Tootfinder

Job loss? That one really seems weird. The numbers are not adding up to the stories we hear yet. But the numbers are not dire yet. Of course, our actual tracking of those numbers is increasingly suspect because of the US fascist project.
The big tech companies are absolutely pulling shenanigans, and using "AI" as an excuse for layoffs in a great number of cases, and in many cases, openly admitting they don't have any good ideas, so they'll lay people off instead of allocate them better. We are absolutely seeing the shifts in what are viable careers in tech though. And that was underway before AI: the UX bootcamps, for example, destabilized those job function, devaluing the workers, and the resulting shifts absolutely wrecked those job titles and the pay for them, leaving a bunch of people in the lurch.
But behind that too was our broken education system in the US: it was a shortcut around the massive debt that going to college can produce for people. But it didn't last, because it was vocational training being used purposefully as a wedge to change the labor market. Similar, sometimes intentional effects have happened in other aspects.
A huge amount of the "AI" problem is actually labor problems coming home to roost. We can blame Reagan for a lot of this.

Tens of thousands of people in southeast Los Angeles County
have been engulfed in a dense cloud of smoke for nearly a week
as a fire continues to tear through a massive refrigerated warehouse in Boyle Heights.
Toxic air has covered the San Gabriel Valley and beyond at times,
as the fire continues to burn and the wind shifts the pall in different directions.
People have reason to be concerned about their loved ones breathing in the plume, experts say.
“The…

The security industry is somewhat unique. It's probably the only industry created by the worker as a threat. If you talk to hackers who were in the scene before Operation Sundevil, you'll realize that it's always been a Bullshit Job.
Folks in L0ft and cDc were hacking companies and basically blackmailing them into paying for their services. Operation Sundevil "straightened up" the industry. Some people went to prison, some people build security services companies. Pretty much anyone who actually believed in the manifesto was locked up or edged out.
Using the Graeber framework here, hackers are partially duct tapers and partially goons. The critical thing here is that the industry was basically created to give money to people who would otherwise destroy the system.
Neuroatypical folks have always been forced to the margins of society, but computers gave us a super power. Now we were extremely dangerous. Tech, especially hackers, have always been paid a lot to minimize the risk of developing a class consciousness.
Graeber talked about this. Kings and nobles would often find some job or title that they could bestow on potential enemies in order to keep them close, to defang them. What better role than sheriff, a type of goon, for a rebel?
We turned it in to a whole thing. Not only did hackers make their own industry and force everyone else to accept it, we even created a whole parallel box ticker industry of "compliance" as a side effect.
The Hacker's Manifesto was decontectualized and made a fun artifact of the past. We were sold a story of "good hackers" who "protected grandma from the bad hackers." But the whole industry always existed to keep us on a leash. The funny thing is that it was a leash that we made ourselves.
But now we're seeing massive layoffs in tech, even in security. Now that we're this far in, everyone has forgotten the history. Leadership doesn't understand what security people do, so they think that LLMs can replace us. But the people in the industry now, the ones who came to it as a career, don't understand the history.
There was always a split for these weird outsiders, these people who couldn't fit in to the system but now had power over it. Some wanted in and they were willing to use extortion to get in, and others wanted to destroy the system to set everyone free.
Operation Sundevil, and the industry that evolved out of it, existed to neutralize those revolutionary elements by offering extortionists a safe entry. Extortionists trusted the capitalists to not stab them in the back the same way capitalists have stabbed everyone in the back through all of history. Now my LinkedIn feed is full of Meta layoffs, and I wonder if that class consciousness is starting to click for anyone yet.

If AI is so good at coding, shouldn’t we not only see an increase in quantity (∗︎ https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/06/16/we-found-the-missing-ai-apps-and-nobody-downloads-them/), but also in quality?
Similarly, if we’re close to “fully automa…

Quebec hydropower is now flowing to New York City—1.25 GW of clean electricity displacing fossil generation.
Meanwhile, Twelve launched America's first commercial e-jet fuel plant, turning CO2 and renewable power into synthetic jet fuel.
And China brought online a massive solar-battery-hydrogen complex to power industry with renewables.
Real infrastructure. Real progress. Today.
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Weekly Climate Solutions Digest
Welcome Everything here is about systems learning to work together at scale. Like the season’s long light, these links extend our reach, quiet but decisive, so that what once felt distant starts to feel close. Here is what moved this week. Top Climate Solutions Of The Week Progress showed

According to Justice Department’s own account, 15 arrested by federal government in Minneapolis this week are responsible for denting gov F-150 (by kicking), & tipping tailer (owned by accused). That’s it.
Why hasn’t potus nuked Minneapolis from space? /s
Attack on Americans & 1st Amendment makes me think we’re not free country I thought we were & realize perhaps never were, I was “lucky” not to notice before.

Federal prosecutors charge 15 people with impeding agents during immigration surge
Federal prosecutors have charged 15 people with impeding federal agents during a massive immigration surge in Minnesota earlier this year. The defendants allegedly used tactics like stalking agents and using ice blocks to slow convoys. Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen said the operation targeted Minneapolis-based antifa groups. President Trump had previously directed authorities to target antifa, which he labeled a domestic terror group. The charges follow "Operation Metro Surge," which …

La columna de Rosa Montero: Ser hombre es esto | EL PAÍS
«Ay, qué lento es todo. Qué difícil es cambiar el rumbo de la obsoleta pero masiva e inercial sociedad sexista»
https://elpais.com/eps/2026-06-21/ser-hombre-es-esto.html

MSP folks: If you are free to show up and show support, the NLG is encouraging people to show up for the first court appearances of those arrested. Observers let the courts and the feds know that people are watching.
Appearances scheduled 1:30 and after, at the US Federal Courthouse: 316 N. Robert Street, St. Paul, MN.
#msp #minneapolis #minnesota

@… Thanks! Makes sense. My main goal is to keep it as simple as possible, and since people work on different courses anyway, permissions shouldn’t be such a big issue.

I keep seeing the "cars replaced horses" thing related to "AI."
People keep comparing "AI" to cars (positively) without thinking about the fact that cars were forced on people (AAA bought up and destroyed tram lines, there were massive protests, etc), and are the primary driver of climate change that is currently on track to make complex human society impossible. Meanwhile, cities that weren't destroyed for cars, or that have reversed most of the damage, are some of the most desirable places to live.
Maybe we could take the car analogy as a warning. Maybe it could be a reminder to think about how forcing technology on people against their will can reshape society in a profoundly negative way.
The answer for cities has been to right-size transit. Eliminate cars wherever possible, maintain emergency vehicles and mobility aids, and find more efficient alternatives (bikes, trams, metros, and trains) where possible. I feel as though we can extrapolate from the metaphor.
We do not have to repeat the mistake of reshaping society around a single, oversimplified, solution in order to benefit a tiny minority. Perhaps we can actually choose the right technologies based on use cases, rather than hype or dogma.
Cars didn't replace horses. Cars replaced walkable cities, tram lines and mass transit, and children playing in the streets.
"Cars replaced horses" to the benefit of a small group of elite men, at tremendous cost to literally everyone else. When people say, "AI is the new 'cars replacing horses'" they are saying something very specific about their privilege and intentions.