Notices by Mitch Wagner (mitchw@mastodon.social)

" I just end up here , just help me get the fuck down Jerry "

https://www.tumblr.com/salmonella-destroyer-of-worlds/765163859970523136/i-just-end-up-here-just-help-me-get-the-fuck

When Chappell Roan spoke out to ask the music industry to offer health benefits to struggling musicians, the industry struck back to protect their oligopoly. In the music industry, a few big companies dominate everything — recording, distribution, publicity and performance. Musicians and fans have no freedom to take their business elsewhere. https://prospect.org/culture/2025-02-20-your-kink-is-health-care-good-luck-babe/ (4/9) 🧵

What is Long Covid: A beginner's guide. https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/what-is-long-covid (3/9) 🧵

Conservatives won the German elections but the far-right AfD doubled support. (2/9) 🧵

Today's news that got my attention (a thread) (1/9) 🧵

Hamilton Nolan: Don't look for a governing philosophy in the White House and Republican Party — Donald Trump governs like a crime boss. "The goal of all this is not 'remaking the government in a conservative image'—it is 'if you want anything, you have to ask me for it.' The rules that governed how the government works are tossed out and replaced with 'Trump’s will.' That’s how mob bosses rule." https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/gangster-party (7/9) 🧵

The New Antitrust Consensus: The Trump administration is maintaining the merger guidelines that Lina Khan co-authored, and big business is angry. https://prospect.org/economy/2025-02-20-new-antitrust-consensus/ (6/9) 🧵

"[For] a capitalist society to function, there has to be competition. And if everything’s connected and all the interests are shared on one side, there’s no way to compete,” Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney said. (5/9) 🧵

I will get kicked out of the Apple nerd club for saying this: Usually, I write reports in Markdown and convert them to Word before submitting to my editors. But I’ve been writing a report in Microsoft Word today, and it’s fine. It’s easier than converting, which always needs a lot of manual fixing.

Instead of defending American consumers and small businesses, Trump and his allies are going after the imaginary threats of "wokeness" and DEI. Trump will prosecute predatory businesses, but only those who oppose him. Businesses that support Trump will be free to lie, cheat and steal.

Cory Doctorow @pluralistic has more.

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/24/enforcement-priorities/

@pluralistic Sounds familiar. I don't remember much about the event but I remember thinking you both did a good job of steel-man-ing the opposing side.

@pluralistic I remember around 2007-ish you did a steel-man role-reversal presentation at a tech conference here in San Diego — you argued for DRM and a Microsoft rep argued against it.

Jules Feiffer, a 'smartass' Jew whose work spanned comics and cinema, dies at 95 https://forward.com/culture/film-tv/690640/jules-feiffer-cartoonist-obituary-village-voice-carnal-knowledge/

1/

Why social platforms enshittify: Sure, social platforms value profit above everything — but they always have. What changed? Answer: The guardrails are off. By Cory Doctorow @pluralistic. https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/20/capitalist-unrealism/#praxis

Father and son, ca 1910 https://reddit.com/r/TheWayWeWere/comments/1i0omg3/father_and_son_ca_1910/

 “The Brave Little Toaster.” A delicious, dark dystopian science fiction short-short story by Cory Doctorow @pluralistic. https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/08/sirius-cybernetics-corporation/

"This is how nations decline. You don’t always turn into Nazi Germany. You turn into Russia, or Hungary, or other creaky and corrupt strongman states where everything is kind of a scam and everyone is hustling to please the gangster in charge. That, my friends, is the path we are on here.

America’s basic problem is that we have an economic system that concentrates great wealth in few hands and we have a political system in ... https://mitchw.blog/2025/01/05/this-is-how-nations-decline.html

Wedding in Romania, 1930.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/7htyxc/wedding_in_romania_1930/

@TonyJWells @cstross I checked him out on the IMDB. I suspect he's big in the UK, but not the US. Which is OK.

@TonyJWells @cstross The trailer looks great — we're looking forward to the movie. Richard E. Grant is not a name I recognize, so it's time for me to hit the IMDB.