Notices by AJ Sadauskas (ajsadauskas@social.vivaldi.net)

@JessTheUnstill They certainly should in any foreign government's bid to counter Trump's tariffs.

A 10% tax on revenues on Google ads, Facebook ads, Amazon purchases, AWS usage fees, Netflix subscriptions, all Apple products, ChatGPT subscriptions, and all Tesla products would make Silicon Valley take notice.

WARNING: It's not safe to visit America. You can be locked up for no reason. Even if you're a white tourist from the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/05/i-was-a-british-tourist-trying-to-leave-america-then-i-was-detained-shackled-and-sent-to-an-immigration-detention-centre

I'm sorry. But anyone who blames the current US opioid and fentanyl use surge on Canada and Mexico, without using the words "Purdue Pharma", is full of shit: https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/how-fda-failures-contributed-opioid-crisis/2020-08

The Republicans portray themselves as the party of free speech. They have repeatedly claimed that any form of censorship or limits on free speech leads to tyranny.

And they've set the bar really bloody high. Even the most milquetoast criticism of blatant racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or transphobic vilification has been described as an attack on free speech.

The American right has repeatedly argued that its right to free speech extends beyond government. That private websites or social media apps banning (or "shadow banning") users for trolling and harassment constitutes an attack on free speech.

So by *their own logic*, how on Earth is it okay for the to deport 300 uni students for engaging in political free speech?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/27/state-department-visas-pro-palestine-protesters

@duke_of_germany @timmy Yeah, I tend to use NewPipe on Android to watch YouTube videos these days.

There's no ads, you don't have to log in with a Google account, and instead of algorithmic feed it defaults to the channels you follow.

Also, you can watch PeerTube videos through the same app.

It's available on the F-Droid app store: https://f-droid.org/en/

@tomquinn.bsky.social A very good hit list.

Australia doesn't have the market size to hurt America. But it can set a precedent by dropping the length of copyrights, not enforcing DRM, or taxing digital goods such as Google and Meta ad revenue.

Or perhaps do something like decide that US companies can no longer own Australian media assets and companies, and any existing holdings must be sold off.

@GossiTheDog They'll likely use a large number of people and businesses with Office 365 subscriptions, which became Microsoft 365 subscriptions, which became Copilot 365 subscriptions, to justify the capex.

Even if those users never use the Copilot features. Or actively avoid using the Copilot features. Or use them but wouldn't knowingly pay extra for them. Or tried switching them off but got lost in the dark patterns.

@jeffjarvis.bsky.social Is there a good analysis anywhere about why the former East Germany is so fascist?

@LanguageMan1 By "our country", I take it you mean the US?

If so, I'm assuming you're familiar with the fact that Australia has agreed to purchase a fleet of 8 nuclear submarines at a cost of around A$368 billion: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/14/aukus-nuclear-submarines-australia-commits-substantial-funds-into-expanding-us-shipbuilding-capacity

That's a massive amount of public money.

And it's predicated on the fact that the US will supply the submarines as promised.

And that the purchase is predicated on an assumption that the US will take military action if an authoritarian state (China) attacks a liberal democracy (Taiwan).

And that the US will honour its commitments to another ally and liberal democracy (Australia).

Given Trump's proven unwillingness to back a liberal democracy (Ukraine) against an authoritarian state (Russia), support for Taiwan in the event of sn Invasion looks less likely.

That's a lot of uncertainty for a A$368 billion defence contract.

The whole premise of the AUKUS deal is that Australia would act as a proxy for the US and UK, should China ever invade Taiwan.

To fill that role, Australia needed long-range submarines. Which would be purchased at Australia's expense.

But the Trump Administration has so far shown it will side with authoritarian regimes and parties over liberal democratic governments.

Most notably, in Ukraine and in tariff policy.

It raises the fundamental question: Would the US come to the aid of Taiwan if it were invaded by an authoritarian state (like China)?

If the answer is no, then fundamentally AUKUS is dead in the water.

Here's a very fundamental question about #AUKUS: https://nickcohen.substack.com/p/trumps-true-enemy-isnt-china-or-russia #auspol

"Does anyone seriously believe that an America that won’t defend Ukraine will go to war to defend Taiwan."

@Frantasaur @cwebber Option A, Palantir staff are already replacing sacked government workers: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-palantir-chief-information-officers-government/

@cwebber Reading through this executive order, it's clear that Elon and Don either:

a) Do not intend for a Democrat to even hold the presidency again, or at the very least
b) Have executed this power grab without considering the possibility of a Democrat in the White House in the future.

I say this, because can you seriously imagine that the Republicans would've been happy with an EO giving this much power to Obama or Biden?

In these tumultuous times, it's worth taking a moment to read this short biography of former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/appeasement-and-peace-our-time

Chamberlain is best known for a policy he called "peace in our time", but has since become known as appeasement.

In 1938, Chamberlain secured a deal with Hitler that saw Czechoslovakia cede a portion of its territory, known as the Sudetenland to Germany.

In return, Hitler agreed that he would have no further territorial ambitions.

By March 15, 1939, German troops had seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. And by September they had invaded Poland.

In 2025, there's no shortage of Neville Chamberlains on the world stage willing to give up the Sudetenland to appease the likes of Trump, Putin, and Musk.

It didn't work for Chamberlain then.

It won't work now.

#Musk #Trump #Putin #history #USpol

@dansup The 503s were Pixelfed related?

If you want to push back against Trump's extreme acts, there's often a long game as well as a short game to be played.

The Heritage Foundation's strategy seems to be to try to ram through radical changes as quickly as possible.

The hope is that by doing a number of extreme acts in a short space of time, the public and the media will be overwhelmed.

And, with a constant bombardment, the public and media will move on to the latest outage, forgetting what came before.

Meanwhile, many major corporations have gone all-in on replacing diversity, equity, and inclusion with prejudice, cronyism, and nepotism.

They include McDonald's, Walmart, Target, Amazon, Meta, Ford, Disney, Google, GM, GE, Pepsi, Intel, PayPal, Chipotle, Comcast, 3M, Regeneron, and Philip Morris. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5288947/trump-dei-disney-pepsi-diversity

They hope much if the public will move on quickly to the next Trump outrage, and forget about their complicity.

But.

What if the public chooses not to?

What if, in 6 months, in 12 months, in 2 years, their corporations are still called Trump collaborators and white supremists?

What if there's protests against them in 6 months? If blog and social media posts still refer to this in 2 years?

If their IWD LinkedIn posts get 100 angry replies?

If the backlash to their complicity doesn't go away quickly, what would they do?

@ben I had a look at ProPublica's list and counted just four (4) women.

Two of them are listed as HR or "anti-DEI" hiring consultants.

Another, serving as a spokesperson, is Stephen Miller's wife:
https://projects.propublica.org/elon-musk-doge-tracker/

All the rest are men.

And, with around three to four exceptions, they're white men.

Also, almost everyone on the list is connected to either Elon Musk or Peter Thiel.

Which goes to show, once again, the opposite of diversity, equity, and inclusion isn't meritocracy.

It's prejudice, nepotism, and cronyism.

People are shocked at how quickly many US companies dropped their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. They shouldn't be.

Corporations like (US) Target and McDonald's were never "woke".

There was no deep commitment to end racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic discrimination in their workplaces.

Just take a look at the official bios of the boards and executives of these corporations.

Still overwhelmingly intergenerationally wealthy. Overwhelmingly white. Overwhelmingly male.

Black Americans are around 14% of the US population. Just 8 Fortune 500 CEOs—1.6%—are Black: https://fortune.com/2024/02/09/black-ceos-fortune-500-high-workplace-diversity/

The millionaire (usually white) CEOs who run corporations, and the intergenerationally wealthy billionaires who own them, didn't suddenly develop a sense of an enlightened self-interest.

It was all just for show.

It was always just for show.

It was always public relations propaganda.

No, they don't want meritocracy. And the opposite of DEI isn't meritocracy. The opposite of DEI is prejudice, nepotism, and cronyism.

As soon as they thought they could get away with it, they switched back.

Because prejudice, nepotism, and cronyism works well for the ruling class.

Corporations are not your friend.

Corporations are not your ally.

Corporations exist to extend the power and wealth of the ruling class.

@dansup I love your work. Genuine question: Where do you find the time?

@bhaugen @yunohost @_elena @writefreely @ajsadauskas@blog.sadauskas.id.au It looks like there's two places in the settings that you need to change.

First, in the top right menu, go to customize, make sure publicity is set to unlisted, and then go to Updates and make sure the Federation checkbox is switched on.

Once you're in customize, if you have admin access, go to the WriteFreely menu at the top right, select Admin Dashboard, and then Settings. (If you're on WriteAs, this menu might not be visible?)

On this page, there's a checkbox marked Federation. Make sure it's on, and click save settings.

The other thing you can try is go to one of your blog posts. Click on the date, so it's just that blog post. Copy the URL and paste it into Mastodon and see if it appears.