Pluralistic: 22 Jul 2020

Today's links

Ukrainian steampunk masks: The gorgeous work of Dmitriy and Aleksandra Bragin.
OTF spared (for now): Trump's administrative incompetence saves the US Agency for Global Media from becoming Global Breitbart.
Insurers are secret, powerful police reformers: Money talks, bullshit walks.
Ohio GOP leadership arrested for racketeering: Largest corruption scandal in Ohio history.
Little Brother as a role-playing game: Notes from the Fiction & RPG Podcast.
Anti-facial recognition tool: Fawkes will alter your images in ways that are invisible to humans but confounding for algorithms.
Kentucky AG sues top GOP donors: Kentucky's Republican lawmaker is the best kind of class-traitor.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Straightened Trees: Changing the buildings to straighten the trees.
AI Dungeon with GPT-3: An AI invents a grimoire in an instant.
EU court kills data-sharing deal with USA: Schrems' Revenge.
Librarians' virtual escape rooms: Trapped in a Google Forms MUD.
What's in Blueleaks: The boondoggle of Fusion Centers.
A new contract for land: Real estate is the literal basis for feudalism.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Copyright keeps police use-of-force training a secret: How cops are circumventing the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.
Splash Mountain to purge Song of the South: Princess and the Frog ahoy!
Let's get rid of nursing homes: An end-of-life plan.
Sympathy for the mask-shy: Abstinence-only covid prevention is a failure.
"Violent protests" vs "violent police": How to report on protests.
Microcontent guidelines for 2020: A successor to the 1998 classic.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Everybody Knows: Charles Hugh Smith has prepared the rap sheet.
"Longshot" NYPD surveillance transparency law passes: NYC has finally passed the POST Act.
Juneteenth in the Internet Archive: Living history, in your browser.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Image Scrubber: An in-browser image sanitizer that doesn't require you to trust a random website.
Trump's bailout guy is making millions for his family: Justin Muzinich isn't a flamboyant villain like Mnuchin. He's a quiet villain.
Fix the police: What evidence says about police reform.
After Jim Crow, broken windows: Kelling and Zimbardo have a lot to answer for.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Cuomo legalizes nursing-home murders: Immunity for execs who cut corners, even when it kills someone.
"News" broadcasts air scripted Amazon commercial: Media concentration is a hell of a drug.
Why ammosexuals are REALLY pointing guns at their own dicks: Bottom line: they're pointing guns at their own dicks.
California is setting itself up for a brutal second wave: Months of lockdown, squandered at the barber-shop.
Teardown of an "anti-5g" USB stick: When the conspiracy has a business-model.
Wisconsin cases surge after voting day: Murder at the ballot box.
World video premiere of the Little Brother stage play: A benefit for the Custom Made Theater Co.
Cumgate on blast: Marina Hyde's got Dom's number.
Corporate Dems include military contractors in bailout: Billions for Beltway Bandits.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Scarfolk on Cumgate: Government Employee Eye-Test Slide (1970s).
Texas profiteers make bank from NYC's homeless: Crewfacilities.com LLC is gouging the city while finding hotel beds for homeless people.
FCC's willful broadband blindness in a pandemic: You can't fix broadband if you don't know what's wrong with it.
Uber is scrapping thousands of Jump bikes: Bikes are essential during lockdowns.
White Americans are increasingly opposed to democracy: Turkeys, Christmas, etc.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Armed Michigan voters escort their state rep to work: If the police won't stop the flu klux klan…
Konstantine Anthony for Burbank City Council: A candidate for working Burbankers.
Flooding Ohio's "work-refusal" snitchline: Volcano gods go hungry tonight.
Brett Favre received $1.1m in welfare money for speeches he never gave: Part of Mississippi's $98m corruption scandal.
The real Lord of the Flies kids were really nice to each other: Another paradise built in hell.
Phil Ochs rarities: Treasures from a lost and beautiful radical musician and writer.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

100 Ideas for Dungeon Masters: Based on the Pathfinder Bestiary, readily adaptable for other systems.
Attack Surface author's note: My latest podcast is the afterword from the third Little Brother book.
Trump admits voter suppression: Proving intent was never easier.
Reality endorses Sanders: Pandemics have an obvious leftist bias.
Amazon fires walkout organizer: Low waged workers, doing the most important work in America, exposed to lethal risk.
Monopolists stole your respirator: Dying a gasping death is pareto-optimal.
Corporate welfare vs food stamps: A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
How viruses experience social distancing: XKCD mixes atavistic satisfaction with science communications.
Scarfolk pandemics: This isn't the worst timeline after all.
This day in history: 2005, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Charter techs get $25 gift cards instead of hazard pay: No hand-san or PPE, either.
The Pandemic Playbook: Trump won't rtfm.
Boardgame Remix Kit: Make 26 new games out of Monopoly, Clue, Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble sets.
McMansion Hell visits 1972: "Architecture store? I'd like one of everything."
Free Cheapass Games print-and-plays: KILL DOCTOR LUCKY, GIVE ME THE BRAIN, LORD OF THE FRIES, UNEXPLODED COW and so many more!
Trump officials killed Walmart opioid prosecutions: With help from Jones Day.
United gets $25B stimulus and announces layoffs: The biggest corporate giveaway in history.
FLICC vs denialism: A taxonomy of scientific denial, just in time.
This Waifu Does Not Exist: Autogenned anime characters, with backstories.
Fever cameras are garbage: It's the pivot-to-covid for grifty police enablers.
Employers scramble to buy remote-worker spyware: Even if you're paying for the product, you're the product.
Canada Reads Q&A on Apr 23: Unfortunately, it's on Facebook.
Cowboy Economist on covid stimulus: Congress doesn't spend taxes, it spends and then taxes.
88 Names podcast: Talking VR, AR and gold farming with Matt Ruff.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading