Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

In non-horrifying news, I’m reading about trogocytosis this morning, and it’s fascinating. It’s a process by way of which a cell extracts a slice of membrane from another during direct contact, *and that slice retains its function*, blurring the boundary between self and other on the molecular level. It really is chimeras all the way down, isn’t it?

How Big Tech Exploits Apps to Circumvent Privacy Laws

Despite GDPR, CCPA, and CPRA, Big Tech continues to bypass data protection laws through a powerful loophole: mobile apps.

Android, iOS, and Windows apps operate as closed surveillance ecosystems, where Terms of Service and permissions legally transform your smartphone into a data extraction tool.

Read more at Purism: https://puri.sm/posts/how-big-tech-exploits-apps-to-circumvent-privacy-laws-a-solution-from-purism/

It is too hot to waste all that water on A.I. Blast me with a firehose of cold water and let me answer things incorrectly.

From the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker:

Freelance photographer Tod Seelie says he was attacked by a group of people attending an immigration protest in LA on June 14.

He was shoved to the ground and punched at, and his phone taken and damaged.

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-attacked-by-protesters-at-la-immigration-demonstration/

🔴 Brand new Tom the Dancing Bug comic now up on Boing Boing!
-
The heroic billionaire Lex Luthor faces the evil menace of Superman!
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https://boingboing.net/2025/07/16/tom-the-dancing-bug-the-heroic-adventures-of-lex-luthor.html

I keep seeing this sentiment that desktop Linux has become woke and gay.

Desktop Linux has been woke and gay the whole time. Y’all just for some reason decided you suddenly have a problem with it. We didn’t change, you did. Okay some of us came out of the closet. But we’ve been talking about diversity and inclusion for decades and equity has been the entire focal point of the free software movement since like the 70s! It’s woke gay communism and you fucking loved it until 2016

Ever heard someone say "We SHOULD pay farm workers more! But then oranges will cost $3 each?"

Here's the debunk in video format- with additional info that didn't make it into the thread.

Send to anyone who'd find it useful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfHUnK81nvw&t=3s

New Privacy Guides article 🔒
by me:

While most social media rely on commercial models harvesting users' data to sell to advertisers,

Mastodon offers a human-centric alternative that doesn't seek profits from your data and attention.

This means better social connections, better controls, and better privacy!

The first part of this article discusses privacy and security on Mastodon.

The second part is a tutorial to guide you in making the most of Mastodon's security and privacy related features.

This tutorial includes how to:

• Enable multifactor authentication 🔑🔑

• Adjust privacy vs discovery 👀

• Select post visibility and access

• Verify yourself

• Delete and back up your data

• Block users and instances ⛔

• Opt out with hashtags #️⃣

• Move from one instance to another 🚀

I hope this helps you making the most of what Mastodon has to offers!

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/07/15/mastodon-privacy-and-security/

#PrivacyGuides #Mastodon #Fediverse #Privacy #Security #Tutorial #TheFutureIsFederated #TinyMastodonTip

Even for the Trump regime, this is utterly vile: incinerating food rather than give it to people who'd otherwise go hungry, or starve.

https://archive.ph/PpL1d

Large study squashes anti-vaccine talking points about #aluminum - https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/07/large-study-squashes-anti-vaccine-talking-points-about-aluminum/ #antivaxxers wrong again...

"#Trump flew on #Epstein's private jet seven times and once hosted a "calendar girl competition" at Mar-a-Lago featuring just himself, Epstein, and 30 women. But sure, tell us more about how you "hardly knew the guy."" - https://boingboing.net/2025/07/15/trump-claims-deep-state-wrote-fake-documents-about-imaginary-list-that-doesnt-exist.html

Belkin Bricks Most Wemo Smart Home Devices, Again Demonstrating You Don’t Own What You Buy - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/15/belkin-bricks-most-wemo-smart-home-devices-again-demonstrating-you-dont-own-what-you-buy/

Mining Firm Tied to Trump Allies Poised for Major Favor From #EPA - https://readsludge.com/2025/07/15/mining-firm-tied-to-trump-allies-poised-for-major-favor-from-epa/ " Northern Dynasty Minerals, once represented by Susie Wiles and underwritten by Howard Lutnick’s investment firm, could soon see a key veto of its Pebble Mine project reversed. " #extraction

‘The place is bleached, a dead zone’: how the UK’s most beloved landscapes became biodiversity deserts - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/16/dartmoor-is-dying-how-the-uks-national-parks-turned-into-biodiversity-deserts why is #nationaltrust complicit in this overgrazing?

Trust in the US is eroding. The question isn’t if the dollar will lose supremacy – it’s when - https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/16/trust-in-the-us-is-eroding-the-question-isnt-if-the-dollar-will-lose-supremacy-its-when "De-dollarisation is not a threat to global stability. Countries are simply questioning the rules of a game long rigged in Washington’s favour"

When Trumpist Marc Andreessen talks about "my people" we all know what's going on. What a scumbag he has turned out to be.

https://archive.ph/lhknB

(His venture firm led Substack's Series A financing round. That's just one reason you should avoid that platform.)

The Daily Mail, one of journalism's toxic waste dumps, is winning on TikTok.

https://www.chaoticera.news/p/a-british-tabloid-is-america-s-top-news-brand-on-tiktok

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

Take the time to watch this deconstruction of Charlie Kirk, one of Trump world's most dangerously effective demagogues. Kirk's slippery and dishonest tactics often succeed -- but not this time.

https://youtu.be/9O7y50cNb7c?feature=shared

Also a master class in media literacy...

Nice. @cooperq at the EFF confirmed that ICEBlock is "not uploading your location," that user submitted reports aren't associated with your device "in any way," and that there are no third-party trackers in the app.

https://www.404media.co/immigration-raid-tracking-app-ice-block-keeps-your-data-private-researcher-finds/

To distract from their cruelty, Republicans have been saying that these cuts won’t impact the ‘genuinely’ disabled. Only those ‘able bodied’ people taking Medicaid and sitting around playing video games.

There’s no such thing as the ‘genuinely’ disabled. This is a trope designed to make society doubt that we’re really sick. To make them see us as fakers, scammers, malingers or worse.

My latest is on Medicaid cuts and why they absolutely will harm disabled lives:

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/the-genuinely-disabled-dont-have

#uspol #ableism #eugenics #disability #maha #fascism #medicaid