Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

May 17, 2006 2 a.m. - just hours before the EFF and AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein's first hearing on their lawsuit vs AT&T for helping the NSA run a massive internet spying operation

Klein's evidence was under seal. Only a few had seen it. The NYT & LA Times were too scared to publish.

I had gotten a hold of them. Just a freelancer. Wired under EIC Evan Hansen agreed to publish everything.

2 a.m., we published.

Room 641a was public.

AT&T's lawyers death stares were glorious.

RIP Mark Klein

From the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker:

Update: A group of journalists settled a federal suit for nearly $1 million with Portland, Oregon, on March 5, after they were assaulted and had their equipment seized by police while reporting on BLM protests in 2020:

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/portland-photojournalist-struck-pepper-balls-while-covering-portland-protest/

Axon’s Draft One, which produces AI-generated police reports, purports to cut in half the amount of time officers spend writing police reports. But a recent police agency’s decision to discontinue use of the software and a new scientific study cast doubt on those assertions. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/anchorage-police-department-ai-generated-police-reports-dont-save-time

It took me less than an hour to make both of these with bootc and our image template.

Unfinished but the structure is in place -- cloud native development is fast af.

https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/introducing-the-bazzite-developer-experience/7342/2

If Canada burns the White House down again, please hit up the Federalist Society on the way. https://www.patreon.com/c/BrianMcFadden

Microsoft admits #GitHub hosted #malware that infected almost a million devices - https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/10/infosec_in_brief/ #awkward

As countries scramble for minerals, the #seabed beckons. Will mining it be a disaster? – visual explainer - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2025/mar/12/as-countries-scramble-for-minerals-the-seabed-beckons-will-mining-it-be-a-disaster-visual-explainer well obvs...

Current Affairs Magazine Demonstrates #Paywalls Are Not Necessary for Publications to Thrive - https://blog.archive.org/2025/03/04/current-affairs-magazine-demonstrates-paywalls-are-not-necessary-for-publications-to-thrive/ "the publication relies on traffic from social media to attract new readers."

OPINION: The precipitous drop in religiosity among young women today shows just one more way Gen Z women continue to defy historical norms.
https://religionnews.com/2025/03/07/the-real-gen-z-religion-story-is-about-women/

Quick thread on ANOTHER bill the GOP is bringing to the floor this week. Specifically, to repeal the DeFi Broker Rule that the IRS issued under the last administration. The ONLY reason to support this bill is to facilitate tax evasion and money laundering.

Request: Looking to connect with people who are thinking about the future of software, specifically in the areas of:

- Diversification of large/core software development efforts beyond US/EU funding
- Post non-profit organizational frameworks (e.g co-op networks)
- Alternative funding paths (In wider context of the world at large)
- Responding to increasingly locked down operating systems

Very interested in talking to folks (esp. in Canada) who are taking or want to take action in these areas.

Are you doing something cool with GTK or the GNOME application development platform? Do you want to talk about it in front of the GNOME community? Then you have until March 16 to submit a talk proposal for GUADEC 2025!

https://events.gnome.org/event/259/

#gnome #GUADEC #GUADEC2025

Dear journalists,

When someone gives you chapter and verse about the way government officials have abused their rights, and the government refuses to comment, "citing privacy concerns" -- you are publishing an obvious lie.

That quote is stenography, not journalism.

https://thetrek.co/a-german-thru-hiker-has-been-detained-deported-and-banned-from-the-us-without-a-hearing-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

On NRT: Fixing school lunches - https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2025/03/fixing-school-lunches.html

Jamie Raskin is encouraging people to file Federal Privacy Act requests on their personal DOGE data. Fillable forms here:

https://jamieraskin.com/doge-privacy-act-requests/

#uspol

You may not know that it was funded by Trump supporters and is run by people who have no problem helping right-wing extremists spread and monetize their bile.

If you're thinking of starting a newsletter, by the way, there are many fine alternatives including Ghost (what I use), Buttondown, Beehiv, WordPress Medium and more.

And please ask your friends who use Substack to look at the alternatives as well.
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Please stop calling newsletters "Substacks" --

The vast majority of blogs are created using WordPress software. No one calls their blog a "WordPress" for the very good reason that there are other ways to create and publish blogs.

So if you've been gaslighted into calling someone's newsletter their "Substack' just because they use that platform, please stop. You're just doing PR for a company that manifestly doesn't deserve it.

Why is that?
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The pressure campaign has gotten both Massachusetts Senators to commit to voting "no" on the Republican continuing resolution.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/tally-3

MA residents - please call to thank them and let them know that they are doing the right thing.

Folks in other U.S. states (especially if you have a Democratic Senator) - lean on your Senators too!
https://5calls.org/issue/cr-continuing-resolution-doge-musk/

In the face of the US' abuse of power, the world needs to change. Immediately. Here's a starting point: https://www.cs.ru.nl/~jhh/open-letter-big-tech.html

#DigitalDecolonisation #DigitalSovereignty #ShunTheUS

New Mozilla TOS diff. This is what they just removed:

* Does Firefox sell your personal data?

> Nope. Never have, never will. And we protect you from many of the advertisers who do. Firefox products are designed to protect your privacy. That’s a promise.

The purpose of the new TOS appears to be to enable them to do this - such as for their advertising and AI sidelines.

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/d459addab846d8144b61939b7f4310eb80c5470e