Wall Street was laser-focused on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy this past week, but minutes from the central bank’s last meeting revealed concern among
Out of respect for reality and our wellbeing, we probably need way less talk about what “Democrats” should do and way more talk about what “we” can do. We’re not going to look back and wish we complained about Democratic leadership more, especially when we’re clear enough to get why they’re stunted.
So what should we do, Sir Posts-A-Lot? Good question! Pretty much anything that shows non-cooperation with the regime! A movement to build community around opposing ICE in your neighborhoods seems like one of the very best uses of time.
A step-by-step list for assessing your community's relationship with ICE and learning how to end it.Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degener...
Join us for the first One Million Rising coordinating call and training! Get oriented to making meaning of this moment and the role you can play in coordinat...
And I'm the world's biggest fan of Andrea Pitzer's podcast, which is all about how we survive this mess, with ballast and insights from the global history of concentration camps.
Unfortunately, Bluesky is unavailable in Mississippi right now, due to a new state law that requires age verification for all users. While intended for child safety, we think this law poses broader challenges & creates significant barriers that limit free speech & harm smaller platforms like ours.
Technically, you're probably also breaking laws in Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and so on. The question is, do you care? I'm not a lawyer, so I can't answer that for you specifically, but 10.000+ fediverse operators across the world get to make that decision for themselves.
with respect, you are a CEO that operates a subsidiary organisation in the US, caring about laws in the country your organisation operates in seems like a pretty good idea to me
With respect, I'm not the CEO of the fediverse. My reach extends over mastodon.social only. And that is the point. There is no gatekeeper for the fediverse as a whole.
There is no gatekeeper for how you tap into the ATProto network as well. Here's a short list of just some of the ways Bsky PBC can't block a user's access today: bsky.app/profile/jackvalinsky.…
And there's even more options than that out there.
A PDS is not the same as a GoToSocial or Mastodon server. The latter give you complete autonomy. You connect directly to whoever you want to follow or broadcast messages to. A PDS is only the data layer. It has to be indexed by a cooperating relay, and ingested by a cooperating app view, before you can actually reach anybody. Those are controlled by Bluesky PBC.
I have seen the link you sent. The only client on there that doesn't send me to bsky.app if I want to sign up is blacksky.community, though it requires an invite code.
Red Dwarf doesn't use Bsky if you're not on their PDSs as well. Blacksky is early and is already the biggest non-Bsky non-bot PDS hoster and has built the whole ATProto stack from scratch in Rust. And there's more. This goes way deeper than you think it does.
Red Dwarf doesn't have a sign up link and nothing loads on the site. But you're right, it is early. Everything is new, shiny, and full of venture-capital funded marketing right now. We'll see how all of this architecture turns out in a few years, when the investors come calling.
So are we agreeing that ATProto is decentralized? Because that's different than the fear of what funding will potentially lead to one day in the future.
And if you fear that, then shouldn't we triple down on making sure that the PBC doesn't hold all the power before that happens, do adversarial interop, and make sure it's in it's ideal decentralized state asap?
Strictly speaking, the question is if Bluesky is decentralized, not if AT Proto is decentralized. Second of all, I am not sure why I should "triple down on making sure" anything about Bluesky or AT Proto. I work on improving the fediverse. The place that is already built with adversarial interoperability.
I personally believe that if you are a founder and lead programmer of a decentralized social media platform, you should be absolutely sure what you are talking about before you start comparing the protocol that you use with others, because you are effectively representing your own project and have a lot of responsibilities and eyes on you as a result. If someone believes that you are misinformed and says so, then it would make sense to check so that you are sure that you are not using your platform to spread misinformation.
the essential problem with #bluesky is that it promises a lot, but delivers little in the realm of #decentralization (reality, not technical potential)
This is an update to a Summer 2024 blog post. At the time, atproto relays required a cache of the full network on local disk to validate data structures. With the Sync v1.1 updates, relays don't need all that disk I/O.
yeah, it's a similar thing I say about civil rights. The most interesting cases pit 2 rights against each other.
I'm happy BS (my name for them haha) is slowly getting to some de-centralization capability...but how that will play with their monied backers will be an interesting thing to watch.
jumping into this branch of replies to say that Bluesky did anticipate this and specifically built atproto to allow you to move off of their servers and onto an independently operated one in case the shareholders come knocking. the only issue is that most people aren't really aware of this
And Twitter was initially built from the beginning as a decentralized network meant to be a decentralized version of an earlier centralized social network, right? Because that's how Bluesky started. So if Twitter wasn't built like that, then it's not really a perfect case study, is it?
No, I was just referring to Twitter being a "case study" of what will happen to Bluesky - it's not the same thing, so it can't be a case study of what will happen. I'm not saying this means this thing won't fail, rather that Twitter failing doesn't mean we can be sure this will fail too in the same way.
bluesky will fail in the same way any entity controlled by venture capital will fail if it doesn't earn enough. like twitter didn't. instead, the ghouls moved in when they didn't get their money back
it doesn't matter about the technology. it doesn't matter if it's a social media company or if they are a high end waffle restaurant: they need to earn money on an investment
oh no trust me I believe they absolutely will. that's the point here, they let you migrate to a level that mastodon doesn't support (you can't move your posts between instances for example)
twitter never had interop, they just had an API that you already had to pay for before they forced Musk to buy it. it's already possible to migrate your user data right now, and there are other servers that you can migrate said data to running, not to mention that people have independently hosted their own version of every part of bluesky's infrastructure.
I'm not saying that bluesky is perfect or better than mastodon though. they don't really expose any of this to users and you can't move back to bluesky last I heard. I just don't think that being dismissive of innovations from other places, even if they come from a VC-backed company, is very productive. don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, as they say
I always knew that bluesky was never meant to leverage anything open. It was always meant to be a closed-loop system. However, it cannot and never will control the fediverse.
Also, it's literally solving a solved problem but in the way that makes it most compatible with corporate interests.
If they were serious they'd just be contributing to the existing standard and modeling their advancements like dozens of forked projects are doing on Fedi.
You seem to, from what I'm seeing, have a basic understanding of how the AT protocol works but not how it is decentralized in practice, and I think you might be confusing it with ActivityPub's model of distribution, but I could be wrong. A lot of us in this thread have been trying to explain this but you seem to be dismissive about it instead of understanding. I totally understand as someone who was also like this but it helps to read up about the subject from those who currently work with the protocol itself.
I also feel that you believe that Mastodon is above the law because it doesn't have any official presence in areas where age-verification laws exist, however the Mississippi law that Bluesky is protesting, for example, applies nondiscriminately to all platforms, regardless of where they are based.
I really don't want to come off as saying that Bluesky is a better platform, rather that I want to hold you accountable for any "not invented here" biases that you might have.
Two separate discussions here. I'll start with the second one. This isn't about Mastodon the organization. Mastodon gGmbH is certainly not above the law. But even if Mastodon gGmbH was legally forced to block users from Mississippi, the only thing we could do is block them from mastodon.social. The fediverse does not have an owner that can make this call. Every operator decides this individually.
Yep, there's nothing really incorrect here (outside of that Mastodon is also responsible for mastodon.online). I should mention that this is also what Bluesky is essentially doing; they've blocked off access to the frontend that they control, while leaving the user data and relays that they host accessible. Anything built on their protocol can still communicate with it, and they do not have to implement geo-blocking because Bluesky does not control them.
I do understand your concern, however; there's nothing stopping them from outright blocking anything independently operated from pulling from their relays or directly from their PDSes themselves. But the same could be said about Mastodon instances through the practice of defederation.
Bluesky technically has the upper hand here because they architected their protocol in a way where each user is identified by a decentralized ID instead of a URI tied to a specific hostname, and full data portability i
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Yep, there's nothing really incorrect here (outside of that Mastodon is also responsible for mastodon.online). I should mention that this is also what Bluesky is essentially doing; they've blocked off access to the frontend that they control, while leaving the user data and relays that they host accessible. Anything built on their protocol can still communicate with it, and they do not have to implement geo-blocking because Bluesky does not control them.
I do understand your concern, however; there's nothing stopping them from outright blocking anything independently operated from pulling from their relays or directly from their PDSes themselves. But the same could be said about Mastodon instances through the practice of defederation.
Bluesky technically has the upper hand here because they architected their protocol in a way where each user is identified by a decentralized ID instead of a URI tied to a specific hostname, and full data portability is strictly specified, something that Mastodon only partially has an analog to, however it still remains a social issue because most people don't really want to move off of Bluesky servers at this time, or are even aware that it's an option.
The major difference between AT Proto and ActivityPub is that in ActivityPub, nodes communicate directly with each other, without relying on a third party. Mastodon (as an organization) could disappear along with mastodon.social overnight, and the fediverse would continue to function flawlessly (although you'd stop getting cool new software updates from us, until someone else stepped in).
In AT Proto, and Bluesky specifically, technically all components can be hosted by other parties, but the interdependency of these components favours control by Bluesky PBC. For example, if Bluesky PBC decides to ban your account from their relay, you could get indexed by another relay, but unless all your friends switched to an app view that uses that relay, it would be of little use to you.
Not to mention that the decentralized ID ledger is currently another central piece of infrastructure controlled by Bluesky PBC, so they could stop you from registering an account or moving it if they wanted to. Sure, DIDs have some advantages in terms of data portability, but at least usernames in the fediverse don't rely on a single authority.
@bsky.app@bsky.brid.gy I mean, yes, but: in the Fediverse, identity is tightly coupled to instances. You can move to other instances or platforms, but there’s a bunch of conditions as to whether or not it will actually work. If your instance permanently goes down all of a sudden, you basically have to start over from scratch.
I think one thing Bluesky actually got right with AT Protocol is that your identity, your PDS, and your social stream all effectively exist on separate layers. Trying to make ActivityPub do a similar thing is…technically possible, but also really, really difficult. It would require a massive undertaking.
"You can move to other instances or platforms, but there’s a bunch of conditions as to whether or not it will actually work. If your instance permanently goes down all of a sudden, you basically have to start over from scratch."
I've moved my Mastodon instance twice so far, and each went without a hitch.
And if my current instance _did_ close without a warning, I would not "start over from scratch" either - since I semi-regularly back up my user data, and could import these to a new instance.
This is an important point that gets down into the weeds of the AT Proto architecture. Real independence from Bluesky PBC technology is much more difficult to achieve. Just because you might be on a different data server (PDS)[only a tiny fraction are now on an independent PDS] your traffic still flows through Bluesky hosted technologies, and your link to the network can be severed there.
@eblu @quillmatiq @jack @laurenshof @jsit @bsky.app @benroyce But what if the state of Mississippi sued every Mastodon operator, at least in the US. I suspect most would have to block Mississippi rather than pay huge legal fees. I doubt they could sue nonUS sites but perhaps this will end up being an excuse to separate the US internet from the rest if the world.
if the servers grew large it would become an issue
you could do tricks like requiring a credit card number. it doesn't have to be charged for anything, but you have to be 18 in the usa to have your own credit card
some people will grumble about that
but the alternative is to shut down
and people should be donating to their mastodon server anyways
Oh cool. Does that mean there's a BlueSky server someone from the state of Mississippi can join and actually see content on? @Gargron @jack @laurenshof @jsit @benroyce
That's not how ATProto works, but yes - there are ATProto constructs that enable folks from Mississippi to continue interacting with the network in the same way an ActivityPub server can.
jack and anuj are doing the doing the hand waving thing:
"yes bluesky is not decentralized, but like you can view twitter without being logged in, from anywhere, at any age, in this way someday bluesky can be decentralized, because there is a protocol to view something that bluesky users have nothing to do with"
it's about quasireligious devotion to a promise over reality with these types
So there is a *BlueSky* server someone from MS can sign up on now so they can see content on it, if not the rest of the *BlueSky* network? @quillmatiq @Gargron @laurenshof @jsit
I think you either don't understand how people sign up for the service and interact with it, or you're dancing (with jazz hands!). Either way, I've had enough. @jack @Gargron @laurenshof @jsit @benroyce
Not *anybody*, there are multiple third party relays and appviews in operation - look at microcosm.blue/
and you could argue that mastodon.social connects a lot of the fediverse. this morning I finished setting up this instance and when I boosted it from my old acc on mastodon.social the instances that federated with this GTS instance went up by over 100… if you started blocking many instances, or had to shutdown, the fediverse would be very broken
I think what people need to understand is that using the Fediverse instead of Bluesky doesn't mean you aren't subject to these laws. It just means that the people who run your instance are more free to flaunt them if they choose.
I think what people are trying to say to you Eugen is that it might be advisable to tell Fediverse instance operators that this is something they should be aware of and make an informed decision about.
Presumably US (and EU, UK, etc.) residents do actually care about opening themselves up to potentially life ruining legal liability, as should board members of the Mastodon non-profits…
@jsit @bsky.app Sure. But there are fediverse servers that are operated from Japan, China, Switzerland, anywhere really. We have seen this when FOSTA/SESTA was passed in the US. The fediverse provided a refuge for sex workers through services in Austria and so on.
I think people are framing this as #Bluesky being self-serving or (cringe) "enshittifying," but what they're doing would also be a reasonable thing for a Fediverse instance owner to do.
@bsky.app@bsky.brid.gy does the law specific any way how to decide it a user is from MS? If not, why not just ask users "are you from MS?" and it they answer yes forward them to a specific page with information about why they can't user BSKY. And if the answer no you can just let them go about their business.
I feel like this is potentially misleading, Eugen? Both because others can host their own views of the network, but also will the largest instances, which you run, be willing to pay the $10k/user fines in Mississippi? Because the state can still go after instances, no?
Fair point, and I believe you but I've see how conversations between fedi and bluesky usually goes. Many people still think atproto is centralized and corporate controlled on the fedi side. I am curious how eugene will respond since fedi runs tge whole instance as a site that talks to other sites.
My larger point is simply that this is a bad law that impacts both Mastodon and Bluesky (and the wider Fediverse/Atmosphere) and it seems like a reason to work together to fix the law (i.e., with @gargron.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy) than to use it to take potshots at each other. The law is bad.
The law is bad, nobody said otherwise. But decentralized systems are supposed to be resilient. If the US makes a law banning all mentions of LGBT from social media, which sounds less unlikely by the minute, what will Bluesky do? All of your infrastructure is controlled by one US company…
The key point here matters @gargron.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy: this law equally impacts both ActivityPub and ATproto instances. Using this law (and the fact that some Mastodon servers plan to not comply and risk liability) is not a statement regarding which network architecture is better.
*Anyone* can start a fediverse instance and be a publisher literally of 1. And yet they remain every bit as equal a participant in the overall global network.
Who today is successfully running 1-person ATProto infra and still enjoying all the features of Bluesky?
The reason it is important to answer this question is because bold claims are being made without citing any evidence by people officially associated with Bluesky, like in this thread from earlier today involving Mike Masnick and @folkerschamel: mastodon.social/@folkerschamel…
If we are to have this conversation it should be with real facts and examples not aggressive hyperbolic assertions.
If Blacksky is the best example of a scaled "independent" Bluesky (ATProto) instance. Then it becomes possible to talk about how independent it actually is (no AppView yet, the DID repository). It's then also possible to look at what percentage of users are "independent" of Bluesky PBC technology.
Leaving aside the issue of the DID database, it seems like right now there are no users fully independent, or at least very few. That's just a fact.
And while rambling along here, it does not seem like we should exempt the DID database from scrutiny. The entire premise is "what if #Bluesky becomes evil?" This is the formulation of the argument by Jay Graber. If that happens then the owner of the DID database holds the keys to the castle. According to Kuba, they intend to transfer this resource to an independent "non-profit" (see mackuba.eu/2025/08/20/introduc…). What are they waiting for?
So, trying to imagine what a truly decentralized Bluesky ATProto would look like, and it seems like it would need to have multiple independent PDSs, sure, but also multiple instances of the other major components capable of running at scale, such that should Bluesky "become evil" all these other folks could keep right on interacting together. Kind of a "cut the cord" test.
And, the number of users on the non-Bluesky side of the cut the cord test would need to be significant, say at least 25% (or pick a number) of the total ATProto user base.
Finally, the DID has to be secured in a public non-profit lock box.
This seems like the bare minimum necessary for Bluesky to claim they are truly decentralized.
btw, there's this post by Bryan from Bluesky written some time ago, which implies that things like "multiple independent Relay services" and "multiple independent AppView services" are goals that they also care about: bnewbold.net/2024/atproto_prog…
And even this is only the technical perspective, which is the simple one.
Even if all these points are fulfilled, this does not mean decentralization in practice.
To demonstrate the absurdity of the purely technical argument, you could even argue cynically that #twitter has a "credible exit" because every user can export their tweets and following list, and import it into a not-yet-existing new system ...
As they say, the purpose of a system is what it does.
Until we actually see many examples of non-nerds engaging successfully in the ATmosphere without utilizing *any* infrastructure controlled in any way by Bluesky, then the claim it's a decentralized social networking protocol rings hollow.
I would say users mostly don't care about things as much, and you need to explain to them why they are important at all, which is one of the reasons why more people came to Bluesky which keeps the decentralization aspects mostly hidden than Mastodon which has them front and center… Only some subset of more "decentralization conscious" users cares about either potential or current reality.
The fact that users "don't care" about something does not mean that it is not an important characteristic, as we are learning with each successive instance of autocratic centralized action.
Twitter people didn't care about it either, until the hammer came down.
so, there's a few reasons: - while PDS and relay are very easy to set up now, the AppView isn't - there isn't much documentation about it and I think it's missing some pieces like a part that indexes the existing posts created earlier; I think it took Futur who wrote a blog post about running AppView a few months to figure it out (though now he's blazed the trail a bit)
- Who owns bsky.app and the apps named "Bluesky" in the app stores? - Who owns the app view the above connect to? - Who owns the relay the above app view uses? - Where are the parties that own the above domiciled?
A lot? There are independent instances of ATproto infrastructure that are not controlled by Bluesky. There are totally independent PDS's, relays, and appviews.
@glyph @Gargron Only a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny fraction of #atproto users is not dependent on #bluesky infrastructure. Basically all #atproto users - and literally all #bluesky users - are dependent on #bluesky and their decisions. That's a simple reality which cannot be taken away by all the tech talk how cool #atproto is in theory.
what fraction is this? What software are they using? I would really like to even understand how this *might* work. (the fediverse is also, after all, still relatively centralized in practice, with a substantial majority of users still on mastodon ggmbh infrastructure. But other active independent instances do point a way to a less central future)
one datapoint is that I believe there's less than one thousand users on a third party PDS out of the 30+ million registered users total. So roughly 1 out of like 30,000 or 0.003%... For the other services like third party web apps it's almost certainly even worse since you can count them with one hand and they're tiny or just experimentation by some dev. It's just not at all comparable to Mastodon.
This stupid Mastodon hate for Bluesky which always involves blatant disinformation is so stupid. We both face the same issues and should work together on it. Instead you want to have a purity contest. What the fuck?
Ikuturso's estimate is admittedly unsourced, but for this to rise to the bar of "disinformation", there would have to be accurate information somewhere that is being suppressed or ignored. If 0.003% is incorrect, do you have a better number?
The big example being repeatedly touted as the big Bluesky-independent group is Blacksky. But Blacksky is very small. opencollective.com/blacksky shows 965 contributors, which is right in line with that 1000-user estimate (not every blacksky user is on their PDS, a few other indie devs operate experimental PDSes, but it seems like it'd be a wash to me)
An AT Protocol implementation built in Rust and prioritizing the community building efforts of marginalized groups; especially prioritizing Bluesky's community of Black users after which the project is named.
Blacksky only opened up its PDS like a week ago and has been slowly letting people in. So that's 1000 people in a week. Give it at least a bit of time. But I see you moving goalposts. "Oh it's not decentralized." "Oh it is, but not enough." "Oh, the other providers are too small"
The whole point is that people are building a decentralized thing here. Really decentralized. And, yes, building takes time. Some people are helping. But you and a small group of others want to run a purity contest with moving goalposts. It's such a waste of time.
@glyph @folkerschamel @Gargron maybe actually say what you think is disinformation and why? not very convincing when you just accuse people of spreading it without being able to give any specifics.
@ikuturso @glyph @folkerschamel I said it about Bluesky, not the "ATmosphere". As you have described to me, "Bluesky" as people know and use it, is a stack controlled by Bluesky PBC. And for what it's worth, I don't think pointing out the importance of decentralization is a "potshot" either.
If we're comparing to Bluesky alone then the very same thing applies to Mastodon GMBH. You're comparing apples to oranges. Also does this mean that mastodon.social intends to not comply with Mississippi's law?
@ikuturso @glyph @folkerschamel That's kind of my point. Bluesky is like mastodon.social. When people use Mastodon, it does not mean they are using Mastodon gGmbH infrastructure. They login directly to their provider--be it hachyderm.io, infosec.exchange, mas.to, and so on, which exist all over the world in various jurisdictions without any dependency on us and provide more or less the same Mastodon experience. Today. Not in a hypothetical.
@Gargron @ikuturso @glyph @folkerschamel I think the point here is that of course both ActivityPub and AT are decentralized protocols. However, in practice AT almost wholly consists of traffic controlled by Bluesky Social PBC. It seems that's changing for the better every day. But right now "Bluesky" is more centralized *in practice* than "Mastodon."
Yes but also AT is newer. Give it time. And all this feels like is a pointless wasteful purity battle when what we should be doing is working together to push back on bad laws. At no point in this convo has anyone insulted AP yet it feels like many AP people can't wait to attack AT.
@stinerman @ikuturso @glyph @folkerschamel It is interesting that you are characterizing this discussion about decentralization of power as an attack on AT Proto, and it is interesting that this is the only context in which I hear about working together since Bluesky launched nearly two years ago. Well, I believe you have my e-mail address.
The reason I claim it's an attack on AT Proto is because (if you scroll up) you responded implying that Mastodon was somehow better positioned to weather this law, and I don't see how that's true, other than if the hope is that it's so small no one in Mississippi decides to sue?
Of course #mastadon is better positioned to wheather this mississippi law, because a) different #mastodon instances can decide differently (e.g. implementing some kind of age verification instead of blocking, giving users choices instead of #bluesky forcing down their decision to everyone's throat), and b) most instances are outside the us jurisdiction anyway and therefore don't have to worry about the mississippi law.
I think @pluralistic explained it better in his article: pluralistic.net/2025/08/15/dog… I mean, we all love Bluesky and ATP Mike, but you have work to do still 🤷🏻♂️ mastodon is simply more decentralized and thus can weather these things better
Decentralized social network Mastodon says it cannot comply with age verification laws, like in Mississippi and elsewhere, and says it's up to individual server owners to decide.
"Bluesky is unavailable in Mississippi right now" as by the company #bluesky Social, PB itself. See the original post of this thread.
Plain, simple, and correct.
Your post is what I mean by #decentralizationwashing: Claiming theoretical #decentralization, but without real-world relevance. Basically nobody is using an own Personal Data Servers or alt client. And wouldn't evade the block anyway.
Decentralized social network Mastodon says it cannot comply with age verification laws, like in Mississippi and elsewhere, and says it's up to individual server owners to decide.
You're misrepresenting again. Why? ATproto is not blocked. Other ATproto providers are still available in Mississippi. The fact that Mastodon GMBH is choosing to ignore the law is not about decentralization. If it obeyed the law then yes some Mastodon instances would be centrally blocked.
Discuss that with Bluesky Social PBC @bsky.app and their VC investors. As said before, I'm only the messenger.😉 Well, not even that, I'm only the message-repeater "Bluesky is unavailable in Mississippi right now" mastodon.social/@bsky.app@bsky…
What are "mastodon instances"? I never understood that concept techies are talking like crazy about all the time. Are they the cause for "centrally block[ing]" as you say?😉
You again are misrepresenting. Why? mastodon.social which you are on is centralized. If it decides to obey the law you would be blocked in Mississippi. That's different than what Bluesky is doing. With Bluesky if you login with an alternative client, you're most likely not blocked.
Indeed the ATproto setup seems much better. Your only recourse if your server blocks is to start all over again somewhere else. With ATproto you can just login somewhere else with all your content intact
But yes, personally I like like the decentralized world of #mastodon and #activitypub without a single corporation controlling the infrastructure and data most users are dependent on.
Nobody said or implied that in this thread, on the contrary.
The point is that in practice #bluesky is quite centralized, because nearly all #atproto users are dependent on #bluesky, which is controlled by one company, and their centralized decisions.
This is kinda fundamental. You say "a lot?", but that's not as convincing as a full search engine of sites who want you to join them and are all, by definition, 100% independent of any other mastodon instance. Heck, even Truth Social is a Mastodon instance. joinmastodon.org/servers
I get that the Mastodon folks are out of date and don't realize how much development has happened on ATproto in the last year, but it makes them all sound silly when they repeat things as if it were still 2023.
That's a deflection again. Nobody doubts that technically both #activitypub and #atproto support decentralization.
But the point is that *in practice* basically all #bluesky users are concentrated on infrastructure of a single company under US jurisdiction, while #mastodon users are distributed over many servers in many jurisdictions all over the world.
@mmasnick.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy @folkerschamel @Gargron @stinerman @glyph I know that is a popular Bluesky cope and to be fair it has at times been true (outdated understanding of Jack Dorsey's role etc.
The technique Mike Masnick employs is to ignore the substance of the critique. #Bluesky may technically be capable of decentralization, but in practice it is still highly centralized. Instead, he repeats the mantra there are some examples of decentralization.
Stipulated Mike.
Now move on to addressing the reality that for all intents and purposes, which is what matters for these censorship issues, it is centralized.
Yeah, but come on. This is nitpicking different approaches to centralization as a total distraction from the simple fact the law is bad for both approaches.
@Gargron Well, I don't see it as nitpicking... Nobody was questioning the architecture of #twitter either as long as everybody was happy with their governance... We should do better this time.
It is nitpicking PRECISELY because this law DOES NOT CHANGE ITS ANALYSIS based on the architecture of a website. It implies you dunking on Bluesky for ideological reasons, which makes no sense because THE LAW IS JUST AS BAD FOR MASTODON. Stop it.
Yes, but my point is that the consequences for the users are much worse for #bluesky users because of lack of decentralization mastodon.social/@folkerschamel…
A bad law does not eliminate the difference between effectively centralized and decentralized social networks.
@mmasnick.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy @Gargron @bsky.app@bsky.brid.gy
I'm not implying that.
My point is: Decentralzation gives real choices to all the instances.
If your instance blocks you from accessing on Mastodon due to a law you need to use a VPN. The instance is aware of your IP. If Bluesky blocks you from accessing due to a law, it can trivially be bypassed by using a different app or your browser lying to the code. You're not blocked from ATProto.
@mmasnick.bsky.social @Gargron Theoretically yes, but in practice basically all #atproto users depend on #bluesky and are affected by the block without having the technical expertise or willingness to circumvent it. On the other hand #fediverse users are distributed over many #mastodon instances making their own decisions. #activitypub and #atproto both support decentralization, but in practice #mastodon is decentralized, #bluesky is centralized.
I think it is an insincere excuse to imply that most users can host their own views or use such other views.
And I think it is a straw man to imply that many instances potentially making similar decisions is remotely the same as one company making a central decision and forcing it on everyone.
I think it's insincere to pretend that Mastodon is somehow not subject to the law. It is. If an instance operator chooses to ignore that (and faces massive fines) that's a choice, but it's wrong to imply that the liability isn't there. The problem is the law.
My point is: Decentralzation gives real choices to all the instances. For example, some instance can decide to do the same as Blueskye and cut off Mississippi, others could also decide for individual age verification - not to say that I suggest that, but they have that option.
Central decisions don't allow that. In practice every user of bluesky is forced to accept the central decision of bluesky.
Yes, and atproto is decentralized and more and more people on on independent systems. So this point you're trying to make is totally meaningless as it relates to the issue here: which is the law.
I think I gave a very specific argument why it is not meaningless.
I would respect an argument along the line "well, I know that the #atproto fediverse / mastodon is much better regarding #decentralization than #bluesky, but overall #bluesky is still much better because of x y z", but I smells disingenuous to me to claim that #bluesky is as decentralized as #mastodon.
No. You're just arguing semantics of what is your preferred architecture. But this thread is about the law, under which IT DOES NOT MATTER. Which means that you're just disingenuously using a bad law that is bad for both systems as an ideological cudgel over who is more pure. It's not great.
Social media means that the topic of an thread can expand 😉 - in this case which architecture is fundamentally better. I don't see it as a ideological discussion, but having large real-world consequences. As we can experience live right now with the Mississippi situation. I can definitely tell you that there won't be a central decision for all #fediverse instances to block all Mississippi users.🙂
Nor is there a central decision for all Atmosphere PDS's or AppViews to block Mississippi. Some may choose not to comply, just as some ActivityPub instances can choose not to comply and face massive liability. Your point makes no sense. It's equally bad for both.
I think it's claim that the current consequences for #bluesky users and #mastodon users are the same is denying reality. But I believe this discussion landed in a non-constructive dead end.
To switch topic to an exciting aspect: I'm excited that bidgy works much better than I expected. It's still a long way, but it gives me hope that one day we will truly break down the walls between all platform and protocol silos.
If Mastodon instances choose to disobey the law, I would think the consequences could be significantly worse for those instances. So, I strongly disagree.
My point is: Decentralzation gives real choices to all the instances. For example, some instance can decide to do the same as Blueskye and cut off Mississippi, others could also decide for individual age verification - not to say that I suggest that, but they have that option.
Central decisions don't allow that. In practice every user of bluesky is forced to accept the central decision of bluesky.
Read through this entire thread and just wanted to commend the clarity and persistence with which you stuck to your well grounded arguments. His responses were a toxic brew of misinformation, and outright bullying from someone who has been elevated to a spokesperson's role. It was frankly embarrassing to read, and you did very well to maintain a civil tone.
but obviously you won't fix the spam "document 1 of 23 " for screenreaders. lol. I would rather go to a censored platform than one that stil has a lot of accessibility bugs.
With legal challenges to this law pending, we cannot justify building the expensive required infrastructure. For now, we have made the difficult decision to block access in Mississippi. To learn more, read our blog post:
A new Mississippi law requires us to block full access to Bluesky unless all users complete age checks. We have concerns about this law’s implementation.
Oooh, ran into the manager of apparently the last Radio Shack in California (which is run by a ham radio operator, and all the employees are hams). It's in San Luis Obispo. Sounds like it's worth the trip and a stop if you ever are going through that area...
Here's their info... apparently they have tried to make this a *real* Radio Shack of the ham radio / electronics age, not the sad remnant that was the end of the giant chain...
@AI6YR Ben @Matt Blaze @run_atalanta 😷💯 If they have a ton of components AND their supplier is Allied, by golly Radio Shack will have come 'round full circle. Back to the future.
@mattblaze If you wait long enough, all your wishes for componentry will be satisfied by the staff working at Counter B, at least at the HQ store in Syosset. Were there also other branches? Can't recall.
@wevdap There were about 100 stores at peak, concentrated in NY metro area but also scattered around the whole US. My first job was at one of the Manhattan stores.
@mattblaze there's not a ton of the old brand stuff to carry. There's more than zero though - there's at least one Radio Shack in Washington State, and they had some cable bits and bobs in appropriate branding when I looked in
Thrilled to see the name San Luis Obispo, as it recalls fond memories of ordering my stereo system from Warehouse Sound Company in the early 1970s.
Remember when hi-fi was kind of a big deal? Hinterlandia remembers.
"Mail-order stereo sounds at first like a legalized form of the old traveling medicine show; I mean, for many people a sound system is going to be the third most expensive item they’ll purchase in their lifetimes (after a house and a car) and is not the sort of purchase to be made sight unseen (or more to the point, hearing unheard). Still, if your alternatives are severely limited by geography, mail order is all that’s left to you, and the unquestioned leader in mail order is Warehouse Sound of San Luis Obispo, California." rollingstone.com/music/music-n…
I took this in 2021. Don't know if it's an actual Radio Shack or they just never took the sign down. It was Sunday AM so the store was closed, but it looked like an operating retail store.
@deewani @COD @AI6YR Ben I went to that website and discovered that Radio Shack was acquired by a global marketing group in El Salvador, so here's your advanced warning about tariff trouble, possibly. Since they're also providing jail service to Trump, could be they're exempt...for now...
I used to go there all the time when I lived in SLO. I didn’t know they had moved. The old building was a nerd wonderland that had a Bay Area surplus parts vibe.
Miss "Lydia" shows us her screen with a temp of 97° at 11am while she works packing grapes in Bakersfield CA. The area is under an extreme heat warning meaning a high risk for heat illness especially among the elderly like herself, but she works out of necessity. #WeFeedYou #calor
I live in front of a synagogue, someone chalked on the curbside "feed Gaza" and some neighbours just washed their curbside. It's so sad how some are really intolerant to poor children
Furthermore, being anti-Israel doesn't make one an anti-semite. In fact it rather identifies the people screaming that as anti-semites. Government isn't ethnic identity.
Any American caring to disagree must first tell me when they accepted Trump as their Lord and Savior and why they support racism, misogyny, homophobia, pedophilia, and general incompetence as their word of their God.
The Lawfare Institute—publisher of information and insight at the intersection of national security, law and policy—seeks a motivated full-time associate editor based in Washington, DC.
The medical industry doesn't invent diseases, but it DOES popularize them and broaden the inclusivity criteria. That's just a fact they proudly claim in earnings reports.
Also Bush knew what he was doing... Literally 0 evidence after 20 years of occupation? @felis_catus_domesticus
If the founding fathers witnessed the corruption and treason and fascism of the current President, they would not have impeached him. They would have hanged him.
A man who shared posts on his Facebook page backing Palestine Action has told how he was hauled from his bed by police and arrested on suspicion of breaking terror laws in a terrifying dawn raid.
Mat Cobb, 52, a part-time cleaner, is now facing potentially life-changing criminal charges after becoming the latest member of the public to fall foul of the controversial decision to ban the direct-action group.
Exclusive: Baroness Chakrabarti said the latest arrest demonstrates the dangers of the ongoing proscription of Palestine Action, which is being challenged in the courts
@futurebird This is the road to Stasi-style repression: watch what you say to who and when, you could arrested for your opinions.
The groundwork for the current wave of fascist style government isn’t a novelty invented by Trump, the groundwork for it was laid in “Anti-terrorism” acts already underway and then amped up in 2001 in the UK, Canada, and the Homeland Security Act in 2002 in the US. People protested them then because they saw the potential for misuse.
@futurebird People protested: but of course in the grand scheme of things, most people just shrugged, and said, “yeah, things are broken, but the alternative is just as bad probably, and fighting is hard, and it won’t really be used against me,” and then just got on with life. While others made jokes about “towel-heads” and learned better to weaponize hate, and to get others to accept more violence and oppression.
@futurebird The UK government can't fix the country's actual problems, so it's trying to fix made-up problems instead in the hope that people get confused between the two.
@passenger The UK government could fix the problems if the people who benefit from those problems not being fixed could just take the hit to their bank accounts and power.
@futurebird Honestly I'm not sure they could. The more I live here the more I think that the problems could have been fixed decades ago, but now they've become deepened to the point where the damage is now hurting the bank accounts of the wealthy instead of augmenting them, and even then they're powerless to fix it.
Like, even if you somehow gave me Stalin-level powers and a completely compliant population, I'm not sure I could fix things. I could turn the clock back a while on the collapse, but the problem persists. (That level of power would definitely corrupt me and make me a far worse person though.) Britain is a crowded island with an aging population accustomed to an unsustainably high standard of living, with decaying and incrementally-built infrastructure, with many of its natural resources exhausted and many others strained to the limit.
At most, all the government can do - whatever party is in power - is to pick scapegoats and punish them to distract peop
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@futurebird Honestly I'm not sure they could. The more I live here the more I think that the problems could have been fixed decades ago, but now they've become deepened to the point where the damage is now hurting the bank accounts of the wealthy instead of augmenting them, and even then they're powerless to fix it.
Like, even if you somehow gave me Stalin-level powers and a completely compliant population, I'm not sure I could fix things. I could turn the clock back a while on the collapse, but the problem persists. (That level of power would definitely corrupt me and make me a far worse person though.) Britain is a crowded island with an aging population accustomed to an unsustainably high standard of living, with decaying and incrementally-built infrastructure, with many of its natural resources exhausted and many others strained to the limit.
At most, all the government can do - whatever party is in power - is to pick scapegoats and punish them to distract people. More often, they let the Right-wing media pick the scapegoats for them, and just do the punishing bit. Socialists can't make it better, and there's a limit to how much worse fascists can make it.
Like many countries, I think collapse is coming, and I think it'll come sooner than people expect.
As Tolkien put it, "[I bring you] the doom of choice... none may live now as they have lived, and few shall keep what they call their own." The old world will die, but that doesn't mean we can't build a better one.
@passenger @futurebird Agreed. Short of an ecological event that wipes out human advancement; i.e. a solar storm that irradiates the planet, a meteor causing another Dryas event, or some other global catastrophe, I believe in humanity's innate goodness, hardiness, and ingenuity.
We can create a fair and equitable financial system. It is possible. The maths are right there. We just have to get rid of a few hundred people first. (And by get rid, of course I mean, convince them by rational argument, and not, for example by guillotine or firing squads. I would never suggest such a thing!)
@myrmepropagandist @Jules Facebook has been on a downward spiral for a long, long time though. Many FB people have left and the ones that remain have social groups to maintain, by and large.
If they even _name_ it after Alcatraz... Alcatraz was a _prison_, not a _jail_. You can't _detain_ someone in a _prison_. Detention is defined to be a short-term procedure. Usually limited to 72 hours.
They're really using the word _detain_ to mean _arrest_...
Does this mean Cosplay Kunty Noem must take off her MAGA political hat while serving in a federal "position"? Yea, I know she leaves it on for the cowboy position.
Ghislaine Maxwell never saw Trump in ‘any inappropriate setting’, interview transcript shows (Me: Nothing to see here. she says nothing and gets a move to Club Fed) | Ghislaine Maxwell | The Guardian theguardian.com/us-news/2025/a…
Scanner: Zero 'spooky' detected. * bashing noises * Scanner: Zero 'spooky' detected. I have to agree with my spooky detector, but they defo need all the boops 🥰.
Fun fact... According to the #reincarnation theory...
For which there is super strong support, based on the incredible number of people with documented #NDE experiences...
... Human soul re-enters a new meat bot a couple of months after birth (not all meat bots have riders NB). Memories of the previous incarnation can be retained up to 3.5years old. Sometimes you can have super spooky conversations with kids about "the time before they died"
But anyway, these two were Mexican cartel members, I am sure of it. 😁
It's something that's puzzled me, why there aren't a lot more small taxi companies? It's always Yellow Cab or something, these huge franchises. Even in Reagan's USA I can still find (a few) small restaurants. Heck I can find (very very few) small grocery stores. What about cabs predisposes them to big monopolies? Is it like telecom, where the government is enforcing their monopoly?
Anyway I think taxi companies have their issues, but they're still sgads better than Uber. And don't even get me started on Waymo. Very much agree.
Huh, so maybe something specific to the USA then? Or the west coast? I haven't been able to leave the west coast in my lifetime, so I don't have much worldly experience.
@cy it's because the bigger the company is the more likely it is to have a cab free and near you. They only earn money when they're ferrying someone, empty driving between spots is wasted. In addition if you have to wait an hour for a taxi to drive across town you won't take that company next time. The reason for chain restaurants are different from the reasons for big can companies, which is things like people go for names they recognise even if it's a bit shit familiarity feels safer.
Yes the whole purpose of brands is to trick us into loyalty for a betrayer. But not every industry has fallen to those scammers. Just seems odd that taxis would be one of them. Many of us have a vehicle already, so why is no one just offering rides for money?
As for economies of scale, a bigger cab company won't necessarily be a denser one. If two companies in two cities merge, they won't have any more money to add cars than if they'd stayed separate, plus now they have to add a step where you have to pick which city you want a cab in. Plus a taxi driver who's too far or too busy to give you a ride could call other taxi drivers to let them know. Drivers can learn who'll do them a solid that way. Taxi companies... can't build that trust.
I'm a great Uber Fan due to its no-nonsense rides in my city [Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India] But After go through your blog, It put me in an aww... How these giant companies are trying to put pressures on their own employees. It's horrible to see it.
Over here you call (just be happy they don't require sending a fax) to order one friday evening, and if you're lucky it shows up around noon sunday.
Pricing seems to be intentionally set to keep DUI competitive, though to be fair it's probably because they are only interested in customers who are too rich or too drunk to care.
But Uber or anything else that smells like competition for the taxi monopolies is illegal, presumably because without income from DUI fines, the government would have to raise taxes (ok, maybe that's not the official reason, but it's what it feels like*).
*) especially when you hear again and again that the government has a goal of reducing CO2 by significantly increasing the number of people who travel by train, but every time someone suggests something that would do that, it gets shot down immediately because that would require investing in more rail cars. But no worries, we are on track to hitting the goal sometime after the year 8000. Yes, that's eight.
a business model deliberately designed to extract value from labour while avoiding the obligations that normally protect and pay workers, in order to "maximise shareholder value". The capitalists wet dream. FInancialising human effort so it can be treated like a raw material, traded and optimised for returns.
If society leaves it to “the market,” these people will keep doing it, because the system rewards them. If society changes the rules of the game - through law, governance, and culture - then the people pushing these models either adapt or lose their licence to operate.
I lived in silly con valley for 5 years, and the whole time, everyone kept trying to convince me to take uber (I don't drive) rather than public transit, and everytime I tried to explain how awful uber was, they had all kinds of dishonest reasons for not listening.
No you see, this is just good old fashioned protection racket stuff - he only took a portion, not the whole thing. Communists take over the whole thing. This is to keep Intel "safe" and "in their best interest" so it's different.
the owns isn't the problem. The government owns all kinds of shit. Everything from bonds, stocks, gold, crypto. They have it all. So that's not surprising. It's the control part that is the problem. It's very sticky. The government cannot direct private business in such a way that it goes around its own Federal Trade Commission that regulates financial instruments because those laws are handed down by Congress. The control is a problem. It's side skirts the govts own laws.
yes. Sometimes companies do that. Banks do that commonly. That's not too strange. But in those situations it's bailout protection. They put apart of themselves as collateral for bailouts. Companies will do this too. But the government is a non-voting, non-directive member. They can't be a board of directors. Thats against the law. So it's the control that is alarming.
also I'm not sure but I think him announcing this, is market manipulation and a kind of insider trading. When the government does these things, which they do, they don't announce it. They can.t
MSN reports: “Trump administration is likely negotiating a deal to take up to a 10% equity stake in Intel Corp. This will be facilitated by converting grants made under the 2022 Chips & Science Act into equity” - so the govt already paid (prepaid even?) & now gains some equity. Thump again exhibiting his weak grasp of business and/or propensity to lie. But as others in this thread have said, either way it confirms they’re in trouble. (Headlines also full of $$m short selling AI & other bubble-bursting talk)
lol 10% is not communism. Stop being a shitlib. You people are the reason why Democrats refuse to back Mamdani and other Democratic Socialists. Kindly fuck off so the Democratic Party can finally stop being a right-wing party.
This is even scarier than it may seem because Microsoft is heavily working with this regime and if they decide to exert control, they could, for example, issue a microcode update that adds what could amount to being basically a backdoor (this would effectively be before even kernel level!) and since Intel handles their microcode via software instead of firmware, MS could push it out overnight without even telling anyone.
At least if they control AMD we could just not update the MB.
This is actually a proper buy-in like other countries have done to save important companies. Intel is in a very bad place. They would not have lasted very much longer. Trouble is: they are so far behind other companies like ARM and TSMC that there is a real chance that they won’t make it even with this support.
Would be kind of ironic if Intel was yet another company to add to Trump’s list of business failures. He’d be known as the president who let an American icon go bust.
state ownership does not equal communism, there are many capitalist countries that own companies (like china, no matter how hard they try to convince you it’s “socialism with chinese characteristics”) (it’s actually just capitalism with more state influence)
I'm convinced US administration will bankrupt in a few years. Import tariffs solution won't work as expected.
Companies working shoulder to shoulder with them will go after it. Sorry for all the people in the US. In Spain, after XVI-XVIII imperialism, had 150 years of nothingness and recovered partially with our EU union. History repeats like spicy sausages.
speaking as a veteran of the semiconductor industry, Intel have never been leading edge of anything much, except perhaps overly complicated instruction sets and power consumption per clock cycle.
I don't think this is how communism or even socialism works. Even if the government held 100% of Intel, Intel would not be worker owned and managed, they would still overproduce to satisfy the market, be opaque with respect to their internal mechanisms and extract profits.
Even if Intel was an entity that somehow is socialist they would still operate in a capitalist system, potentially even be abused for its benefit, because there is a whole economy running besides it.
Poor, poor, poor Big Corporations/Industry. Woe is them. :::sad violin music:::
After dumping BILLIONS of dollars into Trump’s campaigns and after-election bribes, gave expensive gifts, wasted time listening to his crazy bullshak, flattered his ego, and kissed his…um…ring, in hope that Trump would screw over workers, consumers, and the environment by ditching all the pesky rules, laws, & regulations which protect them, they are are shocked to discover they’ve been screwed.
I think "the government paid nothing" mean : the gov allowed some previously illegal stuff in exchange. Or Trump asked a bribery #RussiaStyle to not blocking some export. Maybe both
during interviews on CNBC last week, his talking heads stressed that, though they would have 10% equity, there would be no control (non-voting shares).
“National security” was the excuse used to lock up 100K+ Japanese Americans in concentration camps
“National security” was the excuse used to ban Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Germany
“National security” was the excuse used to illegally invade Iraq & Afghanistan
So as you see the Trump regime claim “National security” to lock up Latino Americans in concentration camps, know that this is the oldest fascist trick in the book.
Don’t fall for it. Reject it. Uphold justice & due process of law.
This lying is so exhausting. "DC has some of the highest crime in the world" People just eat this up. I don't even think that was true back in the days when DC had a crime problem. Now? It's just nonsense. Lies lies lies.
And Vance is saying "well the stats are fake" Just as a throw away line. No follow up.
I live in the South Bronx and it's so insulting and infantilizing to have this clown tell me that *I* don't really know if there is crime or not WHERE I LIVE. That people who live in cities shouldn't have and damn say in what problems we want addressed or how to address them. That is OUR call.
Because a lot of us care a lot about these cities and love them and we've worked hard to make them the kind of places where everyone wants to live. Why do you think the rents are so high?
I will never forget as long as I live reading in the WSJ in June 2020 that *the block of PDX I was standing on with my dog* had been "ruined and set on fire" by "rioters".
I've never trusted any mainstream media source again, and my skepticism has served me really well.
It's very inconvenient for Republicans that major cities aren't racked with crime and so they have just decided to lie about it and implement their playbook anyway.
If you don't live in a big city in the US please understand there isn't a "debate" about it. Crime isn't the top worry of the people who live in these cities. And the way they the fed is addressing it isn't what we'd want at all.
The data show this. The people will tell you this. If you hear someone say it push back hard.
This is a lot like the lies about "immigrant crime" that lead up to the election. Now it's just the whole city that's "crime" ... this is about manufacturing consent for repression.
We all know where the majority of the crime is concentrated, both in DC and in NYC, and it's not where the cops are. If someone *really* wanted to crack down on crime in NYC, they would deploy battalions to Wall Street.
All of my white, exburbs living coworkers describe their drives through Akron, Cleveland, or anyplace where ya might see a houseless person, like they survived the real life Escape From New York. Two black men in a parking lot is violent gang activity. Pedestrians are suspicious in their effed up, bigoted, fantasy land. When trump hypes the crime these lawn mowing, HOA members are his target audience.
I people still have ideas of New York that are out of movies.
I "knew" this but at one point, two decades ago, I'm running through downtown at night to a computer store, trying to get stuff to repair an important multimedia display. And I realized . . . yeah, this is OK.
Then some years later I'm walking around doing job interviews and was again reminded of the bullshit spread abut a pretty nice place.
People who live in cities are emotionally configured to believe they live in a neighborhood. I dare say your concept of "where you live" is even smaller than South Bronx, right?
Thus, city people see themselves in context of maybe a thousand people. Suburban people don't even know their neighbors.
Here's a flex - when we moved in here, I took fresh bread around to all my immediate neighbors. That's a city thing to do, in an apartment building,
Indeed. The national polling is striking: people say crime is a big problem, just not where they live. They are repeating what they've heard on Fox News, etc.
Keeps happening here, too. I live in basically the Copenhagen version of Brooklyn & every few months some rightwingnut will insist that it's a war zone. They'll claim without any evidence that entire neighborhoods are so dangerous the police refuse to go there - meanwhile, said areas are families picnicing, people hanging out at cafes & restaurants, kids playing... and of course the press just reports the lie, because why look out the fucking window when Nazis say it's raining 🙄
I'm guessing that US cities are similar to Canadian ones, with rent being your first three worries, followed by the rising cost of food as the next two, and somewhere down around 25 is crime?
literally, the two biggest problems according to the majority of people I know in most cities: rent is unaffordable and public transportation is shit. These are two things that we actually want and need addressed.
I’ve lived in a few supposedly “bad neighborhoods” in “big crime” cities since the 80s. They’re invariably peaceful. The only threatening presence I ever felt was the cops.
I suspect that people hear about crime on the news and then the “confirmation” they receive from the world, if any, is observing through a windshield a person wearing a big pack, or searching for food in a dumpster, or walking on the sidewalk while black.
Spouse watches a lot of murder mysteries. There are so many murders in small towns. How do people live in small towns? I mean, between the dead bodies and the people being carted off to jail it doesn't seem there'd be much population left
Is it small town population control? Kill 3 people a week, solve the murders in one hour?
Cabot Cove has a much higher murder rate in murders per population than any big city
If it weren’t for family obligations, we’d have moved to NYC years ago. One day…
(Prolly worth pointing out that NYC has a lower crime rate than Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston, but for some reason Texas isn’t being mentioned by the powers that be…)
When you say "they are going to ruin it all" it's not happening by accident.
(Cities create the economy; if you want to guarantee your incumbency, you don't want a thriving economy; you might want all the money, but that's different.)
I agree with you, but the message has always been for old and racist white people who were never going to leave their suburbs to the visit these cities anyway
As someone who actually grew up in one of the cities with the highest per-capita murder rate in the country: n'ah, DC is pretty tame. It does get its unfair share of sign-this-petitioners (for obvious reasons), but whatever.
(I was involuntarily conscripted into a drug-running conspiracy in DC once, but it was marijuana, so you know what? Don't care. As long as my cab driver wasn't smoking it behind the wheel, I hope he had a swell night.)
like, when I lived there for 8 !!! years a decade ago, I can think of 2 people who had actual street crime happen to them. And one incident that happened since I moved and was bad enough to make it to me.
So besides stats, it's so comparatively rare that every incident during my time is something I can remember vs. blurred together.
They are just saying it to cast doubt since the numbers make it so obvious they are lying they have to say something.
This whole thing is totally political.
There are over SIXTY cities in the US with more crime than DC.
And frankly people in republican areas see higher crime rates so they just assume it MUST be worse in the cities. Because if it were... what would that mean? It doesn't align with their assumptions about reality.
Plus, holy crap, remember when presidents and veeps were expected to represent the WHOLE country? No matter how they felt personally about any given city, it was virtually unheard of to just trash whole American cities like this. Heh, especially cities *that they then expected to be welcome in*.
Because #MAGA is a racist group. They think of DC as being a black population and in their minds that means they are all drug dealers, welfare queens, hookers & pimps.
It's why trump still has over 40% support. Racists love him when they see hispanics and black people targeted by him. That's what they voted for
... and sorry to say, a lot of hispanics and black people voted for him too because he promised to hurt people they didn't like and because they wouldn't vote for a woman
But DC *does* have the highest crime in the world.
It started in 2016 and the shitheads responsible have stolen at a minimum over £3.5 billion from you.
You can find the criminals behind this in the White House.
(Turn their rhetoric against them. It's the only effective way to tackle it. Agree with them, then point out where it's happening - it's them. It's always them. They are the ones doing whatever the fuck bad thing it is they are saying is happening. Every single time.)
A judge ruled late Friday the Trump admin cannot deny funding to #Boston, #Chicago, #Denver, #LosAngeles & 30 other cities & counties because of policies that limit cooperation with federal #immigration efforts.
US District Judge William Orrick in #SanFrancisco extended a preliminary #injunction blocking the #Trump admin from cutting off or conditioning the use of federal funds for so-called “#sanctuary” jurisdictions. His earlier order protected more than a dozen other cities & counties, including San Francisco, #Portland & #Seattle.
In his ruling, Orrick said the #Trump admin had offered no opposition to an extended #injunction except to say the first injunction was wrong. It has appealed the first order.
Orrick also blocked the admin from imposing #immigration related conditions on two particular #grant programs.
The admin has ratcheted up pressure on #sanctuary communities as it seeks to fulfill Trump’s promise to remove millions of people in the country illegally. One #ExecutiveOrder issued by #Trump directs AG #PamBondi & #DHS Secy #KristiNoem to withhold #federal money from sanctuary jurisdictions. Another EO directs every federal agency to ensure that payments to #state & local govts do not “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal *aliens* from deportation.” #law #immigration
The cities & counties that sued said billions of dollars were at risk.
Orrick, who was nominated by Obama, said the EOs & “executive actions that have parroted them” were an #unconstitutional “coercive threat.”
In May, #DHS published a list of >500 “#sanctuary jurisdictions,” saying each one would receive formal notification that the govt had deemed them noncompliant. It also said it would inform them if they were believed to be in violation of federal #criminal statutes.
The list was later removed from the #DHS website after critics noted it included localities that have actively supported #Trump’s tough #immigration policies.
The issue kinda drives me nuts, because there is no such thing as a “sanctuary city/state”. Local and state governments are under no obligation to spend resources participating in enforcement of federal laws. It’s that simple. Here in Seattle we have really tight budgets and a lot of other expenses. Our police budgets are limited (not limited enough for my taste but still). We can’t afford to waste money on immigration enforcement, and we just don’t have to.
Ex-pastor at Pete Hegseth’s church calls for public executions and says Bible backs Ice raids | Pete Hegseth | The Guardian theguardian.com/us-news/2025/a…
This is the crazy they live by. Christian my ass. Nothing in the bible says to hate other humans like they do. Fascist pretending to be Christians. #nazis
RFK Jr. Cut Grants for Autism Research While Vowing to Find a Cause — ProPublica
Slashed Autism Funding: RFK Jr. promised to identify the causes of autism but has eliminated parts of his agency actively investigating them and has cut millions in funding for autism research. Silent on Rollbacks: Once an ardent environmentalist who took on big polluters, RFK Jr. has been silent on Trump’s dismantling of efforts to combat climate change and pollution. Conflicting…
RFK Jr. Cut Grants for Autism Research While Vowing to Find a Cause — ProPublica
Slashed Autism Funding: RFK Jr. promised to identify the causes of autism but has eliminated parts of his agency actively investigating them and has cut millions in funding for autism research. Silent on Rollbacks: Once an ardent environmentalist who took on big polluters, RFK Jr. has been silent on Trump’s dismantling of efforts to combat climate change and pollution. Conflicting…
RFK Jr. Cut Grants for Autism Research While Vowing to Find a Cause — ProPublica
Slashed Autism Funding: RFK Jr. promised to identify the causes of autism but has eliminated parts of his agency actively investigating them and has cut millions in funding for autism research.
Silent on Rollbacks: Once an ardent environmentalist who took on big polluters, RFK Jr. has been silent on Trump’s dismantling of efforts to combat climate change and pollution.
Conflicting Priorities: RFK Jr. helps lead an administration that is reversing regulations on pollution and chemicals, including some linked to autism.
While touting a $50 million initiative to identify the causes of autism, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is helping lead an administration that is rolling back protections against pollution and toxic chemicals, including some linked to the condition.
So he promised to find the cause of autism, aslong as he finds it to be vaccines (which for clarity it isn't (in fact as people worh autism is overrepresented in research sector of STEM, you might say that autism causes vaccines ;)))?
No, whether or not you cry crocodile tears for noted bomb walrus John Bolton is not going to have much of a bearing on whether or not the fascist Trumpenreich will use its state security forces to harass, terrorize, or harm you. They will do that, regardless of whether or not you "speak up" for John Bolton and let me remind you:
"Collaborators get the wall."
Who'd Bolton use to work for and what did he do in that capacity?
The more former allies Trump goes after, the more frightened his current allies get. The only question is how will they react. Will they try to become more and more loyal? Or will they turn on Trump before Trump can turn on them.
And from a purely tactical point of view, the more time they spend attacking each other, the less time they have to attack people who don't deserve it. I don't care one whit that the corrupt system is attacking John Bolton. Better him than the plenty of people who are actually worth defending, and if one is going to be defending people from this system there are PLENTY of people who aren't, you know, John Bolton.
Like, this is not even me saying "well maybe if the Cheney family didn't want to be enemies of a dictator in the White House, they probably shouldn't have devoted their lives to giving whoever is in the White House the powers of a dictator under the guise of "fighting terrorism."
John Bolton worked for Trump. Directly. He was really excited about it too when he thought Trump would let him bomb Iran. That guy walked into this with his eyes wide open and said "this is fine."
He's the perfect choice for the first political enemy. He is hated on both sides of the isle. People standing up for him have the memory of a goldfish. Neither Republicans nor Democrats will go to bat for him. Trump can test pushing this all the way to show trial and beyond, get SCOTUS to approve for this neoliberal war monger, then be clear to follow up with more likeable foes.
@AnarchoNinaWrites The executions will continue until morale improves.
Pretty much the theme of the episode of Twilight Zone that MeTV ran just a few ago (The Mirror). When someone achieves power he sees enemies among his friends. General Clement was executing a man a day for a week when his own people turned on him. Such people, always angry and always fighting something or somebody, Each win isn't win enough, ever.
Now thinking I'll just strap 12V batteries together on the e-bike rebuild project so I can use those elsewhere, instead of dealing with Lithium battery stupidity. #ebikes
VINTAGE vs MODERNFlying a 1960s K6 in the Alps. Can It Compete?On paper, the 1960s K6 shouldn’t stand a chance.It’s slower, built from wood, and lacks the gl...
Follow the Sailplane Grand Prix Final live: https://sgp.aero/live/12th-fai-sgp-world-final-2025Our webshop: www.stefly.aero (advertisement/ own products)Chec...
Oh yes, I am careful where I store and charge them. Always on concrete and away from burnable material. Even for the lawnmower batteries. But we are just switching our rocket club from lead acid to lithium, instead of 60 lbs of batteries I will barely have to haul 6 lbs to the events.
yes, we are using those for the launch pads. The nice thing is that the batteries we use are limited to 20 amp, the old 12v could deliver 80 amp and ignited things too fast
@carstenfranke Not my area of expertise but as we look at risks in our building it seems like the biggest is from people “strapping together” lithium batteries and charging them in their homes/apartments
Unfortunately this often means cheaper e-bikes in buildings with less fire safety
There probably needs to be better regulation/standardization of batteries
That would allow for safe battery exchanges and storage to be located outside of people’s units
@AccordionBruce @carstenfranke relatedly, the way the tool companies all have proprietary battery connectors for their battery tech is the epitome of "we sell toner/we sell razor blades/we sell printer ink" market thinking -- subscription of consumables being the profit center.
@Unlikelylass @AccordionBruce @carstenfranke I had a driveway gate opener that had a battery to allow it to work during power failure, but the opener was designed such that it killed the battery after about two years even if power had never failed. And if the battery failed, the gate would not open. In retrospect, I suspect that it was designed to sell batteries.
@NilaJones Yep. For backpacking with a radio, yes. For this application? No idea. But it would be a multi-purpose battery, wouldn't see mounting them on this bike permanently.
@NilaJones Yeah, the other thing is the lifetime of the LiFePO4 and output is a lot better. Most lead acid are 2-4 years of lifespan, the LiFePO4 is supposed to be 10 years. 100Ah lead acid only delivers 50Ah of power, whereas 100Ah of LiFePO4 delivers about 100Ah.
How prescient for today's times: #TwilightZone episode titled "The Mirror", starring Peter Faulk. One line that got my attention: "When you have power, you have no friends. You have followers, you have compatriots, and you have enemies.".
LOLGOP
in reply to LOLGOP • • •So what should we do, Sir Posts-A-Lot? Good question! Pretty much anything that shows non-cooperation with the regime! A movement to build community around opposing ICE in your neighborhoods seems like one of the very best uses of time.
How to Get ICE Out of Your Tow...
How to Get ICE Out of Your Town | A Guide to What We Can Do Now | Andrea Pitzer | Next Comes What
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LOLGOP
in reply to LOLGOP • • •And the One Million Rising movement is both practical and inspirational.
Session 1: The Moment & Your M...
Session 1: The Moment & Your Mission - July 16
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LOLGOP
in reply to LOLGOP • • •And I'm the world's biggest fan of Andrea Pitzer's podcast, which is all about how we survive this mess, with ballast and insights from the global history of concentration camps.
Next Comes What - YouTube
Next Comes What
YouTubeLOLGOP
in reply to LOLGOP • • •LOLGOP
in reply to LOLGOP • • •RE: bsky.app/profile/did:plc:rrfwr…