Trump's administration is describing -- quite openly -- their desire to deploy the military in major blue-state cities ... They're not even slightly covert about it This does not come as news to most folks roundabouts mastodon, I suspect ... ... but this post at Rolling Stone is nonetheless a good roundup of some of the more blatant and open statements:

Trump Sends National Guard to D.C., Plans for More Federal Force

Donald Trump has unleashed the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and his team is plotting to use federal forces in other Democratic cities.

first they added variables to CSS then if-then statements now functions people, people I have *warned* you sentient killer AI isn't going to be built at a skunkworks corporate lab in SF or Beijing it's going to spontaneously self-assemble in the CSS file for the web site of a rural Tennessee bank

una.im | 5 Useful CSS functions using the new @function rule

CSS custom functions are a gamechanger. Here are 5 really useful examples.

behold the "HTML bomb" it's a defensive counterattack on AI web-scrapers that persistently scrape and rescrape your web site, even when you tell them not to the bomb file *looks* like a tiny HTML page, but when scraped -- or even requested by a regular browser ... ... it unpacks into a huge-ass 10-gig HTML page ... ... which quickly crashes any browser or scraper Item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here:

Linkfest #37: "Wind Theft", an HTML Bomb, and the Rice Theory of Culture

Hello folks! It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — my next Linkfest, in which I comb through the endless branching shelves of the I...

You know those sms scam messages we all get -- "we've got a job for you" what *is* the scam, precisely? How do these "jobs" work? Over at Slate, Alex Sammon took on one of the jobs ... and the story is absolutely fascinating:

Slate Magazine

I Responded to One of the Spam Texts From a “Recruiter”—Then Took the Job. It Got Weirder Than I Could Have Imagined.

The story of “Cathy,” my scammer.

TIL that in Hong Kong, scaffolding for construction isn't made of metal it's handcrafted from bamboo by artisans who've been passing down the techniques for generations Item #4 in my latest Linkfest newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here:

Linkfest #36: Moon Rice, Mountaineering in High Heels, and Why Birds Never Debate Economic Policy

Hello folks! It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — my next Linkfest, in which I scavenge through the thrift shops of the aer’y in...

A cathedral dress briliant invention of the designer/maker Christina Ernst Item # 11 in my latest Linkfest newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here:

Linkfest #36: Moon Rice, Mountaineering in High Heels, and Why Birds Never Debate Economic Policy

Hello folks! It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — my next Linkfest, in which I scavenge through the thrift shops of the aer’y in...

I realized I hadn't heard any news about bird flu lately it turns out the seeming reduction in cases being reported ... ... is likely a side-effect of Trump's desire to expel immigrants As this physician notes, most bird flu is encountered in farm work ... ... so you want to test farm workers, to figure out if it's spreading! but farm workers now have a very good reason to avoid all authorities The piece:

Undark Magazine

What Happened to All the Human Bird Flu Cases?

Opinion | The end of the CDC’s emergency H5N1 flu response shows the challenges of disease surveillance in vulnerable groups.

Speaking of Wired's excellent coverage: They just reported on a Department of Homeland Security memo that went out to local police forces ... ... urging them to consider even the most innocuous and bog-standard protest activity as dangerous ... ... like skateboarding, or walkigng around "on foot" no joke The story:

WIRED

Skateboards and Livestreams: DHS Tells Police That Common Protest Activities Are ‘Violent Tactics’

DHS is urging law enforcement to treat even skateboarding and livestreaming as signs of violent intent during a protest, turning everyday behavior ...

Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/4Dgw5 An excerpt:

Timothy Snyder argues that the immigrants and refugees being sent to the new US-based camps will -- if history is any guide -- be offered to US firms as slave labor so it'll be up to us, and corporates, to say no

Concentration Camp Labor

Cannot Become Normal

I had a friend who worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau At its peak, it was an amazing force helping to protect everyday americans from the usurious behavior of banks, lenders, and anyone in the money business Annie Lowrey also has a friend who works there -- but who was caught up in Musk/DOGE/Trump's push to dismantle the agency ... ... even as her friend got cancer Lowrey wrote a remarkable story:

The Atlantic

A Real Cancer in Washington

The quiet heroism of my friend in government

Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/BmG7e