I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win (h/t @miriamposner.com) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Do you think it’s possible to be addicted to narrative? I’ve often gotten myself in trouble because I’m unable to pause an audiobook to, e.g., do work or talk to a neighbor. 😬

If Gavin follows thru and does what needs to be done I won't dunk on him for one full business week (banker's hours) but I still won't vote for him

Man Brooklyn College is a gem. Imagine if NYC invested in CUNY fr fr?

Nothing is inevitable. In either direction. Hope and work.

Remember that there is no peer-reviewed, data-backed U.S. study that shows that helicopters make you safer. In LA, LAPD (et al.) helicopters circle our skies aimlessly & endlessly, all at our expense - and that is every kind of imaginable cost: $50 mil a year, air & noise pollution, & peace.

US new H-1B visa fee will not apply to existing holders, Axios reports reut.rs/3Kx9zGv

we're going to win

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

They opened a new thing in my town and I was like, I wonder what that is and it’s “joyful potlucks,” “healing workshops,” and “inspiring dives into AI.”

I promise you that E. Klein doesn't have a clue as to how to get anyone out of this current fascist predicament. He really doesn't and he is demonstrating it in public for any sentient being being to see. You follow his lead at your peril and everyone else's. Don't be misled.

More good news I missed: the two Metro bus drivers who’d been fired for speculating about how they’d resist ICE have been *reinstated* after public outcry.

Oh, wow, I missed this news. LA hotels & airports launched a misleading campaign to gather signatures to overturn the $30 min wage bill for the Olympics. Unions countered with a massive *signature withdrawal* campaign—and won!

The games room at the faculty club is such a fascinating relic of another era. Must’ve been nice.

We will not stand by as the Trump administration destroys one of the largest public university higher education systems in the country and bludgeons academic freedom at the University of California..." @ProfTWolf.bsky.social www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/n...

UC Faculty: tell UCOP not to negotiate. cucfa.solidarity.tech/no-capitulat...

Do I have to worry about Cricut selling me out to the FBI?

Palantir is in the news a lot lately. However, the public discourse about the company often misconstrues it as a data broker, a data miner, a single centralized database, etc. But what does Palantir actually do? I wrote a piece to firmly & clearly answer that question: www.wired.com/story/palant...

New Immigration Enforcement Dashboard Makes ICE Arrest Data Accessible to More People New dashboard makes Deportation Data Project data accessible through interactive visualizations, bridging the gap between complex datasets and public understanding. austinkocher.substack.com/p/new-immigr...

There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people to build on the rubble of what’s being destroyed before our eyes. Private corporations bending over to forcefeed everyone government-approved speech is evil and amoral, but more than anything this creates boring, inauthentic, unwatchable shit.

The disembowelment of the NEH has been horrifying to watch, especially when I think of the hours upon hours of meticulous care its employees and reviewers devoted to shepherding its meager resources.

New from me: Filings from a Virginia lawsuit offer a rare insight into how often Flock automatic license plate readers track people going about their daily lives: Multiple times a day, and hundreds over a period of a few months this year.

“In some cases, the government appeared to rely on unverified tabloid reports about Khalil. In others, its claims were factually incorrect because of inconsistent timelines and mischaracterizations of his work history.”

Librarians are on the front lines of dealing with the harm these systems are inflicting. www.404media.co/librarians-a...

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

It feels wrong to laugh at anything right now but ISTG if people weren’t making jokes I’m not sure how I’d keep going. 🫡 to the posters.

30 new members of @uclafa.bsky.social in the last couple weeks. We and our students and our fellow workers *are* the university and we’re the ones who’ll fight for it.

I don’t know when it’s going to pop for a lot of normies that they are living under an authoritarian regime, but the cancellation of popular TV shows that make fun of the administration might do it www.vulture.com/article/abc-...

Jesus Christ.

Looks really valuable.

I’m interested in writing on the history of the *use of data* in US immigration policy. Unfortunately, Google just gets me a lot of immigration data! I know about a lot of writing about the present and recent past, but not so much about 100 years ago.

the key is you absolutely must be doing things with other people.

If you have opportunities to get out and do things with others, jump at the opportunity: meetings, classes, social events, etc... Get out and be with other people. It's essential. If virtual is more convenient, then take advantage of those opportunities to be with other people.

Public pressure works!

Freelance illustration gigs drying up. Ad agencies using Midjourney instead of hiring human artists. Costume design turned over to AI wholesale. Good work vanishing. These are the stories of working visual artists, who describe losing jobs, wages, and hope as their clients and bosses embrace AI.

Just an everlasting supply of dipshits in the world.

UC faculty, please take note of who is being fearless and decisive in standing up for our rights. It’s not the admin, it’s not the senate. They’re structurally unsuited to the way we need to fight right now. It’s @uc-faculty.bsky.social. It’s time to join, if you haven’t already.

“There are campuses where professors are being fired for statements made in classes. And there’s this sense of am I being recorded? Are people signing up for classes simply to antagonize? And all of that does feel even more amplified now, especially in the aftermath of this killing.”

I just cannot imagine looking at the world right now, tabulating all the threats to universities and their students, and publishing an essay like this. It’s odious.

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month everyone!

***Mentoring Event*** The IEHS Graduate and Early Career Affairs Committee is excited to hold this event on 10/2. The event is open to grad students, early career historians, and independent scholars working on North American immigration and ethnicity. Register by 9/19: iehs.org/event/mentor...

Is there a piece of writing on college's "hidden curriculum" (all the unspoken rules of college) that your students have appreciated? Can be short, long, whatever.

This is exactly why @ucla.edu must not settle with the Trump administration. It will only set a precedent for shaking down the whole system, then for going after other public research 1 universities after that.

trump approval hits a new low in today's yougov/economist poll. now worse than he was in yougov's data at this point in 2017 www.economist.com/interactive/...

It’s all been very funny, but today the 12yo took trolling too far. She just texted me this.

being trans is awesome and trans people are amazing and gender is a dumb box and anyone who makes their own crowbar to smash it from inside is a hero actually.

On the one hand it feels so, so stupid to be publishing a book right now, but on the other hand, I think: well, books survived the Nazis. It’s something I can put out to remind the world I existed and thought and cared, even if I don’t make it through.