A Late Summer Round-Up

I regret to report that Twitter in the month of August 2015 brings us more tweets about The Donald. It is amazing, yet self-fulfilling, that this circus keeps running and the media continues to report on it.

'President Donald Trump' is an anagram of 'Mad Pundit Serpent Lord.'
By Saladin Ahmed

Did he even read what he was typing?


By sarah

So many articles about Trump's polls, so little journalism about his record - almost as if because the latter is harder, the media avoids it
By David Sirota

if I am elected President, I will build a tall fence around Donald Trump
By Mary Charlene

Donald Trump is like the Las Vegas Strip: artificial yet genuine. And people love the Strip even though it's tacky and takes their money.
By Josh Barro

Maybe when Trump says he'd be "great to women" he means he'd marry every woman, then divorce them & then they'll get big alimony checks.
By W. Kamau Bell

Anyone who uses the word "classy"'is not.
By Rob Kutner

Fox News vs Trump is like mad scientists trying to find the off button on the killer robot they built.
By James Poniewozik

More reporters are talking about Trump making a period joke than the fact that several candidates would force a woman to die in pregnancy.
By keptsimple

As far as Trump is concerned, the world's an African lion and he's a dentist.
By Frank Conniff

We need a Trump presidency because he's so disinterested in ideology he could usher in social democracy totally by accident.
By Matt Christman

Trump could show basic human decency and not insult women for their looks but he doesn't have time for stupid PC bullshit.
By Frank Conniff

On topics related to Black Lives Matter and white supremacy:

This is how sad white supremacy is: all of a sudden dipshits are pretending to care about the legacy of William McKinley.
By Saladin Ahmed

I bought a white noise machine but all it does is yell about "The 2nd Amendment,” "free trade,” and "post-racial America.”
By John Patrick Coan

The people who gave us the right to bear arms were also kinda cool with slavery. So keep that in mind.
By Kumail Nanjiani

Anytime you say "Slavery was wrong BUT..." it's always a downhill argument from there.
By Bree Newsome

As a matter of analyzing rhetoric, "criticizing police practices" ≠ "anti-police rhetoric."
By Jamelle Bouie

Addressed to Bree Newsome:

Doesn't the Confederate flag, among many other things, represent "the desire to secede from the Union" aka TREASON?
By Young,Gifted & Black

To which Bree Newsome replied:

Yes. But racists see no contradiction because they consider "American" = white so they often wave both flags without irony.

Is "white identity politics" what we're calling racism these days?
By David Roberts

The belief that black communities do not care for and grieve for their own is one of the worst lies of white supremacy. And easily disproven.
By Sarah Kendzior

"In this country we like to say we're color blind — what we're really blind to is racial injustice.” — @JennBorchetta
By Demos_Org

Don't tell me I need a break and I'm just tired and overreacting. Don't tell me anything but what you're going to do to help stop this shit! Don't tell me to be quiet in the face of injustice. Don't tell me to be patient as people continue to be killed.
By Charles Wade

By the way, y'all know that "don't pressure the one who's already your friend" is exactly what people told Martin Luther King about Lyndon Johnson, right?
By jay smooth [referring to Black Lives Matter and Bernie Sanders]

People of colour aren't even allowed to determine what we think is racist or not. White supremacy wants that right too.
By Writers of Colour

Dear Silicon Valley, please disrupt: - racism - systemic discrimination - the patriarchy. Please do not disrupt: - local businesses. thx.
By Tess Rinearson

If you ever wondered what it would be like to live in the Civil Rights Movement, and what role you would play, you are in it right now.
By Shaun King

White racists who worship guns enter my mentions to complain that non-violent protesters incite violence. LOL. Oh, racists.
By Bree Newsome

Everyone thinks die-hard racists were raptured or something in the 60s. They're still here.
By H.P. Davis

“Culture of grievance” = “people other than white men being allowed to articulate their grievances.”
By David Roberts

Dear white people: no one is saying your life can't be hard if you're white but it's not hard because you're white.
By Austin

If "All Lives Matter," then why don't we have Universal Healthcare? And why are prisons privatized? And why are there still homeless people?
By Hari Kondabolu

There was quite a run of education-related tweets, so I’ve grouped them this month…

It is not cheating for students to use resources they will have access to in their every day lives. Teach how to use rather than ban.
By Alice Keeler

Education is too much about control and not enough about messy learning.
By Simon Keily

Delivering equal, democratic education is a very difficult task in a society that isn't either of those things.
By jelani cobb

Grit is the excuse to justify deprivation and withholding proper care and resources and spending on children.
By Gary McIver

What if someone was constantly badgering Einstein to be organized? "Albert Pay attention to me and stop daydreaming, color code your folder"
By Sisyphus38

And then the usual run of subjects and jokes…

It's astonishing how many boneheaded imperialist assumptions are baked in to even the most liberal national security pundits' narratives.
By Saladin Ahmed  

So many of the bad things about academic science aren't about doing good science; they're about the hazing ritual of joining the club. Bad writing. Publish or perish. Staying to narrow disciplines. Not valuing engagement, real world impacts. We need to do so much better.
By Jonathan Foley

Nice to see someone spotlight the fun, flirty side of crucifixion:


By Bridger Winegar

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.” ― Wendell Berry
By Then Ms Murphy Said

“Wussification” is not a real thing. It only exists in the minds of those who who buy into toxic and fragile masculinity.
By Toni

Change is guaranteed, progress is not.
By Free Public Transit

Millennials, next time another generation calls you entitled remind them you are in debt for the same things they got for free.
By charles ezell

People sometimes say I'm writing poverty porn. I used to dislike that. Now I say if you read it like that, it says something about *you.* Because I write about reality, one shared by millions. If you feel like you're exploiting people even reading about it, maybe rethink things. Not my fault if our system makes you feel bad, if you feel dirty even knowing what people go through. Not my fault you hadn't known.
By KillerMartinis

One of the privileges of being Indian is that a hurricane will never be named after me.
By Nikhil Goyal

It's kind of weird that the only time I've heard of a mass shooting being prevented, it was by three Americans without guns.
By Peter Schultz

Let’s call the “service economy” what it is: the reinstitution of a servant class and a rollback of worker’s rights.
By Mike Monteiro

"Dystopian fiction is what happens when you take what happens to marginalized people and apply it to everyone" - @leeflower
By mez

Autosprawl welfare: Half of corporate profits are directly stolen from biosphere.
By Free Public Transit

When was the last shuttered business that actually had shutters?
By Chris Steller

According to our media, racism, sexism, militarism and greed are not nearly as bad as using a private email server.
By Frank Conniff

This is still the greatest moment in food stamp twitter:


By Matt Bruenig

Successful cities are where people stop, not where they keep moving. City streets are public spaces, for civic life.
By jennifer keesmaat

Worry is a misuse of the imagination.
By Navee~

Scopes creep: the tendency to believe, late in the software development process, that the original code came from a monkey.
By Neven Mrgan

I feel like we need a Big Brother/ Big Sister program, but for internet trolls. They seem so lonely.
By Ijeoma Oluo

High-profile NGOs use unpaid internships and pay low salaries, locking out the communities they claim to serve from participation.
By Sarah Kendzior

Yale spent more endowment income last year paying hedge fund managers than on scholarships. [Citing the New York Times]
By Nick Confessore

What's eye opening is that I got about 15 emails [in response to an article about sexist treatment while buying a car] from women, thanking me. Further proof that Star Tribune comments are where bullies go to party.
By Molly Priesmeyer

To whatever man who felt the need to make these… are u okay? who hurt u? why r u so afraid of female capability?


By kinderwhore

What good is religion if it doesn’t make you better, or at least make you try harder? If it only fuels your tribal resentments? Yet most people in the US who advertise their Christianity are in the business of condemning people & behaviors other than themselves. Seems to me the primary effect of becoming a Christian should be that it makes your *own* life more difficult. Higher standards to reach.

To be clear: I’m for anything that inspires people to try to be better, even if it’s total hoo-ha, empirically speaking. But humans really don’t need anything that fuels their propensity to judge & condemn those they view as Other. We’ve got that covered.
By David Roberts

Americans’ lawns now cover an area three times larger than any irrigated crop in the U.S.
By Momentum

Great typesetting makes everything better.
By Ryan Essmaker

You are not stuck in traffic. You ARE traffic.
By Science Porn

People recognize dynasties in political families but neglect the dynasties of professions, grown by unpaid labor and purchased credentials
By Sarah Kendzior

"The historical character of the neighborhood" always equals "How things were when *I* moved here."
By Brooklyn Spoke

In hindsight, it would have been sweet if public school gym focused on lifelong exercise habits instead of shame and light violence.
By Jamie Keiles

It's that time of year when white people are returning from "life-changing" experiences in Africa and posting pics with black and brown kids.
By Nikhil Goyal

Actually, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords as a basis for a system of government is beginning to sound like a better process
By Swedish Canary

It’s good to read all media reporting with anonymous quotes the way the CIA used to read Pravda: not as a reflection of what's actually happening but more like what some powerful faction/set of interests *want to see happen* or want people to believe is happening.
By Christopher Hayes

Capitalism had 100 years of cheap oil and never eliminated poverty.
By Free Public Transit

Worrying about sentient AI as the ice caps melt is like standing on the tracks as the train rushes in, worrying about being hit by lightning
By Bret Victor

If any "founders" out there want to "disrupt" our 401 ppm atmospheric CO2, or "moonshot" ocean acidification, that would be cool.
By Bret Victor

This is an odd sign:


By Chris Steller

Any social system that produces an avoidable amount of child poverty is dystopic.
By Skeleanor Robertson

Hard to fathom that two 13-year-old girls who stabbed a classmate so they could join Slender Man at a mansion in the woods may be tried as adults.
By Josh Harkinson

"You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." @UtopianParalax
By Cassandra

If any other country had the levels of gun and police violence that the US has, we'd be talking about instability and travel bans.
By Saladin Ahmed

Climate change in a nutshell: climate is changing too slowly for people to give a shit but too quickly for ecosystems/organisms to survive.
By Jason Kottke

“No GMO foods for MY family,” she said as she walked her pet wolf who’d been bred to have four-inch-long legs and respiratory problems.
By Nilo Ramos

How can we integrate a John Rawls type thought experiment into the planning approval process?
By Rube Heretic

The moment you think of others, your mind widens.
By Dalai Lama

In a world that wastes almost half of the food we grow, shouldn't we tackle waste first, before inventing weird tricks to boost yields?
By Jonathan Foley

How many misogynists does it take to change a lightbulb? Just one, but you know he'll somehow use it as proof that he doesn't hate women.
By Aparna Nancherla

GOP platform: If a man’s life is threatened, he may Stand His Ground and shoot; if a woman’s life is threatened, she must carry to term.
By Top Conservative Cat

I will never be ashamed to be the child of two people addicted to drugs. I have seen the transformative power of recovery. We are not our demons.
By DeRay Mckesson

When I get a time machine I'm using it to go back and kill the first person who used the word 'muscular' to describe prose.
By Saladin Ahmed

More than 46% of those leaving prison reoffend within a year, but if they find employment that drops to 13%.
By Theodora Dickinson

Some day we need a full linguistic & psychological investigation into the right-wing obsession with forcing things down throats.
By David Roberts

Why do Republicans only use the words "science" and "due process" when it comes to attacking women?
By jamiekilstein

"resting bitch face" = literally the same face every guy makes 90% of his life except men get to be people & women don't
By lane moore

Writing something about parenting. 500 words in & so far 100% caveats and hedging.
By David Roberts

"nearly all law-breaking is committed by drivers & they are collectively responsible for practically all fatalities." [citing the Chicago Tribune]
By William Lindeke

But just so we're clear, Haiti is poor because France forced the liberated blacks to PAY THEM for their own freedom.
By Bree Newsome

Epistemic closure makes people
1) terrible at arguing for their own positions,
2) unaware how terrible they are at it.
By David Roberts

“Millennials are spoiled because they have iPhones!“ —douchebag whose generation was able to afford fucking brand-new houses at our age
By Loud Gay Atheist

The Cult of Bernie. When will folks learn that one single candidate is not the answer? All politics are local. Build political capacity.
By Diane Witt

Birth control? BAN IT! Abortion? BAN IT! Gay marriage? BAN IT! Guns? Look, banning things never works. People will find ways to get them.
By Nick Martucci

Dear Republicans, Planned Parenthood isn't profiting off of the deaths of children. You are thinking of the NRA.
By Jesse LaGreca

"Planned Parenthood was founded by some racists, let's get rid of it.” Guys Guys I have some bad news for you About America.
By Eleanor Amarath

I like this @KathaPollitt meme about God’s missed opportunity:


By David Roberts

I subscribe to developing a way of being that is compatible with human rights, democracy, and sustaining the earth.
By Bree Newsome