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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Shame on Mississippi and Alabama for having a Robert E Lee Day intentionally scheduled to coincide and conflict with Martin Luther King, Jr Day. These states perpetuate the fake Lost Cause narrative and were pissed that King was recognized in a federal holiday, so this is how they "get back" at their perceived injustices of civil rights and equality. And while other southern states have gotten over it, Mississippi and Alabama persist in their lie-driven hate. Shame on them.

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in reply to Stuart Celarier

Lee Day came first. The coincidence of birthdays has led to some entertaining chaos in state legislatures. When I was in grade school we celebrated Lee/Jackson/King Day. (The middle one would be Stonewall Jackson.)
in reply to Virginicus

@Virginicus Even the Commonwealth of Virginia, Lee's birth state and the state whose army he led, dropped the Lee Day five years ago.
in reply to Stuart Celarier

Is Jackson Mississippi delivering potable water to non white households yet?

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


How the hell did I end up with about 120 paid and free Substack subscriptions, almost all of which I never read (and some I never read)? I just spent more than an hour culling. Some of them hadn't posted for years.

Lorraine Lee reshared this.


My daughter came into the room distraught and bemused by #TikTok going dark. She knew it was coming, but still...a lot of GenZ are feeling kind of rootless, like a personal landmark was pointlessly destroyed by govt who clearly give no fucks about actual data security, or these laws would have applied to all the American data harvesting commercial social media platforms.

And I, being an old, and having seen many things come and go since the days of blue boxes and usenet, tried to sympathize...but she rightfully pointed out that none of those things were legislated out of business. This is different. This is government deliberately controlling speech and demanding the sale of private property. Using the same canards they've been using her whole life: It's national security. It's for your own good. You can't see proof, it's classified.

She's right, it's nonsense.

The vibe here is way different, I don't know if we'll see an influx of #tiktokrefugee, but welcome if you're here!

in reply to MissConstrue

TikTok gets a lot of condescension from people who donโ€™t use it, but my last few days on it my entire fyp was people telling stories of how it helped them start their business, get discovered by employers, educate themselves based on content from independent experts, gain the awareness and confidence to escape abusive relationships, etc etc

Also if it was such a National security risk, then why was like 50% of Washington on it? Rightโ€ฆ

#tiktok #tiktokrefugee

in reply to MissConstrue

Well, except that TikTok wasnโ€™t blocked at all. Bytedance itself decided to stop answering US-originated requests. Thereโ€™s been no order to block; and no ISP taking that action.

What weโ€™re seeing is a dance, moving around looking for bargaining chips. Pretending this is the govt blocking things is one of the feints in that dance.

This entry was edited (3 months ago)


Aaaaaand another "Alt Right Playbook" video drops:

Lorraine Lee reshared this.


An investigation with ground penetrating radar has detected 114 unmarked burial features on the former property of McIntosh Indian Residential School (IRS) in the Kenora district of northwestern Ontario
โ€” Wiikwogaming Tiinahtiisiiwin Project Team

cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bayโ€ฆ

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Reminder: โ€œMany providers will send you abortion pills before you need them, to have on hand just in case. Pills are available in all 50 states and US territories.โ€

โ€œYou donโ€™t need to be pregnant to get abortion pills.โ€

โ€œAbortion pills last for about two years when stored in a cool dry place.โ€

plancpill.org


Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Prayers at government meetings and robotic recitations of the pledge of allegiance always make me feel like I'm living in a very boring dystopian thriller.

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Them: "We are launching a new publication"

Me: ๐Ÿ˜

Them: "We intend to do journalism differently"

Me: ๐Ÿ˜

Them: "We will be beholden to no one in our search for truth"

Me: It's a Substack isn't it?

Them: "You will be able to subscribe using the Substack platform"

Me: (closes tab)

in reply to Lorraine Lee

@lori What annoys me personally is that a lot of these people don't think they are setting up something that is approximately a blog (which they are), but something that is approximately an online magazine

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in reply to Tom Walker

@lori@cambrian.social

A thing that has annoyed me the last couple of days is that I have friends to finally, FINALLY, decided to leave Facebook, Instagram etc (which I've been telling them for literally years) and then they say they are moving to Substack. Oh. Right.

I don't know what to say to them. I mean, it is good that they move off Meta's services, but if I start telling them what I think of Substack they might just...well...not move. I still see them not moving as worse than them moving on to Substack, but I might be confused here in my thinking that if they have started moving they might be more open to other, better, services (than Substack).

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in reply to Mathias

Substack seems to have emerged as THE blogosphere (or blogosphere replacement). I would think it's only a matter of time before it gets acqhired by one of the tech giants. My guess would be Microsoft, owner of Github. People setting up on Substack has "this is my JOOOOOOB" vibes. Maybe I'm the weird one who didn't get the memo that not monetizing your hobbies makes you some kind of scab.
in reply to Mathias

@mathias @lori Super weird that they'd think Substack is a replacement for Facebook or Instagram! They feel like completely different mediums to me

n8chz ๐ŸฉŽ reshared this.

in reply to Impudent Strumpet

I think a lot of people who used to blog now do Substack. I tend to take it as an FYPM statement, although it could also be driven by enshittification of Wordpress (which itself has largely evolved away from its non-monetizing users).
in reply to Lorraine Lee

@lori Weird Mastodon thing: your reply shows up in my timeline, but not my notifications.

Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Capitalism: failure will kill your body or success will kill your soul

Lorraine Lee reshared this.


EU Probes Apple's New App Store Fees

#AppleNews #DigitalMarketsAct #TechRegulation #AppleAppStoreFees #DeveloperConcerns

apple.slashdot.org/story/25/01โ€ฆ

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


When you hear "History is written by the victors," a critical thinker's first thought should be, "Are we the baddies?"

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Any sufficiently obsolescent masculinity is indistinguishable from present femininity; any sufficiently obsolescent heterosexuality is indistinguishable from present day...well whatever given alternative you want to talk about.

As women evened the score, queers and freaks came out of hiding, patriarchal white masculinity did not disappear. Rather it shed what restraints it had on its own cruelty and rapaciousness. Not that these restraints were a proper check, mind.

What this means is that it sheds qualities that are deemed weakness. In order to more sharply define itself. And to be able to act with less restraint in re-establishing supremacy.

This entry was edited (3 months ago)

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


So if transparency is important, what did Mastodonโ€™s leadership talk to Facebook about when they met?

Itโ€™s fine. Iโ€™ll wait. mastodon.social/@Mastodon/1138โ€ฆ


Transparency is a key part of our transition to non-profit ownership. Follow us to stay informed about our progress, priorities, and the move to community-driven governance. Together, we're building a safer, more open Fediverse. Join us ๐Ÿ™‚

blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/โ€ฆ

#MastodonNonProfit


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The Ladybird browser is a thing. Definitely dependent on commercial sponsorship, but so far all their sponsors are much smaller than the "big tech" tier of corporations.

What would really allow other organizations to step up would be a simplification of the Web Standards. Complexity of standards equals high entry cost equals oligopoly or monopoly.

I think the best thing going might be Gemini, a massively simplified version of the Web Standards, and there are plenty of Gemini browsers that have been implemented noncommercially. Only downside, the community of Gemini users probably isn't large enough to form a critical mass.

#Ladybird #WebStandards #Gemini #monopoly

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


The great thing about the recent #NetNeutrality court decision is that it allows service providers to get into the #enshittification game. Now theyโ€™re no longer required to observe neutrality with respect to content sources, they can (a) deliver an inferior experience to consumers โ€“ phase 1 of enshittification, per @pluralistic โ€“ AND (b) extort more money from content providers โ€“ phase 2.

Welcome to Year 0 of the true enshittocene, when ubiquitous enshittification REALLY kicks into high gear.

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


It's interesting that if you hit ctrl-f on this you won't find "corona" or "COVID" or "pandemic" anywhere in this article about the whole network of hospitals being massively over capacity.

Stuff like this is why I am not so worried about #CBC destruction at the hands of the Conservatives; the CBC is not on your side when it counts, just like the other media. Also every CBC story about landlords, boy does CBC love landlords.

cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/saโ€ฆ

#cbc

Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Lorraine Lee reshared this.


You canโ€™t ban โ€˜Fahrenheit 451โ€™ without making Ray Bradburyโ€™s warning come true - when the freedom to read is attacked, we lose our ability to think critically and challenge the status quo. Join me at 11a w/ Lois Lowry for the latest #VelshiBannedBookClub featuring the dystopian classic. #Velshi

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in reply to Ali Velshi

When the firefighters arrive with flamethrowers, it's beyond Bradburian, it's Muskian.


What (when, and where in Friendica) is the use case for the "export all" file from a Friendica account?

#Friendica

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in reply to JustAFrog

@justafrog One knows Russia has influenced U.S. media, via 45/Musk with GOP MAGA, MAGA should be Make America Like Russia?


Laken Riley sounds like a dream case for the right wing narrative. Not only does it serve as proof of concept for brown-on-white violent crime, but even for shoplifting (perhaps the most aggrandized news trend of 2024) as a "gateway crime." Sometimes a thorough cherry picking of a police blotter hands your enemies an "I told you so" to beat you over the head with. It would be nice if some nice Democrats could get in touch with their inner opportunists. There's a time and a season for bipartisanship, but this ain't it, chief.

n8chz ๐ŸฉŽ reshared this.


Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Imagine if the world economy was based on cooperation instead of capitalism?

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What the Democratic Party needs is a hostile takeover by its progressive faction. Think of it as a correction (hopefully not an overcorrection) for the hostile takeover by the DLC. The Republican Party (which, notably, does not have the "superdelegate" system) has allowed itself to be taken over by its more militant faction at least three times in my lifetime, with mixed results, but as we know, nothing ventured, nothing gained. The Democratic Party is extremely resistant to change, and their ship will sink if something doesn't change.

n8chz ๐ŸฉŽ reshared this.


Lorraine Lee reshared this.


The only #socialmedia I am now left on is Mastodon, Pixelfed and LinkedIn.

After being cyber-flashed on #BlueSky - bombarded by abuse on Twitter where I had blocked 4,500+ accounts - Russian "ladies of the night" trying to follow me on Instagram - bombarded with ads and animal abuse on Facebook, I now feel I'm in a better place.

Maybe my blog article is a bit of a rant but it felt better to clear my head.

stevendrowe.com/state-of-sociaโ€ฆ

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


:parrot_portal_blue: hello new people :parrot_portal_orange:
:NoMeta: fleeing all things Meta :NoMeta:

welcome to web 4.0, where we cultivate our own resilient social media graphs organically
free of ads
free of rage bait algorithms
free of murky VCs seeking ROI
... and... free.. as in beer ๐Ÿป

remember it is acceptable to point & laugh at the web 3.0 griftclowns and their enshittification schemes :red_sus:

:fedi_mercury_coin: :fediverse: :fedi_mercury_coin:

This entry was edited (3 months ago)

Lorraine Lee reshared this.


I read that Zuckerberg is calling people who leave his platforms, "virtue signalers." Yup. Indeed. I'd also add, "ethics and morality signalers and patriots." We should all signal that we don't support this kind of behavior. With action.

#Zuckerberg #Meta #Ethics #ProtectDemocracy #USPol

in reply to Nomdeb

well, I suppose he could refers to us as mentally ill household objects.

PS I virtue signalled years ago.

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in reply to Nomdeb

the one thing that keeps me on there really is htat SO MANY restaurants use it as the only place to see their menus or book a seat.



โ€˜As If Sheโ€™d Have a Crystal Ballโ€™: Supporters Race to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bassโ€™ Defense As MAGA Critics Make Her the Scapegoat for Wildfires atlantablackstar.com/2025/01/0โ€ฆ

n8chz ๐ŸฉŽ reshared this.



I think Trump is trying to make a political statement. As a protege of Putin, his philosophy of international politics is a post-Westphalian "might makes right" type world order. The Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) case in particular, is a taunt. The island is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, with ambitions for full independence. To someone like Trump, independence is not a status under international law, but the ability to hold one's own against rivals. If Trump were to annex Kalallit Nunaat, what are its 58,000 inhabitants (or even Denmark) going to do, fight back? He's trying to beclown the system of sovereign nation states, which includes a lot of small and/or weak ones that used to be part of empires, as something only fools or idealists believe in. At least Putin is picking on someone 1/4 his size. Trump is a bully in the most pathetic sense of the term.

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Watching some Americans threaten and others joke about annexing a nation (Greenland) with a 90% indigenous/mixed population like what century is this? Appalling.

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in reply to Alistair Davidson

"Don't worry, 100 years from now we'll have a culture war about acknowledging your existence and we'll make a sad movie about you"

Lorraine Lee reshared this.


I wonder if a family of squirrels will adopt me? They seem to be more "with it" than my own species.
This entry was edited (3 months ago)

Lorraine Lee reshared this.


i will die on the hill of closure isn't a group axiom

closure is a requirement of a binary operation

and a group is definitionally a set under a binary operation

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Today I'm going to start building a new website from scratch using Guile Scheme!

The goal is to create a production website that could get a fair amount of traffic. This ongoing project should be a good example of real-world Scheme hacking!

Join us here at 07:30 UTC (in around an hour):

- youtube.com/live/jpYROJ9_W2E
- twitch.tv/SystemCrafters

#gnu #guile #scheme #webdev #programming

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Esp. under Project 2025 & Agenda 47, the end result of the disinformation, smears, and legislative attacks on libraries & their support structures is their privatization, theocritization, or obliteration. These ppl fear community support, intellectual freedom, and accurate information. 2/2

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Who doesn't remember webportals is doomed to repeat webportals.

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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


If Merrick Garland can release the Robert Hur Special Consel report which was a political hit job on President Biden, then he can release the Jack Smith Special Counsel report.

If he doesnโ€™t release the report, then heโ€™s not just a coward, heโ€™s complicit.


Lorraine Lee reshared this.


It was probably not a great idea to collapse the whole Canadian healthcare system by pretending the pandemic is over. Unless you're someone who wants to privatize or the politicians employed by them.
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Lorraine Lee reshared this.


A while back I read that the best way to teach a puppy how to behave is to do so in the presence of an adult dog who has already been trained to behave the way you need to. The adult dog will teach the puppy.

As I read this, I was amazed!! Dogs teach their young human behavioural expectations!!!

Then I realized: everything I know about how to behave around dogs I learned as a child, from an adult human.

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in reply to Impudent Strumpet

this is also the big problem with animals in captivity. The issue isn't the breeding every time, sometimes it's that the captive population fundamentally can't survive the wild because they don't have an adult to teach them "street smarts".

And unfortunately to bring the tone down a bit, the reverse: destruction of context without destroying life happens with slavery or with (in Australia's case) with the stolen generation.

This entry was edited (3 months ago)

Lorraine Lee reshared this.


Elon Muskโ€™s European political meddling is โ€˜worrying,โ€™ says Norwayโ€™s PM

European backlash grows against billionaire ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

After buying the US President and a place in the Oval Office, Musk looks for world power and influence for his right-wing whack-a-doodles.
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GOP #Politics #uspolitics #uspol #Breaking #BreakingNews #Musk #Twitter #x #Fediverse #socialmedia #Mastodon

politico.eu/article/norwegian-โ€ฆ

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โ‡ง