Mastodon Feed
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
james@bne.social ("James Cridland") wrote:
Quite the image. From The New York Times.
Mastodon Feed
Mastodon FeedReblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
GottaLaff@mstdn.social ("Laffy") wrote:
Obey obey obey🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
“NEW: CBS's parent company is in talks with #Trump about settling his lawsuit against "60 Minutes." If a deal is reached, it would be another extraordinary concession by a major media company to a president who has spent years vowing to clamp down on news outlets.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/business/media/paramount-trump-cbs-news-settlement.html...
Mastodon FeedReblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Lightfighter@infosec.exchange wrote:
@skykiss Having a military 10x more top heavy than the US isn't a goal anyone should aspire to.
Mastodon FeedReblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
N4JAW@mastodon.radio ("Jim "Ham on a Bike"") wrote:
There is a (CW) mouse in my POTA activation bag. Find out more in the latest blog post of "Ham on a Bike"
#AmateurRadio #Hamradio #MorseCode CW #parksontheair #POTA #SOTA #RadioPota #QRP #MorseCodePaddle #iambicPaddle
@ParksOnTheAirhttps://hamonabike.blogspot.com/2025/01/there-is-cw-mouse-in-my-pota-bag.html
Attachments:
Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
yup, 4 generations of honorable service to the Republic and now I see a plurality of my fellow Citizens has knowingly re-elected into the Presidency an autocrat and Wannabe Dictator.
if you think these people believe ‘All Persons Are Created Equal’, then I want to talk to you about buying a nice bridge…
Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
and now one of my great-Nephews is a PFC.
we all voluntarily stepped forward & swore The Oath, not to a Prince or Potentate or Party… an Oath to the Constitution. Gen Milley was absolutely correct to remind our Citizen-Soldier Officer Corps of their Oaths and where their loyalty should be.
Attachments:
Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
one of my nephews, getting commissioned after serving 9 years as an Enlisted Person & NCO (S/Sgt), then doing a BA & ROTC, then returning to finish up a 24 year career
Attachments:
Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
me, as an 18 year old Spec/4, my brother as a 23 year old 1st/Lt, and my then 21 year old sister-in-law, in 1968.
Attachments:
Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
I *think* this is 1943, and my Mom is holding their wedding license in this pic. I still wear that Army Officers’ Woolen Overcoat you see on my Dad, then a Lt.
WTF has happened to our country?
Attachments:
Mastodon FeedMichaelTBacon@social.coop ("Michael T. Bacon, Ph.D.") wrote:
In case you missed it, acting ICE head Tom Homan was up yesterday complaining that ICE is having a hard time meeting the quotas they're setting because of campaigns telling people their rights and how to resist raids.
In case you're wondering if the little things you do could possibly make a difference, know that they already are.
EDIT: Link to quotes added:
Mastodon FeedReblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
danirabbit@mastodon.online ("Danielle Foré") wrote:
I think I just onboarded someone to the fediverse. I didn’t say “decentralized” or “open source” or “server” or even mention email lol I just said “It’s like you can follow anyone from any social network and there’s no ads”
Mastodon FeedReblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
jhaue@aus.social ("John Holmes") wrote:
More than 85,000 infants and toddlers diagnosed with RSV in 2024 ahead of national vaccine rollout https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-31/rsv-case-numbers-australia/104872260
Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
see also https://support.google.com/mail/thread/319012159?hl=en&msgid=319236921
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren/113920007449717242
Mastodon Feedjsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
thereby demonstrating his total lack of understanding of both AI technology and health care delivery
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren/113920275890996383
Mastodon Feeddansinker@omfg.town ("Dan Sinker") wrote:
I am begging you: if you are writing a thread of more than a couple posts, get a blog. I don’t mean this in a mean way. I mean: allow this thought to continue to exist, outside of this platform, in an actually coherent, readable format that sticks around for longer than 20 minutes. You deserve it!
Mastodon FeedReblogged by kornel ("Kornel"):
hugo@treehouse.systems ("Hugo Slabbert ⚠️") wrote:
It feels like it took me too long to realize that the underlying opposition to Universal Basic Income (UBI) isn't "it's too expensive" or that it redistributes money; it's because it redistributes power.
During the pandemic, we saw a massive swell in worker power, as work-from-home requirements showed a better way of working was possible for many, accommodations that had been withheld for ages for being "unworkable" or "too expensive" suddenly were shown to be completely viable and broadly accessible, COVID relief benefits provided much needed supports and showed that direct distribution was possible, and more brutally the work force shrunk because of illness and death.
Remember the "nobody wants to work" mantra? Right, well, because the pool of available workers was lower and expectations for what employers should provide to their employees grew, so employers had to work harder (pay more, provide better working conditions) to fill positions. It's not that nobody wants to work; it's that the job and wages and working conditions you could get away with don't cut it anymore, because people have options.
And they didn't like that...
Workers had to be brought back to heel:
Greedflation juicing corporate profits, mass layoffs, Return To Office (RTO) mandates. These measures aren't about productivity or necessity; they're about taking back power and control.UBI works in the same spaces.
When people's basic needs are met, they can pursue better opportunities. When the threat of poverty is removed, you have more power at the bargaining table because you don't have to take the bare minimum just to survive. In other words: you have more power in the equation.That's why UBI is considered threatening to those that want to exploit their power advantage at the negotiating table. We need to recognize that our economic system demands desperation and the threat of poverty. This isn't some bogeyman conspiracy theory; it's documented economic policy (https://www.investopedia.com/insights/downside-low-unemployment/, https://www.vox.com/2014/11/14/7027823/nairu-natural-rate-unemployment).
Our institutions and society haven't solved poverty and unemployment because our economic system doesn't want them solved, because it needs people in a continual state of precariousness. We cannot expect to eradicate poverty and struggle when we're beholden to an economic system that has baked them into its very existence.
[edit: added cw per some comments and suggestions]
Mastodon Feedslightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:
Your wiki is not an SPA. If it comes with a copy of React served to every page, throw it out and start over.
Mastodon Feedchipotle@mstdn.social ("Watts Martin") wrote:
I am not saying I am going to flounce out and switch to Linux, I am just saying that it would sure be nice if Apple stopped adding to the list of both technical and political things that keep making me glance over at it
https://mastodon.social/@macrumors/113919252881781192
Mastodon FeedReblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
1/20 FAA Director fired
1/21 Air Traffic Controllers hiring frozen
1/22 Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
1/28 Buyout/retirement offer sent to almost all federal employees
1/29 First mid-air collision in the US in 16 years.
They starved the function by understaffing and made them afraid for their jobs which might actually be distracting. Nevermind that there’s airports operating without ATCs because they tried to privatize and low ball the ATCs who just threw up their hands and quit.
But tell me again about how it’s due to DEI hiring. 🤦♂️
Mastodon FeedReblogged by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
andyn@social.lol ("Andy :starfleet_command:") wrote:
If you’re not firmly against the na*i site and its ideals, then you’re in agreement with them. Apple can go do one. https://mastodon.social/@macrumors/113919252881781192
Mastodon FeedThe dwarves of yore made mighty spells
While hammers fell like ringing bells
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
In places deep, where dark things sleep
In hollow halls beneath the fells
The baffled king composing "Hallelujah"
Mastodon FeedReblogged by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
amerpie@social.lol ("Lou Plummer :prami_pride:") wrote:
Yeah, we have to climb our way to the top of Bullshit Mountain every day, but the truth is out there if you look for it.
Attachments:
Mastodon Feedpzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
I felt so sorry for this poor horse, but according to AiG, that was its destiny.
Attachments:
Mastodon FeedThe other day I joked that the hardest part about watching some movies is suspending disbelief that AI is possible, but on the other hand, movies about werewolves, zombies and vampires don't bother me.
The difference being that there are not currently grifters manipulating the economy with their insane promises about werewolf futures.
I think I'm on to something here. Any time you read about Artificial General Intelligence, read that as Artificial General Werewolves:
https://jwz.org/b/ykg3
Attachments:
Mastodon Feeddenschub@schub.social ("Dennis Schubert") wrote:
okay, I finally switched my self-hosted mastodon to glitch.
why? because I had to wall-of-text someone via private mention, because it's me, and I like writing long texts.
Mastodon FeedReblogged by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
tiffanycli ("Tiffany Li") wrote:
Linguistically, “DEI” is now the new “critical race theory”: a scapegoat phrase used devoid of any of its actual meaning by people who never understood the original in the first place
Mastodon FeedReblogged by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
jasonkoebler ("Jason Koebler") wrote:
Thousands of datasets have disappeared from data.gov. Determining what's gone, why it's gone, and whether it moved elsewhere will to take time. Things are definitely being purged but archivists working hard to determine exactly what has happened to a given dataset
Mastodon FeedReblogged by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
the_roamer@mastodonapp.uk ("the roamer") wrote:
And then Joan Mastodon told her knights to rest. We have slain the searchers and the scrapers, she said, we have liberated the hashtags. The great Algo has retreated. Rest now. And then toot, toot about nothing and everything, irreverent and free as only my knights can be. And the knights raised their goblets and cheered their Lady Joan, and they rested, and when they had rested the Great Tooting began for twenty days and twenty nights.
#JoanMastodon #hashtags #NoSearch #NoScraping #NoAI #MastodonCulture
Mastodon FeedReblogged by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
jason@social.lol ("//Jason") wrote:
I just love these. 💛 https://glass.photo/burk/5HvYHfE4XtmF5N9gQWRwwB #Photography
Attachments:
Mastodon FeedReblogged by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
briankrebs@infosec.exchange ("BrianKrebs") wrote:
The way things are headed, the word "security" is danger of becoming a liberal slur. Long rant ahead explaining why this notion keeps popping in my head.
The subtext of the entire GOP playbook Project 2025 is that liberals have "weaponized" the government against conservatives and have been abusing that power to censor and unconstitutionally stifle their views and voices.
This ongoing injustice, they argue, justifies emptying all government agencies of any people, entities or ideologies that don't align with these views. If you're asking why at this point, remember that the president promised this term is all about retribution and settling scores, real or otherwise.
Why does Maga keep couching everything in terms of censorship? Disinformation researcher Kate Starbird nailed it in a Bsky thread from Nov. 2023, about how Maga lawmakers and their supporters mostly stopped parroting Trump's lies about election fraud as Biden's term went on, and instead pivoted to the deep threat of "censorship". This she argues, allowed Trump supporters to distract from the violence on Jan. 6, and to claim that the real threat to democracy wasn't this interruption of the peaceful transfer of power, but the so-called "censorship" of conservatives by "The Deep State."
"The deep story of 'censorship' is also a redemption story for influencers whose repeated falsehoods about the election stoked the grievances that led to Jan 6," Starbird wrote. "They get to play the parts of victims & heroes again. And no matter the veracity of their claims, to their audiences, the story rings true."
https://bsky.app/profile/katestarbird.bsky.social/post/3kdu7ucy3jd2f
Starbird was one of many researchers whose work came under heavy scrutiny by the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Led by GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee’s stated purpose was to investigate alleged collusion between the Biden administration and tech companies to unconstitutionally shut down political speech.
The GOP committee focused much of its ire at members of the short-lived Disinformation Governance Board, an advisory board to DHS created in 2022 (the “combating misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation” quote from Trump’s executive order is a reference to the board’s stated mission). Conservative groups seized on social media posts made by the director of the board, who resigned after facing death threats. The board was dissolved by DHS soon after.
In his first administration, President Trump created a special prosecutor to probe the origins of the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives seeking to influence the 2016 election. Part of that inquiry examined evidence gathered by some of the world’s most renowned cybersecurity experts who identified frequent and unexplained communications between an email server used by the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions.
Trump’s Special Prosecutor John Durham later subpoenaed and/or deposed dozens of security experts who’d collected, viewed or merely commented on the data. Similar harassment and deposition demands would come from lawyers for Alfa Bank. Durham ultimately indicted Michael Sussman, the former federal cybercrime prosecutor who reported the oddity to the FBI. Sussman was acquitted in May 2022. Last week, Trump appointed Durham to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, NY.
Lest anyone think these Project 2025 playbook items are just words on a page written by some political lackey, Trump also last week issued two executive orders -- one called "Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government," and another titled "Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship." The last few paragraphs were lifted from this week's story about all the upheaval in federal cybers over the past week: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/01/a-tumultuous-week-for-federal-cybersecurity-efforts/
It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that the GOP will likely expand the number of ad hoc committees that seek to leave no stone unturned in their quest to find and root out the Deep State conspirers who are trying to stifle conservative voices. And we will likely see similar persecution of people in the security and research community who've been doing important work tracking disinformation networks, among other things.
NB: The disinformation stuff tends to be proxied through the same providers where most of the mass brute force vulnerability/credential stuffing attacks come from, and it's almost invariably tied to Russia-backed networks or cybercriminal actors.
Which brings me back (finally) to the first line of this post. If you are not interested in hearing the truth about disinformation, by extension you are also probably not too keen on people working to block it either. In fact, why should you want to block it at all, if the overall message is in support of this "censorship" worldview? Or in support of some other conservative or authoritarian messaging?
In this context, all kinds of security concerns become a threat to the censorship ideology. This includes vulnerability research, data analysis, incident response, site or network-specific threat metrics, the list goes on. At some point, pretty much all security efforts constitute some form of network censorship.
I'm not going to say that cybersecurity has always somehow been a "bipartisan" issue. For one thing, there are always way more than two sides to any story, and that term has somewhat lost its meaning. But at least until around when Trump first took office, support for tech-focused legislation was generally not broken down along party lines (except maybe in areas like government surveillance).
Cybersecurity has and always will be a very political challenge, at every level, for all organizations. But we just can't afford to let it become a deeply partisan issue, because then we are truly lost.
Why does any of this matter? There is very little daylight anymore between the priorities and prerogatives of cybersecurity and national security. As one goes, so goes the other.