Quote:Just Walked Away

Amazon is giving up with its unusual "Just Walk Out" technology, The Information reports, which allowed customers to simply put their shopping into their bags and leave the store without having to get in line at the checkout.

The tech, which was only available at half of the e-commerce giant's Amazon Fresh stores, used a host of cameras and sensors to track what shoppers left the store with. But instead of closing the technological loop with pure automation and AI, the company also had to rely on an army of over 1,000 workers in India, who were acting as remote cashiers.

In other words, Just Walk Out — a highly invasive marketing ploy to get more customers to shop at its stores while actively undercutting the local job market — will be missed by few.

Dystopian Retail

Instead of Just Walk Out, Amazon is now betting on scanners and screens embedded in the shopping cart called Dash Carts.

The tech they're replacing, however, was far more ambitious. In 2018, Amazon started rolling out its Just Walk Out system, which was meant to revolutionize the retail experience with AI, worldwide. Several other companies, including Walmart, followed suit by announcing similar cashier-less stores.

But over five years later, the system has seemingly become more of a burden. According to The Information, the tech was simply far too slow and too expensive to implement, with outsourced cashiers reportedly taking hours to send back data so customers could get their receipts.

Apart from relying on cheap, outsourced labor instead of paying fair wages locally, critics have also long questioned Amazon's practice of collecting a horde of sensitive data, including customers' in-store behavior, turning a quick visit to the store into a privacy nightmare.

Last year, the consumer advocacy group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the company of failing to inform customers that it was secretly selling data to Starbucks for profit.

Despite its aggressive push into the retail market, Amazon's grocery store footprint in the US is still dwarfed by those of its competitors, including Walmart, Costco, and Kroger, as Gizmodo points out.

Whether Dash Carts will turn out to be any less invasive from a data privacy standpoint remains to be seen.

I've had this on my mind for a while, so I'm just going to treat this like a campfire circle and just get this off my chest. With all the craziness and conspiracy going on I just want to shift gears for a minute with this thought. 

The restaurant business was something I came into at about 20 years old. I served at first for about 5 years. Did a little bartending for a bit then switched over to the kitchen and cooked for another 7 years or so. I was pretty good at all of it, and fell in love with food along the way, as well as the business itself. I reached the level of fine dining and worked in some high end-well reputable places. I spent almost 13 years in restaurants, and honestly I enjoyed every bit of it. The chaos, excitement, stress and success of it was a thrill that got ingrained into me. But as I got older and my son started school I chose to step away and get a 9 to 5 gig with weekends off. I found other jobs I enjoyed, but none like I enjoyed those years in those restaurants bars and grills; and none that I was as good at. That industry just came naturally to me. I actually did enjoy my job back then. I left the industry back in 2007.

Fast forward to today, and the state of the restaurant industry, as well as the food and farming battles we are going through. The restaurant industry has taken a massive hit and is teetering on the edge of going under in a big way.

Things like $20 happy meals isn't going to help matters much, as well as the difference in attitude towards the business these days. 

I recently had to take a cook job at a sports bar and grill. This was a huge coyote ugly type of place. They had events like corn hole tournaments, billiard tournaments, karaoke night and live bands. They had every matter of bar game you could think of. This place had a huge out door patio area with a tiki bar in the back. We'd have bikini bike wash days, or seafood boils. This place had it all and was the coolest bar I had ever worked in. We did have some fun in there. The change was so obvious though. 

There were many things I noticed after being away from the business for so long. One was the work ethic, or attitude towards the job. I won't get into that, but I noticed the lack of business as well. This is a place that should have been jumping, but the business just wasn't there, post covid. This was a major bummer to me, as I've seen so many places like this going down like a sinking ship. It's just getting harder and harder as costs go up to keep these places in operation. I'm writing this because this is something that actually weighs pretty heavy on my heart. 

I had even noticed how social media played a role in the totally different attitude towards the job and environment. It certainly over complicated things within the "house" and family feeling restaurants used to be notorious for. 

It's sad to watch this happen to a once fun and vibrant industry. Pretty soon the robots will take over and it will become a full blown lifeless industry. 

It's a shame to watch this go down, along with so many other industries like it.

But we march on to a new day. Change is inevitable, but some changes are hard to watch. Restaurants not only paid the bills but brought me friendships, and many years of work I loved.

Thanks for letting me get that out, rogues. Hope everyone has a good day.

Havana, China, Washington DC, and other places where U.S. citizens have been targeted by a device that actually gives them lasting brain damage. 

I am a hawk when it comes to invaders so I have cheered each time I have heard or seen Ukraine kick Orc's butt. Is there corruption and waste with the aide to Ukraine; I have no doubt there is. So the choice is cut the aide and let Ukraine fall to the Russian forces or ????.

Quote:Is Speaker of the House Mike Johnson being blackmailed to do the bidding of the left? It certainly seems that way. His colleague, Marjorie Taylor Greene, explains.

https://clicks.theepochtimes.com/f/a/b1Z...21YBAAAA6I~

Quote:Tests from birds at a major egg producer in the south have returned positive for avian influenza, prompting plans to kill nearly two million hens and pullets. A producer in Michigan also said some of its birds tested positive for the illness.
Cal-Maine Foods said April 2 that it was depopulating 1.6 million laying hens and 33,7000 pullets, which totals about 3.6 percent of its flocks, after some of the birds at a facility in Parmer County, Texas tested positive for H1N5, a strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Under federal rules aimed at stemming the spread of disease, infected flocks must be killed.
The number of impacted birds is the largest since Dec. 7, 2023, when an Ohio farm was forced to kill 2.6 million egg layers, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The other non-backyard cull this month involved just 31,200 birds in South Dakota.
Cal-Maine Foods had to kill about 1.6 percent of its flock in 2023 after the avian influenza was detected at a Kansas facility, and numerous other companies across the country culled millions of chickens in 2022 and 2023.
Cal-Maine Foods is halting production at the facility in order to comply with protocols from the department. The firm said it is working to secure eggs and meat from other facilities “to minimize disruption to its customers.”

Hello all.
I'm just going to freestyle some thoughts for you about this upcoming eclipse, and all the doom porn that has flooded all my feeds the closer we get to April 8th.

I have been noticing a recent influx of rapture/end of days judgement/second coming of Jesus articles and youtube videos popping up. It has gotten so bad lately that I am flooded with different theories every day. We have always been expecting and waiting for the End to come, but with this particular eclipse there are more people thinking the rapture will happen during this eclipse than i have ever seen, while others believe it marks the beginning of judgement on us here in the USA, or the beginning of war for us. As well as many other end of days theories concerning it.

I am not one to usually feed into these predictions. Usually when everyone is screaming the rapture is coming I know we are definitely not getting raptured. Anytime people start chanting "this is the end," I know it's not; because no one knows the hour in which it will come. So the more people predict it, the less I'm likely to feed into it.

But, I gotta say, as far as signs go, they are firing off like fireworks on the fourth of July. There are Signs everywhere.

Which has me thinking...

Now, I am not saying I'm buying into the theories circulating right now. I'm just saying, that with all of these things coming together the way they are, something big is about to happen. 

Be it, "staged" or real. Seems to be a lot of build up to something. (I'm leaning more towards something being staged in the near future. Looks as if its being perfectly set up for us imo)

Usually it's nothing. Usually these events occur, and after their over, and Jesus hasn't raptured people up yet, then we all just move on to the next end of days catastrophe to make our little predictions. 

Something feels different with this one though, and I wanted to see if anyone else, who isn't a "the end is nigh" crackpot was feeling it too.

I'm not even sure I believe in a (secret) rapture at all. At least not in the way it was taught to me growing up. The scriptures just don't match up for me the way others see the rapture happening. 

I don't believe the hype, but at the same time something does seem different, and it does feel like things are stirring up to something big in our near future, and I do believe this eclipse is a starting point to the 'next stage' of the end of all this. 

I for one will be staying home that day.
Just incase some of these theories come to fruition. 
I even saw a theory this eclipse will do something to the people who took the jab and will be activating zombie mode in them after the eclipse! Lol with all this craziness, who knows though, eh?

So, what do you all think? Anyone else feel the energy building up to something? Anyone else a wee bit nervous? So much hype out there, it's hard not to.

Thanks.

Here's a firecracker of an article from Tom Luongo that makes an intriguing case.

Not a Russian or American-sponsored event: a "third" party? Sclerotic European Powers like the UK or France? He also wraps the Francis Scott Key Bridge "Attack" as potentially connected to the series of events.

Quote:Have you ever tried to break out of the orbit of a narcissist? It’s damn difficult. Their pattern of emotional abuse is designed to make you feel like the abuser, demoralizing you, sapping you of your vitality and agency.

They weaponize your humanity and feed off your guilt. When you finally summon the courage to divorce yourself from them that’s when the fangs really come out. That’s when their true face is revealed. And it’s nothing but scorn, derision and unfettered hatred.

Narcissists don’t love you. They love themselves.

I’m opening this article with that quick reminder of human psychology to set the stage for this week’s discussion of all things geopolitical. There ain’t no art in this piece folks, I’m too damn exhausted to craft the language.

Why am I exhausted? Running behind narcissists as they perp walk us towards World War III saps the energy of even the most resilient personality. The truly malignant narcissists that think they operate the levers of power over the world have realized that we are walking away from them.

And they are fucking angry. The feeling is very, very mutual.

Since the firing of VicToria “Cookies” Nuland from the State Department on March 5th (and make zero mistake she was fired) events surrounding Russia are accelerating. Last weekend’s attack on the Crocus Concert Hall in Moscow was supposed to originally happen on March 9th, apparently. It was to be timed with Joah BIi-Den’s! State of the Union address and meant as a severe warning to Russians to ‘make the right decision’ and vote against Vladimir Putin a week later.

That day the State Department issued a warning to all Americans to stay away from meetings, concert halls, etc. I think this was us finally acting like a grown up, because it begs a major question that doesn’t comport with unlimited US aggression towards Russia.

Why would we issue this warning knowing full well the Russians would respond to it and stop the attack?

It literally makes no sense. When Nuland is fired from the State Department, our first reaction was to see it as a shift in US foreign policy away from Russia and towards China. Toria lost a power play. See you at the auto show.

That sounds neat and compact… but is it the whole story?

Because then the attack actually happens two weeks later. A bunch of Tajiks go in, like the professional soldiers they are, shoot the place up and make their escape. Acting not at all in character for the ISIS head-choppers who were immediately blamed for this.

Pepe Escobar’s recent article on this is excellent and is worth the read. He goes through the timelines and traces a lot of important connections. But, as I was reading it I noticed that he ‘buried the lede,’ as i saw it.

Quote:Ace Russian war correspondent Marat Khairullin has added another juicy morsel to this funky salad: he convincingly unveils the MI6 angle in the Crocus City Hall terror attack (in English here, in two parts, posted by “S”).

The FSB is right in the middle of the painstaking process of cracking most, if not all ISIS-K-CIA/MI6 connections. Once it’s all established, there will be hell to pay.

But that won’t be the end of the story. Countless terror networks are not controlled by Western intel – although they will work with Western intel via middlemen, usually Salafist “preachers” who deal with Saudi/Gulf intel agencies.

The case of the CIA flying “black” helicopters to extract jihadists from Syria and drop them in Afghanistan is more like an exception – in terms of direct contact – than the norm. So the FSB and the Kremlin will be very careful when it comes to directly accusing the CIA and MI6 of managing these networks.

Because the GGnG community sniffed out this angle almost immediately, linking in Khairullin’s post for us to ruminate on. This isn’t meant as a slight to Escobar. He was working a lot of angles in this story, parsing through everything to lead to a conclusion. That takes time and I’m glad he took it.

But for me, the MI6 angle is the first one to be considered in this attack, not the last one.

And the keys lie in that very timeline. Because, as opposed to assuming that the US is the catalytic agent for events here — easy to think because Nuland is involved — reframing this as a distinctly British operation (with help from rogue elements in the State Dept. and CIA, of course) yields a far more coherent narrative.

Remember, we’re dealing ultimately with narcissists here. Then let’s remember cui bono.

Because without assessing who benefits from this attack, we aren’t doing the analysis right. Moreover, I’m not trying to blame shift here away from the US. We are definitely a player here. But it’s defining who ‘we’ in the US is where the nuance lies.

What if Nuland was fired because knowledge of this attack finally reached the right people at State and the DoD? And they realized, rightly so, that an attack like this would make it nearly impossible for Putin to ignore and force his hand politically to escalate the war in Ukraine to a level that would justify to the people of the West that it was finally time for us to get involved over there.

You can hear the growing chat of “Putin must go” emanating from the think tanks on K Street and the halls of GCHQ.

Who wants that outcome? Who has been begging for that outcome for over two years? Who has staged provocation (Kerch, Nordstream, Bucha, hitting Russian ships in the Black Sea, ZNPP, etc.) after provocation to get Putin “on tilt?” Outside of Victoria Nuland’s office and Lindsay Graham, no one in the US has been fully committed to this the entire time.

Nikki Haley was finally forced out of the presidential race.

If anything, the longer this war goes on the less support Ukraine has gotten from the US, even from Bii-Den!. The shift in the US attitude towards Ukraine has been happening for over a year.

No, the people who have made the most noise are the gods-damned British, who Nuland certainly works hand-in-glove with. The French and German Greens have been just as full-throated, so continental Europe isn’t being spared here either.

So, now here’s what I think the real story is surrounding Crocus. Nuland, MI6, and likely the Turks put this thing together using ISIS-K Tajik mercenaries to kill a bunch of Russians. The operational goal was to keep the US from turning its back on the malignant narcissistic colonialist assholes in Europe who need this war but cannot fight it. That’s the Yanks’ job.

US leadership, already deep in plans to extricate themselves from Europe and pivot to China, warn the Russians on March 7th which scrubs the March 9th operation after sending the major signal that things in Ukraine will calm down by firing Nuland on March 5th.

This is what real statecraft looks like.

After that, the operation is still going forward but under someone else’s guidance (or just on auto-pilot). Nuland’s fingerprints are all over it. The US looks guilty as hell. What does evil do? It doesn’t sleep, it waits. And then we get the actual attack last weekend, after Putin wins a massive re-election. It still serves it’s primary purpose, force Putin’s hand.

Now, the kicker. Who issues notes of condolences to Russia for the attack? Shockingly, the US and NATO. In the past three years there hasn’t been one conciliatory utterance from Sec. of State Antony Blinken’s pie hole when it comes to Russia. He’s been the epitome of the anti-diplomat.

And yet, here he is issuing condolences to Russia. Then the US abstains from the UNSC council vote against Israel, another British project going completely haywire.

None of this tracks with the US and Russia are implacable enemies narrative folks. Not. One. Single. Bit. Of. It.

Now, guess who refused to even acknowledge the Russian loss of life? Yup … the UK.

Here’s Jeremy Hunt:

Quote:UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has told Sky News that Britain has “very little confidence in anything the Russian government says.”

“We know that they are creating a smokescreen of propaganda to defend an utterly evil invasion of Ukraine. But, that doesn’t mean that it’s not a tragedy when innocent people lose their lives, when you have horrible bombings,” Hunt said. Hunt further emphasized that London takes “what the Russian government says with an enormous pinch of salt… after what we have seen from them over the last few years.”

Can you not feel how dirty Hunt felt having to even half-heartedly lament dead Russians? It’s beyond pathetic and inhuman, but then again, he’s a member of the British Political Elite… what else can you expect from these bloodless ghouls?

Can you not feel how dirty Hunt felt having to even half-heartedly lament dead Russians? It’s beyond pathetic and inhuman, but then again, he’s a member of the British Political Elite… what else can you expect from these bloodless ghouls?

David Cameron has done nothing but lambaste the US for not ponying up more money for Ukraine. In effect blaming us for Ukraine’s losses. This is classic narcissistic bullying of the victim here.

But, the real revelation came from top EU diplomat Josep Borrell, who can always be counted on to show the world how one contracts foot-in-mouth disease. In a shocking display of truth telling Borrell finally told the world the reality behind Ukraine:



Remember, narcissists don’t love you. They love themselves. Note the direction of the clip, when Borrell is imploring Americans, cue the one-shot and the close up. This is all staged, my friends. This is the real truth and it’s a warning from Borrell.

So, in this context, Blinken’s condolences have to be taken as a real fig leaf to Putin. Sadly, both sides have to continue gearing up for future conflict because it’s the prudent thing to do, even if neither side wants it. Sound familiar? It’s reminiscent of the story of WWI.

The US was led into the trap in Ukraine by Nuland and her co-collaborators in MI6 and Europe over the past decade. All three players, the US, UK and Europe had reasons for Ukraine, but all were ultimately different.

In this month’s Gold Goats ‘n Guns Newsletter I laid out the full argument from all three sides:

Quote:Ukraine became the battleground physically for this. To the EU, the US and the UK, through their influence in Poland and the Baltics, were used to foment this war. Bankrupting them through war forces them back to being subjugated sources of raw materials while exporting EU laws and rules to those places which have the privilege (from their perspective) of doing business with them.

From all three players’ perspectives if Ukraine beat Russia, then they win. Putin is eventually deposed, Russia is humiliated, and the long-desired breakup of their land-based empire would commence. Europe gets their Great Reset. The UK gets to maintain control over the maritime empire, reclaiming NATO

control over the Black Sea, and forcing the Arab oil producers back in line. The US gets to leverage a fallen Russia to weaken China and stop the further integration of the BRICS into a competitor.

In short, the world would go back to the 1990’s when guys like Bill Browder were running around buying up everything and the Russian oligarchs Putin beat would be restored to power. Fukuyama would finally be right.

But, as I said, the real goal of this war wasn’t just getting Russia, they had to maneuver the US into a terminal state as well, through the costs of fighting a war we weren’t capable of sustaining. And that was the bridge too far for US interests not beholden to the ghost of Trotsky and the tears of Bill Kristol.

And now you have the ‘who benefits’ from this operation. The US saw no upside in brutally killing hundreds of Russian civilians, knowing full well it would be US doing the majority of the fighting. The UK and EU need the US to do this because if the US comes out of this war unscathed (like in WWII) then the current arrangement will continue, and their plans for domination will fail.

And this is why these people have become so unhinged and so histrionic in the past few months as the US refuses to send more aid to Ukraine. It’s why Emmanuel Macron is pushing all-in, he’s a lame duck president easily sacrificed here. It’s why British perfidy behind the scenes has to be your first suspect in any act of horror. It’s why Germany is politically paralyzed between its gasping industrial class and the revolutionary Greens who actually run the government.

It’s why their hatred for the US is so nakedly apparent now. The US is trying to walk away from the old, sclerotic, malignant narcissists of Europe and they cannot handle it.

It’s almost like they are villains from the old Scooby Do cartoons… “And I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those damned Russians.”

So, nothing…. not one fucking thing… is off the table from them. They have the motive, means, and opportunity. On the US side of the ledger, Nuland’s actions can be understood through her genetic hatred of Russians. For the UK and Europe it’s their seat at the post-Globalism geopolitical table.

Removing Nuland removes a lot of the bureaucratic momentum. But it doesn’t mean that things change on a dime. Course corrections take time. This operation in Moscow was a long time in the making. It wasn’t going to be stopped. Delayed? Sure. But it actually happening speaks more to the other players involved not the US.

And that brings me to the Francis Scott Key bridge. As an event it deserves its own article, but I think you know where I’m going with this. There is a vanishingly small probability that this was an accident caused by an old ship with a spotty maintenance record, a Ukrainian captain, and an Indian crew.

All of those things are, in movie terms, “set dressing,” to create a plausibly deniable narrative. Bullshit, in other words. I have to hand it to whoever put this one together, it looks better thought out than the last half-dozen of these things. I guess the Writer’s Strike in Hollywood is actually over.


This was an attack on US soil by a foreign power. And the first group of people we’re supposed to think who did it was the Russians. Why? Revenge for Moscow, after we were set up to look like the ones who did that, to the people who matter… the ones making the decisions.

The fact that the US and Russia both have tried to deflect blame for both of these incidents away from the other is a very big tell. It says clearly that both sides are aware of the dangers these attacks on their sovereignty represent and are unwilling to use them as a casus belli. It’s the most encouraging part of all of this. Rational people are still trying to slow the climb up the escalatory ladder.

The problem is they aren’t in control of the situation. If the US wanted war with Russia, we’d already be there. That means someone else does.

Note the lack of “Russia did it!” coming from the US. Note now the FBI came out immediately, with no investigation, and said this was an accident, not an act of war, which it most likely was.

The question then is, “who committed the act?” We will never find out the truth to this but our prime suspect has to be the one who has the motive to get the US to go “on tilt” and move into position to defend Ukraine openly.

I’m not saying that Russia didn’t do it. Far from it. As a piece of 4th generational warfare, taking out this bridge at this moment in time is absolutely one of Russia’s best moves on the board, especially if Putin really is getting ready to up the ante on Kiev in the coming weeks. And I expect him to do just that.

Paralyzing the US logistically is the right move. But it also then invites a counter-attack from the US that Putin has studiously avoided for over eight years since he first put Russian forces into Syria in 2015.

No, I think this again is one of those “orgies of evidence” to frame Russia for something someone else did for very different reasons. And that reason is pure, unfettered, narcissistic revenge for the US having the temerity to walk away from its responsibilities (as they have defined them) in Europe.

These people have been very clear now for years, either the US goes along with their plans for the future or it will be destroyed from within. This attack on the Key bridge in Baltimore is a nightmare event, meant to be a catalyst for a breakdown of the US economy, creating chaos during an election year.

It could easily ripple through our property, debt and equity markets in the coming weeks. Attacking the US puts pressure there while lifting some of the focus away from the deterioration of Europe’s economy.

This is an event that the more I think about it the more it turns into an Agatha Christie novel, with everyone having motive to attack the US for entirely different reasons. So, I won’t come to any definitive conclusion here, even though you know who my prime suspects are.

But, suffice it to say that in the rage of narcissists, we will be spared nothing while being blamed for their slow, painful perp walk towards WWIII.

Many already know some of this while others claim the vax is safe and effective !

Quote:They’re still claiming the Covid vax is safe and effective. Yet somehow Dr. Pierre Kory treats hundreds of patients who’ve been badly injured by it. Why is no one in the public health establishment paying attention?

Israel has bombed a building next to or in the compound of the Iranian Embassy in Syria and killed a commander of the Iranian military. Things might get even more FUBAR now ?

The Thought Police landed in Scotland today and even though Orwell's book was a work of fiction,
he was bang-on the money when it comes to controlling the Message. There may've been a time
when Journalists would have rallied together to counter such restraints on free speech, sadly those
days are far behind us now.

Quote:Scotland's new hate crime law comes into force

'Scotland's new hate crime law has come into force, with JK Rowling and Elon Musk among its critics.
The Harry Potter author and the owner of social media platform X both claim the legislation could harm
free speech. Senior police officers say they expect a flood of complaints about online posts.

But the Scottish government insists the law provides protection from hate and prejudice without stifling
individual expression. "I think there has been a lot of misinformation," about the legislation, said the Victims
and Community Safety Minister Siobhian Brown, before going on to claim, inaccurately, that it was "passed
unanimously" by MSPs in 2021.


Victims and Community Safety Minister Siobhian Brown. How did Scotland manage before she came along?

In fact the law was approved by 82 votes to 32 with four abstentions after heated debate about its contents.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 creates a new crime of "stirring up hatred" relating to
age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex. The maximum penalty is
a prison sentence of seven years.

A person commits an offence if they communicate material, or behave in a manner, "that a reasonable
person would consider to be threatening or abusive," with the intention of stirring up hatred based on the
protected characteristics.

Stirring up hatred based on race, colour, nationality or ethnicity was already illegal in Great Britain under
the Public Order Act 1986 but, in an attempt to streamline the criminal law in Scotland, that too is now
part of the Hate Crime Act. The bar for this offence is lower than for the other protected characteristics,
as it also includes "insulting" behaviour, and as the prosecution need only prove that stirring up hatred
was "likely" rather than "intended".

Free speech protection
Supporters of the hate crime law point out that it contains safeguards designed to protect freedom of
speech. For example, it states that it is a defence for a person charged with stirring up hatred to show
that their actions were "reasonable."

It also references the right to freedom of expression in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights,
which includes protection for "ideas that offend, shock or disturb." To be convicted of a hate crime, "you have to
be really threatening and really abusive, and there has to be reasonable assumption from others that that is the
case," said Ms Brown.

As well as the offence of stirring up hatred, the Hate Crime Act also consolidates the existing law on crimes
which are "aggravated by prejudice." These are where an offender demonstrates malice or ill-will towards their
victim based on a protected characteristic, which can be taken into account by a sheriff or judge with a longer
sentence or a higher fine than would otherwise have been the case.

For example, if an assailant punched someone in the face while also making a hateful comment about their
age, that might be assault aggravated by age-related hatred. This is the first time that age has been included
in the list of protected characteristics for aggravated offences, a move welcomed by some campaign groups.
"It's going to be a positive thing for the country," said Adam Stachura of the charity Age Scotland.

Others are less enthusiastic.
Adam Tomkins, professor of public law at Glasgow University, and a former Conservative MSP, voted against
the bill because it could see someone convicted of stirring up hatred for a comment they make in private in
their own home, not just in public, "and I just don't think that's where the criminal law belongs."

However, Professor Tomkins said he believed the law only posed a risk to free speech "if it's misunderstood,"
adding, "if it's properly understood, I think this is a fairly safe piece of legislation now." Susan Smith of For
Women Scotland, which campaigned against recent proposed changes to gender law, is not convinced.

"The tests are quite woolly and we don't know how people are going to interpret this," she told BBC News.
"We do anticipate that there will be a lot of malicious complaints, a lot of rather trivial complaints and
potentially people who are investigated will see their lives upended. "I imagine there will be many complaints,
for example, made against JK Rowling," she added.

Ms Rowling, a prominent critic of some transgender ideology, described the law as "ludicrous" in a defiant
post on X (formerly Twitter) last month. Mr Musk has cited discussion about the legislation as an "example
of why it is so important to preserve freedom of speech." Vic Valentine of the charity Scottish Trans said the
organisation supported the law because of the "serious impact that hate crime can have on LGBTI people."
It would not, Vic added, criminalise behaviour which transgender people might simply find upsetting, offensive
or even transphobic.

Police resourcing
The SNP-led Scottish government has tried to soothe concerns. Siobhian Brown described the act as "ambitious"
while also insisting it would "not necessarily" criminalise anything that was not already criminal. Asked whether "misgendering" someone or making a comment about their religion would be a crime the minister replied: "This
will be up to Police Scotland. I wouldn't say misgendering if you say something on social media for example it
would be up to Police Scotland to determine."

Ch Supt Rob Hay of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS), which represents senior officers,
said there was the potential for a "huge uplift" in complaints about social media posts. Mr Hay said his central
concern was that Police Scotland "haven't been provided with any additional resources in terms of dealing with
this piece of legislation."

Just last month the national force said it was no longer able to investigate every "low level" crime, including
some cases of theft and criminal damage. It has, however, pledged to investigate every hate crime complaint
it receives.

BBC News understands that these will be assessed by a "dedicated team" within Police Scotland including "a
number of hate crime advisers" to assist officers in determining what, if any, action to take. At a recent meeting
of the Scottish Police Authority board, Ch Con Jo Farrell said her force would apply the act "in a measured way"
under "close scrutiny."

Debate about the act has also resurrected a long-running row about how police forces throughout Britain record
allegations of hate crimes where no charges are brought. The Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser has been leading
a campaign against the recording of what are termed "non-crime hate incidents" after he discovered that Police
Scotland had recorded a comment he had made on social media as a hate incident, despite deciding that no crime
had been committed.

More generally, the publicity about the new law, and the controversy surrounding it, has prompted warnings that
it could lead to self-censorship. Roddy Dunlop KC, dean of the Faculty of Advocates, said it could have a "chilling
effect" on free speech. And some feminist groups have raised concerns that the absence of sex as a protected
characteristic in the legislation leaves women unprotected. The Scottish government has promised to introduce
a separate misogyny law "in due course" following a report by the barrister, Helena Kennedy KC...'