Every one of them knew that as time went by
— Dale Carrico (@dalecarrico) December 31, 2017
They'd get a little bit older and a litter slower, but
Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All
Sunday, December 31, 2017
As Always, Year's Last Tweet
Julie Dash Interviews Octavia Butler
Julie Dash interviews Octavia Butler (1995)https://t.co/N5UZPZfFjn pic.twitter.com/2s5Q3VvZwY
— Seven Stories Press (@7StoriesPress) December 31, 2017
Saturday, December 30, 2017
MundiMuster! Floridians, You Can Restore the Vote
With your support, we’ve mailed over 100,000 petitions to Florida voters. The initiative is VERY close to having enough signatures to put restoring voting rights to 1.6 million people on the ballot. Here’s what’s needed now: (1/x)https://t.co/tTTUjUavC8
— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) December 30, 2017
Warping In The New Year...
Speaking of Star Trek, you know 2018 is the year warp drive gets invented, according to TOS canon. Lieutenant McGivers says so, and she should know, since she's the ship's historian. ;->
MARLA: Captain, it's a sleeper ship.
KIRK: Suspended animation?
MARLA: Uh huh. I've seen old photographs of this. Necessary because of the time involved in space travel until about the year 2018. It took years just to travel from one planet to another. Then a brilliant industrialist named Elon Musk found a way around the laws of physics. . .
Hm. Why does she say "about" the year 2018? Is there going to be time-distortion effect? Or has the election of Donald Trump altered the time-line? Anyway. . . happy new year. ;->
Friday, December 29, 2017
DiEM25 Is Needed... And Needs To Change
Farewell, not goodbye: leaving DiEM25 (or “We need to talk about democracy, transparency, feminism, and Assange.”)https://t.co/MHVFEGUiRW#diem25 pic.twitter.com/yGEcUA3Fpc
— Aral Balkan (@aral) December 29, 2017
Afrofuturity
It's easier to imagine killer AI's than a society not founded on white supremacy.
— بوكيبلينكي (@pookleblinky) January 19, 2015
The most society-altering plague or robot uprising of white scifi, is not as powerful a change as the backstory in afrofuturistic scifi.
— بوكيبلينكي (@pookleblinky) January 19, 2015
I love all of this.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Live Long And Prosper
Happy 85th Birthday to the legendary icon Nichelle Nichols! pic.twitter.com/WZZaX1mPW3
— Black Girl Nerds (@BlackGirlNerds) December 28, 2017
Piles of Antiquity
Trumped
Echelon Insights finds that there were only 17 days in 2017 where Donald Trump was not the top topic of conversation on social media, and he was the number one story every week for every audience.Garbage every minute, garbage all the way down. Highly elevating, for the soul, for the nation, for the world.
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Fake News
Internet of Shit
Did you receive an Alexa or Google Home for Christmas?
— LibrarianShipwreck (@libshipwreck) December 27, 2017
Not sure of where to put it?
Here are some good ideas: pic.twitter.com/2wHi8xEpT8
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
There's Still A Futurological Brickbat Under The Tree
Monday, December 25, 2017
Ready To Catch The Wave Should It Come
Federal Election Commission filings show that if a wave crashes on the Republican House majority in November, as many have predicted, Democratic surfers will be on their boards to catch it. Nearly a year out from the election, Democratic candidates have filed in all but 20 House districts held by Republicans. By comparison, Democrats in 80 districts do not have a Republican opponent for their seat. The Democrats are not just filing to run in districts where Mrs. Clinton performed well. They are also running for conservative seats that were uncontested in 2016 and where Republicans remain heavy favorites, in states like Texas, Arkansas and Nebraska.
Let's Make It Happen
Next Christmas we hope to be celebrating a blue wave. Let’s make it happen. https://t.co/7KWJNw4JdG pic.twitter.com/3h2ztEMdQb
— Swing Left (@swingleft) December 25, 2017
And What Have We Done?
Sunday, December 24, 2017
The Shit Stink
"You all just got a lot richer," President Trump told diners at Mar-a-Lago, where initiation fees cost $200,000, annual dues cost $14,000, and some of the most affluent members of society have the opportunity to interact with the presidenthttps://t.co/kBTneTg3Co
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) December 24, 2017
Christmas Effects by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
What’s “queer?” Here’s one train of thought about it. The depressing thing about the Christmas season -- isn’t it? -- is that it’s the time when all the institutions are speaking with one voice. The Church says what the Church says. But the State says the same thing: maybe not (in some ways it hardly matters) in the language of theology, but in the language the State talks: legal holidays, long school hiatus, special postage stamps, and all. And the language of commerce more than chimes in, as consumer purchasing is organized ever more narrowly around the final weeks of the calendar year, the Dow Jones aquiver over Americans’ “holiday mood.” The media, in turn, fall in triumphally behind the Christmas phalanx: ad-swollen magazines have oozing turkeys on the cover, while for the news industry every question turns into the Christmas question -- Will hostages be free for Christmas? What did that flash flood or mass murder (umpty-ump people killed and maimed) do to those families’ Christmas? And meanwhile, the pairing “families/Christmas” becomes increasingly tautological, as families more and more constitute themselves according to the schedule, and in the endlessly iterated image, of the holiday itself constituted in the image of "the" family.
The thing hasn’t, finally, so much to do with propaganda for Christianity as with propaganda for Christmas itself. They all -- religion, state, capital, ideology, domesticity, the discourses of power and legitimacy -- line up with each other so neatly once a year, and the monolith so created is a thing one can come to view with unhappy eyes. What if instead there were a practice of valuing the ways in which meanings and institutions can be at loose ends with each other? What if the richest junctures weren’t the ones where everything means the same thing? -- Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Tendencies, Duke University Press, 1993, pp. 5-6
Sunday Walk
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Women And Power
Trumpproval
Pollsters have long understood that the way in which you ask questions can profoundly influence the results of a poll. The folks who run the Trump Make America Great Again PAC apparently realize that, too. In a fundraising blast on Friday, they included a highly-scientific poll that begins thusly:
If one is sending out a poll to one's rabid supporters, one wouldn't think that one would need to cook the books. Still, The Donald will undoubtedly be delighted to hear that he got fewer "poor" ratings than his predecessor.
Friday, December 22, 2017
Either/Or
Huge new Finnish study finds planet could run on 100% renewable energy by 2050 and for less money than we pay now.
— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) December 22, 2017
Or, we could burn up the earthhttps://t.co/x5EnKlgTfg
Tariq Ali's Islam Quintet
Public Service Announcement
“Shared prosperity does not come from the generosity of bosses with miniscule tax burdens” https://t.co/Ppvb2z9v73
— Health Tech Law (@HealthPI) December 22, 2017
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Make Them Pay
And, oh yeah, as a Californian?
Top award for cowardice? Quite competitive, but goes to 12 Republican California House members who voted for tax bill that sought to politically punish their state thru higher taxes, cuts in health & education. If those 12 opposed, bill fails 215-215. Lots to explain in 2018.
— Gene Sperling (@genebsperling) December 19, 2017
#GOPTaxScam
Nobody gets to pretend this shit show hasn’t been written on the wall for the last FIFTY YEARS, or that the GOP hasn’t made its heinous intentions very clear by now.
— Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) December 2, 2017
They broke it, they bought it.
Vote them ALL the fuck out.
Monday, December 18, 2017
Better Late Than Never
about time (several years too late, but still): "#Twitter says it will now start banning accounts that affiliate with groups 'that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes.'" https://t.co/EKneQe04Ls #hate
— David Golumbia (@dgolumbia) December 18, 2017
Implementation is selective and slow and to be pressured not trusted (as usual), but, yes, but, still, yes.
Liberdopia
Libertarians think they are the "rational" ones if they remain calm while describing how poor people should die if the shareholders calculate that it will make them more money.
— Existential Comics (@existentialcoms) December 17, 2017
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Holder On Holding The Line
ABSOLUTE RED LINE: the firing of Bob Mueller or crippling the special counsel’s office. If removed or meaningfully tampered with, there must be mass, popular, peaceful support of both. The American people must be seen and heard - they will ultimately be determinative.— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) December 17, 2017
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Trumpproval
A new AP/NORC poll released yesterday puts Donald Trump's approval at 32%, making him the least popular first-year president in history (at least, since approval ratings began to be recorded in the 1940s). Despite the booming economy, only 40% of Americans think he is doing a good job on the economy. On the other hand, only 30% approve of how he is doing on health care, foreign policy, and taxes. The poll also found that only 9% think the country is more united under Trump while 67% think it is more divided.There has to be a reckoning coming...
Friday, December 15, 2017
I Fear This Is True
The best explanation of GOP behavior right now is they've become fatalistic about massive electoral losses and so are simply doing what they believe/trying to please the donors and lobbyists who can give them jobs after they're voted out https://t.co/YegX9ZQ6p6
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) December 15, 2017
Thursday, December 14, 2017
Still Grading... And Worse
Happy Birthday Indivisibles
6000 groups across the country, 5 million views of the original guide, and over 500,000 actions -- what a difference a year can make. Happy birthday, Indivisibles. #OneIndivisible pic.twitter.com/4qdn1BTWVB
— Indivisible Guide (@IndivisibleTeam) December 14, 2017
We All Know
Stephen Moore, author of the #GOPTaxScam, admits the truth about the bill. pic.twitter.com/gZoYPpckxw
— SocialSecurityWorks (@SSWorks) December 14, 2017
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
"And An Act of God"
Six months ago, I asked the smartest Dem Senate strategist where the three seats to win the majority back were: "Nevada, Arizona, and an act of God." Got the hardest one first.
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) December 13, 2017
54 years ago Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson & Carol Denise McNair killed by KKK in Birmingham Church Bombing
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) December 13, 2017
Today Alabama sent the man who prosecuted their killers to the Senate
The vote has power pic.twitter.com/aaZkge0hhO
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Trumpproval
In trying to find the right word for President Donald Trump, American voters are overwhelmingly negative, as 53 voters (not percent) say "idiot" is the first word that comes to mind when they think of the president, followed by 44 voters who say "liar" and 36 voters who say "incompetent," according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. In the same open-ended question, allowing for any answer, 35 voters say "leader," with 35 voters saying "strong," 26 voters saying "a**hole," 21 voters saying "great," 19 voters saying "moron," 18 voters saying "arrogant" and 17 voters saying "disgusting"... Of the 48 words used by five or more voters, 30 words are negative. Voters disapprove 57 - 37 percent of the job President Trump is doing, consistent with findings for the last four months. Trump has hit or topped the 40 percent approval mark four times since he was inaugurated. His highest approval, 42 percent, was in February.They're dismantling the ACA mandate, medicare, social security despite the flabbergasting unpopularity of this, they refuse to install gun regulations and invest in renewable energy despite the flabbergasting popularity of this. Trump lost the popular vote by millions, Roy Moore is likely to be elected this very day to a Senate seat while a majority (with whom I number myself) thinks he is straightforwardly unfit for office. Republicans think they are insulated from consequences -- and they may just be right, and if they are right things may get bad enough before the next election that things won't get better again for any election in my lifetime. That said, disapproval like this would historically indicate a Democratic Wave in the upcoming mid-terms and a one-term humiliation of a failed presidency for Trump. Maybe that will be true again. It should be true. It needs to be true. It is worth working to make it true.
Monday, December 11, 2017
Happy Birthday UNICEF
Did you know that @UNICEF provides 45% of the world’s vaccines for kids? Please join me in offering a big thank you to UNICEF on its 71st birthday! #ForEveryChild https://t.co/Zzkb8ACOEm
— Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) December 11, 2017
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Saturday, December 09, 2017
Better Late Than Never -- The Doug Jones Campaign Is Actually Asking For The Votes It Needs At Last
I love Alabama. It's my father's home state. My sisters and brother live there today. I made a film about its beloved city, Selma. If you live there and love it too, please watch this. Then, vote for decency and justice. Vote #DougJones. pic.twitter.com/qhGniyp3qC
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) December 9, 2017
My Retweets Suggest Unexpected Star Wars Fever...?
Finally, it can be tried as an adult. https://t.co/I68f1bwBuD
— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) December 9, 2017
Since "A New Hope," Women Have Gone from Speaking 6% of the Dialogue in #StarWars to 28%. Can #TheLastJedi Do Even Better? https://t.co/qT8cPhkiFl pic.twitter.com/jlz4B5Hbht
— The Mary Sue (@TheMarySue) December 9, 2017
Grading
Friday, December 08, 2017
Tech's This! Changes! Everything!
Trumpproval
Thursday, December 07, 2017
Also, Too
Every Democratic House and Senate speech should begin with this simple statement on all topics. https://t.co/3I7zKgZOSs
— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) December 7, 2017
Tuesday, December 05, 2017
The "War On Drugs" Is Racist...
legalizing marijuana without pardoning everyone in the jurisdiction who's in prison for selling weed is a form of institutional racism.
— trial error (@dreamaskew) December 4, 2017
taxing marijuana sales without allocating that revenue to rebuilding communities devastating by "drug war" policing is institutional racism.
Indeed
just so folks realize, GOP embrace of Moore is a preview of GOP's embrace of firing Mueller and and GOP's embrace of idea Trump can't be prosecuted for obstruction of justice.
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) December 5, 2017
Get ready, they're going to push it to the edge, they're going to test the republic and there is every reason to think the republic will fail.
Monday, December 04, 2017
God Damn Them, Every One...
A Christmas Carol is good because it recognizes that rich people suck and will only change their ways if they are made to feel absolute terror.
— michaela joffe (@joffeorama) December 3, 2017
Sunday, December 03, 2017
Sunday Walk
Saturday, December 02, 2017
On A Day of Defeat... Recall A Year of Effective Resistance... And Gather Your Strength
It has been a grueling year for people who care about human rights, climate change, and whatever remains of value in federal institutions from the judiciary to the diplomatic corps. This is a terrible, terrible era, one in which tremendous harm is being done to many people, to the planet and to the federal government. It is also a time in which, through the heroic work of people all over the country and the world, the regime has been exposed, thwarted and rebuked. That’s worth remembering as we face a horrific tax bill and the end of net neutrality. This year of conflicts demonstrates that sometimes when we fight we win, and we have enormous fights ahead of us. The Trump administration is unstable for many reasons, from the erratic behaviour of the president to the Mueller investigation. Civil society has tremendous influence over what becomes of it, and of us. It’s time to take stock of some of the encouraging phenomena that emerged from this grim year. So I made a list.
Don't Think I Don't Know It...
they are trying to kill you and you should decide what you're going to do about it.
— Anthony Oliveira (@meakoopa) December 2, 2017
Friday, December 01, 2017
Where We All Are Now
So, here is the News this morning. The Leader of the Free World is now completely unhinged, but we can't do anything at all about it because he has rock solid support from racists, and all the very rich Republicans who badly need another tax cut
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) December 1, 2017
And now, the weather...