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gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Trump administration reverses abrupt terminations of foreign students’ US visa registrations8·20 hours agoBorn and raised in a rural area of it where redneck assholes bullied me for being a neurodiverse little weirdo, but my parents were super supportive and let me keep to myself (well, after their well meaning efforts to push me into a few extra curriculars went badly for everyone) and just spend hours and hours at my local library where I read every history and sci fi book I could get my hands on. The librarians noticed and recommended more books, showed me how to request things from big city libraries that had way better collections, and let me know that some libraries even carried cassettes, which let me get into punk and folk and alternative music that really opened my eyes to what the world could be outside of my small little town.
So, yeah, anytime I manage to say something cogent or insightful or funny or good in whatever way thank librarians authors musicians and parents who support and protect their kids (even when those kids embarrass them in front of the neighbors by, like, driving the station wagon into the hedges because I was distracted thinking about what a Joe Strummer character would do in the Star Wars expanded universe).
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Trump administration reverses abrupt terminations of foreign students’ US visa registrations35·23 hours agoI don’t think it was a single presidential election that did this, the Republican party has been working towards this at least since they ran Goldwater on an anti-civil rights and anti-new deal platform in 1964. Democracy is a pain in the ass for bigots and oligarchs, so the Republican party united them in opposition against it and now their very long game is paying off. Nixon being pardoned for Watergate, Reagan getting zero blame for Iran Contra, the Supreme Court stealing the 2000 election, Bush lying about WMDs to start a bullshit war to win reelection, McConnell refusing to accept Obama’s judicial nominees - all of these attacks on anything that would hold them accountable for their theft of public resources and violence against marginalized people brought us to this point. Trump is just the worst symptom of a disease that’s been festering for decades.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Patel says FBI arrested Wisconsin judge, Trump immigration enforcement effort escalates16·23 hours agoThe US federal government just abducted a member of the Wisconsin judiciary who was duly elected by their voters under the normal process that state has used for decades. If we didn’t have this whole Constitution thing binding us together (which, like, do we still have that thing?) everyone would call that an act of war.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan arrested by federal authorities at Courthouse36·1 day agoYeah, I mean among other things once ICE kidnapped this guy there was no way she was going to be able to finish holding a proper trial on the charges that actually brought him there, so she just took a series of fully legal steps (i.e. she’s allowed to access that private hallway and grant other people access to it) to protect the judicial process of her trial same as any judge should want to do.
I think in light of this development it’s now perfectly reasonable for judges to just instantly order the arrest of any ICE agents that show up to their court rooms on a charge of attempted justice obstruction. Put them in a jail cell and make them defend their actions and intentions before they do that to you, nothing less is going to be sufficient for protecting the orderly process of trials from ICE’s obstruction.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Trump official to Katy Perry and Bezos’ fiancée: “You cannot identify as an astronaut”35·5 days agoYeah, my only takeaway from this is that we really should bring back dueling so Musk and Bezos could settle their dispute in a way that might actually make the world a slightly better place
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Trump official to Katy Perry and Bezos’ fiancée: “You cannot identify as an astronaut”4·5 days agoIf someone from the Trump administration says the sky is blue you should look outside to confirm
This is a pretty striking statement.
For starters the Federal Aviation Administration, an agency within the US Department of Transportation Duffy leads, has previously said it will take no part in determining whether people who fly on suborbital flights are astronauts. The agency makes this clear on its human spaceflight page, stating: “The FAA no longer designates anyone as an ‘astronaut.’ In addition, the FAA does not define where space begins.”
To step back just a little bit, the FAA created a commercial “Astronaut Wings” program back in 2004 to recognize the two pilots of SpaceShipOne, Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, who flew the vehicle above 50 statute miles (80 km). After that time, the program recognized private citizens who flew on Virgin Galactic’s Unity spacecraft, Blue Origin’s New Shepard, and SpaceX’s orbital Crew Dragon vehicle. You flew, and you got astronaut wings.
Then, in December 2021, the agency stopped issuing wings. “With the advent of the commercial space tourism era, starting in 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration will now recognize individuals who reach space on its website instead of issuing Commercial Space Astronaut Wings,” the agency said. “Any individual who is on an FAA-licensed or permitted launch and reaches 50 statute miles above the surface of the Earth will be listed on the site.”
Sanchez, Perry, and the others are recognized on this site today.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Supreme Court blocks, for now, new deportations under 18th century wartime law11·7 days agoAww, poor baby justices had to stay up late working? Well, maybe if you didn’t issue a stupid as hell ruling that tried to have it both ways a week ago and then kicked everything into the 5th circuit you wouldn’t be working at midnight on a Saturday, but here we all are.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Supreme Court blocks, for now, new deportations under 18th century wartime law7·7 days agoIt’s one rock breaking loose when we need a landslide, but that’s how landslides always start
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Supreme Court orders Trump administration not to deport Venezuelans under Alien Enemies Act for now6·7 days agoThe courts at the time said he was formerly in a gang
I don’t think even that’s right, I think ICE claimed he was a member of MS-13 (based off of one bullshit statement from a cop whose not allowed to testify anymore for the state prosecutors because he got caught lying about so much other stuff (arc)), but I don’t think the immigration court ever really addressed that and just left it at “If you wanted asylum you should have asked within one year after getting into the country but you’ve been here 7 years, and that’s reason enough to rule against you”
Besides that, Garcia never said he was a member of a gang. He said his family was threatened by a completely different gang and that they were going to hurt him if he didn’t join them, but he left instead of joining them (arc).
Like, his only real connection to a gang is being a victim of it, but the Laken Riley Act supporting assholes of our world will never give a shit about brown people being victimized by criminal gangs because they’re racist hypocritical douchebags (and maybe they understand on some level they’ve got the same kind of symbiotic relationship with MS-13 that George W had with Al Quaeda and Netanyahu has with Hamas).
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto World News@lemmy.world•‘This Should Be Shocking’: Conservative Judge Blasts White House As Senator Finally Accesses Abrego GarciaEnglish611·8 days agoVan Hollen shouldn’t have publicized those pictures at all, everything from the setting to the clothes they gave Garcia was a misrepresentation of what he’s going through
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOPto Technology@lemmy.world•Cops are deploying AI-powered social media bots to talk to people they suspect are anything from violent sex criminals all the way to vaguely defined “protesters”English8·8 days agoIf they spend weeks convincing you that you should do it, give you money or other resources to do it, or so on, then it can be entrapment.
Things like that should theoretically help you make an argument for entrapment, but it’s no sure thing
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•‘We are all afraid’: Republican senator admits colleagues are terrified of being punished for criticizing Trump2·8 days agoOk, so Republicans tried to defeat her but Alaska’s election system stopped them. Seems like she’s in a uniquely secure position to be doing more.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•‘We are all afraid’: Republican senator admits colleagues are terrified of being punished for criticizing Trump4·9 days agoThe problem is these are Republicans were dealing with. Unless somebody on this site has a few million dollars to throw at them there’s nothing tangible we can offer them personally, and we wouldn’t have gotten here in the first place if they had any basic sense of right and wrong we could appeal to.
However, the good news is that we can honestly point out the very simple situation they’re obviously in, and if enough of us do that often enough reality might finally break through to them. The situation is that Donald Trump has a list of people he wants to hurt and they’re all definitely on it because they could threaten his power. Being nice to him might move their name down the list but it won’t get them off of it. The only way they can protect themselves is by taking Donald Trump’s power from him before he gets to them.
We don’t need Republicans to be good people to deal with this situation (which is good because they absolutely are not and haven’t been for decades and decades), we just need them to be slightly less stupid than they’re currently being.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•‘We are all afraid’: Republican senator admits colleagues are terrified of being punished for criticizing Trump2·9 days agoDidn’t they already try to do that with Murkowski and she won as a write in?
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOPto News@lemmy.world•Wrongly deported man not leaving El Salvador prison, President Bukele says7·11 days agoIs the rest of the Salvadorian society ok with this?
If they make too much trouble for Bukele he will just throw them in there too
Many arrests appear to be based on the appearance or social background of detainees or on anonymous calls, and Salvadoran and international human rights groups have documented detentions of hundreds of people with no connections to gangs. Detainees include union and community leaders as well as environmental human rights defenders.
I know the guy is incredibly popular there,
Imprisoning or killing people who disagree with you will make it appear that way
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Democratic lawmakers say they'll travel to El Salvador to push for Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release10·11 days agoI bet it would show up very quickly because they’ll realize the same thing could happen to anyone of them whenever Trump wants to do it and that they need to take him out before he takes them out
Trump could throw a thousand immigrants into a woodchipper right in front of Congress and it would just be furrowed brows all around, but if a hair on a lawmakers’ head ever gets touched by an official action I think they’d impeach him
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Democratic lawmakers say they'll travel to El Salvador to push for Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release4·11 days agoYeah, and giving people a visual will help make this more real for them. I doubt this one press conference is going to be our turning point, but it’s at the very least a small step in the right direction and better than ignoring this.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOPto News@lemmy.world•Starved in Jail: Why are incarcerated people dying from lack of food or water, even as private companies are paid millions for their care?9·11 days agoSome people are. In spite of all the terrible news I read everyday I still think most of us are good most of the time, we’re all just being subjugated by the worst of our species.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Judge rules against dads who wore pink wristbands to protest trans high school athletes5·11 days agoAh, I see what you’re getting at and agree with what I think is your larger point, however all the first amendment nuances shake out this isn’t a case about a trans athlete getting any kind of special protections, this is just an “individuals’ free speech rights vs organizations’ rights to assemble without disruption” case. If these guys were thrown out for waging Palestinian flags or whatever other kinds of protesting it would be the same basic legal issue.
100% fucking coward energy