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taraharris

3,676 karma · joined April 21, 2008

@realtaraharris on twitter
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taraharris··on Pentagon ex-UFO chief says conspiracy theorists in government drive spending
Missile defense is a misnomer. The distinction between a defensive and offensive capability is meaningless in the context of arms races and mutually assured destruction. As we pour billions into shooting down ICBMs, China will pour billions into new delivery systems to evade that defense, and vice versa.

The net result is that money on all sides is taxed away from things that people actually need and want (food, shelter, medicine, schools, parks, the arts) and directed into things that either rust in silos and bases or kill us all.

The only way to stop an arms race is to increase transparency and to negotiate treaties with our peers.

taraharris··on Pentagon ex-UFO chief says conspiracy theorists in government drive spending
We should repeal the National Security Act of 1947.

Nuclear weapons have proliferated to nine nations around the world since the passage of that act. The production of nuclear armaments is clearly limited by political will and industrial power, not knowledge.

The act protects a foreign policy establishment that has abused its power to conduct dirty tricks against other nations for decades in order to keep American elites rich and in power.

No one is going to invade the American homeland, given the vast oceans separating us from the rest of the world. Repealing that act and removing the foreign policy establishment from power would unwind our vast empire abroad and greatly improve our relations with other nations.

I would prefer that we do this cleanly, but unfortunately I think our empire will suffer a far messier fall from power over the coming decades. Empires at this stage flail wildly in their military adventures.

taraharris··on Pentagon ex-UFO chief says conspiracy theorists in government drive spending
I don't know what's going on, but it's clear that there are vast sums of money going into illegal black programs beyond congressional oversight. I strongly suspect that Kirkpatrick's role is to deflect public interest and criticism in order to maintain the status quo. I don't trust a single word he says.

Regardless of whether or not there is alien life, our government should be forced to open up its secrets, whatever they may be. We don't need any of this to stay safe.

taraharris··on US Government UFO cover up
Either they're lying about fake UFOs to manipulate the American public, or there really are UFOs and they've been lying about them for decades.

No matter which of these branches proves true, our government's rampant secrecy is illegitimate and offensive. We traded away good government for the illusion of safety in the nuclear age and we won't get it back until we organize to actually restrain our ruling elite.

taraharris··on Russian Army Is Double Its Size on Eve of Invasion, Likely Will Stay That Way
If our goal in backing the Ukrainians was to weaken Russia, haven't we failed miserably? And how has pushing Russia and China into being allies helped America's interests?

It makes me sad that we allowed hundreds of billions in tax dollars to flow to American weapons makers even as millions of Americans are forced to sleep in tents on sidewalks.

taraharris··on Top Israel/Hamas misinformation spreaders use Elon Musk's paid "verification"
Why is NewsGuard considered a trusted source, given their ties to the US intelligence establishment? The people that conned us about Iraqi WMD do not deserve the right to be the arbiters of what is deemed to be information.
taraharris··on Realtors Face an Antitrust Reckoning
The National Association of Realtors is the #1 lobbyist group in DC. Given the influence they have, the likelihood of any real change is unfortunately low. (I really hope the NAR loses. Good luck!)

It's a shame, because restrictions on housing supply are the biggest driver of inequality there is. An 80% improvement could be made on that front if we could somehow waive a magic wand and stop rewarding people for literal rent-seeking.

taraharris··on [dead]
I don't see any mention in the article of the effects of anti-LGBT parents.

When I was growing up in the 1980s, the fear of AIDS and LGBT people in general was so great that it kept me from telling anyone about my inner experiences.

When I was four, I asked my mom about "trading pee" with other boys. She shut that down in a hurry, telling me it was gross.

When I was seven, I got sick with something that kept me from eating for a couple of days, which left me shitting nothing but clear water. As I sat in the bathroom, I distinctly remember wondering if I was finally going to turn into a girl.

When I was eight, I was styling my hair in the most feminine way possible, which freaked my dad out. One day he saw my hair and washed out all the mousse and dried it in the roughest way possible with a towel.

When I was nine, I jumped on my male classmate's back; another time I saw his fly was open, so I went up to him and zipped it up. I got in trouble when this stuff got mentioned to my parents at a PTA conference. I saw other girls do this stuff and just had no idea that I wasn't supposed to act that way.

When I was twelve, I tried castrating myself with a rubber band I took from a broccoli stalk. I got several hours into it, but took it off after I had thoughts about the reaction my mother would have. I wish I hadn't.

When I was fourteen, my mother saw me sashay, which scared her so much she flew into a rage. I still have a scar on my neck from the reaction.

When I was twenty, I snapped back at my insensitive father, who was taken aback when he made some particularly ham-fisted and overbearing remark. As his eyes grew wide, he told me that I "have the sensitivity of a woman!"

I learned to keep myself repressed in order to survive. It took me over two decades of life as an adult in an increasingly accepting society to overcome the stigma and inertia I grew up with as a child. The effects were terrible for me, and for my first wife and the relationship we had for sixteen years!

I wish the authors of this article would be open to incorporating feedback from people with experiences like mine. Without it their analysis is quite flawed and you would do well to take it with a huge grain of salt.

taraharris··on Let’s Stop Pretending College Degrees Don’t Matter
Ok, so we need to get laws passed making it illegal to discriminate against candidates on the basis of educational background.
taraharris··on Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg might be right: Remote workers are less productive
This is just desperate propaganda to try to save banks and other entities exposed to dying commercial real estate. It won't work!
taraharris··on Ask HN: What new programming language(s) are you most excited about?
cpp2, Herb Sutter's compatible replacement for C++.
taraharris··on US Congress doubles down on claims of illegal UFO retrieval programs
Official secrecy clearly failed to stop the very scenario you're talking about!

We have had nuclear secrecy for nearly 80 years. In that time, nuclear weapons have proliferated to nine countries. North Korea has them, for God's sake.

Nuclear weapons are simply a function of having a large enough industrial base to support their development. The "secret sauce" is officially secret, but it isn't actually secret.

taraharris··on US Congress doubles down on claims of illegal UFO retrieval programs
If they're lying, they have a moral obligation to declassify everything they know.

If they're telling the truth, they have a moral obligation to declassify everything they know.

Official secrecy is fundamentally incompatible with the needs of an informed public capable of voting intelligently within a democratic republic.

taraharris··on Military “whistleblowers” have been making UFO claims for 70 years
From the original reporting in The Debrief:

Associates who vouched for Grusch said his information was highly sensitive, providing evidence that materials from objects of non-human origin are in the possession of highly secret black programs. Although locations, program names, and other specific data remain classified, the Inspector General and intelligence committee staff were provided with these details. Several current members of the recovery program spoke to the Inspector General’s office and corroborated the information Grusch had provided for the classified complaint.

Why not simply demand that Grusch's complaint be declassified? If it is bunk, we have a right to know; the US Government does not have any Constitutional authority to conduct psyops on US citizens. If it is real, we also have a right to know that.

The one thing I am certain of is that the US Government is morally corrupt in keeping either one of these secrets from us (psyop or aliens), and it needs to come clean. We cannot have a democracy if our government is constantly undermining it by keeping us in the dark about anything it chooses to label as a "national security" matter.

Why shouldn't we trust official secrecy? Nearly 78 years ago, a secretive United States Government thrust its civilian population into the nuclear era by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan, killing as many as 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians. The American public had no information about the bomb, no vote on its funding, and no choice about spending decades cowering in bomb shelters and under school desks. If Vladimir Putin did to Ukraine what we actually did to Japan in 1945, the entire world would call it a war crime. Official secrecy prevented any such democratic check from occurring in real time; how do we know that something similar isn't happening today?

https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-re...

taraharris··on Linux 6.5 Preps for IBM POWER's “Dexcr”
If IBM were serious about open-source, they'd make it possible to build POWER10 systems without proprietary firmware. https://www.phoronix.com/news/POWER10-Blobs-Raptor
taraharris··on Bitcoin correlation with stocks at 5-year low as regulatory crackdown takes toll
The stock market is at or near a top, and I'm expecting a pretty massive reversal in the coming months. We are living in the midst of a synchronized global recession, as China's post-COVID reopening has failed. Rough times are ahead here in the US...
taraharris··on Ask HN: How do you like to be marketed to?
I don't want to be marketed to. I want an open society built on open technology that I can use for free and modify without asking anyone else's permission.

I would rather go without something than to pay for it and give up my freedom. For example, I choose to live without a car or even a driver's license.

I am not a resource for you to exploit.

taraharris··on Good-looking female students no longer get straight A’s when classes are virtual
And they want everyone to go back to the office?
taraharris··on Ron DeSantis has officially entered the 2024 presidential race
Ron DeSantis stands accused of war crimes, according to the testimony of several prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. He has been notably and particularly evasive about his military service in interviews during his governorship. Whatever his supporters think of his other policies, I hope that they don't ignore this obviously disqualifying stain on his record.

https://soundcloud.com/eyesleft/desantis

taraharris··on Twitter Shadowbans Bellingcat, Then Tries to Retcon a Nonsense Explanation
Bellingcat is obviously sponsored by the American intelligence establishment and I'm honestly surprised (and a little insulted) when I see anyone trying to pass it off as an independent, legitimate thing. I don't appreciate being lied to by my own government any more than I appreciate it from China and Russia.
taraharris··on False claims of a stolen election thrive unchecked on Twitter
Legacy media organizations never even attempted to repair the damage done by the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story. They blocked the link to the breaking New York Post story from being shared on Twitter, and used a letter written by 51 former intelligence officials to instill doubt on a mountain of evidence of corruption.

The Hunter Biden laptop was true, though, and my vote would have been different had AP and others taken a brave stance and reported the truth. I feel betrayed.

Was the election stolen through manipulated voting machines? I don't think it was. However, the intelligence establishment has interfered with our elections so much through media manipulation that these claims of a "stolen election" ultimately ring true in a wider and arguably more important sense.

taraharris··on Oxford University wipes the Sackler name from its buildings
This isn't enough. When you actually read the article, you'll see that the Sackler name will not be removed from two donor boards!

Oxford should return the blood money it accepted from the Sacklers. Money talks, BS walks.

taraharris··on The Far-Reaching Effects of US Intelligence Officers Lies to the American Public
If judges in the past were known to be guilty of taking bribes in the past, why should that mean that newly-discovered crooked judges should escape justice?

Our government cannot function properly with this sort of extensive corruption in any of its three branches. Our intelligence establishment operates without effective oversight, and something must be done to wrestle power back to favor transparency. Separating CIA's information-gathering function from its dirty tricks functions is a step in the right direction.

taraharris··on The Framework Laptop 13
Is there any proprietary firmware on these? If this is truly open, I'm excited, otherwise I do not care one bit.

(Scrolling down the comments, I am honestly disappointed that I am the only person asking this question. Or does everyone else already know and I'm just out of touch?)

taraharris··on faulTPM: Exposing AMD fTPMs' Deepest Secrets
TPM's true owner is the NSA, not you or I.

https://www.stat.rice.edu/~dobelman/kstorm.txt

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6337282

https://www.militaryaerospace.com/computers/article/16711478...

https://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-german-government-war...

https://supplychaindigital.com/technology/nsa-trusted-comput...

https://redmondmag.com/articles/2013/08/22/windows-8-securit...

https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/security/2015/07/29/on-the-trust-of-...

taraharris··on faulTPM: Exposing AMD fTPMs' Deepest Secrets
Why not simply abandon TPM and focus on making simple, trustable, massively parallel general-purpose hardware without backdoors for spy agencies and corporations?

Whose computer is this, anyway?

taraharris··on Ask HN: An OS for people who hate changes?
Haiku! I run it in a VM and spend all my time porting SolveSpace to it. https://twitter.com/realTaraHarris/status/164989272422757990...

X512 (a prolific contributor) got accelerated Vulkan graphics going on it recently (on one old Radeon card), and it has an active community of people constantly working to improve it.

Sore spots:

- driver support is good if you've got old hardware, but I have to run it in a VM on my machine (a Surface Pro 8)

- the available web browsers are old. I use a newer WebKit built for it, but you have to build it from source. The snapshot I downloaded is 1.5 GB of code + an hour of compilation

- alt-tab only works if you put the keymapper in Windows mode (which forces ctrl for cut, copy and paste)

I run Debian 11 to host the VM, run FireFox and watch YouTube. Once I get to a certain point with SolveSpace for Haiku, I might try my hand at writing a device driver or two to make it possible to dump Linux.

Haiku has a very bright future in my opinion. This is due to its simplicity, excellent architecture and user friendliness. It is the true successor to the original Macintosh, built on the kind of solid foundation the Mac never had. In terms of adoption, it feels like where Linux was in 1995.

taraharris··on Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility
Who among us hasn't stepped on enough Legos to last a lifetime? Oh well, let's have some more <3
taraharris··on Twitter Is Shrinking: Web Visits Down 7.3%, App Usage Dropping
Elon Musk is a complex person, like any other human being. Many of his achievements are fantastic and I cheer them on appropriately. When I think he gets something wrong, I don't hesitate to say so.

Allow me to illustrate with an example from a week ago. I wrote this in reply to Elon's tweet about "life imprisonment for sterilizing children" (I'm trans, and very open about it since starting my transition six months ago):

"Should I have gone to prison for life when I was 12 and I tried to sterilize myself with a rubber band? I suffered terribly for three decades because of the testosterone puberty I went through and never wanted."

https://twitter.com/realTaraHarris/status/164683309263877734...

I try my best to use Twitter to support other trans women. My DMs are open in order to make myself more available, especially to people that are afraid to transition and/or mired in circumstances that make it difficult to do so (such as living in a red state and/or with an unsupportive home environment.)

I have also spent the past several months supporting and amplifying communists, socialists and anarchists on Twitter whenever possible, even though my own personal viewpoint differs somewhat from each of those groups. I do this because I think everyone brings something to the table, and the continued marginalization of the true left in the United States is very dangerous as we enter this new period of war and economic instability.

Let me know which one of us should be embarrassed.

taraharris··on Twitter Is Shrinking: Web Visits Down 7.3%, App Usage Dropping
Speak for yourself. I pay for Blue and I'm not embarrassed about it. I would rather pay for a service that I like and see fewer ads; maybe someday there will be an option to get rid of all the ads?
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