Sign in

Artifice is not Intelligence

@outgrained.bsky.social
328 followers 671 following 258 posts

Strategic research & finance for anti-oppressive movements & communities. Consultant: corporateaccountability.org, Treasurer: resist.org, Member: www.idha-nyc.org. Personal acct, she/her, Philly. Words: www.outgrained.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The only agency less popular in Philly than the Parking Authority is ICE: send a letter calling on PPA to cancel their contract providing parking spaces for the squads snatching our neighbors! Link to send includes a template & talking points: actionnetwork.org/letters/ppa-...
actionnetwork.org
PPA Cancel Your ICE Contract
The Philadelphia Parking Authority has a contract to provide ICE with 16 parking spaces. While thousands of Philly-area residents have been kidnapped in ICE raids, the PPA makes $52,530 a year to serv...
001
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
There remains an active campaign to reply-harass Black people off this platform and it is not on us to solve this problem. It’s on y’all.
161082190
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 15/09/2026
The contrast between the marked disregard for these women and the loud campaigning for more white babies is gross. “ICE recorded 18 miscarriages during the first nine months of the Trump administration, the documents show, but the agency has no data on miscarriages after 3 October 2025.”
theguardian.com
Revealed: ICE lost count of miscarriages, while detaining a record number of pregnant women
ICE says it has no updated information on the number of miscarriages after 3 October 2025. Lawmakers, advocates and immigration attorneys have raised alarms that pregnant detainees are not receiving b...
312362
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Matt Bors @mattbors.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It was exactly ten years ago today, on my 33rd birthday, that I posted this comic online.
485297707666
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Stunning visitor this evening
Monarch butterfly perched on a bright orange Mexican sunflower in front of a wooden fence in my West Philly backyard
011
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Anyway. Data politics are the cataclysmic danger. AI is mostly just a mid tech attached to a speculative finance scheme. Anything it can make dangerous is already dangerous enough to kill us.
448794
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Walking off enough of the anxious energy to allow me to sleep through the dystopian nightmares
Screenshot of the iPhone step counter showing that I’ve averaged > 11 miles / day over the last month
000
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Miles W. Griffis @mileswgriffis.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I wrote about an (informal) memorial I made in a burn scar that killed 1.3 million Joshua trees, nearly the same “official” U.S. death toll of the pandemic. Now, I plant the yuccas in remembrance of those who died of Long COVID and ME 🪾🪏 thesicktimes.org/2026/09/08/w...
thesicktimes.org
We made a COVID-19 memorial in the ashes of a Joshua tree forest - The Sick Times
Despite nearly 1.3 million deaths and counting, there is still not a national memorial for the pandemic. Our informal memorial in the middle of the Mojave Desert is one small way to remember those we’...
57930
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 08/09/2026
to place the sexual and reproductive exploitation of black women at the center of your understanding of american slavery is to see that the system was forced birth and this, in turn, should lead to a more expansive vision of what the 13th amendment actually guarantees.
363073531
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Starbucks Workers United @sbworkersunited.org · 25/08/2026
🚨BREAKING: Our union of over 12,000 baristas are officially calling for a Starbucks boycott. Read this statement penned by Starbucks workers on why a boycott from ALL customers, allies, and organizations is necessary to fight back against corporate greed:
BOYCOTT STARBUCKS is written inside a zig-zaggy speech bubble against crumbled paper. Beside it are the Starbucks Workers United logo and an image of a coffee cup being poured out.We, the 12,000 and growing members of Starbucks Workers United, call on everyone who stands with working people to boycott Starbucks until they finalize a contract with union baristas and stop union-busting.
What we’re fighting for is simple: a minimum $17/hr wage, enough hours to live on, better staffing in our stores, and basic workplace protections. Every year, our living costs rise but our wages don’t keep up – a growing pressure many American workers are feeling as corporate greed accelerates unchecked in our country. 
Starbucks is banking on customers' blind loyalty to the integrity and values this company once stood for in order to keep squeezing them for profits. At a time when working-class people across the country are struggling in a challenging economy, it is no longer possible to be both a Starbucks customer and in support of workers; choosing to spend money at Starbucks is choosing a law breaking corporation over the baristas who make your coffee everyday exactly as you ask for it.
Starbucks has violated U.S. labor law more than any other company in modern history–the NLRB and its judges have found that Starbucks committed hundreds of labor violations and there are currently more than 550 unresolved unfair labor practice charges still pending against the company. Instead of finalizing a fair and reasonable union contract, Starbucks has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of care for the workers who fuel the company’s profits by wasting millions of dollars on AI and technology that doesn’t work, launching countless gimmicky drinks designed to distract from real problems, and inventing pointless policies that do nothing but make our jobs harder. 
This ongoing, irrational behavior by Starbucks and its refusal to settle a fair union contract with workers leaves us with no other choice than to call for a boycott. We know when working people stand up together, we win. 
No Contract? No Coffee.
9465764509
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Free DC @freedcproject.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
#Target has stayed silent on ICE's occupation of its own hometown — so this back-to school season, @aft.org, @aflcio.org, Boycott Target DC, the Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO, Free DC and many more are taking our spending elsewhere. See alternatives at www.aft.org/shopsmart
"Target won't stand with the Twin Cities. We won't stand at the register."
26227
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Share the last photo of the sky from your camera roll. Philly hit me with this earworm yesterday & I can’t get it out of my head
The sky over the eastern end of Market Street, with a yellow sign in the foreground which reads “TAKE WARNING” in black lettering with the iconic Operation Ivy “jumping man” figure
011
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Kate Schapira: "Well Put & Generalizable" @kateschapira.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Everyone* loves this chart & its message & while it's a useful counter to "individual responsibility"--especially with the point stressed here about holding systems accountable--I think it's also useful to look at its entourage of meanings: 🧵 *not literally
47030
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Grenfell cladding firm Arconic paid shareholders $31m more than to fire victims/survivors. 72 Britons died in fire due to faulty cladding. US shareholders sued for inadequate disclosures about cladding, received $74m compensation. Victims of fire, their families received $43m. No one prosecuted.
theguardian.com
Grenfell cladding firm Arconic paid shareholders £23m more in compensation than to fire victims
Report’s author said findings highlighted ‘near-total failure’ to hold corporations accountable over the disaster that killed 72 people
13394264
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Watching this bee frolic in the blossoms from the seeds I planted at the beginning of the season is a welcome reminder that doing our small part can often mean a lot for someone else #bloomscrolling
Fuzzy bee appears to be embracing a vibrant orange Mexican sunflower
031
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Sickening full circle: I'm old enough to remember when Amazon started, giving bibliophiles access to a more eclectic range of books than what small urban stores with limited shelf space could afford to stock. 30 years later they're the enemy of all that's precious. Heartbreaking & infuriating.
011
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 14/08/2026
Here's Amazon's two new planned fossil-fuelled AI data centres next to the ENTIRE POWER GRIDS OF SEVERAL LARGE COUNTRIES Together, the two gas-burning data centres will emit more than Spain's entire grid, if built
Bar chart comparing 2025 national grid CO2e emissions (grey bars) with two Amazon fossil‑fuelled AI data centres (red bars), showing the Amazon sites at about 33 and 17.5 megatonnes CO2e—higher than many countries' entire power grids.
4216581063
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
The nation’s only migrant family jail “is routinely holding children beyond the 20-day limit, including an Iranian-born ‘average American kid’ who’s been locked up for 123 days and counting.” “The facility is in perpetual violation of the law,” said @joaquincastrotx.bsky.social. #AbuseofPowerWatch
11814
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
BREAKING: after @fightforthefuture.org launched a major campaign with prominent LGBTQ+ artists pledging to boycott venues that use AI face scanners, two SF gay bars that were using the tech issued statements saying they've "heard the concerns" and will stop using the tech. When we fight, we win!
fightforthefuture.org
BREAKING: facing boycott campaign, SF gay bars abandon AI face scanners
SAN FRANCISCO, CA––Two prominent Bay Area gay bars have announced plans to “pause” their use of “Patronscan” face scanning devices after digital rights group Fight for the Future launched a boycott ca...
318856
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Compulsory “AI catechism” as a loyalty test functions like Arendt’s “pluralistic ignorance:” if everyone pretends to see the Emperor’s nonexistent clothes, it erodes your ability to trust anyone, essential for organizing resistance to the fascists pushing this tech. www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...
thenerve.news
Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying
It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our t...
000
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 02/08/2026
The diarrhea lettuce company, Taylor Farms, uses slave labor contracted from the Arizona Dept. of Corrections. The backbreaking labor is often performed by imprisoned Mexican nationals who would be otherwise ineligble to work in the US. They are paid $1.50 an hour.
futurism.com
The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor
The lettuce-producing Taylor Farms was linked to the widespread use of prison labor before its involvement in a cyclospora outbreak.
380112506091
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Darius Tahir @dariustahir.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Trump has extensive stock holdings in tobacco companies: kffhealthnews.org/courts/fda-t...
kffhealthnews.org
Trump Bought Tobacco Stocks and Raked In Industry Donations as FDA Eased Standards - KFF Health News
The Trump administration has pursued an extensive pro-tobacco agenda as the president and his political movement have been buoyed by a flood of tobacco industry money, federal records show.
622084
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
alex @dremenec.bsky.social · 28/10/2024
Generally we think of alt-text as the domain of those with accessibility needs. However alt-text is useful for many reasons, which benefit your viewers, as well as you, the creator!
An infographic. There are six panels.

1. "Slow internet. Alt text is shown in place of unloaded images." a drawing shows a phone with poor signal, and alt text is visible where the image should have loaded.

2. "Findabillity. Alt text helps to search content." A drawing shows someone searching 'dog with banana' and a post is shown underneath without the words 'dog' or 'banana'. It is implied to be part of the alt text.

3. "Screen readers. Alt is read out to people using text-to-speech software". There is a drawing of the output a screen-reader would show when viewing an image with alt text on bluesky.

4. "Translation. Alt text can be translated". A drawing shows a post being translated. The alt text is also translated into german.

5. "Readability. Text in images can be made legible" There is a drawing of some truly awful handwriting inside a speech bubble. The alt text clarifies what the text is supposed to say.

6. "Disambiguation. Description helps clarify intent." There is a drawing of a post with a picture of a creature. This is styled after the famous optical illusion of a rabbit and a duck. The alt text clarifies that the animal is a rabbit. It definitely looks more like a duck.
202112596954
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I love my local newspaper so much and read it everyday! Sign the workers’ petition, they deserve the world!!
28417
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Mari- homeless. Still Indigenous. @wordglass.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
“True wealth is the well-being of our families,” he said during a tour of his family’s cemetery, an hour east of Oklahoma City. “True wealth is being able to live on this Earth Mother without fear and without having to look over one’s shoulders.” 10/13
111
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
"Climate change isn’t a tragedy, it’s a crime. The fossil fuel industry are arsonists at a global scale." - Jamie Henn, Fossil Free Media truthout.org/articles/cal...
truthout.org
Calls Grow for Accountability From Fossil Fuel Execs Amid Climate-Fueled Fires
“We need Nuremberg trials for Big Oil,” the Sunrise Movement wrote on social media as wildfires rage across Canada.
02514
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Andrea Ritchie @dreanyc123.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Oh FFS maybe I don’t know hear me out we could call them Carbon/Fossil Fuel Economy fires instead of Canadian wildfires (brought to you by Canadian & US coal, oil & natural gas interests), look at yourselves & take action accordingly to protect ALL people???? Signed, Breathing Hot Smoke in Detroit
22812
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Long walks are my primary coping strategy, so this air quality alert is a challenge. But this baby is helping me ride it out. He was born in our back alley last summer and I thank him every day for agreeing to come inside & make my life immeasurably sweeter.
POV: looking down at my legs and feet propped up on a couch with a cute tabby cat stretched out in my lap.
011
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Fascist mass surveillance that entrenches ICE & DHS in local policing, justified by a corporate-manufactured fake “crisis” slate.com/life/2026/07...
slate.com
America Is Plagued by Shoplifting. I Went to the Headquarters of the War on “Shrink.” I Couldn’t Believe What I Saw.
At the headquarters of the war on “shrink,” I saw too much.
065
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
And @literaturegeek.bsky.social has you covered with this zine: zinebakery.com/bakeshop/cen...
zinebakery.com
read censored history, thwart fascists. | Zine Bakery
By Amanda Visconti et al.
03917
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
The semiquincentennial decorations all over Philly just look like epitaphs at this point
Rowhouse & tree decorated with red, white & blue bunting which reads “America: 1776-2026”
131
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
PSA: Trader Joe’s lemonade makes an excellent frozen coping strategy
A hand holding a home-made popsicle
010
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
I’ve noticed that for me, this phenomenon hits a similar sore spot to hearing people refer to COVID in the past tense.
040
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
The semiquincentennial decorations all over Philly just look like epitaphs at this point
Rowhouse & tree decorated with red, white & blue bunting which reads “America: 1776-2026”
131
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
UAINE @mahtowin1.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
42 People Arrested in Deadly Arizona Sober Living Home Fraud That Targeted Thousands of Native Americans. The Charges Include Manslaughter. nativenewsonline.net/health/42-ar...
nativenewsonline.net
42 Arrested in Arizona Sober Living Home Fraud Targeting Native Americans, Charges Include Manslaughter
Forty-two people were arrested in Arizona this week in 10 separate cases in connection with a nearly $3 billion sober living home fraud that targeted Native Americans and left thousands missing and de...
35846
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Are you saying you're NOT yet registered for these amazing trainings w/ @prisonculture.bsky.social @snarkbat.bsky.social Priya Parke & Graie Hagans?! Even though they've got the skills, thinking tools & the vision we need RIGHT now?? Fix that ASAP, come ON!!
lifeisasacredtext.com
Learn, To Do: A Training Series for This Moment
Tools and Tactics for Collective Liberation, from the Grassroots on Up
02617
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Excellent episode! I often think about how car dependence drives demand for policing (enforcement, surveillance, directing traffic, etc.) But this convo takes the analysis much further, decentering criminal punishment in responding to the systemic harms of motonormativity & road violence.
0265
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
DFW Support Committee @dfwsupportcommitt.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
please read this statement written by Benjamin "Champagne" Song and share as far and wide as you can: prairielanddefendants.com/defendant…
10789622
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Daniel José Older @djolder.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Mona Khalil spent her life protecting baby turtles near the Mediterranean. Israel killed her in an airstrike. I keep thinking about her and how I wish I'd met her or even known about her before she was murdered. she said she would continue protecting the turtles "As long as God gives me life."
Ink and wash drawing of a smiling middle aged woman in a tank top and hat
315566
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Powerful investigative reporting: even if these headlines aren’t surprising, reading the evil details of this greedy violence still fills me with so much rage.
010
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 08/06/2026
GEO Group, a private prison company, signed a contract to give ICE use of Delaney Hall and “support services” like security, maintenance, food services, etc. in exchange for over $60 mil/yr But it is the detainees—not GEO Group—who actually do that work, for free ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...
ballsandstrikes.org
The Delaney Hall Strike Is Exposing a Massive Thirteenth Amendment Crisis
The Delaney Hall Strike participants haven’t been convicted of anything—and are still being forced to work for nothing.
231091574
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Zito @zeets.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
All for the sake of what? Data collection? Enough is enough.
1705
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
I first encountered it protesting the Republican Nat’l Convention in San Diego in 1996. They fenced in a “free speech zone” outside the convention ctr and my 19-yr-old ass had an existential crisis about whether I could comply by delivering my planned speech in that pen.
110
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Helen McIntosh arrived in her 3rd grade classroom an hour early with fresh baked cornbread to offer an optional extra math class every morning at 7 am. Teaching us about fractions with warm buttery care <3
010
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Harsha Walia @harshawalia.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
I have a new piece out Reflecting on 20 years of migrant struggles, it goes into what abolish ICE does - and doesn't - mean; merging of immigration enforcement with policing & military power; and how fascism is made through bordering. Despite resisting it for so long, I also now define the border.
bostonreview.net
How Not to Abolish ICE
What have we learned from the past two decades of struggle?
6426211
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Johnathan Perkins @johnathanperk.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
UPDATE: Waymo driverless cars are now operating in Philly—same Jaguar models swarming Los Angele, last couple years. Remember, Waymo cooperates fully with I.C.E., providing GPS and multimedia info without even requiring a warrant from a judge. #ICE #Waymo #DHS #philly #Philadelphia #goBirds
43423254
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Minor detail in a terrifying & important piece, but I thought “Pax Silica” was a punchy critique by the headline editor until I got to the part where it’s the State Dept’s own term! We are below Hell: www.state.gov/pax-silica
state.gov
Pax Silica - United States Department of State
What is Pax Silica? Pax Silica is the Department of State’s flagship effort on AI and supply chain security, advancing new economic security consensus among allies and trusted partners. If the 20th ce...
010
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Rising Sine @sinerising.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Does your local tech company understand consent? > Yes! > Maybe later
4743218
Reposted by Artifice is not Intelligence
Phil Mandelbaum @philmandelbaum.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
In the last year, ICE has deported nearly half a million people. Killed dozens. Disappeared tens of thousands... These 23 protest songs are soundtracking the movement to stop it
crooksandliars.com
Anti-ICE Songs Soundtracking The Resistance
As the Trump administration calls for increased funding for war and policing, and more and more people die in ICE custody and at the hands of ICE officers, some artists are refusing to stay silent.
20634395
Artifice is not Intelligence @outgrained.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
as the TechTonic Justice researchers reported, “all 92 million low-income people in the U.S.…have some basic aspect of their lives decided by AI.”
020