Lou Katz @lou@entropyservice.com

Parallel Bus vs Serial Bus

Propaganda and media thread 🧵

"While right-wing propaganda has its roots in the 1930s, it wasn’t until the ’70s that Republican thought leaders truly began seeding the notion that any media criticism of Republican policy exhibited a “left-wing bias” and should be discarded as unreliable. In reality, as media critic Parker Molloy notes, most mainstream U.S. journalism skews center-right."

https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/01/02/americas-right-wing-propaganda-problem-might-be-terminal/

Even the New York Times is now reporting that Israel lied about Hamas "stealing aid" and in reality Netanyahu has been deliberately blocking aid, killing thousands of Palestinians by starvation—which is a war crime.

So, how disgusting that American politicians and media are more upset with Zohran Mamdani for a phrase he never said than they are with Andrew Cuomo for joining Netanyahu's legal team to defend him against charges of documented war crimes in Gaza.

White supremacy is a helluva drug.

#uspol Columbia gives up academic freedom for $400M

Colleges in 1930s Germany thought giving in to government demands would save them…

What made the #German university capitulation so devastating wasn’t just the individual policy changes, but how quickly institutional autonomy collapsed once the principle was breached. Columbia’s agreement follows this same pattern: transferring disciplinary authority from faculty to administrators, adopting government-mandated speech definitions, submitting to external monitoring, screening international students for ideological compliance, and reviewing curriculum content. The university justified each concession as necessary for survival, just as German institutions did.

https://www.alternet.org/universities-in-nazi-germany-and-the-soviet-union-thought-giving-in-to-government-demands-would-save-their-independence/

The agreement effectively allows the federal government to dictate campus speech policies, disciplinary procedures, and academic content through funding leverage, fundamentally altering #Columbia’s institutional governance structure.

https://apnews.com/article/columbia-trump-deal-00eef5dca9f003e593d2cb151f5cce17

@academicchatter
@histodons
#trumpizm #usfascism

@brouhaha if you wait a few minutes someone will write a new sound system for Linux that will either fix it or make it worse.

Frightening to see how widely applicable this quote is these days:

“One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” —Omar El Akkad

@oatmeal @academicchatter @histodons
Appeasement never works. Did no one learn the basic lessons of WW2?

Latest reminder that if you buy an appliance of any kind that has an Internet connection, you are not the owner. You should understand that the seller can -- and many do -- remotely disable it or extort a "subscription" fee at any point.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/07/firmware-update-hinders-echelon-smart-home-gym-equipments-ability-to-work-offline/

This should be illegal, period.

When I look back at immediate post-WW2 Germany, I don't think that most Nazis suddenly realized that they had been wrong, or really had a change of heart at all....I think that a lot of humanity just adjusts their thinking to be on the "winning side".

This is why I think it is a waste of time to try to convince Conservatives of the error of their ways.

Since the destruction of Earth's biosphere is not progressing quickly enough, I'm launching a new AI platform built on blockchain smart contracts.

Israel’s Ever-Expanding War Machine Is Financed Through International Bond Sales https://twp.ai/E6AFwa

Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?

i think the best way to use LLMs is this: don't type into the AI chatbot's input field. instead, write a description of the problem in a text file. work through the specifics of what you want to accomplish, and how you'd go about doing it. once you've got a few hundred words of ideas and planning, you can go back to the empty, unused AI tab and close it. then begin doing the work yourself. consider sending your notes to friends or experts. when you're done, remember to thank them for their help!

Child poverty more than doubled last year.
And their solution?
Slash Medicaid and SNAP.
Because nothing screams “pro-family” like booting toddlers from doctor visits and nutrition programs.

#SaveMedicaidSaveFamilies
4/7

Medicaid covers 1 in 5 Americans, 60% of nursing home residents, and 40% of kids.
Cut it, and we’re not “tightening belts.”
We’re slashing throats—slowly, bureaucratically, and with plausible deniability.

#SaveMedicaidSaveFamilies
3/7

They’re proposing $800 billion in Medicaid cuts—gutting care for nearly 50% of U.S. children.

No big deal. Just wiping out the lifeline that helps kids with asthma breathe and NICU babies survive.

But hey, “entitlements,” right?

#SaveMedicaidSaveFamilies

1/7

The plan could result in 8.6 million people being removed from Medicaid.
Parents. Kids. Cancer patients.
But sure, the real threat is someone getting therapy without first selling a kidney.

#SaveMedicaidSaveFamilies
2/7

Republicans love to say “tighten the belt” when it comes to Medicaid.

Easy to say when you’ve never had to choose between chemo and rent.

This isn’t about budgets — it’s about cruelty.

#SaveMedicaidSaveFamilies
1/7

We don’t lack money.
We lack morals.
Tax breaks for billionaires pass without debate.
But helping kids with disabilities?
That’s “controversial.”
The cruelty is the point.

#SaveMedicaidSaveFamilies
6/7