Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Right now, the only thing holding back most police from deploying armed drones and robots is the policies of companies and the social stigma surrounding the issue. Neither of these will hold forever. We need regulation. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/lawmakers-must-act-now-prevent-armed-police-drones

“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?”

This July 4th week, revisit Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech on liberty, hypocrisy and the “gross injustice and cruelty” hidden beneath national celebration.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/frederick-douglass-4th-of-july-sham-american-slave

Who's in the Reflecting Cesspool? https://www.patreon.com/BrianMcFadden

@NatureMC @stragu @ecosia @futurebird @doomsdayrs Any approach to search by AI-brained folks is going to be garbage in exactly the same way modern Google is: interpreting and second guessing your query in a probability space of likely questions rather than doing actual text indexing and search.

During July 4th week, Eugene Debs’s 1901 Independence Day speech still cuts through the fireworks:

“What is wanted is not a reform of the capitalist system, but its entire abolition.”

https://inthesetimes.com/article/fourth-july-eugene-debs-socialism-flag-independence-day

This is your regular reminder that even if you “dispassionately” assess LLM tools purely in economic terms, they are a complete and utter failure. Massive costs and capital expenses (chips, training, datacentres) that deprecate rapidly, all for a negligible boost in economic productivity

Using them also makes you a dickhead for all of the usual ethical and moral reasons, but people who put undue weight on “economic” reasoning have long since made their peace with being assholes.

We all like to joke about July being "Gay Wrath Month" but it's actually Disability Pride Month, so have the Disability Pride Flag from VGAPride and my AST Premmia LX MS-DOS machine

“The people have the eternal right to rebel against and overthrow” institutions that enslave, rob, and oppress.

For Emma Goldman, independence meant more than flags and founding myths.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/emma-goldman-a-new-declaration-of-independence-socialism-july-4

LGBT Q&A: you asked - what do data companies in the UK collect when verifying users' ages on digital platforms? The answer? A lot. Find out more here. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/lgbt-qa-what-data-are-companies-uk-collecting-when-verifying-my-age

A few thoughts on why people say shit like "I know AI's generate falsehoods but here's some slop" based on a few interactions at work.

https://tante.cc/2026/06/30/trying-to-manufacture-permission/

Community call - Friday July 3rd
Newsmast Foundation - Apps for change: Our socials, not our trap

Michael Foster (co-founder) and Saskia Welch (head of community) will talk about the Newsmast open-source platform for community-first, ethical social media. Newsmast was awarded Grand Prize in the Open Social Awards at the June 2026 Public Spaces conference 👏

12:00 CST/ 11:00 BST in meet.coop BigBlueButton https://de.meet.coop/b/rooms/5pp-jj1-vrg-dvv/join
Hosted by the Free Knowledge Institute. Working to buuild a Democratic Tech Fund. #FKI

Ford motor company... went all in on AI and it backfired, costing them billions.

They've admitted they mistakenly thought that introducing AI and feeding it their design requirements... that it would spit out good designs.

They're now desperately rehiring hundreds of engineers after the company became the laughing stock of the industry... and the AI they've been using is to blame for the most recalls in US history... 51 recalls covering more than 11 million vehicles in the first half of 2026.

🤔 😂

#Ford
#NoAI

Open source game engine Godot will no longer accept AI-authored code contributions: 'We can't trust heavy users of AI to understand their code enough to fix it'

At risk of drowning in AI slop code, @godotengine is firming up its contribution requirements.

🎮 https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/open-source-game-engine-godot-will-no-longer-accept-ai-authored-code-contributions-we-cant-trust-heavy-users-of-ai-to-understand-their-code-enough-to-fix-it/

#gamedev #aicoding #godot #opensource #godotgameengine #dev #aicoding #aislop

I haven’t seen much coverage yet of the fresh round of layoffs at Bandcamp?

From the linked Bluesky post:

> my 13 years at bandcamp are coming to an end - i’ve been laid off along with most of the remaining engineers. best job i’ve ever had, working with the best people you could ever work with. unceremonious end to quite a ride.

https://bsky.app/profile/grmnygrmny.bsky.social/post/3mpgvo7l2v22t

“Trying to manufacture permission”

https://tante.cc/2026/06/30/trying-to-manufacture-permission/

> Those people are putting their responsibility of making sure their work stacks up on me.

@evacide "By submitting an application, you acknowledge and consent to the use of AI technology in our review process."
If not evil, why evil shaped ?

@evacide
Have you not looked at what DuckDuckGo has been doing lately, or is everything you say so unreliable? The positions involve AI, and then there's this gem:

John #Roberts Believes In The #Unitary Executive, Except For When It Might Crash His Investment Portfolio - https://www.techdirt.com/2026/06/30/john-roberts-believes-in-the-unitary-executive-except-for-when-it-might-crash-his-investment-portfolio/ "Roberts’ biggest job is swinging that big dial back and forth depending on who is in the White House."