“AI can never be AI without humans. It is not artificial intelligence. It’s African intelligence... Most of these are dirty jobs and most of these jobs have been done here in Africa.” Kenya's data labelers and content moderators are getting organized: www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...
While covert ops and diplomatic sleights to divide enemies & foment sectarianism are still part of Israel's strategy, its approach is that of "a power not acting according to a ‘Western’ rational and humanist approach to politics but a fanatical ideology." newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Here's a @theguardian.com report on the latest news regarding RSF atrocities in Darfur: www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
And @oonahathaway.bsky.social and @tomdannenbaum.bsky.social argue that the HRL report's evidence of the RSF's strategy of intentional starvation amounts to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Sudan: www.justsecurity.org/131508/repor...
New @hrl-yalesph.bsky.social report uses remote sensing data to reveal RSF's intentional, systematic attacks aiming to depopulate area around El-Fasher and raze surrounding farmland to starve the city: medicine.yale.edu/lab/khoshnoo...
Great @truthout.org report on faculty, students, and staff still fighting ongoing repression around Palestine—and their wins: truthout.org/articles/the...
Yes! I still mostly use Twitter but lament what it was - a different vantage on the same phenomenon - but also struggle to feel at home on here for the reasons you gesture at
I really like the formulation of "Twitter-that-was/X-that-is"
Also very demographic - I've seen lots of immigrant (esp East Asian and Middle Eastern) communities claim this as absolutely a thing (and I agree that it is)
Why is collective bargaining important to higher ed workers, you ask?
Thanks Commonwealth Institute for this breakdown!
It sucks to be kicked out of HB 1263 — the collective bargaining bill. There’s so much we could improve thru collective power @aaup.org @aaupmason.bsky.social @aft.org
Map of US airbases, destroyers, aircraft carriers, and combat ships in the region.
"The Pentagon is sending the largest force of American warships and aircraft to the Middle East in decades." apnews.com/article/us-m...
very glad to hear!
My employer, Univ. Colorado will pay OpenAI $2M/year under the banner of “equity”. That’s 54 full scholarships / year. Plus, our IT will be able to read our chatGPT logs, and our chats can be requested under public records law. No thanks. Surveillance is not equity
www.axios.com/local/boulde...
Wow, such esteemed company! Thanks for letting me know, hope it went well! 🙂
There's a prison revolt at a concentration camp in Texas in solidarity with Minneapolis:
An office building lit up in the dark with a crowd of people holding signs in front of it.
HAPPENING NOW: A massive crowd is gathered in freezing temperatures outside ICE headquarters in DC to demand ICE OUT OF ALL COMMUNITIES NOW.
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
It strikes me that at least some of the asylum parolees ICE is targeting to detain in northern cities and shipping to Texas detention centers may themselves have been bussed out of Texas border facilities to DC, NYC, and other cities beginning in 2022. Just a horrific cycle of state trafficking.
“You can only preach against ICE for so long before God calls you to get out of the pulpit and get to the streets.” Hundreds of clergy from across the country mobilized in Minneapolis—and will be taking lessons learned back with them: religionnews.com/2026/01/22/h...
Really great interview with Robin D.G. Kelley on state violence, popular resistance to it, the reformist distraction, and the abolitionist imperative, in @bostonreview.bsky.social : www.bostonreview.net/articles/ren...
"ICE Watch works because it surrounds men seeking approval with people loudly expressing their disapproval. And the noise has the added benefit of drawing large crowds of bystanders who can quickly outnumber the ICE agents." www.ms.now/opinion/minn...
You can’t walk for ten minutes in my neighborhood without seeing them: boxy SUVs, mostly domestic-made, with tinted windows and out-of-state plates. Two men riding in front, dressed in tactical gear. Following behind is a train of three or four cars, honking. Sometimes there are bikers, too, blowing on neon-colored plastic whistles that local businesses give out for free. Every street corner has patrollers on foot, yelling and filming when a convoy rolls by. If the ICE vehicles pull over, people flood the street. Crowds materialize seemingly out of nowhere. The honking and whistling amps up, becoming an unignorable wail, and more people stream out of their houses and businesses. When agents leave their cars they’re met with jeers, mostly variations on “Fuck you.” Usually someone starts throwing snowballs. Agents pull out pepper spray guns, threatening protesters who get too close. If there’s enough of a crowd, they use tear gas.
Well before Kristi Noem announced DHS operations in Minnesota, the neighborhood got ready. It started with rapid response preparation in the park’s recreation center and legal observer trainings at a church. Then it was block-by-block meetings. Small networks that formed in 2020 were reactivated to distribute 3D-printed whistles and practice scenarios for confronting agents. When ICE deployed in December, Signal threads for local alerts quickly surpassed the thousand-user limit, and an extensive mutual aid ecosystem of grocery runs and rideshares emerged overnight. After Good’s murder and Noem’s announcement that the number of ICE agents in Minnesota would triple, everyone I know cancelled their social plans. Lots of people called off work. What we’re doing now is this: The trainings have evolved into street medic workshops on protecting yourself from chemical weapons and lessons on digital security; there’s a meet-up to sew reinforced umbrellas as shields from mace and a collection spot for barricade materials. And this is what it’s like: Sometimes you’re chasing ICE off your street, maybe you’re buying groceries for a family, but a lot of the time you’re on your phone. Behind every actionable piece of organizing are hours spent coordinating in Signal threads, calling to check up on someone, scrolling live feeds. At night, over dinner, it’s all anyone can talk about. Did you hear? Did you see that post? Did you read in the thread?
The community warning, defense, and mutual aid we're seeing in Minneapolis is the product of years of responding to state violence. Amazing essay from @nplusonemag.com : www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
In solidarity with the statewide shutdown in Minnesota protesting ICE/CBP, I'm sharing some of the most insightful reads about the powerful, beautiful community response there - these pieces should inspire similar collective action everywhere. please link to others.
The horrors of ICE/CBP violence are very real - but the scale, organizing, beauty, and bravery of community defense and resistance are too.
If you have read even a single history of fascism, you are already aware that one thing that its rise has in common in every case is an opposition party that refuses to intervene for fear of looking weak or putting the left into power
They didn’t want a university without cancel culture. They didn’t want to be criticized for their retrograde views so they created a pretend school funding by their rich friends. The only people surprised that this failed were credulous enough to believe the fairy tales these folks told.
St. Louis University will now cover the tuition for incoming freshmen whose families earn no more than $60,000 per year and have assets of $50,000 or less.
Map of state higher ed restrictions
The scale and speed of state censorship of campus really is amazing.
More than half of America's college students attend institutions in states that have passed laws censoring higher education since 2021.
From @penamerica.bsky.social
pen.org/report/ameri...
