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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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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 7h

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 · 7h

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

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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 16h

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 · 9h

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

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9h

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 · 9h

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

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 10h

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 · 9h

I honestly didn't think Newsom had the guts:

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Reposted by Alex Russell

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 11h

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 · 9d

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 · 19h

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 · 5d

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

Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 5d

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 · 16h

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 · 16h

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

With Apple taking down apps that violate the delicate sensibilities of cretins "working toward the Fuhrer" [1], the fact of Cupertino scuttling PWAs is a scandal of epic proportions.

Will any of tech press even ask @open-web-advocacy.org about it? 🤔🤔
🤔

[1]: facinghistory.org/resource-library…

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

"30-year-old conservative lawyer and activist who is Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which deals with federal employee whistleblower complaints and discrimination" cancelled his colleague's hotel room so she would be forced to stay with him.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

In late July, Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, arrived at a Ritz-Carlton in Orlando with a lower-ranking female colleague and others from their department. When the group reached the front desk, the woman learned she didn’t have a hotel room.

Ingrassia then informed her that she would be staying with him, according to five administration officials familiar with the episode. Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him, three of those officials said.

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 1d

trump was prosecuted for real crimes and now he's punishing the people who prosecuted him with fake crimes

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C.A. Pinkham @eyepatchguy.bsky.social · 1d

I’m not kidding when I say these weird ass costumes and antics are actually an extremely effective tactic from a media standpoint bc when enough people do them, the media can’t fully scrub them out

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 1d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 1d

Good time to read @mollyroberts.bsky.social:

“It’s hard to imagine a worse case than the one against James Comey—until you see the one against the attorney general of New York.”

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/next...

Next Up: Letitia James
Molly Roberts
Monday, October 6, 2025, 9:59 AM
Share On: f X in $
It's hard to imagine a worse case than the one against James Comey-until you see the one against the attorney general of New York.

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Zack Stiegler @gonzeux.bsky.social · 1d

In one breath, Carr trumpets a "focus on consumer protection," while his next breath aims to wipe
out tranparency in fees and pricing.

Victor Pickard @victorpickard.bsky.social · 1d

This reads almost like an Onion article. @saschameinrath.bsky.social @christopherali.bsky.social @davidberman.bsky.social @sydneyforde.bsky.social @ppopiel.bsky.social

ISPs created so many fees that FCC will kill requirement to list them all

ISPs complained about Biden-era rule, said listing every fee was too hard.

arstechnica.com

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

This is *awesome*, and if you care about how much progress the web platform delivers *please* go rank your interests.

firefoxdevtools.bsky.social @firefoxdevtools.bsky.social · 1d

As an experiment, we (the Firefox team) wanted to try a new way to get feedback on which Interop proposals matter most.

So, here's a web app where you can rank the proposals you care about, giving us data we can use when reviewing which ones to champion.

interop-rank.jakearchibald.com

Interop Feature Ranking

Rank the web platform features you care most about

interop-rank.jakearchibald.com

Reposted by Alex Russell

David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 2d

Exceptional essay from @brianbeutler.bsky.social:

"If the politics of tyranny were self-discrediting, we wouldn't need mantras like 'never again.'"

"Despotism doesn’t impose itself on everyone all at once. It creeps inward from the margins of society."

www.offmessage.net/p/the-median...

The Median Experience Of Tyranny

If the politics of tyranny were self-discrediting, we wouldn't need mantras like "never again."

www.offmessage.net

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The Ass is the father of the legs @internethippo.bsky.social · 2d

One of the reasons they're having trouble concocting a Left Wing Terrorism epidemic is basically nobody in this country has ever met a left wing person. You might as well say we're being invaded by the smurfs

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 1d

Nothing remotely resembling an insurrection is happening anywhere in the country. Any violence associated with protest has been isolated, mild, and, in nearly every case, instigated by federal law enforcement. If we let Trump get away with calling dissent an insurrection, our republic is over.

BREAKING: Trump Admin 'Seriously' Considering Using the Insurrection Act, Reports NBC

President Trump is "seriously" considering invoking the Insurrection Act in order to more easily deploy National Guard troops to major cities as part of crime crackdown, NBC reported on Wednesday

www.mediaite.com

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Berny Belvedere @bernybelvedere.bsky.social · 1d

Doing politics the right way is when the far-right regime in power memorializes a fallen influencer by terrorizing an academic that the influencer's McCarthyist organization once baselessly singled out for abuse.

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

It's *so weird* how everyone in the React universe keeps scheduling all of these massive upgrade projects and talking about how "nobody does X anymore" then 🤔🤔🤔