Brian Hofer

Your Body Is Betraying Your Right to Privacy | WIRED “Your Data Will Be Used Against You” in Wired! wired.com/story/book-exc…

SF is a "sanctuary city"? So claims Mayor Daniel Lurie. But when SFPD officers are shielding ICE agents as they violently detain a mother in front of her crying child at SFO, what does "sanctuary" really mean? My op-ed for Gazetteer (gift link): sf.gazetteer.co/commentary-san…

Cuba is experiencing nationwide blackouts, and clinicians have requested N95s. I will donate a dollar for every RT this gets in the next hour. MAKE ME PAY. James is organizing a fundraiser. Venmo: James-Ray-24

Ms. Rachel is fighting to close an ICE facility in Texas that's detaining children. She wants to "make sure that kids and their parents are back in their communities where they belong." "I am political. It’s political to believe that children are worthy of love and care, and that every child is equal, and that our care shouldn’t stop at what we look like, our family, at our religion, at a border," she told NBC News. Ms. Rachel recently had a video call with nine-year-old Deiver Henao Jimenez, who is detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas. The boy told her he "wants to leave and go to the spelling bee." "It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who’s in jail. It broke me, and it was something I never thought I’d encounter in life," she told the news outlet. "We’re trying to get a child out of a jail to do a spelling bee. I just never thought those words would go together." variety.com/2026/tv/news/m…

Has the person who shot Alex Pretti in the back while he was facedown in the street been arrested yet.

Pope Leo, the first pope from the US—a country which does not have universal health coverage—calls universal healthcare a 'moral imperative' at a conference with WHO and European bishops this week: “Health cannot be a luxury for the few.”

A federal court upheld Norfolk’s automated license plate reader program, ruling it isn’t a Fourth Amendment “search” because it doesn’t track drivers continuously. Critics warn the logic could allow governments to collect and store large-scale location data about ordinary people without warrants. | Pegah K. Parsi

This is wild. 143 million people thought they were catching Pokémon. They were actually building one of the largest real-world visual datasets in AI history. Niantic just disclosed that photos and AR scans collected through Pokémon Go have produced a dataset of over 30 billion real-world images. The company is now using that data to power visual navigation AI for delivery robots. Players didn't just walk around with their phones. They scanned landmarks, storefronts, parks, and sidewalks from every angle, at every time of day, in lighting and weather conditions that staged photography would never capture. They documented the physical world at a scale no mapping company with a fleet of vehicles could have replicated on the same timeline or budget. Niantic collected this systematically, data point by data point, across eight years, while users thought the only thing at stake was catching a rare Charizard. The most valuable AI training datasets in the world aren't being assembled in data centers. They're being built by people who have no idea they're building them.

🚨 Police stormed a grandmother’s home at gunpoint after facial recognition software said she committed a crime. There was just one problem... Angela Lipps was 1,200 miles away in Tennessee when it happened. Bank records proved it. Still, she spent over five months in jail before investigators admitted the algorithm was wrong. By the time she got out, her life was shattered - her home gone, her job gone, even her pets. No amount of money can ever give someone back what they lose when the system gets it wrong. 👇

4 active class actions against Flock. 4 active lawsuits against CA entities pertaining to their use of Flock. Berkeley, Richmond, Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco: we should double down and give Flock a lot more $ since they're losing contracts (at least 42).

We are creating our own dystopia: “In a dozen instances, misreads by Flock's automated license plate readers […] resulted in people who hadn't committed crimes being stopped at gunpoint, sent to jail, or mauled by a police dog, among other outcomes.”

Dropsite News has consistently reported the truth about Israel and Gaza. Well deserved. If you are not following them, you should be. x.com/DropSiteNews/s…

THREAD: We just released a tool that allows you to search billions of dollars in wealth, ties to the most powerful companies in the country, and details of the personal finances of President Trump and over 1,500 of his appointees. Here’s how it works 1/

Wired is doing an amazing job, telling the real story of Silicon Valley's authoritarian turn. They are unmasking these fake libertarians—I mean, *government contractors*—for exactly what they are. They are doing exactly what a free press should do: holding power to account.

Help us defend your right to privacy, join us here: secure-justice.org/donate

Friendly reminder: It took South Koreans 6 hours to stop an insurrection attempt, 10 days to impeach, and 3 weeks to arrest their President. He was sentenced to life in prison a week ago.

My reporting at the @sfstandard is cited in a new class-action lawsuit over alleged privacy violations by Flock Safety, the maker of license plate surveillance tech that has become ubiquitous in California cities. classlawgroup.com/flock-safety-l…

Let's talk about what's actually happening in America right now. This isn't opinion. This is documented, sourced fact. SEIZING ELECTIONS A 17-page draft executive order is circulating among Trump allies to declare a national emergency over elections. It would ban mail-in voting, mandate hand-counted ballots, and give DHS access to voter databases. They tried this in March 2025 — a federal judge blocked it. They're trying again. Conservative Judge J. Michael Luttig: "Donald Trump has orchestrated and led a sweeping federal government effort to subvert the midterm elections." KILLING WITHOUT TRIAL 131+ people killed in Caribbean "boat strikes" since September. No charges. No trial. No due process. Just a classified "kill list" and bombs. The UN warned these "appear to be unlawful killings carried out by order of a Government, without judicial or legal process." The administration says it's legal because they wrote a secret memo saying so. PROSECUTING OPPONENTS The DOJ has opened investigations into Jerome Powell, Tim Walz, Jacob Frey, and six Democratic representatives who told troops not to follow illegal orders. The pattern: Trump threatens on social media, DOJ investigates. This is the definition of weaponized justice. TROOPS AGAINST STATES National Guard deployed to 10+ cities — often against governors' wishes. American citizens killed by ICE. The Supreme Court is barely holding the line. DESTROYING OVERSIGHT 17 Inspectors General fired in January 2025. A judge ruled it violated federal law. They weren't reinstated. Now the administration wants 30% budget cuts to remaining watchdogs. No oversight = no accountability. ATTACKING THE PRESS DHS Secretary Noem publicly bragged that a journalist was "down another source" after catching a leaker. The Financial Times says this assault on press freedom "has few precedents in the country's history." PUNISHING COMPANIES Yesterday, Trump ordered all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic AI because the company refused to remove safety features for military use. His words: "I will use the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences." A private company maintained safety standards. The President threatened criminal prosecution. That's not capitalism. That's not democracy. That's state coercion of private enterprise. THE CHECKLIST Umberto Eco identified 14 characteristics of fascism. I checked Trump's America against all 14: ✅ Cult of tradition (MAGA) ✅ Rejection of modernism (anti-woke) ✅ Action for action's sake ✅ Disagreement is treason ✅ Fear of difference ✅ Appeal to frustrated middle class ✅ Enemy conspiracy obsession ✅ Enemy both strong and weak ✅ Pacifism is treason ✅ Contempt for the weak ✅ Cult of heroism ✅ Machismo and weaponry ✅ Selective populism ✅ Newspeak 14 out of 14. THE TIMELINE Now until November 2026: Window for resistance November 2026: Midterms — if seized, democracy may not recover 2028: Final test This isn't "both sides." This isn't normal political disagreement. This is a systematic dismantling of democratic institutions by an administration that openly states its intentions. The question isn't "could it happen here?" It's happening.

Impressive work randallscott25-star.github.io/epstein-forens…