Seth Fischer

These motherfuckers.

Thank you Diane!

Living under hostile occupation is weird My friend asked me the other day if LA was as much like Blade Runner as the news made it seem. Maybe, I said, but in the real world, Blade Runner would be mostly silence and fear and empty streets, in...

I wrote a new thing itll-be-different-this-time.ghost.io/living-under...

Everyone Is Using A.I. for Everything. Is That Bad?

i just find this so bizarre. searching through texts and doing the reading for myself is how i actually think through ideas! trying to put together a sentence is how i figure out what i actually want to say!

wtf

Remarkable.

MSNC: "I want to reiterate this has been 100% peaceful."

Seconds later, LA County sheriffs start firing on the crowd.

Yet again, "law enforcement" deliberately escalated.

I Went to Find Trump's 'Rebellion.' I Ended up at a Birthday Party | Connecting California Reporting in Compton and Paramount on Saturday, I Saw Nothing That Justified Sending in the National Guard

This @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social essay captures the LA mood right now so, so well. www.zocalopublicsquare.org/i-went-to-fi...

Revolutionary Letter #96, poem at dawn Empire is its own undoing Diane di Prima

Having to use the military to occupy his own city is not the flex he thinks it is

Just imagine the fascism right now if LA had elected Rick Caruso.

Photo of the venue for a group reading on May 18, 2025 at 4 pm: storefront of Echo Park's Time Travel Mart. Tagline: "Whenever you are, we're already then."

I'll be reading at Roar Shack (at the Time Travel Mart on Sunset Blvd in Echo Park) on Sunday, May 18 at 4 pm, along with amazing writers Erica Blumfield, Angelina Saenz, @caralopezlee.bsky.social, and @sethfischer.bsky.social . Hosted by poet Aruni Wijesinghe. Come out and say hi!

YouTube video by TED This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like | Carole Cadwalladr | TED

I thought I was done with TED Talks, but this is everything. Like, literally, the world. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZOo...

The lesson for universities is you may as well fight back. You'll lose the money either way. The only question is whether you keep your dignity.

Like, why are we even alive?

@parisreview.bsky.social

I have to say: Freaky Tales, that new movie with Pedro Pascal, gives some really superb catharting

In order to protect your right to free speech, we must ask that you give up your right to free speech

Like, honestly I don't even know whether it's safe to hold in-person classes right now. And neither does anyone else.

Five years ago today, right at the start of COVID, my wild-haired, brilliant father passed. This week, in his honor, I’d ask each of you to do one thing to fight the culture of cruelty that’s taken over everything. It’s what he would’ve wanted. Love you, Dad

So is it considered respectful to ask, "So did you want to be a storm trooper when you were growing up?"

Boycott Columbia Now **To sign please fill out this form.** We, the undersigned, commit to a boycott of Columbia University in solidarity with students, faculty, and staff targeted by the U.S. Government and university ad...

Tenured people, more like this: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

It's a problem of intention. If my students are intellectually curious and there to learn, they want to learn to use AI well. I can even help with that. If they are there because they they see school as a con they need to get past on the way to wherever they're going, it's AI all the way down

An accurate sentence I just wrote: "there is AI now to make your AI sound less like AI, and there are AI detectors that tell you if your students are using the AI that makes the AI sound less like AI." What is this hellscape and how do I leave?

I am finally starting to understand why academics write the way they do — if people can’t understand you, they can’t burn you at the stake for your ideas

Scorpion and frog "the scorpion won't sting me if i grovel and beg enough"

Columbia University agrees to Trump demands in effort to restore federal funding The Trump administration — which canceled $400M in grants — had ordered the school to implement a mask ban, discipline protesters, reform admissions and more.

No matter how you feel about Israel and Palestine, this decision from @columbiauniversity.bsky.social is not only spineless but it's also foolhardy, paying zero attention to the lessons of history, even its own history. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

How to Avoid US-Based Digital Services—and Why You Might Want To Amid growing concerns over Big Tech firms aligning with Trump administration policies, people are starting to move their digital lives to services based overseas. Here's what you need to know.

Zuck said Meta is in a "partnership" with White House; Google is following suit. They are all that stand between you and Trump admin data grabs.

Here's a resource collection of non-US services to replace email, search, docs, music, video, backups, and more:

www.wired.com/story/trump-...

this stuff is happening across the country and even more intensively downstream of the veterans admin but it's happening in so many places at once and without any public notification that it's still only barely emerging in the news