AI, as in machine learning, has always had uses. Like, real useful additions to human capability. It’s very useful in pattern recognition and statistical analysis of various things.
Our more modern shit connotation comes from capitalists trying replace labor with generative AI, which is a small subset of potential machine learning uses, but by its nature sends massive amounts of shlock at us.
A very wide, very vague, very useful definition for a prosecutor.
Here's some fun recent peeks into Texas fascism.
More restrictions on trans people:
Transgender Texans will not be able to change the sex listed on their driver’s licenses, according to a policy change rolled out this week.
Under the new policy, Texans will not be able to change the sex on their licenses unless it is to fix a clerical error.
Making lists of undocumented people getting healthcare:
Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order on Thursday that requires hospitals in Texas to collect information on the immigration status of patients so that the hospitals can then track costs incurred for the care of undocumented migrants. Previous guidance for hospitals did not include questions about immigration status. The executive order would mandate the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to collect this information so that the state of Texas could then bill the federal government.
Not quite as recent news but back in March, the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, tried to require PFLAG, an LGBT support group, to disclose lists of transgender Texans, doctors who work with them, and any plans the organization might have to support trans people going forward. This was blocked thankfully by an Austin court, but I'm sure they're going to try again at some point.
UC Strike update. This week grad students at UC Santa Cruz started striking. As this is organized as a standup strike, campuses are getting called in over time. There was some concern about high leadership excessively slow-rolling it, but they announced that UCLA and UC Davis are going to start striking on Tuesday, as Monday is a holiday.
The UC admin filed an injunction to PERB, the Public Employee Relations Board, which is the regulatory body for our union, saying the strike was illegal and should be shut down. This goes with their letter full of lies claiming the same. This injunction however was denied! Despite their repeated claims, the strike is absolutely not legal, and they can't use the regulatory body to stop it.
I'm ready to see what's happening next week. While I won't full dox myself, I will be striking next week, which I am so ready for. There's a lot of people trying to push this to something meaningful.
Strike against the University of California is on! 79% voted yes, with 19,780 voting!
This is structured as a "Stand Up Strike", in the vein as what was done with the recent auto strikes. Basically that means segments of the worker base are going to be called up to strike, with not everyone starting at once. In practical terms, that means one campuses are like, strike-ready, in terms of mobilizng people, they're getting activated. Likely UCLA and UCSD are going to be first, and rather fast to start. They experienced the big violence, and have the most momentum in strike organizing at the moment. But others are pretty ready too! Just doing some planning on the more like mundane part of planning, like local day to day stuff. Hopefully I'll get a chance to strike very soon.
There's around 50k workers in total, so a decent chunk didn't vote. To a degree that's expected though, as this was a fast turnaround event, and you're going to miss people either by not getting a chance to reach them, or them lacking interest. This was actually a very high turnout union election. And the bright side, the 'No' votes are probably all the dedicated Zionists and anti-labor types with enough energy to actually participate, with the larger population more like, open to being reached as things progress and it becomes more obvious that something is happening.
Our strike vote is starting today for UAW 4811, the grad student/student researcher union for the University of California system. For those unaware, this push started back after the raids on the UCLA encampment. It apparently gave the union enough cause to start this proceeding. Which is good! Likely the vote will go through, and then things will get spicy. The vote closes Wednesday afternoon.
On the downside, the highest level of the union leadership still has a bunch of collaborationist fuckers, so they undercut the total power of the strike before it started by declaring it a 'limited' strike, with a maximum deadline of June 30th. Obviously, presetting a deadline for your labor action isn't great. It also undercuts the threat of long term withholding of student grades, which would result in the academic machinery grinding to a halt. That said, it is at the very least past the deadline of the quarter's instruction.
The UC system is weird in that instead of semesters, we use quarters of the year, with a Fall, Winter, and Spring quarter of primary instruction, and then a summer quarter. That means that school goes way farther into May/June than pretty much everywhere else, so the campus won't be empty by any means, and there will be disrupted classes. There will be some form of material impact, and every bit helps I hope.
I was talking with someone, and they think that the University might just play nice and try to wait it out, but I'm really not sure about that. They were pretty chill, in terms of direct force at least, during on more "normal" strike about a year ago, but the harsh crackdowns of students literally just sitting around makes me think it might be different this time. I think it's possible that if our strike materializes, and it has actual material consequences, however mild, they might windmill slam that police brutality button. I feel kind of paranoid typing and talking about this lol. But regardless, I started stocking up on first aid supplies and some protective stuff. I don't know how far away we are from Kent State 2.0.
They aren’t even dangling the idea of giving the Cubans their land back. This is just the pipe dream of the prison closing, not the naval base.
It was so Reddit could sell the info instead of having it freely available
The more opinions you have the more biased you are, thus sitting on your ass and accepting the status quo is the purest form of thinking possible.
Get out of Gaza, like it’s easy for Palestinians to go anywhere.
They’re at least building green energy and trains lol. And less wars. Already better.
A certain breed of pollster is shocked by the idea that events, policy, and advocacy can actually change people’s views. That having a vision for the future, for something better, can actually shift opinions.