Today, I took what I consider to be a small, positive action in self-care. I went our local farmers market.

This is something I've been meaning to do for some time because just in general, I think it's a positive thing for the planet but also to support local farms etc.

However, it's always been a "meant to" thing - and I end up going to the local grocery store. Well. with the recent change in administration, I see an alarming removal of all manner of health and safety regulation.

In short, I'm worried about H5N1 Avian flu outbreaks getting into the food supply due to the new administration prioritizing the economy over public health.

So, today my local farmers market was open 10 to 1 and it was a relatively warmer day so I headed over.

There were only two vendors out (They said there are more on Saturdays) but one of them had local eggs from hens they keep themselves - chicken AND duck (My wife is a huge duck egg fan)

They also had very good prices various meats.

We have not had a steak in ages because the price is just so high - we decided to splurge and got ourselves a nice bit of rib eye, we also got some sweet potato and butternut squash.

I was happy that I didn't see a single flag/sticker indicating support for Cantaloupe Caligula, and they were happy for our business.

It's a small thing but we need to get better about spending our money local where we can and also small farms are going to be increasingly important (my prediction).

We'll be trying to grow some of our own produce this year to have more direct control over our food safety.

I had this thought this morning:

We have gone well beyond “yelling fire in a crowded movie theater”

At this point, the owners of the movie theater have installed a very obnoxious and loud fire alarm with sirens that make your ears hurt… They wait until about 10 minutes into the movie and then they blast the alarm and don’t give a crap who hurts themselves in the panic getting out …

Then they turn off the alarm and when people say hey we want to finish that movie they say "oh yeah sucker.. uh I mean sorry patron, you left the theater. You’ll have to buy another ticket”

I am not speaking of any particular exact grift but just kind of where the rules of free speech and the social contract have been utterly weaponized by the fascists.. is this actually happening anywhere? no.

However imagine that theater and this grift ... they do this and people complain and protest and someone goes and sues or the DA files charges.. and because it's state/local the right thing happens and the shady theater loses time and time again... but they have money to appeal and they keep appealing up and up and manage to make a federal case about it saying that their right to run their fire alarm is free speech... and they get it up to the current incredibly corrupt supreme court and the court finds some way to say "no this is fine, they're in the right" and now not only did they get away with it, not only did the people wronged spend untold thousands on lawyers but now the precedent is set and every single other theater can do the same thing without fear.

Ok, so that was an absurd example.. but look at the recent case in Oklahoma - Where the state superintendent of schools required every classroom have a bible but on top of that the bible requirements were custom tailored so that only the tRump grift bible in faux leather with gold leaf and the constitution and bill of rights and declaration of independence and the words to "god bless the usa" were in it...

This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause (as well as a clear attempt to curry favor with the Cantaloupe Caligula) and it's guaranteed to be shot down at every level of court - even the most conservative is not likely to agree with this one... At least until it gets to the Supreme Court. You know they're just waiting for this type of case so they can overturn years of precedent

Stare Decisis is out the window folks... I'm not even sure how we as a society fight back except - pour sand in the gears - fight them every step, force them to go through round after round of court battles or bureaucracy - whatever it takes but just INFORM the populace of the grift, DELAY the implementation, and ORGANIZE resistance

We have to do this because there are going to be right wingers in every state passing horrendously bad anti abortion laws, anti trans laws, anti gay marriage laws that would be unthinkable and then are going to count on losing each step till they get to the Supreme Court which is ideologically so corrupt that they're going to break everything. We can't just lie down and take it but don't look for quick victories - Judges can file in junctions and slow the wheels, Each level of court should be dragged on as long as possible. Make it painful for the fascists... This is how we have to resist.

Also for the love of dog: vote... vote in every local election no matter how small.. vote as if your future depends on the local school board election - because IT DOES.

LBJ made an incredibly prescient statement:

If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.

This whole setting people against one another - convincing voters that Diversity Equality and Inclusion is hurting them, that "Empathy is a sin"

Do not commit the sin of empathy.

This snake is God's enemy and yours too. She hates God and his people. You need to properly hate in response.

She is not merely deceived but is a deceiver. Your eye shall not pity.

-- a tweet from Ben Garrett, a pastor at Refuge Church (Reformed Baptist) in Ogden, UT.

I genuinely can't even comprehend the amount of not just ignorance, not just willful ignorance, but prideful ignorance on display.

I would love to say "we're better than this" but clearly.. we are not... we (collectively) have shown who we are and it's not pretty... Those of us who have been ringing the alarm bells and warning have been told over and over that we were overreacting.

The road to fascism is paved with the bones of the marginalized and lined with people telling us we're overreacting.

I've been looking for a viable Facebook replacement. Nothing FB does is particularly difficult tech-wise - events, photo sharing, video sharing, etc.. and the ActivityPub / federated systems have a lot of promise.

Sadly, the best social sites are essentially just twitter clones. Don't get me wrong, the general concept of twitter like "digital town square" can be really useful social constructs.. However, the "Killer app" for Facebook is the "friend" system.

On the old twitter, and on mastodon and bluesky, it seems like all posts you make are world readable unless you block someone... and anyone can follow you (again unless you explicitly block someone. Blocking is great - I hear xhitter started letting paid accounts adn Elmo override that - what a mess

Anyway, the "killer app" for me is that two-way handshake - I request you as a friend and unless you accept, meaning it's two way consent, you're not a friend.. and I can post stuff that only friends can see...

I really love that feature because it lets people build a bit of a safe bubble.

There's been a LOT of talk about bubbles and how they're bad, and I used to subscribe to that view. However, I've developed a more Nuanced take on that of late - that if your bubble is an opinion / behavior bubble but is grounded in objective fact, then having a bubble can be a net positive.

Not to get too right vs left here but there is a HUGE amount of not just willful but prideful ignorance among a great number of people in the US (and the world but especially the US), and when they're not willing to agree on basic objective facts (I refer you to the "alternative fact" crowd.. ) and building upon a platform of lies and grift.. then yes that bubble is harmful.

However, the level of toxicity in the site formerly known as twitter got so bad, and deliberate changes to the system to amplify hateful voices and make them all but un-ignorable just completely failed the basic mission of what social media can and should be.

So, having a "bubble" where I've carefully curated my friends such that I don't get inundated with random garbage... (I mean sometimes my friends also can credulously share junk too - and the "unfollow" feature allowing me to keep a person I care about on some level in my life but not have to deal with their constant stream of woo or annoying but not toxic shares etc... ) where was I? right... the general idea of being able to ensure that only those people I have some connection to and have approved see my main social content. I post a few things publicly here and there but mostly keep it to friends and thus my FB has been mostly non toxic... The ads and sponsored content, the utterly broken AI powered moderation and fear that even typing certain words like "Garbage" or "Trash" might get one banned ... yeah, that's a problem.. and the recent announcements from FB that they're going to pull back on some of their banning etc.. may sound good except when you see it's politically targeted - if I call someone mentally ill for believing some kooky religiously inspired conspiracy or hater I could still get a ban but someone calling LGBTQIA+ people mentally ill is now OK (even though pretty much the entire Western Worlds psychological associations agree that being LGBTQIA+ is in no way a mental illness) goes unpunished?

OK so anyway long first post but I'm trying out Friendica to see if it's a platform that would work for a self hosted community - I had a 600 or so person community site from about 1998 until 2010 - I closed it down when most of the people had stopped using it in favor of Facebook.... That community (with a large number of LGBTQIA+ people and also allies thereof and generally left--of-center leaning freaks and geeks ... ) is collectively feeling very much like FB is not a place to be... so bringing that back may be worth it... I'm going to see.

Thanks for reading.
~Tananda