So proud to call Alex Padilla my #Senator: "This son of Mexican immigrants grew up in working class Pacoima U went to MIT before returning home to help found a political machine that gave a voice to Latinos in the San Fernando Valley that they never had. He was the 1st Latino president of the L.A. City Council, served in both chambers of the state Legislature & also as CA's sec. of state before becoming CA's 1st Latino U.S. senator."

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-13/sen-alex-padillas-crime-being-mexican-in-maga-america

#USPol
#AlexPadilla
#LosAngeles

If you're headed to a protest this weekend, you should watch this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONqkVXjETbg

This is the page in the history book where future generations may ask, “Why didn’t more people speak up?" Don’t let this slide.

For everyone who was sad to miss it, the recording of the Data & Society event about THE AI CON (me and @alex) and EMPIRE OF AI (@karenhao) moderated by @tamigraph is now online!

https://datasociety.net/events/challenging-ai-hype-and-tech-industry-power

@foolishowl @pluralistic Spot on. It’s like they think the 10th amendment is nothing.

@pluralistic I'm more concerned that they're not focusing on the part where Noem said they're going to remove the governor of California and mayor of Los Angeles.

“The absolute rage the activist inspires in the world's worst men is one of her most admirable qualities.”

#GretaThunberg

https://www.wonkette.com/p/everyone-definitely-having-a-normal

@jik

You know what one form of mutual aid was?

It was when we all banded together, discussed issues, educated each other, decided on the common good, selected leaders to guide us, and worked together toward common goals.

Those goals require more than individualist efforts. The efforts have to scale up to urban, regional, national scale.

A functioning government. A sane society.

Precisely the targets of the long strange war against us.

Here’s What Federal Troops Can (and Can’t) Do While Deployed in LA
https://www.wired.com/story/what-marines-national-guard-can-cant-do-la-protests/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Politics @politics-WIRED

Stay safe out there!

i talked to a marine and the 27th (2nd battalion, 7th marines) do not have specialized, urban, nor crowd control training. they're straight up infantry. ass kickers. hegseth was lying about that too.

#lax #ice

Please remember that every time you see an article about liberals being in chaos or the Democratic party being in shambles, that this is a propaganda tactic. This is designed to scare people into thinking there is no resistance, that you are alone.

This is why they want these protesters off the streets, it's the kind of resistance you can't propaganda your way out of.

Stay safe out there, don't fall for their tactics to try to make you feel hopeless and alone. This is what the beginning of the end of Fascist leaders looks like.

I have a laundry list of reasons I refuse to use “generative AI,” but this is by far the biggest one:

“The real threat posed by generative AI is not that it will eliminate work on a mass scale, rendering human labour obsolete. It is that, left unchecked, it will continue to transform work in ways that deepen precarity, intensify surveillance, and widen existing inequalities. Technological change is not an external force to which societies must simply adapt; it is a socially and politically mediated process. Legal frameworks, collective bargaining, public investment, and democratic regulation all play decisive roles in shaping how technologies are developed and deployed, and to what ends.”

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/is-the-ai-bubble-about-to-burst

#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #ChatGPT #Labor #Work

What everyone needs to understand is that in 2021 our ICUs were full, our healthcare workers suffering from PTSD and burnout, and almost every death from COVID was avoidable. The strains of COVID hospitalizing people that year were nearly completely preventable. The vaccines at that point prevented nearly all deaths.

When you see RFK’s vaccine “experts” and realize they all made money scaring people away from the vaccines, also know those of us who cared for those patients haven’t forgotten.

Hello, friends! I'm thrilled to announce that The Homelab Almanac, v3.0 has officially launched! There is a ton of new stuff in this version, including:

• Proper DNS for the lab
• Lab PKI
• Automatic signed certificate retrieval
• New secrets management
• Proxmox clustering
• Network storage
• Cloud integration

And lots more. Now, with all this addition, plus the work to make it, I've had to increase the price to $29.99 USD. I know that's a lot. But for what THA is, I still think it's fair. But I'm also running a sale right now. Code OMGVERSIONTHREE gets you 50% off until the end of June.

And of course, if you've already purchased THA, you just got access to the new version. Thanks for being an early supporter!

I hope you love this new version of the book. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

And seriously: thank you to everyone who's supported @thetaggartinstitute over the years, and especially the folks who have purchased and enjoyed The Homelab Almanac. I had no idea what I was getting myself into writing this book, but it's been lovely to see folks build community around it.

https://taggart-tech.com/thav3/

The people of Los Angeles have already written their reply to Tom Cotton.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/06/11/they-let-tom-cotton-write-another-op-ed/

I think Newsom is succeeding bc: 1) he's a dick 2) he's male 3) his day job is dealing w/unrest (& fires that Trump made harder to fight) 4) he's got staff Compare Newsom's job with Jimmy Gomez--who spent much of Friday at the Federal building (and who organized a presser most lefties ignored)

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:h5zkfkc35wkb53udnemrica5/post/3lrdttervms2u