Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Politico Management Insists “AI” Shouldn’t Be Held To Any Sort Of Human Editorial Standards Because It’s Built By Coders, Not Journalists - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/25/politico-management-insists-ai-shouldnt-be-held-to-any-sort-of-human-editorial-standards-because-its-built-by-coders-not-journalists/ "most U.S. media is owned by affluent older, white, Conservative men who generally see AI not as a way to make their products or employees’ lives better or more efficient, but as a way to cut corners and undermine already underpaid labor."

#Flock cameras says that it has “paused its operations with federal agencies” because their system has been used for ICE enforcement.

“Pausing” operations means that they HAVE BEEN ALLOWING IT until now.

Flock makes money per query. They are incentivized to allow “law enforcement” types to query their systems for as many things as they want, including tracking people down for violating anti-abortion laws, suspected “immigration” issues, and who knows what else.

Your tax dollars are paying for this. Flock cameras should be taken down.

#surveillance #kakistocracy #enshittification #FlockCameras #ALPR

“License plate camera company halts cooperation with federal agencies among investigation concerns”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/license-plate-camera-company-halts-225436172.html

Google increasingly locks down its once-open mobile OS, and today took a major step in that bad direction.

If Google is going to be as control-freakish as Apple, AND continue to run a spyware-based mobile ecosystem, why not just buy an Iphone?

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/google-will-block-sideloading-of-unverified-android-apps-starting-next-year/

The UK welcomes #refugees
We desperately needs foreign skilled workers, but you wouldn't know that from reading most UK media, who this morning are offering free uncritical publicity to #Farage lethal nazi plans

Neither was there any news coverage of the #AntiRacism counterprotests to the small fascist protests this weekend.

Thanks to @therightarticle for sharing this: Anti-racist mobilisations push back the far right
https://www.counterfire.org/article/anti-racist-mobilisations-push-back-the-far-right/

#UKPol
#RefugeesWelcome

Of course it's laughable -- in the most ugly way -- that Trump thinks he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.

I hate to bring this up, but it's worth remembering that one of history's bloodiest war criminals, Henry Kissinger, got one.

University of Melbourne used WiFi location data to identify & target on-campus student protesters.

A bit unclear whether the process of locating student devices involved raw RSSI measurements, or say Monte Carlo sampling, or ToF & trilateration.

If MAC addrs are tied to a user ID (as with, say, an Eduroam account) then identifying owners of phones paired with AP's local to the site is drag & drop.

Curious. If any have leads, keen to hear of them.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/melbourne-university-privacy-palestinian-protests-wi-fi-data/xeeuuxn64

#privacy #opsec

Not one major American news organization has had the spine to lay out, as succinctly and convincingly as historian Garrett Graff does here, our dread new reality -- much less lift a finger to save democracy.

The United States has gone fascist.

https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-tips-into-fascism-f51000e08e03254d

Trump's takeover at Federal Reserve is GUARANTEED to undermine the economy -- which is what most of the regime's policies are doing in any case.

For the non-corrupt, there will be no safe harbors from this malicious destruction. But corruption won't guarantee safety either.

Fight this. Now.

This is actually terrifying. The dictator establishing his Palace Guard.

[from today’s Executive Order, h/t @heidilifeldman]

Another Democratic governor -- and former VP candidate -- who's not afraid to call fascism what it is: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/tim-walz-trump-fascist-policies-1235415337/

Illinois Gov. Pritzker is one of the few Democratic leaders who's showing genuine backbone in standing up to fascism. In this warning to the Trump regime, he says he'll do what it takes to hold federal lawbreakers to account.

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/watch/-we-are-watching-and-taking-names-illinois-gov-jb-pritzker-responds-to-trump-s-threats-to-chicago-245738565850

Gotta say it sucks to hear over the last 30-40 years how progressive policies that directly help citizens could never be enabled by the stroke of a pen, but in just a few short months a moody dictator can enact any cruel authoritarian idea no one wants or needs and it gets implemented nationwide, instantly.

"Asana, Trello, all the project management tools. It’s just too much."

These are not productivity tools.

They are leadership tools trying to track productivity, and they're trying to do it by shifting scut work - the unpleasant, gritty burdens of management - on to the people being managed, so they can spend time reporting on the work they're accountable for instead of doing it.

Buying Asana to help with productivity is like buying an odometer so your car can go faster.

Privatisation by stealth. The government is hiding the cost of outsourcing, even though it's funded out of the public health budget and reduces the resources available for other public health services. Run the public health system down to crisis point: then shrug and say "we can't afford it", all while giving public money to the private sector.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/571038/health-nz-under-fire-for-secrecy-over-private-hospital-contracts

'(Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust chair Phil) Bagshaw said years of underfunding had already pushed the public system to the brink.

"Year on year, we've been underfunding the system. The worry is that we get to a tipping point where in fact it's not possible to bring it back to the situation where it should be. And if this government has its way, particularly with a 10-year system of outsourcing, then we will definitely pass that tipping point."'

First human case of flesh-eating #screwworm parasite confirmed in US - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/25/new-world-screwworm-flesh-eating-parasite-case-us good job US politicians and teams are top experts in their field, well equipped to handle this kind of thing... #not

At the last FediForum, we saw the premiere of the amazing Fediverse movie by @_elena.

We can't promise something as amazing, but if you care about better social media, chances are you will love FediForum in October.

Join us! https://fediforum.org

https://videos.elenarossini.com/w/64VuNCccZNrP4u9MfgbhkN?start=0s

Detailed report on how H2A slavery works: https://prismreports.org/2023/04/14/h2a-visa-wage-theft-exploitation/

Example of how H2A slavery rings collab with organized crime in Mexico: https://westfaironline.com/courts/mexican-cartel-invoked-in-alleged-threats-to-putnam-h-2a-visa-workers/

2024 antislavery updates to H2A program: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/biden-h2a-rule-expands-protections-oversight-migrant-workers/

Trump's DOL cancelled those changes in June 2025:
https://civileats.com/2025/06/25/department-of-labor-suspends-protections-for-h-2a-guest-workers-and-announces-plan-to-bring-in-more/

Part 2 of a lighthearted little series, "How Trump has made farm slavery easier." 💀

The H2A visa for farm workers to come here *legally* had a lot of issues that uhhhhh made it real easy to enslave the visa holders.

Reforms were made in 2024. Trump undid them in June.

https://youtube.com/shorts/WliZZD1NvhA

Workshop proposals are open for the Montreal Anarchist Tech Convergence!

Fill out the submission form at

https://mtl-atc.org/

Or get in touch with them at

@MTL_ATC or mtl-atc@riseup.net

The Trump administration's detention of Mario Guevara sends "a chilling message to journalists who weren’t born in the United States: abandon news reporting, particularly on ICE, or you could be next."

https://thedissenter.org/aclu-demands-us-court-immediately-order-release-of-journalist-in-ice-detention/