John Palowitch
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johnpalowitch.bsky.social
John Palowitch
@johnpalowitch.bsky.social
software engineer @archive.org.
formerly research @ google deepmind.
organizer with @notechforapartheid.bsky.social.
SF musician.
any view you think is expressed by my account should be attributed to me alone.

ml.johnpalowitch.com
jpalomusic.com
Reposted by John Palowitch
Jeff Bezos makes enough money to fully fund this literally every two minutes.
Former Washington Post journalists have launched a GoFundMe to help repatriate fired staff members who are effectively stranded in foreign countries.

One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home.

Abolish the billionaire class:
Donate to Support for Washington Post international employees, organized by Michelle Lee
Among the hundreds of journalists laid off by The Washington Post on … Michelle Lee needs your support for Support for Washington Post international employees
www.gofundme.com
February 8, 2026 at 5:13 AM
Reposted by John Palowitch
just a reminder that the united states is essentially operating a network of torture camps holding individuals in arbitrary detention, without access to appeal and rarely to counsel.
February 8, 2026 at 1:52 AM
Reposted by John Palowitch
It's so funny how many people have had their brains pickled by X and Fox News and can't believe that SF remains one of the most amazing cities in the world.
February 7, 2026 at 9:07 PM
Reposted by John Palowitch
I'm sorry the guy changing the rules on the fly is named what
I stand with County Executive Calvin Ball as he signs emergency legislation today prohibiting privately owned buildings from being used as ICE detention centers.

Howard County chose dignity, accountability, and its people. Tune into our event now:
bit.ly/4a2VtHw
Redirecting...
bit.ly
February 7, 2026 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by John Palowitch
🚨 New: We built a visual tracker of the warehouses ICE is targeting across the US.

Working off an idea from @actualkatherine.bsky.social, we’ve mapped active searches, canceled deals, and linked state property records.

Explore the map here: tinyurl.com/ICEWarehouse...
February 4, 2026 at 6:41 PM
Sep '25: Google sends student activist emails to ICE in response to an ICE administrative subpoena -- *before* alerting the student

theintercept.com/2025/09/16/g...
February 7, 2026 at 6:04 PM
💯💯💯
This is another reason why I think the information retrieval push, even pre-LLM, to shift from 10 Blue Links to retrieving contents, answering questions, etc. may be a mistake. We lose important things when we unmoor information from authorial & organizational grounding (and cites aren’t enough).
Sobering assessments from the just released NATO Stratcom brief on information risks.

stratcomcoe.org/pdfjs/?file=...
February 7, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by John Palowitch
February 7, 2026 at 3:08 PM
"...objectivity is not the same as neutrality. If there is an aggressor and a victim, a liar and an honest person, a corrupt individual and an honourable one, then your task is to describe all that clearly and forcefully."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
If you are reading this it is because I’m dead: here’s what I want to tell you about how to live | Carlos Hernández de Miguel
Leaving this world in an age of lies and cruelty, my last message is simple: don’t give up on truth, says Spanish journalist Carlos Hernández de Miguel
www.theguardian.com
February 7, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by John Palowitch
With Jeff Bezos's dismantling of the Washington Post and Amazon's extensive ICE and DoD profiteering, it's imperative to understand precisely how both have openly become instruments of authoritarianism
How Jeff Bezos and Amazon became instruments of authoritarianism
And how to stop them
www.bloodinthemachine.com
February 6, 2026 at 8:24 PM
February 7, 2026 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by John Palowitch
There’s no such thing as an unbiased chatbot. Academic librarian Raina Bloom @mmelibrarian.bsky.social on how “AI” developers ignore how people actually become informed. From Ep. 51 of Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, “The War on Knowledge”.

(with @emilymbender.bsky.social)
February 5, 2026 at 11:53 PM
Reposted by John Palowitch
They’re trying to run the Kilmar Abrego Garcia playbook with a five year old boy in a bunny hat because nobody can find peace if they embarrass the Trump administration publicly. Normal people didn’t like it with Garcia and they really aren’t going to like it for Liam.
February 6, 2026 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by John Palowitch
Happening now in Silicon Valley: marchers have surrounded the Palantir building and are holding a prayer vigil for victims of ICE, while video of ICE and Palantir crimes is projected on the building. #abolishice #iceout #palantir #paloalto
February 6, 2026 at 2:39 AM
Reposted by John Palowitch
in solidarity with the authors on social media who have been getting mocked or harassed for celebrating their accomplishments i would like to announce that i too am the worlds greatest author and i sell a lot of books. thank you
February 6, 2026 at 3:50 AM
Reposted by John Palowitch
Name them
shame them
February 5, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by John Palowitch
My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely loved my job my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting @ the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power
February 4, 2026 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by John Palowitch
Bannon (and his buddies) are using an informational strategy called reflexive control that intentionally exploits the reaction of his adversaries (on the left) to inflict damage on their own side. Don't become an unwitting agent in their information operation.
February 4, 2026 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by John Palowitch
"For much of the 2010s and likely before and since, it appears the crime rate of CBP agents and offices was higher PER CAPITA than the crime rate of undocumented immigrants in the United States."
www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountabi...
Accountability for ICE and CBP
However bad you think the corruption and misconduct at ICE and CBP is — the reality is far far worse.
www.doomsdayscenario.co
February 4, 2026 at 2:28 AM
Reposted by John Palowitch
February 1, 2026 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by John Palowitch
Bad Bunny at the Grammys:

"Before I say 'thanks to God,' I'm going to say 'ICE Out.' We are not savages, we are not animals, we are not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans."
February 2, 2026 at 3:25 AM
Reposted by John Palowitch
I’ve heard it all; 😀 I’m a 10+ year Googler and founding member of Alphabet Workers Union. #1 objection for the petition is fear of retaliation, which stems from inexperience with organizing and never learning labor history (wins!) in general.
January 31, 2026 at 6:36 PM
More of this please
“The French government announced that it will stop using American video conferencing platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and replace them with Visio, a French platform.”
Zoom Is the First Casualty in France's War on American Big Tech
Homebrewed video conferencing may not be a moonshot, but you gotta start somewhere.
gizmodo.com
January 31, 2026 at 3:49 AM
Reposted by John Palowitch
Right now, Democrats have the power to defund and abolish ICE. We should do it. This is about right and wrong—and the murder we are seeing on the streets is just plain wrong. Anyone who supports funding DHS and ICE is supporting the murder of Americans. We can stop this.
January 28, 2026 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by John Palowitch
I am. But there are three things at play here regarding ICE collecting private data. Quick rundown on the issue, why you should be paying attention, and what I'm doing about it:
So which politician is calling for the dismantling of the probably illegal database that ice & this government is collecting biometric data of protesters?
January 27, 2026 at 9:28 PM