politics
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Always misspelled that way, of course. ↩︎
- Better politics. Techies are largely for individual rights. The Midwest largely isn’t.
- Better worker protections. Great tech jobs aren’t usually in right to work states.
- Employees own their ideas. In CA, for example, you can launch your own startup while still working for someone else. In the places in the Midwest I’ve lived, your employer generally owns things you create while working for them.
One of our credit card companies, acting as “Californians for Medical Privacy”, is opposing CA’s AB 2746. They say:
Lenders could need to know what medical services you received, if they were “medically necessary”, and potentially, even your private treatment details, if AB 2746 (Schiavo) were to become law.
Liars.
California’s existing law basically says that you can’t use a person’s medical debt against them when making credit decisions. Someone getting sick and racking up an enormous medical bill because their insurer denied, defended, and deposed, is not something they could have reasonably foreseen and avoided. It’s a different category of debt than, say, maxing out your credit cards in Las Vegas.
The new changes would clarify and expand the definition of “medical debt” in reasonable ways. The members of Californians for Medical Privacy claim they’d need to know why you borrowed money on a credit card to pay a hospital bill. While it’s not completely wrong, it’s a flashback to COVID times when people said dumb things like “I’m not allowed to tell you whether I have a fever because of HIPPA1” to avoid getting kicked out of a bar for having the plague.
See, if you’re allowed to tell them that you charged $10,000 to pay an emergency room to fix a broken arm, then they can’t hold that against you when you apply for a mortgage. They’d much rather hold your future in their greedy little hands while you sell your car to pay for a root canal. Their explanation of the law is probably more or less correct. Their claims about the implications of it to us, the residents of California, the patients, and the borrowers, are complete lies.
I didn’t know about AB 2746 until our credit card — which we’re closing today — told us about it. And now that I know what it is, and the lies lenders will tell to oppose it, they’ve convinced me to be in favor of it.
The icing on the cake was their email footer:
ABOUT THIS EMAIL: This email was sent by [lender] to provide important account servicing information regarding your [lender] account. You may receive account servicing emails even if you have requested not to receive marketing offers by email for your [lender] account.
This was an political astroturfing campaign, not an “account servicing email”.
Again: Liars.
As seen on BART. I love my neighbors.
The National Park Service claims putting a sticker over inappropriate parts of the 2026 pass invalidates it. However, you have an absolute right to carry the pass inside a clear plastic case, and that case may have a sticker on it that tastefully hides the affected area.
Govt. Issues SIM Binding Directions To WhatsApp and Telegram
India sees US and EU lawmaking idiocy and wants to get in on the fun. Basically, they demand that popular messaging apps link your online ID with a physical element the government believes they can control. They say so right in their claims: it will deter “fraud”; that is, any activity you wouldn’t want traced back to yourself.
In this specific case, I hope the corpos tell them to shove it.
The Black Panther Party had a 10 point platform. These demands are painted in various places around Oakland, CA. This is the painting for number 4:
We Want Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter of Human Beings.
It’s in the middle of a homeless encampment. Some things are better now. Some are not.
In honor of its new financial arrangement with Donald Trump, Intel announced its new flagship CPU: the Inanium.
Infomaniak breaks rank and comes out in support of controversial Swiss encryption law | Tom’s Guide
Infomaniak argued that anonymity prevents justice, saying there must be a “happy medium” to prevent the digital landscape becoming a “Wild West.”
They further state that demands for anonymity show “lack of knowledge of Swiss political institutions”.
If you’re an Infomaniak user, you should stop that ASAP.
Kim Jong Un’s New Warship Capsizes at Launch Due to ‘Absolute Carelessness’ - The Wall Street Journal www.wsj.com/world/asi…
Kim, who witnessed the mishap unfold at a Wednesday launch event, lambasted officials for their “absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism” in causing the “serious accident,” North Korea’s state media reported. The 41-year-old dictator equated the gaffe to a criminal act.
Thought you were having a bad day?
In March, Waltz came under scrutiny after he put together a Signal chat and mistakenly included The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, disclosing discussions with top national security officials about plans for a military strike on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Part of being a security adviser is being, you know, competent at security.
Sharon Osbourne calls for Irish band’s U.S. visas to be revoked after Coachella show - pennlive.com
“At a time when the world is experiencing significant unrest, music should serve as an escape, not a stage for political discourse.”
This is the stupidest possible take on music and art. Her husband sang “War Pigs”.
California is now 4th-largest economy in world, surpassing Japan
Some Americans constantly talk about how much CA supposedly sucks and is on the edge of collapse. My favorite criticism is that “no one wants to live there because it’s so expensive”, although the fundamentals of capitalism explain that it’s so expensive because so many people want to live there.
Meanwhile, back in reality…
France Fines Apple €150 Million Over iOS Data Consent Rules - Bloomberg
Things like this are why it’s hard for me to take EU regulation seriously. (In before “but what about the US…” Yeah, I know.)
It’s purely good that Apple makes apps get your approval before allowing them to track your actions. France claims this is hard for the poor companies like Facebook that want to collect every move you make. Yes. It’s supposed to be. That’s the point. I want it to be.
But her emails!
After White House national security adviser Michael Waltz’s idiotic misadventure of texting top secret war plans to reporters, I don’t ever, ever want to hear another word about Hilary Clinton’s email server. Not a whisper.
A Case for Turning Tulsa Into the Next Big Tech Hub | WIRED
Requirements OK will never meet:
If you don’t build those, they won’t come.
California now requires credit card companies to assign a merchant category code to gun stores. Stripe has a list with 294 already used codes including Electric Razor Stores (5997); Glassware, Crystal Stores (5950); Massage Parlors (7297); and Shoe Repair/Hat Cleaning (7251).
Gun advocacy extremists make it sound like credit card companies are trying to do something new and unique to punish gun stores. In reality the law creates 1 more category alongside the few hundred others.
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao's home raided by FBI agents - CBS San Francisco
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home raided by FBI agents - CBS San Francisco:
In an emailed statement to CBS News Bay Area, the FBI said, “The FBI is conducting court authorized law enforcement activity on Maiden Lane. We are unable to provide additional information at this time.”
Election officials just announced that Thao’s recall election petitions met the criteria to be put to ballot. This hasn’t been a pleasant week for her.
Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s sons react to guilty verdict in hush money trial - ABC News: abcnews.go.com/US/donald…
“The Democrats have succeeded in their years-long attempt to turn America into a third-world shithole,” Trump Jr. said in a statement to ABC News.
We’ve got our problems, but I like America. “If you hate it here so much, leave.” Isn’t that what I always hear from that contingent?
(Trump Sr. can’t, of course.)
North Korean trash balloons are dumping ‘filth’ on South Korea | CNN:
North Korea has adopted a new strategy to contend with its southern neighbor: sending floating bags of trash containing “filth” across the border, carried by massive balloons.
Kim Jong-Number-One read “Infinite Jest” and wanted in on that action.
Justice Department takes 'major step' toward rescheduling marijuana:
The Justice Department took a significant step toward rescheduling marijuana Thursday, formalizing its process to reclassify the drug as lower-risk and remove it from a category in which it has been treated as more dangerous than fentanyl and meth.[...]
“Look folks, no one should be in jail for merely using or possessing marijuana. Period,” Biden said in Thursday’s video, his third time speaking extensively on the topic since his directive two years ago.
At last. Let’s put an end to this nonsense.