I guess we’re monthly now! Here’s some of the latest garbage I've saved to my circular file. It’s a little Twitter-heavy, but that’s because Twitter is where our garbage culture is most clearly on display.
Today is the last voting day for Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. And Amazon has launched an additional, last-minute effort to discourage union votes, in this case by deploying sock puppets on Twitter. The sock puppets have a consistent username format, “AmazonFCFirstName”, and PFPs (avatars) that seem to come from thispersondoesnotexist.com. I’m willing to bet that the person or persons staffing the sock puppet network make more than Amazon warehouse employees, though, of course, as little as the market will bear. Twitter commentators spammed them with Turing tests and Voight-Kampff tests, though the latter were inconclusive, as a human working for a ’union avoidance’ firm would also not pass the Voight-Kampff test.
“Darla”, who was definitely not generated by a GAN
It appears that Darla, the account with the GAN PFP may be a very straight-faced parody. Buzzfeed reported a while ago about AmazonFC accounts – apparently they are real workers, but they get a day off and a $50 gift certificate (and a break from their regular duties) to go on Twitter and say something nice about the company. They first showed up when Amazon started taking heat for the conditions in their fulfillment centers, but there’s a new wave of them now for the anti-union campaign
US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) posted this on their official Twitter account:
Leading theories are that:
The tweet was eventually deleted, but not before it trended.
On a more serious note:
Newly released footage shows Montgomery County, Maryland police officers berating and handcuffing a five-year-old who ran away from school, and then encouraging the child’s mother to beat them to maintain discipline. CW: traumatized child is crying.
I can imagine my strong-willed youngest running away from school, and my better half would have to be the one to meet with the cops and the principal afterwards, to keep me from getting charged with assaulting an officer.
If you're thinking “Not all cops”, yes, ALL cops.
On a related note: North Carolina sends 6-year-olds to court. Sometimes without their parents present.
If you’re a Big Pharma investor, you may be concerned that you are not getting your money’s worth from the COVID-19 vaccines. After all, people are getting them for a reasonable price, and often fully paid for by their insurance, employer, or state government. This cannot stand!
Well fear not, the affordability pledge for the duration of the pandemic is purely voluntary, and once variants make the vaccines less effective and we move into a new normal of seasonal COVID-19 epidemics, the price will rise to whatever the market will bear, which given the US insurance system, is likely to be several hundred dollars a dose! Plus, the Pharma companies reserve to themselves the right to declare the pandemic over at their own discretion.
Who could have predicted?
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
I am *continually* outraged by the fact that liberals, looking at Joe Biden's Senate voting record, and his record as Vice President, actually thought he was going to close the concentration camps on the border. And I’m *super* outraged that today, many liberals who attacked Trump’s immigration policies now defend Biden's, to the extent of saying these facilities – the same ones used under Trump – are completely different now and nothing like the kids in cages we were all yelling about a couple of years ago. Well isn't that a relief‽
Kids detained in overcrowded border facility are terrified, crying and worried, lawyers say
I've got a lot more, but honestly, I've had enough. I’m going to go read something more hopeful, like Thomas Ligotti.
