Happy Solstice! I'm sharing once again my favourite scene from Blight, which takes place at the Kensington Festival of Lights in Toronto.

"But this was what people always did, in the darkest season—huddle together for warmth and convince themselves that the dawn would come again."

Dear friends, may you kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight.

Art by Masivart on IG.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk Have Energized the German Far-Right – Mother Jones

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/12/donald-trump-elon-musk-alternative-fur-deutschlandafd-german-elections/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

https://www.europesays.com/1705659/ Pregnant Princess Beatrice stuns in a black blazer and dress as she joins Emma Weymouth at glitzy Ralph Lauren event in London

CBS News: Senate approves bill to expand Social Security to millions of Americans
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-security-fairness-act-senate-vote-passed/

Elon Musk is, more or less, a rogue state.

His intentions are self-serving and nefarious,
and his nation-state level resources allow him to flout the law with impunity.

To put it into context,
if dollars were metres, Musk’s money would be enough to take him to Mars and back,
while a mere millionaire could only make a round trip from Paris to Amsterdam.

The sheer immorality of any one person possessing so much wealth is obvious to most people with basic amounts of empathy.

But when it comes to Musk and the other 14 people worth more than $100bn, the morality of it is almost a secondary concern.

Their individual wealth is a society-distorting threat to democracy in the same way that economics has always recognised monopolies to be dangerous to a functional market.

For $250m in direct support
– and an additional $44bn for control over X, nee Twitter, and with it the algorithm behind what 300 million users see on their timelines
– Musk was rewarded with a co-presidency.

What else are we supposed to make of his appearance at Notre Dame’s reopening, joining Donald Trump and various heads of state?

X’s valuation may be dropping as swiftly as its user count,
but that’s missing the point behind the purchase.

X served its purpose by helping elect Trump,
with one study suggesting the platform’s algorithm was tweaked to boost conservative-leaning users.

That Tesla stock has surged more than 40% since the election surely has little to do with the company’s fundamentals
and much to do with investors speculating on an unprecedented boost to its fortunes to come.

Tesla and SpaceX grew into behemoths on the back of public contracts and public subsidies,
and from xAI to Neuralink, his other companies stand to benefit from Musk’s inside influence over regulation.

Plutocracy is not enough, though, because nothing is ever enough for the handful of men who have everything.

Musk’s new obsessions
(beyond the validation and human affection that he mistakenly believes he will find on social media)
are attacking public servants,
slashing social spending
and going after the most vulnerable.

“In most cases, the word ‘homeless’ is a lie,” Musk tweeted recently.
“It’s usually a propaganda word for violent drug addicts with severe mental illness.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/20/elon-musk-is-becoming-a-one-man-rogue-state-its-time-we-reined-him-in?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

https://www.europesays.com/1705657/ Prince William, Kate Middleton prep for throne after ‘brutal’ year #BritishRoyalFamily #BuckinghamPalace #charles #CharlesIII #KateMiddleton #KingCharles #KingCharlesIii #MeghanMarkle #PrinceGeorge #PrinceHarry #PrinceWilliam #PrincessCharlotte #PrincessDiana #QueenCamilla #QueenElizabethIi #RoyalFamilies #RoyalFamily

@pluralistic Cory Doctorow’s prescient story in #Radicalized is about health insurance and murder

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/20/cory-doctorow-radicalized-novella-healthcare-ceo-killing

Good news for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere - starting tomorrow, the days will get longer :mastodance:

The winter solstice will occur on Saturday, December 21, 2024 at 09:21 UTC (4:21 a.m. EST).

"The term “solstice” comes from the Latin words sol (Sun) and sistere (to stand still) because, during the solstice, the angle between the Sun’s rays and the plane of the Earth’s equator (called declination) appears to stand still."

https://www.farmersalmanac.com/winter-solstice-first-day-winter
#WinterSolstice
1/n

‘Heroic’ childcare manager who sounded alarm over ‘Australia’s worst paedophile’ found not guilty of hacking
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/20/yolanda-borucki-ashley-griffith-computer-hacking-charge-not-guilty-ntwnfb?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Just a reminder - THIS 👇🏼 is what it's like when government is working for the people...

Swimming mouse among 27 new species discovered in Peru

New critters discovered in Peru.

https://news.yahoo.com/swimming-mouse-among-27-species-120122170.html

https://www.europesays.com/1705654/ A girl reported to the German police in September 2023 about the danger of a man called Talib Abd AlMohsen, who was planning to run people over with his car. The German police ignored the report #europe

¡Feliz solsticio de invierno!

Hoy el Sol Invicto empieza a levantarse de su letargo, o lo que es lo mismo, se queda con nosotros, en el hemisferio norte, un poquito más cada día. Aunque aún queden por delante los días más fríos, en unos dos meses empezarán a brotar las precoces flores de almendros, cerezos y ciruelos para anunciarnos la primavera.

Out of the oven - multi-seeded sourdough using a Colorado levain, 9% scalded home milled rye grain, 5% scalded cracked Emmer grain, 6% scalded home milled pulses, 80% very strong Canadian white flour and 65g mixed seeds.
#sourdough #bread #colorado #breadsky #rye #pulses

#astrodon enhanced core region of North American nebula using Ha-OIII filter.

Well, that didn't last long.

Evie had a 💡 moment.

If he goes in 'that door' when the visit is over, if I go camp-out at 'that door', then maybe he will come out 'that door'.

Result: Owner dragged up driveway.
😂

Meet Evie!

#DogsOfMastodon

https://www.europesays.com/1705652/ Landes. Maïté, célèbre pour sa cuisine du Sud-Ouest, est morte #france

New bicycle day! Mostly built off the upgraded components of my old Surly. So, its a Brother Cycles Big Bro frame, 12sp XT drivetrain, DT wheels with 350 hub rear and Son dynamo front, PNW coast sus dropper and 29x2.6 Mezcals. Focus on durability, over weight or aero, to be ready for the apocalypse, errr new year! #bikepacking #cycling #biketooter

https://www.europesays.com/1705650/ What this is? #germany

https://www.europesays.com/1705648/ Maxi-ordine del governo spagnolo a Leonardo: Madrid acquista 25 caccia Eurofighter costruiti a Caselle #italy

Shutdown chaos has Republicans worried about moving Trump agenda

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5051916-republicans-struggle-agenda-trump/

drive-in cinema (church), route 19, pinellas park, florida, 1980

US animal lab from which monkeys escaped accused of widespread abuse - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/animal-lab-monkeys-abuse-allegations "Monkeys also reportedly suffered from chronic malnutrition and died of hyperthermia and heatstroke" #AGI

Love Actually irritates me but it was prescient in having the American President be a rapist.

It's a fantasy though, in so far as the British Prime Minister does something about it......

#LoveActually #Trump #Starmer

Newly uncovered sites reveal true power of great #Viking army in Britain - https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/dec/21/newly-uncovered-sites-reveal-true-power-of-great-viking-army-in-britain "Previously unseen artefacts show invading forces included communities of men, women, children, craftworkers and merchants"

If you want to protect your money, you need the CFPB. The agency has returned billions to Americans & protects workers from predatory lenders. Trump & Musk want it gone. Without it, the winners are them & the losers are us. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra joins me at 11a on #Velshi.

Exotic Shorthair

https://www.europesays.com/1705646/ Cabelte desperta com 470 trabalhadores e 210 milhões de faturação #portugal

10K ✅

Do you use the "Please Caption" bot to remind you to add image descriptions? Some updates about it:

1) It has just changed servers, its new account is:

➡️ @PleaseCaptionBot

If your follow hasn't transferred automatically, follow it at the new address.

2) There was a problem transferring the bot's follows list. Even if you're following it at the new address, you should unfollow it and re-follow it in order to trigger the bot's follow back. Follow backs are needed for reminders to work.

https://www.europesays.com/1705644/ En weer een portiek opgeblazen met een cobra. Waarom is het zo moeilijk daar iets tegen te doen? #netherlands

Via me & Aleja Hertzler-McCain: Trump nominates CatholicVote president — a conservative Christian culture warrior whose group provided geofenced cell phone data on mass-goers to Steve Bannon and targeted nuns who work with immigrants in lawsuits — as Holy See ambassador https://religionnews.com/2024/12/20/trump-nominates-catholicvote-president-and-culture-warrior-as-holy-see-ambassador/

I can see the attraction of NixOS now that I've tried it. If you are running some Linux distribution on more than one machine, you have a list of things you want to do to get them just right after an OS install. I've had scripts for that, but NixOS just supports the idea directly. You just add your list to the config file and update.

It can go further and manage your home directory dot files and things like that. Currently I'm thinking that piece of the puzzle is small enough to just script.

we're seeing tpyo levels at about 36%

(36%) ■■■□□□□□□□

What’sa good gift for welcoming a new cat?

#catstodon #caturday

Café Con Linux Charla Linuxera Que te ha gustado y que no este 2024 del software libre?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6GWxG8hhV0