AcidicBasicGlitch

joined 2 weeks ago
 

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/59950018

What's up with the badge that appears next to the post I just made? It didn't happen with the other post I made a few hours ago, and when I clicked on it looked like disabled mod controls?

I noticed something similar happening when my last account got shadow banned, but I had been making too much noise for a while. This literally popped up next to my post as soon as it posted. There's not even anything controversial in the post. I have been trying very hard to not give too much of an opinion on Reddit lately bc I know that's frowned upon these days

I literally just asked a neutral question and posted links with information about the bill...

[–] AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

My instance has a rule that new accounts can't post images until 30 days old

[–] AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Bc last time I just posted the link it got removed for not being a screenshot. Only screenshots are allowed to be posted here

[–] AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago

Funny thing is there are plenty of Republicans in Louisiana who never felt that way.

"Now, let’s be political. I’m a Republican. I represent the amazing state of Louisiana and as a patriotic American, I want President Trump’s policies to succeed in making America and Americans more secure, more prosperous, healthier," Cassidy said Thursday while leading Kennedy's confirmation hearing.

"But if there is someone that is not vaccinated because of policies or attitudes you bring to the department and there is another 18-year-old who dies of a vaccine-preventable disease, helicoptered away, God forbid dies, it’ll be blown up in the press."

Cassidy was one of several senators who was skeptical about Kennedy's stance on vaccinations, also noting Kennedy has changed his tune on the subject during the hearing.

"You are telling us in the Senate this week that you support vaccines. What are you going to tell them?" Cassidy said. "Now, your past of undermining vaccine confidence with unfounded or misleading arguments is concerning to me."

Cassidy, a medical doctor, shared a story of an 18-year-old patient brought to his hospital with hepatitis B who had to undergo an "invasive, quarter-of-a-million-dollar surgery" that would continue to cost $50,000 in hospital bills annually.

"As I saw her take off, I was so depressed, a $50 vaccine could have prevented this all," Cassidy said. "Ever since, I have tried to do everything I can so that I do not ever have to see another parent lose their child due to a vaccine-preventable illness."

https://www.wbrz.com/news/sen-bill-cassidy-among-senators-concerned-by-rfk-s-anti-vaccine-rhetoric-during-confirmation-hearing

There has always been plenty I disagreed with Cassidy on, but Medicaid and vaccines he always made decisions informed by his background as a doctor. I always had a lot of respect for him for that reason. I was glad he was on the Senate committee deciding RFKs fitness.

I watched the hearings. I heard RFK say things that I know Cassidy doesn't agree with. I wrote Cassidy a letter saying I know you understand how dangerous this is and I am glad to have someone like you in the position to make such an important decision.

He was the deciding vote. All he had to do was say what he already knew and believed. He didn't, and I lost the respect I had for him.

Not because he's a Republican. Not because of everything else we disagree on. Because I know for a fact he knew how dangerous RFK would be, and yet his vote is the only reason his fitness was approved.

[–] AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago

Pretty positive there is no actual plan to improve cybersecurity, it's a facade to quietly hand over power and control to the national guard to keep people in line.

The same day the emergency order was signed by the governor, he announced he was restructuring GOHSEP (governors office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness) under the National guard as part of his state DOGE plan to cut waste and save money.

The emergency order grants the director of GOHSEP authority to act however they seem fit to handle cybersecurity. But on the same day the director of GOHSEP was given a new title, and is no longer director.

The "acting director" is now Louisiana National Guard Brig. Gen. Jason P. Mahfouz

[–] AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Here is a summary of everything: https://lemm.ee/post/59671562

But tldr for even that: One day last week the governor just declared he was suddenly moving the entire office that handles state emergencies (Governor's office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness-GOHSEP) under the control of the state's national guard.

On the same day he also suddenly announced he was Renewing a previous state of emergency that was created by the previous governor to address a cyber attack.

For some unknown reason that nobody has addressed, he added a new section to the renewed executive order that essentially says the director of GOHSEP has authority to do whatever he deems necessary to handle cybersecurity.

Except when he moved GOHSEP to be controlled by the National Guard, he also removed the director of the office and gave him a new title. So there is no actual director.

A member of the National Guard is acting director, so it would appear that the governor basically handed very broad control of cybersecurity to the national guard in a very underhandeded way hoping nobody would notice

[–] AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 2 points 3 days ago

Being shipped to Louisiana?

[–] AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Well, I'm here and while there's plenty of things I don't like, there's also things people and places that I love. It makes me angry they're trying to hide what they're doing in the shadows in order to destroy something I love even if it wasn't perfect to begin with. Why should I leave? It's my world as much as it is theirs.

Actually feel that way about the whole country at this point. Even if I'm powerless to stop you I'm not going to just pretend I don't see something happening. If there's any chance for my state or my country that's what we're all going to have to do. That's exactly what "speak out while you still can" means.

This shit is going on all over the place. Louisiana was one of the first, but DOGE has taskforces in 16 states at this point. I've actually been considering creating a community to have people start collecting stuff like this across all their states, so that we don't let this shit keep happening in the dark.

Here it is if anyone wants to join feel free: https://lemm.ee/c/stateleveldoge

[–] AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Allegedly moving GOHSEP under the National Guard is just a way to save money, as to why it happened on the same day this executive order was signed? No idea because nobody has even brought it up. I only realized it by accident, and only realized that he granted the director of GOHSEP authority because I downloaded the recent executive order and compared it to the old one (which I had to go to archive.org just to find).

But if Moskowitz's bill passes:

  1. It puts Louisiana at the mercy of the National Guard and yes seems to greatly increase the chance of the Governor declaring martial law for the state.

With hurricane season there is always the threat of a disaster. It is not unusual for the guard to be called in as a precaution and stick around after a hurricane to enforce curfew.

Even though I personally have not had a bad run in with any guardsman, I think it's understandable to feel uneasy seeing tanks on the street and guys with guns standing guard when you go to buy groceries. I know I always do, and I don't even have the negative experiences that many people do to justify it. It would be naive to pretend that there's not always the possibility things could go wrong.

Usually if a disaster is bad enough for the guard to stick around for a while, that means members of FEMA are also present. While FEMA is by no means an ideal agency in terms of how it should be run, the fact that they have their own dedicated civil rights office within the agency, is very important. Without it, you have armed soldiers being asked to handle crowd control and resources for a huge group of people, often during a time of extraordinary stress for everyone involved. If nobody exists to enforce civil rights, you're relying on people to maintain them out of the kindness of their hearts. While I like to believe people for the most part will try to do the right thing, I'm not naive enough to believe that's the case when people are scared and desperate.

  1. It potentially puts the entire country in the position that Louisiana is now in. If a President decides that he wanted that cabinet position to be placed under the military in a cost savings effort, hopefully it's a little more difficult to achieve than a governor doing it at a state level, but again, feels a little naive to just assume that.

Most people didn't even notice that this happened, and I'm not even sure how the governor can do this, but a week ago today it was like he just decided to hold a press conference, say this is what I'm doing, and now that's the way it is. That's kind of the problem with unchecked executive authority and letting people see how far they can push things.

[–] AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago

So I updated some stuff and yeah this seems very strange. The original order was in 2019 after an attack on some government servers. I had somehow forgotten that in 2023, the government admitted that there had been an ongoing cybersecurity attack on Louisiana OMV data and that essentially every adult in the state had their data breached (it's been a bit of a hectic year).

https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/comparing-edwards-original-state-of-emergency-cybersecurity-incident-with-landrys-renewal-2/

 

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/59635227

Y'all come on now... If anyone in Louisiana is actually seeing this, there is no way y'all are ok with that right?

The main link is a comparison of both John Bell Edwards original declaration and Landry's most recent renewal from the 20th.

One obvious difference seems to be that Landry grants to the director of the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) authority to take whatever action he deems appropriate in response to declaration of emergency.

https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/acadiana/2025/03/21/gov-landry-louisiana-omv-emergency-software-failure/82590867007/

Allegedly it has to do with the office of motor vehicles. Wouldn't be a big deal, except on literally the same day, he announced GOHSEP is now under control of the National Guard.

According to Landry "This move not only delivers significant cost savings but also aligns with my belief in the importance of relying more on our National Guard to strengthen our state's resilience."

According to this article https://www.nola.com/news/politics/jeff-landry-restructure-gohsep-under-louisiana-national-guard-fiscal-responsibility/article_7e9e08f2-ee67-463c-a2b3-424f6165a087.html

"GOHSEP Director Jacques Thibodeaux took on a challenging role and served our state with dedication under difficult circumstances. We deeply appreciate his service," Landry said in the announcement.

Thibodeaux said in an interview that, over the next 30 days, he will help transition GOHSEP from a stand-alone agency to one under the purview of the National Guard in a role titled special assistant to the adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard.

His plans after that are currently undetermined, Thibodeaux said. He noted that he's worked in emergency management for 40 years and is also a retired army soldier and retired U.S. Marshal.

"I'm gonna take (a) well-needed break and enjoy my family, and then I'll determine what's gonna be the next chapter," he said.

So it seems like the director named in the order, no longer exists. If I'm just dumb and misunderstanding this please explain it to me.

 

A place for discussing and sharing information and ideas about political psychology

 

I got a new phone about a month ago bc I was having what seemed like malware issues on my old phone.

Not having the same issues but have had some odd things with the new phone, like unlocking my phone and seeing the green camera icon running for some reason then disappearing.

I also leave my VPN always on but my phone started doing this auto update thing around 1 am for the last 2 nights that turns off my phone for the update.

I forgot about it both times bc I was half asleep when it happened, but as a result completely forgot it reset my phone and turned off my VPN.

About a week ago I woke up after not using my phone all night and had a notification that glance App was running in the background on my phone.

I didn't know what that was, but from what I can tell it's not supposed to be an actual app you have the option to install right? But my phone is showing it as an app that was installed under a Gmail account I had on my phone, but had never logged into Googleplay with to accept terms and conditions beforehand.

The link is a screenshot of the app.

 

Heads up, one of the largest U.S. consulting firms with a complicated relationship to Musk's DOGE is set to shape the future of your electricity market.

 

Hello,

I am a researcher in the U.S. who began writing about the NIH federal funding issues just to keep people informed about things that weren't reaching most major news outlets.

I began this piece several weeks ago, and finally finished it this past week. The focus is on the attacks against the NIH for their gain-of-function research funding policy. I ended up doing a deep dive into the history of the policy which began in 2014, and trying to condense everything into an article for a broad audience.

You may have seen all of the proposed legislation about gain-of-function (GOF) research, and more recently increasing attacks on mRNA vaccines. It is being presented by legislative members as a concern over safety issues, however, it turns out there are many reasons to question if that is the legitimate reason these bills are being introduced. It's important to note that the GOF legislation is not aimed at improving any safety requirements for the research. It is only aimed at funding policy.

The language of the bills is very vague, and many researchers worry that the legislation would make it illegal to federally fund any vaccine research in the U.S. This would mean a complete privatization of vaccine research. Pharmaceutical companies would still be free to carry out the allegedly dangerous research because it is (typically) privately funded.

Interestingly, if you do a deep dive into the policy history, and everything that has led to this moment, you will find that an updated set of policy guidelines has been in the works since last summer. The updated policy may even be extend to the creation of mandatory oversight laws for private research. Meaning that the updated policy guidelines which are due to be released by May of 2025, would not only address the safety concerns which are being used to justify the GOF legislation for federal funding, they may even result in safety improvements and oversight across the private sector.

So, why do so many law makers seem to be in such a rush to pass these bills that will only privatize the allegedly dangerous research?

The article is broken up into 5 sections including the introduction. The main focus of this article is GOF funding policy history, which is covered in sections 1-3. The last two sections briefly focus on the legislation attacking the research, and some potential motivations for vaccine research privatization.

I am planning two individual follow up articles that will cover these last two sections in greater depth. My goal is to spread public awareness of this information, to defend science and improve public health. Please help me do that by either sharing the article or just by spreading this information by word of mouth.

Thank you!

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