Luke (Shiv)

Civil Servant; the people come first. I am interested in systems of all types; there are so many ways we could make things better. Sincereposter.

Following Hashtags:: Steelers, Trains, Pokemon, WorldOfWarcraft, Lisp, Lego, Factorio, DeGrowth, Music
Please:: Look out for each other. This includes using alt text 💜
Pronouns:: he/him
Names:: Luke or Shiv both work

Last Notes

2026-06-17 20:46:41 UTC

Gavin Newsom is requiring all state employees to be back in the office 4 days a week, right before his term ends. This will cost the people of California money, as the state *was* in the process of reducing office rents prior to his previous turnaround on RTO. It *will* however benefit his buddies with properties in downtown Sacramento. It will also cost the state in terms of hiring and retention, which is already an issue given how low the wages are compared to the cost of living in CA. He is doing this right as the union is up for a new contract, having used the previous RTO order as leverage to prevent a negotiated pay raise from going through, at the same time that all of us are dealing with record inflation.
Gavin Newsom is not on the side of people, or workers. He is not worth supporting.

2026-06-08 16:15:05 UTC

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It is funny that boomers and people at work have adopted "Ask Chat" as a phrase, but with a dramatically different meaning.

2026-02-13 18:39:34 UTC

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We can take away their power and capacity for violence. Long term that's better than encouraging and directing the violence elsewhere. We do have avenues to make them change, they do feel social pressures, demoralizing them does actually work well. Encouraging violence is counterproductive if we want a world without violence.

2025-12-11 19:22:59 UTC

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I think being extremely online helps to see this, with all the people creating art or open source programs in their limited free time, and then sharing it freely.

2025-10-05 05:01:53 UTC

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They added reactions to outlook (and teams) at work, and it's a trip.

2025-10-03 18:14:46 UTC

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I think it really depends on public opinion. Like, if we had an effective opposition, with how unpopular Trump is and only getting worse, the military could point to that and I think they *would*. But we need that public sentiment they can see and point to. It needs to be clear that the majority of people don't support Trump. And honestly we are not there yet.
(And a major part of the problem is that the people who are supposed to be making that case, the Democratic party, are completely useless. So it's left to us citizens talking to the people around us an posting on the internet, which is working, but I worry too slowly.)

2025-10-03 18:06:16 UTC

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Going to respectively disagree on this one. The military is stonewalling and dragging its heels as much as possible. That's what it should be doing, generals are unelected officials, so they should do their responsibilities to the best they can, which includes pushing back against unconstitutional orders and preventing the military from attacking civilians, and they are doing that. They are holding to the constitution the best they can, and part of that, a necessary part, is holding to their nonpartisan role.
I will spare no criticism for the Democrats. Their job is to be that opposition, make the case how this is unconstitutional, and rally the people. They have let this fester over the last few decades, and they still lack the spine to do anything about it now. It *is* their job.

2025-10-03 17:54:01 UTC

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It's more that it is *ingrained* in the military that you are nonpartisan and serve the people via elected leaders. And that's good, we don't want the military thinking about taking over. The real problem is that Democrats are not leading. Like if elected officials are out there saying saying shit is unconstitutional, then the military can look to that as the will of the people. Same with giant protests (it is legitimately one of the points of them, although lack of media coverage hurts that). So the military does it's best to keep a lid on things, because they shouldn't be making the first move. I don't think that's a bad thing tbh.

2025-06-25 16:15:14 UTC

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We came to Denver a few years back for a "boys trip", and the only reason I was able to convince some of the guys to take the train from the airport instead of an uber was because it was free. Was very cool, helped make the train more used and kept a car or two from making a trip.

2025-05-29 20:19:40 UTC

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Democratic leadership doesn't want to change or retire, or even listen to anyone outside their elite social circle. So they fixate on their friends the op ed writers (or Chuck Schumer's imaginary family) that validate them doing that. They really need to listen to actual people, or even better yet, retire and stop getting in the way.
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/114/592/959/655/812/282/original/136d0fced742e1b5.png

2024-11-06 18:44:57 UTC

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Memes are coping, and also allow people to feel united, which are both important. We do have to organize, and do more than meme, but we also have to survive the next four years to even have a chance. It's going to be really fucking hard, and attacking each other and denying people small joys and coping mechanisms is not going to help. We have to organize and support each other, and we are going to have to sustain these efforts for years.

2024-10-30 16:50:07 UTC

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I recently read Small is Beautiful, and 50 years ago this economist was talking about how growth was not sustainable and we needed to consider people, not just profit, in decision making.
Idk, I've become convinced that we want more small local companies, and we should incentivize profit, size, and growth less. I feel like properly taxing the super rich would be a good start in realigning incentives away from profit at all costs.

2024-10-25 00:06:01 UTC

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Provided you own it.
T-Mobile doesn't unlock yours if you buy on one of their deals/installment plans. *But*, if it is a deal, you can pay it off in full, they will unlock it, and you receive a discount on your monthly bill. Need to have the cash, but at least you still get the savings.

2024-10-12 00:54:59 UTC

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I'm not trying to be mean, but do you really think they are helpful enough for random low-stakes stuff to justify the climate cost and waste associated with them? It's something I've been thinking about (and answered) for myself, solidified by how messed up the climate is getting. Just food for thought: the issues with LLMs are not just on the technical side.

2024-10-04 17:23:52 UTC

Advertising literally adds zero value to the world, and does quite a of harm. It's not even just about the privacy issue; we already know what that looks like and we don't want it. The core premise of Mark Surman, Mozilla's President, is that "We can’t just ignore online advertising — it’s a major driver of how the internet works and is funded."
We can actually. We need to explore other models. And people are, but it sure would help if they had access to the resources of an organization as large as Mozilla. An organization large enough to be a driver of how the internet works and is funded. Really wish they would show some vision, instead of following down a path when we *know* where it leads.