volkris @volkris@qoto.org
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
I think this issue is trickier than you're giving credit for.
One challenge with any distributed social network is some loss of control over how the content you generate moves around. It's one of the tradeoffs when giving up one centralized entity that can [hopefully] be held accountable for content stewardship.
And so we get into the situation where #ActivityPub deletion and editing is based on the assumption that other instances will voluntarily agree to deletion requests.
There may be creative ways to look for balance, where revocation is good enough assurance of deletion, but unfortunately this kind of thing is a real tradeoff for operating distributed systems.
(I think this kind of thing is interesting to study, so excuse the ramble :) )
The Congressional budgeting process isn't what gets actually spent, though. You can see that what the Treasury pays out is never what Congress has budgeted.
The money that is actually spent by the Treasury comes out of executive branch's ongoing budgeting, that is never passed by Congress.
Congress basically gives the executive branch permission to spend. But the practical budgeting, based on unpredictable fiscal realities, happens purely within the executive branch.
@gwfoto@newsie.social
Ha, well most relevant here, you ask the executive agency in question to consult with its departments on their updated spending plans, based on revenue projections and spending priorities, and once the budget makes it up the administrative chain of command, you hand it over to the Treasury to play their role in executing it.
I was in a meeting with such a budget just this morning.
@gwfoto@newsie.social
Sounds like they already told Elon to go F himself, and that's why he's looking to accept their offer here.
If they wanted to leave the platform, well, Elon's helping them out the door.
You bring up the Garland nomination, and I think the spin around that story is key to what you're describing here. So many of these narratives are rooted in factually wrong ideas about how government functions.
In the Garland case, R's didn't block nomination since that's not how the nominating process works. Under the US system, the president must seek approval NOT avoid disapproval.
That detail shifts the story completely, as it's no longer action of the Rs that mattered, but inaction of the D, of Obama.
It's not what Republicans *did* but what Democrats *didn't do* that lead to the outcome.
@digital_wyrm@mastodon.online
One thing I like to emphasize to people, because so many are unaware, is that by design the #Fediverse platform is extremely lacking in privacy features.
Basically, a user needs to know that anything they put on this platform is broadcast to the public, *no matter how post privacy is set.*
This behavior is at the core of the system and can't be easily changed.
And yes, I appreciate being a stranger replying to you here :) but I really like to try to make this issue known because it's pretty important to users of this platform!
I think people underestimate how much internal administrative work it can be in an established journalistic institution to do something like start participating in a new platform like Fediverse.
It isn't necessarily something to be done in a day, where a geeky employee figures out how to install the program and sets it up. The part these devs can help with might be only the tip of that iceberg.
Instead, there are probably layers of internal review, marketing input, workflow planning, and who knows what legal review.
Depending on the org, the server might be the easiest part of the whole thing.
Everything I've heard from Google as they've been talking about passkeys has given me the impression that they were saying exactly that.
It was pretty noteworthy to me.
@lauren
One very important thing the article gets wrong, that has become central to the political rhetoric is this line:
"the Treasury in theory will no longer be able to pay interest to bondholders"
No, the Treasury will have the revenues to pay interest to bondholders. Those interest payments are only a small portion of what the Treasury will bring in throughout the year.
All of the talk of default is rooted in that error.
Last I looked I got the impression that the documentation itself was a work in progress. It just sounded like there were a bunch of things implemented that hadn't been documented yet.
But that was probably a few months ago.
Did it sound that way to you reading through it now?
Anyway, given what I've read about their goals, I'd be surprised if they would leave a thing like this so centralized in the end.
volkris
boosted
🚨 MASTODON NOW HAS COMMENT THREADING! 🚨
This makes following a conversation much easier, especially in long threads with many participants.
It's a major usability improvement, and makes Mastodon much easier to use.
https://mastodon.social has comment threading right now, and only on the native web. This feature should be available on other servers and clients with a future update.
See screenshot as an example.
How do you feel about the addition of this feature?
Keep in mind that the followup studies can't be legally considered in the specific approval at the center of this.
The legal question the judge is to answer is whether the FDA followed procedures as challenged, and to that question it's not relevant whether there were followup studies later on, after the process.
As far as I can tell there's absolutely nothing stopping the administration from doing this right and issuing a new approval based on those followup studies, and that would resolve all of this.
That story is simply, factually, wrong seeing as these debts are managed by the Treasury in the Executive Branch, not the Legislative Branch.
McCarthy doesn't have the authority to hold credit hostage if he wanted to. That's managed by a different branch of government that he's not part of.
@gwfoto@newsie.social
@evan you sound focused on the strategy and drama, but I was interested in seeing the response to @Ronkjeffries s question about advantages to the Bluesky protocol.
After all, if the Bluesky protocol is better, that's a pretty solid reason for it to be expanded regardless of fediverse.
Their impact then would be to demonstrate a better way to do this.
Well, it's more like trying to clarify how US law should work, since Chevron deference has proven complicated and unwieldy over the last decade.
But mainly this is about maintaining checks and balances, and making sure representatives in Congress have their laws properly respected.
It's a regional accent.
volkris
boosted
pspsps fedi
if anybody here wants to try out owncast but is on the fence about actually doing it from the effort of setting up and paying for a server
from today until june 1st i'm willing to host an owncast instance for anybody at no cost
the only catch is just that this is just temporary, a trial offer to make it easy for people to give it a try basically, its open from now until june 2nd, after which everyone will be provided with the full backup to continue with on another host if desired
why? i'm doing this because i setup a server for myself to try owncast, but my internet isn't good enough to use it myself, however the server is fine and its not going to cost me anything to keep it running for the next month
so instead of letting the server go unused i figure i could use it to give others who are on the fence about it the opportunity to try owncast
you can either bring your own domain (which i recommend, because that will let you continue hosting with little effort)
or i can provide a subdomain (<name>.cast.tela.moe) just be aware that you can't change the domain after the fact, and i don't have the setup to allow you to keep the subdomain
i'm not putting up any strict rules on what you could stream, i'm not twitch or youtube i'm not going to bonk you for swearing too much, just no illegal content or hate content, and because the server would be shared no 24/7 streams
if anyone is interested send me a DM and we'll sort it out
#owncast #fediverse
Debt-ceiling solution
Tax rate changes are notoriously complicated, both in terms of how taxpayers adjust their behavior as they budget and in terms of reprogramming computers all over the country to actually implement the collection.
Here's the ruling so you can read for yourself, that according to the FDA's own records it did not follow the law in its procedures.
But yes, I agree that the laws need to be reformed. That's why it's so important to make sure the laws are front and center here, not ignored for the sake of political drama.
The president already has the revenues to avoid default, and that has nothing to do with the legislative branch of government.
McCarthy doesn't control the Treasury; that's Biden's job. McCarthy has no authority over defaulting.
Yes, if McCarthy is threatening default, then he is indeed lying. His branch doesn't have that authority.
@gwfoto@newsie.social
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
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