My guess: they’ll use this as their latest example of the “violent left” without evidence, as is tradition

Which goes to show how much of their society’s communication relies on corporate solutions instead of local ones. Similar bans in Russia recently have devastated ‘usual’ lines of communication for people there.

This article is worth reading, imo. There’s more going on here than the introduction of the “Max” ‘super-app’. I wasn’t aware of this but Russia has also been subjecting its population to a “digital detox” where Internet blackouts are becoming increasingly common. In some areas the Internet is down most of the time, in others service has returned but is extremely poor compared to before the blackout. Mobile Internet blackouts have been performed claiming without evidence that it’s to disrupt drones coming from Ukraine.

In some areas this Max ‘super-app’ (which handles banking, communication, and more–and is a direct line for government surveillance) is the only option to do banking or communicate with anybody by phone. This practice is sweeping the country after declaring Meta a terrorist organization, and swiftly eliminating any Meta apps from Russian access including Instagram, Facebook, and the most popular app for communication in Russia: WhatsApp.

This is fucked on another level and i think we should be paying attention because this is presumably where Trump gets his inspiration and/or his marching orders, so i have a suspicion we’ll see something similar wash up on our shores soon enough.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now–a mass, extended Internet disruption would not only screw up communication on a grand scale here, but business would also be tremendously impacted. It’s the next ‘privilege’ for us to have taken away and replaced with an enshittified surrogate, forcing large swaths of people to sign over even more of their autonomy to big brother in exchange to have all the things the Internet has now made possible. Want to be able to easily get navigation on gps? Talk to your friends or family? Pay bills using your bank account? Imagine there was only 1 app that will allow you to do that from now on. I can only imagine how shitty the user experience is on “Max” but i suppose in time i won’t need to–I’ll have a front row seat to try it out here in the comfort of my home one of these days, seeing the direction things appear to be heading in. I mean shit, we’re probably already nearly there and i just don’t realize it yet 🫠

This is the kind of shit i would love to see AI destroy but it seems more likely we’re only going to get the shitty parts of AI instead

Wait, are you telling me the list doesn’t have Trump’s name on it?!? Does that mean he has absolutely zero ties to Jeff Epstein and most likely never met him and if he did he probably wouldn’t remember because he met so many people that night?!?

Edit: forgot the /s, maybe the downvotes were regardless of the sarcasm though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

þEBKAC?

Your keyboard appears to be broken ✨

Ketamine? Elon?!? Is that you!!!?!?

I feel like that’s where we’re headed at this point. Major corps have all the tech and all the money. At this point we are seeing every new iteration of consumer tech/electronics costing more, lasting less time, and offering no greater value than previous iterations while sometimes actually taking away features and functionality in the process. They know they are the only game in town now and they only have to offer what they feel is enough to placate their clientele–if they even choose to go that far. People grumble, then they pay.

AI will replace people in many of these situations and it will suck and be less helpful and very problematic but that’s the best they’re going to offer. If anyone comes along trying to offer anything better they’ll be swiftly dealt with by defeating and/or buying them out. There will probably be like 5 corps that own everything one day (maybe that’s too many–3? 2 perhaps? I just can’t see it being 1 for some reason)

Can’t you just call customer service and keep escalating it to the next department until it’s solved?

/s

🤜🤛

Canadian?!? You pay 200% tariff now 😖

“lobbying” 🙃

Thanks

This is kinda funny to share, but i had a customer a while back that told me he met Trump while doing work on one of his properties.

He was actually in the process of installing/gilding gold leaf on some of the entrance’s facade when he claims he actually saw Trump with Marla Maples at like 1am or something. He said Trump stopped to criticize their work and warn him not to lose so much as a flake of that gold leaf. He apparently argued with him for a little while before he finally left him alone. I don’t have any reason to disbelieve this guy, but i also realize I’m a guy on the internet passing along a story i heard. It just rings so true to his personality that i have no trouble believing it.

I remember AD&D Hillsfar had a decoder ring that you had to spin to match up the pair of symbols on the screen and type in the decoders output. It was actually kinda cool! I loved that game…

That guy’s 44 going on 67. Wtf? Did he exchange his youth for a position in politics? I’m very happy to see this fucker was kicked out. What an unmitigated shithead

Obama’s ethics czar on this ridiculous display:

“it creates the appearance that the vice-president of the United States is getting special treatment that’s not available to the average person who wants to utilise that body of water for recreational purposes.”

Sounds like another case of Amazon trying to out-Amazon itself

The next line in the article sums up the situation though:

"Then he was shot at with pepper spray, tear gas, stun grenades and bullets shot at his feet [and then] in the air, and he runs away scared, and the IDF [Israeli army] were shooting at the crowd.