Lonestarblue
Lonestarblue's JournalWhy the Pentagon Wants to Destroy Anthropic
This article about the breakdown in the DoD-Anthropic contract is quite long (does the NYT have no editors anymore), but well worth reading. According to the article, Hegseth wants to use AI as much as possible, but we all know that AI makes mistakes. One question the media should be asking is whether the US military bombed a girl's school, killing 175 children, teachers, and parents, because AI mistakenly targeted it. The excuse Hegseth is giving is that it was close to a military site. How close? Supposedly we have precision targeting.
We should also be asking why the US military wants the capability to spy on every US citizen. The obvious intention of an untrustworthy administration to collect such data without cause should alarm everyone.
"Anthropic was the company most enthusiastic about these national security uses, and they came to an agreement with the Biden administration to do this with a couple of usage restrictions: Domestic mass surveillance was a prohibited use, in addition to use for fully autonomous lethal weapons.
In the summer of 2025, during the Trump administration — and full disclosure, I was in the Trump administration when this happened, though not at all involved in this deal — the administration made the decision to expand that contract and kept the same terms. So the Trump administration agreed to those restrictions, as well.
Then in the fall of 2025 — I suspect that this correlates with the Senate confirmation of Emil Michael as under secretary of war for research and engineering. He comes in, he looks at these things, I think, or perhaps is involved in looking at these things, and he comes to the conclusion that no, we cannot be bound by these usage restrictions."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-dean-ball.html?unlocked_article_code=1.RFA.zSlw.jv3YqgBQyyBz&smid=url-share
The Nationwide Revolt Against Flock Safety Cameras
We all need to get behind the removal of these cameras. They are a significant means of imposing and maintaining a police state in a country where the bad actors are currently in control. The military just ended its relationship with Anthropic because of the ethical concerns of the CEO about how the military would use its product, which could include mass surveillance of all people in the US and the creation of a database with every move we make from the time we leave our home to the time we return if we live in areas with lots of surveillance cameras. The Pentagon turned to OpenAI, which evidently has no ethics and will allow the military to do whatever they want with its AI products. It is naive to think that Trump will not turn this weapon on the people in Democratic states and cities.
"Langley [the head of Flick] has a habit of hyperbole. Last fall, he offered the modest prediction that Flock will eliminate almost all crime in the U.S. within a decade. The technology is indeed praised by police for making it easier to catch certain criminals. But independent studies on its effectiveness are hard to come by. Flock has also been criticized for publishing exaggerated statistics to promote its products. In 2022, the company bragged that cameras in San Marino, California, had caused burglaries to drop 80 percent over five months; Forbes later reported that burglaries had actually increased in the years after Flock installed its cameras.
Even if Flock’s cameras and tracking network do help solve some crimes, critics say it’s not worth the cost to our privacy—not to mention people’s Fourth Amendment rights. Police have been caught illegally using Flock data to locate a woman seeking abortion services, stalk and harass people, monitor protests, and aid ICE. “At minimum, this dragnet surveillance means warrantless tracking of everyone on the road,” the ACLU warned last year. “At worst, it means a digital police state wherein law enforcement officials … can track protesters, political opponents, immigrants, patients, and others not suspected of any crime and use the information to hurt them.” (Dan Haley, chief legal officer at Flock, responded that “Flock is used … millions of times a year, and the incidences of abuse are few and far between.” He added that all evidence of misuse is recorded in Flock’s software.)
https://newrepublic.com/article/206992/flock-safety-cameras-alpr-deflock-resistance-nationwide
Medicare Card Scam
I just received a phone call from someone claiming to be from Medicare. She asked whether I had received my new Medicare card. I told her I did not need a new card and hung up. Thought I would alert readers here who may have elderly relatives who might be susceptible to such a scam. Medicare never calls people on Medicare.
This one weird trick could stop US women from voting
I'm sure we all read about this hateful law when the House passed it last year. The Senate hasn't voted on it yet, but we need a campaign against it because it's definitely aimed at preventing women, and black women especially, from voting in the midterms.
"Women who changed their name when they got married may also face a logistical nightmare: reports show that as many as 69 million women who have taken their spouse’s name don’t have a birth certificate that matches their legal name. “The legislation does not mention the potential option for these Americans to present change-of-name documentation or a marriage certificate in combination with a birth certificate to prove their citizenship,” the liberal thinktank the Center for American Progress noted.
To make things even more complicated for everyone, the Save Act would also disrupt online voter registration. Americans would have to appear in person, with their original documents, simply to update their voter registration information.
A proof-of-citizenship law similar to the Save Act has been tried before, by the way, including between 2013 and 2017 in Kansas. And guess what? It was an expensive disaster that prevented more than 30,000 Kansans from voting. It’s well-established that these sorts of laws disproportionately harm low-income, disabled, married women, and marginalized voters. Why are the Republicans so keen on making it harder for these groups to vote? I’m sure I don’t need to spell it out for you."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/31/save-act-voting-arwa-mahdawi
Trump's Lies Have a Purpose
David French has a good piece in the NYT today on Trump’s lies and plans to use ICE and CBP to control the country. The whole article is worth reading (link below is free).
“It’s important to know exactly what is happening in our country. President Trump suffered a setback in Minneapolis. His larger project proceeds apace, however, and it’s creating a parallel MAGA reality that is laying the foundation for a further escalation of state violence.
Here’s how the process works. First, federal officers (mainly from ICE and the Border Patrol) engage in extraordinarily aggressive and lawless conduct, including initiating physical contact with protesters or members of the public.
And they’re not limiting their aggression to criminal illegal immigrants, the “worst of the worst.” They’re detaining people who have been granted lawful status, they’ve swept up citizens in the dragnet and they’re claiming the authority to enter people’s homes without judicial warrants granting them a right to search.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/opinion/truump-ice-minnesota-noem-miller.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IFA.MIq5.fJoXhMQWNkny&smid=url-share
How a billionaire with interests in Greenland encouraged Trump to acquire the territory
So now we get to the truth about Trump’s obsession with Greenland. As usual, it’s all about the money and rewarding billionaire buddies for donating big bucks to him. Ronald Lauder had invested in Greenland and no doubt wanted a better return on his money. Lauder also suggested that the US explore Ukraine’s minerals. As we all know, Trump makes decisions solely in the interests of his billionaire friends.
“One day during his first term, Donald Trump summoned a top aide to discuss a new idea. “Trump called me down to the Oval Office,” John Bolton, national security adviser in 2018, told the Guardian. “He said a prominent businessman had just suggested the US buy Greenland.”
It was an extraordinary proposal. And it originated from a longtime friend of the president who would go on to acquire business interests in the Danish territory.
The businessman, Bolton learned, was Ronald Lauder. Heir to a makeup fortune – the global cosmetics brand Estée Lauder – he had known Trump, a fellow wealthy New Yorker, for more than 60 years.
Bolton said he discussed the Greenland proposition with Lauder. After the billionaire’s intervention, a White House team began to explore ways to increase US sway in the vast Arctic territory controlled by Denmark.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/15/ronald-lauder-billionaire-donor-donald-trump-ukraine-greenland
Forget petty bribes, 'state capture' is corruption so deep it is shaping the rules of democracy itself
I think this article describes where we are as a nation today. As the writer says in describing the difference between the rot of corruption through extortion and petty bribes and state capture, “But there is a deeper, more dangerous form of rot – state capture.” After reading this article, I believe we are well into corruption AS the system, and this includes at least five of the MAGAs on the Supreme Court. I don’t know about Barrett yet. The paragraphs below are from the end of the article.
“Escaping state capture – domestic or transnational – requires more than transparency reforms or ethics codes. Those are sticking plasters on a cancer. Real change demands independent judiciaries, fearless investigative journalism, and a civil society prepared to fight entrenched power. As evidenced by youth movements across Africa and Asia, meaningful change can sometimes necessitate extraordinary measures: widespread protest or the involvement of the international community.
Recent global protests hint at the potential for grassroots movements to challenge entrenched narratives. They are reminders that democratic renewal rarely comes from the top – it is forced from below, by citizens, youths and students – those who refuse to accept that their governments are bought and sold.
State capture is the most dangerous mutation of corruption: corruption that governs, corruption that legislates, corruption that silences. It is the enemy not just of clean government but of democracy itself.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/nov/04/state-capture-corruption-democracy
Where do babies come from? Robert F Kennedy Jr doesn't seem to know
I just had to post this article because it highlights the utter ignorance of many in the Republican Party. The article cites Kennedy, who demonstrated his ignorance at a cabinet meeting last week, as well as several Republican legislators who proved their ignorance simply by speaking. Evidently, Republicans have never heard the old adage that "it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to talk and remove all doubt.”
“In a shocking development, however, it seems that Kennedy – an anti-vaxxer who says his brain was partly eaten by a parasitic worm – may not know what he’s talking about. During a cabinet meeting last Thursday, Kennedy reasserted unproven claims that taking the common painkiller acetaminophen, also known as Tylenol or paracetamol, while pregnant causes autism. Doubters of this theory, he said, were motivated by Trump derangement syndrome. To underscore his point, he referenced a TikTok video he’d seen of a pregnant woman “gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta”.
Foetuses, of course, develop in the uterus, not the placenta. It’s possible, if we are being generous, that Kennedy misspoke. Then again, he would hardly be the first US politician to make it clear he knows nothing about the female bodies he is so keen to legislate, would he?”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/15/where-do-babies-come-from-robert-f-kennedy-jr-doesnt-seem-to-know
Blue states should come together to declare an emergency. Here's how
Interesting idea for blue states to form a new group to create a governing document that calls attention to how Trump is destroying Constitutional law.
“We could consider the kind of political theatre that Americans created from 1768 to 1776 to resist Britain’s growing crackdown. Instead of employing their creaky legislative bodies, they opted for new forms of resistance, non-importation committees, even a first continental congress with no apparent legitimacy or precedent.
However weak, those acts of political theater led to formal independence. After the war, American leaders held a convention – nominally to amend the Articles of Confederation with a unanimous vote by every state. Instead, the framers worked in secret, replaced the articles altogether, and changed the process for amending the new constitution to a three quarters vote.
The Trump presidency is a colossal setback to that constitution and its norms, but it is also an opportunity to change those norms for the better. Like the founders, we should create a limited, invitation-only body – an embryonic constitutional convention – that the anti-Trump blue states exclusively set up for themselves, limit to themselves, and control.
The constitution already provides some authority for doing so.“
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/05/blue-states-democrats-trump
To defeat the Texas gerrymander, Democrats need to go nuclear
Excellent opinion piece in WaPo this morning. I hope Democratic leaders heed its suggestions to finally fight Republicans on their terms instead of simply complaining. Just fighting Trump is not enough. This opinion rightly suggest that state leaders band together to institute policies that hurt Republican states. The idea f mutual deterrence versus mutual destruction is good.
“During the decades-long nuclear standoff between the U.S. and Soviet Union, leaders on both sides relied on a state of mutually assured destruction to keep the two countries from stumbling into an apocalyptic war.
There are two strategic concepts from that era that apply well to Democrats today: counterforce and countervalue.
Counterforce posits that the best way to deter an opponent is to credibly threaten the use of one’s own nuclear capability to strike at the opponent’s nuclear forces. In the context of today’s redistricting wars, that means neutralizing the weapons Republicans are using — directly, surgically and proportionally — within the sandbox of redistricting, like we’re seeing from New York and California. They gerrymander their big red state; we gerrymander our big blue state.”
Snip
“It’s good that Democratic leaders are trying to leverage counterforce deterrence on redistricting. But, if New York, California and other blue states want to deter red state aggression more comprehensively, they also need to consider the grislier logic of countervalue.
In our domestic context, it means using the full weight of blue states’ market power, cultural influence and legal authority to raise the stakes of Republican red state aggression. That means making it harder for corporations to operate in states that obliterate fair elections. It means using their economic might to impose regulatory and economic costs that bite hard enough to make the constituents of even the most insulated legislator feel the pain. In other words, it means countering red state aggression with potential actions that go beyond reciprocity and may impose disproportionate costs.“
https://wapo.st/3J6Sanx
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