I’m not optimistic on anything being fixable at this point, but we should still think about how to do better next time. Because there will (eventually) be a next time. And when it comes time to write the constitution for…
Big Sister: Forecast Is Cloudy For Alexa
I’m kind of at a loss today for not-climbing-a-clock-tower style approaches to our current political situation. So let’s talk tech instead. I’ve written before about the privacy issues with voice assistant systems; they’re … not good. I mean, they’re basically…
Authoritarians United: Most Courts Will Be Too Slow To Matter
If the police are mostly on the wrong side, then it shouldn’t be surprising that most courts will be too. It’s where their class affinities lie, after all. Judges are wealthy and, for the most part, they grew up that…
Left Authoritarianism: Stop Asking For Leaders
Yeah, I agree: Chuck Schumer sux0rs and he totally screwed over the last chance congressional Democrats had to put the brakes on Trump Coup.0’s stripping the federal government for parts. But calling for new leadership is not the way to…
Authoritarians United: Most Police Will Be On The Wrong Side
Police organization in the U.S. are no more democratic than the military. Which is to say: not democratic at all. Officers are trained to obey, and to have no role in choosing their leaders (and no role in interpreting the…
School Yourself: The Means Of Academic Production
I mentioned yesterday that I had some thoughts on folks with PhDs setting up new universities. I do indeed. I’ve been contemplating this for a long time, since U.S. universities started reducing traditional tenure-track positions and replacing them with short-term…
Parallel Organizing: Build Your Own Society
Coming up with a title got that song stuck in my head, so now it can be in yours too. You’re welcome. Now is probably a good time for us all to take a long, hard look at our communities…
Hey, Chuck: Know When To Walk Away
So, reporting at the moment is that several Democratic senators (including Schumer and Fetterman, at least) are planning on voting for the House’s free-money-for-fascism bill. That would be a … mistake. I’ve said this several times in the past few…
Showing Their Work: Laws Should Be Version-Controlled
The tech industries appear to have provided most of the foot soldiers, many of the generals and pretty much all the lunacy behind Musk’s ongoing coup attempt. For which many of us in the industry sincerely apologize. For the most…
Don’t Fund The Reaper: Time For A Shutdown
The House has passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through September. Why bother? Since the main project of the Trump 2.0 administration is to disassemble the federal government, why bother to allocate money to it? And since…