Notices by Karen E. Lund 💙💛 (karen5lund@mastodon.social)

Tell Congress: With Donald Trump back in the White House and Republicans controlling Congress, they've taken aim at more than a dozen important regulations. The only reason to think “regulations” is a bad word is if you are under the thumb of Big Business. The reality is that regulations protect people from corporate greed and wrongdoing. Do not use the Congressional Review Act to overturn commonsense safeguards that protect Americans.

#PublicCitizen #Petition

https://act.citizen.org/page/82378/petition/1

@aral Have not heard of Kagi; I'll look into it.

Sooner or later doesn't everything go bad?

@aral I've been using the DuckDuckGo browser and its accompanying search engine on my tablet for a while and quite liking it.

This morning I did a search and the first result was an AI synopsis of the subject.

UGH!

Then I noticed the little cog icon for settings. Clicked it. Presented with a list of options regarding how often I want to see AI results.

Clicked "Never."

We'll see. I'm hopeful.

We need to protect critical conservation programs!
The Administration's recent funding freeze for international programs threatens vital conservation work worldwide. Congress needs to hear from you: ask them to support continued US foreign assistance funding, including for wildlife protection and conservation projects.

#Conservation #InternationalAid #Wildlife #Petition

https://wwf.to/41ai3YL

@hellomiakoda @alice Same here. Search returns absolutely nothing--no profiles, no posts.

Did you get your #Wrapstodon for 2024?

I shared 2,579 posts, gained 119 new followers, and my most-used hashtag was #Petition. Yup, there it is automatically suggested by my tablet's onscreen keyboard.

Quite nice to get this the same day I quit Twitter.

EDIT: I did not initially notice that above the cute cartoon of a Mastodon is a category based on my account activity here. Not sure what makes me a Cool-hunter, but I'm good with that.

I have lingered over my social feed longer than I meant to, but it was fun and I have no regrets. Sometimes we just need to relax and laugh a little, even in difficult times.

Especially in difficult times.

#MakeAmericaKindAgain

The Senate is expected to vote on Kash Patel’s nomination tomorrow. Many Republican senators, even though they know better, will rubber-stamp Patel’s nomination.

But there are some Senate Republicans — including Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), Susan Collins (Maine), John Curtis (Utah), Jerry Moran (Kansas), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), James Risch (Idaho), Mike Rounds (South Dakota), and Todd Young (Indiana) — whose votes are not locked in.

#Petition #USpol

https://act.citizen.org/page/79586/petition/1

@Curmudgeon I see a progression here:

2020: Attacks on "BLM" means Black.

2022: Attacks on "CRT" means Black and anyone who takes Black history and culture seriously.

2024: Attacks on "woke" means "we're not sure what it is, but it might involve Blacks so we don't like it."

2025: Attacks on "DEI" means Black and anyone else who isn't white, male, and thinks like us.

@ekis Really? So if I happen to see someone doing a Nazi salute in person, and I just happen to punch said Nazi in the face, then I am just being clumsy, had a muscle spasm, or something like that?

With President Trump's cabinet nominees heading to the Senate for confirmation, we have an opportunity to get them on the record on an issue of dire importance: scientific integrity. Urge your senators to ask Trump's nominees about protecting science in their agencies.

#CabinetConfirmations #Science #UCSUSA #Petition

https://secure.ucsusa.org/a/urge-your-senators-ask-question-trumps-nominees-what-about-scientific-integrity

@Gargron The CBC isn't even the worst; at least they acknowledge that it might be a "fascist salute." The New York Times headlined an article "Elon Musk Ignites Online Speculation Over the Meaning of a Hand Gesture," as if the paper didn't exist in the 1930s and 40s.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/elon-musk-hand-gesture-speech.html?smid=tw-share

@Joshi I just don't care.

Anatomically I'm a woman.

I was born late in the Baby Boom (early 1960s) and commonly refer to all people as "guys."

I've been called "dude" by a Gen X woman and "mami" by a Hispanic woman. I was once introduced to someone as my brother's brother, which puzzled but did not offend me.

I've thought about using "it."

The only gender word that ever offended me was when someone called me "sir."

I've put that in my bio: Please don't call me "sir."

While searching for this I found some other old posts (some old enough to use "toot") that might be useful to the newest arrivals from InstaFaceTok. So I will probably be boosting some of them into circulation again over the next few days.

Meanwhile, if you were part of the Great Twitter Migration of October-December 2022, please note that you are now veteran Mastodonians and able to help those who are #NewHere.

I'd like to point out, apropos of something I saw this weekend, that the suggestion to write an #introduction post assumes that new users *want* to be found.

Some people are here because they've had bad experiences on other social media sites--or even other instances--and would like to be quiet for a bit. It's OK to be a wallflower and watch from the shadows for a while until you feel comfortable. And you are in no way obligated to disclose more about yourself than you wish to.

@dansup Impressive and I love to see it, but please don't burn yourself out before January ends. Take a little time to relax and do something else.

@GossiTheDog I saw this too late and the post no longer exists on LinkedIn.

But I found this excerpt that seems to sum up what he wrote.

https://werd.io/2025/i-have-fired-meta-as-a-client

@dansup @pixelfed Congratulations! Hard work is paying off.

@_elena @ele Followed you there. From here. Federation is cool!

@dansup OMG!

https://youtu.be/hgXpKM2ZpzY?feature=shared