Notices by Jonathan Kamens (jik@federate.social), page 12

Ooh, good, Harris brought up the Supreme Court decision giving the president immunity, and did it IN CONTEXT when it makes sense. Amazing pivot.
#politics #USPol #debate

#BosPoli #PSA's (please :boostRequest: if you have #Boston folks in your feed):
1) We still need poll-workers for the November election. See https://www.boston.gov/departments/election/how-apply-become-poll-worker. ngl it's likely to be a crazy busy election and we'll need all the help we can get. No experience necessary, and it's a paid gig.
2) I am once again begging you not do do write-in protest / joke votes. No one will ever see them except the poor poll-workers who have to stay late at the polls counting them. Be kind.
#voting #elections

The perfect encapsulation of everything that's wrong with HOAs does not ex-
"To beat the heat, an Arizona man offers free water. His HOA is fining him."
Gift link: https://wapo.st/47efCHj
#HOA

Oh no, I'd better update my credit card on file immediately! Otherwise I won't be able to *checks notes* "place backorders or bid on domain names." What a genuine emergency requiring "immediate action"!
The entire domain reselling business is predatory bullshit.
#smdh

I just want to ask if you've seen any of the supposed leftists who were braying about Biden betraying them because he didn't forgive student debt as promised, acknowledging that he has since done everything within his power to forgive student debt, and he has been repeatedly stopped by the judges Trump appointed, whom he was only able to appoint because Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 thanks in no small part to their braying about her.
#politics #USPol

#USPol #PSA which I am going to repeat periodically until election day (boosts appreciated for reach)...
If you care about a functioning democracy and don't want to be an asshole, please do not write in joke candidates on your ballot.
No one ever sees those votes except a couple people at city hall and the clerk who has to count all the write-ins, forcing all the tired election workers at the poll to stay later.
Please, vote for a real candidate or leave it blank.
Thank you.
#voting #BeKind

A vaccinated person who gets #COVID has at least a 3% likelihood of developing #LongCovid.
People taking no precautions and getting infected repeatedly tell me all the time they think I'm crazy to ride a motorcycle "because it's so dangerous."
The motorcycle fatality rate is <30 per 100 million miles.
I'd have to ride >100,000 miles for my risk of death to equal the risk of disability from one COVID infection.
People are horrendous at reality-based risk calculations.
#CovidIsNotOver

Notes:
* The 3% Long COVID risk stat is for recently vaccinated people. If you're not recently vaccinated (within the last 6 months) your risk is significantly higher.
* The 30 per 100 million miles motorcycle riding risk can be lowered significantly by taking reasonable precautions (maintain your bike, don't ride drunk, take a safety class, wear ATGATT [All The Gear, All The Time]).
Just as I take precautions like masking to reduce my COVID risk, I also take precautions when riding.

Is motorcycle riding dangerous? Absolutely!
So are skiing, ice hockey, hang-gliding, climbing, horseback riding, and many other activities that people choose to engage in just because they want to.
COVID is *many orders of magnitude* more dangerous than any of those activities.
And when you choose to be careless about COVID, you're not just choosing for yourself, you're affecting everyone you come into contact with, and the people who can't safely participate in society because of your choice.

Frankly, most people's risk calculations are *never* rational. Instead, they're almost always based on "vibes." And the people who run things on this planet have made a conscious choice of "vax and relax" as the vibes for COVID. 🤷

One of the free identity theft monitors we got as the result of a #dataBreach (#IdentityDefense) has informed my wife that her #SSN was in the #NPD breach Duh, hers and 100s of millions of others.
This is their mostly useless advice for what to do.
It's RIDICULOUS to advise people to freeze their credit report AFTER someone commits fraud with their SSN.
And how well do you think the IRS will handle it if everyone impacted contacts them "for protection against tax refund fraud"?
#privacy #infosec

P.S. Our credit reports have all been frozen for years, and yours should be as well.

Well under 50 people per year contract eastern equine encephalitis in the entire United States. Under 10 in Massachusetts. Despite this, Massachusetts spends millions of dollars spraying to kill mosquitos.
Hundreds of people (at least) are dying directly from COVID in the U.S. every week. We're doing nothing about it.
Make it make sense.

I know this is a long-shot, but does anybody know how I can reach the #Usenet admins at #GigaNews? A user at GigaNews generated a huge flood of spam postings to moderated newsgroups this morning, and as the maintainer of two of the relay mail servers for moderated newsgroups, I need to contact the admins at GigaNews to make sure they know about it and are taking steps to prevent it from happening again.
:boostRequest: for reach if you've got any Usenet folks in your network, please.

@unclesam @aby @ChuckMcManis You might want to consider not speaking authoritatively about things you're wrong about.
Ref: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/26/us/digital-blackface-social-media-explainer-blake-cec/index.html

@unclesam @aby @ChuckMcManis Well, I suspected you weren't worth my time before, but now that you've cited UnHerd as a more trustworthy source than CNN, you've gone and proven it.
👋 *plonk*

I know it's just a right-wing lie that the public school menstruation supplies bill in MN required supplies to be put in boys' bathrooms.
But I gotta say, even if it were true, who the fuck cares?
The worst-case scenario for tampons and pads in boys' bathrooms is more boys being exposed to the concept of menstruation earlier and learning that it's normal, not shameful.
This is a bad thing why exactly?
Strong "don't threaten me with a good time" energy here.
#politics #USPol #TimWalz #TamponTim

Those who don't approve of #KamalaHarris shutting down hecklers at rallies need to think long and hard about your goals and the tactics you're advocating for achieving them.
#MagdiJacobs has thoughts about this which I encourage you to read:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1822001327460716546.html (h/t @PamelaBarroway).
TLDR: Disagreeing with your tactics is not the same as disagreeing with you. If you can't handle that concept, please be quiet while the rest of us stop the fascist takeover of our country.
#politics #USPol

I kind of feel like it should be bigger news that Stephen Miller is going around accusing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris of sex trafficking.
We already knew Miller was abjectly evil, but I'm not sure we realized, or at least I didn't, that he's been fully assimilated into the #QAnon cult.
These people aren't just weird, they're insane. They truly live in a different (unreal) reality.
#politics #USPol #StephenMiller #JoeBiden #KamalaHarris
Ref: https://www.salon.com/2024/08/08/former-aide-stephen-miller-spouts-conspiracy-theory-about-kamala-harris-and-human-trafficking/

Holy shit, what the hell happened to Brianna Wu. *sigh*