Colin retweeted
THREAD. It's important for all people of good will to understand the Laken Riley Act before the Senate votes on it tomorrow. It’s unconstitutional. It’s horrific in every word and clause. But there is a deeper, more imminent violence lurking beneath its hate-filled text.
Colin retweeted
The problem with liberalism is that it rests on a fundamental contradiction that cannot be resolved. It will always fail, it will always collapse, and this explains everything about our current moment.
Liberals try to hold two commitments at once: on the one hand, they are firmly committed to capitalism; on the other, they express support for principles like human rights, democracy, equality, freedom of speech, environment and the rule of law. This duality is the core of liberalism.
But there's a problem. Capital accumulation requires cheapening labour and nature. This eventually comes into direct conflict with principles like rights and equality. And whenever this conflict appears, the liberal ruling class sides with capital, abandons their lofty principles, and throws workers and nature under the bus. Every. Single. Time.
This results in flagrant displays of hypocrisy. They run on nice-sounding platforms but end up either betraying their promises or actively working against their stated values. They'll slash public services, bail out banks, imprison journalists, beat up students, expand fracking, coup democratically elected leaders in the global South, bomb liberation movements, fund a genocide - they'll even trash international law itself - anything that's needed to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation.
At most, they may try to negotiate mediocre compromises, a few social policies here and there - some abortion rights, a tiny increase in the minimum wage - but nothing that might pose any serious threat to capital accumulation. Thus the soul-crushing slowness of liberal incrementalism. Ultimately they are unwilling to take any of the obvious steps that would actually resolve our urgent social and ecological crises.
This is why nobody trusts liberal politicians. This is why they come across as so fantastically insincere, and even sneering. This is why they feel so spineless and *empty*.
The center cannot hold. Liberalism will always collapse, inevitably handing power to fascists, and this is not acceptable. There is only one way to overcome this deadly impasse, and that is to mobilize a socialist alternative. A political movement that can unite the working-classes, overcome capitalism, deliver real economic democracy, and enable us to achieve rapid progress toward social and ecological goals.
Our politics is encapsulated by each candidate one-upping each other on fracking: “I swear I will incinerate this planet, my opponent won’t but I promise you this whole place will go up in smoke so fast”
NBC show one other swimmer challenge.
They were showing Katie’s family’s reaction as a close race for silver & bronze came down the stretch. Excruciating!!
The world is waiting to see who will be the first tennis player to learn to write backwards
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Colin retweeted
If you are feeling sad and hopeless that is completely understandable, but it's also a luxury we can't afford right now. Here's a list of some great organisations helping on the ground, just as a handy guide:
Colin retweeted
The Guardian has created a stunning visual map of the scale of destruction in Gaza. Homes, mosques, libraries, churches, schools, universities -- everything that makes civil life possible -- erased. theguardian.com/world/ng-int…
Colin retweeted
My favorite shit-era twitter twitter paid ad is this one for little stamped steel brackets
Y’all Harry Houdini was fit! How do I get those legs
In 1908, Houdini stood at the edge of the Harvard Bridge—commonly referred to as the Mass. Ave. Bridge—and was shackled by a Boston patrolman. His hands were handcuffed behind his back and chained to a collar around his neck.
According to a Boston Globe article chronicling the feat, a signal was tooted from a towboat, and Houdini went overboard into the chilly waters below.
“There is always the possibility that I will be unable to free myself, as one never can tell what will happen to a lock,” Houdini told the newspaper.
“However, I am a good swimmer, have confidence in myself, and I hope to perform this feat successfully.”
The Globe estimated some 20,000 spectators gathered to see Houdini’s leap, including the mayors of Boston and Cambridge. They waited 40 seconds for the magician to resurface, which he did with the shackles in his hands.
One of my favorite days ever at @Nashville_CM and an instant classic talk by @SamsMyth
We just rediscovered this 2018 talk from designer & musician @samsmyth. How do you find your way to your Path of Bliss?
buff.ly/46lfB3k
Colin retweeted
A wise person once said that you will experience climate change through a series of increasingly wild videos, until you are the one taking the video.
In an article about wealth and (in)conspicuous consumption, @GuyTrebay indulges in his own brand of flash. In two paragraphs we have “veblenesque,” “delectation,” “empyrean,” and we have our dictionary out.
Colin retweeted
Pale Blue Dot is a photo of Earth that was taken by the Voyager 1 space probe in 1990 from a distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) as it was leaving our solar system. This is what Carl Sagan said about the photo:
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor, and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
