I just remembered how as a kid my class went on a tour of the sewage treatment plant

Last boosts: between that + ICE being forced to largely leave in LA + ICE being forced to the suburbs in Chicago, it seems like every time someone fights back, Trump loses, but people seem to really want to not do that

Turns out that if you don't have a backbone you'll bow to pressure from anyone, that's for everyone to note down

Disney reverses course on Kimmel. Lessons: -Trump's anti-Constitutional stances, anti-1A in this case, are unpopular -Popular resistance via expression and spending choices can have an impact -Many corporate leaders are weak, amoral people who'll bow to threats unless they face countervailing ones

account called "fintwitter" claiming doctors are going to be exempt from H-1B fees, spells H-1B wrong, I guess this is going to be the next tariffs (policy changes every week, nobody knows what's going on)

New research reveals the profound impact on mixed-status families—where at least one family member lacks legal immigration status. 🧵 Marrying a U.S. citizen does NOT automatically grant a green card. These families face deportation threats that fundamentally reshape how they live, parent, and cope.

the boat tram should go to ocean beach

oddly enough, I think I miss the prop L campaign

In Naperville, IL on Wednesday, ICE surrounded a group of documented workers replacing a residential roof. ICE agents reportedly kicked over the ladders and forced the workers to jump. The episode involved a chase with guns drawn.

I've sort of ended up posting politics stuff on bluesky and personal stuff on mastodon and maybe the end result is that my bluesky is needlessly depressing

some muni heritage weekending

Carney is so good at looking like he might do something good and then finding a way to not do it at the last minute

also I see talk of this being a great opportunity for Canada, that Canada can get all the H-1Bs all that needs to happen is for the median Canadian voter to learn how to be Normal about, say, Brampton. And that doesn't seem to be the direction things are going based on my subreddits

I talked to someone today who I suggested to go for an EB1 (they are extremely qualified) but they said maybe they'll start looking for faculty positions outside the US instead

Last night's declaration of a $100k fee on H-1B visas has been hugely disruptive to many Asian American families. Even with the update that it doesn't apply to current H-1B visa holders, it remains an attack on many already living in the US and had been counting on getting one to remain. 1/

after the demise of that game I am in another game. I got pulled in to be a subcommander for another faction, which is more how the game is intended to be played (last game I was playing mostly solo as the leader of a rebellion that was perpetually on the verge of being utterly wiped out).

Lol guess all the people saying that the mastodon DM interface is dangerously unintuitive were right (truth social is a mastodon fork)

One of the most toxic things about the Democratic base is that many continue to view votes through an all-or-nothing racial collectivism where eg Indian Americans or Hispanics are collectively traitors because a percentage of them swung to Trump in this election.

There really is not enough parking near the ferry building

When did we start calling them asylum seekers and stop calling them refugees because I'm pretty sure that 90% of the issue here is that Trump misunderstood the word "asylum"

It's no longer totally accurate to say this account is about bicycles so here's a new pinned post I have a blog blog.carfree.city

H1-B visas are used for international medical graduates that want to pursue residencies at US hospitals. Residents are working doctors who treat patients. Instant physician shortage.

People keep talking about tech firms in relation to the H1-B $100k fee but it’s gonna really sink universities.

This letter to The Economist makes a decent point. The case for robo taxis probably feels overwhelming in a country where the urban design means you're utterly screwed without a car. It's like how higher crime rates presumably boost the car for security solutions. Not entirely enviable

I told you the far right would move towards gulf state style slavery!! I said this would happen!

Unless, perhaps, the global population aging will suddenly shrink the talent pool and make host countries compete somewhat for immigrants, leading to more humane treatment of immigrant workers; think of serfdom ending in Western Europe when the Black Death caused a supply shock for labor.

this is not an important thing about any of this but I am told that if certain family members cannot cross the border this year that everyone is excited to come to SF for the winter holidays instead of the usual going back to Canada. And I am less excited about this possibility

I know some people who are working at universities on H-1Bs right now where the universities just lost a bunch of funding as well because their grants used words doge didn't understand

Yeah absolutely, but I bet a lot of people didn't think this was going to be that bad. And to make matters worse, H-1B visa holders are REQUIRED to leave the country to renew their visas every few years, so right now there are likely thousands of H-1B visa holders outside the country.

There isn’t, but there’s a lot of data that shows that Uber and Lyft trips majority replaced public transit trips, and that’s probably the best indicator we have that Waymo isn’t actually taking bad drivers off the road

I know H1-B visas are always talked about wrt the tech industry, but of the ~400,000 issued last year 140,000 were not in tech and they are almost all people with post-graduate degrees who do things other that work for Google, including health care.

Based on what authority? Some H-1B fees are specifically written into law (e.g. ACWIA or 114-113 fees). Others are based on the general INA authority to set fees *at a rate to recover expenses*. This would be neither. Fees simply to discourage usage of the program have to come from Congress.

Eliminating OPT is one of those highly technical things that people are going to overlook that will have a huge impact on the future of the US

Oh does this explain what's going on with the AI industry

Monoculturalism is the anomaly, and most of the time it's not even real, it just pretends to be

we have been covering ICE in San Francisco more than any other local outlet, and we're looking to hire a full-time immigration reporter to keep that going already, 299 donors have given over $50K towards this—join them if you can mission-local.donorsupport.co/page/immigra...

the ACLU has sued ICE, saying its San Francisco holding cells are filthy, freezing, & unconstitutional and in its suit, it cites Mission Local's reporting *three* times

Interesting report from an action to disrupt an ICE/CBP job fair in Chicago

It is quite clear that Mayor Lurie’s strategy of silence/appeasement is not working

This model is enabled primarily by the internet. You can both monitor people a lot more passively (no need to snitch to the Stasi when you can just read their messages) and can be more targeted in your repression. Instead of black bagging them just stop them from getting a business license or loan.

Part of it is that in the Global North you're essentially being taught there are two modes of government: liberal democracy and a boot stomping on a face forever, and that everyone neatly falls into these two groups.

Good. I don’t want Canada to throw Mexico under the bus, like Doug Ford suggested. I don’t want Canada being pressured into joining Trump’s trade war against China. When Trump goes after nearly every country, infighting between those countries only helps him.

we're up to a record high 6 on the anecdotal-but-alarming "people I know who actively have COVID" index (who got it independently from each other) right now it's going around really bad. get vaccinated

This week's Most CBC Headline of the Week www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

toronto has signs that say “you’re not stuck in traffic, you ARE traffic. next time take the TTC” and it’s delightfully bitchy

Overcrowded cells. Unsanitary conditions. Limited access to food and water. These are the conditions that ICE has created at 26 Federal Plaza, which eleven elected officials sought to expose. Instead, they were arrested. They must be released right now — and inspectors let in.

yeah, like I think there are unrelated reasons to not give your emails to possibly spammy organizations, but I also think you need to get used to the idea that you will have to take some kind of risk at some point different people will be ok with taking different risks, but risk always exists

a key reason they see an opening for such a blatant speech crackdown is that they already did one to Palestinian and anti-genocide activists and it got enthusiastic bipartisan approval