RE: https://indieweb.social/@tchambers/117468134697550198

Yep. I don't agree with @tchambers on everything but when he's right he's right. Four good bullet points from Tim and @WillRobinson, important for any organizing that's fighting fascism and/or the surveillance-industrial complex:

• Build the channels nobody can switch off. (Although, Substack's just as fascist-friendly as Meta, so I wouldn't count on them.)

• Stand up accounts on open platforms. Damn right. (More thoughts about the #fediverse and the #ATmosphere in a reply)

• Warn your people before it happens. "One message, now, while nothing is wrong: here is where to find us if we disappear. Bookmark this. Subscribe here. Follow us there. Nobody routes around an outage they were never told about, and a crisis is the worst time to teach a new habit."

• Write the playbook before you need it.

And it's not just here in the US where it matters. Meta has intervened even more blatantly -- and repeatedly -- in the Brazilian election, and you can probably guess who they're favoring. (Hint: not Lula!). They also intervened against protestors in Albania, and I've heard reports of cockroaches (complimentary) in India getting censored as well. So it's good policy no matter where you are!

EDIT: Also keep an eye on France, via @JulianOliver. We haven't seen reports yet of Meta meddling here but I'll bet dollars to donuts they are.

ICE decided to "visit" Canton. Canton is kind of a sleepy bedroom community. Anyway, ICE's visit caused someone to go into seizures (they are in the hospital), a local elementary school to go into lockdown, a neighborhood to become freaked out as men ran around waving guns. Residents called Canton police on ICE. A Canton politician said there is nothing they can do. #CantonMI #CantonMichigan #USA #ICE

With the days shortening and cooling in the northern hemisphere the #wildlife is busy preparing for the coming lean months of scarce food

But these two #deer seem to have made some sort of evolutionary leap in cognitive planning skills

Or they are evolving into snails

I'm not sure

EDIT: it's AI. thanks @katzentratschen @dictor

image removed

EDITEDIT: it's not AI. thanks
@geoffl

unfiltered version of the image restored

see my "exciting" rant about what happened here below if you want

It's Opt Out October and EFF is here to talk to you about the many alternatives to Big Tech that you may be interested in: https://www.eff.org/pages/welcome-opt-out-october-lets-take-control-our-data-and-our-devices

Senior citizens with Traditional Medicare and a Plan D supplement will see increases in their Plan D costs in 2027. Both the deductible and the out-of-pocket cap will rise about 14% according to a formula written into law. However, premiums will rise unpredictably due to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services terminating a subsidy that had been part of Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.
For example, I learned today that the monthly premium for my Plan D will quadruple in 2027.

"On July 28, 2026, CMS announced it is ending a temporary program that has been quietly holding down premiums on standalone drug plans since 2025. That program is gone as of January 1, 2027 — and unlike the deductible, nobody yet knows exactly what it will cost you personally."

https://www.gentlemedicareguide.com/medicare-2027/part-d-changes

RFK Jr.'s CDC isn’t letting states order COVID-19 shots for kids, blocking access

US health dept. said it wants to make sure the vaccine orders are "appropriate."
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/09/rfk-jr-s-cdc-isnt-letting-states-order-covid-19-shots-for-kids-blocking-access/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Police arrested the wrong woman after searching the Flock surveillance system after a deadly crash.

She spent 13 days in jail, including 86 hours in solitary confinement, before she was released.

Her attorney provided pictures of her undamaged car police had confiscated that was a different color than the suspected crashed vehicle.

#news #tech #technology #uspol #politics #law

"House Republicans Pitch a Plan to Cut Social Security to Billionaire Donor Harlan Crow"

"Republicans wanted to keep the hearing quiet, so they held it far from Washington DC. This was a 'field hearing,' held all the way in Dallas, Texas. Specifically, it was held at Old Parkland, a 'business campus' owned by none other than Harlan Crow."

"...several members of the House Budget Committee, including Arrington, have received substantial donations from Crow."

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/republicans-cut-social-security

AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems:

“Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”

"Federal Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the Trump administration to reinstate CNN, MS NOW and Politico's access to the White House after they were banned from the premises by trump."

https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/24/politics/trump-press-lawsuit-ruling-white-house-access?cid=ios_app
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/judge-orders-white-house-restore-053852272.html
#UsPol
2/n

Allegan county dems are recommending no on prop 1 and yes on prop2.
Thanks to our friends at Distill Social for putting this short explainer together:

#RiseUp
#Michigan #Alleganmichigan #westmichigan
#politics
#Democrats

Look into Amir Makled for UM Regent.

😭

"Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."

- Frank Herbert, Dune

BREAKING: In August, *every single one* of the 2,646 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans.

In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 12,901 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November), and nobody else.

For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:mencpxk4spd3xn3qotwkyyqf/post/3msfa56ryt22m

rpc.state.gov/documents/Refu...

Good morning. ⏰📅🌎

10 September 2026

I’ve been retired from the military for over 26 years now. It’s strange how fast that time has gone by. I spent 30 years in uniform, and back then it felt like a lifetime — which, I suppose, it was. The passage of time just seemed different then, even though it was still the same old 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year… except for leap years, of course.

Hmm… who came up with leap years?
Whoa — that took a turn I wasn’t expecting.

Leap years were introduced in 45 B.C. as part of a major overhaul of the Roman calendar. Julius Caesar — dictator of Rome and not exactly known for subtlety — consulted with astronomers and set the year at 365 days and 6 hours. To account for those extra hours, he simply added a bonus day every four years. Clean, simple, Roman.

But the Julian calendar wasn’t perfect. It assumed the year was 365.25 days long, and over centuries that tiny difference added up. So in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar — the one we use today. His astronomers calculated the year more precisely at 365.2425 days. Pretty clever for people working 2,000 years ago without computers, satellites, or even decent lighting.

To fix the drift, they added a rule: any year ending in “00” is not a leap year unless it’s divisible by 400. I didn’t know that until this morning, and trying to think through the math makes my head hurt.

Anyway, as I started out saying, time seems to slip by faster than it used to. It reminds me of an old movie scene where the seasons change in rapid succession beneath an opaque calendar flipping through the months — a visual metaphor for how quickly life moves when you’re not paying attention.

“Time moves slowly but passes quickly.” – Alice Walker

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” – Heraclitus

#photo #photography #wildlife #nature #bird #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdphotography #morning #time #calendar

"Compliance w/…law hasn’t been…feature of…Trump admin…Nonetheless…law matters…is ill-disposed to…ICE presence at voting locations…no federal officer may keep "troops or armed men" at…election site…prohibits voter intimidation…So too…Voting Rights Act…National Voter Registration Act…"

#USpol

ICE at the Polls: Not the Hott...

Detroit council wants to know: What are the alternatives to DTE?

As Detroit’s main source of power and gas, DTE has come under fire repeatedly since the power merger in 2001. Residents and several council members say that needs to change....

https://www.bridgedetroit.com/detroit-council-wants-to-know-what-are-the-alternatives-to-dte/

US lawmakers demand investigation into Trump administration's secret surveillance of Americans (Sam Levine/The Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/01/lawmakers-trump-obscure-law-investigation
http://www.memeorandum.com/260902/p64#a260902p64

Red Squirrel.

BOING!

#redsquirrel #highlands #photography