February, 2026 archive
Grokking the Disinformation Superhighway 0
At the Psychology Today website, Richard Restak warns that, “(t)hanks to the technology of the Internet and AI, misinformation is vastly increasing.” He points out that, not only can AI distort the present, it can distort the past:
Read the whole thing and remind yourself that, even if you see it on a computer screen (perhaps especially if you see it on a computer screen from “social” media), it ain’t necessarily so.
Afterthought:
I wonder how long it will be before the Trump maladministration starts to deploy AI in our national par–oh, never mind.
American Stasi 0
Farron runs the numbers.
In related news, Thom talks with Mike Wriston about ways to fight back against Trump’s concentration campe.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Another “responsible gun owner” allows a child access to a portable phallus . . .
. . . and another news report fails to twig to the difference between “accidental” and “negligent.”.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
At the Washington Monthly, Robert J. Shapiro reads the writings of Hannah Arendt and hears a rhyme. A snippet:
(snip)
Her 1951 analysis of the movements that propelled the rise of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes begins with the insight that their followers were not a typical interest group seeking benefits or rights. Instead, they’re individuals who feel that recent disruptive societal changes cost them their status and are brought together by a charismatic leader who exploits their shared sense of injury.
The leader of these movements offers lies to explain why his followers lost their place, claims he can restore it given enough power, and, equally important, manipulates his followers’ anger to support violence committed at his behest.
I commend the entire article to your attention.
____________________-
*Mark Twain.
The Rule of Lawless 0
At Above the Law, Joe Patrice reports on the Trump maladministration decision to dumb down the Judge Advocate General by excluding graduates from law schools that refuse to bow down to Donald Trump.
Over and Over Again 0
Via the Las Vegas Sun, Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Eric Foster argues that he sees a pattern in Donald Trump’s history.
I think he’s onto something. Go see for yourself.
This New Gilded Age 0
Theft of labor. It’s a thing.
Republican Thought Police 0
Apparently, Kansas Republicans believe that, if schools don’t teach abour America’s history of slavery, segregation, racial discrimination, and bigotry, then, well, it must have never happened.
How Stuff Works: The Crypto Con 0
Non Sequitur pictures the process.
Afterthought:
If Carlo Ponzi were alive today, he’d be selling crypto and NFTs.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Secure? Security maven Bruce Schneier notes that
Click to read the whole article.
American Stasi 0
Via Boston.com, one man, whose only offense was overstaying his visa and marrying an American woman, tells his story. Here’s a tiny bit:
“It’s like a modern day concentration camp. We’ve got no human rights down here,” Culleton said. “People are starving, people are sick, people are tired … It’s just hell down here. Hell on earth. I wouldn’t wish it on any human being at all.”
Follow the link for the full account, including, natch, the Trump maladministration’s claims that, au contraire my sweet, staying in their camps is akin to vacationing at a Hilton or a Marriott.
Precedented 0
In a letter to the editor of my local rag, David Campbell compiles an impressive list of almost a dozen presidential precedents for the actions of the head of the Trump maladministration.
Here’s one presidential precedent; follow the link for the rest.