The Bogosity Podcast, early and ad-free!
Become a subscriber at Patreon, SubscribeStar, or Discord.
Use the links at donate.bogosity.tv.
Welcome to the Bogosity Podcast for the week of November 23 2025,
the podcast that used to love me but she died.
This is your host, Shane Killian.
Next week is Thanksgiving in the United States, and that means no podcast.
We'll have just a couple of podcasts for December, and then our final break for our 2025 year in review!
But for now, let's micronize the News of the Bogus.
And we have to start with the big Cloudflare outage you couldn't have missed this week,
where some 60% of websites all over the world were unreachable.
It's ironic, because the whole point of Cloudflare is to make sure that sort of thing doesn't happen!
On the 18th at 11:20 UTC, Cloudflare began delivering an error page
between the user and the host, which was generally shown to be working.
Cloudflare said on their blog:
"The issue was not caused, directly or indirectly, by a cyber attack or malicious activity of any kind.
Instead, it was triggered by a change to one of our database systems' permissions
which caused the database to output multiple entries into a 'feature file' used by our Bot Management system.
That feature file, in turn, doubled in size.
The larger-than-expected feature file was then propagated to all the machines that make up our network."
Cloudflare had preallocated memory for a hardcoded limit of 200 features.
That should have been more than enough, because typical use is about 60 features,
although sometimes there are spikes above that.
This new configuration had a bug which caused it to double the number of features,
causing it to exceed the allocated memory.
But the more interesting part of the news is how this bug got into the code to begin with.
Well, that's not really an accurate way to say it.
It wasn't good code that somehow got a bug added.
It happened because they decided to rewrite their code in Rust.
Ironically, the primary purpose of using Rust is to avoid memory allocation errors!
Less than two months prior, Cloudflare had posted a blog post titled,
"Cloudflare just got faster and more secure, powered by Rust."
This wasn't any sort of hamfisted error by Rust beginners. They wrote:
"We weren't starting from scratch.
We've previously blogged about how we replaced another one of our legacy systems with Pingora,
which is built in the Rust programming language.
We've also blogged about Oxy, our internal framework for building proxies in Rust.
We write a lot of Rust, and we've gotten pretty good at it.
We built FL2 in Rust, on Oxy, and built a strict module framework to structure all the logic in FL2."
And they were well aware of the caveats, quote:
"Rust has strong compile-time memory checks and a type system that avoids large classes of errors.
Combine that with our rigid module system, and we can make most changes with high confidence.
Of course, no system is secure if used badly. It's easy to write code in Rust, which causes memory corruption.
To reduce risk, we maintain strong compile time linting and checking,
together with strict coding standards, testing and review processes."
Regardless of what the Rust fans are saying online,
this might not have been the same kind of memory error Rust is made to prevent,
but that didn't matter much to those of us who were just trying to get our work done!
But really, that isn't the big lesson.
I mean, it should be a big lesson not to go changing well-established
and battle-tested legacy code with code written in a brand new programming language.
Rust is still a fledgling language, and specifications are changing by the week in a pretty major way.
Once Rust ends up with both stable specifications and a stable compiler, that might be one thing.
But no, the real problem is that we've gone away from the fundamental principle
driving the Internet's creation: decentralization.
The whole point was to route around problems so this didn't happen!
But this is the new infrastructure.
CDNs like Cloudflare and AWS can go down— as AWS did a few days before,
although it wasn't as bad and didn't cause as much attention—
and moreover, they don't do anything to switch over to alternatives like Internet backbone companies do.
We've talked about before how, as they were known at the time,
Level 3 and Cogent made a deal 20 years ago to just allow traffic
from one over the other's network as long as things didn't get too far out of balance.
But if Cloudflare goes down, it doesn't reroute the packets through AWS or any other provider.
So there's nothing to do if one of them goes down, except for tons of people losing access.
As Eric Florack said on PJ Media: "As designed, the system could deal
with one or two players going dark for whatever reason, and still remain useful.
Thing is, like the American government, which was also designed as a decentralized entity,
there's always some putz who believes that things would go more smoothly
if we were more centralized, allowing the economies of scale to take over.
The very nature of that style of operation is that when problems occur, they're huge ones."
That's been shown to be true of governments, power grids, payment processors, all sorts of things.
Remember when we covered a ton of businesses worldwide going down at the same time
just because they were all running Microsoft Windows?
Centralization is bad.
But instead of getting rid of the kind of centralization that still exists,
like with DNS and IP addresses, we keep adding on more centralization.
We covered how it was exactly this that allowed a clandestine government operation via social media actors
to take down Parler, which was intended to be a competitor to Patreon.
Now we know a wide-scale outage is possible.
Are you really telling me there are no governments out there ready to take advantage of that?
They were scribbling a lot of notes that day, I'm sure!
We must decentralize. It's the only way forward.
Or we'll move backward into the dark ages where every word was controlled by the state.
Presenting: the greatest game this side of Yuggoth!
You are H.P. Lovecraft's cat, and your name is Ni***
...Right. We can't say that on a podcast.
Anyway, that's the point: Your name is a joke to him.
So now, you are out for revenge!
Using the Necronomicon, you come to the present day to buy a gun
to go vanquish him once and for all.
But the Necronomicon is devious, and it summoned Lovecraft's monsters as well.
Now, in a crumbling world, you must fight for the revenge you seek.
Fight monsters.
Gain allies.
Buy guns and armor for yourself and your team.
Defeat the bosses of each level.
Then get your revenge against Lovecraft himself.
Play Lovecraft's Cat!
The link is at cat.bogosity.tv.
Yeah, we're doing cat.bogosity.tv, not...that other one.
What, you want me to get kicked off the Internet or something?
We've talked a couple of times about the trend of companies
deincorporating in Delaware to move somewhere else, generally Texas.
Used to be, Delaware was the place you wanted to incorporate
because they were by far the most business-friendly state in the country.
That was actually a major selling point that the state bragged about.
Then came the Biden family corruption of the court system
and all sorts of businesses found themselves the victim of blatant lawfare.
Tesla wasn't the first, but it was the first to gain nationwide if not worldwide attention.
The stockholders' decision to move the company from Delaware to Texas
was one that ended up being mirrored by several others.
Aside from other Elon-based companies like X and SpaceX, those making the move
include Chevron, Yum! (who owns KFC), Oracle, HP, McAfee, and many others.
Some estimated 200 companies have relocated to Texas since 2020.
And now, we can add one more to the list. Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer of Coinbase, posted on X:
"Today Coinbase is announcing our decision to leave Delaware and reincorporate in Texas.
This decision was not made lightly,
but we'll always do what's best for our customers, our employees, and our shareholders.
Coinbase is not the first company to make this decision. We surely won't be the last."
How many of you are old enough to remember Ross Perot?
One of the sayings he was famous for was the "giant sucking sound,"
to describe jobs moving from the US to Mexico.
What we have here is a Ross Perot "giant sucking sound" from Delaware to Texas!
In fact, the Internet now has a term for it: "Dexit"!
But this also goes into what I was saying in the previous segment about decentralization.
Having different states that businesses can move to
if one of them gets too difficult to deal with is a feature, not a bug.
Quote: "Competition among states is healthy
and it empowers businesses and innovators that are on ambitious paths.
Texas' corporate legal framework offers the right mix of efficiency,
predictability, and fairness to be our home for incorporation."
At the very least, having clear, stable rules lets you know how you can move forward,
without the constant fear of some crooked little judge getting their sights on you.
Quote: "What we are seeing is a return to a free market economy in all things,
including regulation and judicial review."
We can only hope.
If you're on the Wi-Fi in a coffee shop or hotel,
anyone on that network can get access to your traffic.
Do you really trust all of those strangers?
For that matter, do you really trust your ISP?
A VPN can protect you from prying eyes, disguise your location, and even foil government censors.
It's essential in this day and age, so go to vpn.bogosity.tv and you'll be taken to BoxPN.
Starting at just $2.99/month,
you can get unlimited high-speed connections to VPN servers all over the world,
and they don't log connections so your privacy is assured.
Travelling abroad, just VPN home and don't worry about what those other governments are doing.
Back at home, stop your ISP from traffic-shaping
and messing with the quality internet access you're paying good money for.
You can connect from multiple machines at once, including your smartphone or tablet,
and it supports all the secure standards including OpenVPN and SSTP.
Bypass censors and surveillance with your own secure VPN connection.
Go to vpn.bogosity.tv.
I swear, every time a new technology comes around the government finds a way to make it sinister and evil.
With all of the societal benefits that come with AI,
one of them will not be making it easier for police to bypass the Fourth Amendment and spy on everyone.
But that's exactly what's going on with Flock Safety cameras,
whose initial target was HOAs and gated communities who needed good security systems over a fairly large area.
The idea was to read the license plates of everyone who entered the community,
so unauthorized people could be found before they caused trouble.
Like Ring doorbells, they were initially considered to be a great idea,
giving homeowners a secure way to deal with strangers at the door,
make sure parcels were properly delivered, and so on.
Then Ring started making deals with the devil to offer video to cops,
sparking a controversy that taints the company to this day.
Flock Safety has gone the same way.
They started actively marketing their cameras to police departments
so they could follow cars around everywhere with no warrant required.
They also made a centralized database
where police departments could follow people even when they were outside their jurisdiction.
Aside from the major Fourth Amendment violations and the problems that always stem from them,
it also didn't take long for them to be abused, such as a vengeful cop boyfriend
using his access to the system to stalk a girlfriend who had gotten a medical abortion.
It's a serious problem when police have unfettered access to that sort of information.
And it's such a big problem that even the local police are realizing it,
at least when it comes to federal agencies grabbing more power than they should have.
Now, CBP and ICE, and I wouldn't at all doubt it if other agencies
like the FBI and DHS were doing this, too, are using Flock Safety to perform searches
they otherwise wouldn't be allowed to do themselves under the Constitution.
It's gotten so bad that two Washington cities, Redmond and Lynwood, shut off their cameras entirely.
In Redmond, it was a unanimous act of City Council to shut off the cameras.
The Lynnwood Police Department has also turned off their cameras, citing similar concerns.
Police Chief Cole Langdon said, quote:
"Flock cameras have already proven to be an invaluable investigative tool
in solving crimes and keeping our community safe.
However, it's equally important that we maintain the public's trust."
Yes, you should have thought of that before you put the cameras up to begin with!
Unconstitutional spying is unconstitutional spying, whether it's done by your people or the feds.
Redmond's police chief, Darrell Lowe, said there was no improper access of the cameras in Redmond on his watch,
but how would they know? There's no guarantee that Flock Safety
even notifies local cops if their data is searched by others.
Another problem is, Flock can't really be trusted.
They've been caught illegally installing cameras,
and in Evanston, Illinois, it was caught reinstalling the cameras
after the city ordered them removed as a violation of state privacy laws.
Meanwhile, the EFF and the ACLU are suing over the cameras.
The Supreme Court has already ruled that warrantless tracking of cars and license plates is unconstitutional.
That shouldn't change just because a third party is the one enabling them to do the tracking.
Hopefully the courts will see it that way.
I want to tell you about the eyeglasses I've been wearing for years.
As people can see on my videos, I have a very strong prescription,
which makes glasses more expensive, especially when I need computer glasses,
reading glasses, prescription sunglasses,
and most expensively, progressive lenses for general everyday wear.
To save money while still getting quality glasses, I get them from Firmoo.
In fact, I just got a pair of progressives with high index aspherical lenses
in a nice pair of frames my wife loves, for just over $100.
It would have been $500 to get them through my eye doctor.
Not only do they look good, the glasses are durable.
I've worn many pairs for several years without problems.
All orders come with a 30-day return policy,
a 3-month warranty, and one-on-one customer service.
Go to firmoo.bogosity.tv any time you need quality glasses at a low price.
Once again, that's firmoo.bogosity.tv.
And now it's time to decarboxylate this week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.
So we need to say something about all the Jeffrey Epstein stuff going around,
not that it's possible that you've missed much of it.
But we'll focus on someone we've covered several times over
and shown to be just a horrible human being all around:
Stacey Plaskett, honorary Congressional representative for the Virgin Islands
who somehow managed to finagle her way into a senior position in the Intelligence Committee.
She also sits on the Ways and Means Committee and the House Budget Committee.
Turns out, during that 2019 hearing where Donald Trump was accused of hiding an affair
to engage in election tampering blah blah blah,
she was actively texting with Jeffrey Epstein to get the proper response
to difficult questions being put to serial perjurer Michael Cohen.
The texts show Epstein influencing Plaskett's line of questioning, for example, quote:
"He's opened the door to questions re who are the other henchmen at Trump Org."
She replied: "Yup. Very aware and waiting my turn."
And yes, this was after he became a convicted child sex offender.
Here's what the sorry-ass corrupt official had to say for herself:
PLASKETT: There are a lot of people who have done a lot of crimes,
and as a prosecutor, you get information from people where you can.
I've interviewed confidential informants, I've interviewed narcotics,
drug traffickers, and others, and that doesn't mean that I'm their friend.
KILLIAN: I don't know how gullible she thinks we are, but when you interview CIs and drug traffickers,
you do it in the formal environment of an interrogation or a deposition.
She was texting back and forth with him as questioning was going on,
with nothing that had to do with any facts, but tactics as to how to question the witnesses!
It was clearly inappropriate, but try getting the party flunkies like Hakim Jeffries to admit that.
KAITLAN COLLINS: But do you think it was appropriate for her to be texting with Jeffrey Epstein
11 years after he pleaded guilty?
JEFFRIES: I mean, I have not had a conversation with Stacey Plaskett to discuss this issue
because we've been focused today on making sure that there was a decisive vote
as it related to the Epstein files and the release.
I'm thankful for the work of Representative Massie, of Ro Khanna, but most importantly, the survivors.
COLLINS: Do you plan to talk to her about it?
JEFFRIES: I think that we successfully defeated a resolution that lacked any basis,
was not credible, and was being brought by an individual who was trying to weaponize this issue
to reinvigorate his own failed gubernatorial campaign in South Carolina.
It was rejected on a bipartisan basis on the floor today.
That's the end of the story.
COLLINS: I was just asking if you personally believe messaging with Jeffrey Epstein,
who is, at that point, a registered sex offender, is appropriate for a member of the House Democratic Caucus?
JEFFRIES: That's the third time that you've asked me this question, and I'm going to give you the same exact answer.
Our focus today is on making sure that the Jeffrey Epstein files were released.
If you want to have a conversation with Stacey Plaskett about it, I'm sure she'd be willing to talk to you.
It was an illegitimate effort to try to remove her from the House Committee on Intelligence,
and that was defeated in a bipartisan way.
KILLIAN: Right, it's always someone else's fault, isn't it?
But remember this quote from him that is most telling about the kind of person he is:
"That's the third time that you've asked me this question, and I'm going to give you the same exact answer."
He just admits that he's going to keep giving you the runaround on it.
The big question is: why is she still allowed to sit on the committee?
And does anyone really believe that was the only time Epstein was coaching her?
As for the King of De Nile, Jamie Raskin, let's listen to a very short clip of him trying to defend her:
RASKIN: They've arraigned a Democratic member for taking a phone call from her constituent,
Jeffrey Epstein in the middle of a hearing, and of course,
I-I-I don't think there's any rule here against taking phone calls.
KILLIAN: Yeah, that's about all of his whinnying I can stand.
Here's what James Comer had to say in response to his bad faith red herring strawman
(geez, how many dishonest tactics can Raskin put into one sentence?):
COMER: Jamie Raskin's full of crap. He's the definition of Congressional hypocrisy.
Can you imagine if that were Donald Trump or me or some Republican that Raskin doesn't like
that was texting with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender
who the Democrats have now become obsessed over
because they hope and pray that he has something to do with Donald Trump?
If we were texting with him during a committee hearing? I mean, it's preposterous!
Remember, Jamie Raskin appointed Stacey Plaskett to be on the impeachment,
to be an impeachment manager of Donald Trump.
And here we find out she was communicating with Jeffrey Epstein in a plot take down Donald Trump.
So for Jamie Raskin to try to defend that on the House floor in front of America
is par for the course for Jamie Raskin, but it's the definition of hypocrisy.
KILLIAN: So, Epstein, who just happened to have his little island in the Virgin Islands,
also had the ear of an important committee member— the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee!
Add to that revelations from a couple years ago, published in Business Insider,
that revealed she helped him get $300 million in tax incentives
and be able to fly people to his island without going through customs.
He also gave money to Jeffries, whom he called "Brooklyn's Barack."
And yet, they're trying to use this as a brickbat against Trump. It's as sleazy as it is slick.
So all of that makes Stacey Plaskett and the other Democrats this week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.
Do you have children? Or nieces or nephews?
Are you homeschooling, or just want to counter
some of the socialist indoctrination most children get in school?
If so, go to bogosity.tv/tuttletwins, and you'll be taken to a website
where you can get some great books for elementary-aged children.
The Tuttle Twins books are books about liberty and free market economics
that include children's versions of Bastiat's The Law, Leonard Read's I, Pencil,
and Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, as well as books about the Federal Reserve
and how regulations protect business cronies.
They'll learn about the harm caused by eminent domain,
or regulations passed in the name of safety, and fundamental concepts of liberty.
And as you can see from the sample pages on the website,
they're all easy to read and nicely illustrated.
They're just $9.99 apiece, or get a special discount
as well as free bonuses when you purchase all five.
You can even buy in bulk to donate to schools and local libraries.
So get the Tuttle Twins books at bogosity.tv/tuttletwins.
And now let's hyperhampercamperflummoxificationalize this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.
And it's yet another one for RFK Jr., and I guess he's just gonna keep racking them up
until someone comes to their senses and removes him from his position.
He has been a long-time proponent of the just-as-long-debunked claim
that childhood vaccines can cause autism.
He can't prove it, so instead he decided to shift the burden of proof by changing the CDC website to say,
"The claim 'vaccines do not cause autism' is not an evidence-based claim
because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism."
I guess we also haven't ruled out "alien space lasers," either.
As we've covered, autism is a genetic disorder. Vaccines are post-natal.
There's not even an opportunity for overlap!
Or how about the claim that it was caused by thimerosal in the vaccines,
we took out thimerosal, and it made no difference?
He also added that health authorities have ignored the studies supporting the link.
Gee, that couldn't have anything to do with those studies being proven fraudulent, could it?
The horrible baby-killers at Children's Health Defense touted the victory, saying:
"The CDC is beginning to acknowledge the truth about this condition that affects millions,
disavowing the bold, long-running lie that 'vaccines do not cause autism.'"
So, when the government concludes something you don't like, it's political,
and when you maneuver your person in there to change it arbitrarily, suddenly it's acknowledging the truth.
"You can't trust the government— unless it agrees with us!"
He has also claimed that Tylenol taken by pregnant women can cause autism,
a claim backed up by absolutely no scientific evidence whatsoever.
Hopefully this will make everyone learn the lesson,
because as we've covered this isn't just with RFK Jr. and vaccines.
Another example is the psycho ambulance-chasers at PROP
putting misinformation about opioids and addiction into the 2016 opioid guidelines,
resulting in the torture and death of an incalculable number of pain patients.
And the FDA says vaping is just as bad as smoking and the WHO says Wi-Fi causes cancer.
By saying "studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism,"
they're really saying "we're a bunch of morons who have no clue how science, logic, and reason works."
As we've covered, autism is a side effect—and a necessary aspect—of the reason humans are as intelligent as we are.
The root cause of autism happened millions of years ago,
and if it didn't, we'd likely be little smarter than chimpanzees, if that.
Which...Well, it seems some of us are, anyway.
But if you think the CDC was some sort of gold standard for scientific accuracy before RFK Jr.,
well, you might just be as dumb as he is!
So all of that makes RFK Jr. this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.
Well, that wraps up this "don't worry; they say it isn't catching" 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. Remember, no podcast next week, so until the week after,
here's a quote from Frederick Douglass:
"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
The Bogosity Podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
4.0 International license.