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Leigh Horne's avatar

I'd read something of this maybe two months ago, when Big Ballz & the Crewe were rummaging through our collective underwear drawers looking for bondage gear, maybe? Whatever gets incels off. But seriously, folks, this datafication of our overarching relationship with 'our' government is super-freaky. It strikes me that the giant computer farms which will have to be built, maintained and above all powered, not to mention avoided as producers of incredible amounts of noise and airborne and who knows what other kinds of pollution, are a weak link. I hope some people out there are already thinking about how to put a stick into those spokes. That's assuming that insufficient numbers of our elected representatives at the local, state and federal levels of government remain asleep at the wheel.

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Lori's avatar

They are already building the infrastructure to support this. Just check news about data farms and their cooling needs... the restart of Three Mile Island to power AI. The recent reconciliation bill has a provision in it to shut down any AI regulation by states for 10 years. Watch The Social Dilemma documentary (which came out years ago); I think it's streaming on Netflix. This isn't fantasy.

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Leigh Horne's avatar

Thanks, Lori.

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Mac Gander's avatar

This seems entirely accurate to me, and I envy how clearly and directly you lay out what amounts to the central but least publicized threat that DOGE posed from the start, along with Trump's March 20 executive order. Your list of the kinds of "small" ways one's data--almost anyone's, really--can be used to make life hard for a Trump enemy is the main thing that has prevented me from visiting the states (I am a citizen) since Trump was elected. Border crossings are fundamentally lawless zones, and "administrative mistakes" provide cover for any sort of lawlessness. The idea of having a lawyer on speed dial and carrying a burner phone seems crazy, but that's the advice these days. A hard story to get people to pay attention to, and this does a great job of breaking it down.

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Lynne Feldman's avatar

US attorney here, licensed in NJ and SCOTUS. I've ceased publishing academic papers that connect dots back to Reagan and metastasized under TACO. I gave up a chance to lecture at Harvard for fear of association with expert on TACO cult MAGA. Sent out newsletter summarizing unreported news legacy media refused to cover, now ceased that as well.

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Bigsurkate's avatar

And the Keamine Kid is already building the AI Serves needed in Nashville, Tennessee, I read recently. Expecting to be finished in 6 months. Already planning a second one, 10 miles away.

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Lynne Feldman's avatar

And killing the environment there as well. Don't forget his Handmaid's Tale compound in Texas.

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Bigsurkate's avatar

Agreed. He is killing the environment and it is killing the residents. If we don’t stop the trashing of our planet, humankind, and most of the rest of the life on this planet will be destroyed and cease to exist.

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Patrick Daniels aka Cromulent1's avatar

The government has been deep in surveillance and controlled population for years, through media as its major means. Project Mockingbird and a rash of other government projects, has led to the greatest information gathering of “We the Serfs” in history. Palantir Technology is the latest DOD tool to control the the denizens who cross the government’s red line! Thanks for pointing out the truth about how our overlords will continue to destroy our freedom,!!

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Nick Calomino's avatar

Sure, I believe. There is, and has been only one war that ravages civil society and that is that rich people are at war with everyone else. We're all so desperate to live in the fantasy of wealth, we refuse to acknowledge the destruction great wealth has on our lives. Viva Las Vegas bitches! Fuck TACO.

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Scott Joy's avatar

Exactly!

Every person needs to take back ownership and access control of the data. Frank McCourt with the Project Liberty/People's Internet/Frequency protocol and Tim Berners-Lee with the Solid Protocol and Inrupt corporation are leading the way to develop a viable alternative.

See https://peoples-internet.onair.cc/ for more information

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Lori's avatar

The day Musk & co got into the Treasury, I knew this is what could happen. The problem is most people fell for the ruse of government efficiency. As they hacked each system, they were combining and aggregating data. The estimate is they have accessed 32 government agencies data. This data used to be segregated so you couldn't make these connections between the IRS, Social Security, Treasury payments, etc. I worried when I filed out the last census because the data collected by the census is really sensitive and in the wrong hands could be used to profile individuals by race. You know those facial scans that help speed you through the airport? That's more data to create a complete profile of you. They are aiming to surpass the kind of surveillance state that China has.

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Robot Bender's avatar

As soon as I heard about DOGE, I was certain this was the intent. Hell, I had a top secret clearance. They already know more about me than my parents did.

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Keith's avatar

If only there was a writer who used to focus on these kinds of concerns. Matt Taibbi. Are you out there? Maybe you are still too busy cataloging the Biden era sins (there were many)? What happened to you Matt?

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Michelle Armendo's avatar

And people wonder why major companies, Universities, Law Firms, Federal Judges, Senators and Congressleaders are “bending the knee”? Because they are in fear of retaliation and/or repercussions if they do not comply knowing of this type of technology. I’m sure they have already been given a sample of what this Dictatorship is capable of.

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james mack's avatar

Terrifying.

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Gerard DiLeo's avatar

When the goin' gets shitty, the shitty get goin'. And it's not always the smell that arrives first.

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Color Me Skeptical's avatar

Thanks for writing this. So what steps can we take to mitigate it?

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Federico's avatar

Dopo la caduta del fascismo in Italia, tra i primi diritti garantiti dalla costituzione, articolo 15, ci fu il diritto che la posta fosse inviolabile, proprio per l'uso fatto dal regime.

Se un giorno il popolo americano riuscirà a porre fine a questa situazione dovrà rivedere fortemente il concetto di privacy nella comunicazione personale e distruggere tutti i dataset IA coinvolti, anche se significa miliardi di dollari e supremazia tecnologica.

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Alexis Ludwig's avatar

Another “yikes” is in order. Yikes.

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