Recent comic: Cutting out the Middleman
I suspect that some readers might interpret this cartoon as a call for Luddism, but mostly it's a reflection of thoughts I've been having lately about out-of-control data harvesting and a growing surveillance state.
#tech #technology #privacy #data #comic #cartoon #surveillance #consumers #corporations
Dude, why in the name of everything that is holy am I just now learning about Simone Weil's social and political thought? I've heard her name before, but never had anyone impress on me just how aligned with cooperative and solidarity economy thinking she is...WHY?!? I know more than one co-op focused academic, but it was my old house painting partner who turned me on to her 🤔 Definitely buying "The Need for Roots" at my earliest convenience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Weil#Spiritual_Nature_of_Work
#RightToBuy in #England ‘fuelled #HousingCrisis and cost taxpayers £200bn’ | #Housing | The Guardian
What’s this? So, #Thatcher's flagship social engineering policy was a disaster? Well thanks a lot, Maggie! [Sarc.]
Duckduckgo image search can now hide AI generated images:
@_elena @ahltorp fully agree. It's so upsetting to think that Aaron was driven to suicide for making science (mostly publicly funded) available to the public for free, while Sam Altman from the exact same Y Combinator cohort took the entirety of human endeavors to enrichen himself and the capital class while not only escaping accountability but receiving accolades.
Rep. Greenfield is asking exactly the right questions.
If the US is going to feed itself, there are farm jobs that have to be done. So how are we gonna do it?
No, really! How?
Who's going to do the work? What will their lives be like?
Will we build a farm sector that offers jobs that free people can build our lives with? Or will we keep building jobs that only seem worthwhile to desperate people with no other options?
If only immigrants take these jobs, how do they get here?
What are the circumstances they work under?
Now how's that link up to the ol' "Who will pick our crops" question?
These days I'm a small farmer. There's a saying in agriculture. "It doesn't matter what the laws are. Farmers will still get their workers one way or another."
So "Who will pick our crops?" is exactly what we should be asking.
And you know what Trump just did?
He just overturned all those updates. Back in June 2025.
Now, the system for *legal* farm immigration is back to the free-for-all that let people build a $200M slavery business in Georgia- with a license from the federal government.
Widespread abuses are why Biden made updates to the H-2A guest worker program. Basic stuff: minimum wage enforcement. "If people are living on your property they need plumbing." "Don't take their passports."
To stop more slavery rings from happening!
To come to the US legally? Farm workers are supposed to get an H-2A visa.
In theory, H-2A visas are fine. They're supposed to work like a temp agency/worker-to-workplace matching service.
But in reality? So many H-2A workers are abused, extorted, cheated, raped, & held prisoner on the job.
Here's a brief piece on how over 100 people who went through the entire proper H-2A documentation process to enter the US legally, still wound up in slavery.
Cartoon: Choose your chatbot https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/8/1/2336171/-Cartoon-Choose-your-chatbot? by @mcfadden
Any technical solution that is supposed to block teenagers from anything is not going to work very well, because you are facing an opponent that:
* is smarter than you,
* is very dedicated,
* has a lot of free time,
* has an extensive network of friends,
* faces no serious consequences if caught,
* outnumbers you,
* considers you an immoral crook.
You really, *really* want to have them on your side. That means education rather than control.
The #Trump economy is here and it doesn't look good - https://boingboing.net/2025/08/01/the-trump-economy-is-here-and-it-doesnt-look-good.html "The market is tumbling as analysts learn they can not trust the Government's jobs and unemployment numbers. "
Creativity, The Fifth Freedom & Access To Knowledge - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/01/creativity-the-fifth-freedom-access-to-knowledge/ "In April 2007, Janez Potočnik, then European Commissioner for Science and Research, introduced the concept of the Fifth Freedom: the “freedom of knowledge.”
The `asn` is command line ASN lookup tool. It can do RPKI validity, BGP stats, ASPath, IP reputation, IP geolocation, IP fingerprinting, Network recon / lookup tool and web traceroute. It is a prefect tool to look into IP address for security reasons and recommend for IT or network professionals. https://github.com/nitefood/asn
#ShlaerMellor, #FunctionPointAnalysis, #punk, #environmentalist, #unionAdvocate, #anarchosocialist
"with a big old lie and a flag and a pie and a mom and a bible most folks are just liable to buy any line, any place, any time" - Frank Zappa