Notices by Waldo Jaquith (waldoj@mastodon.social), page 3

I'm reviewing a bunch of government IT consulting firms' websites today, and it sure is a tell when they've pivoted their offerings to be all about AI. DevOps…with AI! Agile...with AI! Cloud...with AI!

These are companies that are not interested in improving government—they’re going to sell agencies whatever agencies think they want, regardless of whether it improves government in any way. The same companies were all about blockchain five years ago. They make the world worse.

@tay @jik I *think* that's right? I am Unhappy about Cloudflare turning on a new form of compression that cannot be turned off unless you give them money, but I don't know enough about Brotli adoption to know if that's fair to criticize them for.

@mathowie If the glass isn't absolutely slathered with lead paint, I want no part of this.

Based on all available evidence, Egypt gave Trump $10 million in cash a few days before his 2017 inauguration (that’s 200 pounds of $100 bills). The FBI and DOJ started investigating this in 2019, but attorney general Bill Barr shut that down. Trump then changed US policy in Egypt’s favor.

Note that Sen. Bob Menendez was just convicted of likewise taking bribes from Egypt. This is their MO. https://wapo.st/3SxAkvO

The Trump campaign can apparently say literally anything in response to a media inquiry and the outlet will dutifully report that the reporter was instructed to fuck themselves or whatever. It’s really bizarre. https://wapo.st/46m0GX8

I don't think it's inherently sexist to call Harris "Kamala." I get that some fans will feel she's familiar, just like there exist fans of Biden who jovially call him “Joe” or fans of Obama who call him "Barack." But, in general, I think it's unduly familiar, *especially* coming from media outlets.

When Hillary Clinton was the nominee, she was called "Hillary” by fans, opponents, and media alike. I was told “that's because 'Clinton' means 'Bill' in people's heads," and I didn't entirely agree, but OK.

Now Kamala Harris is the presumptive nominee, and she's "Kamala,” not "Harris.” There is no other President Harris.

Trump isn't "Donald," Biden isn't "Joe,” Obama wasn't "Barrack.” In 2016, it was possible that this wasn't gendered. But I can’t buy that anymore.

Kudos to the New York Times’ Chris Cameron for the in-sentence hypocrisy check on Tom Cotton. These exact same people have spent *years* loudly advocating for political violence against out-groups, saying that Americans need to own guns so they can murder leaders who they don’t like (“bullet box or ballot box”).

If media outlets don’t follow Chris Cameron’s model, they’ll yet again be performing an enormous disservice to the country. (I fully expect they will screw this up utterly.)

All you have to do is simply vote for Biden in November, and then vote for Democrats in every subsequent election, for the rest of your life, because if a single fascist gets elected then there is no backstop to fascism. It's simple!

So *now* can we have a 13-member SCOTUS?

It is profoundly evil to criminalize homelessness, doubly so when providing no shelters, as in the case that was before the Supreme Court. There is no coherent moral or legal argument to be made in support of this.

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges…” —Anatole France, 1894

Hell of a mystery.

Our democracy is fine. It’s weird that you’d ask.

Timothy Mellon is 82 years old and only started funding campaigns with Trump in 2018. I wonder what he sees in Trump?

…Oh. Ohhhhh.

One bullshit artist on Georgetown’s faculty, with the help of some pro-gun organizations that exist only on paper, appears to provide a major pillar of evidence that judges use to justify eliminating gun restrictions. His research is nonsense and his work is funded by the gun lobby. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/18/us/gun-laws-georgetown-professor.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0k0.2FGZ.X-6pzJp9ecZN&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

A blind colleague recently joined a new federal agency. The agency is refusing to let him use the NVDA screen reader (free, open source), because it's created by an Australian non-profit which is not registered on SAM.gov (because they're not a vendor).

If you know of how a federal employee has gotten approval to use NVDA, would you let me know what magic words were required?

It's 2024, and Major League Baseball is finally integrating the record books, which will no longer protect white baseball players’ stats from the superior performance from Negro Leagues players. As a result, Ty Cobb is no longer recorded as the leading hitter, and Babe Ruth is no longer recorded as the best slugger—those titles both now belong to Josh Gibson. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2024/05/28/negro-leagues-statistics-officially-incorporated-into-major-league-record-book/73882293007/

@emilygorcenski They have learned nothing.

My mentions are now filling up with people who would like me to know that EVs are better for them. That’s swell. They’re better for me too. But they are not actually better than ICE vehicles for most people, largely due to the challenges of charging if you can’t charge at home.

We EV evangelists do nobody any favors by pretending that they’re almost always better than ICE vehicles for most people. They’re not! They will be soon, as charging infrastructure rapidly improves. But not now.