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lemmy - Link to source

DHS Tells Police That Common Protest Activities Are ‘Violent Tactics’
[T]he guidance urges officers to consider a range of nonviolent behavior and common protest gear—like masks, flashlights, and cameras—as potential precursors to violence, telling officers to prepare “from the point of view of an adversary.”

Protesters on bicycles, skateboards, or even “on foot” are framed as potential “scouts” conducting reconnaissance or searching for “items to be used as weapons.” Livestreaming is listed alongside “doxxing” as a “tactic” for “threatening” police. Online posters are cast as ideological recruiters—or as participants in “surveillance sharing.”

One list of “violent tactics” shared by the Los Angeles–based Joint Regional Intelligence Center—part of a post-9/11 fusion network—includes both protesters’ attempts to avoid identification and efforts to identify police. The memo also alleges that face recognition, normally a tool of law enforcement, was used against officers.

Vera Eidelman, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, says the government has no business treating constitutionally protected activities—like observing or documenting police—as threats.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

“Exercising those rights shouldn't be justification for adverse action or suspicion by the government,” Eidelman says. Labeling something as harmless as skateboarding at a protest as a violent threat is “disturbing and dangerous,” she adds, and could “easily lead to excessive force against people who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights.”

“The DHS report repeatedly conflates basic protest, organizing, and journalism with terroristic violence, thereby justifying ever more authoritarian measures by law enforcement,” says Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People. “It should be sobering, if unsurprising, that the Trump regime’s response to mass criticism of its police state tactics is to escalate those tactics.”


How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance

Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.
Andy Greenberg (WIRED)

friendica - Link to source
Yemeni Military Strikes Israeli Ben Gurion Airport with Ballistic Missile tn.ai/3351851

Yemeni Military Strikes Israeli Ben Gurion Airport with Ballistic Missile

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Yemen’s armed forces launched a ballistic missile attack targeting Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, vowing to sustain strikes against the Zionist regime until the aggression in Gaza ends.
Tasnim News Agency

mastodon - Link to source

Oregon's Housing Crisis is the fault of "Investors" driving up prices, not a shortage of housing:

From the OR Capital Chronicle:

There is no large crisis in the raw amount or supply of housing. The crisis lies in its price.

In this current decade, Oregon’s population increased only slightly, from about 4.2 million at the decade’s start, to about 4.3 million now, and there’s been no mass destruction of housing. . . .

Legislative Republicans this April complained that in the last three years only about 43,000 building permits for residences had been issued in the state, well below the governor’s plan for 108,000. But the state’s number of households rose by about the same amount during that time. The new construction that happened should, in theory, have been enough to keep up with it.

In 2023 (the most recent year available), Oregon had about 1.75 million “households” with the average household comprising 2.4 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

That same year, the Census counted in the state 1.88 million “housing units” — over 100,000 more housing units than the number of households — including “a house, an apartment, a group of rooms, or a single room occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters.” It doesn’t include some other residential places, such as trailer and mobile home parks.

The upshot is that Oregon, like most states, has more residential units than households.

And there is no crisis for people of sufficient means. Anyone who can afford to plunk down a half-million or so (which includes many existing homeowners, in or out of state) will not have much trouble finding a house. People below that level, a large part of the population, may find that a house (or in some places apartment rentals, too) are simply out of reach.

The problem with Oregon’s housing crisis is affordability. The median house value in Oregon (which reflects purchase prices) as of May was $540,300, according to online real estate market platform Zillow. One home-buying calculator estimates that if a purchaser puts down 18% for the home — the median downpayment of home buyers in the U.S., according to the National Association of Realtors — they would need to have more than $97,000 saved, and earn more than $120,000 per year to afford their mortgage payments. That means fewer than a fifth of Oregon households could afford a median-priced house based on income. (Sales by owners of currently owned houses could expand that number.)

Despite the limited pool of buyers, prices have climbed and stayed high.

Why?

Oregon’s notably strict laws on land use are often mentioned as a cause of the problem. They may contribute to it, but many other states — such as next-door Idaho — have far fewer building restrictions but still have house pricing problems as bad, or worse, as Oregon’s.

High priced homes can be more profitable for builders and developers, so they build more of them.

But the key explanation for why so many more houses are purchased, compared to the number of local residents who can buy, seems to be that relatively wealthy investors — individuals and especially businesses — are buying large numbers of houses and apartments in Oregon, and around the country.

Many national studies have found as much.

Redfin News, which tracks home sales nationally, said last August that investor home buying has been rising steadily in recent years — about 3% annually — and bought one of every six U.S. homes that sold — purchasing $43 billion worth of properties — and one of every four low-priced homes that sold.

Redfin found that during the 2nd quarter of 2024 in Portland, 13% of homes sold (valued at $511,419,529) were bought by investors, an amount rising in recent years. Many homes are then flipped and resold for still higher prices. All of that activity places upward pressure on sales prices of other homes as well.

A variety of buyers have been among the mass purchasers. Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley has for several years focused on the role of hedge funds in home buys, and with U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington, introduced in 2023 the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act.

Merkley called hedgefunds, “a contributing factor that has made it more difficult for middle-class Americans to become homeowners and is contributing to America’s twin crises of housing unaffordability and wealth inequality.”

Others have disagreed about how large a role the finance organizations have played. But someone can afford to buy all those houses — in many cases well beyond the asking price — and less-wealthy wage earners cannot compete.

That would be a real and pertinent, albeit sensitive, topic for the new state agency to address. Until someone does, the housing shortage for most Oregonians will go on.

#Housing #Houselessness #Capitalism

oregoncapitalchronicle.com/202…

in reply to emeritrix

pleroma - Link to source

feld

the only way local governments are going to be able to afford to keep operating is to raise property taxes like 200-300% (or possibly more depending on the situation) from where they are today, so at this point it doesn't really matter who we blame. The fact is, prices *must* come down sharply or nobody will even be able to afford their property taxes and insurance premiums even if they can afford the house.

Once we do that and the materials costs plummet as well things will start to come back into balance and we can have a sane economy again

And the best part is that when this happens, all those hedge funds are going to have their investments wiped out. They'll have no choice but to sell at a massive loss because they're gonna get margin called elsewhere and they'll need the liquidity ASAP. So this will just delete money from the economy at a rapid pace and help reverse a bunch of this inflation.

mastodon - Link to source

Activists say the City University of New York is escalating its repression against Palestine activism by suspending a student leader and terminating the positions of four faculty members who have been active in protesting Israel's genocide in Gaza.

mondoweiss.net/2025/07/cuny-su…

#Palestine #Israel #Gaza
@palestine @israel


CUNY suspends student activist leader, fires four faculty members in escalation of repression against

Activists say the City University of New York is escalating its repression against Palestine activism by suspending a student leader and terminating the positions of four faculty members who have been active in protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Billie Estrine (Mondoweiss)

Sozan reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

MAGA Don speaks

whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/0…

A statement summarizing the end of USG $$ going to illegal aliens. In brief
- HHS restricting 13 programs
- Education ending free tuition
- Agriculture ending food assistance
- Labor ending grants & assistance
- Justice ending access to benefits

I've seen a few MDM outlet reports - they only mention HHS.


Taxpayer-Funded Benefits Are for American Citizens — Not Illegals – The White House

Today, at the direction of President Donald J. Trump, the Administration is taking the biggest step in more than 30 years to protect taxpayer-funded
The White House

mastodon - Link to source

Apparently Libre Office is free and contains no AI.

#AI #Microsoft #LibreOffice

I don't know who needs to hear this but Microsoft 365 went up from about $70 to about $100 this year because they added Al. If you go to cancel before it auto renews, it gives you the option to switch to the about $70 “Personal Classic” 365. If this reaches one person who needed to know, I will have done my good deed today.

friendica - Link to source
Tehran and Dushanbe; two powerful wings strengthening the Persian-speaking world / Success of Iranian short film in Spain parstoday.ir/en/news/iran-i236…

Tehran and Dushanbe; two powerful wings strengthening the Persian-speaking world / Success of Iranian short film in Spain

Pars Today – The head of the International Affairs Center of Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts emphasized the necessity of for...
Pars Today

mastodon - Link to source

700% of zero is? 😎 Besides, the claim of a 700% increase in assaults on #ICE agents are incidents like👇 and no charges filed.

"A grandmother planning to document ICE arrests at the #SanDiego courthouse instead became the story Tuesday after video of her own arrest began circulating.

An ICE agent accused the woman of pushing her. After she spent hours in custody, she denied that to NBC 7 on Wednesday."

ICE handcuffs grandmother, a US citizen, at #immigration court – NBC
nbcsandiego.com/news/local/ice…


ICE handcuffs 71-year-old grandmother, a U.S. citizen, at San Diego immigration court

An ICE agent accused the woman of pushing her. After she spent hours in custody, she denied that to NBC San Diego on Wednesday.
Joey Safchik (NBC San Diego)
in reply to Faelyn

mastodon - Link to source

heretical_i

@Faelyn Documenting ICE snatching people at immigration hearings.

Ps. I'm 72. Disarm one of those thugs and Id have him on the ground in 4 seconds. Size irrelevant. Theyre punks without their weapons. Also note they got a Woman ICE thug to bump the Victim (perhaps to avoid sex harrassment grope claims albeit the ICE woman is probably a lonely butch dyke) then claimed she assaulted the assaulter. Old cop trick.

friendica - Link to source
To all European trade union organisations affiliated to the WFTU: #WFTU wftucentral.org/to-all-europea…

To all European trade union organisations affiliated to the WFTU: - WFTU

Metalworkers in Cádiz have been on strike for weeks against a preliminary agreement signed by the UGT, which represents a major step backwards for workers in Cádiz. There have been clashes with the police, arrests and complaints during the strike.
central wftu (WFTU)
in reply to Hoss “Cyber Jester” Delgado

pleroma - Link to source

nine2fivestudio

@Hoss I've been rewatching it lately. It has aged extremely well almost in a Calvin & Hobbes kind of way, and it really captures the essence of mid-to-late 20th Century Americana. Antonucci was a genius with a great writing team, and knew when and how to favor funny visuals and surreal slapstick over ivory tower jokes (and vice versa).

friendica - Link to source
REPRESSION CONTINUES AGAINST THOSE WHO OPPOSE ARMS TRAFFICKING #WFTU wftucentral.org/repression-con…

REPRESSION CONTINUES AGAINST THOSE WHO OPPOSE ARMS TRAFFICKING - WFTU

The USB delegate and Workers' Safety Representative (RLS) at Brescia Airport in Lombardy, Italy, has been threatened with dismissal for refusing to handle weapons inside the civilian airport.
central wftu (WFTU)

mastodon - Link to source
“When developers are allowed to use AI tools, they take 19% longer to complete issues—a significant slowdown that goes against developer beliefs and expert forecasts. This gap between perception and reality is striking: developers expected AI to speed them up by 24%, and even after experiencing the slowdown, they still believed AI had sped them up by 20%.” metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early…

Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity

METR (metr.org)

mastodon - Link to source

Groundbreaking discovery at 'underwater Stonehenge' in Lake Michigan rewrites human history

The 9,000-year-old site lies 40 feet below the surface of Grand Traverse Bay and features large stones arranged in a line culminating in a hexagon, near a boulder bearing an animal carving of a mastodon, an Ice Age species that went extinct more than 11,000 years ago.

Experts believe the relief served as a time marker, dating the structure to around 7000BC.
dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ar…

image/jpeg

Groundbreaking discovery at 'underwater Stonehenge' in Lake Michigan rewrites human history

A mysterious, Stonehenge-like structure beneath Lake Michigan has revealed new clues that could reshape our understanding of early human history in North America.
Osheen Yadav (Daily Mail)

friendica - Link to source
Greece PAME: We are human beings, not machines NO to 13-hours workday #WFTU wftucentral.org/greece-pame-we…

Greece PAME: We are human beings, not machines NO to 13-hours workday - WFTU

With mobilizations against the country's involvement in the imperialist war and the multifaceted expression of solidarity with the people of Palestine, the action of the trade unions continues At the same time, the workers' reaction to an unacceptabl…
central wftu (WFTU)

ActivityPub - Link to source

🔥 Constitutional Money Act Signed as Law in Missouri

💰 Gold & silver: legal tender
🚫 State capital‑gains tax: exempt
🇺🇸 State enforcement of federal confiscation schemes: banned

BIG Step for Real, Sound Money👇
blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/…

Missouri Constitutional Money Act Signed as Law | Tenth Amendment Center

Today, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed the Constitutional Money Act into law. The new law officially recognizes gold and silver as legal tender, exempts both from state capital gains taxation, and bars state enforcement of any federal confiscatio…
Mike Maharrey (Tenth Amendment Center)
in reply to xianc78

mastodon - Link to source

beard ひげ

@xianc78 @Mr_NutterButter yeah easyrpg is basically rm2003 with enhancements. I like the visual style a lot but I'm not sure if it would work well for a tactics game. I'll have to look into it when the time comes. Who knows, maybe something else is out there that's better. I know there is a specific "tactics rpg maker" too. That project is ~5 years away though so yeah, who knows.

friendica - Link to source
India: Press release and photographs of 09th July 2025 nationwide general strike #WFTU wftucentral.org/india-aituc-pr…

India: Press release and photographs of 09th July 2025 nationwide general strike - WFTU

Congratulations to workers, farmers, agri-workers and the people at large for the Grand Success of the Nationwide General Strike on 09th July 2025 More than 25 crores participate in the Strike action/Rasta Roko/Rail Roko all over the country in the f…
central wftu (WFTU)

mastodon - Link to source

The new version of Mastodon server has an optional admin feature where referrers can be sent when people click links. Enable it for large servers.

Here’s it in action - when people on my Mastodon server click links to my blog, I can see they’re from Mastodon. Other publishers can too. It will drive the importance of Mastodon as a platform. Almost all my traffic is under “direct”, which I strongly suspect is Mastodon servers without the feature enabled.

in reply to Kevin Beaumont

mastodon - Link to source

David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)

Is there anything added to the referrer that lets you aggregate them, or do you have to know that these domains are Mastodon instances? It would be nice if there were a simple regex that you could teach analytics tools to search for to find. For example, putting ?fediverse=mastodon (or ?fediverse=gotosocial, or whatever) on the end of the referrer URLs (not sure if browsers strip GET parameters from referrers these days).
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