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Welcome to the Bogosity Podcast
for the week of February 22 2026,
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the podcast that fears the reaper.
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This is your host, Shane Killian.
Let's peptize the News of the Bogus.
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In the rush of so many people to
blame AI for basically everything,
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we have a new iteration of one of the
most heartbreaking aspects of humanity.
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I mean the decision made by some
people to end their existence.
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It's completely illogical, a final and permanent
reaction to conditions that are temporary,
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and yet, it often happens to people
when no one they knew saw it coming.
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When that happens, there's a
desperate grab for an easy answer,
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generally in the form of finding
someone or something to blame:
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a song, a video game, cyberbullying,
social media, even Amazon!
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Now, as we've covered, there are a rash of lawsuits
against companies such as OpenAI and Character.AI,
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alleging that these mere computer functions are
responsible for the sudden demise of their loved ones.
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It's impossible not to sympathize
with these loved ones,
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and unless you've been through it, you
can never know how you're going to react,
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what or whom you're
going to lash out at.
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But as we've said on this podcast
a few times, there are limits;
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the Sandy Hook plaintiffs in their cases against
Remington and Alex Jones, for an extreme example.
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The people who don't deserve such sympathy
and understanding are the rest of us:
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those of us who didn't know the victim,
should be detached and impartial,
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and still push a narrative
blaming something we don't like.
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And here, the narrative has become
that the AI is the cause of the suicide—
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that it takes someone from a normal, well-adjusted
person and drives them to the ultimate self-harm.
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And that makes no sense whatsoever.
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We actually know very little about what
drives someone to their own death,
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but we do know that it isn't
a single, simple cause.
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That's why clinicians are arguing that the way we
assess such risk needs to be radically altered.
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And as suicide rates continue to rise—it's now the
third leading cause of death of those age 15 to 29—
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we see more and more that relying on people to
self-report that they aren't suicidal isn't enough.
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We need to start understanding the
symptoms that lead to such a state of mind,
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which they call Suicide
Crisis Syndrome, or SCS.
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Going at least as far back as 2017, scientists have
attempted to list and weigh the risk factors for SCS
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to arrive at a number accurately
reflecting the risk in an individual patient.
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And even professional psychiatrists
who treat their patients
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have trouble knowing if a patient is going to
self-exit, even from one weekly session to another.
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A 2021 study in General Hospital Psychiatry
said that half of the decedents they studied
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denied having SI in the week or month
before their suicide. They concluded:
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"The denial of SI among ideators, attempters, and
suicide decedents is an alarmingly common occurrence.
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Findings support the clinical wisdom that denial of SI
is, by itself, an inadequate indicator of suicide risk."
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Not only are there stories of
psychiatrists not seeing it coming,
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there are stories of spouses watching their loved one
go from non-suicidal to making an attempt in mere hours—
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giving them nothing to do but stop
them, and wait for things to get better.
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A 2022 study in the Journal of
Psychiatric Research concluded:
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"There is an urgent need for research on and
implementation of a reliable risk assessment protocol
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that does not rely on SI disclosure."
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The problem is, to do that, we need
a lot more information than we have.
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And that's where these AI
chats can actually help!
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If we can study enough of these chats that people make
during those last hours when they spiral downhill,
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we can get better insight
into their thought processes
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and use them to understand SI and
how to treat and even prevent it.
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It makes no sense to blame the AI.
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But one thing the AI chat does for us:
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it gives us insight into the person's mental
progression (or regression, as it may be)
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in the moments leading
up to their suicide.
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Much better than we could get
from a spouse or a psychiatrist!
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It may be the key to learning about it!
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It's ridiculous to blame the AI,
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and doing so is a narcissistic assumption
that you know more than the experts.
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And suing AI companies doesn't help
anyone except ambulance-chasing lawyers.
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In fact, trying to stop it will take
that very data away from us,
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the innermost thoughts of people
leading up to that final moment.
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They should be sharing their loved
one's chats with professional clinicians,
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who can properly anonymize
and study the data,
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perhaps gaining what we
need to turn this trend around.
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No one who tries to put a stop to that should
be able to claim the moral high ground.
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Time for yet another "we
were right" segment.
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As much as I think the trade deficit is a non-issue—
since what it really is is "Net Foreign Investment"—
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it's also clear that those who fearmonger about it
have no idea what it is or what'll bring it down.
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One of the reasons for Trump's tariffs
is to increase the cost of imports,
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thereby reducing imports,
thereby reducing the trade deficit.
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That will never work, because that's
not why the trade deficit exists!
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Again, if there's no investment either
way, or an equal amount of investment,
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then no matter how much is being imported
and exported between two countries,
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the exchange rates
will balance it out.
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If it doesn't balance, if, say, the Chinese are investing
in the US more than Americans are investing in China,
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that's a positive Net Foreign Investment, which
will show up to dumbos as a trade deficit.
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If that doesn't change, then
neither will the trade deficit.
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Trump called trade deficits, quote: "a national emergency
that threatens our security and our very way of life."
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If he's right (he isn't), then he just
made everything a hell of a lot worse.
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In fact, America's trade deficit with China
in 2025 hit a record high $3.44 trillion!
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That's a $143 billion increase over
2024, despite the massive tariff hikes.
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To make matters even more confusing for the economically
illiterate, exports increased by $123.5 billion!
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The fact is, none of it really matters.
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We have the so-called trade deficit
because we're a wealthy country
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that can afford to buy lots of
stuff from around the world,
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and therefore have a lot of people
from around the world investing in us.
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And it's actually something
that benefits everyone,
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as we've known for the last 200 years thanks to
David Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage,
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one of the few things no school
of economics anywhere denies.
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As Groucho Marx didn't say, "Politics is the art
of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere,
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diagnosing it incorrectly, and
applying the wrong remedy."
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He could have not been
talking about Trump!
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If Trump wanted to know the
effect of tariffs on the trade deficit,
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all he would have had to do is
look at his first term in office.
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He hiked a bunch of tariffs, and still the trade
deficit increased by $208 billion over those four years.
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Regardless of how you feel about
trade deficits, here's the bottom line:
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Trump said that tariffs would lower them, and
they didn't. Conclude from that what you will.
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And now, the continuing story
of the NSA wanting to spy on us
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and interfering with
post-quantum encryption to do it.
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Currently, the gold standard for encryption
is elliptic curve cryptography, or ECC.
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But thanks to Shor's Algorithm, a quantum computer
would go through those algorithms like tissue paper.
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Specifically, we're talking about the
algorithms used to create the secret keys
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used every time you connect to a website
or send a secure message to someone.
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We don't want to wait to protect
ourselves from quantum computers,
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however far away we might
be from the technology.
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We need to do it now.
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Especially since the NSA is
recording all of our conversations,
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salivating over the day
they get to decrypt them.
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So we want post-quantum,
or PQ algorithms.
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There are quite a few of them, but
they're new, and that poses a problem.
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If the PQ algos are subject
to classical attacks,
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then what does it matter if someone makes a quantum
computer or not if the existing computers can crack it?
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We're one of the few who's been
covering the drama at the IETF over this.
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They seem to be completely
in bed with the NSA.
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Normally, IETF working group chairs decide
when to call votes based on consensus.
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If a document receives a number of
objections, they can wait and try again.
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Now, we have yet another "last call" for
objections to non-hybrid ML-KEM. I should explain.
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Since PQ algos might be vulnerable to
attacks from existing classical computers,
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the solution is to use a
hybrid PQ-ECC algorithm:
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it has all the existing protections of
ECC while adding on to it whatever
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quantum protections the
new protocol provides.
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The NSA doesn't want that.
And it's not for your own good!
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Consider: about seven years ago Google and Cloudflare
experimented with a PQ algorithm called SIKE.
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They implemented a hybrid algorithm, where the key
was derived by both SIKE and elliptic curve 25519.
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And it was a good thing they did it that way,
too—because SIKE got ripped to shreds.
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The algo is so vulnerable to classical
attacks it might as well not even exist!
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But, their users were still safe,
because of the protections of ECC.
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The NSA doesn't want people to do things that
way. They want PQ-only algorithms, not hybrids.
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If they'd had their way, every connection
through Google and Cloudflare
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would have been completely
open to the world!
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The NSA has already been pressuring
military contractors to support non-hybrids.
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Then in 2024, the TLS working group chair posted
a document specifying non-hybrid algos for TLS.
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It was a short document with nothing
but handwaving and circular arguments.
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When people asked for the real reason, the author
responded with more handwaving and circular arguments.
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Back in April of last year, the
chairs called for adoption,
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but seven members raised
a variety of objections.
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The chairs then abused their
power to declare consensus,
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and in November issued "last call" for
any objections prior to publication.
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They then set about censoring
objections to the topic.
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They went back on it only after eminent cryptographer
Daniel J. Bernstein blogged about it and raised the alarm.
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Now we're in February, and
there's another "last call"
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where the chairs claim that the previous
objections were resolved, when they weren't!
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It was also done in a way where people who
filed objections would have to refile them,
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while it isn't obvious
that they need to!
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Bernstein is sounding the
alarm again, saying, quote:
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"The chairs should be explicitly
recognizing the controversy
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and actively soliciting
broader participation
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to ensure that IETF meets its promise
of 'achieving broad consensus'.
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Instead the chairs are
concealing the controversy.
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The document didn't provide any citations to
justify these claims of virtues of non-hybrids,
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and certainly didn't discuss the objections
that had already been raised to these claims."
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In particular, they're completely ignoring the
claim that TLS already has hybrid ECC+PQ,
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so people who need post-quantum
protection already have options.
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And despite their call for simplicity, adding on
non-hybrid PQ would just make things more complicated!
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Bernstein snarked: "Hey, here's an idea for actually
improving the efficiency and simplicity of TLS:
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mandate that every connection encrypt
user data solely with the null cipher!
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Yes, this sounds absurd; that's because efficiency and
simplicity by themselves are not the TLS objective.
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We pursue some forms of efficiency
and simplicity for TLS to help security.
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The non-hybrid document
complicates TLS,
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allows only minor efficiency improvements that
will do nothing to expand TLS deployment,
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and incurs completely unnecessary
risks of security disasters."
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Bernstein had filed an objection
before last call, saying:
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"This document doesn't serve any of
the official goals in the TLS WG charter.
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Most importantly, this document is directly
contrary to the 'improve security' goal,
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so it would violate the charter even
if it contributed to another goal."
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And he wasn't the only one.
Thomas Bellebaum wrote:
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"I strongly oppose publication
of this document as is."
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Others include Stephen Farrell: "I'd prefer this
not be published at all for a few years at least."
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Simon Josefsson: "At this time, I believe that
non-hybrid PQ KEMs are a security risk."
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Benjamin Kaduk: "I do not support
publication of this document at this time;
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see the 'discuss' points for specific
items that IMO should be blocking."
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Watson Ladd: "I think there is no real
reason to publish this document,
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and publishing sends the wrong signal about
hybrid vs not. We should not publish it."
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Kurt Roeckx: "I'm also opposing this. There is
no reason for this workgroup to get involved.
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We should only publish it if we think it's actually
a good idea, and I've not seen anybody arguing that."
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And Muhammad Usama Sardar: "I do not
support publication in its current state.
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Introduction and motivation is too small: literally
two sentences. That's clearly insufficient.
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Has any formal analysis
been done for this draft?"
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No, it hasn't...and clearly,
there's no consensus.
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So, the chairs finally acknowledged that, citing the
input of a "small but vocal number of participants"
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...and then scheduled yet another
"last call"! Bernstein wrote:
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"What would you do as an
attacker trying to ram this
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controversial non-hybrid document
through the IETF process?
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You'd do whatever you can to reduce
the visibility of the common-sense
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public-interest position
of requiring hybrids.
00:18:38.840 --> 00:18:42.040
Maybe you can use side
issues as a distraction.
00:18:42.040 --> 00:18:47.160
Maybe you can peel off some of the opponents
by offering them something in exchange.
00:18:47.160 --> 00:18:50.660
Maybe you can silence some of
them with peer-pressure games,
00:18:50.661 --> 00:18:54.487
such as claiming that they're
a 'small, but vocal' minority.
00:18:54.488 --> 00:19:02.120
Maybe you can simply wear them down with the burden of
having to raise their objections again and again and again.
00:19:02.120 --> 00:19:08.920
Meanwhile you'd work behind the scenes to have
more people show up and cast positive votes."
00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:16.920
Make no mistake: this is of vital importance to you and
me, but sadly there's not anything we can do about it!
00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:22.454
The encryption that secures our banking and
e-commerce is entrusted to a working group
00:19:22.454 --> 00:19:27.000
the chairs of which apparently have
been compromised by the NSA.
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Here's hoping there are more like Bernstein, Bellebaum,
and the others ready to join in to protect you and me.
00:20:48.200 --> 00:20:53.240
And now it's time to decarbonylate
this week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.
00:20:53.240 --> 00:20:58.360
An update to a story we covered over a
month ago gives this one to California.
00:20:58.360 --> 00:21:05.400
And brickbats have to be thrown at a lot of people
online, both fans and haters of Tesla and Elon Musk.
00:21:05.400 --> 00:21:07.240
As we covered a few weeks ago,
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Tesla has stopped offering Autopilot and
Full Self Driving for sale in its new vehicles,
00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:15.880
and now offers FSD
only by subscription.
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Cue the Twitterati and the...
Blueskyatti? Whatever you call them...
00:21:21.560 --> 00:21:25.913
Anyway, they're all screeching
about how Tesla is greedy and evil
00:21:25.914 --> 00:21:29.400
and they stopped offering these
because something something profit.
00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:32.200
We covered reasons why
that doesn't make any sense,
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and the biggest reason—the one we said was
most likely—is now finally being recognized.
00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:45.453
The official word from the California
DMV is that this is "corrective action"
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to their bullshit lawsuit claiming that Autopilot
and FSD were sold using deceptive marketing.
00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:57.480
After hearing complaints from
precisely zero customers.
00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:03.800
Tesla had until February 14 to appeal, and there doesn't
seem to be anything filed in the case since then.
00:22:03.800 --> 00:22:08.600
Apparently, they figured the cost of compliance
was cheaper than the cost of fighting it.
00:22:08.600 --> 00:22:13.240
That's what most of these lawsuits are about,
by the way: not about who's right or wrong,
00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:19.320
but who can bully the other into settling for
reasons that have nothing to do with the merits.
00:22:19.320 --> 00:22:26.440
So three days later on the 17th, the California DMV
posted a press release bragging about it. Quote:
00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:32.753
"In December 2025, the California DMV
found Tesla Motors in violation of state law
00:22:32.754 --> 00:22:39.480
for misleadingly using the terms 'Autopilot' and 'Full
Self-Driving' in the marketing of its electric vehicles.
00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:41.621
By taking this prescribed action,
00:22:41.622 --> 00:22:48.360
Tesla will avoid having its dealer and manufacturer
licenses suspended in the state for 30 days by the DMV."
00:22:48.360 --> 00:22:51.240
DMV Director Steve Gordon bleated:
00:22:51.240 --> 00:22:56.600
"The DMV is committed to safety throughout
all California's roadways and communities.
00:22:56.600 --> 00:23:01.027
The department is pleased that Tesla took
the required action to remain in compliance
00:23:01.028 --> 00:23:04.520
with the State of California's
consumer protections."
00:23:04.520 --> 00:23:11.640
The DMV posted: "California has zero tolerance for
misleading advertising that puts safety at risk.
00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:15.160
When companies make false
claims about vehicle capabilities,
00:23:15.160 --> 00:23:19.453
they endanger lives and the state
will hold them accountable."
00:23:19.453 --> 00:23:23.320
Yeah...where's your
data to back that up?
00:23:23.320 --> 00:23:31.800
Oh, you don't have any? In fact, Teslas are the safest
car, and Teslas running FSD are the safest by far?
00:23:31.800 --> 00:23:35.880
Right, so you're just a bunch of
lying smegheads, aren't you?
00:23:35.880 --> 00:23:39.240
Well, at least one online
source has finally figured it out.
00:23:39.240 --> 00:23:45.480
InsideEVs posted a story with the headline:
"Now We Know Why Tesla Killed Autopilot."
00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:52.840
Yeah, InsideEVs, now you know. You could have known
earlier if you'd just listened to this podcast!
00:23:52.840 --> 00:23:54.360
They reported:
00:23:54.360 --> 00:23:59.027
"California has been threatening (and
preparing) to suspend Tesla's dealer license
00:23:59.028 --> 00:24:02.440
after an administrative ruling found
that the company's marketing
00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:06.840
exaggerated what its driver-assistance
systems were actually capable of.
00:24:06.840 --> 00:24:09.960
In fact, that's the crux
of this whole saga.
00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:16.760
Both Autopilot and Full Self-Driving require human
supervision and have never been fully autonomous systems.
00:24:16.760 --> 00:24:22.520
Tesla has been arguing this point with
the DMV directly since at least 2021."
00:24:22.520 --> 00:24:28.360
And yes, Tesla didn't have to actually remove
Autopilot; they could have just rebranded it.
00:24:28.360 --> 00:24:30.600
But a couple of things to keep in mind:
00:24:30.600 --> 00:24:33.960
Given how fucking stupid
this was from the start,
00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:39.080
there's no reason to think that California
wouldn't have done the same with the new branding.
00:24:39.080 --> 00:24:45.480
Second, government regulators have a way of letting
you know on the back end what they really want.
00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:48.360
There was never anything
misleading about the branding.
00:24:48.360 --> 00:24:54.120
Autopilots in planes were never fully autonomous
and require constant pilot monitoring.
00:24:54.120 --> 00:25:01.960
And since it came out of beta, FSD was always
advertised as "Full Self Driving (Supervised)."
00:25:01.960 --> 00:25:06.280
Combine that with the active monitoring
Teslas require of their drivers—
00:25:06.280 --> 00:25:10.920
more than any other car, even ones
with comparable ADAS systems—
00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:18.280
and you see that none of this had anything to do
with deceptive advertising or consumer safety.
00:25:18.280 --> 00:25:23.320
And what's especially horrible about this
is that California is such a big market
00:25:23.320 --> 00:25:28.520
that their horrible socialist elites can force
these actions on the rest of the country.
00:25:28.520 --> 00:25:33.253
Stop selling in California and you
take such a big dent out of your sales
00:25:33.254 --> 00:25:36.680
that the other car companies
will have a massive advantage.
00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:40.520
Which, make no mistake,
is the whole idea.
00:25:40.520 --> 00:25:44.380
So all of that makes California this
week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.
00:25:56.840 --> 00:26:06.840
And now let's alterpostindustrializationalify
this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.
00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:11.080
So apparently out of desperation
going into the Midterms,
00:26:11.080 --> 00:26:16.120
the Democrats are once again trying
to buy votes with economic ignorance.
00:26:16.120 --> 00:26:23.800
They're advocating what The Washington Post is
calling a "once-taboo" idea: caps on grocery prices.
00:26:23.800 --> 00:26:31.080
Price caps, like all forms of price fixing, should be taboo
to anyone with even a smattering of knowledge of economics.
00:26:31.080 --> 00:26:37.400
We gave this to Trump in May of 2025
for capping drug prices, so fair's fair.
00:26:37.400 --> 00:26:44.440
Biden's chair of his Council of Economic Advisors, Jared
Bernstein, led the group who wrote the proposal. He said:
00:26:44.440 --> 00:26:48.120
"We're focused on an affordability
policy where people's paychecks
00:26:48.120 --> 00:26:53.960
have a chance to catch up to grocery
prices that spiked in 2021 and 2022.
00:26:53.960 --> 00:27:01.080
Even if grocery inflation has come down, which it has, the
level of grocery prices is still causing sticker shock."
00:27:01.080 --> 00:27:06.918
I mean, you could always just, you
know, eliminate inflation entirely.
00:27:06.920 --> 00:27:11.820
Isabella Weber, economist at the
University of Massachusetts, said, quote:
00:27:11.820 --> 00:27:14.920
"I think the interesting story
here is how far we have come.
00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:19.120
We are now at a point where the affordability
agenda is really breaking through
00:27:19.121 --> 00:27:23.080
into the mainstream of
economic policy discussions."
00:27:23.080 --> 00:27:27.080
To bad we're not at a point where
reality is breaking through...
00:27:27.080 --> 00:27:34.280
Hey, remember back when the Soviet Union did
this with bread and bread lines became legendary?
00:27:34.280 --> 00:27:39.647
Steven Kaimin, economist at the American
Enterprise Institute, said in response:
00:27:39.648 --> 00:27:43.480
"Price caps interfere with the very
basics of a capitalist economy.
00:27:43.480 --> 00:27:49.080
Maybe it's impossible to produce eggs at $3.
Maybe the cost of producing them is $3.50.
00:27:49.080 --> 00:27:51.720
In which case the eggs
come off the market entirely,
00:27:51.720 --> 00:27:57.240
or only the cheapest producers can sell at $3,
and then the supermarket puts them out at $3,
00:27:57.240 --> 00:28:02.040
and they sell an hour later, and everybody
else goes and sees empty shelves."
00:28:02.040 --> 00:28:04.280
Hey, here's something
else you could do:
00:28:04.280 --> 00:28:10.880
repeal the Agricultural Adjustment Act and allow
small local farmers to compete with Big Ag
00:28:10.881 --> 00:28:14.840
by selling their meat, eggs,
and produce at grocery stores!
00:28:14.840 --> 00:28:20.520
Hey, remember when Maduro tried this in
Venezuela and all the store shelves were empty?
00:28:20.520 --> 00:28:25.000
The Democrats added a very insane
sort of roundabout to the plan:
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.960
Grocers cap prices, and in return
they don't pay high credit card fees.
00:28:29.960 --> 00:28:33.620
Which means the credit card
companies will have to compensate
00:28:33.621 --> 00:28:39.160
with fees and interest to the
cardholders, negating any advantage.
00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:42.280
Or, they could just
legalize cryptocurrency
00:28:42.280 --> 00:28:46.760
and allow us to do business in
whatever form of money we want.
00:28:46.760 --> 00:28:49.160
Senator Chuck Schumer bleated:
00:28:49.160 --> 00:28:55.393
"Senate Democrats are advancing a clear
affordability agenda: crack down on corporate abuse
00:28:55.394 --> 00:29:02.440
that drives up food costs and deliver real relief
for families, farmers, and small businesses."
00:29:02.440 --> 00:29:06.680
I'll believe you when you support
Thomas Massie's PRIME Act.
00:29:06.680 --> 00:29:12.040
Hey, remember when Richard Nixon's price
caps resulted in poultry and dairy farmers
00:29:12.040 --> 00:29:18.440
slaughtering their animals en masse because
they could no longer make money on the market?
00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:23.240
By the way, if you're still wondering
how dumb Weber is, she said, quote:
00:29:23.240 --> 00:29:28.040
"Biden should have done some sort of
shelf in supermarkets clearly branded:
00:29:28.040 --> 00:29:34.306
'This price-stabilized shelf is from Biden
stepping in on behalf of the American people.'
00:29:34.306 --> 00:29:38.520
I still think doing that kind of thing
could have saved us Trump."
00:29:38.520 --> 00:29:42.760
Hey, remember when
Biden...ah, forget it.
00:29:42.760 --> 00:29:47.772
So all of that makes the Democrats
this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.
00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:01.400
Well, that wraps up this "Jive-ass dude don't got
no brains, anyhow" edition of the Bogosity Podcast.
00:30:01.400 --> 00:30:06.520
I hope you enjoyed it; if you did, please go to
donate.bogosity.tv for several ways to support,
00:30:06.520 --> 00:30:09.960
and discord.bogosity.tv
to join the discussion.
00:30:09.960 --> 00:30:15.080
Subscribe at the Discord, Patreon, or
SubscribeStar and you can listen early and ad-free.
00:30:15.080 --> 00:30:19.240
Thank you for listening. Until next time,
here's a quote from Walter Williams:
00:30:19.240 --> 00:30:26.600
"Despite the disastrous history of price controls,
politicians never manage to resist tampering with prices—
00:30:26.600 --> 00:30:30.440
that's not a flattering observation
of their learning abilities."
00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:34.680
The Bogosity Podcast is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:36.746
4.0 International license.