Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

This week's comic: The things Mike Johnson has said are so over the top that I thought I might place him in the role of my flaming conservative character (hence the flames, in case anyone was wondering about that). It’s almost impossible to exaggerate this man’s theocratic worldview, so I tried to use actual quotes where I could.

#uspol #politics #cartoon #democracy #authoritarianism #republicans #theocracy #lgbtq

Someone asked if a clerk has a law degree.

Yes. Not only that, but they are extremely difficult jobs to get and generally go to the stop students from the top law schools.

There are career clerks (that's their permanent job) and clerks who cycle though out of law school for a few years. Getting one of those clerkships means you were a top student.

People fresh out of law school are the best at legal research because they just did lots of it.

I don't know this clerk's employment status.

6/

Simon/e Van Sarloos (UC Berkeley Department of Rhetoric) and I read excerpts from our Non-Monogamy letters yesterday at the #AmericanStudies meeting in Montreal to an attentive audience who asked good questions and made fun provocations. The letters have been published by Arts Everywhere.

I also write about going beyond settler monogamy or non-monogamy to less rigid ideas of what are supposed to be the most important relationships in our lives.

https://www.artseverywhere.ca/series/the-non-monogamy-letters/

I think a lot of people mistake being clever, or cunning, or devious, for being intelligent. The problem with our society (and the world more generally) is that we have a lot of clever, cunning, and devious people in charge of things, and they are nearly all idiots.

Side neither with nations nor with parties. Be neither Russians, Poles nor Slavs. Rather, be men who hunger for truth, free from any thoughts of particular interests, and from speculative ideas concerning the Chinese, Africans or Europeans. The patriot always ends up hating the foreigner, and loses the sense of justice that once kindled his enthusiasm.
-- Elisee Reclus

#anarchism #quote #bot

I got a #dynamo .

Problem: "USB chargers" are expensive.

Solution: Build an #OpenSource 5V power supply.

(Older #Forumslader is open but ineffective. Ask me how I know...)

Parts seem to cost under 50EUR!

#project #openhardware #cycling #electronics #BikeTooter #bicycle #ACDC #SMPS #KiCAD

Attorney General Bonta confirms what we've been saying: it is against the law for police to share data from license plate readers with out-of-state or federal agencies. This is a victory for immigrants, abortion seekers, protesters, and everyone who drives a car. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/10/victory-california-department-justice-declares-out-state-sharing-license-plate

Hey, #Massachusetts folks who get your #HealthInsurance through the #HealthConnector!

Big, big changes this open enrollment.

If you make between 300% and 500% of the FLP – so between $43,740 and $72,900 for an individual (or $59,160 to $98,600 for a 2-person family, other ranges for bigger families), most of your choices for health plans have gone away. No bronze, gold, or platinum plans for you. There's a limited set of eight silver plans you have to choose from.

If you were planning on continuing on with the plan you were on, and it's not one of those eight, well, you won't get to, apparently. I'm thinking of giving them a call and asking if I can some how opt out of this and shop like a richer person, but as of right now, the MAHealthConnector is enforcing this without opt out.

Want to hear a wild stat?

Nearly a thousand $1 million+ earners didn't file tax returns for at least one year from 2017 to 2020. Just didn’t bother.

And the GOP is trying to help them by slashing IRS funding. When the IRS is defunded, rich tax cheats make out like bandits.

I still think they’re missing the news. The news is not that House Republicans are trying to aid Israel. The news is that House Republicans have declared their first and most important priority: starving the IRS of the funds needed to collect money owed by billionaire tax cheats.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/11/02/house-israel-aid-mcconnell-schumer-biden/71393928007/

Remember folks, if you don't vote for Joe Biden, you're letting the fascists win...of course, if you do vote for Joe Biden you are also letting the fascists win, but uh...at least he's not Trump.

https://truthout.org/articles/biden-wants-arms-deals-with-israel-to-be-done-in-complete-secrecy/

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@Teri_Kanefield The fairness doctrine was one of several brakes on radicalization. The removal of just that wasn't the sole cause, but between that and a dozen other deregulations, we lost the institutional brakes which might have kept this truck from becoming a runaway. We could do without any one or two, but without any of them? We're out of control now.

@Teri_Kanefield

I felt that Reagan allowing media consolidation was a much bigger problem.

Answering a question:

Do you think the end of the Fairness Doctrine played any part at all [in the rise of disinformation.]

I think the repeal of the fairness doctrine was part of the move toward partisan media (Reagan removed it and then right wing radio took off) so it's easy to think one caused the other and that restoring the Fairness Doctrine would help.

I don't think the Fairness Doctrine would solve the problems we have.

I don't think removing it caused the problems . . .

1/

A restaurant I used to love has lost its edge, due to huge price hikes. I said so in an online survey it asked me to fill out, and immediately was added to an annoyingly frequent mail list.

Not the best way to respond to a customer's issue...

Arkansas governor, Trump's former liar-to-the-press, refuses clemency for an obviously not guilty man who was railroaded by the state's disgusting criminal "justice" system.

Great reporting and context, as always, from @radleybalko https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/sarah-huckabee-sanders-denies-clemency

Is it time to revisit undercover journalism? -- By FPF Advocacy Director Seth Stern

https://freedom.press/news/is-it-time-to-revisit-undercover-journalism/

A new version of our membership registration form is live. We are now looking for testers.

If you are not yet a member of our non-profit Codeberg e.V. yet, consider giving the new form a try now.

Join Codeberg e.V.: https://join.codeberg.org/
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Periodic reminder: if your organisation uses Citrix (or some other remote desktop system), you've got a badly flawed network architecture. Citrix is the solution to a problem no one should have. Similarly, MS Windows.