Enver Hoxha: The Palestinian people, our brothers, are a brave, revolutionary people, with a glorious past, ancient culture and bright future. They are strong; all the peoples who love them are strong, and together we will win -- we will crush our common enemies to their death. wordsmith.social/protestation/…


Quotes

  • Otto Kuusinen: As long as the working class wages only an economic struggle, the bourgeoisie does not see in that any great danger for itself; but when the working class organises politically, i.e., creates a political party which expresses its will as a class, the bourgeoisie begins seriously to fear for its rule. That is why reaction deals its main blows against the political party of the working class. At the same time, trying to undermine the party from within, capitalist propaganda endeavours to persuade the workers that they can do without their own party. One of the manifestations of bourgeois influence on the working class is the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist denial of the leading role of a political party.
  • Democritus: Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.
  • Democritus: Many who have not learned wisdom live wisely, and many who do the basest deeds can make most learned speeches.
  • Democritus: Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.
  • Democritus: Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in men.
  • Democritus: Neither art nor wisdom may be attained without learning.
  • Democritus: It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.
  • Democritus: Good means not (merely) not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
  • Democritus: Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.
  • Muammar Gaddafi: We will not surrender. We will defeat them by any means. We are ready for the fight, whether it will be a short or a long one. We will be victorious in the end. This assault is by a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history.
  • Democritus: By convention sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter, hot is hot, cold is cold, color is color; but in truth there are only atoms and the void.
  • Democritus: We know nothing accurately in reality, but (only) as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon (the body) and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.
  • Democritus: Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.
  • Democritus: Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity.
  • Democritus: In a shared fish, there are no bones.
  • Democritus: Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.
  • Democritus: The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not.
  • Democritus: Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.
  • Democritus: If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.
  • Democritus: No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.
  • Democritus: In fact we do not know anything infallibly, but only that which changes according to the condition of our body and of the (influences) that reach and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Of practical wisdom these are the three fruits: to deliberate well, to speak to the point, to do what is right.
  • Democritus: 'Tis not in strength of body nor in gold that men find happiness, but in uprightness and in fulness of understanding.
  • Democritus: He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.
  • Samuel P. Huntington: The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.
  • Marjori Palmer: One of the most morale-damaging aspects of the inflation was the "sack of Germany" that occurred at the height of the (1923) inflation. Anyone who possessed dollars or sterling was king in Germany. A few American dollars would allow a man to live like a millionaire. Foreigners swarmed into the country, buying up family treasures, estates, jewelry and art works at unbelievable low prices.
  • Lionel Robbins: It was the most colossal thing of its kind in history: and next probably to the Great War itself, it must bear responsibility for many of the political and economic difficulties of our generation. It destroyed the wealth of the more solid elements of German society: and left behind a moral and economic disequilibrium, a breeding ground for the disasters which have followed. Hitler is the foster child of the inflation.
  • Lenin: There is no trace of utopianism in Marx, in the sense that he made up or invented a 'new' society. No, he studied the birth of the new society out of the old, and the forms of transition from the latter to the former, as a natural-historical process. He examined the actual experience of a proletarian mass movement and tried to draw practical lessons from it.
  • Che Guevara: Many will call me an adventurer - and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.
  • Democritus: The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.
  • Bertolt Brecht: Lenin is enshrined In the large heart of the working class.


Taming the hydrogen hype - by David Roberts - Volts


#environment #energy #climate #H2

Hydrogen is a complete pipe dream.

If you were to replace just the 100 million tons of hydrogen used as a chemical feedstock around the world with green hydrogen, which is to say, we take renewables, we run it through an electrolyzer, we split water, we end up with pollution-free hydrogen. That would require the equivalent in renewable electricity of the entire US electric grid, which is to say everything, nuclear plants, coal, oil, plus all the renewables. It's funny because someone read a draft of that book, said, "No, you made a mistake, you must mean it's just the renewables on the US grid."

No, no, it's the whole grid. So, yes, and this is one of the points I make in the book: It would be a mammoth undertaking, I think we could agree, just to do that.


volts.wtf/p/taming-the-hydroge…

I have somebody in my lil node of fedi here, has a partner going through a pretty rough cancer diagnosis and is looking for supports for the loved ones/care givers (as opposed to patient support).

Are there folks within my reach who have been through (or going through) similar and want to do some DIY peer support?
👉edit: we have a Signal group! Give me a wave if you'd like to join.

#cancer #caregivers

This entry was edited (2 months ago)

[ SMS Gate ] La Cour de justice de l'UE cloue UVDL, mais après ?


#politique #UE #corruption

Van der Leyen doit vraiment filer ses SMS...

eclaireur.eu/p/sms-gate-la-cou…

in reply to Emmanuel Florac

Entre les délais normaux, puis les lenteurs orchestrées, les appels et autres contestations, il va falloir du temps./ D'ici là, doit l'UE sera définitivement devenu l'URSS et la notion de droit n'aura plus de sens, soit elle aura explosé, et les problèmes seront tels que la saloperie de petite boche risque de filer se planquer quelque part. Pour tous ces gens de l'UE il faudra appliquer ce que Churchill préconisait pour les dignitaires nazis, pas de procès, dès qu'on en trouve un on le fusille sur place.

Benoît Paré :"Les nationalistes ukrainiens interdisent toute concession à Zelensky"


#géopolitique #guerre #OTAN

eclaireur.eu/p/benoit-pare-les…

AlphaEvolve: A Gemini-powered coding agent for designing advanced algorithms

Link: deepmind.google/discover/blog/…
Discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…

“He Totally F*cked Us” – Kamala Harris Aide Fingers Biden for Election Loss in New Book

thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/h…

Is frozen water scattered in systems around other stars? Astronomers have long expected it is, partially based on previous detections of its gaseous form, water vapor, and its presence in our own solar system. Now there is definitive evidence: Researchers confirmed the presence of crystalline water ice in a dusty debris disk that orbits a […]

Pinterest finally admits mass bans were a mistake caused by an ‘internal error’ tcrn.ch/4j2RwDE

Too late. Deleted my account, my data, and moved-on and now using a self-hosted solution. You know how they say you only get one chance to make a first impression? Well, in this age you only get one chance to not fuck over your users and when you do all manner of trust and good will you might have built-up ahead of time is gone.


Pinterest finally admits mass bans were a mistake caused by an ‘internal error’ tcrn.ch/4j2RwDE

Book club coming up! To prepare, I am re-reading @pluralistic 's "The Lost Cause" looking for characteristics of the economy of the world in which the novel is set. So far I spotted:

* Modern Monetary Theory
* Job Guarantee
* Anti-monopoly policy (several large companies have been broken up: "Baby Ikeas" etc.)
* Crypto-friendly theories of money (refuted, but with some empathy).

What am I missing?

Everyone welcome! Info and link: lu.ma/8ldrqsgk

#economics
#sciencefiction

Putin: It is Russia’s strategic choice to unswervingly advance relations with China socialistchina.org/2025/05/13/…

Été 2025 : nouvelle liaison Rome - Marseille en train de nuit


#voyage #transports #train

Woaaaaa le voyage de rêve.... Moi vouloir 😀

hourrail.voyage/fr/blog/rome-m…

Trump's Gulf tour lays bare how 'Netanyahu first' really means 'Israel last' haaretz.com/israel-news/haaret…

Western barbarians still wonder why they are so hated globally:


They handcuffed a child — then shot him.” #UK Special Forces veterans have broken years of silence to expose a pattern of war crimes by British elite troops in #Afghanistan and #Iraq. They describe detainees executed in cold blood, children murdered in their sleep, and wounded civilians finished off at close range — as revealed in a BBC Panorama investigation.


#US

Richard Feynman: Knowledge isn't free. You have to pay attention. wordsmith.social/protestation/…


Quotes

  • Otto Kuusinen: As long as the working class wages only an economic struggle, the bourgeoisie does not see in that any great danger for itself; but when the working class organises politically, i.e., creates a political party which expresses its will as a class, the bourgeoisie begins seriously to fear for its rule. That is why reaction deals its main blows against the political party of the working class. At the same time, trying to undermine the party from within, capitalist propaganda endeavours to persuade the workers that they can do without their own party. One of the manifestations of bourgeois influence on the working class is the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist denial of the leading role of a political party.
  • Democritus: Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.
  • Democritus: Many who have not learned wisdom live wisely, and many who do the basest deeds can make most learned speeches.
  • Democritus: Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.
  • Democritus: Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in men.
  • Democritus: Neither art nor wisdom may be attained without learning.
  • Democritus: It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.
  • Democritus: Good means not (merely) not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
  • Democritus: Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.
  • Muammar Gaddafi: We will not surrender. We will defeat them by any means. We are ready for the fight, whether it will be a short or a long one. We will be victorious in the end. This assault is by a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history.
  • Democritus: By convention sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter, hot is hot, cold is cold, color is color; but in truth there are only atoms and the void.
  • Democritus: We know nothing accurately in reality, but (only) as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon (the body) and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.
  • Democritus: Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.
  • Democritus: Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity.
  • Democritus: In a shared fish, there are no bones.
  • Democritus: Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.
  • Democritus: The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not.
  • Democritus: Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.
  • Democritus: If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.
  • Democritus: No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.
  • Democritus: In fact we do not know anything infallibly, but only that which changes according to the condition of our body and of the (influences) that reach and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Of practical wisdom these are the three fruits: to deliberate well, to speak to the point, to do what is right.
  • Democritus: 'Tis not in strength of body nor in gold that men find happiness, but in uprightness and in fulness of understanding.
  • Democritus: He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.
  • Samuel P. Huntington: The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.
  • Marjori Palmer: One of the most morale-damaging aspects of the inflation was the "sack of Germany" that occurred at the height of the (1923) inflation. Anyone who possessed dollars or sterling was king in Germany. A few American dollars would allow a man to live like a millionaire. Foreigners swarmed into the country, buying up family treasures, estates, jewelry and art works at unbelievable low prices.
  • Lionel Robbins: It was the most colossal thing of its kind in history: and next probably to the Great War itself, it must bear responsibility for many of the political and economic difficulties of our generation. It destroyed the wealth of the more solid elements of German society: and left behind a moral and economic disequilibrium, a breeding ground for the disasters which have followed. Hitler is the foster child of the inflation.
  • Lenin: There is no trace of utopianism in Marx, in the sense that he made up or invented a 'new' society. No, he studied the birth of the new society out of the old, and the forms of transition from the latter to the former, as a natural-historical process. He examined the actual experience of a proletarian mass movement and tried to draw practical lessons from it.
  • Che Guevara: Many will call me an adventurer - and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.
  • Democritus: The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.
  • Bertolt Brecht: Lenin is enshrined In the large heart of the working class.


#foto #mywork #photo #Natur #Insekten #Bienen #Frühling im Venn - Der erste Baum links am Wegrand ist das neue Zuhause der Hornissen 🐝
Durch den Brand vor zwei Jahren sind die Bäume am Stamm geschädigt. Für die #Hornisse ist das ideal, da sie unter der Rinde und im weichen Holz ein Nest anlegen kann. Der Standort ist nicht so ideal. Spaziergänger werden sich bestimmt oft erschrecken und "Hackengas" geben ...

N. E. Felibata 👽 reshared this.

Une jeune femme a affirmé avoir été violemment agressée à Paris après avoir porté un t-shirt en solidarité avec la #Palestine.
Les faits se seraient déroulés le 11 mai, dans une rue de la capitale. “Une femme attablée m’a lancé qu’elle avait envie de m’étrangler à cause de mon t-shirt ‘Stand for #Gaza’”, témoigne la victime.
En filmant la scène, elle dit avoir été surprise par deux personnes qui l’ont immobilisée avant de lui asséner un coup de tête au visage.
“Je suis partie à l’hôpital, le visage en sang”, raconte-t-elle, évoquant des points de suture et un profond état de choc.

Dans un message adressé à l’eurodéputée Rima Hassan, la victime indique avoir porté plainte et sollicite un soutien juridique.
La jeune femme déplore qu'afficher son soutien à la Palestine dans l’espace public est devenu un acte à haut risque en France, dans un contexte où la dénonciation du #génocide à Gaza orchestré avec la complicité des dirigeants occidentaux, se heurte à une instrumentalisation croissante de l’ #antisémitisme.
“Porter un t-shirt aux couleurs de la Palestine n’est et ne sera jamais un acte antisémite”, affirme-t-elle, dénonçant une tentative de bâillonner la solidarité.


#France #Paris #Agression #Femme #Gaza #Palestine #Liberté

[ The Guardian: ‘Customers are being duped’: how murky grocery sales tactics are squeezing some Kroger shoppers ]
theguardian.com/us-news/ng-int…
#Smith's (a Kroger brand out west) does this all the damn time. To the point where I just assume anything "on sale" actually isn't.

Back in Atlanta I used to do Kroger grocery pick up all the time and it's hard for them to pull that shit on their own app. But twice I tried to do grocery pick up here in ABQ and it was a disaster.

Both times.

Le mythe de la méritocratie, démonté en une phrase :


« Si la richesse était le résultat inévitable du travail acharné et de la libre entreprise, toutes les femmes d'Afrique seraient millionnaires. » (George Monbiot)

Photo Finbarr O'Reilly - Femme africaine portant du bois et son enfant.

« If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and free enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire. » (George Monbiot)

#rich #meritocraty #meritocratie #education #power

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Emmanuel Florac reshared this.

Image/photo.: Tonton Mollo :tknpl: :. a écrit publication qui suit Wed, 14 May 2025 11:33:58 +0200

Image/photo
Ah bon, il manque encore 40 milliards ?

#LeSachiezTu ?

Le salaire net moyen dans les 3 versants de la fonction publique est de 2.500€ mensuels.

Il y a 5,7 millions d'agents publics.

Depuis 1999 la valeur du point d'indice à décroché de 25% par rapport à l'indice mobile des prix.

En moyenne, il manque donc 25% de 2500€ chaque mois à chaque agent public soit 625€.

Soit chaque année :

625x12x5.700.00= 42.750.000.000

42 milliards d'économies par le sacrifice des fonctionnaires.

#pointdindice #fonctionpublique

Emmanuel Florac reshared this.

[ The Mirror US: Listeria outbreak: full list of recalls affecting food products sold at Walmart ]
themirror.com/news/us-news/lis…
This is why I will not buy any perishable items from #Walmart. No thanks. No how. I'd rather go hungry than buy something where Walmart forces manufacturers to lower their profit margins where they're unsustainable.

Nationalisation, emplois… On vous résume la passe d’armes entre Emmanuel MACRON et Sophie BINET


La secrétaire générale de la CGT était la première personnalité invitée à interroger le président de la République, mardi 13 mai 2025, sur « TF1 ». Le débat a été animé, voici ce qu’il faut en retenir.

Pour entamer l’émission à laquelle il participe mardi 13 mai 2025 sur le plateau de TF1, Emmanuel Macron sait qu’il va « être interpellé par des Français », lui présente Gilles Bouleau. Les échanges avec la première personnalité invitée, Sophie Binet, secrétaire générale de la CGT, donnent droit à une véritable passe d’armes.

Nationalisation ou pas d’ArcelorMittal en France ?

Ils s’écharpent en particulier autour d’une éventuelle nationalisation d’ArcelorMittal en France, réclamée par la CGT et par les salariés du géant de l’acier, alors que ce dernier a reçu d’importantes aides publiques mais vient d’annoncer 636 suppressions d’emplois dans l’Hexagone – dont la moitié de licenciements, précise Emmanuel Macron. Dans l’usine de Loire-Atlantique à Indre, 89 postes sont menacés. « Monsieur le Président, cette situation-là, c’est le résultat de votre politique », affirme la secrétaire générale de la CGT, estimant que rien n’a été fait.

La secrétaire générale de la CGT était la première personnalité invitée à interroger le président de la République, ce mardi 13 mai, sur " TF1 ". Le débat a été animé, voici ce qu'il ...

ouest-france.fr/politique/emma…

Emmanuel Macron face aux Français sur TF1: politique intérieure, Ukraine et débat avec la CGT

Lors de l’émission spéciale «Emmanuel Macron – Les défis de la France» diffusée sur TF1 le 13 mai 2025, le chef de l’État a tenté de répondre aux critiques sur son bilan national, sa politique étrangère et a affronté la secrétaire générale de la CGT, Sophie Binet, dans un échange musclé sur les licenciements et la réforme des retraites.

Diffusée à 20h10 ce 13 mai sur TF1, l’émission « Les défis de la France » a vu Emmanuel Macron répondre en direct à Gilles Bouleau, à Darius Rochebin, à des membres de la société civile et à plusieurs figures politiques et syndicales. L’objectif affiché : « redonner de la perspective ». Mais les réactions contrastées, tant sur les réseaux sociaux que sur le plateau, montrent la distance croissante entre l’Élysée et une partie de la population.

Sur la situation intérieure, Emmanuel Macron a reconnu que « le pays se caractérise par un pessimisme sur lui-même » tout en défendant son bilan: gestion des crises, baisse du chômage et relance industrielle. « On a repris du muscle », a-t-il affirmé, malgré les critiques des micro-trottoirs diffusés en début d’émission, où des citoyens dénonçaient un président « déconnecté » qui « ruine le pays ». Macron s’est voulu rassurant: « Je ne dis pas que tout a été bien fait ces huit dernières années» , tout en mettant en avant les créations d’emplois et les politiques de transition écologique.

Conflit en Ukraine et posture militaire française

Concernant l’Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron a maintenu la ligne française d’un soutien sans engagement direct. « On a décidé d’aider l’Ukraine, mais de ne jamais rentrer dans une escalade », a-t-il déclaré, assurant que les Occidentaux « ne veulent pas déclencher de troisième conflit mondial ». À propos des avoirs russes gelés, il a reconnu qu’il n’y avait « pas de cadre légal » pour les utiliser. « Ce n’est pas une bonne idée aujourd’hui », a-t-il ajouté. Le président a aussi évoqué la possibilité de « nouvelles sanctions contre la Russie », en coordination avec les États-Unis, si aucun cessez-le-feu n’était respecté.

Si les Européens veulent rester libres, il faut se mettre en situation de s'armer, d'être solidaires et de dissuader, souligne le président français

Sur le terrain militaire, Emmanuel Macron a insisté sur le « réveil géopolitique » et sur l’adaptation à une « économie de guerre ». Il a mentionné le doublement du budget de la Défense à l'horizon 2030 et la hausse des cadences de production d’armement. Il a rappelé que la France possédait « la seule armée européenne indépendante » et n’a pas exclu d’ouvrir des discussions sur la dissuasion nucléaire avec d’autres pays, comme la Pologne.

Sur le plan économique international, il a vivement critiqué la politique douanière de Donald Trump, l’accusant de nuire à la croissance américaine. « L’Europe vit une crise industrielle, aggravée par la concurrence déloyale asiatique et les décisions de Washington », a dénoncé le président, affirmant vouloir « se battre avec l’administration américaine pour revenir à la situation antérieure ».

Affrontement avec Sophie Binet sur l’industrie et les retraites

L’échange le plus tendu a opposé Emmanuel Macron à la secrétaire générale de la CGT, Sophie Binet. Cette dernière a interpellé le président sur les plans sociaux massifs en France, notamment celui d’ArcelorMittal, où 600 suppressions de postes sont prévues. « Allez-vous nationaliser ArcelorMittal ? », a-t-elle lancé. Le chef de l’État a refusé: « Ce serait dépenser des milliards d’euros (...). La réponse, c’est une politique européenne qui protège notre acier ». Macron a défendu son action, rappelant la création de 150 000 emplois industriels entre 2017 et 2024, mais Binet a rétorqué: « Encore une fois, vous refusez d’affronter les multinationales ».

Sur la réforme des retraites, le président a fermé la porte à tout référendum. « La réponse est non », a-t-il tranché. Selon lui, cette réforme est indispensable pour éviter des déficits croissants et permettrait d’économiser 17 milliards d’euros. Sophie Binet a dénoncé une injustice sociale et proposé de sanctionner les entreprises qui ne respectent pas l’égalité salariale entre hommes et femmes afin de financer les retraites.

PT

communcommune.com/2025/05/nati…

Emmanuel Florac reshared this.

While most Americans probably didn't even hear that President Trump lifted sanctions on Syria, Syrians have filled their streets in celebration.

For many, this is life-changing news.

x.com/BehizyTweets/status/1922…
t.me/WeTheMedia

Der Zentralrat der Juden wirft der Linken wegen der Übernahme der Jerusalemer Erklärung Antisemitismus vor. Das ist vorgeschoben, glaubt Raul Zelik nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1191222.…

Al-Quds Brigades targets Israeli settlements with rocket barrages english.almayadeen.net/news/po…

"Sitting Next to Deep Crack" is the name of @pluralistic 's OnlyFed.

video.firesidefedi.live/w/huev…


Episode 16 - Cory Doctorow - Livestream 2025-05-13


Welcome Fedi Friends to episode 16 of Fireside Fedi! I'm your host ozoned. Fireside Fedi is a show about folks within the Fediverse. If you're seeing this, you are a part of the Fediverse.

With me today is Cory Doctorow! You might know Cory from such classics as the term "enshittification" that he coined during one of his many presentations. But besides having catch terms that even your grandparents can agree with about today's big tech platforms, Cory is also a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He's had a few books that us on the open social web might enjoy such as "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism" and "The Internet Con : How to Seize the Means of Computation". Cory works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, a visiting professor for numerous colleges. Cory holds and multiple honorary Doctorates. And might I add, I consider Cory to be one of the most charismatic and vocal advocates for digital privacy rights and I am claiming he is now King of the nerds. And there's just so much more to say about Cory, but I recommend everyone just go look up his Wikipedia, because if I have to talk about all of his accomplishments we'll run out of time. Cory thank you so much for joining me and I'm just blown away and honored to be able to speak to you.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Doc…
craphound.com
pluralistic.net/
mamot.fr/@pluralistic
craphound.com/bio/
betterworldbooks.com/product/d…
betterworldbooks.com/product/d…


SMS 2FA is not just insecure, it's also hostile to mountain people


i have a friend — she's an old lady born and raised here in the western north carolina mountains. she hates computers, yes, but she's been willing to learn a lot and quickly after joining a big signal group chat that our shared local community uses to keep in touch.

aside from memeing with the best of them in the group chat, she also maintains a large fish pond outside the house she built herself. this despite being in her 70s. she's an inspiration.

she has a landline. it works great, and the landline phone hardware works great with her hearing aids. she's had it for years. spectrum has a monoply in our area so the landline and her cable internet service is with spectrum.

she got a cell phone a few years ago. she got a smartphone basically because she had to to do basic life tasks, including joining the big signal group chat. at first she just used it on wifi, but quickly she decided she wanted to be able to use the phone everywhere so she got a cell phone plan from spectrum because they were already her ISP. spectrum mobile uses the verizon network — famed for its good rural coverage.

this is where things started to go haywire.

all her accounts on websites, things like email and bank accounts and health insurance and healthcare providers, they started trying to send her SMS messages in order to let her get into her accounts.

the SMS codes don't work, because they don't come. she doesn't have cell service at her house. it's up in the mountains, sure, but it's not isolated. she lives 20 minutes from downtown asheville and she has lots of neighbors on her road.

she turned on wifi calling on her phone. now she could receive SMS messages from friends and family, but 2FA codes still weren't coming through. i did some digging, and it turns out messages from 5 digit shortcodes often aren't supported over wifi calling. sometimes they are, but in her case they're clearly not. she has a current, stock iphone. she's using the spectrum-provided internet hardware. she knows how to use her phone.

i did more digging — it turns out some ISP-provided landline services support receiving SMS messages to the landline, and then a computer voice reads them out to you. “we don't offer that service” the spectrum chat told us.

some of these accounts can likely be converted to using TOTP 2FA rather than SMS 2FA. this is good, but you have to get in to begin with in order to turn that on. so what my friend has to do is:

  1. make a list, over time, of the websites that she's locked out of because of SMS 2FA
  2. not be able to use those sites at home the whole time she's making the list
  3. schedule a meetup with a friend like me
  4. drive to town to meet the friend
  5. sit down and systematically go through the list of websites and convert them to TOTP
  6. inevitably discover that some of them don't support TOTP
  7. try and contact those companies and explain that they need to turn off SMS 2FA on her account so that she can use their healthcare/banking/email/whatever service from her home
  8. discover that it's not possible to talk to a company anymore in 2025

other options available to her include

  1. port her cellphone number to a VOIP provider that does support receiving SMS from shortcodes over wifi
  2. spend hundreds of dollars setting up a cell tower signal booster outside her house
  3. move

these are all ridiculous options that shouldn't be necessary in order to log in to a website.

if you look at the spectrum mobile coverage map where my friend lives, it shows she has perfect coverage at her house. and all her neighbors do too. all the way up the holler in fact!

this is simply false. she usually doesn't even have service 100 meters down the road.

another friend of mine who also lives out in the county, a millenial, once said that “SMS 2FA is the bane of [her] existence.” the valley she's in isn't even that deep.

and TOTP, the obvious alternative solution, is still pretty sorry. you have to download an app to do it, it's not just a capability that a phone has by default. and then when trying to find an app to use for it, you're presented with a multitude of high-stakes choices, and often pretty technical explanations if you start internet searching about which app to use.

i understand why SMS 2FA is so ubiquitous. when it works, the UX is good, nontechnical users intuitively understand it, and it's usually secure enough.

but there are 1.1 million people in these western north carolina mountains, 25 million in the rest of the appalachians, and many millions more in the mountain west and pacific ranges.

we have internet, but we have F-tier cell service — what are we supposed to do?

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Milwaukee County judge Hannah Dugan for obstructing an ICE arrest last month.

thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/b…

As leftist Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum refuses to grant permission for US forces to go after the Cartels in their territory, and also does not decisively act against them, the criminal organizations continue to run unchecked, killing and maiming non-stop – including politicians.

thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/s…

DHS Chief Kristi Noem on Tuesday evening said the New Jersey Democrat lawmakers involved in the violent altercation at the Newark ICE facility last Friday committed felonies.

thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/c…

The 2025 election cycle has seen a notable series of Republican losses in key local and state races. These defeats were often in traditionally Republican strongholds. Stolen or not, one thing is clear: Republicans must turn out in overwhelming numbers. Make it too big to rig.

thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/d…

Pope Leo XIV’s MAGA-supporting brother Louis Prevost has defended his clerical record and said he is likely to govern the church as a centrist.

thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/p…

Democrat Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed a Republican bill on Tuesday that would require public high schools to adhere to President Trump’s “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” executive order by including geography and instruction on the Gulf of America.

thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/f…

Iowa GOP Rep. Randy Feenstra on Monday filed paperwork to run for Iowa governor next year, as Republicans in the Hawk-eye state weigh who could replace Gov. Kim Reynolds.

justthenews.com/politics-polic…

Richard Feynman: Keep an open mind – but not so open that your brain falls out. wordsmith.social/protestation/…


Quotes

  • Otto Kuusinen: As long as the working class wages only an economic struggle, the bourgeoisie does not see in that any great danger for itself; but when the working class organises politically, i.e., creates a political party which expresses its will as a class, the bourgeoisie begins seriously to fear for its rule. That is why reaction deals its main blows against the political party of the working class. At the same time, trying to undermine the party from within, capitalist propaganda endeavours to persuade the workers that they can do without their own party. One of the manifestations of bourgeois influence on the working class is the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist denial of the leading role of a political party.
  • Democritus: Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.
  • Democritus: Many who have not learned wisdom live wisely, and many who do the basest deeds can make most learned speeches.
  • Democritus: Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.
  • Democritus: Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in men.
  • Democritus: Neither art nor wisdom may be attained without learning.
  • Democritus: It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.
  • Democritus: Good means not (merely) not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
  • Democritus: Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.
  • Muammar Gaddafi: We will not surrender. We will defeat them by any means. We are ready for the fight, whether it will be a short or a long one. We will be victorious in the end. This assault is by a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history.
  • Democritus: By convention sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter, hot is hot, cold is cold, color is color; but in truth there are only atoms and the void.
  • Democritus: We know nothing accurately in reality, but (only) as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon (the body) and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.
  • Democritus: Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.
  • Democritus: Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity.
  • Democritus: In a shared fish, there are no bones.
  • Democritus: Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.
  • Democritus: The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not.
  • Democritus: Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.
  • Democritus: If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.
  • Democritus: No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.
  • Democritus: In fact we do not know anything infallibly, but only that which changes according to the condition of our body and of the (influences) that reach and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Of practical wisdom these are the three fruits: to deliberate well, to speak to the point, to do what is right.
  • Democritus: 'Tis not in strength of body nor in gold that men find happiness, but in uprightness and in fulness of understanding.
  • Democritus: He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.
  • Samuel P. Huntington: The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.
  • Marjori Palmer: One of the most morale-damaging aspects of the inflation was the "sack of Germany" that occurred at the height of the (1923) inflation. Anyone who possessed dollars or sterling was king in Germany. A few American dollars would allow a man to live like a millionaire. Foreigners swarmed into the country, buying up family treasures, estates, jewelry and art works at unbelievable low prices.
  • Lionel Robbins: It was the most colossal thing of its kind in history: and next probably to the Great War itself, it must bear responsibility for many of the political and economic difficulties of our generation. It destroyed the wealth of the more solid elements of German society: and left behind a moral and economic disequilibrium, a breeding ground for the disasters which have followed. Hitler is the foster child of the inflation.
  • Lenin: There is no trace of utopianism in Marx, in the sense that he made up or invented a 'new' society. No, he studied the birth of the new society out of the old, and the forms of transition from the latter to the former, as a natural-historical process. He examined the actual experience of a proletarian mass movement and tried to draw practical lessons from it.
  • Che Guevara: Many will call me an adventurer - and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.
  • Democritus: The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.
  • Bertolt Brecht: Lenin is enshrined In the large heart of the working class.


Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday reportedly dismissed two top officials on the National Intelligence Council, as part of her effort to curb the "politicization" of the intelligence community.

justthenews.com/government/sec…

The House Energy and Commerce Committee released its section of the Republicans' budget reconciliation bill Sunday evening. The legislation, which was marked up on Tuesday, includes provisions to scrap $6.5 billion in funding from parts of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that funds climate-related issues.

justthenews.com/politics-polic…

Read together, multiple indicators suggest that the Trump economy defied expectations and that the trade policies did not adversely damage the nation’s overall economic health. If the trend continues, Trump will have fulfilled what politicians call "dinner table" issues for millions of Americans.

justthenews.com/politics-polic…

National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya said poor safety culture, and a feud between employees that risked the leak of an unknown pathogen, prompted him to temporarily shutter the high-level biosafety laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

justthenews.com/nation/science…

Replicube: A puzzle game about writing code to create shapes

Link: store.steampowered.com/app/340…
Discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…