Notices by Noah, brought to you by Mutual of Omaha and PBS viewers like you (monkeyninja@10base2.dev), page 2

If you're wondering why it seems like the #military branches have been completely silent in the #news while #trump carries out the summary execution of citizens of #Venezuela, it's because one of the first things that #hegseth did when he started was to fire any JAG officer who wasn't seen as 100% loyal to the #maga agenda. He even publicly stated that the firings were to remove anyone who might put up "roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief."

Like many other posts, JAG positions have historically been apolitical. They fill the role of setting each service's legal priorities and interpreting military law for leaders. They are supposed to oversee everything from criminal cases involving the rank and file to making sure commanders are aware of international law in combat, which is currently being violated by the killings in Venezuela.

The firings of senior JAG officers also cleared the way for the use of troops in #Oregon, #Illinois, and #California without the normal legal oversight required to engage troops in such a way.

So in short, these earlier actions were scaffolding for everything else. No one did anything that suddenly brought the attention of the Eye of Sauron onto them. These violations of due process were intentional and premeditated.

Don't operate under the assumption that you doing something or not doing something is going to magically keep you safe, that's not how #fascism works. Use your rights to stand up and push back, or they won't stay rights for much longer.

On the importance of being froggy:

The play in the #fascism handbook that #trump and his handlers have been itching to play out is a more widespread martial law.

They don’t need an excuse mind you, but oh my does it piss them off that they don’t have one in Portland. The corporate media agencies are built around clickbait and even though they’re a propaganda machine for Trump, folks in frog suits facing off against an armed gestapo is too juicy for them to ignore.

So now you have folks like Miller desperately lying to the media about “war-ravaged #portland” and people laughing at him because there are no riots for them to inflame, just folks laughing at the absurdity of it all.

Keep laughing. Keep mocking. It’s infectious. The more we laugh at them now, the less likely it is that the people we need to march in protest are cowed and kept too scared to do so.

If we’re lucky maybe we can laugh them out of office on a raft of inflatable frogs. I’m not naive, I know that’s unlikely, but for now at least I’m choosing to have some faith in the power of the absurd.

It’s #caturday so I’m going to share my current favorite of my furry family.

#catsofmastodon #cats

@skinnylatte This is Marigold, our tortie. My kiddo moved their massive beanbag chair into my office temporarily and Marigold saw that as an opportunity for a bed that finally felt like it was the right size for her.

@skinnylatte I love my tortie. She pretends to be kind of absentminded and flighty but she’s an evil genius. I’m convinced she doesn’t open the door to the bathroom while I’m in there because it would be rude as opposed to it being about lack of ability.

Oh right, I forgot I posted my #vegan coffee creamer #recipe over on my site for folks interested in that sort of thing:

https://monkeyguild.org/posts/vegan-coffee-creamer/

@aadmaa2 @mekkaokereke While the only voting skin I have in that game is as a Jew who is originally from New York, I can share what I know of my very small sample size which is my family. All of the folks who are in my age group (I'll be 50 this year) were *really* happy he won. My parents who are both 81 were *really* happy he won. The only branch of our family who wasn't happy about it is the branch that no one talks to anymore because they went hardcore maga.

Since #maga sockpuppet #CharlieKirk was just shot at an event in Utah, I think this might be a good time to share a quote of his:
--
"You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It's drivel. But I am -- I think it's worth it. I think it's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe."
--
But as with all of that ilk, the subtext is that he was fine with someone else paying that price with *their* blood.

Oh well.

I guess he got the world he wanted then.

Are there any archivists (physical media, not digital media) who read my posts? My wife inherited some really old newspapers and letters that we’d love to protect from further degradation and was wondering if there was a particular site or brand of storage solutions that archivists trusted especially.

I searched online for details and it sounds like it’s pretty much the same thing as how I kept my comic books safe when I collected (acid free backing, Mylar bagging, keep away from light, etc.) but I definitely prefer hearing from experts as opposed to automatically trusting a site that I found.

@Mer__edith I know this is only semi-related to your post but can we pause and appreciate the moment where that guy on Bluesky tried to explain to the PRESIDENT OF THE SIGNAL FOUNDATION what Signal’s future plans and business strategy are? Because it was such a chef’s kiss moment for me that I want to tape the screenshot to my wall.

@skinnylatte A thyroid storm brought on by misdiagnosed Graves’ killed one of my cousins. It’s not something anyone should ever laugh about. That’s horrendous.

@tchambers One of the things I've come to accept as I get older is that if I don't take a break when I need one, my body or my mind is going to make that decision for me at a time of its choosing and it will be a far less enjoyable rest.

@inthehands @hacks4pancakes @bodil 4 hours later, under heavy fire

@inthehands No no, these were all amazing! I just happened to get hit with that one earlier so it was on my mind. In other news, I love the ability to block entire instances on Mastodon, that is just so so lovely.

@inthehands Oh wait, can I add my most/least favorite one?

ME: The building is on fire!

REPLY GUY: ...and yet you choose to participate in a system in which buildings exist. That's interesting...
[continues to sit there, burns to death]

I 100% support efforts to break away from buying from Amazon but if you fully understand their reach you'll find that it's actually surprisingly difficult to exclude #amazon entirely from an online purchase. The reason you might be putting some portion of the money you spend into Amazon's pocket and not even know it is because of #aws.

In 2024, AWS services were responsible for a monstrous 74% of the company's operating income. Because so many companies make use of AWS services in their technology stack, it becomes increasingly hard to shop online and not have at least some of what you spend go indirectly to Amazon anyway.

I remember a while back I ran a test where I tried just using the internet in general while blocking any services built to run on AWS. It was no longer functional anymore. Forget purchasing, I couldn't even get a functioning browsing experience. I was able to get online with a lot of finagling and setting up a local DNS server, but out of the box my Internet experience was unusable with AWS-backed services disabled entirely.

Even if you only buy locally, if that local business has a web presence, it's entirely possible that Amazon is getting some piece of the action from that purchase. When people say something like "there's no ethical consumption under #capitalism," this is exactly the example that comes to my mind. Technological monopolies make it very hard to keep 100% of your money out of those pockets.

All that being said, you also should never let "perfect" be the enemy of "good." So if you do have the wherewithal to be able to not support morally bankrupt companies monetarily, I'd still call that a worthwhile protest.

I'm not writing all of this to say it's all hopeless, I call all of this out so you fully understand why when you see protests that say things like "avoid *all* spending on this specific day" why you are indeed avoiding *all* online purchases and not just purchases directly from Amazon. By staying offline, you're likely not driving traffic through AWS services and based on their numbers, that's exactly how you hurt them the most effectively.

@hacks4pancakes While only semi-related to your post, I just read up on the "Sentry Mode" on this thing which sent me down a rabbit hole of security nightmares. The ways in which these vehicles violate privacy, not just of the owners, but of random people just walking by them is both astounding and horrifying.

Also sentry mode drains the battery quickly and only works if the battery is over 20%, which I'm definitely not sharing for reasons related to this post. Definitely not.

@freemo Sigh...I admit, I engaged with you because I checked out your profile and at least based on what I read there in terms of your world views, I thought I was clearly misunderstanding your point. That's because context is important as is information about the person and what they support.

That's why I am looking at what Musk did as a Nazi salute and what Harris did as not. Who the person is, what they say, who they support, all is important framing as I previously said.

I'm not really interested in waxing pedantic about whether his Hitlergruß was historically accurate or not. My beliefs about Musk weren't formed out of a singular event but out of an established track record for what he says, what he does, and what he supports. This event didn't deliver to me any new information it just further cemented an already communicated narrative about who he is.

Anyway, because of your profile I chose to assume you're not just a troll (as some folks have reached out and suggested to me). To be honest, I have no idea, we've never crossed paths before. Usually folks with left-leaning profiles and 31K followers on Mastodon aren't just trolls but hey, I'm flexible.

Maybe you are and if so, nice job getting me to waste my time. If I didn't have your profile to go off of I would have blocked you ages ago because minus that info this all just reads like your average run-of-the-mill trolling with a bit of nazi-apologism thrown in for seasoning. If it's not then...well color me confused as it seems like you're ignoring a plethora of information on Musk to arrive at this point with any positive beliefs about his character and pedantry on this particular topic isn't a particularly good look for anyone.

And if you are a troll, before you throw the flag on this reply as ad hominem since that's usually next in the play book when we get to this stage, I'm not attacking your character, I'm questioning it. Because this all reads as trying to defend someone like Musk and trying to draw false equivalence and as someone else already stated, that's pretty low.

If that's all there is here and you're just trolling then cool cool, I'll just go ahead and block you and go on with my life. Either way I think I'm likely done with replying to you. You have yourself a great day.

cc: @RegGuy @raymondlesley since you two were the last folks to reply on the thread

@freemo @RegGuy You seem to be approaching this as if each thing Musk does should be taken at face value, rather than looking historically at who he is and what he supports. Because yeah, if I just came into this conversation and this was the first thing I ever heard about him, I too might say we were jumping the gun. But that's not the case is it? Musk wrote on 20 December 2024 "Only the AfD can save Germany." That post is still up. So it's really hard to give him any wiggle room and any grace when he posted support for the current incarnation of the Nazi party in Germany. His history is what makes this a Nazi salute, not his awkwardness. Just like Harris's history makes hers not. These two things are not the same, these two people are not the same.

Thanks @RegGuy, I didn't have the link so I'm glad you could provide that. As for your comment @freemo in terms of whether we're going to always say such a thing is a Nazi salute? Who the person is and what they support is really crucial to that. Harris has not given me any reason to think that she would make such an arm gesture in support of Nazi ideology. Musk on the other hand has on numerous occasions shown both tacit and outright support for extreme ideologies that include support of the Nazi party. He removed all guard rails on Twitter to allow more open posts from Nazis and he provided heavy monetary support to a president who idolizes Nazis. So yeah, Musk doesn't get any benefit of the doubt here. As I said, he's told us who he is. Not just through this but time and again when given the opportunity to show us who he is, he has shown unequivocally who that is and what he supports.