I hope you feel a little okay. I hope you smiled once. I hope today grants you space for restful sleep at least tonight and maybe some energy for tomorrow. I hope you're hopeful.

wrote about the “national conservative” vision for america

BREAKING: Federal agents in plain clothes and unmarked cars tried to snatch 1st graders from LA elementary schools—told staff they had “parental consent.”

They lied. When pressed, they HID THEIR IDS. DHS admits they sent them. This wasn’t a welfare check. It was a test run for a police state.

"[T]here is work to be done to solve our immigration challenges. But the only way our leaders should approach the Alien Enemies Act . . . is by acknowledging the fundamental injustice of wartime internment and . . . working to repeal the law, not resurrecting it." /fin
time.com/7268851/alie...

I’m looking forward to this (and buying less in general these days).

Gregg is a former Marine and Forest Service ranger. He's saved the lives of hikers dangling off a cliff or going through cardiac arrest, and he's bravely fought forest fires to save small rural towns.

100% of his salary is paid by WA state.

Elon fired him. Share his story.

I appreciate how this article notes culture as a key front for resegregationists. If we go all in on a commitment to love and connect across differences, support real (ie human) art and artists across differences, and guard our own hearts and minds it’s a front we can win.

An engineer once explained to me that an efficient system always has need available when a resource becomes free, and an effective system always has a resource available when a need arises. Mind was blown.

On Feb. 14th I try always to give honor to one of the greatest contributors to American democracy in our nation’s history, Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery, Douglass never knew his actual birthdate, and adopted Feb. 14th as the day. His penetrating insights about our country inspire me daily.

For real, de Tocqueville commented on America’s tendency to carry out essential work via associations (the precursor of NGOs/nonprofits) back in the 1800s. This is how our nation gets a lot of shit done! Maybe this S. African (no shade to S. Africans generally) doesn’t know how we do things here?

Morning. I’m going to post Prime Minister Trudeau’s speech announcing the new tariffs on USA.

I recommend watching and sharing it yourself, because it’s got a message for both the Canadian and the American citizen. One I’m thinking news in the US won’t pass on. 1/2

youtu.be/nLB46AR_O94

This affects many of the community organizations I support that do crucial work and don’t have the margins to wait out a legal battle. This morning I’ll show up to support a job training program launch we worked on for years that may not be funded now.

I can trace my roots in economic justice work back to the moment I learned my local Walmart supplied SNAP (food stamp) application forms in the employee break room. And my city gave them tax breaks to build there in the name of job creation. Layers and layers of extraction.

“The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people.”

So yesterday I held this workshop on "everything artists and cultural practitioners need to know about this strange thing called AI", titled "debunking the tech-bro AI cult", in the Brut Vienna theatre, and here's the 5-page reading list I compiled for participants:
crackedlabs.org/dl/TechbroAI...

Microsoft and Google users trying figure out how to turn off their ‘AI assistants’.

New Economy Brief Digest - The Spanish Success Story www.neweconomybrief.net/the-digest/t...

So ugly. Looking forward to connecting with more people here 🦋