US president Donald Trump has done away with the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), which advises the president on policy decisions and engagement with the philanthropic and private sectors. It also endeavours to boost support for the arts, humanities and museum and library services at the federal level.
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
You can find a large random selection of open source #TTRPG resources on our site now for easy reference. Borrowed from the Forever Open Source game jam series I host every year. Suggestions for additions welcomed!
Here's a collection of forever open licensed tabletop roleplaying games and resources. Borrowed from and inspired by the Forever Open Source RPG game jam
@chrisburdick unfortunately, the Into the Odd license is revocable and therefore ineligible. (Revocability is a reserved right. Licenses must be explicitly irrevocable or else their issuers can legally cancel them at any time.)
@chrisburdick no problem! It's one of those quirks of copyright law. Nothing wrong with a regular release like that in itself. Just doesn't fit into a list of forever (irrevocably) open source resources.
My gaming group tried JAGS-2 (then JAGS Revised) a few years ago before we explored (then adopted) GURPS 4e. I remember JAGS-2 to be interesting, but not great. YMMV.
shearer.de Wish I'd discovered them in their heyday. I've found a lot of great stuff on Jamendo over the years, no idea what I was thinking switching to Apple Music for over a year.... but I've seen the error of my ways.
I really feel for the thousands of Ukrainians who fled Ukraine for Canada, only to be faced with a trade war... and potential war against annexation by the US.
CANZUK is basically a proposed free trade and relaxed borders agreement between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The idea is to create something like the EU with it
I'm starting to whittle them down according to where I can get the most up-to-date information about this goverment takeover. I find it important that in the chaos, we make sure we flood the social media platforms with this information. They ARE reading it.
If they pledge to "Do No Evil", can they walk it back later when it becomes inconvenient? It"s why the ATProtocol makes me nervous, especially seeing Mark Cuban's interest in investing.
That’s partly why I won’t join blue sky. It is subject to sale to an oligarch. Unfortunately some people in America are very #selfish. About 43% of the population voted for the fascist. 49% of the voting public, so he didn’t even get 50% because some people voted for the alternate parties just because they wanted to vote as a low info voter but didn’t like either one. They voted for them even knowing what they could get in the end by throwing away their vote.
In case you weren't aware - Truth.social is actually a re-purposed/forked Mastodon instance. I don't personally know what they did about federation, but have every reason to believe they can just flip a switch and be back in the fediverse.
Lets hope the oligarchs aren't secretly setting up many mastodon instances, letting people join, and then shutting them down when convenient. How would we know that? The Tor network is rumored to have much of its infrastructure of the exit nodes and much of the onion routing compromised by governments. Don't get too complacent.
it would be an interesting topic for a video. think about it.
of course not the differences about how they work (decentralized vs centralized, open source vs proprietary etc: there's already too much content about that), but how is your own personal experience different in the two platforms.
I can't find anything about this topic around as for now.
To make a YouTube video that is watched by more than a few, I have to find an angle that would appeal broadly, and an idea that would make a good thumbnail. Sadly, YouTube is full of content no one watches. Not saying I applaud that. Just saying, this is how it is.
I want to make this video, but I have not found this idea. Making a thumbnail that tells people they are on the wrong social medium will not be effective, because people are very resistant to change.
@Randahl Fink Actually, the first question I ask is "is it accessible with my screen reader". If it's not, it doesn't matter who owns it or how good or bad it is.
I think some will get it because this was going around in the Obama administration. Not only is on bumper stickers, but as an ongoing “joke” politico.com/story/2016/06/dav…
16 For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted. 17 He loved to pronounce a curse— may it come back on him. He found no pleasure in blessing— may it be far from him. 18 He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil. 19 May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him.
Lots of people overlook that there are a large number of Christians that really are against Trump and lean left and, quite honestly, are fed up with mainstream Christianity because it's drifted so far from what it's supposed to be. The Bible doesn't exactly support Trump but those that say it does are very much the ones not paying attention. @paraic
Revelation 21:8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
one wonders how careful an advertising agency would be if someone were to create some vaguely Christian-sounding LLC who wishes to put this quote on billboards all over MAGA country...
16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Check the rest for more than will fit in this post.
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
It's like the rabbi in Fiddler On the Roof, who when asked, “Is there a proper blessing for the tsar?” The rabbi responds: “A blessing for the tsar?” He ponders awhile, then pronounces: “Of course . . . May God bless and keep the tsar . . . far away from us!”
I just want to say not all of us christians are hateful like maga, I love my queer friends, I love non religious, different religious and other people. I know I'm not responsible for other people's actions but I just wanted to show you my love! 🩷🩷🩷🫂🫂🫂
to be fair I am also queer, but before I knew my sexuality and gender I was also more liberal and I did few times prayed for lgbtq+ people. My views were, even if it is bad/sin they are still humans and deserve happiness.
At least 56 senior officials in the top U.S. aid and development agency were placed on leave amid an investigation into an alleged effort to thwart President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The people who are now in charge of the Office of Personnel Management apparently don’t know how to scrub PDF metadata, and have exposed the original authors of the guidance they’re publishing. Two have links to the Heritage Foundation and its Project 2025.
Noah Peters is the author of the OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell’s January 27 memo (archive) providing guidance on the “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” executive order, which is being described as the “Schedule F” order because it effectively reinstates that policy under a new name (“Schedule Policy/Career”). Peters also authored the January 20 memo (archive) from Ezell, which exploits loopholes to bypass limits on political appointments. Both of these memos are clear steps towards achieving a primary goal of Project 2025: to expand President Trump’s power, and to replace career civil servants with Trump loyalists.
As far back as 2023, The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 was recommending Pete
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The people who are now in charge of the Office of Personnel Management apparently don’t know how to scrub PDF metadata, and have exposed the original authors of the guidance they’re publishing. Two have links to the Heritage Foundation and its Project 2025.
Noah Peters is the author of the OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell’s January 27 memo (archive) providing guidance on the “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” executive order, which is being described as the “Schedule F” order because it effectively reinstates that policy under a new name (“Schedule Policy/Career”). Peters also authored the January 20 memo (archive) from Ezell, which exploits loopholes to bypass limits on political appointments. Both of these memos are clear steps towards achieving a primary goal of Project 2025: to expand President Trump’s power, and to replace career civil servants with Trump loyalists.
As far back as 2023, The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 was recommending Peters for a position in Trump’s second administration. Peters had previously been appointed by Trump in 2019 as the Solicitor at the Federal Labor Relations Authority, where he “aided and defended Trump appointees’ anti-union FLRA policies that went against decades of the agency’s own precedents” according to Court Accountability Action and State Democracy Defenders Action.4 Peters returned to private practice in 2022, but recently quietly updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect a new title of “Senior Advisor” to the Office of Personnel Management. This appointment does not appear to have been announced anywhere else.
James Sherk authored the joint Office of Management and Budget and OPM memo (archive) on return to office implementation plans. The guidance in the memo echoes a November 20, 2024 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy outlining their “Doge Plan”, where they wrote: “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome”.4 The memo has earned criticism from the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, which expressed that the directive would “undermine” the government’s effectiveness by limiting their ability to attract talented employeees and maintain continuity of operations in emergencies. Sherk also authored the joint OMB and OPM memo (archive) providing guidance on the federal civilian hiring freeze — another effort towards the goal of slashing the size of the federal workforce.
James Sherk was announced as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy on January 18. A White House
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James Sherk authored the joint Office of Management and Budget and OPM memo (archive) on return to office implementation plans. The guidance in the memo echoes a November 20, 2024 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy outlining their “Doge Plan”, where they wrote: “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome”.4 The memo has earned criticism from the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, which expressed that the directive would “undermine” the government’s effectiveness by limiting their ability to attract talented employeees and maintain continuity of operations in emergencies. Sherk also authored the joint OMB and OPM memo (archive) providing guidance on the federal civilian hiring freeze — another effort towards the goal of slashing the size of the federal workforce.
James Sherk was announced as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy on January 18. A White House official during Trump’s first term, Sherk was a key figure in Trump’s endeavors to purge civil servants and replace them with loyalists through an effort known as “Schedule F”. After Biden was elected, he repealed Schedule F, and Sherk slunk off to the America First Policy Institute to continue efforts to advance Trump’s policies. Prior to these positions, he was a staff member at the Heritage Foundation.
While Project 2025 and similar initiatives have been public about their plans to reshape the federal workforce, Trump and other figures in his administration have denied or downplayed links with the initiative. These documents show that implementation is already well underway, with designated personnel quietly drafting policies that were intended only to be publicly attributed to those in charge of the federal agencies.
Exposed PDF metadata from the Office of Personnel Management reveals that Heritage Foundation-linked Trump devotees are writing policies at federal agencies.
I'd believe they don't have the skills. I also believe that they don't care. They won and they can do as they please. There's no need to pretend or hide anything anymore.
@weyoun6 There are tons of reason they should hide. This will probably be ending in four years. They are just too stupid to have the foresight to cover their asses for that eventuality.
It didn't last the first time, it won't last this time. Capitalize on their sense of security right now. Their guard is down, and we can exploit that.
@weyoun6 @thomasembree ...some might entertain the notion that retribution, especially aimed at fascist collaborators, such as, well, the dipshits identified in Molly's posts, can go both ways. History is strewn with crumpled masses of defeated authoritarians & their collaborators, supporters and sympathizers who had, not long prior, been giddily inflicting harm, chaos and death upon their charges. Retribution does not have a political preference.
Update: The OPM has now scrubbed the PDF metadata. However, the archived copies linked from my website contain the original metadata if you wish to verify.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 3301, 3302, and 7511 of
@hal_pomeranz it sounds a bit like "someone, we don't really know who, brought in a server we don't control", which sounds like a security incident in progress.
I just don't understand what the point is. If they can email every fed, why the "reply with yes" crap? They already know the email address. I don't doubt some stupid and/or evil plan, but I think I'm missing something.
@Secret_Squirrel They may want to confirm that the server can handle the load of all those replies. They may want proof that you are receiving the messages so you can't claim later that you aren't.
@jik @Secret_Squirrel My small part in local government tells me this is their intent. It was a big part in @$$ covering and very intentional that you acknowledged a condition existed.
@Secret_Squirrel my super cynical thought is they’re, in part, collecting replies to find all the employees with pronouns & DEIA keywords in their signatures. I hope most, if they reply yes, are deleting the rest.
@Secret_Squirrel My wild guess is that they just want to validate the email addresses are valid and just to test the servers.
I think the idea of storing data on private servers owned by Musk & friends is to shield them from FOIA requests or congressional / legal oversight down the road.
Another prism to view it through is the realization on behalf of the far-right that if they try to mask loyalty criteria in racial decrees like #hitler did after the enabling act, then that would arouse strong opposition. It's much better for them to focus on political enemies rather than racial groups as that will engender less opposition.
With that in mind, I think the current gameplan is just Hitler 2.0, alt-hitler, or hitler-lite
The primary source for the allegation that Noah Peters is directly part of "Project 2025", instead of being in the lengthy list of personnel recommendations put together by them:
This does concern Canada as well because of Harper & the CPC's involvement with the Heritage Foundation. If they succeed in the US then it's for sure that Canada is on the 'next' list. #cdnpoli
It's surreal how this is happening right now. I hate that it's still "over the top" to compare this to nazi Germany but it all started by mistreating minorities who were dehumanized. Sure they might be violent criminals now but let's see if this escalates.
@cynthea Lots, if you go to the site and click on the points, shows videos. That said, there is some low level of this going on on a usual day, so unclear how much is new activity versus existing activity.
So Montana , Idaho , Wyoming all have Beet, Potato and beef industries... I don't see any Ice raids going on there and let me tell you... they cannot operate without huge immigrant labor. Like probably 90%
Lets also remember Hitler didn't win his second term either but he switched his wording and then got re-elected. If history repeats itself then what did we learn the first time?
Like many Germans Niemöller was initially a convinced Nazi. Later he got locked up in a concentration camp himself as the Nazi regime got increasingly paranoid and turned on their own supporters for even the slightest signs of criticism. After WWII he spoke out to prevent fascists to ever again gain a foothold in German politics ... On the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation it is especially important to remember those, who had the chance to prevent fascism, but didn't.
I wonder if they will take over the businesses of gay people, like the Nazis gave Jewish businesses to supporters. Also, I hope an updated version of this will appear: leelawusa.com/blog/2024/10/wha…
I'm one to lean toward the Holocaust starting with "On the Jew and his Lies" by Martin Luther, the founder of Lutheranism.
Have a read. Wonderful work from a very loving devotee of God willing to stand against power for what's right and true. You'll find a recipe in there. Steps that should be taken to make the world a better, more Godly, and more loving place.
I guess it's contested, but it seems pretty obvious to me that the Nazis knew this work and followed it.
It started when people were desperate and turned to someone who went after the easy targets, the same targets that had been targeted for two millennia.
It kept going when Jews thought, "Oh, it won't happen here."
Thought, "They're my neighbor! I work with them, I grew up playing with them!"
Thought, "I served in the army! I contribute to society, I have nothing they could go after me for!"
Thought, "My neighbors won't kill me the first chance they get! We're modern!"
This is the lesson our children must be taught - they may not hear about the holocaust but they must understand that it always starts with the demonisation of a group of people whom politicians seize upon to hide their own failings #holocaust #fascism #ReformParty
Trump isn't Hitler Musk is Trump is more like Hindenburg Old most of his life used up Bannon is like the Brown Shirts leader that Hitler killed after taking POWER The Military of the USA, if they follow Trump ,will be the New Nazi SS America is rapidly becoming a Horror story And this time there is no Happy Ending No Atom Bomb is going to solve the problem The Bullies have the weapons Instead of 2.4 billion people of the 1940's there are 8+ billion Plenty to go around & slaughter
I never read Hannah Arendt's book on totalitarianism and the banality of evil. Seems relevant. I also have a book by Horkheimer and Adorno, I think, called Dialectic of the Enlightenment... haven't started it.
There is a clear continuation between colonialism and concentration camps for indigenous people. Like the atrocities in the Congo Free State, like the atlantic slave trade...
I agree as to where it did not begin. Not sure about the rest.
This time around it started when someone said that we "Owe him an open mind and the chance to lead" us into the gas chambers.
It's not because of a surplus of belligerence that this is happening, it's because of denial that sometimes giving a fundamental fight, and defending what's just and right is what's required if we want to survive.
Humans can be conditioned to anything, rotting flesh, murdering the most Vulnerable, fer tax breaks to the already filthy fuckin riche. We become Numb to the misery & death we are all complicit in it knowingly/unknowingly.
STOP the march of STUPID (FASCIST SHIT SHOW on STEROIDZ!!!).
Remember. Fight intolerance and hate speech. Care, and don't turn a blind eye to injustice. Beware if states start ..
I. Classification ii. Symbolization iii. Discrimination iv. Dehumanization v. Organization vi. Polarization vii. Preparation viii. Persecution ix. Extermination x. Denial
By Grace Condon and Frankie CondonGenocide WatchFebruary 4, 2024The UN estimates there are 1.7 million displaced people in Gaza, many of whom have fled the fighting around Khan Younis and are now in Rafah, which Israel has now begun to invade.
Meta is now flagging Linux-related topics as "cybersecurity threats" and blocking the accounts of users and groups who discuss FOSS.
If the Social Web Foundation and SWICG leadership can't be bothered to care about genocide instigation, privacy invasion, fascism promotion, disinformation, collusion with dictators, the censoring of marginalized communities, labor and child abuse, or nonconsensual behavior modification experiments, maybe NOW they will understand they're serving as the tools of an enemy?
Here's a little from ChatGPT (believe what you will)
"As of now, there is no evidence to suggest that Meta (Facebook) is systematically blocking Linux-related posts by labeling them as cybersecurity threats. However, there have been instances where Meta's content moderation systems have inadvertently flagged legitimate content as security risks."
@ManyRoads Here is a little from my iPhone’s predictive text input (believe what you will)
“Facebook is the only thing that can make you believe this story about a guy you love so very bad you don’t want it back or your friends are in a situation.”
The fucking hypocritical bastards are a member of the god damn @linuxfoundation . The LF should at least kick them in the shins for this. Meta would crumble like a sandcastle in a spring tide if they stopped using FOSS. 😡🤯
Its not an inauguration: Its a wedding of the rapist Emperor, to the child bride America, and billionaires came like witches to watch the Emperor rape her.
@andymouse @bohwaz No, it is secure. It is centralized, yes. But at the same time it's FOSS E2EE with advanced cryptographic protocols with minimised metadata leaks – basicaly only thing Signal server gets is when you log in
@speaktrap It still leaks your IP and approximate location. Signal also holds your phone number... This is not a good privacy solution if you are concerned about state surveillance. @andymouse @moh_kohn
I live in the #PNW where life is typically harder. It is a bit harder to dwell here in western Oregon because there is pretty much an absence of jobs in the tech field. We have a local university and there is a Hewlett-Packard in the city. But the minimum requirement for getting into that is a four-year degree. I didn't do that for a few reasons in my twenties. I'm stuck with the consequences of that decision.
I don't want to get into economic motivators with you. Primarily: 1) I don't know you. 2) I have had a few disagreements with socialists in the past over what is reality vs. what are the actual economic encumbrances which a majority of people will acknowledge and also work with.
The problem is greater than 50% of the country does not care at all about open standards in computing or the fact one's computer will sometimes spy on them -- in so many words. They will use anything tech-constructed that is spoon fed to them by the crazy "bald head" executives such as Satya Nadella and ex-CEO Steve Ballmer over at Micr
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I live in the #PNW where life is typically harder. It is a bit harder to dwell here in western Oregon because there is pretty much an absence of jobs in the tech field. We have a local university and there is a Hewlett-Packard in the city. But the minimum requirement for getting into that is a four-year degree. I didn't do that for a few reasons in my twenties. I'm stuck with the consequences of that decision.
I don't want to get into economic motivators with you. Primarily: 1) I don't know you. 2) I have had a few disagreements with socialists in the past over what is reality vs. what are the actual economic encumbrances which a majority of people will acknowledge and also work with.
The problem is greater than 50% of the country does not care at all about open standards in computing or the fact one's computer will sometimes spy on them -- in so many words. They will use anything tech-constructed that is spoon fed to them by the crazy "bald head" executives such as Satya Nadella and ex-CEO Steve Ballmer over at Microsoft.
For the intelligent people, we've had years to switch over our infrastructure and communications to Open Source. Not only have we encountered maximum resistance from within (with me it's been a big issue w/ all the male prima donnas and borderline isolationists who insist on doing every tech-related task themselves) but apart from that, the regulation in the US government has been sorely lacking.
That is why around 58% of the American population voted for the melon felon (Trump). They want someone to more or less "burn the whole system down." And Trump will try his best to do this, too -- but even he faces the same constraints AND allowances as the rest of us plebs.
The remainder of the world must really be disliking the USA right now. Here we are, almost on the forefront of some really good, permanent change -- and now once again we are all collectively held back by the idiots in charge who don't care and still indirectly control a lot of the money inflows, unfortunately.
I'm personally going to be hunkered down and learning tech knowledge in my spare time to circumvent some of the seemingly insurmountable problems facing modern technology and people. It's really all I can do. Industry, especially Silicon Valley at this moment in time, is not embracing the change which we need on social terms -- or more specifically OUR terms as true contributors.
It's up to the volunteers of America, once again, kind of like it was to some extent for activists during the sixties, to herald in some kind of positive change.
I have no idea where politics is going. Many of them are ambivalent about making Open Source more prevalent in America. At least in Germany they've tried to adopt it internally within their government. That has not happened domestically in the US. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Microsoft has a monopoly in government and business. This pesky fact must change someday without "burning it all down." Our freedom depends on loosening up the shackles of oppression brought on by Microsoft, Oracle, and the tightwad bastards on Wall Street.
Poor people are suffering. People such as me are aloof and withdrawn because we have been cast to the side of the fringes within society by much of society itself, by our crazy parents if we had them, or by bad circumstances. Please, before you judge me do know that I really know that poor people are suffering. That is my primary concern in these times.
Yeah, and internet dependance has really killed folks ability to read body language. One of my archaic in this digital age specialties. Someone far more important than my nobody ass should be asking better questions. Why does Jeff Bezos look sad behind a forced half smile he's wearing like a mask? Why does Zuckerberg look scared & worried? We can make some sound guesses why Elon looks so distant & thoughtful. These men should be whooping it up. All the true believers are.
@Beggarmidas Near the end of the movie, after the apparently successful heist, the "crew" that was assembled for the heist, watch the rest of the crew for the betrayal.
Hitler, after a smaller heist in Germany, murdered whole sections of the Nazi Party, Hitler's first mass murders.
@kevinrns I've been working like hell to head this thing off for seven years. Fuck all good it did. Nobody believed it was possible. They still don't believe that what comes next is gonna happen. I've got the history. Thanks. It's guided & advised my actions. The problem I have is overcoming peoples resistance to doing fuckall about the present state of events. Got any beneficial wisdom to offer on that count?
@kevinrns Working on it. They're not exactly recognizing the risk though. They're still in denial. The usual 'can't happen here' or 'can't happen to me' refrain that unites victims across the ages. I've been trying to prep 'em for two months now. Not making great progress, truth be told. Many have been downright nasty & hit the ignore key after some choice words. Problem is people are willing to be scared, but not proactive.
@kevinrns I'm doing everything i can to snap people out of being locked up by fear. What's fucked up is that it's not even the enemy churning it. Everyone is priming the pump before the enemy even gets a chance. Try not to start, relay or amplify fear signals for the next few weeks gents. It's vaporlocking everyone's sense of agency.
Sadly, there are usually good reasons why more people don't use the things you suggest.
If anyone on the web wants to link to your Bluesky content, they have to use the 'app.bsky' domain. The operators of that domain can refuse to serve content posted by you, and basically hold your 'decen' identity hostage much like Substack or X could.
Web sites will not risk linking to non- 'bsky.app' domains because that will send Bluesky users to servers that won't recognize their auth cookies, resulting in a broken UX (much like Mastodon's).
Email defined a URL protocol prefix to prevent this type of confusion, but today's techie elitists would rather tell users to roll up their sleeves and "learn Linux" (a thing that has zero identifiable features to a non-techie because the only common part is a kernel). "Just pick one" doesn't work because the same people will be peppering them incessantly about the need to distro-hop for various reasons (and nearly all the howto resources are written for the CLI, which looks frightening to most). The common thread here is techie
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Sadly, there are usually good reasons why more people don't use the things you suggest.
If anyone on the web wants to link to your Bluesky content, they have to use the 'app.bsky' domain. The operators of that domain can refuse to serve content posted by you, and basically hold your 'decen' identity hostage much like Substack or X could.
Web sites will not risk linking to non- 'bsky.app' domains because that will send Bluesky users to servers that won't recognize their auth cookies, resulting in a broken UX (much like Mastodon's).
Email defined a URL protocol prefix to prevent this type of confusion, but today's techie elitists would rather tell users to roll up their sleeves and "learn Linux" (a thing that has zero identifiable features to a non-techie because the only common part is a kernel). "Just pick one" doesn't work because the same people will be peppering them incessantly about the need to distro-hop for various reasons (and nearly all the howto resources are written for the CLI, which looks frightening to most). The common thread here is techie culture doesn't standardize the UI bits that most people need as common points of reference. Instead, the culture will give users the choice of becoming techies themselves or using something like Signal – a would-be defacto standard that is most definitely centralized.
The annoying nerds need to be told why they fail, and frankly I don't care if they're annoyed by it. If you spent literal decades not being able to give this stuff away for free, then please take a step back and ask what is missing.
@tasket Yeah, the main good reason people don't use them is money.
These are passion projects which are often done for free, and then used by large corporations (or startups with investor capital who get bought by large corps). These companies throw money at advertising them, and to file off the rough edges.
Fully support this sentiment, but running Linux is not an action so easy that everyday people could do it. And the onboarding / cross-server connective for the social web are still measurably more confusing than typical social media.
The teams that make these products need to invest a bit more in making them accessible for non-techies, if it’s going to benefit a larger number of people. 💙
@rcbo all of this - usability is security. For anyone looking for help designing for at risk users; usable.tools/ has some great resources and user personas (oblig I launched and for a while ran the project before handing it over to more awesome folks to continue evolving)
The USABLE project (Usable Security Apps by Leveraging End-users) is building feedback loops across the world, connecting digital security trainers working with at-risk communities, design experts, and open source tool developers.
Ravil Maganov, the chairman of a Russian oil company that criticized Russia's invasion of Ukraine, reportedly died after falling from a hospital window.
@rrb If I was any sort of public figure who had criticized Trump publicly or participated in his impeachments or the Jan 6 hearings, I would be investing in private security. @moh_kohn
@ellestad @rrb according to some of my old peers still in the trade i've spoken with all the outfits are overbooked. Nobody available. Four month waiting list on all the actual competent outfits. Might still be some available in the fly by night dregs. Little more than mall cop temp agencies. If you feel like trusting your life to a half assed Blart getting paid 15 bucks an hour, TOPS.
@rrb @ellestad Yeah. So what'choo going to do about it? Y'all going to stand by and just watch it happen? Y'all might want to consider applying those big brains to figuring out what it's gonna take for you to enter the fight.
@interstar what's a good gateway approach to laptop-linux? (meaning for now would be 2nd machine, don't want to spend too much, don't want to waste time) Linux on Chromebook? Which one? If there's already a linux to "enable" on stock ChromeBook, why are people talking about which one to install? reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments… forum.chrultrabook.com/t/best-…
Hey o! So, I stumbled upon this community via a Veronica Explains video, and I really want to give this a shot! But I do need some recommendations for a good unit, that’s decently powerful, for around $200-300 or so.
@billseitz @interstar I don't know anything about chromebooks. Ubuntu is usually regarded as a good starter linux. I have been recommending Bazzite (based on Fedora) to people who want to play windows computer games.
Allegedly older, second hand ThinkPads are Linux friendly, cheap and well made. But (also allegedly) Lenovo quality is going down. I had Lenovo which wasn't ThinkPad and wasn't impressed.
It sucks that reasonable Linux laptops are now so expensive.
Depending exactly what you need, I'd almost say get a Raspberry Pi with Linux and VNC into it from laptop.
I had the pleasure of seeing them twice - once opening for the Beastie Boys, and once in a small basement club, standing right up to the edge of the stage. Those were the days!
They want people to snitch on their co-workers and fellow citizens. Of course, people are flooding their email "tip line" with random nonsense...which we definitely should not do. We shouldn't create random email accounts, definitely not via proton, and we should NOT send in absurd reports, or attach insanely large files that might crash their system. Doing that would be WRONG, and we should NOT do it at all. It would be very wrong to send things to DEIAtruth@opm.gov just to fuck with their attempts. It would be very wrong for all of us to report Trump, Musk, and the other billionaires as being given their jobs solely based on their class and privilege...DON"T DO IT!
Originally posted by Guillotines for a Better America, on fb
As someone who makes a modest monthly contribution to bsky.app/profile/ledbydonkeys.… I see things like this and I get to think "hey, I helped do that"" 😀 👍
tbh, ich glaube Elon Musk findet das auch geil. Es ist ja nicht so als wäre unvorsichtigerweise bei seinem Hitlergruß ertappt worden. Nein, er hat es vor der gesamten Weltöffentlichkeit gemacht, weil er das Gefühl hat, dass er seine Faszination jetzt ausleben kann.
Wenn ihr ihm das auf die Fabrikhalle projeziert kriegt der doch einen Steifen vor Entzückung.
Das wird die falschen Menschen ebenfalls beeindrucken und ich befürchte, diese Geste wird auch immer normaler für die Menschen, wenn man sie jetzt ständig sieht.
Gerade diese Aktionen ermöglichen die Einflussnahme auf die Deutung solcher Zeichen.
Es war dringen notwendig, durch diese Aktion wird die Deutung dieser Geste gefestigt. Die Normalisierung passiert immer dann wenn die Gegenreaktion ausbleibt!
Danke für diese unglaublich wichtige Botschaft an alle Menschen.
„Heil Tesla“: Die Aktivisten vom Zentrum für politische Schönheit und von der Gruppe „Led by Donkeys“ haben Bilder von Projektionen auf dem Tesla-Werk in Grünheide gepostet. Es sind Fälschungen.
Die Lichtstrahlen, die von der "Projektion" ausgehen, gehen auseinander, müssten aber in einem Punkt zusammenlaufen: dort wo der Projektor steht. Damit sieht es für mich unecht aus.
Was man da sieht, hätte ich spontan für Lichtstreuung o.ä. gehalten und nicht für die Lichtstrahlen aus dem Projektor. Außerdem: fed.brid.gy/r/bsky.app/profile…
Wir haben gestern über eine Stunde aus der Tesla Gigafactory in Berlin Kunst gemacht. Die Polizei scheint schon in Musks faschistischer Totalüberwachung angekommen zu sein und wütet gegenüber Medien: „Das Foto ist ein Fake.“ Weil sie keine „Feststellungen“ gemacht hat. Well… Da kommt noch einiges!
Kein Fake. In diesem fünfminütigen Video fährt an einer Stelle ein Transporter auf der Straße durchs Bild, an dem ein Teil der Projektion sichtbar wird.
By Led By Donkeys at Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany. - Why Led By Donkeys Targeted Elon Musk with ‘Heil Tesla’ in Berlin: streetartutopia.com/2025/01/23…
meiner Meinung nach nicht, dass totschweigen, sondern eher das Grenzen des Unsagbaren immer weiter nach außen verschieben, extreme Begriffe normalisieren, hat uns dahin hin gebracht. @LThiry @why_not @politicalbeauty.bsky.social
having succeeded in purchasing positions of influence inside the White House, the billionaires and tech VCs have now set their sights back on Wikipedia
That’s not the solution. Avoiding conflict is the solution. Plus there are already more* Dems that own guns than MAGA. MAGA are just a small number of weirdos who own a bunch of guns per person. (*editing this post to question if this has changed, it’s been a few years. I’ll update it today or tomorrow. It may be, they’ve eclipsed the non R gun owners. If it’s changed I’ll change more to plenty of and we’re younger and probably shake less and have better aim. 😉) @kobold @molly0xfff
"[Wikipedia] deserves 0$ until they rebalance." - a sentence that shows complete absence on understanding how wikipedia works.
"They" includes everyone, as wikipedia is the encyclopedia everyone can edit.
And the donations go to the WM foundation, that has no control about the content.
The content is made by volunteers that have nothing to do with the donations.
While the USA can force authors and admins with a residence in the US to anything, these authors and admins will be overruled by english language authors and admins in Canada, australia, britain, ireland and many other locations.
It seems that both groups (the billionaires and MAGApoliticians on the one side and the employees of the WMF on the other side) are completely unaware that it is unavoidable, that trumpmusk destroys Wikipedia, as Wikipedia cannot be forced into submission with any less severe action.
this is a pivotal moment. They really want to destroy information and truth. With that gone, they can convince anyone of anything. The world would be theirs. They are also idiots. Defund Wikipedia? It's not publicly funded you awkward gesturing car maker
If you install @kiwix on your phone or tablet or computer, you can download the whole of Wikipedia for offline use. (There's a version without media if you want to keep the file size down.)
That copy then becomes yours and no one can take it away or edit it.
I can't work out if this is a sinister attempt to rewrite reality in a way that suits them. Or if they are so deluded they actually believe what they're saying.
Yep. Fascism doesn’t elevate great “thinkers” It elevates followers & then throws them off a balcony if they dare to think. They share tRumps dreams of power, shame at being excluded & anger at the world but past that the majority are voids. #USPol @rhm
Discover the power of Kiwix - your gateway to offline Wikipedia and a vast array of educational content. Access knowledge anytime, anywhere without an internet connection. Explore the benefits of Kiwix today.
@catsalad Thankfully, the wikimedia foundation is funded for years to come. The edit wars I just saw flashing before my eyes are a whole other beast, though.
Coincidentally, I was just listening to a report about a sock puppet zoo revising history on German Wikipedia. Chilling stuff, but also a boost to respect towards serious Wikipedia editors. ardaudiothek.de/episode/socken… (in German)
Wikipedia – die freie Enzyklopädie, die Wissen für alle zugänglich macht – hat die Welt verändert. Doch hinter der schlichten Fassade aus blauen Hyperlinks und einer Puzzlekugel verbirgt sich ein ständiger Kampf: um Information, Kontrolle und ja, auc…
@arrrg Oligarchs call anything supporting we the people socialism. They do not like democracy, unions, Medicare, Social Security and people who think for themselves.
Wasn't there some effort a few years ago to launch a "conservative wikipedia" alternative? Didn't it fail spectacularly? I'm hoping that I didn't imagine that.
@keet This is why their complaints are so hollow, the licence on Wikipedia permits people to "fork" it so if they really wanted to make a better version there's nothing to stop them at all.
Musk has enough money, why isn't he doing it? Could it be because he doesn't actually give a damn either way, or is it because he's afraid no one would want his version?
Wow, Chamath is all in .. . First he programed you so he could become a billionaire and get a seat at the table, now he's doing what ever he can so they don't kick his PoC body out of the country.
I find it funny that the term "God given gift to think for yourself," is uttered. You can only think for yourself because an imaginative force gave you permission to do so.
>Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. It presents a future American society where books have been outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The novel follows in the viewpoint of Guy Montag, a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.<
I find it so weird how Elon Musk is convinced twitter is the only real "news" app, and he thinks that news is just random unverifiable tweets. He considers actual news posted on websites legacy media.
"Foundation AI models are being trained on this data..." Well, then don't. I'm sure he can get some great content from "X - The Everything App" instead to train their models.
But Wikipedia is mostly politics nowadays and no neutral source. At least when you want to inform yourself about some history, countries or public people. In tech stuff I didn't found issues yet (but I use Wikipedia very rarely)
They should channels their efforts and attack this. bls.go
The amount of utter bullshit published monthly by the US Department of Labor has more utility than the sum of any other bullshit alive. It has ALL the trappings of weaponized bullshit including providing the Fed with reason to rob 90% of you blind while you engage in needless discourse.
Is it possible to be among the richest & at the same time dumbest persons on Earth?
Elon Musk for sure feels compelled to prove it by personal example, to attract some more attention.
They're feeling the unpostponable urge to ban books & information so the masses wouldn't be able to claim superior knowledge compared to natural-born billionaire goofballs.
[Btw, it's still not officially confirmed if the Liar-In-Chief will spend less than one whole year playing with taxpayers' dollars on one of his notorious, laundered-money-funded goof courses this time. 🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑]
When people like that set out to suppress "ideology", with no reasonable argument as to why its only ideology, what they're saying is that their wealth and power are the only things that should matter and they are tired or dealing with inconvenient facts.
They represent "the natural order" and anything that would elicit disapproval of them is unnatural "ideology". #SocialDarwinism #nazi #oligarchy
If they can't get control of the site they may try buying MarkMonitor Inc. & preventing name renewal then hijacking wikipedia.org & directing traffic to some other site
They can enshittify their own platforms and capture the news that they've bought and paid for but if they come for WMF its tarps off kids. Thems fightn wordz. Theyz bout to have an incident.
probably time for Wikipedia to move its juridic home into another jurisdiction. Canada wouldn't be too bad, but somewhere like Iceland or Switzerland would possibly be better.
Wikipedia shouldn’t be seen as an arbiter of truth. That’s why teachers try to hammer it in to students that you can’t just cite Wikipedia as a source. However I would take the vetted words of the community over whatever Elon Musk says any day.
@Globaltom @arrrg Anything which works for and with society is socialism, a promoted naughty word touted bye the elite, seems to me? Capitalism is the opposite of socialism, in the sense it works for profit off of society by any means they can conjure.
@billyjoebowers "Free speech" to them just means the freedom to use racial slurs against minorities. The First Amendment is basically just an N-word pass to them. They give zero fucks about anything else it stipulates.
Beginning to think we need a botnet that just takes all those posts, changes a few nouns so that the meaning is reversed, and blasts them back out again.
Ironically Musk does point out a real issue with Wikipedia: they treat newspapers as "reliable sources," even about topics like science and medicine where newspapers are not reliable.
A blog written by a scientist about their area of research is treated as less reliable than a New York Times editorial written and edited without any scientists involved.
It's a problem even before you look at areas of science that are politicized.
But of course, Musk's frustration isn't that they are using non-scientists as sources in science articles: it's that the non-scientists they cite aren't conservative enough.
you know what's truly mind boggling - it's the American ignorance of the ENTIRE REST OF THE WORLD. Even if Wikipedia was bias towards some side of American clown politics the value it adds to the rest of the world just blows all of these meme issues to complete and utter irrelevance.
That's okay, in the words of Mel Robbins. "Let them." Then "let us" (whoever has the means) start a new information sharing site. One ran on truth backed by research and evidence and also ran with dignity and respect.
Never understood why these people think Wikipedia is heavily biased when I would argue it's one of the most neutral sites on the Internet, never once bending in favor of one political ideology. Wikipedia is not and never was perfect, but in an era where most people will easily fall for blatant lies and half-truths, the site and related platforms are kind of a necessity.
Reeks like the announcement that their AIs are soon going to be trained primarily on "synthetic data", i.e. (in this case) on self-serving opinions of Vulture Chauvinists and messages their idols send them scribbled in invisible ink on dollar bills.
I guess it's important to not have your lies fact-checked.
Technical question: Does anyone know how and were wikipedia is hosted ? Ie: does it replicate its data to alternative jurisdictions (ie: outside of the US) in case the oligarchs manage to get it blocked / brought down ?
if the sources aren't credible enough for them, their energy should be on making the sources more credible.
The apparent rage might be as simple as site visit ranking and popular kids are falling, so have to pick on the nerdy one that is below them (for now). en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o…
@arrrg I wonder why they haven't target d mastodon as much yet? Maybe it's not a big enough target? I have seen an increase of troll accounts lately on the bigger instances but it's not too hard to block and report.
sadly Spanish Wikipedia is already the way they'd like it to be: full of false claims, written in a populistic style, lacking references to trusted website and very right wing.
"A week ago, It’s Going Down published a statement announcing that we were putting this project on hiatus after ten years. Tired and burned out, we were gambling our absence wouldn’t be missed. In short, the response from readers, friends, and long time collaborators was overwhelming and clear: many feel this project is important and should continue. We appreciate all of the incredibly kind words and those who took the time to reach out to us.
With this encouragement in mind, we have decided to continue publishing at It’s Going Down and operating the platform for the near future. Going forward, we want to focus on quality over quantity and also attempt to cultivate again a culture of report-backs and movement journalism as we go into the second Trump period. We also realize that this isn’t 2017 anymore; the site may be updated less as it has been in the past.
A week ago, It's Going Down published a statement announcing that we were putting this project on hiatus after ten years. Tired and burned out, we were gambling our absence wouldn't be missed. In...
Advocates and community members can work together to fight messages of fear and panic by helping community members learn about their rights and how to protect themselves from ICE.
America never had democracy and all Americans know that and that's why they don't give a shit. You can't keep the democracy you don't have using the democracy you don't have. 😁
No they won't. 😁 Shit always always always gets worse no matter what they do. That's how they know they don't have democracy and that's why some people vote for Trump.
@apodoxus There were lots of Americans on here saying we don’t have a democracy, we’re already fascist, etc. in the months before the election, but they’ve all gone quiet now, except for whoever this person is.
I fact, when deportation and martial actions come up, one half of the trumpists being real fascists will say: "That's good!" (like in Germany 1933), and the other just dumb half will be whining and pretending: "We did not know!".
Sad but true. The foundation of the perceived freedoms in the Corporate USA has been crumbling for some time. Historically one should look at this ban as a slight of hand. Something else is in the works to dismantle the illusion of American freedom while TikTok is being banned. The art of distracting the masses is a favorite past time of politicians in the US.
in a way, the TikTok ban is a wake up call. Those in power, they're not even trying to hide it anymore. Maybe Americans are absolutely right to freak out about it. God, I live in Europe, I've never used TikTok and I'm concerned about it... Shouldn't we all? What does it mean to the world if the greatest military global superpower becomes a openly dictatorial regime (but with a different, likeable self-description, of course)?
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
just a touch inaccurate. We who care about #democracy and the technoBro #disinformation complex have been in hairOnFire mode since last spring or July at least. Some of us emptied our pockets, wore out our soles and souls before the election, and are now in recovery mode which looks like hibernation.
But …those addicted to commercial #TikTok and other social media—yep. How many of them could not bother to #vote? A good crosstab to run. Hypothesis: most
so my bottom line, stop labeling all of us as #america or #unitedstates. Your illustration until proven otherwise is of #murrica #nonvoters “I may spill my latte or have to get off #TikTok to go #vote” and yes they were the largest group and ( in my rage right now) think maybe THEY should be deported someplace where they have neither TikTok nor a vote.
How much do you think the general person in the US experiences of 'democracy', not only in their daily lives, but on the very circumscribed days where they are allowed to be even a minor part of any sort of real decisionmaking process?
the Americans who used tiktok were the ones shouting that we would lose our democracy lmao. Banning Tiktok was just the next step in losing it which is why they are freaking out. Half of Americans just lost their right to assemble through that app and a vital form of comparably uncensored communication was just cut off. Two things an increasingly less democratic government would appreciate, no?
TBF, the TikTokers probably appeared to be sleeping to some because they were loud about politics… on TikTok. Non-TikTok users - including this cartoonist - would have seen the behavior and thus made judgments about it.
And I think this is the core of the issue: When we vent online in closed communities, other closed communities don’t see it. Worse, we dull our anger enough that few see us collectively protesting in the streets.
You think Americans are asleep because they didn't vOtE bLuE nO mAtTeR wHo? More likely is that they simply didn't have anyone to vote for that would save democracy. The Democrats have been asleep at the wheel for the past four years giving Trump everything he needed to win. Oh, and banning TikTok was a bipartisan effort.
Calling the comic surface level as hell, explaining it to us, then explaining that you don't get it - is funny for reasons I can't explain. Just because you answered yourself with 'yes' doesn't mean it's true. (Or that it makes sense) 😆😆😆
"Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence." 2014 cambridge.org/core/journals/pe…
The Canadians who want the country to be annexed by the US are the ones who wish they could move to the US but have no marketable skills and don’t stand a chance in hell of ever getting a work visa. That or they cosplay being an American but don’t want to have to actually life a finger to become one. Just leave ffs - you want to be American, go do it the normal way and emigrate you terrible c*nts.
Cluster Fcku
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