Notices by Dan Gillmor (dangillmor@mastodon.social), page 4

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has posted one of his most important pieces, in which he brings historical context to the ascendance -- and profound malignity -- of the ultra-wealthy who are on the verge of destroying us. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/will-the-21st-century-nabobs-win-their-war-on-public-accountability/sharetoken/aa705d17-c630-40b7-bba9-752e489e3638

#pitchforks

For those who fret about the future of CNN under Ellison/Saudi/Trump or as a Netflix spin-off, the channel's deal with a Trump-connected online betting operation gives you a sense of CNN's commitment to honorable news coverage. It leaves me with increasing doubt.

https://news.kalshi.com/p/kalshi-cnn-prediction-market-partnership

Betting <1 percent of the population knows that a manifestly corrupt "industry" bought itself a Congress that puts cryptocurrency holders first in line -- ahead of you and your money -- if there's a run on your bank. Yep, you're subsidizing the sleaziest speculators.

https://mastodon.social/@SeanCasten/115678753302203662

In a preview of his next book, Cory Doctorow explains of where the "AI" business is taking us -- nowhere good -- and how we can fight its most malevolent impacts: https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble/#u-washington

The section on copyright is, for artists, particularly important.

Resale values of Teslas are in the depths for all kinds of reasons, but the central one -- apart from the taint of Musk -- is that the cars are ridiculously crappy and unreliable as they age. https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/old-teslas-falling-apart

Just one more reason to avoid this toxic brand at all costs.

Did any major journalism treat the ludicrous FIFA-Trump "peace prize" with the LOL contempt it deserved? Links?

I retired from teaching 18 months ago, in part because it was becoming clear to me that the "AI" industry was undermining education in profound ways. This essay makes a convincing case that LLMs are a plague on learning -- and, not incidentally, higher education. https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-destroying-the-university-and-learning-itself

All corruption, all the time, everywhere in Trump world. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/nov/30/all-the-presidents-millions-how-the-trumps-are-turning-the-presidency-into-riches

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Marco Rubio gave orders leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of human beings, most of them children. These three "leaders" killed USAID, and in the process ordered those deaths.

A crime against humanity, IMO.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/the-shutdown-of-usaid-has-already-killed-hundreds-of-thousands

The endless saga continues: Bigger news outlet pretends it's breaking a story that was reported earlier by someone else, often a solo publisher.

It's grossly unethical -- and it's so common that journalists take it for granted. They should take the honorable path.

https://dysruptionhub.com/opinion-when-local-tv-breaks-the-story-you-already-reported/

The Atlantic magazine aspires to be one of the top places to find quality information. It often is. But it needs to apologize for its role during the early Covid years, when it published BS -- and helped pave the way for RFKjr et al to wreck the public health system.

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/if-the-atlantic-wishes-to-write-more-about-the-origins-of-maha-it-will-be-brave-enough-to-turn-it-spotlight-on-itself/

I've been fanboy of technology for decades. All those years of following and writing about it never changed that.

But while I could always appreciate, and often celebrate, the achievements of some of the people who created things, I was never a fan of their industry. Its growth and power came with a massive increase in arrogance and abuse.

If we don't get a handle on this, everything good about tech will be subsumed by the bad.

Just in case you had the slightest doubt about what Elon Musk is doing with X/Twitter, look at this brief thread. He is one of the true monsters of our era, and he uses X/Twitter to guide his fellow right-wing extremists to ever-more-extreme places.

If you are still there, you should be ashamed.

AI-generated "evidence" is infecting the legal system. Until judges come down HARD on the the lawyers doing this stuff -- and until some of the lawyers are disbarred -- these sleazebags will poison the system completely.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/ai-generated-evidence-deepfake-use-law-judges-object-rcna235976

This is an important document, about the growing entanglement of Big Tech's most evil people/companies and the US government -- and increasingly, the EU.

https://www.authoritarian-stack.info

This guy runs the Windows unit at Microsoft, and he's telling you that the company intends to infiltrate "AI" into every aspect of the operating system.

If you use Windows, this is an injection of a living, self-replicating virus into your digital existence.

Yes I use Linux.

Mark Zuckerberg's contempt for the law is Trumpian in scale. He should be in jail.

https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/

https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-school-palo-alto-shut-down/?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_PremiumBackchannel_110725_PAID&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_content=WIR_PremiumBackchannel_110725_PAID&bxid=5d38a1c8fc942d282359db8f&cndid=33481107&hasha=a57d3949484051fd7c962b7dd3735412&hashb=ded1d3a30a8645a4b9beaa77e199c322b54507f6&hashc=0db074aa21cbd7773ea150f5e7576a96e30aa98a3b747089e1874287c721e2fc&utm_term=WIR_PremiumBackchannel_PAID

One of the most corrupt organizations on the planet launches a "peace prize" whose first recipient will surely be the most corrupt political leader on the planet. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/world/fifa-to-award-new-peace-prize-at-world-cup-draw-in-washington

Every citizen should be made aware that Trump's masked thugs are violently kidnapping other citizens and then brazenly lying about what prompted the abductions.

Every potential juror should understand this, too.

https://bsky.app/profile/newseye.bsky.social/post/3m4qq4hjjgc2c

Flock spy cameras are a pox on our society. Here's the latest example of why communities should be banning them, not promoting them. https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/flock-cameras-lead-colorado-police-wrong-suspect/