Steve Casburn
@scasburn.bsky.social
Librarian. Data analyst. Music lover. Native of Benicia, California. Now in Portland, Oregon. Stops in Ohio and Texas along the way.
May Bluesky change the world rather than the world change Bluesky.
May Bluesky change the world rather than the world change Bluesky.
Pinned
Steve Casburn
@scasburn.bsky.social
· Nov 17
Just to plant my flag in the earth on this point:
If my posts to Bluesky are in any way making your life worse, then please block me. I'm begging you to go ahead. I want to be shut out of your life if I'm somehow making it worse. You deserve better.
If my posts to Bluesky are in any way making your life worse, then please block me. I'm begging you to go ahead. I want to be shut out of your life if I'm somehow making it worse. You deserve better.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
Phil Knight is almost single handedly funding the OR GOP, one of the more extreme state GOPs in the country. Keep that in mind next time you’re in the market for sportswear or sneakers. www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...
Nike co-founder Phil Knight makes record-setting donation to help elect Republicans
It is the single largest donation Knight has made to an Oregon candidate or political action committee.
www.oregonlive.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Phil Knight is almost single handedly funding the OR GOP, one of the more extreme state GOPs in the country. Keep that in mind next time you’re in the market for sportswear or sneakers. www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Steve Casburn
Today, after months of requests, I toured the Broadview ICE Processing Facility. I want to share what I saw.
The facility has no food vendor, no medical care, and detainees have to use toilets in the middle of shared cells. These are in no way suitable conditions to be holding anyone — period.
The facility has no food vendor, no medical care, and detainees have to use toilets in the middle of shared cells. These are in no way suitable conditions to be holding anyone — period.
November 25, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Today, after months of requests, I toured the Broadview ICE Processing Facility. I want to share what I saw.
The facility has no food vendor, no medical care, and detainees have to use toilets in the middle of shared cells. These are in no way suitable conditions to be holding anyone — period.
The facility has no food vendor, no medical care, and detainees have to use toilets in the middle of shared cells. These are in no way suitable conditions to be holding anyone — period.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
The military has a duty to refuse unlawful orders, but Congress has a duty to remove from office a president and secretary who would issue such orders. There is something off about members of Congress talking about the former while refusing to say the latter, the part that's actually their job here.
November 25, 2025 at 6:38 AM
The military has a duty to refuse unlawful orders, but Congress has a duty to remove from office a president and secretary who would issue such orders. There is something off about members of Congress talking about the former while refusing to say the latter, the part that's actually their job here.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by Steve Casburn
To “yes, and” this statement, I think everything Eliot describes upthread are examples of *emergent coordination*. People often coordinate by watching and acting on signals, and emulating behavior, of people in their social network and environment, even if they aren’t intentionally collaborating.
It doesn’t need conspiracy or coordination. The incentives alone are sufficient. The platform pays the public to perform, and the performance produces the disorder.
November 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
To “yes, and” this statement, I think everything Eliot describes upthread are examples of *emergent coordination*. People often coordinate by watching and acting on signals, and emulating behavior, of people in their social network and environment, even if they aren’t intentionally collaborating.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
God it's so cool that so much of British and European nationalist politics has broadly been shaped by warehouse clickfarms rented by guys in South Asia running "how to make money from racist old people" workshops, and that this has had more influence on media and politics than any grassroots group
November 24, 2025 at 11:55 AM
God it's so cool that so much of British and European nationalist politics has broadly been shaped by warehouse clickfarms rented by guys in South Asia running "how to make money from racist old people" workshops, and that this has had more influence on media and politics than any grassroots group
Reposted by Steve Casburn
It feels like corporate media is desperate to turn Epstein into a “both sides” issue, but Stacey Plaskett isn’t the one who gave Ghislaine Maxwell a sweetheart deal allowing her to go to a minimum security facility in exchange for her silence.
CNN's Pamela Brown to Jamie Raskin: "Are Democrats losing the moral high ground on the Epstein issue by defending Stacey Plaskett?"
November 24, 2025 at 5:47 PM
It feels like corporate media is desperate to turn Epstein into a “both sides” issue, but Stacey Plaskett isn’t the one who gave Ghislaine Maxwell a sweetheart deal allowing her to go to a minimum security facility in exchange for her silence.
Facebook saved me the trouble of cleaning up all of my loose ends on its platform by having its AI decide after 16 years of participation that I was a bot, and locking me out of my account.
I was annoyed at first, but that was soon overwhelmed by gratitude.
I was annoyed at first, but that was soon overwhelmed by gratitude.
I actually think this is the reason I feel better having deleted Facebook and only looking at instagram a couple times a year - it’s not the AI slop itself, it’s realizing the people you respected are functionally braindead that is depressing
I've deleted most of my FB info, just kept my account alive to use site for work. So depressing watching people I friended, for whatever reason over the years, share idiotic AI slop. A big neon sign screaming "DO NOT INTERACT WITH THIS PERSON."
November 25, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Facebook saved me the trouble of cleaning up all of my loose ends on its platform by having its AI decide after 16 years of participation that I was a bot, and locking me out of my account.
I was annoyed at first, but that was soon overwhelmed by gratitude.
I was annoyed at first, but that was soon overwhelmed by gratitude.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
I promise you, the gaping maw of loneliness & a lack of purpose borne of the mismatch between the self you truly are & the one-size-fits-all mold of patriarchal masculinity will NOT be filled by subjecting a woman to pregnancy, childbirth, and unequal divisions of labor just so you can be a father.
November 24, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I promise you, the gaping maw of loneliness & a lack of purpose borne of the mismatch between the self you truly are & the one-size-fits-all mold of patriarchal masculinity will NOT be filled by subjecting a woman to pregnancy, childbirth, and unequal divisions of labor just so you can be a father.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
NARRATOR: That is very much not the oath they took
BLITZER: I want to be precise. Should members of the US military obey clearly illegal orders?
McCLAIN: You're asking an enlisted person for their opinion on what they think is legal. That's a pretty slippery slope. Follow your commander in chief. That's the oath that you took
(Not a no!)
McCLAIN: You're asking an enlisted person for their opinion on what they think is legal. That's a pretty slippery slope. Follow your commander in chief. That's the oath that you took
(Not a no!)
November 24, 2025 at 3:39 PM
NARRATOR: That is very much not the oath they took
Reposted by Steve Casburn
An ICE agent was caught removing a sign marking an ICE kidnapping in DC last week! Do we think he did it out of anger, embarrassment, or most appropriately shame? If you think what you’re doing is right, why are you trying to hide the evidence? 👀
November 24, 2025 at 2:49 PM
An ICE agent was caught removing a sign marking an ICE kidnapping in DC last week! Do we think he did it out of anger, embarrassment, or most appropriately shame? If you think what you’re doing is right, why are you trying to hide the evidence? 👀
Reposted by Steve Casburn
As a 2020 Bernie primary voter, they're very confused that Black people liked Biden. I think they're mad that Black Voters see the far left at best as unserious and at worst as grifters. And instead of wondering why they can't win the trust of black voters, they get mad and bitter
November 23, 2025 at 9:46 PM
As a 2020 Bernie primary voter, they're very confused that Black people liked Biden. I think they're mad that Black Voters see the far left at best as unserious and at worst as grifters. And instead of wondering why they can't win the trust of black voters, they get mad and bitter
Reposted by Steve Casburn
musk has killed millions of people by his actions. he did this deliberately and with malice aforethought.
November 24, 2025 at 3:39 AM
musk has killed millions of people by his actions. he did this deliberately and with malice aforethought.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
everybody's like 'he would sexually assault his students' and I already *said* he taught French poetry.
November 23, 2025 at 7:10 AM
everybody's like 'he would sexually assault his students' and I already *said* he taught French poetry.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
1) good, they should be prosecuted, they are responsible for countless deaths
2) always very funny when these people realize the extent to which their billionaire patrons could not possibly give less of a shit about them
2) always very funny when these people realize the extent to which their billionaire patrons could not possibly give less of a shit about them
'Suddenly exposed' DOGE employees fear prosecution after Musk abandoned them: report
www.rawstory.com/doge-employe...
www.rawstory.com/doge-employe...
'Suddenly exposed' DOGE employees fear prosecution after Musk abandoned them: report
Current and former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffers are growing increasingly concerned that the work they did slashing government programs and eliminating jobs will come back to hau...
www.rawstory.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:41 PM
1) good, they should be prosecuted, they are responsible for countless deaths
2) always very funny when these people realize the extent to which their billionaire patrons could not possibly give less of a shit about them
2) always very funny when these people realize the extent to which their billionaire patrons could not possibly give less of a shit about them
Reposted by Steve Casburn
Here's a seven-point peace plan:
November 23, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Here's a seven-point peace plan:
Reposted by Steve Casburn
Somewhere out there in the multiverse is the timeline where Donald Trump is a beloved patron of the New York theatre community who occasionally breaks out his drag persona, “Donna Tramp” to do hilarious if very bitchy bits for his friends.
I'm not one to look for Trumpian silver linings, but I have to say, that this line about leaving "all the best parts of himself behind" is one of the most truly empathetic things I have read about the Trump phenomenon, and hence I regard it as one of the truest insights about the man.
If you listen to interviews with a much younger Trump he will sometimes talk with surprising intelligence about theatre or literature. He left all the best parts of himself behind, limited as they were.
July 19, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Somewhere out there in the multiverse is the timeline where Donald Trump is a beloved patron of the New York theatre community who occasionally breaks out his drag persona, “Donna Tramp” to do hilarious if very bitchy bits for his friends.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
The last few hours have proven 2 terrible things. First, the US and Russian governments are so close that the US government takes large parts of Russian proposals and passes them off as their own, and second that some people are so desperate to exonerate Trump that they act like this a good thing.
November 23, 2025 at 2:18 AM
The last few hours have proven 2 terrible things. First, the US and Russian governments are so close that the US government takes large parts of Russian proposals and passes them off as their own, and second that some people are so desperate to exonerate Trump that they act like this a good thing.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. ~Joseph Campbell
November 22, 2025 at 4:24 PM
We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. ~Joseph Campbell
Reposted by Steve Casburn
My policy is to block all accounts that I suspect are foreign influence operations or AI slop. I may be overly inclusive at times but imo that is preferred to letting the crap into my mentions
November 23, 2025 at 12:21 PM
My policy is to block all accounts that I suspect are foreign influence operations or AI slop. I may be overly inclusive at times but imo that is preferred to letting the crap into my mentions
Reposted by Steve Casburn
“Moral Bankruptcy is a wild ride. One day you’re voting for Regan and smaller government, and the next you’re condoning pedophilia and pretending vaccines don’t work”
November 22, 2025 at 9:05 PM
“Moral Bankruptcy is a wild ride. One day you’re voting for Regan and smaller government, and the next you’re condoning pedophilia and pretending vaccines don’t work”
I would never have thought to associate JD Vance with Fredo from The Godfather, but for the fact that he keeps insisting that he is one of the "smart" ones.
November 23, 2025 at 11:34 PM
I would never have thought to associate JD Vance with Fredo from The Godfather, but for the fact that he keeps insisting that he is one of the "smart" ones.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
DOGE did not fail in any way to accomplish its goals.
Its goals were never efficiency or saving money.
Its goals were to destroy as much of government as possible forever, and to steal data for the Space Nazi.
DOGE is fading away like bank robbery gangs fade away after the robberies are done.
Its goals were never efficiency or saving money.
Its goals were to destroy as much of government as possible forever, and to steal data for the Space Nazi.
DOGE is fading away like bank robbery gangs fade away after the robberies are done.
Exclusive: DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter reut.rs/4abeTdx
Exclusive: DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter
The Department of Government Efficiency claimed to have slashed tens of billions of dollars in expenditures, but it was impossible for outside financial experts to verify that because the unit did not provide detailed public accounting of its work.
reut.rs
November 23, 2025 at 12:26 PM
DOGE did not fail in any way to accomplish its goals.
Its goals were never efficiency or saving money.
Its goals were to destroy as much of government as possible forever, and to steal data for the Space Nazi.
DOGE is fading away like bank robbery gangs fade away after the robberies are done.
Its goals were never efficiency or saving money.
Its goals were to destroy as much of government as possible forever, and to steal data for the Space Nazi.
DOGE is fading away like bank robbery gangs fade away after the robberies are done.
Reposted by Steve Casburn
It's got to be wild to be a run of the mill Republican asshole who buys the party line about waging war against pedophiles in the government, and then you find some pedophiles in the government and try to wage war, and your Republican asshole friends are like "wellllll, define 'pedophiles'"
November 23, 2025 at 1:02 PM
It's got to be wild to be a run of the mill Republican asshole who buys the party line about waging war against pedophiles in the government, and then you find some pedophiles in the government and try to wage war, and your Republican asshole friends are like "wellllll, define 'pedophiles'"