Rolando Valdés Aguilar

We at @aclu-norcal.bsky.social and @aclupa.org filed this motion to protect people exercising their First Amendment rights to speak out anonymously. These summonses are intolerable abuses of power by DHS.

The court JUST ordered Meta not to reveal anything to DHS until further notice.

Some people are honored to help children learn, or help the sick heal, or help the dispossessed fight for justice. Others are honored to have played a small role in giving lying criminals a chance to prey on society again, so long as they are Republicans.

BREAKING: Judge Illston says she is expanding her TRO blocking shutdown RIFs as to any AFSCME and AFL-CIO members or bargaining units to include NFFE, SEIU, and NAGE union members or bargaining units AND any members/units removed under EO 14251 whose removal is subject to legal dispute.

Sad Kermit at window with text "Wishing I had diagonalized inside the degenerate subspace before second order went crazy"

A little treat going into the weekend: the midterm for my quantum mechanics class was a couple weeks ago, and again the students made memes for extra credit.

Let's start out strong with a PSA about the dangers of nondegenerate perturbation theory. Do you know where your good states are?

For all your blocking needs:

bsky.app/profile/home...

bsky.app/profile/home...

bsky.app/profile/dept...

bsky.app/profile/whit...

CSU Campuses Reel From Blow to HSI Funding The Trump administration’s death blow to funds for minority-serving institutions is expected to cost the California State University system tens of millions of dollars.

The Trump administration’s death blow to funds for minority-serving institutions is expected to cost the California State University system tens of millions of dollars. Out of its 22 campuses, 21 are Hispanic-serving institutions.

Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police Agencies that use Flock can request that Ring doorbell users share footage to help with "evidence collection and investigative work."

GET RID OF YOUR RING CAMERAS www.yahoo.com/news/article...

/2 The Roberts Court 6-3 majority is best understood not as a genuine or legitimate independent adjudicatory body but as a ceremonial adjunct to the Trump government, like a First Lady or a second-born prince in a constitutional monarchy.

UPDATE: Justice Amy Coney Barrett has ordered Illinois officials to respond by Monday at 5PM ET, BUT she did not order the immediate administrative stay the Trump admin asked for. More w/ @kyledcheney.bsky.social @shiakapos.bsky.social

Where the U.S. Is Building Up Military Force in the Caribbean

The U.S. military mobilization in the Caribbean:
• 8 Navy warships
• 10 stealth fighters
• About 10,000 troops
• New ammunition storage sites in Puerto Rico

The goal, officials say privately, is to oust Maduro from power.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/u...

AI-powered textbooks fail to make the grade in South Korea South Korea’s AI learning program was rolled back after just four months following a backlash from teachers, students, and parents, underlining the challenges in embedding the technology in education.

South Korea pushed AI hard in schools. The national program was aborted within months, following massive pushback from students, parents and teachers, after a fortune had already been spent by both the government and education publishers
restofworld.org/2025/south-k...

BREAKING: UVA rejects the Trump Administration's Compact.

The Trump administration is seeking emergency relief at #SCOTUS again—this time in the Chicago / National Guard federalization case.

This is the 29th application the administration has filed since January 20.

It’s No. 25A443, and should be up on the website shortly.

Supreme Court Trump v. Illinois DOJ application for stay

BREAKING: Trump administration goes to the Supreme Court in its effort to deploy troops in Chicago.

A TRO blocked the federalization of the National Guard and their deployment; Seventh Circuit kept the deployment blocked during appeal.

Background: www.lawdork.com/p/not-guilty

An email appointing Kyle Walsh is director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

VERY TROUBLING NEWS REGARDING NIH INSTITUTE DIRECTORS

A new appointment for NIEHS

1/3

#BREAKING The Trump administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in its fight with Illinois over deployment of the National Guard.

Trump’s EPA canceled a $20M flood protection grant for the area in May, calling it “wasteful DEI spending.”

What does this mean?

The full DC Circuit isn't going to let the shutdown stop them from considering whether they (the full appeals court) should rehear the CFPB case — after a three-judge panel that included two Trump appointees sided with the Trump admin.

United States Court of Appeals FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT ____________ No. 25-5091 September Term, 2025 1:25-cv-00381-ABJ Filed On: October 17, 2025 National Treasury Employees Union, et al., Appellees v. Russell T. Vought, in his official capacity as Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Appellants BEFORE: Srinivasan, Chief Judge; Henderson, Millett, Pillard, Wilkins, Katsas, Rao, Walker, Childs, Pan, and Garcia, Circuit Judges O R D E R Upon consideration of appellants’ unopposed motion for a stay of the deadline to respond to appellees’ petition for rehearing en banc in light of the lapse in appropriations, it is ORDERED that the motion be denied. The response to the petition for rehearing en banc remains due on October 21, 2025. Per Curiam

NEWS: In the CFPB case, the full DC Circuit (en banc) rejects DOJ's request for a stay of the deadline for DOJ's response to the union's request that the full court rehear the case en banc.

Hard to ignore that this comes two days after Russell Vought said he plans to shutter CFPB in months.

are they getting tattoos??

The reporting raises that exact question and says that no clear decision has been made yet.

The Trump admin is also very likely going to want to keep them away from the press and from lawyers, which they will eventually fail to do, but may delay things for quite some time.

Trinidadian Family Says U.S. Military Killed Relative in Boat Attack

The new AP report comes soon after the New York Times reported that a man killed during a previous strike was a Trinidadian fisherman whose family says he wasn't a smuggler (truth unclear).

That means Colombians, Venezuelans and Trinidadians have been killed so far. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/w...

In our non-DEI meritocracy, Larry Ellison's son bought CBS so that Bari Weiss could then put her sister on air.

An ICE agent, who is being arrested for drunk driving and nearly killing his little kids & others, tries to stop the arrest by racially profiling the officers arresting him. Amazing to watch the courtesy given to him as he is belligerent and uncooperative

Where are the massive pro-Trump rallies?! Nowhere and that tells you everything! No Kings scares the crap out of the GOP

Where are the massive pro-Trump rallies?! Nowhere and that tells you everything! Trump is horribly unpopular despite what he says and how corporate media props him up. GOP leaders know this which is why they are attacking No Kings rally. My article: deanobeidallah.substack.com/p/where-are-...

The attorney for the government in the hearing in Chicago Headline v. Noem just argued that they should be able to substitute different people than the court has previously ordered to testify because these other people have better knowledge of specifics of operations and conduct …

2 Defendants’ counsel have been advised that Mr. Hott’s final day as Field Office Director ERO for the ICE ERO Chicago Field Office is October 17, 2025. Mr. Hott will no longer be assigned to the Chicago area of responsibility.

On Thursday, Judge Sarah Ellis ordered that the guy in charge of ICE Chicago, Russell Hott, show up for a hearing on Monday bc ICE is violating so many parts of an order she issued last week.

On Friday, DHS decided Hott was no longer overseeing Chicago.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Senators Move to Force Vote to Bar Ground Strikes in Venezuela

⚠️ Senators Move to Force Vote to Bar Ground Strikes in Venezuela

Senators Kaine, Schiff, and Paul are forcing a vote because they’re worried “the Trump administration’s order of covert C.I.A. action in Venezuela could be the first step toward an all-out war” and want to go on record.

Gift link:

Heat map of travel efficiency, updated

“Now Scientific American has updated and re-released what it calls the “classic graphic” that shows that a human on a bicycle—able to coast, or freewheel, without pedaling—remains the world’s most energy effecient traveler.” @carltonreid.com on the re-release of the iconic graph in @forbes.com.