Exactly, AI could be a very helpful and powerful tool with the potential to do some really good things, but it’s still a tool not a replacement for an education and common sense. We’re all being intentionally dumbed down by dumb people who have been handed way too much power because nepotism. They’ve accomplished so much destruction (success?) by just acting overly confident, and pretending they knew what they were doing. It’s only recently that people have started saying out loud what I think many of us were probably silently screaming in our heads, but waiting on somebody else to be the first one to say: “For the love of God, just put it down and back away.”

Calculators are useful tools, but imagine how fucking dumb the world would be if we all just collectively agreed nobody needs to learn math anymore because we have calculators that do that.

GPS navigation is a useful tool, but it doesn’t mean you should blindly follow the instructions it gives when it tells you to turn into a brick wall or a body of water.

I’m not sure if it’s a recent liability thing in medicine, or maybe because my insurance requires I go to a giant monopoly to remain in network, but it seems like over the last year, most doctors have had it hammered into their heads that AI should be the first and only step they take when diagnosing a patient. Not that it should be a tool to augment human capabilities, not that it’s what you turn to for help when you can’t figure out what’s going on, or even what you consult to double check your own conclusions.

The old saying is “treat the patient not the symptoms” but it feels like suddenly it’s become policy to treat every patient like a checklist of symptoms in a diagnosis box.

That literally only makes sense for a computer making a diagnosis based on the sum of check marks in each box reaching a predetermined cut off value. That could be a useful way to prescreen people or streamline treatment for simple things like diagnosing a cold/flu, but when a patient has persistent symptoms, but only checks one or two symptoms in a lot of random boxes that don’t tally up to meet any predetermined cut off value for a single diagnosis, wtf does the computer do at that point? What is the next step for this patient who is begging for help only to be told, sorry, that doesn’t check off enough symptoms in any one box for me to be able to diagnose you.

🤷‍♀️ is also literally the answer when the doctor is unable (or maybe not allowed due to policy) to think critically and evaluate the information available in the context of the patient vs a predetermined diagnostic screener somebody else created.

Anytime I hear “we can just fill it in with AI” I feel like we’re closer and closer to Idiocracy becoming a reality, but it feels especially close when it comes to medicine. It’s like somebody saw this scene and didn’t get that it was supposed to be a joke, not something we aspire to:

Oz said there are no OB-GYNs in most Alabama counties, “so they’re doing something pretty cool. They’re actually having robots do ultrasounds on these pregnant moms.”

“No, Dr. Oz. It is not ‘cool’ that we don’t have OBGYN’s in many rural counties in America. It is an international embarrassment,” Sanders wrote in a post on the social platform X. “In the richest country on earth, we need more doctors, nurses, dentists and mental health counselors, not more robots.”

Yep, it’s basically like shake and bake for Tofu

Maybe we should just have a rule like no billionaires or generational wealth will be recognized for doing something good with all that extra money they have but that might backfire and eliminate the bare minimum number of people that actually contribute something positive with the wealth they’ve accumulated but could never actually use it all in their lifetime even if they tried.

Maybe that was the plan the whole time? He figured nobody would care if she had to give it to him?

Honestly I don’t give a fuck if he takes it from her. I’m just angry we’re living in this stupid fucking timeline.

Oh, it’s easy, they’re psychotic predators who have no empathy.

That’s why it’s so easy for them to lie, and it’s why they were selected by the billionaires who hired them to hammer in the final nail in democracy’s coffin. They feel no guilt. There’s nothing going on behind their vacant eyes except how do I make the people that pay me the real money, (not the tax payer dollars that pay their six figure salaries, that’s pocket change by comparison.) happy.

The author of Friendly Fascism predicted this and tried to warn us over 40 years ago, but nobody really paid attention.

No, this is what they’ve always looked like. We promise.

Maybe I’ve read dumber headlines at some point, but at this moment, I feel like shit, the world feels like shit, I still haven’t had any coffee, and I had scrolled past the headlines below before even coming across this one on APs front page.

I didn’t even really consciously put the absolute ridiculousness of ALL of these things happening at once together until afterwards, but I guess on some level I intuitively knew because I immediately groaned in disgust and said out loud “this is the dumbest fucking sentence I’ve ever had to read.”

I used extra firm, but just baked before the first steps of the recipe

If you have a tofu press or buy pre pressed tofu you probably save a lot of time.

I lost my tofu press when I moved, so now I usually just do an additional step where I bake the pre seasoned tofu for 10 mins flip it and bake another 10 mins to get most of the water out.

I mean Yuriev also didn’t predict Putin tag teaming with the President of the U.S. to double cross Europe (and potentially China, Iran, and each other if necessary bc that’s just how the survival of the fittest/natural order/heirarchy of conservatives and fascists works).

The point isn’t to read this novel and cower in fear, the point is that they were arrogant enough to publish their playbook for the invasion of Ukraine before actually invading Ukraine.

It turns out the E.U. is more than happy to enforce sanctions on Russian oil, and Trump claims to be on board as well. However, Trump also seems to be making some suspicious moves in Venezuela (and using Chevron and the U.S. military to do it), that should probably make anybody question how onboard he truly is. Russian oil assets, Chevron, Saudi Arabia, and Ghost tankers

Not to mention, days before Trump decided to send the governor of Louisiana to Greenland, a deal fell through, which would have decreased Hungary’s dependency on Russia’s energy resources, and replaced them with resources exported directly from Louisiana via Chevron. Shortly after the deal (which was specifically created to appease the E.U.) fell through, Orbán suddenly seemed to get cold feet about doing anything that could be perceived as going against Russia.

So that leaves the question of where will Chevron be getting these resources from if not Louisiana? Possibly from those seized ghost tankers in Venezuela? In theory, if Chevron had to dip into Russia’s “seized” oil now because of the Louisiana deal falling through, would Louisiana plan to pay Chevron back in the future? Or would they have to pay Russia?

If the governor of Louisiana tries to take over Greenland, does Greenland end up as collateral in the debt Louisiana/the U.S. might now owe Russia? Who the fuck knows? The governor of Louisiana being made envoy to Greenland definitely seems oddly timed to just be a coincidence, but there’s so much weird and shady shit going on right now, it’s hard to even keep track.

When somebody publishes their playbook saying “this is how I will win,” but then claims they aren’t really following their playbook, you should probably be skeptical at the very least and assume they probably are sticking to the same overall big picture goals, even if a few details and strategies change along the way.

Russia doesn’t want to take over all of Europe. We should believe this because Putin says so?

Ok…

Trump isn’t trying to take over Greenland for his boyfriend, he just really loves spreading freedom and democracy. That’s why he was doing such a good job of that in the U.S., he had to branch out to Venezuela before Greenland?

Ok…

If you’re willing to believe either of those statements, you might want to brush up on your Russian (if you don’t already speak it).

anticipates—with astonishing precision—Russia’s strategy of hybrid war and its recent military campaigns: the 2008 war with Georgia, the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the incursion into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions the same year, and Russia’s current assault on Ukraine.

• an American Federation, covering the whole of North and South America;

and the Russian Empire, uniting Russia … all of Europe and Greenland.

I would say what’s most surprising to me is how much of the fanfic has already come true, or is clearly on Trump/Putin’s agenda. But Ireland ruling Antarctica and emerging from all the slices into its own 6th super state is a close second.

I’m pretty sure they just targeted this guy (who was most likely bringing in research material, given he is a research scientist) as an easy way to make headline news and prove they’re “busy keeping America safe,” while actual threats slip through unnoticed.

Kinda like the person busted by ice earlier this year for slipping in research materials.

Are they just trying to stay relevant?

Everybody is so busy talking about the shit they’ve caused to spin out of control, and nobody is really talking about them individually? So now they just sit in their little isolated military housing they stole from soldiers trying to come up with innovative ways to own the libs?

Well I know what’s going on my Christmas list

I actually have been following the flock spread, not sure if you’ve looked into your city’s contract with flock, but that means somebody in local government made the call to put them up or flock just came in and did it without permission.

In some towns you have cases where cities have banned together to oppose the cameras and cities actually just cover them with trash bags until Flock can “get around to taking them down.”

You also have at least one case where city council exposed the local mayor, who went against the wishes of local government and city to make a unilateral decision to allow more surveillance from ICE/Feds

Presumably the explanation for that would be a green one💲and the solution for handling that should be obvious. Kick his ass out of office.

However if you’re willing to give up autonomy and the democratic process because you don’t think it matters, there is no solution other than just accepting powerlessness.

If they don’t actually have permission from the town to be there, get some trash bags and cover them. If they do, find out who gave the green light and make sure everyone in your town finds out who gave the ok for your exploitation.

Yeah but those safety nets matter.

Even if you can’t trust either, in a civil war, there is a difference in who wants to allow you to maintain your current level of autonomy (as flawed as it may be) and who wants to take away even that.

When you think things can’t get any worse, I promise you they can. It’s dumb lesson to have to learn more than once.

If you’re in a blue city within a red state for example, there may be more than enough reasons not to trust anyone, but you may live in a blue city for a reason. Supporting or fighting to maintain some autonomy could mean the difference in your city’s response to vaccine rollout during an epidemic.

If it was just an individual though, normally he would just fire them or make them miserable until they quit.

If you think about federal takeovers though, and stripping autonomy away from cities. This could potentially be a way to do that.

However, when you look at using NSPM-7 to target domestic threat, it kind of seems like it could go either way, but it would probably depend on your state and local level politics. Especially with Trump calling on these Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) to carry out/enforce the memo.

It seems very messy and kind of a who can/should you really trust in that situation.

Kinda seems like I would be fucked either way, but somebody in a blue state might benefit from local law enforcement keeping tabs on federal law enforcement and intelligence without having to partner with ICE. Idk, again it’s a messy situation.

Even if you can’t keep them from coming into your city, I know at least at some point cities like Portland and D.C. had contracts laying out boundaries. If nothing else is learned from history under Trump, and America in general, always get it in writing. Never let some slick asshole assure you that you have their word they’ll hold up their end of the bargain.

I’m not sure if I’m missing something here, because on the one hand, Democrats have opposed Trump’s previous cuts to this office as well as cuts to office of DHS Office of Civil Rights and Liberties (CRCL). CRCL was originally created to provide oversight for DHS after the patriot act, and has already been downsized. Without oversight, DHS is already way too powerful. My first instinct was to believe that reigning in their domestic intelligence capabilities could mean less abuse of power.

March 2025: Homeland Security makes cuts to offices overseeing civil rights protections

However, in July, the Trump administration started pushing for cuts to the DHS intelligence office.

Law enforcement groups sound alarm over potential DHS intel rollback

So, on the other hand, it seems like Trump and others in his administration have been targeting the office for more cuts for a while. The only other article I can find about this recent decision by the House committee is a right wing article from the Federalist that seems to indicate displeasure with a bloated budget. “Bloated budget” always rings alarm bells for me in terms of Trump admin propaganda to get rid of bureaucrats who are standing in his way by further dismantling the government.

Homeland Security’s Bloated ‘Intelligence’ Office Is Costing Taxpayers $348 Million Every Year

Cuts to the office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties were also justified as necessary due to bloated budgets, but you would have to be an idiot to believe this administration could be hemorrhaging money on ICE and federal takeovers while being genuinely concerned about “budget bloat.”

Without the existence of the DHS offices that provide accountability and protection for civil rights and liberties, I’m not sure how/why it would be a good thing to not reign in DHS intelligence capabilities. Why think that they won’t just be working with the administration to spy on Americans without any oversight?

However, I question if the statute, may have actually been a very sneaky and underhanded attempt by the Trump admin to further widdle down and redirect money to ICE operations, so I’m honestly not sure how to feel about this.

Why would Trump have previously wanted to dismantle the office if they’re helping to further his agenda?

It would be helpful to get some more information on this other than just knowing that behind closed doors the House committee declined to make changes that would reign in DHS surveillance capabilities, and cut the size of the agency, if there is also a possibility that staff may have potentially been re-directed to work with ICE.

The Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies (ASCIA), Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA), Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA) and National Fusion Center Association (NFCA) warn that any potential changes to the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) current structure could have a negative ripple effect on state and local law enforcement.

I guess it might ultimately just depend on whether or not your local law enforcement agencies are already voluntarily partnering with ICE via The 287(g) Program or if your city has a contract that lays out boundaries protecting your city’s autonomy in their Joint Terrorism Taskforce (JTTF).