#karl bode

[monetizeme]

Last week we noted how the Trump administration had cooked up a half-assed wireless phone company. Even calling it a phone company is generous: It’s basically a licensing agreement and a lazy coat of paint on another, half-assed MVNO effort (Patriot Mobile), which in turn just resells T-Mobile service.

A cornerstone of the supposed company was a new $500 Trump T1 phone. To pitch the phone, the press release had a badly photoshopped rendition of what the so-far-nonexistent phone would look like (curiously missing a camera flash), peppered with claims the phone would be “proudly designed and built in the United States.”

As we noted at the time, it would likely be just weeks before people realized the “made in America” claims weren’t true. And it sounds like we didn’t even have to wait that long. The Verge noticed that all of the “made in America” claims have been stripped from the Trump website, replaced with far-more vague language about how the phone is ambiguously infused with American sentiment:

“The T1’s new tagline is “Premium Performance. Proudly American.” Its website says the device is “designed with American values in mind” and there are “American hands behind every device.” Under Key Features, the first thing listed is “American-Proud Design.” None of this indicates, well, anything. It certainly doesn’t say the device is made in the USA, or even designed in the USA. There are just… some hands. In America.”

Trump Mobile folks are still trying to claim the phone will be made in America. At least until press reports in another month or two indicating that’s clearly not true. Again. The Verge notes that the screen size has gotten smaller in the website description, and they eliminated listing RAM specifications for some reason.

Trump operates at a fourth-grade reading level and genuinely believes his ignorant tariff plan will somehow magically force all manufacturing back to the United States. But as countless journalists and analysts have dissected, it would be literally impossible to manufacture an affordable phone in the United States without resorting to slave labor and ignoring all labor and environmental law.

Which is to say the weird Trump zealots might actually believe (or have been told) this is a real thing that they’re capable of, but it’s simply never happening. Still, the Trump boys have been pouring it on thick, with Eric Trump going on TV to claim that not only will the Trump phone be made in the USA, but all company support would be USA based as well:

“You’re not calling up call centers in Bangladesh − do it right out of St. Louis, Missouri, and you’re going to have phones that are made right here in the United States of America,” [Eric said]. He added Trump Mobile is “going to revolutionize cell phones, mobile calling” as it will fully operate in the U.S. “I really believe we’re gonna have one of the great kind of tech platforms as part of the Trump Organization of any company in the world,” he added.

This is really all just lazy performance art for very dim people.

In many ways a lazily branded mobile phone MVNO hyping a so-far-nonexistent phone pretending to be American made is a perfect encapsulation of the “Trump experience.” Just complete pointless artifice from start to finish, with a singular function: hollow grift in the golden age of corruption.

[deramin2]

Imagine a world where Network (1976) was actually cynical and not a clairvoyant documentary about how the rich and powerful would spend the next half a century using infotainment to destroy the entire journalism industry. (You really should watch it if you haven't.)

Karl Bode has recently written about the deliberate plot to kill journalism.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

At long last, a meaningful step to protect Americans' privacy

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Privacy raises some thorny, subtle and complex issues. It also raises some stupid-simple ones. The American surveillance industry's shell-game is founded on the deliberate confusion of the two, so that the most modest and sensible actions are posed as reductive, simplistic and unworkable.

Two pillars of the American surveillance industry are credit reporting bureaux and data brokers. Both are unbelievably sleazy, reckless and dangerous, and neither faces any real accountability, let alone regulation.

Remember Equifax, the company that doxed every adult in America and was given a mere wrist-slap, and now continues to assemble nonconsensual dossiers on every one of us, without any material oversight improvements?

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/20/equifax-settles-with-ftc-cfpb-states-and-consumer-class-actions-for-700m/

Equifax's competitors are no better. Experian doxed the nation again, in 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/30/dox-the-world/#experian

It's hard to overstate how fucking scummy the credit reporting world is. Equifax invented the business in 1899, when, as the Retail Credit Company, it used private spies to track queers, political dissidents and "race mixers" so that banks and merchants could discriminate against them:

https://jacobin.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans

As awful as credit reporting is, the data broker industry makes it look like a paragon of virtue. If you want to target an ad to "Rural and Barely Making It" consumers, the brokers have you covered:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#axciom

More than 650,000 of these categories exist, allowing advertisers to target substance abusers, depressed teens, and people on the brink of bankruptcy:

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you

These companies follow you everywhere, including to abortion clinics, and sell the data to just about anyone:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/07/safegraph-spies-and-lies/#theres-no-i-in-uterus

There are zillions of these data brokers, operating in an unregulated wild west industry. Many of them have been rolled up into tech giants (Oracle owns more than 80 brokers), while others merely do business with ad-tech giants like Google and Meta, who are some of their best customers.

As bad as these two sectors are, they're even worse in combination – the harms data brokers (sloppy, invasive) inflict on us when they supply credit bureaux (consequential, secretive, intransigent) are far worse than the sum of the harms of each.

And now for some good news. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, under the leadership of Rohit Chopra, has declared war on this alliance:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/16/cfpb-looks-to-restrict-the-sleazy-link-between-credit-reporting-agencies-and-data-brokers/

They've proposed new rules limiting the trade between brokers and bureaux, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, putting strict restrictions on the transfer of information between the two:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/15/tech/privacy-rules-data-brokers/index.html

As Karl Bode writes for Techdirt, this is long overdue and meaningful. Remember all the handwringing and chest-thumping about Tiktok stealing Americans' data to the Chinese military? China doesn't need Tiktok to get that data – it can buy it from data-brokers. For peanuts.

The CFPB action is part of a muscular style of governance that is characteristic of the best Biden appointees, who are some of the most principled and competent in living memory. These regulators have scoured the legislation that gives them the power to act on behalf of the American people and discovered an arsenal of action they can take:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

Alas, not all the Biden appointees have the will or the skill to pull this trick off. The corporate Dems' darlings are mired in #LearnedHelplessness, convinced that they can't – or shouldn't – use their prodigious powers to step in to curb corporate power:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

And it's true that privacy regulation faces stiff headwinds. Surveillance is a public-private partnership from hell. Cops and spies love to raid the surveillance industries' dossiers, treating them as an off-the-books, warrantless source of unconstitutional personal data on their targets:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/16/ring-ring-lapd-calling/#ring

These powerful state actors reliably intervene to hamstring attempts at privacy law, defending the massive profits raked in by data brokers and credit bureaux. These profits, meanwhile, can be mobilized as lobbying dollars that work lawmakers and regulators from the private sector side. Caught in the squeeze between powerful government actors (the true "Deep State") and a cartel of filthy rich private spies, lawmakers and regulators are frozen in place.

Or, at least, they were. The CFPB's discovery that it had the power all along to curb commercial surveillance follows on from the FTC's similar realization last summer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/12/regulatory-uncapture/#conscious-uncoupling

I don't want to pretend that all privacy questions can be resolved with simple, bright-line rules. It's not clear who "owns" many classes of private data – does your mother own the fact that she gave birth to you, or do you? What if you disagree about such a disclosure – say, if you want to identify your mother as an abusive parent and she objects?

But there are so many stupid-simple privacy questions. Credit bureaux and data-brokers don't inhabit any kind of grey area. They simply should not exist. Getting rid of them is a project of years, but it starts with hacking away at their sources of profits, stripping them of defenses so we can finally annihilate them.

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[anniekoh]

Elsewhere on the internet: The media & how to stay informed in 2025 without drowning in despair or disinformation:

US immigration is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations: (by Dara Kerr at The Guardian, Feb 2025)

Manipulating search results to make old ICE raids look like new raids

The lawyer noticed a strange pattern. In almost every state, at least one press release from Ice’s website appeared in Google’s top results. Nebraska, for example, surfaced links for two press releases. One said “ICE executes federal search warrants in Nebraska”, the other said “ICE fugitive operations team arrests 44 absconders”. Both displayed their dates of publication as 24 January 2025 on Google search. But when the lawyer clicked through to the report, the actual dates of publication were August 2018 and June 2008, respectively.

Countering Musk's DOGE Theft: The importance of repetition: (by Jason Sattler at FrameLab, Feb 2025)

The power of repetition extends beyond mere memorization. Each time a frame is activated, it strengthens the words and the entire conceptual structure they represent. When Trump repeats “winning,” he's not just emphasizing victory — he's reinforcing a worldview where everything is a zero-sum competition. Each repetition helps make this framework increasingly natural and automatic for listeners. This mechanism becomes even more powerful in our current media environment. “The news,” as we knew it in the 20th century, just does not exist anymore. Tens of millions of people primarily get their messages from social media or from loved ones who get them through social media. Like our brains, social media is swayed by repetitions – reposts, shares, and views. Each share, retweet, and viral moment creates another repetition, another brain activation. Repetition matters.

America’s Right-Wing Propaganda Problem Might Be Terminal: (by Karl Bode, Dame Magazine, Jan 2025)

Much of “new media” isn’t any better. Recent data from the Pew Research Center found that 40% of Americans under 40 now get their news from online influencers. More than half of those influencers are right-wing men, in part because there’s plenty of money to be made telling millions of people that greed, racism, and sexism are decidedly good things. Republicans have long since cultivated a massive Spanish-language propaganda apparatus Democrats have no answer for.

[ablogtocheck]

Interesting competition overall. I am glad Andi had that great second jump...and so impressive by Karl.

I loved that second Anze jump, and Lovro doing so well.

And I also really liked Jan's second jump...

It all bodes well for an exciting competition tomorrow,

[mitchipedia]

Promises The ‘Trump Phone’ Would Be ‘Made In USA’ Lasted 1/100th Of A Scaramucci. The Trump organization has scrubbed its website of claims that the phone would be made in America. Now the site has handwaving about how the phone will be infused with “American values.” By Karl Bode at Techdirt.

[prettyboykatsuki]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BELOVED not 2 be insane but did u know u share a bday w mr monkey d luffy that’s incredibly dangerous i fear

PLUUUU HELLO MY LOVE. hilariously i do know this but specifically bc a couple years back an anon told me i share a bday w him, gon, and karl marx and its been stuck in my head for years

i feel like this does not bode well for the day i become a luffy fucker (Official). like im scared a little bit.... but also lusting maybe.....

[littlelesbinonny]

The Devil's Den

Chapter 31: In Which A Mishap Leads to Something Soft

You can read this also on Ao3 at: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46831621/chapters/117962293

"Well did ya send anyone in???" Karl interrupted.

"The cave is still extremely compromised, until we really have -"

"C'mon man! You've got a lead and you're just sittin' on it?!"

"HEISENBERG! CONTAIN YOURSELF BEFORE I FORCEABLY REMOVE YOU FROM THIS MEETING!" Alcina shouted while slamming her hands down on the table. 

This wasn't the first time he'd interrupted Dmitri and her nerves were running thin as it was, Karl's outbursts and usual aggressiveness was only pressing them thinner.

"Let him finish," she barked, ever so slowly leaning back into her chair, "please, continue Dmitri."

There was a muffled clearing of a throat on the other end of the speakerphone, "As I was saying, we're unsure if this new tunnel is a result of the cave-in itself simply exposing an underlying naturally made cavern, or if it's made by man, or other beings, as it were. We're executing the utmost safety measures since we don't know what is down there or if the threat of another cave-in is possible. Our sources are limited where we are but Sylvia affirms the lycan forces are sending up a few of their most agile members for the task, who will join our own as we proceed."

"This doesn't bode well for activity; Dmitri, you're sure there's been nothing come out of there?"

"Well... if it has, we've not seen anything and everyone is still alive, so we have that going for us."

Alcina was normally on board for jokes, however today was not one of those days.

"You're how many men strong?"

"Currently 57."

She sighed and rubbed her temples, "I want word the moment you know more about this, and I want everyone armed to the teeth," her sights darted for Karl, "Heisenberg, wipe the snivel off your face - can you equip them with more artillery?"

"Duh," he snorted, "I'll deliver myself."

"Good. Donna, you and I will prepare here; I want Mateo, Gerard, and Elina ready at a moments notice to leave with me and a small crew if necessary."

"Understood," she replied, "I will contact them immediately."

"Dmitri..."

"Yes, my lady?"

"Anything unusual, and I mean anything, I trust your judgment to make the call to fall back... and I demand that you do. I don't want anymore losses."

"Understood."

Karl's muttered grumbles at the talk of 'leaving with their tails between their legs' was ignored and the conversation was over shortly after. Everyone was in agreement that while nothing had come to fruition with this new discovery, yet, the option to be best prepared and not need it outweighed complacency.

Donna brought in Elina, Gerard, and Mateo and in the depths of the Beneviento study a plan was devised for a swift departure. Karl had left in a sour mood but was leaning on the side of excitement he would be gathering weapons for the troops on the other side; Alcina gave him full reign on what he could deliver and she only assumed that meant several explosives and whatever new inventions he hadn't tested out yet. He was nothing if not game for some destruction, somewhere.

The chime from the antique clock on the mantlepiece rang in the 3 o'clock hour and Alcina pursed her lips to herself.

"I believe we're fortified as can be for the time being, shall we call it?"

The four nodded and she gracefully took her leave.

~

In truth, you'd only fallen asleep about an hour, maybe two, ago when you were woken to a familiar presence in your dazed awakening.

Alcina's perfume wafted into your lungs like the gracious caress of a soft sunrise. 

Her arms snaked around your middle and you hummed, "well, well, hello midnight caller... what are you doing here?"

Your voice was riddled with sleep and Alcina grinned near your ear, snuggling herself to your backside in the darkness, "visiting someone I love, is that alright?" she whispered.

Keeping your eyes closed you nestled further back into her and sighed deeply, "mmm, I suppose that's ok."

She'd only snuck into your room in the dead of night once or twice, but you were not going to balk at the visit. She'd taken the time to disappear from her duties in the underworld for you and that warmed your whole soul.

"You are in a bit of trouble, I might add," Alcina's voice sounded, a little louder, the sternness there barely enough to bite, "you left your balcony door unlocked."

"Well yeah, I never know when you might drop by," you giggled softly, still half asleep, "I'm not -" you broke for a short yawn, "- losing out on any chance to spend time with you."

With a defeated yet unforced sigh, Alcina hunkered down with you, kissing at your ear with a hum, "go back to sleep draga mea, I want to hold you for as long as I can."

Well, how could you argue with that?

In the most unlike fashion for Alcina, she had fallen asleep.

At some point after sharing a kiss with you, your effervescent aura of relaxing bliss knocked her out hard enough she remembered nothing after nuzzling her nose in your hair.

The problem with that was the sun would be rising in mere minutes.

It was Saturday and there was no need for an alarm so you, as you always had, would wake by proxy to your own internal alarm. And the problem with that was that you were in the arms of your Alcina all night, the safety you felt kept you entirely too comfortable for your own good.

You felt her startle and your instincts to keep her from the sunlight forcefully shoved you into action; the unspoken knowing of what was about to happen blew cold anxiety through you.

"Fuck!" 

You were unsure you'd ever moved so fast in your life.

"Don't move!"

In a dash and a blur you ripped open your closet door and pulled out three big bags. Tearing the top of one open you yanked out a black mass. Alcina watched with confusion and then awe as you hopped on a stool and began to hang the very large black-out curtain over the balcony door. 

You little shit. You've been prepared right under my nose. She smirked.

Still, this wasn't the greatest move she could have made. She was caught outside of the underground, which never happened, with no communication to anyone down there, and had no other choice than to stay put until night fall. There was no doubt in her mind Donna would come down on her harder than a pallet of bricks. 

When you finished with the balcony you moved into the kitchen, sealed that window, and moved into the living room, successfully closing off all natural sunlight from the entirety of your apartment.

Coming back into the bedroom with a huff of panicked breath, you leaned against the desk and turned on the small lamp.

"Well..." you sighed, "I know this is probably not the most ideal thing in the world, but uh, at least you're safe?"

You were so insufferably cute she couldn't pretend to be upset. She fucked up. Oh well. You had uncannily saved her ass, quite literally.

Alcina rose slowly and stalked over to you with a softness in her smile, grateful beyond measure at your intelligence and ever vigilant thinking ahead, "at least I won't be hiding away in a closet all day," she smirked, tracing your brow, "you astound me. Truly."

"Hey, gotta be prepared when you got a girlfriend who just happens to be a vampire," the beam of pride from your grin chased away the rest of the looming concern, "never thought I'd have you all to myself during the day, and uh, you're definitely stuck with me." 

She chuckled, "I can't think of anyone else I'd rather be stuck with."

Feeling the tension of the rude awakening sifting through your system, you sighed and leaned into her front, wrapping your arms around her torso and breathing her scent in to continue the lull of relaxation. There were plenty of thoughts that were pending in your brain but you were too tired to entertain a one of them. Feeling Alcina comb her long fingers through your hair made it all the more easier to ignore them.

"And what..." her low vibrato cooed, "do you do for fun on your Saturday's off, draga mea?"

You sighed big and long but never budging from your spot, "oh you know, the usual; wake up, question and ponder my life choices; why I haven't won the lottery yet so I can quit my job a galivant however I please, dodge the existential dread of never-ending laundry, dishes, cleaning; sit on the couch for hours doom-scrolling through apps, and other exciting mundane tasks that go along with being a human."

"Oh heavens," Alcina laughed, "life really has changed since I was human," she pulled you away and peered down into your tired eyes, "but I asked what you did for fun... existential dread, as appealing as you make it sound, doesn't count."

"Ok, fine," you smiled lazily, "sometimes I'll go out for coffee or breakfast, meander the city, wander the parks, catch some live music... if the weather is shit, I like to bring out my Nintendo 64 and play some videogames like Zelda or Doom, Super Mario, Goldeneye, Yoshi Story - you name it, I've got a wicked stash - and other times I'll binge watch a show or watch movies till I'm blue in the face, or I just take a day to sit in silence and nap, maybe cook an extravagant dinner for myself... it's usually take-out though don't be fooled."

Raising an arched brow Alcina chuckled at you, "hmmm. Well, as it is only barely 7 AM, shall we snooze and cuddle a while? Then perhaps you can show me these video games of yours."

"You drive a tough bargain, ma'am, but I suppose that does sound pretty nice."

Unperching from the desk and tugging her back to the bed with you, you plopped in the mattress with a smile on your face as the two of you settled down. 

While Alcina had plenty of things to ponder on and worry about, there was absolutely nothing she could do about her current circumstances. She hoped whoever noticed her absence, and she prayed they were few, there wouldn't be mass chaos at the Grand Matriarch being missing from the underground. She wasn't necessarily proud of her actions but, at the same time, she was the Grand Matriarch and she would do as she pleased. If she didn't happen to come home for one day, it was no ones business why nor where she had been. That's what she continued to tell herself while she held you in her arms, focusing instead on your warmth and calming thrum of your heartbeat.

"I am absolutely not playing."

"Oh come on, you watched me play a whole hour of Zelda, Mario Cart is a thousand times easier! Plus, I've shown you what all the buttons do and how to do the thing."

"But I like watching you play. I am not a 'gamer', this is not my cup of tea."

"Laaaame excuse. You've literally never even played a video game, how can you possibly know that," you rolled your eyes, quickly changing your tone, "I think your ego can't handle the challenge."

Icy eyes grew narrow but her smirk was devilishly present, "my ego has nothing to do with it, you little fiend - this kind of challenge doesn't suit me."

"Ooohhhh, I see, I got it... you're too proud to admit that you know your human girlfriend is gunna whoop your ass at a little Mario Cart so you won't even entertain the thought, but it's ok, it's ok, I mean, I understand, it IS a really tough thing to swallow and all; being the Matriarch of an underground lair of scary vampires and whatnot, but Mario Cart, I - "

You were unable to finish your taunting as Alcina had tackled you off the couch and pinned you under her thighs on the carpet, her hands holding yours immobile by your head as she smiled flatly down at you. You, of course, were putting up very little, to any, fight at all.

"Now, draga mea," she cleared her throat, "dragoste, light of my dark night; you realize when you challenge a woman like me, and taunt me to the point of no return, and being who I am with the ever present need to execute my case in whatever means necessary... do you really think antagonizing me will get you what you want?"

The grin on your face was beckoning for more, "there's really only one way to find out."

She scowled.

"You really are relentless," she stated flatly, hiding her smile.

"That's why you love me, though."

"Mmmm... I suppose," Alcina leaned down slowly, caressing her lips against yours, "but I want the pretty purple controller."

"Okaaayyy." you sighed playfully.

"And I get to be Yoshi."

"What?! You can't have my controller AND my driver!"

"You said he was the best, didn't you?"

Her glimmering smile left you immobile on the floor as she lifted off you. Smirking and shaking your head, you rolled over and grabbed for the controller. You did poke the bear, and you did actually get your way, so, you weren't allowed to complain.

Purely but happily surprised, she did actually beat you 5 out of the 6 games. You beat her the first round but when she caught on to most of the tricks she came in blazing afterwards. 

There was something inexplicably endearing about this 6 foot tall regal vampire sitting on the floor with you playing video games. There was no way life was real. No way.

Chuckling, you scooted closer to her and straddled her lap, draping your arms over her broad but beautiful shoulders and smiled, "well, looks like I gotta eat my words, don't I. You're a damn fast learner."

Alcina hummed as you laced your fingers through her hair and returned the smile, "you're a very good teacher, but yes, I am very good at whatever I put my mind to, very good, in fact, I'm usually the best."

"So humble," you laughed, "but thank you for indulging me."

Using her palms to pull your hips closer, Alcina kissed you repeatedly until you settled completely into her, "it's the least I can do, for all you've done for me... I do love you, you know."

"I do know, I love you too."

Her eyes were warm underneath the coolness of the slate color. You could gaze into them for what you would consider forever and be happy with that. She still didn't seem real to you, even after all this time, but if it was a dream or some fabricated hallucination you'd come up with, you were content to let it last. 

"So..." you began, tilting your head, "now that you've had a taste of what I do in my spare time, what do you do when you have free time to yourself down there?"

Alcina leaned her back into the couch and admired you and your curiosity, "it's rare to have down time these days, but I enjoy spending time with my girls. If they're around, that is," she chuckled, "we four like to sit in the turret and busy ourselves with whatever appeals to our fancy that day. Daniela loves to draw and paint, Cassandra loves puzzles, reading, and art as well, and Bela plays piano amongst her love for books; she and I are the readers. I love to read. My family never had books in the house when I was growing up; they were too busy with the vineyards to do much else in their spare time than rest. When I got my hands on a book from the neighbor boy who fancied me, I ate right through it. He continued to supply my desires and before long I had a lovely stash of my own. When I wasn't occupied with music or schooling, I was reading."

"Yeah? Any particular genre tickle your fancy best?"

"You, you tickle my fancy plenty," she jested seductively as she ran her palms up and down your sides, "but any really, I'll read anything. I prefer poetry or a good fantasy, but a romance or thriller is also perfectly suitable."

"Maybe we should start swapping books, as you can see - " you motioned to the vast array of bookshelves lining your walls, "I, too, enjoy a good book."

Alcina beamed, inching in to kiss you softly, "I'd love that."

It was now 4 PM and the day was waning. The two of you had spent the hours talking, snuggling, and watching a few episodes of The Golden Girls before your grumbling stomach had its say.

You were now headed to Malka's store to get some things for dinner. Alcina about slapped your cell phone out of your hand when you talked of ordering some pizza. She grabbed you up in her arms and sternly, but lovingly, commanded you go to the store and buy some pasta, lemons, garlic, and pesto and she would make you dinner.

Still a little stunned, but not arguing with the woman, you left with a kiss and a $20 Alcina was carrying with her. Puzzled beyond belief that she had money, when you asked why, she smirked and stated; "we vampires are like dragons; we've gathered golds and riches for lifetimes, we have wealth most humans could never comprehend. How do you think we live so glamorously? Humans can't spend their wealth when they're dead, but we can."

You couldn't help but chuckle a little as you scurried your way through the streets and people. You imagined how many people Alcina had killed in her lifetime, before the rules changed, and how much money she really had stashed away. You'd considered a sugar mama before, but a vampire one at that? What a wild fucking thing your life had become. You laughed some more but bundled your scarf up around your neck, it was a chilly autumn day but you were still warm inside at the fact you'd had Alcina to yourself for a whole day.

"Oi, my ketzeleh! You are looking very happy today," Malka commented as you walked through the door, "look at this - rosy cheeks, that smile, you ate a canary ketzeleh?"

"Nooo, Malka," you laughed, "just a lovely day is all. Gunna grab some things for dinner!"

"Good good, I am happy to see you eat better. You minnealalas live off fast food! A Shonda!"

Malka had never grasped the term millennial, so minnealalas was the best anyone could get out of her. You actually kind of liked it and started saying it yourself on occasion, no one else had a clue what you meant and that was fine.

She continued to talk to herself in full Yiddish as you grabbed what you needed, the drabble muffled as she held a bobby pin in her mouth while she fixed the braided bun on her head.

Eying you with a pleased nod as she began ringing up your items, she winked, "I still say you let me teach you my family recipes. If you can cook a good simple pasta dish like this, you can learn our foods!"

"I'm game, you tell me when and where."

"My grandson has the shop on Wednesday, you come after work and we'll cook the night away."

Grabbing your bag from her, you offered a sincere smile and nodded, "see you Wednesday, bubbeh."

"Men vet zikh zehn!"

When you'd left your apartment you hadn't seen your crow friends, but now upon your return they were all perched high in the tree on the branch closest to your window. Oddly, they were all very quiet and still. You could see that they were watching you as you approached your usual bench now, labeled 'the feeding grounds', and you reached into your bag. As soon as they saw the trail mix (free of chocolate) in your hands, they swooped down and circled you. But still, they were as quiet as ever.

"Hey there, my funky little void omens," you greeted them with a smile, "awfully quiet today... is it the cold? Believe you me, I'm not thrilled with it either, but it's so nice to see you, as always."

Sprinkling the nuts and dried berries around the grass, they regally ate and regarded you with eyes that seemed deeper and darker than usual, almost as if they were looking right through you. 

"Malka sends her love, and a discounted price on your goodies. I think she likes you guys more than me sometimes and she hasn't even met any of you. I only get a 10% off every once in a great while, and look at you! 5% off every bag of this I buy."

When you reached in for one more handful, the largest, blackest of the crows came right up to your leg and stood there peering up at you. They'd never been this close before and in an instinctual motion you reached your hand down and it began to eat from your palm. It was a most surreal feeling. These crows were gorgeous with their feathers catching the sunlight just right, casting sprays of blues and greens through the otherwise ebony color of their plumage. You stayed still as it finished what was in your hand and slowly stood back up.

It hopped back over to the rest of the group and you stood there slightly numb in awe. But, you couldn't dwell on it long since you needed to get back to Alcina. Scattering the last of the bag you left them there in their silence as they watched you leave. You waved graciously, internally looking forward to more close encounters of your feathered kind.

Watching Alcina cook in your kitchen was a sight like no other.

She may have played it off like she hadn't cooked in ages, and sure ok yeah it was likely true, but she may as well have been a professional chef the way she had everything down to a T.

Humming a familiar tune, Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller, as she worked, before you knew it you had a plate of the most scrumptious looking pasta you'd ever seen in your life in front of you.

The taste was just as wonderful.

"Ok, what the fuck Alcina," you mumbled through a bite, "this is the yummiest dinner ever."

Rolling her eyes lovingly, she shook her head, "it's only because you know I made it, draga mea."

"Mmmno, pretty sure this is the most bomb pasta ever in creation. I can't thank you enough, it's so good!"

"Well, you're welcome. Eat, I'll clean up."

"Ah ah, I'll clean; you cooked I clean, that's the deal. Sit with me."

Your glee was worth every stupid cooking lesson her mother put her through as a child.

"Is it dark yet?"

Alcina's voice found you peeking through the black out curtain in the kitchen while she was still in the bedroom.

The sun was indeed falling beyond the horizon, which meant the pending exit of your lover.

"Almost," you replied softly, making your way back into your room.

She looked relaxed and wholesome there stretched out on your bed. You slipped yourself back into her arms and her lips pressed a kiss to the top of your head, yours pressed to her collarbone and closed your eyes.

"Do you know what tomorrow is?" you asked mutedly.

Alcina stroked your back while trying to find the answer. After a few bloated seconds and the obvious answer like Sunday seemed not what you were hinting for, finally defeated she replied; "no, what?"

"November 4th."

It took her another moment to understand what exactly you meant by that, then it hit her with a harsh pause. 

Her birthday.

"You'll be... 110, right?" you asked softly, the question itself odder than the reality of it all.

The woman in your arms was over 100 years old. Looked not a day over 40. An immortal goddess, a rarity that you thought to be no more than pure fiction. And yet, she was as real as you, as deep as you, as complex and simple, just like you. You'd never tire of the wonder she left you in.

"You should never speak a ladies age out loud you know," she jested as she watched you rise from your position, "but... yes... yes, I'll be 110."

In truth, the years that had flown and simultaneously drug by seemed edgeless, undefined; strung together like a mangled web with no end or beginning. Some of it a blur, other bits of it stark and sharp in her memory. She didn't feel any age at all any longer, and when she looked upon herself in the mirror it kept the illusion that time had indeed stilled alive. But now you were very prominent in her life and your time did not pass the way hers did, and suddenly that familiar bitterness of never having enough time slathered itself on her tongue.

She was lost in a rogue thought, you could see it, but she was so fucking beautiful you wanted to cry.

You sighed, "I got you something."

Hopping up and out of the bed quickly you went to your desk, pulled open a drawer and retrieved a lovely silver wrapped oblong box, "I wasn't sure if I'd get to see you tomorrow so I'm glad this all happened the way it did, even though it was not ideal, you know the whole -" you gestured vaguely, "getting stranded," you laughed, "but... at least I can give this to you now, on time."

Watching you come back to her with the box in your hands, Alcina was silently defeated by your generosity and overall loving, caring nature.

"Draga, you didn't -"

"Shhh, I don't want any of that 'you didn't need to' stuff. I wanted to, so I did."

Alcina took the article and carefully grazed her fingertips over the silver wrapping, undoing a corner and quickly stripping it from the dark brown box beneath it. As she opened the lid, there inside was a brand-new pair of black leather gloves with her initials stitched delicately on the wrist in dark red lettering. They were beautiful, and by the feel of them, not cheap.

"Draga mea," she whispered breathlessly as she peered up at you, "they're - they're perfect, I love them... Th-thank you, so much."

Shrugging with a decent bit of pride in your chest, you watched her examine the gift with comfort, "it's going to be winter soon, and since I just can't part with the pair you left, it was only right for me to replace them."

She looked up just in time to watch you reach for her shoulders and push her back to the mattress, your thighs straddling her hips as you leaned down to her ear to press hot, sultry kisses along her neck and jawline.

"And when I see you again..." you whispered against the shell of her ear, "you can have the rest of your present."

Alcina growled warningly as she confined you in her arms, her own tongue flicking out to lick at your earlobe, "denying me, are you?"

Your spine shuddered, "not all of it," you teased, arching your neck towards her mouth, "just using some leverage to entice you to visit me sooner than later."

Rude. You had learned from her too well.

Grasping the back of your head, Alcina sank her teeth into your neck and drank from you vigorously, your moans and whines stoking every fire in her soul. She hated that she had to leave you and she hated what she had to go back to even more. But she had this, and you, right now, and for that she was grateful beyond measure. Your love and the love she bore for you helped her spur on the drive she needed to keep going and end the antagonists keeping you apart.

As Alcina stepped out into the dark, crisp, nipping air, the chill of what awaited her under the city would be similarly biting. Yet a smile remained on her face as the events of today replayed slowly for her. You were everything she never knew she needed and today was tell-tale proof just how much she was in love with you. Everything in your nature fed her long dormant human nature that she'd forgotten she'd loved and missed. 

You were warm. 

And she felt even warmer still, and secure, with your gloves fitted perfectly to her long slender hands. Something of you she could carry proudly with her anywhere she went.

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week (#174):

2 old Hungarian films:

🍿 Ferenc Molnár's classic The boys of Paul street is a novel about two honorable gangs of school kids, who are fighting over an empty lot in the center of Budapest of 1902. When I was their age (so early 1960's) it was called "מחניים", and it was one of my favorite books (together with these of Erich Kästner's, Yigal Mossinson's, Enid Blyton's, Karl May's, Jules Verne's, etc).

So it was wonderful to discover that it was made into a well-made drama in 1968. The premise of a syrupy children story from that time, made about a naive world, unaware of any future European world wars, doesn't bode well. But it retained all its earnest truths, honors and morals. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film (together with 'The Firemen's Ball', Truffaut's 'Stolen Kisses' and Bondarchuk's winner 'War and Peace'). In a week that was cinematically disappointing, that was my bright spot. 8/10.

🍿 Unrelated to David Cronenberg, The fly won the 1980 Oscars for animated shorts. It tell a story from a pesky fly's point of view.

🍿

I am trying to watch at least 25% movies directed by women. Female Directors (2012) was made by 2 young female graduates of a Beijing film school, who couldn't afford to make a "Real" studio movie, so they make an indie "Home" movie of themselves. Strong early Godard vibes with shaky handheld camera and bad potato sound. Fresh and candid look as they search for themselves via sex, cinema, money. It feels like I've been in all these alleys.... [*Female Director*].

🍿

Short Vacation (2020), a gentle, tiny Korean version of 'Stand by me', but without any histrionics or a dead guy. 4 unremarkable middle school girls, members of the photography club, receive analog cameras from their teacher, who suggest they use the summer break to take of 'the end of the world'. They decide to take the train all the way to the last station, and end up in the "middle of nowhere". 7/10.

🍿

2 with actress Sakura Ando, both from 2023:

🍿 "It's like a prehistoric dinosaur turned monster..."

My second Godzilla (after the 1954 original), Godzilla minus one, the latest in the franchise. The monster stuff was ridiculous, as usual I guess, but the human drama part recreating post-war Tokyo, and especially the cutest 2 year old baby girl got bonus points from me. 5/10.

🍿 In Monster, my 6th film by Hirokazu Kore, she stars as a single mother to a 11 year old son who starts exhibiting strange behavior. For most of the story, it feels like 'The kindergarten teacher' and 'Hunt', and 'The teachers' Lounge', where the accusations of abuse might not be true, but it ends as a beautiful heartbreak, softly told. With a tender score by Ryuichi Sakamoto, his last before his death. 8/10.

🍿

The Sensualist (1991), an erotic Japanese animation, in a traditional Ukiyo-e woodblock style, like the original story of which it is based. Combination Patrick Nagel, Hiroshige and very-adult Disney stories. Ends with a long, artistic 'Coitus'. M'eh.

🍿

Patisserie Coin de rue (2011) is Food porn for imbeciles who love Japanese cake shops. I have a serious sweet tooth myself, but this story was just too dumb. Gorgeous cinematography of beautiful patisseries, and religious reverie for desserts. I could barely last for 42 minutes.

🍿

The Contestant is a new British documentary about aspiring comedian "Nasubi", who participated in a grotesque Japanese Television show in 1998. For 13 months he was placed naked in an empty room and was told that in order to get out, he will need to win 1 million yen in write-in sweepstakes. He didn't know that his every move was being broadcasted and that he'd became a massive hit. A bizarre, real-life 'Truman Show', and possibly the very first 'Reality TV' show ever. It was stupid, and cruel 'Mass Entertainment'. Fortunately, there's a tiny point of redemption at the very end. 2/10. [*Female Director*].

🍿

Cœur fidèle (Faithful Heart) (1923), my first 'poetic realist' melodrama by French Impressionist Jean Epstein. A technical classic with modern editing, dynamic story telling and lots of expressive close ups. He was 26 when he made it on location in the port of Marseille.

🍿

Sleeping beauty is a disturbing erotic art film by an Australian auteur, with a small cameo for Sarah Snook. A pretty student freelancing as a hooker on a 'Story of O' type journey into the deep end of 'Sleep' fetishism. If it was made by a man, I would hate it uncategorically. As it was, I found it prurient and shallow, flat and cold. 2/10. [*Female Director*].

🍿

I saw Gifted before, and the ratings I gave it weren't too high. But I'm a sap for tearjerkers about special little girls and their single dad/uncle, so I gave it another go. The Hallmark-style custody battle was mediocre, but all the girl stuff left me in tears nonstop. Add some Cat Stevens to the score, and you get quality Soap. 7/10. (Photo Above). Re-Watch ♻️.

🍿

The rope (1984), my first Sudanese movie. 2 blind nomads stumbles in an empty desert, tied together to a donkey. A cruel, wordless metaphor. Unbearable misery. 1/10.

🍿

Bogart & Bacall X 2:

🍿 Fast film is a 2003 Austrian mash-up art film, composed of 65,000 paper cutouts of Bogart and Cary Grant, and moving through 400 other classic movies. But this type of collage was done better and smoother in the Hungarian 'Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen' and Michel Hazanavicius' 'La Classe américaine'.

🍿 Dark passage, my first Film Noir by Delmer Daves. 5'10'' Bogart plays an innocent convict, who escapes from San Quentin, trying to prove his innocence. But wherever he goes, people around him keep falling dead. It was the third of four films real-life couple Bacall and Bogart made together. 1947 San Francisco and surroundings was lovely with so few people and cars on the roads.

🍿

I haven't seen Bob Fosse's acclaimed All that jazz since its premiere 45 years ago, so I was so looking forward for a re-watch. But after 3 days of attempting to go through it, I could muster only 33 minutes, before realizing how much I hated it, and had to stop. The genius Alpha male who kills himself in self-loathing, while abusing everything and everybody around him, is no longer appealing to me. The entitlement, misogyny, idealization of a legendary narcissist "Icon" was unbearable. ♻️.

🍿

3 shorts by British illustrator Elizabeth Hobbs:

🍿 "When I was a debutante, I went to the zoo every day..."

The Debutante (2022) is based on a story by Leonora Carrington. A debutante persuades a hyena from the London Zoo to take her place at a dinner dance held in her honour. [*Female Director*].

🍿 I'm OK (2018) is even better. It is based on the life of Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka during WW1. Same frantic, hand-drawn splotchy style. 8/10. [*Female Director*].

🍿The Old, Old, Very Old Man (2007) is still earlier. Created with blue ink on a bathroom tile. The style here is dirtier, more primitive. [*Female Director*].

🍿

Amino ('Shadows'), a dreary award-winning Filipino film from 2000. A poor, hungry man with absolutely nothing to his name but a camera, gets his camera stolen in Manila's most miserable slum.

🍿

"I'm not lying. I saw her! Fuck you!..."

I haven't seen A simple Favor since January 19, but every time I recommend it to somebody, I feel compelled to check it out again. So about every 6 weeks now?! Jesus Christ, it's absurd!

Anyway, Anna Kendrick has the whitest teeth, and the worst taste in ugly shoes, on and off screen. My 10 Minutes Pinch Point Analyses still stands. 10/10. Re-Watch ♻️.

🍿

Surprisingly, I haven't seen any of Stormy Daniels porn work, but I had followed her story "with interest". The new documentary Stormy offers little new information to political junkies, but it details the harrowing path this brave woman had to endure, and the incredible price she had to pay. Unfortunately, it shows many clips of Orange Sphincter talking, something I try to avoid as much as possible. May he lose bigly in his current criminal case in NY, and also may he catch incurable rectal cancer today, and live the rest of his days in painful agony. [*Female Director*].

🍿

(My complete movie list is here.)

[gaykarstaagforever]

I don't know what TechDirt is or who Karl Bode is, but his editorial / article on why Vice Media (and all these other similar whatevers) failed is worth considering, at least:

They were run into the ground by "brunchlords," which is a fun term new-to-me for rich kids with flashy degrees from flashy schools where they made flashy connections that got them these flashy jobs, all while they are in fact utterly dull untested incompetent wealth-vampires, who are eternally insulated from any of the negative consequences of their idiotic, trend-based, should-probably-be-criminal mishandling of actual businesses.

They also think of journalism as nothing more than a tool of self-promotion and for generating revenue from whatever shady actor shows up to throw money at them. And they treat the people they employ, and what they produce, exactly like that.

According to this guy, good for-profit journalism, such as it ever was, is mostly the collapsing garbage heap it is now because it was squeezed to death by petulent manbabies who never should have been allowed to handle it.

I think this is certainly a big reason why these kinds of outlets are all tumbling down; there are others, and there are lots of people to blame. And I certainly think some of the workaday, boots-on-the-ground journalists themselves ARE partially responsible for this, because they said yes to things because of personal financial desperation that shot their supposed journalistic integrity in the feet. Journalism thrives only when journalists are trusted, and over the last 20+ years, lots of us have had good reason to not trust a lot of these people.

But that just fed into this other stuff.

Again, it is worth considering.

Edit: Slightly softer rendition of the same information, from The Guardian

[paramedicabroad]

Museum Island, Berlin

Today, we're embarking on a virtual journey to Berlin, Germany, where the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Museumsinsel (Museum Island) awaits. This cultural treasure trove is a testament to human creativity and the enduring value of art, culture, and history.

Museumsinsel is situated in the heart of Berlin and is, quite literally, an island of knowledge. It's home to a cluster of world-renowned museums, each housing an extraordinary collection of art, artifacts, and historical treasures.

In 1999, Museumsinsel was granted UNESCO World Heritage status, recognizing its profound cultural and historical importance. It's a place where the past and the present merge in a celebration of human creativity.

The Alte Nationalgalerie, or Old National Gallery, is a paradise for art enthusiasts. It features a stunning collection of 19th-century European art, including works by Caspar David Friedrich and Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

The Altes Museum, or Old Museum, is an architectural gem that houses a remarkable collection of classical antiquities, showcasing the art and culture of ancient civilizations.

The Neues Museum, or New Museum, is home to the iconic bust of Nefertiti, among other Egyptian and prehistoric artifacts. Its beautifully restored interiors are a work of art themselves.

The Bode Museum is a treasure trove of sculptures, Byzantine art, and numismatic collections. It's a place where the beauty of art and history converge.

The Pergamon Museum is the crown jewel of Museumsinsel, housing extraordinary artifacts such as the Ishtar Gate, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the Pergamon Altar, transporting visitors to ancient worlds.

In conclusion, Museumsinsel Berlin is a haven for art, culture, and history enthusiasts. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it invites us to appreciate the enduring value of human creativity and the importance of preserving our cultural heritage. So, when you're ready to explore a world where art, history, and culture converge, Museumsinsel is a destination that promises to enlighten and inspire. 🏛️🌟📖

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The long bezzle

Going to Defcon this weekend? I’m giving a keynote, “An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification and Throw it Into Reverse,” on Saturday at 12:30pm, followed by a book signing at the No Starch Press booth at 2:30pm!

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=50826

When it comes to the modern world of enshittified, terrible businesses, no addition to your vocabulary is more essential than "bezzle," JK Galbraith's term for "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/09/accounting-gimmicks/#unter

The bezzle is contained by two forces.

First, Stein's Law: "Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop."

Second, Keynes's: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

On the one hand, extremely badly run businesses that strip all the value out of the firm, making things progressively worse for its suppliers, workers and customers will eventually fail (Stein's Law).

On the other hand, as the private equity sector has repeatedly demonstrated, there are all kinds of accounting tricks, subsidies and frauds that can animate a decaying, zombie firm long after its best-before date (Keynes's irrational markets):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

One company that has done an admirable job of balancing on a knife edge between Stein and Keynes is Verizon, a monopoly telecoms firm that has proven that a business can remain large, its products relied upon by millions, its stock actively traded and its market cap buoyant, despite manifest, repeated incompetence and waste on an unimaginable scale.

This week, Verizon shut down Bluejeans, an also-ran videoconferencing service the company bought for $400 million in 2020 as a panic-buy to keep up with Zoom. As they lit that $400 mil on fire, Verizon praised its own vision, calling Bluejeans "an award-winning product that connects our customers around the world, but we have made this decision due to the changing market landscape":

https://9to5google.com/2023/08/08/verizon-bluejeans-shutting-down/

Writing for Techdirt, Karl Bode runs down a partial list of all the unbelievably terrible business decisions Verizon has made without losing investor confidence or going under, in a kind of tribute to Keynes's maxim:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/10/verizon-fails-again-shutters-attempted-zoom-alternative-bluejeans-after-paying-400-million-for-it/

Remember Go90, the "dud" streaming service launched in 2015 and shuttered in 2018? You probably don't, and neither (apparently) do Verizon's shareholders, who lost $1.2 billion on this folly:

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/07/02/verizons-sad-attempt-to-woo-millennials-falls-flat-face/

Then there was Verizon's bid to rescue Redbox with a new joint-venture streaming service, Redbox Instant, launched 2012, killed in 2014, $450,000,000 later:

https://variety.com/2014/digital/news/verizon-redbox-to-pull-plug-on-video-streaming-service-1201321484/

Then there was Sugarstring, a tech "news" website where journalists were prohibited from saying nice things about Net Neutrality or surveillance – born 2014, died 2014:

https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/2/7324063/verizon-kills-off-sugarstring

An app store, started in 2010, killed in 2012:

https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/5/3605618/verizon-apps-store-closing-january-2013

Vcast, 2005-2012, yet another failed streaming service (pray that someday you find someone who loves you as much as Verizon's C-suite loves doomed streaming services):

https://venturebeat.com/media/verizon-vcast-shutting-down/

And the granddaddy of them all, Oath, Verizon's 2017, $4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo/AOL, whose name refers to the fact that the company's mismanagement provoked involuntary, protracted swearing from all who witnessed the $4.6 billion write-down the company took a year later:

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/12/12/if-youre-surprised-verizons-aol-yahoo-face-plant-you-dont-know-verizon/

Verizon isn't just bad at being a phone company that does non-phone-company things – it's incredibly bad at being a phone company, too. As Bode points out, Verizon's only real competency is in capturing its regulators at the FCC:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/05/02/new-verizon-video-blatantly-lies-about-whats-happening-to-net-neutrality/

And sucking up massive public subsidies from rubes in the state houses of New York:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/03/14/new-york-city-sues-verizon-fiber-optic-bait-switch/

New Jersey:

https://www.techdirt.com/2014/04/25/verizon-knows-youre-sucker-takes-taxpayer-subsidies-broadband-doesnt-deliver-lobbies-to-drop-requirements/

and Pennsylvania:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/06/15/verizon-gets-wrist-slap-years-neglecting-broadband-networks-new-jersey-pennsylvania/

Despite all this, and vast unfunded liabilities – like remediating the population-destroying lead in their cables – they remain solvent:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/verizon-sued-by-investors-over-lead-cables-environmental-statements-2023-08-02/

Verizon has remained irrational longer than any short seller could remain solvent.

Short-sellers – who bet against companies and get paid when their stock prices go down – get a bad rap: billionaire shorts were the villains of the Gamestop squeeze, accused of running negative PR campaigns against beloved businesses to drive them under and pay their bets off:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/30/meme-stocks/#stockstonks

But shorts can do the lord's work. Writing for Bloomberg, Kathy Burton tells the story of Nate Anderson, whose Hindenburg Research has cost some of the world's wealthiest people over $99 billion by publishing investigative reports on their balance-sheet shell-games just this year:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-06/how-much-did-hindenburg-make-from-shorting-adani-dorsey-icahn

Anderson started off trying to earn a living as a SEC whistleblower, identifying financial shenanigans and collecting the bounties on offer, but that didn't pan out. So he turned his forensic research skills to preparing mediagenic, viral reports on the scams underpinning the financial boasts of giant companies…after taking a short position in them.

This year, Anderson's targets have included Carl Icahn, whose company lost $17b in market cap after Anderson accused it of overvaluing its assets. He went after the world's fourth-richest man, Gautam Adani, accusing him of "accounting fraud and stock manipulation," wiping out 34% of his net worth. He took on Jack Dorsey, whose payment processor Square renamed itself Block and went all in on the cryptocurrency bezzle, lopping 16% off its share price.

Burton points out that Anderson's upside for these massive bloodletting was comparatively modest. A perfectly timed exit from the $17b Icahn report would have netted $56m. What's more, Anderson faces legal threats and worse – one short seller was attacked by a man wearing brass-knuckles, an attack attributed to her short activism.

Shorts are lauded as one of capitalism's self-correcting mechanisms, and Hindenberg certainly has taken some big, successful swings at some of the great bezzles of our time. But as Verizon shows, shorts alone can't discipline a market where profits and investor confidence are totally decoupled from competence or providing a decent product or service.

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/10/smartest-guys-in-the-room/#can-you-hear-me-now

[mitchipedia]

LA Times Billionaire Owner Hilariously Thinks He Can Solve Media Bias With 'AI'

Karl Bode at Techdirt:

Academics have spent generations warning about what happens when you let journalism and media consolidate in the hands of rich people and corporations. As this season’s election coverage demonstrated, the end result is usually a lazy simulacrum of journalism that looks like real reporting, but tends to reflect ownership interests and (usually) lacks the courage to challenge wealth and power.

The coverage tends to be feckless and shallow. It tends to hew toward false ideological symmetry (what NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen calls the “view from nowhere"). It tends to give short shrift to issues like labor and consumer rights, and extra attention and credence to corporatist beliefs. It very often demonstrates sexist, classist, and racist bias. It’s generally not subtle.

When white male billionaires jump into the news business they are conditioned to see none of this. Most of the time, as we’ve seen with outlets like Politico (run by German billionaire CEO Mathias Döpfner) they’ll generally whine about “bias," but believe most of the bias in journalism is coming from “the left” end of the ideological spectrum (too much “divisive” coverage about class and race issues).

[edmehravaran]

Jenny Shane

Jenny Shane is a Software engineer from Tel Aviv. She visited Berlin for the first time in December 2023. Jenny asked for a photo session. I was in Berlin and able to take photos of her, At this time of the year, it is difficult to take photos outside. For this Photo Session, we decided to shoot in a sculpture museum in Berlin, next to Charlottenburg Palace (Schloss Charlottenburg). 1 hour of photo shooting with 2 different outfits in this beautiful location.

Jenny Shane in a sculpture museum in Berlin Photo shooting time We decided to meet at 13:30 in front of the museum, but when I was leaving home I checked on Google map and recognized the museum would open at 14:00. But that was a good time to sit down in the café next to the museum and get to know each other. Jenny Shane asked me about my story and how I am lucky that I could make my life with what I Love. Sometimes I forget But I know that I am a Lucky person, I started to make money from Photography when I was a 13-year-old teenager, and now I live in Europe. Photo Shooting Camera and Lens For this Photoshoot, I used my Canon 6D camera with a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II Lens. I had my analog Camera with me, but I forgot to take my tripod for long exposure, I decided to not waste my film, because I had to use a low shutter speed and most of the photos might be blurry. I did most of the photos with my speed light, But sometimes I used available lights from the museum. Furthermore, I like this Dramatic light and the white outfit gives the best vibe to this photo.

Photo Shooting Locations in Berlin-Germany

Berlin has many alternatives and amazing locations, which I offered to Jenny Shane: - Brandenburger Tor - Garten Der Welt- Oriental Islamic garden  - Berlin Wall - Reichstag Building - Checkpoint Charlie - Gendarmenmarkt - Museumsinsel - Potsdamer Platz - Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus - Mauerpark - Tempodrom Berlin - Tempelhof Airport (Flughafen Tempelhof) - Teufelsberg - BTB thermal power station Adlershof - Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum (Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum) - Bode Museum - Alte Nationalgalerie  - Berlin Holocaust Memorial - Bahnhof Friedrichstraße - Olympiastadion - Karl-Marx-Allee - RAW-Friedrichshain - Volkspark Friedrichshain - Oberbaum Bridge - Berliner Dom - Regierungsviertel - Müggelsee Read the full article