This is a paid ad from SCMP on Facebook. The article it links to is just a news story. But it's interesting SCMP is paying money to boost this particular story. Maybe they just think it's good clickbait? I dunno.
John dEFR0G has never had 1 million likes
@defrog.bsky.social
I have nothing to skeet, and I am skeeting it. Sarcasm, dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes, satire, rubber ducks, sensible shoes, chocopies -- if we don't got it, you don't want it.
It's me, only nobody thinks it's cute when I do this.
I'm not anti-AI in the strictest sense (depends on the use case and ethics, etc), but yes, in fact, I could get through my workday just fine, thx. (FULL DISCLOSURE: The only AI/ML-based tool I use is voice-to-text transcription software. It's a godsend, but I could absolutely survive without it.)
Charlie Stross@cstross.bsky.social · 7h agoMy answer is LOL ROFL (dickbrain) The terminally AI-pilled can't even *imagine* some people have *never* asked stochastic parrots to cheat at their job for them.
Magistrate Pang Leung-ting said it was “quite obvious” that the Immigration Department was staging a “show” after the arrested women were told to line up for several photos and videos.
Hong Kong Free Press HKFP@hongkongfp.com · 5h ago2 domestic workers acquitted of illegal dentistry as Hong Kong authorities accused of staging a ‘show’ during arrests 🔗 hongkongfp.com/2026/08/05/2...
Open letter to the SCMP from a bereaved daughter: linkedin.com/posts/sofia-... SCMP suicide guidelines: scmp.com/policies-and... HKJA guidelines: hkja.org.hk/en/hkja-guid...
Everything about this (apart from the anti-Semitism) is hilarious in a grim-meathook kind of way.
Tom Grundy@tomgrundy.hongkongfp.com · 12h agoYes, those foreigners on Chinese state TV are paid a fortune: toosimple.substack.com/p/24yo-ameri... 900,000 RMB (US$133,000)
Brown University has a widget that tracks the cost of the Iran war to American consumers (as contrasted to whatever the Pentagon is spending). Per-household cost now exceeds $600. iranwarcost.watson.brown.edu
New: Police are being told to hide the fact that they're using Flock to pull people over and arrest them in both encounters with citizens but ALSO in their official police reports: www.404media.co/do-not-menti...
‘DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE’: How Cops Are Trying to Hide Their Use of Flock
“DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE TO THE OCCUPANTS OF THE VEHICLE. DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE IN YOUR REPORT OR COMPLAINT."
404media.co
Bombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, BofA Enabled Epstein, Wyden Report Says
Democrat Ron Wyden cited nonpublic documents held by the US Treasury in a report that says banks delayed reporting suspicious financial transactions and calls for tougher anti-money-laundering rules, ...
bloomberg.com
BREAKING: EXCLUSIVE: Five months ago, we learned that ICE seized drawings and letters from children in the Dilley ICE concentration camp. I sued under the Freedom of Information Act. Today, I got responsive documents. www.muellershewrote.com/p/breaking-e...
BREAKING: EXCLUSIVE: ICE Seized Drawings from Children in Detention. I Sued, and Today I Got Them.
Five months ago, I filed a Freedom of Information Act Request for papers seized from children at the Dilley ICE Detention Center. Today, I got a heartbreaking response.
muellershewrote.com
Monty Python | Spanish Inquisition 2
YouTube video by LIST Analysis
youtu.be
Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · yesterdayTrump has made big threats and given Iran a one-last-chance at least 8 times now, backing off without getting anything every time. "A whole civilization will die tonight" was April 7! He has claimed Iran is making concessions, desperate for a deal, and a deal is imminent too many times to count.
Not a word about verifying the gender of boys... this is little girl specific. Child sexual abuse on a state level 'Surefire method' for destroying girls' sports seen in bill targeting kindergartners www.rawstory.com/project-2025...
'Surefire method' for destroying girls' sports seen in bill targeting kindergartners
A Washington State ballot measure that would require girls from kindergarten through high school to undergo sex-verification testing before taking part in sports provoked nationwide outrage.IL26-638 w...
rawstory.com
The great thing about patriotism is that there's no problem that can't be solved by siccing the cops on ppl. Especially when you don't understand how anything works.
RazvenHK@razvenhk.bsky.social · 2d agoHong Kong pro-China columnist Chris Wat Wing-yin, in what seems to be a push for broader acceptance of mobile payments such as AliPay and WeChat Pay said that the "only" reason why some businesses are cash only is tax evasion and the authorities should investigate such businesses
I'm sure it's a coincidence that Jardine Matheson is doing this a week after The Standard published a lengthy "news" story claiming Western scholarships and exchange programmes were covert ops to recruit Hong Kong students and transform them into anti-China agents. bsky.app/profile/kjou...
Joel Chan@kjoules.org · yesterdayHong Kong’s Jardine Matheson announced that it will terminate undergraduate scholarship programme for Oxford and Cambridge starting next year, after 44 years. • Jardine Foundation, the company’s education trust, said it will increase focus on the Asian market www.scmp.com/news/hong-ko...
Even if involved in narcotrafficking, this would be illegal. Due process.
CNN@cnn.com · 2d agoThe US military’s strikes on alleged drug boats have likely illegally killed “individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” Sen. Tim Kaine told the White House, following “a careful review” of classified information he has seen so far.
“In recent months, ICE has deployed a round-the-clock digital dragnet to scour the public internet—from Facebook to Instagram to X—for speech that could endanger the agency’s mission.” Speech. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against its Critics
Agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.
wsj.com
Malaysia has for many years hosted refugees from Myanmar who have fled oppression and atrocities by the Myanmar military. But the Malaysian government recently announced the planned return of 5,000 Rohingya to Myanmar, where they face persecution and violence. New from HRW: https://bit.ly/3TAwpBR
Olaniyi Omotayo, Nigerian (1995- ), Empowered Unity 4, 2025, oil and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 in, private collection
Gift link -- no paywall. Stunning reporting here. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...
Inside the Secretive Boards Deciding Trans Troops’ Fate (Gift Article)
The Pentagon is relying on closed-door hearings to kick out transgender service members. An Army Reserve lawyer is one of the few who have seen how they really work.
nytimes.com
Small Town’s Make-Out Point Purchased By Multinational Make-Out Conglomerate https://theonion.com/small-towns-make-out-point-purchased-by-multinational-make-out-conglomerate/
I don't really have an objection to the CEO saying Bluesky is open to all; it's kind of his job to do that. But as others have pointed out, the design of the site means it's harder for trolls/bots/chuds *and also* influencers/hypebeasts to get traction. The "bubble" here is actually normal humans.
At this rate, I'm thinking that if this goes on long enough, Trump might actually just say "screw it" and give the order to nuke Tehran. In which case we can only hope someone in that chain of command has the courage to refuse.
Exclusive: US military asks troops for ‘creative and unconventional’ ideas to punish Iran | CNN Politics
The request from a senior officer at the US military command carrying out President Donald Trump’s war with Iran came in an email: We need ideas.
edition.cnn.com
So under this Supreme Court's treatment of U.S. law and presidential power, Joe Biden couldn't forgove my student loans, but perhaps Donald Trump can forgive his own tax debt. Wild.
Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 2d agoFLAG: Trump gets to keep tax immunity for himself, his sons, and the Trump Organization under the new 'deal' struck by Todd Blanche. The new order also reaffirms that Trump won't have to pay any taxes he might have owed the IRS.
my neighborhood 7-11 closed a couple years ago and tried to reopen but couldn’t get the permit approved because there’s a preschool next door and 7-11s sell alcohol (the previous permit was grandfathered in). i saw a fence going up around the lot recently and looked up what was moving in: a gun shop
There is no version of yourself you could become that would satisfy the people who hate you. So you might as well be who you are.
"The article suggests three reasons for the crackdown: to eradicate spaces where a ‘collective memory’ of 2019 might survive; to display ‘hard power’ against resistance; and to please Beijing…" I think all three are probably correct. 1/2
HK Hemlock@hkbiglychee.bsky.social · 3d agoThe Economist on ‘NatSec theatre’ and invisible red lines The Economist tries to explain Hong Kong’s obsession with shutting down small bookstores… Evidently the officers in charge of the raid...
Coffee with Peter O'Toole ☕️ Taken during a rehearsal of "Baal" by Bertolt Brecht 📷 Michael Peto, Phoenix Theatre, London, 1963
Water is often a scarce commodity in Nairobi's largest slum. The only source may be a local cartel — and with that comes the risk of sexual threats and attacks.
Some women who can't afford water are often pressured to provide sex for it
Water is often a scarce commodity in Nairobi's largest slum. The only source may be a local cartel — and with that comes the risk of sexual threats and attacks.
n.pr