Hal Plotkin

New here. I will always wonder what else I could have done to convince my former colleagues in the White House and the Democratic Party to listen to and act on this proposal, which could have changed everything. And which still might. #IdeasMatter #Technology4People #DigitalProgressAdministration

Time to wise up fast, folks. Provoking public disorder is not a CONSEQUENCE of Trump's lawless deeds. It's the GOAL. Trump needs just one violent street protest to "justify" the declaration of Martial Law that has almost certainly already been prepared. Don't give him that opportunity. #nonviolence

Time to wise up fast, folks. Provoking public disorder is not a CONSEQUENCE of Trump's lawless deeds. It's the GOAL. Trump needs JUST ONE violent street skirmish to "justify" the declaration of Martial Law that has almost certainly already been drafted. Don't give him that opportunity. #nonviolence

I recently had lunch with a local college president. He told me his main goal is to keep his head down. "It's my responsibility to protect our students. The most important thing I can do right now is not make us a target." That's how it starts. That's also the beginning of the end. #Resist

Why don't we have squads of drones that can put out wildfires by carrying fire-dousing hose arrays?

The fact that the DC Dems have been beaten into irrelevancy by someone as dumb and obviously corrupt as Trump should be a clue that it's time for them to abandon their neoliberal $ grubbing alliance with Big Tech and champion open source digital technologies. But even now, they still won't do it.

Next up: "The Trump Slump."

The U.S. Department of Education works to ensure that every student, no matter their background, has an opportunity to thrive. I’m proud to join 250+ former federal officials in thanking federal workers in the U.S. Department of Education for their service. You can read our letter here:

Govt doesn't create fascism. Fascism gains and holds power because of oligarchic businesses led by people who know that fair rules fairly enforced will limit or end their easy profits. That's why American fascism is led by Silicon Valley CEOs and VCs, who could put even a stooge like Trump in power.

I saw fascism coming six years ago (even earlier) when I published this open letter to the Biden Harris team. We have an economy led by lionized firms that ape the biz ethics of dishonest car mechanics who cheat customers by hiding what's happening under the hood. On that foundation democracy sank.

Silicon Valley is known as the land of easy $. Write code & make bank like recording artists! An entire industry based on this model was lionized despite the social & economic advantages of open source software. Wall Street loved it. The goal: recurring revenue for no new work. Outcome: fascism.

Sociopaths now lead Silicon Valley. But how did that start? History: 1976 when a Bill Gates' open letter led the new software industry to ape the biz model of dishonest car mechanics who lie about what's under the hood. Making bank came first not honesty. Straight line to fascism's rule of thieves.

"Last week, Republicans celebrated the pardons of criminals who were filmed violently assaulting police officers..." Please @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social - you MUST repeat this point EVERY SINGLE DAY. Drive it home with constant repetition ala Trump. Don't let them change the subject!!! Stay on this!

If @schumer.senate.gov and @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social and the Democratic Party congressional leaders were smart they would focus on Trump's pardons of convicted criminals who were filmed assaulting police officers EVERY SINGLE DAY rather than helping Trump keep changing the topic.

The fact that McConnell now opposes Trump after destroying the U.S. system of checks and balances does not matter to me at all. The only way McConnell can redeem himself is by leading the effort to impeach and convict and remove Trump from office. Otherwise, McConnell's name is dirt for the ages.

Trump WANTS - and is obviously trying to provoke - violent street demonstrations so he can invoke MARTIAL LAW. Don't give that to him. KEEP ALL DEMONSTRATIONS NON-VIOLENT. Report and isolate those causing violence immediately - they are likely to be Trump agents (known as "agents provocateurs").

There may be a silver lining in this. This Big Lie is basically a tacit admission that much if not all of what Musk has done has not been legally authorized. The only possible defense is to claim he didn't do it, which is what folks charged with provable crimes often say. It rarely works.

If our Dem Party leaders were smarter this is what they would be talking about EVERY SINGLE DAY instead of constantly helping Trump change the subject. Trump pardoned convicted criminals who were filmed assaulting police officers. Can we please put @mjfree.bsky.social in charge - like in the movies?

Thank you to @sloanfoundation.bsky.social for funding this essential work. Our future depends on work such as this. Kudos!

The appalling nature of this announcement was lost amid the recent shitstorm. In the past, when layoffs happened the bosses usually had the decency NOT to cast aspersions on those being fired. Now, Meta kicks them in their teeth as they're thrown into the street. Who'd ever work for Zuck again?

I *really* hope some of these young scholars look at how the rise of the digital age led to a diminution of public investments in durable goods (bridges, roads, schools, parks, sewer system investments replaced by non-durable software licenses). That horse left the barn a long time ago. Devastating.

This is what happens when your national economy is led for decades by a Big Tech sector that apes the biz ethics of dishonest car mechanics who cheat customers by hiding what's happening under the hood. The biz press mostly missed THAT story - too busy at the time seeking $ to host "conferences."

Translation: Basically an admission that much of what Musk has personally done to date has not been legally authorized. When something can't be defended legally the only other option is to deny it occurred. Pretty much every criminal defendant makes that argument at some point. We're already there.

Brilliant. How did Silicon Valley's (SV) leadership come to be dominated by obvious sociopaths? Kudos to @beccalew.bsky.social. One even deeper root: SV's embrace of the ethics of dishonest car mechanics who hide what's happening under the hood (eg Bill Gates pivotal letter to Dr. Dobbs Journal).

We are in a global fight against fascism. Only this time the U.S. is on the wrong side. #ImpeachTrumpand Vance

Defund the Billionaires. You don't defeat Big Tech billionaires by calling them names or marching around in circles. You defeat them by cutting them off at the pockets, as I proposed to Team Biden six years ago. No one was listening then. Perhaps someone will listen now.

Dr. Strangelove reincarnated!

🥁 Announcing the Public Domain Image Archive! 🥁 We are v excited to share our new sister-project, the Public Domain Image Archive (PDIA), a curated collection of 10k+ out-of-copyright historical images, all free to explore and reuse: pdimagearchive.org @pdimagearchive

Gee, our beaches and public parks are also getting pretty crowded. How long til we auction those off to the highest bidders, too?

If the question was "how can we move *all* cars on public streets in Manhattan more quickly regardless of the wealth of their owners?" there are many potential tech-based solutions other than congestion pricing. But no reason to consider those ideas now. Instead, money talked - again. Same in CA:

This excellent work by the brilliant Michael Jacobs (see below) provides support for the institution-building effort I proposed four years ago. I was unable to get my friends in the top echelons of the Democratic Party to listen. Perhaps they will listen now. We need ideas that match this moment.

Most governments have shown zero interest in making sure new technologies raise rather than lower overall standards of living. Instead, politicians in both parties are busy seeking campaign contributions from the modern makers of income inequality. So that job - tech for people - falls to us.

If you’re the kind of person who easily forgets what you’ve accomplished, you need a practice for reminding yourself. Count the years, the finished projects, the progress, the praise, count it all up and use it as evidence against the ever present criticism in your head that you’re not doing enough.

Thank god for @moonalice.com but we desperately need more truth tellers here in Silicon Valley. The fact we don't have them is telling. Locals often privately tell me they agree with Roger but are afraid to say so in public because they fear blacklisting by potential employers. That's more than sad.

Bummed I'm getting lots of obviously fake new followers here. Most feature comely photos of beautiful young women seeking "adventures" with older men and have typically made no posts. The requests for my bank account number(s) must be near. Bluesky programmers: please help stop the scams!

Dreaming BIG: The Wash Post becomes a #platformcoop owned and overseen by local weekly newspapers committed to covering local news with shared national coverage. Funded by tax refundable fees, $15O per taxpayer per year, paid by reader/ subscribers. Hybrid public private biz model.

Co-authored with Anne-Pauline De Cler, Michelle Lee, Morshed Mannan, and Stefano Tortorici, this opinion piece proposes structuring LLCs as worker cooperatives as a stopgap measure to overcome reputational and legal roadblocks. www.thenews.coop/from-member-... #cooperatives

Own This! How Platform Co-operatives Help Workers Build a Democratic Internet by Trebor Scholz @versobooks.bsky.social is "a call to action for those interested in constructing an alternative digital future", according to Lola Brittain. Read the full review wp.me/p2MwSQ-h3T

What's worse is that he's talking about the President-elect of the United States of America and the Secretary of Defense designate while he is left scrawling pithy little insults in chalk on the sidewalk. How on earth could the Democratic Party have been so lame as to allow this travesty to unfold?

New on the PCC blog: platform.coop/blog/waste-p...

A few days ago in Mombasa, Kenya, the New School's Platform Cooperativism Consortium convened the Digital Africa Rising conference with the The Cooperative University Of Kenya. Hearing firsthand accounts from African content moderators was a gutting experience. www.thenews.coop/can-co-ops-a...

To survive as a species we simply must find new ways to deploy new technologies that reduce rather than increase #incomeinequality while also combating corporate-induced #climatechange. That is what this work is all about. I know I have many friends I haven't met yet who are participating.

Thank God for the Hezbollah Israel ceasefire. I remain distraught: unlimited support for violence and hardly any creative efforts to promote a lasting peace. It has been 30 years since I made this proposal after helping organize the Madrid talks. 30 yrs of blood. Why not try something different?