Unbidden Bits—July 11, 2026
The essence of stupidity: You vote for a czar. You get a palace full of would-be Rasputins. You believe that Fortune has smiled upon you.
https://dogtownessays.com/2026/07/unbidden-bits-july-11-2026/
@atpfm Icons: Love the new ones. But quibbles, of course—Marco, please, please go with the dark blue. Casey, the new default is great, and I'm a yuge fan of the LGBTQ+ variants, but please don't do away with the Walk of Fame variants. For sentimental reasons (among them, taking my 13 year old daughter on a tour of all her favorite performers' stars on the actual walk many years ago) I'd be very sad if the choice disappeared.)
Hubs just made us fancy drinks for sitting with on the patio. Fresh, muddled lime, mint and melon liqueur. (And rum and soda)
I'm calling it a Reflecting Pool
@gruber Just a quick word of thanks to a guy who's been keeping Apple honest for a long-ass time. The C-suite may take a bit longer to get over its discomfort with the "something is rotten" post, but I find it encouraging that MacOS 27 shows that they listen to you even when they pretend to be looking away. Us users? We appreciate you and Siracusa even more than you probably realize.
When It Comes To Agentic AI, If Is Still a Very Big Word, Even If When Is Not
Unbidden Bits—June 8, 2026
https://dogtownessays.com/2026/06/unbidden-bits-june-8-2026/
Best of luck with that appy bill …
The Foothills of the Singularity,* Uphill from the Slough of Despond?
Downhill From the Anthropocene*
https://dogtownessays.com/2026/05/downhill-from-the-anthropocene/
“The MAGA party is the last breath of the Confederacy,” he told lawmakers. “If y’all could give us less than zero seats, you would do it.”
“There will be no more of your party,” he said. “The midterms gonna come, y’all gonna get wiped out,”
A #Louisiana resident who identified himself as Marshawn delivers a fiery, emotional speech to lawmakers during a state Senate hearing over redistricting Monday, accusing GOP of trying to “cheat” Black voters out of political power
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/P58otkVgZ2U
Can we say entitled jackass?
"It’s not hyperbole to say that while [John] Roberts wears the black robes of a judge, he may as well wear the white robes of the Klan." #VRA #VotingRights
#Trump demands gratitude in DC. So he put up banners thanking himself.
Signs appearing around the capital twist appreciation & patriotism into an authoritarian knot.
#narcissism #megalomania #vanity #authoritarianism #autocracy #despotism #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny #MadKing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/05/07/signs-thanking-trump-in-washington/
Just imagining the UK Labour party sitting around a giant red button, sweating, and chattering "it's not going well, should we press it" The button? Should we press it, I dunno, but things are not going well - maybe we should press it" except the button is just labelled "don't pretend people's Nans are Bin Laden for protesting Israel's genocide in Gaza."
The only way you can say this with a straight face is if you are (a) willfully lying or (b) sufficiently arrogant to think that your opinions are truth handed down on tablets and those who disagree just lack your wisdom. https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-chief-justice-8933cfe269c90746e200f2588801dfae
Unbidden Bits—May 6. 2026
RE: https://mastodon.social/@theleftistlawyer/116471259822881395
You know what else is “political violence”?
deadnaming
banned books
“internet age verification”
forced mass viral infections by rejecting basic public health protocols and suppressing access to vaccines
AI
"AI layoffs"
layoffs without severance
car-centric towns
forced biometric scanning at airports
means testing
for-profit public school cafeterias
days long maternity leave
2 weeks vacation
demanding “name at birth” paperwork to vote
disallowing young voters over their signatures
@adhdeanasl
There should be a website called Fool of a Took that helps people leaving Palantir find new jobs
A Few Mottos for our Ongoing Trumpification
https://dogtownessays.com/2026/04/a-few-mottos-for-our-ongoing-trumpification/