Dose of Paranoia - 2025-06-22
It gets worse before it gets worse...
Yeah - it has been a while since the last Dose… things have been busy here at Paranoia Central - we got 400+ people out marching on No Kings Day here in Weehawken and we are planning further marches and other resistance activities. And I am getting ready for surgery to remove bone spurs. I will wait here for a moment for you to enjoy the obligatory Donald Trump comparison joke. OK…. now on to the Paranoia.
Important Stuff
Where to start… every day we are faced with a new outrage from an evil, incompetent, and increasingly authoritarian regime. And we ALL knew what we were voting for or against when we made the choice as a country. I agree 10000000% with this guy and I have been systematically cutting off all contact with people who I know voted for this abomination. Cutting them off for good. There is no coming back from this. If you voted for him, you are either a huge idiot and/or an objectively bad person. I do give you a pass if you are an actual billionaires, as voting for him would be rational, if evil. Fair’s fair. Fortunately, most of the folks I know are not cruel morons (or billionaires, sadly), so the numbers here are pretty small. But not zero unfortunately. Anyway - on with the Paranoia…
One other thing in the Important Stuff category - as it is looking like access to vaccines may become problematic as we enter the new Dark Age, those of you who are approaching or have reached the half century mark should have a look at this advice on jabs to consider to stay healthy. I’ve been making sure to get protection now before the regime decides that the miasma theory of disease is official policy.
InfoSec/Scam Stuff
New and “improved” scams - Ok - one of my major beefs with scammers is that many of them don’t seem to have any creativity. It is the same old stuff every day - romance scams, advance fee fraud, crypto rug pulls and pig butchering. Yada yada yada… BORING. So I have to give an extremely reluctant hat tip (as well as wishes for horrible fatal diseases) to these folks:
First, a Reddit user reports that after posting a “lost cat” flier in their neighborhood, they received what appeared to be an AI rendered photo of their cat from someone looking for a reward for their return. I think we are going to see a lot more use of AI in these types of scams. And anyone who scams someone who lost their cat should be forced to be Stephen Miller’s roommate. Forever.
And another set of scammers is reportedly taking advantage of immigrants’ fears of ICE goons by setting up fake online immigration courts to extract “fees” and “fines” from people desperate to get legal before masked thugs show up at their door. On top of the financial losses, the victims of these scams are being led to think that they have taken the right steps to follow the law when they have in fact made themselves more vulnerable to deportation. These scammers deserve a one way trip to CECOT.
Scammers little helpers - Social media has officially surpassed TV as Americans’ number one source of “news.” This is great news for scammers, fraudsters and foreign governments running influence operations to (further) weaken and divide the US.
Tech Stuff
Fighting the robots - It has been a big week in the battle against our wannabe robot overlords. Disney and Universal Studios have come out swinging against the massive copyright infringement vending machine that is Midjourney and other AI image and video generators. And the BBC is threatening legal action against Perplexity. One of my fave YouTubers, Legal Eagle has a great video explaining the issues in the suit. I think it would be hilarious if mankind were to be saved from destruction by AI by Mickey Mouse and Baby Yoda, but these days, you need to take help where you can get it.
On the other hand, IHOP and Applebee’s are both planning to “enhance” their “restaurant” experiences with AI. I can’t really think of how AI could make these particular “restaurants” any worse, so I will call this one a draw in the robot wars.
Fun Stuff
Some cool stories to not leave you only with nightmares of scammers, robots, and MAGAs…
A medieval murder map solved what must be one of the oldest cold cases on record. And speaking of cold cases, we just finished watching the excellent Department Q on Netflix. Highly recommended for mystery fans.
And that beacon of hard hitting investigative (and totally true and unbiased) journalism the New York Post has an EXCLUSIVE that proves that, at least in NYC, love is not dead. Another related recommendation - I recently read “Paper of Wreckage” which is an oral history of the Post from 1976-2024 and it was really entertaining as well as a great look at one of the reasons America is where we are today.
And I will leave you today with a compilation of one guy’s take on wisdom to contemplate. There are some thought provoking things here - worth a browse.
Thanks for spending time with me - I am gonna do my best to post more regularly going forward. Thanks, Erb for giving me a push to get behind the keyboard again. I will probably be extra cranky/loopy in the next edition which I am going to pre emptively blame on surgery and pain pills. Yeah. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.
Al
Thanks!