mastodon.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

Administered by:

Server stats:

352K
active users

#collapse

53 posts40 participants1 post today

The Unraveling: Zionism, October 7, and the Ongoing Nakba w/ Ilan Pappe

youtube.com/watch?v=8ujQ4xk4cl

The Zionist narrative is collapsing. From Gaza’s destruction to the West’s complicity, Historian Ilan Pappé unpacks the Nakba al-mustamirra (ongoing Nakba), Israeli genocide, and the urgent need for global solidarity to challenge apartheid and safeguard human rights. What does this mean for the future of Palestine—and the world?

What a bunch of morons... 😤

#DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA #Codebase in Months, #Risking Benefits and System #Collapse

"Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in #COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.

Musk pointed to data he allegedly pulled from the system that showed 150-year-olds in the US were receiving benefits, something that isn’t actually happening..."
wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-s

WIRED · DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Code Base in Months, Risking Benefits and System CollapseBy Makena Kelly
Continued thread

In 2009, I had to cancel a scheduled keynote talk at the European Lisp Symposium (ELS) in Italy because I was due to be in surgery at that exact time for my thyroid cancer. (Surgery went well, and I've seemed thankfully free of it since.) They were kind enough to ask me to speak in Lisbon in 2010 instead. But I didn't at the time, in 2009, speak publicly about the surgery or the cancer. Instead I made a vague excuse about an illness in the family (not technically untrue) being the reason I couldn't do the talk.

On the evening before the surgery, I wrote a somewhat metaphorically cryptic post to my blog that I figured would at least capture my apprehension in case the surgery did not go well, or even if it did, I suppose. It's still interesting to have a window back into my thoughts.

netsettlement.blogspot.com/200?

Back to modern day, I do have a planned procedure (not tomorrow, not dire and far more routine, so not to worry, but please don't ask for additional details just now) that I've been reflecting about just a bit.

Though in all honesty, I and all of us are probably at more risk just walking around on the streets in our emerging fascism (here in the US, though other places are not exactly immune either), and that's on my mind all the time now as well. Any one of us could become an unperson, certainly anyone with decent ethics anyway, as that seems to almost be the criterion for who they're going after.

The tanka I wrote is not specific to one thing in particular, just the sum total of various such things that point to the ephemeral nature of each of our existences.

It's both frightening and infuriating to live in a society where we are at risk merely because of our very existence or nature being seen as a crime.

There may be some among us that don't feel at risk. I wish I could say that's good. But I worry it's obliviousness/denial, or privilege, or something darker, perhaps even being comforted by being on the winning side of bigotry. Maybe give it some thought, because I don't want people to be disempowered by what's afoot, but neither should they feel it's someone else's problem. We have real problems that need to really be addressed. It's a time to feel uncomfortable because no one should be comfortable with what's happening. It's a time for people to empathize and contribute to getting the world back onto an even keel.

Meanwhile we are all individually fragile, too. I had a philosophy class in which the professor told us we could not say with certainty that we would have lunch with someone tomorrow. The future is intrinsically less than certain, we're just talking degree here. But the things going on now are good cause to appreciate those we love, and make sure that we've got things in order in case things get wonky.

And even beyond the politics of the day, the state of climate is dire. I talk enough of that elsewhere, so won't belabor it, but its spectre is ever-present.

Still, it also makes it a time to live, not to put off living to some mythical future time when things will be better. (I wrote a different haiku about that earlier this evening as part of this same pondering.) Let's work toward creating a bright future, but let's also not fail to appreciate that today is all we know we have for sure. Make the best of it. And be the person you want others to remember fondly.

netsettlement.blogspot.comOver the EdgeKent Pitman's blog. Independent, progressive views on Society, Technology, Social Justice and Climate, or sometimes poetry, philosophy, or history.
Continued thread

Quake in , more aftershocks expected
"A powerful which struck on Fri afternoon resulted in 10 deaths, 16 injuries & 101 missing 😮 at three construction sites in Bangkok, including the of a 30-storey , according to Bangkok Deputy Governor Tavida Kamolvej.. from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake which hit Myanmar on Fri will continue in for one to two weeks, according to a seismologist"
bangkokpost.com/thailand/gener

Bangkok Post · Quake death toll in Bangkok, more aftershocks expectedBy Bloomberg and online reporters

Unprepared for disasters
"the "cell broadcast service (CBS) system", which allows weather & natural to be disseminated via mobile phone messages, is not yet active. Since 2004 BoxingDay tsunami, almost every govt has promised to launch a .. of e under-construction State Audit Office Building has raised concerns abt how e , built w tax money, was so easily destroyed.. Most importantly, 🇹🇭 must do more"
bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinio

Bangkok Post · Unprepared for disasters<p>The effects of the earthquake felt throughout the country and Bangkok yesterday afternoon remind us that Thailand does not have measures or a response to deal with severe natural disasters.</p>