Scott Boehmer

Author: Scott Boehmer

  • Firefox Focus

    As a result of having worked on it at Microsoft, I’ve been using Microsoft Edge as my browser for years. Recently though, I’ve been looking for alternatives due to the amount that Microsoft has been adding bloated features that I don’t want to the browser so that each overview of new features after an update was a list of things I wanted to turn off rather than anything that excited me. More broadly, the company’s shoving of generative AI into every nook and cranny has pushed me to look for alternatives to pretty much every Microsoft product that I use.

    On the browser front, I’ve switched to Firefox with DuckDuckGo as my search engine. Both of those still seem to be investing in AI, but it was easy to opt out.

    On my phone, I installed both the standard Firefox browser and Firefox Focus. Since doing that, I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying Firefox Focus.

    It is a simple, privacy-focused browser. It is essentially always in private mode and deletes your cookies and history each time you close it or at the convenient press of a button in its toolbar, and then it also has built-in ad and tracking blockers. On the other hand, it intentionally lacks a bunch of features that I’d normally like in a browser: roaming favorites, password management, tabs, cross-device history, etc.

    Despite that lack of features though, it turns out it feels pretty perfect for navigating a web that is hostile to users. Obnoxious ads are a problem all over the internet, so I recommend everyone use an ad-blocker no matter what browser you’re running. Then a lot of sites use cookies to track activity and interfere with users. For example, news sites often record the number of articles you view and then at some point stop letting you read without a subscription. It turns out defaulting to private mode where cookies are regularly deleted makes those sites feel a lot more user friendly.

    On the rare sites where I actually want to sign-in, I’m easily able to switch over to the full Firefox on my phone with a menu option in Firefox Focus. Then I can benefit from all the roamed information from my desktop browser.

    If you’re not happy with your mobile browsing experience, then I recommend giving Firefox Focus a try. Oh, and also change the settings in every single app that tries to open links in anything other than your default browser to stop doing that.

    Firefox Focus (Mozilla)

  • On the Side of Autocrats and Fascists

    It seems that we now live in an America that is more likely to throw its support behind autocrats and fascists than to align with our long-term democratic allies.

    European leaders should end the isolation of far-right parties across the Continent, US vice-president JD Vance has said.

    The comments mark an extraordinary embrace of a once-fringe political movement with which the Trump administration shares a common approach on migration, identity and internet speech.

    The address stunned and silenced hundreds of attendees at the Munich Security Conference, a forum where top-level politicians, diplomats and analysts had gathered expecting to hear US president Donald Trump’s plans for ending the war in Ukraine and Europe’s defence against a rising Russian threat.

    Mr Vance singled out his German hosts, telling them to drop their objections to working with a party that has often revelled in banned Nazi slogans and has been shunned from government as a result.

    Jim Takersley, Steven Erlanger, and David E. Sanger

    European leaders left in stunned silence as JD Vance harangues them over approach to far right (The Irish Times)

    Mr. Trump’s remarks late on Tuesday, when he sided fully with Russia’s narrative blaming Ukraine for the war, have now fortified the impression that the United States is prepared to abandon its role as a European ally and switch sides to embrace President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

    It was a complete reversal of historic alliances that left many in Europe stunned and fearful.

    Catherine Porter and Andrew Higgins

    Meeting Again in Paris, European Leaders Try to Recalibrate After Trump Sides With Russia (The New York Times)

    Make no mistake. The Trump-Vance-Musk regime is not only undermining democracy in the United States. It is also laying the foundation for undermining democracies around the world.

    Since the end of World War II, liberal democracies have stuck together — led by America. On the opposite side have been authoritarian states, led mainly by the Soviet Union, followed, after the demise of the Soviet Union, by Russia and China.

    But all this is rapidly changing. Both Russia and China have morphed into oligarchies, run by small groups of extraordinarily wealthy people.

    America has also been moving from a democracy to an oligarchy — and is doing so at lightning speed under Trump, Vance, Musk, and their billionaire buddies.

    The new poles of international power are coming to be global democracies versus a global oligarchy. The United States is emerging on the side of global oligarchy.

    Robert Reich

    The Trump-Vance-Musk-Putin plan (Robert Reich)

  • The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan

    In 2007, on my first trip to New York City, I grabbed a brand-new DSLR camera and photographed all the fonts I was supposed to love. I admired American Typewriter in all of the I ❤ NYC logos, watched Akzidenz Grotesk and Helvetica fighting over the subway signs, and even caught an occasional appearance of the flawlessly-named Gotham, still a year before it skyrocketed in popularity via Barack Obama’s first campaign.

    But there was one font I didn’t even notice, even though it was everywhere around me.

    Last year in New York, I walked over 100 miles and took thousands of photos of one and one font only.

    The font’s name is Gorton.

    Marcin Wichary

    The hardest working font in Manhattan (Aresluna)

  • When a President Bribes a Mayor

    In particular, the rationale given by Mr. Bove—an exchange between a criminal defendant and the Department of Justice akin to the Bout exchange with Russia—is, as explained above, a bargain that a prosecutor should not make. Moreover, dismissing without prejudice and with the express option of again indicting Adams in the future creates obvious ethical problems, by implicitly threatening future prosecution if Adams’s cooperation with enforcing the immigration laws proves unsatisfactory to the Department.

    Danielle Sassoon

    Acting US Attorney Danielle Sassoon’s resignation letter (DocumentCloud)

    Even as the Justice Department lets Adams skate—for now—the incident has provided a vivid illustration of precisely why government corruption is so dangerous. A public official who engages in alleged illegal behavior makes themselves susceptible to outside forces that might seek to influence their decision making and subvert the will of their constituents. Usually, that’s a private party or a foreign government. In this case, the person squeezing Adams just happens to be the president of the United States.

    David A. Graham

    The Public Humiliation of Eric Adams (The Atlantic)

  • Profiles in Courage

    Sometimes it takes a crisis to reveal one’s true character. This is especially true of people who occupy positions of leadership, both in the private and public sectors. Are they courageous, or are they cowards? Worse yet, are they complicit in doing grave harm?

    …

    But today I’d like to honor unsung heroes whose courage in the face of the Trump-Musk takeover of America deserves our profound thanks. They are public servants who have chosen to fight rather than submit to Trump’s treachery, contesting his blatantly illegal attempts to fire them.

    Robert Reich

    Profiles in Courage (Robert Reich)

  • Paper Rings

    It’s Valentine’s Day, so here is a love song that I like: Paper Rings by Taylor Swift.

  • Egg Prices!

    Well, after farmers wrote that letter, the White House and FTC started making noise about antitrust action. They said egg companies, we heard you’ve been price gouging. You’re just overcharging and you’re using bird flu as an excuse. We see you. The fact that you can play with prices like that tells us that there’s not enough competition happening in the egg market.

    …

    And that’s all the federal government had to do. FTC didn’t have to do anything beyond that, because just threatening antitrust action is often enough to get companies to back off.

    Sarah Taber

    Egg prices! Bird flu! Price gouging! What’s going on? (Farm to Taber)

  • The End of Law?

    As Trump’s marauding continues, America’s last defense is the federal courts. But the big story here (which hasn’t received nearly the attention it deserves) is that the Trump-Vance-Musk regime is ignoring the courts.

    On Sunday, Vice President JD Vance declared that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

    This is bonkers. In our system of government, it’s up to the courts to determine whether the president is using his power “legitimately,” not the president.

    Robert Reich

    The end of law? (Robert Reich)

  • The Fix Our Forests Act

    That’ the Fix Our Forests Act, a logging bill disguised as a fire fighting bill. The tell is in the numerous and creative ways it would obstruct citizen input, from delaying citizen review until after the trees are cut to reducing the statute of limitations for filing lawsuits from six months to 120 days, seriously straining the ability of small citizen groups to apply legal restraint. It waives NEPA protections on fire-sheds as large as 250,000 square acres and allows loggings to proceed even if courts find the logging plan violates the law. There are no limits on the size and age of trees to be cut and the language is so vague that even clear cuts could qualify as “fuels treatment.” If passed, it would open millions of acres of forests to logging without scientific review or citizen input. A better name for this legislations would be the Fix It So We Can Log Without Citizen Oversight Act.

    Rob Lewis

    The Fix Our Forests Act: It’s Not What It Claims to Be (The Climate According to Life)

  • The Constitution Should Be a Red Line

    In fact, this herky-jerky structure of checks and balances, vetoes, two houses, jurisdiction left to the states, the war powers divided between the president and the congress. This unwieldy structure is the whole idea. No one has or should ever have all the power. So the concern I’m raising today isn’t some academic exercise or manifestation of political jealousy, or abstract institutional loyalty. It’s the guts of the system designed to protect us from the inevitable, and I mean inevitable, abuse or an authoritarian state.

    Senator Angus S. King, Jr.

    Now is the time to establish a redline — the Constitution itself (Senator Angus S. King, Jr.)