Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

In December 2023 the Massachusetts State Legislature considered adopting the flawed IHRA definition antisemitism. I wrote to members of my state government to implore them not to do so. I was reminded of it again last week when I heard that Harvard University had adopted the IHRA definition. I was reminded again today when I heard the Trump administration was planning an executive order to expand his previous IHRA-based EO. I thought I’d share the letter I wrote now.

https://chromamine.com/2025/01/against-the-ihra-definition-of-antisemitism/

Man who became a billionaire by erasing individual privacy annoyed his private words are becoming public.

https://www.404media.co/zuckerberg-says-everything-i-say-leaks-in-leaked-meeting-audio/

Not an original thought by any means, but isn't the correct name for people who reject diversity, equity, and inclusion "racist"?

I don't think we need billions of people here. I already have all the content I need, and no one can keep up with everything anyway. The idea that social media requires a 'critical mass' is just another false narrative pushed by commercial social media corporations and their users.

I'm happy for everyone who joins the Fediverse, but for me, the value of the Social Web lies in other things - not in sheer numbers.

#Fediverse #Mastodon #SocialWeb #SocialMedia

We want to draw attention to one of the new Administration's Executive Orders that directly impacts the freedom tools that people around the world depend on to fight censorship, and protect their security and anonymity.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/executive-order-state-department-sideswipes-freedom-tools-threatens-censorship

Want some more good news? Of course you do!

"The MacArthur Foundation .. announced more than $6 million in grants to support the growing field of climate journalism in the United States."

Words you don't often see, but mentioned here: "the existential crisis [that] climate change poses to humanity."

The announcement includes a list of the newsrooms being supported, if you want some good climate-focused news sources: Grist, High Country News, and 13 more.

https://www.macfound.org/press/press-releases/more-than-6-million-in-support-of-climate-journalism

#journalism #climate #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming

Copyright law affects everything we do on the internet. So why do some lawmakers and powerful companies still think they can write new copyright law behind closed doors, with ordinary internet users on the outside? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/dont-make-copyright-law-smoke-filled-rooms

On days like this when I have no faith in those with undeserved power, nor in the good faith or common sense of most people, I take solace in the fact that there's a quietly thriving population of native skinks in the garden, who make occasional appearances.

This report from Denmark came across my desk(top) today: https://www.english.digmin.dk/Media/638736628110392217/The%20role%20of%20big%20tech%20as%20digital%20infrastructure.pdf

I wonder when NZ gov't will come to its senses about this, especially given that we're founding members of the Digital Nations Charter (which Denmark subsequently joined): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Nations - note the core principles.

Seems like now might be a good time to be thinking of decolonising our digital infrastructure and restoring our digital sovereignty.

Let’s be clear about some things:

The United States should be regarded as a rogue nation at this point. The only goal is more power and wealth for Donald Trump.

He’s a bully, and he has two of the biggest sticks in the world: the US military and the US economy. Using them as weapons is going to damage them.

The job and funding cuts combined with the tariffs and unpredictability seem likely to cause a recession.

The pogrom against trans people has started in the form of rule changes that outlaw their existence.

The pogrom against non-white people has started in the form of immigration raids, and the preparation of Guantánamo Bay to become a concentration camp. We all know this is about race, not citizenship.

“Pogrom” is a strong word, but, I fear, the correct one.

#uspol #transphobia #racism

Recent right-wing governments in US have a consistent history of economic crashes.

They love it. It’s an opportunity for the rich to buy everything for cheap.

Hang on to your seats, people!

#economy #stocks #marketcrash
https://youtube.com/watch?v=lDvYj6nlwI8

From the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker:

In the first weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term, his appointees and allies in Congress have already taken steps to punish and intimidate news outlets that have covered him and his administration unfavorably:

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/trump-administration-allies-move-to-punish-outlets-during-first-weeks-in-office/

"New Zealanders like to think we can continue to strike a canny balance between relying on China for trade, and on the US for defence and security. Dream on. In the Pacific region in particular, that juggling act is unlikely to survive another round of Trump-led US isolationism."

#GordonCampbell, 2025

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2501/S00042/deepseek-and-chinas-inexorable-rise.htm

The Pacific needs its own version of the Non-Aligned Movement. As usual, indigenous peoples are leading the way. Because by definition it's an anti-colonial movement too.

Last call for January! Radical reads for a radical future - let’s be friends! Your ongoing support helps radical independent publishing alive, which is critically important in these turbulent times. Join via the link in our bio.

We discovered some boxes of the out of print Nib Magazine Color issue in our warehouse. It's back in stock and available here:
https://www.crwnstudios.com/collections/the-nib/products/nib-14-color-mag-issue

a cool thing about the current era of american politics is that it feels much more likely that the fascists will ruin their whole thing themselves through a series of own goals than that the democrats will do literally anything to stop them

In case you were wondering... My spouse is a school bus driver and these are the instructions drivers have received today.

We have published a new newsletter about our current activity: https://blog.codeberg.org/letter-from-codeberg-looking-into-2025.html

* Meet us at #FOSDEM in Brussel and get stickers for you and your friends!
* Learn about our infrastructure improvements, networking and #Ceph storage.
* Read about other news from the past months.

"You simply cannot cover Trump’s 2nd term accurately & responsibly if you are not willing to situate his acts as part of a terrifying descent into #authoritarianism, racism, & cruelty.

And the mainstream political #media – for a variety of reasons — is not willing to do anything of the kind.

...Rather than speaking truth to power, they have become stenographers with amnesia"
https://presswatchers.org/2025/01/why-is-trump-coverage-so-feeble/

CC: @dangillmor

#Press #News #Journalism #GOP #Trump #DonaldTrump #Politics #USPol #US #USA

If only there was a group of people working on software that didn't rely on Microsoft or Meta. Like, people who released the source code to their software in the open. A sort of "open source software".

But that's crazy. How could a modern nation-state support something like that? They only have software budgets in the billions of dollars. It's not like that level of funding would have an outsized influence on making software like libreoffice or nextcloud exactly what they want instead of just whining that it isn't good enough and buying Microsoft or Google.

I've heard though that Microsoft software never crashes which is why governments go with them, because Microsoft can guarantee their software is perfect and will never get hacked or crash. I mean, that makes perfect sense.

Nope, the only option is clearly to just keep paying Microsoft and Google. Can't be helped. But it sure would be neat if something like that existed.