Isaac Javier Rivera

AI rebrands humanistic skills like writing, drawing, creativity, which have all been *thoroughly feminized,* as hard and macho, letting bros who fear nothing more than the whiff of femininity and feminization access creativity without the stench of girliness

E.P.A. Says It Will Eliminate Its Scientific Research Arm

Gutting scientific research at EPA means less protection for our air, water, and health. The consequences of this decision will be felt for generations. Deeply concerning. Unreal!

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/c...

The emerging coup Lawless authoritarian regimes don't give up power willingly.

$30B in new funds to hire 10,000 new ICE agents, $45B to expand detention centers, and no one stopping them from denying due process, trafficking and detaining people indefinitely…

Trump built a domestic army to keep himself in power indefinitely.
www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-coup...

During my time as a PhD student at UIUC, there were multiple incidents of right-wingers leaving racist flyers all over campus, including images of people being dropped from helicopters (ref to Pinochet's "death flights"). At one point, a group of them swarmed me w/ cameras to try to "gotcha" me.

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.

Media outlets can't pivot to AI to save themselves. It's not a business strategy and it's not going to work. The only path forward is for journalists to lean into their humanity, to do things AI can't, and to make clear they are writing for people, not algorithms:

www.404media.co/the-medias-p...

CM Vol 25 CfP University as Infrastructure Culture Machine Vol. 25 Call for Papers: University as Infrastructure  Guest-edited by: Alexandra Anikina, Johannes Bruder, Megen de Bruin-Molé, Stephen Cornford, Kwame Phillips & Geoff Cox  …

"Universities have become increasingly dependent on a proliferation of outsourced services, database providers + info mgmt systems, w/ spiraling costs... Understanding [the uni as an infrastructure stresses] that the tech it chooses to adopt follow a colonial + extractivist model...

Headshot of Ruth Wilson Gilmore with text "Listen Now!"

For July 4th, the Los Angeles Review of Books dove into the archives to bring a timely episode with Ruth Wilson Gilmore. She joins Kate Wolf and Eric Newman to talk about her new collection, “Abolition Geography.” Listen to the episode: buff.ly/USk0SLL

#AbolitionGeography #GeoSky #Geographers

The ultimate goal of Generative “AI” in almost all capacities is to remove agency and accountability entirely. Shift blame from people to machines, ignoring the machines are made and deployed by people.

Padilla: If this is how DHS responds to a senator with a question you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California.

June 6th update:

A slight uptick this week. This is probably the lowest it'll be nationally for a few months, as XFG and "Nimbus" are forecasted to drive a summer wave.

🔸167,000 new infections/day
🔸~1 in 201 currently infected
🔸~1 in 502 are reasonably infectious

‘the school will reduce its staff by about 5% over the next year & reduce its faculty by about 25% to 30% over the next two years, including part-time faculty who have not been renewed. The personnel decisions will affect non-tenure track faculty, pre-tenure faculty, & adjunct faculty.’

ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract Advocates worry the tests will pave the way for the Trump administration to separate children from their caregivers.

I'm repeatedly struck that all the scenarios the critical data studies / algorithmic bias / smart cities scholars warned us about over the past 10-15 years are now manifesting simultaneously

Naomi Klein: 'What They Want Is Absolutely Everything' The ‘Shock Doctrine’ author explains the dark logic of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s path of destruction and why billionaire oligarchs are so angry.

"Capitalism has entered a radical and apocalyptic phase. There is no utopian vision in any of this."

Interview ⤵️

Awareness Protests Won’t Threaten the Richest, Most Well-Armed People on Earth “Making durable changes isn’t always about the raw numbers,” says Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò.

This conversation between @mskellymhayes.bsky.social and @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social is right on time.

I always appreciate that you can find the podcast and the transcript at the link, and use whatever works best for you

Screenshot of the journal abstract.

Decolonial worlding is a place-based endeavor. @irivera.bsky.social & Eagle trace the un/making of settler imaginaries in Denver, CO, and how the Native community refuses otherwise. (Re)Mapping Native Denver shows how #Indigenous #geographies are expressed through #mapping practices. buff.ly/RfSZG6r

NEW YORK TIMES (2020): U.S. DEATHS NEAR 100,000, AN INCALCULABLE LOSS

5 years ago: “An incalculable loss”

Today: Banning masks and restricting vaccine access

The cost of Grok: "I can't breathe at home, it smells like gas outside. How come I can't breathe at home and y'all get to breathe at home?"

Intervention — “533 Geographers Call for Action on Transphobic Developments in the UK, its Supreme Court, and the EHRC” - Antipode Online Jay Todd, School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow In the UK and globally, we are witnessing eliminationist attacks on trans and gender diverse people that are attempting to cr...

Intervention — “533 Geographers Call for Action on Transphobic Developments in the UK, its Supreme Court, and the EHRC” antipodeonline.org/2025/05/06/5...

Settler Empire w/ Aziz Rana The Dig · Episode

Aziz Rana's book, "The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them" is one of the most important books on the constitution for leftists, progressives, and anyone who is pro-democracy.

In a fantastic 4 part series, @danieldenvir.bsky.social goes deep on the ideas.

So you’re saying we could solve all the financial problems of 379 million of us and impact just 19 households. What an interesting fact. Fun little bit of trivia.

Bird flu, feared as a possible pandemic, poses growing risk to people as pathogen spreads, scientists warn More than 100 federal scientists who track bird flu, including vaccine and food safety experts, have been laid off. This comes as the deadly pathogen rips through dairy herds and poultry flocks.

ICYMI

Scientists warn H5 Bird Flu is spreading with growing risk to people and threat of pandemic

www-cbsnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.cbsn...

Reconsidering Reparations Why Climate Justice and Constructive Politics Are Needed in the Wake of Slavery and Colonialism Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò With a new preface by the author

Reconsidering Reparations: Why Climate Justice and Constructive Politics Are Needed in the Wake of Slavery and Colonialism by @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2538-r...

The Radical Right's Culture Capture: A Conversation with Ana Marie Cox From AI "slop" to Joe Rogan's rise: Why conservative voices are winning the battle for attention in our algorithm-driven wasteland.

How the decline of creative labor rights paved the way for conservative culture capture. with @anamariecox.bsky.social www.readtpa.com/p/the-radica...

book cover: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead "If we are serious about decolonization, we need a theory of water." —Robin D. G. Kelley

Happy Publication Day, @biidaasamose.bsky.social! 💧

Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead is a genre-bending exploration of that most elemental force–water–through Indigenous storytelling, personal memory, and the work of influential artists and writers

Fascism Isn’t Coming — It’s Here. Now What? “We don’t get to choose the people who show up for us and who save us sometimes,” says Ejeris Dixon.

I talked with @ejeris.bsky.social about fascism, coalition building, and the compassion and shared knowledge we need to create safety and justice in these times. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or access a transcript + audio here:

Lab Leak: The True Origins of Covid-19 THE ORIGIN “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” publication — which was used repeatedly by public health officials and the media to discredit the lab leak

Covid.gov is a litany of Covid-related lies splayed on an official government website;

US taxpayer money wasted to feed Americans propaganda against scientific consensus and public health.

Anti-science is an official tenet of Trumpism and the far right globally—a universal threat to humanity.