jenny (phire)
@phirephoenix.com
I write code for a living and words for my sins. occasional blog posts at https://phirephoenix.com, weekly newsletter for organizing/activism in Toronto at @showuptoronto.ca.
Pinned
jenny (phire)
@phirephoenix.com
· Aug 1
Show Up TO
Show Up Toronto is a hub and weekly newsletter of community organizing, mutual aid, and advocacy events from around the city.
showuptoronto.ca
It's been almost three months since I launched Show Up Toronto and in that time I've posted 426 events from over 200 groups, which is pretty dang cool. The fact that there are consistently 100+ events a month representing the labour of thousands validates my optimism about the city. showuptoronto.ca
Reposted by jenny (phire)
As someone who grew up in the area, it is very upsetting that the province is considering selling off portions of Wasaga beach provincial park. In addition to being a nature area accessible from Toronto it also has a big role in wildlife preservation (esp. the piping plovers).
I wrote about this too. Why isn’t Ontario hitting the barricades in rage? We’ve so little lake access. Entirely privatized shorelines. You could give the province away to oligarchs & people would be meh. Thx to Fatima for calling this early on.
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
November 10, 2025 at 11:31 PM
As someone who grew up in the area, it is very upsetting that the province is considering selling off portions of Wasaga beach provincial park. In addition to being a nature area accessible from Toronto it also has a big role in wildlife preservation (esp. the piping plovers).
Reposted by jenny (phire)
@tressiemcphd.bsky.social has repeatedly observed that the MAGA feminine aesthetic, instead of aiming for a coherent beauty heuristic, is meant *only* to signal female willingness to self-subjugate to a male desire.
The outcome needn’t be “attractive”, it need only say “I’m willing to do this”.
The outcome needn’t be “attractive”, it need only say “I’m willing to do this”.
November 10, 2025 at 9:22 PM
@tressiemcphd.bsky.social has repeatedly observed that the MAGA feminine aesthetic, instead of aiming for a coherent beauty heuristic, is meant *only* to signal female willingness to self-subjugate to a male desire.
The outcome needn’t be “attractive”, it need only say “I’m willing to do this”.
The outcome needn’t be “attractive”, it need only say “I’m willing to do this”.
Reposted by jenny (phire)
If Wall Street threatens Mamdani-style reforms with a capital strike, organized labor can fight back—history shows how banks killed NYC’s progressive plans in 1975, so unions must prepare to counter similar opposition now.
If Capital Strikes Against Mamdani, Organized Worker Power Can Strike Back
Let’s study how Wall Street sank Mamdani-style municipal plans back in 1975 — and get prepared for a similar fight.
truthout.org
November 10, 2025 at 8:44 PM
If Wall Street threatens Mamdani-style reforms with a capital strike, organized labor can fight back—history shows how banks killed NYC’s progressive plans in 1975, so unions must prepare to counter similar opposition now.
Reposted by jenny (phire)
Today at 6:30PM: TWC Canada Book Club Pt 3 (BAAA School, 300 Campbell). The Tech Worker’s Coalition invites you to join in for a book club series to read No Shortcuts by Jane McAlevey, a seminal text on labour organizing. This first session will cover chapters 5 and 6. Whether you’re worried...
TWC Canada Book Club Pt 3
The Tech Worker’s Coalition invites you to join in for a book club series to read No Shortcuts by Jane McAlevey, a seminal text on labour organizing. This first session will cover chapters 5 and 6. Whether you’re worried about burnout or layoffs or concerned about the moral direction of the industry, the best way to channel your energy is through collective action. Open to all who are interested in learning more about labour organizing – you do not have to be a tech worker!
luma.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Today at 6:30PM: TWC Canada Book Club Pt 3 (BAAA School, 300 Campbell). The Tech Worker’s Coalition invites you to join in for a book club series to read No Shortcuts by Jane McAlevey, a seminal text on labour organizing. This first session will cover chapters 5 and 6. Whether you’re worried...
Reposted by jenny (phire)
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
Reposted by jenny (phire)
After the Rubygems drama, I felt frustrated that I can’t escape evil people trying to dominate my life.
I found myself mourning the future I thought we would have; but also hopeful that it’s not too late to start choosing kindness.
Join me in building a better future:
okayfail.com/2025/in-prai...
I found myself mourning the future I thought we would have; but also hopeful that it’s not too late to start choosing kindness.
Join me in building a better future:
okayfail.com/2025/in-prai...
In Praise of dhh
A reflection on Ruby's past, present, and future.
okayfail.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:52 PM
After the Rubygems drama, I felt frustrated that I can’t escape evil people trying to dominate my life.
I found myself mourning the future I thought we would have; but also hopeful that it’s not too late to start choosing kindness.
Join me in building a better future:
okayfail.com/2025/in-prai...
I found myself mourning the future I thought we would have; but also hopeful that it’s not too late to start choosing kindness.
Join me in building a better future:
okayfail.com/2025/in-prai...
Reposted by jenny (phire)
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
Please read this entire excellent piece by Caroline, which points out that a judge ordered the Feds (again) to stop doing **this exact kind of thing** and they are still continuing to do it all over Chicago
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
Please read this entire excellent piece by Caroline, which points out that a judge ordered the Feds (again) to stop doing **this exact kind of thing** and they are still continuing to do it all over Chicago
Arianna Sofia Veraza and her parents were driving to Sam's Club for milk, eggs and diapers yesterday when they heard helicopters and horns blaring yesterday. They had turned around to leave when a federal agent pepper-sprayed them through a car window.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/09/c...
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/09/c...
Pepper-sprayed Berwyn family rattled after getting caught up in federal blitz
Southwest Side politicians condemned Saturday’s pepper spraying and the federal sweep of Little Village as “state-sponsored terrorism” at a news conference Sunday.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:56 PM
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
Please read this entire excellent piece by Caroline, which points out that a judge ordered the Feds (again) to stop doing **this exact kind of thing** and they are still continuing to do it all over Chicago
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
Please read this entire excellent piece by Caroline, which points out that a judge ordered the Feds (again) to stop doing **this exact kind of thing** and they are still continuing to do it all over Chicago
Reposted by jenny (phire)
Sounds like the squishes in the senate caucus are ready to pull the plug with no ACA changes. This is real. If you want to register your opinion you shld call yr senator in the next hour. They not only want to reopen w/nothing. They want cover from their colleagues who still want to hold out.
November 9, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Sounds like the squishes in the senate caucus are ready to pull the plug with no ACA changes. This is real. If you want to register your opinion you shld call yr senator in the next hour. They not only want to reopen w/nothing. They want cover from their colleagues who still want to hold out.
Reposted by jenny (phire)
Please primary every sitting Democrat
Even the corporatist Hill reporters are gobsmacked by how complete @schumer.senate.gov's collapse is: "And this does absolutely zero on Obamacare. The most Democrats get is a Senate vote. After 40 days."
November 9, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Please primary every sitting Democrat
Reposted by jenny (phire)
Six people died from tampered Tylenol and the company pulled 30 million bottles off the market. ChatGPT is accused of urging seven people towards suicide, and OpenAI just assures us they’re still working out the kinks. Billions in investment, zero accountability.
OpenAI faces 7 lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide, delusions
OpenAI is facing seven lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide and harmful delusions even when they had no prior mental health issues.
apnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Six people died from tampered Tylenol and the company pulled 30 million bottles off the market. ChatGPT is accused of urging seven people towards suicide, and OpenAI just assures us they’re still working out the kinks. Billions in investment, zero accountability.
Reposted by jenny (phire)
40 men Trump sent to CECOT tell the NYT they were beaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted. The details are worse than you can imagine.
We can’t let them get away with this. Miller and the other architects of this sadism need to go to prison.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
We can’t let them get away with this. Miller and the other architects of this sadism need to go to prison.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
‘You Are All Terrorists’: Four Months in a Salvadoran Prison
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:20 AM
40 men Trump sent to CECOT tell the NYT they were beaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted. The details are worse than you can imagine.
We can’t let them get away with this. Miller and the other architects of this sadism need to go to prison.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
We can’t let them get away with this. Miller and the other architects of this sadism need to go to prison.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
Reposted by jenny (phire)
we all got that one sullen homie whose leitmotif shares a chord progression and instrumention with an enemy whose identity is yet revealed
October 13, 2025 at 2:19 PM
we all got that one sullen homie whose leitmotif shares a chord progression and instrumention with an enemy whose identity is yet revealed
Reposted by jenny (phire)
“You’re going to be disappointing other people or you’re going to be disappointing yourself. You have to choose.” — my partner to me today. Thought I’d mess yall up too. Thanks!
November 8, 2025 at 2:09 PM
“You’re going to be disappointing other people or you’re going to be disappointing yourself. You have to choose.” — my partner to me today. Thought I’d mess yall up too. Thanks!
"The Authoritarian Stack: How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next" www.authoritarian-stack.info
The Authoritarian Stack
How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next
www.authoritarian-stack.info
November 7, 2025 at 9:55 PM
"The Authoritarian Stack: How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next" www.authoritarian-stack.info
There is a video in this thread and you should watch it
if you are the public defense investigator who just subpoenaed Sam Altman on stage know that i love you and think you are a wonder upon this earth.
November 7, 2025 at 9:53 PM
There is a video in this thread and you should watch it
Reposted by jenny (phire)
Criminal organization attempting to conceal evidence bsky.app/profile/brad...
DHS confirmed it has stopped automatically storing officials' text messages.
Instead, officials are supposed to take a screenshot, send that to their work email, download it onto their work computer and run a text-recognition program on it. Every time.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...
Instead, officials are supposed to take a screenshot, send that to their work email, download it onto their work computer and run a text-recognition program on it. Every time.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Criminal organization attempting to conceal evidence bsky.app/profile/brad...
Reposted by jenny (phire)
Yeah, I said this the other day, but I think both sides here underestimate the extent to which lots of normal people harbor a degree of sort of low-level bigotry but are also completely creeped out by someone trying to build a whole identity around it or turn it into a crusade.
I don't think it's even right to say the voting public doesn't care. I think the truth is a lot of voters may generally find trans identity moderately confusing but also *none of their business*.
on the other hand, they find an obsession with harming trans people - say it with me - deeply weird.
on the other hand, they find an obsession with harming trans people - say it with me - deeply weird.
Spanberger’s GOP foe spent 57% of her ad budget on anti-trans attacks. Spanberger focused on the economy. You see what won. trib.al/fkMmsR4
The simple truth told time and time again in the polls: The public doesn’t care about trans issues. Voters care deeply about the economy, inflation, & prices.
The simple truth told time and time again in the polls: The public doesn’t care about trans issues. Voters care deeply about the economy, inflation, & prices.
November 6, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Yeah, I said this the other day, but I think both sides here underestimate the extent to which lots of normal people harbor a degree of sort of low-level bigotry but are also completely creeped out by someone trying to build a whole identity around it or turn it into a crusade.
Reposted by jenny (phire)
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments
“People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty,” he said in 2003. “I think it would be great.”
www.vox.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
Reposted by jenny (phire)
one of the reasons Kevin O'Leary has mostly abandoned Canada for the USA is that he's an idiot and politicians of all stripes in Canada know he's an idiot so they stopped talking to him decades ago
Canadian multimillionaire and Shark Tank guy Kevin O'Leary went on TV to say he's upset Zohran won't talk to him: "I and others who invest in real estate have tried to get a meeting to figure out what's rhetoric and what's policy. So far for me it's been crickets."
November 7, 2025 at 7:19 PM
one of the reasons Kevin O'Leary has mostly abandoned Canada for the USA is that he's an idiot and politicians of all stripes in Canada know he's an idiot so they stopped talking to him decades ago
I know there is at least one person who uses the Show Up RSS feed and I hope you find this more useful than the "one post per event as they get added" version.
If you like RSS, the Show Up Toronto RSS feed has gotten some upgrades!! It now shows all upcoming events for the *next* day (i.e. Friday's post will show Saturday events) in one post so you can be reminded of what's coming up and make plans. Feed link: showuptoronto.ca/static/feed....
showuptoronto.ca
November 7, 2025 at 7:31 PM
I know there is at least one person who uses the Show Up RSS feed and I hope you find this more useful than the "one post per event as they get added" version.
Reposted by jenny (phire)
#NOKINGS
#IceOUT
#Illinois
Chicago Illinois
Pack & Protect: Community Action Night
Tuesday, November 11
5 – 7pm CST
Schoolhouse Kitchen +
Studio Portage Park
4410 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...
#IceOUT
#Illinois
Chicago Illinois
Pack & Protect: Community Action Night
Tuesday, November 11
5 – 7pm CST
Schoolhouse Kitchen +
Studio Portage Park
4410 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...
Pack & Protect: Community Action Night · Mobilize
Join us for an evening of action and learning at Schoolhouse Kitchen in Portage Park as we come together to assemble “Know Your Rights / Whistle Packs” — small kits that include key legal rights info...
www.mobilize.us
November 5, 2025 at 2:28 PM
#NOKINGS
#IceOUT
#Illinois
Chicago Illinois
Pack & Protect: Community Action Night
Tuesday, November 11
5 – 7pm CST
Schoolhouse Kitchen +
Studio Portage Park
4410 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...
#IceOUT
#Illinois
Chicago Illinois
Pack & Protect: Community Action Night
Tuesday, November 11
5 – 7pm CST
Schoolhouse Kitchen +
Studio Portage Park
4410 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...
Reposted by jenny (phire)
I would put more money on continuing to harvest infinite energy from the sun over assuming that forcing everyone to use The Machine The Lies To You is the steady basis of an entire economy
A fun question. In 5 years time, what looks better? The US’s enormous bet & capex on AI? Or China’s equally enormous bet and capex on renewables?
China has made cheap, clean energy available in huge quantities. The world should take the win econ.st/4oqFszB
Photo: Eyevine
Photo: Eyevine
November 7, 2025 at 11:55 AM
I would put more money on continuing to harvest infinite energy from the sun over assuming that forcing everyone to use The Machine The Lies To You is the steady basis of an entire economy
Reposted by jenny (phire)
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 3:08 AM
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
Reposted by jenny (phire)
Under new head of Paramount David Ellison, the studio has drawn up a list of actors who opposed the Gaza genocide and will not allow them to appear in its films and TV shows.
Does this sound familiar?
Also, "Ellison is reportedly aiming to take over Warner Bros. next."
Does this sound familiar?
Also, "Ellison is reportedly aiming to take over Warner Bros. next."
Paramount Has Blacklist for Stars Deemed “Overtly Antisemitic” — World of Reel
It sure looks like the likes of Javier Bardem, Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, and Mark Ruffalo won’t be making movies for Paramount in the foreseeable future.
www.worldofreel.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Under new head of Paramount David Ellison, the studio has drawn up a list of actors who opposed the Gaza genocide and will not allow them to appear in its films and TV shows.
Does this sound familiar?
Also, "Ellison is reportedly aiming to take over Warner Bros. next."
Does this sound familiar?
Also, "Ellison is reportedly aiming to take over Warner Bros. next."
Reposted by jenny (phire)
I fully believe in the corporate death penalty and believe we would be a better world if OpenAI lost its corporate charter and was forcibly dissolved.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI | CNN
A 23-year-old man killed himself in Texas after ChatGPT ‘goaded’ him to commit suicide, his family says in a lawsuit.
www.cnn.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:12 AM
I fully believe in the corporate death penalty and believe we would be a better world if OpenAI lost its corporate charter and was forcibly dissolved.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...