Latest / Stuff Keeps Happening / Simply Outlaw Poverty

Transcript

Simply Outlaw Poverty · Stuff Keeps Happening

0:00
Hello. I bought an iced tea for 99 cents. But
0:05
stuff still happened. So what's up? Scheduling.
0:09
I'm taking a short break. I'm going to be off
0:11
for two weeks after this episode. I'll be back
0:13
August 18th. August 18th. Anyway, before we just
0:17
jump into it, we're doing good today, right?
0:18
We're all feeling good today. We're feeling good.
0:20
Are you feeling good? Are you feeling good? I
0:22
said, are you feeling good? We are feeling good.
0:25
Hold on to that. State side. We did it. We outlawed
0:29
poverty and mental health issues and homelessness.
0:33
It's we fixed it So the United States is very
0:35
well understood to be a deeply Christian nation.
0:38
That's what we are. We are fundamentally religious
0:40
That's not true. Oh, but our politicians are
0:43
like that and being the Christians that they
0:46
are They love to criminalize the poor now aside.
0:49
I know that Christian values are not that the
0:52
joke is that they're not doing You get me. So
0:55
what am I talking about? Well, the president
0:56
has issued another executive order, this one
0:59
titled, Ending Crime and Disorder on American
1:02
Streets. All that crime, all that disorder from
1:06
people existing, people existing in a state that
1:08
I don't want to see. Disorder! Essentially, this
1:12
is an executive order that clamps down hard on
1:14
homelessness and drug use in public and sobriety
1:18
programs and housing assistance programs. It
1:20
basically pulls back on any kind of homeless
1:22
assistance. It prioritizes funding to states
1:25
and cities that are going to eradicate homeless
1:27
encampments. It pulls money away from housing
1:30
first programs, which are programs that take
1:32
people who don't have a home, and gives them
1:34
a home so that they can contribute. to society.
1:38
Instead of doing that, and we'll get to that
1:40
in a bit, but instead of doing that, it clamps
1:42
down more on requirements for sobriety before
1:45
you can get any kind of aid, and otherwise, institutionalize
1:49
people. It's all about finding and institutionalizing.
1:53
By force. In fact, it goes as far as to give
1:55
housing and urban development a directive to
1:58
turn over health information from people who
2:00
are homeless. to the cops. Here is a quote from
2:03
the executive order, quote, Surrendering our
2:16
cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither
2:20
compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens.
2:23
My administration will take a new approach focused
2:26
on protecting public safety. Couple things. One,
2:29
not a new approach. You're trying to put homeless
2:31
people in jail. That's what every Republican
2:34
does and most Democrats. Second, housing first
2:37
programs are overwhelmingly successful. We're
2:40
talking about it now. It's been a bit. people
2:42
with no ability to think deeper on literally
2:44
anything will hear housing first programs and
2:46
get all butt mad because they're like well why
2:48
are the homeless people getting a free house
2:51
i have to pay my my mortgage my mort gauge because
2:55
the general way this is all phrased is give homes
2:58
to the homeless which yes do that but that's
3:00
not even what housing first programs are they
3:03
still have requirements to actually get the house
3:05
they're still a waiting period sometimes it's
3:07
immediate but it's also a housing first Program
3:12
there are further steps. The idea is that you
3:14
can't fix a broken dam by just plugging a single
3:17
crack You got to take the water out and put it
3:20
behind a new dam Wait, all right awful metaphor
3:25
trying again. Okay different metaphor you work
3:28
at the getting your bones broken factory And
3:31
your bones are always broken. Every day you go
3:33
home and every bone in your body is broken. And
3:35
this makes your life really difficult. So there's
3:38
an idea that, hey, maybe if we get you in a job
3:41
that... isn't at the breaking all of your bones
3:43
factory, then you'll be able to heal your bones
3:46
and move on to do something different that's
3:49
gonna benefit you and the people around you.
3:51
But like, it's really difficult to start that
3:53
when you've got only broken bones and nowhere
3:56
to go because you've got too many broken bones.
3:59
This is not much better of a metaphor, but it's
4:01
the best I could do. How about this metaphor?
4:03
Help the homeless. That's not a metaphor. I want
4:06
to talk about Baltimore. I want to talk about
4:08
Baltimore because this executive order is just
4:10
going to do harm to people. It just does the
4:12
thing that we know doesn't work, which is criminalize
4:15
being poor. But over in Baltimore, which is a
4:17
city that has a somewhat international reputation
4:20
for being dangerous or having a lot of homicide,
4:23
they've just been enacting social programs since
4:25
2022 that has dropped their homicide rate. To
4:29
record lows, Mayor Brandon Scott has been investing
4:32
in after -school programs and social programs
4:35
and housing programs and rehabilitation programs
4:37
and recreational programs, and it has plummeted
4:40
their violent crime rates. Even the cops, the
4:43
Baltimore Police Department, are like, this is,
4:45
um... This is actually, this is going pretty
4:47
good. In addition, the investments for all this
4:49
was just in the millions of dollars, not multiples
4:52
of billions or trillions. And the Johns Hopkins
4:54
Institute of Public Health estimates that for
4:56
every dollar going into these programs, the city
4:58
is getting back somewhere between $7 and $19.
5:01
If there was a box where I could put a dollar
5:03
in and get $7 to $19 out, I would like to put
5:07
dollars in that. But I'll settle for putting
5:09
dollars elsewhere. It's time for our weekly Epstein
5:12
update! It's a new recurring segment of horror
5:16
on today's EpState. We've got a handful of bullet
5:20
points. Let's see. We got a Gallup poll that
5:22
shows that Trump is not doing very well among
5:25
anyone, but especially independents with how
5:27
he's handling this whole situation. I mean, Democrats
5:29
too, but independents is where the swing happens.
5:31
He's down to a 37 % approval rating, which is
5:34
low. I should note that the Democrats are lower.
5:37
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson called for
5:39
an early recess because he didn't want to have
5:41
to do a vote. on releasing the Epstein files.
5:44
Democrats were pushing for a vote on basically
5:46
that to happen, and instead of doing that, he
5:48
went to an early recess. But meanwhile, a subcommittee
5:52
of the House Oversight Committee has voted to
5:54
subpoena the Department of Justice over the Epstein
5:57
files. As all this is going on, Trump maintains
5:59
his innocence. We had that South Park episode
6:01
about the Epstein file stuff. And now he's in
6:04
Scotland, visiting his own golf course in Scotland.
6:08
With our taxes, but hey a lot of congresspeople
6:11
are about to go back to their home districts
6:12
and hopefully We'll be getting another round
6:14
of wonderful clips from town halls make them
6:17
feel it elsewhere for this section I'm just gonna
6:19
talk about Gaza that situation that's going on
6:21
there right now I know I've talked about this
6:23
basically every week for over a year, but it's
6:28
It continues to escalate For months now, Israeli
6:31
soldiers with the aid of private US contractors
6:34
and of course US munitions have been unloading
6:37
indiscriminately on hungry Palestinians seeking
6:40
food at designated aid sites. They continuously
6:42
cite chaos and claim that Hamas is doing something
6:46
that merits unloading tank rounds on civilians.
6:50
But the reality is, famine is setting in in Gaza.
6:54
There's already widespread starvation, children
6:56
dying of hunger. And all of this is done because
6:59
Israel is intentionally starving them. Now Israel
7:02
has started doing a quote temporary strategic
7:06
pause or whatever where they're gonna bring in
7:08
aid trucks and they're gonna claim that they're
7:10
gonna allow humanitarian aid in but that's just
7:13
We know that that's not gonna matter. We know
7:15
that there's not gonna be enough aid that's gonna
7:17
get there And we know that it's absolute chaos
7:20
already. Slightly reducing the amount that you
7:23
are assaulting them is not gonna change anything.
7:25
But as reporters in Gaza are literally documenting
7:28
their own starvation, the world is starting to
7:31
take a little bit more note as to what's exactly
7:33
going on there. And it's not enough, it's never
7:36
gonna be enough. I'm talking about, like, France
7:38
is going to recognize Palestine at the UN. That's
7:42
not enough, but it's... Something. It'll never
7:45
be enough unless everyone that's been involved
7:47
in the ongoing support of this genocide are brought
7:50
to justice. And I mean everyone. Our politicians
7:53
continue to gleefully endorse the brutal annihilation
7:56
of an entire population of people in what is
7:59
supposed to be one of the most sacred areas to
8:02
the religion that's supposed to be the dominant
8:05
religion in this country. But what we can do
8:07
right now is ensure that the suffering of the
8:10
people in Gaza does not fall silent outside their
8:13
borders. Remain loud on their behalf. Never let
8:17
the politicians live any of this down. And make
8:20
sure that people in your life know what's happening.
8:22
These are our tax dollars. Funding a Holocaust.
8:26
Free Palestine. No child should be dying of starvation
8:29
mere miles from opulence. But hey, let's move
8:33
on. Because, and this is very important, We still
8:36
have to. Let's talk about that tea app. Bring
8:38
the vibes back up. It's not a good vibe story,
8:41
but we're gonna bring the vibes back up regardless.
8:43
You may have heard about this app over the past
8:44
week. This app... It actually came out in 2023,
8:48
but it exploded in popularity over the past week
8:50
or so. The concept is basically, what if women
8:53
had a place where they can privately discuss
8:56
dangerous men in the dating scene in their area?
8:58
Like, okay, I get it, makes sense. It got hacked.
9:02
So men got big mad about this app. And by men,
9:04
I mean like wee little babies. Wee little babies
9:07
with wee little baby hearts and who can't control
9:11
their emotions. They were like, ow, women have
9:13
a place to talk about me behind my back. Why
9:16
is that concerning to you? Anyway, it pissed
9:18
off a bunch of dudes on the internet and dudes
9:20
on the internet pissed off at women do dumb things
9:22
and so they found a bunch of images that this
9:25
app had been storing in an unsecured place on
9:28
the internet. These are images of content from
9:30
the app, user profiles, user selfies, in some
9:33
cases identification, and they were storing that
9:36
in an unsecure location. I say hack, people have
9:39
been saying hack, headlines have been saying
9:41
hack, it wasn't really a hack, it was just this
9:43
app was made by people who had no business making
9:45
an app. I've seen reports that the app was, quote,
9:48
vibe -coded, but I was not able to independently
9:50
verify that myself. Vibe coding is essentially
9:53
letting an AI take the reins and letting it drive
9:56
an app development process. You know, instead
9:58
of following best practice, you're just following
10:00
the vibes, which is not a good way to make a
10:02
secure app. especially a secure app that requires
10:05
people to upload identification and market it
10:08
as private. Somewhere along the lines, they had
10:11
data that found its way into essentially a public
10:14
file server. And they forgot about it. And they
10:16
were like, um, yeah, oh, that data was originally
10:18
secure. Like that was their response. So look,
10:22
this is not me victim blaming, but I do want
10:24
to equip anybody who might feel hurt by this
10:27
with some general tools to help prevent this
10:29
from happening in the future. While I understand
10:31
the desire to have a place that feels like a
10:33
safe space to be able to help each other out,
10:36
totally, don't give your personal information
10:39
to relatively new apps. Period. If an app requires
10:44
identification, like photos of your government
10:46
IDs, and it's not a bank, make absolutely sure
10:50
you trust them. Like genuinely go and read their
10:52
privacy policy, if you can. If you read words
10:54
that make you scared, even if you don't understand
10:56
them, you probably should second -guess it. Especially,
10:59
again, if it says that it's supposed to be private
11:01
and secure. Really, just stay frosty. And I think
11:04
this is an okay idea, like the concept of the
11:07
app, it makes sense, but that's what, like...
11:10
group chats are for. Because the issue here is
11:12
a bunch of people trusted a single point of failure
11:14
and that single point of failure failed. And
11:17
in doing so, it just shared a whole bunch of
11:20
information about women who are specifically
11:22
trying to avoid dangerous men. So, stay frosty.
11:26
RuneScape players, rejoice! We've figured out
11:29
how to spam high alchemy in real life. What?
11:32
What, you think I didn't know about Falador?
11:34
What? You thought I wasn't in with the Lumbee?
11:37
Anyway, disclaimer. I'm about to talk about a
11:40
thing that is not peer -reviewed science. This
11:42
story is about a pre -published paper. It has
11:44
not been peer -reviewed. It is simply being looked
11:46
at by various people who find it interesting.
11:49
Let's get hyped about it anyway, because it's
11:50
kind of cool. Alchemy, like the actual like alchemy
11:53
like turning like lead to gold or really like
11:55
metal to go - something to gold. You know, getting
11:58
all Midas with it. It's a thing that humans have
12:00
been trying to do for basically ever. It's like
12:03
the Holy Grail, which is gold. There you go.
12:07
But a nuclear fusion research company in San
12:09
Francisco has published a paper from authors
12:11
that actually have some scientific background
12:14
about a potential process to do alchemy using
12:17
nuclear fusion. Now, asterisks. One, we don't
12:21
have nuclear fusion energy. We don't have that.
12:24
Seeing as that's a prerequisite for this proposal
12:27
for how to do alchemy. It's a bit of a roadblock.
12:30
It's still very theoretical and pretty abstract,
12:32
but from what I understand, scientists are kind
12:34
of vibing with it. They're excited about the
12:36
idea. I did learn one other thing, re -alchemy
12:39
and science. Turns out that researchers at CERN,
12:42
the very large... Hadron Collider, they also
12:47
saw alchemy happen. For a tiny fraction of a
12:49
second, particles in the particle accelerator
12:51
fucked with their protons and switched their
12:53
elements, which is rad. Temporary elemental shift.
12:57
Damn. So I guess we've kind of already done alchemy,
12:59
but I can't hold a bar of gold, so what's the
13:02
point? Oh, also this proposal would make radioactive
13:05
gold, to be clear. It would apparently have to
13:08
be safely stored for 13 years before humans could
13:10
actually use the gold, so... Gaming! Last week
13:14
Ozzy Osbourne died, and following that, exactly
13:16
nobody of any cultural significance died. Only
13:19
Ozzy Osbourne. And so publisher Double Fine,
13:22
the producers of the 2009 game Brutal Legend,
13:26
made their game free. for 666 minutes. Brutal
13:30
Legend is a fever dream of a game that stars
13:32
Jack Black and it features Ozzy Osbourne and
13:35
it's a lot. Oh, hey, I am a liar. I'm a swindler.
13:40
I'm a downright bibber. My pants are on fire.
13:43
One of me only tells the truth and also I only
13:46
lie. I've been made a liar because the developers
13:48
of Hades 2 are doing another patch before it
13:52
goes. to 1 .0. It was like two weeks ago that
13:55
I reported that there's not gonna be another
13:57
patch, that the next release of Hades 2 would
14:00
be 1 .0 and I would be happy, but they were like,
14:03
psych, we're doing one more. All right, last
14:06
thing for gaming, you probably knew this one
14:07
was coming. Gaming is entering its prude era,
14:10
or it's always been there, and it's just getting
14:12
worse again. So recently, gaming platforms Steam
14:15
and Itch both pulled a bunch of adult -themed
14:19
games from their catalog. They took out a bunch
14:21
of porn games, basically, and they cited that
14:23
payment processors were pressuring them to not
14:26
list adult games and stop selling adult games
14:29
using those payment processors. So both Steam
14:31
and Itch were like, ah, you know, the payment
14:33
processors are telling us that we can't do this
14:35
thing, so we have to take the games down. So
14:38
Steam and Itch are pointing to like Visa and
14:40
MasterCard as the reason that this is happening,
14:42
right? There's other stuff going on like, you
14:44
know, Stripe, a very popular payment processor
14:46
that I believe Itch uses. If you've never heard
14:48
of Stripe, they just do payment processing. But
14:51
they are essentially just a company that sits
14:53
in front of other banking networks and makes
14:55
it easier to use banking networks. So Stripe
14:58
will usually get a lot of flak for taking down
15:00
a business that doesn't conform to their relatively
15:02
restricted policies, like you can't sell porn.
15:05
But... comma disclosure comma as a indie game
15:08
developer and prior employee of stripe i actually
15:12
am aware that they are beholden to the banks
15:14
i don't like it either but they are beholden
15:17
to the bank now don't get me wrong There are
15:19
plenty of reasons to criticize a company like
15:21
Stripe. There is a massive industry of just payment
15:25
processor middlemen who just each take a little
15:27
bit of money off of each transaction and add
15:30
basically no value to anything. It's very parasitic
15:33
and we should just have a standard system for
15:35
transferring money for free. That is a thing
15:37
that some countries actually have, but the states
15:39
just does not. At least not at scale. But the
15:43
actual people setting this policy are The banking
15:46
partners. So your Wells Fargo, your Visa, MasterCard,
15:49
even PayPal. PayPal is technically a bank. And
15:52
so what happened is like an anti -porn think
15:54
tank wrote an open letter to all of these payment
15:57
processor companies and they were like, ah, these
15:59
game platforms are selling bad stuff on there.
16:03
And it's not good. The group is called Collective
16:06
Shout and they talk about being against the pornification.
16:10
It's okay to be sexual. That's what humans are.
16:13
So this group writes a whole open letter to the
16:15
heads of a bunch of these payment platforms and
16:17
then just days later, foop, no more porn games.
16:21
If you want to make an impact here, I've linked
16:22
to the open letter in my newsletter and it lists
16:25
out the heads of all the companies they actually
16:28
reached out to. You can call those companies
16:30
and lodge a complaint. Be good to the call center
16:33
people though, they're not the ones setting the
16:35
policy. Lightning round. Paramount is finally
16:37
buying Skydance Media after the FCC approved
16:40
the merger after... Paramount capitulated to
16:42
Trump. Very fun. AI Startup Humanly is offering
16:46
an AI -generated video interview system. So you
16:49
apply for a job, and instead of just not hearing
16:52
back, you waste your time talking to an AI. In
16:55
the US, FEMA, our disaster relief organization,
16:59
is now going to be offering a fund to states
17:01
to build concentration camps. Apple released
17:03
betas for the new updates to their operating
17:05
systems across all their devices, and it makes
17:07
everything all glassy. It's weird. It's fine.
17:11
Some interesting new research showed that developers
17:14
who were using AI -assistive tooling thought
17:16
that they were 20 % more productive, but actually
17:19
learned that they were 19 % less productive.
17:21
And finally, for today, a 150 -year -old company
17:24
in the UK was brought to its knees and destroyed
17:27
from a single employee's weak password. That
17:30
is how a ransomware company got in, destroyed
17:33
their systems, and ended the company. the person
17:36
whose password it was has not been informed because
17:39
they were like, who wants to be carrying that
17:42
weight? Thank you so much for listening to today's
17:44
episode of Stuff Keeps Happening. Head to skh
17:46
.news for sources, bonus content, and your very
17:50
own AI interviewer. My name is Endeavorance.
17:53
We'll talk again soon. Take care and be well.