Meta/Facebook is ordered to pay $375m for child exploitation

Excerpt: At trial, Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified that “harms to children, such as sexual exploitation and detriments to mental health, were inevitable on the company’s platforms due to their vast user bases…”

Me again: $375-million is nowhere near enough. Zuck belongs in prison. If you’re operating a business where harm to users is “inevitable,” then your company needs to take serious precautions to prevent that, and Meta doesn’t, so Meta shouldn’t be allowed to exist.

Dallas begins removing rainbow and Black Lives Matter crosswalks after governor’s directive

Because gay lives and black lives don’t matter to Republicans.

Dear Leader’s signature will appear on new paper currency, in first for sitting president

Look at this baby beaver and feel better briefly

Their citizenship ceremonies were abruptly canceled. Months later, they are still waiting for them to be rescheduled.

Well, they should’ve followed the immigration rules… except they did, and Trump & the Republicans want to bar them from citizenship anyway. Always, it’s about the cruelty, racism, and white supremacy.

Lawyers for ICE gave false information to justify abducting thousands, filings reveal

Trump has abducted the parents of more than 11,000 American kids

Border Patrol agents ignored orders to end car chase before gassing Chicago neighborhood

ICE kidnaps woman at San Francisco Int’l Airport

Venezuelans deported by US detail fresh claims of torture and abuse at El Salvador mega-prison

What a despicably cruel country America is.

Gov’t admits more than 100 asylum seekers were deported in violation of a single court order

Abducted by ICE, he missed multiple cancer treatments. Now he’s in hospice.

Feds plan to install 536 miles of floating barriers on Rio Grande to deter migrants

Canadian woman imprisoned with daughter by ICE warns all immigrants to ‘lie low’

Excerpt: The family was driving home from a baby shower in Raymondville, Texas, on 14 March when they were stopped at a border patrol checkpoint in Sarita. Tania Warner and her daughter were taken in by ICE agents to be fingerprinted, and neither returned.

Warner’s husband told the Vancouver Sun last week that ICE officials said “she overstayed her visa,” though he provided the paper with a copy of a US “employment authorization” card issued to his wife last year, and it had an expiry date of 8 June 2030.

ICE deployments created chaos for cities and cost them millions, NPR analysis finds

Virginia is poised to ban ICE contracts, unless the feds agree to obey the law. No-one expects them to.

Minnesota sues Trump regime for access to evidence in Good, Pretti killings

Excerpt: Ellison and Moriarty said they were stepping into uncharted territory by suing the federal government for access to evidence, since federal and local authorities usually coordinate closely in criminal investigations.

“All we want is to conduct a fair, impartial and thorough investigation,” Ellison said. “The federal government has refused to cooperate … which is unique, rare and simply cannot be tolerated.”

Wingnut Republican sheriff, running for Governor, seizes half a million ballots from November election

Excerpt: The unusual probe drew a sharp rebuke from California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, who said in a statement that it is “unprecedented in both scope and scale” and appears “not to be based on facts or evidence.”

Critics, meanwhile, said Bianco’s ballot seizure is a threat to democracy and another attempt by Republican election deniers to disenfranchise voters.

“There is no indication, anywhere in the United States, of widespread voter fraud,” Bonta said. “Counts, recounts, hand counts, audits, and court cases all support this.”

According to Bonta’s office, Bianco’s department on Feb. 26 seized about 1,000 boxes of ballot materials in Riverside County related to the November election for Proposition 50, which temporarily redrew the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats in response to partisan redistricting in Republican states, including Texas.

Me again: What’s missing in this coverage is any mention of such quaint concepts as warrants, court orders, or conflict of interest.

Oklahoma AG hands over full voter rolls to Trump’s DOJ

Conservative election fraud activist convicted of election fraud

AIPAC funded secretive super PACs that hid contributors and spent big in Democratic primary, new records show

Trump, who calls mail-in voting ‘cheating,’ voted by mail in special election Dems won

Brendan Carr tries to ‘ban’ all foreign routers in lazy, legally dubious shakedown

Feds launch probe into Washington program to redress housing discrimination

Trump & the Republicans support housing discrimination, and oppose anything that might allow non-white, non-straight, non-males an equal opportunity for anything.

US rejects vote to recognize slavery as a ‘crime against humanity’

The group behind Project 2025 has a chilling new plan for America’s women

France confirms oil crisis, says 30-40 percent of Gulf energy infrastructure destroyed

Excerpt: France’s Finance Minister Roland Lescure revealed on Wednesday that between 30 and 40 per cent of Gulf refining capacity has been damaged or destroyed by Iran’s retaliatory strikes, leaving a shortage of 11 million barrels a day on global oil markets. Lescure warned it could take up to three years to restore damaged facilities, and several months to restart those that were urgently shut down.

Trump gets daily video montage of “stuff blowing up” in Iran

Trump’s Iran war is going to end badly, unless it ends worse

Trump appeared to have business motive for keeping classified documents

Trump admin makes 4th try at illegal retaliation against New York AG Letitia James

More bullshit Trump lawsuits against universities

DOJ agrees to let Michael Flynn loot treasury to the tune of $1.25m

Trump receives yet another fake prize while addressing Republican fundraiser with rambling speech blasting Democrats

Judge gives Republican ex-Kentucky Gov 60 days for contempt, but he can avoid jail by disclosing financial info

Ohio Republicans’ drag ban co-sponsor was accused of sexual misconduct with minor relative

Trump threatens airstrikes on US gas stations

Cuban patients are dying because of US blockade, doctors say

Trump urges Hungarians to vote for fellow fascist Orban, calls him ‘true friend, fighter, and winner’

Europe ‘should prepare for scenario’ where US makes deal with Russia

Excerpt: Fears are mounting in Britain and the rest of Europe that America will abandon its Nato allies and make a deal with Russia, sources have disclosed to The Times.

Senior European officials and a new report from MPs, published on Friday, both warned Europe should be in a position to fight alone in a “worst-case scenario”. Sources expressed concern that Trump may no longer protect Nato member states if Russia were to attack their territory. A European official said: “The Americans withdrawing from European security affairs is no longer the worst-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is Americans withdrawing from European security and turning against us.”

They worried this could involve Trump “attempting to do a grand bargain with Russians over our heads — things [that] seemed impossible five to six years ago”. A British military source also raised concerns that the US might not be there to protect the eastern flank if it were attacked.

Me again: This is reality.

The Olympics has a new sex testing policy. The evidence doesn’t add up.

Excerpt: Covering sex testing is a lot like documenting a twisted and deeply unethical game of whack-a-mole. The same bad ideas, incorrect assertions, and misguided policies pop up over and over and over again. Today, the mole that has popped up is genetic sex testing. We last saw this particular policy emerge in the 1960s, when every woman who competed in the Olympics was forced to go through an unreliable genetic test looking for Y chromosomal material — a test that about 1 in 500 women failed. (Surprise! Lots of women have Y chromosomal material in their cells.) The women who passed this test got a “femininity certificate” they had to carry with them to every single competition. Those who “failed” were told to fake an injury and leave.

We have no idea how many women that happened to. They were sent home quietly and told to give up their dreams. Researchers, doctors, ethicists, and athletes spent decades fighting these policies, and in 1999, the IOC finally dropped genetic screenings for female athletes.

Prominent climate scientist resigns from NASA, citing Trump’s attack on science

I don’t think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science

Phoenix officers who had protesters falsely charged as gang members face no discipline

California: Man blinded by police projectile during anti-ICE protest files $100 million claim

Rape calls at San Diego ICE jail aren’t investigated by sheriff’s office

Florida cop charged for hiding he was HIV-positive from woman he got pregnant

Florida deputy arrested for domestic violence

Florida deputy fired for posting in-uniform fetish photos and videos

Florida deputy fired after arrest for sexual battery

Indiana: Police chase ends with state trooper in handcuffs after stop sticks deployed against bomb squad truck

Indianapolis cop arrested for on-duty drunk driving

After almost three years, Kentucky State Police release body camera footage of a violent arrest that led to resignation and criminal charges against trooper

Massachusetts officer, husband accused of sexually abusing child in their care for years

Missouri cops claim they were doing black man a favor by nearly killing him instead of transporting him to jail for shoplifting

NYPD officers ignore transgressions by drivers if they happen to be listeners of right-wing radio host Sid Rosenberg

The NYPD is not required to protect New Yorkers, city lawyers argue in court filing

$700k payout for New York man framed by police

Texas: Handcuffed man fatally shoots himself with his own gun in the back seat of a squad car, cops say

Hmmmm.

Psychology Today: Adults lose skills to AI. Children never build them.

OpenAI will shut down Sora video app; Disney drops plans for $1 billion investment

Disney saw no money to be made and pulled out of the deal, and without mouse cash OpenAI sees no money to be made from Sora.

An AI school, with no teachers, to open in Chicago this fall

Excerpt: In November, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon visited Alpha’s Austin, Texas campus and praised the school as “exemplary,” saying AI will be critical to expanding opportunity for students and preparing them for the workforce. An Alpha student from the campus was invited by first lady Melania Trump to her husband’s State of the Union address, in which he spotlighted how AI is being used in the classroom.

Price, a strong supporter of school choice, has donated more than $2 million since 2023 to Republican candidates and political action committees that support it, according to The Washington Post.

… For her part, Price rejected the notion that Alpha School is aligned with the Trump administration, calling her organization “politically agnostic.”

Me again: Bullshit.

Wikipedia cracks down on the use of AI in article writing

GitHub hits CTRL-Z, decides it will train its AI with user data after all

Epic river migrations of fish rapidly collapsing, UN report finds

The point of no return: new evidence shows Antarctic melting is already locked in

Trump administration to pay French company $1B to walk away from US offshore wind leases

A billion dollars, to ensure higher utility rates and a warmer world.

Britain’s food supply ‘at risk of catastrophic failure by 2030’

Hegseth prays at Pentagon service for ‘overwhelming violence’ against enemies

Excerpt: “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation,” Hegseth said in the prayer service. “Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

Colorado church nursery supervisor charged with sexual assault on a child; 25 counts

New York: Albany church pastor arrested on multiple rape charges

Tulsa pastor, wife arrested in animal cruelty investigation

South Carolina: Lexington County “worship musician” facing child sexual abuse material charges

Of course, the vast majority of crooked or pervy religious leaders get away with everything. Of those that are caught, many are quietly reassigned to other duties, not defrocked or punished. Of the few cases that aren’t hushed up, there’s no knowing how many make the news, but undoubtedly I miss most of them, in compiling this list.

When the culture wars come for the public library

Excerpt: At the top of Newell’s pile that day was “Prince & Knight,” a fairy-tale picture book published in 2018. The story features a charismatic dragon, but no lady who wins a warrior’s heart. The romance instead unfolds between the titular prince (a man) and knight (also a man). Newell thought the book was sweet: a bit edgy in its gayness, but still chaste and traditional, culminating in marriage. Her calendar didn’t show any special book requests or even the name of the visiting school, so she grabbed “Prince & Knight” off her desk and went out to read it. She opened her eyes wide behind her glasses and swivelled to connect with every member of her audience. The children giggled and clapped. But, at the end of the reading, their teacher looked upset.

The class had come from a Catholic school, and, a few days later, the teacher wrote to the Daily Inter Lake, a local newspaper, saying how “shocked and grieved” she was by the presentation of a book about “homosexual marriage.” She argued that “such a controversial topic” should not be introduced to “innocent children.”

How hospitals helped erode reproductive rights

Excerpt: in 1988, a nurse at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston decided she was fed up. She and her colleagues had grown alarmed about the number of women coming in to give birth who appeared to be addicted to crack cocaine. The hospital began drug testing pregnant patients — predominantly low-income Black women — and gathered with local law enforcement officials to come up with a plan: If the women tested positive, the hospital would hand them over to police. Soon, women, some still bleeding from childbirth, were being carried out of the hospital in shackles and chains.

The hospital was far from alone. Across the country, fervor over “crack babies,” and particularly Black women who birthed them, was reaching a fever pitch. Many feared the emergence of a permanent underclass of “physically damaged,” biologically inferior children, destined to live off welfare rolls, and believed that women who used crack during pregnancy should be put in jail for child abuse. Later scientific studies would conclude that the crack baby panic had vastly overstated the developmental effects of prenatal cocaine exposure, and that many of the harms initially attributed to the drug were inseparable from overlapping factors like poverty, but the myth stuck. Hospitals began to more widely drug test women at childbirth, states began requiring hospitals to report positive results, and foster care caseloads skyrocketed. By mid-1992, there were more than 160 criminal prosecutions filed in 24 states, 75% of them against women of color.

These cases didn’t just seek to punish women. They helped advance a broader legal principle: The fetus had interests the state could protect, often by taking action against the mother herself.

Musketeer d’Artagnan’s remains believed found under Dutch church

“We had it tough.”

Mark Bittner
wild parrots in San Francisco

Dash Crofts
rock’n’roller, Seals & Crofts

Tracy Kidder
author, The Soul of a New Machine

Ted Nichols
composer, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

Valerie Perrine
actress, Lenny

Leonid Radvinsky
OnlyFans billionaire

Shyyell Diamond Sanchez-McCray
drag performer

Sean Stevens
2007 Boston Mooninite panic

Chip Taylor
songwriter, “Wild Thing”

Nothing will meaningfully improve
until billionaires fear for their lives.

3/27/2026

Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer. Tip ‘o the hat to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, Daily Grail, Fat Magic, Jemin Na CPA, Joe My God, Jamie Zawinski, Voenix Rising, What Not’s, and anywhere else I’ve stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.

Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Joey Jo Jo & John the Basket emeritus, Jeff Meyer, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn’t always shitty.

News always and only from reliable sources, and I decide what’s reliable — no right-wing bullshit, no Substack because fuck Nazis, and no RawStory, Newsweek, or other clickbait sites. Written news is preferred; video links will be rare, and damned near never to videos where a reporter or podcaster simply reads a script or does improv — that’s show biz, not news.

If you can’t access an article linked here, due to a paywall, forced registration for spam, or any website’s anti-reading layout, please let me know. I’ll reply with the article’s complete text.

And Now the News

itsdougholland.com
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In this trashy but homey and huge flat, Joe, Cy, and I pay rent to Judith and Jake, and they pay rent to the landlord. They’re not rich; they don’t own this building.

In a conversation in the kitchen with Judith, she told me that the landlord is beginning to suspect more than two people live here. When he figures out there are five of us, not only the two who’d signed the lease, he’ll have grounds to being the eviction process, or renegotiate the rent. Either way, he’ll get around the rent control laws, and be able to charge much, much more than he’s making now.

To bolster his case, the landlord has threatened to call the city’s Housing Department, because it’s illegal to have so many unrelated people living under one roof, or the Fire Department, because a spark here could kill us all. (The place is a mess, so there’s actually some truth to that last item.)

This is Berkeley, land of so many laws there’s no telling what other agencies claim jurisdiction over where and how people live, and Judith says she’s worried about the Health Department.

As if the landlord could complain, and the Health Dept would kick us out for being slobs? That’s not likely, but even in its recently-cleaned splendor this place is a complete disaster, so guess who’s been drafted as the emergency maid… again?

♦ ♦ ♦ 

I need the money and have no pride, so instead of doing the nothing I would’ve done, my morning and early afternoon were spent washing dishes and doing other boring housework at home. In a back corner of a back room, I found a litter box that had been forgotten (by people, but not by the cats) since at least the last time I’d cleaned it, which was December. Lots of accumulated poop there, and then the cheap generic trash bag broke, so I got to re-scoop all the molding catshit and piss off the floor and into a double-layer of cheap generic trash bags.

♦ ♦ ♦ 

After getting the house nominally neater and less smelly, I relaxed in my room reading zines, interrupted only by mild constipation and too many unproductive trips to the john.

And then came the second shoe, so to speak, from this morning’s conversation. On my way back from another try on the loo, Judith stopped me in the hall.

”I have bad news,” she said. “The landlord says the sub-renters must go.” Only two people are on the lease, and by Monday only two people will be living here. I’m not one of them.

♦ ♦ ♦

Most landlords are criminals and ought to be shot, of course, but I’ve never been a “Kill My Landlord” whiner. This flat is conveniently located for my fish-selling job, but it ain’t the French Riviera, so I’m not crying about having to move. Tell me to go and I’ll go.

Having to move on such short notice is a bit of a bitch, though. Only rich people can afford first and last and a third month as damage deposit, all up front, and I ain’t rich, so ordinary apartments are not open to my kind. Renting by the week at another rez hotel will be my only option, and I’ll be looking for another single-room-occupancy place, just a room with a toilet and shower down the hall.

I’m not looking tonight, though. Fiddle-dee, I’m Scarlett O’Hara — too tired to think about this right now, so I’ll think about it tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day.

Pathetic Life
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itsdougholland.com
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A letter came from Quimby’s today. It’s a form letter, not an answer to any of the post-paid and SASE-supplied inquiries I’ve sent, but it does include long-overdue payment for the zines I’ve supplied and they’ve sold. Sort of.

It’s accurate down to the penny, but contains no pennies. No money. No check. They’re paying me in store credit, which was never the deal.

There’s a line in the form letter than says they’ll pay in cash if publishers ask, so I’ve asked, and we’ll see how that goes.

Actually, though, I’m not furious. Not even mad at ’em. I love zines, and I could spend all this Quimby’s credit tonight. They oh-so-thoughtfully included a store catalog, and I’ve been flipping through it circling zines I want.

I’m not doing Pathetic Life for the money, and anyway, there are always new subscribers who mention that they bought their first copy at Quimby’s.My rant from 3/5 remains, because that’s what I was thinking that day, but whether they pay me in money or store credit, you’ll still be able to buy Pathetic Life at Quimby’s.

♦ ♦ ♦  

Mark sent a copy of the latest Utne Reader, because inside there’s a review of The Match, a zine we both love. Utne Reader tries to be the Reader’s Digest of the underground press; The Match is an ancient, handmade, heartfelt anarchist zine. Utne‘s review says that The Match is “admirably coherent” and “frighteningly provocative,” “a free-for-all of divergent ideas and opinions,” but then it complains that “The Match‘s cop-bashing and frequent, cursory jabs at the establishment can be tiresome and reek of a superficial, Maximum Rocknroll brand of anarchy.”

Which gave me a three-minute bout of the giggles — as if Utne Reader knows something, anything, about the complex and advanced theories of anarchy? I guess you could call it a generally favorable review, but Maximum Rocknroll is more indispensable to the counterculture than Utne Reader, and so’s The Match.

Let’s add up some numbers: This issue of Utne Reader is 148 pages, of which 68 are ads. So it’s 46% advertising, and there’s nothing all that great on the pages that aren’t ads. It features a report on trans-national companies “with a conscience” (and they’re wrong, there are none), late-breaking news that Deadheads are still taking drugs, Wynton Marsalis talking about jazz, an article revealing the importance of napping, which I fell asleep trying to read… etc, etc. Utne Reader is fun, but a lot of it’s fluff.

My preference is more than minimal rock’nroll, but maximum is too much. Give me mid-level rock’n’roll, please, but the zine Maximum Rocknroll is always a good read. It’s alive, written with passion, has a point of view.

The Match is about anarchy, but it’s actually about trying to live life with integrity. It is literate, alarming, and funny, it has no ads, no fluff, and every page has something that might challenge the way you think. It’s my favorite magazine, and I’m not going to bad-mouth Utne Reader, but my subscription lapsed years ago. I’m still subscribing to The Match.

Pathetic Life
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