Sirus Bouchat

Early planning documents reviewed by WIRED describe a statewide transport grid designed for steady detainee transfers across Texas, with ICE estimating each trip to average 100 miles. Every county would have its own small, around-the-clock team of contractors collecting immigrants from local authorities deputized by ICE. It is a subtle transfer of the physical custody process into the hands of a private security firm—authorized to carry firearms and perform transport duties “in any and all local, county, state, and ICE locations.”

NEW: ICE is planning to build a shadow deportation network in Texas. A proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine.

My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...

Mutual aid groups, food banks, etc are about to be under even more pressure in the US.

Post your local one's donation link here, and if you're seeing this, and you can spare a few bucks, pick one two to give to.

Some people are going to claim this has something to do with neurotype, and that's fine, but I can't help but think that for me some of this is about needing to maintain documentation open at all times that everything is really happening. That this really is the reality we're living in.

I've declared tab bankruptcy an unprecedented 6 times already this month (this from a person who consistently has 4 browsers open, >140 tabs in each, tab snooze and Workona working at all times). And I can't be the only one.

Microsoft isn't demanding these post be taken down cause Microsoft is fine with them. Microsoft donated to the White House demolition fund. @mjgault.bsky.social reached out multiple times to Microsoft for comment in his 404 piece about it and they declined to comment. That is tacit consent.

Courses

On Wed, Dec 10 I am offering a comprehensive introduction to Bayesian regression modeling, with exercises in both RStan and PyStan, at a steep discount in an effort to raise funds for World Central Kitchen and United Farm Workers. For registration details see betanalpha.github.io/courses/.

Judge Set to Question Federal Officials About Use of Tear Gas During Immigration Raids U.S. District Judge Sarah Ellis said Thursday she was “not happy” that immigration agents appear to have violated her order not to use tear gas and other weapons against journalists, protesters and an...

Greetings from the Dirksen federal courthouse, where U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis has just taken the bench for a hearing about to use tear gas during a series of increasingly aggressive raids across Chicago and the suburbs.
Background, for @wttw.bsky.social:

the idea of antifa paying protesters is so funny. if i wanted to get paid to destroy the government i’d run for congress

At the Chicago area ICE detention center in Broadview this morning.

These aren't detention vans—they're vehicles full of Illinois State Police. Local cops are staging for a morning of protest.

Supposedly, demonstrators will be banned from 25th St today. Fence on Beach came down a few days ago.

Elected officials saying ICE/Nat'l Guard deployments are meant to normalize their presence in our day-to-day lives as a negative, but ignoring how we've already normalized giving over our data/info while largely receiving convenience rather than consequences. Some are in for a rude awakening

‘Angels’ step in after federal agents use tear gas near Chicago school Mayor Brandon Johnson said the incident in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood sent students scrambling.

People organizing in #Chicago to protect children from violent ICE attacks.

"Armed with whistles and know-your-rights pamphlets, community volunteers call themselves “guardian angels.” Together, they secure...elementary, middle and high schools across the city." www.yahoo.com/news/article...

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

Matthew McConaughey says he wants a private LLM, fed only with his books, notes, journals, and aspirations, so he can ask it questions and get answers based solely on that information, without any outside influence.

this exists it is called thinking

Hi

ICE killed a single dad at a traffic stop here on Friday

Today they are disappearing people again in broad daylight, they are everywhere

If you have any national platform at all

Chicago is fucking begging you, please help us

an important PSA from @atpota.to for moments such as these

A student told her professor “President Trump’s laws state that there are two genders,” and that the lesson was “illegal” for contradicting that. It’s not. Executive orders are not laws.

Compliance with authoritarianism will not protect universities. Either we stand up for our missions or we fall.

Motions hearings in Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr's openly politically repressive RICO case against the #StopCopCity movement start momentarily and will go on for much of this week - we'll be sharing updates from the proceedings, which you can watch live thanks to @atlpresscollective.com:

Eyes on the heartland A vast network of new license plate cameras has exploded across Illinois in recent years—paid for by state grants to fight retail crime. With the federal government clamoring for more information on p...

NEW: In what appears to be one of the largest expansions of surveillance in IL history, we found hundreds of new Flock license plate readers—all paid for by AG Kwame Raoul's office in the last 3 years.

Issues with Flock Safety's data sharing practices are mounting. Will our sanctuary status hold?

The LAPD attacked reporters, despite a court order. Then it lied about it Reporting on the force’s press freedom violations requires more than uncritically repeating the LAPD’s statements

The LAPD lived up to its atrocious press freedom record by beating, detaining, and jailing journalists covering a protest last week.

Journalists must cover these First Amendment violations, and the public must speak out against them.

Government documents show police disabling AI oversight tools Departments aren't reviewing or disclosing AI-written police reports—which are now being used in plea deals.

🚨 SCOOP🚨: Records obtained by Mother Jones almost uniformly show police departments are deactivating safeguards meant to prevent AI bias while making it difficult or impossible to audit which police reports were generated by AI.

@tekendra-parmar.bsky.social reports:

The UK is about to ban access to Wikipedia, just remember this bill was originally pitched as a means to protect kids from accessing porn.

Trans people in Georgia prisons are being forced to detransition. Now they’re suing. - The Current A group of incarcerated transgender women and men have sued Georgia corrections officials, challenging a new law that prevents them from receiving gender-affirming medical care, arguing that it violat...

thecurrentga.org/2025/08/09/t...

Microsoft can no longer deny it’s directly enabling the oppression and genocide of Palestinians by Israel.

“According to three Unit 8200 sources, the cloud-based storage platform has facilitated the preparation of deadly airstrikes and has shaped military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.”

So much this.

About 80% of my grammar suggestions from Microsoft Word are “why not use a simpler word here for clarity?”

No. Fuck you.

I will use a complicated word for evocative precision whenever the muse’s clarion song demands ebullience, vivacity, torpor, or solemnity, you shit-ass suck machine.

again, understanding the government as the information collector of last resort brings a lot of other political economy issues into sharp relief

Needed training upgrade or ‘cop city’? Here’s why Pittsburgh put an $84M plan on pause. City Council delayed a vote to develop a public safety training campus critics call cop city. Here’s what’s in the proposed plan and why the public is concerned.

great to see Pittsburgh hit the brakes on a proposed Cop City in response to opposition!

with comment from Pittsburgh organizers who traveled to protest Atlanta's Cop City and are now facing RICO charges, and Miracle Jones: www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-c...

The FTC is seeking public comment about gender affirming care in order to go after providers and restrict access. Share your stories instead of how this care has helped you and how it is life saving.

We need to counteract their false narratives. Please share!

www.regulations.gov/docket/FTC-2...

Anywho, as I tell the young people in my life whom I love deeply, this is your time to create beautiful works of art, to throw the most fun parties you can for no money, and to fight like hell for a future worthy of you. This is NOT a time to retreat into yourself and to forgo the world.

CZF 2025 We're excited to partner with Chicago Public Library to bring you the next Chicago Zine Fest! CZF is always free to attend; no tickets are required. Saturday, July 19, 2025, 11 am to 4 pm Harold...

Do the Chicago folks who follow me know that the Chicago Zine Fest is happening on July 19 at the Harold Washington Library? www.chicagozinefest.org/czf2025.html - Stop by!