Notices by Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)

NPR: New deputy FBI director Dan Bongino previously called for abolishing the FBI, imprisoning Democrats, ignoring courts, and belief in demons -- and lots more crazy

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/03/nx-s1-5308020/dan-bongino-trump-fbi-director-conspiracies-podcast?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

[Obeying his Russian master] BREAKING: Trump stops all aid to Ukraine, including any in transit

"I always use a dial phone.
For me it never fails.
I may never get my number.
But it manicures my nails."
-- Soupy Sales (1961)

No Nobel Prize for you, Fascist Trump! - UK prime minister announces framework for peace plan after summit with Zelenskyy

https://abcnews.go.com/International/zelenskyy-set-european-summit-london-after-trump-showdown/story?id=119338966

SEC says Memecoins are not securities and that it won't regulate them, setting up millions of Americans to lose their life savings

[18F] Mark Cuban offers to fund government tech unit that was cut in the middle of the night

FBI Deputy Director Bongino has been busily deleting old tweets, including ones claiming Jan 6 pipe bombs were "an inside job" and more

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-deputy-director-bongino-repeatedly-090052526.html

The big question: How many Russian FSB agents were invited into the Oval Office closet before Zelensky arrived?

Defense Sec Hegseth orders U.S. Cyber Command to end all planning against attacks from Russia

Essentially, Zelensky -- an actual human being -- refused to kiss the asses of Trump and Vance, a pair of Putin pussies. That's the reality.

***** Regarding Google's announcement regarding ending use of SMS for account recovery, and moving to QR codes *****

I've received a lot of queries about the #Google announcement that they're moving away from SMS and want to use QR codes for account recovery and likely other purposes such as 2-factor authentication. A lot of people are concerned about how this will affect people without smartphones or in many cases even Internet connections except in specific locations (e.g. libraries, where they'd likely be using desktop systems often without cameras needed to deal with QR codes).

While improving security is certainly important, and we know the security vulnerabilities of SMS, the reality is that the same groups of users who are routinely disadvantaged by Google's account recovery procedures -- and often are locked out of their accounts inappropriately -- could be hurt yet again by a QR-code-centric approach.

However, it's a bit too early to panic about this. I have already directly communicated my concerns about this situation to the relevant parties at Google, and have received a response saying that they consider my concerns valid and that this is only the start of the process to determine the best way to improve security taking into account the very diverse characteristics of Google's users.

What this will actually mean in practice is unknowable right now of course, but I will endeavor to stay in the loop on this matter to the maximal extent possible.

L

Fascist Bezos says Washington Post opinion section will now only cover "personal liberties and free markets" (and presumably promote billionaire-fueled fascism)

WaPo Opinion Editor resigns after Jeff Bezos announces changes to Opinion section

https://www.axios.com/2025/02/26/washingon-post-jeff-bezo-opnion-editor-resign

[Probably includes all the trolling relies] White House claims a
million federal workers (about 1/3) replied to DOGE email demand.

[Traditional mobsters couldn't do better!] Musk fires hundreds of FAA employees, now gets FAA Starlink contract!

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/musk-spacex-faa-contract-conflict-of-interest-1235279656/

[With the Video -- are we SURE it's AI?] AI video loop of Trump
sucking Elon's toes runs for 5 minutes all over HUD HQ in Washington

Nobody could figure out how to stop it, so they sent people around
unplugging monitors all over the building. -L

https://www.tmz.com/2025/02/24/donald-trump-elon-musk-ai-toe-sucking-government-building/

Singer Roberta Flack dies at 88. Peace. Her number one hits of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" (1972) and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" (1973) helped define the 70s. "Killing Me Softly with His Song" remains one of the most haunting vocal performances I've ever heard.

On my usual Monday national network radio tech segment tomorrow, I'll be discussing why you can plan on costs of your Internet access services to go up through the roof (along with everything else).

I've been on social media since before the term "social media" was coined, back to the earliest days of Usenet, and the very first ARPANET mailing lists. One way or another, I've been continually active in these spaces for all these far too many years. And until very recently, I've been able to sufficiently express myself without the use of other than extremely mild expletives. Now I find myself having to use strong expletives (albeit to this point normally with "*"s to avoid filter trigger problems) to express the depth of my disgust at these goddamned Nazis who have taken over our government. And it's only beginning.

Remember. The billionaires gave power to these monsters.

PLEASE BOOST!

Federal workers create "We are the builders" website to inform the public about Trump/Musk DOGE massive damage to our country and its people.

https://www.wethebuilders.org/