Become Unlearnable
I recommend every one of you watches this video explaining how musicians can fight against the theft of their work.
It is instructive for every other profession and/or endangered class today.
The law is failing us. Norms have failed us. It’s time for a more active response.
OFC, knowing that most of you might not watch it, here’s a summary created by a LLM (aka, an “AI”)
The video highlights the growing concern among musicians about generative AI companies using their music without consent, leading to inferior AI-generated music. The speaker introduces a novel encoding technology that makes music files untrainable by AI, potentially degrading AI datasets. This approach empowers artists to protect their work and challenges unethical AI practices. The video also emphasizes the importance of fair compensation for artists and critiques companies that exploit AI without considering the original creators. The new idea here is using adversarial noise to disrupt AI training, offering a proactive way for artists to defend their intellectual property.
The Constitution was Cutting Edge Tech
It was code for a liberal democracy. It’s been corrupted.
In my heart of hearts, I allow myself to be cold and callous. “Mass deportation,” I tell myself, “is not the worst possible outcome – rather, it’s the fascists using the state to go after the lawyers, infosec experts and other knowledge workers who established and defended the truth of the 2020 election. It’s the triumph of the Big Lie.”
If the fascists – from Leonard Leo to the Koch Bros. to the Vichy NYT – manage to alter the historical record so that Trump “won” the 2020 election, the USA is truly well and fucked. Criminality defeats the rule of law.
The South will have finally won the Civil War and the oligarchs, along with their foot servants (law firms, banks, ivy league trustees), will get to root through the scraps as the single greatest achievement of humanity is trashed.
Whether Europe can rise to the occasion and preserve the Enlightenment is a question for another day.
Donald Trump is not an aberration; he is the logical, inevitable conclusion of an American political system dominated by corporate and dark money. If we are to defeat him, we must defeat the system that created him.
Those are the words of our next president, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They were transcribed by an “AI” on YouTube. Below is a summary of her speech, also produced by a machine.
The fascists are using mostly 20th century tools (lawfare, TV propaganda) but they’re on the cusp of using 21st century tools.
DOGE is an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg is trite propaganda about government waste in service of dismantling the New Deal.
But the actual mass of this slow motion catastrophe is our government’s data in the hands of zealous anti-democracy terrorists ala Peter Thiel and his fellow travelers.
Where are the hackers for democracy?
I don’t have an answer. I don’t expect I’ll know the answer until their work is effective. (The best I could think of by way of analogy is Bellingcat, which is a high-tech news agency.)
I’ve read speculation that amoral cowards like Mark Zuckerberg are excited about breaking the back of labor after their own misguided HR policies created an increasingly unmanageable workforce. (For example, this post from two years ago.)
Having worked with younger people quite a bit, I don’t see a great awakening in the offing. I hope I’m wrong! But if I’m right, it could be that growing up in a culture of impunity (illegal wars, unregulated commerce, elections for sale) doesn’t exactly instill idealism.
Perhaps, it will fall to Gen X.
Stranger things have happened.
take care,
josé
An automatically generated transcript of AOC’s most important remarks from her speech in LA:
Introduction
My name is Alexandria, and some of you may know me as AOC. Thank you for welcoming me to Los Angeles, and happy Passover to all of our friends celebrating this weekend.Main Themes: Oligarchy vs. Democracy
We're here together because we share in the frustration and heartache that comes from watching those in power actively tear down or refuse to fight for everyday working Americans like us. We are witnessing an extreme concentration of power, greed, and corruption taking over this country like never before – oligarchy in America.We must acknowledge the terrifying moment we're in right now: - People we love are being targeted and harassed for being trans or queer - US citizens and immigrants alike are being disappeared off the street - Educators are being fired for teaching American history accurately - Activists are being detained with no charge or evidence for using their First Amendment rights, especially when advocating for Palestinians
Examples of Current Injustice
The Trump administration has jailed Mahmud Khalil, a young husband and father from New York, without evidence or charge, because he attended a protest. They're detaining him for the content of his speech alone. Donald Trump's detention of someone like Mahmud Khalil for his speech is anti-American, and we demand his release along with Rumesa Ourk, who is also jailed for writing an op-ed in her school paper.Community Resistance Works
Los Angeles demonstrated its power recently when ICE officials attempted to enter two LA USD schools to target kids. They lied to school officials and claimed they had parents' permission. But school staff, employees, teachers, and principals stood strong and protected these children.It will never be just institutions and officials alone that uphold our democracy. It will always be the people, the masses who refuse to comply with authoritarian regimes, who are the last and strongest defense of our country and freedoms.
The Root of the Problem: Wealth Inequality
The destruction of our rights and democracy is directly tied to growing extreme wealth inequality. It's not a coincidence that billionaires like Elon Musk dumped billions into this election to elect Trump. For years, our political system has become dominated by big money and billionaires.Our government and laws are more responsive to lobbyists than to the will of everyday people. The agenda of dark money—keeping wages low and looting public goods to give to the rich—is deeply unpopular across all backgrounds, parties, and places.
Current Republican Actions
Republicans in Congress have been voting to advance cuts on hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid, veterans benefits, and Social Security to give that money to billionaires in the form of tax cuts and government contracts to companies like SpaceX.California representatives who voted for these cuts include David Valadeo (CA-22), Young Kim (CA-40), and Ken Calbert (CA-41). They know this hurts you but serve billionaires who paid them.
Division as a Strategy
The only chance they have to get away with such an unpopular agenda is to stoke deep divisions among us along lines of race, identity, and culture—to keep us fighting and distracted. This has been the big money playbook for decades.Donald Trump is not an aberration; he is the logical, inevitable conclusion of an American political system dominated by corporate and dark money. If we are to defeat him, we must defeat the system that created him.
Personal Experience in Congress
When I first got to Congress, I was genuinely shocked by how normalized corruption and dark money influence is: - Members of Congress believe it's normal to day-trade individual stocks with sensitive information they receive for governing - It's impossible to make objective votes on healthcare, energy, or war when personal money is tied up in related stocksTrump's Market Manipulation
We saw this corruption play out with Trump's tariff scheme, which wasn't about manufacturing as claimed, but about manipulating markets—hurting retirees and everyday people in the selloff so Trump could enrich friends who he nudged to "buy the dip" before reversing course.Donald Trump is a criminal found guilty of 34 felony counts of fraud. Of course he's manipulating the stock market too. He excels at making himself, his billionaire backers, and cooperative members of Congress rich—not you, not me, not the people.
Call for Reform
I don't care what party you belong to—Democrat or Republican—members of Congress trading individual stocks is wrong. It must end, and we must ban it.Committee Appointment Experience
When I was appointed to the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees two-thirds of the American economy, my office phones rang off the hook with corporate lobbyists wanting to be my "best friend." Because of your support, I don't have to take corporate money and can say no.I've seen firsthand how these groups bully and pressure members of Congress, threatening to withdraw or spend against them if they don't comply. What they want is for our lives to be as expensive as possible on the lowest possible wages.
What Oligarchy Feels Like
The impossibility of affording anything easily, the fear of speaking up, toxic division driven by social media algorithms, crumbling rights and protections—this is what oligarchy feels like, and it will only get worse until we act.Trump Administration's Corruption
Trump's presidency began with launching tools for bribery—meme coins to fleece working people, extortion settlements from media companies, and removing duly elected officials to make space for billionaires who are really in charge.Their central economic mission: make billionaires richer at the expense of America by targeting Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, firing federal workers, and abandoning veterans to hand money to billionaire backers.
Call for Democratic Action
This isn't just about Republican attacks on working people—we need a Democratic party that fights harder for us too. We need to vote for Democrats who know how to stand for the working class.I want to thank your senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff who stood strong against DC pressure and voted against the Republican spending bill to cut billions for working people.
Call to Community Building
Beyond elections, our task is to build community—block associations, volunteer groups, church organizations, PTAs, activist organizations—because community is the most powerful building block we have to defeat authoritarianism and root out corruption.This is the path to guaranteeing healthcare for all Americans, establishing a living minimum wage, tackling housing costs, addressing the climate crisis, and creating a country where the American dream is possible for everyone.
Personal Story
I come from a working-class family. My mom cleaned houses, my dad worked to start a small business, and they worked so hard to make life better for my brother and me. When I was a teenager, my dad was diagnosed with cancer and passed away before I was 20, during the 2008 recession.So many of us live like this—one accident, one bad day, one piece of bad news away from our lives falling apart. We don't have to live like this anymore.
Inclusive Call to Action
To all who came here today unsure of whether this belongs to you: You do belong, no matter your background, identity, or disagreements with me on some issues. If you're willing to fight for someone you don't know, you are welcome here.We cannot be tempted to turn in our neighbors or be fooled into thinking we're that different from a trans kid seeking acceptance, a dreamer working for college, or anyone unlike us. Hate is a trap that sinks us all. Standing together without exception to reject division is the only way we can win.
This movement is not about partisan labels or purity tests but about class solidarity. We are here to make a sacred promise to each other—to build the kind of country we all deserve, to take care of each other on our worst days, and to share in the successes of our best.