if you think azure is bad now, or ms products are bad now, imagine what happens when all the elder god types still there, who are barely keeping the ship afloat, all take this deal and bounce

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/23/microsoft-plans-first-voluntary-retirement-program-for-us-employees.html

RE: https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/116454270791245630

been thinking about #DavidGraeber a lot lately. i think the Venn Diagram of people trapped in #BullshitJobs and aisloppers is a circle.

i would bet you that if people could earn a living without a bullshit job ―and, yes, a lot of tech work is bullshit― they’d have whole careers and lives outside of this capitalist hellscape.

capitalists are using #AI to gaslight us into believing we need them as the middlemen between our lives and a life worth living.

it’s a lie.

cut the middlemen out.

We’ve gone from "this is too ghoulish to exist" in 2003 to "this is the new wisdom-of-crowds infrastructure" in 2026. And it's a symptom of how we, all of us, are coming apart.

Prediction markets are, I think, the clearest single sign that our civilisation has entered a late and decadent stage.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/why-prediction-markets-are-a-sure-sign-that-our-civilisation-is-in-decay/

Swine.

“VA Judge Blocks Redistricting Amendment, State To Appeal
A VA judge has ruled a redistricting amendment is unconstitutional, citing misleading ballot language; the attorney general will appeal.”

https://patch.com/virginia/oldtownalexandria/s/k8p95/va-judge-blocks-redistricting-amendment-state-to-appeal?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert&user_email=e98131d1f0f213feaba4248e5bf98617b566d641dc8e71dc74df89b513c33fcf&user_email_md5=0e920cfcf6e2856f8ec9944a1e4bf884&lctg=66fed3f3262edbbae103e798

Oof. I like posting about weird Dutch crime for English-speakers, but this one’s tragic and a real dark corner of social media

back on New Year’s Day, two teenage boys were randomly gunned down here in Amsterdam. Syrian refugees, both of them. That was generally presumed to be fundamental to the motive, although why these boys at that time and place was not at all clear.

But no, the guy who shot them had no idea they were refugees. You see, the guy who shot them got a call. A very threatening call from, supposedly, a criminal. He got angry, told the criminal to “meet him at the bridge” to sort this out, and left the house with his gun that he had for some reason. (There’s very little gun violence in NL, but of course the illegal gun ownership rate is not literally zero.) And when he saw young men hanging out at the bridge, he panicked and shot them.

But the call was never from a real criminal making a real threat. There’s some Dutch live streamer who does prank calls, live on stream. And someone gave him the number of this guy and asked the streamer to give him a real scare.

So an unethical shock streamer scared a random guy into thinking his life was in immenent danger, and that guy had access to a gun, and two random kids got gunned down in the street for existing at the wrong time and place.

https://www.at5.nl/artikelen/237874/om-grap-van-youtubekanaal-aanleiding-doodschieten-onschuldige-syrische-jongens-in-park

Unverified reports from high-level intelligence circles allege a dramatic confrontation occurred at the White House last Saturday night, with President Donald Trump attempting to authorize the use of nuclear weapons against Iran.

The claim, first brought to light by retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson, suggests that General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, intervened to block the order
#AureFreePress #BreakingNews

More News at @Free_Press
https://share.newsbreak.com/i7ms1dma

And we're still expected to hand over IDs for age verification?

France's national agency for managing IDs and passports suffered a data breach last week

https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/frances-national-agency-for-managing-ids-and-passports-suffered-a-data-breach-last-week-201432189.html?src=rss

#France #ID #Hack #Security #Privacy #Data #Tech

Well this is embarrassing. Iran is good at propaganda.

#USpol #Iran #war #ceasefire #propaganda