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For years we've been told that grand juries in the US are just a rubber stamp for prosecutors (i.e. that they will indict even pork-based comestibles). But increasingly what we're seeing is that grand juries are the last line of defense against an administration that is hellbent on perverting the justice system. From the NYT:
"Federal prosecutors in Washington sought and failed on Tuesday to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video this fall that enraged President Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders, four people familiar with the matter said."
"It was remarkable that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington — led by Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump’s — authorized prosecutors to go into a grand jury and ask for an indictment of the six members of Congress, all of whom had served in the military or the nation’s spy agencies."
"But it was even more remarkable that a group of ordinary citizens sitting on the grand jury in Federal District Court in Washington forcefully rejected Mr. Trump’s bid to label their expression of dissent as a criminal act warranting prosecution."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/us/politics/trump-democrats-illegal-orders-pirro.html
Happy Wednesday, friends
A female OpenAI executive who raised concerns about the upcoming ‘Adult Mode’ - which lets you sex ChatGPT girlfriends - has been fired for ‘sexual discrimination against men’
Boosts
"AI is built on the collective knowledge of humankind."
No. Nononononono. It is not built on _knowledge_, it it built on _data_. And not everyone's experiences are available as data, many communities are excluded. Also: "Collective" implies some sort of collaboration and shared activity. But "AI" is just accumulation by a few powerful.
So No. It's not collective but extractive, not knowledge but data, not humankind but the hegemonic western view. Everything in that statement is wrong.
A software license doesn’t make software good.
Open source code written by a bunch of sexist, racist, ableist assholes is no viable alternative.
Free, libre, open source code is good when:
- there are design docs
- there are risk assessments
- there is user research
- accessibility is a requirement from the beginning
- it is private by design
- documentation is a part of every release
All of this is enabled by teams with a code of conduct, and no tolerance for assholes.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion is the key to all of the goals FLOSS projects claim to share.