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There’s a certain predictable pattern when unqualified MAGA political appointees get put in charge of highly technical government operations. First, they demonstrate their complete misunderstanding of the systems they’re supposed to oversee. Then, they make a series of increasingly dangerous mistakes. Finally, they try to distract from those mistakes by focusing on culture war issues. […]
Last year Microsoft announced that it was bringing a new feature to its under-performing Windows 11 OS dubbed “Recall.” According to Microsoft’s explanation of Recall, the “AI” powered technology was supposed to take screenshots of your activity every five seconds, giving you an “explorable timeline of your PC’s past,” that Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant, Copilot, can then help […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Stephen T. Stone with a comment about the Trump administration’s pivot to claiming that it meant to send Abrego Garcia to El Salvador: Remember, folks: If they’ll do it to non-citizens, they’ll do it to citizens soon enough. They want you afraid of being […]
It’s time for the second in our series of posts about the winners of this year’s public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1929! We’ve already covered Best Remix winner Accoutrements, and now it’s time for a closer look at the winner of the Best Deep Cut category: A Pocketful of Peril! by Perrin Ellis […]
For most of a half-decade, law enforcement officials and retail execs have been engaged in a “mass crime spree” duet. Despite this hysteria being debunked several times by rigorous reporting, cops and shops have been manipulating a non-existent shoplifting crime wave for their own benefit for nearly as long. Every time another smash-and-grab hits TikTok, […]
As we unfortunately have to keep reiterating, the current measles outbreak in America is not going away. While we have suffered from outbreaks ranging from mild to slightly worse than that since the disease was officially declared eliminated in 2000 due to a concentrated vaccination effort, the current outbreak is putting that elimination status at […]
On Tuesday, the White House effectively eliminated the Associated Press from the White House press pool, changing the rules to basically bar the wire service entirely. This is even after (or perhaps in response to) a Trump-appointed judge ruling that the White House was clearly violating the First Amendment in excluding the AP from various […]
It’s telling that the Trump Administration thinks it needs access to millions of taxpayer records to locate and capture “dangerous” immigrants. Most criminals don’t file taxes or hold down regular day jobs. On top of that, this undermines the constant claim made by awful people that immigrants are lazy interlopers who come here to help […]
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“This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.” Those words came not from a liberal jurist or a civil liberties activist, but from Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Reagan appointee to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and […]
Authoritarians don’t much like journalism, education, or informed consensus for what should be obvious reasons. But the far right has long had a particular animosity for publicly-funded broadcasting. In part, because when done right, public broadcasting is free of the kind of perverse financial incentives that results in the kind of feckless, truth-averse, “both sides” […]
For three years now, a select group of states have had a pilot program through the IRS for its Direct File program. For years and years, companies like Intuit had gotten away with all kinds of shady tactics designed to lure people in with the promise of free tax prep filing using online software, only […]
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice — or go straight to the RSS feed.
What’s been noted before has been confirmed yet again: there is no widespread concern about the books kids have access to in public libraries. Instead, there’s just the concerted, but effective, efforts of a small group of people who feel everyone else’s rights end where their morality begins. Something that was just the occasional blip […]
There’s a certain dark irony in watching tech billionaires who built their empires on the “democratizing power of technology” now actively working to dismantle democratic institutions. The same figures who once championed connection and openness are now the architects of the most dangerous centralization of power in modern history. This is why I wrote last […]
The Apple Watch Wireless Charger Keychain is the perfect accessory for Apple Watch users on-the-go. With a built-in 950mAh lithium-ion battery, it can charge all series of Apple Watch. Its portable, pocket-size design makes it easy to carry around while exercising or traveling. With four LED lights indicating the status of the charge, it’s easy […]
At least Florida’s SB 868/HB 743, “Social Media Use By Minors” bill isn’t beating around the bush when it states that it would require “social media platforms to provide a mechanism to decrypt end-to-end encryption when law enforcement obtains a subpoena.” Usually these sorts of sweeping mandates are hidden behind smoke and mirrors, but this time […]
Last month Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr announced his “DELETE, DELETE, DELETE” initiative. It’s basically a plan to lobotomize FCC corporate oversight and consumer protection at the behest of industry giants, dressed up as very serious, very efficient adult policymaking. Carr’s trying to pretend this is a serious democratic process, so he opened a public […]
Some people just don’t know how to take the “L” I suppose. We’ve been following a silly trademark case in Australia between pop singer Katy Perry and fashion designer Katie Perry for some time now. As in previous posts on this topic, I will revert to using first names in attempt to avoid any confusion. […]
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