#Get Student Visa for Canada

[binaryimmigration]

Student Visa Consulting in Surrey - Binary Immigration Services Ltd.

As a leading student visa consultant in Surrey, Binary Immigration Services offers expert guidance for students seeking to study abroad. We assist with application preparation, documentation, and overall advice to ensure a smooth visa application process. Let us help you achieve your academic dreams.

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[lebizcanada20]

IRCC's Recent Announcement: What You Need to Know About the Proof of Funds Update

On May 27, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) revised the proof of funds (POF) criteria for candidates applying through the Express Entry system. This adjustment is part of an annual update that reflects the current low-income cut-off totals as published by Statistics Canada.

Note: Candidates with more money than the minimum requirement should list the full amount in their Express Entry profile or on their application & Express Entry Processing Timeline .

Here are the Express Entry candidates better under this requirement, CIC News has compiled a list of frequently asked questions.

What is the Updated funds requirement for Express Entry in 2024?

Express Entry POF requirement for 2024, as of May 28.

Express Entry candidates must include both their spouse or common-law partner in any dependent children they have when calculating the size of their family for proof of funds.

This is a requirement even if a candidate’s family members are:

Already Canadian citizens or permanent residents

Not accompanying the principal applicant to Canada

Are you tired of waiting in Canada Immigration or any other Query regarding refusal cases and visa  ? Do you want quick Alternate Solutions? You can immigrate to Canada with fast processing times via Direct PR pathways.

Call our experts at +91- 8375012389 or mail us at Daljeet.bhatia@lebizcanada.com

[collapsedsquid]

Confused, she emailed Columbia’s office for international students the following day seeking guidance. An official informed her that the revocation would take effect only if she left the country and that she could remain in the United States to pursue her studies for the time being, according to emails reviewed by The Times. The next morning, on March 7, Ms. Srinivasan was on a call with an official from the international student office when the federal agents first knocked on the door of her apartment, which is off campus but operated by Columbia. The official told Ms. Srinivasan to call campus security, while her roommate engaged with the agents from behind the closed apartment door. In an interview, her roommate said that the agents had initially identified themselves as “police,” declined to provide their badge numbers, saying they feared they would be doxxed, and stood to the side of the door so that they were not visible through the peep hole. The roommate, a fellow Columbia student who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear for her safety, said that the building’s doorman, who is an immigrant, later told her that he had let the three agents into the building because he was frightened. Ms. Srinivasan abandoned the apartment that night, so she was not there when officials returned the following evening. Her roommate once again refused to open the door to let them in and recorded audio of the interaction, which she shared with The Times. “We were here yesterday,” one of the officials says, believing he was talking to Ms. Srinivasan because the roommate had not identified herself. “We’re here today. We’re here tonight. Tomorrow. You’re probably scared. If you are, I get it. The reality is, your visa was revoked. You are now amenable to removal proceedings.” The official stressed that he and his colleagues were not trying to break the law, that she would have the right to go before an immigration judge and left a phone number for the Homeland Security Department that she could call if she had “a change of heart.” “That’s the easiest and fastest way to do this, as opposed to you being in your apartment and us knocking on your door every day, which is just silly,” he said. “You’re a very smart person. It’s just not — it’s not worth it.” The next day, Ms. Srinivasan received an email from Columbia saying that homeland security had alerted the university that her visa had been revoked and her legal status in the country had been terminated. Because she had to immediately leave the United States, the email said, her enrollment at Columbia had been withdrawn and she had to vacate student housing. The email, signed by the university’s international student office, said that, in compliance with its legal obligations, Columbia was asking her to meet with the homeland security agents. The university declined to comment on Ms. Srinivasan’s case. On Thursday night, three federal agents returned to Ms. Srinivasan’s apartment with a search warrant signed by a judge and went inside to search for her, according to her roommate and lawyers. By then, Ms. Srinivasan was already in Canada.

Laudable roommate, prudent visa holder and terrible college administration

[martian-astro10]

Solar Return Observations- Part 1

Having a sagittarius ascendant is a strong sign of starting college. (I had this the year I started my bachelor's and all of my friends had this as well the year they went to college. My sister had it when she started her bachelor's)

If you are not in an already well established relationship then don't have sex when neptune is in 8th.

The year in which you have a 1st house stellium and vertex in 7th will be when you meet a lot of people that are going to be important for self development. You will finally learn to put yourself before others. I personally think that it's a great combination to have. (you will meet both good and bad people)

You will study a lot when vertex is in 9th house. (my sister and her friends, in their last year of college, bachelor's, they ALL had this placement, it was so fascinating to see. They had to look for jobs after that, so they were putting in extra effort)

Jupiter in 11th in cancer is THE BEST, you will feel so loved by your friends, you guys are gonna have so much fun. (I loved my life that year)

Uranus in 9th means unexpected but also SUDDEN travel. (the year that my sister went to Canada for her bachelor's, her session was starting on 7th September and her student visa got approved on 29th October, we had literally lost all hope. Everything was so chaotic)

Moon conjunct neptune indicates an emotionally heavy year. The house that it's in will tell the area where you'll be feeling sad. (I would like to put an example but it's too personal, and I don't wanna share)

Moon conjunct mercury in 4th house can be SOOOOO healing, especially if you do not have a good relationship with your parents. You will finally talk about your feelings with your parents. If the relationship is good then you will become even closer to them. (when I had this, I had so many discussions with my mom, and she told me so much about herself that I didn't know before, it really brought us closer)

Jupiter in 3rd house can help you become more social. As an introvert, this was the year when I finally started feeling more comfortable talking to strangers.

7th house stellium in pisces... Bro, I was OBSESSED with soulmate meditations during the year. If neptune is there as well, then forget about getting anything done, you will be too busy daydreaming about your Mr/Mrs right.

(all pictures are taken from Pinterest)

© martian-astro All rights reserved, 2024

[teawitch]

Fam, I need y'all to take a deep breath, get some rest and stop panick planning.

Friend calling me - "I need to plan to move to Canada!"

Me - "okay, why specifically do you need to move to Canada?"

Her - "Because Florida is a red state and doesn't have abortion rights!"

Me - "Honey, you've had a hysterectomy."

Her - "I know but I could help women who need to go "camping" by letting them stay with me."

Me - "So first you'll need a Visa that will let you work in Canada"

Her - "I can get a student visa"

Me - "Which means you can go to school in Canada. You want to buy property and have a job."

Her - "That would be the next step."

Me - "You're panick planning again, aren't you?"

Look, I have trans friends and gay friends who may need to do some contingency planning. But take a breath, get some sleep. And don't suddenly move to Canada on a student visa.

Also, if you live in Florida, I recommend taking up knitting. I've heard Vermont has wonderful yarn shops if you need to go on a road trip.

[communistkenobi]

I love finding new communists blogs because you immediately have to scroll through all the posts to see if you wanna follow them or block them lmao. Anyway from what I understand you work in western academia to some degree and as a student taking some classes in the social sciences it’s such a pain in the ass trying to even bring up a Marxist perspective. How do you deal with how much pushback socialism has in academia?

I’m doing a PhD in sociology ! And please feel free to block me, we are all annoying etc 

I would say that resistance to socialist ideas is a major source of frustration for me in academia - a learning curve for me has been gearing my writing & research to work around that type of institutional hostility. It depends on the discipline as well. Given that Marx is such a titanic figure in sociology I find it easier to engage with his work openly (although you will be mocked for it lol - it’s viewed as a dead-end project in the West since the USSR collapsed), whereas more history- or politics-based courses I’ve taken have been extremely hostile to even tepid Marxist analysis. I have friends to vent to and have found other people in my discipline who are like-minded, which has helped. You will need to do a lot of tactical retreats - I’ve found that tying your analysis to state policy helps a lot, it helps you get grants, and academics trade in policy-talk across disciplines so it will prepare you for that if you want to stay in academia.

I have also been making peace with the fact that academia is not really the place to “do” socialism - it is a deeply political job, and my ideological commitments motivate me to do work and research that I hope are beneficial to the world, but I think the authority and privileges afforded to academics, not academia itself, is the better avenue to conduct political activity - participating in student & left-wing actions, giving money and resources to activist groups, using your prestigious position to publicly speak on issues, sign important documents for vulnerable people (profs are counted as authorities to sign off on name change documents for trans people in Canada for example, as well as visa and citizenship proof I believe?), things like that. There was that Canadian doctor, Dr. Yipeng Ge, who was suspended from his university position for speaking out against Israel and went to Palestine on a medical mission, Engels used his family’s money to fund Marx & socialist actions, Lenin went to law school, etc (i am NOT remotely comparing myself to any of them to be clear lol, just demonstrating that there is historical precedent for this way of thinking). I’ve done a decent amount of union + community work and the reoccurring lesson I keep learning is that there are many little, vacant positions of power sprinkled throughout the world that will help you organize and agitate above and beyond your individual capabilities. And the right wing knows this! They take over local school board committees and town halls and run for office in their local neighbourhoods all the time, often unopposed, and use that to exert terrible political influence.

I try very much to resist the “one of the good ones” mindset re: my own career in academia and is one I struggle with pretty often. being pragmatic about what academic research actually does in the world is still something I’m grappling with. Academia has provided me with an incredibly prestigious education and a lot of social capital that I hope to use for some amount of good. I’m also betting on what is essentially a lottery ticket, given how rare tenure-track university positions are, so maybe all of this will be irrelevant anyway lol. I’m not sure if that’s helpful but it’s not a settled issue for me either, so if this reads as vague or wishy-washy that’s why!

[ladykailitha]

Sweet Home Indiana

You guys are getting an absolute feast this week. Two chapters on regular posting days, the twenty snippets you got on WIP Wednesday, this, and of course more Across a Crowded Room tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Based off a post I saw on here (and didn't save for some reason) about the legal tangles gay people had to go through when gay marriage was federally legalized because a lot of them married different people in different states because their marriage in California wasn't legal in the other states and just never bother to get a divorce.

And my brain let's Steddify this shit Sweet Home Alabama style!

So here we go:

Eddie and Steve got married in Boston when Massachusetts made gay marriage legal. But they broke up when Eddie went to California with his band.

Cue Eddie going around and having a couple of really short marriages in different states. Tommy in New York for three months when the band was in New York recording an album. Billy in Hawaii for two weeks while Eddie was there on vacation.

Neither of them really mattered or were serious. Because they were only legal in the state they were performed in so Eddie didn't think anything about it.

Fast forward to a decade later, gay marriage is legalized across the country. Corroded Coffin has broken up and Eddie has a job as a tattoo artist.

Eddie goes to get a marriage license in Seattle where he's been living for the past five years. And is denied on the account he's a polygamist. He's still married to three different men in three different states.

Fuck.

His fiancee Chrissy is a legal assistant at a law firm so she has her bosses draw up annulments for Eddie's three marriages and has them sent out to all three of Eddie's exes.

Including Steve.

When Steve gets his papers, he's pissed. He hunts down Eddie's number and calls. Tells him that he can do the proper thing and tell him to his face he wants a divorce. None of this annulment bullshit like their relationship didn't matter. But until then he can fuck off.

Now Eddie's frantic. Because the reason why he and Chrissy were getting married in the first place is that her student visa ended in May and her work visa has been delayed three times. They have to get married otherwise she'll be deported. And no just a little across the border to Canada either, she's from Barbados.

He tells her the truth about Steve and how they were actually married for almost two years before Eddie left. They had been living in their home town of Hawkins where their marriage wasn't legal any way, but meant something to them.

Chrissy is upset he didn't tell her this sooner, because yeah, that's whole other kettle of fish. So she has her bosses draft a divorce decree and words it a whole lot nicer than the legalese of the annulment.

Eddie packs his bags heads to back to Hawkins and back to Steve. He has one week to convince Steve to sign the divorce papers.

He gets into to town and finds that Steve is the proud owner of the best bakery in town. And the best selling item is the chunky mint brownies Steve made just for Eddie when they first got together. Eddie gets a little sentimental about it, and Steve stubbornly refuses to sign the papers.

They go back and forth for a few days. They tumble into bed and Eddie wakes up, he finds Steve gone and the papers signed.

Only now that Steve has signed them, he doesn't want that anymore. So he breaks down crying and sobbing. He calls Chrissy and now Chrissy is as distraught as he is.

After they hang up Chrissy calls the bakery and Robin answers. Chrissy really needs to speak to Steve.

Robin tells her Steve can't come to the phone because he is covered in flour and can't because he'll get it messy. Chrissy asks if she calls his cell phone if Robin could hold it up to his ear, because she really needs to talk to him. But Robin refuses to budge. She banned Steve from having a cell phone around their giant stand mixer because he has lost three of them to the beast.

Robin offers to pass long the message, though. And Chrissy has to be content with that. She explains who she is and why Eddie needed the divorce. She tells Robin about Eddie's breakdown that morning and how he really didn't want to divorce Steve.

Robin and her get to talking about their best friends, missed connections and themselves.

While the girls are talking Eddie is having another freak out because he put the envelope containing the divorce papers in the mail box but realized he forgot to sign them himself. He needs to get them back so he can sign them, but he's afraid of getting arrested for tampering a federal post box trying to get the papers back.

He's near hysterics when Nancy finds him. She's in town visiting her family. And she helps him get the papers back by talking to the post office and they open the box and he gets them back.

She takes him to lunch to calm his clearly frazzled nerves. He tells her everything. And she tells him that while Eddie was in New York, Steve had gone to see him and when he saw how much bigger and better the big city was, Steve decided if he was going to win Eddie back, he had to make something of himself. And thus began the bakery. He almost had enough to fly to Seattle and woo Eddie. But then this happened.

Now Eddie is really stricken. He wants Steve so bad, but Chrissy is out of options.

Nancy gives his arm a squeeze and Eddie heads back to the hotel he'd been staying at.

He finally looks at his phone and sees a lot of messages and texts from Chrissy begging him not mail the divorce papers yet, she has a plan. Cue Eddie having a final breakdown in his hotel room, sobbing and wrung out.

There is a knock on his door and Eddie is confused the only person who knew his hotel and room number was Chrissy and she's in Seattle. But he gets up to answer and suddenly has an armful of Steve Harrington. Who is also a sobbing wreck.

After both of them calm down, Steve tells him he only signed the papers because he wanted Eddie to be happy. And if that meant being divorced from him, he'd do it.

But Eddie's isn't happy. He's sad and hurt and lonely. Steve is too.

They fall asleep in each other's arms, placing their trust in their best friends.

The next morning they are woken up by Robin and surprise surprise, Chrissy.

They explained that since gay marriage is legal everywhere now, Robin is going to marry Chrissy. And she'll swap places with Eddie. She'll go back to Seattle with Chrissy and Eddie can stay here with Steve.

It's perfect.

They get a marriage license and walked down the courthouse where Eddie and Steve are their witnesses. While the judge is talking, Steve pulls out Eddie's old ring. The one he returned to Steve when he moved out to be with his band.

He slips it back on Eddie's ring finger where it belongs. They kiss at the same time Chrissy and Robin do.

A couple years later Chrissy becomes a lawyer and her and Robin move back to Hawkins where Eddie has opened his own tattoo parlor, right next to Steve's bakery.

And they all live happily ever after.

ETA: Full Story here.

Permanent Tag List: @mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @emly03 @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @danili666 @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @i-must-potato @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog @justforthedead89 @vecnuthy @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @dragonmama76 @scheodingers-muppet @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman @counting-dollars-counting-stars

[political-us]

International students and faculty at some U.S. universities are being advised to postpone personal international travel due to the risk of deportation. Several students have had their visa status revoked for allegedly participating in campus protests or sharing their political views on social media.

As many college students and faculty get ready to enjoy spring break, others are feeling trapped within U.S. borders. If they leave, they could risk deportation. Some experts are calling the Trump administration's latest immigration actions unprecedented.

Just during March, a physician at Brown traveling back to the U.S. from her home in Lebanon had her visa canceled, and an Indian Ph.D. student at Columbia self-deported to Canada following a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at her apartment

[storkmuffin]

Sorry if this is tedious, but I'm here to answer the "what the hell is happening in America" tag. I come from a long line of poverty. My great grandmother was born in a tar paper shack. I don't know the full history, but I'll give you the modern summary.

Our politicians are paid off by companies to preserve their interests. That means much less oversight than there should be. Companies raise prices and lower wages to line their own pockets. They bust most union efforts. Then, when people resort to survival crime like shoplifting, the store often just has security intervene or locks up the products.

I work in a grocery store which is owned by one of the largest grocery corporations in the country. It was even going to be merged with the largest recently until the deal fell through. I also live in a city with the highest grocery prices in the country. My company gouges prices horribly. You can rarely find anything there for a sane price and I avoid buying unless I have to.

I'm fortunate that we're a union store, but the union has no teeth, so our contracts have been getting worse every term. I make enough to pay my (relatively few) bills, but I have to get government food and medical assistance. If I were to work just a few more hours a week, that assistance would be taken away because I make too much money. My medical assistance would also be taken away, and there's no way I could maintain my housing and my health alone.

All of this isn't new. The government uses propaganda to pit races and classes against one another to make us hate each other instead of this inhumane system. But it's definitely a tighter squeeze in recent years.

This is not intrusive, at all. To just be my very heavy handed self - I was moved and honored that you were willing to share this much of your real life with me. I've read it several times over, trying to understand.

For anyone who might see this and wonder about the context, I put the tag, "What the hell is happening in America and England" on a chain of post about how stores that sell basic necessities (the combo pharmacy-and-grocery chains places) are starting to lock up basic essential goods, for which you now have to summon a clerk to obtain. I've only seen that sort of arrangement on the Anne of Green Gables TV series, you know, from the early 20th century in small town fantasy Canada. In Seoul, the only things I've ever seen locked up behind the clerk at the counter of a convenience store are cigarettes. Pharmacists keep prescription drugs (like the opioid painkillers) behind them but birth control pills (which are OTC in Korea) and everything else is just out in front for you to pick up. Hard liquor and wine are just in the fridge or on the shelf, next to all the other drinks, you know, in both convenience stores and supermarkets.

I lived in America both as a child, then later as a college and grad student, then as a professional on H1B visa, but it wasn't like that when I was there, so I was shocked at the apparent deterioration the post was reporting. Your ask (answer?) gives me a lot more context. I've obviously been back frequently (most to NY or CA for work) but you don't normally go to a supermarket on vacation or a biz trip, so I didn' t know.

The nightmare situation a lot of Americans are in about healthcare I am familiar with, and it appalls me afresh every time I have to imagine living in that system. Whenever I tell Korean friends that the US is a place where one of the routine things a cancer patient has to do is get in touch with a good bankruptcy lawyer while they're in treatment, because that's how their healthcare system 'works,' nobody believes me and end up googling it right then and there. Then they stare in disbelief at what they learn for long, shocked silences.

And I don't want to paint S. Korea as some sort of 'advanced' or 'improved' system. I'm very privileged and very sheltered, plus on the autism spectrum - maybe there ARE places where they lock up diapers and condoms against the customer in Seoul or elsewhere, and i just don't know. The people who live in half-basement single-room apartments that drowned in place in flash floods in neighborhoods I'd never heard of in Seoul in once-in-a-century downpours because their windows were barred and there were no emergency exits shocked me at the time (a couple years ago) and haunt me to this day. It's just that - we've at least made it so that you will get a baseline of healthcare, provided by the state, if you come down with a serious illness, no matter who you are. That seems like the absolute minimum to me, because my system provides everyone that last safety net.

[marta-bee]

So. Much. Newsing.

Immigration

Birthright citizenship: Next steps in the legal fight over birth-right citizenship. Trump explains why he thinks SCOTUS will side with him (12ft.io). US Senators introduce legislation to codify Trump's executive order into law. Federal judge issues nationwide injunction against the EO.

Deportations: Trump releases some immigrants arrested in ICE crackdown, due to lack of beds. (12ft.io) US military personnel are preparing a massive immigrant detention center at Guantanamo. (RP) And, private US citizens impersonated ICE agents and terrorized Hispanic people. (12ft.io) This was just vile.

Specifically with El Salvador: El Salvador agreed to accept violent criminal deportees from the US, including from other countries and even American citizen criminals. (12ft.io) Most experts consider the American citizen piece illegal. Trump himself likes the idea of letting them jail US citizens. Details about conditions at El Salvador's mega-prison.

Race, Gender and DEI

DEI: The NY Times looks at the racist undercurrent of Trump's pushback against DEI. (RP) NPR discusses how corporate America rushed into DEI after the George Floyd murders, the mistakes they made, and how their retreat from DEI is similarly rushed and flawed. For a blind worker, diversity programs and a focus on merit aren't at odds. (RP) Federal employees caught up in Trump's push to fire people working on DEI discuss its impact.

Anti-trans shenanigans: TIME discusses how the anti-trans EO's are affecting trans people trying to get government ID cards. (12ft.io) US hospitals suspend health care for trans minors after Trump EO. New York AG warns that denying care based on the order would violate state law. Federal judge blocks Trump's attempt to move trans women inmates to male prisons. (RP) They're also being forced to hand over female-identifying clothes and HBA products.

Anti-Muslim & Anti-Arab shenanigans: Trump admin opens investigation into anti-semitism on college campuses. Foreign students who join pro-Palestinian protesters can have their student visas cancelled and be deported. (RP)

Science and Energy

Sec. Health Hearings: Senators considering RFK Jr. for Sec. Health are concerned about his getting paid for his role in anti-vax lawsuits (RP) Republicans questioned his abortion positions. (RP) Kennedy discussed possible deep cuts to Medicaid funding. (12ft.io) He's now been approved by the committees and is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate.

Sec. Energy Confirmed: Doug Burnum was confirmed as Sec. Energy. He immediately announced orders to decrease regulation and increase drilling/mining of fossil fuels. Burnum was formerly governor of North Dakota. Not news, but John Oliver did an episode on North Dakota's energy industry years back that's still an important warning (VIDEO) Trump admin is also considering redrawing national park boundaries to allow for more drill baby drill.

Science communications blackouts: Federal websites touching on HIV, transgender issues, climate change etc. were removed. (RP) CDC guidelines on vaccinations, STD prevention were also removed. (12ft.io) CDC researchers were also ordered to retract papers containing "forbidden terms" from journals. (12ft.io)

Foreign Affairs

Tariffs (what a beautiful word!) : Trump enacts then pauses tariffs against Mexico, tariffs against China and Canada still in place. (12ft.io) Canada and Mexico tariffs were both paused for thirty days by end of day on Monday. Economist Lawrence Summers explains why tariffs are bad for the US. (RP) Wall Street falls in response to tariff news, though improves somewhat after Mexico tariff pause. China pushes back. Trump gains very little in Mexico, Canada deals over tariffs. (12ft.io) The BBC talks about Canada's reaction (interesting stuff!).

Gaza: Trump withdraws from UN Human Rights Council and forbids future humanitarian aid for Gaza. He's also studying withdrawing from the UN full stop. (RP) He wants the US to take ownership of Gaza and the Palestinians to be "permanently resettled" in Jordan and Egypt. Because such a brazen plan would almost certainly upset the ceasefire, here are the Americans still held hostage by Hamas.

Ukraine: Trump discusses extending Ukraine funding in exchange for mineral resources. (12ft.io)

Iran: Trump reimposes "maximum pressure" on Iran, aims to cut off all oil exports. (RP) He also wants to hold talks on a nuclear deal with the country. He also tells his advisers to "obliterate" Iran if they assassinate him. This casts new light on his recent cancelling the security details of Pompeo, Bolton,  and other past security advisers from his first term (RP), who were considered insufficiently loyal to Trump but still faced active assassination threats from Iran.

Oligarchy & Autocracy

USAID: Funding is still not being distributed. Programs affected include girls' schooling in Afghanistan and treatment and prevention programs for tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. (RP) Trump has alleged fraud and put Sec. State Rubio in charge of the agency. Nearly 400 USAID employees and contractors have been laid off. The building is literally shuttered. Foreign USAID employees are being pulled back from the field and will return to the US by this weekend. For context: USAID is an independent program created by Congress. Doing all this by executive order and just Elon being Elon is almost certainly illegal.

Domestic funding freeze: Some nonprofits say they still can't access their funding (12ft.io), despite a judge ordering Trump admin to release the funds temporarily. A new judge extended the block against holding back funds approved by Congress permanently. Dem. Senate leader Hakeem Jeffries plans to use upcoming funding bill to prevent Trump from doing something similar in the future. (RP) Head Start programs serving 20,000+ children still cannot access payments. (RP) Elon Musk has gained access to the federal government's payment-processing system, personnel files and other sensitive systems. (RP) NY Times discusses why he is so focused on controlling the payment system. (RP)

DOJ & FBI Firings: Trump personally ordered the firings of DOJ attorneys who worked on Jack Smith's investigations of him. FBI turned over list of over 5,000 agents who worked on January 6th investigations. (RP)

Other Stories

Russell Vought: Mr. Project 2025 clears committee and moves on to the full Senate confirmation vote. Wall Street Journal has a good overview of him. (RP) Several Democrats boycotted his committee vote in protest (RP), and are planning a marathon of speeches in opposition tonight. (RP)

[jechristine]

Do you think it is wise for those Americans who have the means, to leave the country while they can before the Trump administration takes over? I am truly terrified for what's about to happen. All the guardrails are off. I don't think America will have another fair and free election in our lifetime. I'm thinking of selling my place, cashing out and trying to move to a country in Europe, go to Mexico or Canada. I know visa requirements won't be easy but the alternative keeps me up. We are entering Nazi Germany and we're all bearing witness to it happening in real time with no way to stop it.

You sound like my husband, anon. I truly don’t know. My husband works for a national union, and the front page of the NYTimes right now is a story about how Trump will be exacting revenge on unions first. I teach at a school with hundreds of students who are newcomers to the U.S., most from Central America and Venezuela, and we’re getting guidance from the school district about our rights when I.C.E. shows up one day (they never did during the first term, but he promises to be even less humane now). Many friends and colleagues are immigrants and children of immigrants themselves and are worried about family members who are legal residents but not citizens. These are just the immediate first worries in my own purview.

I am still hopeful that there’s enough of us to put up a fight. Half of us didn’t want this, and even among Trump voters, I do not believe that most truly want the worst of what he’s been talking about. I do still love the promise of the U.S.A., and I think it’s worth continuing to fight for its ideals.

But I don’t know.

[collapsedsquid]

Ms. Srinivasan’s current situation can be traced back to last year, when she was arrested at an entrance to Columbia’s campus the same day that pro-Palestinian protesters occupied Hamilton Hall, a university building. She said she had not been a part of the break-in but was returning to her apartment that evening after a picnic with friends, wading through a churning crowd of protesters and barricades on West 116th Street, when the police pushed her and arrested her. She was briefly detained and received two summonses, one for obstructing vehicular or pedestrian traffic and another for refusing to disperse. Her case was quickly dismissed and did not result in a criminal record, according to her lawyers and court documents. Ms. Srinivasan said that she never faced disciplinary action from the university and was in good academic standing. “She was taken in with roughly 100 other people after being blocked from returning to her apartment and getting stuck in the street,” said Nathan Yaffe, one of her lawyers. “The court recognized this when it dismissed her case as having no merit. Ranjani was just trying to walk home.” Ms. Srinivasan said she did not disclose the summonses in the visa renewal form later in the year because her case had been dismissed in May and she did not have a conviction. [...] She said that her activity on social media had been mostly limited to liking or sharing posts that highlighted “human rights violations” in the war in Gaza. And she said that she had signed several open letters related to the war, including one by architecture scholars that called for “Palestinian liberation.” “I’m just surprised that I’m a person of interest,” she said. “I’m kind of a rando, like, absolute rando,” she said, using slang for random.

Deported for both touching grass and posting, the two great crimes

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Jack Ohman

* * * * *

THOUGHTS ON DAY 1 OF NEW YEAR LESS THAN ZERO

TCinLA

Jan 01, 2025

My grand nephews Nathan (L) and Sam (R) and I want to wish all of you a good new year. Yes, it’s going to be difficult, but we’re going to win.

Over the past 50+ years, I have considered 1968 the worst political year of my life - “the year of the Great National Nervous Breakdown,” as I put it. 1968 has been replaced. 2024 is the craziest year I have lived through; speaking as an historian, it is the craziest year in American history since 1860.

I can confidently predict that 2025 is going to be crazier.

The first year of Felon34 2.0 will be more shambolic than the first year of Felon 1.0, regardless of how many of the Felon’s idiots claim the benefit of four years of experience. Felon34 and his loyalists will take power better prepared to implement a number of malicious ideas, but will make less progress and create more chaos than they did in 2017 for two simple reasons:

First, because their added experience of preparedness will be swamped by their much greater arrogance, leading them to shed guardrails, fall into obvious traps, and overreach. We’ve seen it already on every major issue that has come up over this past month.

Second, because they’ll be inheriting the country at a somewhat less-stable equilibrium than they did last time: highly prosperous, but with less room to maneuver without generating inflation or triggering a recession. The market went through its longest period of decline since 1978 two weeks ago. With the uncertainty about whether Felon34 will be able to mount his mass deportation - and the effect that will have on the economy if he pulls off even a portion of it - added to his insane threats against Panama, Canada and Greenland; his plan to slap tariffs on the rest of the world; and his general insanity - the market will respond. The market does not like uncertainty. Felon34 sees his main job as keeping the market up - to support his billionaire owners and to flim-flam the flimflammables - and he is going to quickly run into the problem that he cannot please the droolers and the market simultaneously. He knows if he fucks the market he’s screwed, and if he doesn’t deliver the promises he made at his hatealongs he’s also screwed.

My prediction: Fire and fury. By this time next year it will be “a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.” Felon34 is the most determined moron in US political history. And then in January 2026, the mid-term campaign begins.

The MAGA Civil War will continue in 2025. Former George W. Bush Campaign Manager Stuart Stevens, who is now a Democrat, says that people should not ignore the fact Steve Bannon turned on Elmo: “Bannon is a guy who has defined himself as a thug, and thugs must do thuggish things. I think Musk has no idea what he’s getting into when he gets in a fight with Bannon over this.” Stevens then explained that if Bannon is ever able to turn Trump against Musk as he’s trying to do, that could be a big problem for Elmo: “There’s been reporting that Musk was not a student when he got a visa, and when he made his application for naturalization he put false information on that document. That is grounds for revoking citizenship. It happens all the time. One reason why Musk is so obsessed with immigration is because he knows this. I wouldn’t bet against Steve Bannon.”

Former Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer posted a poll on X which asked if Republicans agreed with Musk on the H-1B visas or if they agreed with Steve Bannon on it. He got over 92,000 votes, with 67% siding with Bannon over Musk.

Elmo continued his purge and punishments of right-wing accounts who disagreed with him on this. White nationalist talk show host Stew Peters (758,000 followers): “Elon Musk is STEALING money from my subscribers and LYING to them. This morning I woke up to find that he removed my blue check mark and canceled my ability to have subscribers. My subscribers were told that I canceled my subscription service and they would not be refunded for the next two weeks in which they’ve already paid X for, but which won’t allow me to provide them content. This is intentional deceit and theft.”

White nationalist Nick Fuentes: “Today X appears to have un-verified 5 more prominent critics of the H-1B program. Their checkmarks were taken, subs were refunded, and character limit reduced. This is now overt political censorship. This comes after the Project Groyper brand account and all of its affiliates were suspended last week.”

My prediction: I agree with Stuart Stevens that one should not bet against Bannon. He knows how to fight like this and Elmo doesn’t. If Bannon’s side ever gets the goods on Elmo’s immigration and naturalization, expect Elmo to be in deep shit and Felon34 will abandon him.

In closing, this is the gang - as Jeff Tiedrich described them - who could screw up a fuck in a brothel. As I like to say, they're the people who flunked the IQ test low enough to qualify for membership in MAGA. They're the Broken Toys who never learned to work and play well with others. Over the past three weeks - before they're even in office - they have screwed the pooch and munched the lunch. They couldn't pass the bill they had to pass without Democrats, and Democrats aren't going to pull their chestnuts out of the fire next time. They have till the middle of the month to fix the debt ceiling and they can't elect a speaker. There's going to be nobody there next Monday to accept the vote count of the electoral college. The odds are good the stupid sonofabitch can't get sworn into office, in which case, the position goes to the Speaker - of which there is none. Assuming they find a way through this mess, they have twelve months to do all the things they have to put through Congress - with a one-vote margin. Their leader is Donald Trump - who bankrupted a casino!

They're going to be throwing their best friend through a window, and they'll be tripping when they try to pull their pants on and falling against the dresser and knocking themselves out.

We're the side who won the Civil War and beat the Nazis and smashed the Japanese.

Act. Like. It.

[TCinLA]

[dyscomancer]

Shot in the dark here; anybody have experience with the process of getting a student visa in Canada?