DO NOT ASSUME YOUR GOOGLE DOCS DATA IS SAFE FROM TRUMP. Keep in mind that everything I've said about Gmail and no longer trusting Trump applies to all Google services, including Docs. I've heard that some groups are using Docs to organize anti-Trump protests, ICE observations, etc. This is unwise. As I said, a single call from Trump to Sundar might be enough to send all your data to the Trump administration. Horrible to be in this place, isn't it?

THIS IS IMPORTANT: DO NOT TRUST GOOGLE GEMINI, and it may already be enabled in your GMAIL BY DEFAULT. DO NOT TRUST GOOGLE! #Google says it may share your interactions with #Gemini #AI with law enforcement, including involving Gemini features in #Gmail. Given Google's CEO Sundar's enthusiastic embrace of the Fascist Trump administration and teaming Gemini with Hegseth's Department of Defense, I NO LONGER TRUST GOOGLE. Pay attention to this. Google -- as always -- says they do not give user data to law enforcement except with a valid warrant. This has long been true, but I no longer trust Google to honor this position. A quick call from Trump to Sundar could well be enough to bypass those past protections. Discussing an anti-Trump demonstration? Abortion? Helping local immigrants? You can no longer trust Google to not treat your data as fodder for fascist Trump, irrespective of Google's public statements. VERY IMPORTANT: It appears that if you have "Smart Features" enabled in Gmail -- which has long included a variety of features, you now probably (or soon will) also have Gemini scouring through your email. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND turning this off. Can we be sure Google will really honor this choice given their embrace of Trump? No, but it's important to have specified your choice on the record. To turn off Gmail smart features (apparently including Gemini, though other ways to ostensibly turn off Gemini in Gmail may also be available): Enter Gmail Click the Gear icon at the upper right Click "See all settings" Stay on the "General" tab Scroll down to "Smart features" -- make sure it is unchecked Just below this (currently) is "Google Workspace smart features" Click the "Manage Workspace smart feature settings" bubble Make sure the toggles are OFF (to the left) for everything listed in the pop-up that appears. Be SURE TO SCROLL DOWN -- there are currently TWO toggles but the second may be completely hidden if you don't grab the little scrollbar on the right and pull it down. Again, make sure BOTH toggles are off. Click Save Now back on the General Tab, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes if that button is not already greyed out and unclickable. That's what I have for you for now, based on the information I have right now. More as I learn more. It's a terrible situation that pains me greatly. Before you ask, I do not at this time have a recommendation for other major email providers. How you proceed is up to you, of course. Take care. L

Fun Fact: The original "Wayback Machine" from Jay Ward "Peabody and Sherman" segments (starting circa 1959 or so), has an interesting backstory, explained in the very first segment. Created by Mr. Peabody as a teaching device for his adopted boy Sherman, it originally was a fairly straightforward time machine that presented a couple of significant limitations. During an initial run, P&S of course realized that most people they visited were speaking other languages -- Peabody made an adjustment so that languages were no longer an issue (a plot device borrowed by Doctor Who for the TARDIS later). On their next test run, P&S realized that they could not affect anything in the time periods they visited -- they were completely ignored. So Peabody made another adjustment so that they could fully interact, saying that this made it not a "way things were" machine but rather a "the way things should have been" machine. Each episode always ended with some awful pun. At my infamous Jay Ward Film Festival at UCLA back in the early 80s, Bill Scott admitted that he had written all those puns.

Moderate Santa Ana winds continue to blow on and off for days now, currently 76F in my corner of L.A.

Machado "presented" Trump her Nobel Peace Prize, but Nobel Committee says it's still hers, not Trump's, no matter who has physical possession.

Trump announces "outline" of his "health care plan", retreading tired old GOP ideas

WHAT THE HELL is the American Humane Society doing hosting their fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago and being addressed by Trump? Put aside the creepy French Revolution dog-headed dancers furry vibes, if they want to lose the goodwill of their donors by getting into bed with Trump and his puppy-shooting DHS secretary, while Trump's administration is tearing down species protection laws across the country, the Society sure found a way to disgust people everywhere.

[Uh ... ] Trump's Mar-a-Lago Hosts Deranged 'Furry' Marie Antoinette Party

Yahoo Entertainment

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Hosts Deranged ‘Furry’ Marie Antoinette Party

A swanky event at Donald Trump’s winter White House featuring dog mask-wearing dancers in aristocratic outfits is drawing criticism for being “...

IMPORTANT: #Google site crawling policy rumor: I've been getting a lot of queries over the last few days regarding a recent rumor spreading rapidly that Google has or will soon be changing their site crawling policy to omit indexing of sites that do not have a robots.txt file. This rumor appears to probably trace back to this Google webmaster community video:

[video] Fix 'robots.txt unreachable' Error | Website Not Indexing? - Google Search Central Community

<div>Is your website not showing up on Google? Getting a &quot;robots.txt unreachable&quot; error in Google Search Console? This common SEO problem...

This video does seem to say that robots.txt is the first file on a site Google will attempt to retrieve, and if it can't find it the crawling and indexing stops at that point. Not crawling/indexing sites without robots.txt files would make no sense to me -- vast numbers of older sites and others have never had robots.txt files because they never felt a need to publish crawling restrictions. Also note that this Google support doc:

​robots.txt report - Search Console Help

See whether Google can process your robots.txt filesThe robots.txt report shows which robots.txt files Google found for the top 20 hosts on your si...

explicitly says that robots.txt files are not required for crawling/indexing. Several sources at Google (thanks all!) have now confirmed directly to me that robots.txt files are NOT required for indexing and no change to this policy is in the pipeline. Of course, if you have a sitemap that specifies a robots.txt file that doesn't actually exist you might create a suboptimal crawling situation, but again Google's official statement to me on this is that robots.txt files are NOT required to be present for a site to be crawled and indexed by Google.

Media Matters says it's leaving X due to TOS changes