Mike O'Neill

EU funding anti-abortion charity EU hands €1.2m to charity that spreads disinformation about sexual and reproductive rights to teens and women globally

The EU is defunding the anti abortion World Youth Alliance, after last year me and @soitakw.bsky.social exposed how its founder compared abortion to the Holocaust!

www.opendemocracy.net/en/eu-fundin...

FYI this is what you do when your business is great and you are very liquid and creditworthy

They’re calling it “the most well-taken comment in history”

Thatcher’s victories have lessons for us all Progressives, and not just her fans, have much to learn from her electoral victories

"Like Starmer, Thatcher inherited a country in trouble: high inflation, low growth, public sector strikes ... but unlike him she used her victory more as a springboard to shape the future than a charge sheet to litigate the past." by @peterkellner.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

Breaking news: US stocks have dropped as jitters over highly elevated valuations for many artificial intelligence companies intensified and top Wall Street executives said markets were vulnerable to a pullback. on.ft.com/4hIMmhj

Google to pay $1.375B in Texas privacy lawsuit settlement - Austin Business Journal | Mike O'Neill Interesting that such a large settlement can be won by a single US State. While this was under a specific Texas regulation governing biometric data, Google and similar adtech and big tech companies c...

Third-party web servers must also respect universal opt-out signals.
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Google to pay $1.375B in Texas privacy lawsuit settlement - Austin Business Journal Texas and Google have finalized a huge settlement tied to a privacy lawsuit.

Google has agreed to pay $1.375 billion to settle a case that Texas brought against it for allegedly tracking and collecting user data and geolocation without proper consent.
www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/...

Cause for Complaint: Assessing the ICO’s Proposed New Approach to Data Protection Complaints – David Erdos

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)’s data protection complaint handling performance is currently in very clear crisis.  Despite its pledge to assess and respond to 80% of such…

Can't agree that's all DP can do.
While true enshification & the rot economy have metastasized through lack of enforcement, it would only takes effective technical online intervention to stop processing of PD, sale or sharing of PI, or use of storage for tracking - in fact the law demands it.

YouTube video by Clarion West Enshittification and the Rot Economy: A Deep Dives Conversation with Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron

Here’s the panel I did with Cory Doctorow a few days ago in Seattle!
youtu.be/Tz71pIWbFyc?...

Coventry South needs a by-election soon Zarah Sultana has no mandate for disarming the people of Britain and betraying Ukraine

Coventry South needs a by-election soon by @paulmason.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/htsf/p/c...

Sorry to interrupt your afternoon, but I felt you should see this.

A rare foray into video as I ask, "Monarchy... what the hell is it all about, eh?"

Sadly, there's a lot to be said for Marina Hyde's analysis here. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Essential resource. Given the centrality of regulation and EU relations to UK politics, you'd have hoped this would be more widely recognised, but <shrugs at culture war>

Bubble-talk is breaking out everywhere But more optimistic investors continue to bank on the cavalry arriving if things get really dicey

“All of a sudden, the warnings are coming from all sides.” - @katie0martin.ft.com here the market
Bubble-talk breaking out everywhere www.ft.com/content/ce8b...

Millionaire Tax That Inspired Mamdani Fuels $5.7 Billion Haul in Massachusetts A millionaire levy in Massachusetts that New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani holds up as a model for taxing the rich has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing...

WELL HOW ABOUT THAT

"A millionaire levy in Massachusetts has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing significant high-profile departures from the state."

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Must watch! @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social and @zackpolanski.bsky.social on @boldpolitics.bsky.social talking about Brexit, @bylinesnetwork.co.uk @bylinetimes.bsky.social @peterjukes.bsky.social and more.

🔗 youtu.be/naOYDEyRHCA

"I warn you not to fall in love with someone from another country. And if you do, I very specifically warn you that she mustn't take maternity leave."

www.schneier.com/blog/archive...

I don't think most non-nerds realize just how useless massive datacenters filled with 5+ year-old GPU servers will be.

AI is not going to magically get better, more capable, or profitable... and there is no other conceivable use for what they've built and continue to expand.

The eye-popping size of server rental deals OpenAI sought outside Microsoft would soon dwarf even that number. Toward the end of 2024, OpenAI reiterated to Microsoft that it wanted several more gigawatts of capacity in the next several years, on top of all the other capacity it was getting from Microsoft and expecting to receive from Oracle, according to someone present for the discussions. But among themselves, Microsoft's Azure executives didn't believe it was physically possible for anyone, including Microsoft, to build the capacity OpenAI was asking for in that time frame, two people present for the discussions said. In conversations with OpenAI, Microsoft executives cautioned their counterparts at the startup that Oracle had never done anything like what OpenAl was requesting.

Oh hey look it’s exactly what I’ve been saying - Microsoft doesn’t believe it’s physically possible for them or for anyone to build the data centers OpenAI wants.

The Era of Smiles approaches

The artificial intelligence bubble, the debt crisis and the threat of war... A reflection on the state of capitalism and what to do about it

@edzitron.com htsf.substack.com/p/the-artifi...

UK Free Zones are the most underreported transformations of democratic governance in modern British history. I think what’s happening in the UK with free zones represents one of the most significant, and underreported transformations of democratic governance in modern British history.

UK Free Zones are the most underreported transformations of democratic governance in modern British history. by @europeanpowell.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/european...

Russia hikes hybrid aggression... From Foxhound incursions to red paint on the factory wall... why, and what next?

An audit of Russia's hybrid war - it's the political warfare, not the drones, that is the biggest threat...
open.substack.com/pub/htsf/p/r...

Peers beware Flawed polling and flawed journalism are distorting the debate over assisted dying

Misleading question used by lobbyists' paid-for poll "Peers beware" by @peterkellner.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

The UK Corporate Coup - What They’re Not Telling You I’ve spent several years researching UK Freeports and “free zones.” What I found is the largest transfer of sovereignty from democratic institutions to private corporations in British history.

The UK Corporate Coup - What They’re Not Telling You open.substack.com/pub/european... @europeanpowell.bsky.social

We have built a society in which people of different skin tones, religious backgrounds & cultures get along, share power, work alongside each other, procreate with each other, recognise the each other’s humanity and democratic rights. It is a STUNNING ACHIEVEMENT OF WORLD HISTORIC PROPORTIONS.

Time to stop funding Libyan militias running amok in the Mediterranean EU countries should coordinate competent search and rescue operations, open routes for those fleeing to safety, and ensure the bloc stops financing out-of-control militias.

A corporate lawyer who has worked for Big Tech played a key role in picking a former lobbyist for Facebook and WhatsApp as one of Europe's most powerful privacy regulators.

The EU has a secret weapon to counter Trump’s economic bullying. It’s time to use it | Johnny Ryan The anti-coercion instrument, or ‘trade bazooka’, is designed to shield against foreign pressure, says civil liberties campaigner Johnny Ryan

As I write in The Guardian this morning, the danger of this moment is that if Europe does not act against Trump now, it will never act again.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)

cppa.ca.gov/announcement...