Anirvan Chatterjee

Techie, public historian, and activist from Berkeley, California

I curate the monthly Berkeley South Asian radical history walking tour — now celebrating its 13th year.

Pronouns: he/him/ও/সে

Homepage: https://www.chatterjee.net
Walking Tour: https://www.berkeleysouthasian.org
History: https://www.secretdesihistory.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/anirvan

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Last Notes

2026-04-17 04:15:01 GMT

It's so painful for Indians (and many others) to get a *tourist* visa to the U.S.
https://americanbazaaronline.com/2026/04/16/multiple-us-visa-rejections-indian-parents-denied-b1-b2-4-times-479089/

2026-04-17 01:15:01 GMT

"It was understood among staffers that the new leaders’ plan to bring in donations was to emphasize the association of the center with President Trump. They put together a fundraiser for a preview of Les Misérables, where one could pay $2 million to sit in a box seat and attend a private reception with the president."
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/04/inside-kennedy-center-shutdown-drama/686801/?utm_source=feed

2026-02-23 18:45:04 GMT

"Trump threatens something outrageous. Then he backs off slightly from the outrageous thing. The media reports the backing-off as if it’s the story, rather than the fact that the outrageous threat was made in the first place. It’s like praising someone for only punching you once instead of twice."
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/23/the-media-still-cant-figure-out-that-trump-says-things-that-arent-true/

2026-01-06 20:15:02 GMT

"For the most part, hospitality giants have gone out of their way to accommodate ICE agents, even permitting the use of hotel rooms as temporary holding cells to detain immigrant families prior to deportation."
https://theintercept.com/2026/01/06/hilton-ban-ice-minneapolis-workers/

2026-01-03 02:15:26 GMT

I’m surprised American conservatives haven’t tried applying sin taxes to contraception
https://www.wired.com/story/china-to-tax-contraceptives/

2025-12-24 05:15:01 GMT

The U.S. Digital Service was one of the Crown Jewels of the US government. DOGE killed it, and now they’re claiming credit for inventing something that’s similar, but worse.
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/12/23/trump-admin-reinvents-us-digital-services-program-after-elon-musk-fired-all-their-actual-tech-experts/

2025-12-15 18:45:02 GMT

“They needed less than $20 million to fund lifesaving health programs, including cholera response efforts, for three months at the beginning of the year — an eighth of what Trump recently approved to buy private jets for one cabinet secretary and just 3% of USAID’s budget in South Sudan last year.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/usaid-cholera-deaths-trump-humanitarian-aid-cuts-south-sudan

2025-12-12 05:15:01 GMT

“Australians are abandoning travel to the US, and boycotting World Cup matches there next year, as the Trump administration flags new rules that will soon require visitors to hand over their social media history when applying to enter the country.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/11/australia-us-tourism-new-visa-rules-social-media-history

2025-12-06 02:15:01 GMT

“Early in Trump 2.0’s war on immigrants, San Diego’s Bishop Michael Pham discovered that ICE was less likely to engage in mass arrests of immigrants when clergy members were present. So he decided that clergy would go to the courthouse every day…”
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/san-diego-clergy-immigrants-ice/

2025-12-03 17:15:07 GMT

"'That’s absolutely false,' one USDA source says of reporting that DOGE has disbanded. 'They are in fact burrowed into the agencies like ticks.'"
https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-doge-doing-now/

2025-12-01 20:15:02 GMT

"Another slide deck explains that workers should not label people inside cars but should label those riding motorcycles or walking."
https://www.wired.com/story/flock-uses-overseas-gig-workers-to-build-its-surveillance-ai/

2025-11-28 23:15:01 GMT

“Republicans in the state have faced a wave of ‘swatting’ incidents, in which a false call to emergency services draws a police response, for not endorsing the redistricting plan.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/11/indiana-redistricting-republican-trump/685057/

2025-11-28 21:45:02 GMT

“A young woman…was up early one morning to sell tamales outside a local school. ICE agents tossed her to the ground, injuring her so seriously she had to be hospitalized. She’s an American citizen and was released but now is so scared of ICE, she refuses to leave her house. She has been inside for 158 days.”
https://calmatters.org/commentary/2025/11/ice-experiences-unify-los-angeles/

2025-11-28 18:45:03 GMT

"In the absence of heavy equipment, the civil defense teams use simple tools like hammers, axes, and shovels. Without excavators or heavy equipment, a single recovery can take days. Local civil defense workers estimate there are still 10,000 bodies buried under the rubble."
https://theintercept.com/2025/11/28/gaza-palestine-ceasefire-rubble-bodies/

2025-11-26 00:45:01 GMT

"As a result of Hargett’s demand for libraries to complete the [anti-DEI] review within 60 days, at least one Tennessee county has closed several of its library branches for up to a week."
https://popular.info/p/tennessee-public-libraries-close

2025-11-25 23:15:01 GMT

"…she pulled out her phone to record the arrest. In response, an agent pointed a gun at her. Days later, while a man was videorecording a raid outside a Home Depot, DHS agents tackled him to the ground, arrested him and held him in detention for more than twenty-four hours."
https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/photographer-retaliation-foia

2025-11-23 21:45:01 GMT

“Trials focused on infectious diseases saw the highest proportion of terminations (14.4%), followed by prevention-focused studies (8.4%)”
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/public-health/nih-grant-terminations-disrupt-hundreds-clinical-trials-affecting-more-74000

2025-11-21 14:15:07 GMT

"What fixes this with humans also fixes it with models. When I work with colleagues, I don't just throw goals at them and hope for the best. We talk about constraints, about trade-offs, about what success looks like and what we explicitly don't care about. We look at examples. We clarify edge cases. When I do the same in a prompt, the outcome improves in exactly the same way. People call that 'prompt engineering' now; I still think of it as just writing a better spec."
https://scatterarrow.com/content/en/all-your-coworkers-are-probabilistic.html

2025-11-20 21:45:04 GMT

“Compare this to the sriracha success story. David Tran of Huy Fong Foods deliberately avoided trademarking “sriracha” early on, allowing dozens of competitors to enter the market. The result? Sriracha became a cultural phenomenon, and Huy Fong’s distinctive rooster bottle became the most recognizable brand in a category they helped create.”
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/19/how-trademark-ruined-colorado-style-pizza/

2025-11-19 02:15:02 GMT

The smear campaign against CAIR sets a dangerous precedent.
I personally witnessed their local chapter offer concrete skilled support to my gay, non-Muslim friends after they were assaulted. They didn't care about their religion or sexual orientation–they just stepped up
Are these the people being designated as "foreign terrorists" spreading "sharia law"?
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2025/11/18/texas-governor-labels-muslim-brotherhood-as-foreign-terrorist-group/

2025-11-18 23:15:04 GMT

Trump's level of corruption is astounding.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/11/trump-fundraising-ballroom/684963/?utm_source=feed

2025-11-15 06:50:14 GMT

Shit. We lost the incomparable Alice Wong today.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DREMDNBjnqk/

2025-11-11 21:45:05 GMT

“When we started this group, I initially thought that showing solidarity with Zohran Mamdani and the Muslim community would be enough. But what we actually did went far beyond that. We didn’t just push back on hate – we neutralised the Hindutva influence in this election.”
https://scroll.in/article/1088439/how-hindus-for-zohran-pushed-back-against-hindutva-claims-in-new-york-mayoral-race

2025-11-07 14:15:08 GMT

"One of Dunn’s defense attorneys, Sabrina Shroff, said the legal team was thankful that the jury 'sent back an affirmation that dissent is what is not just tolerated, it is legal. It is welcome.'"
https://apnews.com/article/sandwich-throwing-trial-justice-department-a2776c568a1ea4b8ce5b6af606669b63

2025-11-03 20:15:03 GMT

Just everyday foreign policy things:
“The intimidation included approaching country officials during coffee breaks to warn them they might not be able to transit via the US, or that they and their families could face restrictions on entering the country if they acted against American interests”
https://on.ft.com/47lq3dZ

2025-11-03 18:45:03 GMT

“By closing comments, we’re following in the footsteps of other news outlets across the country, many of which made the call after finding they give outsize power to a tiny, non-representative portion of their overall readership.”
https://www.berkeleyside.org/2025/11/03/berkeleyside-closing-comments

2025-11-01 01:15:02 GMT

“the people running it aren’t confused about this trade-off. They’ve actively chosen engagement metrics over governing because governing is for suckers, and engagement is how you maintain power while you loot the rest of the government.”
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/30/trumps-government-of-spite-political-performance-art-for-assholes/

2025-10-31 20:45:04 GMT

Chilling dispatches from the attacks on Bengali migrant workers in India
https://sanhati.com/articles/20436/

2025-10-31 04:15:01 GMT

“…Kinslow began to reconsider all those gifts when the school said the application for his diversity scholarship needed to be modified to comply with anti-DEI laws.”
https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/donor-pulls-scholarships-after-university

2025-10-27 13:15:11 GMT

“Nearly two months into ICE’s campaign in Chicago, disruptive, chaotic scenes like this are hardly surprising anymore. In recent weeks, agents have rappelled into an apartment building from a Black Hawk helicopter, fired pepper balls at peaceful protesters, and allegedly zip-tied the hands of children.”
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/10/25/chicago-ice-trump-judicial-discretion

2025-10-26 01:15:01 GMT

Zohran’s latest video made me angry-cry
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQN6MYOjk_J/

2025-10-22 16:43:56 GMT

- reply

Live in the San Francisco Bay Area? Please join this emergency webinar tonight on how to respond if things escalate
https://actionnetwork.org/events/stay-out-of-the-bay-emergency-mobilization-call-know-your-rights-build-community-defense-mobilization-plans/

2025-10-22 06:00:29 GMT

Here’s what to do in case troops invade the San Francisco Bay Area. Read, and pass it on:
https://www.bayresistance.org/get-ready

2025-10-22 01:15:02 GMT

"Lorena Gonzalez, federation president, on the discussion labor organizers had about turning out students on college campuses: 'Do we want to talk about ICE? Do we want to talk about LGBTQ (issues)? Do we want to say, ‘fight fascism?’ We settled on ‘f—k Trump.’'"
https://calmatters.org/newsletter/proposition-50-fundraising/

2025-10-18 23:58:07 GMT

On our 310th Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour tour, we intersected with the #NoKings protests.
This is us with a sign honoring South Asians facing targeting, detentions, and deportations, including…
• Bibi Harjit Kaur: A 73-year-old Sikh Bay Area grandmother deported after over a decade of routine ICE check-ins despite strong community ties… (1/3)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/397/878/299/426/106/original/1b7d32b43ca48205.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/397/878/446/647/703/original/8a7def4caa9d8925.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/397/878/543/806/272/original/a70218c3254a0750.jpeg

2025-10-16 16:15:09 GMT

“Discussing Cruz’s situation, a man from El Salvador who also suffers from heart problems, he noted, ‘We have a very literal show me your papers’ arrest.”
https://americanbazaaronline.com/2025/10/16/operation-midway-blitz-ice-fines-green-card-holder-130-468826/

2025-10-16 04:15:02 GMT

More orgs need to break out of the MS/Google email hosting monopoly
https://www.zdnet.com/article/german-state-replaces-microsoft-exchange-and-outlook-with-open-source-email/

2025-10-12 01:15:02 GMT

“Russia has a new way to surveil its citizens: a ‘super app.’ Made by the Russian tech company VK, the app is called Max, and as of September 1, it’s required on every new phone sold in Russia.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/10/russia-super-app-max/684524/?utm_source=feed

2025-10-10 23:45:02 GMT

"Speaking of ICE, immigration officers told Guevara this his documentation of public activities by public officials in public places was literally a threat to the US government in general."
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/10/dhs-sends-a-journalist-back-to-his-home-country-to-be-tortured-because-live-streaming-ice-activities-is-threatening/

2025-10-10 20:45:03 GMT

"The decision effectively treats federal immigration agents as a protected class — a novel interpretation of Apple’s hate-speech policy that shields one of the most powerful arms of government from public scrutiny."
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/10/apple-decides-ice-agents-are-a-protected-class-because-apparently-government-accountability-is-now-hate-speech/

2025-10-07 01:15:02 GMT

"'To be here and to meet with so many in the Hindu community who have been showcasing what seva looks like for so many decades oftentimes without recognition – I am proud I would be the first Indian American mayor of this city,' he added."
https://indiawest.com/diwali-holi-raksha-bandhan-taught-me-many-of-my-values-mamdani-during-temple-visits/

2025-10-05 20:45:02 GMT

"Valued for her combined expertise in computational biology and bench research, she had been approved for H-1B sponsorship and expected to finalise the process by December — which would have allowed her to visit India for the first time in six years.Instead, the university has indefinitely paused her H-1B application, leaving her in limbo."
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/all-eyes-are-on-the-indian-plaintiff-who-joined-several-others-to-sue-trumps-entry-fee-of-100k-on-new-h-1b-applications/articleshow/124319245.cms

2025-10-03 20:45:03 GMT

This is why so many fought back against JTTF tie-ups
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nspm-7-labels-common-beliefs

2025-10-01 23:45:06 GMT

"From there, [the Reagan-appointed judge] starts talking about how totally fucked up it is that ICE agents are running around in masks, which he calls out as 'dishonorable' and 'cowardly'! No euphemisms. No mealy-mouthed language. Just calling out how masked agents arresting students for their speech is fucked up"
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/01/reagan-appointed-judge-torches-trump-admins-bullshit-chilling-effects-campaign-against-pro-palestinian-speech/

2025-09-30 19:15:18 GMT

"As messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio has explained, the Democrats need to call things what they are: 'MAGA has turned our government into a weapon against our people. No funding for fascism. No dollars for dictators. No payouts for pedophiles. No complicity in the budget.'"
https://the.ink/p/make-it-make-sense-stop-calling-it

2025-09-24 20:45:02 GMT

“Those who accept must report…after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA in some cases racked up high costs—passed along to taxpayers—to stay in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or were allowed to expire.”
https://apnews.com/article/doge-musk-trump-gsa-fired-employees-ce18553b281fbf5816ec2fd491d79b78

2025-09-23 17:45:04 GMT

"Perhaps Trump would instruct his Fed appointees to exercise that power with restraint…But little would stop him from instead treating the bank’s lending power as a bottomless slush fund. He could direct money to favored industries, such as crypto, or even his own businesses. He could reward media outlets that give him favorable coverage, companies that donate to Republican campaigns, and even the budgets of local officials who promote his agenda."
https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/archive/2025/09/trump-federal-reserve-control-unchecked-power/684279/

2025-09-21 16:15:21 GMT

"Across the state, county health and human services departments have made significant reductions to basic health programs in response to cuts and freezes from Trump initiatives such as DOGE and the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill…Orange County closed its clinics for children, emergency dental and family planning to deal with $13.7 million in cuts over the next two years. In October, the county will lose an additional $4 million to combat obesity and food insecurity."
https://calmatters.org/newsletter/federal-cuts-ca-health-programs-newsletter/

2025-09-18 17:45:03 GMT

"The template is depressingly simple: take a polarizing figure’s death, generate fake statements from celebrities that will appeal to different political tribes, slap together some AI-generated images, and watch the shares roll in. Each fake post becomes a little cash machine, harvesting clicks from people who want to believe their favorite celebrity shares their political views."
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/18/facebook-flooded-with-agitslop-of-ai-grief-farming-about-charlie-kirk/

2025-09-13 19:15:02 GMT

Hey Bay Area and Desi community! Help rescue 73 year old East Bay grandmother Harjit Kaur from ICE
#BringHarjitHome
https://bringharjithome.com/

2025-09-13 04:15:01 GMT

“Unlike birthright citizens, naturalized citizens can now be stripped of their status through a ‘civil process’ — which doesn’t guarantee a lawyer and uses lower standards of evidence.”
https://indiacurrents.com/attention-us-citizens-yes-you-can-now-be-deported/

2025-09-12 13:15:05 GMT

Go Bangladesh!
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2025/09/11/a-milestone-for-open-knowledge-bangladesh-press-information-department-releases-50000-images-to-the-public-domain/

2025-09-11 22:15:03 GMT

I’m speechless. UC Berkeley has started handing over names to the Trump administration. We know exactly who’s being targeted.
https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/uc-berkeley-turns-over-personal-information-of-more-than-150-students-and-staff-to-federal/article_a4aad3e1-bbba-42cc-92d7-a7964d9641c5.html

2025-09-11 20:45:03 GMT

This is exactly what happened in India
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/09/with-looming-cbs-hire-of-bari-weiss-two-of-the-four-major-u-s-networks-will-now-be-right-wing-propaganda-mills/

2025-09-11 01:15:02 GMT

“It’s a dangerous mistake to think Trump’s immigration purge is just about Latinos…our high court has deemed brown synonymous with illegal, regardless of what country…False distinctions about who is being targeted create divisions at a time when solidarity is our greatest power.”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-10/latinos-are-in-danger-but-they-arent-the-only-ones

2025-09-09 13:15:07 GMT

"My mother has told me that whenever she steps into her nephrologist’s office, she feels like a schoolgirl waiting to be scolded. She fears annoying the doctor with her questions. She also suspects that the doctor values the number of patients and earnings from prescriptions over her well-being. But in the office of Dr. DeepSeek, she is at ease."
https://restofworld.org/2025/ai-chatbot-china-sick/

2025-09-08 23:45:01 GMT

"'The Government, and now the concurrence, has all but declared that all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction,' Sotomayor wrote."
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/supreme-court-trump-immigration-stops-racial-profiling/

2025-09-06 23:45:03 GMT

“Matthew D’Amico, 67, of New York City, said a Walgreens declined to administer COVID-19 vaccines to him and his 75-year-old wife on Friday because they didn’t have a prescription. They’re trying to get vaccinated ahead of a trip.”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-06/vaccine-chaos-even-some-vulnerable-seniors-cant-get-covid-shots-amid-spiking-cases

2025-08-29 22:15:02 GMT

“The damage, he argued, is structural. Senior staff who spread disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines now hold oversight authority. More than 600 employees have already been purged or reassigned. Programs for HIV prevention, overdose response, and smoking cessation are vanishing.”
https://www.advocate.com/politics/demetre-daskalakis-cdc-resignation-interview

2025-08-27 01:15:01 GMT

"Burning the emergency food alone cost American taxpayers more than $100,000; burning the contraceptives, the State Department says, will cost $100,000 more."
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/08/usaid-fire-sale-donation-auction/684012/?utm_source=feed

2025-08-24 22:15:02 GMT

“Jimenez Rosa’s time in custody ended with her alone, wet and begging for help at The Cheesecake Factory in the Burlington Mall, after ICE agents released her into the rainy street outside the detention facility Wednesday night. She was 30 miles from home, with no phone and a broken spirit.”
https://www.masslive.com/news/2025/08/mass-mom-detained-by-ice-for-10-days-over-decades-old-minor-marijuana-charge.html

2025-08-24 16:15:02 GMT

“Students have been blocked from going to websites that web-filtering software categorizes as ‘education,’ ‘news,’ or ‘informational.’ But even more concerning, especially for some students who spoke with The Markup, are blocks against sex education, abortion information, and resources for LGBTQ+ teens—including suicide prevention.”
https://themarkup.org/digital-book-banning/2024/04/13/schools-were-just-supposed-to-block-porn-instead-they-sabotaged-homework-and-censored-suicide-prevention-sites

2025-08-24 13:15:02 GMT

This train story is wild:
“Digging into the code revealed a software trap that would disable trains if they were anywhere near a repair facility that wasn’t run by the manufacturer, Newag. But Newag used a pretty inaccurate way to determine when the trains were in a rival repair shop, which led to some unexpected consequences.”
https://www.ifixit.com/News/112008/polish-train-maker-is-suing-the-hackers-who-exposed-its-anti-repair-tricks

2025-08-23 22:15:01 GMT

“Food and drug facility inspectors are having to go to the store and buy supplies on their own dime so they can take swab samples to test for pathogens. Some labs have been unable to purchase the sterile eggs needed to replicate viruses or the mice needed to test vaccines.”
https://projects.propublica.org/federal-health-worker-cuts-rfk-trump-administration/

2025-08-23 19:15:02 GMT

“India’s Department of Posts has announced a temporary suspension of most outbound mail services to the United States starting August 25, citing new regulatory hurdles introduced by the U.S. government. The suspension applies to all types of postal articles, except for letters, documents, and gift items valued up to $100”
https://indicanews.com/india-halts-most-america-bound-postal-services-amid-new-us-tariff-rules/

2025-08-23 16:15:03 GMT

“The researchers found that 90% of employees regularly use personal AI tools for work, even though only 40% of their companies have official AI subscriptions.”
https://venturebeat.com/ai/mit-report-misunderstood-shadow-ai-economy-booms-while-headlines-cry-failure/

2025-08-20 04:15:01 GMT

"The supposed gotcha is that children with disabilities and preexisting health conditions, who cannot get the treatment and nutrition they need because of Israel’s genocidal siege, are not representative of the population. And — the horror! — photographs of these non-representative children are prompting global outrage."
https://theintercept.com/2025/08/19/bari-weiss-free-press-gaza-starvation-famine/

2025-08-19 01:15:01 GMT

"For those keeping score at home, this is now the third time federal courts have had to block frivolous, retaliatory government investigations targeting Media Matters for the heinous crime of… accurately reporting that ads appeared next to Nazi content on X. Because apparently, in Trump’s America, doing your job as a journalist is grounds for federal investigation."
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/18/federal-judge-delivers-judicial-smackdown-to-ftcs-politically-motivated-attack-on-media-matters/

2025-08-15 14:59:20 GMT

Happy 🇮🇳🇵🇰 independence days!
August 14-15, 1947 meant the liberation of 400 million South Asians from colonial rule.
I found this lovely article about Indian and Pakistani students celebrating that moment together in 1947 at UC Berkeley’s International House.
Source:
"Birth of New Nation Feted By Indian Students at UC"
The Berkeley Gazette, Berkeley, California, Mon, Aug 18, 1947, Page 11
Full text below…
1/5
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/033/371/996/853/128/original/356edff484ee150a.jpeg

2025-08-15 00:20:01 GMT

Been meaning to check out the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour?
We just had 3 spots open up for this Sunday. Go grab them before they sell out:
- Sunday, August 17 at 10 AM - 3 spots left
- Sunday, September 21 at 10 AM - 8 spots left
https://www.berkeleysouthasian.org/tour/berkeley/

2025-08-13 16:15:04 GMT

“‘Sarah thought she was being kidnapped,’ she said. ‘They didn’t really explain anything to her at first, they just kind of quietly took her and her son and immediately put them in like an unmarked white van.’”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/13/new-zealand-woman-six-year-old-son-ice-detention-us-ntwnfb?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

2025-08-11 19:15:02 GMT

After the devastating trans healthcare loss, activists are realizing the danger of appealing to the Supreme Court
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/net-neutrality-advocates-wont-appeal-loss-say-they-dont-trust-supreme-court/

2025-08-11 17:45:02 GMT

"But growing evidence suggests that the electricity bills of some Americans are rising to subsidize the massive energy needs of Big Tech as the U.S. competes in a race against China for artificial intelligence superiority." https://apnews.com/article/electricity-prices-data-centers-artificial-intelligence-fbf213a915fb574a4f3e5baaa7041c3a

2025-08-09 16:15:02 GMT

“‘This place is controlled by goons in masks in unmarked vehicles chasing down American citizens just because of the color of their skin,’ Doilez said. ‘Nobody should be afraid of their own government. They're here to protect, to serve, not to be pirates.’ George and Esmeralda said they both voted for…President Donald Trump.”
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/couple-alleges-racial-profiling-in-border-patrol-stop-they-recorded-on-video/3883679/

2025-08-08 20:45:02 GMT

"Some international students told CalMatters they have changed their involvement in campus activities, from the routes they take on campus to avoid free speech areas, to the topics they include in their research projects, to scrubbing their social media posts and limiting their political activism."
https://calmatters.org/education/2025/08/international-students-california-universities/

2025-08-04 22:15:02 GMT

"Now that he’s free, Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, wants the world to know that he was tortured over four months in a Salvadoran prison. He said guards stomped on his hands, poured filthy water into his ears and threatened to beat him if he didn’t kneel alongside other inmates and lick their backs."
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/04/now-that-theyre-free-venezuelan-men-sent-to-cecot-on-what-they-endured/

2025-08-03 17:45:01 GMT

"Rather than find dangerous criminals, Trump’s hate squad is going after taxpayers, productive workers, poor people in need of medical assistance, and literally anyone who looks brown enough to be detained for possible removal."
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/31/ice-is-spending-more-time-targeting-the-least-dangerous-people-in-america/

2025-08-02 20:45:01 GMT

“This is the nightmare scenario that legal tech experts have been warning about. When a private lawyer cites fake cases, it gets caught pretty quickly by opposing counsel…But when a federal judge publishes fake legal standards in an official opinion? Other lawyers assume it’s reliable. They cite it. Courts rely on it. The hallucinations metastasize”
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/31/judge-pulls-opinion-full-of-ai-style-hallucinations-but-no-one-is-willing-to-say-it-was-written-by-ai/

2025-08-02 01:15:01 GMT

"If human civilization is to have a sustainable future, it will have to be green. It is entirely possible that no such green future will emerge, at least not enough to prevent societal collapse. China’s innovations might be too little, too late. But there is also a possibility that they will build our only path out of catastrophe."
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-climate-change-china/

2025-08-01 17:45:01 GMT

"But over the following decade, something unusual happened. Five of the children stopped coming to the clinic to collect their drugs, and when the team eventually tracked them down many months later, they appeared to be in perfect health. 'Instead of their viral loads being through the roof, they were undetectable,' says Goulder. 'And normally HIV rebounds within two or three weeks.'"
https://www.wired.com/story/the-first-widespread-cure-for-hiv-could-be-in-children/

2025-07-30 22:15:02 GMT

“As Coristine and Park were gaining access to the NFC mainframe, another DOGE operative, Marko Elez, had gained read-write access to the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service.”
https://www.wired.com/story/edward-coristine-big-balls-doge-federal-pay-roll-system/

2025-07-24 20:45:05 GMT

"In practice, CBP agents have boarded buses and trains, both at stations and while in transit, asking passengers about their immigration status and requesting to see their documents. You are not required to answer any questions asked of you, no matter how you’re made to feel or what orders are given to you. You do not have to answer questions about your immigration status."
https://lataco.com/car-ice-rights

2025-07-22 01:15:15 GMT

"The amount of money insurers have paid out when extreme weather damages or destroys property has grown by between 5% and 7% annually in recent years, according to Swiss Re…If that trend holds, the industry will face close to $145 billion of insured losses globally in 2025, Swiss Re said in an April report. The Los Angeles wildfires alone inflicted around $40 billion of insured losses, the firm said."
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/10/nx-s1-5340360/insurance-cost-homes-climate-change-disasters

2025-07-21 22:15:17 GMT

"The United States has deported 1,563 Indian nationals since January 20 this year, according to the Ministry of External Affairs. The majority of these individuals were returned to India on commercial flights [as opposed to US military flights]"
https://indicanews.com/u-s-has-deported-1563-indian-nationals-this-year/

2025-07-20 17:45:11 GMT

"The gutting of The Washington Post is not a separate event from the algorithmic manipulation of X. The defunding of PBS is not disconnected from the weaponization of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). These are interconnected fronts in a single, undeclared war on the very concept of an informed public."
https://www.thedissident.news/the-oligarchs-coup-against-the-free-press-is-happening-now/

2025-07-18 20:45:15 GMT

“The women have argued that Kentucky, in heavily restricting abortion, has imposed and codified a religious viewpoint that conflicts with the Jewish belief that birth, not conception, is the beginning of life.”
https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2025/07/18/jewish-woman-challenge-kentucky-abortion-ban/

2025-07-17 22:15:16 GMT

“At ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division…‘No drug cases, no human trafficking, no child exploitation,’ the agent said. ‘It’s infuriating.’ The longtime ICE employee is thinking about quitting rather than having to continue ‘arresting gardeners.’”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/07/trump-ice-morale-immigration/683477/

2025-07-16 23:45:09 GMT

“some staffers had grown demoralized and exhausted defending an onslaught of lawsuits against Trump's administration”
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/two-thirds-doj-unit-defending-trump-policies-court-have-quit-2025-07-14/

2025-07-14 19:15:14 GMT

Genuine question: who's archiving these materials?
https://www.404media.co/deportation-tok-is-taking-off-2/

2025-07-13 04:15:10 GMT

“Coen – a disaster relief career official who was also Fema’s chief of staff during Barack Obama’s presidency – said the cuts could mean the agency running out of funds to respond to disasters by the end of this month.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/12/fema-natural-disasters-eroded-capacity

2025-07-12 20:45:15 GMT

“The disruption from the spring will affect the rest of the business’s year, and, in particular, its crucial holiday-sales season, Silva told me. ‘It’s about 150 days from when I place an order to when it might hit the shelves,” he explained. ‘When the supply chain gets put on pause for four to six weeks, getting back on schedule takes a year.’”
https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/archive/2025/07/trump-tariffs-trade-war-ongoing/683476/?utm_source=feed

2025-07-02 22:15:19 GMT

"Church officials complained after several men on the grounds of two Inland Empire Catholic churches were detained by immigration enforcement officers. ICE arrests near two churches in San Bernardino County last month show how ramped up immigration enforcement is disturbing places that were once deemed protected."
https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2025/07/ice-targets-immigrants-church-grounds/

2025-07-01 04:15:10 GMT

Pure evil: “The Congressional Budget Office estimated 11.8 million Americans would lose health insurance and over 2 million would lose food assistance, with up to 17 million people affected by the broader cuts”
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2025/06/30/day-1623/

2025-06-30 19:15:15 GMT

"'Children are already seeing masked individuals with weapons coming into the communities, tackling people and taking them away and putting them into vehicles,' Sanati said. 'We have to acknowledge that some very scary things are happening in all of our communities — by lying about the magnitude of this, we may be risking our trust with our children in the future.'"
https://www.berkeleyside.org/2025/06/27/kids-mental-health-ice-raids-deportations

2025-06-27 19:15:17 GMT

"The 2024 election is the reason that my wife and I packed up our sunny, perfect home in North Carolina to relocate to southern Germany this year…I had to pursue one simple goal from that day in November forward: ensure my son maintains access to gender-affirming care at this critical time in his development. Anything else was tantamount to state-sponsored abuse."
https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2025/06/26/we-ditched-the-us-for-our-trans-son/

2025-06-25 01:15:12 GMT

"This non-ruling will go down in history as one of the most shameful and horrific rulings from the Supreme Court. We’re talking Dred Scott/Plessy v. Ferguson/Korematsu bad. An obviously horrific decision that attacks human rights and basic due process for no reason… and totally without explanation."
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/24/supreme-court-blesses-human-trafficking-with-no-explanation-in-stunning-abandonment-of-rule-of-law/

2025-06-22 22:15:14 GMT

"What this means is that, by the time a foreigner cleans his social media in preparation for a trip to the U.S., as much of our news media has been urging us to do, it may already be too late. For me, this mistake was a disaster."
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/how-my-reporting-on-the-columbia-protests-led-to-my-deportation

2025-06-21 22:15:12 GMT

"The people in the vehicles were masked, and they carried neither badges nor warrants. Photos were flying around social media as people wondered if the Dodgers were allowing an armed, warrantless immigration checkpoint inside and outside the stadium. But Dodgers security, on orders from up high, would not allow them into the stadium grounds."
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/los-angeles-dodgers-ice/

2025-06-19 16:37:42 GMT

- reply

Some the brand new stories we've been tracing: Punjabi revolutionaries, Desi feminists, queer anti-war activists, Gujarati SRO owners, Bengali tamale sellers, Urdu poets, and more—all on the streets of San Francisco. Thanks to everyone who helped with our research or attended the previews!

2025-06-19 16:01:38 GMT

Hello Bay Area!
I’ve been posting about the process of creating a San Francisco South Asian Radical History Walking Tour
Well, our public SF opening weekend is coming up July 12 and 13, and over half the spots are already registered.
Please reserve a spot if you’re interested
https://www.berkeleysouthasian.org/
#SouthAsianAmerican #BayArea