The backlash against Flock, the warrantless surveillance network masquerading as red-light cameras, reached Delaware the other day when a Graylyn Crest man damaged one with a shotgun blast. Kevin Smith, 64, was arrested by county police, who charged him with two felony counts of reckless endangering, which strikes me as prima facie bullshit, along with several lesser gun crimes. The news release said the camera belongs to the Delaware State Police, as opposed to Flock or any of its several competitors, but unless the DSP starts putting up stickers alerting irate citizens “These Aren’t Flocks!”
As for Mr. Smith, I suggest he start a GoFundMe for his legal expenses, because the growing anger over this seems to mirror the bipartisan and widespread antagonism towards data centers and AI … hey, do you notice something? Amanda Marcotte did, and she connects the dots to find a picture of a brewing rebellion against our tech billionaire overlords.
The Natalie Harp story continues to mutate. While Republicans screech hypocritically about misogyny, the paranoia-minded point out that she had no security clearance until Trump intervened, which basically means she shouldn’t have security clearance. More concretely, Harp apparently is Trump’s media gatekeeper, which makes her a kind of puppet master – show him praise to make him happy, show him criticism to get him mad. This might be Trump’s least favorite way yet to keep the Epstein Files out of the news.
Forty isn’t a standout among round numbers, but 40 billion is round enough for the financial media to take notice if it’s in dollars. That’s the size of the national debt, which under Trump has swelled almost as much as his cankles. It matters because it’s yet another driver of inflation, along with the out-of-control borrowing by AI-obsessed tech companies. Which brings us right back to where today’s Open Thread started.
The floor’s yours.
