Notices by Diligence Jones (deliachristina@sfba.social), page 2

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/

Some TERFs targeted my org and called us ....[checking my notes]...a 'trans cult.'

Happy to be a trans cult, you fucking weirdos. We have trans staff, clients, friends, and family. We will fight for their right to exist every damn day.

Solidarity and hugs to a kickass @EqualRightsAdvocates.

As the national park system lies exposed and vulnerable to exploitation, watch how quickly militia-affiliated ranchers and others with large ag concerns squat and claim federal land for their own use.

Y'all in the PNW know what I'm talking about.

quick #italian lesson. (i'm learning how to talk about travel.)

the Italian word for german is *tedesco.*

that's weird to me.
where the heck is that from?

my unit on using plurals was good but sort of maddening.

my sister, an AP Spanish teacher, rolls her eyes when i told her i was learning Italian on duolingo. yeah, i know it's not the perfect pedagogical tool. but it's working....ish.

[no one talk to me in Italian yet. I'll panic and run screaming.]

#DuoLingo

'War happens in policy-making.'

What happens to quality of life when a fascist takes power.

Me: I'm effing frustrated that folks aren't immediately glomming onto the fact that re-segregation* is what we're fighting against.

Bestie: Huh. I never thought of that before.

Me: Seriously?? That's where my brain immediately went with all the EOs.

Bestie: [sigh] Yes, you probably have knowledge other people don't have.

Me: This is what I'm talking about. Who lives in America and doesn't realize we're speedrunning backward to the resegregation of the public sphere? Where were disabled folks back then? In institutions. Gay people? In the closet. Black folks? Domestic servants. Mexicans? In the fields. White women? At home.

[silence]

Me: Just to be clear, when I say who, I mean white folks.

Bestie: I really don't want to hear this right now.

Y'all, interracial friendships during these Interesting Times are going to undergo some *stress.*

--
*Yes, I know it's ONE of the things we're fighting against.

I'm here all week, people.

Brimming with ideas.

#IWishTheDemsHadIdeas