Notices by Diligence Jones (deliachristina@sfba.social)

@The_Icarian

Where did we think we'd end up if not here?

Every post Reagan president, particularly since GWB and the Patriot Act, has chipped away at our access to the courts.

What did we think the next step was going to be once the FBI began to entrap Muslim men on bogus 'terrorist' plots and send them to Guantanamo indefinitely? Or once the US began to use rendition sites all over the world? Or when the US rewrote the rules about the use of torture?

Everything that the US said was ok to use on an 'enemy' was eventually absolutely going to be turned back on us.

How could we *not* think this was going to be next?

Maybe because generative AI is, like I've said, a comparable to a really eager yet dim college intern named Chad.

Chad needs lots of direction, hand holding, is a literal and limited thinker, doesn't do his homework, and needs to pay attention more to the quality of his work.

Chad is the nepo baby on the team no one can rely on, but sometimes he comes through for special projects.

The only way Chad is coming for a job is if his dad owns the company.

#AI

A person somewhere said the other day, Your day gig should be the thing where you solve the thing that makes you mad. Your free time you do the things you love.

That little tweak to the bromide 'do what you love' pinged in my head for a little bit.

This is why I have the job I have. I'm working on the thing that makes me mad.

Dear tech people.

NOW is absolutely the time for you to reach out to your friends and colleagues in places like Palantir, Microsoft, Meta, etc., and start propagandizing them.

They are participating in and facilitating the destruction of human lives.

They are collaborating with fascists for a paycheck.

Convince them to choose a side. Not by being passively silent. But actively *choosing* the world they want to see.

Force that moment.
Invite them to leave the Death Star.

Because this fucking apparatus *needs to be stopped.*

BAMP.

Dear GOD, what must be DONE to end this madness.

"Nonetheless, he remains detained locally at ICE’s request, said Thomas Kennedy, a spokesperson at the Florida Immigrant Coalition who attended Thursday’s hearing.

“Everything tracks for him being sent to an ICE detention center,” he told NBC News in a phone interview."

Everything tracks.
Everything.

Race.
Skin color.
Nationality.
Ethnicity.

Every single DAY this is allowed to continue, we hurtle closer to a point of NO return.

We are running out of TIME, for the love of God.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-born-citizen-detained-ice-immigration-florida-rcna201800

Every story about another grad student being sent to an ICE camp for political activism or speech (or zero evidence of anything, really) sends me into a fucking rage.

And yes this is on top of the already ragey rage I'm feeling at all the people of the Global South being sent to central American torture prisons so America doesn't have to do its own dirty work on its own soil.

So the big conversation happening now among my friends and associates is about travel, privacy, and safety when coming in close contact with TSA, ICE, or whoever wears a gotdamn uniform of some kind.

We're all reading that article from EFF, looking up how to use burners, #infosec for dummies, etc. It's a lot.

Today, I let myself feel the anxiety at the thought of traveling without my regular devices. But then I was like, Wait. You've been here before. You didn't get a cellphone until....2001ish?

It was a Nokia phone. Not even a flip phone. Just a chonky Nokia, blue, with buttons and a screen to show me phone numbers. Did I have texting? I don't think so.

I went all the way to Amsterdam without a cell phone

There was no GPS. No maps. No scrolling. I traveled and read books or wrote about my random hook ups in my paper journal. I saved it all for my blog. I went to INTERNET CAFES.

That reassured me, a little.

Roll it back to 1998, folks. We did it before.

So yesterday I found out about a website called PublicSquare.

It's basically Etsy for MAGA.
Businesses can post on there so likeminded folks can shop with them vs 'woke' retailers.

So I opened an incognito browser and typed in my zip (I was in SF at the time.)

DUDE.
There are LOTS of small businesses on there - dentists, real estate, mortgage lenders, beauty brands, etc. There are a lot of crisis pregnancy places on there, too. Which should tell you something.

Look, I really don't care if a MAGA florist wants to market themselves to other MAGA folks looking for flowers. Whatever.

BUT in CA there is something called the Unruh Act. It applies to *all* businesses in CA.

I wonder how far these anti-woke businesses will go to make sure the 'woke' don't get served.

Has he been located yet? Or released?

#NoOtherLand

FYI, Columbia University has a LITERAL $14.8 billion endowment.

WTF needs $400M in fed funding??

Not them!

And yet they're going to concede.

What are the mayo people of the earth DOING.

[Wrath of Khan yell]

[Also, do not Reply Guy to me about the purpose of an endowment. I used to be in philanthropy. I know how it works. And this is EXACTLY when you want to use your big ass obscene endowment.]

@kims

Omg this part:

"Stephens: I’d say the lowest-quality institutions created since the 1990s have names like Columbia and Berkeley — these are essentially factories of Maoist cadres taught by professors whose political views ranged almost exclusively from the left to the far left."

Factories of Maoist cadres?!?!

Her response:

"Cottom: I would counter, Bret, that the lowest-quality institutions are the for-profit colleges created as paradigmatic economic theories of exchange value that churned out millions of students in “career ready” fields who found it hard to get a job worth the debt — colleges not unlike the one that our current dear leader once ran as a purely economic enterprise."

I think we can anticipate what's going to happen here.

Suddenly there will be 'holes' in this collection as it's looted by Trump allies and friends, holdings that tell a different story of American history/culture will be damaged destroyed or 'lost,' and some will find their way on the black market.

This criminal enterprise we call a presidency needs to be destroyed.

But oh well. Can't look to the #Dems for that.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/art/2025/03/11/gsa-fine-arts-layoffs-trump/

Why is everything in the legal field like dealing with fucking Charles dickens?!?

Fuck.

Literally paying bar fees with paper.
WTF.

In the past week, thanks to my diligent use of snacks and naps, I have corrected Benson's gaunt diet aesthetic while I was on bereavement leave.

He is now looking like the thicc meatball boi he is!!

I snuggled with him this morning and just patted his pooch. It was so comforting. He just looked at me and then went back to sleep.

#BensonUpdate

Whenever #GavinNewsom does something out of pocket, I feel the need to post this pic, reminding everyone of his fundamental grossitude.

I gotta hand it to JD Vance - he really knows how to be a number 2. He backed Trump all the way and amplified it.

There are two kinds of number 2's.

One mitigates and balances out their number 1 when it's time to pull them back from a ledge - backing the play but diplomatically and quietly. Redirecting where needed. *In the background.*

The other backs the play and amplifies the worst excesses of the number 1 - he is an extension of the number 1.

I'm the first kind.

Vance is the second. Yikes.

Omg all that video of that Oval Office mtg.

What the frak.
A country as powerful as ours led by an entire team of goons and racist gangsters.

Fuvk.

(Keeping that typo.)

People managers:

Folks on your teams are freaked out. As we all are. And if you lead a team that's doing some kind of social justice work they are going to ask uncomfortable questions about what you're doing to fight.

For the love of Martin and Malcolm, do NOT tone police their fear, anger, and upset.

Yeah, their tone upset you? Well, they're trans and live in a Red state, Susan. They are justifiably upset and terrified.
They're gay-married, George. The entire legal fabric of their family is about to get ripped apart.
Her dad is undocumented, Sally. And she hasn't heard from him in a week.

Jesus christ, people! WTF.
Dig deep for your goddamn humanity.

FUCK.

Golf clap to whoever risked their career using this song at the Governor's Ball.

Last night, a lovely dinner with a Bestie, my sister and her BFF-Steve, ended with her going to the ER with her daughter (who was having a clot scare) and me having another conversation with a Nice White Person wherein they struggle to understand how people who previously didn't want to plunder America are now OK with plundering America.

1/