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Profits over Human Rights · Stuff Keeps Happening

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Hello. I packed an umbrella due to a forecast
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of rain. But stuff still happened. So what's
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up? Are you going to walk 500 miles? Possibly
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500 more. The proclaimers proclaimed that they
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would be, and that's all cute and good, but it's
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also nowhere near enough in the year of Our Lord
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2026. If you want to be on the top of your romantic
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game, you've got to look to the humpback whale.
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And not just because of the humpback part. Scientists
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track two different humpback whales who both
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made a cross -globe journey from Australia to
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Brazil and the other way around. Here's the situation.
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There are there are like whale breeding grounds,
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right? called whale houses off the coast of Australia
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and off the coast of Brazil and they don't usually
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or ever really have any kind of cross -pollination
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but two different whales one from each region
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I guess got bored of the talent in that area
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and decided to go across the planet to the other
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one both of these whales traveled over 14 000
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kilometers one of them traveled over 15 000 kilometers
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setting a new record for most traveled whale
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or something something like that So that's rad.
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Cool. Yay. Whales did some trading places. Neat.
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How do we know that? The answer is actually super
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rad. The scientists who were researching this
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used nearly 20 ,000 civilian scientists submitted
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photos of whales. Basically, people who like
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whales were like, hey, I took pictures of whales.
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Here they are. It's a bit more than that. But
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basically, whale tails are like fingerprints.
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If we can get a picture of a whale's tail, we
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can probably figure out who they are if we've
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seen them before. So they took the images, they
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took the metadata of when the image was taken
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and where, ran it through a bunch of software
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to try to identify these different whale tales,
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and they figured out the plot of these different
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whales going across the world. The exact route
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they took is not well known. It's kind of like
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a, oh, we saw them here this year, and like five
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years later, we saw them over here. It's not
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like we knew every single step they took, or
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swim they swam. The prevailing theory around
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how these whales did the thing was via the Southern
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Ocean Exchange, which is a whale thing. I guess
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there's like a feeding ground in the Antarctic,
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and whales of all types from all around the world
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might meet up there. And maybe these whales kind
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of met some new friends, and they're like, yo,
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you want to come back to my place? It's in Brazil.
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So the next time that you want to do something
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romantic for your sweetie, and you're considering
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doing some big gesture, look to the humpback
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whales, jump into the ocean in Australia, and
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swim to Brazil. Otherwise you're not even trying.
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Step it up. Alright, hold on to that fun whale
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story, because now we're gonna talk about hunger
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-striking detainees in ICE detention centers.
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Delaney Hall is a detention center in New Jersey
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that supports, as they say, about a thousand
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beds. I really dislike framing the number of
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human beings we can pack into a detention center
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with no due process as At this detention center,
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around 300 of the detainees have started a hunger
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strike, protesting against the awful and inhumane
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conditions they're being held in. They're being
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forced to live and work in utterly absurd conditions.
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Spoiled rotten food with worms in it. No toilet
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paper. Basically no medical oversight. People
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with cancer unable to get medical attention.
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They're trying to sound the alarm using the only
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lever they have, which is going on a hunger strike.
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And they're already malnourished. They're already
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underfed. Delaney Hall is operated by GeoGroup,
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which is a private prison contractor that's made
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billions off of the Trump administration's efforts
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to detain thousands upon thousands of migrants.
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It is a for -profit, privately owned detention
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center for immigrants. And whoever else ICE decides
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to label an immigrant without due process, because
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again, if there's no due process, there's no
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way to prove that you're innocent. Mark -Wayne
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Mullen, the head of the Department of Homeland
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Security, which oversees ICE, had this to say
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about the hunger strike in one of his facilities.
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Quote, there is no hunger strike at Delaney Hall
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at this time. Cool. Now Marky Wayne might have
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a bit of a point here. If you take a hammer and
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bash yourself over the head with it about a hundred
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times, it starts to make a little bit of sense.
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This is because he's technically not lying, because
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per the DHS, the definition of a hunger strike
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doesn't start until the 72nd hour of not having
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food, and it wasn't long enough then. So per
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their record keeping, technically it's not. Well
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done guys, you solved the problem. Protesters
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outside Delaney Hall have been trying to just
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impede ICE on doing the bullshit that's harming
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these people. The protesters tried to stop ICE
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from transferring the person who started the
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strike, trying to undermine the entire thing.
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Recently among the protesters was New Jersey
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Senator Andy Kim, who was hit with pepper spray,
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fired by ICE agents. They were just unloading
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pepper spray bullets into the protesters, who
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were there protesting the inhumane conditions
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that we are holding immigrants in. with no due
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process. And they're like, nah, we're going to
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shit you with pepper spray. So they pepper sprayed
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the crowd, including a sitting US senator. The
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governor of New Jersey also tried to go check
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out the situation. Governor Mickey Sheryl showed
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up, tried to be like, hey, I'm trying to see
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what's going on in here because the reports and
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the audits are not good. To which they said,
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uh, shove it. They didn't let her in, they barred
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access. The governor of this state was not allowed
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access to a government facility run through a
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private contractor holding a thousand people
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in the state that she runs. Now, again, technically,
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that's the law. Technically, I would argue. That's
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fucking stupid, states' rights, except for when
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we want to do human rights violations within
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your state. There's something very important
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here that I want to mention, which is This is
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not new. This has been going on, and I don't
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just mean over the past couple years, and I don't
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just mean under the Trump presidency, and I don't
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just mean under the second Trump presidency or
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the first Trump presidency. This has been going
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on for decades. Including Obama, who you might
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recall earned himself the nickname, Deporter
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-in -Chief. ACLU investigations show evidence
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of hunger strikes and force -feeding inmates
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in various facilities dating back to 2012. And
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that's just what they could find. Of course,
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now it's a bit different because the current
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administration is actively using this as a fear
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tactic in addition to trying to ramp it up as
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much as possible with the express intent seemingly
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to be be as mean as possible and as awful as
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possible to these people. Also, they can sate
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the bloodlust that they've been running on as
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their political platform. And so here we are.
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Our government is still disappearing people,
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now at over a thousand people a day. into facilities
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where they are treated with no basic human dignity.
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And then when they're asked about the inhumane
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conditions, they're like, what inhumane conditions?
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And when they're really pressed on it, they try
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to argue that it's better than most jails in
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the US. Which is not helpful. If you're gonna
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be out protesting at one of these facilities,
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please be safe, loud, and make sure people know
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where you are. People that you trust. That is.
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Are you trans? If you answered yes, hi. If you
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answered no, Also, hi. Regardless, trans rights
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are human rights, and we all benefit from having
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a basic, understood set of shared rights. Anyway,
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we're not doing that. It is not a stretch to
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say that the US has been on a bit of a tear with
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anti -trans legislation. Maybe not as much as
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some other countries, but pretty, pretty bad.
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Between all the bathroom bills and the trans
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sports in school bills, it's a lot. and it's
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having measurable negative impact more than just
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on the trans community. And I'll get to that
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in a second, but we are expecting two pretty
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big Supreme Court decisions by the end of June,
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both which have to do with trans girls in sports.
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I'm talking here specifically about, like, in
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school. Like, middle and high school. Little
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v. Hecox and West Virginia v. BPJ are two fairly
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similar cases that were both heard in January,
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and we're expecting to hear results... within
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a month. They are both spun out of a teenager
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who was just trying to play some sports in school
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and now is at the Supreme Court arguing for that
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right. Now you've probably heard of West Virginia.
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You probably haven't heard of BPJ. That's because
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BPJ are the initials of the minor who had to
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take this to the Supreme Court. When I was like
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a 15 year old trying to navigate school, I was
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just wavering between like figuring out how to
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make friends and furiously masturbating. And
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I didn't even have to go to the Supreme Court
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to do it. Well, that's privilege. 27 states have
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passed anti -trans sports legislation, and it
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leads to some fucked up scenarios, including
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trying to launch investigations into children's
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genitals. That thing that has been, like, slightly
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joked about, of like, how are you going to enforce
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this? What, you're going to make them drop their
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pants? The answer is kind of yeah. We already
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saw an investigation of a teenage girl who they
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got a tip. that someone thought she was trans,
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and it resulted in an investigation into her
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medical history and biology. This is just a random
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teenage girl. No human in this country should
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have the government investigating their current
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biological state for any reason, let alone this.
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But apparently, high school and middle school
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sports are that important that we have to throw
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away all notions of privacy. In Arizona, and
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this doesn't even have a trans student in it,
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a cisgender male student wanted to go onto the
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basketball team, but was stopped because there
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was a clerical error with his birth certificate.
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His birth certificate accidentally said female
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when he was not. And that was it. But it was
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enough to prevent him from joining the basketball
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team altogether. The actual response from the
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school district about why the fuck they did this
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was that our schools rely on students' original
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birth certificate at birth to determine athletic
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eligibility. Here's how birth works. Your mom
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poops you out, right? Right out the butt. And
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then the doctor takes you, spanks you, and then
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asks you, what kind of sports are you good at?
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If you don't answer then and there, you are eternally
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barred from those sports. Also, you can't be
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a woman. It is estimated that trans people make
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up somewhere between one and three percent of
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the population, and we have spent millions upon
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millions of dollars and untold man -hours putting
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through legislation to attack a single digit
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number of trans students. All the while, there's
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no actual evidence of it being dangerous for
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a trans student to participate in whatever gendered
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sport they want. And also, It's fucking middle
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and high school sports. Get the fuck over it.
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I know it's bad faith. I know no one actually
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gives a shit about the sports angle and protecting
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the kids in their sports or whatever. Just stop
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being transphobic. Like, it's so easy. It's so
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easy to just not do that. We can save time, money,
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energy, lives by simply just saying, oh, you're
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trans? Cool. This affects me in no way. Oh, you're
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a trans 14 year old and you want to play basketball?
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Okay. There's virtually no way that you have
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an advantage over any other student. You're fucking
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14. Never mind puberty. Now I'm just going on
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a rant. People have puberty at different ages.
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What the fuck doesn't matter at this point? It's
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in a high school. You can have a 16 year old
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who's teeny tiny and a 16 year old who's like
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seven feet tall. Anyway, eat shit. Panels of
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old white men banging gavels and saying that
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certain children can't do certain things because
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of their genitals Get bent eat shit die etc.
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Do you want a job? Most of us do don't try to
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go in the tech industry or do it's pretty much
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every other week that I feel like I'm talking
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about a Massive tech layoff and so this week
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I wanted to do a bit of digging and aggregate
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some numbers for you And then I started aggregating
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the numbers and the numbers got Really big if
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we look at layoffs in the tech industry from
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just this year in fact just this month We have
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coinbase laying off 14 % of its workers about
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700 people LinkedIn laying off 5 % of its workers
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around 875 people. Cisco laying off 4 ,000 people.
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PayPal laying off 20 % about 4 ,760. Cloudflare
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laying off 20 % at about 1 ,100 people. Ticketmaster
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laying off 8 % at about 350 people. Groupon did
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not know they were still around, laying off 25
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% at 400 people. Intuit laying off 17 % at 3
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,000 people. Wix laying off 20 % at 1 ,000 people.
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And now Meta is starting their next wave of layoffs.
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It's gonna be about 8 ,000 people who are receiving
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emails at four in the morning local time telling
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them you don't have a job anymore. That was May.
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So far. And also that was not an exhaustive list.
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I left out the companies that most people would
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not recognize. That was just the flagship companies.
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There's like at least twice as much. According
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to CNBC, the layoffs so far this year have crossed
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150 ,000 jobs, with over 130 companies doing
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these layoffs. If you check out layoffs .fy,
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you can get a whole bunch more info. And if you
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combine 2026 and 2025's numbers, you get nearly
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a quarter of a million tech jobs that got laid
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off, which almost scrapes at 2023's numbers,
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which saw over 260 ,000. in one year. Granted,
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that year was a little bit different because
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there was a lot of, uh, quote -unquote, right
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-sizing after a lot of companies did tons of
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hiring at the beginning of the pandemic. Basically,
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every company was like, oh, we're just gonna,
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we'll hire eternally and have record profits
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forever. Oh, shit. My profits. These layoffs
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are not uniformly because any one reason, and
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I would encourage you to be very skeptical whenever
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you see that a layoff happened because AI, because
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the reality is, it's just not there. The productivity
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gains that these companies really want to have
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happen that they just tell everybody is happening
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aren't really happening. And it's not leading
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to the point that we can lay off tens of thousands
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of people at a time and see gains. It's about
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adjusting their numbers, doing stock buybacks,
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getting headcount by profit numbers better. It's
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all that crap. In some cases, yeah, they do need
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to downsize. But my goodness, there's been so
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much downsizing that companies are starting to
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turn back around and being like, okay, actually...
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Let's see if we can hire those people back because
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we kind of jumped the gun. So it is both a bad
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time and a good time to get into the tech industry
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because they're laying everybody off, but realizing
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that's a bad call. I'm now realizing having just
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said that. Don't get in the tech industry. That
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sounds toxic as fuck. And I used to be in that
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industry and got out before all this hit. And
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I don't know what I would do if I had to go back.
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Anyway, lightning round. Speaking of AI, Pope
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Leo dropped a pretty scathing review of the current
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state of AI. A wholly scathing review. This isn't
14:49
as recent, but I do want to have an update on
14:51
this. You may remember a while back I talked
14:53
about the heist at the Louvre, where they stole
14:56
a bunch of crown jewels from France. Those still
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haven't been returned. Investigators just don't
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know where they are. So, there was a chemical
15:03
plant in California that very nearly exploded.
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It triggered an evacuation of 50 ,000 people.
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It didn't explode. Uh, it didn't, it didn't explode.
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It nearly did. It didn't. And finally for today,
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autonomous car company Waymo is suspending its
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operations in a bunch of southeastern states
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after there was footage of their cars driving
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directly into flooded streets. That privilege
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is reserved for us humans now. Thank you so much
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for listening to today's episode of Stuff Keeps
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Happening. Head to skh .news for sources, bonus
15:33
content, and instructions on what to do if you
15:37
are an autonomous vehicle and there's a flooded
15:39
road in front of you. Spoiler, the instructions
15:41
are don't go in it. My name is Endeavorance.
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We'll talk again soon. Take care and be well.