So, apparently Quatar wants to give an all-luxed-up Boing 747 to Trump. Just, ya know, because they’re known for their generosity. Ha. On it’s face, such a gift would be spectacularly illegal. As-in, specifically-forbidden-in-the-Constitution levels of illegal. No Title of…
Spreading It Around: One Person, One Job
I discussed this problem before during what was at the time the worst and most corrupt Presidency in this country’s long and distinguished history of terrible Presidencies. But of course it’s back again. There was a whole presidential term in…
Mind The Gap: The Are No Actual Guardrails
The U.S. government was created by a bunch of comfortably-well-off dudes who never really thought it’d be controlled by people who seriously disagreed with them. That’s why it has no real blocks to serious abuses of power. Sure, they figured…
GenAI Hate: Yes, It’s Luddism But Not How You Think (And Not Just That)
Boosters of the generative AI slop that’s taking over everywhere these days like to call everyone who objects “Luddites”. Which is actually true, but not how they think. The popular conception of the Luddites is that they simply objected to…
Consider The State: What Is It For? And Is It Worth It?
Historically, of course, the State arose as an expression of the personal power of the ruler to impose their will on a population. But that idea of the State was made obsolete thousands of years ago. Though it is still…
Identity Politics: They’re All Doing It
There’s been a lot of whinging about “identity politics” lately. From both major parties. The Democrats complain about how white, male, rural, evangelical christian the rhetoric of the Republicans is. Which is true, they do do that. And the Republicans…
Reorganize This: De-engineering The Corporation
I’m going to step away from writing about the coup today, and talk about a better way to organize corporations. Because I wanna, that’s why. And because, when … this … is all dealt with, and we’re deciding how the…
You Should Read This: Building A Delusional Panopticon
Today’s links come via Schneier on Security. It’s time to look at what the coup has been doing with government data. TLDR: it’s not good. You should read these two articles: While both of them are absurdly uncritical about whether…
What It’s For: The State Exists To Enforce The Law
I realize that this is a bit of a minority view at the moment. But really, that’s what the State is for. It does not exist, as the current regime seems to believe, to pursue delusional fantasies cooked up by…
You Should Read This: Ed Zitron Gets A Little Rude About The Generative AI Bubble
And “a little” is far less than the topic deserves. We should be getting a lot more rude about this nonsense. He opens his latest epic post on the topic with: I’m sick and god-damn tired of this! I have…