@cdarwin@c.imTrump expects loyalty from those who benefit from him.
Days after issuing him a pardon,
Donald Trump criticized US House member
Henry Cuellar of Texas
for deciding to run for re-election as a Democrat.
Trump pardoned Cuellar and the congressman’s wife on Wednesday as they faced bribery charges.
They were alleged to have accepted thousands of dollars from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank in exchange for advancing their interests.
Shortly after the pardo…
@ripienaar@devco.socialSaw these solar power flower things. Seems not a good use of space to me unless you really really need the benefit of pointing them at the sun and moving - I doubt we need that.
@paulbusch@mstdn.caPart 3 - Moving forward
One of Mastodon's strengths is its decentralized structure. That also means no centralized marketing or development strategy focused on growth, particularly in Canada. Perhaps a volunteer group could take on that development plan and grow the Canadian user base.
- A vision of what an ideal future state would look like would benefit the planning and action steps. Collecting input from Canadian admins is recommended.
- We shouldn't burden existing admins beyond their current responsibilities. Volunteers would take actions like reaching out to politicians or government agencies.
Potential next steps:
1) Host a web meeting with interested Canadian admins to collect input on a shared vision for this project.
2) Collect volunteers who would be interested in reaching out to politicians or government agencies about creating a presence on Mastodon.
3) Select members of the group to be part of a steering committee.
4) Create a unique hashtag for this project for reporting and followers.
@stf@chaos.socialRE: https://journa.host/@fulelo/115852395088975744
what a twist. i thought agent krasnov is doing this also on behalf of the russians, who benefit from an oil war pushing oil prices up.
@grahamperrin@bsd.cafe@… thanks, a few observations.
Nine base sets (minimal plus all eight additions) should be rare, not a norm.
The next screenshot shows 311 packages, that's not consistent with the nine base sets. There should be 488 packages, including pkg itself.
The pictured user has not been added to any groups. They'll not benefit from hardware-acc…
@stefan@gardenstate.socialMisery Public Benefit Corporation
@jkohlmann@mastodon.socialTurns out you could drive an entire fascist regime through the gap between their actual, racist behavior and the undeserving benefit of the doubt extended to Donald Trump and his associates! Who knew? Everyone! For decades!
@azonenberg@ioc.exchangeSeeing all of the Flock posts lately got me wondering: is there a privacy-preserving way to accomplish the public benefit of traffic/speed cameras (reducing speeding and red light running) without also turning them into blanket ALPR spies tracking where everyone goes?
The best idea I came up with is a split system architecture that treats the camera as adversarial.
@markhburton@mstdn.socialNigel Farage wants to cut price of beer by reinstating two-child limit - Big Issue
https://www.bigissue.com/news/politics/nigel-farage-beer-prices-two-child-benefit-limit/
Same old Tories, effectively.
No wonder he won't deba…
@LillyHerself@Mastodon.socialSweden has had a stated goal of economic equality for 20 yrs, but the income gap between men and women remains the same. Capital is the blind spot. Women own less, save less and therefore benefit from significantly lower capital returns than men.
Additionally, capital is taxed less than wages which further reinforces the inequality. As long as Sweden's rules put more resistance in women's paths than in men's, capital, power and security will primarily benefit men.
Fro…
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systemsWhenever people are commenting on another half-assed, crappy #LLM feat, claiming that there are "some" use cases for this "#AI", substitute "AI" with "genocide".
Because, you know, there are "use cases" for genocide too, and apparently a lot of people don't mind, as long as they can benefit from it and look the other way.
#NoAI
@memeorandum@universeodon.comTrump's drug-pricing deals won't benefit most Americans today. They could over time. (David Lim/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/04/trumps-drug-pricing-deals-wont-benefit-most-americans-today-that-could-over-time-00706529
http://www.memeorandum.com/260104/p31#a260104p31
@Dragofix@veganism.socialWetlands do not need to be flooded to provide the greatest climate benefit, shows study #environment
@andres4ny@social.ridetrans.itRE: #MaskTheFuckUp
@geant@mstdn.socialWe’re proud to support Polar Connect Step 2 (24-EU-DIG-PC2) as an Associated Partner, working alongside the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, NORDUnet, GlobalConnect, CSC, and the Swedish Research Council (the project coordinator).
With the Grant Agreement now signed, PC2 takes a major step toward realising Polar Connect – a resilient Arctic submarine cable system linking Europe, North America, and East Asia for the benefit of the global internet.
🔗 Read more:
@cdarwin@c.imThe three largest benefit managers
— CVS Health’s Caremark,
Cigna’s Express Scripts
and UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx
— collectively oversee some 80 percent of all prescriptions in the United States.
Employers and government programs hire P.B.M.s to negotiate with drug companies, pay pharmacies and help decide which drugs patients can get at what price.
Patients see the work of a benefit manager when they encounter denials for coverage of prescriptions or are f…
@raiders@darktundra.xyzRaiders Who Will Benefit Most from Kubiak's Presumed Hiring https://www.si.com/nfl/raiders/onsi/las-vegas-who-will-benefit-most-from-klint-kubiak-presumed-hiring
@zachleat@zachleat.comFree idea:
A developer conference (née job fair) where all of the speakers are folks that aren’t employed and are looking! Speakers would really benefit from the authority that conference speaking provides and employers looking to hire can send their own devs in to learn (and recruit)!
@servelan@newsie.social"Trump was by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy. These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack happened at the Capitol, part of this case does not happen without him. The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit."
Release of Jack Smith interview shows 'why Jim Jordan didn’t want public testimony': experts - Alternet.org
https://www.alternet.org/Bank/jack-smith-2674841248/
@kurtsh@mastodon.socialIf this all sounds familiar...
▫️Uneducated, fearful Republic citizens give fascist emperor executive power.
▫️Fascist emperor violently attacks resisting members of Republic.
▫️Fascist emperor violently invades Ghorman for its resources.
**YOU ARE HERE**
▫️Fascist emperor imprison, tortures & murders resistance.
▫️Rich senators & wealthy benefit from fascist emperor & do nothing.
▫️Fascist emperor dissolves senate.
▫️Republic falls t…
@Mediagazer@mstdn.socialSources: in talks with WBD, Netflix said a combination of its streaming service with HBO Max would benefit consumers by lowering the cost of a bundled offering (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-tel
@Techmeme@techhub.socialThe reaction to NYT's David Sacks story aside, Sacks is pushing policies to help the US win the AI race, which also benefit him, his allies, and even his foes (Dan Primack/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-pro-rata-1d32bd61-9974-408…
@seeingwithsound@mas.toCortigent hopes to raise nearly $15 million through IPO https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1958489/000175392625001850/g085026_s1a.htm "there are about 82,000 Americans who could potentially benefit from the Orion system";
@hex@kolektiva.socialVideo I was watching: "members and representatives of the ultra wealthy have created a report that points out the obvious fact that infinite growth has to end because the world is finite. They have assured us that this is bad for us because it's bad for "the economy." But there's hope. If we only take several steps towards fascism, we will only need to take the remaining steps in order to sustain their economic dominance for a little while more.
It will only cost everything we care about and the habitability of the planet, but some of us can still benefit from the crumbs they will feed us until they have to systematically murder us all for just a little more time on top."
@danyork@mastodon.socialSo… talk to me about #Zotero … How do you use it? WHY do you use it versus other tools? What do you like most?
I realize I am maybe 15 or 20 years late to the Zotero party, but 3 things have me interested now:
- I’m taking on a project at work that involves a good amount of research
- I have some ideas for papers and maybe a book that would benefit from more structured organizatio…
@marcel@waldvogel.familyPlenty of billionaire deals going on, but:
"A person familiar with Witkoff’s thinking said the envoy is confident that any settlement with Russia would benefit America broadly, not just a handful of investors."
https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/russia-u-
@NFL@darktundra.xyzWhat if the NFL had a transfer portal? Ranking 10 players who would benefit most in 2026
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-transfer-portal-ranking-players-benefit/
@bthalpin@mastodon.socialRE: https://journa.host/@mathewi/115985125373328108
I didn't know about the 2nd and the 4th, and the 2nd doesn't surprise me (I had speculated he'd go for a massive cash bribe, but benefit in kind makes sense too) but arresting Obama?!!? That would…
@UP8@mastodon.social🍙 Seaweed farms boost long-term carbon storage by altering ocean chemistry, study shows
#seaweed
@curiouscat@fosstodon.orgGetting vaccinated against shingles could protect you from getting dementia, or slow the progression of the disease
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/shingles-vaccine-dementia
Very good vaccine even without this benefit, but nice "side effect."
Fl…
@frankel@mastodon.top#Java "Magic" types: The ones you can't name (non-denotable types)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/java-magic-types-ones-you-cant-n…
@bourgwick@heads.social
@bencurthoys@mastodon.socialThis just came up in conversation elsewhere and it feels worth sharing again for the benefit of those who haven't seen it: https://ourworldindata.org/much-better-awful-can-be-better.
@cdarwin@c.imTrump on Wednesday said he was granting a
"full and unconditional pardon"
to Democratic Representative
Henry Cuellar of Texas, and his wife Imelda, who were charged with bribery.
Last year, Cuellar and his wife were indicted for allegedly accepting close to $600,000 in bribes
in two schemes meant to benefit an Azerbaijani state-owned energy company and an unnamed bank based in Mexico
@raiders@darktundra.xyzHow Raiders' Expected Additions of Kubiak and Mendoza Will Help Jeanty https://www.si.com/nfl/raiders/onsi/las-vegas-expected-additions-klint-kubiak-fernando-mendoza-will-help-ashton-jeanty
@johnhobbs@mstdn.caElevate your income with a high-commission business system tailored to your needs! Benefit from expert guidance, flexible scheduling, and professional mentorship. No technical skills required! Ready to transform your digital journey? Let's thrive together! 🚀✨ #SuccessAwaits
@luana@wetdry.worldDoes screensharing even work on wlroots these days or are they still salty about implementing the wayland protocol properly just because it would benefit some nvidia users?
@villavelius@mastodon.onlineWere they perchance inspired by the Dutch government? (The shameful false accusations of childcare benefit fraud, which all but ruined numerous families, known in the Netherlands as the #toeslagenaffaire – still not fully resolved and remedied.)
@brichapman@mastodon.socialSolar panels and crops growing together? It's called agrivoltaics, and it just got a major boost.
DC-based Okovate acquired startup Fundusol to integrate Stanford & Carnegie Mellon tech that optimizes solar arrays for different crops using genetic algorithms. The goal: make solar farming economically viable for rural communities across the US.
@ripienaar@devco.socialAh uk budget bumps my annual pension contributions from like 140 to 1k for the same benefit.
Nice.
Luckily only 3 years left before I make my needed payments
@outer@mas.toThank you, Professor. It IS time to change. https://zirk.us/@ChrisMayLA6/115790431920149801
@lilmikesf@c.im#OTD 1988 I wuz in basement of The Wilson Center in NW DC catching #Fugazi return to USA set during a benefit for National Coalition for the Homeless, put together by Mark Anderson's #PositiveForce org. Opening acts that played in…
@inthehands@hachyderm.ioRemember that authoritarian movements of all kinds, but especially fascist movements, do not initially have the power to force an entire nation state to bend to their will. They need — not just benefit from, but absolutely •need• — the passive acquiescence of large numbers of people.
Loud, annoying, visible resistance punctures the lie that it’s inevitable, that people who keep their heads down will be rewarded in the end.
@mro@digitalcourage.socialWhat is a #platform after all?
In our case it’s a part of the www having one owner and many users usually not affiliated otherwise. The owner being the sole source of rules and execution thereof, covering financial loss or benefit. Usually without a democratic process, but arbitrary, self-invented rules and policing.
They have in common a
@teledyn@mstdn.caThe Impact of Canada's Working Income Tax Benefit on the Labor Supply of Low‐Income Workers - Koebel - Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society
tl;dr? "boosted it" 😊🇨🇦
#canpoli
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/irel.70015
@kctipton@mas.toColumn: Instead of addressing injustice, pardons now pervert justice - Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-11-20/trump-pardon-power-supporters-recidivism
@pre@boing.worldThe conference is over now. I likely wouldn't have come for just a bitcoin thing, but I am very interested in redecentralizing the web, so it's attachment to the nostr day pulled me in.
Everyone I met was friendly and interesting and seems much more interested in making a better money system than in making money for themselves.
Our government and bank money systems are dysfunctional in all kinds of ways which are often less visible than they should be too people using them, especially to those in Europe and America who benefit from the way those systems exploit the global south.
I'm not convinced that fixing that would end wars and fix broken government as some seem to think, but I am sure our money is the source of many problems.
There are many bright, well meaning, and intelligent people building to improve bitcoin in fascinating ways with the hope of having a parallel system to transition to. With lots of work still to be done.
Can it work?
I'm sure I don't know, and I'm sure even if it's a better system it'll come with it's own unfairness and cruelty. Money will continue to be a source of suck and worry.
I'm told that the bigger conferences are often full of shitcoin scammers and suit wearing banksters who are in fact all in it too get rich and rip people off, but I found none of that here.
Here there is a real community of people trying to make the world a better place and improve the lives of their neighbours and governance of their countries.
And in the end building community is the most radical and effective way to change the world regardless of the problems of it's money system.
I had a great time. Thanks to those organising it.
#bitfest #bitcoin
@memeorandum@universeodon.comTrump's bounce among Hispanics can benefit him in the midterm elections (Washington Examiner)
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/4432197/trump-support-hispanics-can-benefit-him-midterm-elections/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260126/p29#a260126p29
@PaulWermer@sfba.social"...who campaigned on a promise to extricate the US from decades of “endless wars” during his 2024 run for president."
It'simportant to note these are airstrikes and bombings - and that's very different from wars. It avoids the distressful images of wounded and dead service members returning to the US, while using very expensive technology, thus providing purchase orders to very important business interests, and it provides the psycological benefit of violence to imp…
@paulwermer@sfba.social"...who campaigned on a promise to extricate the US from decades of “endless wars” during his 2024 run for president."
It'simportant to note these are airstrikes and bombings - and that's very different from wars. It avoids the distressful images of wounded and dead service members returning to the US, while using very expensive technology, thus providing purchase orders to very important business interests, and it provides the psycological benefit of violence to imp…
@cdarwin@c.imThe Trump administration is currently questioning the role of science in maintaining the nation’s health, economy and global posture.
Yet the NIH stands as a testimony to the conviction that science is good for society,
that persistent investment in basic research is essential to technological advances that serve the public interest,
and that our nation’s health and economy benefit from developments in biology.
@boris@cosocial.ca
@mia@hcommons.socialA surprise benefit of mRNA vaccines could be better treatments for cancer, extending lives without the side effects of chemo? Yay for good news! https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/12/covid-mrna-vaccines-cancer-patien…
@sauer_lauwarm@mastodon.social"Why is the Trump White House pushing Ukraine to accept a Russian plan that paves the way for another war? The document offers some hints, declaring that the U.S. would also somehow take charge of the $100 billion in frozen Russian assets, for example, supposedly to invest this money in Ukraine and receive “50% of the profits from this venture.” Europeans, whose banks actually hold most of these assets, would receive nothing."
@Sustainable2050@mastodon.energyVon der Leyen 5 months ago.
"Stability and predictability" 🤣
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/07/27/von-der-leyen-and-trump-strike-eu-us-trade-deal-to-avert-all-out-tariff-war
@Richard@worklifepsych.social👉🏼 If your attempts at New Year's change have stalled, never fear - all is not lost. You can always benefit from the #FreshStartEffect and give yourself another chance.
✏️ Find out more in the last post on the blog:
@nerb@techhub.socialPT Barnum was right!
Was at someones house last night and noticed what looked like twisted copper wire around their meter while I pushed their soffit back into place.
Had to asked what it was figuring it was some scam that would supposedly lower their electric bill.
I was partially right . It's a Smart meter Tensor ring. It "resonates at 144 MHZ for EMF filtering/protection throughout the home. As well as lowing power bills. Made to the Sacred/Royal Egyptian Cu…
@grumpybozo@toad.socialLockdown Mode is a backstop for people who either do dangerous things or are specifically targeted by high-resource threat actors. Almost no one can *actually* benefit from it but people who need it really need it.
I don’t need it. However, I have it enabled in part to understand what it does to the UX. It interferes with a minority of sites. It forces me to think about whether I REALLY trust the site I’m interacting with & how valuable my interaction really is.
@steve@s.yelvington.comTIL that in 1563, Queen Elizabeth originated the practice of taxing the rich to benefit the poor -- a stark improvement over previous laws that simply sought to punish unemployment.
@rigo@mamot.frFramasoft has started their yearly support campaign. If digital sovereignty is more than a word to you, you're likely to benefit a lot from a donation made there:
https://soutenir.framasoft.org/en/
@cowboys@darktundra.xyzCowboys Week 17 Rooting Guide: 4 teams can help Dallas' draft slot https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2025/12/27/cowboys-week-17-rooting-guide-draft-pick-slots/87926684007/
@fgraver@hcommons.socialWorld leaders need to start telling Trump to go fuck himself. There is nothing—absolutely nothing—of benefit that comes from trying to engange with the craziness he comes up with.
@benb@osintua.euHow can foreign defense manufacturers benefit from Ukraine’s Defense City regime?: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/14/how-can-foreign-defense-manufacturers.html
@Techmeme@techhub.socialApple's DMA compliance isn't "malicious", but an effort to balance Apple's privacy focus with the EU's mandate, as iOS 26.2 iPhone/Watch Wi-Fi sync changes show (John Gruber/Daring Fireball)
https://daringfireball.net/2025/11/apple_eu_d…
@cellfourteen@social.petertoushkov.euSure, the last 30 years of my life went away in a political world governed by post-communist Russia-loving and/or mobster-pleasing dumbdumbs (domestically). Now, on top of that, the next 30 years will benefit from the political influence of bing-bong ballroom-dancing unspeakably-evil trumptrumps (globally).
@arXiv_csGR_bot@mastoxiv.pageJUST-DUB-IT: Video Dubbing via Joint Audio-Visual Diffusion
Anthony Chen, Naomi Ken Korem, Tavi Halperin, Matan Ben Yosef, Urska Jelercic, Ofir Bibi, Or Patashnik, Daniel Cohen-Or
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.22143 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.22143 https://arxiv.org/html/2601.22143
arXiv:2601.22143v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Audio-Visual Foundation Models, which are pretrained to jointly generate sound and visual content, have recently shown an unprecedented ability to model multi-modal generation and editing, opening new opportunities for downstream tasks. Among these tasks, video dubbing could greatly benefit from such priors, yet most existing solutions still rely on complex, task-specific pipelines that struggle in real-world settings. In this work, we introduce a single-model approach that adapts a foundational audio-video diffusion model for video-to-video dubbing via a lightweight LoRA. The LoRA enables the model to condition on an input audio-video while jointly generating translated audio and synchronized facial motion. To train this LoRA, we leverage the generative model itself to synthesize paired multilingual videos of the same speaker. Specifically, we generate multilingual videos with language switches within a single clip, and then inpaint the face and audio in each half to match the language of the other half. By leveraging the rich generative prior of the audio-visual model, our approach preserves speaker identity and lip synchronization while remaining robust to complex motion and real-world dynamics. We demonstrate that our approach produces high-quality dubbed videos with improved visual fidelity, lip synchronization, and robustness compared to existing dubbing pipelines.
toXiv_bot_toot
@jtk@infosec.exchangeThe title of the blog post blog was clickbait for me. It argues #Thinkpad fandom boils down to price, build quality, and repairability.
There is one glaringly obvious omission any longtime user should spot immediately. There is no mention of the unique trackpoint-based keyboard design that you can't find anywhere else.
I've stopped using ThinkPads as my primary platform f…
@relcfp@mastodon.socialPali Text Society book clearance https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20133374/pali-text-society-book-clearance
@hynek@mastodon.socialI’m somewhat annoyed by big parts of the “AI” discourse (“it’s useless” is patently wrong/wishful thinking and “it’s morally wrong” won’t convince anyone) so this banger by Cory Doctorow was godsend:
> [S]ome people will be on the workers' side because of politics or aesthetics. […] But if you want to win over all the people who benefit from your labor, you need to understand and stress how the products of the AI will be substandard.
@NFL@darktundra.xyzBrowns' odd process that led to Todd Monken bears question: Do they know what they want? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7007924/2026/01/30/browns-todd-monken-new-coach-hiring-process/
@johl@mastodon.xyz
@padraig@mastodon.ieHow do they plan to address it though? A bit more detail would be good . https://mastodon.social/@staff/115729765835807165
@jlpiraux@wallonie-bruxelles.socialRelation EU-USA :
"La meilleure ligne de conduite que Bruxelles pourrait adopter serait de reconnaître qu'une rupture définitive s'est produite et de s'engager dans une voie plus indépendante, écrit Nathalie Tocci, directrice de l'Institut italien des affaires internationales et professeure Š l'École d'études internationales avancées de l'Université Johns Hopkins en Europe."
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systemsToday I've figured out how to reply when another couch philosopher tells you that obviously "there are job offers, it's just people who are too lazy to work". You just ask them "then why aren't you changing jobs?"
Free market is clear on this: if the supply of job positions exceeds demand, wages rise. And if employers lack employees, then they're ready to pay more, so you benefit from changing jobs! Isn't capitalism just great?
#AntiCapitalism
@raiders@darktundra.xyzCoaching Hires Raiders Should Avoid for Mendoza's Benefit https://www.si.com/nfl/raiders/onsi/las-vegas-coaching-hires-should-avoid-for-fernando-mendoza-benefit
@seeingwithsound@mas.to(14 years ago, in 2011) Building the bionic eye: an emerging reality and opportunity https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3326660/ "blind individuals will continue to benefit from the use of sensory substitution devices";
@cdarwin@c.imAcquiring solar panels at home can be an expensive hassle for people in the US.
But small, simple, plug-in solar panels for use on balconies are soon to become available for millions of Americans,
with advocates hoping the technology will quickly go mainstream.
Balcony solar panels are now widespread in countries such as Germany
– where more than 1m homes have them
– but have until now been stymied in the US by state regulations.
This is set to change, wit…
@frankel@mastodon.topStop Breaking TLS
#infosec
@brichapman@mastodon.socialColorado just released a roadmap for coal communities facing an uncertain future.
The state's new report shows how carbon capture, geothermal, hydrogen, and battery storage could replace lost coal jobs and tax revenue in rural areas. Wind and solar are already cost-effective, while emerging tech could create new economic opportunities.
@servelan@newsie.socialCoalition of Pharmacy Groups Urges Congress to Enact PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) Reform - MedCity News
https://medcitynews.com/2025/12/coalition-pharmacy-pbm-reform/
@cdarwin@c.im#Agrivoltaics is the practice of purposefully shading agricultural crop lands with solar panels
in order to enjoy the dual benefits of solar electricity and increased food production.
A new study I
co-authored with my colleague, Uzair Jamil, found that
👍 partial shading to benefit crop production even works when the solar panels do not.
This has interesting policy ramific…
@hex@kolektiva.socialI think we can actually prove that this constraint is the *only* constraint that can preserve freedom:
1. There will exist actors in a system who will wish to take advantage of others. Evolution drives survival and one strategy for increasing survival in an altruistic society is to become a parasite.
2. Expecting exploitative dynamics, a system needs to have a set of rules to manage exploitation.
3. If the set of rules is static it will lack the requisite variety necessary to manage the infinite possible behavior of humans so the system will fail.
4. If the system is dynamic then it must have a rule set about how it's own rules are updated. This would make the system recursive, which makes the system at least as complex as mathematics. Any system at least as complex as mathematics is necessarily either incomplete or inconsistent (Gödel's incompleteness theorem). If the system is incomplete, then constraints can be evaded which then allow a malicious agent to seize control of the system and update the rules for their own benefit. If constraints are incomplete, then a malicious agent can take advantage of others within the system.
5. Therefore, no social system can possibly protect freedom unless there exists a single metasystemic constraint (that the system must be optional) allowing for the system to be abandoned when compromised.
Oh, you might say, but this just means you have to infinitely abandon systems. Sure, but there's an evolutionary advantage to cooperation so there's evolutionary pressure to *not* be a malicious actor. So a malicious actor being able to compromise the whole system is likely to be a much more rare event. Compromising a system is a lot of work, so the first thing a malicious actor would want to do is preserve that work. They would want to lock you in. The most important objective to a malicious actor compromising a system would be to violate that metasystemic constraint, or all of their work goes out the window when everyone leaves.
And now you understand why borders exist, why fascists are obsessed with maintaining categories like gender, race, ethnicity, etc. This is why even Democrats like Newsom are on board with putting houseless people in concentration camps. And this is why the most important thing anarchists promote is the ability to choose not to be part of any of that.
@bourgwick@heads.socialjust remembered this 1985 photo (from a SEVA benefit) of weir with jonathan richman, who looks like he's trying to figure out how he ended up onstage with a grateful dead. incidentally, weir is singing "ripple," i think maybe the first time he sang a garcia/hunter song outside the dead.
@Mediagazer@mstdn.socialRep. Scott Fitzgerald, chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on antitrust, argues consumers stand to benefit from Netflix's acquisition of WBD (Scott Fitzgerald/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/a-merger-could
@PaulWermer@sfba.socialRE: https://mastodon.social/@Snoro/115753827172958693
How many opportunities like this exist in other states?
How many hidden "taxes" - mandated fees - that benefit the fossil fools are out there? Things we pay for without realizing it? Where…
@paulwermer@sfba.socialRE: https://mastodon.social/@Snoro/115753827172958693
How many opportunities like this exist in other states?
How many hidden "taxes" - mandated fees - that benefit the fossil fools are out there? Things we pay for without realizing it? Where…
@raiders@darktundra.xyz1 Underrated Benefit of Fernando Mendoza's Championship Run for Raiders https://www.si.com/nfl/raiders/onsi/las-vegas-underrated-benefit-fernando-mendoza-championship-run
@paulbusch@mstdn.caSo this is percolating and the results so far are not surprising.
I'd vote NO, for the following reasons:
- oil demand continues to decline and risk is high we'll end up with an expensive underutilized pipeline. Therefore high risk we'll end up subsidizing any private entity that builds this thing.
- why would we invest public dollars to support infrastructure for a product where 75% of the profit leaves Canada? There has to be a net benefit, beyond steel sales and jobs, for this project to be considered.
- Indigenous land rights must be respected. They will be left with the rusting pipeline decades in the future, and it's impact on the land.
- the B.C. government must also have a final vote as they have to give up land and provide support.
- we don't need additional oil tankers on our west coast.
- and most importantly, with this MOU, Canada pretty much declared we aren't serious about protecting the environment or fighting climate change. We're oil whores. Harsh but....
#CanPoli #ClimateAction
@cdarwin@c.imIn the wake of the D.C. shooting,
the Trump administration will conduct a full review of Afghan nationals who were admitted to the U.S. under the Biden administration,
Donald Trump said.
“We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden,
and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country.”
@servelan@newsie.social"Opponents of AfD lawmakers say that their push to publish sensitive details about national security could benefit Russian military planning."
AfD Pushes to Publish German Information That Officials Say May Help Russia - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/world/europe/germany-far-right-afd-russia-security-secrets.html
@raiders@darktundra.xyzNFL coaching carousel: Do the Steelers still deserve the benefit of the doubt? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6982413/2026/01/19/nfl-coaching-carousel-do-the-steelers-still-deserve-the-benefit-of-the-doubt/<…
@cdarwin@c.imBefore you start eating more dark #chocolate and drinking more #coffee, know that the study found an association, not a causal link,
and that it didn’t suggest how much you would have to eat or drink to potentially derive an aging-related benefit.
The facts:
The researchers used data from participants…
@cdarwin@c.imThe Trump administration announced it is #suspending $129m in federal benefit payments to #Minnesota amid allegations of widespread fraud in the state.
The secretary of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Brooke Rollins, shared a letter on Friday on social media that was addressed to Minnesota’s governor,…
@cdarwin@c.imThe 28-point "peace plan" that the United States and Russia want to impose on Ukraine and Europe is misnamed.
It is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe,
preparing the way for a larger war in the future.
In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.
The plan was negotiated by Steve Witkoff,
a real-estate developer with no historical, geographica…
@cdarwin@c.imA new study has found that
eating 50 grams (1.76 ounces) or more of high-fat cheese a day
correlates with a lower risk of developing dementia.
That includes all cheeses with more than 20 percent fat content,
like brie, gouda, cheddar, parmesan, gruyere, and mozzarella.
The extensive, long-term study followed 27,670 adults in Sweden for around 25 years.
The findings establish an association between daily consumption of high-fat cheese
and lower demen…
@cdarwin@c.imCongressional negotiators are expected to release a
bipartisan health care package
as soon as today
that revives major parts of a deal that was torpedoed in late 2024 by Elon Musk and then President-elect Trump.
The agreement would include long-stalled priorities like
— an overhaul of the business practices of pharmacy benefit managers — the "middlemen" between drug manufacturers and insurers
— and new controls on how hospitals bill for outpatien…
@cdarwin@c.imLegendary rocker
#Bruce #Springsteen delivered an impassioned condemnation of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement
during a surprise 75-minute performance Saturday night
at the "Light of Day" benefit concert in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Springsteen dedicated his 1978 ant…
@cdarwin@c.imAs US officials move to restrict vaccines
-- including the shots to prevent respiratory syncytial virus ( #RSV )
-- more evidence is emerging to confirm how dramatically the jabs reduce hospitalizations.
Announced last week as part of new restrictions on one-third of all routine childhood vaccines,
❌RSV shots are now recommended only for high-risk babies, instead of all infants.
The…
@cdarwin@c.imThe Trump administration told states to
“immediately undo” any actions to provide full food stamp benefits to low-income families,
threatening financial penalties if they do not comply.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11/09/us
@cdarwin@c.imICE Out for Good
https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/883895/
