Notices by Dave Rahardja (temporarily spooky) (drahardja@sfba.social), page 7

@Independent @blogdiva @tech-news-Independent Still chuckling at how Facebook renamed itself Meta because it was so sure about the Metaverse.

Now they’re super sure about AI.

More on the #IranWar from Sen. Chris Murphy:

“It’s crystal clear now that Trump has lost control of this war. He badly misjudged Iran’s ability to retaliate. The region is on fire.”

Thread here:

#kakistocracy

https://tbsky.app/profile/chrismurphyct.bsky.social/post/3mh22exlc3c2o

2025 Q4 GDP growth revised to 0.7% down from 1.4%.

Curious how much it is if you took out AI data center spending.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/13/fourth-quarter-gdp-revised-down-to-just-0point7percent-growth-january-core-inflation-was-3point1percent.html

Welp

#endlessWar #illegalWar #IranWar #kakistocracy

https://xcancel.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/2031531835453309125

#CBP #ICE illegally detained a US citizen in Chicago and dumped her to the street in WISCONSIN, TWO DAYS LATER. They didn’t even contact her family, or even let her charge her phone.

This shit is inhumane. What the fuck is wrong with these people.

PS: They also detained three LEGAL green card holders traveling with her. No news about what happened to them.

#kakistocracy

https://abc7chicago.com/post/sunny-naqvi-us-citizen-detained-dhs-chicago-ohare-airport-sent-broadview-ice-facility-dodge-county-wi-released/18693499/

@futurebird @georgetakei “Think of the troops” is basically “Think of the children” for wartime

“Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.”

— Umberto Eco, “Ur-Fascism”

Is it me or does this smell like an Agent Provocateur?

There was a Nazi protest outside the New York Mayor’s residence, and a large counter-protest showed up, then supposedly one of the *counter* protesters lit and threw two makeshift pipe bombs that failed to go off.

The police identified the suspects as someone “among the counterprotesters”. Something doesn’t smell right. Why does an anti-Nazi counter-protester have explosives? Who was it targeted at?

I think it’s either a plant, or some independent terrorist blending into the counter-protest.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-york-city-police-identify-device-outside-mamdanis-home-explosive-2026-03-08/

I find it fascinating how the way people react to the presence of GenAI in their lives often helps to expose and clarify their previously-hidden value systems. https://recurse.social/@lindsey/116189776923604763

People think Montana registration is a flex, but I have the opposite view: if you want to use a car to flex, then it’s a bigger flex to have California plates on your expensive car. Not only does it show that you can afford the car, but you don’t even give a shit about that extra 9% tax on your million-dollar toy. THAT’S THE FLEX. Montana plates on expensive cars makes you look like you’re stretching to buy the car.

Besides, there is a way to reduce your sales tax on your expensive toy: lease it. You only pay sales tax on the depreciated value. There really is no need to go to Montana to register new cars.

#California #cars

Looks like the Montana License Plate party is coming to an end in #California. CA AG Rob Bonta is cracking down on people who register their cars under Montana LLCs to avoid paying sales taxes.

California’s use tax/sales tax on cars are one of the highest in the nation—it’s around 9% where I live. Montana, on the other hand, charges a one-time low fee to register your car, and you pay nothing more for the next five years.

It’s no wonder that a lot of wealthy people register their cars in Montana and drive them in California: you save $45k of taxes on a $500k car, after all. But of course, this robs California of tax revenue, and the benefits mostly accrue to the people with the most expensive cars.

Look, a lot of people (myself included) resent the extremely high tax rates on #cars, especially *used* cars, on which you have to pay the same tax rate *again* on resale, but those are the rules, and that’s the price you pay to enjoy living in this state.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/montana-loophole-helped-alleged-tax-062839747.html

Can we stop making comments about Kristi Noem’s face for fuck’s sake. Her face is not the problem, and you’re perpetuating the weaponization of women’s appearance.

If you observe someone unironically referring to an LLM using human pronouns, you’re encountering someone in the process of descending into #AI psychosis.

Either help them, or get away from them. But do not normalize them.

@elduvelle @blogdiva When you copyright a book, you’re not copyrighting the output of your typewriter; you’re copyrighting your work.

The AI program can be copyrighted. Its output can’t.

It’s pretty consistent.

@elduvelle

EDIT: As @LeslieBurns says below, this is INCORRECT.

I’m not a lawyer. But intuitively, as the SCOTUS implies, copyright protects the work of humans. When writing a prompt to generate art, a machine is performing the vast majority of the transformation from the billions of works it ingested, not the human. Granted, *how much* human work needs to happen for something to be “transformative” (and thus grant the person a copyright) has been a subject of debate for decades, but generative AI is nowhere close to that threshold IMO.

I think people wondering why US citizens aren’t more outraged by the wanton constitutional disregard committed by the US government need to realize that the US government has ALWAYS BEEN committing transgressions—just not against its white middle- and upper-class citizens.

From its founding, the US has treated certain populations as having less rights than its preferred class: the wealthy, white†, male, Protestant. It is NORMAL for the US to ignore its own constitution to oppress and exploit people. From African slaves, to displaced Native Americans, to Chinese railroad workers, to Banana Republics, to occupied Hawaii, to CIA-backed coups in Asia—UNCHECKED POWER IS THE DEFAULT.

IMO things finally changed for the better after the Civil Rights Act, thanks to the relentless sacrifice of its champions. But for CENTURIES prior, exploitation was the norm. Realize that what Trumpists want to do is to REVERT to how things were before the CRA.

†The social construct of who gets to be “white” has changed over time.

And so it’s normal to see USians sit around and wait things out, instead of going out and protesting and demanding accountability—because this is how things have always been. The normal thing one does is hope that the shit doesn’t reach one’s doorstep, because NEW SHIT IS CONSTANTLY OUT THERE.

I think wealthy, white, Protestant men, especially, feel NO THREAT from ICE, from the Epstein Files, from illegal invasions and coups, because that’s how things have always been around them. They assume they will not be affected, like they haven’t been affected for centuries (they in fact benefit from the lawlessness), so they go about their day as if nothing happened.

For those in the margins, e.g. middle-class nonwhites like myself, it’s tempting to believe that we’ll be safe if we huddle close to the preferred class and passively watch the carnage from behind the garden gates, but I hope that illusion has been well and truly shattered by the atrocities committed by the Trump administration.

@inthehands You can’t have the largest law enforcement budget in the US and have ICE do *nothing* with it.

They will use that money, one way or another.

I used to live in Kansas, in the Kansas City metro area. The city itself is lovely. Diverse-ish, tolerant, friendly, progressive. But it resides in the deep red state of Kansas. Just as Austin (and Dallas-Fort Worth) is a relatively progressive metro in a red state, Kansas City is subject to the awful whims of a christofascist and bigoted legislature and attorney general.

The news that trans Kansans will have their drivers’ licenses revoked IMMEDIATELY—without a grace period—is persecution, erasure, and criminalization of one’s existence. My heart is breaking for the victims of this open persecution. All my “christian” friends in Kansas who voted for the villainous characters in this legislature should be ashamed of themselves. YOU are the persecutors.

#kansas #transRights

https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article314844596.html

I heard someone say once that a progressive will feed 99 hungry people even if they accidentally fed one undeserving one, and a conservative will starve 99 hungry people in case they accidentally fed one undeserving one. https://shakedown.social/@aburtch/116128442283653364