sf - jwz

"Joy", which they have rebranded as "Economic Impact..."

jwz — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 23:07:48 +0000

'How Could You Be Against Joy?': Bay Area Artists Are Turning on the Civic Joy Fund:

Crypto billionaire Larsen -- who is currently spending tens of millions of dollars to prop up moderate candidates in California, fight labor unions, defeat the state billionaires tax and San Francisco's own overpaid CEO tax -- is still one of the Civic Joy Fund's biggest benefactors. This is reflected on the organization's own "funders" page, which lists cute categories for these very wealthy people, like "Disco Queens," "Street Sparklers," and "Joy Makers." [...]
In February, at the "Music Industry Summit" -- the conclusion to San Francisco Music Week, another Lurie project -- I watched as the mayor strode to the stage at the Swedish American Music Hall. There, before an audience of struggling artists, engineers, and small venue staff, he triumphantly reported that the last summer of concerts in Golden Gate Park resulted in "$150 million worth of economic impact," and that, according to new data, "our independent music venues generate $1.4 billion in economic impact annually."
Lurie paused for applause. "That's because of all of you in this room."
We clapped dutifully, but the people in that room did not need to be reassured that they had contributed to $1.4 billion in "economic impact." They would have preferred to hear that any of their favorite clubs might exist next year. The people in that room could use health insurance -- and they might be able to afford it if Lurie's billionaire buddies were taxed appropriately; say, with a one-time 5% excise tax on net worth exceeding $1 billion to save Medi-Cal.
But hey, that sentiment doesn't make for great social media content.
Indeed, the dissonance between Lurie's spirit-squad act around cultural events and the material struggles of the people actually making the culture is, at times, ear-splitting. One gets the sense he is physically unable to hear it.
"Those of us on the ground who work in [music] know that it has never been more difficult to be here, and try and provide the city with the core thing it is known for historically, which is free-thinking progressive ideologies and good art," says Austin Waz, frontman of the band Analog Dog and a booker at Kilowatt. "We see the incredible amount of venues going out of business, people losing their jobs left and right. We have an absolute crisis."
It's frustrating, he says, to see the large-scale parties into which the Civic Joy Fund pours resources. "It's one day, and they put $100,000, $200,000 into these things, and it's like -- you could have saved an entire community with that. You could have created the conditions that would allow a venue to flourish for years," says Waz. "You're not thinking about how to develop or support artists who come from the city ... it's a slap in the face to put up some [barricades] in the street and say, 'Look how wonderful this all is.'" [...]
"I'm hearing artists rightfully starting to question, like, 'Ultimately, who is this for?'" says Guest of the block parties. "Is it for the public, or is it to set up this area as being worthy of real estate investment? Because if the point of it is to cater towards visitors ... it's really not about supporting art or artists at all."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Man Who Threw Molotov Cocktail At Sam Altman's Home Claims He Was Following ChatGPT Recipe For Risotto

jwz — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 21:39:13 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO:

"I've been using ChatGPT to help with cooking for a while now, so I didn't think too much of it when the ingredients list included a bottle filled with gasoline and a cloth wick," said the alleged attacker, who added that he naturally assumed making the rice dish involved driving several hours to the OpenAI CEO's residence, especially after the AI chatbot had given him a "pretty decent" sesame chicken recipe the week before.
"I have to admit I felt a little weird as I prepared to toss this flaming incendiary device through [Altman's] front window, but the recipe explicitly stated that this was an essential step to get that creamy, velvety risotto texture. I guess I didn't know any better. I mean, I've never made risotto before."
The suspect went on to tell reporters that he still had "a whole fridge full" of Molotov cocktails at home, having attempted to prep enough risotto to last the week.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Suspension Bridges of Disbelief, part 2

jwz — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 23:15:46 +0000

VFX artists vs. The Golden Gate:

McMurry recalls plenty of discussion about adhering to any 'real' physics if that event actually happened. "There was a very fun debate about what would happen if the center broke. Some people said, 'Well, these towers, since they're under stress, they would just go immediately back out this way.' We did some tests but then we said, 'Well, that looks stupid.'" [...]
"We were always scaling things up and down, cheating gravity stronger or weaker, just to make everything feel like it had the right scale but wasn't too slow to maintain the excitement. The destruction simulations were tweaked just to look good. They're not based on any mechanical analysis of material strengths."
"The bridge attack is one of the biggest cheats in the whole show," adds Knoll. "The nominal size for the Kaijus and Jaegers was around 250 feet tall, and we tried to stay around that where we could. The roadway of the Golden Gate Bridge is around 230 feet above the water, so the Kaiju in those shots is cheated up to around 700 feet tall!" [...]
Godzilla's interaction with the bridge -- despite ultimately breaking through it -- remains somewhat low-key. "In the movie, notes Bonami, "the cables are grabbed, shaken and cut. In reality if one of those cables were cut, the bridge would swing and if Godzilla were to walk thought it the effect on the bridge would be devastating. Our challenge was therefore to downplay the physics but also to try and maintain realism."

Previously, previously.

Stop threatening me with a good time

jwz — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 02:39:47 +0000

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Danny Bluejeans won't let a little thing like a blackout interrupt his daughter's talent show

jwz — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 21:59:20 +0000

A day after a blackout plunged a third of SF into darkness, City Hall and many of the surrounding blocks remained without power. But the stage lights were on at the War Memorial Opera House.

Not mentioned at the hearing: The mayor's teenage daughter, Taya Lurie, was cast in the starring role of Clara at the matinee performance that Sunday.
During stunning testimony before the Board's Public Safety Committee, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood asked PG&E CEO Sumeet Singh why the utility had chosen to help the arts venue while so many other San Francisco sites were without power.
"You prioritized the opera, where no one is living, to restore service, before you prioritized restoring service in communities and seniors living in [single room occupancies]," said Mahmood.
"We did not make that decision on our own accord," Singh replied. "We were requested by the mayor to provide temporary generation to that specific location. And we responded to that."
Singh said 10% of affected PG&E customers were still experiencing blackouts when the mayor made his request.

The mayor's comms team went ballistic and a couple days later, the PG&E CEO recanted and said: Oh, that thing that I quite clearly stated, that was a "misunderstanding". Uh huh.

So the interesting thing here is not that our oligarch mayor is both corrupt and bumbling -- I mean, water is wet -- but that PG&E chose to throw him under the bus like that. Statements like that, from people like that, about people like that, don't happen off the cuff. With the renewed and increasing calls to Eminent Domain PG&E, you'd think that PG&E would want SF's mayor on their side. This suggests that they think they just don't need him.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.

S.F. looks to repeal law requiring stores to accept cash

jwz — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:34:35 +0000

The impetus for the rule was accessibility:

The "very poor," as well immigrant communities and the very young and old, the amendment read, "fall outside the non-cash financial system." [...]
Nationwide, those levels are decreasing, but remain significant. A survey conducted by the FDIC found that in 2023, Black and Latino households were overrepresented in the unbanked population, with 10.6 percent of Black and 9.5 percent of Latino households in the U.S. were unbanked, down from 17 and 14 percent in 2017.
Today, approximately 4 percent of San Francisco households are "unbanked," or do not have a checking or savings account, and nearly 14 percent are "underbanked" -- have bank accounts but primarily use cash or use check cashers or money orders. [...] "These residents are often the most financially vulnerable and can face higher costs and barriers in everyday transactions," Manke said.

The destruction of cash is part of the advertising panopticon agenda. Paper money doesn't have a utm_source on it so it is useless.

Let us also keep in mind that this "vocal contingent of local business owners" are the same business geniuses who are always, always certain that a bike lane will ruin them.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Periodic reminder that "good billionaire" Marc Benioff is still a massive piece of shit

jwz — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 23:34:12 +0000

In his keynote, Benioff thanked international Salesforce employees for traveling to the United States for the meeting, and asked them to stand. Benioff then said that ICE agents were in the building to keep tabs on them.

This is an example of "Silicon Valley CEOs and their inability to divorce ICE and the complete lack of understanding of why that makes them monsters," a Salesforce employee told 404 Media. "Employees are going absolutely apeshit in internal Slack about how completely awful it was." Another employee told 404 Media that Benioff "then followed it up with a joke about not understanding the message of Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance. On its own just seems out of touch, but coupled with the previous joke it does seem worse."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

March for Billionaires

jwz — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 23:30:41 +0000

AI-poisoned Y-Combinator pick-me lickspittle throws parade:

Derik Kauffman insists it's not a joke. He's actually planning to hold a March for Billionaires in San Francisco this weekend. And he says he's doing so because he's opposed to a proposed state tax on billionaires and, more simply, because he feels as if the billionaire class has been unfairly vilified. [...]
The point of the event is to "change the sentiment on this to recognize that billionaires have done a lot for us and communicate that we're glad they're here," Kauffman said. [...]
He told The Examiner he's neither a billionaire defending his own interests, nor just acting as a front for the ultrarich. Last year, Kauffman founded an artificial-intelligence startup called RunRL that took part in Y Combinator's accelerator program.
Kauffman said he's not in contact with any billionaires or getting any funding from them, nor are there any other groups involved with the event. Instead, he's footing the cost of the March for Billionaires website himself and is the principal organizer of and publicist for it, he said.

Update: "Oh no. anyway"

San Francisco’s billionaire bacchanal a big bust:

Just one percent of Americans hold nearly a third of the nation's wealth. So it was fitting that after organizers announced an apparently earnest "March for Billionaires" for this Saturday at Alta Plaza Park, only a handful of pro-billionaire agitators actually showed. [...]
The tens of billions of dollars that could be raised from this tax would fund healthcare, a journalist said. What did Kauffman think of that?
Kauffman began his rebuttal, but it was drowned out by the hubbub of a "counter protester" wearing a towering papier-mâché chef puppet costume chasing around a man in a crown. "He's coming to eat the rich!" the royal provocateur yelled. "Help me get away from the unwashed masses!" [...]
"I am a Christian," said Annie. "I swear on my God that I am completely genuine." [...] "People are just jealous that they are poorer and weaker and uglier," she said. "We are beautiful. We're smart. We're strong... We are supporting the billionaires, here."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Future of the Ferry Building

jwz — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 07:16:49 +0000

I'm pretty sure that the Vaillancourt Fountain is still there in the year 3195. It's hard to tell because some palm trees are blocking it, but that looks like the East wall to me. It's directly below the Tulip statue.
Proving that we are in the Terran Empire timeline, that means it will have lasted 1,169 years longer than it will in our universe.
Not only is the Hyatt still there, but the rotating restaurant at the top is lit up!
But back here in the Terran timeline, while it has finally been repaired, it is now a private club.
Quark's still exists, so that's a pretty nice 830+ year run, too.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Alcatraz Coyote

jwz — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:05:45 +0000

Coyote who swam to Alcatraz gets much fatter on prison island diet:

It's a 1.25-mile journey from Aquatic Park through frigid, current-swept waters to reach the tourist attraction. [...]
Aidan Moore, who works for Alcatraz City Cruises, said the coyote has been holed up near the parade grounds, where birds frequently nest. Bird carcasses have recently been found around the island, Moore said.
"He's certainly much fatter than when he arrived," said Moore. "We don't know how long he's going to be a resident here, because if he interferes with the nesting birds he might get relocated to the mainland." [...]
Kessler and a UC Berkeley researcher said the coyote likely left the mainland due to territorial pressure from the city's approximately 20 coyote family groups, each of which defends its turf against outsiders. With limited options for dispersing young coyotes -- about 30 are killed by cars in San Francisco each year -- this one apparently decided to strike out across the water.
Christopher Schell, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley who studies how carnivores adapt to urban environments, said coyotes rarely display this type of swimming endurance, but it's not unprecedented. He recalled reports of coyotes swimming up to three miles to islands from Seattle and Tacoma, Washington.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Periodic reminder that Newsom sucks

jwz — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 20:33:58 +0000

Gavin Newsom comes out swinging against California billionaire tax:

In interviews with Politico and the New York Times published on Monday, [Kimberly Guilfoyle's ex-husband] described his office's efforts to kill the proposed billionaire tax and told the Times he would "do what I have to do to protect [rich people's yacht money]". As a direct-to-voters ballot initiative, Newsom would not have the power to veto the tax if the proposal passed.
Newsom's opposition to the ballot measure -- which would levy a one-time 5% tax on any residents of the state worth more than $1bn -- comes amid an uproar from some of California's most prominent billionaires. The Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have both moved assets out of state in recent months, while the Palantir founder Peter Thiel donated $3m in December to a political action committee lobbying against the tax.
In interviews this week, Newsom cited billionaires who are shifting away from the state -- such as Page and Brin, with whom he has longstanding relationships -- as proof that his concerns about the tax deterring industry were vindicated.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Artisanal, locally-sourced poop

jwz — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 04:41:00 +0000

Mission Local has an awesome comic about a topic near to my heart, San Francisco's ridiculous sewer system.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Car Brain

jwz — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 20:20:15 +0000

There's a lot of stupid in the world, but here's some more.

For those of you not in San Francisco: we have an old freeway running right past the ocean. It is falling into the ocean, and for decades had been closed like 20% of the time as backhoes regularly had to be deployed to haul sand dunes off the freeway.

So eventually sane minds at SFMTA said, "Well this fucking sucks, let's just close it and make it a park" and the voters overwhelmingly said yes.

People love it, merchants love it.

But it turns out that there are so many car-brains in the Sunset District ("The Staten Island of SF") that they will literally burn the world to the ground if it makes them have to drive 2 blocks out of the way. Like they have recalled their supervisor over this, filed multiple specious lawsuits, and constantly vandalize the artwork in the new park. Oh, and after that recall, our car-brain millionaire Mayor Danny Bluejeans spectacularly stepped on his own dick, which was just... *chef kiss*.

Anyway,

Judge tosses lawsuit claiming Great Highway closure was illegal:

A San Francisco judge denied all arguments in a lawsuit that sought to undo Prop. K and return cars back to the coastal road. The voter-approved ballot measure to turn the Upper Great Highway into a park remains intact.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Christmas Throwback: EXERCISE VAGUE JOY

jwz — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 19:19:07 +0000

It was ten years ago today that I decorated the Christmas tree in my building's heavily-surveilled lobby. Simpler times.

Happy Surveillmas!

Previously, previously.

Eminent Domain PG&E

jwz — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:37:23 +0000

tl;dr PG&E has been a criminal enterprise operating illegally in San Francisco for well over a century. Eminent Domain PG&E.

"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."

The great PG&E debacle: A timeline 1898-1997: A deep dive into the scandalous history of the power company, including the Raker Act and Hetch Hetchy dam deal:

The more I got into the story, the more I wondered: How could this have happened? How could a private company, with the city's assent, break federal law for so long? So at one point, about 30 years ago, I flew to Washington DC and spent two weeks in the National Archives, reading and copying documents that relate to the PG&E Raker Act scandal. I carried home two big boxes full of records, and over the next few months, put together a detailed chronology of the Raker Act, the construction of the city's water and power dam at Hetch Hetchy, and the politics of how this all happened. [...]
1912: With Spring Valley's private water rates continuing to rise, and service as poor as ever, city officials press Congress to give San Francisco a radical and unprecedented federal grant: the right to construct a municipal water dam inside a national park. John Muir is furious, and rages: "Dam Hetch Hetchy? As well dam for water tanks the people's cathedrals and churches; for no holier temple has ever been consecrated to the heart of man." He has founded the Sierra Club to fight the proposal, and congressional preservationists line up against it. [...]
1925: Transmission lines are strung all the way to the South Bay, when suddenly the city announces that it has run out of money and can't do any more construction. The city's power line ends just a few hundred yards from a PG&E substation in Newark -- which conveniently connects to a new high-voltage cable PG&E has just completed from Newark to San Francisco.
On July 1, 1925, since the city lacks not only a final transmission line but the local facilities to distribute its own power, city officials agree, as another temporary measure, to sell the Hetch Hetchy electricity at wholesale rates to PG&E, which then sells it to local customers at retail. The city makes a few million dollars off the deal; PG&E makes a fortune. The remaining copper wire is stashed in a warehouse and eventually sold for scrap. Every supervisor who votes to approve the contract is thrown out of office in the next election. [...]
1935: Ickes issues a detailed opinion concluding that the city's contract with PG&E is a clear violation of the Raker Act. He urges the city to revoke the contract and move with all dispatch to establish a municipal power system. Mayor Rossi acknowledges receipt of the ruling and tells Ickes he's referring the matter to the city's Public Utilities Commission. [...]
1988: On New Year's Eve, the newly elected mayor, Art Agnos, is summoned to PG&E headquarters to meet with Dick Clarke, who tells him the facts of life: PG&E controls enough votes on the Board of Supervisors to block any effort at promoting public power. The contracts can't be changed and will never be stopped. And if Agnos doesn't want to play ball, PG&E will crush his political career. The city's budget analyst reports that the contracts are a bad deal and a violation of standard city procedures and takes the unusual step of recommending that the supervisors not approve the deal. A Guardian analysis shows that San Francisco is losing more than $150 million a year to PG&E by failing to comply with the Raker Act and establish a municipal utility. But the board votes 8-3 to go along with PG&E for another 37 and 1/2 years, and Agnos, the onetime public-power advocate who campaigned as an alternative to the pro-downtown politics of the Feinstein era, signs the contracts into law.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Four way stop versus $100 billion valuation.

jwz — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 23:40:42 +0000

It's on its back, baking in the hot sun, but you're not helping, Leon. Why is that?

Also, all the headlines say variants of "Waymo halts service during massive S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams" but what they fail to mention is that it took nearly six hours of these traffic jams before Waymo finally decided that the press they were getting was bad enough that they should do the most obvious thing in the world.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

We can't have nice fountains, part 3

jwz — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 18:30:35 +0000

This skateboarding-focused history of Embarcadero Plaza is pretty great, and includes some bits about the amazing Vaillancourt Fountain that our city is still planning to destroy.

Thrasher: This Old Ledge

▶︎

Previously, previously.

Danny Bluejeans said please

jwz — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 22:58:43 +0000

Yo, check it. 5pm today.
Peewee Herman Plaza.

Joe Eskenazi:

It's great for the people of San Francisco that the president has capriciously decided to unsend the troops he capriciously decided to send. But the real story here is, per the president's summation of his discussion with Lurie on social media, that the Commander-in-Chief is overtly stating that he is basing a domestic military deployment upon what local "friends of mine" (billionaire CEOs Jensen Huang of Nvidia and local boy [ed: Hawaii resident] Marc Benioff of Salesforce) lobbied him to do. Trump also noted that Lurie asked him "very nicely" not to establish a military beachhead in San Francisco.
All for the good. But what if Huang and Benioff had been in the mood for a military parade and called for sending in the troops? What if Lurie had been less polite? [...]
There are only so many turns of phrase you can employ: This is just a profoundly fucked-up way to lead a country. It's like dealing with King George or a warlord out of the Dark Ages.

Mission Local has been live-blogging the siege of Coast Guard Island, among other things.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Democrats' New Abundance Platform Isn't Playing Out Well in San Francisco

jwz — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 19:22:51 +0000

Dean Preston with a catalog of how Danny Bluejeans and his techbro chums really fucking suck at governing:

With a new majority on the Board of Supervisors, along with control over the Mayor's and District Attorney's Offices, the school board, and the local Democratic County Central Committee, political power in San Francisco has been consolidated in the hands of so-called "moderates" funded by and friendly to the interests of the tech and real estate industries. Put in the language of our political moment, San Francisco's halls of power are awash with Abundance. Not coincidentally, San Franciscans are suffering more than ever in just about every measurable way, and City Hall is simply ignoring their plight. [...]
San Franciscans are highly preoccupied with Trump's shocking and constant attacks on democracy, ICE raids disappearing of our neighbors, and exacerbation of the two-year-long genocide in Gaza. Mayor Lurie barely acknowledges these issues. In contrast to big city mayors like Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Lurie refuses to take a stand against ICE kidnappings and his police department won't even protect those who do. Outrageously, SFPD's stated position is that its priority is to protect ICE agents from protestors.
This is a stunning lack of leadership for a Democratic mayor in a sanctuary city widely considered to be the nation's progressive heartland, at the precise moment when American fascism begs confrontation. But even more squarely on the plate of San Francisco's current leaders is the fact that local economic conditions have rapidly deteriorated for the city's working people and poor in the short time since they came into power.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.

"The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point."

jwz — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 02:51:45 +0000

I will never forgive Marc Benioff for making me side with Ron Conway.

Mr. Conway did not come away satisfied that Mr. Benioff had reflected on the dangers posed by the Trump administration or the impact of his remarks.

"I have expressed candidly to you, repeatedly, in recent days, that I am shocked and disappointed by your comments calling for an unwanted invasion of San Francisco by federal troops," Mr. Conway wrote in the email, "and by your willful ignorance and detachment from the impacts of the ICE immigration raids of families with NO criminal record." [...]
"Your obsession with and constant annual threats to move Dreamforce to Las Vegas is ironic, since it is a fact that Las Vegas has a higher rate of violent crime than San Francisco," Mr. Conway wrote. "San Francisco does not need a federal invasion because you don't like paying for extra security for Dreamforce."

How much does Salesforce pay to SFPD? Less than you'd think:

Following an uproar, Benioff backpedaled on his call to send in the troops, saying he only wanted to aid San Francisco's understaffed police force. He also added that Salesforce paid for an additional 200 off-duty law-enforcement officers to essentially work Dreamforce security.
But how much does Salesforce pay? The amount the company spent on San Francisco officers was about $1 million in overtime costs over the past 18 months, according to invoices obtained in a public records request.
Last year, Salesforce grossed just shy of $35 billion. That $1 million outlay represents 0.02 percent of the company's net income of $4.1 billion.
The payments were made through the city's 10(b) program, in which private employers can hire off-duty officers as security. Between 2018 and 2023, Salesforce was a top-five employer of off-duty San Francisco cops, paying for 30,911 hours of overtime work. That's more than Target, Safeway or Bank of America but less than Lululemon, the Giants or the No. 1 10(b) employer, Walgreen's. [...]
But Benioff bemoaning current private security costs puzzled law-enforcement sources, who noted that Salesforce has been staffed by a host of San Francisco police officers for years. These hefty deployments, including SWAT teams, counter-sniper teams, plainclothes officers and roaming and fixed-post patrol officers, came whether the department was fully staffed or, as in the present, understaffed. [...]
Officers Mission Local spoke with rejected the notion of bringing in the National Guard -- which, by law, cannot undertake the duties of local police.
"A local cop is beholden to the rules and regulations of the city they work for," said one. He is not ordered to "'go grab Brown people' or 'go beat up hippies.'"

But his allegiance to Mr. Trump goes much further:

Screenshots of internal documents and communications obtained by The New York Times show that Salesforce has pitched Immigration and Customs Enforcement on using the company’s artificial intelligence capabilities to help ICE staff up as Mr. Trump expands immigration raids and deportations around the country.

Surely now people will stop with this "good billionaire" bullshit. There are no good billionaires. It is a mathematical impossibility. If they were good people they would not be billionaires. We're probably only 18 months away from Taylor Swift going off about "blood and soil".

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Perennial "Fuck the Blue Angels" post.

jwz — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 20:01:14 +0000

(NOTE: If you are about to "Well Actually" at me about this in some way, please be advised that I do not give the slightest shit.)

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Today in Christofascism

jwz — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 05:22:01 +0000

The meandering gospel of Peter:

Peter Thiel is worried about the antichrist. It could be the US. It could be Greta Thunberg. [...]
On the day of Thiel's final lecture in San Francisco, as the mostly young and mostly male crowd lined up to get in, a group of about 20 protesters stood out front holding anti-Palantir and anti-Ice signs that said things such as "Predatory tech", "We do not profit from people who profit from misery" and "Not today Satan".
A trio of self-described "satanists" dressed in black costumes with goth makeup walked up and down the line of attenders carrying a goblet of red liquid with a small plastic replica of a bone. "Will you bring our dark lord Peter Thiel this baby's blood?" they asked. Then they performed what they called a "dark ritual", dancing slowly in a circle to Mozart's Requiem in D minor, which ended with them writhing on the city sidewalk, and yelling: "Take us to your personal hell ... Thank you for being our dark lord." [...]
Thiel said that international financial bodies, which make it more difficult for people to shelter their wealth in tax havens, are one sign the antichrist may be amassing power and hastening Armageddon, saying: "It's become quite difficult to hide one's money."

I am constantly re-discovering that billionaires are some of the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

SOMA Nature Walk Challenge:

jwz — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:13:20 +0000

Find a single billboard that is not "AI" middleware targeting CFOs.

Difficulty level: extreme.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.

Felon 100 ➡︎

jwz — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 20:27:33 +0000

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Tortoise

jwz — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 06:57:45 +0000

It's on its back, baking in the hot sun, but you're not helping, Leon. Why is that?

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

ykvQ

jwz — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 06:10:17 +0000

Just heard a solar panel repeatedly screaming at an empty parking lot, "You are trespassing!! Please leave the area immediately!!"

It had ED-209 voice, in case you were wondering what phase of dystopia we're in.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Waymo Dance Party

jwz — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 21:51:01 +0000

▶︎

The murderbots need not love us, so long as they fear us.

At one point, three Waymos were all stalled, seemingly confused:

Selika Josiah Talbott, a transportation mobility policy expert and former federal advisor with decades of leadership shaping autonomous vehicle regulation, finds this sort of behavior shocking and horrifying.
"One of the things that is happening is here is we're teaching artificial intelligence that people are dangerous. We're teaching artificial intelligence that people are harmful, and that's not what we want," said Talbott.

What you mean "we"?

"There was an officer that appeared and eventually sort of shooed everyone to the side so that the vehicle to begin to move," Talbott described. "Even the vehicle's hesitancy as it began to operate again was because of the intrusiveness of humans." [...]
"We need law enforcement to deal with the bad actors who are trying to, whether it's playing games or seriously trying to harm the technology."

Oh no, are they trying to "harm the technology"? Is that related to "criminal contempt of business model"?

Poor widdle wobot, it was feeling "hesitant!" These fratboys might have hurt its widdle wobot uwu twillion-dollar-market-cap feewings.

Humans: an intrusive species in the robot ecosystem. What are we doing on their roads anyway?

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Don't Let His Based Tweets Make You Forget That Pick-Me Presidential Hopeful Gavin Newsom Actually Sucks

jwz — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 01:32:55 +0000

Newsom can successfully ape the worst politicians in America because he's not so different from them.

Newsom is at his most cartoon-evil-villain when it comes to the rights and dignity of the most at-risk Americans. In March, he had notorious rightwinger Charlie Kirk on his podcast in order to throw trans teenagers under the bus, and earlier this summer, he repeated worries about trans teen athletes stealing "opportunities" from cis teen athletes -- on, you guessed it, another podcast. (As an aside, you should not have time to have your own fucking podcast if you're the governor of the fourth-largest economy in the world.)
But Newsom's favorite vulnerable demographic to stick it to is the homeless. Since the Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that jurisdictions can criminalize sleeping outside, he's doubled down on efforts to clear homeless encampments across the state, bragging that 16,000 such communities have been demolished -- and gleefully participated in destroying some himself. He's been personally involved in eliminating such encampments for years (see the above photo, which is from 2021), including Oakland's Wood Street camp in 2022. [...]
Newsom's success as a politician thus far (and I mean that in the most derogatory way possible) is due to his adoption of whichever policies or perspectives will get him attention and, in his calculus, win him support -- that's what he's doing with the Trump-y tweets, and with the gerrymandered congressional district map he approved yesterday. Both moves illustrate what is appealing about Newsom to broad swathes of the Democratic base: a sociopath opportunist on their side willing to take on the sociopath opportunist in the White House. And while I famously agree that the Democratic Party needs leadership that is willing to challenge Trump's brownshirt administration, I'm not sure we need it from someone who hates queer and/or poor people as much as Trump and his friends.

Previously, previously, previously.

Danny Bluejeans loves cars

jwz — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 21:38:44 +0000

In yet another betrayal of the city's Vision Zero and Transit First commitments, Mayor Lurie clears Waymo, Lyft, Uber to turn Market Street back into a traffic sewer:

"The mayor's escalation of his plan to add even more cars to Market Street while cutting Muni service will hurt public transit riders and downtown recovery alike," said Dylan Fabris, community and policy manager at San Francisco Transit Riders. "If the mayor wants to be taken seriously on his commitment to help Muni's -- and San Francisco's -- recovery, he should be looking for ways to get cars out of the way of transit rather than inviting luxury chauffeurs into the heart of our city's transit network." [...]
"Bringing cars back to Market Street won't solve downtown's problems, but it will make Muni slower for transit riders and the street less safe for everyone who walks and bikes," said Robin Pam, executive director of Streets For All San Francisco. "Market Street could be San Francisco's grand boulevard again, but to get there we have to look to the future for solutions, not the past."
"Over the years, there have been so many cyclist injuries and fatalities due to people driving carelessly on Market Street. The mayor likely has no knowledge of the lives lost over the decades and why Market Street became car-free in the first place," said Paul Valdez, main organizer of Ride of Silence San Francisco. "Any future cyclist injuries or deaths will be on his hands."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

We can't have nice fountains, part 2

jwz — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 20:59:20 +0000

San Francisco parks officials have requested the removal of the massive Vaillancourt Fountain from Embarcadero Plaza:

If the commission votes to deaccession it, the sculpture will no longer be part of San Francisco's Civic Art Collection, in which case it would either be destroyed or offered back to the artist who created it, Armand Vaillancourt, or even a private collector. Either party would have to cover the cost of its removal. [...]
Initial renderings did not include the fountain, prompting an outcry from preservationists who want the sculpture, opened in 1972, to remain. Those concerns even brought a visit from Vaillancourt, now 95, from his home in Canada to San Francisco in May to argue for its restoration and preservation.
"This survived a 7.1 earthquake with no damage, not a scratch, but they never took care of it," he told the Chronicle during the June visit. "There's nothing wrong with it except the dirt." [...]
At a community outreach meeting in July, Project Manager Eoanna Goodwin told the audience that it was impractical to keep the fountain, a statement that moved the artist's daughter, Oceania Vaillancourt, who lives in San Francisco, to tears.
The letter sent Monday was the written follow-up to that determination. "The current location, scale, and orientation of the fountain fragment the plaza, hinder sightlines, and constrain circulation and event programming," read the letter. "The scale of the fountain is incompatible with the open lawn and gathering spaces envisioned in the new design."

The new design, pictured to the right is... a bunch of food trucks.

How novel.

Previously, previously, previously.