The right to repair is the right to resilience
It’s no coincidence that farms and farmers have been leaders in Right to Repair: when you’re isolated and you’re not allowed to fix your stuff, it means that you can neither nip down to the shops for a replacement, nor easily have an authorized repair tech come to your place.
Covid can put everyone – even entire nations – into the position of that isolated farmer.
And if Covid turns out to be a fizzle – and let’s pray that it is on a global scale, although it’s already awful for the people effected – it’ll be something else. Natural and man-made disasters are inevitable, and they will require us to make repairs locally, not wait for authorization from a big corporation.
Cory Doctorow on "Right to Repair" and more
Cory Doctorow talks about how big business and government have taken away your right to repair property you own, how Facebook and other monopolies can be broken up by requiring them by law to interoperate with other services, and other issues related to monopoly control and trustbusting.
INTERVIEW WITH THE FIREWALLS DON’T STOP DRAGONS PODCAST
Cory and other digital rights advocates can often get branded as socialists. And yet your right to do what you want with your own property is the most fundamental right there is in a capitalist/market economy. The Revolutionary War was literally fought to protect property rights.
But we’ve reached a state where Apple, Amazon and Microsoft can sell you music, then arbitrarily decide to delete it from your computer or phone at some point maybe years in the future. This is a thing that has actually happened, more than once.
And more seriously, farmers are literally denied the legal right to modify or repair their own equipment, jeopardizing our food supply.
Ezra Klein: Sanders can’t lead the Democrats if his campaign treats them like the enemy www.vox.com/2020/3/4/…
Coronavirus Porn Is Going Viral on Pornhub
8-year-old boy wins $200 worth of cannabis products at hockey tournament
Trump blasts Sessions on Twitter, inadvertently confirming key Mueller finding
Trump publicly admits to obstruction of justice. Again.
AT&T is looking to cut billions of dollars in spending, starting with “headcount rationalization” (apparently the new bureaucratese for “sorry you don’t have a job anymore”) and “benefit restructuring” (hope you don’t have to go to a doctor!)
Sisters Margaux and Mariel Hemingway struggled with the family history of depression, substance abuse and suicide
Their grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, killed himself, as did Margaux and six other members of the family. Mariel Hemingway survived and became a mental health advocate.
Americans only started calling our country "America" around the turn of the 20th Century. Previously, we called ourselves the "Union," "Republic," and even "Columbia" and Freedonia.
The transition to “America” came about the time the US became a bloody, brutal global empire, committing genocide in the Philippines and conquering Puerto Rico and Hawaii.
Cisco WebEx, Google and other companies are offering free videoconferencing to help restrict coronavirus (and encourage people to subscribe and pay when the emergency is over!)
Republican Darrell Issa moves on to face Democrat opponent Ammar Campa-Najjar in the November election for CA-50
Issa’s primary campaign against Republican Carl DeMaio was dirty. The campaign against Campa-Najjar is going to be dirtier.
ICE's New York office uses a rigged algorithm to keep virtually all arrestees in detention. The ACLU says it's unconstitutional
“… this ostensible problem-solving software was rigged to provide only one solution: detention,” writes Sam Biddle at The Intercept.
According to a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Bronx Defenders:
While waiting for those hearings, those detained suffer under harsh conditions of confinement akin to criminal incarceration. While incarcerated, they are separated from families, friends, and communities, and they risk losing their children, their jobs, and their homes. Because of inadequate medical care and conditions in the jails, unmet medical and mental-health needs often lead to serious and at times irreversible consequences.
Via Cory pluralistic.net