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Alex Russell

@infrequently.org

5.5K followers 970 following 1.4K posts

Trying to make a web that works for everyone. Also at https://toot.cafe/@slightlyoff For more: https://infrequently.org/about-me/ https://infrequently.org/

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · Oct 27

Platforms are competitions, and the web is losing. We can do simple, straightforward things to combat that decline...but contemporary frontend isn't doing those things.

Why not?

A consolidated thread from last week:

infrequently.org/2024/10/platform…

Platform Strategy and Its Discontents - Infrequently Noted

Alex Russell on browsers, standards, and the process of progress.

infrequently.org

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 5h

Scroll down:

infrequently.org/2025/10/the-...

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 6h

At a critical moment, the tech press are failing to connect the dots between Apple and Google's craven capitulations and the authoritarianism they have nurtured within their own ecosystems:

infrequently.org/2025/10/the-...

The App Store Was Always Authoritarian - Infrequently Noted

Apple bent the knee for months, leaving many commentators to ask why. But the reasons are not mysterious: Apple wants things that only the government can provide, things that will defend and extend…

infrequently.org

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Reposted by Alex Russell

James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 7h

It's incredible the extent to which Congress just utterly refuses to defend itself. You'd think for entirely self-interested reasons you would stridently oppose having the power of the purse arbitrarily ripped from you, ya know?

Why would you allow yourself to become the Roman Senate circa 27 BC.

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 8h

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 6h

Look, my proposal is simple: you can be a millionaire 999 times over, in perpetuity, but if you can't figure out something to do with assets above that line, we should build some schools, feed some kids, and eliminate medical bankruptcy.

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 9h

Not sure i follow. How is it not an implementation detail?

Reposted by Alex Russell

Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 10h

If someone merely acknowledging the humanity of your enemies enrages you, you’re the baddies.

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David Colborne @davidcolborne.bsky.social · 10h

Exec3: What if, while we targeted our advertising towards lanyard-class staffers with an occasionally overdeveloped sense of noblesse oblige, we argued that the NLRB was unconstitutional?

Exec1 and Exec2: Okay, now it's starting to get warm in here.

Trader Joe’s Follows SpaceX in Arguing US Labor Board Is Unconstitutional

Grocery chain Trader Joe’s is joining Elon Musk’s SpaceX in arguing that the US labor board, which is prosecuting cases against both companies, is unconstitutional.

www.bloomberg.com

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 15h

Watching the news report on the president's greasy little grift as a customer satisfaction story and not, you know, This is Deeply Unconstitutional and Also Fucking Embarrassing as Hell

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 2d

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 17h

Make your plans for #NoKings. October 18th. Free speech is action. Please join in. You'll see me at one of the events.
www.nokings.org

No Kings

As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...

www.nokings.org

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

My first thought was “wow I hope this guy didn’t give out his name because he could absolutely be charged” and yup, he is correct to stay anonymous.

This man’s account is shocking. His neighbors’ situation is shocking. The entire Chicago raid is shocking.

On the other side was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for his help.
"I wasn't planning on letting her stay, but I didn't know what the hell was going on," the man said of his Venezuelan migrant neighbors. But he quickly relented. The little girl was inconsolable and hid under his bed.
"I didn't want them to take her," said the man, who didn't want to be named because he fears he'll be targeted by federal authorities for his actions.
"I gave her my bedroom, and I just told her,
'Just stay there. Don't open, don't, shh, just stay quiet," he recalled telling the mom and daughter as he choked back tears.

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 10h

Should the New York Times be sold to Pennysaver and its editors sent to work in Amazon warehouses? It depends on who you ask.

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Leonid Baezhnev @rev-avocado.bsky.social · 16h

This is good, actually. This is the kind of thing we need to build a pro-court expansion majority.

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 19h

More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 12h

I have a theory www.theverge.com/policy/79849...

American politics has devolved into shitposting and aura farming

The Frog is owning the president.

www.theverge.com

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Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 12h

Are you fucking kidding me.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

Can you think of a single movie in which there is a video from the government denouncing its political opponents playing on a loop in public spaces in which that government was the good guy?

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 1d

A new Noem video is being played at airports trashing Democrats.

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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 1d

Who was president in 2020?

Senate Rs spent hours Wed insisting a Biden Censorship Regime was in power.

It’s ridiculous on its face—but dangerous in its purpose.

If you can convince people of that lie, you can justify what Trump is doing now. It’s “just payback”.

open.substack.com/pub/agentsof...

Who was president in 2020?

On pressure, coercion, and confrontations with reality

open.substack.com

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

It would be funny if he didn't have the nuclear launch codes.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump: "Portland, I mean -- every time I look at that place it's burning down. There are fires all over the place. When a store -- there are very few of them left -- but when a store owner rebuilds a store they build it out of plywood. They don't put up storefronts anymore. They just put wood up."

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Rufus Hickok @rufus-hickok.bsky.social · 1d

Not quite "Sic semper tyrannis," but still pretty good.

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 1d

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

I honestly didn't think Newsom had the guts:

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Reposted by Alex Russell

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 1d

Not only is this rude, inappropriate, partisan, costly, and illegal, it reveals the fundamentally anti-American idiocy of this administration’s policy of handing over to China the most important economic sector of the 21st century.

Jamie Dupree @jamiedupree.bsky.social · 10d

Next move from OMB - canceling $8 billion in clean energy funds. You will note, all of the projects are in states led by Democrats

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 1d

If you are wearing a mask and disrupting a funeral you are not on the side of the right and the good. How about we just let people live (and grieve) in peace.

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 6d

If you watch closely, you'll see they're doing this opposite an actual funeral procession.

Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 6d

This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

The EU's DMA came into force more than a year ago, but we still don't have real browser choice on iOS because Apple is blocking it. Thankfully, @open-web-advocacy.org is pulling no punches: "Apple is obstructionist."

open-web-advocacy.org/blog/owa-at-...

OWA at the EU Parliament DMA Working Group - Open Web Advocacy

open-web-advocacy.org

Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

The CMA's designation is obviously correct, and Google should know better than to trot out tired, barely veiled, entirely unserious threats:

ft.com/content/8cc9b094…

Google told to loosen control over search by UK competition regulator

Big Tech company becomes the first to be designated with special status under strict new digital laws

www.ft.com

Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 2d

Other than Apple continuing to argue disingenuously against both browser choice and PWA safety? Nope.

That's not *less* of a scandal, it's just a scandal that's accruing interest:

webventures.rejh.nl/blog/2024/histor…

An Abridged History of Safari Showstoppers - Webventures

TL;DR: iOS Safari is more than an inconvenience for developers, it's the fundamental reason interoperability has been stymied...

webventures.rejh.nl

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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 2d

From the bad old site, in response to pro-immigration commentary from Cato scholars. I wonder whether there's something dangerous in letting presidents just arbitrarily declare one or another group to be a terrorist organization -- nah, I suppose that's alarmist.

Four tweets from X, text:

[user] Sep 20
The CATO Institute should be labeled as a domestic terrorist organization.

[user] Sep 20
Replying to
@AlexNowrasteh
Trump's next EO needs to be declaring the CATO Institute a terrorist organization.

[user]
·
Sep 19
The next group that
@realDonaldTrump
needs to designate as a terrorist organization is the Cato Institute

[user]
·
Sep 19
Replying to
@David_J_Bier
we are going to designate the CATO Institute as a terrorist organization next.

Tweets from X, text: "

[user]
·
11h
Replying to
@David_J_Bier
The Cato Institute should be declared a terrorist organization.

[user]
·
11h
President Trump needs to declare Cato institute domestic terror organization
Quote
The Alex Nowrasteh
@AlexNowrasteh
·
Oct 8
Americans would be slightly more pro-immigration if they knew how hard it is to come here legally."

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