Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

The NewsGuild of New York, the union representing me and thousands of other journalists, continues to undermine its own advocacy of worker equity and social justice by regularly and actively supporting Twitter, a platform that spreads dangerous hate speech and propaganda that's intended to weaken if not destroy a free press. Not only that, but Twitter's narcissistic robber baron owner is outwardly hostile to workers at SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter.

I've voiced my opposition to the management of the NewsGuild of New York, and they said they continue keeping a "presence on many social media platforms because that is where many of our members are, despite some of the platforms having a troubling track record with blocking hate speech." The NewsGuild of New York has yet to even test the waters of Mastodon.

The NewsGuild of New York has a history of encouraging boycotts against antilabor organizations, but doesn't walk the walk when it comes to its own actions.

History won't judge the NewsGuild of New York, and the rest of the journalism establishment continuing to support Twitter, kindly.

Publishing software as open source: It's of enormous benefit to government to declare, right up front in RFPs, that it's going to publish the resulting software under an open license, or release it into the public domain. I recently wrote a long blog entry on this topic, so I won't belabor this. https://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2023/12/publish-open-source/

Owning copyright: Hire vendors who will develop software that the agency will own, not the vendors. This completely shifts vendors’ incentives. Vendors who want to use government as R&D funding will go bid on SBIRs (the right way to get that funding), and vendors who just want to be compensated for their time will show up.

Three years on, little justice for press assaulted on Jan. 6: Nearly 20 journalists were assaulted and thousands of dollars in news equipment was destroyed in the riot. https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/little-justice-for-press-assaulted-on-jan-6/

If you like #punk history, the new @pmpress NoMeansNo oral history by Jason Lamb with Paul Prescott is GREAT.

Well-told story of one of the most unique bands in punk.

My first 80% Wednesday off is going alright!

I came across this EU study on the 'value of open source' (which I call #libre), and I think all of us user our influence to make sure that the power-brokers in our lives are aware of it and understand its implications: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/study-about-impact-open-source-software-and-hardware-technological-independence-competitiveness-and

Meet the cryptid candidates! https://www.gocomics.com/brian-mcfadden/2024/01/02

Any #Boston area #FiberArts people have words of wisdom on locally sourced wool?

@Nathanpboston and I are researching non-petrochemical clothing for cold and/or wet outdoor activities.

https://fediscience.org/@Nathanpboston/111686852482026448

Thinking to myself this morning “Threads can’t be as bad as I recall…”

First post in my feed: Instagram influencer with a cup of coffee watching the sunrise from her balcony in a $1000/night hotel built with slave labor in a country where women can’t drive, telling me about how she has discovered that the secret to life is learning to savor the little things.

No, apparently the secret to life is to be born rich, white, and beautiful.

Anyway, that’s enough Threads for 2024.

@RichPuchalsky I first learned a few simple yoga moves from a physics prof from Kashmir in about 1990-1. Simple materials, no high tech yoga mat or petrochemical ultra-stretchy clothing. It’s been instructive for me to attend a commercial yoga studio and learn about its manufactured petrochemical dependency. And, I think simplicity has a real chance to assert itself in the yoga industry, and ultimately be more economical. I’m going to start by modeling it myself in the studio.

Google's Chrome browser is more locked down than ever, introducing new tricks to inhibit extensions, collect even more user data for ads, and restrict access to content for people who use ad-blockers. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/year-review-googles-corporate-paternalism-browser

Weather tracker: Saudi Arabia hit by floods as temperature records broken in Canada - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/01/weather-tracker-saudi-arabia-hit-by-floods-as-temperature-records-broken-in-canada "Heavy rain and hailstorms affect large parts of Gulf state while temperatures in some parts of Canada could be 20C above normal" and so it begins in 2024

One of the things I am learning from this Frederick Douglass biography is that there wasn’t just one “abolitionist movement” before the Civil War, there were multiple abolitionist movements, and there were a lot of ideological and personal squabbles within and between them.

Which is totally unsurprising when you consider the state of contemporary progressive and leftist movements.

/1

Distributed Denial of Secrets or #DDoSecrets is a vital publisher archiving leaks, for the public. We have been active for five years, but donations have never kept up with the pace of our submissions. We have shared hundreds of terabytes of leaks with journalists and researchers. We are now launching an urgent appeal: https://donorbox.org/ddosecrets-five-years-later Without your donations, we may be forced to pause operations and suspend access to our search engines and direct download tools. Can you pitch it to help us meet our goal?

Court support needed in northern so-called British Columbia. All solidarity with Indigenous land defenders facing repression under colonial law.

#wetsuwetenstrong #rcmpofftheyintah

Art by @zola

When everyone is screaming that you have to do "strategic voting" to keep the greater evil out of office, but the "lesser evil" is literally going out of their way to assist in an ongoing genocide 🤮

Trying to square that circle is enough to drive a person mad...come to think of it, that may explain some things...

Friend and fellow community techie @FreeScholar was in a rad punk / new wave band called The Phantoms.

Here's a great write up of her contribution to the 70s and 80s punk scene and how that inspired her to become a free software activist.

#Punk #NewWave #FreeSoftware #CommunityTech

https://disappearingmedia.substack.com/p/the-black-punk-pioneer-boston-forgot

IMHO: #Mozilla is repeating the #OpenAI process. A growing conflict between community driven/focused products and greedy managers thinking more VC (Venture Capital) style as they become more and more decoupled from the humble origins. This conflict will explode (I mean — asking for donations while the managers take home millions has a weird smell to it) soon and money will win (again). It's really a shame in this case.

2023 was incredible, in that I don't believe how much it sucked. https://brianmcfadden.org/2023/12/22/incredible-global-news-2023/