#The Consumer Protection Bill

[abigailspinach]

[girderednerve]

The NFL began to institute reforms [in response to 2010s concerns about brain injury]. New on-field rules were put in place: Defenders were prohibited from lowering their heads to tackle an opponent with their helmet or from hitting “defenseless” players in the head or neck. Contact was limited during practice, and the league instituted a “concussion protocol” every concussed player must follow before returning to the field. There were now “spotters” at every game, whose sole job is to survey the field for players who might be injured, and independent neurological consultants to offer a medical diagnosis that would theoretically be uninfluenced by a team’s desire to get its players back on the field. Concussions were still happening every Sunday, but the league appeared to be trying to alleviate the problem and it became easier for fans to watch with a cleaner conscience.

The media also stopped covering the subject with the same urgency. “You know enough about the press to know that one reporter comes along and is able to gain traction with something, it gets exposed and then everybody moves on,” [Alan] Schwarz [a sportswriter who has extensively written about CTE among football players] said. Investigative journalism in the sports world has shrunk — the sports department Schwarz worked for at the Times no longer exists — and the NFL was now in business with practically every major media company. Even Schwarz admitted that it became hard to find fresh ways to write about the issue. “It got tedious — ‘Oh my God, another dead player had CTE,’” he said. “It got to be sort of, ‘Duh.’”

When we spoke, Schwarz said he could think of only one thing that might produce an actual recalibration of how Americans think about football’s risks. “Everything would be different if an NFL player died on the field due to head trauma,” Schwarz said. “If Tua were to seize up and somehow not recover, then that would change the entire conversation.” ... Chris Nowinski [a longtime activist focused on brain injury in football] wasn’t sure it would. “I love Alan, but a player can die on the field from a brain injury and it’s not gonna change anything,” he said. “People will say, ‘It’s only happened once in the history of the NFL.’ They’ll compartmentalize.” ...

Predictions that youth football would collapse as parents kept their children off the field have also not come to pass. Youth football participation steadily decreased for more than a decade after news about CTE started to break, but it is on the rise again. Roughly a million boys still play high-school football — twice the number that play either basketball or soccer — and it remains possible in much of the country to sign up your 5-year old to be a linebacker. Most surveys of parents find that they understand there are risks but that they also don’t want to keep their kids from playing. The enduring appeal of youth tackle football is often chalked up to the promise of a college scholarship, but for many parents and kids, football is simply the best of a limited number of options. Earlier this year, when student reporters at the University of Maryland visited the small town of Lexington, Mississippi, which is in the state’s second-poorest county, one parent pointed out the football team remains popular in part because the entire county has no swimming pools, no soccer fields, no tennis courts, and no YMCAs. (Youth-football participation has gone down more dramatically in wealthier communities.) Tackle football’s continued popularity among young people was, in this sense, a sign of a bigger failure. Last year, researchers found an advanced form of CTE in an 18-year-old high-school football player who killed himself. By early September of this season, three boys had died from brain injuries they suffered while playing high-school football.

Fans, it seems, have chosen to believe the NFL has largely done what it can. “They addressed the majority of the ethical issues — the stuff that made them look bad — and now suddenly the story is ‘It’s just sad,’” Nowinski said. “What people are missing is that football has gotten more ethical, but it’s not necessarily safer.” The point was that, because the NFL was no longer denying the problem, and every NFL player should now know the risk they are taking with their brains, a large part of the ethical burden on the league and its fans has been lifted. At the same time, while the number of reported concussions in the NFL has trended down over the past decade, they haven’t gone away: In fact, the number has increased in each of the past three seasons, and last year’s total of 219 is roughly equivalent to the total from 2018. (The total also doesn’t include the blows to the head that go unnoticed.) Because doctors can only diagnose CTE postmortem, after cutting into someone’s brain, we still have no way of knowing for sure whether CTE is developing in Tagovailoa’s brain or anyone else’s. But researchers have now examined hundreds of brains of former players and found that the portion who had CTE has remained consistent at around 90 percent.

Even so, Nowinski didn’t want to tell Tagovailoa what to do. “The reality is that the NFL doesn’t have to be safe,” Nowinski said. “If the players aren’t being lied to, they can choose to have a dangerous job.” The NFL’s chief medical officer, Allen Sills, said that the league would not get involved in Tagovailoa’s decision, citing “patient autonomy and medical decision-making really matters.” Football had entered its era of personal responsibility....

[dnickels]

"Surely there was a better way to convey this information" probably! That may be why I'm no longer asked to contribute to our social media page at work!

But its that season again and i want to remind everyone that just because an object is vest-shaped and floats does not make it a lifejacket. Only a Coast Guard approved PFD is tested and rated to save your life. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

This...thing pops up in searches for "child's inflatable lifejacket" and bills itself as such. But scroll down and we find an explanation:

In contrast to life vests meant to keep your head above water, our vest enables you to swim smoothly with your head in the water. It keeps you buoyant longer for a safe and enjoyable experience - without worry of surprise riptides or fatigue.

Catch that? This thing is not intended to and will not keep your head above water, the single most important thing a personal flotation device should do. What if you are in a riptide and fatigued while wearing this thing and not longer able to keep your breathing hole above the water's surface? You're shit out of luck. You drown.

Consumers may notice that there is a warning notice on the back, but the good people at Amazon have cleverly obscured it. We can still make out "does not protect [...] drowning". If your waterwings, floaties, or vest-shaped inflatable have a disclaimer like this then they are not rated to safe your life, your child's life, your dog's life, whatever!

By contrast, every Coast Guard approved PFD has labeling like this:

It will clearly say USGC approved and have an approval number. It will say WHO it is rated for (infant, child, youth, adult), the size (small, medium large), an upper weight limit, and generally what kind of recreation its approved for (near shore versus offshore etc). It will give you instructions for proper use and signs that your lifejacket is nearing the end of its utility and needs to be replaced.

Not all personal flotation devices are suited for all activities. Whitewater kayaking and deep-sea fishing need more specialized gear than a day at the lake. But you should have, at minimum, a correctly-sized, well-fitting, CG approved PFD in serviceable condition for any kind of activity on or near the water. Have it, but most importantly, wear it!!!!!

[fullhalalalchemist]

URGENT: 🚨🚨EARN IT ACT IS BACK IN THE SENATE 🚨🚨 TUMBLR’S NSFW BAN HITTING THE ENTIRE INTERNET THIS SUMMER 2023

April 28, 2023

I’m so sorry for the long post but please please please pay attention and spread this

What is the EARN IT Act?

The EARN IT Act (s. 1207) has been roundly condemned by nearly every major LGBTQ+ advocacy and human rights organization in the country.

This is the third time the Senate has been trying to force this through, and I talked about it last year. It is a bill that claims "protects children and victims against CSAM" by creating an unelected and politically appointed national commission of law enforcement specialists to dictate "best practices" that websites all across the nation will be forced to follow. (Keep in mind, most websites in the world are created in the US, so this has global ramifications). These "best practices" would include killing encryption so that any law enforcement can scan and see every single message, dm, photo, cloud storage, data, and any website you have every so much as glanced at. Contrary to popular belief, no they actually can't already do that. These "best practices" also create new laws for "removing CSAM" online, leading to mass censorship of non-CSAM content like what happened to tumblr. Keep in mind that groups like NCOSE, an anti-LGBT hate group, will be allowed on this commission. If websites don't follow these best practices, they lose their Section 230 protections, leading to mass censorship either way.

Section 230 is foundational to modern online communications. It's the entire reason social media exists. It grants legal protection to users and websites, and says that websites aren't responsible for what users upload online unless it's criminal. Without Section 230, websites are at the mercy of whatever bullshit regulatory laws any and every US state passes. Imagine if Texas and Florida were allowed to say what you can and can't publish and access online. That is what will happen if EARN IT passes. (For context, Trump wanted to get rid of Section 230 because he knew it would lead to mass govt surveillance and censorship of minorities online.)

This is really not a drill. Anyone who makes or consume anything “adult” and LGBT online has to be prepared to fight Sen. Blumenthal’s EARN IT Act, brought back from the grave by a bipartisan consensus to destroy Section 230. If this bill passes, we’re going to see most, if not all, adult content and accounts removed from mainstream platforms. This will include anything related to LGBT content, including SFW fanfiction, for example. Youtube, Twitter, Reddit, Tiktok, Tumblr, all of them will be completely gutted of anything related to LGBT content, abortion healthcare, resources for victims of any type of abuse, etc. It is a right-wing fascists wet dream, which is why NCOSE is behind this bill and why another name for this bill is named in reference to NCOSE.

NCOSE used to be named Morality in Media, and has rebranded into an "anti-trafficking" organization. They are a hate group that has made millions off of being "against trafficking" while helping almost no victims and pushing for homophobic laws globally. They have successfully pushing the idea that any form of sexual expression, including talking about HEALTH, leads to sex trafficking. That's how SESTA passed. Their goal is to eliminate all sex, anything gay, and everything that goes against their idea of ‘God’ from the internet and hyper disney-fy and sanitize it. This is a highly coordinated attack on multiple fronts.

The EARN IT Act will lead to mass online censorship and surveillance. Platforms will be forced to scan their users’ communications and censor all sex-related content, including sex education, literally anything lgbt, transgender or non-binary education and support systems, aything related to abortion, and sex worker communication according to the ACLU. All this in the name of “protecting kids” and “fighting CSAM”, both of which the bill does nothing of the sort. In fact it makes fighting CSEM even harder.

EARN IT will open the way for politicians to define the category of “pornography" as they — or the lobbies that fund them — please. The same way that right-wing groups have successfully banned books about race and LGBT, are banning trans people from existing, all under the guise of protecting children from "grooming and exploitation", is how they will successfully censor the internet.

As long as state legislatures can tie in "fighting CSAM" to their bullshit laws, they can use EARN IT to censor and surveill whatever they want.

This is already a nightmare enough. But the bill also DESTROYS ENCRYPTION, you know, the thing protecting literally anyone or any govt entity from going into your private messages and emails and anything on your devices and spying on you.

This bill is going to finish what FOSTA/SESTA started. And that should terrify you.

Senator Blumenthal (Same guy who said ‘Facebook should ban finsta’) pushed this bill all of 2020, literally every activist (There were more than half a million signatures on this site opposing this act!) pushed hard to stop this bill. Now he brings it back, doesn’t show the text of the bill until hours later, and it’s WORSE. Instead of fixing literally anything in the bill that might actually protect kids online, Bluemnthal is hoping to fast track this and shove it through, hoping to get little media attention other than propaganda of “protecting kids” to support this shitty legislation that will harm kids. Blumental doesn't care about protecting anyone, and only wants his name in headlines.

It will make CSAM much much worse.

One of the many reasons this bill is so dangerous: It totally misunderstands how Section 230 works, and in doing so (as with FOSTA) it is likely to make the very real problem of CSAM worse, not better. Section 230 gives companies the flexibility to try different approaches to dealing with various content moderation challenges. It allows for greater and greater experimentation and adjustments as they learn what works – without fear of liability for any “failure.” Removing Section 230 protections does the opposite. It says if you do anything, you may face crippling legal liability. This actually makes companies less willing to do anything that involves trying to seek out, take down, and report CSAM because of the greatly increased liability that comes with admitting that there is CSAM on your platform to search for and deal with. This liability would allow anyone for any reason to sue any platform they want, suing smaller ones out of existence. Look at what is happening right now with book bans across the nation with far right groups. This is going to happen to the internet if this bill passes.

(Remember, the state department released a report in December 2021 recommending that the government crack down on “obscenity” as hard the Reagan Administration did. If this bill passes, it could easily go way beyond shit red states are currently trying. It is a goldmine for the fascist right that is currently in the middle of banning every book that talks about race and sexuality across the US.)

The reason these bills keep showing up is because there is this false lie spread by organizations like NCOSE that platforms do nothing about CSEM online. However, platforms are already liable for child sexual exploitation under federal law. Tech companies sent more than 45 million+ instances of CSAM to the DOJ in 2019 alone, most of which they declined to investigate. This shows that platforms are actually doing everything in their power already to stop CSEM by following already existing laws. The Earn It Act includes zero resources for proven investigation or prevention programs. If Senator Bluementhal actually cared about protecting youth, why wouldn’t he include anything to actually protect them in his shitty horrible bill? EARN IT is actually likely to make prosecuting child molesters more difficult since evidence collected this way likely violates the Fourth Amendment and would be inadmissible in court.

I don’t know why so many Senators are eager to cosponsor the “make child pornography worse” bill, but here we are.

HOW TO FIGHT BACK

EARN IT Act was introduced just two weeks ago and is already being fast-tracked. It will be marked up the week of May 1st and head to the Senate floor immediately after. If there is no loud and consistent opposition, it will be law by JUNE! Most bills never go to markup, so this means they are putting pressure to move this through. There are already 20 co-sponsors, a fifth of the entire Senate. This is an uphill battle and it is very much all hands on deck.

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES.

This website takes you to your Senator / House members contact info. EMAIL, MESSAGE, SEND LETTERS, CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL. Calling is the BEST way to get a message through. Get your family and friends to send calls too. This is literally the end of free speech online.

(202) 224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline. Here is a call script if you don't know what to say. Call them every day. Even on the weekends, leaving voicemails are fine.

2. Sign these petitions!

Link to Petition 1

Link to Petition 2

3. SPREAD THE WORD ONLINE

If you have any social media, spread this online. One of the best ways we fought back against this last year was MASSIVE spread online. Tiktok, reddit, twitter, discord, whatever means you have at least mention it. We could see most social media die out by this fall if we don't fight back.

Here is a linktree with more information on this bill including a masterpost of articles, the links to petitions, and the call script.

DISCORD LINK IF YOU WANT TO HELP FIGHT IT

TLDR: The EARN IT Act will lead to online censorship of any and all adult & lgbt content across the entire internet, open the floodgates to mass surveillance the likes which we haven’t seen before, lead to much more CSEM being distributed online, and destroy encryption. Call 202-224-3121 to connect to your house and senate representative and tell them to VOTE NO on this bill that does not protect anyone and harms everyone.

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau put forward a new regulation to limit bank overdraft fees. The CFPB pointed out that the average overdraft fee is $35 even though majority of overdrafts are under $26 and paid back with-in 3 days. The new regulation will push overdraft fees down to as little as $3 and not more than $14, saving the American public collectively 3.5 billion dollars a year.

The Environmental Protection Agency put forward a regulation to fine oil and gas companies for emitting methane. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas, after CO2 and is responsible for 30% of the rise of global temperatures. This represents the first time the federal government has taxed a greenhouse gas. The EPA believes this rule will help reduce methane emissions by 80%

The Energy Department has awarded $104 million in grants to support clean energy projects at federal buildings, including solar panels at the Pentagon. The federal government is the biggest consumer of energy in the nation. The project is part Biden's goal of reducing the federal government's greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2030. The Energy Department estimates it'll save taxpayers $29 million in the first year alone and will have the same impact on emissions as taking over 23,000 gas powered cars off the road.

The Education Department has cancelled 5 billion more dollars of student loan debt. This will effect 74,000 more borrowers, this brings the total number of people who've had their student loan debt forgiven under Biden through different programs to 3.7 Million

U.S. Agency for International Development has launched a program to combat lead exposure in developing countries like South Africa and India. Lead kills 1.6 million people every year, more than malaria and AIDS put together.

Congressional Democrats have reached a deal with their Republican counter parts to revive the expanded the Child Tax Credit. The bill will benefit 16 million children in its first year and is expected to lift 400,000 children out of poverty in its first year. The proposed deal also has a housing provision that could see 200,000 new affordable rental units

[odinsblog]

🗣️THIS IS WHAT INCLUSIVE, COMPASSIONATE DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE

Minnesota Dems enacted a raft of laws to make the state a trans refuge, and ensure people receiving trans care here can't be reached by far-right governments in places like Florida and Texas. (link)

Minnesota Dems ensured that everyone, including undocumented immigrants, can get drivers' licenses. (link)

They made public college free for the majority of Minnesota families. (link)

Minnesota Dems dropped a billion dollars into a bevy of affordable housing programs, including by creating a new state housing voucher program. (link)

Minnesota Dems massively increased funding for the state's perpetually-underfunded public defenders, which lets more public defenders be hired and existing public defenders get a salary increase. (link)

Dems raised Minnesota education spending by 10%, or about 2.3 billion. (link)

Minnesota Dems created an energy standard for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. (link)

Minnesota already has some of the strongest election infrastructure (and highest voter participation) in the country, but the legislature just made it stronger, with automatic registration, preregistration for minors, and easier access to absentee ballots. (link)

Minnesota Dems expanded the publicly subsidized health insurance program to undocumented immigrants. This one's interesting because it's the sort of things Dems often balk at. The governor opposed it! The legislature rolled over him and passed it anyway. (link)

Minnesota Dems expanded background checks and enacted red-flag laws, passing gun safety measures that the GOP has thwarted for years. (link)

Minnesota Dems gave the state AG the power to block the huge healthcare mergers that have slowly gobbled up the state's medical system. (link)

Minnesota Dems restored voting rights to convicted felons as soon as they leave prison. (link)

Minnesota Dems made prison phone calls free. (link)

Minnesota Dems passed new wage protection rules for the construction industry, against industry resistance. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a new sales tax to fund bus and train lines, an enormous victory for the sustainability and quality of public transit. Transit be more pleasant to ride, more frequent, and have better shelters, along more lines. (link)

They passed strict new regulations on PFAS ("forever chemicals"). (link)

Minnesota Dems passed the largest bonding bill in state history! Funding improvements to parks, colleges, water infrastructure, bridges, etc. etc. etc. (link)

They're going to build a passenger train from the Twin Cities to Duluth. (link)

I can't even find a news story about it but there's tens of millions in funding for new BRT lines, too. (link)

A wonky-but-important change: Minnesota Dems indexed the state gas tax to inflation, effectively increasing the gas tax. (link)

They actually indexed a bunch of stuff to inflation, including the state's education funding formula, which helps ensure that school spending doesn't decline over time. (link)

Minnesota Dems made hourly school workers (e.g., bus drivers and paraprofessionals) eligible for unemployment during summer break, when they're not working or getting paid. (link)

Minnesota Dems passed a bunch of labor protections for teachers, including requiring school districts to negotiate class sizes as part of union contracts. (Yet another @SydneyJordanMN special here. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a state board to govern labor standards at nursing homes. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, which would set price caps for high-cost pharmaceuticals. (link)

Minnesota Dems created new worker protections for Amazon warehouse workers and refinery workers. (link)

Minnesota Dems passed a digital fair repair law, which requires electronics manufacturers to make tools and parts available so that consumers can repair their electronics rather than purchase new items. (link)

Minnesota Dems made Juneteenth a state holiday. (link)

Minnesota Dems banned conversion therapy. (link)

They spent nearly a billion dollars on a variety of environmental programs, from heat pumps to reforestation. (link)

Minnesota Dems expanded protections for pregnant and nursing workers - already in place for larger employers - to almost everyone in the state. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a new child tax credit that will cut child poverty by about a quarter. (link)

Minnesota Democrats dropped a quick $50 million into homelessness prevention programs. (link)

And because the small stuff didn't get lost in the big stuff, they passed a law to prevent catalytic converter thefts. (link)

Minnesota Dems increased child care assistance. (link)

Minnesota Dems banned "captive audience meetings," where employers force employees to watch anti-union presentations. (link)

No news story yet, but Minnesota Dems forced signal priority changes to Twin Cities transit. Right now the trains have to wait at intersections for cars, which, I can say from experience, is terrible. Soon that will change.

Minnesota Dems provided the largest increase to nursing home funding in state history. (link)

They also bumped up salaries for home health workers, to help address the shortage of in-home nurses. (link)

Minnesota Dems legalized drug paraphernalia, which allows social service providers to conduct needle exchanges and address substance abuse with reduced fear of incurring legal action. (link)

Minnesota Dems banned white supremacists and extremists from police forces, capped probation at 5 years for most crimes, improved clemency, and mostly banned no-knock warrants. (link)

Minnesota Dems also laid the groundwork for a public health insurance option. (link)

I’m happy for the people of Minnesota, but as a Floridian living under Ron DeSantis & hateful Republicans, I’m also very envious tbh. We know that democracy can work, and this is a shining example of what government could be like in the hands of legislators who actually care about helping people in need, and not pursuing the GOP’s “culture wars” and suppressing the votes of BIPOC, and inflicting maximum harm on those who aren’t cis/het, white, wealthy, Christian males. BRAVO MINNESOTA. This is how you do it! And the Minnesota Dems did it with a one seat majority, so no excuses. Forget about the next election and focus on doing as much good as you can, while you still can. 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

👉🏿 https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1660846689450688514.html

[reasonsforhope]

"The California state government has passed a landmark law that obligates technology companies to provide parts and manuals for repairing smartphones for seven years after their market release.

Senate Bill 244 passed 65-0 in the Assembly, and 38-0 in the Senate, and made California, the seat of so much of American technological hardware and software, the third state in the union to pass this so-called “right to repair” legislation.

On a more granular level, the bill guarantees consumers�� rights to replacement parts for three years’ time in the case of devices costing between $50 and $99, and seven years in the case of devices costing more than $100, with the bill retroactively affecting devices made and sold in 2021.

Similar laws have been passed in Minnesota and New York, but none with such a long-term period as California.

“Accessible, affordable, widely available repair benefits everyone,” said Kyle Wiens, the CEO of advocacy group iFixit, in a statement. “We’re especially thrilled to see this bill pass in the state where iFixit is headquartered, which also happens to be Big Tech’s backyard. Since Right to Repair can pass here, expect it to be on its way to a backyard near you.” ...

One of the reasons Wiens is cheering this on is because large manufacturers, from John Deere to Apple, have previously lobbied heavily against right-to-repair legislation for two reasons. One, it allows them to corner the repair and maintenance markets, and two, it [allegedly] protects their intellectual property and trade secrets from knock-offs or competition.

However, a byproduct of the difficulty of repairing modern electronics is that most people just throw them away.

...Wien added in the statement that he believes the California bill is a watershed that will cause a landslide of this legislation to come in the near future."

-via Good News Network, October 16, 2023

[businessbigwigs]

Deceptive Practices Get Small Fines

Deceptive practices by Bank of America against hundreds of thousands of customers have resulted in over $250 million in penalties. On Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a statement about their findings against the second-largest bank in the nation. According to them, the bank has a history of charging multiple overdraft fees, $35 a pop, for the same failed…

[afloweroutofstone]

One 82-year-old woman, who wore pajamas with holes in them because she didn’t want to spend money on new ones, didn’t realize she had given Republicans more than $350,000 while living in a 1,000 square-foot Baltimore condo since 2020. By the time a Taiwanese immigrant from California passed away from lung cancer this year at age 80, she had given away more than $180,000 to Trump’s campaign and a litany of other Republican candidates – writing letters to candidates apologizing for not getting donations to them on time because she was going into heart surgery. She had only $250 in her bank account when she died, leaving her family scrambling to cover the cost of her funeral. And a 78-year-old, a widow who limited showers to save on her water bill and canceled her long-term care insurance, didn’t understand why the retirement savings her husband had left her was dwindling so quickly. After CNN reached out to her family, they learned that the woman gave more than $200,000 in donations to Democratic political groups and candidates. The federal government has gone after non-political companies for similar tactics, such as making false statements in ads or making them seem as if they were written directly to the recipient. But regulators have done little to stop fundraisers from using misleading and deceptive advertisements to target vulnerable donors. And the lawmakers who experts say would need to act to protect consumers at both the state and federal levels are the same ones benefiting from the current fundraising machines.

[the-cimmerians]

Vice President Kamala Harris announced this week that the Biden administration is looking to lessen the burden medical debt has on people by purging it from their credit report. This means that even if people have piles of medical debt — one in five Americans say they do — it’s not going to affect their ability to get a mortgage or a car loan. So they will at least have a place to rest their head and a car they can drive to work every day while paying off their medical bills.

Via AP:

Harris said that would make it easier for them to obtain an auto loan or a home mortgage. Roughly one in five people report having medical debt. The vice president said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is beginning the rulemaking process to make the change. The agency said in a statement that including medical debt in credit scores is problematic because “mistakes and inaccuracies in medical billing are common.” “Access to health care should be a right and not a privilege,” Harris told reporters in call to preview the action. “These measures will improve the credit scores of millions of Americans so that they will better be able to invest in their future.”

It only seems fair that high medical bills for an emergency or serious illness shouldn’t affect one’s credit rating anyway. It’s not like we’re talking about someone irresponsibly dropping several grand at Versace and then never paying off the credit card bill. Fifty-seven percent of Americans could not afford a surprise $1000 emergency, so the inability to pay off massive amounts of medical debt is hardly a fair reflection of an inclination to default on normal payments — payments you can budget for — on something like a mortgage or auto loan. “Way to be irresponsible by getting cancer, lady! You should definitely be punished for that by not being able to find any place to live!” seems pretty harsh, no?

[thelawandmore]

Recent Developments in Data Privacy and Their Implications for Business 

Recent Developments in Data Privacy and Their Implications for Business

Data privacy is a hot topic in today’s digital world. Here are nine recent developments that changed the data privacy landscape and what they mean for businesses and consumers.  1. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in May 2018, creating a unified data protection framework across the EU and giving individuals more control over their personal data. The EU General…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Shifting $677m from the banks to the people, every year, forever

I'll be in TUCSON, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

"Switching costs" are one of the great underappreciated evils in our world: the more it costs you to change from one product or service to another, the worse the vendor, provider, or service you're using today can treat you without risking your business.

Businesses set out to keep switching costs as high as possible. Literally. Mark Zuckerberg's capos send him memos chortling about how Facebook's new photos feature will punish anyone who leaves for a rival service with the loss of all their family photos – meaning Zuck can torment those users for profit and they'll still stick around so long as the abuse is less bad than the loss of all their cherished memories:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

It's often hard to quantify switching costs. We can tell when they're high, say, if your landlord ties your internet service to your lease (splitting the profits with a shitty ISP that overcharges and underdelivers), the switching cost of getting a new internet provider is the cost of moving house. We can tell when they're low, too: you can switch from one podcatcher program to another just by exporting your list of subscriptions from the old one and importing it into the new one:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/16/keep-it-really-simple-stupid/#read-receipts-are-you-kidding-me-seriously-fuck-that-noise

But sometimes, economists can get a rough idea of the dollar value of high switching costs. For example, a group of economists working for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau calculated that the hassle of changing banks is costing Americans at least $677m per year (see page 526):

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_personal-financial-data-rights-final-rule_2024-10.pdf

The CFPB economists used a very conservative methodology, so the number is likely higher, but let's stick with that figure for now. The switching costs of changing banks – determining which bank has the best deal for you, then transfering over your account histories, cards, payees, and automated bill payments – are costing everyday Americans more than half a billion dollars, every year.

Now, the CFPB wasn't gathering this data just to make you mad. They wanted to do something about all this money – to find a way to lower switching costs, and, in so doing, transfer all that money from bank shareholders and executives to the American public.

And that's just what they did. A newly finalized Personal Financial Data Rights rule will allow you to authorize third parties – other banks, comparison shopping sites, brokers, anyone who offers you a better deal, or help you find one – to request your account data from your bank. Your bank will be required to provide that data.

I loved this rule when they first proposed it:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

And I like the final rule even better. They've really nailed this one, even down to the fine-grained details where interop wonks like me get very deep into the weeds. For example, a thorny problem with interop rules like this one is "who gets to decide how the interoperability works?" Where will the data-formats come from? How will we know they're fit for purpose?

This is a super-hard problem. If we put the monopolies whose power we're trying to undermine in charge of this, they can easily cheat by delivering data in uselessly obfuscated formats. For example, when I used California's privacy law to force Mailchimp to provide list of all the mailing lists I've been signed up for without my permission, they sent me thousands of folders containing more than 5,900 spreadsheets listing their internal serial numbers for the lists I'm on, with no way to find out what these lists are called or how to get off of them:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/22/degoogled/#kafka-as-a-service

So if we're not going to let the companies decide on data formats, who should be in charge of this? One possibility is to require the use of a standard, but again, which standard? We can ask a standards body to make a new standard, which they're often very good at, but not when the stakes are high like this. Standards bodies are very weak institutions that large companies are very good at capturing:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/30/weak-institutions/

Here's how the CFPB solved this: they listed out the characteristics of a good standards body, listed out the data types that the standard would have to encompass, and then told banks that so long as they used a standard from a good standards body that covered all the data-types, they'd be in the clear.

Once the rule is in effect, you'll be able to go to a comparison shopping site and authorize it to go to your bank for your transaction history, and then tell you which bank – out of all the banks in America – will pay you the most for your deposits and charge you the least for your debts. Then, after you open a new account, you can authorize the new bank to go back to your old bank and get all your data: payees, scheduled payments, payment history, all of it. Switching banks will be as easy as switching mobile phone carriers – just a few clicks and a few minutes' work to get your old number working on a phone with a new provider.

This will save Americans at least $677 million, every year. Which is to say, it will cost the banks at least $670 million every year.

Naturally, America's largest banks are suing to block the rule:

https://www.americanbanker.com/news/cfpbs-open-banking-rule-faces-suit-from-bank-policy-institute

Of course, the banks claim that they're only suing to protect you, and the $677m annual transfer from their investors to the public has nothing to do with it. The banks claim to be worried about bank-fraud, which is a real thing that we should be worried about. They say that an interoperability rule could make it easier for scammers to get at your data and even transfer your account to a sleazy fly-by-night operation without your consent. This is also true!

It is obviously true that a bad interop rule would be bad. But it doesn't follow that every interop rule is bad, or that it's impossible to make a good one. The CFPB has made a very good one.

For starters, you can't just authorize anyone to get your data. Eligible third parties have to meet stringent criteria and vetting. These third parties are only allowed to ask for the narrowest slice of your data needed to perform the task you've set for them. They aren't allowed to use that data for anything else, and as soon as they've finished, they must delete your data. You can also revoke their access to your data at any time, for any reason, with one click – none of this "call a customer service rep and wait on hold" nonsense.

What's more, if your bank has any doubts about a request for your data, they are empowered to (temporarily) refuse to provide it, until they confirm with you that everything is on the up-and-up.

I wrote about the lawsuit this week for @eff@mastodon.social's Deeplinks blog:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/10/no-matter-what-bank-says-its-your-money-your-data-and-your-choice

In that article, I point out the tedious, obvious ruses of securitywashing and privacywashing, where a company insists that its most abusive, exploitative, invasive conduct can't be challenged because that would expose their customers to security and privacy risks. This is such bullshit.

It's bullshit when printer companies say they can't let you use third party ink – for your own good:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/hp-ceo-blocking-third-party-ink-from-printers-fights-viruses/

It's bullshit when car companies say they can't let you use third party mechanics – for your own good:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

It's bullshit when Apple says they can't let you use third party app stores – for your own good:

https://www.eff.org/document/letter-bruce-schneier-senate-judiciary-regarding-app-store-security

It's bullshit when Facebook says you can't independently monitor the paid disinformation in your feed – for your own good:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/05/comprehensive-sex-ed/#quis-custodiet-ipsos-zuck

And it's bullshit when the banks say you can't change to a bank that charges you less, and pays you more – for your own good.

CFPB boss Rohit Chopra is part of a cohort of Biden enforcers who've hit upon a devastatingly effective tactic for fighting corporate power: they read the law and found out what they're allowed to do, and then did it:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/23/getting-stuff-done/#praxis

The CFPB was created in 2010 with the passage of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, which specifically empowers the CFPB to make this kind of data-sharing rule. Back when the CFPA was in Congress, the banks howled about this rule, whining that they were being forced to share their data with their competitors.

But your account data isn't your bank's data. It's your data. And the CFPB is gonna let you have it, and they're gonna save you and your fellow Americans at least $677m/year – forever.

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/2024/11/01/bankshot/#personal-financial-data-rights

[robertreich]

Who’s to Blame for Out-Of-Control Corporate Power?    

One man is especially to blame for why corporate power is out of control. And I knew him! He was my professor, then my boss. His name… Robert Bork.

Robert Bork was a notorious conservative who believed the only legitimate purpose of antitrust — that is, anti-monopoly — law is to lower prices for consumers, no matter how big corporations get. His philosophy came to dominate the federal courts and conservative economics.

I met him in 1971, when I took his antitrust class at Yale Law School. He was a large, imposing man, with a red beard and a perpetual scowl. He seemed impatient and bored with me and my classmates, who included Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham, as we challenged him repeatedly on his antitrust views.

We argued with Bork that ever-expanding corporations had too much power. Not only could they undercut rivals with lower prices and suppress wages, but they were using their spoils to influence our politics with campaign contributions. Wasn’t this cause for greater antitrust enforcement?

He had a retort for everything. Undercutting rival businesses with lower prices was a good thing because consumers like lower prices. Suppressing wages didn’t matter because employees are always free to find better jobs. He argued that courts could not possibly measure political power, so why should that matter?

Even in my mid-20s, I knew this was hogwash.

But Bork’s ideology began to spread. A few years after I took his class, he wrote a book called The Antitrust Paradox summarizing his ideas. The book heavily influenced Ronald Reagan and later helped form a basic tenet of Reaganomics — the bogus theory that says government should get out of the way and allow corporations to do as they please, including growing as big and powerful as they want.

Despite our law school sparring, Bork later gave me a job in the Department of Justice when he was solicitor general for Gerald Ford. Even though we didn’t agree on much, I enjoyed his wry sense of humor. I respected his intellect. Hell, I even came to like him.

Once President Reagan appointed Bork as an appeals court judge, his rulings further dismantled antitrust. And while his later Supreme Court nomination failed, his influence over the courts continued to grow.  

Bork’s legacy is the enormous corporate power we see today, whether it’s Ticketmaster and Live Nation consolidating control over live performances, Kroger and Albertsons dominating the grocery market, or Amazon, Google, and Meta taking over the tech world.

It’s not just these high-profile companies either: in most industries, a handful of companies now control more of their markets than they did twenty years ago.

This corporate concentration costs the typical American household an estimated extra $5,000 per year. Companies have been able to jack up prices without losing customers to competitors because there is often no meaningful competition.

And huge corporations also have the power to suppress wages because workers have fewer employers from whom to get better jobs.

And how can we forget the massive flow of money these corporate giants are funneling into politics, rigging our democracy in their favor?

But the tide is beginning to turn under the Biden Administration. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are fighting the monopolization of America in court, and proposing new merger guidelines to protect consumers, workers, and society.

It’s the implementation of the view that I and my law school classmates argued for back in the 1970s — one that sees corporate concentration as a problem that outweighs any theoretical benefits Bork claimed might exist.

Robert Bork would likely regard the Biden administration’s antitrust efforts with the same disdain he had for my arguments in his class all those years ago. But instead of a few outspoken law students, Bork’s philosophy is now being challenged by the full force of the federal government.

The public is waking up to the outsized power corporations wield over our economy and democracy. It’s about time.

[darlingdaisyfarm]

⋆. 𐙚 ˚ riding Ford and getting multiple orgasms out of him 

author note: a little request from ao3 “Reader (by the request of Bill) riding Ford and getting multiple orgasms out of him, basically typical overstimulation stuff? :]” 

tags: nsfw, p in v, riding, overstimulation, praise and degrading, triangle!Bill, tendrils

little bonus to this fic

It’s not just about the way he looks at you when you’re close, or how he touches you like he’s unsure if he deserves it. It’s the little things, those soft gasps he lets slip when you press your lips to his skin as you tease him, the way his hands tremble when you pull him closer, whispering praises in his ear. 

Tonight, though, you want more than just the sweetness. You want him broken, to see the desperation in his eyes, to hear him beg. You want to take your time, savour him, consume him whole. It’s not just about pleasure; it’s about watching Stanford fucking Pines fall apart, piece by piece, under your touch. 

He’s always been the reserved one, the serious one, always ready to protect you at all costs, the intellectual, the scientist who can’t seem to let go of his fears and doubts. But with you, Ford is different. He lets go of his mask, just a little, and it makes you want him even more. 

You start slow, leaning close, kissing his beautiful lips with a tenderness that quickly turns into something deeper as you climb into his lap. It takes Ford’s breath away, and you pull him closer, your hands caressing his chest, guiding him onto his back. 

“Relax,” you murmur, kissing the corner of his mouth, then trailing your lips along his jawline, the scratch of his stubble against your skin making you smile. His chest rises and falls sharply beneath your palms, and you can feel his heart racing, how it betrays his nerves.

“Darling. . .” dear god, his voice is already trembling, his nails digging into your skin just enough to show he’s trying to hold back. But you know it’s only a matter of time before he crumbles. Ford lets out a quiet sound as you kiss him again, this time deeper, your tongue coaxing his lips apart.

You move to his neck, lips pressing delicate kisses along the curve of his throat. He tilts his head back, letting you explore, giving you more space and skin to mark. “You’re so beautiful like this,” you whisper, dragging your tongue over the spot where his pulse thrums wildly captivating beneath his skin.

He shudders as you nip gently. “Darling, sweetheart. . .” Ford’s always-so-calm voice is now already broken with anticipation, and it makes you proud of yourself. “you’re. . . quite bold tonight, aren’t you?” he smiles awkwardly.

“Bold? Sweetheart’s not bold, IQ. She’s fucking feral. Look at her, climbing all over you like she’s about to eat you alive!” Bill’s voice cuts through Ford’s mind like a razor. 

Ford groans softly, tilting his head back, arching as you nuzzle into the crook of his neck, flicking your tongue out to taste the sensitive skin there and lick the little bites you made. “Y-you don’t need to rush, love,” he stammers, though the way his cock throbs beneath you tells a different story. 

“Oh, Sixer, would you relax? You’ve got a total bombshell in your lap and you’re too busy being a nerd! Just sit back and let ’er take the reins, huh?”

You laugh softly, pressing your hips down just enough to make him gasp. “Rush? But I’ve been thinking about this all day.” 

“Christ, nerd, she’s fucking desperate! You’d better not disappoint her, though that’d be hilarious.”

Ford flinches, his hands tightening their hold on you, but you soothe him, threading your fingers into his graying hair. “Hey,” you say softly, calming him with a kiss to his temple. “It’s just us tonight, okay? Let me take care of you. I want to make you feel good.”

Ford knows you aren’t alone, but he nods, letting himself sink further into your warm touch. 

The kisses grow deeper, more demanding, your tongue sliding against his as you press your body closer, feeling him hard and throbbing beneath you, so needy already. You grind down against him, a slow roll of your hips that makes him gasp, his head tipping back into the pillows. 

“Darling,” he chokes out, “y-you don’t have to— ahh. . .”

“Shhh,” you soothe, your hands running down his chest, caressing his pretty scars gently, feeling the tension in his body. “let me love you, Ford.”

And with that, you kiss your way lower, down his collarbone, leaving marks as you go. Your fingers find his belt, and he stiffens beneath you.

“Don’t be nervous,” you giggle, kissing another scar on his chest as you slowly undo the buckle. “I’ll be gentle.” 

“That’s pathetic, Sixer. Don’t tell me you’ll cum before she even gets your pants off.” 

He can’t even speak, just nod and watch you with desperation written all over his face as you free his cock from the confines of his pants. Poor man squirms beneath you, all six fingers sliding over your body, unsure of what to do. But you feel like heaven and he could stay like this forever.

Ford’s cock springs free, and he exhales sharply at the sudden exposure. His painfully hot length makes contact with the cool air, and it’s all too much, too fast. He’s achingly hard, his shaft twitching against his stomach, already leaking from how worked up he is. The veins bulge slightly beneath his skin, a visual testament to his desperation. You bite your lip, unable to hide your smile as you run your thumb over the sensitive tip, spreading the bead of precum. His entire body jerks under your touch, hips bucking helplessly as a strangled cry escapes him. 

“Oh, come on, Stanford. You’re shaking already? She’s barely touched you!”

“Please, please don’t stop, I need more. . . ahh, ahnn. . .” Ford’s head falls back.

You give him what he wants. Ford's cock twitches helplessly in your grip as you wrap your fingers around his thickness, stroking him slowly from base to tip. Your thumb brushes over the sensitive, leaking tip again and you smirk. “You’re so hard,” you murmur, admiration lacing your voice as Ford’s moans fill the room. His hips buck upward, driven by desperate need.

“Oh, this is gonna be interesting. Place your bets, sweetheart! Two thrusts? One? How long before Sixer cums like the pathetic man he is?”

Ford whimpers, the sound breaking and soft, so damn apologetic. It only makes you want to ruin him more. And Ford wants it, he wants all of it, all of you.

He shudders, his hands gripping the sheets in a futile attempt to hold onto control. But it’s slipping away fast. “Darling, please, please—”you cut him off with a kiss, your lips crashing into his and swallowing his moans. Your hand continues stroking him, never relenting, only giving him more pleasure.

“God, Ford,” you whisper against his lips, pulling away just enough to watch his needy beautiful face. “You’re so big. . . I can’t wait to feel you inside me.”

Ford’s eyes flutter open, locking onto yours. God, he looks wrecked already, lips trembling, cheeks flushed, pupils blown wide with desire.

“Aw, look at you two lovebirds. Makes me sick. No, really, keep going, I’m enjoying the show.”

You smile, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. “Does that feel good?” you coo, your grip tightening around his aching cock.

“Y-yes,” he whines helplessly. “so good! oh goddd—” the proof of it lies in the way his whole body trembles, his thighs tense beneath you, and your hand slick with his leaking precum. He thrusts up into your grip and he’s losing it. 

But it’s not enough for you. You need more. Your free hand slides down to your own heat, tugging your panties aside. You spread yourself open for him, letting him see everything, how wet you are, how your pussy clenches on nothing, dripping and desperate. “Look at me, Ford. Look at what you do to me.” 

Ford’s eyes snap open at your words, and the sight nearly undoes him. His cock jerks in your hand, more precum spilling onto your fingers. “Honey, you’re s-so beautiful. I— I love you so much. . .” 

“Touch me,” you demand, though it comes out as a plea when you guide one of his six-fingered hands between your thighs. His fingers tremble as they slide against your wet folds. Another groan tears from his throat when he feels how soaked you are.

“Right here,” you beg, pressing his fingertips to your clit. A soft moan escapes you as he begins to circle it, biting his lip.

“At least pretend you know what you’re doing, Sixer. Fake it for her sake!”

Ford’s long fingers move tentatively at first, spreading your wetness. “You’re so wet,” he stutters in awe.

“For you, Ford, only for you,” you whisper, grinding against his hand. 

Ford’s touch grows bolder with every needy sound you make, his thumb finding just the right pressure on your puffy clit. Two fingers slide lower, teasing your dripping entrance. He swallows thickly, his gaze locked on yours as his long digits press into you. Ford curls his fingers inside, brushing that perfect spot that makes you cry out, your walls fluttering around him.

His cock throbs in your other hand, twitching, begging to feel your pussy around him. Pearls of cum drip down his length, making everything so deliciously messy. Your thumb rubs over the sensitive tip in rhythm with the way you ride his hand and it’s too much for him. 

“Darling, please. I— I need to be inside you. Pleasepleaseplease. . .”

You smile as another soft moan escapes your lips. Leaning down to kiss him again, swallowing his desperate mewls, you line his cock with your pussy. The thick, leaking tip presses against your dripping entrance, twitching there, so hot and ready to fill you.

“Do you want this?” you tease, letting the head of his cock slip just barely inside. 

“Ye-yes!” Ford gasps, his hips jerking upward. “Please, love! I’ll do anything. Just please—” 

You don’t make him wait any longer because yourself can’t too. Slowly, you lower yourself onto him, feeling the delicious stretch as you sink down, inch by inch. Your pussy takes him in, wetness welcoming him, the thickness of him stretching you in the most perfect way, leaving you breathless as you take all of him. Your walls flutter around his cock, gripping him tight and you both let out matching moans when he fills you completely.

Ford’s reaction is fucking beautiful. His hands fly to your hips, his fingers digging into your skin as his head falls back, a choked sob spilling from his lips. “Oh god! I can feel everything, fuck, love, you’re so tight, so warm. . .”

The moment you start to move, Ford’s entire body goes rigid, his breath breaking into soft, helpless gasps as he just lays there and lets you ride him. He tries to hold it together, but it’s useless. You’re too much, too perfect, too wet and tight for him, and he doesn’t even know what to do with himself anymore.

And then he’s coming. His hips buck uncontrollably, his cock throbbing as he spills inside you, a pathetic whine leaving his lips. 

You freeze, your eyes wide as you stare down at him, suddenly aware of his warm seed inside you. Ford. . . did he just. . .?

“Oh my fucking god, you actually came?! Holy shit, Sixer, I wasn’t serious about the two-thrust thing, but damn! You’re even more pathetic than I thought!” 

Ford’s face burns with shame as he buries it in his hands. “I’m so sorry, I-I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” 

“What’s wrong? Oh, nothing at all, Fordsy. Couldn’t even last five seconds, huh? That’s embarrassing.”

You can’t help but laugh, though it’s a soft, affectionate sound unlike Bill’s. “Ford,” you say gently, cupping his cute face and tilting it up to meet your gaze. “It’s okay. Really. It just means you felt really good, honey. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.” 

“Nah, you should be ashamed of yourself, IQ. But judging by that stupid look on your face, you’re too far gone to care.”

Oh, sweet heavens, he thinks, you’re too kind to him. Your hands slide up his chest, tangling in his hair as you kiss him again, your lips soft and loving, taking all his embarrassment away. His head is thrown back against the pillows, his eyes glassy, lips trembling like he’s trying to speak but can’t string a single coherent word together. 

“You feel— you feel, ahh. . . so fucking good, Ford,” you breathe as you bounce on him. Ford’s eyes roll back into his head, and he groans. You lean down, stroking his cheek with a tender hand, kissing him sweetly. “Shhh, you’re doing so good, baby,” you whisper, rolling your hips again, feeling his cock pulse as you grind down on him. 

“She’s fucking herself stupid on your cock, and you’re still useless. Can’t even thrust properly anymore, can you? Just lying there, letting her ride you like the limp little mess you are.”

Ford’s hands twitch at your waist like he wants to protest but can’t find the strength. “Pussy’s s-so good,” he mumbles, his words slurred as though he’s drunk. “so tight, so warm. . .”

“Jesus fucking Christ, listen to yourself,” Bill cackles. “You’re out here worshipping pussy like it’s the first time you’ve ever seen one. All that brainpower, and you’re fucking useless when there’s a pretty cunt on top of you!”

Ford only whimpers, his face burning from Bill’s cruel mocking, because himself knows its truth, his cock twitches inside you at the words. Despite the shame, he thrusts up helplessly, chasing more, trying to reach deeper, even though he’s so far gone. 

“Does it feel good, Ford?” you murmur, leaning down to kiss his nose.

“Yesyesyes! yes! so fucking good,” he gasps, bucking his hips whenever you pull yourself up. “I c-can’t, oh, love, I don’t think I can last—” 

“Look at you,” Bill sneers. “All it takes is a tight cunt and a few rolls of her hips. What happened to the big, smart scientist? Where’s Mr. Genius now, huh?”

“It’s okay, Ford. You don’t have to hold back.” 

He can’t stop the whining that spills from his lips, so damn loud, his head tipping back to expose his throat. You seize the opportunity, pressing your lips to his pulse, kissing and sucking until his gasps dissolve into desperate cries. His cock twitches violently inside you, and then his entire body shudders again when he cums inside you with a pleading moan. 

“Oh god,” he whimpers, the realisation hitting him hard. His hands tremble on your waist as he looks up at you, his vision blurry. “I-I’m sorry! I couldn’t—” 

You don’t bother with words. Instead, you kiss him deeply, your hips still moving. Ford lets out a sharp, choked sound as you continue to ride him, your pussy clenching greedily around his now oversensitive cock. 

“W-wait, I. . . oh, fuck, love, wait. . .” 

But you don’t stop. 

“That’s it, you can give me more, can’t you? I know you can, Ford. Please.” 

Ford cries out from the overstimulation, helpless and weak to the way how your pussy swallow all what he gives you. His hands fall uselessly to the bed as you take complete control, but his cock staying rock hard, buried deep inside you. Each slow roll of your hips makes his tip brush against your cervix, what also makes you moan loudly.

“Oh m-my god,” you grind harder, obsessed with how heavenly his cock fills you. “look at you, you’re such a mess. . .”

Ford can’t even respond. He’s too lost in the way your pretty pussy feels, pulling him deeper, clenching around him tight. His mouth hangs open, breathless, his trembling fingers dig into your hips, your ass, trying to pull you closer, but the effort is weak, desperate. 

“I. . . oh, I c-can’t,” he stutters your name. “I— I can’t hold on. . . please, please, I— I can’t, just. . .”

Bill chuckles. “My little slut is so goddamn desperate he can’t even form a fucking sentence.”

You smirk, pressing your body closer to Ford’s, grinding into him in time with his shallow thrusts. His cock twitches inside you again, his body practically begging for another release but he feels like nothing might come out.

“I love seeing you like this,” you purr. “all you can think about is cumming, isn’t it?” 

His eyes are glazed, he doesn’t try to answer, he just nods desperately, the sounds escaping his lips a garbled mess. 

“I. . . I need you, da-darling. Please, ahh, please! Don’t stop. God, don’t stop, please! Don’t stop. . . It feels so good, im so close!”

“Yes, let it all out, baby. Don’t hold back. You’re such a good boy for me, Ford.” 

“Yes, yes, please, too much!” his begging is broken, barely coherent, his words dissolving into needy little whimpers. “I need to. . . mhmm, need to cum inside you! nnghn, please, let me—” 

“Aw, isn’t that sweet? He’s so eager to fill you up, he doesn’t even care how pathetic he looks.”

“Yes,” you murmur, leaning down to capture Ford’s lips. “Please cum inside me, Ford, again. Please. . .”

And that’s how he comes again, so obedient. It slams into him like a tidal wave, his cock pulsing deep inside you, spilling into your womb again and again, filling you up, flooding your walls white. He’s not even sure if he has the strength left to moan, his throat is dry.

“Look at you. Shaking, crying, and cumming like it’s the only thing you know how to do. Now that’s the kind of Sixer I like.”

But you don’t stop. He can’t take much more, but you don’t give him a choice. You fuck him harder this time, harder than before, your body slapping against his with each thrust, the sounds of your bodies joining in perfect sync.

You feel his cum dripping out, pooling where your bodies are joined and it’s so dirty and messy there, but you keep moving, grinding against him, chasing your own release now, using Ford for your pleasure now. 

“Such a good boy,” you whisper, leaning down to kiss his temple. “You’re doing so well, Ford. I love you so much.” 

“Sweetheart,” Ford’s voice already hoarse. “I need you, I need you so bad, I— I can’t. . .”

Bill's triangular shape appears directly to Ford's left. “Told ya, two seconds and you’re already a fucking puddle. You’re sobbing and begging like a fucking whore. You like it, huh? You like being used like this?” 

Ford’s body is completely undone as he turns head to look at Cipher, his words barely intelligible. “Y-yes. . . yes. . . I’m a whore. . . love, please, I’m— I’m cumming again. . .”

Before he can finish, it hits him. His cock pulses inside you, spilling another load deep into your pussy. Ford cries out as you keep riding him, milking every last drop out of him. His hands weakly grip your hips, but his body is limp, overwhelmed by the force of his orgasm. 

You smile, feeling his warm liquid until it starts leaking out from how full you are. Leaning down, your lips brush his ear. “You like it, don’t you, Ford? Being so deep inside me, cumming inside me, filling me up. . . gosh, im so close too. . .”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Bill interrupts. “You two are useless. Let me show you how it’s done.”

Before either of you can react, his awfully slick, dark tendrils shoot out, snaking around your bodies. You gasp as one wraps around your thighs, while another slithers up to your clit, teasing the sensitive bundle with agonizing flicks. Another tendril brushes over your breasts, curling around them tightly before twisting and tugging at your nipples in agonising rhythm.

Ford isn’t spared, either. Tendrils wrap around his wrists roughly, pulling his arms above his head and pinning him to the bed, so he’s pretty useless beneath you as he’s forced to stay still, another tendril cups his balls, rolling and kneading them. Dark limb wraps around his torso, circling his nipples before pinching them sharply, then caressing. Ford lets out a broken cry, tears springing to his eyes from the overstimulation. 

“Look at you both,” Bill sneers and his voice is filled with nothing, but pure mockery. “a mewling little slut and a pathetic, whining mess of a man. Poor little humans can’t handle a bit of attention, huh? You’re both so fucking needy. You don’t even deserve this.”

You try to respond, try to form words, but all that escapes your lips is a whimper. The tendril on your clit vibrates suddenly, the slick, wet sound of your soaked pussy taking Ford in only fuels Bill’s mocking tone as he forces you to ride his six-fingered toy faster.

You can’t answer, you can’t think. All that matters is that pathetic whining mess called Ford beneath you, twitching and moaning, his body held immobile by Bill’s tendrils as you ride him, taking him deeper and deeper, feeling yourself close.

“Your cunt? Your cock? Your orgasms? Mine. Every last bit of you belongs to me.”

Your back arches, hands clawing at Ford’s chest to stabilise yourself, but it’s no use. The sensations are too much, your body too sensitive and overstimulated to fight back.

“Oh, please, it’s too much, B-Bill,” you manage to choke out, but even as you beg, your hips buck helplessly into the tendril, chasing the overwhelming pleasure despite the way your thighs shake. 

“Remember this moment, freaks, because you’ll never be able to fuck without thinking of me again.”

Ford isn’t faring any better, ruined by every flick of the tendrils on his nipples and the painful stimulation of his balls.

“B-Bill, my muse, please, stop, I can’t, I c-can’t take it,” he’s breathless, his voice breaks on every syllable. His words are desperate, but his body betrays him, his cock twitching as the tendrils toy with him. “I’ll. . .I’ll cum again, im gonna. . .”

“Oh, you’ll cum again, alright,” demon laughs. “And again. And again. Don’t think I’m letting either of you off easy.”

Bill shifts his attention to you, the tendrils around your clit and breasts tightening, pulling your nipples painfully before switching to gentle, torturous strokes. Your cries fill the room and Bill’s laughter only grows louder. 

“And you, beautiful,” his glowing yellow form leans closer to your face. “You’re no better. Moaning like a bitch in heat while I play with you. Can’t even decide if you want me to stop or go harder, huh? You’re just a messy little thing like him, aren’t you?”

You try to glare at him, but your head falls back with a loud moan as the vibrations on your sensitive clit intensify. The pleasure so sharp it borders on pain. “I’m gonna! oh fuck, I’m gonna cum! Bill, just let me cum!”

“Already, baby? Does it feel that good, having me play with your little clit while poor Sixer can barely keep up?” Cipher appears right in front of you way and his tendrils slow their movements just enough to pull you back from the edge, leaving you trembling and whining in frustration, the orgasm just out of reach when you was so ready for it.

Ford sobs as he feels your cunt grip on him. “B-Bill, please, please, oh god, it’s too much, I c-can’t hold on, please, let me cum, I need to— please! It-it hurts!”

“‘Need to’? Oh, how cute! You need to cum, Sixer? But you wanted to be a pathetic, trembling mess, no? Then I’ll make sure you fucking stay one.” Ford cant believe he’s being denied to orgasm now, when his balls are so tight he might explode. The tendrils on his nipples twist sharply.

You’re no better as your body helpless against these Bill’s disgusting things that tease and torment you mercilessly too. “P-please, I can’t take it anymore, I need to cum, please, Bill, please!” you cry.

Bill leans back, materializing a glass of wine for himself, laughing loudly as he watches. “Listen to yourselves. Begging me like the pathetic little toys you are. God, you’re both so fucking easy to break, it’s even boring.” 

His glowing yellow form looms over you both when his voice lowers. 

“Don’t worry, freaks, I’m not stopping until I’ve ruined you completely.”

[taikeero-lecoredier]

RECENT UPDATES ON THE BAD INTERNET CALIFORNIA BILLS:

Sadly, both AB1949 and SB976 passed and are now on their way to the governors desk.

We need him to veto them so they dont become Law.

If you havent Heard of the danger of those bills for the Internet , this post explain it thoroughly :

- Post doing a deep explanation on those bills here

I CANNOT emphasize enough how these would have a global effect on the Internet given that most websites and apps originates from California and not all of them could afford either following those bills or moving states.

Now, as the bills are on their way to the governor, we need Californian citizens to voice their oppositions to those bills to the Governor Gavin Newsome HERE

(Non California peeps, we are urging you to share this as well!!! )

Please keep in mind that calling with phone is much,much more efficient.

You can also send faxes with Faxzero

Here are scripts you can use as arguments : (text/alt version below the read more )

Than you for reading. Even if youre not from California, please spread the word anyway ! Make posts,tweets,etc

REBLOGS ENCOURAGED

TEXT VERSION :

AB 1949

Hello, my name is (INSERT NAME HERE) and I'm one of the Senator's constituents from (INSERT CITY HERE). I'm calling to urge the Senator to vote NO on AB 1949, the amendment to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2020. While this bill's intent is to prevent the sharing and sale of minor's information under the age of 18, the method it would intend to do so by is written far too broadly for it to be safely and reasonably implemented.

While this bill retains a safer standard of the business requiring actual knowledge of a consumer being under the age of 18 to be held liable for the sharing or sale of personal information, its wording is still too broad to exclude a default usage of age verification by online businesses in order to protect themselves from liability. Taking measures such as age verification, age assurance, or other data collection and analysis to determine the age of users. Even though measures like this have been proven to be vulnerable to data breaches no matter how secure they proclaim to be. Such as this year's largest discovered breach of AU10TIX, which supplies age verification to companies like TikTok, X, Uber, LinkedIn, Paypal, and many others.

As it stands, this bill is far too broad in its wording and enforcement of its age-specific measures to be considered a safe piece of legislation. Which is why I urge the Senator to vote in opposition to this measure.

Vote NO on AB 1949.

---------------------------

SB 976

Hello, my name is (INSERT NAME HERE) and I'm one of the Assembly member's constituents from (INSERT CITY HERE). I'm calling to urge the Assembly member to vote NO on SB 976, the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act. Although this bill has intent to protect the mental and emotional health of California's youth, the method this bill would intend to use could be counterproductive to that goal, or even endanger them further.

One of this bill's primary measures includes requiring verifiable parental consent to allow websites to display “addictive” feeds to minor users. However, the ways “verify” the identity and age of a responsible parent are often invasive and dangerous. Especially since these methods have proven repeatedly to be vulnerable to data breaches that can leak sensitive information to bad actors. Such as this year's largest discovered breach of AU10TIX, which supplies age verification to companies like TikTok, X, Uber, LinkedIn, Paypal, and many others. To determine if this is necessary at all would also require collecting even more data on minors and non-minors alike to determine who would even require these measures to be set in place. Especially when it would have control over someone's access to a website or application based on the time of day, as this bill would require in order to “reasonably determine” the user is not a minor.

The vagueness of this bill's text at all is dangerous as well. The broad-spectrum definition it gives of “addictive internet-based service or application” could cause an unintended censorship effect where minors and adults alike could be blocked from accessing information purely because some part of a website or application uses a “feed” which could arguably fit the bill's definition of “addictive”

With all of this in mind, I urge the Assembly member to vote in opposition of this measure to protect the privacy and safety of California's minors and adults alike.

Vote NO on SB 976.

[aikaterini-drag]

Smiles and Smooches

Summary: You get drunk and demand kisses and hugs from your boyfriend. He is more than happy to please you.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x fem!Reader (no mention of y/n)

Warnings: no smut, takes place during tfatws, boyfriend Bucky, emotional security, fluff, kisses.

The night carried a pleasant breeze, the stars twinkling. You and Bucky sat close together under the dimmed light of a cozy booth at your favorite bar. The hum of laughter and clinking glasses surrounded you. And tonight, you were a little tipsier than usual. You had consumed two of your favorite cocktails— despite your boyfriend’s advice to take it slow. Bucky, unlike you, couldn't get drunk no matter how hard he tried, thanks to his super soldier genes. He had finished the last sips of your drink, attempting to prevent you from feeling sick later on.

Thankfully, you were feeling fine. Only slightly drunk and blissfully happy inside.

With flushed cheeks and a captivating smile, you shifted on your chair and leaned toward him.

"You know, babe," you slurred slightly, "you're like... seriously the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Bucky couldn't help but half-laugh. “I told you, you shouldn’t have ordered that second drink, sweets. You’re drunk.”

“I’m fine.” You hiccuped and hugged his arm. “It’s not my fault you’re superman.”

“Super-soldier,” he corrected with another half laugh.

“Tsk… is the same. You’re my strong, virile man. And I love you!”

He grinned and gently brushed a strand of hair behind your ear. "And you're the best thing that's ever happened to me.”

You beamed at him, your fingers tracing patterns on his bionic hand. "No, I love you more! Seriously, you're, like, super super cute. I mean, like, cuter than, like, a basket of puppies."

He chuckled at your comparison. “What an adorable declaration of love.”

“You’re adorable.” Your breath ghosted over his lips. “My adorable James. My Bucky.”

He smiled and kissed across your forehead. “Well, that’s debatable. I have the most adorable girl in the world right here with me."

Your cheeks flushed an even deeper shade of pink. "Can I have a hug? Please? You give the best hugs."

Who was he to deny you? He eagerly wrapped his arm around you and pulled you close. You melted into his embrace, your head resting on his chest, your fingers playing with the fabric of his shirt. You popped a button and he chuckled and gripped your hands gently.

“No funny business, sweets.”

You pouted. “Want to kiss you. Everywhere.”

He kneaded your hair. “We’re in a bar full of people.”

“Then let’s go home,” you said as your mouth trailed a path of warmth along his unshaven jawline.

“I’m not letting you drink ever again. You get turned into a little kiss monster.”

You giggled. “Your kiss monster.”

“Mine. Always.” He hummed, his voice a warm murmur.

“Take me home, sarge.”

“Home it is, my sweet.”

After taking care of the bill, he held you up, his arms wounding around you to steady you. You still felt a little tipsy but you were also so happy and warm, holding him close, inhaling his fresh masculine scent. Holding you protectively against him, he led the way to the apartment you shared.

As they walked, he glanced at you. “Why did you drink so much, sweets? You dislike it.”

You sighed and clutched his arm. “I’m just sad you’re going on another mission. I don’t want you to be hurt. I meant to have one drink but… I lost control a bit, I guess.”

Bucky stopped and cupped your flushed face. “Hey, don’t worry. I’ll be fine. You know I’ve got this.”

“So what if you’re good at it? Does that mean you have to risk your life without concerns?” Tears welled up in your eyes. “What if something happens to you?”

Exhaling, he drew you into a tight embrace. “I’ll be careful, I promise. You know I’ll always come back to you.”

You nestled into his arms, suppressing a sob. “I just hate seeing you go into danger again.”

“I know, sweetheart. But it’s what I do. And I do it to protect people like you, people I care about,” he said, pressing gentle kisses on your moist cheeks. “Don’t cry. I’ll be counting the minutes until I can come back to you.”

“Promise?” You gazed up at him, searching his ocean eyes for reassurance.

“I promise.”

“My Bucky,” you said, caressing his face. “I love you,” you whispered, your voice filled with emotion.

He held you tighter, pressing a kiss to your lips. “Love you too, more than words can express, sweets.”

With his arms wrapped around you, you stayed there for a while, holding each other, kissing lazily. His lips brushed against yours repeatedly, his tongue coaxing your mouth apart and slipping inside. He consumed you, with his touches and his warmth, until there was nothing left but his warm gentle touches and the assurance that everything would be alright.

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