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Welcome to the Bogosity Podcast for the week of August 3rd 2025,
the podcast that turned lose the juice.
This is your host, Shane Killian. Let's abnegate the News of the Bogus.
You know, it wasn't a great week for me,
but once again, I can see the sun peek out from behind the dark, stormy clouds
and lift my spirits with just a single thought:
At least I don't live in Australia!
In what had to have given the world's most popular video site a serious case of whiplash,
the Australian government did an about-face again, mere months after the last one,
and said that below-16-year-olds are now banned from the platform.
It follows on from November when Parliament passed laws, first of its kind in the world,
banning children from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X.
YouTube was given an exemption, but not any more.
Communications Minister Anika Wells released new rules that decide which online services must restrict children.
After December 10, these platforms will face fines up to $50 million
if they fail to take "responsible steps" to ban underage account holders.
They did absolutely nothing to say what "responsible steps" means.
Wells vowed that her government would not be intimidated by YouTube's threats of legal action,
in a statement mimicking a schoolyard bully
who says his efforts to steal lunch money won't be bullied by threats of telling the principal.
Quote: "We will not be intimidated by legal threats
when this is a genuine fight for the wellbeing of Australian kids."
Yeah, really.
YouTube said in a statement, quote: "Our position remains clear:
YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content,
increasingly viewed on TV screens. It's not social media."
Yeah, we've all seen everything they've done over the last decade
to make sure every last bit of anything social has been excised from the site.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, quote:
"I know from the discussions I've had with other leaders that they are looking at this
and they are considering what impact social media is having on young people in their respective nations.
It is a common experience. This is not an Australian experience."
Because of course the idea is to use this as model legislation in Europe, America, and other countries.
But then, of course, there are all of the problems we've pointed out
with all of the age verification laws they've been passing in Europe and various US states.
Of that, Wells said:
"Platforms have to provide an alternative to providing your own
personal identification documents to satisfy themselves of age."
Yeah, just figure it out somehow!
At what point will they realize that this is not going to achieve anything?
Of course, they do realize that, because it's been pointed out to them time and time again.
Once again, we see how "protect the children" is just an excuse for government control and surveillance.
There definitely needs to be more voices speaking out against this
and many other assaults against freedom of speech, which seem to be ramping up lately.
Remember that free speech isn't just about the right of people to speak; it's about the right of others to hear.
And in case you're thinking the risks involved in identity verification are overstated,
stick around for the next segment.
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What's bad? A data breach of a site that exposed the personal information of 72,000 users.
What's worse? When that data breach includes pictures of their ID!
It was always inevitable once governments started passing AML/KYC laws,
and indeed it's happened once or twice already, but this one is big.
The app is called Tea, which allows women to post comments about men they don't like. As in, spill the tea on them.
It sounds like one of those things that started as a good idea.
Women felt they needed an app where, if they got catfished online,
they could let other women know who that man really was.
They could even let you do background checks to tell if he's a criminal,
or see his real marital status—in case he lied about that.
And indeed, there are many risks with dating apps.
And so this was meant to mitigate some of those risks with women.
But where it went from there?
It was always a little bit of a privacy violation,
but then, if you're going to put your real self out there, you have to lower those expectations.
But the site ended up going way beyond anything reasonable.
I mean, come on, we all know how exes can be! Many breakups are amiable, but in other cases?
The ex—whether male or female—is just out to trash the other person to everyone in the world.
So it basically became a defamation app.
A woman's ex, or even someone who just turned her down,
can find themselves publicly trashed on the site without any sort of verification whatsoever.
Basically, it's the ultimate gossip app for women of the worst sorts.
It doesn't help that in the terms of service,
Tea disclaims themselves of all liability for false information
and says that's solely the responsibility of the user.
They also say you're not to use the app to defame anyone or abuse them or whatever,
but there's no indication that they ever actually police that.
And there's no system whatsoever that lets men notify the app and its users that it has false information about them.
And even worse, it became a doxxing app, where women were sharing personal details of men they dated or tried to date.
Which is why a lot of people find it completely ironic what happened next.
See, to verify the women's identity,
they had to take a selfie of themselves holding up their driver's license or other government ID.
Just like other KYC websites such as crypto exchanges.
And it all got hacked by 4chan.
The initial post announcing the hack started a thread where 4channers shared images they were pulling from the site
of women's information and their ID and pictures.
Now, I say hacked, it really wasn't.
Because Tea didn't have any of these behind any sort of privacy shield, password protection, or anything else!
They were all stored in the plain on public-facing URLs!
The 4chan post read: "Yes, if you sent Tea App your face and drivers license, they doxxed you publicly!
No authentication, no nothing. It's a public bucket.
I have written a Python script which scrapes the bucket and downloads all the images,
page by page, so you can see if you're in it."
Remember: pictures aren't just pictures, but metadata as well,
so most of them had the GPS coordinates of where the person was when they took the selfie.
Which is really awkward for the person who did it while working on the flight line at a top secret military base!
Cue the memes.
The Tea developers said in a statement:
"We have engaged third-party cybersecurity experts and are working around the clock to secure our systems.
At this time, we have implemented additional security measures and have fixed the data issue."
In unrelated news, a farming company said in a statement:
"We have engaged third-party locksmiths and are working around the clock
to close the barn doors now that the horses are long gone."
Morons, the time to have engaged cybersecurity experts would have been when you created the site!
Especially if you're going to make people give up their identities! Doing it now does nothing.
There's no sense in telling these women not to worry, because they should worry!
All the Python scripts that were run to scrape the data have long finished their jobs!
That data is all out there, and you can't remove it any more than you can remove pee from a swimming pool.
And that's really the lesson: whether it's crypto exchanges,
or age verification, or even just apps like this,
your information being stolen isn't a matter of if, but when.
The more sites do this, it won't matter how well they secure it.
Sooner or later, a breach of some kind will happen.
See our previous coverage of the Exquifax, OPM, and Salt Typhoon attacks:
if you have a Social Security number and you're wondering if hackers have it, they do.
And that's with government agencies, credit bureaus, and even the National Guard.
Places where people absolutely would expect them to do everything feasible to protect our private data.
Look, I'm not saying that Tea didn't fuck up (because oh my God did they fuck up!),
but this sort of thing will happen, and is just a matter of time,
the more governments force websites to keep our identifying information!
And the more information they require, the worse it gets!
And this should be all the reason you need—as if we didn't have a thousand others—
to oppose all of the other KYC and adult verification laws
that have been and are being passed, including many we've covered.
Just sign up for HaveIBeenPwned.
You'll find there are all sorts of breaches going on all the time from all sorts of websites.
For example, recently tea of a different sort got hacked
when attackers swiped 160,000 records from Creams Café, "the UK's favourite dessert parlour,"
including emails, physical addresses, names, and phone numbers.
Now if that had been an age verification site, what else would the hackers have gotten?
By the way, does anyone else remember when the advice was never to give out any of your personal information online?
So okay, laugh at the irony of Tea and say that they and the horrible women on it got their just deserts.
But sooner or later, it'll be you or me.
And identity theft remains one of the most terrible things that can happen to a person,
that many never recover from. That is what is at stake here.
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So, you remember Trump threatening to primary Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie
and we were wondering how he was going to do that, given Massie's extensive grassroots support?
Well, we've got our first preview.
The MAGA KY super PAC has raised $2 million in the last two months, apparently with a focus on unseating Massie.
According to an FEC filing on Thursday, half of that money came from Paul Singer,
billionaire hedge fund manager and one of the top contributors
to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
In 2016, Singer helped bankroll a PAC dedicated to stopping Trump from getting elected,
and historically has given to establishment candidates such as Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney.
He also funded opposition research that led to the Steele Dossier.
Most of the rest came from the Preserve America PAC, tied to Miriam Adelson,
billionaire widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and one of the most influential Republican Party donors.
She also has traditionally supported establishment Republicans like Mitt Romney and Nikki Haley.
And pretty much all of the rest came from billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson,
who serves on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations.
He profited massively from the 2008 financial crisis and was also a supporter of Mitt Romney.
And apparently, this is just the start.
This super PAC is drawing massive funding from three of the wealthiest establishment Republican Party donors,
with several months to go before the Kentucky primary in May.
And that could mean massively outspending any grassroots campaign,
probably by running attack ads saying he's disloyal to Trump and MAGA,
focusing on things like his opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Of course, Massie's from Kentucky, so he should know how to make hay.
I mean, come on: establishment Republican billionaires? So much for MAGA being populist!
Massie wouldn't have to outspend them
to run enough ads pointing out that he's just being a target of the wealthy Republican elite.
That could end up galvanizing his grassroots base.
Of course, that kind of funding can be a strain on a grassroots campaign,
so it would mostly depend on individual activity of Massie's supporters
both in the real world and on social media.
Massie was in office for four years before Trump was elected,
and he staved off the Republican primary challengers before.
And they also still don't have a candidate to oppose him.
But I wouldn't be at all surprised if they've got some establishment hack waiting in the wings somewhere.
We'll just have to see how this goes, I guess.
In the meantime, like I said: so much for Trump being against the Republican establishment!
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And now it's time to incapacitate this week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.
And it's yet another one for The New York Times as they just can't seem to admit the truth about the RussiaGate hoax.
The story is about the NSA firing its top lawyer April Doss,
who had publicly advocated for Trump to be banned from public platforms.
The move comes after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revealed documents
containing many more details about the conspiracy of, quote: "manufactured intelligence"
designed to sabotage Trump's campaign and later his first presidential term.
Senator Mark Warner, then top Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel,
hired Doss specifically to try and tie Trump to Russia.
Warner said, quote: "We should be outraged by the firing of April Doss, a deeply principled public servant,
apparently for the role that she played in the Senate Intelligence Committee's
bipartisan investigation into Russian election interference.
Her dismissal appears to be the result of a politically motivated smear campaign
driven by a far-right conspiracy theorist, not any legitimate concern about her conduct or qualifications."
Apologies to everyone whose Irony Meter just exploded.
Doss repeatedly advocated for using the full force of the security state
to clamp down on "misinformation," which quite often turned out to be wrong.
That included using vaccine hesitancy as a justification for lockdowns,
and blaming Republican "extremists" for the manufactured plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer.
Doss also falsely accused Trump of "insurrection" even though he was never even charged with it,
and the only legal forum to examine it, his Senate trial following his second impeachment,
resulted in a not guilty verdict.
Her strong advocacy for government censorship and clamping down on tech firms and social media,
including the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story,
went opposite to the Administration's policy, not to mention the Constitution.
NSA officials had concealed how Doss was hired, and The New York Times (among several others)
worked directly with Democrats to spread misinformation after she was terminated.
They blamed it on Laura Loomer, saying, quote:
"A far-right conspiracy theorist had amplified criticism of the lawyer and her previous work."
That apparently consisted of a single X post sharing The Daily Wire's reporting on the story,
while omitting the details of the actual findings.
And that gave cover to the others. Almost immediately, MSNBC posted:
"Right-wing influencer allegedly helps oust a National Security Agency leader (again),"
and The Daily Beast wrote: "Witch Hunter Laura Loomer Claims Scalp of NSA's Top Lawyer."
This is just silly. It's extremely unlikely to say the least
that the DNI investigation got its information from Laura Loomer
instead of all of the internal intelligence they had in their hands.
As for Warner, the only thing he really had to say in response to the report was, quote:
"What was Tulsi Gabbard trying to distract from with her insulting lies about the Russia investigation?"
I swear, it's hard to keep all the conspiracy cranks straight these days.
The only thing that we can really be certain of is that The New York Times is this week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.
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And now let's absquatulationificize this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.
Okay, somebody here is a major idiot. The only thing I'm sure about right now is that it's not me.
But this is really a story about how all the anti-AI people are running out of arguments.
And forgetting basic chemistry to boot!
The complaint is that AI uses datacenters, and datacenters use water,
and water is scarce in some places like Texas, therefore AI is bad.
This is from The Economic Times, and doesn't that name just fill you with confidence?
The opening paragraph reads like something straight out of a Marxist playbook, quote:
"Amid the ongoing worsening drought condition in Texas, the State's residents face an unexpected water dilemma:
while communities are urged to conserve every drop, even cutting back on simple showers,
massive new AI data centers are quietly using millions of gallons daily
to keep their operations running, as per a report."
See? You're not allowed to use water! Why are they?
Mind you, they didn't do anything as useful as actually linking to the report.
But the first one they mentioned was Microsoft's Stargate campus.
First problem: the Stargate campus isn't even up and running yet!
Also, Texas is a huge state.
While the western part of the state has low rainfall and even desert conditions,
much of the eastern part of the state has plenty of water.
As for these datacenters, that water will evaporate indoors.
But if you're in a dry area, the HVAC system will be maintaining humidity anyway.
So that just means the HVAC system will draw less water from outside to maintain indoor humidity.
They dazzle you with an Over 9000 Fallacy by saying, quote:
"Texas AI centers guzzle 463 million gallons."
First of all, they're not all about AI, they're just datacenters,
but apart from that, they're not giving you the context.
As with all statistics, and regular listeners should know the question to ask right now: "Compared to what?"
Texans use 4.95 trillion gallons of water every year.
So datacenters account for about 0.001% of that! One part in 10,700!
That's not even a drop in the bucket! But anyway, let's get to the stupidity.
Robert Mace is the executive director of The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University.
So you'd think he knows what he's talking about. But he said, quote:
"People don't think of data centers as industrial water users, but they are.
Once that water evaporates, it's just gone."
Uh...what???
And the article goes on to say, quote: "Some water is recycled,
but a large portion evaporates during cooling and is lost forever."
I always had an uneasy inkling that this is what environmentalists actually believe,
but seeing it in print like this? Geez...
Idiocy aside, this is the thing that gets me about government.
Water is the ultimate renewable resource. But as Milton Friedman said,
put government in charge of the Sahara and you'll end up with a shortage of sand.
We can ship a barrel of oil halfway around the world for a dollar
(as long as stupid governments aren't increasing the price with artificial shortages),
but government can't move water more than a dozen or so miles away.
That's the difference between government and the free market.
But that means government needs someone to blame.
When California badly mismanaged its water systems,
draining major lakes and waterways and paving rivers with levees
so that clean, potable water just goes straight out to the ocean,
leading the state with arguably the greatest water resources in the country to drought-type restrictions,
they had to blame everything from almond farmers to global warming.
And we saw idiocy like claiming that a gallon of water was somehow embedded into every almond and lost forever.
Of course not! That water just went somewhere else.
That's what water does. So now, blame AI. Because why not, I guess.
But again, no matter what, the water goes somewhere. It always comes back.
That's the water cycle we all learned about in school.
There is tons of potable water all over the continental US.
If we'd left it to market forces, there'd be a nice,
efficient nationwide infrastructure just like there is with gasoline.
Price would fluctuate based on conditions, meaning that you wouldn't have to pass any sort of restrictions;
people would naturally restrict their water use
the way they naturally restrict the gasoline they use when shortages happen.
And the result is that it would be much more plentiful everywhere than it is anywhere right now.
And even if you are in an area where you'd need to desalinate water, hey, that's another reason for nuclear power!
Because with just a few extra inexpensive systems,
nuclear power can desalinate water and turn it into potable water delivered to the area.
In fact, both the World Nuclear Association and the IAEA
have been recommending nuclear desalination for over two decades!
And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.
Who knows what entrepreneurs would come up with given the chance?
There would be so many business opportunities for large-scale potable water
if government would just get out of it!
At the very least, we wouldn't be saddled with so-called "experts"
who think that water goes away forever when it evaporates!
So all of that makes Robert Mace and The Economic Times this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.
Well, that wraps up this "the pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle"
edition of the Bogosity Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it;
if you did, please go to donate.bogosity.tv for several ways to support,
and discord.bogosity.tv to join the discussion. Subscribe at the Discord,
Patreon, or SubscribeStar and you can listen early and ad-free.
Thank you for listening. Until next time, here's a quote from F.A. Hayek:
"Through the inevitable mismanagement of resources and goods at the disposal of the state,
all forms of collectivism lead eventually to tyranny."
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