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The main thing is to get back on the wagon.

Today's links

• Trump fought the law and Trump won: Administrative competence is trumped by total lawlessness.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020
• Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

Trump fought the law and Trump won (permalink)

The saving grace of the first Trump administration was its administrative incompetence: for every terrible thing Trump I and his henchmen pulled off, ten more awful plots were thwarted because they were so bad at being evil.

Remember the Muslim Ban? It died because Trump repeatedly, publicly said he was banning people from his disfavored "shithole" countries because of their religion. The courts took one look at that and said, "Nope, you can't discriminate against people on the basis of their religion, it's right here in the First Amendment." In court, Trump's lawyers insisted that they were banning people due to something something security something mumble mumble, but then the other side's lawyers would just play back the tape of Trump gleefully celebrating the move as a way to keep Muslims out of America.

Trump's most effective henchmen understood this. Mitch McConnell, for example, played the senate's procedures like a virtuoso in order to deny Obama a Supreme Court pick, preserving a seat for Trump to fill with a credibly accused rapist.

Then there was Ajit Pai, Trump's loathsome FCC chair. When Pai wanted to kill Net Neutrality on behalf of the telco monopolists who had funneled millions into the GOP, he didn't just declare the Net Neutrality rule to be dead. Instead, he worked with the telcoms cartel operatives who flooded the docket with millions of fake comments opposing Net Neutrality, plausibly crossing all his tees and crossing his eyes so that the whole plan had at least the a superficial appearance of legitimacy:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/06/boogeration/#pais-lies

But for every Pai and McConnell in the Trump menagerie, there were a dozen Sloppy Steve Bannons, shooting their mouths off in between ads for prepper chow, gold bars, and contaminated testosterone supplements, loudly trumpeting their mens rea into every microphone they could find. And of all the people whose big dumb fucking mouths screwed up Trump's plans, Trump's big dumb fucking mouth was the biggest, the dumbest, and the fuckingest.

When the first Trump admin lost the election, Trump found himself repeatedly dragged into court, where his big dumb fucking mouth became a perennial liability, as his own words were used as Prosecution Exhibits A-Z. It seemed like Trump might be getting a lesson in why other people don't lie, bullshit, and continuously admit their own guilt in public.

No one believed Trump when he disavowed Project 2025 on the campaign trail. I mean, obviously he didn't read it (Trump doesn't read anything more challenging than a Fox News chyron) but he definitely was aware of some of its broader contours and was absolutely planning to elevate its architects to positions of real power. The question wasn't whether Trump supported Project 2025 – it was whether he would have the executive function to implement it in his second term, keeping his big, dumb fucking mouth shut as he did, so that he didn't create the basis for more court losses.

Of course, Trump has not kept his big, dumb fucking mouth closed. He has vomited up an endless stream of confessions, like when he livestreamed the fact that he'd tipped off his billionaire buddies ahead of a tariff U-turn so they could make billions insider trading:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/officials-explosive-allegations-trump-brags-195506345.html

Trump and his cronies have not acquired even a smidgen of administrative competence. Instead, they've embarked on a frenzy of out-of-control, chaotic motion, literally snatching random people off the streets and shipping them to forced-labor camps. Trump isn't just running a purge on America at large: he's also busily purging the conservative movement and the GOP of anyone with a hint of administrative capacity.

Far from than figuring out how to do terrible things without technically violating the law, Trump II is a lawless administration, prepared to violate laws, procedures, norms, and the US Constitution.

There are plenty of people of all political persuasions who respect the law, institutions, procedures, courts, and yes, even norms. Many of these people identify as conservatives – a movement with a long history of insisting that it is the home of rule-followers. Trump is the enemy of anyone who values these intangibles.

For Trump, these things are stupid games played by the weak.

Hey look at this (permalink)

* The original slop: How capitalism degraded art 400 years before AI https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-original-slop-how-capitalism

• Rational Astrologies and Security https://www.schneier.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Rational-Astrologies-and-Security.pdf

• Feeding the Beast: Superintelligence, Corporate Capitalism and the End of Humanity https://sites.google.com/view/capitalismandsuperintelligence/home

Object permanence (permalink)

#20yrsago Phone DRM cartel lowers fees from outrageous to merely ridiculous https://web.archive.org/web/20050413205335/http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/mobile/0,39020360,39195029,00.htm

#20yrsago Bush’s iPod filled with infringing goodness https://memex.craphound.com/2005/04/13/bushs-ipod-filled-with-infringing-goodness/

#20yrsago Felten: Why the RIAA is suing Internet2 users https://web.archive.org/web/20050413223053/http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000797.html

#20yrsago BBC Creative Archive launches, without DRM https://web.archive.org/web/20050413173407/https://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk/archives/what_is_the_creative_archive/project_faqs/index.html

#15yrsago Horrifying stationery https://web.archive.org/web/20100419065151/http://www.behance.net/Gallery/13th-Street-_quotStationery-of-Horror_quot-(Design)/440850

#15yrsago BITTER SEEDS: Alternate WWII novel pits English warlocks against Nazi X-Men https://memex.craphound.com/2010/04/13/bitter-seeds-alternate-wwii-novel-pits-english-warlocks-against-nazi-x-men/

#10yrsago HOWTO make a working Apple ][+ watch https://www.instructables.com/Apple-II-Watch/

#10yrsago NSA declares war on general purpose computers https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/as-encryption-spreads-us-worries-about-access-to-data-for-investigations/2015/04/10/7c1c7518-d401-11e4-a62f-ee745911a4ff_story.html

#10yrsago Exploding the Phone: the untold, epic story of the phone phreaks https://memex.craphound.com/2015/04/13/exploding-the-phone-the-untold-epic-story-of-the-phone-phreaks/

#5yrsago Quantifying Boris Johnson's body-count https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/13/control-c/#the-nasty-party

#5yrsago Virginia's election-day holiday https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/13/control-c/#ralph-northam

#5yrsago Fighting the EU Copyright Directive in court https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/13/control-c/#control-c

#5yrsago Trump will deliver killing blow to the USPS https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/13/control-c/#art-1-sec-8

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Virtual, Library Journal Day of Dialog
  https://www.libraryjournal.com/event/library-journal-day-of-dialog-spring-2025

• Auckland: Unity Books, May 2, 6PM
  https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/an-evening-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-1320740102199

• Wellingon: Unity Books, May 3, 3PM
  https://www.unitybooks.co.nz/news-and-events/author-talk-picks-and-shovels-by-cory-doctorow

• Pittsburgh: Picks and Shovels at White Whale Books, May 15
  https://whitewhalebookstore.com/events/20250515

• Pittsburgh: PyCon, May 16
  https://us.pycon.org/2025/schedule/

• PDX: Teardown 2025, Jun 20-22
  https://www.crowdsupply.com/teardown/portland-2025

• PDX: Picks and Shovels with bunnie Huang at Barnes and Noble, Jun 20
  https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062183697-0

• London: How To Academy with Riley Quinn, Jul 1
  https://howtoacademy.com/events/cory-doctorow-the-fight-against-the-big-tech-oligarchy/

• Manchester: Picks and Shovels at Blackwell's Bookshop, Jul 2
  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-1308451968059

• Manchester: Co-operatives UK Co-op Congress keynote, Jul 3
  https://www.uk.coop/events-and-training/events-calendar/co-op-congress-2025-book-your-place

• New Orleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12, 2025
  http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

Recent appearances (permalink)

• Can we use the Internet for Democracy?
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh_HON6iql8

• Fightback Against Trump's Tariff Attack (Avi Lewis)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9sgIAc6z_o

• The Voice of Canadian Humanism
  https://open.spotify.com/episode/7uuwdZTIbWzKhBQ3mmMiRv?context=spotify%3Ashow%3A6N5hl8on16CfaeYArrKyqZ

Latest books (permalink)

• • Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).
• The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

• "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

• "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)

• "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

• "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

Upcoming books (permalink)

• Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026

• Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

• The Memex Method, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Status: second pass edit underway (readaloud)

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

• Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS FEB 2025

Latest podcast: Nimby and the D-Hoppers CONCLUSION https://craphound.com/stories/2025/04/13/nimby-and-the-d-hoppers-conclusion/

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

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I hereby release this to any introductory logic professor who isn't a coward.

The Los Angeles Police Department obtained video footage from a Waymo driverless car as part of its investigation into a hit-and-run in which a separate, human-driven car hit a pedestrian. 

The LAPD published the footage, which has a note on it that reads “Waymo Confidential Commercial Information,” on its YouTube page to ask the public for help identifying the driver of the vehicle. The short clip shows what video footage that law enforcement requests from Waymo looks like.

The situation shows that police in Los Angeles are now looking at Waymo robotaxis as potential sources of surveillance footage to investigate crimes that the vehicles’ cameras and sensors may have witnessed. In 2023, Bloomberg reported that police in both San Francisco and Maricopa County, Arizona, had issued search warrants for Waymo footage. Police have also requested footage from Teslas, extremely pervasive Ring cameras, and Cruise autonomous vehicles.

Waymo is rapidly expanding in Los Angeles; anecdotally, I see many Waymos driving around town every day, and the company just announced that the autonomous vehicles have expanded the geographic region in which they would operate in the city and that it would soon begin testing them on Los Angeles freeways. The proliferation of Waymo cars also means the proliferation of roving surveillance cameras. LAPD has shown an interest in obtaining footage from autonomous vehicles that operate in the city; last year we reported on a case in which the LAPD obtained footage from an autonomous food delivery robot to investigate a crime. 

A Waymo spokesperson told 404 Media that it does not proactively give footage to police. 

“Waymo does not provide information or data to law enforcement without a valid legal request, usually in the form of a warrant, subpoena, or court order. These requests are often the result of eyewitnesses or other video footage that identifies a Waymo vehicle at the scene,” the spokesperson said. “We carefully review each request to make sure it satisfies applicable laws and is legally valid. We also analyze the requested data or information, to ensure it is tailored to the specific subject of the warrant. We will narrow the data provided if a request is overbroad, and in some cases, object to producing any information at all.”

Waymo’s website explains that it conducts training sessions for law enforcement and emergency responders, which is designed to teach them about Waymo and explains what they should do in case they are responding to a car crash or other emergency involving a Waymo. The page says it had “conducted in-person training for 18,000+ first responders at 75+ agencies.” 

The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Michael Kalus posted a photo:

Michael Kalus posted a photo: