Kris Sargent, MD @kristofor@qoto.org

The US Catholic bishops talk a lot about the decline in religious commitment and the need for stronger religious values in the public square.

Yet prominent Catholics like Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis engage in political games of incredible cruelty with the lives of migrants — in Abbott's case, right on Christmas Eve.

While the US Catholic bishops remain totally silent….

It's almost as if their words about declining religiosity and moral vaules are just empty, isn't it?

#Catholicf #GregAbbott

Actual conversation I had…

Me: Billionaire philanthropy is nothing more than PR. Tax billionaires.
Troll: Lol you trust the Govt to spend our money?
Me: Yes, the Govt is elected by We the People, and therefore is accountable to us and can be voted out.
Troll: Govt is bought.
Me: Bought by who?
Troll: By billionai—...😳
Me: ...🤔
Troll: Ok, Tax billionaires.

"There, he meets regularly with an impressive, ideologically diverse range of policy wonks, diplomats, and political theorists for conversations about the global economy and military conflicts and constitutional law and I’m kidding. He goes there to play golf. 'He just goes, plays golf, comes back, and fucks off. His world has gotten much smaller. His world is so, so small.'” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/donald-trump-running-for-president-2024.html

@D0xter @stoXe @briankrebs The first guy that swatted him was destined for great things. He's now in a Phillipines prison for murdering a girl.

A later guy that tried to swat him grew up to become the latest hosting provider for Kiw*farms.

Threat intel people should always pay special attention to threat actors that harass Krebs, because they tend to be more dangerous than usual.

Also because it's wrong to let attacks on journalists slide.

@Kurt Here's file footage of him unplugging sensitive equipment.

Whoever I get introduced to a new tech infrastructure, I too like to test it by randomly unplugging sensitive sever racks. Keeps people on their toes.

Praying tonight for all those who are homeless in this cold. May they find warmth and shelter over these next few nights.

The Intercept's Lee Fang worked with Elon Musk on a "Twitter Files" story and used the opportunity to launch his own personal Substack, knowing his colleague at The Intercept @micahflee is still banned by Elon Musk for his factual reporting on Musk.

If Lee Fang is going to boost his own personal substack at the expense of any kind of principled solidarity with his colleagues, why should I continue my recurring donation to The Intercept? I'd rather my money go directly to Micah and Robert Mackey than to indirectly fund Fang's work - let Fang raise money on his own substack.

U.S. Police kill more than 1100 civilians annually—unprecedented in the developed world.

A new app called TurnSignl, built by Black civil rights lawyers, deescalates police interactions with civilians & get everyone home safe.

Here's how it works.
1. Download the app
2. When pulled over by police, face time a lawyer on demand via voice activation. The call is also auto recorded
3. The lawyer guides the convo.

Download TurnSignl here or gift it to a loved one for free: https://www.turnsignl.com/gift

@taylorlorenz Remember the history of Mastodon. It was not built in the face of Musk buying twitter. It was built by people who could not be on Twitter safely even when Jack was in charge. Decisions like no text search and no reblogging were in specific responses to the abusive behavior that led Mastodon's creators to do the hard work of setting up an alternative in the first place.

These pre-April 2022 users who still own the majority of large instances and are the active developers of the software did not want a place for Journalists - many would have found the prying and data aggregation journalist do on social media exceedingly distasteful.

unless things change Mastodon will never have the broadcast vibes of Twitter which emphasized views and interactions. This social network emphasizes the building of direct relationships and to use it successfully you need to be ready to spend far more social capital developing trust and reputation then the equivalent Twitter account.

Twitter under Jack Dorsey really catered to journalists and politicians because they brought in lots of views, and it became a great place to not only put out a story, but to develop one as well. Mastodon was designed by people who didn't want their social media interactions on the front page of the New York Times. For that reason, I suspect that journalists, news makers, and politicians will remain on Twitter in spite of Elon Musk. They are to Twitter what live sports has become to cable TV - the one use that a new technology cannot easily disrupt.

this is still the greatest reply I ever got to a tweet on twitter, both funny but also feels true

Pour one out for all of the security practitioners who are going to have to spend the holidays patiently explaining that using a password manager is still good, actually, to people who have glanced at a headline about the latest LastPass breach.

I really struggled with the icing for my gingerbread barn and it accidentally became a gingerbread slaughterhouse.

Heavens no. $15 <billion> out of $1.7 <trillion>

“Pet projects”

“Stuffed”

Leave it to the NYT to make “pork” the story, rather than “we’re here b/c the far right authoritarian party won’t participate in basic governance anymore.”

Once again, journalists are under absolutely no obligation to always use right-wing frames & pejoratives (“entitlements,” “court packing,” “tax relief”). It’s an intentional choice

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/us/politics/congress-earmarks-spending-bill.html

For me at least, getting onto @Mastodon and appreciating the structure of the platform and the tone of conversation has made these other pop-up social networks (Twitter replacements) totally unattractive. No, I don’t want to move up on a wait list by “referring 5 friends”; no, I don’t want to be part of another Jack Dorsey project; no, I don’t want to be part of something with weird completely top-down control. Mastodon broke me for other platforms.

Cory Doctorow @pluralistic on #Zuckerberg's "metaverse" scam:
https://doctorow.medium.com/metaverse-means-pivot-to-video-adbe09319038

#metaverse #Meta #exploitation #capitalism

I have rewritten a toot 5 times trying to explain how my lack of income prevents me from enjoying Xmass fully.

But instead of giving you a sob story about my life, I want to tell you this...

If you have someone in your life who is struggling financially, just take them aside and let them know that you love them, and that you understand. Let them know that their value is in who they are, not how much they can buy.

Ask them what you can do to help them have a merry Xmass.

It'll mean a lot.

remember when people had to be told to wash their hands at the beginning of the pandemic? remember how many people threw a whole fit at that?

what a time.

You’re not supposed to put a Qtip all the way into your ear because that’s where the reset button is