Matt Panhans @mpanhans@librem.one

It's #tax season, so #TurboTax is once again advertising just about everywhere.

Remember:
• TurboTax spent decades fighting to stop Americans from filing taxes for free:
https://www.propublica.org/series/the-turbotax-trap?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

• There are ways to file for free without TurboTax:
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-file-taxes-for-free-without-turbotax?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#Taxes #IRS #Intuit #Badvertising

It is difficult to describe just how incredibly, stupidly, frustrating it is that Gigi Sohn had to withdraw from her nomination to the FCC (because a few heavily lobbied Democratic Senators blocked her).

At the end of the Trump years, the Senate rushed through Nathan Simington in a few weeks to be an FCC commissioner despite a near total lack of experience or skills for the job.

Meanwhile Biden took 9 months to even nominate Sohn and then never provided the support she needed.

Suppose your preferences are to max

Q of Econ department
x
Q of sport climbing in 50km radius

What’s the best US department?

Asking for a friend?

🎉 We're really excited to be fully rolling this out: As of today, our #Mastodon instance me.dm is fully open to all Medium members!

If you're a Medium member, read on to learn how to quickly and easily get your @me.dm account up and running: https://blog.medium.com/join-mastodon-with-medium-e2d6d814325b

My wife and I went to Barnes and Noble in Brookfield, Wisconsin yesterday to get pictures of "Mastodon for Dummies." The staff person who helped us find the shelf had me sign the book. Afterwards she said she'd add an "Author signed" sticker to the cover. That was fun!

New, from me: The Wisconsin state Supreme Court race may be the most important election this year. It will affect access to abortion in the state and possibly also the 2024 presidential election.
It may also be decided by a billionaire donor family that has been an aggressive funder of election deniers.
https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-most-important-election-this

Back in 1996, I archived Prince's own first-person narrative of why he changed his name, which he briefly published on his website and then quickly pulled down. After his passing, I brought it back online for the first time in two decades.The long-lost "Message from The Artist": https://medium.com/@anildash/message-from-the-artist-c611535da21c

"I was beyond frustrated with my lack of control over my career and music."

Heartbreaking news. The university and the profession have lost a brilliant mind, an extraordinary leader, and a fine person. https://apps.umark.wisc.edu/lighthouse-letters/letters/2113/preview?auth=bfcd91cf918b25afe5030ff515fd7352

R's S7 (formerly R7) new object-oriented paradigm is coming.

It's goal is to replace the lightweight and easy S3, and presently functional but slightly more complex S4 OOP systems with yet-another R OOP system that is intended to be the one encouraged for default use using moving forward.

You can start to learn how to use S7 here: https://github.com/RConsortium/OOP-WG

The working group is asking R Core for language changes (& providing patches) to enable better language integration.

Controversial Book. Cartoon by Tom Gauld.

#Books #Reading #Writer

Yet another sign that the footprint of the death penalty is shrinking. I thank Gov. Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

Here’s the first part of his statement today:

Today, I'm announcing I will not issue any execution warrants during my term as Governor.

When one comes to my desk, I will sign a reprieve every time — and I’m asking the General Assembly to send me a bill abolishing the death penalty in Pennsylvania once and for all…

#DeathPenalty #CapitalPunishment #Abolition

Second attempt #Twitter #Mastodon #comic #drawing

Just got the genuinely nicest R&R reviews I think I've ever gotten. Thanks, anonymous reviewers!