jpreston1986

The place that handles my rental says "good news! you can pay by credit card on-line now!" and then just quietly tacks on an extra $8 charge on top of the credit card also getting their beak wet. So now I gotta pay like $15 just to pay my godamn rent??

I refuse to pay these BS fees. I only ever drop off checks. That still only costs me for the amount I pay for the checks, which is only a few cents per If memory serves.

What's even worse is when you're in debt and you gotta pay fees just to make a payment on that. Living in america means you're always just a couple steps from debtors prison or living on the street.

Just about every single person they quoted in that (terrifying) article asked to stay anonymous for fear of retaliation by the government.

This is not normal. This is some seriously dystopian bullshit.

I have a sticker on my water bottle, says "nazi lives don't matter." My grandmother asked me if I feel nervous walking around with that, and it just made me think "Why should I feel nervous about insulting nazis in America!?" It's truly a sign of how terrible everything has gotten. The nazi far-right problem has become so widespread, it's tendrils stuck so deep into our government, that it makes me question if it is actually safe to be anti-nazi?

The article talks about an ICE detention center that the community railed against, and got successfully cancelled via a court order. But the rule of law evidently doesn't mean anything anymore, because they are just using it anyway and lying about it. The government is no longer beholden to the checks and balances offered by the judiciary, and that's fucking terrifying.

Just finished reading Neal Stephenson's "Diamond Age," which is kind of a sequel to "Snow Crash," (both are great books, I recommend them).

In it, there's a sophisticated kind of AI book that's used to teach children, and the stories are read aloud. But, they don't have the AI read the stories, specifically because the children can tell when it's automated, and won't listen, so they have to use voice actors specifically for it, that are kept on payroll (in a manner of speaking).

I used to think that AI could never replicate videos to a realistic degree but, uh, here we are. I wonder how long until it can read something aloud and pass as human.