Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

More corruption in Clarence Thomas world: "Lawyers with supreme court business paid Clarence Thomas aide via Venmo"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/12/clarence-thomas-aide-venmo-payments-lawyers-supreme-court

Big Tech is part of the Hollywood-led cartel that aims to destroy film/TV unions. These companies aren't even pretending they care about fair contracts anymore. They want absolute, total control -- and the plan is to bankrupt the employees.

https://deadline.com/2023/07/writers-strike-hollywood-studios-deal-fight-wga-actors-1235434335/

"...Warner Bros Discovery, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount and others have become determined to 'break the WGA,' as one studio exec blatantly put it."

Mastodon is really starting to build a solid #News #USPolitics and #Legal analysis sector. Some who've been missing for a while are back, and others who've been here the whole time are in full stride:

Good follows: @emptywheel, @Teri_Kanefield, @wendysiegelman, @GottaLaff, @pbump, @dangillmor, @taylorlorenz, @w7voa, @chrisgeidner, @QasimRashid, @heidilifeldman, @rbreich, @lawfare, @maxkennerly, @fulelo, @marcelias, @uspolitics, @ProPublica, @icymi_law

Feel free to add recommendations below...

Have you shared a flyer in your local online groups yet? Today's challenge is to post a flyer or note about the co-op on a local list-serve or other online group.

Find ideas and shareable flyers here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YgTd4ZMl-70p6J5KLyIK_rnN6v3kv8057HANqDMiaEg/edit?usp=sharing

The tax preparation companies that contemptuously broke the law by "sharing" people's private information with Google and Facebook should be shut down. And every dollar of profit they made should be sent to the taxpayers whose privacy they shredded.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/meta-wont-say-what-happened-to-taxpayer-data-it-may-have-illegally-collected/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned

When I say "should" I am of course recognizing that in America there is no accountability whatever for companies that do these crimes.

Ask your member of Congress why they don't care.

In case you missed it, all links on Mastodon count as 23 characters towards your limit, no matter how many characters the link really is.

So, you don't need to use link shorteners on Mastodon as they won't actually affect the link's length.

Mastodon does this because it's better for everyone's privacy to avoid link shortener services, it means people can see what they're clicking on, and the link won't stop working if the shortener service shuts down.

More info at:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/you-dont-need-link-shorteners-on-mastodon/

Next was an important talk by @KimTallBear on #indigenous citizenship at First Nations University of Canada. TallBear powerfully lays out how problematic the concept of "identity" is when applied to First Nations people, and even whether "indigenous" is even appropriate, particularly for #DEI initiatives. I think this is particularly important for folks in AI and people analytics considering how (or whether) to encode this in algorithms. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDU3h74sudw (5/10)

Mastofriends, check on the computers of the less savvy friends & family in your life.
I've recently discovered that two of my elderly peeps were paying Microsoft for 365 - even though neither of them were using it.
They obviously have some pushy trick that fools them into it easily.
#microsoft
#scammytricks

I hear from the editor that the first regular issue of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal since going open access will be out in the next week or less. It's an issue that touches on a breaking case of "race shifting" or self-indigenization, resource extraction, Indigenous paranormal connections, healing, and land grant universities. Yeah seriously 😀

#NativeStudies

CISA's advisory on the Microsoft 365 compromise is wayyyyyyyyyyy better than the Microsoft advisory - contains actionable hunting and logging information. Kinda nuts that the US Government are providing better information about Microsoft than Microsoft.

https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/aa23-193a_joint_csa_enhanced_monitoring_to_detect_apt_activity_targeting_outlook_online.pdf

Hey folks, popping on to share that, thankfully, my part of #Vermont was spared the worst of the recent flooding, though our cooperative #CSA farm is currently under several feet of water, so the crops are kaput for the rest of the year.

A lot of folks' lives have been turned upside down by this, especially in the more rural and mountainous areas. If you're feeling generous and want to contribute to recovery efforts, the Vermont Farm Fund is one good place to send $: https://www.vtfarmfund.org/

Paris to charge #SUV drivers higher parking fees to tackle ‘auto-besity’ - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/paris-charge-suv-drivers-higher-parking-fees-tackle-auto-besity great idea - everywhere should do the same if they don't ban them outright...

You want to become involved with #Codeberg? Join our first regular contributor meetup, this Thursday at 20.00 CEST. See https://codeberg.codeberg.page/Events/events/2023/2023-07-13-contributor-meeting/

‘It’s pillage’: thirsty Uruguayans blast Google’s plan to exploit water supply - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/uruguay-drought-water-google-data-center nicely symbolic... #uruguay

Dusting off this beauty. Still on target.
#Musk

Proposed new #UK #oil and #gas fields would provide at most three weeks of energy a year | #FossilFuels | The Guardian

In other words they are a folly, producing only a marginal improvement in #energy security while at the same time massively expensive and contributing to #GlobalWarming.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/11/new-north-sea-oil-and-gas-fields-will-not-meet-uks-energy-needs

#Environment #GreenhouseGasses #ClimateChange #Pollution

‘Heaviest rain ever’ causes deadly floods and landslides in Japan - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/heaviest-rain-ever-causes-deadly-floods-and-landslides-in-japan we'll be seeing that "ever" a lot in the coming decades...