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I finished two more chapters this week in my book about ActivityPub. Chapter 2 is about Activity Streams 2.0, the social network data standard we use for ActivityPub. Appendix 1 is a reference for all the types in Activity Streams. Next up is Chapter 4, federation protocol, and Chapter 5, extensions. I’m on a tight … Continue reading Two more chapters →

“History is watching” Weather has thwarted President Biden’s plans for a major reelection campaign speech. Biden originally meant to mark the third anniverary of the Jan. 6 MAGA insurrection with a speech using Philadelphia as a backdrop, as he did when he called out MAGA Republicans as “a threat to this country” at Independence Hall in September 2022. Biden’s speech will be framed to contrast Biden’s vision of America with that of his expected 2024 Republican opponent, Donald Trump. The White House has rescheduled the speech for Valley Forge today to get ahead of a winter storm. (I’m still trying to find a time for the speech. Update: It’s at 3 p.m. ET.) Politico: Biden aides had long considered holding an event near Valley Forge, famed as the headquarters of Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army during the American Revolution. Advisers during the media call Thursday said that the site has historical resonance not just as a venue for a battle for liberty, but also for the decisions Washington then made.

Will it be a story for more than a day? Yesterday I observed an exchange on CNN which perfectly illustrates our problem. While acknowledging that it’s important to report on it, Dana Bash said Trump did everything in plain sight “so how much of this is baked in and how much does that vs Joe Biden just cancel each other out. I’m not saying it’s not important I’m just looking at reality” I wanted to scream in frustration. But one of her panelists, Laura Baron Lopez of PBS had the right answer: That’s our job in the press to make clear the differences, not just “Republicans call Biden corrupt, Democrats call Trump corrupt and we don’t know what the truth is” when we do know there is no evidence right now at all that says that President Biden did anything wrong or benefited from his son’s business dealings whereas there is a paper trail and there IS evidence showing that former president Trump benefited from his business dealings while he was in office.” That’s correct. Sadly, it appears to have been a one day story and that’s the end of that.

Yesterday I wrote about Trump’s right hand gal, Alina Habba saying she’d rather be pretty than smart because she can fake being smart. She’s not faking it very well: Aaron Blake writes: There is saying the quiet part out loud, and then there’s what Trump lawyer Alina Habba just did. Addressing the Supreme Court’s looming 14th Amendment decisions on whether Donald Trump can be disqualified from state ballots for engaging in insurrection, Habba decided it would be a good time to remind people of just how much Trump has done for Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. “I think it should be a slam dunk in the Supreme Court; I have faith in them,” Habba saidon Fox News.“You know, people like Kavanaugh who the president fought for, who the president went through hell to get into place, he’ll step up.” She tried to clean it up but please. Let there be no doubt about what she was saying: [D]espite Habba’s cleanup effort, she was clearly pointing in the direction of Kavanaugh (and potentially others) being beholden to Trump; there is no other reason to invoke the supposed favors Trump did for Kavanaugh.

I finished it for him. This was the opening speech of Biden’s campaign and he is making it clear how he sees the stakes and he is 100% right. Unfortunately, we are clearly going to have to fight much of the media at the same time we will have to fight Trump and the MAGA cult. CNN’s commentary after the speech was dismal. Gloria Borger complained that it was “very personal” ignoring the fact that it’s a presidential campaign and Biden is running against Trump! Of course it’s personal. And all he did was use Trump’s own words. (He didn’t even call him old or fat or make fun of him, which I think is the actual definition of “getting personal.”) Then former Republican Charlie Dent said that people are sick of all the “extremistm” and are looking for something different than Trump who they think is crazy and Biden who is too old. Then he brought up No Labels at which point I changed the channel. *sigh* Some more highlights: Some other highlights: There’s a lot of work to do to get people to pay attention to what Trump has in store if he gets elected again. This was a good start.

There are no words Instigating an insurrection is not a deal breaker for Republicans. Nor is Donald Trump accepting untold millions from foreign governments during his presidency. (The reported $7.8 million reported comes from a mere handful of Trump properties.) Nor are felony indictments too many (91) to itemize here. Nor is screwing porn stars and Playboy models or sexually assaulting a journalist. Nor are threats by Trump to use the government to prosecute political enemies. Etc., etc. Nor is “bending the knee” to their abuser beneath Republicans. Nor is idolatry. What do Republicans offer prospective voters? Behold: Jess Piper is Executive Director of Blue Missouri and host of the “Dirt Road Democrat” podcast. Also, she’s one of those straight talkers Republicans claim to admire.

Donald Trump uploaded the following to his Truth Social feed. Sure, he’s mentally stable. Nothing megalomaniacal about this at all: This is so delusional it sends chills down my spine. How can this country survive when almost half the country believes something this batshit crazy?

That alone should have disqualified him from ever running for office again. Now, he should be held liable for millions of dollars from families whose loved ones followed his advice: Nearly 17,000 people may have died after taking hydroxycholoroquine during the first wave of Covid-19, according to a study by French researchers. The anti-malaria drug was prescribed to some patients hospitalized with Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, “despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits,” the researchers point out in their paper, published in the February issue of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. Now, researchers have estimated that some 16,990 people in six countries — France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the U.S. — may have died as a result. That figure stems from a study published in the Nature scientific journal in 2021 which reported an 11 percent increase in the mortality rate, linked to its prescription against Covid-19, because of the potential adverse effects like heart rhythm disorders, and its use instead of other effective treatments.

This week I’ll just share some cute little videos that came across twitter this week. (These are necessary to cleanse your brain from all the Nazis.)

Bidenomics delivers. Trump blows smoke. The EPC market (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) tends to be counter-cyclical. Spending there leads to jobs and increased manufacturing later. When engineers (moi) and construction workers (later) start looking for work, others are getting jobs in factories we’d just completed designing and building. As new factories come online, our work might slow down. Know the difference. So here are two stories about that. Axios: Bidenomics naysayers will focus on tales of a manufacturing “contraction” (Bloomberg): The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing gauge edged up 0.7 point to 47.4 last month, helped by a pickup in production, according to data released Wednesday. Readings below 50 indicate contraction, and the figure was near economists’ expectations. The December result extends the longest stretch of shrinking activity since 2000-2001, when the dot-com bubble burst and sparked a recession. High borrowing costs, waning demand, etc., etc. However (Industry Week): To many investors and observers, the Dec.