Loops is a short video sharing platform, powered by ActivityPub and inspired by TikTok.

One challenge I had to solve was compression.

I implemented an important two stage transcoding system that first optimizes the video on device in the app, then sends it to the server for further optimization.

This means Loops servers don't need huge resources to get started, and can leverage the processing power of client devices!

#loops

Over the last 24 or so hours I've been subject to a harassment campaign where people have encouraged me to kill myself, and/or called me racist and homophobic slurs, and/or accused me of pedophilia.

Most of the abuse came from a small number of instances:

nicecrew[.]digital
shit[.]poster[.]place
parcero[.]casa

(The last one actually has multiple abusive instances under multiple two-letter-subdomains - I recommend blocking the apex.)

As these instances are all dedicated to 'free speech’, 'satire’, or ‘shit-posting’ (as we all know these terms are all synonymous with abuse) I would recommend a fediblock on these instances, if you don't already block them.

(If anyone is curious: This all started because someone spread the rumour that FediFetcher doesn't respect robots.txt. A rumour that's false: FediFetcher does respect robots.txt.)

#mastoadmin #fediblock

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to the chosen nazi bar of the Conservative Party of Canada. I sure hope the management and staff made enough money off them to weather the association, because I won't be heading there.

#canpoli #nevervoteconservative #TheLocalPubandOysterBar #Charlottetown #PEI

"I'm not here to break the record of the man who tried to stop the rights on which I stand. I'm not here to stop his speech. I'm here in spite of his speech. As powerful as he was, the people were more powerful."

And with that, Senator Cory Booker has broken Strom Thurmond's filibuster record.🔥🔥🔥

How could #Trump be president for a third term?

Trump supporters say there is a loophole in the constitution

They argue that the 22nd Amendment only explicitly bans someone being "elected" to more than two presidential terms - and says nothing of "succession"

Under this theory, Trump could be the vice-presidential running-mate to another candidate - in the 2028 election

If they win, they could be sworn into the White House and then immediately resign - letting Trump take over by succession

Sensitive content Click to open/close

'Marine Le Pen thought she was untouchable. Wrapped in tricolor nationalism, elevated by decades of scapegoating, she built a brand out of grievance and paranoia. She claimed the people's voice, even as she siphoned public money behind their backs. She stoked fires she had no intention of putting out, pointed fingers at enemies she invented wholesale, and assumed, like every strongman with a PR team, that the system she mocked would never bite back.

Then it did.

The French courts called her bluff. They reviewed the evidence, followed the law, and found her guilty. Not of bad optics. Not of rhetorical excess. Not of "thought crimes," no matter what Elon Musk and his gang of strongmen with hurt feelings tell you.

She was found guilty of embezzlement, theft, and lying while draped in the flag. She won't run for president again until 2030. She's under home detention. And she is no longer just a threat—she is a convicted fraud.

This matters.

Not just because it dents her career. Not just because it opens up the field in France. But because every autocrat, every demagogue, every would-be Le Pen elsewhere is watching. And they are rattled.

They should be. The far right does not survive scrutiny. It thrives in spectacle, but it dies in sunlight. Like Trump, Bolsonaro, and Orban, Le Pen built her empire on the assumption that the rules were for someone else. That legality was a performance. That accountability was optional. But the law is not a mirror. You don't get to shape it with your ego. In an uncompromised system, it stands even when you scream at it.

The global tantrum from her allies tells the story. Trump immediately compared Le Pen's conviction to his own legal troubles because, of course he did. It's always about him. Always the victim, never the culprit. Elon Musk, from his bubble of delusion, called it a plot. Orban pledged support for his disgraced ally. Bolsonaro whimpered from exile.

They know the truth. They know it in their bones. Fascism only works when it's insulated, when its actors are shielded from consequence, and when propaganda outruns the facts. The illusion breaks when the scaffolding of immunity collapses, the mob is replaced by a judge, and the slogans are replaced by evidence. And what's underneath? Insecurity, desperation, and a hollow ideology trussed up in stolen valor.

Authoritarians don't want law and order. They want their order without law. Le Pen wasn't taken down by a smear campaign. She was taken down by her own accounting. The receipts were real. The funds were misused. The institutions she spent her life deriding did their job. And for once, the machinery of democracy didn't blink.

America should take notes. Because while Le Pen is sidelined, Trump is running the table. He's reshaped the judiciary, fired the prosecutors, and made a mockery of independent oversight. He's trying to erase the very record that would convict him. He has converted the Department of Justice into a loyalty program. He's unleashed the full force of presidential power to shield himself from accountability. He's dismantling the concept of justice piece by piece, turning institutions into weapons, rules into obstacles, and laws into tools for revenge.

Trump has never and will never be interested in governing. He's not interested in solving problems. Trump wants total narrative control—to cast himself as both martyr and messiah, both victim and avenger. Every indictment becomes a campaign ad. Every trial becomes a rally. Every ruling against him becomes further proof of conspiracy. And still, beneath all the noise, is the one thing he can't rewrite: a legal system that - for now - still functions.

Trump doesn't fear the left. He doesn't fear the press. He fears the gavel. He fears that despite all the bluster, there are still people in robes who can end his fantasy. Because unlike Truth Social, Twitter, and Fox News, courts don't run on applause. Courts don't respond to chants, and judges aren't impressed by crowd sizes. The Constitution, even when shredded at the edges, still holds. And in those corners, Trump sees a threat he can't eliminate: truth rendered legally binding.

This is why Le Pen's demise matters. Because it shows that even the loudest fascists, even the most entrenched demagogues, are not beyond reach. The system, flawed and bruised, can still function. It can still deliver a verdict that means something.

Every time an authoritarian con-artist is held accountable, every time the mask slips in a courtroom, the spell weakens. It takes pressure. It takes a public that doesn't flinch when the volume gets turned up. It takes faith - not in the perfection of institutions, but in their potential.

Let the strongmen scream. Let them curse the judges. Let them fundraise off their shamelessness. If the courts still stand after the dust clears, the fascists are not winning.

They're pleading.

For once, the world doesn't have to listen.

It just has to watch the gavel fall.

And know it can fall again.'

theindex.media/authoritarian-g…

#uspol #fascism #FRAPOL #france

Authoritarian Grift Meets the Grind of Justice

Marine Le Pen has been convicted of fraud, shattering the illusion of far-right immunity—and sending a warning shot to strongmen everywhere.

^{Joan Westenberg (The Index.)}

House speaker fails to squash Colorado mom’s bill to help new parents in Congress

coloradosun.com/2025/04/01/pro…

House speaker fails to squash Colorado mom's bill to help new parents in Congress

With her son in her arms, Colorado Rep. Brittany Pettersen stood on the House floor and pleaded with colleagues to turn back the GOP leadership.

^{The Associated Press (The Colorado Sun)}

My incredibly talented wife @redbunhead.bsky.social
won the title of Best Dance Instructor/Choreographer in Prince William County #PWC last year, and her studio won as well. She & it has been nominated again this year.

If you’d like to vote for her, you can do so here once a day thru April:
va.secondstreetapp.com/Best-of…

And the Sharron Baucom Dale City Recreation Center:
va.secondstreetapp.com/Best-of…

#dance #ballet #choreography #choreographer #vote

Saw an atrociously bad post? You can now release a live swarm of bees directly towards the author!

Just press the button and they're sent off instantly, no further action required. 🐝🐝🐝

#wdw

PDX! Show up!

Please boost this post, and forward the pics to anyone you know in the Portland area who ain't on here.

"March 25, 2025 farmworker leader and organizer Alfredo Juarez, better known as Lelo, was kidnapped violently by ICE. He was on his way to drop off his partner at her work place, and ICE agents broke his car window when he tried to exercise his rights. This is a targeted attack on Farmworker leadership, the independent labor movement as a whole."

Free Lelo! #FreeLelo