One advantage of being an artistic weirdo who makes completely commercially non-viable music is that I have a •lot• of practice forging that sense of purpose and meaning for myself when the world is aggressively not handing it to me.
Software development has been coasting on a wave of profitability / employability for several decades, and as a discipline perhaps has an underdeveloped sense of intrinsic purpose. Now is a good time to for us to redevelop that as a community, regardless of future job market prospects.
@inthehands The coding work I do on my own feels much more meaningful (even if it takes way too long to get done) than my paid work was ever allowed to be, even when I had opportunity to bend it in meaningful directions.
@wdlindsy I always took that slogan as more of a "let's put this in terms his idolizers might understand" than a face-value assertion, but yeah -- the objective problem with it has always been that the point at which he finally backs down may be long after the damage is done. ...and it never stops there.
After almost twenty years on the platform, EFF is logging off of X.
This isn’t a decision we made lightly, but it might be overdue. 🧵 (1/5)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/eff-leaving-x
@smp I linked this thread to the Glitch folks -- it sounds like they're looking into it.
New Comic found: Wizard of Id - 2026-04-09 https://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2026/04/09
The US healthcare system has been intentionally sabotaged by the Epstein class, who see us as NPCs / pawns in their power-games. They want us as disempowered as possible so that we're more likely to do what they want and not cause them any inconvenience.
(...just to restate what may already be obvious to all present.)
@smp Can you confirm if it also happens on treehouse.systems? (They're also Glitch, unless I'm more confused than usual.)
@smp Maybe we just need an update.... or maybe it's a Glitch bug: looks like mastodon.art is running generic Mastodon.
I'll ask about it in the Glitch Discord.
Seems to be le fixée now ^.^
Apparently it had something to do with this
Thanks once again to the indefatigable @meatballhat 🎉 for doing the right server-whispers.
:tootcat:
#TootCat Mission Control -- we are, uh, working on the "503" SSL error thingy, and will advise. :tootcat:
@smp I'm not seeing it on either one...
🔎 Going through the obvious:
@smp Are you seeing it even on... this post? Your post just now? (I'm not seeing it on yours, nor on longer ones such as this.)
"My one-hour special “Rick Steves Iran: Yesterday and Today,” which helps humanize 90 million Iranian people, is streaming free and ad-free at www.ricksteves.com/iran"
Iran | Rick Steves' Europe TV Special
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/tv-specials/iran/iran-pledge-special
@umbeebmu I think part of it, for me, is that this is just the lastest in a long series of utterly horrendous actions initiated or at least condoned by him.
I guess it's by far the worst, at least in terms of lives lost and other value destroyed -- speaking only of the damage already done.
I kind of feel like I already went through a phase of "okay, they can't just ignore this, can they?", and then they did, several times -- so it's kind of like "oh, so now he's threatening to drop a super-nuke into the sun and make it go nova and destroy all life on Earth? The GOP will still let him get away with it, and the centrist Dems will once again write stern letters about it while staying carefully within the bounds of acceptable behavior so they can be seen 'taking the high ground', and will censure the progressives who try to actually do anything about it."
It's not that it isn't the worst thing he's ever done, and it's not that it isn't deadly serious; it's just that it's absolutely on the trajectory he was already on, and completely expectable, and why should we stop doing our best to satirically belittle and demean him now?
(I'm not actually disagreeing with you, though -- just reporting on a feeling. I do agree that everyone should be pounding the desks of their Congressbeasts for action on this, before anything that might come across as making light of the situation.)
Maybe I should do a satirical spam service. Every time your neurally-fried $relative forwards nonsense to you, you could fire a return salvo...
If you're in Illinois and you are arrested protesting Trump's illegal war and threats of genocide, I can represent you pro bono. Email me at sheryl@weikallaw.com. As always, I will take as many cases as I can.
RE: https://mastodon.online/@nikitonsky/116365586475959192
NASA FINALLY REVEALS REAL ACTUAL TRUTH ABOUT MOON
INTERNATOINAL SCEINTISTS SHOCKED -- "SECRET IS OUT!"
US DECLARES ASTROMONY A METNAL HEALTH ISSUE "WE CAN'T HAVE OUR INOCENNT KIDS BEING TAUGHT THESE LEIS ANYMORE!"
...okay, this is feeling too believable; I should probably stop now.
