Summary

Kash Patel has been removed as acting ATF director after reportedly not appearing at ATF facilities for weeks, while maintaining his FBI Director role.

Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll will now serve in both his current position and as ATF acting director.

ATF staff were "shocked and confused" by the sudden change, which officials tried to claim was due to Patel's full workload at the FBI rather than performance issues.

The leadership shuffle comes as DOJ officials consider merging the ATF with the DEA to reduce costs.

Kash Patel Quietly Removed as Acting ATF Director After Ghosting Gig

He has been replaced by Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll after he reportedly did not show face in an ATF facility for weeks.

^{Josh Fiallo (The Daily Beast)}

All intriguing ...

Friday April 11: @DAIR@dair-community.social presents: Imagining Possible Futures, with two panels and an interactive workshop:

• Why Imagination Matters: Nobody Owns our Technofuture, with Adrienne Williams, Dylan Baker, Pauline Wee. Moderator Adio Dinika.
• Decentralized, Locally-Tailored Technology, with Nyalleng Moorosi, Meron Estefanos, Asmelash Teka Hadgu. Moderator: Timnit Gebru.
• Our Possible Futures: an Interactive Zine-making Workshop: Come together to create poems, stories, or digital art for a collaborative zine, hosted by Dylan Baker and Pauline Wee

Thursday, April 24: AHOY! European Social Web Day 2025, in Hamburg and online. The website says "We're connecting early adopters across Europe to discuss the Bluesky & AT Protocol ecosystem, helping shape apps, tools, infrastructure, use-cases, and campaigns that earn trust from users, organizations, and policymakers." Last month's ATmosphereConf in Seattle and online was great, and I expect Ahoy will have the same sense of positive energy and range of topics.

Wednesday, April 30: Archiving the Black Web Presents two special conversations on Black contributions to the development of the Web and the future of the Black user experience on social media

• A Black History of the Web and Archiving Our Existence (Virtual), with @sjjphd@dair-community.social Dr. Charlton McIlwain, Dr. Catherine Knight Steele, Dr. Tonia Sutherland
• Towards Safety for Black People on the Web (Online & In-Person at the Auburn Avenue Research Library in Atlanta), with @rudyfraser.com@bsky.brid.gy, Dr. Andre Brock, and Dr. Meredith D. Clark

And I'm sure there's more ... what did I miss?

DAIR Presents: Imagining Possible Futures

At DAIR, we want to encourage imagining otherwise. Join us for two panels and a collaborative zine-making workshop.

^Eventbrite

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/politics/tulsi-gabbard-texas-hawaii-voting-residency-invs/index.html

Summary

House Republicans advanced a procedural rule to block a vote on overturning Donald Trump’s newly imposed chaotic tariffs, embedding the measure in unrelated budget legislation.

The rule delays a Democratic resolution opposing Trump’s April 2 national emergency declaration, which enabled sweeping tariffs—paused for most countries but raised to 125% for China.

Democrats condemned the move as an attempt to dodge oversight, while Speaker Mike Johnson tried to defend it as supporting “America First” trade policy.

Republicans trying to change rules to avoid House vote on Trump tariffs

Proposed procedural change would shield Republican representatives from having to vote on chaotic trade policy

^{David Smith (The Guardian)}

Summary

Donald Trump abruptly reversed his tariff policy Wednesday, announcing a return to a 10% baseline tariff on most countries and a steep 125% rate on China.

His administration appeared blindsided, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unable to explain the move and press secretary Karoline Leavitt resorting to combative rhetoric.

The shift likely responds to mounting criticism from conservative allies and market instability marked by a debt sell-off.

Despite confusion and lack of clarity, officials tried to play up Trump’s unpredictability as strategic leverage rather than a sign of disarray.

Trump’s Team Has No Idea What to Say About His Sudden Tariffs Reversal

Members of Trump’s inner circle are struggling to explain his pivot on tariffs.

^{The New Republic}

This is pretty huge news for Mastodon users: Once this feature is up and running comments to a post will not be limited to whatever is federated to your server through indirect means. The whole platform should feel a lot more vibrant after this, and it addresses what has been one of the main complaints about Mastodon.

It is summarized like this by @FediTips@social.growyourown.services:

Some good news about #Mastodon, there has been a very significant bit of code added which will automatically fetch all the replies in a thread. This means everyone will be able to see a thread's whole conversation no matter which server they are on! 🥳

The code has just been "merged" which means it should become available in the next update to Mastodon, hopefully within the next few months.

(Those who want the technical details can see the Pull Request at github.com/mastodon/mastodon/p…)

While it is exciting, Mastodon CTO @renchap@oisaur.com points out that we maybe shouldn't expect too much too soon, although it is a big step in the right direction:

it is important to point out that this is very experimental, behind a feature flag, and there will be a need for more changes to get it in front of people.
Also we don’t recommend activating it yet, this may have significant performance implications or bugs.

Fedi.Tips

2025-03-12 12:09:01

Some good news about #Mastodon, there has been a very significant bit of code added which will automatically fetch all the replies in a thread. This means everyone will be able to see a thread's whole conversation no matter which server they are on! 🥳

The code has just been "merged" which means it should become available in the next update to Mastodon, hopefully within the next few months.

(Those who want the technical details can see the Pull Request at github.com/mastodon/mastodon/p…)

(Via @rolle)

Add Fetch All Replies Part 1: Backend by sneakers-the-rat · Pull Request #32615 · mastodon/mastodon

Fix: #9409 Fix: #14017 Fix: #18150 Original PR Here: NeuromatchAcademy#44 Further description here: NeuromatchAcademy#43 I've never made a PR for upstream before, so forgive me if i'm doing...

^GitHub

Stamattina ho temporaneamente riesumato il vecchio Huawei spaccato… non mi dilungo sui motivi, mi serviva un androide aggiuntivo piccolino appresso con me, fatto sta che è stato il peggior errore del mio ultimo mese, o giù di lì. Perde così tanti pezzi che è da non credere… non il telefono, che ormai è già distrutto […]

octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…

minioctt

2025-04-09 21:08:49

coveranza spaccwei dei tempi distrutti

Stamattina ho temporaneamente riesumato il vecchio Huawei spaccato… non mi dilungo sui motivi, mi serviva un androide aggiuntivo piccolino appresso con me, fatto sta che è stato il peggior errore del mio ultimo mese, o giù di lì. Perde così tanti pezzi che è da non credere… non il telefono, che ormai è già distrutto al 100% seppur ancora funzionante, ma la cover a portafoglio. 📔

È un bel déjà vu, perché proprio l’anno scorso nel periodo primaverile si è verificato un simile inconveniente, con la cover del Samsung che era ritornata ormai petrolio… e la situazione che mi sono ritrovata qui oggi era per certi versi meno grave, ma per tutto il resto è estremamente peggio: la trasformazione a liquido è appena iniziata, e così la sfrantumazione della parte di gomma… ma su quella di tessuto non so neanche da dove iniziare… 🗿

Non avete idea della rogna. Avrò perso da stamattina a stasera non so quante particelle di questo tessuto di plastica simil-pelle, un po’ dappertutto: in camera, nelle tasche, nello zaino, sull’autobus, in classe, e almeno 1 nel pranzo… oh beh, almeno 1 che ho visto e levato, forse qualcuna delle particelle di plastica intanto me la sarò mangiata. Roba gnammy, tutto sommato, ma è evidente che deve sparire al più presto; e rimarrò senza una cover per questo aggeggio, ma tanto è già rotto, per cui cosa vuoi che succeda… 😤

E insomma: c’è un ritorno alle origini del concetto stesso, con lo spacc di stasera, quindi forse un vero e proprio “internet checkpoint” per quei seguaci dello spacc che non sono qui dal giorno zero. Un’azione distruttiva immediata che ho commesso per togliere da mezzo questo merdino, qualcosa di ormai già condannato alla morte per tempi nemmeno troppo lontani… e dunque ho ridotto la cover in assoluti, incontabili brandelli!!! 💣💥

…E da qui arrivo al come mai pochi secondi dopo me ne sono pentita. Ha fatto tante di quelle particelle sulla scrivania, che muzunna, quasi pareva questa avesse contratto la rogna. Nel video mi sfogo già troppo, ma scuotendo off-camera (la memoria del telefono è piena, non potevo registrare troppo, ops) è successo proprio il disastro… quindi ho dovuto ripulire tutto, e ho perso tempo che potevo usare per cose migliori. E, nonostante questo, erano rimasti ancora dei bei “foglioloni” assieme ad ancora altre “briciole”, che ho finito di togliere spostandomi nel lavandino. 👅

La verità dietro questo raptus, in parte forse anti-memewei, comunque, è molto meno filosofica: il fatto è che questa cover, per qualche motivo, non riesco proprio a convincermi di buttarla… È intrisa (letteralmente, visto che non è stata mai lavata; sarebbe impossibile) di troppi ricordi, e rappresenta alla fin dei conti un’intera epoca per me (pensate che vita di merda, se 1/6 o qualcosa del genere è rappresentato da questo letterale rifiuto, assieme al telefono che ci stava dentro)… 🔄

…Però, allo stesso tempo, se ce l’ho ancora funzionalmente intera non riesco a semplicemente convincermi di non usarla, anche se so già che poi me ne pento perché fa schifo sotto tutti i punti di vista — esteticamente, a livello tattile (è praticamente tutta gomma, al tatto da un sacco fastidio, e mi da l’impressione addirittura di seccarmi le mani), e come aura. E allora, basta, ho dovuto distruggerla per liberarmene (…per accettare di lasciarla a marcire nel cassetto, anziché attorno al telefono, per dire le cose come stanno). Voi, per favore, non fate come me, buttateli i rifiuti… 💔

#cover #smartphone #spacc

Photographer: @FotosPhotos@lemmy.world

Photo taken in Rio de Janeiro. 📷🏖 #Pixelfed.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/06/politics/cnn-bernie-sanders-townhall/index.html

But while Smith voted against a plan to keep the government funded in March as the base was clamoring for Democrats to stand up to Trump, Shaheen and Peters voted with Republicans and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to keep the government’s lights on – a decision that infuriated some Democrats.

“One of the things I learned as governor is that you don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘I’m not going to work with this person and I’m not going to solve this problem.’ When you’re in charge, it’s your responsibility to help figure out how to get it done,” Shaheen said.

Pressed on the fact that most of her caucus didn’t agree this was one of those moments, Shaheen was frank.

“I disagree with them,” she said. “I think they weren’t thinking about what the seriousness of the alternative was, to have a government shutdown. And then there was no guarantee that we could ever open the government up.”

In the next several months, Democrats will have to coalesce around a unified message ahead of the midterms and find a way to harness the energy of the more progressive base while also battling in states where the party has lost ground to Trump.

“If the Democrats can’t compete in the Midwest and the Great Plains, then the path back to majority is going to be a long time coming,” said Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who is expected to run for reelection in 2026.

Democrats will be defending seats in 2026 in states like Michigan, New Hampshire and Georgia, with few potential pickup opportunities outside of Maine and North Carolina.

‘The middle is disappearing’: Why three dealmaking Senate Democrats are heading for the exits

After months of wrestling with the decision of whether to run for reelection for a third term in the swing state of Michigan, Sen. Gary Peters took a pass.

^{Lauren Fox (CNN)}

Salutations,

Mauvaise nouvelle. Le spam Nicole envoie dénoravant des images violentes et choquantes.

Nous sommes désolé d'avance de ne pas pouvoir limiter ce spam autant qu'on le voudrait.

Pour le moment, nous ne pouvons pas faire grand chose mais nous sommes au courant tout comme les admins des autres instances et on va faire au mieux.

Nous explorons les pistes pour limiter la diffusion de ces images violentes. En attendant, signalez et on nettoyera.

Toutes nos excuses et merci à tous et toutes pour votre aide et compréhension.

Snoopy,
Pour l'équipe du politiburo

Sure they are Trump. Sure they are.

I'm sure there's a lot of squawking from the ambassadors from Heard Island and McDonald Islands not that would be about it.

Donald Trump Says Countries 'Kissing My Ass' Over Tariffs

President Donald Trump has said countries are "dying to make a deal" with the United States following his sweeping tariffs on trading partners around the world.

^{Shane Croucher (Newsweek)}

What's the rule about playing chicken again? The one to flinch loses, right?

What does that make Trump now?

Trump announces 90-day tariff pause for at least some countries

Trump in a social media post also said that he "substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately. "

^{Dan Mangan (CNBC)}

cross-posted from: slrpnk.net/post/20601622

This kind of unwillingness to commit to not touching 'kill the economy now' buttons means that nobody will locate any kind of new business in the US if they can avoid it

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04/08/business/trump-tariffs-china-stock-market?unlocked_article_code=1.-U4.i9CL.1U_4fVNRl6rN

https://www.axios.com/2025/04/08/google-ar-glasses-vr-headset-ted

Sure, there was the attempted assassination of Reagan and the fears for Obama as the first black President, but in those cases it was a lone nutter rather than a conspiracy.

How long can Trump crash the market before an angry billionaire decides to take him out? The remaining Koch brother is already pouring money into legal challenges against Trump...

cross-posted from: slrpnk.net/post/20585117

Ancient practices hold important lessons for farmers facing drying lands, but they were often more complex than modern societies realize. Glacier loss adds to the challenge today.

Ancient beliefs, behaviors and norms – what archaeologists call culture – were fundamentally integrated into technological solutions in this part of Peru in ancient times. Isolating and removing the tools from that knowledge made them less effective.

Peru’s ancient irrigation systems succeeded in turning deserts into farms because of the culture − without it, the systems failed

^{The Conversation}

“In a sense, we’re going to be supporting public schools and charter schools through the payment of our taxes,” Klemin said.

The overall fiscal impact of the bill is unclear. If students from traditional public K-12 schools switch to charter schools, the state would spend less to educate those students in per pupil payments. However, if private school or homeschool students begin attending public charter schools, the cost to the state would increase.

Senate Bill 2241 was approved by the Senate in February on a 40-7 vote.

The bill will now travel back to the Senate to concur with the House’s amended bill. If approved, it will go to the governor’s desk for his signature.

https://northdakotamonitor.com/2025/04/08/house-passes-bill-authorizing-charter-schools-in-north-dakota/