"Musk and Trump’s focus on fraud is nothing new. Fraud has always served as a powerful political trope, one that provides a rationale for cutting government. Accusations of fraud were used to discredit Black elected officials during Reconstruction. Ronald Reagan’s Welfare Queen was an especially effective trope directed against poverty-based policies."
"How does Elon Musk use the word 'fraud' to dismantle the US federal government?
The term is not as an attempt to describe the world, but to change it. It is a political tool, used by a politician to justify a political action: regime change to oligarchy."
"Musk's 'fraud' rhetoric is presented as an anti-politics, as something fresh and exciting. But it is in fact a politics, a very old sort, the politics of oligarchy. As he himself has made clear himself, Musk is a politician with a program. It is to disable the rule of law, leaving no barriers to his oligarchical power. In this scheme, the only parts of government meant to function are the ones used to silence people who point out this obvious truth."
🤔 If you wanted to contribute to an #OpenSource project working on various types of social goods, and contribution opportunities were curated through the global UN Volunteers* Programme, how likely would you be to pursue that option?
Why volunteer online? Through Online Volunteering, you can contribute your skills and expertise towards achieving sustainable human development efforts of organizations around the world.
23 years ago today, Norah Jones released her debut album Come Away With Me on the way to winning 5 Grammys, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year for "Don't Know Why," and Best New Artist.
Immigration officials are saying that anyone living in the U.S. illegally will soon have to register with the federal government, and those who fail to do so could face fines, imprisonment or both.
"What has happened at MSNBC in the last several days is such an orgy of bad faith and bad ideas that it may be an industry record. Joy Reid? Gone. Jonathan Capehart? Lost his show. Alex Wagner? Lost her show and demoted. Ayman Mohyeldin? Lost his show."
"In a stunning announcement today, Jeff Bezos declared that The Washington Post's opinion section will now exclusively focus on 'personal liberties and free markets.' …
Today's announcement takes things to an entirely new level of billionaire meddling."
"The audacity of claiming that free market ideas are 'underserved' in American media is staggering. Has Bezos somehow missed the existence of The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Bloomberg, Fox Business, CNBC, and countless other outlets that have spent decades championing free-market capitalism?"
"The message could not be clearer: editorial independence is dead at the Washington Post. Opinion editor David Shipley, recognizing this fact, has already resigned rather than oversee this ideological narrowing. ...
Democracy dies in darkness? No, it dies when billionaires decide they want their media properties to serve their personal ideological agendas rather than the public interest."
"The Opinions section is being told what their opinions are to be, from now on. And they seem to align with current thinking by the Trump regime’s current scumbag leaders. …
From a very quick survey by me of Wapo staffers: This is the worst thing to happen to The Washington Post ever in its 147 year life, including the Janet Cooke scandal."
"At Tuesday’s media briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the White House will now decide who attends briefings, an effort to insulate President Trump from tough scrutiny. She also offered awful spin about the developing Elon Musk fiasco."
As press secretary Karoline Leavitt snaps at tough questions over the Elon Musk fiasco, an MSNBC writer discusses how Leavitt’s display pulled the curtain back on Trump’s hidden vulnerability.
"At key moments, Leavitt visibly seethed at the media. And we think we know why: On Tuesday, consumer confidence registered another big drop, and Leavitt was simply unable to defend the glaring Trump-Musk failures we’re seeing."
"When billionaires take control of our communication channels, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for billionaire babble.
When they talk of 'personal liberties and free markets' they mean their own liberties to become even richer and more powerful, as the rest of America slides into greater economic insecurity and fear."
"This is not about personal liberties or free markets. It’s about making the Post more amenable to the Trump administration so that Jeff Bezos’s businesses will not be punished."
As one of the original March for Science organizers, I couldn't be more excited to support a new team that is organizing another day of mass mobilization in support of science at a time when we need it most.
Amid President Donald Trump’s attacks on government scientists and science funding, researchers are arranging rallies to “Stand Up for Science” in Washington, D.C., and nationwide on March 7
Stand Up For Science organizer Dr. Colette Delawalla was asked if she's worried about risking her career by getting involved in political organizing as a young scientist. Her answer is🔥
"Frankly, I don’t know that there’s going to be a job market if we don’t take some pretty extreme action. This is a five-alarm fire"
Oh, you're absolutely right about that and I've been saying this for years. Bit Defender gets top ratings when it comes to malware protection but the last time I tried to use it I found it to be inaccessible, though this was many years ago. Kaspersky used to get similarly good reviews. For a while, it was reasonably accessible but its accessibility went downhill and of course using it nowadays is pretty much out of the question. One reason why I distributed that article is because MalwareBytes is almost 100% accessible and it's what I've been using for years, along with Windows Security as a backup.
Do you have the free or pro? And do you think the pro is more user friendly in any way? I may give the program a look again. I also liked Avast, but that had problems beyond just Jaws. That would literally take over and cause very unwanted results
@startrek2025 I use MalwareBytes Premium. The free version is accessible but it won't give you real-time protection. The free version is good for a scan and cleanup but that's about it. The main accessibility challenge is that when you tab to a combo box, your screen reader says nothing, giving you the false impression that you've moved to a blank region. However, once you press down arrow, you'll be able to navigate to the options in the menu. There are a few other accessibility issues and I've been meaning to find someone in development that I can establish a relationship with rather than going through their standard support channels and talking with someone who probably won't fully understand the issues. This is for Windows. I don't know what it's like with VoiceOver on a Mac. With VoiceOver on iOS, it's not bad but could use some work to make the experience more efficient.
@startrek2025 Yes, it should work fine with JAWS 2024 and NVDA on Win10. It does have a free trial which I think is for 14 days, possibly longer. After the trial period ends, the program reverts back to the free version, which you can continue to use for a scan if you want a second or third opinion regarding the state of your machine. I also recommend reading reviews from sites like CNet, PCmag.com, PCWorld, etc., which will point out its strengths and weaknesses.
Biking on the wrong side of the road. Crossing the Rio Grande on foot. Shoplifting at Target.
These are some of the arrest records for 178 Venezuelan migrants detained in #GITMO this mo. Others seem to have no record at all.
Of 18 cases, found: 6 of the migrants appear to have no previous record, 5 only charged with illegal entry -sentenced to time served. Several were detained during scheduled appts with border authorities for those seeking asylum... #Immigrants #USPol miamiherald.com/news/local/imm…
An unvaccinated child in west Texas died of measles on Wednesday, marking the first time that someone has died from the viral illness in the U.S. in a decade.
So far, 18 people have been hospitalized for the disease around Lubbock, Texas, where a measles outbreak has infected at least 124 people, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Most of those infected are children. #AureFreePress #News #press
This will go nowhere. All the shit they're trying to pull will fly back in their face so hard, and really I don't think it will be long until most of these traders are kicked out. America has had enough.
Jeff Bezos is cracking down on the Washington Post opinion pages: They will be all right-wing, all the time. Nonconforming opinion "will be left to be published by others."
"... the BBC will be making BBC Sounds available exclusively to UK audiences and ending access to the service for international users beginning Spring 2025."
To give credit where it's due, the marketing spin on this is next level:
"Through this new user experience, listeners can explore deeper context and analysis on select topics, gaining a richer understanding of the issues that matter most—all without leaving the [new BBC Audio] platform."
@ZBennoui I guess we'll have to wait and see. If they're published directly by the BBC and not generating any revenue from international audiences, I wouldn't be surprised if they also disappeared.
From a quick look at the article it seems like this mainly effects radio stations, and Radio4 is still accessible outside the UK, so I think the drama stuff at least should continue to be available.
I haven't seen anyone talk about this, but the bird flu problem isn't just an issue because of expensive eggs. It's also a national defense issue because of eggs. The US relies on a bunch of farms all over the US to produce a large volume of eggs for emergency vaccine production.
“When you're infected with #measles, your immune system abruptly forgets every pathogen it's ever encountered before – every cold, every bout of flu, every exposure to bacteria or viruses in the environment, every vaccination. The loss is near-total and permanent. Once the measles infection is over, current evidence suggests that your body has to re-learn what's good and what's bad almost from scratch. “
Scientists have known for years that measles can alter the immune system – but the latest evidence suggests it's less of a mild tweaking, and more of a total reset.
Welcome to another In-Process, whether you are reading on the web, or via email. This time around we cover: NVDA 2025.1 Planning for CSUN What’s on the web Reading paragraphs in Braille NVDA 2025.1…
Thanks for sharing the information on NVDA 2025.1. For NVDA Remote, is there a plan in place for corporate/secure environments where Remote needs to be excluded?
@BTyson Yes :) Not sure exactly where we're at implementing everything so I'll have to hold off on specifics of what the option will be called etc, but yes there will be an option.
General rule of thumb: Every time an organization updates their terms of service and/or privacy policy, it is never because they have your best interests at heart.
Setting aside the "worldwide license" bullshit, the privacy policy appears to have broadened both the classes of data Mozilla aims to collect, and the situations in which they collect them.
These are not the actions of an org that cares about your privacy.
Firefox now has Terms of Use! This'll go over like a lead balloon.
You give Mozilla all rights necessary to operate Firefox, including processing data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice, as well as acting on your behalf to help you navigate the internet. When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox.
the clarification is in a blog post, that may not be legally binding. so in my eyes any clarification outside of the ToS is worthless.
If #Mozilla wants to offer AI services or collect and use their users data, this should be a separate opt-in ToS in my opinion, not the terms of the base application.
But TBH #Mozilla is doing too much dumb management decisions these days, so I'm considering to stop recommending it. (colorways, firing #rust and #servo teams, ads for temu and so on)
I can switch browsers easily enough. However, I have decades’ worth of email in #Thunderbird. I’m more worried about that. Have they added terms of (dis)service to that app yet?
Amazon’s subscription-based Alexa+ looks highly capable—and questionable Alexa+ will be free for Prime members, $20/month for everyone else. arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/0…
🤔 If you wanted to contribute to an #OpenSource project working on various types of social goods, and contribution opportunities were curated through the global UN Volunteers* Programme, how likely would you be to pursue that option?
William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •"A recent poll suggests that 70% of Americans believe government expenditures are filled with waste, fraud, and inefficiency....
The GOP is now broadly using the fraud trope to justify cutting any popular program. Medicaid is up next."
#Musk #Trump #FederalGovernment #fraud #firings #workers #billionaires #EconomicElites #TaxCuts #Medicaid
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William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •"How does Elon Musk use the word 'fraud' to dismantle the US federal government?
The term is not as an attempt to describe the world, but to change it. It is a political tool, used by a politician to justify a political action: regime change to oligarchy."
~ Timothy Snyder
#Musk #Trump #FederalGovernment #fraud #firings #workers #billionaires #EconomicElites #TaxCuts #Medicaid
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snyder.substack.com/p/the-frau…
The "Fraud" Fraud
Timothy Snyder (Thinking about...)William Lindsey
in reply to William Lindsey • • •"Musk's 'fraud' rhetoric is presented as an anti-politics, as something fresh and exciting. But it is in fact a politics, a very old sort, the politics of oligarchy. As he himself has made clear himself, Musk is a politician with a program. It is to disable the rule of law, leaving no barriers to his oligarchical power. In this scheme, the only parts of government meant to function are the ones used to silence people who point out this obvious truth."
#Musk #Trump #fraud #LawandOrder
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