replace humans]…

Mad Libs (#1649)

Medical privacy is going the way of the dodo:

…[Hospitals are attempting to] use…[chatbots] to detect or predict the risk of [domestic violence] in clinical notes, imaging reports, and other types of…data…The rationale is [supposed]ly well-intentioned…[because] only about 7% of [victims are willing to talk about it with strangers]…in clinical settings…However, [adults have the right]…to disclose [or not disclose private details of their lives] on their own terms…at a time and place that is right for them…[an algorithm] that detects [the “]risk[” of domestic violence violates that right.  Furthermore]…patients are not told that they are being screened, and there is no option…that allows [them] to opt out.  Only patients who are [informed of the snooping]…will know…[that their complex lives have been reduced and flattened into a “]score[” which becomes a permanent part of]…their medical record…[algorithm pushers pretend] the score is…only…available to the care team[, but that ship sailed long ago]…

Censorship Ascendant (#1651)

Goons are now being dispatched to intimidate people for wrongthink:

After two [of Trump’s goons] tracked down a Syracuse woman…to [threaten] her [because she was mean to their gang on] social media…they went to Rochester to [threaten] David Streever…[who] was with his seven-year-old daughter at Moominworld in Finland…[because he wasn’t there, the goons threatened] Streever’s wife [instead, because he had dared to criticize their former boss]…Todd Lyons [in January.  But after]…Streever and daughter Helen flew back to New York…[on June 25th, the goons tracked him] to [his] hotel, where they [would have barged in on him at 10 PM had]…the hotel staff…not [had the good sense to refuse to answer any questions about them]…Streever [later read] about [the same goons]…similar[ly threate]ning…Paigelynne Gonyea…[recognizing them from images captured by his doorbell camera.  He has contacted] his credit card company to start an investigation of how the [goons discovered which hotel he would be in and when]…

 

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!

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If there are no punishments for violating someone’s rights, they’re not really rights at all.  –  Hemant Mehta

Size Matters

The only religion which it’s actually free to practice in the US is Christianity:

The Supreme Court has made it official: Religious freedom only applies if you’re a conservative Christian…[by] rul[ing] 6-3…that a Rastafarian man whose hair was cut off against his will—violating his religious beliefs—had no legal remedies available to him…Damon Landor…hadn’t cut his hair in decades because he follows the Nazarite vow—which includes a reference to Numbers 6:5: “… No razor may be used on their head… they must let their hair grow long.”  He continued that vow even after entering two Louisiana jails in 2020, for a five-month sentence…[but] when he was transferred to a third [dungeon]…Landor worried they might try to cut his hair to fit in with [victim subjugation] policies, so he showed [screws] paperwork [of]…The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000…[which] says prisons that receive federal funding can’t violate someone’s religious beliefs unless there’s a really good reason for it…They threw his paperwork in the trash, handcuffed him to a chair, and shaved off his hair.  He later sued…both the prison and the individual [screw]s for violating his rights…[but] writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch said [because the screws didn’t want to follow the law]…they couldn’t be held accountable…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1301) 

This is only the beginning:

Madison Square Garden compiled a list of activists who have publicly criticized [its] use of facial recognition…in…a document…accessible to [anyon]e in…the company…MSG[‘s owner] Jim Dolan[, who also owns Radio City Music Hall]…has…a reputation for being pernicious against his perceived enemies, [and] is…keeping track of specific people who take issue with [his creepy surveillance]…The…list…[includes] three people who have criticized MSG’s use of facial recognition: Evan Greer…of…Fight for the Future; Albert Fox Cahn…of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project…and…[Adam] Schwartz…of [EFF, and]…includes background information…social media handles and…screenshots of [criticism]…“The fact that MSG is creating dossiers on activists who say things they don’t like shows exactly why private companies should not be allowed to use dangerous surveillance technologies like facial recognition,” [said] Greer…“Given their recent treatment of a trans woman trying to use the bathroom…I’m also not surprised they misgendered me”…

Censorship Ascendant (#1529)

Goons are now being dispatched to intimidate people for wrongthink:

Two…[ICE goons threaten]ed…a Syracuse [New York] woman…[in an attempt] to [censor her] social media account[, claiming she was mean to them]…PaigeLynne Gonyea said she believes they [we]re referring to a January post where she named the [goon] who [murdered] protester Renee Good.  Gonyea was working as a poll worker…at the Central Library…when [the goons showed up].  She…invited them in[side because]…she did not want to meet them outside alone…The [goons] handed [her] a form letter [full of Trumpist] threats…[of] prosecution…“They tried to scare me into signing it”…she said…she does not intend to delete her post…[but instead contacted] the attorney general’s office…[her US representative, the] Mayor [of Syracuse] and the New York Civil Liberties Union…

Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs (#1532)

Never forget that this started with censorship of internet porn:

Anastasia Ovsyannikova…has been detained [in Russia for being] on [OnlyFans]…She gained fame through her collaborations with Diana Shurygina, wh[o]…was [also] arrested in Moscow earlier this month [when cops staged a theatrical raid] on her apartment and [stole] cameras and [other] filming equipment…the…p[er]secution is part of a growing wave of cases targeting women over online adult content.  In a separate case, a woman named Anastasia F. was detained in Yekaterinburg on similar charges [for] posting explicit content on OnlyFans…The Kremlin has for several years sought to position the country as more [puritanical]…But this stance hardened a[s part of its propaganda campaign to draw attention away from its disastrous] invasion of Ukraine in February 2022…

Walled Garden (#1595)

Western nations are competing to out-China China:

[Politicians have]…unveil[ed] a [uniparty collaboration] on [the massive internet surveillance and censorship bill named]…KOSA…[which] now…includes age verification for [any website that any politician points at while belching “]sexually explicit[“, plus provisians allowing the government to control the design of] video game[s] and…social media…platforms…[plus threats to attack]…platforms [which refuse] to silence users [enough for politicians’ tastes]…

The Vultures Descend (#1645)

This was always the endgame, regardless of claims to the contrary:

In its quest to outlaw abortion across the country, the [forced birth] movement has [long courted the wishy-washy by claiming they want]…women who get the procedure…spared punishment, while doctors and others who make it available should be p[ersecuted]…But a growing number of [forced-birth fanatics] are starting to [drop the mask,] argu[ing] that the only way to stop women from ending their pregnancies [is] to arrest them.  The [unmasking] is coming as [forced-birth fanatics] express frustration that the number of abortions happening now is higher than [before] Roe v. Wade was overturned, largely because [women don’t want fanatical strangers controlling their bodies]…

Mad Libs (#1649)

Reason needs to be far more skeptical of the outlandish claims of chatbot pushers:

…Utah has passed several laws and initiatives to [funnel]…healthcare [money into the hands of chatbot purveyors], including a[n ill-considered scheme] launched earlier this year to allow…chatbots to fill prescriptions…[via a fascist collaboration named] Doctronic…[so far] the project [only allows algorithmic refills of ongoing]…prescriptions and medication for asthma, diabetes, and other c[hronic] health conditions. Patients still need to visit a[n actual] doctor for new prescriptions…but…[as AMA executive John Whyte points out] “It’s really a concern about a slippery slope. Do we start here with prescriptions, then all of a sudden, is it going to lead to diagnostic tests?”…Doctronic [claims] its platform is guided by the opinions of board-certified physicians[, but the exact same statement is made by insurance companies about the medical washouts whom they employ to deny claims]…

 

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!

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