Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

Techdirt

from the what's-the-word dept

This week, MrWilson takers both top spots on the insightful side. In first place, it’s a comment about the growing global threat of internet age gates:

One of the biggest benefits of the internet is the ability to talk to people outside your personal sphere. It’s similar to the exposure to diversity that a lot of people get when they leave home for college. You can see how a bunch of conservatives who are dismayed by their inability to control what the youth access and talk about would want to lock them out so they can be limited to the indoctrination of their immediate vicinity.

Internet access helps LGBTQ kids when their parents are unsupportive hateful bigots. Internet access helps kids on the spectrum find other people who share their interests and won’t think they’re weird. Internet access helps kids who are being abused finds strategies to report and escape from those situations.

In second place, it’s a reply to someone who felt they needed to give Trump some reluctant half-praise for ending the war in Iran:

This is a completely unnecessary take. It’s entirely possible to be happy some of the bullshit is over without giving credit to the asshole who caused it. You don’t thank the guy who intentionally shat on the floor for taking a dirty rag and smearing it around while pretending he’s cleaning it up.

He already did double down multiple times.

It’s like saying he gets credit for not punching his wife the 50th time after he punched her 49 times before.

He’s not trying to end the war. He’s trying to get out of a mess he created. And he’s leaving a bigger mess than when he started. Anyone who thinks Iran was a problem before should recognize that they’ll be enriched and emboldened by this. Trump has done more good for the Iranian regime than he has for the US at this point.

“Trying to turn the page” here just means he’s going to move on to another fuck up. He’s going to go back to fucking over our European allies or bullying someone else. He got humiliated trying to bully Iran, so he’ll pick an easier target to shore up his ego and pretend he’s still big and smart and powerful.

Absolutely no credit should go to the man who is responsible for all the fuck ups. He’s too old, arrogant, and stupid to learn from his mistakes. And we’re going to pay the cost.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment from Ninja about what Trump will do next:

He’s rerouting his attention to the Latin America. It’s not only Cuba. It’s every country that doesn’t bow to the US will. He attributed the “terrorist organization” status to PCC and CV, the largest organized crime groups operating in Brazil opening up a window to conduct operations ignoring the country sovereignty under some shitty US law.

He is also attacking Brazilian banking system, mainly what we call Pix, an electronic transaction system that’s free for the ordinary citizen while commercial entities pay a much smaller fee than using Visa and Mastercard for instance. Via USTR. He says it’s unfair competition.

Another major attack vector is against our institution, mainly our supreme court and the electoral system, one of the most advanced and secure in the world. All while tagging along with people that have already been found guilty of trying a coup d’état.

This man is a fucking piece of turd and nobody is stopping him. Hopefully this complete loss and the continued destruction Trump is promoting in all areas of the USA strips some power and the ability to cause so much destruction of future baboons the Republicans will eventually put in power.

Next, it’s a comment from Bloof about RFK Jr. checking out of doing any work:

He’s gotten most of what he wants, but isn’t able to feed raw milk, beef tallow and sodium chlorite to every school kid so he’s acting like the narcissistic trust fund child he is, crossing his arms and sulking because it’s no fun anymore, the day to day work isn’t enjoyable and people are fighting him in the courts.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is an anonymous quip calling out a bizarre phrase used by another commenter to describe Trump’s supposed “victory” in Iran:

YouTube listslop clickbait be like

“top 10 levels of their government”

You’ll never believe number 7!

In second place, it’s The Phule with one more message about the situation:

Dear Iran: My congratulations for your complete and total victory.

For editor’s choice on the funny side, our first place winner is Stephen T. Stone with a comment about the mess in Microsoft’s Xbox division:

Remember when people actually liked Microsoft as a company?

…yeah, me neither.

Finally, it’s an anonymous comment about a certain annoying venture capitalist:

My main vivid memory of Andreessen is Dan Aykroyd playing him in a 1993 biopic about how he first came to Earth.

That’s all for this week, folks!

This Week In Techdirt History: June 14th – 20th

Techdirt

from the as-you-were dept

This Week in 2016

• Peter Thiel’s Plan To Destroy Gawker Went Way Beyond Hogan’s Case
• Also A Bad Idea: Gawker Exploring Lawsuit Against Peter Thiel For Tortious Interference & Racketeering
• Peter Thiel’s Gawker-Killing Lawyer Now Issuing Bogus Defamation Threats Over Story On Donald Trump’s Hair
• Twitter, Facebook & Google Sued For ‘Material Support For Terrorism’ Over Paris Attacks
• House Intel Boss, Rep. Devin Nunes, Lying To Congress About Attempt To Stop Encryption Backdoors
• Supreme Court Makes It (Slightly) Easier To Award Attorneys’ Fees For Bogus Copyright Lawsuits

This Week in 2011

• The List Of Sites Challenging Domain Seizures
• Rojadirecta Sues US Government, Homeland Security & ICE Over Domain Seizure
• China Seizes Websites, Clamps Down On Speech… Uses Copyright Infringement As The Excuse
• ICE Stalling On More FOIA Requests Concerning Domain Name Seizures
• French Government Looks To Create Great Firewall Of France
• Why Is The Justice Department Pretending US Copyright Laws Apply In The UK?

This Week in 2006

• Recording Industry Still Has Canadian Politicians In Its Pocket
• Sing A Song Of Propaganda For Net Neutrality
• Yes, Everyone Clicks To Skip The Flash Intro On Your Annoying Website
• The RIAA Says No Dancing To Music On YouTube
• Countries Team Up To Better Censor The Internet
• Stop Blaming Technology For Stupidity

Filed Under: history, look back

CBS Signs Licensing Deal With ‘Peanuts’ People To Duck Legal Issues From Colbert’s Last Show

Copyright

from the lucy-pulling-away-the-copyright-football dept

I can’t say I know for sure that Stephen Colbert is a Techdirt reader, but I very much believe he is. His interests align somewhat with ours, he often comments on some of the same topics we do, and, it turns out, he decided to troll his previous employer during his last show in a very Techdirt-ian manner.

After CBS decided to sacrifice Colbert at the altar of American fascism, the wind down of The Late Show culminated in a final broadcast weeks ago. During that broadcast, Colbert was covering a story about Lee Mendelson Film Productions, which owns the music catalogue for the Charlie Brown franchise, suing several targets for use of its copyrighted music. As he did so, the show band began playing the Charlie Brown theme song. Colbert mused afterwards sarcastically that he hoped that wouldn’t cost CBS any money.

Well played, if only to highlight the absurdity that such a short performance of an iconic song like that could actually result in threats, lawsuits, or demands for payment. But many speculated that the show had already gotten the rights to play the music before it aired, or that Lee Mendelson Film Productions wouldn’t actually do anything about it all to avoid inserting itself into the public spat between Colbert, CBS, and our current government.

Wrong. The company did apparently reach out to CBS, which eventually had to enter into a licensing agreement to avoid any legal issues.

The agreement will see CBS take a license for “Linus and Lucy,” the unofficial Peanuts theme that Colbert’s band played on the air during the show. The proceeds from the deal will be donated to the charity World Central Kitchen, run by Chef José Andrés.

“LMFP found the music’s use on The Late Show funny and entertaining, and is proud to support World Central Kitchen’s mission,” the group’s chairman Jason Mendelson said. A spokeswoman for CBS confirmed the agreement but declined to comment.

On the one hand, I guess it’s nice to see some of CBS’ money go to a good organization like World Central Kitchen. But I do indeed wonder if similar arrangements were struck with the other four entities against which LMFP filed lawsuits. I somehow doubt it. I would guess instead that such treatment was reserved for CBS, in order to make this story more lighthearted and warming.

It’s not, this is stupid, and none of this is as it should be. Colbert shouldn’t have been forced out of his job by a combination of a thin-skinned gibbon and a compliant CBS. It’s insanity that copyright law is in a place where such a diminutive use of a famous song could result in the requirement of a licensing arrangement, never mind actual potential lawsuits. And if it’s so necessary to protect copyright in this instance that lawsuits need to be filed against multiple parties, it should be important enough that any licensing fees and/or damages obtained shouldn’t just be given away to charities.

But as a final poke in CBS’ eye, this was a good one.

Filed Under: charlie brown, copyright, licensing, stephen colbert
Companies: cbs, lmfp, paramount, world central kitchen

Congress Just Rushed Through A Disastrous Copyright Office Overhaul

Copyright

from the bad-copyright-ideas dept

In a voice vote last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6028, the “Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act.” The legislation is presented as a technical reorganization of some government agencies, but it’s much more than that. 

H.R. 6028 would fundamentally change the U.S. Copyright Office, and not in a good way. The bill removes the Library of Congress’ current supervisory role over the Copyright Office, transfers several powers directly to the Register of Copyrights, and makes the Register a presidential appointee, confirmed by the Senate. 

These changes would make an office that’s already hugely influential in copyright and tech policy much more political. EFF first explained why that’s a terrible idea when it came up nearly a decade ago. This bill, like the older one, weakens the few public-interest checks and balances that do exist.  We hope the Senate promptly rejects this bill. 

The Copyright Office Doesn’t Need More Politics—Or More Power

The Copyright Office’s main responsibilities are administrative and advisory. It registers copyrights, maintains records, grows the Library of Congress’s collections, and provides expertise to Congress on copyright law. But over the past two decades, the Office has also become increasingly influential in copyright policy debates that affect free expression, libraries, educators, competition—and everyday internet users. Unfortunately, it has not been a neutral advocate. The office’s recent report on the role of AI severely bungled the issue of fair use, prioritizing private licensing market “solutions” over user rights. 

Going further back, the Copyright Office supported one of the most infamous anti-internet proposals of all time—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a disastrous internet censorship proposal that sparked one of the largest online protests in history. The Office has repeatedly advanced positions that favored large entertainment-industry interests over the public interest.

The Office also plays a major role in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Section 1201 rulemaking process, which determines when the public may lawfully bypass digital locks for activities such as security research, repair, preservation, or accessibility. EFF has used this process repeatedly to mitigate some of the worst harms of the DMCA. H.R. 6028 would move rulemaking authority over 1201 from the Librarian of Congress to the Register of Copyrights, further consolidating power within the Copyright Office itself.

The bill also makes the Register of Copyrights a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate. Each administration will be pressured to pick nominees aligned with their own policy preferences, and the powerful copyright owning industries will invest even more heavily in lobbying to get their way, and influence the selection. This position should be focused on administrative ability and actual expertise, not lobbying and politics. 

The Copyright Office Should Stay Connected To The Library of Congress

H.R. 6028 would do more than change who appoints the Register of Copyrights. It would sever the Copyright Office from Library of Congress supervision and transfer many Librarian powers directly to the Register. 

The supervisory relationship exists for good reason, as the nation’s libraries have pointed out for years. The Library, while far from perfect, at least has the mission of preserving and providing access to knowledge. That should be an important public-interest counterweight in copyright debates. Congress has not explained how weakening the ties between the Library and the Copyright Office would serve the public better, or even seriously inquired about it. 

This Bill Was Rushed Through

Back in March, EFF joined Public Knowledge, the Center for Democracy and Technology, library organizations and tech groups, urging Congress not to fast-track this legislation. We told them changes to the Copyright Office will have major consequences for the “speech rights, educational opportunities, and creative freedoms of all Americans.” 

Yet Congress moved forward without any hearings on the bill, and without meaningful examination. H.R. 6028 creates a years-long separation of the Copyright Office from the Library of Congress, transfers significant legal authority, and restructures the appointment process for the nation’s top copyright official. Changes like that deserve hearings, debate, and public scrutiny. H.R. 6028 got none of that. 

The Senate Should Stop This Bill

Copyright law exists to serve the public and “promote the progress” of science and learning. The institutions that administer copyright law should do the same. 

H.R. 6028 would move the Copyright Office further away from that goal. Congress should be strengthening public-interest oversight of copyright policymaking, not looking for ways to concentrate more authority in a single presidentially appointed official. 

The Senate should reject H.R. 6028. The Copyright Office should serve the public—not presidential administrations, and not industry lobbyists. 

Republished from the EFF’s Deeplinks blog.

Filed Under: copyright, copyright office, copyright policy, library of congress

Surveillance Is Good Because I Want Drivers I Don’t Like To Be Punished: Cleveland Columnist

Stupidity

from the giving-up-rights-for-vengeance dept

Here it is: the dumbest defense of automatic license plate readers I’ve ever read. While we can subtract some points because the person writing it has no power to install/un-install/cover in garbage bags surveillance tech, he’s a regular contributor to a long-running newspaper in a major city. And since this paper is still willing to give him a byline and inches (or digital equivalent), he’s not going to get a pass.

This would be the work of Ted Diadiun, who at least appears to be the MAGA ideal of a centrist. (This means he occasionally criticizes Trump but also gets big mad when people suggest this nation might be better off if Trump was dead.)

I don’t expect everyone — even those with newspaper staff credentials — to get into the weeds when it comes to surveillance tech. On the other hand, I fully expect them to present a better argument in favor of ALPR systems than “Man, I wish the cops were pulling over every driver I think they should be pulling over.”

And, yet, this is Ted Diadiun’s opening argument:

How many of us have witnessed an idiotic driver and muttered, “Why is there never a cop around when you need one?”

That is why – getting to the point – I’m a big fan of surveillance cameras. Speed cameras, red-light cameras, Flock cameras … all of them.

They’re always around, even when a cop isn’t. And they give me some assurance that people who think laws are for others will get what’s coming to them. And those, like me and my friend, who think that scofflaws are increasing exponentially, can cling to the hope that the number will come down if people know or suspect they’re on camera.

Bro, I hear you. I share the road (and see it not equally shared) with assholes. I do wish vengeance upon them. But I also would rather keep my rights than give them up in exchange for traffic enforcement that subjectively pleases me.

I’m on the other side. And that would be the other side that Ted feels is too stupid, too soft on crime, or otherwise misinformed.

Not everyone, unfortunately, thinks that way.

How can you tell you’re the greatest? Well, it’s when you present your side (me and my friend think “idiotic” drivers need more punishment) and follow it up with a statement that says anyone opposed to your subjective views on traffic enforcement are “unfortunately” wrong.

Ted Diadiun is upset because city leaders are trying to do their best to serve their constituents. Many are opposed to the ALPR system imposed on them. This system belongs to Flock, which has become a surveillance tech front runner — one that has often greeted legitimate criticism with “go fuck yourself” vibes.

Immediately after invoking the unholy name of Flock, Diadiun says a number of things very quickly. First, he admits ALPRs won’t do anything to punish the speeders and scofflaws that so incensed him and his neighbor. Then he says something even Flock itself might not want him to say:

These cameras do not identify speeders or people who bust through red lights – there are other devices for that. What they do is capture the license numbers of every vehicle that drives by. Their gaze can also capture other things, such as porch pirates and car thieves and vandals and other dregs of society lurking in our neighborhoods.

Wow, Ted, wow. These ALPRs are great because… they do so much more than collect the plate/location records the public assumed AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE READERS (ALPRs) would be limited to doing.

But you’re fine with surveillance, surveillance creep, and giving the finger to your fellow Cleveland residents because?

There are more than 1,700 of these devices scattered around Cuyahoga County, but at current issue are 100 Flock cameras in Cleveland. Mayor Justin Bibb, who correctly understands their value, has tried to renew the city’s contract with the company, but has been beset by objections from, among others, a raucous group called “Flock No.” As a result, he tossed the decision to Cleveland City Council. Flock No members disrupted a recent council meeting with clapping and chanting, but there’s been no decision as yet.

That organization has also taken on the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, which has 200 Flock cameras outside its buildings in an effort to help police solve cases of car break-ins, vandalism, street takeovers in parking lots and sex offenders illegally visiting school property.

Hmmm. The citizens protested a council meeting. The mayor punted. And while Flock may have installed 200 cameras in the school district, naming the things Flock claims it cameras will prevent isn’t even in the same galaxy as naming the things Flock’s cameras have actually prevented. Why, I could claim my use of the letter “e” in this post has been done to prevent sex offenders from being appointed by the Trump administration. And it would be every bit as credible as claiming a couple hundred cameras are “helping” police do everything from investigating petty theft (they don’t care) or keeping sex offenders off school property (citation PLEASE).

And then Diadiun goes on to both (1) make it clear Flock’s cameras aren’t limited to license plate readings and (2) pretend fighting for rights is just advocacy for criminals.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which can always be counted on to throw roadblocks in front of efforts to stop crime and capture criminals, of course has weighed in on the anti-camera side, charging that it amounts to mass spying that turns its plate-reading into surveillance cameras, and that its recordings of bumper stickers amount to an invasion of privacy.

(Ironically, it was the photos of bumper stickers on a Chevrolet Camaro captured by Flock cameras that allowed federal agents to capture and arrest an armed robber who had held up ten local stores at gunpoint in 2021, as chronicled in a Thursday story on cleveland.com. Guess the ACLU would have preferred that the guy remain free to continue to terrify and perhaps harm additional clerks and customers.)

If the first paragraph doesn’t make you want to punch the columnist in the face, read it again. This is not what the ACLU does. It’s not there to protect criminals. It’s there to protect rights. Rights apply to everyone, even (alleged) criminals. Ted is here to declare he’d rather see a thousand innocent people jailed than allow a single criminal to go free.

Then he goes on to (unhelpfully — in the case of Flock) note that Flock captures more than plate images and allows law enforcement to run searches on things that aren’t normally considered to be part of day-to-day ALPR business… like bumper stickers.

And, again, Diadiun closes out the paragraph by pretending the ACLU’s intervention in this case was in the interest of increasing crime, rather than forcing the government to respect constitutional rights.

Having already demonstrated he’s a facile dolt, Ted Diadiun wraps things up by ensuring there can be no debate about his (barely) “useful idiot” status:

Unless you have something to hide, why would you object to cameras that record license plates and other information?

Please post your location history data publicly, Ted. You have nothing to hide. Let’s see where you’ve been and who you’ve associated with. Just dump it out in a future column so we can sift through like the cops you love so much. Until you’re willing to that much, please shut the fuck up about location tracking, ALPRs, civil liberties, and drivers who will now feel increasingly justified in their attempts to run you off the road.

[I have reached out to Ted Diadiun to see if he’ll provide readers with location data collected by his phone and/or other services since he’s apparently has nothing to hide. I’ve also asked him to explain why it’s okay for the government to have this information by default, if he’s unwilling to share it with his readers. I will update this post in the unlikely event that Ted chooses to respond to my inquiries.]

Filed Under: 4th amendment, aclu, alpr, location tracking, surveillance, ted diadiun, traffic cameras
Companies: cleveland.com, flock safety

Daily Deal: The JavaScript DOM Game Developer Bundle

Deals

from the good-deals-on-cool-stuff dept

The JavaScript DOM Game Developer Bundle has 8 courses to help you master coding fundamentals. Courses cover JavaScript DOM, Coding, HTML 5 Canvas, and more. You’ll learn how to create your own fun, interactive games. It’s on sale for $30.

Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.

Filed Under: daily deal

Trump Surrenders To Iran On Virtually Every Point

Failures

from the total-capitulation dept

If there’s one thing that Donald Trump has shown over the years, it’s that he will get his most sycophantic MAGA loyalists to insist there are perfectly obvious reasons why whatever he’s about to do is absolutely necessary… and then Trump will do the opposite, and all those hangers-on will magically change their story within minutes.

The excellent reporter Laura Jedeed has been tracking all of the excuses Trump and his team have been giving for why we absolutely had to go to war with Iran, and the very top one: eliminate their ballistic missile capability. Next: eliminate their nuclear program entirely. There was also some talk of “regime change.”

Now that Trump has signed the surrender agreement at Versailles (the traditional place to sign a total surrender agreement), the scorecard looks like this: no eliminated missile program, no eliminated nuclear program, no regime change. Also: no actual deal.

What Trump signed is a one-page memorandum of understanding with a 60-day time limit. After that, another deal needs to happen — one that may or may not actually get signed. The thing being called a historic peace agreement is, in legal terms, a note on the back of a napkin that expires in two months.

With that established: here’s what he gave away to get it.

The US backed down on everything to get the Strait of Hormuz only partially opened, in a situation where Iran still seems likely to come out of this way stronger and way more powerful than before Trump started this illegal war. Remember, before this war, the Strait was open. So with this deal we only get partially back to where things were before the war, but with a huge draw down of US military stock, over a dozen dead US soldiers, and tons of unnecessary Iranian casualties, including a school full of young girls.

Iran retains their ballistic missiles and MAGA officials have to pretend that makes sense.

And after months of screaming about how Iran could not retain any nuclear capabilities at all, Trump is now talking about how important it is for them to retain their nuclear capabilities.

Also, remember how the Trump world insisted that Obama’s JCPOA was one of the worst deals of all time?

That’s Donald Trump tweeting in 2015 about the JCPOA:

The deal with Iran will go down as one of the most incompetent ever made. The U.S. lost on virtually every point. We just don’t win anymore!

The “deal” Trump just made is a complete capitulation, a loss on every point, and way, way, way worse than what was in the JCPOA, which, in retrospect, was a genuinely good deal — carefully negotiated by actual experts — and briefly a real win for peace in the Middle East before Trump tore it up.

And remember how MAGA spent years misleadingly talking up all the money that the US supposedly “gave” Iran with the JCPOA? Or the deal Biden did to extend a Trump-era policy to unfreeze some of Iran’s frozen assets, which even Donald Trump Jr. falsely claimed was Biden “giving” Iran money?

There is now widespread reporting that this deal will unlock some $300 billion in investment for Tehran. To be precise: this isn’t the US writing a check — the deal creates the conditions for private capital to pour into the country. Trump has been pretty candid about his view on that:

“We don’t have to give them anything. But some people may want to invest. Like, what are you going to do to say ‘you can never ever invest in a country,’ I mean, it’s pretty tough.”

So: MAGA spent years insisting that financial flows to Iran — even unfreezing Iran’s own assets — would fund its military and get soldiers killed. Trump just opened Iran to hundreds of billions in new investment while leaving both the missiles and the nuclear program intact. The threat, apparently, only counts when a Democrat is president.

Obviously, ending this war is a good thing. But it never should have happened in the first place. Trump launched it without congressional authorization, in clear violation of the War Powers Act — and once it started, Congress should have stopped it cold.

The final accounting: Trump tore up the JCPOA, which he called “one of the most incompetent deals ever made.” He started an illegal war. He drew down US military stockpiles, lost over a dozen American soldiers, and killed Iranian civilians — including a school full of young girls. And he came away with a memorandum of understanding that expires in 60 days, leaving Iran with everything it had before the war started, plus full knowledge of exactly how hard Trump will push before he folds.

Trump’s own verdict on the JCPOA was: “The U.S. lost on virtually every point.” He was describing this deal.

Filed Under: donald trump, iran, iran deal, jcpoa

Trump DOJ Trying To Protect Musk From Lawsuit Over Memphis AI Data Center Pollution

Legal Issues

from the whoops-we-killed-grandma dept

For a long time organizations like the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) have noted how Elon Musk’s xAI data center in Memphis disproportionately pollutes the air in minority neighborhoods. A joint lawsuit by SELC, Earthjustice, and the NAACP filed last April argued that Musk and friends didn’t even bother to get the necessary permits to run the turbines at its xAI’s Colossus 2 data center.

The lawsuit also notes how these 27 turbines (which has ballooned to 57 turbines since the lawsuit was filed) belch all manner of contaminants, including formaldehyde, into minority neighborhoods already seeing some of the highest asthma rates in the country, violating the Clean Air Act.

But this being Elon Musk, he apparently has been able to leverage the presidency he helped purchase to get those pesky Memphis minorities off of his back. In a filing this week obtained by Wired, the DOJ is trying to claim the lawsuit can’t proceed because xAI and Grok are highly tethered to the country’s national security efforts:

“In a filing, the agency sided with Elon Musk’s company, saying attempts to stop xAI from running the natural gas turbines “threatens American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations.”

Musk and his friends at the DOJ are asking the courts to dismiss the lawsuit. In May, the NAACP filed a request for a preliminary injunction, stating that the climbing rates of environmental pollution “increases risks of asthma attacks and heart disease” in communities that already face significant pollution thanks to regulatory capture and systemic racism.

Over on Elon Musk’s right wing propaganda website, Marc Andreessen pretended to not understand why a civil rights group might be upset that unregulated data centers are pumping pollution into minority Memphis neighborhoods:

It’s worth noting that when Musk built the Colossus 2 data center near Memphis, he promised that the facility would largely re-use water via a next-generation water-recycling plant as to not strain the area water supply. But curiously, construction of that part of the project has stalled out completely. Musk says the company needs to focus on finishing their other data center in the region, then will finish construction. But, well, it’s Musk. The guy always saying we’re *this close* to settling Mars.

Meanwhile, you’ve got a lot of rich assholes (and the politicians who love them) increasingly trying to falsely claim that all of the bubbling over animosity at AI is an inauthentic Chinese “psy-op.” And you’ve got CEOs getting booed at their commencement speeches wondering why AI animosity is so white hot.

The youth movement has tethered AI to the country’s growing fascist, racist corruption and income inequality (and the tech sector that openly embraced it at almost every turn), and it’s going to take a lot more than sloppy CBS propaganda and new software updates to shift the perception. I’m not sure the tech sector truly groks what their enthusiastic support of Trumpism will ultimately reap them.

This is the future we’ve built in a country too corrupt to have functional regulatory oversight of obscenely rich men and corporate power. Without a meaningful ethical renaissance and profound political sea change, it only gets uglier and more violent from here.

Filed Under: ai, clean air act, data center, elon musk, environmental law, lawsuit, memphis, pollution
Companies: naacp, spacex, xai