Look, I'm an old millennial. And apparently I'm wrong in thinking everyone understands and comprehends identity security and personal autonomy online. The general population, on the other hand, are so open and ready to share all online and they see no issue with who sees what or what entity gains access to it. I think that's scary people are that unaware of how critical it really is to try and safeguard yourself from being commoditized as much as you possibly can. Online, for sure - but also irl. But that's another post for another day of which I don't care to do. I've just had some pretty recent conversations with friends who didn't know to not be so open about themselves online when they were younger and wished they had known. It made me realize not everyone grows up a network security nerd and therefore not everyone* actually understands how personal identities on the internet are important to manage properly. Anyway ...
I have never used a real identity for anything online. Not even for linkedin. It's been rule of law since my entrance onto the intenet during the days of ICQ and IRC. I did willfully and openly join Friendster. I did not willfully and openly join any other social media. In some moments I had to create an account somewhere to talk to classmates, show a portfolio, or keep connections so I could continue projects and foster good relations. But even then... no real name. So when reddit died I was fucking happy to join the fediverse and start learning about decentralization. That is to say - I don't fucking trust Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Steve Huffman, Evan Shmeigel (lol), or any other self proclaimed tech boy shithead trying to rake and harvest every piece of data and identity they can get their hands on. I am on lemmy to avoid that shit while still interacting with what appears to be a network of mostly rational and most likely either college educated and/or industry trained nerds.
So this is generally just a long post to say I'm not for federation with billionaire corps who are basically just right wing defense contractors, at this point. I am not for making nice with Meta in any fucking instance in the same way I don't care to make nice with Northrop Gruman. There's really no fucking difference between the two, to be honest. They both have way too much power and both only exist to start, and profit from conflict. I'm not interested in doing any fucking business with a mindset like that. So no, I'm not interested in federation with war criminals and population controllers. We all know info is a great way to keep people in control. The fediverse, while small - clearly has an appeal and plenty of info data. I don't need Mark's needley hands near it. Not all info platforms are created equal. Some have a fairly wholesome foundation and intent. Granted, not many. Many others are just weapons. Threads doesn't exist to serve a general community good. It exists to exploit, manipulate, extort, and destroy. Meta is a weapon. Therefore, so is Threads.
With all that said - I will be watching for the instances that aren't interested in "hearing out" or "waiting to see" what a war criminal wants to do with their billion dollar experiment. I will be deleting my subscriptions to places like lemmy.world and sticking to the walled garden. Why? Because, while I know it's not foolproof - it sends these fuckers a message that they don't get to just walk in and control literally everything. And also if I am given an opportunity - no matter how small it is - to manage my own data how I want to, I will take it instead of fore-fitting it like a subservient clueless dipshit. That's just how I roll. Thankfully that's how the fediverse rolls too.
My AI says money was saved by...
New legislation: In 2023, Colorado and Connecticut passed laws to prevent utilities from charging customers for lobbying, advertising, and other political influence activities.
Broader restrictions: These laws clarified and expanded the range of political activities that utilities are banned from charging to ratepayers compared to existing federal and state rules.
Specific savings examples:
In Colorado: State regulators rejected over $775,000 in lobbying fees, trade association dues, and investor relations costs sought by Xcel Energy in a gas rate case.
In Connecticut: State officials disallowed $555,000 in industry dues, travel and meal expenses, and investor relations costs that Avangrid attempted to charge customers during a gas rate case.
/// I imagine Trump will come in and "investigate" the legislation to undo the good