@cdarwin@c.im2026-05-01 00:32:36
I found Porter to be crisp and authoritative on policy;
Steyer to be repetitive (I’m the only change agent on this stage, look how much money is being spent to stop me);
Mahan and Antonio Villaraigosa to be largely afterthoughts,
and Bianco to have all the warmth and appeal of the grouchy old man telling kids in the neighborhood to get off his damn lawn
@hex@kolektiva.social2026-02-25 06:06:41
This is as good a time as any for a thought experiment.
You're in Nazi Germany. You know about the camps, you know what they do, you see the ash fall, you smell it. People who resist alone are killed, some are sent to the camps too. You're afraid to even talk to people about it for fear that they'll turn you in.
You think back to when the camps were being built. You had all the warning signs, but you didn't know how to interpret them. You could believe it would happen. You thought you'd have a chance to vote him out. You thought there might be another way. You thought maybe things would turn out differently if you just sat tight, kept your head down, kept yourself safe.
You see a family being dragged from their home. You know they will be killed. You want to fight, not just for them but for yourself. You opposed Hitler, and at any point you know you could be on the list... Even if you do nothing.
You wish you could rise up, shoot the SS, open the gates, fight it all. You know you aren't alone, but you don't know how to connect with the people who want the same thing.
Using the knowledge we have now, what should you have done in the preceding months and years to connect, to build a community that would open up all paths of resistance?
There were people who resisted. We know it wasn't enough.
Gun laws in Nazi Germany were very similar to US laws in that Nazis were largely free to own guns and everyone else was not. Unlike the US, where "others" have historically controlled using the fear that they might be randomly executed, Germany did codify it. Red flag laws were one more step in the US towards that codification, and there will be more.
When Nazis were taking away those guns, the social networks didn't exist to make resistance possible for most folks. But some Jews were able to resist.
It wasn't the guns that made the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising possible, though they definitely helped. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was made possible by labor organizing in the precessing years.
If there were more uprisings like that, the Holocaust could have been stopped if not prevented. Social networks make resistance possible. Guns are only useful tools to resist authoritarianism *after* you build a community able to support that resistance, and they are only one of many tools made useful by that community.
Getting guns is easy, and not always necessary. Building community is hard. Guns won't keep you safe. Community will.
Single acts of resistance may slow the machine down, but to actually bring down a monster you need to be able to attack more than once. You need a society of resistance. If you are afraid now, build that. Talk to people while it's still safe to do so. Ask them where their red line is. Talk to neighbors. Figure out your network.
Take the steps you need now to keep your neighbors safe, to keep yourself safe.
#USPol
@jerome@jasette.facil.services2026-02-27 15:58:45
Even after so many policy changes on housing, that this kind of shit can still happen is very discouraging.
From the article:
Members said they found Malhotra’s plan both inappropriate and undesirable — too tall for the street at six storeys, even while they acknowledged its height would be within regulations under a new law and therefore not subject to their approval.
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.info2026-03-01 03:50:40
Tomorrow, I plan to operate in the North Carolina QSO Party CW. I can't imagine going from 10AM to 8PM US/Eastern; I don't have that kind of Morse stamina. My initial plan was single-operator home, but I might decide the weather is too enticing to work from indoors, and go out into the field.
Maybe I should have planned ahead a bit more.
My club,
@scott@carfree.city2026-03-31 21:31:50
it's fun overhearing people tell one another about some San Francisco thing, like how we turned a highway along the beach into a park and the neighborhood recalled their rep from the board of supervisors over it
@servelan@newsie.social2026-02-28 04:19:44
Judge Tosses Trump WH Bid to End SAVE Student Loan Plan | Newsmax.com
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/donald-trump-save-student-loans/2026/02/27/id/1247726/
@qurlyjoe@mstdn.social2026-02-01 02:59:26
I know nothing about #LadyGaga except she wore a meat suit for some reason, and I’d aged out of the target demo for #MrRogers when he came along. But this showed up in my YouTube feed tonight, and neighbors helping out and looking out for their neighbors is how we’re gonna get thru all this. They wanna …
@cdarwin@c.im2026-02-28 21:09:29
Singing Resistance Ventura:
ICE Out of Home Depot!
Advocacy Event · Volunteer organized for National Day Laborer Organizing Network
Saturday, February 28
2 – 3pm PST
Esplanade Shopping Center
381 W Esplanade Dr.
Oxnard, CA 93036
https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/911
@cdarwin@c.im2026-02-27 11:17:04
Pakistan’s defence minister declared an “open war” with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, in a major escalation between the neighbouring countries.
Pakistan launched airstrikes last night on major Afghan cities including the capital Kabul in response to what it called “unprovoked firing”from across the border.
Afghan officials said it attacked Pakistani border troops in retaliation for earlier airstrikes by Islamabad.
Both sides claimed to have inflicted heavy casualti…
@cdarwin@c.im2026-02-25 23:35:06
Stephen Miller and Donald Trump Want War
-- They are ignoring a judge's ruling,
ignoring the sovereign right of governors to keep their states safe
and ignoring the on-the-ground facts to justify their dangerous invasions
Source: Steven Beschloss
https://bsky.app/profile/an…
