Notices by Aaron (00aaron@social.coop)

I feel like it's going to take an irritatingly long time for the majority of the US public to realize that appeals to the morality of a government with no morals whatsoever is a waste of time.

Power is power and we need to build and use more of it.

Aw the US tech industry was trying to be a big dog, but the big dog got so full of shit that it was all backed up with if and couldn't fight.

I really appreciate the snarkiness in this writing and interview, including:
'The over-the-top marketing and snake oil salesman level of pushing by the U.S. AI industry has caused somewhat of a freakout among less technically literate government policymakers."

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/deepseek-openai-lina-khan-sam-altman

China was pretty clever with this one! Torpedoing our economy in one of the most profitable sectors while Knockoff Mussolini fully commits to undermining whole bunch of other American industries... That's just a fuckin' brilliant play.

As we knew would happen, this #Ithaca developer failed to deliver on its commitment, but will keep the tax break.

Our services for the unhoused have been cut, and the shelter was closed, but they county decided that letting this developer keep the $5.32 million tax break after misleading the public is totally fine.

This is an active policy choice to provide welfare for a developer while telling those struggling with housing insecurity to go fuck themselves.

https://www.ithaca.com/news/ithaca/library-place-developer-strikes-deal-lowered-rents-younger-tenants/article_7ff87d36-cf7c-11ef-bcfb-838fa19aa48d.html

Democracy Died in Capitalism

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jan/04/washington-post-cartoonist-resigns-jeff-bezos

Wild article in Jacobin on the economic philosophy of the Ukrainian war effort.

I guess most war efforts have a socialist economic underpinning in a sense, but this one does not. A sign of the hell to come.

"At a certain point, the taxes a person generates are considered more valuable than their potential contribution on the battlefield."

https://jacobin.com/2024/12/ukraine-late-capitalism-war-russia

We've normalized genocide.

#TheSlowDeathOfEmpire

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/12/28/when-burning-hospitals-are-no-longer-news?traffic_source=rss

Even before Republicans gain control of the House, Senate, and presidency, Democrats are greenlighting fascism too.

This bill still to clear the Senate, but even if it doesn't this time, it will next time it comes up.

And remember, a lot of newsrooms are nonprofits, and fascists would love to destroy them.

American democracy is in hospice.

Either we fight and win or the US becomes the most evil and oppressive nation the world will ever know.

https://theintercept.com/2024/11/21/gop-house-trump-nonprofit-authoritarian/

@ntnsndr @matrix @delta @evan

I tried Element/ Matrix and it was alright but no one else was really using it. Also, messages in Signal are just faster.

I don't know if there's an amazing alternative right now, but having a fallback (even like making sure folks have each other's emails) is probably a really good idea.

I'm growing concerned that Signal is a single point of failure for activist/ journalist comms.

The fascists are smart and have both money and control of state institutions. They will attack our comms at some point. In a prolonged fight, comms always get attacked.

By this I mean Signal, the 501(c)3

Israel will probably commit extra heinous atrocities today is it's Election Day in America.

They committed particularly horrible atrocities on Christmas and on the Super Bowl; it's an intentional strategy of using American distraction to slaughter Palestinians.

For Forging Magazine, I interviewed three Gayogo̱hó:nǫ’ (Cayuga) people who have continued to grow cultural programs for children and adults, despite repeated attacks on the spaces where they learn their language and hold ceremonies.

And of course the repeated attacks on those cultural centers are due to the actions of the US government, which has interfered with the Nation's governance process.

#Indigenous #IndigenousAffairs #Cayuga #CayugaNation #Journalism

https://forgeproject.com/forging/a-q-a-on-cultural-resistance-in-cayuga-nation

This piece is edited in such a way where you're supposed to feel hopeful, but it's actually a grim and honest look at the death spiral this country is in.

The whole piece implies that it's exceptional and remarkable that those who purport to represent their constituents actually have backgrounds that are representative of their constituents.

There's an understanding that unaffordable medical care destroys lives, and one of the interview subjects works 5 jobs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzb-8EQy1sk

I hope that many more can wake up to the fact that the United States is and has been a core cause for violence and instability in this region, and that the United States is in itself a rogue state with no regard for norms, international laws, or the well-being of other nations.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/oct/11/middle-east-crisis-live-eu-israel-iran-lebanon-blog-news-updates-hezbollah-hamas-unifil

Cornell targeted a Black Muslim international student with disciplinary action that the university knows could get him removed from the country, without due process.

The university pretends to be a place of "free and open inquiry" but refused to answer any questions of journalists and refuses to make any comments about its targeting of this student.

So I wrote about that in an op-ed here:

https://www.ithaca.com/opinion/guest_opinions/guest-opinion-cornell-the-indefensible/article_ae24102c-80ed-11ef-ba5b-97c166034883.html

Price fixing? Illegal.
Price fixing via algorithm? Hella profitable!

Theft? Illegal.
Algorithmic theft (AI)? The next big tech revolution!

Discrimination? Illegal.
Discrimination via algorithm? Innovation!

Murdering people? Illegal. Murdering people via algorithm? Multibillion dollar industry!

Basically, in America everything completely evil becomes super awesome and "innovative" if you hand off responsibility to a proprietary black box of code and victimize working people.

Read this all the way through. The US medical system is clearly more practiced at litigation than providing care, it seem doctors and medical institutions keep suing ProPublica (and losing)

ProPublica also just started another big project on why mental health coverage in the US is being hamstrung by insurance companies.

#Journalism

https://www.propublica.org/article/bud-frazier-dismissed-libel-lawsuit

The military argues that it has the right to poison families who live under The Empire.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/12/air-force-epa-water-pfas-tucson

@ntnsndr Absolutely. When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she relentlessly hounded Sri Lanka for mass civilian casualties at the end of its civil war.

But on Israel doing more or less the same thing against a militant group similar to the LTTE, also surrounded by civilians? She's an unabashed cheerleader for the slaughter, and, the current admiration keeps funding it and providing political cover for it.

The US is not a nation state with coherent ethical principles.