p.s. For my Canadian #LawFedi types, @scc_bot will be sticking around on law.builders. Give it a follow to keep up with all of the interesting news the Supreme Court of Canada sees fit to share with us!

Hey all, I'll be migrating this account over to esq.social in the coming hours. If you see a follow request coming from @jbe, that's me. (This should also be confirmed by my Keyoxide link, which is linked to my profiles on both instances.) See y'all over there!

p.s. law.builders is a great instance for #LegalTech types, but it's also been a fantastic home for a run-of-the-mill litigator like me. Keep an eye on all of the awesome projects coming out of this instance!

I do my best proofraeding after I hit send.

So uh.

I was let go from my job yesterday.

If anyone knows someone looking for an Embedded/Firmware/C developer, please let me know

An #Alabama school system arranged to have award-winning author Derrick Barnes visit three schools as part of its #BlackHistoryMonth programming.

But then a parent complained that Barnes' social media posts contain "controversial ideas."

Now the #Hoover school system has cancelled the author's visit. And its personnel have been giving conflicting reasons for the decision, sometimes even blaming the author himself for cancelling.

https://www.al.com/educationlab/2023/01/hoover-schools-cancel-black-history-month-author-visit-after-parent-complaint.html

Some people will go their graves believing that anti-Black racism is based in good-faith differences of opinion that can easily be corrected with a little reason. People who experience anti-Black racism recognize that as folly—magical thinking of the “when you wish upon a star” variety.

Alas, we are not listened to, because what would we know …

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/24/ap-african-american-studies-florida-desantis/

Here is Runa Sandvik with your regular reminder that people are being prosecuted for their pregnancy outcomes with their digital communications as evidence: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/27/digital-data-roe-wade-reproductive-privacy/

#StarTrek

Me at 20: I want to make a difference in the world

Me at 40: maybe if I stand really still and never speak again, I won’t fuck anything else up

MLK50 is, in words from its mission statement, “a nonprofit news outlet in Memphis focuse[d] on the intersection of poverty, power and policy.” They have published a collection of their articles and columns on the relationship between police and community in #Memphis, in an effort to provide context for protests there tonight. I found this local coverage valuable. https://mlk50.com/2023/01/27/to-understand-policing-politics-and-protest-in-memphis-read-this/

lol well this is fun crossover

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ftx-executives-maxed-out-on-donations-to-liar-congressman-george-santos

Excellent post by @kathryntewson following up on her previous article on Joshua Browder's #DoNotPay service.

Browder seems to be engaging in similar shenanigans to what Elon #Musk has been doing with #Twitter: responding to criticism by rewriting the rules to effectively make it a ToS violation to come up with reasons to criticize it.

These articles raise so many valid questions that, for now, I cannot recommend anyone go near DoNotPay with any legal matter.

#LawFedi

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/01/27/ai-lawyer-has-a-sad-bans-people-from-testing-its-lawyering-after-being-mocked/

SCOOP! Many top donors to George Santos' 2020 campaign, uh, don't seem to exist. My colleague Noah Lanard and I tried to contact these donors and found addresses and names that could not be confirmed. Please read/share/boost.

If you believe policing "used to be about serving and protecting," please know the institution was specifically created to maintain and control slave populations, and later used to enforce Jim Crow laws. The system is sadly operating exactly as intended.

https://gen.medium.com/slavery-and-the-origins-of-the-american-police-state-ec318f5ff05b

Biden has supportive words and appeals to be peaceful for Black folk brutalized by police, but billions of dollars of extra funding for the cops. I'd prefer it if he had kind and supportive words for the police, and gave us the billions of dollars of funding.

Biden has new laws to further criminalize the behavior of innocent Black people brutalized by cops. I'd prefer it if he made new laws to criminalize the behavior of cops that brutalize innocent Black people.

This asymmetry reveals a lot.

@tomathome
I hear that. I don't think anyone has to be a voyeur or a lawyer or a juror to watch these videos or feel that there's merit in sharing them, discussing what they depict, and hopefully feeling motivated to act for change after watching. But I also don't think anyone should be made to feel they HAVE to watch if they are confident they don't want to.

I come at this as someone who's seen more than a few police use-of-force videos in the course of my work.

Based on a quick viewing, I would say the 2nd vid has the most inculpatory images, but audio in the 4th undoubtedly helped seal the deal for charges against the officers.

Don't miss out on them joking about how they won't put in effort to get Nichols quicker medical care, or the officer appearing to take off his cam so he & a buddy can start bragging about "rocking" him.

#China
---
RT @KenDilanianNBC
Per @ckubeNBC: The head of Air Mobility Command, Air Force General Mike Minihan, signed a memo that predicts the U.S. will be at war with China in 2025. Two years from now. And he is telling the men and women who serve in his command to get ready, now.
https://twitter.com/KenDilanianNBC/status/1619099355520303106

Elon directly ordered the takedown of the account of @chadloder, one of the most prominent and effective antifascist researchers in the US.

(Not mentioned in the article: Elon did so at the request of Andy Ngo, a notorious far right stochastic terrorist.)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/a-leaked-internal-message-appears-to-show-elon-musk-ordered-twitter-staff-to-suspend-a-left-wing-activist-s-account/ar-AA16NS0X?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=f468f8fa0e7544e098c70ac94e75aab9

What's going on with Post, Tribel, and Hive?

These walled garden alternatives haven't been in the news recently.

Meanwhile, Mastodon and the Fediverse keep showing up in the Press.

Every day, there's some new story about the Fediverse. And I'm not seeing any fresh news about Post.

Do these walled garden alternatives even have a future?