Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

To come to the US legally? Farm workers are supposed to get an H-2A visa.

In theory, H-2A visas are fine. They're supposed to work like a temp agency/worker-to-workplace matching service.

But in reality? So many H-2A workers are abused, extorted, cheated, raped, & held prisoner on the job.

Here's a brief piece on how over 100 people who went through the entire proper H-2A documentation process to enter the US legally, still wound up in slavery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJUdONHDIbs

Love the flop-sweat smell, ICE!

She's asking the right questions. Sadly, slavery IS a staffing issue. It's quite popular on farms. And it's not caused by "hiring illegals."

The US's biggest modern slavery case was 100% workers who came legally.

I'm an American & former farm worker. Let's talk!

Loosely translated from a German podcast I just heard (from the SZ, a national newspaper): "LLMs produce language. They don't produce content." And that is a good working definition, IMHO (In My Humble Opinion).

Cartoon: Choose your chatbot https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/8/1/2336171/-Cartoon-Choose-your-chatbot? by @mcfadden

Any technical solution that is supposed to block teenagers from anything is not going to work very well, because you are facing an opponent that:

* is smarter than you,
* is very dedicated,
* has a lot of free time,
* has an extensive network of friends,
* faces no serious consequences if caught,
* outnumbers you,
* considers you an immoral crook.

You really, *really* want to have them on your side. That means education rather than control.

The #Trump economy is here and it doesn't look good - https://boingboing.net/2025/08/01/the-trump-economy-is-here-and-it-doesnt-look-good.html "The market is tumbling as analysts learn they can not trust the Government's jobs and unemployment numbers. "

Creativity, The Fifth Freedom & Access To Knowledge - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/01/creativity-the-fifth-freedom-access-to-knowledge/ "In April 2007, Janez Potočnik, then European Commissioner for Science and Research, introduced the concept of the Fifth Freedom: the “freedom of knowledge.”

The `asn` is command line ASN lookup tool. It can do RPKI validity, BGP stats, ASPath, IP reputation, IP geolocation, IP fingerprinting, Network recon / lookup tool and web traceroute. It is a prefect tool to look into IP address for security reasons and recommend for IT or network professionals. https://github.com/nitefood/asn

the LLM is not a learning aid, it is an absolute barrier to learning. it is not similar in kind to copy/pasting from stackoverflow or cliffs notes. it fully supplants the entire process of learning, and the person using the LLM never improves their understanding because the LLM cognitive workflow never engages with even the shape of the problem.

@Firesphere @PetraOleum @alexs when I get CDs I usually get them as part of buying the album from #Bandcamp .. of course the digital version is also available (I grab the .flac).

This is some North Korea/Stalinesque nonsense

Don't like the numbers? Demand the director's resignation and/or ritual suicide

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/01/trump-erika-mcentarfer-jobs-report-fired.html

One way rich people get that way is to stiff their creditors. Trump has done it for decades. In this report, CNN shows how Musk has adopted that tactic.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/31/us/elon-musk-company-unpaid-liens-invs

Backstory on growing famine in Gaza:

Food aid now comes through one (1) US evangelical Christian nonprofit. It didn't even exist until March.

They have only 4 dropoff points. And people who come to pick up food get shot at.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/07/gaza-famine-united-states-donald-trump/

The merger between CBS/Paramount and fascism is going great! https://www.patreon.com/c/BrianMcFadden

Happy Black August for all those who celebrate!

We're starting things off this month with the video essay 'On the Black Leadership and Other White Myths' by the We Still Outside Collective, released during the height of the George Floyd uprising in 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOFmx8OUnTk

Black anarchist movement veterans are on tour!

Help em out:

@blackrosebayarea Help Bring Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin and JoNina Abron-Ervin to Speak in California 🏴 
 


Our communities and the movements to defend them are under attack. Now, more than ever, we must learn from veterans how to organize under dire circumstances.
 


Together, @blacklanterncoop , @blackrosebayarea of @blackrose_rosanegra , @norcal_resist , & @sacramentoanarchistbookfair are raising funds to transport, room, board, and support Lorenzo and JoNina for a speaking tour in California:

* Saturday, October 4: Black Lantern Books (6533 West Blvd, Inglewood)
* Tuesday, October 7: West Oakland Library (1801 Adeline St, Oakland)
* Thursday, October 9: Black Panther Party Museum (1427 Broadway, Oakland)
* Saturday, October 11: Sacramento Anarchist Book Fair (1819 E St, Sacramento)
 
Thank you for donating what you can. Only our collective efforts can make this possible. Link in bio to donate. 🔗 
 

We look forward to forging new connections, unpacking lessons, and building stronger movements with you this October ✊


https://chuffed.org/project/142143-help-bring-lorenzo-kom-boa-ervin-and-jonina-abron-ervin-to-speak-in-california

Today I learned about spiral ratchet #screwdrivers .

You push, screw turns.

The ones I've seen on sale in #Germany take some unusual bits.

Does anyone know where to get one accepting regular hex bits? (Germany)

#tools #askfedi

Educate. Agitate. Save 40% on all punk and education titles with Code THINK thru 9/1. Browse both categories via the link in our bio.

#Wayland input methods.

I'm sorry to say #iced doesn't have enough people with review/merge rights, so my work making #Chinese and #Japanese #input good on Wayland is going nowhere.

What are other #Rust #GUI libraries I could contribute to instead?

#cjk #opensource #nlnet

I went to a tabletop game store to look at their board games. Asked the guy for recommendations for 2 player games.

"I don't know anything we have stocked anymore. The tariffs have killed the board game business, so all our popular games are gone. One of the big manufacturers went bankrupt already.

"If you want to know how bad it is, take [some popular game]. We used to stock it for $70-75. Everything ships in through the US, and since it's all made in China, after all the tariffs, we're looking at $220-250 for the same game.

"The industry is dead. We're not stocking any new board games until the market comes back to life. Who knows? Maybe Canada will start manufacturing our own games again! I guess we'll have to see."

#tariffs #boardgames