Pluralistic: 20 Nov 2020

Today's links

Little Revolutions: Bethany C Morrow and Tochi Onyebuchi on the Attack Surface Lectures.
Russian Cyberpunk Farm: Superb comedy-dystopia in a russo-futuristic vein.
We're already (badly) forgiving student debt: Debts that can't be paid won't be paid.
Facebook bullies watchdog: My Wired op-ed on the Ad Observer scandal.
Google's monopoly rigged the ad market: Dina Srinivasan is on fire.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Bill Gates's monopolistic mask-off moment: "What's a murder?"
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

My first-ever Kickstarter: Help me change publishing with the audiobook for Attack Surface, the third Little Brother book.
IP: The longest, most significant Locus column I have written in my 14-year run.
FTC about to hammer Intuit: Billions in fraudulent tax-prep earnings under scrutiny.
Antitrust trouble for cloud services: Italy's competition regulator says Terms of Service are bullshit.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Peter Thiel was right: Capitalism is incompatible with democracy.
Google bans anticompetitive vocabularies: But not anticompetitive conduct.
Free the law: The PACER rent is too damned high.
Jailed for pen-testing: Kafka in Iowa.
This day in history: 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

NY State's promising new antitrust law: Senator Mike Gianaris will let the state step into the federal vacuum.
Ventilation vs covid: Survive winter with DIY HEPA filters plus over-indexed steam heaters.
Writers Guild vanquishes a major agency: ACM folded, WME and CAA next.
NY AG wants to dissolve NRA: "Rampant corruption" is not compatible with tax-charitable status.
Qanon is an ARG (pt II): The other Hon brother weighs in.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Poesy the Monster Slayer: My first picture book is out today!
Atlas of Surveillance: How are your local cops spying on you?
Catalan politician hacked with NSO Group malware: Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
Artists vs tax havens: A report from Tax Havens: Normalized Grand Theft.
Free "extended preview" of my next book: "Attack Surface" AKA "Little Brother III."
Target workers strike over chickenization: Working for a chickenshipt outfit.
Big Oil can have you locked up: Chevron's old legal firm have the oil company's most effective critic under house arrest.
California goes antitrust on Google: Xavier Becerra rides again!
2019's highest-paid execs: I'm sure they earned every dime.
This day in history: None
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Female Furies: Cecil Castellucci finds the story that Jack Kirby missed.
How to break up Google: A making things company, not a buying things company.
Facebook and Trump collaborate on rule-rigging: You can't break the rules if you make the rules.
NYC housing lottery favors the least-needy: The private sector cannot and will not solve the housing crisis.
Podcast: Part 8 of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town: Families are weird.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Trump wants to dismantle the OTF: Replacing open, auditable tech freedom tools with closed, untrustable ones.
Algonuts: A bottomless, mutated machine learning Peanuts strip.
Trump's covid "test-tubes" are contaminated miniature soda bottles: The Art of the Deal.
Avia, c'est mort: France kills a catastrophic "anti-terror" censorship law.
Austerity in disrepute: Vast majority of Americans favor continued or expanded unemployment benefits.
Microsoft criticizes Apple's monopolism: They're the experts, after all.
This day in history: 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Minneapolis racists threaten arson over BLM signs: A modern cross-burning.
White House recants "antifa bricks" conspiracy: American Surkovs.
Rave for "Poesy the Monster Slayer": "Some children fear monsters at bedtime, but Poesy welcomes them."
Autodetecting autogenerated text: The answer to the machine is the machine.
AMC's bankruptcy is the first domino in monopolist collapse: When monopolism bites Disney in the ass.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Podcast: How Big Tech distorts our discourse: No mind-control required.
EFF statement on Black Lives Matter: Black lives matter on the Internet.
Why quarantine is getting harder: Sustained vigilance is impossible without perceptible feedback.
Writing while Black: Tochi Onyebuchi unpacks the impossible contradictions of being a Black writer in this moment (and all the moments like this).
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading