He was a pure manipulator; his brain, if he had ever had one, must have early oozed along into the muscles of his fingers.

This will be my thread for thoughts while reading Disabling Intelligences by @fractalecho.bsky.social this week. I'm all wrapped up in a fleece blanket, I have my highlighter and page flags, and on page 2 I'm already love their writing style. 🧵

An update on the Suda firing at the (LOL) PhART, with its Canadian ramifications. I would want someone cross-analyzing this with Gaétanne Verna's recent firing, as a pulse check on the working conditions in CDN art institutions paulwells.substack.com/p/national-g...

Wow- that’s a cold slap in the shoulder for our arts communities. Looks like the even though there was a pre-budget request of $140 million.. what was apportioned $6 million. That’s a monumental spending cut.

😳

I wonder how much reworking and maintaining the canada council portal costs, maybe add that into grants since it's just a very fancy lottery system with an onerous application process

The exhibition that we curated "Against the Tyranny of Reality" is opening today at Musée d'art de Joliette! It's the third instalment of this touring show that includes 18 artist working with prop performance and camp for video. www.museejoliette.org/expositions/...

New Canada Council Portal Update: What a nightmare. Tiny text boxes? No way to back track on the application without starting from the beginning and saving each section? The French portal is mostly all in English? Support documentation details limited to 255 CHARACTERS? What is going on?

It's been really difficult to integrate the UofA community already, and witnessing this happening to a colleague in the building next door where I get my coffee (and btw Florence is a fabulous person irl) just makes my heart sink

“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.

me telling my grandkids what it was like to have vaccines

This is what I said about Kirk-style conservative "debate" culture a few months ago, and I still believe it.

“There’s a reason he debated college students, not college professors” - Will Menaker

Well, it feels so bizarre to say, but I just got my measles booster-- thank god being part of the university, the campus clinic made it a breeze. Alberta currently has the highest infection rates in North America and nothing indicates the situation will get better.

Trump's declaration that radical right extremism is justified as a response to the left will likely be heard all over the far right as a clear invitation to violence. “That statement is basically a permission slip," one tracker of right wing extremism tells me. newrepublic.com/article/2004...

The right using Kirk as a lightning rod to usher the system into more violence against the left draws into focus how little institutional power the left wields. You think they could get away w/ this if there were unions ready to shut the country down for more legal protection against violence?

People are ‘shocked’ when I say things like ‘who knows if I’ll have a job in two years’… meanwhile…

6 years old and still cute

Allez lire cette chronique décrivant l'homogénéité du paysage politique québécois et sa tendance autoritaire

Carney’s first 100 days: Unpacking the new prime minister’s ‘disappointing move to the right’ with Linda McQuaig: ricochet.media/politics/car...

NEW: CBC agreed to follow an Israeli censorship order on board a Jordanian aid drop flight last week. Israel supposedly claimed filming Gaza would “jeopardize flights.” ITV News was also on a Jordanian flight, but filmed Gaza from above for all to see. www.readthemaple.com/cbc-agreed-t...

we need to teach the 1930s properly so that people know the Reichstag Fire was exactly this stupid

They published some pretty solid series -- The Apology Line being the most memorable one-- but the production values were so high that somehow the non-fiction content seemed fake? It's hard to explain but definitely is an aesthetic phenomenon worth exploring. Oh and the network ID was cringe lol

"For Everyone Stuck Chasing the Clock", our latest work, got a fabulous review in Revue Esse by the fabulous DJ Fraser: esse.ca/compte-rendu...

The original Superman wasn't woke -- he was radical. He attacked arms dealers, slum lords, abusive husbands and exploitive mine owners. www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Entartete Kunst all over again

Artists’ “purpose may lie in being that counterpower—demonstrating alternatives + standing up to gov’ts, institutions, corporations + so on—to societal bullies. Artists shld also be a counterbalance to trends + conformity. Existing outside the norm is a very precious + important position in society”

Oh no!

My MP! She's good

Le spectre de PissePiPi comme premier ministre c'est déjà assez horrible; QS montre que de supporter les politiques de la CAQ en matière d'accommodements et de langue dans les institutions post-secondaire n'ont pas rejoint les progressistes qui les supportent

If you’re struggling to make sense of the current moment, how we got here and where we’re headed, here’s a great resource:

UPDATE: A MacEwan spokesperson says the university is "committed to protecting and supporting freedom of expression," but won't "discuss information about specific student discipline matters." www.theprogressreport.ca/macewan_bars...

This thread

Don’t believe the hype about a breakup between Canada and the U.S. The two countries are moving closer together on an issue they agree on: keeping out refugees. @desmondcole.bsky.social writes about Mark Carney’s dangerous new border bill. breachmedia.ca/carneys-bord...

since israel likes to throw around "human shields" - a missile battery in central tel aviv when israel starts a war is going to result in civilian casualties despite being a legitimate target, which then israel will use as justification for more war

In response to Trump’s relentless attacks on transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming populations, artist and activist Nan Goldin and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art launched a two-week online print sale to raise funds for three organizations committed to supporting these communities.

“A 2010 study that analyzed 40 years of protest coverage in five major newspapers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, found that the papers depicted protests — even peaceful ones — as nuisances rather than as necessary functions of democracy.”

Of _course_ Carney believes jobs can be done by 'ai' fraud rather than, you know, the WORKERS in Canada who are struggling through a hostile century of austerity and neoliberalism pressprogress.ca/public-servi... #cdnpoli

"If I'd wanted to be a cop, I'd have gone to cop school. I don't want to be a cop, and you cheating makes me be a cop. Let me be your teacher. Don't make me be a cop."

Le député libéral Anthony Housefather a fait des pressions directes sur l'admin de McGill, dont le président, contre le mouvement pro-Palestine. Ma collègue @kratchanov.bsky.social de @pivot.quebec a obtenu une série de courriels qui montrent une forte ingérence. 🧵 pivot.quebec/2025/05/07/c...

Paris Review - Issue No. 33 Cover by artist Alain Jacquet artist’s website: alainjacquet.com/artist/ #artsky

What did I move into

Some other racehorse names that'd be fun: Good Trouble, Stay with the Trouble, Echo Chamber, Quorum, Judicial Review, Legislative Branch, Politburo Secretariat, Meritocracy, Diversity Seminar, Equity Workshop, Fluidity, Romantasy, but maybe not Manosphere, great-great-great grandson of Man'o'War.

Every single Canadian member of the IDF who was engaged in the genocide needs to be prodecuted if they return to Canada.

Austerity time, baby.

you don't need chatGPT i am perfectly capable of drinking a bottle of water and lying to you

"i asked chatgpt to" NO no SHUT THE FUCK UP shut up you absolute moron you simpleton fuck off no no No No No