It is insane how common it’s become.

It’s hard to even explain to people that there was a time when it used to be a very shocking thing to hear about.

“Back in my day, parents didn’t have to send their kids off to school every morning pretending everything was normal, but internally struggling with anxiety they might never see them again.”

Don’t forget Columbine. People always leave that out, but as far as historical milestones that shaped how awful American society has become, it was a big one.

Palantir had a contract with New Orleans starting around ~2012 to create their predictive policing tech that scans surveillance cameras for very vague details and still misidentifies people.

It’s very similar to Lavender, the tech they use to identify members of Hamas and attack with drones. This results in misidentified targets ~10% of the time, according to the IDF (likely it’s a much higher misidentification rate than 10%).

Palantir picked Louisiana over somewhere like San Francisco bc they knew it would be a lot easier to violate rights and privacy here and get away with it.

Whatever they decide in New Orleans on Thursday during this Council meeting that nobody cares about, will likely be the first of its kind on the books legal basis to track civilians in the U.S. and allow the federal government to take control over that ability whenever they want. This could also set a precedent for use in other states.

Guess who’s running the entire country right now, and just gave high ranking army contracts to Palantir employees for “no reason” while they are also receiving a multimillion dollar federal contract to create an insane database on every American and giant data centers are being built all across the country.

UCS definitely has good intentions.

I just don’t have faith in the Trump OSTP to actually look at the evidence or even bother reading a letter to consider their next steps.

They’ve been planning this for a long time. If they can’t capitalize on it, they will be getting rid of it.

Do they even make dunkaroos anymore?

I remember they made them when I was a kid and then they were discontinued and then they returned, but I thought they got discontinued again.

Anyway, when I was in college I learned you can make a big ass batch of dunkaroo frosting super cheap

https://basicswithbails.com/popular/baking/homemade-dunkaroo-dip-funfetti-cake-batter-dip/

https://callascleaneats.com/viral-dunkaroo-dip-high-protein-low-carb/

It’s never evil if it’s all just a game, at least not to the ones playing the game.

TIL that the cofounder of the Heritage Foundation, author of the original mandate for leadership (the very first in an annual series that was eventually became Project 2025) also wrote a 1987 op-ed in WaPo that said the Iran-Contra should have been all the proof we needed to know democracy is a failure that should be replaced with a shadowy group of government of experts.

The funny thing is, we know now that he (Paul Weyrich) was one of the main people working in the shadows under Reagan.

A CONSERVATIVE’S LAMENT

As conservatives, we have to help the nation face a stark choice: either modify our institutions of government to play the game of great power, or move back toward our historic, less active foreign policy.

Third, our current system institutionalizes amateurism. Unlike European parliamentary democracies, we have no “shadow cabinet,” no group of experts who are groomed by their party for decades before they take high office. Our presidents can be peanut farmers or Hollywood actors. They can choose their top advisors either from among “professionals” who may not share their goals or supporters who often have no background or expertise in policy. Either way, they lose, and so does the country. The current crisis could not make the point better: our foreign policy was set by an admiral and a Marine lieutenant colonel, neither of whom had any background in the field. The resulting failure is not their fault. The system by which they were chosen is defective.

Sounds kind of familiar.

Guess what shadow group is in the White House right now? Almost makes you wonder if the plan was always to make America and democracy look incompetent via embarrassing debacles like the Iran Contra, and now they’re just picking up right where they left off?

Another Paul Weyrich gem regarding voter suppression:

“I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

You hurt me pretty bad, but I forgive you. I think if we both really try hard, we can still make it through this.

Ok…, I won’t 🆗👁️🙅‍♀️

Ok, sorry to upset you. Just an attempt to cope with the inevitable and absurd destruction of the world due to the action of ~4 men in a pissing contest, with a little humor. Btw, the inside joke wasn’t even supposed to be relevant, but I do feel like it adds a little lagniappe to the whole ambiance/vibe of wtf are we even doing at this point?

Hopefully everyone starts taking this community a little more seriously, and content improves with each one up that brings us closer to our impending doom. I hear the memes in the afterlife (if there is one) are to die for.

What?

That part is just a very complicated and dumb inside joke

Pissing contest or most careless game of chicken ever? Both?

Idiocracy prepared me for this to happen, but it also failed me because it made me believe that it would be a lot less serious/more funny than it is.

If Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu could just stop being psychotic dictators driving us all towards destruction for two seconds, that would be great.

Don’t forget a few weeks ago we allegedly agreed (at least publicly) to back away from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and let them fight it out in exchange for Putin saying he would be keeping Iran in line.

Since then:

1. Netenyahu narrowly avoided being voted out of power and immediately began bombing Iran within 24 hours.

2. Trump decided he wanted to get in on kicking the hornets nest for some fucking reason, and now we’re under high alert for a counter attack (surprise), and U.S. counter terrorism is literally under the watch of a 22 year old grocer. It’s almost like they want us to be attacked, but they’re too dumb (or just don’t even care about trying) to make it look like a convincing spontaneous attack against the U.S.

3. Putin has continued to bombard the shit out of civilians in Ukraine.

Fuck these evil fucking fucks.

I wasn’t arguing with you, everything you said is correct.

Just adding more details and the timeline of events that makes this all even more “what the actual fuck is happening?”

~2012ish: Palantir receives contract with city of New Orleans

2015: Privately owned Project Nola surveillance cam program created

2018: City cancels very shady contract with Palantir that helped them create and test their predictive policing tech

2020: Peter Thiel becomes major investor in Clearview AI facial recognition technology. Free trials are given to ICE and multiple local law enforcement agencies across the U.S.

Late 2020: Ban on facial recognition tech and predictive policing in New Orleans

2022: ~18 months later, Cantrell requests City Council lift the ban, and it is replaced with shady surveillance ordinance giving the city some very concerning privileges in certain circumstances

2024: Cantrell says she won’t fight Landry establishing Troop Nola as a permanent police presence in the city, despite concerns from civil rights advocacy groups

Feb 2025: Forbes reports that Clearview AI remains unprofitable due to multiple ongoing lawsuits and previous inability to secure federal contracts. The company says future focus will be large federal contracts.

May 2025: Washington Post reveals NOPD has been ignoring the fairly lax laws regarding facial recognition tech in the 2022 surveillance ordinance while working with Project Nola. NOPD pauses use of tech, but Troop Nola and federal agencies continue use bc they’re not under city jurisdiction

Wow, I didn’t even know that. Louisiana State law. That some dumb fucking bullshit.

https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/law.aspx?d=78402

They make an exception for medical masks, but I also saw that video of a protestor getting hassled and arrested for a medical mask recently.

I guess I’m just going to have to start using face paint to trick their cams

Not just the military. I found out Palantir had a contract with my own city to develop and test their predictive policing technology until 2018. https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/27/17054740/palantir-predictive-policing-tool-new-orleans-nopd

The city banned predictive policing and facial recognition tech, then quietly lifted the ban and replaced it with a very concerning ordinance in 2022. https://thelensnola.org/2022/02/17/mayor-cantrell-moves-to-reverse-bans-on-facial-recognition-predictive-policing-and-other-surveillance-tech/

Then it came out that the city wasn’t even following the rules they had created in the sketchy ordinance. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/05/19/live-facial-recognition-police-new-orleans/

The private surveillance company using the facial recognition tech (which was created during the time Palantir was still under contract with the city, but is allegedly totally unrelated to Palantir 🙄) couldn’t keep providing the real time facial recognition tracking to city police bc WaPo exposed they were violating the ordinance. However, since it’s only a city ordinance and they’re a private company, they can still provide it to literally anyone else in the city (state police, federal agents, ICE, military).

They’ve already been doing a lot of shady shit to American citizens, and it’s naive to just trust that they won’t eventually start using these kinds of AI drone weapons on American soil.

You have quite a way with words. You brought the image to life and now I can’t unsee it.

I kind of hate bluesky, but smashed the follow button for IntelTwink as soon as I read that username.

Flash forward to 2025 and these same fucks are cheering a federal takeover of California and trying to convince the rest of America to agree to ban state regulation of A.I.