Pycon US 2025 travel guidance?

I suggest contacting the Pittsburgh office of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). They’re a national private-sector non-profit with vast experience in fighting government abuse of civil rights & liberties (gross abuses of which didn’t start with Trump, but did spike dramatically), via legal actions, generating media publicity, and attracting money (contributions). They’re the real-world experts in what works.

They’ll have a good sense of local conditions (e.g., nobody is getting deported in the semi-rural area where I live - there’s no political upside), and can give informed opinions about what is and isn’t likely, and what can and can’t be done about it. They’re also in touch with what the admin is actually doing (not just saying) all across the country.

But if people with power are determined to “make an example” of you, you’re hosed. Have no expectations of fair play, due process, or justice. You’re a disposable means to their political goals. They don’t care about you at all, or about facts. Zealots are fixated on their abstract idea of “a greater good” to the exclusion of all else (a mix of self-righteous conviction, cynical power-grabbing, and plain love of bullying). You may prevail in the end if there’s also a functioning legal system (which the US government still has, for now, at least partially so), but it may take years.

You don’t want to go there if you can avoid it. Even I don’t :wink:.

17 Likes