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pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:

I don't think I'll be hanging this certificate on my wall.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/01/i-have-validation-from-prageru/

adele@social.pollux.casa ("Adële") wrote:

Je suis toute excitée d'annoncer

https://writes.casa/

Il s'agit d'une plateforme d'écriture anonyme et minimaliste !

Avec :

• Des thèmes hebdomadaires pour inspirer des textes courts de 300 à 1000 caractères.
• Des publications quotidiennes des écrits de la veille qui créent des moments littéraires collectifs à 6h UTC.
• Pas de création de compte nécessaire, juste des signatures facultatives.
• Un contenu multilingue (sous-domaines EN/FR, et d'autres à venir).
• Flux RSS pour une lecture plus "slow"
• Compatible SmolWeb !!!

#SmolWeb #Ecriture #Fediverse #Litterature #Anonyme #Privacy #ViePrivée

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
twipped@twipped.social ("Jocelynephiliac :reclaimer:") wrote:

Fuck yeah!

> A wave of unions have formed at Blizzard in the last year, including the World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Story and Franchise Development teams. Elsewhere at Microsoft, Bethesda, ZeniMax Online Studios and ZeniMax QA testers have also unionized.

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/fed-up-with-living-in-fear-of-mass-layoffs-diablo-designers-take-action-against-microsoft-we-are-ready-to-begin-fighting-for-real-change/

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Captured with the Rodenstock 23mm/5.6 HR-Digaron-S (@ f/8) lens, Phase One IQ4-150 (@ ISO 50) back, Phase One XT camera. 6 second exposure.

The strip by day is at its most depressing, like a failed mega-mall and theme park that you might find off a forgotten exit near an interstate highway. At night, the strip is at its best, such as it is, with the lights and excess at least hinting at some sense of glamor and excitement. During a thunderstorm it's merely absurd.

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Las Vegas Strip (with Thunderstorm), Paradise, NV, 2024.

An unlimited buffet* of pixels at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/53680516362

* restrictions apply

#photography

jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

I, uh, may have accidentally gotten a new kitten

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/01/kitten-update-all-hail-the-fuzz-butt/

Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
Aseelsehwel@mas.to ("Aseelsehwel🇵🇸") wrote:

Please share my last post so more people can see and help— your support could help save my family’s life.🙏
@palestine @mutualaid #gaza

adam@social.lol ("Adam") wrote:

St. Jude fundraiser update! 📰 I've just updated the page at https://omglol.news/st-jude-2025 but the quick summary is that I’ve cracked open the vault on lifetime address upgrades for omg.lol. You can click a couple of buttons to upgrade your favorite omg.lol address to lifetime status!

As with everything omg.lol earns this month, half of all lifetime upgrade net proceeds will be donated to St. Jude. I’m only doing this to support St. Jude (but it’s the *best* reason to offer it!). ❤️

Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
NouranKhaledGh ("Nouran 🍉") wrote:

We know these are our last days in Gaza City.

We say goodbye to what is left of our homes and cry over the streets we love even though they are destroyed.

In a few days, the world will see live the biggest displacement in years. One million hungry people left alone, abandoned by everyone in a silence we cannot understand.

Please help my family via the link in the bio :underheart:

#gaza #palestine

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Thanks to everyone who's taken the time today to point how how completely unqualified I must be for my job, given what a dumbass I am. Fortunately, I have tenure, so they're stuck with me!

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

On this labor day, proud to be a life member of the AAUP and AFT.

Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
joynewacc ("Joy") wrote:

I just had a video call over Signal with @aral

A strange feeling it is, to witness how ppl across the world perceive u. I never arranged my words to be the finest, nor my thoughts to be perfectly ordered. All I truly did was to describe, what I am living—even when words & expressions fell short.

I am deeply happy each time I see how the world stands with us, how it stands with #Palestine, & w every instance my sense of pride grows stronger at being part of this world—❤️❤️❤️
#Gaza #palestine

db@social.lol ("David Bushell 🥐") wrote:

noted: adventures in SMTP and ACME https://dbushell.com/notes/2025-09-01T15:58Z/

side project is out of control!

isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:") wrote:

Y-yep!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orQKfIXMiA8

denschub@schub.social ("Dennis Schubert") wrote:

okay I normally don't give an audience to companies who feel the need to spam the diaspora* Discourse, but... what in the ungodly hell is this?!

https://archive.is/NtRk9

(I refuse to link to their original medium post, hence the archive.is link)

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
danderson@hachyderm.io ("Dave Anderson") wrote:

@filippo My litmus test these days for a healthy community is seeing a moderation action along the lines of "I see the game you're playing, and it's not welcome here, goodbye". Conversely, communities where moderation is effectively an algorithm that must hit an exact match on a long list of detailed rules is a smell, because that rulebook tends to be the result of trolls repeatedly walking up to the line, and demanding that moderators write down in detail where the line is located.

pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:

Step 1: Create a desolation.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Call it a great ally.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/01/oh-what-a-lovely-graveyard/

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Stuff like this is one reason I have no patience with the "why are you even trying, Trump can do whatever he wants, rule of law is dead, etc" nihilists.

The rule of law is under great strain right now, but still matters a lot. But if we abandon it, it dies.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

I believe Judge Sooknanan was woken up at 3am today with an emergency motion in this case, and is still going strong holding the government's feet to the fire. In the middle of a holiday weekend.

I'm sure she's delighted.

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:qrllvid7s54k4hnwtqxwetrf/post/3lxqgan2zik2j

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

@errant @Dss @reimar As I noted, state legislatures are free to implement whatever election procedures they wish (within constitutional limits), and several states’ election laws already reflect some or all of Trump’s (supposed) order. Maybe more will as a result of the order. Maybe not. The fact that Trump issued an order is legally immaterial to that.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

@reimar I’m trying to provide context and background about a current event related to my area of expertise.

Take it or leave it.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
SteveBellovin@infosec.exchange ("Steve Bellovin") wrote:

@aarbrk @karlauerbach @mattblaze This is the key point: lack of what are known as "breeder documents"; error handling is the other big point. I outline some of the issues in https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/papers/age-verify.pdf, with a more complete analysis in Section §V.C of https://scholar.smu.edu/scitech/vol26/iss2/2/. There's a very good analysis of the ID card issue in Crawford v. Marion Count Election Board, 553 U.S. 181 (2008), especially the dissents. For a general discussion of what questions would have to be answered (in the U.S.) by anyone proposing a national ID card before the question could even be discussed intelligently, see the National Academies report "IDs Not Easy", https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10346/ids-not-that-easy-questions-about-nationwide-identity-systems (I was on the committee). I should add: one of the things I learned while on that committee was that while the US has a pretty good national registry of deaths (the Social Security Administration's Master Death File), birth records are decentralized and are of varying quality and accuracy.

The problem falls disproportionately on certain groups: the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the homeless, etc. Quoting Justice Souter's dissent in _Crawford_: "The need to travel to a BMV branch will affect voters according to their circumstances, with the average person probably viewing it as nothing more than an inconvenience. Poor, old, and disabled voters who do not drive a car, however, may find the trip prohibitive, witness the fact that the BMV has far fewer license branches in
each county than there are voting precincts." Corruption can be a problem—in Hudson County in New Jersey, birth certificates from the county office were not accepted by the state because a scheme to issue fraudulent documents (https://hudsoncountyview.com/after-nearly-two-decades-jersey-city-residents-can-now-obtain-birth-certificates-at-city-hall/). Malice can be an issue: Alabama closed almost half of its motor vehicles offices, mostly in poor, Black counties (https://www.aclu.org/news/voting-rights/alabamas-dmv-shutdown-has-everything-do-race), and I have exactly one guess why.

RealID doesn't solve the problem, it makes it worse: you need more documents to show your identity and address (and if you're poor and unlikely to fly somewhere, you don't actually need it). I just went through this when I went to get a Maryland license after moving: how do I demonstrate that I live where I said? Proving my identity was easy, for me—I have a passport (though only about half of Americans do, and that's up sharply from not long ago; see https://www.apolloacademy.com/48-of-americans-have-a-passport/), NY license, Social Security Card (though it's a replacement I had to get not all that long ago because I thought I'd lost mine), New York City ID card, etc. But my address? For various reasons, I wanted to get my new license very soon after I moved. I hadn't received any bank statements, credit card bills, etc., at my new address yet. Cable TV is included here, so I had no cable bill. I did have an electric bill, and I suppose I could have brought the purchase deed for my condo (though that only shows ownership, not residence). Now translate all of that to someone who's very poor or is living on the streets. Passport? Hah. Electric bill for your park bench or homeless shelter? Etc.

Yes, some of these issues can be worked around, especially in states with good will. In Massachusetts, staff at a homeless shelter can sign affidavits of residence. But a lot does depend on state politics. In Texas, you can vote with a state firearms license—but not with an ID from a public university, even though legally those are government-issued IDs. (Aside: ~20 years ago, I had a Homeland Security ID card for my service on an advisory committee. When I got to the airport the first time after received that ID, I asked the TSA agent if I could use it. "You can, but we won't like it." I took the hint and dug out my driver's license instead…)

I could go on—as you can see, this is an area where I have worked professionally. The bottom line, though, is that while it's not a problem for the majority of Americans (the issues are very different in other countries)—and that likely includes the overwhelming majority of Americans reading this post—for a significant number of people it is quite difficult.

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Anyway, this thread seems to have enraged some people here, but I stand by it.

I think understanding the details is helpful. YMMV.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

This thread brought to you by someone who researches and teaches election stuff at a still-somewhat-reputable school.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Finally, the federal government has no role in actually running US elections. States do that (usually via counties). So there is no one subject to this order in a position to follow it.

There are plenty of things to worry about with Trump. The legitimate power of the presidency is already vast, and he constantly pushes at its edges to abuse the office further still. But this “order” is just empty blather on his part, not something that he has any ability to actually implement or require.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

It's also worth noting that the measures he calls for - voter ID, no vote-by-mail, etc - are nothing new. He and others have long advocated for them, and some states already implement versions of them. So everything in this "order", which has all the legal force of a "suggestion", is also old news.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Also, “Executive Orders” are not laws. They’re orders to the executive branch of the federal government. If you don’t work for the executive branch of the federal government (say, for example, you’re a state election official), presidential executive orders don’t apply to you.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Now, Congress might well be able to legislate some or all of the things in Trump’s putative elections order. And the current Congress has been generally compliant with Trump’s legislative wishes, so it’s not out of the question that they might advance a bill with provisions along these lines, or that some state legislatures might do the same. But no executive order can require them to do so. It’s meaningless.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

And this is not some borderline edge case. It’s addressed directly in Article I of the Constitution. See https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript for this and other fun facts about how our government is organized.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Just for the record, Trump can’t do this. The Constitution is very clear that the “times, places, and manner“ of elections for federal office are determined by individual states (though can be altered by Congress).

The president simply has no role in US elections (except to sign into law or veto whatever election-related bills that congress might pass).