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Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 20:08
Threads.net, Meta’s competitor to Twitter, is launched today, outside of the European Union. It is apparently, “soon” (within a few months) going to work with other Federated social media services such as Mastodon. This is raising fears and hopes for those of us who believe that federation is a huge opportunity.  We understand why EU […]
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 10:00
I don’t know how many of you care about this but it really seems to have reached critical mass over this past weekend and I suspect the end is nigh. You will notice that my twitter feed on the sidebar is gone and I don’t have an explanation for it except that twitter is now so fubared that it isn’t picking up the feed. I’m still there @digby56 but the writing is on the wall I’m afraid. I’m trying out all the new platforms, Mastadon, BlueSky, Post etc. I’ve kept my handle digby56 at all of them so you can probably find me (or possibly one of the imposters that have crept on some of them…) They all have their good and bad points but they just don’t have the scale. Supposedly Meta is rolling out its new twitter-like platform tomorrow (it’s somehow associated with Instagram) so we’ll see how it goes. I’ll let you know if I land in a particular spot. It’s a shame. I loved twitter and it was an important resource for my work. But Elon bought it as a toy and he’s smashed it to pieces as spoiled little bully boys tend to do.
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 08:30
Is this about privatizing social security to further enrich Wall St? Or maybe they want Donald Trump to be president again? I can’t think of another reason why they wouldn’t just say, “raise taxes on rich people” and leave it at that. (That is the answer to this problem if, in fact, there is one.) After all, other countries are somehow able to provide universal health care and retirement benefits for their citizens. France is experiencing massive protest right now over a proposal to raise the full retirement age from 62 to 64. We should be so lucky. The usual suspects are talking about raising our retirement age to 72! Maybe they should have a chat with Professor Paul Krugman, their own columnist, who exposed the Deficit Scolds just last May (for the hundredth time) during the debt ceiling negotiations. It’s all nonsense.
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 07:00
Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman have the story. All these right wingers bellowing about free speech all the time are beyond hypocritical: At first glance, the plight of Katherine Rinderle, a fifth-grade teacher in Georgia, might seem confusing. Rinderle faces likely termination by the Cobb County School District for reading aloud a children’s book that touches on gender identity. Yet she is charged in part with violating policy related to a state law banning “divisive concepts” about race, not gender. This disconnect captures something essential about state laws and directives restricting classroom discussion across the country: They seem to be imprecisely drafted to encourage censorship. That invites parents and administrators to seek to apply bans to teachers haphazardly, forcing teachers to err on the side of muzzling themselves rather than risk unintentionally crossing fuzzy lines into illegality. “Teachers are fearful,” Rinderle told us in an interview.
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 05:32
The January 6th Fools & Basic Coup Lessons

The January 6th invasion of Congress included people with zip ties and paramilitary equipment. While there were a lot of idiots there, there was a core which had a plan of capturing important people like Pelosi, and they came fairly close. There’s no question that Trump abetted it, but the Secret Service refused to drive him to the capital and the effort failed.

As it happens, I know and like someone who was there, though obviously they have different politics than I do. I talked to them briefly about it and one thing was clear.

Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 05:30
Crazy state parties are on their own Reuters reports that GOP donors are getting sick of throwing good money after bad to the Trump kooks who have taken over various state parties: Real estate mogul Ron Weiser has been one of the biggest donors to the Michigan Republican Party, giving $4.5 million in the recent midterm election cycle. But no more. Weiser, former chair of the party, has halted his funding, citing concerns about the organization’s stewardship. He says he doesn’t agree with Republicans who promote falsehoods about election results and insists it’s “ludicrous” to claim Donald Trump, who lost Michigan by 154,000 votes in 2020, carried the state. “I question whether the state party has the necessary expertise to spend the money well,” he said. The withdrawal of bankrollers like Weiser reflects the high price Republicans in the battleground states of Michigan and Arizona are paying for their full-throated support of former President Trump and his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.