The bonkers story of the "woman who took on Amazon". How an alleged violation of a private sector employment contract led to a criminal complaint, the seizure of bank accounts, the government being forced to ask a court to vacate four guilty pleas, and more.
Government: schoolchildren shouldn't have smartphones.
Also government: your kids must have smartphones to qualify for cheap bus fares.
The difference can be steep, one example cited with £ 546 a year.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/sep/26/schoolchildren-smartphones-higher-bus-fares-england
An official government emergency alert app with an official California government domain website "ca.gov" but zero government contact/oversight contact on the website.
Only a "powered by" private company without an "About us" section on their site.
Taxpayers pay for the data, the company leases the app to agencies that are required to request access.
And users are forced to sign up with a Microsoft or a Google account.
#disaster #capitalism #emergency
....🧵
A journalist wanted to go to a Flock Safety convention.
Flock cancelled their registration AND got the hotel to cancel their room.
Enter Benn Jordan and *some equipment*, 😉.
I haven't had that much fun with a YouTube short in a while.
Went to buy some Egyptian walking onions* from an old lady at a trailer park. We returned with extra succulents and several cactus cuttings for our extremely exposed 'desert spot' between the house and the garage.
* Self planting onions for the lazy, 😉 https://youtu.be/Cv6tuzHUuuk
Wondering a little if the greatest purveyor of peace (Russian accent, please) in the history of mankind will claim his right to a third presidential term tonight or merely try to nail down fascist rule for 50 years.
Happy greenhouse effect Thursday!
Here's your filter for this: #uspol
Todd Blanche, yes, that one, got himself a new rule for federal prisoners.
The attorney general, Todd Blanche, can now send any prisoner to any location in the system; no review, no limits.
Lawyer Oyer has the unreported story:
Between a lime tree and a trellised grapevine on the south/southeast side of the house plus upgraded attic insulation as well as fixing odd places, our utility rated our monthly use as "great". That's compared to similar homes.
No a/c running right now at 76 F inside and 102 outside.
Anyway, check insulation if you have a bathtub with "integral apron" or "built-in" on top of a crawlspace; you may own an expensive thermal bridge, 😉.
Your Tax Dollars at Work.
Prison ships or floating factories of antisemitism? Doesn't matter much when our favorite allies are indistinguishable from Syrian or Iranian secret police, does it.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/6/7/fifty-two-hours-on-an-israeli-prison-ship
They -- some, let's say clowns -- rolled out a new weather app on the work phones.
A single page with a bare bones seven day forecast.
And an AI chatbot.
The old one pulled data from NOOA, had radar, wind direction, humidity, dew point, alerts & warnings. And you could select the weather station to pull data from.
Leonardo was a saboteur, Gutenberg went bankrupt and lost the printing press to a bank, which in turn went bankrupt.
"Inventing the Renaissance" with Ada Palmer, who also happens to be on Mastodon.
The fastest growing use of glyphosate (Roundup) in California is ..... spraying Roundup on forests.
Also, Monsanto (acquired by Bayer) flat out wrote parts of the "independent" studies used to claim the herbicide is safe for humans.
Mother Jones documentary teaser:
https://youtube.com/shorts/7uvm-mixCSY
Today, the old man told us about how he and his girlfriend crisscrossed the US in the 1970s by hopping on freight trains.
I had no idea he'd done that, 😉.
The deepest impression of the stories?
The fact that so many railroad workers actively helped train hoppers. A brakeman who gave them water, others who told them which engine number to look for to get a train to their desired destination, and more.
AI models that "lie and cheat" appear to be growing in number.
Forever chemicals like PFOA in drinking water
No action by the EPA despite decades of internal studies by 3M and Dupont, blood tests of workers by St. Gobain -- even before the current wholesale rollback of regulations.
As industry consultants said: "doubt is our product.
"Safe to Drink", "Episode 1: You don’t know about this?"
Here or wherever you get your podcasts:
https://www.podbean.com/ea/dir-aj48y-2aaa7bf0
The best democracy money can buy, Wyoming edition"
"Political storm in Wyoming as far-right activist caught handing checks to lawmakers"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/wyoming-republican-lawmakers-checks-house-floor
Overheard part of a conversation at the coffee shop as someone had googled something and read the results.
"The AI summary says..."
Everybody at the table burst out laughing with bits of comments such as "oh no, the AI", "so it's wrong again", "ha ha AI ha ha", and more.
I don't think any person at the table of six or seven was under 65 or 70 years old.
Ran into a friend this morning. With a big smile she whipped out a business card stating she is a Licensed Agent for the state ACA org Covered California.
She explained: I got so angry last year that I couldn't get my health insurance set up and had no help, so I locked myself in a room for months, studied and became an agent. I now have insurance. And if you need help, come on over.