@JulieSqveakaroo
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Cheeze Pufs aren't made of cheese
They're mainly styrofoam and grease
They'll probably give you a strange disease
But everybody seems to want some...
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On Thursday, Jan 22 at approximately 1pm, a group of about a dozen Vermont community elders with whistles entered the atrium of White Cap Office Park in Williston VT, home of ICE’s National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center.
They refused to leave when ordered by Williston Police, the property manager, and federal agents, demanding instead that the landlord renegotiate and cancel the facility’s lease.
For the next 3.5 hours, they sat together in silence, pausing every 90 seconds to read the name of someone killed in ICE custody, followed by a loud whistle blast.
Williston Police arrived at around 1:30pm, and asked protesters to leave and stop making noise. A group of 5 elders refused and remained in the atrium accompanied by a medic and physical therapist.
Around 2pm, property manager and landlord Normand Stanislas arrived and began screaming at supporters gathered outside that he would have them arrested.
Around 3:15, the Williston Police announced that they had determined that the protestors were not breaking the law and were acting within their first amendment rights. They declined to arrest the group, which had paused blowing whistles to sit in front of the ICE office doors.
After the Williston Police had left, several DHS agents approached the group and threatened to charge them with Class C federal misdemeanors but did not actually do so, likely because they lacked authority to do so. The agents attempted to physically remove the elders and carry them away from the doors, but the group continued to exercise their right to protest by walking over and sitting back down. Eventually, the agents left.
The group continued their protest with banners and singing until the sun began setting, when they left the office park of their own accord.
Karen Bixler, 83, of Bethel said, “I’m taking this action to bring attention to our state’s role in this horrific institution. White collar workers, sheltered from the brutality that is taking place in our country, are providing ICE with information to aid in their raids.”
This protest follows several months of public outcry against the Industrial Ave facility, which is used to monitor civilian social media activity and identify targets for ICE detention and deportation. Over the winter, community groups conducted several noise demos at White Cap Business, and anonymous individuals hung a banner from the flagpoles reading “ICE VIOLATES RIGHTS HERE.”
70 year-old Dorothy Mammen of Middlebury said: “This facility is staffing up to spy on people via social media, to flag "negative sentiment" toward ICE and build dossiers on anyone who opposes fascism. They are compiling personal details, family links, and using facial recognition. To what end? To stifle dissent; to trample our right to free speech.”
The office at White Cap is one of many ICE-related facilities in Chittenden County, which serves as the national nerve center for ICE operations. The notorious Law Enforcement Support Center on Harvest Lane is home to ICE’s nationwide tip line, while at least 10 other nearby locations (totalling an estimated 400,000 square feet of office space) are used by DHS for data processing, surveillance, and administrative work.
On Tuesday, the Williston Selectboard passed a resolution condemning ICE activities in the town, and several hundred protesters marched in the frigid temperature to denounce the ICE Call Center on Harvest Lane.
The elders risking arrest in Thursday’s sit-in were not representatives of any official group or organization, but simply community members concerned about the safety of their neighbors. They expressed hope that their action would help others to find the courage necessary to get ICE out of Williston.
- Press Release by Julie Macuga
Yeah, authoritarians don't tend to be super-competent in the first place -- but it's still useful to understand the power-dynamics at play. If you understand that someone's primary focus is their status, rather than making a good decision, you can sometimes find ways to appeal to that -- or, if not, use power to fight power.
(That's what strikes are: they don't convince the bosses they're morally wrong; they convince the bosses that the hard-line they've adopted will cost them more power/money than it might gain them.)
@artemis I seem to recall a couple of years ago coming across mention of some classic 2nd-wave feminist literature which talked about how women in my parents' generation (and some younger) were very definitively taught that their entire purpose in life was to be a supporter to their husband -- his work and his status were all that mattered.
This explains both the way that so many male researchers blithely took credit for work done by their female collaborators (cf. Rosalind Franklin) and also a lot of the way my mom behaves re my dad... (I started to go into detail, but it turned into a whole other novel.)
@artemis ...and also, asserting that individuals should (or even simply can) make decisions without deferring to authority is a threat to the authoritarian structure.
It sounds like her husband is very much a supporter of that structure, so naturally "she can speak for herself" lands as a direct attack on him.
(This is, of course, all deeply fucked-up, but that's patriarchy for you.)
@artemis I've often thought about how one might rationally deal with such people when they can actually tell you who makes their moral choices for them -- because then, at least in theory, you have someone with whom you can rationally discuss the matter.
The problem, of course, is that the "boss"'s motivations are not necessarily aligned with the best interests of his... moral subordinates?... or even with the interests of his group as a whole, but often have much more to do with maintaining and elevating his own standing within a larger hierarchy.
...but if you can determine that, then at least you know who needs to shift, and have some idea of what would motivate them to do so.
Alright Mastodon, I'm looking for work.
Senior software developer, specializing in low-level, embedded, and systems programming. Previous work includes video compression (developer on AV1 and AV2), silicon verification, and scientific/numerical software. Full CV/resume available on request.
Primarily looking for remote work, but would consider in-person in the UK if the circumstances are right.
Available for either contract work through the company I run (easiest route if you're outside the UK), or direct employment.
Tagging #FediHire for visibility.
Folks, if you enjoy a book or artwork or music *please* take a minute to tell the artist. It's hard enough to do *anything* during The Horrors but creating is extra hard. Your small note is HUGE in keeping people going.
Applies to everyone really.
Supporting each other right now is everything.
@pzmyers Gosh -- and all this time I thought genetic mutations were arrived at by a committee of political appointees chosen largely by various industries standing to profit from design-flaws, thus explaining the human eye and appendixes and whatnot... :blobcatthinking:
((/s))
@cstross Until you said "8000 worlds", I thought you might have been writing nonfic about today's society. -.-
I want to speak to white women directly.
Not to shame you.
But to offer a necessary mirror.
Because what that reflection reveals isn’t just exhaustion. It reveals perspective.
Many of you are only now recognizing what it feels like to mother without tenderness, without safety, without the sense that society is structured to support you. You’re naming how destabilizing it is to raise children in uncertainty. You’re grieving the version of motherhood you thought you’d have.
Happy “Large boulder the size of a small boulder” day to all who celebrate.
"Yes yes I know, BIG feelings"
- Me, carrying a protesting cicada out of the house.
(I'm using Kubuntu, for what it's worth. [insert ominous guitar-plucks] "There's something happening here...")
They always seem to assume:
I just want it to wait until I tell it which folders to add, and only scan when I ask it to, and show the tracks to me in a grid with name and artist columns, and album if available, and let me add semantic data as the spirit moves me which can then also become columns (optionally)".
Why is that apparently not the way they think it should be?
(P.S. why can I still not put hashtags in the CW?)
Further thinking:
@LightFIAR I mean, we know that; this just underscores the point.
...but I guess the people who still approve of Team Tr#mp are unlikely to see this as anything but "efficiency".
@ProPublica Wow, that's... "insane" is the only word that comes to mind.
Safety regulations are written in blood. Disregarding that will lead to more blood.
(Obviously they don't care whose blood they spill as long as it isn't theirs...)
