That Ass, Donald Trump

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Blood On The Ground, Crazy In The Heart

At post time, reports of as many as twenty people shot in San Bernardino, California. No other details of how many shooters, although CNN reports twelve dead. So far.

I hate having to repeat this fucking post on Twitter several times a year.

It’s time now to pop it to this post:

Do You Have This Wicked Urge To Go Shoot Many People? I Have Some Advice For You.

For Posterity

Click = big

Albert J. Dunlap

The Hanging Class

What the British are really laughing about

In this elite culture not all corruption is financial. When it comes to the top of British politics, sound character and a clean record do not make you an asset. You’ll have a hard time joining unless they can confirm that you are scum – and can make sure that the public don’t know about it.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

It’s about England, but the same scum rule America too.

A must-read.

Being Stupid While White: #IStandWithAhmed

“Driving While Black” has been an expression.

Today I introduce a new one: “Being Stupid While White.”

Irving 9th-grader arrested after taking homemade clock to school: ‘So you tried to make a bomb?’

So stupid, they failed even this simple test:

Effin Money

The money thing part 1: there is none in writing about comics

This stands in stark contrast to a piece that ran a few days ago on the Atlantic by Olga Khazan called Can Mommy Bloggers Still Make a Living? that showed CPMs circling the drain at an alarming rate. One mommy blogger who once made enough to support three people and pay for an assistant has now all but moved on[.]

And:

I know I’ve said this before — just a few days ago in fact — but without my own Patreon campaign I couldn’t even keep this site running. For some insane reason, I live in NYC, where working two jobs 14 hours a day to pay for a room in an apartment with three other people living in it is pretty common. A 260-sq. foot apartment built from Legos in the middle of a park full of homeless people across the street from a mental hospital rents for $2000 a month here. (This is a block from Stately Beat Manor, BTW.)

Brutal.

Party Like It’s 2008 Again

Busted Future

Twitter:

Also: One Tweet Shows What Silicon Valley Really Thinks of the People It’s Crushing

Previously here:

More Reasons To Despise The Techies
The Entire Tech World In One Photo
Ignorance And Hubris In Silicon Valley
The Silicants
Sellouts, Shills, Con Men, And Egress Pushers
Our Jules Verne Ant-Like Future
Babylon Lives Again

The West Began In Greece …

… will it end in Greece too?

Or will The New West begin there?

I Can’t Even Give This Post An Apt Title

Huge Loss For Free Speech In Europe: Human Rights Court Says Sites Liable For User Comments

The ruling is about as bad as you can imagine. It is absolutely going to chill free expression across Europe. Things are a bit confusing because the EU Court of Justice has actually been much more concerned about issues of intermediary liability, and this ruling contradicts some of those rulings, but since the two courts are separate and not even part of the same system, it’s not clear what jurisdiction prevails. It is quite likely, however, that many will seize upon this European Court of Human Rights ruling to go after many websites that allow comments and free expression in an attempt to block it. It is going to force many sites to either shut down open comments, curtail forums or moderate them much more seriously.

For a Europe that is supposedly trying to build up a bigger internet industry, this ruling is a complete disaster, considering just how much internet innovation is based on enabling and allowing free expression.

I agree with this Comment over there:

This is just the rotten cherry on top of a huge pile of shit that has been building all over the world. We are fast approaching totalitarianism everywhere. Disguised yes but totalitarianism. You can’t have strong dissenting opinions from the established norm or you are a radical, a terrorist, an extremist. Just imagine a few key actors from the past in the environment of today. Or rather we don’t need to imagine since them too suffered from the same maladies. Still, the current environment is rapidly becoming much worse because at the same time there’s a generalized crackdown onto the open, spreading nature of the internet (that would have greatly helped such past characters) and at the same time technology and surveillance are advancing in an alarming pace. Technology per se is not an issue but the use of such technology to slash free expression and privacy that were conquered not long ago is simply terrifying.