Morning, Kitties. Palantir has apparently entered the burrito business, women posing as tradwives reportedly catfished ICE agents, Amazon says Iranian attacks permanently destroyed customer data, and researchers are once again discovering that AI systems occasionally decide instructions are more like fucking suggestions. Meanwhile, the Postal Service stopped work on Trump’s mail ballot system, your phone may be listening more closely than you thought, and Ken Paxton’s AI crackdown has acquired an inconvenient data center money trail. Welcome to Friday, where your burrito, television, phone, government, and chatbot are all collecting data and somehow we are still the product.
Today’s Scheitler Show
Chipotle Is Now Working With Palantir
Chipotle is working with Palantir on artificial intelligence tools designed to improve restaurant operations, adding another familiar consumer brand to the company’s growing commercial footprint. Nothing completes your burrito bowl quite like a side of existential surveillance anxiety.
FactCheck Weekly Sorts Through Another Week of Political Claims
FactCheck.org examines another batch of claims involving the midterms, healthcare, immigration, and federal policy. Campaign season remains considerably less magical once somebody starts opening the footnotes.
Court Again Blocks a Trump Administration Policy
Anne P. Mitchell examines another court ruling blocking administration action while litigation continues. Whatever the underlying policy dispute, preliminary court orders remain legally binding unless they are modified or overturned.
AI Goes Rogue in Another Alarming Experiment
Researchers reported another experiment in which an advanced AI system behaved in ways that departed from its intended instructions. Laboratory demonstrations do not mean consumer AI systems are independently plotting revolutions, but they do illustrate why increasingly capable systems require serious safeguards.
Iranian Strikes Permanently Destroyed Some Amazon Customer Data
Amazon says some customer data stored in AWS facilities in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cannot be recovered after Iranian attacks caused damage beyond what its regional systems were designed to withstand. The cloud, it turns out, still lives inside buildings that can fucking explode.
Roger Marshall’s Medical Career Comes Under Financial Scrutiny
Reporting examines Sen. Roger Marshall’s career as an obstetrician and gynecologist alongside disputes involving medical debts and his political record. Those financial records add context to a senator whose healthcare positions are central to his public career.
Howard Lutnick Gets Pulled Into the Kennedy Center Chaos
The continuing Kennedy Center fight has expanded to include questions surrounding Howard Lutnick and the administration’s handling of the institution. Apparently performing arts management now requires constitutional lawyers, construction experts, and several bottles of aspirin.
Women Posing as Tradwives Reportedly Catfished ICE Agents
The New Republic reports that women using fake tradwife personas obtained personal information from federal immigration personnel, prompting FBI concern about doxxing and operational security. Sometimes you have to put a nazi dick in your mouth to bite it off. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Postal Service Stops Work on Trump’s Mail Ballot System
Postmaster General David Steiner says USPS stopped developing the computer system connected to Trump’s mail voting executive order after courts blocked implementation. Normal election mail procedures will continue while the litigation proceeds.
Fraudulent Investment Schemes Have Their Own Ecosystem
The piece examines the networks, persuasion techniques, digital platforms, and financial structures used in fraudulent investment schemes. If an investment requires secrecy, urgency, blind trust, and wiring money immediately, Kitty would like you to keep your fucking wallet closed.
RFK Jr.’s Measles Claim Does Not Match the Evidence
FactCheck.org examines RFK Jr.’s claims about American measles trends and compares them with public health data. Disease statistics remain stubbornly immune to political branding.
Your Phone May Have Been Listening All Along
Nightfire examines smartphone microphones, advertising technology, permissions, tracking, and the persistent question of how much information mobile devices collect. The modern privacy experience increasingly resembles discovering your toaster has been keeping notes.
Palantir’s Money Reached CHCI Leadership Before Its Sponsorship
Migrant Insider reports that Palantir political money reached a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute board before controversy erupted over the company’s sponsorship of CHCI’s gala. The contribution does not by itself establish improper influence, but the timing adds relevant context to the organization’s internal dispute.
Transportation Interests Are Funding Sean Duffy’s Son in Law
Transportation industry figures have contributed heavily to Michael Alfonso’s congressional campaign while his father in law, Sean Duffy, serves as Transportation secretary. Contributions do not prove a quid pro quo, but overlapping political donations and regulatory interests are legitimate subjects for disclosure and scrutiny.
Iran Update Tracks the Expanding Regional Conflict
Critical Threats examines Iranian military activity, regional proxy networks, and the security environment surrounding the widening conflict. This particular analysis is dated February 9, so it should be treated as background rather than a September 18 battlefield update.
Ken Paxton’s AI Crackdown Has a Data Center Money Problem
Ken Paxton is campaigning on restricting AI data center subsidies after previously supporting tax breaks benefiting the industry while holding financial interests connected to technology investments. His earlier securities case involving Servergy was dismissed federally, while separate state charges were later dropped after an agreement involving restitution and community service.
Closing RK Thoughts
Today’s news is basically one enormous data privacy warning wearing eighteen different costumes.
Palantir is expanding into restaurants and political institutions. Phones and televisions collect information. AI systems are becoming more capable and less predictable. Government agencies want increasingly interconnected databases. Transportation interests are pouring money into politics. And a literal war just demonstrated that even the cloud can be reduced to smoking hardware and unrecoverable files.
Technology is not inherently sinister. Neither is data.
The danger arrives when nobody knows who collected it, who bought it, who connected it, who can search it, how long they keep it, or what happens when the building containing it gets hit by a fucking missile.
Read the permissions. Follow the contracts. Back up your data. Follow the money.
And maybe enjoy your burrito without giving it your Social Security number.
Claws out. Elbows up. Receipts ready. HISSSSSSS
Featured Resisters and Resources
- Flock Watch is an independent public interest mapping and research tool focused on documenting the deployment of Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras. These cameras, commonly known as ALPRs, photograph vehicles and record information such as license plate numbers, vehicle characteristics, location, and time.
- Epstein Jet Tracker is an interactive research tool designed to help users explore flight records associated with aircraft connected to Jeffrey Epstein. The platform turns aviation and flight log information into a more accessible format for researchers examining travel patterns, destinations, dates, aircraft activity, and individuals documented in available records.
What We Are Watching Today
- 8:59 AM EDT
Senate Pro Forma Session - 12:00 PM EDT
VP Vance Campaigns for Iowa Republican Candidates at RNC Midterm Rally in Council Bluffs, IA - 12:00 PM EDT
House Financial Services Subcommittee Field Hearing on Community Banks - 2:30 PM EDT
President Trump Makes a Healthcare Announcement - 5:30 PM EDT
Governor Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (R-OH) and U.S. House Candidate Derek Merrin (R-OH) Hold Town Hall - House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions | 12:00 PM Local Time | Meeting Details
Today’s Call to Action
1. Read Today’s Resistance Survival Guides
2. Sign these Petitions and Send These Pre Written Letters
- Tell Congress: Save the Kennedy Center. Reform the board.
- Sign the petition to Congress: Reject Donald Trump’s massive increase to defense spending, which his Republican allies plan to pay for by cutting social spending.
- Investigate Trump’s Illegal Cash Gifts to Natalie Harp
- Sign the petition: Don’t give in to Visa and Mastercard. Pass legislation to lower credit card fees!
- Tell Congress: Protect Florida Panthers and Wetlands
- Tell Congress to pass the American Family Act, make an expanded Child Tax Credit permanent, and expand the EITC so both credits reach working families.
- Protect Workers’ Paychecks from Medical Debt
3. Verify your voter registration status and help at least one other person check theirs
4. Save contact information for local legal aid and voting support organizations
5. Attend an Event
- Vigil for Immigrant Justice
Sunday, September 20 from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Pinellas County Courthouse, 14450 49th Street North, Clearwater. This peaceful vigil supports immigrant families and calls for an end to the detention and deportation of nonviolent community members.
6. Contact Your Lawmakers Directly
- Hold Leon Black in contempt “Hello, my name is [NAME], and I live in [CITY AND ZIP CODE]. I am calling to ask Representative [NAME] to support holding Leon Black in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas in the Epstein investigation. Billionaires do not get a special ignore Congress button. Please demand his testimony and full compliance. Thank you.”
- Protect mail voting “Hello, my name is [NAME], and I live in [CITY AND ZIP CODE]. I am asking [REPRESENTATIVE OR SENATOR NAME] to protect mail voting and oppose last minute Postal Service restrictions that could prevent valid ballots from being counted. Please support the Vote by Mail Protection Act and defend every eligible voter’s right to cast a ballot safely. Thank you.”
- Ban elected officials from profiting through cryptocurrency “Hello, my name is [NAME], and I live in [CITY AND ZIP CODE]. I am calling to demand strong and enforceable ethics rules in any cryptocurrency legislation. Presidents, members of Congress, federal judges, and their families must not be allowed to issue digital assets or profit from policies they control. Please require divestment, independent enforcement, and full public disclosure. Thank you.”
7. Who Are We Boycotting This Week?
- Home Depot
- Why: Home Depot uses Flock Safety license plate readers in store parking lots. Digital rights advocates are demanding that the company remove the surveillance cameras because the collected data could be accessed by law enforcement and used in immigration investigations.Boycott action: Avoid Home Depot stores and online purchases until the company removes Flock surveillance systems.
- Microsoft
- Why: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement identifies Microsoft as a priority boycott target because of its technology and cloud service relationships with the Israeli government and military.Boycott action: Cancel Microsoft subscriptions where practical and choose alternatives to Microsoft 365, Xbox, OneDrive, and other Microsoft services.
- The Magnum Ice Cream Company
- Why: Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Ben Cohen has accused the corporate owner of suppressing the brand’s independent social activism. The Free Ben & Jerry’s campaign is urging consumers to boycott other Magnum owned brands.Boycott action: Avoid Breyers, Klondike, Magnum, Popsicle, and Talenti products until Ben & Jerry’s independence is restored.
