The Death of the Mind

“Crypto art” is literally just “numbered prints, but each time I sign my name I also promise to burn down a local park.”In case you are fortunate enough to have not heard about this latest con:Someone has convinced a bunch of innumerate artists that Dunning-Krugerrands are not a planet-incinerating Ponzi scheme. I’ve had to start blocking them on the Twits to avoid hearing about it, even the artists whose work I used to enjoy. They think that making a buck trumps setting the world on fire. “Proof of useless work” is a global suicide pact.bombsfall:If anyone wants to pay me crypto art prices to make them a gif or a png we can skip the middle…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/03/crypto-fart/

Pretextual stops are legal. The courts have said repeatedly that it’s ok for cops to stop people for one thing to facilitate mini-investigations about other things. As long as the pretext holds up — and reasonable suspicion about other things develops quickly enough — cops can turn a failure to yield into a drug bust or a lucrative seizure.

This is only one form of lying blessed by the courts. Cops can also lie to people they’re questioning to drag confessions out of them. That some of these confessions are false or completely tainted by the cops’ lying doesn’t seem to matter much. Overturned convictions and wrongful arrest lawsuits haven’t changed the criminal “justice” matrix much over…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210213/12002346240/oregon-court-stop-so-pretexual-cops-forgot-about-pretext-is-rights-violation.shtml

CHICAGO—Following a report Friday that Joe Biden’s first military action as president had killed at least 22 people at sites used by Iranian-backed fighters, local registered Democrat Tim Randall was overheard reassuring a friend that this was one of the good Syrian airstrikes. “No, no, don’t worry—these are the…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://local.theonion.com/democrat-reassures-friend-this-one-of-the-good-syrian-a-1846366749

So, here’s where we’re at in the Fifth Circuit: cops can literally set a person on fire and walk away from it.

Judge Don Willett’s incendiary comments opposing qualified immunity notwithstanding, civil rights litigation still remains a sucker bet in the Fifth Circuit, where cops are granted judicial forgiveness more frequently than they are in any other judicial circuit.

Here’s the latest depressing read from the Appeals Court, which can’t talk itself into removing this shield from officers who tased a suicidal man after he covered himself in gasoline, turning a potential suicide into an actual homicide.

Some cops seem to feel suicide threats should be converted into self-fulfilling prophecies. The cops involved here — all Arlington, Texas police…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210218/13113046272/fifth-circuit-says-tasing-person-soaked-gasoline-setting-them-fire-isnt-unreasonable-use-force.shtml

There are many complicated debates happening right now around Twitter
and its role in public discourse. These discussions are important, but
we also shouldn’t forget a very basic and clear principle — whatever
its policies are about who can and can’t post or how, it’s of
fundamental importance that Twitter should not require users to run
nonfree software in order to use the site.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/new-changes-to-twitter-make-it-even-worse-for-free-software-users

jermfool reporting in from Vegas:

There is no safe way to have indoor dining without massive vaccine deployment, no matter how much you want someone pandering to you.

There is no safe way to have in-person classrooms without massive vaccine deployment, no matter how much you want a babysitter.

This is not rocket surgery.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/02/thank-you-management/

Google’s AI team has announced “Lyra” as a very low bit-rate codec for speech compression designed for use-cses like WebRTC and other video chats… With a bit rate so low that when combined with the likes of the AV1 video codec could potentially allow video chats over 56kbps Internet connections…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Google-Lyra

A new variant of the coronavirus was discovered in California, dubbed CAL.20C. The mutation, L452R, appears to make the virus more contagious.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/25/cali-f25.html

By Howie Hawkins
HR 1, the For the People Act, is an omnibus voting reform bill that has many progressive measures concerning voter registration, voter roll purges, voter-verified paper ballots, early voting, no-excuse absentee ballots, presidential candidate tax returns, gerrymandering, and more. According to reports, the Democratic leadership will whip their members hard to pass the bill through the House and Senate in March.
But progressives should say not so fast. Buried in the middle of the bill is a public campaign finance program that is merely a public funding palliative that fails to stop the overwhelming domination of big private money in federal elections.
Progressives should be demanding full public funding based on equal grants for all qualified…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://howiehawkins.us/hr-1s-campaign-finance-program-a-reform-that-doesnt-reform/