Nostr notes by breakfastmtn

I'm sorry! I'm a technology writer, which means I'm ...

2026-01-14T05:05:55Z

I'm sorry! I'm a technology writer, which means I'm supposed to be encouraging you to throw hundreds of billions of dollars at the money-losingest technology in human history, AI. No one has ever lost as much money as the AI companies.

There is no way to operate one of Nvidia's big AI-optimized GPUs without losing money. The owners of these GPUs who have lost the least money are the ones who rushed into buying GPUs without ensuring they'd have electricity to power them, and have been forced to leave their GPUs to age in warehouses. The minute they plug in those GPUs, they'll start losing money, and the more they use them, the more money they'll lose.

. . .

I don't have any advice for how to do that. I'm sorry!

As Canada contemplates our response to the collapse of the American empire and its alliances with the world, the cornerstone of our current strategy is sacrificing our dollars, water and energy in order to become more dependent on America, in a weird and improbable bet that we will figure out how to make millions of Canadians unemployed. I'm sorry, that just doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

If I can beg your indulgence, I'd like to propose an alternative.

A social media post from the Department of Labor is attracting ...

2026-01-13T23:11:15Z

A social media post from the Department of Labor is attracting criticism for appearing to echo a Nazi-era slogan from the early 20th century.

The department posted to X on Jan. 10, "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American."

Dozens of users commented and reposted, expressing alarm and outrage over what they called an alarming echo of what the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum describes as one of the central slogans used by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. That slogan is, "One People, One Realm, One Leader."

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/usa-today-2/)\
[Archive](https://archive.is/s8qvf)

Mexico will never tolerate an invasion of its national ...

2025-02-22T08:18:02Z

Mexico will never tolerate an invasion of its national sovereignty by the United States, President Claudia Sheinbaum warned Thursday after Washington designated Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

"This cannot be an opportunity for the U.S. to invade our sovereignty," she said. "With Mexico it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion."

On Wednesday, the Trump administration formally labeled eight cartels as terrorist groups. They include Mexico's two main drug trafficking organizations, the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/cbs-news/)\
[Archive](https://archive.is/TNbcE)

I love Mastodon but I think a little polite wagging is justified! ...

2025-02-21T21:51:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…pvf5
_________________________

I love Mastodon but I think a little polite wagging is justified! Groups are already being used on Mastodon but in a way that kind of sucks and is inconvenient for services with groups support. You basically have to trick Mastodon into thinking that a group is a user. As I noticed yesterday, using the user tag ("@") for a group causes Friendica to fail because it's not a user. If I click that userified group link in Lemmy, I get: "Error! Failed to fetch data for that user". So now Mastodon has a standard for group tags that screws over everyone with native support for groups. Rude! ;)

That isn't, like, an end-of-the-world problem. It's really just a minor annoyance -- I follow this group from both Lemmy and Friendica without a problem -- but if your users are working around absent features en masse in ways that cause QoL issues for others in the Fediverse, it would be nice if you took some action on it. Your users are doing this with or without you and we're all better off if it's with you. And to be fair to Mastodon, they are doing that, however slowly.

Similarly, it'll be great when 4.5 drops and the global feed on Pixelfed stops being a wall of Mastodon users using screenshots of text to "quote"...

I just noticed that groups is now shown as "in progress" ...

2025-02-21T19:32:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…evry
_________________________

I just noticed that groups is now shown as "in progress" on the [public roadmap](https://joinmastodon.org/roadmap) so hopefully they join the party soon.

Google and Meta do not meet the requirements to partner with the ...

2025-02-20T04:01:15Z

Google and Meta do not meet the requirements to partner with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the organisation has said, after the two tech giants ended their official involvement and ditched diversity obligations in the US.

At the 47th annual Mardi Gras parade up Oxford Street next Saturday, a notable absence will be the two tech firms, previously event sponsors.

When Sydney hosted the biannual World Pride global event in 2023, Meta sent a float to the parade. It was a media partner for last year’s Mardi Gras; Google was a supporting partner.

The two companies have this year curtailed their spending on Mardi Gras, Guardian Australia has confirmed, and are not sponsoring the event in any capacity.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-guardian/)\
[Archive](https://archive.is/6327d)

President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that Ukraine was ...

2025-02-19T01:50:01Z

President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that Ukraine was responsible for Russia's invasion of the country three years ago, arguing Kyiv could have made a deal to avoid the conflict.

“You should have never started it,” Trump said of Ukraine while criticizing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had expressed concern that his country was not included in talks between the U.S. and Russia in Saudi Arabia.

"I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it's going very well. But today I heard, 'Oh, well, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. "You should have never started it. You could have made a deal."

Trump went on to say: "I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished, and not one dome would have been knocked down. But they chose not to do it that way."

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/nbc-news/)\
[Archive](https://archive.is/WATTZ)

Ukrainian weapons startups are finally seeing an inflow of funds ...

2025-02-18T06:12:21Z

Ukrainian weapons startups are finally seeing an inflow of funds from Western investors who have long been intrigued by the Ukraine's defense tech sector but have so far kept their money out of the war-torn country.

Financial analysis firm Pitchbook provided the Kyiv Independent with data showing a four-fold rise in foreign venture capital deals in Ukraine-headquartered startups after the market flatlined in 2022 and 2023 following Russia’s invasion.

The total dollar value remains slim — just under $20 million by Pitchfork’s accounting, and $40 million according to the Ukrainian government. But with most of these new deals coming in at the end of 2024, a dam may be bursting.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/kyiv-independent-bias/)\
[Archive](https://archive.is/JMEoN)

Europe's leaders are scrambling. Their hastily convened ...

2025-02-17T03:18:29Z

Europe's leaders are scrambling. Their hastily convened security summit in Paris on Monday is proof of that.

They are still reeling from not being invited by the US to talks with Russia over the future of Ukraine. US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he could be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin "very soon".

Can Europe, under pressure, put political differences and domestic economic concerns aside, and come up with a united front on security spending and on Ukraine's future, including potentially sending troops there - to force themselves a spot at the negotiating table?

They are going to try.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/bbc/)\
[Archive](https://archive.is/0Lahe)

The United States offered Ukraine "a colonial agreement" ...

2025-02-17T01:35:43Z

The United States offered Ukraine "a colonial agreement" on exchanging Ukrainian rare earth minerals for U.S. military aid, a former senior Ukrainian official told the Associated Press (AP) on Feb. 16.

The comment comes after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a draft of the agreement to President Volodymyr Zelensky on Feb. 12. Zelensky refused to sign the document, saying it did not sufficiently protect Ukraine's interests.

"For me is very important the connection between some kind of security guarantees and some kind of investment," Zelensky said.

. . .

"It's a colonial agreement and Zelensky cannot sign it," a former senior Ukrainian official told the AP. The former official spoke under the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/kyiv-independent-bias/)\
[Archive](https://archive.is/DTw9A)

The below-the-radar American visit to Minsk, the Belarusian ...

2025-02-15T19:28:55Z

The below-the-radar American visit to Minsk, the Belarusian capital, on Wednesday came just a day after President Trump had a long telephone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Both events signaled Washington’s departure from a yearslong policy of trying to isolate leaders out of favor in the West because of their repressive policies and the war in Ukraine.

After talks with Mr. Lukashenko, Christopher W. Smith, a deputy assistant secretary of state, and two other American officials drove to a village near the border with Lithuania. There, courtesy of the Belarusian KGB, three people who had been jailed — an American and two Belarusian political prisoners — were waiting to be picked up.

. . .

The next step, Mr. Smith told a gathering of Western diplomats on Thursday in Vilnius, according to people who attended, is a possible grand bargain under which Mr. Lukashenko would release a slew of political prisoners, including prominent ones. In return, the United States would relax sanctions on Belarusian banks and exports of potash, a key ingredient in fertilizer, of which Belarus is a major producer.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/new-york-times/)
[Archive](https://archive.is/u6LtO)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning that his ...

2025-02-15T02:46:46Z

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning that his country will likely lose its war with Russia without U.S. military support.

Ukraine has increased its military defense production since Russia launched its full-scale invasion but has a “low chance” of survival if the U.S. cuts support under President Donald Trump, Zelenskyy said Friday in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“It will be very, very, very difficult,” he said in the interview with Kristen Welker scheduled to air Sunday. “And, of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have a low chance — low chance to survive without support of the United States.”

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/politico/)
[Archive](https://archive.is/MOozB)

It looks like Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government ...

2025-02-14T22:01:16Z

It looks like Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government could put people’s lives at risk across the world.

USAID provided, among other things, funding for groups advocating for human rights and democratic reforms in states mired by autocratic regimes, as a form of U.S. soft power in places such as Russia. When Musk gutted the agency earlier this month, he baselessly claimed that USAID was “laundering” taxpayer funds into far-left sources.

Now Russia wants to know exactly where the money was going. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian State Duma, asked the U.S. Tuesday for a list of individuals and opposition groups in Russia who received money from USAID.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/new-republic/)
[Archive](https://archive.is/cNNuJ)

The doge[.]gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk’s ...

2025-02-14T07:27:24Z

The doge[.]gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk’s cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database that can be edited by anyone, according to two separate people who found the vulnerability and shared it with 404 Media. One coder added at least two database entries that are visible on the live site and say “this is a joke of a .gov site” and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN -roro.”

Doge[.]gov was hastily deployed after Elon Musk told reporters Tuesday that his Department of Government Efficiency is “trying to be as transparent as possible. In fact, our actions—we post our actions to the DOGE handle on X, and to the DOGE website.” At the time, DOGE was an essentially blank webpage. It was built out further Wednesday and Thursday, and now shows a mirror of the @DOGE X account posts, as well as various stats about the U.S. government’s federal workforce.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/404-media-bias/)
[Archive](https://archive.is/wy1Wt)

Just downloaded Organic Maps as a replacement. No ads/tracking ...

2025-02-14T05:28:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…kjr9
_________________________

Just downloaded Organic Maps as a replacement. No ads/tracking plus it's open source and uses OSM. Seems pretty cool so far.

Despite its name, the Department of Government Efficiency is not, ...

2025-02-13T21:37:41Z

Despite its name, the Department of Government Efficiency is not, so far, primarily interested in efficiency. DOGE and its boss, Elon Musk, have instead focused their activity on the eradication of the federal civil service, along with its culture and values, and its replacement with something different. In other words: regime change.

No one should be surprised or insulted by this phrase, because this is exactly what Trump and many who support him have long desired. During his 2024 campaign, Trump spoke of Election Day as “Liberation Day,” a moment when, in his words, “vermin” and “radical left lunatics” would be eliminated from public life. J. D. Vance has said that Trump should “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.” Steve Bannon prefers to talk about the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” but that amounts to the same thing.

These ideas are not original to Vance or Bannon: In the 21st century, elected leaders such as Hugo Chávez or Viktor Orbán have also used their democratic mandates for the same purpose.. Chávez fired 19,000 employees of the state oil company; Orbán dismantled labor protections for the civil service. Trump, Musk, and Russell Vought, the newly appointed director of the Office of Management and Budget and architect of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025—the original regime-change blueprint—are now using IT operations, captured payments systems, secretive engineers, a blizzard of executive orders, and viral propaganda to achieve the same thing.

This appears to be DOGE’s true purpose.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-atlantic/)
[Archive](https://archive.is/DnrRV)

In the past week or so, the courts have begun to try to set some ...

2025-02-13T02:06:23Z

In the past week or so, the courts have begun to try to set some boundaries on the Musk–Miller–Trump administration’s early blitz of recklessness.

. . .

This judicial review provides at least a small reprieve, hope that some of the administration’s most destructive impulses will be stopped. Or at least pared back. But even with the courts stepping up, and even with the reality of the administration’s ineptitude sinking in, this early Musk–Miller–Trump blitz remains very—maybe irreparably—damaging.
Of course, there are a lot of moles to whack: the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are being dismantled at an alarming rate, and the court system is not known for being nimble. The administration is betting, perhaps rightly, that at least some of its thoughtless, lawless efforts will slip through the cracks.

But even if the courts caught them all—and even if every court facing each lawless escapade said, “Nope, that’s not a thing”—still the entire process would be doing serious damage to our institutions. Think of it as someone spoofing your identity and going on a shopping spree with your credit cards. Even if the goon gets caught, you still have to go store by store to argue that the fraudulent purchase wasn’t legitimate and hope the debt is forgiven. And all the while, perhaps long after all the debts are dealt with, the torrent of uncertainty kills your credit score.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/slate/)
[Archive](https://archive.is/8zBrV)

Donald Trump has said that he and Vladimir Putin have agreed to ...

2025-02-12T19:20:34Z

Donald Trump has said that he and Vladimir Putin have agreed to begin negotiations to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine, as the secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, said that Ukraine would have to cede territory and reject Nato membership in order to reach a deal.

The rapid entry into negotiations with Russia and open demands that Ukraine concede land will have set alarm bells ringing in Kyiv and among its European allies that the Trump administration will offer minimal resistance to Putin’s demands in order to cut a deal as quickly as possible.

In a social media post, Trump said that held a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Putin and that they agreed to “have our respective teams start negotiations immediately”.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-guardian/)
[Archive](https://archive.is/A4CDZ)

Top Trump administration officials on Wednesday walked back ...

2025-02-05T21:47:19Z

Top Trump administration officials on Wednesday walked back elements of President Trump’s proposal to “take over” Gaza and drive out the Palestinian population, insisting that he had not committed to using U.S. troops to clear the territory and that any relocation of Palestinians would be temporary.

Mr. Trump’s brazen proposal to move as many as two million Palestinians out of Gaza and seize and redevelop it as a U.S. territory met with immediate opposition on Wednesday from key American partners and officials around the world, with many expressing support for a Palestinian state, and experts calling the idea a breach of international law. Less than 24 hours after Mr. Trump floated the plan, top administration officials sought to soften it.

Speaking to reporters in Guatemala, Secretary of State Marco Rubio twice suggested that Mr. Trump was only proposing to clear out and rebuild Gaza, not claim indefinite possession of the territory. Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to the Middle East, told Republican senators at a closed-door luncheon that Mr. Trump “doesn’t want to put any U.S. troops on the ground, and he doesn’t want to spend any U.S. dollars at all” on Gaza, according to Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri.

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/new-york-times/)

This is a gift link to the live feed.

Donald Trump has said that Palestinians have “no alternative” ...

2025-02-04T22:26:43Z

Donald Trump has said that Palestinians have “no alternative” but to leave Gaza due to the devastation left by Israel’s war on Hamas, in effect endorsing ethnic cleansing of the territory over the opposition of Palestinians and the neighbouring countries.

Speaking as he prepared to host Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday, Trump repeated the suggestion that Gaza’s population should be relocated to Jordan and Egypt – something both countries have firmly rejected.

Trump claimed Palestinians would “love to leave Gaza”, telling reporters: “I would think that they would be thrilled.”

[MBFC](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-guardian/)
[Archive](https://archive.is/BvA7O)

Content Warning: Graphic descriptions of sexual assault A ...

2023-12-28T23:53:35Z

**Content Warning: Graphic descriptions of sexual assault**

A two-month investigation by The Times uncovered painful new details, establishing that the attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7.

Relying on video footage, photographs, GPS data from mobile phones and interviews with more than 150 people, including witnesses, medical personnel, soldiers and rape counselors, The Times identified at least seven locations where Israeli women and girls appear to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated.

Four witnesses described in graphic detail seeing women raped and killed at two different places along Route 232, the same highway where Ms. Abdush’s half-naked body was found sprawled on the road at a third location.

And The Times interviewed several soldiers and volunteer medics who together described finding more than 30 bodies of women and girls in and around the rave site and in two kibbutzim in a similar state as Ms. Abdush’s — legs spread, clothes torn off, signs of abuse in their genital areas.

[Archive](https://archive.is/7tF0P)