Lee Publishing blocks cartoonist David Fitzsimmons from donating 10K cartoons to the University of Arizona by requiring the college to sign a licensing deal (David W Fitzsimmons/David Fitzsimmons)
https://davidwfitzsimmons.substack.com/p/what-will-become-of-my-li…
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has circulated a
“Be on the Lookout” alert to law enforcement nationwide,
targeting a comedian whose satire of US immigration enforcement went viral.
The subject of the alert, known as a “Bolo”, was
Ben Palmer, a Nashville-based standup comedian and prankster who created a parody anti-immigration tip website.
His revealing videos of calls with members of the public who thought they were reporting immigrants to US Immigr…
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.
I've been engulfed in the story to the point that I've brought the phone to the dinner table to keep reading - to my familys dismay. It's a compelling story, you quickly start to worry about the protagonist!
You won't want to put this book down, because you too will want to solve the mysteries surrounding the school.
https://www.…
Cowboys Headlines: Ring of Honor plea for 13-year star; Caleb Downs emulating... OBJ??? https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2026/05/22/news-headlin…
Granta and the Commonwealth Foundation say they can't determine yet if AI was used to write a prize-winning short story after critics pointed to signs of AI use (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may…
The Story of the Two Towers II 📖
双塔故事 II 📖
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Steele-man argument: How the Cowboys $86.8M player is finally worth it https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2026/06/23/steele-man-argument-dallas-cowboys-86-8m-terence-steele/90649997007/…
The Story of the Two Towers 📖
双塔故事 📖
📷 Nikon F4
🎞️ Harman Switch Azure (FF)
If you like my work, Support by buying me a coffee or a roll of film from PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ydcdingsite