Notices by Michael T. Bacon, Ph.D. (michaeltbacon@social.coop)

Huge turnout at #HandsOff Durham, NC. I never got a look at the full crowd so it's hard to estimate but I'd say it was close to or over 10k people.

6,000 probationary USDA employees hired back.

Guantanamo detainees brought back stateside

Weldon's CDC nomination yanked.

Tesla stock in the toilet.

Pushback works. Court battles work. Protests work.

We can't save everything, but the things we can save are worth saving.

Keep going.

#uspol

Jamie Raskin is encouraging people to file Federal Privacy Act requests on their personal DOGE data. Fillable forms here:

https://jamieraskin.com/doge-privacy-act-requests/

#uspol

I'm doing science and I'm still alive.

IMPORTANT FOR FIRED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES:

If you were in probationary period in your current job but had continuous federal service before that, it's likely your firing was illegal. It may be worth contacting an attorney.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/important-note-for-federal-civil-servants

A reminder that *if you are so inclined*, religious spaces of all sorts have long been outstanding ground for organizing mutual aid, sanctuary, collective action, collective education and training, and a range of other actions.

It is a center of power but it is also contested space. Nearly every tradition has a radical corner of it. There are people in religious spaces doing outstanding work and they need help from those able to give it.

@futurebird "Intoxicating thought?"

In case you missed it, acting ICE head Tom Homan was up yesterday complaining that ICE is having a hard time meeting the quotas they're setting because of campaigns telling people their rights and how to resist raids.

In case you're wondering if the little things you do could possibly make a difference, know that they already are.

So let's be honest y'all this is a tragedy but also it would be an outstanding opening for some kind of eldrich fantasy/heist movie.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/26/dutch-museum-heist-cotofenesti-helmet/

@mekkaokereke

I have been ready for 5 years for Bernie to be retired as any kind of de facto movement leader and I'm 3x as ready now. He keeps sticking his foot in his damn mouth and saying needless shit. His "identity politics" tweet after the election was unforgiveable (yeah lets throw Black and immigrant and trans folk under the bus sounds awesome).

@pluralistic I was pretty dumbfounded that housing got so little air time. I think the DC-based political press was really clueless about it, TBH.

Harris's $25k booster for new homebuyers was a good idea that would have helped a lot, but it disappeared under the waves so quickly and they didn't resurrect it, in part because they didn't seem to know how to talk about it.

@phaedral @dramypsyd It's a good fit for the trolley problem, which is garbage ethics.

@dramypsyd Okay but what if every 10 seconds, the trains close half the distance to the prisoners, and then close half the distance again, and then . . .

The Onion's announcement on its Infowars purchase is a banger.

https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided-to-buy-infowars/

@mekkaokereke I am encouraged by the number of social media freakouts I'm seeing third-hand from Trump voters because close family members have cut them off.

At least some of them are finding out.

@mekkaokereke I've forgotten, was that the debut of the glitter glove? Or had he busted it out before then?

Okay, y'all, making an executive decision that I'm going to be doing #uspol stuff without CWs for the next week. Mastodon has a 7 day mute feature, so if you want to avoid the stuff without CWs, probably mute me for a week.

Otherwise my feed is going to be nothing but CWs and that's just painful to look at.

@feld @mekkaokereke @Jonricha

I get it. But while a gigantic amount of acreage is corn in the US, in terms of number of farms it's a much smaller percentage.

Farms are complicated!

@feld @mekkaokereke @Jonricha

Ooft. There's a lot to unpack in there.

We subsidize farms because the world needs food. It's a good thing to do.

We subsidize all the wrong farms, because that's how we roll.

"A farm is a business" is a gross oversimplification. Some farms are hobbies. Some farms are labors of love. Some "farmers" are landowners who pay poverty wages. Some "farmers" are landless skilled workers making poverty wages.

It's not helpful to attack "farmers." Be specific.