James 🎃 Harbeck
@sesquiotic.bsky.social
4.8K followers 1.5K following 8.9K posts
Louche left-wing nerd. Words, food, music, beverage alcohol. MA linguistics, PhD theatre. jamesharbeck.com, sesquiotic.com
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Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
originalsp.in
Korol is a US citizen. Her family hasn’t heard from her since she was taken, public charges haven’t been released—what crime did she even commit? 2nd-Degree Woodwinding?—and there has been no explanation for her “renditioning” across state lines.

We’ve moved into a new phase of Trump lawlessness.
originalsp.in
A musician, Oriana Korol, was peacefully playing clarinet with her protest band outside ICE facilities in Portland, OR.

When the band started playing “Ghostbusters,” ICE thugs suddenly poured outside, slammed her into the mud, arrested her and took her to a jail 9 miles away in Vancouver, WA.
Musician playing ‘Ghostbusters’ outside ICE facility is arrested by agents
‘Taking us citizens out of state to detain them without charge is a new action from the Feds and should be opposed,’ her band said
www.independent.co.uk
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
robmacwolf.thevoice.dog
When we write or draw porn or erotica, we get banned from having a bank account and our livelihoods get seized even if we give it away for free.

When billionaires steal what we've written or drawn to churn out a slop-approximate of porn, they're allowed to charge for it.
mattburgess1.bsky.social
Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year
We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.
sesquiotic.bsky.social
Brought home a souvenir T-shirt
A shirt with an arc over a silhouette of bottles and, in a curiously familiar script, the words Malt Whisky
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One film photo of a sign each day, all month.

14. Leica IIIf, Canon 50mm f/1.4 LTM (I think), Kodak Gold 200. Queen Street near Jones, Toronto.
A wire-link metal fence with a mid-century brick building out of focs behind, and some branches and minor greenery; on the metal top bar of the fence is a rectangular white plastic sign with a basic left-pointing arrow made with red lines and, inside it, in red letters of a tropical kind of style, the words Tango Patio
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One film photo of a sign each day, all month.

13. Leitz Minolta (Leica) CL, Voigtländer 40mm f/1.4, Fujicolor 200. Location on the sign.
A weathered old one-storey industrial building with screened-over windows with air conditioners and a single grey metal door in a doorway that appears to have been bricked down from a larger opening. Over the door, in a simple serif font on white, is a sign that says UNIVERSAL DRUM and, in modern sans-serif, 110 GLEN SCARLETT RD., and to the left of these a line drawing of a steel drum with the letters U D R.
sesquiotic.bsky.social
Oops! I was busy travelling and missed a couple of days. Here we go:

One film photo of a sign each day, all month.

12. Leica IIIf, Fujifilm 400, Canon LTM 50mm f/1.4. James Street, Hamilton.
A storefront with a sandwich board that says, in rough lettering on white, MARTELLO HAS A BIG ASS PATIO OUT BACK. If you look at the window behind it (at an angle) you see "Did you know? WE HAVE A BIG ASS PATIO OUT BACK!"
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
moiradonegan.bsky.social
Like much of that this regime does, the murders of Venezuelan fishermen and boat passengers seem to be being conducted for the sake of making social media content that demonstrates Trump’s masculine dominance. So one way to describe them is as snuff films.
normative.bsky.social
There is no conceivable argument that these ships, even if we assume they were carrying narcotics, could not be dealt with in some other way. I think we can just drop the caveats and say: This is mass murder.
chrislhayes.bsky.social
Unless and until some kind of compelling legal and moral argument is presented as to why this is a legitimate use of deadly force, this is just…mass murder.
sesquiotic.bsky.social
I see it at number 3. High enough?
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
originalaurelia.bsky.social
Terrifying thing is that actual human traffickers, rapists, serial killers and gangs are now easily kidnapping people — and they do it in the open and get away by just dressing like these ICE agents.

There are very important safety reasons that police have always worn uniforms, had ID.
qasimrashid.com
ICE targeted an apartment building near my home. Masked agents in unmarked cars. I've said this before. Democratic Governors & Mayors need to order their local police depts to arrest any & all unidentified & masked alleged ICE agents.

This anonymous denial of due process is deadly.

1/2
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
joshuaerlich.bsky.social
i had a client once who was arrested because the cop insisted his signature was a fake signature. he watched the guy sign the summons and insisted he was ... faking a signature?

we lost
gregdoucette.bsky.social
This is yet another reminder that the "you can just walk around with your papers and be fine!" is a lie: the cops routinely claim whatever documentation you provide is invalid

It's racism all the way down
paleofuture.bsky.social
"During the encounter, Greeley said they told her she 'doesn’t look like' a Greeley."

www.yahoo.com/news/article...
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
kateclancy.bsky.social
I am being asked to tell my department which pieces of lab equipment should be supported with backup power because they expect rolling blackouts and brownouts in 2026 due to increased energy demands from AI. In case you're wondering how my day is going.
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
arrantpedantry.com
But it's also important to recognize that as production of a publication progresses, your window for making changes starts to close pretty rapidly. The later in the process it is, the more work you create for others.
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
arrantpedantry.com
I've written things for publication before. I totally get the feeling of looking at something you wrote weeks or months earlier and thinking, "Ugh, this is terrible. Why did I write it like this?" And you've been given a chance to look at it, which feels like a chance to fix it.
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
ziibiing.com
lol “find your own instead of stealing” in defense of columbus day
AJ West • 1h
Find your own holiday instead of stealing. Today is Columbus Day as designated by the federal government
Reply
6
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
fuzzywuzzyto.bsky.social
My friends ordered a steel, wood-fired boiler to heat water. It went through the U.S. from Mexico. U.S. customs *drilled 3 fucking holes in it*, rendering it useless. Searching for drugs I guess. It wasn't even destined for the U.S. and they destroyed it. Friends paid ⤴️ $1,000 to get it here. Gone.
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
atherton.bsky.social
Catherine's tweet is one of the best. Bringing it over here for preservation.
tweet from Catherine Addington, @catherinofalx on twitter. It's dated June 18, 2019, and it reads

"if there's one thing you learn from my twitter feed, let it be that "you gotta judge them by the standards of their time" is easily done, because for every chronicle of colonial Spaniards' genocidal actions there's a contemporary who petitioned the Crown to punish their crimes"
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
gamerstavernshow.com
Quick reminder that Christopher Columbus was considered a vile, repulsive, evil man even in his own time. His actions as governor of Spain's New World colonies landed him in prison for his cruelty and violence.
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
jamellebouie.net
underrated part of this is that stoller very clearly has no idea what "the passive voice" is
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
murray.senate.gov
Why doesn't Donald Trump remember that he was President on January 6th, 2021?
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
skepticalleftist.bsky.social
Privatization erodes accountability. Once public services become businesses, decisions serve investors before communities, and the people those systems were built for lose any real voice in how they’re managed. It’s democracy hollowed out through contracts.
Reposted by James 🎃 Harbeck
gregpak.net
lol always delightful when the troll of the day is someone i already had blocked