Did Space-X's Starlink just commit slow-suicide?
By demonstrating that its service is in the hands of self-absorbed, knee-jerk, children, such as Musk and trump, how can any potential customer of Starlink have trust that the service will work when they need it to work?
Alternatives to Starlink are slowly coming online - and I suspect that many who might have considered Starlink will chose to use those new services, instead.
2/N There are plenty of exclusions in the Privacy Act of 1974, mostly having to do with law enforcement and national security. But there is certainly an open question whether the DHS/DOJ database on that USB stick is being used for such a purpose.
It is easy for an individual to file a Privacy Act claim - it only takes a letter.
However, agencies like to try to avoid the rather strict requirements of the Privacy Act with the less stringent obligations of the Freedom of Information Act - The PA is 5 USC 552a and FOIA is 5 USC 552 - that little 'a' at the end makes a world of difference.
I am considering making a Privacy Act claim about that USB-stick database. If I do I will post my letter.
If any of you do pursue Privacy Act, and I hope you do, make sure that you call out in huge letters that you are making a Privacy Act claim - 5 USC 552a - and *NOT* a FOIA request, 5 USC 552.
1/N So the DOJ is suing California because Calif. refuses to look at the a USB drive with names of people they are accusing of maybe, perhaps voting in the future without credentials.
OK, let's dig deeper ... There is the Privacy Act of 1974 that regulates "systems of records" that contain personally identifiable information. There is no doubt that this USB drive fits within that definition.
The Privacy Act does require that the existence and other aspects of each such system of records to be published into the Federal Register.
There is no evidence that the database on the USB drive has ever been published on the Federal Register.
The privacy act gives every person in the US the individual power to enforce the privacy act, and there are short time limits and criminal penalties that can befall government people who fail to properly respond.
To be continued...
I'm not sure, but my noggin and un-researched historical memory suggest to me that the US has lost more wars in the only quarter-finished 21st century than in more than in the two+ prior centuries.
And in the past 22 months that loss rate has certainly increased - to effectively 100% loss.
Good thing the US isn't attempting to defend itself against the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.
(Of course you remember that Peter Sellers film, The Mouse That Roared. You don't?)
Color me confused - I thought the old Ford tank factory was part of Rosie The Riveter National Park?
(What! You never heard of Rosie the Riveter National Park? It is well worth a visit - it is on the site where Henry Kaiser et al built Liberty Ships - in as short as five days time.)
Here in California certain highways are really little more than guideways for thousands upon thousands of 18wheel trucks.
Yet these highways run roughly paralllel to railroads that carry enormous consists carrying nothing but containerized freight.
The railroads are far more efficient - whether that is fuel, emissions, or employees-per-ton/mile.
Many of those highway truck's cargo should be on trains - trucks are for local delivery or special loads tha don't fit on rail cars.
In a sensible world those truck's cargo would be on trains, but it is not.
Hedge funds have been ripping up railroads, leaving the US with barely enough trackage - squeezing dollars out rather than improving their offerings to induce truck cargo onto trains.
Once again, we are dying the death of a thousand cuts, caused by short-term "quick" profit and "shareholder value" nonesense.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/117395592948483017
And I get blank stares when I mention that the US government dependence on ID.me - .me being the ccTLD of Montenegro - puts the entire US government's ID system at risk.
ID.me ought to be ID.me.US And the .us registrar ought to be under double-plus good security practices.
Speaking as one who has had adult measles:
Avoid it at all costs!!!!! It is a horrible disease. It is so bad that you (like I) may no longer care whether you survive or die - anything so that it ends.
Those of you refusing vaccines - you are possibly murdering yourself and others, including children, by subjecting them to a painful end, or lifetime after effects.
If you want to anti-vax yourself to death, go ahead. But if you do, isolate yourself, total physical isolation, so that you don't take innocent others along with you.
And yes, I do feel that those who refuse vaccinations to their children who then die of a preventable disease ought to face criminal manslaughter charges.
Here in California the $billionare class has seriously taken up arms against the 5% one time tax that could be imposed on them by Proposition 40.
They are pushing Propositions 41 and 42 which on the surface sound very good, but contain poison pills to kill Prop 40 even if it passes.
And it is amazing the amount of advertising and other gunk (text messages, etc) that are flying about in favor of 41 and 42 (and negative against the 5% one time tax of prop 40).
(I am voting in favor of the 5% tax/Proposition 40 *AND* against Props 41 and 42.)
Will the cruelty never end?
"Trump removes chairs for TSA agents, saying they ‘must meet fitness for duty requirements’"
https://fortune.com/2026/10/01/trump-removes-chairs-tsa-agents-opm-fitness-requirements/
Hey you - and I mean D-party candidates.
Please stop with the text messages!!!
Every five minutes one of you sends me a text that is nothing but e-begging for money.
If you want me to donate to you, then you need to show me that you are not going to be YADCLMBDN - Yet Another Democratic Cow Loudly Mooing But Doing Nothing.
I want to hear your plans to get rid of trump and his klan. I want to hear something about how you support a reworking of our nation's government to restore justice, to compensate those injured by trump, to claw back ill-gotten gains, and to deter future outbreaks of fascism in the US. I want real though- real plans, real commitment.
How about you read some of my thoughts at https://tribunal.cavebear.com/ ??
What's all this stupid nonsense about renaming Artificial Intelligence - AI - to Super Intelligence - SI?
Doesn't anybody realize that there are already Internet top-level domains ".ai" and ".si"?
Both are country code top-level domains (ccTLD).
.ai belongs to Anguilla.
.si belongs to Slovenia.
Hmmm, I wonder if trump, is trying to placate his wife - who appears to be avoiding divorcing him mainly to get her hands on his money - who is from Slovenia?
Oh, this will make el cheato angry...
"Mark Carney’s stand against Trump leads to Nobel Peace Prize and Time Person of the Year buzz"
There's a lot of sound and fury about how El Cheato and his MAGA klan will try to disrupt elections in November.
Most people seem to think that trump's goal is to win.
I don't think so.
I think that his (and his klan's) goal is to disrupt for the purpose of disruption - to make the voting and counting lead to disputed results, to cause chaos.
What is the goal of that chaos? To my mind, the goal is to make it impossible to form a new Congress/Senate (and many state/local bodies) on Januay 3, 2027 when the new Congress comes into being. That would leave a dangling government - and the "obvious" answer would be to continue the present Congress/Senate - and thus prevent a D-party majority.
The trumpies have proved themselves very good at initiating this kind of chaos.
Were I a betting person, I would put $$ on trump intentionally destroying the elections, not to win, but to prevent a new Congress from forming.
I would remind these future Congressional committees that impeachment is not a criminal procedure; it is a political one. And consequently, the 5th Amendments double jeopardy protection does not attach.
In other words, Congress can impeach trump again over January 6.
OK, so SCOTUS has approved of the trump/maga klan making an official Federal list of all voters in all states.
Now, the next question: does this database, which is a "system of records" containing personal names and information, fall under the Privacy Act Of 1974?
I do not see why it would not.
Why in the world would Newsom veto this?
I do hope that the California legislature overrides this veto.
I've been fairly supportive of ID.me.
But as I've described before, I have substantial concerns that its DNS name is ultimately under the control of the country of Montenegro - which is really odd given that the US government is switching over to ID.me for access to US government services.
But I just noticed that ID.me is also offering job, prescription, and other commercial services.
That commercialization raises significant doubts in my mind regarding the focus of ID.me on secure logins and whether Montenegro or ID.me management might start data mining.
It appears that Terrance and Phillip (from South Park) are now working for Hogsbreath and the maga klan.
I like rank-choice voting. But it has serious problems. None of those problems is related to fairness or accuracy.
Rather, it is about voters' trust and voters' ability to fill out a RChoice ballot.
1. Filling out the ballot - here in California, we often have contests with many candidates. Our last election had 63 people running for governor. (We've had 130+ in the past.)
It's very difficult (as in "I don't know how") to create a paper ballot with a ranked-choice vote for 10+ candidates. (See URL below about ballot design.)
2. I've run in an RChoice election. Many people don't understand how it works and how the totals flip-flop as the counts are tallied. We live in a world in which voting mistrust is rampant. I have enormous concern that RC voting will further fuel voter mistrust.
Here is a link to some design issues on rank-choice paper ballots. (Ballot marking machines could help, but my experience is that most voters choose paper when they can.)
https://civicdesign.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/CCD-RCV-Best-Practices-Ballot-Design-2022-1.pdf