Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

If the worst does not actually come to pass, I don't think I'm going to be sitting here going "oh noooo I can't believe I strengthened my communities, made sure I'm up to date on my healthcare needs, and volunteered for causes I believe in"

Want to help volunteer to get the word out about #DocumentFreedomDay or #SoftwareFreedomDay or #HardwareFreedomDay? Do you enjoy writing? Please consider signing up for the #WritingMonth challenge: https://writingmonth.org/ There's an option to work with a buddy. So, if anyone wants to do blog posts or articles for #DFD, #SFD or #HFD along with us at the #DFF, please let us know.

Shell’s successful appeal will not end climate lawsuits against firms, say experts - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/14/shell-successful-appeal-will-not-end-climate-lawsuits-against-firms-say-experts "Dutch appeal court ruled in favour of oil and gas company over judgment telling it to limit emissions" #ClimateCrisis

The @fsfe called on the community to participate in a consultation on the European Union’s Digital Europe Programme and demanded long-term sustainable funding for #FreeSoftware (#OpenSource) after recent budget cuts.

We also asked you, our community, to participate. And many of you did, nearly 800 answers were received —an unusually high number for such consultations. Big thanks to all of you who did and who made this a success! 👏

https://fsfe.org/news/2024/news-20241113-01.en.html

#Lincare Made Billions While Repeatedly Defrauding #Medicare. Feds Did Little To Rein It In.
—

Lincare, the nation’s largest distributor of home oxygen equipment, has repeatedly violated Medicare rules and probation agreements, victimizing ailing patients and costing taxpayers huge sums. The federal #government has done little to stop it.

https://propub.li/3UNDUms

#News #Healthcare #Insurance #Fraud #CPAP #Health

Hmm. Sounds like Ōtautahi's council is planning to enact some pretty constraining bylaws on dog owners... I haven't found the full list of proposed regulations yet, but some seem pretty unworkable (and a few quite unnecessary). Much of it is being done in the name of 'ecosystem protection'... I wish they'd address the elephant in the room: free-roaming domestic felines. I'd say cats are vastly worse for the local environment than dogs.

HR 9495, which would've let Trump and his treasury secretary decertify any nonprofit they claimed supported terrorism, appears to have failed. Phew

Pro-Israel Democrats wanted to use this to crack down on Palestine protesters, but it was structured as a bill that needed 2/3, and it seems that enough Democrats went "oh shit, we don't want *Trump* to use this against nonprofits *we* like," and reconsidered just in time.

#uspol for the muters
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-urges-house-to-kill-bill-that-could-give-trump-admin-power-to-crush-dissent-and-go-after-political-enemies

It completely staggers me that *anyone* could vote for GOP. I can't really come up with a sufficiently comprehensive characterisation to describe my despair & disbelief that they appear on track to control all 3 arms of gov't (exec, court, and congress). The US is a total unmitigated disaster. It is pathetic and heartbreaking to see it.

Anyone want to start a webring of personal blogs and websites? We could pick a connecting topic (ie. all members of a specific group, or all co-op folks, or just all single-person personal blogs, etc.) or just allow random sites. I'm trying to think of a better way to find good stuff than search, which is 99% controlled by Google even if you're using third party search engines, and is mostly useless these days anyways.

Spotify just reported record-breaking profits.

In totally unrelated news, Spotify stopped paying nearly 90% of artists on the service ANYTHING (no royalties for songs w <1k streams/year)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/spotify-earnings-profitability-subscribers-1236060081/

The Biden administration massively expanded the electronic monitoring of immigrants, restricted access to asylum, left 287(g) in place, and increased deportations. So yes, the Trump administration does have “what they need” to carry out mass deportations.

Democrats must work to protect end-to-end encryption, crack down on SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) and do everything possible to stop Trump from siccing the FCC, the FEC, the DOJ and the IRS on his enemies, including in the press.

https://thehill.com/opinion/4698689-federal-law-must-fix-loophole-allowing-abusive-lawsuits-targeting-speech/

@lwriemen fwiw, I recently converted a Microsoft account I'm required to use (to access my employer's leave system) to let me get my auth codes from Aegis instead... it wasn't a well publicised option, but it works.

holy shit if this actually works this is going to revolutionize git for us https://mergiraf.org/

Has anyone ever run or participated in a conference facilitated by Indico? https://getindico.io/ (source code: https://github.com/indico/indico ) It's #libre, and looks interesting to me. I'd love to hear about people's experiences if they have any! #LibreConferenceSoftware

Support Anarchist and Indigenous media makers @AvispaMidia who are celebrating their 10th anniversary

https://gofund.me/229d26d0

Business Lobby Reaches Record High at #UN Biodiversity Talks

https://www.desmog.com/2024/11/12/business-lobby-reaches-record-levels-at-biodiversity-talks/

DeSmog’s analysis shows that business attendees at this year’s biodiversity COP reached record levels, more than doubling compared to the previous summit two years ago, to reach a total of 1,261 delegates.

The rise in industry delegates was proportionally higher than the increase in overall attendees, which rose by 46 percent. Banks were the best-represented sector with 124 delegates, which included more than half of the 30 banks named as the biggest financiers of deforestation in an October report. They were followed by fossil fuel companies, which brought 40 representatives.

The talks also saw a significant increase in big food and agriculture firms – such as Nestle, Pepsico and Cargill – which brought 33 delegates, nearly double the number from COP15.  

The presence of agrochemical and seed companies was up, too. Their delegates increased by 40 percent and 24 percent respectively since COP15. Representatives also came to #COP16 from the pharmaceutical sector – which openly opposed a tax on accessing nature’s genetic code.  

Agro-chemical and biotechnology groups – such as Syngenta, BASF and their lobby group Croplife – enjoyed privileged access to negotiations in #Colombia, coming in as part of country delegations with Brazil, Mexico, Switzerland and Canada. 

DeSmog’s data also revealed growing interest in biodiversity protection from big tech companies – such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft – which see an opportunity in the vast volumes of data which may be required to measure and protect nature set aside for preservation.

The delegates brought by some companies dwarfed country delegations from the Global South, which is home to the majority of the best-preserved natural world. For example, German multinational Bayer brought 12 delegates, triple that of the highly biodiverse East African country of Ethiopia, which brought only four.

"The Biden Administration first tried the obvious ruse of saying Israel had to let more aid in, intended as a sop to Muslim and anti-war voters, but with the deadline after November 5, so Israel could fall short with no effect on the election."

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/11/global-fury-after-state-dept-claims-israel-not-violating-us-law-by-blocking-gaza-aid.html

I don't think lawn signs and voting every two years is going to work this time. https://brianmcfadden.org/2024/11/08/2025-lawn-signs/