#21st Century Wire

[wherepond]

Tony Blinken's shocking final interview

The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate are joined by Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire to discuss Tony Blinken's outrageous interview with the New York Times, his last as Secretary of State.

[manitat]

The 100 greatest TV series of the 21st Century

BBC Culture polled 206 TV experts from 43 countries in order to find the greatest TV of the 21st Century – here’s the top 100

01 The Wire (2002-2008) 02 Mad Men (2007-2015) 03 Breaking Bad (2008-2013) 04 Fleabag (2016-2019) 05 Game Of Thrones (2011-2019) 06 I May Destroy You (2020) 07 The Leftovers (2014-2017) 08 The Americans (2013-2018) 09 The Office (UK) (2001-2003) 10 Succession (2018-) 11 BoJack Horseman (2014-2020) 12 Six Feet Under (2001-2005) 13 Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) 14 Atlanta (2016-) 15 Chernobyl (2019) 16 The Crown (2016-) 17 30 Rock (2006-2013) 18 Deadwood (2004-2006) 19 Lost (2004-2010) 20 The Thick Of It (2005-2012) 21 Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-) 22 Black Mirror (2011-) 23 Better Call Saul (2015-2022) 24 Veep (2012-2019) 25 Sherlock (2010-2017) 26 Watchmen (2019) 27 Line Of Duty (2012-2021) 28 Friday Night Lights (2006-2011) 29 Parks And Recreation (2009-2015) 30 Girls (2012-2017) 31 True Detective (2014-2019) 32 Arrested Development (2003-2019) 33 The Good Wife (2009-2016) 34 The Bridge (2011-2018) 35 Fargo (2014-) 36 Downton Abbey (2010-2015) 37 Band Of Brothers (2001) 38 The Handmaid's Tale (2017-) 39 The Office (US) (2005-2013) 40 Borgen (2010-2022) 41 Schitt's Creek (2015-2020) 42 Peep Show (2003-2015) 43 Money Heist (2017-2021) 44 Community (2009-2015) 45 The Good Fight (2017-) 46 Homeland (2011-2020) 47 Grey's Anatomy (2005-) 48 Inside No 9 (2014-) 49 The Bureau (2015-) 50 Halt And Catch Fire (2014-2017) 51 Small Axe (2020) 52 This Is England 86, 88, 90 (2010-2015) 53 Call My Agent! (2015-2020) 54 Happy Valley (2014-) 55 The Shield (2002-2008) 56 The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019) 57 The Young Pope (2016) 58 Dark (2017-2020) 59 The Underground Railroad (2021) 60 House Of Cards (2013-2018) 61 Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) 62 The Good Place (2016-2020) 63 Pose (2018-2021) 64 Detectorists (2014-2017) 65 Orange Is The New Black (2013-2019) 66 Mare Of Easttown (2021) 67 RuPaul's Drag Race (2009-) 68 Stranger Things (2016-) 69 24 (2001-2010) 70 Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009) 71 Enlightened (2011-2013) 72 Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) 73 Planet Earth (2006) 74 Utopia (2013-2014) 75 Babylon Berlin (2017-) 76 Rick And Morty (2013-) 77 American Crime Story (2016-) 78 The Killing (Denmark) (2007-2012) 79 Mindhunter (2017-2019) 80 House (2004-2012) 81 OJ: Made In America (2016) 82 Big Little Lies (2017-2019) 83 Insecure (2016-2021) 84 Normal People (2020) 85 Narcos (2015-2017) 86 How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014) 87 The Comeback (2005-2014) 88 The OA (2016-2019) 89 Dexter (2006-2013) 90 It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (2005-) 91 Westworld (2016-) 92 Show Me A Hero (2015) 93 Treme (2010-2013) 94 Louie (2010-2015) 95 Luther (2010-2019) 96 Catastrophe (2015-2019) 97 Hannibal (2013-2015) 98 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019) 99 Steven Universe (2013-2020) 100 The Queen's Gambit (2020)

[shredsandpatches]

I always go on about how I don't think it's necessary for productions of Mefistofele to go all out to make the Prologue in Heaven scene (or the epilogue) visually spectacular because the music does all the work for you, and I stand by that, but I also have to say: I think I also think this because if I were directing it I would blow most of my effects budget on getting a hydraulic platform to do the flying effect at the end of the first act (think Wicked only with two people). And it would be 1000% worth it.

[soon-palestine]

"I’m personally a Holocaust survivor as an infant, I barely survived.

My grandparents were killed in Aushwitz and most of my extended family were killed.

I became a Zionist; this dream of the Jewish people resurrected in their historical homeland and the barbed wire of Aushwitz being replaced by the boundaries of a Jewish state with a powerful army…and then I found out that it wasn’t exactly like that, that in order to make this Jewish dream a reality we had to visit a nightmare on the local population.

There’s no way you could have ever created a Jewish state without oppressing and expelling the local population. Jewish Israeli historians have shown without a doubt that the expulsion of Palestinians was persistent, pervasive, cruel, murderous and with deliberate intent - that’s what’s called the 'Nakba' in Arabic; the 'disaster' or the 'catastrophe'.

There’s a law that you cannot deny the Holocaust, but in Israel you’re not allowed to mention the Nakba, even though it’s at the very basis of the foundation of Israel.

I visited the Occupied Territories (West Bank) during the first intifada. I cried every day for two weeks at what I saw; the brutality of the occupation, the petty harassment, the murderousness of it, the cutting down of Palestinian olive groves, the denial of water rights, the humiliations...and this went on, and now it’s much worse than it was then. It’s the longest ethnic cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st century.

I could land in Tel Aviv tomorrow and demand citizenship but my Palestinian friend in Vancouver, who was born in Jerusalem, can’t even visit! So then you have these miserable people packed into this, horrible…people call it an 'outdoor prison', which is what it is. You don’t have to support Hamas policies to stand up for Palestinian rights, that’s a complete falsity.

You think the worse thing you can say about Hamas, multiply it by a thousand times, and it still will not meet the Israeli repression and killing and dispossession of Palestinians.

And 'anybody who criticises Israel is an anti-Semite' is simply an egregious attempt to intimidate good non-Jews who are willing to stand up for what is true."

[dduane]

…Okay, this is wild.

In the Lloyd household, Christmas was no small affair, kicking off before Thanksgiving and eventually becoming a year-round experience. In the early days, the groundskeeper of the Green Acres estate in Benedict Canyon was responsible for the tree’s construction starting in October, and would buy several pine trees, wiring the branches together under Harold’s supervision to make one enormous tree that would be the canvas for the family’s ever-growing collection of ornaments. Lloyd and his wife, actress Mildred Davis, and their family would then spend the next two months hanging thousands of ornaments right up until Christmas Eve.

[nomsfaultau]

Bunnyblade's 5-Step Plan to World Dominance

(Ok ok first as a biologist I must do my due diligence to be like, there’s actually lots of rules regarding animal experimentation and their quality of life, animal testing greatly increases the safety of BOTH humans and the environment, etc etc IACUC is extensive and thought out. However. Whump :)

Tw: referenced animal abuse, trauma, blood

Lab Bunnyblade. Blood red eyes and sleek white fur that covers up his many scars. He’s level E under the USDA Pain and Distress category. No anesthesia, no rest. Little bun who always bites when he shouldn’t and kicks at scientists and doesn’t know anything but glass and iron and white and fear.

In his immense wisdom and many years of bunny experience (he is TWO (2) whole years), Bunnyblade resolves to topple the United States Government on the grounds of unethical treatment of its citizens (born on US soil! He should get rights!). But the only obstacle between him and the country descending into anarchy is escaping the lab.

As 2 in bunny years is well over 16 in human years, it’s probably not illegal for him to drive. What? Of course he knows how to drive. Bunnyblade only doesn’t know how to break, because he’s shoved a brick on the accelerator and his widdle legs can’t reach that far. He CAN use the turn signal. He doesn’t because he’s an anarchist.

So of course the greatest evil mastermind of the 21st century escapes the lab! Determined bun. Strong bun. But alone bun. All in the cold with no idea how survival works. Bunnyblade is well familiar with human lifestyles due to deciphering human languages and that one time he stole a phone and discovered the internet (with unlimited access for an entire night! THOSE FOOLS! Those moronic scientists scarcely comprehend the monster they’ve made!). But human society turns out to be very discriminatory towards rabbits with no income, and Bunnyblade is at the mercy of the elements.

Cue Philza finding what’s obviously someone’s pet trying to eat plastic turf grass. Cue him frantically chasing down a frightened bun across the neighbor hood so he can return it. (Blast! They’ve hired goons to catch him!) Except- what the hell, this rabbit seems to be evading him no matter what. And Phil starts getting tricky with trying to corner it, but it never seems to work. But in yet another desperate bid to outrun the determined little bun, he smacks into a small child, smelling his ice cream cone. After Tommy is done cursing the stranger to hell and back, he decides he’ll show up Phil by catching the rabbit cause he’s faster and smarter and handsomer!

And then stranger Kristin sees Phil making an absolute dorky fool of himself trying to save a frightened bunny and immediately thinks oh I can’t Not wife him she should help. So now they’re flirting in between absurdly elaborate schemes to trap the bun.

More and more goons are after Bunnyblade! This is TERRIBLE! They must know his secret plans to overthrow the government! It gets up to like 20 different people chasing him around the park. His heart is racing as fast as a rab- erm- okay immediately after he takes over the government he’ll rewrite all English idioms to be more rabbit inclusive, but until then- his heart is beating so fast it hurts, throbbing in painful desperation as more and more humans hunt him down in roaming packs. There’s so many he can’t ever stop running, knowing the second he’s caught he’ll be dragged back to the lab. It'll be so much harder to escape next time, maybe impossible. Never to see the outside world again. No warm sun tousling through his white fur. No soft grass beneath his feet, healing the lines scored into toe beans by wire cage floors. No. Bunnyblade can’t go back to the lab.

So he runs. And runs. Little body aching, unused to to wide open spaces but so desperate to become used to freedom.

Philza keeps being this close to capturing the bun. Mere whiskers off! Everyone is getting more and more invested in helping, feels like half the town is chipping in. There’s multiple teams competing for who captures him first. Philza isn’t sure how, but he’s somehow become the leader, coordinating groups and strategies since somehow the rabbit manages to get capture efforts tangled up in each other to thwart both teams. Tommy insists he’s in charge, though, and to appease the twerp a little Philza says the bunny’s name is ‘Technoblade’ when asked by the news crew. Tommy came up with it off of some kids show, seems to think it’s the raddest name ever.

The joke keeps getting tossed around that this is the reincarnation of Bugs Bunny, that this is a were-rabbit and they transform midday. But for the most part Philza really does this think is a normal, albeit insanely fast and lucky, rabbit. Until when he’s right on the bun’s tail, hurling himself at them in a desperate bid to finally catch them-

Concussion. Right. P-probably just a concussion haha! And after 20 million schemes 6 trips to the ER and enough carrots* to feed a small country, (*carrot thing is a myth but Phil is dumb he don’t know that),

...they catch Technoblade. Philza is cradling the bunny to his chest and -oh, oh he’s so small and soft. Could probably be held in one hand were he not thrashing so much. Philza pants in exhaustion, grinning triumphantly. Around him everyone erupts in the quietest cheers imaginable.

Technoblade is shaking badly. His fluttering heart never seems to calm even as Philza gently strokes them. His struggles are weak, poor thing worn out from fending off dozens of persistence predators. But he's safe now.

And elsewhere, a click of a spacebar on the live news story. The screen zooms in on a blurry glimpse of the escaped lab subjected. His large, terrified red eyes that almost seem to glow.

A long, long sigh, and a latex-gloved hand picks up a phone. “We found it. But it purposefully got as many eyes on it as possible.”

[electrificata]

Mutual 1: hurtling towards the gigantic limestone aurochs again btw

Mutual 2: none of you have ever had sex, unlike me, im having sex right now

Mutual 4: eating a full lemon, yes with the rind #NoScurvy

Mutual 5: you cant possibly imagine how difficult it is to be the 21st century incarnation of maximillien robespierre

Mutual 6: *6-armed purple leopardtaur with her tits and dick and balls out* If you even care.

Mutual 7: gifset of two gangly guys from a 70s sitcom making eyes at each other

Mutual 8: none of you have ever had sex, unlike me, im having sex right now

Mutual 9: i need roddy mcdowell to murder me or i'll die

Mutual 10: you cant possibly imagine how difficult it is to be the 21st century incarnation of maximillien robespierre

Mutual 11: *pics from a 90s fashion show with 9 filters over them*

Mutual 12: poll: favorite outfit worn by a character you cant remember during one particular episode of a show you did watch

Mutual 13: #honestly her toxic pussy makes me such a misogynist (tag on image of 40smth actor man)

Mutual 14: the phoenixgirls are setting fire to the dmv!! Its enrichment for them dont worry :)

Mutual 15: server room wire gore images

Mutual 16: 10 ur old meme

Mutual 17: vaguing me

Mutual 18: Let me learn you a thing! Yes i am 35 years old

Mutual 19: people need to stop trying to erase crowley's influence on 20th century magical practice, like we KNOW he's a lying piece of shit but if you wanted to avoid this stuff you should have stayed out of western occultism and kept watching steven-

Mutual 20: if you guys were less panphobic we could still listen to hamilton without getting clowned on

[somehow-a-human]

I am officially praying to the Universe and Amazon executives to give us Good Omens Season 3 episodes weekly (or at the very least daily).

As much as I am a human of the 21st century and hard wired to want immediate gratification, can you imagine what it would be like to get weekly drops for season 3?

Can you imagine what an insane 6 weeks it would be here on Tumblr while season 3 aired? And if not 6 weeks, even if they managed to do it as daily drops, can you imagine that week? It would be like a goddamn festival, a celebration, and it would be insane. Things would be trending off the charts while people watched the episodes over and over again breaking them apart while they wait for the rest. We would all be discussing everything and theorizing and gushing over every little piece!

Look, I'm not going to be disappointed by any means if I can melt into my couch for 6 hours and consume the entire finale of this story, but if it gets stretched out man, wouldn't that be an experience for us all?

[wherepond]

The Grayzone

Technofeudal ecstasy

Max Blumenthal is joined by Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire to discuss Elon Musk's megalomaniacal meltdown and the CIA-centric podcast fraudsters who handled the alleged cybertruck bomber's manifesto.

[drama--universe]

Hospital Love

Requested by @creepypastacrazier93: Hey hey! I was wondering...how about a Jiang Cheng x 21st century reader oneshot? I won't elaborate, I'll leave it to your imagination :-) good luck and thx!

Pairing: Jiang Cheng x reader

Word Count: 1.6k words

Jiang Cheng couldn't help but groan as he exits the restaurant, removing his tie after yet another unsuccessful date. It was the fourth one this month already, another woman his mother had chosen for him. They were all too preppy for his liking, none interesting in any way for even a second of the date. All of them were just daughters of other wealthy businessmen, spoiled and rotten. He had a headache from this date, the girl her voice had been shrill and annoying, especially because she wouldn't shut her mouth for a single second. He got to his car and got in, slamming the door shut before groaning as he leans his head back against his car seat. With another loud sigh, he starts the car and gets ready to leave.

He takes the long route, wanting some peace and quiet before getting home. He didn't want to see his mother for now, knowing she'd yell at him for ruining another date. He drove as slow as he could, enjoying the view around him. The night might be cold and dark, but Jiang Cheng loved the night sight of nature. Most creatures were asleep, only the rare spotted nocturnal animal awake and flying or running around in absolute silence. Jiang Cheng couldn't help but look to the side as he watched the forest. He was, however, pulled out of his admiring by a loud car horn, eyes snapping to the front just in time so he could swerve out of the way for the other car that had swerved into the wrong lane. He felt the wheels of his car hit the side berm before hitting the guard rail, the car coming to a straight stop and sending Jiang Cheng flying forward. The seat belt stopped his movement and he felt his collarbone and maybe even a few ribs break, the airbags deploying and sending his head backwards. After a few minutes, he heard voiced beside him but his head was ringing and he could barely see due to his fuzzy vision. It felt like hours before he heard voices, not able to make out what they were saying. He felt people grabbing his body and dragging him out of the car, flashing lights and sirens surrounding him as people surrounded him. Asking questions to him, but he's unable to answer as he feels his vision blurring.

When he wakes up again, the first thing he sees is you. You're adjusting the wires on his chest that are connected to monitors, seemingly very focused on your task. He goes to speak, but stops when he feels a pressure in his throat and he moves his hands up to feel what was going on. You see him move and your eyes widen before you grab his hands.

"Just a second, you're attached to a breath monitor." You speak calmly before moving your hands up and grabbing the tube that went down his throat, carefully but quickly removing it so he could breath on his own. Once the tube was gone, Jiang Cheng took a deep breath in to fill his lungs. Once he is breathing again, he looks at you again but you speak before him.

"You're in the hospital, you had a car accident a few days ago. You took a big hit to your head and to your back and left leg, so you can't move too much." You explain shortly and he almost wants to scoff, but when he feels the ache in his body he realizes that he should swallow his pride and listen for once. He sighs heavily and looks up at the ceiling. He doesn't know how to feel for once in his life, whether to be annoyed that he was stuck in a hospital for a considerable time or glad that he had a decent reason to not come home for awhile. That meant while he'd be bored out of his mind, but no forced dates either.

And thus he stayed in the hospital, using the free time for healing both mentally and physically. He had days where he only had physical rehabilitation and others where he had mental evaluations to check if his brain didn't have some later damage.

All the while, you remained his nurse, always waking him up in the morning to change his bandages and check his vitals. Then you'd bring him some food, sneaking in some regular food sometimes for him to enjoy instead of the regular hospital food. The only times he didn't see you was when you were checking other patients or when he was at rehabilitation with another nurse or doctor. But some days, you'd stay with him for hours, just talking about basic things and as much as he disliked to admit it, he liked talking to you.

In fact, he couldn't live without it. He couldn't live without you.

The days he dreaded being in the hospital were quick to chance to dread of ever leaving the hospital and you. Even when he hated the food and the constant checks on his mental and physical health, he just didn't want to leave.

Unfortunately, however, he was being discharged today and he had no way of fighting back.

He sat in the hospital gardens, going over the paperwork for his discharge as slow as he could. He'd read and reread the papers, signing the papers where he was supposed to with his good hand while a small frown was on his face.

"Don't wanna leave, huh?" You walk closer to him, leaning down to see the papers. Jiang Cheng looks up to you before sighing as he put the pen down.

"It's certainly a mental workout to leave this hospital." He grumbles as he leans back in his seat and taking a deep breath of the fresh air. You sit down beside him and grin. "Yeah... It definitely is a chore." You chuckle. "So... What you going to do now then, huh? Go back to speed dating?" You tease and Jiang Cheng groans instantly, annoyed at just the thought of it. He gives you a playful glare before scoffing.

"Sure... I'll tell my mom to give you a chance then?" He decides to tease you, but there is a slight genuine tone to it that he hopes you don't pick up on. You do, however, and grin softly as you lean on the table with your elbow. "Mhm... Might as well give me your number." You tease back and you can see a soft tint of red on his face appearing, which makes you smirk softly as you stand up again.

"Get that paperwork finished, okay? No use for you to stay somewhere you don't need to be." You smile before walking off to continue to your rounds.

After he's discharged, it takes a few more weeks for him to get back to his usual life. Luckily his mother left his alone mostly, no blind dates until he looked "presentable". His mother's words, not his own.

But then, after two more months, he was sat in a restaurant again for yet another double date. He tapped his fingers on the table in annoyance as he waited for his date to arrive.

"Look, I don't feel like pretending, so I'm just going to say hi and leave-" You speak before pausing as you notice Jiang Chen sitting at the table that was meant for your double date. You pause as you look at him. "Wait... You're my date?" You stare at him with wide eyes as he looks up, seemingly just as shocked as you were. You blink before just sitting down opposite of him, putting your bag down.

"Don't mind if I stay then?" You grin as you look at him. He looks a bit confused, still dazed until he finally snaps out of it. "You're my date?" He asked, repeating your previous question again. You chuckle and nod. "Apparently, yes." You smile sweetly. He sighs softly, leaning back in his seat.

"Is this allowed..? Not that I don't you want be here! But since I was a patient of yours..?" He asks and you lean back, shrugging. "Well... It's not illegal or anything, but it can be frowned upon. It really just depends on the situation" You shrug before looking up as the waiter arrived.

The night passed by quickly as you ate and drank, the conversation never dying down at all. The topic changed every now and then, but neither of you got bored of the conversation.

Normally, Jiang Cheng would leave after half an hour to an hour of the date, but this time he stayed in the restaurant for longer. Even after two hours, he remained in place with pleasure. By the end of the evening, he just felt disappointed that it had to end. So he offers to ride you home, desperate for those extra minutes.

And now, you sat in his passenger seat of his car as he drove (very carefully, of course). The radio was on, filling the silent atmosphere with some soft music as he tried to make the drive as long s possible without making it too obvious. But eventually, he arrived at your house and parked the car with a soft sigh.

"Tonight was fun." You smile at him, unbuckling your seatbelt. He looks at you, nodding softly but not saying anything. You open the door before looking at him. Then you just impulsively lean closer and kiss his cheek softly. "Let's do this again sometimes..." You mumble softly, your face heating up a bit before you get out of the car and walk to your house. Jiang Cheng, meanwhile, is blushing furiously and almost wants to hit his head on the steering wheel to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

That day, Jiang Cheng couldn't wipe the smile of his face as he drove home.

[alwaysbewoke]

I’m personally a Holocaust survivor as an infant, I barely survived. My grandparents were killed in Aushwitz and most of my extended family were killed. I became a Zionist; this dream of the Jewish people resurrected in their historical homeland and the barbed wire of Aushwitz being replaced by the boundaries of a Jewish state with a powerful army…and then I found out that it wasn’t exactly like that, that in order to make this Jewish dream a reality we had to visit a nightmare on the local population. There’s no way you could have ever created a Jewish state without oppressing and expelling the local population. Jewish Israeli historians have shown without a doubt that the expulsion of Palestinians was persistent, pervasive, cruel, murderous and with deliberate intent - that’s what’s called the 'Nakba' in Arabic; the 'disaster' or the 'catastrophe'. There’s a law that you cannot deny the Holocaust, but in Israel you’re not allowed to mention the Nakba, even though it’s at the very basis of the foundation of Israel. I visited the Occupied Territories (West Bank) during the first intifada. I cried every day for two weeks at what I saw; the brutality of the occupation, the petty harassment, the murderousness of it, the cutting down of Palestinian olive groves, the denial of water rights, the humiliations...and this went on, and now it’s much worse than it was then. It’s the longest ethnic cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st century. I could land in Tel Aviv tomorrow and demand citizenship but my Palestinian friend in Vancouver, who was born in Jerusalem, can’t even visit! So then you have these miserable people packed into this, horrible…people call it an 'outdoor prison', which is what it is. You don’t have to support Hamas policies to stand up for Palestinian rights, that’s a complete falsity. You think the worse thing you can say about Hamas, multiply it by a thousand times, and it still will not meet the Israeli repression and killing and dispossession of Palestinians. And 'anybody who criticises Israel is an anti-Semite' is simply an egregious attempt to intimidate good non-Jews who are willing to stand up for what is true.

[trivialbob]

This afternoon my dad and I went out to lunch.

I drove, he paid. Fair tradeoff, right? Full disclosure: It was his car too. His back hurts some. A car is easier to get into than my truck.

Afterwards we were at his apartment. A wall in the lobby has photos of veterans who live there. He recently gave his picture to hang there.

I don't remember seeing this picture before. In others of him in his 20s he wore "browline" eyeglasses -- the ones that are plastic on top and wire on the bottom. I saw some people wear those in the 00s and 10s. I thought they looked outdated in the 21st century. (If you like 'em, that's cool.)

Here my dad is wearing clear plastic frames which are sort of popular now. I like these glasses, both in this picture and when I see them on other people nowadays.

[wcdonaldo]

nothing turns you off to wireless shit like working corporate IT btw. i encourage everybody who can to use wired keyboards and mice and just velcro their asses together. cable management is a 21st century necessity

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The internet is not a (link)dump truck

Monday (October 2), I'll be in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab. On October 7–8, I'm in Milan to keynote Wired Nextfest.

The second decade of the 21st century is truly a bounteous time. My backyard has produced a bumper crop of an invasive species of mosquito that is genuinely innovative: rather than confining itself to biting in the dusk and dawn golden hours, these stinging clouds of flying vampires bite at every hour that God sends:

https://themagnet.substack.com/p/the-magnet-081-war-with-mosquitoes

Here in the twilight of capitalism's planet-devouring, half-century orgy of wanton destruction, there's more news every day than I can possibly write a full blog post about every day, and as with many weeks, I have arrived at Saturday with a substantial backlog of links that didn't fit into the week's "Hey look at this" linkdumps.

Thus, the eighth installment in my ongoing, semiregular series of Saturday linkdumps:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

This week, the miscellany begins with the first hesitant signs of an emerging, post-neoliberal order. The FTC, under direction of the force-of-nature that is Lina Khan, has brought its long-awaited case antitrust case against Amazon. I am very excited about this. Disoriented, even.

When was the last time you greeted every day with a warm feeling because high officials in the US government were working for the betterment of every person in the land? It's enough to make one giddy. Plus, the New York Times let me call Amazon "the apex predator of our platform era"! Now that it's in the "paper of record," it's official:

https://pluralistic.net/ApexPredator

Now, lefties have been predicting capitalism's imminent demise since The Communist Manifesto, but any fule kno that the capitalist word for "crisis" also translates as "opportunity." Like the bedbugs that mutated to thrive in clouds of post-war DDT, capitalism has adapted to each crisis, emerging in a new, more virulent form:

https://boingboing.net/2023/09/30/bedbugs-take-paris.html

But "anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop" (Stein's Law). Perhaps our mistake was in waiting for capitalism to give way to socialism, rather than serving as a transitional phase between feudalism and…feudalism.

What's the difference between feudalism and capitalism? According to Yanis Varoufakis, it comes down to whether we value rents (income you get from owning things) over profits (income you get from doing things):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

By that metric, the FTC's case against Amazon is really a case against feudalism. Through predatory pricing and acquisitions, Amazon has turned itself into a chokepoint that every merchant, writer and publisher has to pass through in order to reach their customers. Amazon charges a fortune to traverse that chokepoint (estimates range from 45% to 51% of gross revenues) and then forces sellers to raise their prices everywhere else when they hike their Amazon prices so they can afford Amazon's tolls. It's "an economy-wide hidden tax":

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-ftc-sues-to-break-up-amazon-over

Now, feudalism isn't a straightforward proposition. Like, are you sure you mean feudalism? Maybe you mean "manorialism" (they're easy to mix up):

https://locusmag.com/2021/01/cory-doctorow-neofeudalism-and-the-digital-manor/

Plus, much of what we know about the "Dark Ages" comes from grifter doofuses like Voltaire, a man who was capable of dismissing the 800 year Holy Roman Empire with a single quip ("neither holy, roman, nor an empire"). But the reality is a lot more complicated, gnarly and interesting.

That's where medievalist Eleanor Janeaga comes in, and her "Against Voltaire, or, the shortest possible introduction to the Holy Roman Empire" is a banger:

https://going-medieval.com/2023/09/29/against-voltaire-or-the-shortest-possible-introduction-to-the-holy-roman-empire/

Now, while it's true that Enlightenment thinkers gave medieval times a bum rap, it's likewise true that a key element of Enlightenment justice is transparency: justice being done, and being seen to be done. One way to distinguish "modern" justice from "medieval" trials is to ask whether the public is allowed to watch the trial, see the evidence, and understand the conclusion.

Here again, there is evidence that capitalism was a transitional phase between feudalism and feudalism. The Amazon trial has already been poisoned by farcical redactions, in which every key figure is blacked out of the public record:

https://prospect.org/power/2023-09-27-redacted-case-against-amazon/

This is part of a trend. The other gigantic antitrust case underway right now, against Google, has turned into a star chamber as well, with Judge Amit P Mehta largely deferring to Google's frequent demands to close the court and seal the exhibits:

https://usvgoogle.org/trial-update-9-22

Google's rationale for this is darkly hilarious: if the public is allowed to know what's happening in its trial, this will be converted into "clickbait," which is to say, "The public is interested in this case, and if they are informed of the evidence against us, that information will be spread widely because it is so interesting":

https://www.bigtechontrial.com/p/secrecy-is-systemic

Thankfully, this secrecy is struggling to survive the public outrage it prompted. While the court's Zoom feed has been shuttered and while Judge Mehta is still all-too-willing to clear the courtroom during key testimony, at least the DoJ's exhibits aren't being sealed at the same clip as before:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/27/23892215/google-search-antitrust-trial-documents-public-again-judge-mehta-rules

In 2023, the world comes at you fast. There's an epic struggle over the future of corporate dominance playing out all around us. I mean, there are French antitrust enforcers kicking down doors of giant tech companies and ransacking their offices for evidence of nefarious anticompetitive plots:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/28/23894863/nvidia-offices-raided-french-competition-authority

As ever, the question is "socialism or barbarism." But don't say that too loud: in America, socialism is a slur, one that dates back to the Reconstruction era, when pro-slavery factions called Black voting "socialism in South Carolina."

Ever since, white nationalists used "socialism" make Americans believe that "socialism" was an "extremist" view, so they'd stand by while everyone from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump smeared their opponents as "Marxists":

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4066499-trump-paints-2024-campaign-as-righteous-crusade/

As Heather Cox Richardson puts it for The Atlantic, "There is a long-standing fight over whether support for the modern-day right is about taxes or race. The key is that it is about taxes and race at the same time":

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/american-socialism-racist-origins/675453/

The cruelty isn't the point, in other words. Cruelty is the tactic. The point is power. Remember, no war but class war. All of this is in service to paying workers less so that bosses and investors can have more.

Take "essential workers," everyone from teachers to zookeepers, nurses to librarians, EMTs to daycare workers. All of these "caring" professions are paid sub-living wages, and all of these workers are told that "they matter too much to earn a living wage":

https://www.okdoomer.io/praise-doesnt-pay/

The "you matter too much to pay" mind-zap is called "vocational awe," a crucial term introduced by Ettarh Fobazi in her 2018 paper:

https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

Vocational awe is how creative workers – like the writers who just won their strike and the actors who are still fighting – are conned into working at starvation wages. As the old joke goes, "What, and give up show-business?"

https://ask.metafilter.com/117904/Whats-the-joke-thas-hase-the-punchline-what-and-give-up-show-business

In this moment of Big Tech-driven, AI-based wage suppression, mass surveillance, corruption and inequality, perhaps we should take a moment to remind ourselves that cyberpunk was a warning, not a suggestion. Or, more to the point, the warning was about high-tech corporate takeover of our lives, and the suggestion was that we could seize the means of computation (a synonym for William Gibson's "the street finds its own use for things"):

http://www.seizethemeansofcomputation.org/

We are living in a lopsided cyberpunk future, long on high-tech corporate takeover, short of computation seizing. This point is made sharply in JWZ's "Dispatch From The Cyberpunk City," which is beautifully packaged as a Hypercard stack that you run on an in-browser Mac Plus emulator from the Internet Archive:

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/09/neuroblast-dispatch-from-the-cyberpunk-city/

Cast your gaze ahead, to the near future: Public space has all but disappeared. Corporate landlords use AI-powered robots to harass the homeless. The robots, built slick and white with an R2-D2 friendliness now most resemble giant butt plugs covered in graffiti and grime.

Science fiction doesn't have to be a warning. It can also be a wellspring of hope. That's what I tried to do with The Lost Cause, my forthcoming Green New Deal novel, which Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel":

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865939/the-lost-cause

Writing a hopeful novel of ecological, social and economic redemption, driven by solidarity, repair, and library socialism, was a powerful tonic against despair in this smoke-smothered, flooded, mosquito-bitten time. And while the book isn't out yet, there are early indications I succeeded, like Kim Stanley Robinson's reaction, "Along with the rush of adrenaline I felt a solid surge of hope. May it go like this."

And now, we have a concurring judgment from The Library Journal, who yesterday published their review, which concludes: "a thought-provoking story, with a message of hope in a near-future that looks increasingly bleak":

https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/the-lost-cause-2196385

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/2023/09/30/mesclada/#melange

[stevebattle]

Deputy Sam – Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Hillsborough County, FL (1985) by 21st Century Robotics, Monroe, GA. "With radio control, wired servos and power drive [using] Large DC motors. Deputy Sam Robot has two infrared blinking lights for eyes with mounted cameras next to the red LEDs. One arm is motorized and the head turns 180 degrees. Head can be removed for mobile operation and transporting."

[mariacallous]

In 1974, the United States Congress passed the Privacy Act in response to public concerns over the US government’s runaway efforts to harness Americans’ personal data. Now Democrats in the US Senate are calling to amend the half-century-old law, citing ongoing attempts by billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to effectively commit the same offense—collusively collect untold quantities of personal data, drawing upon dozens if not hundreds of government systems.

On Monday, Democratic senators Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, and Chris Van Hollen introduced the Privacy Act Modernization Act of 2025—a direct response, the lawmakers say, to the seizure by DOGE of computer systems containing vast tranches of sensitive personal information—moves that have notably coincided with the firings of hundreds of government officials charged with overseeing that data’s protection. “The seizure of millions of Americans’ sensitive information by Trump, Musk and other MAGA goons is plainly illegal,” Wyden tells WIRED, “but current remedies are too slow and need more teeth.”

The passage of the Privacy Act came in the wake of the McCarthy era—one of the darkest periods in American history, marked by unceasing ideological warfare and a government run amok, obsessed with constructing vast record systems to house files on hundreds of thousands of individuals and organizations. Secret dossiers on private citizens were the primary tool for suppressing free speech, assembly, and opinion, fueling decades’ worth of sedition prosecutions, loyalty oaths, and deportation proceedings. Countless writers, artists, teachers, and attorneys saw their livelihoods destroyed, while civil servants were routinely rounded up and purged as part of the roving inquisitions.

The first privacy law aimed at truly reining in the power of the administrative state, the Privacy Act was passed during the dawn of the microprocessor revolution, amid an emergence of high-speed telecommunications networks and “automated personal data systems.” The explosion in advancements coincided with Cassandra-like fears among ordinary Americans about a rise in unchecked government surveillance through the use of “universal identifiers.”

A wave of such controversies, including Watergate and COINTELPRO, had all but annihilated public trust in the government’s handling of personal data. “The Privacy Act was part of our country’s response to the FBI abusing its access to revealing sensitive records on the American people,” says Wyden. “Our bill defends against new threats to Americans’ privacy and the integrity of federal systems, and ensures individuals can go after the government when officials break the law, including quickly stopping their illegal actions with a court order.”

The bill, first obtained by WIRED last week, would implement several textual changes aimed at strengthening the law—redefining, for instance, common terms such as “record” and “process” to more aptly comport with their usage in the 21st century. It further takes aim at certain exemptions and provisions under the Privacy Act that have faced decades’ worth of criticism by leading privacy and civil liberties experts.

While the Privacy Act generally forbids the disclosure of Americans’ private records except to the “individual to whom the records pertain,” there are currently at least 10 exceptions that apply to this rule. Private records may be disclosed, for example, without consent in the interest of national defense, to determine an individual’s suitability for federal employment, or to “prevent, control, or reduce crime.” But one exception has remained controversial from the very start. Known as “routine use,” it enables government agencies to disclose private records so long as the reason for doing so is “compatible” with the purpose behind their collection.

The arbitrary ways in which the government applies the “routine use” exemption have been drawing criticism since at least 1977, when a blue-ribbon commission established by Congress reported that federal law enforcement agencies were creating “broad-worded routine uses,” while other agencies were engaged in “quid pro quo” arrangements—crafting their own novel “routine uses,” as long as other agencies joined in doing the same.

Nearly a decade later, Congress’ own group of assessors would find that “routine use” had become a “catch-all exemption” to the law.

In an effort to stem the overuse of this exemption, the bill introduced by the Democratic senators includes a new stipulation that, combined with enhanced minimization requirements, would require any “routine use” of private data to be both “appropriate” and “reasonably necessary,” providing a hook for potential plaintiffs in lawsuits against government offenders down the road. Meanwhile, agencies would be required to make publicly known “any purpose” for which a Privacy Act record might actually be employed.

Cody Venzke, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, notes that the bill would also hand Americans the right to sue states and municipalities, while expanding the right of action to include violations that could reasonably lead to harms. “Watching the courts and how they’ve handled the whole variety of suits filed under the Privacy Act, it's been frustrating to see them not take the data harms seriously or recognize the potential eventual harms that could come to be,” he says. Another major change, he adds, is that the bill expands who's actually covered under the Privacy Act from merely citizens and legal residents to virtually anyone physically inside the United States—aligning the law more firmly with current federal statutes limiting the reach of the government's most powerful surveillance tools.

In another key provision, the bill further seeks to rein in the government’s use of so-called “computer matching,” a process whereby a person’s private records are cross-referenced across two agencies, helping the government draw new inferences it couldn’t by examining each record alone. This was a loophole that Congress previously acknowledged in 1988, the first time it amended the Privacy Act, requiring agencies to enter into written agreements before engaging in matching, and to calculate how matching might impact an individual’s rights.

The changes imposed under the Democrats’ new bill would merely extend these protections to different record systems held by a single agency. To wit, the Internal Revenue Service has one system that contains records on “erroneous tax refunds,” while another holds data on the “seizure and sale of real property.” These changes would ensure that the restrictions on matching still apply, even though both systems are controlled by the IRS. What’s more, while the restrictions on matching do not currently extend to “statistical projects,” they would under the new text, if the project’s purpose might impact the individuals’ “rights, benefits, or privileges.” Or—in the case of federal employees—result in any “financial, personnel, or disciplinary action.”

The Privacy Act currently imposes rather meager criminal fines (no more than $5,000) against government employees who knowingly disclose Americans’ private records to anyone ineligible to receive them. The Democrats’ bill introduces a fine of up to $250,000, as well as the possibility of imprisonment, for anyone who leaks records “for commercial advantage, personal gain, or malicious harm.”

The bill has been endorsed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Public Citizen, two civil liberties nonprofits that are both engaged in active litigation against DOGE.

“Over 50 years ago, Congress passed the Privacy Act to protect the public against the exploitation and misuse of their personal information held by the government,” Markey says in a statement. “Today, with Elon Musk and the DOGE team recklessly seeking to access Americans’ sensitive data, it’s time to bring this law into the digital age.”