Mitch Wagner
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mitchw.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Mitch Wagner
@mitchw.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Mostly a linkblog focused on technology, progressive politics, science fiction/fantasy and history. Also, jokes, memes, vintage photos and ads. I'm a San Diego […]

🌉 bridged from https://mastodon.social/@mitchw on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/
Firefox is fine. The people running it are not • The Register https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/firefox_isnt_dead/
Firefox is fine. The people running it are not
Opinion: Mozilla's management is a bug, not a feature
www.theregister.com
July 12, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Cadillac Fleetwood submarine from 1958.
July 11, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Mitch Wagner
@mitchw So the government is now protecting lies?
“the Sherman Act protects all forms of competition, including competition in information quality.”
Low-quality information is another way to say lies.
July 11, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Nick Adams rose to prominence with a hypermasculine identity and crass jokes about Hooters. President Trump named him ambassador to a country of 35 million people.

The U.S. is a joke now […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
July 11, 2025 at 8:15 PM
This is bullshit. I have been unable to find how many trans girls are playing organized sports in California but I would be surprised if it's more than a dozen, in a state with a population of nearly 40 million […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
July 11, 2025 at 8:10 PM
The Trump DoJ is taking the side of anti-vaxxers in a lawsuit against news publishers. https://www.theverge.com/news/705802/doj-antitrust-childrens-health-defense-covid-fact-checking-misinformation
July 11, 2025 at 8:02 PM
July 11, 2025 at 7:58 PM
@richardwonka @nitpicking These are good suggestions. One condition of using those other servers would be whether they permit migrating follower/following lists. Do you know the answer off the top of your head?
July 11, 2025 at 6:06 PM
I'm thinking about migrating to a Mastodon server that permits posts much longer than 500 characters. Any recommendations? Hachyderm.io permits posts of 2000+ characters — any problems using that?
July 11, 2025 at 5:31 PM
I'm shifting things around in my blogging and social media again.

Links and ephemera (memes, vintage photos, illustrations and ads) go on Mastodon, Tumblr and (sigh) Facebook. I'm saving mitchw.blog for meatier updates.

https://www.tumblr.com/mitchipedia

https://www.facebook.com/mitch.wagner/ […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
July 11, 2025 at 5:13 PM
July 11, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I'm thinking about shaving my head. I don't know if I'll do it, but I quite enjoyed this commercial for the SkullShaver. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXa_TGV_YKM&t=155s
July 11, 2025 at 4:32 PM
ICE handcuffed a 71-year-old grandmother, a U.S. citizen, at San Diego immigration court https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/ice-arrests-71-year-old-grandmother-a-us-citizen-at-san-diego-immigration-court/3865098/
July 11, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Protesters clashed with federal agents during an immigration raid at a cannabis farm in California https://www.foxla.com/news/camarillo-ventura-county-farm-ice-raid
ICE agents, protesters clash during raid at Ventura County cannabis farm
Multiple agents arrived at Glass House Farms, a licensed cannabis facility, on Laguna Rd. and Las Posas Rd. in Camarillo Thursday morning.
www.foxla.com
July 11, 2025 at 3:24 PM
A “mission impossible” deportation campaign has left many ICE employees burned out and morally conflicted […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
July 11, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Federal agents clash with protesters during ICE raid at Southern California farm
July 11, 2025 at 2:59 AM
July 10, 2025 at 11:36 PM
X’s CEO is out after failing at basically everything she claimed she wanted https://www.theverge.com/twitter/703606/x-ceo-linda-yaccarino-elon-musk-out-step-down-twitter
X’s CEO is out after failing at basically everything she claimed she wanted
Linda Yaccarino is stepping down.
www.theverge.com
July 10, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Idaho AG Office Forces Schools To Take Down ‘Everyone Is Welcome’ Signs For Being ‘Political’ https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/10/idaho-ag-office-forces-schools-to-take-down-everyone-is-welcome-signs-for-being-political/
July 10, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Mitch Wagner
A lesson on how to write a headline.
Man Afraid to Ride Subway Named Head of NASA
Trump has tapped Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as NASA administrator.
www.rollingstone.com
July 10, 2025 at 5:44 PM
July 10, 2025 at 7:58 PM
I read this story when I was a little kid — it blew my mind.

My cousin Barry let me borrow a whole stack of Analog magazines from 1968-72, which included this issue, and I devoured them voraciously. That stack of magazines is a big part of my origin story as […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
July 10, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Mitch Wagner
This Wealthy Member of Congress Just Proposed Increasing Her Own Taxes
Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) joins members of Congress and advocates to push for child care in budget reconciliation outside of the US Capitol building.Paul Morigi/Getty Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free _Mother Jones Daily_. With an estimated net worth of $76 million, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) is one of the top 15 wealthiest members of Congress. On Thursday, Jacobs, the granddaughter of a successful early tech entrepreneur, plans to introduce legislation that would—if enacted—work against her own self-interest. The measure, which she discussed first with _Mother Jones_ , is called the “Leveraging Estate Gains for America’s Children and Youth (LEGACY) Act” and proposes reducing the threshold at which very wealthy families pay taxes on their estates at death. Congressional Republicans recently approved a $30 million minimum exemption for joint filers, meaning they don’t have to pay that tax until the assets being passed down exceed that sum. But Jacobs’s LEGACY Act would lower the threshold to $14 million for joint fillers and designate 15 percent of the increased revenue towards reducing childcare costs to no more than 7 percent of a family’s income. “I think of it as taxing trust-fund kids,” says Jacobs, who identifies as one, “to create a trust fund for all American kids.” Acknowledging that the LEGACY Act “won’t pass” with Republican control of both chambers, she argues that her timing isn’t just performative. Less than a week ago, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping reconciliation package that is expected to strip 3 million Americans from food stamps and cut Medicaid access for 11.8 million people. Meanwhile, the top 1 percent of households will receive an average tax cut of about $66,000, and an estimated $3.4 trillion will be added to the federal deficit over the next 10 years. (Financially speaking, Jacobs says she may benefit from the GOP package, but she still calls the bill “an abomination.”) > “The joke among people I know these days is that you know someone is making good money if they have a third kid.” The GOP budget bill “cements and worsens income inequality and keeps people trapped in poverty or on the edges of poverty,” she says, “all to give wealthy people and corporations help that they don’t need.” In contrast, her proposed legislation presents an alternative economic playbook in which the wealthiest Americans pay more in taxes “to make sure that every kid has the opportunity to succeed in this country.” “The whole Republican narrative,” Jacobs adds, “is that we have a scarcity of resources. But it’s not actually true. There’s plenty of resources—if we’re willing to actually tax them and use them.” This is not just theoretical, for Jacobs, but personal. Her self-made billionaire grandfather, Irwin Jacobs, founded Qualcomm, a company that pioneered wireless communications in the 1980s. (The still-profitable company reported total assets above $55 billion in 2024.) Thanks to Qualcomm’s success, the Jacobs family heirs enjoy a sizable estate; decreasing the threshold at which estates are taxed, Jacobs says, would affect the inheritance she or her beneficiaries might receive in the future. Increasing what’s owed to the government via estate taxes could be used for all kinds of government programs, but Jacobs says her bill directs some of the revenue to the childcare industry because of its untenable economic quandary: In 45 states plus Washington, DC, the cost of child care for two children is more than the average mortgage payment. Yet, the median pay for childcare workers is less than $33,000 per year, with many earning below the poverty line. “It’s too expensive to provide childcare that’s both high quality and affordable for families, while paying providers a living wage,” Jacobs says, “and that’s why the government should step in.” Among adults under 50 who say they are unlikely to have children, Pew Research Center reports that more than two-thirds say a key reason is their concerns about affordability, of which childcare is a major component. Childcare affordability is also a major issue for parents who may be trying to decide whether or not they can afford to have _more_ children. “The joke among people I know these days is that you know someone is making good money if they have a third kid,” says Jacobs. For many families, the cost of childcare for three young children would exceed one parent’s wages, making it more economical for one parent to stay home and do the childrearing. A growing contingent of conservatives, including Vice President JD Vance, have suggested that mothers _should_ prioritize raising their kids at home over chasing a career. But that perspective is restricted to only _some_ families. In Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, benefits for jobless people and their children were eviscerated. “Republicans can’t decide if they hate people who are getting support, who aren’t working more, or if they want mothers to stay home more,” says Jacobs. “And so instead, we get bad policies.”
www.motherjones.com
July 10, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Board members in San Diego's Grossmont Union High School District targeted by a recall campaign now face new allegations of "wildly unethical" campaign tactics, including pay-to-play donations and running “ghost” candidates to siphon votes from progressive, union-backed rivals. Leaked messages […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
July 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM