Davka Daze

(Credit gorodenkoff) The San Leandro City Council has just approved the purchase of a new AI technology product created by a former Palantir employee (of the company owned by Trump billionaire backer and bigot, Peter Thiel) to be used by the San Leandro police department. All without a competitive bidding process, a written contract, or even a scope of work, to allow SLPD to conduct operations on residents without oversight or controls. All to the tune of $705k. As a start. Credit to u/ww_crimson on the SL subreddit for sharing this update. I think it should be obvious to everyone - including our elected officials who voted for it, Mayor Juan Gonzalez, Councilmember James Aguilar, Councilmember Xouhoa Bowen, and Councilmember Fred Simon, encouraged by the city manager, Janelle Cameron - that this is a terrible idea that will take away our rights to privacy, endanger residents, and prevent our police department from actually making our city safer. (Credit to Councilmembers Sbeydeh ...

( surrealist dystopian art by Michael Kerbow) Much has been written about how the internet, and social media in particular, turns otherwise regular, and even decent, people into raging assholes, whether due to anonymity, distance, filters, algorithms, or some combination of factors. A lot has also been written about how our information environment and media ecosystems no longer provide knowledge or facts, let alone news, instead generating exploitable outrage that drives clicks, views, etc. A good amount has been written about our literacy crisis and how this has impacted not just younger generations, but even older ones, as different groups struggle with different aspects of reading, marketing, propaganda, alternative media, corporate news, and the intentional destruction of public education alongside the public respect for expertise and the Fourth Estate of traditional media. But, for me, I just wish that sometimes I knew less about the people from my real life when I see them online...

I've been saying it for years   and years . But now it seems like many in the community are finally figuring it out : San Leandro Mayor Juan Gonzalez is terrible. From political corruption to moral cowardice. From selling out the city to big tech to silence on women's healthcare rights. From photo op facades, taking credit for the work of others, particularly women, to trying to hijack millions in taxpayer funds for pet projects and donor desires. In fact, it's fair to say that Juan Gonzalez has presided over one of the most expensive, incompetent, and disastrous periods in San Leandro's modern political history. His lack of leadership and inability to govern resulted in not just dysfunction on the city council , but the waste of precious public resources towards pet projects and petty grievances. Well, I think it's past time for me to share the 50+ receipts I have been saving for just this moment. And those just the ones I was able to save before they were modera...