Mastodon Feed: Posts

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

For what it’s worth:

I don’t know anything about Trump’s health. I don’t have any information about Epstein. I have no idea what Trump has planned with tariffs or the Federal Reserve. I lack any special insight into Gaza and Ukraine. So I generally don’t comment about these things.

I acknowledge that all of the above are subjects of considerable import and interest.

But I do know about US elections, also a matter of some current concern. So I post a lot about that lately.

Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
VjosaMusliu ("Vjosa Musliu") wrote:

The book is also available online. Beyond the usual suspect, you can find it on less exploitative platforms too. A curated world list is below:

Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
VjosaMusliu ("Vjosa Musliu") wrote:

"Girlhood At War" made it home!

Unlike anything I’ve written before, this book is a personal story about growing up during Serbia's war against Kosovo and about finding myself, at 14, translating for US NATO troops in its aftermath. (Yes, the young girl in these pictures is me.)

You can order a copy through your local library. Many thanks to friends who have already done so in small bookshops in Lima, Dublin and Istanbul :).

Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:

I just thought it looked neat.

📷 Pentax KX
🎞️ Kodak Portra 400
🔭 Pentax M 50mm/1.7
⚗️ Jack's Lab

#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #Bristol

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

@hdunagan @Wyatt_H_Knott Ok. Nonetheless, my thread was an attempt to explain how US elections work, which is an area of my professional expertise. If that’s of no interest to you, that’s OK. I know I can’t please everyone. But some people appear to be interested in this topic, which is of some relevance lately, and my thread was directed at them.

aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan") wrote:

Hi everyone,

Today, I had a video chat with Mohammed from Gaza on Signal.

He is @mohshbair here on the fediverse.

He is 22 years old and is trying to keep his family and himself alive during Israel’s ongoing genocide and the resulting famine.

You can help him and his family survive by supporting his fundraiser:

https://chuffed.org/project/mohshbairgaza

Even if you cannot help financially, sharing this will help it reach others who might.

(And I know it’s hard to know what to say sometimes when faced with such tragedy but please feel free to reach out and say hello and offer some words of solidarity. That too, goes a long way during such hard times.)

Thank you + lots of love!

💕

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

@Wyatt_H_Knott In particular, I have no specific insight into Trump’s health. Anything I could say about that would be pure speculation. But I do know a fair bit about how US elections work, so that’s what I commented on.

I’m sure you can find speculation about Trump’s health somewhere. It’s a big Internet out there.

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

@Wyatt_H_Knott if my posts aren’t of interest to you, you are free to not read them. It’s still a somewhat free country in that regard.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

One assumption made web standards possible: competitors are free to ship differing ideas when they disagree. Until iOS, this was the norm. Apple's ban on competing browser engines changed that, and Cupertino is poisoning the roots of the tree that gave the web life:

https://infrequently.org/2025/09/apples-crimes-against-the-internet-community/

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

Who are the worst people in the world? They're busy making bank right now.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/02/theyve-never-been-funny/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8PQ4vcmx1w

aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan") wrote:

Wait, no, Jeff Atwood? The Jeff Atwood? Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry. I hadn’t realised! My goodness, what was I thinking? Please, tell me, does your God accept penance? How does one make up for such an egregious transgression upon His Holiness? https://ravenation.club/@grievousangel/115134179907484109

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

Hi All!🍉💕
It's Joy again
it's worse than you can imagine.
I took these pics to my friend to confirm that we don't stay in one place for more than 2 months.We move according to the announcements of the IDF & according to the maps they send us , We are always prepared and our bags are always ready to flee under the bombing and displacement, & we always do not know where to go.

Here you can help me in this difficult period, donate and share my voice pls
https://www.chuffed.org/project/evacuate-joy

@palestine #Gaza

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

A thing that makes this difficult to discuss is that many people (across the political spectrum) demand simple narratives about Trump. “He’s our savior!” “He’s an all-powerful monster who can’t be stopped by the rule of law!” Or whatever.

Explanations that don’t fully fit a clean narrative, including much to do with elections, are upsetting.

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

must read: The melancholy of history rhyming
https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2025/the-melancholy-of-history-rhyming/

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).

Boosted by adele@social.pollux.casa ("Adële"):
WiteWulf@cyberplace.social ("Gary Parker :party_porg:") wrote:

Question for those of you who are #selfhosting your #fediverse/ #activitypub instance with a very small number of users (max 5, let’s say): how many other instances are you federated with?

No reason, I’m just curious.

FYI my little #gotosocial instance that hosts @logistics
(with ~150 followers at present) is federated to ~6,500 other instances after 2 months online.

Please boost for visibility.

Boosted by adele@social.pollux.casa ("Adële"):
denkodama@mastodon.art ("Denkodama") wrote:

@adele Suggestions de tags supplémentaires parce que c'est important pour certaines personnes (dont les deux autres commentateurs que j'ai vus au dessus) :
#CreativeCommons #cc0 #libre #culture_libre
En tout cas merci pour cette belle initiative ! 🙏 🤩

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
arstechnica ("Ars Technica") wrote:

Delete, Delete, Delete: How FCC Republicans are killing rules faster than ever
FCC speeds up rule-cutting, giving public as little as 10 days to file objections.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/09/delete-delete-delete-how-fcc-republicans-are-killing-rules-faster-than-ever/?utm%5Fbrand=arstechnica&utm%5Fsocial-type=owned&utm%5Fsource=mastodon&utm%5Fmedium=social

Boosted by db@social.lol ("David Bushell 🥐"):
adactio ("Jeremy Keith") wrote:

It’s funny because it’s true

https://youtube.com/shorts/8-lgJX3npiQ?si=UubNFW7tqzWBlwQp

🔗 https://adactio.com/notes/22105

Boosted by kornel ("Kornel"):
rayckeith@techhub.social ("Haderach C. Kwisatch") wrote:

"The crash of 2026: a fiction"

"Looking at the facts, there’s no reasonable conclusion except that US democracy is done for. But rather than face facts, I’m turning to fiction. So, here’s a story about the collapse of Trumpism, crony capitalism and the AI/crypto bubble. Fiction is a relatively unfamilar mode of writing for me, so critique (on style and structure rather than plausibility) is most welcome…"
https://crookedtimber.org/2025/08/31/the-crash-of-2026-a-fiction/

Boosted by kornel ("Kornel"):
spoofy@infosec.exchange ("Johnathan Norman") wrote:

https://theonion.com/microsoft-employees-protest-companys-ties-to-israel/ the onion on Microsoft

Boosted by ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Were ⁂🐧🌱☕"):
atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org ("Chris Trottier") wrote:

Broke my Reddit addiction—two weeks after nuking it from my phone.

What really sealed it was the Blorp app for Piefed. It runs circles around Reddit: faster, lighter, more efficient.

Even better, it just shows me what I want. No ads. No gamification. No trashy notifications. I don’t need “streaks” to remind me I exist.

This is one place where the Fediverse doesn’t just compete with Big Social—it crushes it.

Boosted by ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Were ⁂🐧🌱☕"):
georgemonbiot.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("George Monbiot") wrote:

The body of evidence showing that when centrist parties adopt the priorities and talking points of the far right, they torpedo themselves is vast and powerful. Yet Keir Starmer's Labour Party seems determined to ignore it. A few examples in 🧵: theconversation.com/how-should-l...

How should Labour and the Tori...