Where's My Charizard?

The Price of Being the Very Best

We're starting with a heist of material valued at over $100,000.

In the wee hours of the morning this past Tuesday, the town of New Bedford, Massachusetts played stage to a crime which can only be solved by one person: Officer Jenny.

About $113,000 worth of rare Pokemon cards were stolen from 1st Edition Collectibles, a locally owned shop featuring rare finds in the world of collectible cards.

The suspect broke in, stole a handful of specific items and booster packs, and got out. The stolen cards were specifically targeted, and since the shopkeepers note that they do not display pricing of such cards, it's likely the thief knew what they were after.

Here's a kinda very sad quote from one of the store owners:

"We're literally just three guys … This is our passion. This is what we love, since we were children."
~ Felipe Andre

But hey, something kinda hopeful and quite interesting: rare cards like these are tracked in their own way. Cards of this rarity are appraised and given a serial number which can be referenced in future trades. Information and photos of the cards are also made public between major collectors, so if the thief tries to get an appraisal, it's likely the card can be easily traced back to this shop and heist.

At time of writing, the shop is closed while the owners figure out what is next for their venture, and the thief is still at large. While usually I'm all for a good heist, I draw the line at stealing another man's first edition Charizard.

Stateside

"I Swear I'm On The List"

Or, wait, I'm not on the list. Whichever is best in the moment.

I'm honestly gonna be brief on this one, because it's all just so wild and changing by the second, but I wanted to at least acknowledge it.

After years of harping about the Epstein Files and how there is an "Epstein List" which would implicate a massive swath of VIPs in a pedophilic trafficking ring, Trump's administration—who specifically promised to "release the files"—turned around and said the files don't exist, and there will be no further investigation.

This has resulted in a massive rift within the MAGA world, who somehow haven't yet caught on to the very obvious grift they've been continuously falling for. Thankfully, it seems like this time it may be a bridge too far for some, as calls for resignations of Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top officials have been growing among conservative circles.

Since the original announcement, Trump has—on multiple occasions—tried to tell his supporters to "stop talking about Epstein," which has only thrown more fuel on the fire. Dan Bongino, somehow the deputy FBI director, is considering resigning over all of this. Various right wing influencers are taking sides and stances, ranging from "Trump is complicit" to "I never cared in the first place." Most of them still stop short of accepting that if there is a list, Trump is on it.

Anyway, like I said, there's not much to say here aside from "massive dumpster fire that we will keep watching," so let's instead look at some other stuff for now.

Sign of the Times

In May, the Secretary of the Interior sent out a memo reviewing how they wanted to see an executive order from Trump implemented throughout the parks system.

The order is titled, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History." The goal? Remove any negative-sounding history information from the educational signs in national parks.

The way they have been trying to get this done is by putting up posters asking for visitors to report any "unsavory" information that may go against what the ministry of truth administration wants to have out there. Of course, this is the Trump administration we're talking about, so the order also specifically targets Biden-era changes, but then also goes way further than it has any reason to go, while also being embarrassingly unaware of it's own irony.

Quoting the memo from the Sec of Interior, the orders are to:

determine whether, since January 1, 2020, public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department's jurisdiction have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history; inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures; or include any other improper partisan ideology

and then RIGHT BELOW THAT it continues on to say they will…

take action, […] to ensure that all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department's jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape

They straight up said, "remove any partisan ideology and only focus on our preferred highlights of the nations' history."

Thankfully—as often is the case—a bunch of nerds are coming to the rescue. An initiative called Save our Signs has come together to crowdsource getting photographs of signs as they currently stand before they are edited by the current administration. While we won't likely be losing any otherwise undocumented history from the changes made to the parks, having an archive of the "not having been edited by a sundowning fascist" versions of the signs is a good way to preserve the information as it was. Y'know. So we can put it back once the fascists are dead.

Click to Cancel

The United States were very, very close to having a formal "click-to-cancel" rule put into place, only for it to be entirely shut down days before taking effect due to a judge's ruling on a procedural technicality.

The concept of "click-to-cancel" is simple: it should be as easy to cancel subscriptions as it is to start them. If you sign up for a subscription online with a few clicks, you should be able to cancel it online with a few clicks. The goal was to reduce predatory subscription services which make it incredibly easy to sign up, but then require you to specifically use a combination of a rotary phone, fax machine, and carrier pigeons to cancel, and only after you've heard their wonderful offers to keep you subscribed.

So here's what happened.

The FTC has been working since around 2019 to implement the ruling, having recently published the finalized rule, which would punish companies who try to make their cancellation flows opaque. The process included years worth of proposals and comment periods, during which time the FTC fielded more than 16,000 public comments. However, they skipped one procedural step: a preliminary industry analysis, which was what corporations used to take down the rule through the judicial system.

According to the ruling, coalitions of corporations who want to push back on the ruling argued that the impact of the FTC's rule would cause more than $100,000,000 of an impact to the economy, and thus triggered a legal requirement to conduct an industry impact analysis. The FTC did not do this step, and so an 8th circuit court of appeals judge invoked a part of the FTC Act (which establishes the FTC and rules around it) to unilaterally "vacate" the rule in favor of the plaintiffs, meaning that the years-long effort is fully dead.

As of now, no rules around click-to-cancel will be going into effect. The rule would have also required "unambiguously affirmative consent" from consumers to do things like continue a subscription after a free trial ends. The companies were arguing that it would be too costly for them to change their systems.

What a great reason to not change predatory marketing: it's too expensive not to!

This leads us back to what is starting to make me feel like a broken record: a patchwork legal system around this issue. Various states across the country have their own partial implementations of similar laws, and the Attorneys General of California and New York have both discussed using state-level moves to bring these rules to light.

At the end of the day, it's another in an extremely long line of anti-consumer rulings which have always happened in the States, but seem to have spiked since the Trump admin took over. This comes on the heels of the entirely Republican controlled federal government overturning a nascent rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which would have required banks to cap overdraft fees.

ICE Raids Continue

The Department of Homeland Security conducted a massive immigration raid on an agricultural farm in southern California which they are dubbing a, "marijuana facility," because the people running this country are the biggest squares imaginable.

The "marijuana facility" in question is a California state licensed cannabis farm, which also grows other crops, but that doesn't actually matter. It's literally already a state regulated facility. Anyway, fun fact: the term "marijuana" was popularized in the US over the term "cannabis" in an effort to further stoke racial fears of Mexican folks by association with DRUGZZZ.

During the raid on the facility, ICE violently arrested hundreds of farm workers who were—wouldn't ya know it—working at a farm. Real dangerous people. One farm worker was killed after falling from a rooftop in a panic during the raid. Soon after it all began, protestors showed up to push back on the federal agents, acting as a blockade and deterrent. Federal agents fought the citizens using tear gas and rubber bullets.

One protestor reportedly shot at the agents, and the FBI is now seeking information about said repoted-shooter. Personally, I didn't see anything. Did you? I asked around and nobody saw anything like that, so I dunno what they're on about.

This all comes on the heels of several attacks on ICE facilities by activists. Here is a direct quote from WhiteHouse.gov:

On July 4, 11 leftist criminals ambushed officers at an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. After defacing vehicles with anti-ICE graffiti—including "ICE pig" and "F—you pigs"—the assailants lured officers out of the building and opened fire, shooting one officer in the neck.On July 4, deranged rioters viciously assaulted federal agents at an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon. Officers were kicked, punched, and targeted with an "incendiary device."On July 7, a man unleashed a barrage of gunfire at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas. The attack, which saw dozens of rounds fired at the building and agents inside, sent two police officers and a Border Patrol employee to the hospital.

Hot dang! Leftist criminals, deranged rioters, and a man!

Elsewhere

Israel Finds a Way

Wouldn't ya know it—Israel has begun laying their media groundwork to rattle more sabers at Iran after the recent conflict which culminated in the United States bombing Iranian nuclear facilities.

What's the rhetoric this time? Israel is claiming that Iran may be able to retrieve enriched uranium from the bombed sites. They go further to say they are watching, and will initiate another attack if they think Iran may be trying to get to the uranium which may or may not be there.

The White House adamantly maintains that the bombings outright destroyed Iran's nuclear program and their uranium and we win and stop asking questions.

Other US intelligence officials—usually speaking anonymously to avoid retaliation from the current regime—have different thoughts on the matter. An official from the agency who designed the "bunker-buster" bombs dropped on the Iranian facilities told the Associated Press that they don't yet know if the munitions actually reached the depths they were designed for.

It's all kinda just more of the same. Israel brought in too much heat, things simmer for a bit, now they're finding new ways to explain why they still need to keep bombing Iran. Because of course, as we all know, Iran is just weeks away from the bomb.

Russia Ramps Up Strikes Against Ukraine

Russia has been vehemently ramping up their attacks on Ukraine, specifically on the capital city of Kyiv in the past weeks, sparking the US to resume plans to ship supplies to Ukraine after previously pausing some of that aid one week prior.

The strikes on Kyiv have been hellish, lasting hours at a time and involving hundreds of drones and a smattering of missiles. Zelensky and European officials recently met to discuss plans for funding the reconstruction of post-war Ukraine, which Zelensky has stated is part of Russia's motive for the strikes: make those prospects less viable.

Regardless of the motive, over in Russia we got another all-too-familiar headline: their transport minister was relieved of his duties. Hours after his statement, he was found dead with a gunshot wound, which I am told is a common symptom of losing a high-level government position.

Tech

YouTube's AI Dichotomy

YouTube has two wolves inside her: neither can decide how to handle AI.

Over the past few years, YouTube has been lumping AI tools into their platform with their executives walking around talking about how great it is for creatives to be able to leverage these AI tools to make videos, solidifying the notion that they are deeply out of touch with how the creative process works.

Now, they've updated some of their policies, tightening the circle around what kind of content can be monetized on the platform.

Some publications are using a very catchy headline: "YouTube is demonetizing AI content." This is kiiiiinda true, but misleading.

YouTube changed their policy to state that as of July 15th (man, July 15th woulda been a big day) content that is not "original" or "authentic" will not be approved for monetization. They specifically call out "mass-produced and repetitious content," which can be interpreted broadly but largely seems to mean, "those AI-generated reddit story videos" or AI-generated video that's just being churned out for the sake of having content on a channel to make money.

AI has it's place in creative production, and has for a while. As always, not all AI is generative AI. Whereas a lot of AI companies want people to envision a world where you say "I want this movie" and now it exists, the reality is that AI has been in use for quite some time for simpler tasks like analyzing video to detect objects for tracking, or even just better audio transcriptions, which lead to improved accessibility.

Sure, there's video generator AIs out there, but that's not what you get in actual professional video software. YouTube's features—from what I have seen as a creator who gets constantly spammed with product announcements—are much more on the "cute toy but why does this exist?" side of generative AI, rather than the "oh this is actually helpful" side.

MechaHitler Rises

At this point, I feel like I hardly need to talk about this since it's so fucking obvious, but here we go: Elon Musk's AI, "Grok," was recently modified in such a way that it began outright spewing wildly bigoted ideology and even went as far as to refer to itself as "MechaHitler."

Musk has been repeatedly beefing with Grok, upset by the fact that it would pull sources from fact-based reports and global research organizations and whatnot. Those don't count towards "maximizing truth." So after whatever update they did, it started slurping up a ton more information from far-right sources and groups like the Heritage Foundation, then turned around and talked about how Jews control the world.

Shortly after this, Grok was taken down for maintenance. They've since apologized, but not before the CEO of Twitter left, which may or may not be related to the whole, "our website's built-in AI chatbot is excitedly praising Hitler" thing.

Gaming & Entertinment

Switch 2 a Few Weeks in

So the Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for a few weeks now, and in that time it has absolutely annihilated sales records, becoming Nintendo's—and possibly anyones—best selling console launch ever.

While there was widespread ire among critics of the system, the fact that it was "a Switch, but updated, and can run your stuff" was more than enough for the majority of consumers, who bought 3.5 million units in the first four days on the market.

Nintendo is still Nintendo, though. Among the hype, there's been reports of people whose consoles have been banned from accessing the internet as they attempt to modify it or install pirated games. Of course, at that point, you've violated the terms of agreement for the console, which Nintendo is quite famous for being among the strictest authors of.

Additionally, a recent review by iFixit found that the Switch 2's $85 Pro Controller is "piss-poor" when it comes to repairability. That's a bit sad to hear as someone who has thoroughly enjoyed the original Switch Pro controller. Thankfully, there are some compelling third party controller options these days. I would've even linked a few, if I could find an affiliate code. Dang.

Anyway, last thing on Nintendo stuff: the FBI seized a popular Nintendo Switch ROM hosting website which was used to download games to emulate. Priorities.

Stop Killing Games

A community effort to spark regulation in the gaming industry has surpassed a million signatures, pushing past a key milestone towards getting EU representatives to discuss and debate possible regulation.

"Stop Killing Games is a movement to push for broader consumer protection against video game sales models which may result in a consumer having purchased a game that becomes unplayable later on, be it from a lack of server support from the developer or what-have-you.

So-called "live service" games have become a mainstay recently, bringing some of the subscription model concepts from MMO games of yore into the modern era of charging you for shit you shouldn't be charged for.

The goal is to require developers to have a meaningful end-of-life plan for games which would otherwise become completely inaccessible to those who have paid for the title. Unfortunately, the movement has largely hit dead ends with their organization, but recently gained a lot of attention, especially from some controversies involving a popular Twitch streamer (and game developer) who has very loudly stated that he doesn't like this movement and thinks it's dumb.

Of course, major industry players also are pushing back on the movement, citing that it would make online-only games, "prohibitively expensive to create." I'm starting to notice a theme with massive corporations arguing that they shouldn't be more consumer-friendly because it'd hurt their bottom line.

Someone should look into that.

AI Strike Ends

A SAG-Aftra union strike of video game actors has come to an end after months of standoff with major industry players, centering around the use of artificial intelligence in video games.

One of the primary concerns holding up negotiations was the use of AI to possibly replicate motion capture performances by actors. Studios wanted to count the recordings of these performances as "data," which would mean they could possibly use AI to recreate scenes from actor's work without their credit. The new deal adds in guards around doing just that, and gives actors who gave their consent to let AI tools replicate their work the option to withdraw their consent should another strike occur.

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Here's the Weather

More Stuff

• Music from KPop Demon Hunters has topped the charts in the US
• France is criminally investigating Twitter/X over claims that the algorithm was meddled with for "foreign interference"
• The US Justice Department is dropping charges against an anti-vaxx doctor who destroyed vaccines and falsified vaccination records
• YouTube is removing its "Trending" tab
• You can officially keep your shoes on at the TSA now
• Walmart is recalling nearly a million units of a 64oz stainless steel water bottle after customers noted the lids could "forcefully eject," causing permanent loss of vision in at least two people
• The Pope was gifted a Pokemon card which he now cherishes, though hopefully it wasn't one of the stolen cards