Hand Me A Cigarette, Simon

Oh baby, there’s so much Trumpy goodness in this report:

‘What you’re witnessing in California is a full blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty… with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country. We’re not gonna let that happen,’ he said.

‘We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That’s what they are.

‘These are animals, but they proudly carry the flags of other countries, but they don’t carry the American flag. They only burn it.’ 

The president went on to call LA ‘a trash heap’ with ‘entire neighborhoods under control’ of criminals, adding the government would ‘use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order.’

‘We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again,’ Trump said.

The ICE raids have sparked protests that brought Los Angeles to its knees, leading the mayor to introduce a lockdown from 8pm to 6am. 

But Trump is now set to deploy yet more ICE agents to five Democrat-run cities for sweeping arrests. 

The military-style units are set to storm New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and northern Virginia. Four of those five are heavily blue cities, while northern Virginia contains the Democrat enclave of Alexandria.

Just give me a moment… where did I put it?  Oh, here it is:

Or we could just nuke them all from orbit.

Okay, you all can quit that unseemly laughter and cheering now.

Private & Personal

I’ve never been that interested in my origins to have done the 23andMe thing, so I’m personally not affected by this activity.  Nevertheless:

Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have sued the genetic-testing company 23andMe to oppose the sale of DNA data from its customers without their direct consent.

The suit, filed on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, argues that 23andMe needs to have permission from each and every customer before their data is potentially sold. The company had entered an agreement to sell itself and its assets in bankruptcy court.

The information for sale “comprises an unprecedented compilation of highly sensitive and immutable personal data of consumers,” according to the lawsuit.

The genetic data at stake is especially sensitive and should be protected, because if it is stolen or compromised, it cannot be replaced. The data can be used to track not only the individuals who sent the kits, but also people related to customers, including yet unborn generations.

Why, and who is the prospective purchaser of all this “highly sensitive and immutable personal data”, you ask?

[23andMe] is poised to be acquired by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for $256 million, according to the lawsuit.  Regeneron is a biotechnology company that uses genetic data to develop new drugs.

So there’s no chance that the data will be abused in any way, then. [eyecross]

I think that my position on this kind of thing should be fairly obvious by now.

Your personal data — all of it — belongs to you, and to nobody else.  Only you can authorize its use or dissemination, for whatever reason.

So if some asshole organization — let’s just call them Regeneron, for brevity’s sake — wants to use personal (i.e. unaggregated) data, they should have to ask you personally for your permission, each and every time.  (Once data is aggregated, of course, your anonymity is no longer an issue.)


By the way, the same should apply to US Census data, but that particular bullet has gone through the church countless times already, and it’s a terrible precedent.  (Which is why I always urge people not to fill out the “long form” census questionnaire every time this bit of government snoopery comes around.)

The Biter, Bitten

Finally a little bit of FAFO justice for one of these little assholes in their detestable doxxing glory:

The second paragraph is the one that gives me the full monty:

“Oh no, please leave my family out of it!”

Fuck you, you little shit.  I hope you and your whole family get completely fucked up because of your poxy reindeer games.

And the same goes for all the “doxxers”out there.

Read the whole story to enjoy the full flavor of justice.


By the way:  should anyone try this shit with me, and “someone comes to my home, pounding on my door and demanding to confront me”

I leave it to your imagination to guess my response.

And Here’s Why

Earlier this week I talked about how Yurpeen tourist places were rethinking their welcome wagon policies.

Well, here’s one place that’s doing that and I think, based on the evidence, we can all see their point:

In a desperate attempt to crack down on alcohol-fueled debauchery, enraged [Albufeira] City Hall officials on Friday approved huge new penalties of up to £3,375 for holidaymakers flouting a strict new good behavior code — with fines for everything from urinating in the street to getting naked.

The rules will kick in within weeks, in time for the summer season, aiming to curb anti-social behavior.

And locals hope they will turn the tide, with nakedness, vomiting in the street or having sex in public all now coming at a price.

Here’s what really sucks about this.  I know Albufeira — I’ve been there before, and I thought it might be the prettiest little village on the whole of the Algarve coast — but that was eons ago.  Clearly, things have changed, and not for the better.

And the problem is that regardless of how badly the tourists (mainly Brits, duh) might behave, the pubs and restaurants are obviously making a killing so they’re not going to do anything to stop the Louts & Sluts Brigade from trashing their town.

Sadly, it’s always the local folks who end up with a town where the streets flow with vomit, blood and semen while the publicans shrug and pocket the cash.

And then everyone will be shocked — shocked! — when the locals start posting signs that read “Muerte A Los Turistas”, “Ingleses Regressam A Casa” or “A Bas Les Rozbiffs”  (depending on whether it’s Spain, Portugal or France, for instance).

What’s really needed in Albufeira is for the Porro rozzers to go all Chicago P.D. circa 1968 with these drunken assholes (men and women):

…and let them know that what might be fine in Merseyside, Manchester or Millwall is non grata when visiting Albufeira.

The problem is that the Euros in general have gone to great lengths to pussify their various police forces, so that very logical avenue will denied them — but it is, at the end of the day, the only language that these oafs understand.  Until that time, then, nothing will change, and fines aren’t going to do diddly.

Random Totty

Anyone remember this little thing, from Wayne’s World?

Unquestionably one of the cutest exports from Philippines, it’s Tia Carrere:

Doing the Baywatch thing:

And yes, she’s now in her late fifties, but still worth a spin, says I: