badsynthesis

@badsynthesis@infosec.exchange
40 Followers
178 Following
1.1K Posts
Security, working on automated risk analysis at scale. Also board games, virology, fairy tales and D&D
Fascinating poster from the American Holocaust Museum. Thank goodness we aren't exhibiting any of these right now.

That's 5D-educational chess.

#FuckGenAI #ChatGPT #GenAIsucksCamelDong

Hello Americans on Mastodon, I know we don't feel like there's much to celebrate this July 4th. It's been a rough several years.

So I want to talk about how we're making history right now.

Corporations that publicly endorsed Trump's megabill. These are not companies that supported the bill by donating to the politicians that voted for it (although most did that too). These are companies that endorsed the bill publicly and were featured on a White House webpage. People should know the companies that made this choice.

#BigFuglyBill #BBB #BigBillionaireBill #TrumpDidThis #RepublicansDidThis #GOPKakistocracy #Project2025 #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

last day of my internship today so i got a souvenir

⚠️ In four days Gemini wants to scan your phone ⚠️

Stop #Google now: 👉 https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-disable-gemini-on-android

#GeminiAI #Google #Android #PrivacyMatters

On this the anniversary of the Night of the Long Knives, it's important to recognize what is happening here. It isn't hyperbole when it's accurate. - White Rose Resistance

This ca. 5,000-year-old Neolithic polished flint axe with its original ash wood handle is remarkable well preserved.

During the Neolithic period in Denmark, as agriculture began to expand, farmers had to clear the forests, which involved felling trees and burning away brushwood in preparation for cultivation. They used polished flint axes for both tree felling and timber work.

Fount at Sigerslev bog, Denmark, dating 3,100-3,000 BC.

On display National Museum Copenhagen

#archaeology

I'm going to echo @johnquiggin here - the USA is now basically a dictatorship that its public doesn't really want to believe is a dictatorship:

https://johnquigginblog.substack.com/p/the-end-of-us-democracy

I remember reading someone commenting in 2014, I think, about how there would be no obvious sign that the USA's democracy was failing at the time, but the signs would only be obvious in hindsight. Historians would point to some event or person and say, "This was one of the key decisions that caused the USA to slip into an authoritarian dictatorship".

Remember, this was the time of the Tea Party, of unrelenting opposition to everything Obama did. It was a time where the Republican party pushed the USA to the brink of failing to pass its budget simply to make it look like the Democrats were 'the baddies'. It was a time where the Republican party showed that it had abandoned any semblance of co-operation, and was only interested in destroying anyone and anything it disagreed with.

I work for a company with its headquarters in the USA. I talk to those people living there. And the thing that disappoints me, to be honest, is that they keep on going and hoping that 'this all won't affect [them]'. Any half competent student of Germany coming up to WWII can see exactly how that attitude played out for the German public: ignoring the killings and the imprisonments and the regime setting itself up with no opposition and no supervision.

To the people in the USA who I know I say: get out while you still can.

Because you think you'll have plenty of time. You think you'll be able to find another country that will take you on your time-table, when you need to leave. You think you're never going to need to leave because you're as American as anyone else, or you live in a nice town, or you have good friends, or it's going to be so difficult.

I don't think we're going to end up at another world war as the end-point; I don't think the USA is going to seriously invade Canada or Greenland or China or Mexico or anyone else.

I think the end point is that the vast majority of USAdians will find themselves struggling to earn enough to keep themselves clothed and fed, while they watching the Republicans and its cronies enriching themselves. They'll discover that protest is illegal and that people they know have 'disappeared' into prisons or worse. They'll find that they - as immigrants or as same-sex couples or as mixed-race families or as just ordinary citizens who don't slavishly follow the Trumpublicans - are targeted for vigilante violence.

The real problem for the USA is that all the real money is going to already flee. Bezos and Musk and Buffett and Gates and so on will just move to New Zealand or Lichtenstein or a Caribbean island; their money will already be in international banks and trusts and funds that the USA can't touch. The Republicans will squeeze the poor people tighter, but the rich people will have already have left.

The end of US democracy

I’ve held off posting this in the hope of coming up with some kind of positive response, but I haven’t got one.

John Quiggin's Blogstack
Sinaloa cartel used phone data and surveillance cameras to find FBI informants, DOJ says
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/sinaloa-cartel-hacked-phones-surveillance-cameras-find-fbi-informants-doj-says-2025-06-27/
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I like this idea.

#ICE #immigrants

@mckra1g

I like the idea I had a similar thought about outdoor public assemblies, where just a large number of people put on the same kind of clothing.

I like the idea, but I am given pause because there’s a trust issue if you don’t know who the people playing chameleon are

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @mckra1g isn't that just black bloc?

@sidereal @mckra1g

It may look that way because the ICE guys are all dressed up close to that, but the point is to confound them with the sea of bodies that they would have a hard time distinguishing from their own members.

And simply making it hard for them to do anything in a organized fashion

@sidereal @GhostOnTheHalfShell @mckra1g
Yes, but like when a cop is doing it to be all, "Hello, fellow anarchists."

@mckra1g The cinema inside my head:

"If everyone is ICE; no one will be." (evil laugh)

Like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmSO2cz2ozQ

And when everyone's super...

YouTube

@mckra1g

Can't be impersonating a police officer if the police officer is in plain clothes.

@bigolewannabe @mckra1g Furthermore, can't be impersonating a police officer if it turns out the ICE goon is not actually a police officer 😉

@mckra1g

You'll only be able to pull off that once.

and worse, it could go terribly wrong.

@Sassinake @mckra1g

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." -- Wayne Gretzky

@mckra1g Best part is, the ICEholes wouldn't know what the fuck happened.
@mckra1g Wouldn't be hard. Just throw on some jeans and an outer flannel or shirt. Put on a mask. Those goofy fucks have made themselves even more identifiable by trying to play badass.
@mckra1g They'll be able to tell I think because they know who they are and where they're supposed to be. Could cause massive confusion in the immediate area though. OTHER people not knowing who is "supposed" to be carting people away while refusing to ID themselves won't know who's side to take. Guns could fire. "ICE" almost certainly will.
@mckra1g I'd want a code word so it wasn't terrifying and people might know ...
@geonz @mckra1g It would need to be prearranged by the targeted individual or else it just turns into a way of abducting people by posing as the "safe" option.
@mckra1g This is a great idea. It's not like ICE has an official uniform so you wouldn't be impersonating an officer.

@mckra1g

bring a defibrillator

@mckra1g “We don’t need no stink’n badges!”
- from Treasure of the Sierra Madre
@mckra1g That’s a legit good idea!

@mckra1g

I dig this idea!! ✌🏻☮️

18 U.S. Code § 912 - Officer or employee of the United States

LII / Legal Information Institute
@Kevin @mckra1g if no one asks you and you don't claim to be, are you impersonating? Not your fault if they make assumptions.
@Kevin @mckra1g haven’t the agents abducting immigrants been avoiding wearing logos or badges? Do they identify themselves and their agencies when asked?
@SrRochardBunson (Jim Breuer is an emphatic Donald supporter which makes this GIF confusing.)
@mckra1g I mean if ICE is impersonating police, then there is NOTHING wrong with this idea. I love it!

@mckra1g

Me too.
This made me wonder what would happen if EVERYONE started dressing like ICE agents....
Would #tRump implement a dress code....

What if we all went out dressed like this?
This would really mess with them...

@mckra1g oh...finally a good use for my clown car black SUV aside from just driving all my kids around!
@mckra1g This is brilliant.

@mckra1g It is a crime to impersonate a federal officer. This is sounds like a guaranteed conviction after the beatings.

One Catholic priest tossing holy water around seems to have deterred a group of ICE kidnappers and sent them scurrying. I think priests should do more of this.

@steter @mckra1g

But are these ICE agents actually federal officers?

Or are they feral officers let loose to roam as they please?

@steter @mckra1g But it's not a crime to impersonate a priest (it may be a sin, but that's mostly a post-life problem).

So what if we all dress up as priests or nuns and start hanging out in the hallways outside detention hearings?

Overdoing it would dull the effect, and you'd have to avoid yelling out stuff like "Die, you motherf*cking a**hole pig!"; but you could probably be pretty effective at least at first.

*& hey, one of the jack-booted thugs might ask you to hear his confession

@mckra1g Added bonus: ICE often don't even wear uniforms, carry authorisation, or identify themselves. So it's not like such a thing would require a great deal of preparation...
@EndemicEarthling @mckra1g Was thinking this. Can't break the law for impersonating a federal officer if the federal officers don't even have an established persona.
@mckra1g
Until the part where you get sentenced for impersonating an officer. 🤔

@TimMaddog @mckra1g Most of them don't seem to wear any insignia at all! No badges, no uniforms, no vests, no jackets, no hats... Which, honestly, I find much more scary than the face masks.

But if you just wear jeans and a hoodie, as most of them seem to, *what* exactly are you impersonating?

@mckra1g idk. It seems like it would be extremely scary for the people who think they're being kidnapped from their hearings by people dressed like ICE agents.
@mjibrower @mckra1g It could be, but if you know (or learn) a little Spanish--based on what I'm seeing and reading--that you could whisper comfortingly...