mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Techie, public historian, and activist from Berkeley, California
I curate the monthly Berkeley South Asian radical history walking tour — now celebrating its 14th year.
Flickr Commons is the best kind privately-owned public infrastructure
"The Chinese government pressured Zambia to cancel RightsCon, the world’s largest digital human rights conference, at the last minute, according to the conference’s organizers. Beijing was upset that the speaker’s list included prominent figures from Taiwanese civil society, AccessNow, the group that organizes RightsCon, wrote Friday."
https://www.404media.co/china-pressure-canceled-worlds-largest-digital-human-rights-conference/
Hello Mastodon! Need a dose of hope in dark times?
Come join me on the San Francisco South Asian Radical History Walking Tour on Sun, May 24!
We’ll be sharing some of our favorite activist histories—queer Desis, Muslim punks, anti-colonial movements, and more. Spots are limited.
“I don’t really know how to process that information. It’s not just that we’re going back to a Jim Crow state of affairs—it’s that white people are happy about it. As if the 60 years of post-apartheid America that were ushered in by the VRA were just an unfortunate detour, and now white people can get back to their preferred route.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/vra-comey-musk-atlman/
“But the language in my email was different. It was final: ‘Google has received and responded to legal process from a law enforcement authority compelling the release of information related to your Google Account.’ Google had already disclosed my data without telling me. There was no opportunity to contest it.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/google-broke-its-promise-me-now-ice-has-my-data
“The difference is, the artificial lifeforms that worry me aren't hypothetical – they're here today, amongst us, endangering the very survival of our species. These artificial lifeforms are called ‘limited liability corporations’ and they are a concrete, imminent risk to the human race”
"I asked her to take a yellow highlighter and highlight everything positive — which left her with a document that was about 90% yellow, which made it visually impossible for her to ignore the actual balance of the input her colleagues had offered, despite what her brain had been trying to do."
Jamelle Bouie is (rightly) on fire
https://kottke.org/26/05/the-supreme-court-is-corrupt-this-is-what-we-can-do-about-it
“Nationally, more than 60 cities have moved to terminate or pause their contracts with Flock as the collective risks of mass surveillance to privacy, human rights, civil liberties, reproductive care, and immigrant rights become undeniable”
"By holding companies liable for verifying the age of anyone physically in Utah, even those using a VPN, the law creates a massive 'liability trap'…if a website cannot reliably detect a VPN user's true location and the law requires it…then the legal risk could push the site to either ban all known VPN IPs, or to mandate age verification…globally. This would subject millions of users to invasive identity checks or blocks to their VPN use…"
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/utahs-new-law-regulating-vpns-goes-effect-next-week
“A government need not ban a publication to silence it. It need only ensure that the publication cannot afford lawyers, cannot retain platform access, cannot attract advertisers and cannot bear the cumulative carrying cost of regulatory compliance.”
I’m willing to concede that new models could be huge security threats. But I hate that *this* is the defensive solution offered.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
“Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) have not been only the biggest spenders in the fossil fuel industry in Sacramento, but have been the top spenders on overall lobbying most years”
It's so painful for Indians (and many others) to get a *tourist* visa to the U.S.
“Many people consider California a sanctuary state, in part because of a 2017 law limiting cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities. But that measure didn’t include the state prison system. In fact, state law requires that prison authorities identify people who may be subject to deportation and to coordinate custody transfers with ICE.”
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/05/02/ca-ice-prison-oregon
“Mr. Brin is particularly rattled by the proposal for a one-time, 5 percent tax on California billionaires, and has emerged as Silicon Valley’s leading combatant of the measure. To escape the tax, he moved before a Dec. 31 deadline to the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe…he has spent $57 million to try to undercut the measure, including $9 million more disclosed on Friday.”
"Less than 72 hours before Weber State University in Utah was scheduled to host a conference on censorship, presenters were told not to discuss identity politics, or be removed from the official program agenda."
https://www.404media.co/how-a-universitys-censorship-conference-got-censored/
"The effort expands on Santa Monica’s existing automated bus lane enforcement program, which has already reduced violations significantly. Officials report a 67% drop in bus lane violations and a 40% drop at bus stops since that program launched."
“‘Once this data is uploaded to AAMVA, it’s out of California’s control, no matter what California wants, no matter what protests we may make,’ said Ed Hasbrouck with San Francisco civil liberties group The Identity Project, who was on the briefing call.”
https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2026/04/california-dmv-shares-immigrant-driver-data/
The attack on the SPLC should be getting more attention. It won't stop here.
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/21/g-s1-118275/southern-poverty-law-center-fraud-charges-paid-informants
“If a sitting president negotiating a multi-billion dollar taxpayer-funded payout to himself — through agencies he controls and lawyers loyal to him personally, over damages he demonstrably did not suffer…does not qualify as an abuse of public trust, then the phrase has no meaning.”
“According to Chowdhury, the day of his arrest "
‘turned into one of the most life-changing and traumatic experiences’ of his life. He added, ‘Without warning, my life completely changed.’”
https://www.newsweek.com/student-visa-holder-self-deports-after-inhumane-ice-conditions-11833076
"The Riverside County ballot seizure highlights the challenges faced by election officials, who can find themselves unsure what to do: protect the vote or obey a warrant?"
“This shows ‘the long tail’ of economic warfare, such as ‘reverse’ migration from cities back to rural areas and malnutrition caused by higher food prices. Even if oil prices fall, noted Dr. Deolalikar, their social consequences will take years to repair.”
"Residents of an Atlanta suburb have been rocked by the revelation that sales employees at Flock have been accessing sensitive cameras in the town to demonstrate the company’s surveillance technology to police departments around the country. The cameras accessed have included surveillance tech in a children’s gymnastics room, a playground, a school, a Jewish community center, and a pool."
"Republican proposals would likely 'crack' Memphis — splitting its heavily Democratic voters across multiple Republican-leaning districts — similar to what lawmakers did to Nashville in 2022. The result could be a 9-0 Republican congressional delegation in a state where about a third of voters supported Democrats in recent elections."
“But regardless of whether he succeeds, the administration’s move signals a major transformation in America’s culture war: Contraception has gone from being politically untouchable to a real target on the right.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/04/25/birth-control-maha-abortion-trump-00889738
“Since arriving at the justice department a little more than a year ago, Dhillon has dropped dozens of anti-discrimination cases seeking relief for minorities in voting, housing, policing, and employment and instead reorienting the division around preventing discrimination against white Americans. Hundreds of attorneys have left the division.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/19/harmeet-dhillon-trump
“The conversation between two anglophones – addressing each other in heavily accented French – prompted widespread praise among many Canadians.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/19/artemis-astronaut-jeremy-hansen-french-canada
“36 percent said they or someone they know had their immigration or citizenship status questioned or feared it could be revoked. Another 30 percent reported fears or experiences of arrest, detention or deportation, while 28 percent said they had considered leaving the United States altogether.”
"In a court filing Monday, the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections asked a federal judge to quash a new federal grand jury subpoena, which seeks…election workers’ and volunteers’ names, home addresses, emails and phone numbers."
"President Donald Trump’s war in Iran is as unpopular among Americans as the Iraq War during the year of peak violence in 2006 and the Vietnam War in the early 1970s, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, amid growing economic pain and fears of terrorism as a result of the military campaign."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/01/poll-trump-iran-war-iraq/
"On the open social web, that means when you pass along a message to others through sharing, boosting, and quoting, you’re not liable for the other user’s speech. The alternative would be a web where one misclick could open you up to a defamation lawsuit."
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/05/04/the-open-social-web-needs-section-230-to-survive/
"'In my almost three decades of election work, it is completely unprecedented to stop an election that is underway,' Dunn said. 'So it’s extraordinary that a state would think that there are cast ballots already in an election and try to stop it so they could change the rules of the election while it’s underway.'"
"Now, it’s going after the Southern Poverty Law Center, claiming (incredibly) that paying informants to infiltrate hate groups is exactly the same thing as funding hate groups. It’s some truly insane spin, which is being delivered by some of the federal government’s top hucksters."
More of this please
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/20/politics/analysis-trump-claims-iran-war
"Under the GUARD Act’s broad definitions, a high school student could be barred from asking homework help tools questions about algebra problems. A teenager trying to return a product could be kicked out of a standard customer-service chat…sponsors say they’re targeting worst-case scenarios — but the bill regulates everyday use."
"In addition to the meeting with Trump, donors of $500,000 or more receive a tour of Turning Point USA headquarters, a meeting with the organization’s leadership, a dinner, lodging, and 'round-trip travel via JSX to Scottsdale Private Airport.'"
