Leo Burnett

I do. But that’s an irrelevant question. The Israel lobby is one of the most prolific spenders in US election history - it’s not just one PAC but a network of PACs and individual donors. And unlike Platner’s parents, those donations + relationships expect support for a genocidal foreign government.

I'm sure the AIPAC donations she's almost certainly going to accept will speak for themselves

The AWS Outage Bricked People’s $2,700 Smartbeds When Amazon Web Services went offline, people lost control of their cloud-connected smart beds, getting stuck in reclined positions or roasting with the heat turned all the way up.

"We have allowed tech companies to mediate the most basic functions of our lives, from cooking to travel to sleep. The AWS and ES outage is a stark reminder that we should do what we can to limit the control these tech companies have over our lives."

www.404media.co/the-aws-outa...

Data Vampires - Tech Won’t Save Us

I recommend checking out the Data Vampires series from Tech Won't Save Us, to start: www.techwontsave.us/data-vampires

Increasingly clear that more people need to understand what the cloud is and the basics of how it works. Having the entire web hosted on Amazon Web Services is a huge vulnerability - not to mention a consolidation of power and loss of democracy when AI is brought into the picture.

Wow this one is so good. They made a book at some point with all these prints in it.

The enthusiasm for @grahamformaine.bsky.social is refreshing. It will be interesting to see the Maine Dems finally reckon with the deadweight corporate class that's led it to run many a campaign into the ground. Just wait to see how long it takes for some to get on board.. and take notes

Candidates who are either corny themselves or let their staffers have a little fun are good. You can't find this analysis anywhere else.

Left off much of this coverage is that Graham gave his comms team the greelight to say "join the grahampaign" on his website and it made it to the official launch. Impressive.

Fun fact: I changed my name :)

Covering this like it's some novel campaign tactic to break out of a crowded field is nasty work. Irresponsible journalism.

thanks for sharing. i'm a fan of their manifesto - especially the writing about the problem. we tend to see a lot of "problem with big gov IT projects" framed in purely dollars and efficiencies and time - not in the actual tangibles of missed appointments, evictions, no money for food, etc.

Who were the biggest spenders on lobbying the 2025 Maine Legislature? • Maine Morning Star While the Maine Legislature pushed off its decision on whether to adopt a comprehensive data privacy law until next year, the proposal to make regulations in Maine among the strictest in the country w...

The state of Maine desperately needs a data privacy bill of rights and policy governing AI use in government.

Tech is already spending big; the comprehensive data privacy bill last session was the top recipient of lobbying money @mainemorningstar.com

mainemorningstar.com/2025/07/17/w...

Think about it: if an officer has a body camera on but, say, obstructs the view of the camera: what other evidence exists of an interaction? Could the officer say "I see a weapon" or "suspect draws weapon" — regardless of whether they actually see a weapon? this gets put in the report.

The AI models, which are built in ways that are opaque and discriminatory, could be making assumptions or inaccurately reporting things.

Officers could be speaking and narrating an event as it's happening in ways that aren't truthful - just to have the report reflect the reality they want reported

Now: what if there's an inaccuracy in the report? Can we see if AI wrote it, or if the officer wrote it? Can we see where the officer added edits?

The software is designed NOT be able to cross reference. It doesn't save anything aside from the final report. No draft and no tracked changes.

Meanwhile, what the EFF report actually says:

The tech these police in Maine want to use takes video and body cam footage and automatically writes up police reports. Officers review the draft. Once they have done reviewing and editing (or not editing) - they submit it.

Does the story cite any clear and direct evidence that the software has actually saved time in Somerset Cty? Any staffing numbers or data? None.

The above the fold story is simply a rehashing of exactly what the sheriff's department wants to be shared with the public, with little scrutiny

Lead framing in the story: AI software saves police departments time & money

Subhead: some privacy experts are skeptical

Way at bottom: a new report from EFF raises concerns

Somerset County sheriff deputies: AI saves time writing reports A new report writing software that uses artificial intelligence appears to be catching on among Maine law enforcement agencies, despite ongoing questions and criticism from defense attorneys and other...

If I were a police department that wanted to deploy this kind of surveillance tech but was afraid about public backlash, I'd be pretty excited about how the @pressherald.com covered the story on Axon's tech this week. Let's look at it.. www.pressherald.com/2025/07/27/s...

Axon’s Draft One is Designed to Defy Transparency Axon Enterprise’s Draft One — a generative artificial intelligence product that writes police reports based on audio from officers’ body-worn cameras — seems deliberately designed to avoid audits that...

The software Maine police are quickly adopting is designed to intentionally skirt transparency measures

#mepolitics

New report from @eff.org raises major red flags

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

It's been a long time coming and I cannot wait to see more centrists with terrible politics fall from grace.

It's both hard and entirely possible to out organize campaigns that think they can buy their way to the top.

Yeesh. Steve's expertise appears to be making nauseating political takes that cite some barely relevant historical facts. Gotta fill that word count somehow.

Back of an old yellow telephone book with a picture of a bunch of little kids (8-12 yrs old) smiling looking carefree. The text in front of the kids reads "Can you find the drug pusher in this picture?" sponsored by Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Remnants of the wholesome, deranged 1990s - back of an old NYNEX telephone book from 1994.

The press herald reporting on king making a speech or doing otherwise symbolic actions: "challenges trump admin" "raises red flag" "sounds the alarm"

The press herald when king confirms Trump appointees, throws zero procedural blocks to the trump agenda, and votes for the GOP budget: *crickets*

"The establishment elite preferred to see democracy die rather than risk its wealth, power, and privileges."

- Historian Benjamin Carter Hett on how the Nazis took power.

There is no evidence of voter fraud in Maine. There is, however, ample evidence that Laurel Libby is a right-wing christian nationalist who will throw anyone - including schoolchildren and the elderly - under the bus to advance her career and ambitions.

Media really carrying the water for the christian nationalists on this one by calling it voter ID. This would be one of the most restrictive ballot suppression laws in the country, restricting absentee voting + removing the ability for caregivers to deliver ballots for loved ones.

tiny chins are the best 🥺