Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Talking Points Memo, which has been running much of the best political coverage of America's descent into dictatorship, just published an extraordinary start to a must-read series called "The Legal Coup"

Trump's apparatchiks sought "endless chaos in Congress" to persuade Supreme Court to install Trump as president despite Biden's actual -- and substantial" victory.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/intro-chesebro-docs

While you're at it, please subscribe to this essential site.

If you live in the Bay Area, or are interested in what is happening there, click through all the links in @jwz's excellent blog roundup of journalism about the way kleptocratic tech plutocrats are trying to buy the San Francisco government. https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/02/just-got-my-pac-mailing-from-plutocracysf/

SF has real problems, and the city's government is often horrible in its inepness. But the selfish wealth crew will unquestionably (IMO) make things worse if they pull this off.

And they might well get away with it.

Just putting this out here: I've been working on #Forgejo for #Codeberg for the past couple of months, and am loving it. So much so, that I would like to do more of it, more than what Codeberg can pay me for.

So if anyone wishes to sponsor me (or knows any company or organization who might), to implement a particular feature, or fix something, or in general help them with anything Forgejo related, I'm available, please get in touch!

For reference, my work has been described as:

Long-standing issues are now finally resolved, and the progress feels like a rocket booster.

This is based on my the first two months of my work. I started out with only vague knowledge of Go and Forgejo. Imagine what I can do now that I'm much more familiar with both.

Anyhow, more information about my Forgejo-related work, and links to my resume, and other useful bits of information are available here.

Boosts appreciated!

#GetFediHired #FediHire #Job

Anarchist, anthropologist, and author David Graeber was born on February 12, 1961.

Explore the David Graeber Memorial Lectures hosted by CIIS Anthropology and Social Change https://www.ciis.edu/news/david-graeber-memorial-lectures

Cutting it close for Valentine's Day? Cut these out. https://brianmcfadden.org/2024/02/02/2024-valentines/

Purism Differentiator Series, Part 1: No Surveillance or Data Mining, Plus Tech Freedom & Control!

In this series we will list some areas Purism differs from Google, Apple, & Microsoft.

https://puri.sm/posts/purism-differentiator-series-part-1-summary/

Very interesting piece from @interfluidity on how ascendant neoliberalism ("expanding the scope of market logics in regulating human affairs, even into spheres that were traditionally the province of other institutions") is an overlooked cause of the demographic transition to low birth rates.

https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/02/06/demographic-transition-is-just-specialization-and-trade/index.html

Knowing how to code is great, but however well-meaning, it's too late to make it a high school requirement. It's like requiring shop class in the mid-1980s to guarantee grads a factory job after high school.

Programming jobs aren't going away entirely, but like with factory jobs, automation (like assisted programming with AI) will mean fewer jobs for the same tasks. CS education and wood/metal shop are useful knowledge, but no longer guarantee a well-paying job.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/02/11/2247207/california-bill-would-require-computer-science-for-high-school-graduation

The increase in car sizes over the past 50 years seems to be mostly justified by measures to increase *passenger* safety. Everyone else, however, becomes less safe. A more collective approach to improving transport safety - while also focusing on sustainability - would focus on making vehicles *smaller and lighter*. The perverse incentives of individualistic capitalism need to be counteracted.

Rethinking Blockchains https://medium.com/@johnmarkoff/rethinking-blockchains-8d3aba41d05b by @johnmarkoff

What a waste: #NewYork City budget cuts eviscerate community #composting groups - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/11/new-york-city-community-composting-groups-budget-cuts "City’s waffling on food scrap programs not only harms environment but also hinders participation in waste management schemes" foolish

Here is the corresponding global upper ocean heat content (0 to 700 m depth) updated through the end of 2023. And also record hot! 🌡️

Graphic/data (anomalies) from https://ncei.noaa.gov/access/global-ocean-heat-content/ #ClimateChange #Science #Climate

They did WHAT
https://retractionwatch.com/2024/02/05/no-data-no-problem-undisclosed-tinkering-in-excel-behind-economics-paper/

Abbott-appointed billionaire helping Elon Musk acquire sensitive Texas parkland for SpaceX: SpaceX offered land already slated for conservation in return for state park land near its launchpad. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/musk-spacex-parkland-billionaire-oilman-hildebrand-18652143.php

For more info, here's the original article from the AP https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-c6f0eb4747963283316e494eadf08c4e

Searing commentary from Heather Scott Richardson on the media's disgusting double standards when it comes to Trump versus Biden.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-9-2024

Wishing a good rest to Bob Moore, who turned his company over to the workers in 2010. 700 workers now own Bob’s Red Mill.

(I call Bob’s oatmeal “The oats of righteousness” as a consequence).

Bob lived until 94. That’s a good run.

https://www.oregonlive.com/food/2024/02/founder-of-bobs-red-mill-bob-moore-dies-at-94.html

#pdx #oregon #rip

For Trump (and Republicans in general), America's political journalists consistently normalize lies, corruption, racism, misogyny, and blatantly obvious mental confusion. If it's covered as a story, it's a one-day story and everyone moves on.

But Big Journalism rakes Biden and prominent Democrats over the coals when they violate any one of those norms -- in "news" eruptions that go on and on.

This isn't a media blind spot. The only logical explanation at this point is that it's willful.

Latest comic on prison labor in the US food supply chain

#prison #labor #work #humanrights #food #comic #cartoon

This is largely, I think, a function of our two party system.

"My party is the good one, so anything that seems bad for my party or its politicians must be lie, or blown out of proportion, or not really that important. Because if it is a big deal and it isn't a lie, that will help the other party, and the other party is evil, so that can't possibly be the case." [proceeds to put fingers in ears]

The result is cognitive dissonance that I think is truly harmful