Melissa Damas

@themelissadamas
28 Followers
35 Following
1.2K Posts
Tech 👩🏽‍💻 | Financial Junkie | Women are the Future 🏃🏽‍♀️

The Pentagon says only 23% of Gen Z is fit to serve. The rest are either obese, failing math, or already have a rap sheet.

Turns out if you gut schools and subsidize corn syrup long enough, you accidentally pacifist-proof the entire country.

Tactical genius.

🎉 The critical amendment 34 (rejecting automated assessment of unknown photos and texts) PASSED by ONE vote, paving the way for the extension of Chat Control 1.0 to be overwhelmingly REJECTED!

Initial analysis by @echo_pbreyer : https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/end-of-chat-control-eu-parliament-stops-mass-surveillance-in-voting-thriller-paving-the-way-for-genuine-child-protection/

Whoa, that escalated quickly. This just got sent out by the press folks at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC says it has decided that all foreign-made consumer-grade Internet routers are henceforth prohibited from receiving FCC authorization and are therefore prohibited from being imported for use or sale in the United States.

"Update Follows Determination by Executive Branch Agencies that Consumer-Grade Routers Produced in Foreign Countries Threaten National Security

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2026—Today, the Federal Communications Commission updated its Covered List to include all consumer-grade routers produced in foreign countries. Routers are the boxes in every home that connect computers, phones, and smart devices to the internet. This followed a determination by a White House-convened Executive Branch interagency body with appropriate national security expertise that such routers “pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons.”

"The Executive Branch determination noted that foreign-produced routers (1) introduce “a supply chain vulnerability that could disrupt the U.S. economy, critical infrastructure, and national defense” and (2) pose “a severe cybersecurity risk that could be leveraged to immediately and severely disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure and directly harm U.S. persons.”

"This action does not affect any previously-purchased consumer-grade routers. Consumers can continue to use any router they have already lawfully purchased or acquired."

"Producers of consumer-grade routers that receive Conditional Approval from DoW or DHS can continue to receive FCC equipment authorizations. Interested applicants are encouraged to submit applications to [email protected]."

Not sure how many consumer-grade routers will be left for sale if it really is a ban on approvals for any foreign-made consumer routers like they said, and not just a bunch of already restricted Chinese makers like Huawei and ZTE.

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-updates-covered-list-include-foreign-made-consumer-routers

FCC's "covered list" of "thou shalt not entities": https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist

Here's more information on Germany using the Open Document Format (ODF) in its "Deutschland-Stack", rather than Microsoft's file formats: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/03/20/big-news-germany-has-just-made-odf-mandatory/
BIG NEWS: Germany has just made the standard Open Document Format (ODF) mandatory - TDF Community Blog

The German federal government has quietly taken an extremely significant step: hidden amongst the technical specifications of the Deutschland-Stack – the rules that will govern the sovereign digital infrastructure supporting public administration at all levels of government, from federal ministries to local council offices – there is a short but highly significant line. Under the technological pillar “Semantic technologies and real-time analysis”, the document mandates the use of just two document formats: ODF and PDF/UA. That is all. Two open, vendor-neutral formats, defined by international standardisation bodies. OOXML, Microsoft’s closed, proprietary format, is not on the list. What is the Deutschland-Stack? The Deutschland-Stack is the German federal government’s project for a sovereign, interoperable digital infrastructure that complies with European standards. It is neither a pilot project nor a policy discussion paper, but the result of a coordinated decision between the Digital Minister, the Federal Chancellery and the Chancellor, backed by the coalition agreement. The document sets out the standards that will govern how all federal public administrations, at all levels, build, procure and manage their digital systems, and envisages concrete implementation by 2028. It is worth reading its architectural principles carefully. “Made in the EU first.” Reduction of lock-in effects.

TDF Community Blog
This is your reminder that Chuck Norris was a hateful, racist ghoul.
The kids are alright
Colombian president says Gaza was an ‘experiment’ for wider destruction

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says the war in Gaza was an “experiment” designed to intimidate the Global South.

Al Jazeera
Five years ago today, after listening to some negative discussion on @atpfm, someone on Twitter angrily predicted that “in 5 years, Tesla will have a marketcap at least 5 times larger than Apple.” I made a calendar event for this prediction, because I am petty. But now the account that posted it has deleted all its tweets, ruining the fun.

Man threatening to leave NATO, and invade member states, demands NATO reciprocity in a war he started. 🤡

The Onion couldn't have done a better job.

And this in Boston.

Don’t stop talking about the Epstein files.
Don’t stop talking about the Epstein files.
Don’t stop talking about the Epstein files.
Don’t stop talking about the Epstein files.
Don’t stop talking about the Epstein files.
Don’t stop