Hell, why even choose to live? Humans are so inefficient. Just stop existing.

With respect, we might not be observing the same things at the same places. I saw an DDA blow up her own case (defendant accused of putting GPS tracker on ex-girlfriend’s car) by accidentally mentioning that they traced a GPS tracker back to [defendant’s first name].[defendant’s surname]@gmail.com, and the judge decided this was fatal to their case because they forgot to put the name of the GPS tracker company employee on their witness list.

This guy was 100% guilty. Two witnesses saw him do it and they found his fingerprints on the tracker.

State v. Landon Heath Higgins, Oregon Circuit Court, case number 23CR14417 if interested.

Judges generally issue escalating sanctions. A verbal admonition first, then a verbal threat to impose sanctions, then an order to show cause, then actual penalties.

Despite what the media reports, the Administration always folds and complies because it would be embarrassing to have senior officials or government lawyers actually penalised for failing to comply with a court order.

Remember in the early days of Trump II when we were hearing about entire US Attorney’s offices quitting in protest? That no longer happens, but that’s what happens when top brass asks experienced, career lawyers to defend positions they know are indefensible, and insists they sign their name to hot garbage, that they know is the same kind as what got Rudy Guiliani disbarred.

So yes, the Trump Justice Department is indeed running out of good lawyers and that’s why the US Attorney’s Office for DC is led by a Fox News commentator who happens to have a law degree.

Well, as I’ve quickly learned, pretty much nothing in law is an absolute rule. Judges love making their exceptions.

If this is illegal (which I am not convinced that it is, even though it certainly should be), then a judge can order Palantir or the relevant government agencies to destroy the data. If there is a question about whether this order will be complied with, the court can appoint a special master to oversee it, but this is rare. Usually what happens is the court will take their word on it, but if it turns out they lied, then the court will impose a stiff penalty for contempt of court.

Disciplinary referrals are issued against lawyers who break the court rules. Contempt of court is used against anyone (lawyer or not) who violates a direct order from the court. A lawyer who blatantly violates an order may receive both a disciplinary referral and also a contempt of court penalty.

Before a court issues a penalty of any kind against anyone, they usually issue what is called an order to show cause, which essentially means the party accused of violating the rules must appear before the judge and explain why they should not receive a penalty.

Disciplinary referrals are addressed to the state bar association, which are organisations comparable to guilds which license lawyers. The bar association can impose penalties against the lawyer which include:

• Censure, a formal finger-wagging which leaves a permanent mark on their licence and is generally considered detrimental to future job prospects
• Mandatory ethics training or re-take bar exam
• Temporary suspension of their licence to practise law
• Disbarment and expulsion from the bar association, which permanently revokes the lawyer’s licence to practise law. This typically cascades to all bar associations across the country.

An example: Rudy Guiliani was a Trump lawyer who filed submissions before several courts containing information he knew to be false and raising allegations he knew were unsubstantiated, as a part of Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The New York bar association disbarred him for this, and the DC bar association took note and automatically disbarred him as well. His legal career is finished; he cannot legally be employed as a lawyer anywhere in the country.

Contempt of court is an inherent power of the court to punish people who violate its orders. A judge can, on their own initiative, declare someone guilty of contempt of court and impose a punishment for it, which could include:

• A fine, possibly an increasing fine until the order is complied with. The fine is paid personally by the person found guilty of contempt of court and no immunities apply.
• Imprisonment for a fixed term, usually not more than a month
• Imprisonment until the person complies with the order
• Anything else the judge comes up with, that does not violate Amendment 8 of the US Constitution or relevant laws

Example: A lawyer was fined $10,000 in March 2026 by my state’s Court of Appeal for submitting a brief containing AI hallucinations.

I’m a law student in the US, so I’m actually privy to this information in the form of all the talks that they have judges and lawyers giving.

You may not assume that the US judiciary is healthy and functioning, but it is not as broken as most international observers (or chronically online Americans) think it is. In particular, if you have been observing the Department for Justice’s results recently, you’ll notice a few things:

1. Because the Department has been hiring for loyalty and not legal skill, the Department has lost most of its prior prestige. Previously, clerking for the Department was a competitive law school position. Now, the top legal minds then to avoid it. As a result, the quality of legal skill at the Department has decreased, drastically.
2. Judges in the federal judiciary, with the exception of some notable Trump cronies, is actually very willing to uphold existing procedural law and rule against the government. It happens extremely regularly.
3. When judicial orders are ignored, it is almost always temporary and not in any lasting way. Federal judges still do threaten and issue contempt of court penalties and disciplinary referrals to officials who blatantly disobey court orders.

So in short, you are partially correct and partially wrong. The judiciary of the US has shown to be remarkably resilient considering it has withstood two years of a fascist in power and in full control of the legislature.

In the US, if cops get into a phone before a warrant, even if a warrant is issued later, all evidence from the phone is suppressed as illegally obtained.

This is a bigger concern with respect to intelligence agencies who conduct mass surveillance.

Compared to not having insurance, where you have to pay for everything.

Stale bread is better than no bread at all

Most desk jobs in the US are salaried. Salaries are quoted typically in annual terms, although payroll is processed typically fortnightly (meaning salary payments are transferred into your account every two weeks, usually on Thursday or Wednesday).

The US Bureau of Labour Statistics collects salary data across hundreds of job descriptions and reports this information regularly. Here are some median annual salaries (along with the monthly equivalent in euros) for various corporate jobs:

• Human Resources Specialists: $75,940 (€5,500 monthly)
• Buyers and Purchasing Agents: $77,710 (€5,630 monthly)
• Budget Analysts: $91,640 (€6,640 monthly)
• Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists: $78,760 (€5,710)
• Paralegals and Legal Assistants: $62,890 (€4,560)
• Lawyers: $159,670 (€11,580)
• Securities, Commodities, and Financial Service Sales Agents: $78,660 (€5,700)
• Real Estate Brokers: $73,220 (€5,810)
• Billing and Posting Clerks: $48,500 (€3,520)
• Secretaries and Administrative Assistants: $47,540 (€3,450)
• Computer Systems Analysts: $105,850 (€7,670)
• Network and Computer Systems Administrator: $99,130 (€7,190)
• Software Developers: $135,980 (€9,860)

Some notes before comparing salaries:

• Office workers work 40 hours per week, and lunch breaks are typically 1 hour. The most common working schedule is 09:00 to 17:00 with a 1 hour lunch break. Two weeks paid holiday is the minimum for most office workers, but three to four weeks is more common. Extra paid holiday is considered a bonus for loyalty. People who have worked for the company for a few years will gradually be given more.
• Sick days in the US are protected by law, but unpaid. Some companies offer paid sick day policies, others do not and force you to use paid holidays if you want to be paid for those days.
• Increasingly, companies offer 12 paid “floating holidays” per year which are used to cover public holidays. But there are only 11 public holidays leaving one extra to be used however the employee pleases. An employer that doesn’t offer floating holidays will instead typically just pay the employee for those 11 public holidays.
• Tax in the US is typically less than in Europe. A person making $100,000 annually would pay $13,200 in federal tax, and between $0 and about $10,000 in state tax, depending on where they live. The US also offers various tax credits and exemptions. For example, putting money into a retirement account means that the money deposited isn’t counted as income.
• The US, famously, does not have a taxpayer-funded healthcare system. Most office workers have decent to excellent healthcare coverage provided by the employer, and typically the employer pays for the majority of the cost. This ends up costing a few hundred dollars a month to the worker out of pocket for their family, typically.
• Everyday expenses in the US tend to be cheaper than in Europe due to lower consumption tax. This also varies between US states, with sales tax (comparable to VAT) ranging from 0% to 10%. Sales tax over 10% is uncommon. 7-8% is typical.
• Energy is cheaper in the US than in Europe. In my area, a gallon of Midgrade 89 gasoline, equivalent to Europe’s 95 E10 petrol, costs $4.50 per gallon (€0.96 per litre), which is not far from average in the US. My electricity costs 10.8¢ (8.7 Euro cents) per kWh, but this is considered low nationwide because my municipality owns its own power generation; on average electricity costs around 18¢ per kWh (15 Euro cents).
• The US is less dense and therefore commute times are longer. Most people drive to work. A commute of around 20-30 km is considered average for most people. A commute of 40 km is not super uncommon, but 50 km and higher is rare.

All the messages have been automated for over a decade.

Please understand that ChatGPT was released in November 2022.

And also understand that the distinction between chess and ChatGPT is the point of the comment. These two things both use AI but one is harmless and useful while the other is not.

Exactly right. That is the distinction I’m trying to draw.

Chess engines have been using AI, specifically, neural networks, for years before ChatGPT or other LLMs. Nobody complained.

There are plenty of people filing individual cases as well alleging liability under product liability law.

The sheer volume of those cases could possibly cause major financial issues for the company even if each one costs only a relatively small amount.

The short, general summary of these cases is that under US consumer protection law, the maker of a product is strictly liable for injuries and damages caused by the defective design of that product. An example in ordinary circumstances is that a farmer who uses an herbicide that contains a toxic chemical, and then later develops cancer as a result of exposure to that chemical, can claim compensation from the manufacturer under product liability law. This is what drove the chemical company Monsanto (maker of Roundup) into bankruptcy facing billions in product liability claims.

So a teenager who uses Facebook and then develops mental disorders as a result of that use, has a personal injury claim against Meta.

Even if each individual case is only worth around $20,000 to $50,000, Facebook has hundreds of millions of users in the US, of which possibly hundreds of thousands of people could have a valid claim under this legal theory. And many people could claim a great deal more in compensation. If a person uses Facebook, becomes addicted, gets depression as a result, and then commits suicide, that is potentially a wrongful death claim worth hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

Ambulance chasers to the rescue!

It’s about 2% of their annual net revenue per year for ten years. Hardly much of a punishment.

I’m not a big fan of Steve Bannon, but I think what he said about political power is among the truest things ever said about modern politics. These big corporations, they’re not so tough. The big law firms? They’re not so tough. But the state can be tough. They’re all gutless cowards at the end of the day that would crumble if even a fraction of the power available was displayed. If one truly takes power and exercises it, that would become apparent. Trying to play nice gets you nothing but lip service and pocket change.

I never understood why console players always get so worked up about exclusives. People say the stupidest most absolutely nonsensical things like “the PS5 has no games”. What the hell do you mean?? The PS5 has lots of games, you’re just salty that other people can play those games too. Why can’t people just be happy that more people can enjoy the games? They have to have that feeling of superiority I suppose

What a fantastic article.

Epic charges less than 30%. I think it was 10-15%. That’s their whole selling point. And when I say it is their whole selling point, I do genuinely mean it, because the platform and software itself are pretty bad compared to Steam.