Twitter in the Eighth Month of an Election Year

August got away from me and I forgot all about posting my monthly Twitter round-up. But you can’t escape it that easily. Starting with (of course) the damned presidential election, from the most recent tweets about Trump's immigration speech to the earliest, the aftermath of his attack on the Khan family:

Donald Trump is the biggest threat our nation has faced since the Cuban Missile crisis. And it's going to take a lot longer to pass.
Mark Sumner @Devilstower

Watching Trump speech. Guess this is as good a time as any to debut this:


Ward Sutton

Donald is being pretty tough on people in the country illegally. Thoughts and prayer for Melania! XOXO
Mrs. Betty Bowers

REMINDER: Rich guys like Trump who pay no taxes are a much bigger problem than hardworking immigrants who'd love to pay more taxes.
LOLGOP

If you are American and your strategy is to prevent people from voting, you are unpatriotic filth. It's not a game.
Mark Harris

Oh, the unending irony of a nation built from genocide and land-grabbing debating whether poor migrants are deserving of its "amnesty.”
Bree Newsome

The top referral link to Donald Trump's website is the unsubscribe button in his emails.
Ben Collins ‏@oneunderscore__

They couldn't come out and say "she's weak because she's a woman," so they made up a bunch of nonsense about failing health.
Lilly O'Donnell

Periodic reminder: This is our politics at 5% unemployment, crime at historic lows, illegal immigration way down. Imagine if that changes?
Benjy Sarlin

There's a strong parallel between Trump's appeal to losers and pickup artist gurus' appeal to losers. Both in that (1) they offer a nonsense theory of why you're such a loser and (2) they offer solutions that won't make you less of a loser.
Josh Barro

It helps no one when the media normalizes what Donald Trump is doing, or what he is saying. It isn't normal. It isn't acceptable.
Jamil Smith

Notice how the Alt-Right hates political correctness yet uses a PC term like Alt-Right instead of just calling themselves White Supremacists?
@Delo_Taylor

As a former victim of torture, my son Jesus does not care for it or anyone who supports it (like Donald Trump).
almightygod

When did the word "pivot" become an acceptable usage in journalism for describing the act of reversing and denying previous assertions?
katemoos

Only in a world built on sexism could Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump comment on anyone else's health and physical appearance.
LOLGOP

If you like/dislike reporting based on whether it helps/hurts the politician you worship, you don't get journalism — you want propaganda.
David Sirota

Real truth: This election cycle has ceased to be intellectually interesting to me. The stupid is too stupid even to laugh at.
ProfB ‏@AntheaButler

The weird thing about TR*MP fans is they'd love nothing more than to see a Stalinist-style terror unfold in America. Sad! You could purge the journalists, and also all those damned scientists who insist climate change is real, and they'd applaud. Because America, fuck yeah.
Tom Tomorrow ‏

Hey folks: it is ok to think Hillary Clinton's views on foreign policy are wrong/dangerous and also believe Donald Trump would be worse.
Stephen Walt

The right has this assumption, based in racism, that black folk are somehow being tricked by the left into supporting Democratic policy. When the observable fact is that black voters tend to be more suspicious of what government can do, and work to manage that risk. Basically, I'm saying it's incredibly dumb to think black voters will abandon the work of generations easily, if at all. The right? They have this assumption that the correct combination of empty promises or false claims of moving past racist roots will do it. NOPE. It would like asking a man to leave the comfortable home he built to live in your house, knowing he'd be treated like shit constantly.
Joshua Guess

With my redneck past in the South, I must push back on "Trump supporters are working-class Whites who have legitimate fears, complaints.” Working-class Whites in the South have held self-defeating political commitments for decades in order to maintain their racist fear of the "other.” So, yes, capitalism and the Republican party have crapped on working-class Whites, but it has been in many ways brought upon themselves. This "O crap" moment for working-class Whites has a name: karma. When the racist chickens come home to roost, and you've been eagerly feeding them
Paul Thomas

This isn't really an "election," is it? It's just one man running a denial of service attack on our media's ability to report on issues.
mcc ‏@mcclure111

Trump, 2018, to the Chinese: "When I said I'd launch a nuclear first strike, I was being sarcastic! DUH! Do you have sarcasm in China?"
Josh Barro

We should be very clear that any risk to President Obama incurred in this moment lies directly at Donald Trump’s feet.
jelani cobb

The imaginary multiple voter is the modern version of Reagan’s “welfare queen.”
LOLGOP

If our government is run by stupid people who never win at anything, why are they so good at rigging elections?
Josh Barro

Trump's supporters may be stupid enough to try voting 10 or 15 times. Hope they do, because they'll get caught and prove the system works.
Pat Thompson ‏@pattho

Insane juxtaposition going on as Trump says "There's so much love in the world" while a booing, screaming crowd forces protesters out.
Molly Hensley-Clancy

Do artists get how protest works? So many “anti” objects with Trump’s image. Counter-productive! It’s still exposure — good/bad, no matter.
Jan Middendorp

Trump has been famous for 40 years and is still awed by all the attention he is getting. He's can't look away when people talk about him.
Josh Barro

Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth: 2nd amendment people who wanted to Make America Great Again.
Frank Conniff

It's no defense to say Trump might not have meant something awful. A president can't constantly say things that might or might not be awful. Trump's unclear and undisciplined public statements are not merely a quirk of personality - they are a disqualification for the job. It won't do to have Mike Pence run around the world saying "What he meant was..." This is fucking obvious. Why must this be explained?
Josh Barro

Let's apply Occam's razor. Which sounds more like Trump? A) Casually invokes violence B) Organizes single-issue activist pressure campaigns
Benjy Sarlin

Trump voter: "I like Trump because he says exactly what he means."
Trump: “Somebody shoot my opponent.”
Trump voter: “He didn't mean that.”
Zeddonymous ‏@ZeddRebel

The biggest danger in November isn't Trump — it's law and order, from both parties.
Dan Berger ‏@dnbrgr

What are the odds that we can we can get Trump to come out against “Arabic numerals”?
Let’s make this happen.
John Gruber

Christian voters in 2016:


almightygod

what if trump is just three babies on top of each other in an ill-fitting suit and a wig and he kicked the baby out because it was gonna tell
Rob Flaherty

the point of the Melania [immigration] thing isn't that she should be deported or did something bad but that Trump's immigration concern is racialized.
Matthew Zeitlin

There could be no more poetic end to this campaign than Melania being deported for visa fraud, and her and Don retiring to a Slovenian villa.
Josh Barro

RT @RatediCreative: Thought this was very clever from a design perspective!

Lil Bougie Vert ‏@steenfox

Imagine having to turn launch keys not knowing if we were under attack or if it was because a foreign leader said a mean thing on Twitter.
John Noonan ‏@noonanjo

If you're trying to explain the 2016 election and deliberately ignore this graph please get out of my face forever:


sick transit, gloria ‏@samknight1

Currently giggling about the idea of "not endorsing Paul Ryan" as the last straw. The man said he might nuke Europe!
Josh Barro

Donald Trump has more Vietnam War draft deferments than he has wives, and that's saying a lot.
Frank Conniff

Has anyone asked Trump about totally made-up situations in nonexistent countries? That interview would be worth getting blacklisted for.
Erin Burr, sir ‏@erinscafe

So it's come to this: Hillary Clinton is now the only candidate not pandering to the anti-vaccine movement.
Joseph Nathan Cohen

Donald Trump’s entire campaign is built on American isolationism and xenophobia…yet his business asked for 78 visas for foreign citizens.
BrownBlaze

So how did the Democrats supposedly write off white working-class men? Essentially, by not catering to their perceived prejudices. When you boil it down, the argument is that giving real time to issues of race and gender is somehow an attack on working-class white men.
James Surowiecki

I also love watching so many people who refuse to let Election Day be on a weekend or a holiday insist debates on football day is treason.
August J. Pollak

Explain to me how a vendor-stiffing trust-fund asshole with four bankruptcies is going to create non-real estate jobs.
Liberals Are Cool


Wonder Teach

The best way to ensure Trump doesn't learn any sensitive state secrets would be to give him the briefings in writing.
Josh Barro

The voting public should make this demand to the candidates: "We want candor, not pander."
Steven Greenhouse

Trump's [Wisconsin] speech wasn't aimed at African-Americans. At a guess, it's aimed at moderate white conservatives who don't want to be seen as racist.
Jeet Heer ‏@HeerJeet

Trump. Goes to a city in Wisconsin that has less than 1% African American population to give a speech "reaching out to African Americans."
Michael Moore

Can't wait for this election to be over so we left-wingers can criticize Clinton without being accused of wanting Trump to win.
Nikhil Goyal

If the last best argument for Trump is that the world's exceptional nation can't survive four years of Hillary, let's just kill ourselves now.
Tim Miller ‏@Timodc

If you don't think elections matter, learn from history, each movement right makes it harder to return to the middle.
William E. Spriggs

That feeling when your most precious societal institutions are subject to the whims of asshole billionaires.
Scott Tobias (accompanied by photos of Peter Thiel and Donald Trump)

Basically, the degree to which you like Trump depends on how nostalgic you can be for older WASP ascendency.
Jeet Heer ‏@HeerJeet

When Trump loses, we still have to live with the reality that overt racism is just as thriving as systemic racism and he emboldened people.
I Will Block Ya Mama ‏@FeministaJones

"We will reject bigotry and hatred," says Donald Trump, who clearly hasn't seen a mirror lately.
Hemant Mehta

The fact that this language is on the "issues" page of a major party candidate is still incredible:


Gideon Resnick

When white privilege and poor white angst married, they got a Trump baby.
Andre Perry

Trump says his administration will speak out against the discrimination of gays. Someone should tell his running mate.
Hemant Mehta

Shouldn't the headline be: “Rich White Draft Dodger Attacks Muslim Family of Dead US Hero”?
Paul Thomas ‏@plthomasEdD

This is a real-time nervous collapse by a man who wants to be America's leader but cannot bear it that one grieving parent criticized him.
Mark Harris

Then continuing with the outrage over quarterback Colin Kaepernick not standing for the Star Spangled Banner:

"I wish that my country didn't demand fidelity; I wish that it would, instead, earn it." — Melissa Harris Perry
Sarah Colome

It's wild how people will threaten your life while telling you that you're lucky to have the freedom to dissent in this country.
The Slaves Singing @williamcson

Sometimes, we challenge that which we love because we know that it can be better. Kaepernick is All-American, not un-American.
deray mckesson

White people: "Black people should protest peacefully!"
*Black person sits quietly during national anthem*
White people: "No not like that."
Charlotte. ‏@charlotteirene8

of course kaepernick has the right to protest but he should've done it quietly in a way that no one would've noticed
netw3rk ‏@netw3rk

Let's just accept the fact that white people will disagree with ANY and every method we use to protest injustice. It's literally why it doesn't matter if we are peaceful protesters, because white people will always come up with some excuse.
Patience Zalanga ‏@bellanocheee, responding to a tweet by Drew Brees, which said “On this issue, I agree with his protest, I DON'T agree with his METHOD.”

Trump. Colin. 2016:


deray mckesson

There are those who show their love of America by living its truths and those who do it worshiping flags and anthems.
Michael Moore

Patriotism may be the most distorted and confined term in the American political lexicon.
Khaled Beydoun

White folks who are more upset about Black folks not saluting flags than police killing unarmed Black folks = suspected white supremacists
Dawud Walid

The wealth of this nation was built on whipped backs of my ancestors, my grandfathers fought its wars and were still denied basic rights. Their descendants are *still* fighting for equal rights today. Ain't *nobody* gonna tell me I can't critique America. That I know.
Bree Newsome

I don't understand this idea that not standing for the national anthem means someone is disrespecting the military. It's a logical fallacy. My grandfather served in the army during Korea. I can honor his service and still recognize he served a country that didn't see him as equal. We live in a culture of false equivalencies: If you support Black Lives Matter, you hate cops. If you don't stand for the flag you hate troops. It's absurd.
Clint Smith

If not standing for the anthem is political then the anthem itself is political.
wertwhile

If the national anthem is so sacred, solemn and evocative of the deaths of our soldiers, then why tie it to drunken beer fests? War is the answer, of course. We do it because we idolize sports as a proxy for war. It is a shibboleth. An out-group test. The National Anthem in this regard is not about sacrifice or respect for one's fellow citizens.
5'7 Black Male ‏@absurdistwords

The beginning of black history in America is a horror story. Those traditions that glorify that time do not resonate with us in the same way. The fables of early America are meaningful to those for whom it is the origin story of their status in society. For them it is about glory. Those years were the years when blacks were hunted, raped, killed, sold, disenfranchised. All to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner. Our National Anthem glorifies the killing of slaves who preferred British freedom to American torment.
It just is. This is America.
5'7 Black Male ‏@absurdistwords

White privilege is outrage at a black athlete sitting during national anthem, while white America SITS in silence about racism & inequality.
David J. Leonard ‏@drdavidjleonard

Black people: The National Anthem is racist
White people: Shut up. It is not
Black people: Shows third verse
White people: See THIS is the problem, you people can't let anything go
5'7 Black Male ‏@absurdistwords

these fools pissed off that people refuse to sing piously about bombs bursting are the same ones who call Islam a death cult (projection). “Remember, Muslims are bloodthirsty fanatics NOW PROVE YOUR REVERENCE BY SINGING THE SONG ABOUT THE BOMBS AGAIN!”
Saladin Ahmed

* People protesting outside a mosque with AR-15's: "Free expression."
* Man sits during Star Spangled Banner: "TREASON!"
Imraan Siddiqi

People are fine with Trump implying America isn't great (his slogan), but as soon as a black man suggests America isn't that great…
Nate ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ‏@thel0rdbyr0n

Two months ago: "We all should admire Muhammad Ali's courageous stand for his beliefs."
Today: "Colin Kaepernick is ungrateful!"
Jamelle Bouie

I love America more than any other country in this world, and... I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. —James Baldwin
Paul Thomas ‏@plthomasEdD

And more sports, even though I don’t follow them. But there were all sorts of politics surrounding the Olympics, so…

I keep hearing about how many kids the women at the Olympics have, while tragically it seems all the men are childless.
Karen Jeynes

If you mock Brazilians for trying to draw attention to their plight by disrupting the stupid Olympic torch relay, you're a fucking asshole.
Robin ‏@caulkthewagon

There was a museum dedicated to Indigenous People in Brazil next to this stadium for years. It was bulldozed for the World Cup and the Olympics.
Dave Zirin ‏@EdgeofSports

angry because a woman [Gabby Douglas] didn't put her hand reverently on her heart during a song about bombs but tell me again how violent black culture is
Saladin Ahmed

the vision for women I have is an entire world where men STFU.
Jessica Luther (referring to the photo contrasting an Egyptian beach volleyball player, wearing hijab, with a bikini-clad Italian)

As always, there was a lot about policing, police brutality, and racism:

You murder my cousin. Since homicide solve rates in black communities [are] abysmal, I must enact my own justice. You break into my car, police don't care. If I don't respond with violence, you'll keep doing it. Throughout history, when people [are] forced to self-police, the only real tool they have to do so is violence.
Ida Bae Wells ‏@nhannahjones

What editorial guideline decreed that "blatantly racist" would be universally replaced by "racially charged"? It's a meaningless phrase.
Anil Dash

The New Deal social programs [Democrats] brag about only got passed because FDR had to veto anti-lynching legislation to get the votes.
Occam's Lightsaber @ShimminyKricket

To which Bree Newsome responded:
At one point southern Democrats even filibustered to block laws saying they couldn't murder Black people.

Gun homicides in Chicago are the result of racist, segregationist housing policy and ill-executed "transformation" attempts. I loved my years working at the Chicago Housing Authority but eventually could no longer abide by the fact that my agency was literally evil. The projects were initially built to contain poverty into concentrated pockets, away from white areas, and became multigenerational. When the projects were destroyed, families received no help when on-boarded to the Section 8 (rental subsidy) program from public housing. I know this because I went to Cabrini-Green to help residents. They were not informed that their vouchers were useable in "nicer" neighborhoods, they were not told that their rent subsidy could be used to get housing in areas outside of concentrated poverty. For those that dared to venture into richer areas with Section 8, white NIMBYS succeeded in cutting funds that allowed it. For the rest of the families that were kicked out of public housing, they mainly settled in other historically poor areas of Chicago. The result was that gangs that never interacted before were suddenly living in the same streets/neighborhood. Gun violence exploded. So don't blame the violence on anything else except ease of gun access and fucking disgusting racist housing policy.
cuckteau twin @meaganrosae

White Americans kill each other at higher rates than many western European nations. But we’ve never heard anyone moralistically asked them to “clean up their neighborhoods and stop killing each other.”
jelani cobb

PSA:
Calling attention to racism is not racism.
Identifying division is not divisive.
Saying it's raining doesn't mean you made it rain.
Brittany Packnett ‏@MsPackyetti

"White Lives Matter" has a silent "only," whereas "Black Lives Matter" has a silent "also." One is racism, the other a call for equality.
David Harris-Gershon ‏@David_EHG

The major difference:
Black Lives Matter (Too)
White Lives Matter (More)
Remember that.
X ‏@XLNB

"Our negroes were so happy until the outside agitators came." We still hear this language when Black Lives Matter is discussed.
Yolanda ‏@YoliWriter

Some seriously think that our grandparents and great-grandparents' masks were how they really felt.
Ebony Elizabeth

There are any number of reasons someone might not hear/understand a command, but cops require compliance within seconds. #DisabilitySolidarity
Public Frenemy ‏@dolphingoddess

according to media and courts, white folks are kids until proven otherwise and then still. But Tamir Rice was a "threat"
Daniel José Older

The ‘Ground’ in ‘Stand Your Ground’ Means Any Place a White Person Is Nervous.
The Nation

The nation is harshly unforgiving of Black error, and yet, our forgiveness is eternally demanded even when our sorrows and griefs are new. Chattel slavery taught a nation that Black suffering wasn't as deeply felt as the suffering of others. That's still part of this culture.
Ebony Elizabeth ‏@Ebonyteach

This protest sign from @angelmparker is especially relevant today:


Shannon Brennan

"Large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity." - MLK
Charles M. Blow

Liberals will denounce the Milwaukee Uprising, praise the DOJ report it prompts that shows widespread racialized police brutality, and forget.
Jesse Benn ‏@JesseBenn

Politicians: You can't pass laws that marginalize and dehumanize minorities and then act surprised when the majority attacks them.
Black Intifada ‏@BlackShiite

Hannah Jones put it this way not long ago: "in the North, housing policy effectively did the work Jim Crow did in the South." You can create entire neighborhoods where police can brutalize and routinely harass people without anyone ever uttering the word "nigger." Nary a cop. Nary an elected official. You'll hear lots of words like "safety" and "sketchy," tho.
Gene Demby

Baltimore DOJ report makes clear "broken windows" policing not only doesn't work, but also results in unconstitutional harassment and criminalization.
Samuel Sinyangwe ‏@samswey

Cleveland, Ferguson, Baltimore: DOJ probes validate black residents' complaints of unconstitutional policing. It raises the uncomfortable question: why does it take costly federal probes for us to believe what black people tell us about how they're policed?
Wesley Lowery

I sure wish police officers’ guns malfunctioned at the rate they claim their vest and dash cameras do.
BrownBlaze

The amount of leeway we give officers to kill citizens over minor shit is mind-blowing.
britni danielle ‏@BritniDWrites

Police don’t need to hug black people. They just need to stop killing them. —The Washington Post
David J. Leonard

when police "fear for their lives" and murder a Black child it's justified. but when Korryn Gaines fears for hers it's a death sentence. you can believe police were justified in their actions at the scene if you must, but there never should have been a scene in the first place
Tehlor Kinney

this is true. my mentions are a constant stream of white people explaining why every dead black person deserved to die:


Wesley Lowery

we need a formal study of how police standoff durations correlate to a suspect's race
Saladin Ahmed (referring to the police killing of Korryn Gaines in her own home, in Baltimore)

There was lots to say about the environment, sustainable cities, and transportation for sustainability:

LITERALLY none of our problems matter as much as climate change. We're fighting over the biggest piece of chicken while the house burns down.
Rainbow Rowell

The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.
Jon Foley ‏@GlobalEcoGuy

Forcing people to be a motorist is a poor transportation system.
mike ‏@mikesonn

Speed limits are like trying to prevent kids eating from the cookie jar with a sign that says "Cookies are off limits."
William Lindeke ‏@BillLindeke

Plenty of transportation experts. Most think the main problem is the slow driver in front of them. #degrowth
Free Public Transit

Cycling and walking are NOT a joke; they are the only individual mode mobility for most people, for ALL children and youth. #SmartCities
Gil Penalosa

What right does one have to unlimited free parking or never sitting at a stop light in the middle of a huge metropolitan area?
mike ‏@mikesonn

Embracing complexity in street design means clearly articulating spaces for all users. #Amsterdam:


jennifer keesmaat

If cycling is the new golf, can we convert golf courses to housing, and make some better bike infrastructure?
Matt Laroche ‏@mlroach

Many people do not understand that capitalism is incapable of intentional gradual #degrowth, only boom or bust.
Free Public Transit

Protip: If you hate all the traffic, stop being part of it!
mike ‏@mikesonn

Change in greenhouse gas emissions, 1990-2010:

Asia: +95%
Oceania: +22%
S America: +14%
N America: +11%
Africa: +8%
Europe: -23%
(OECD)
The Int'l Spectator

We want a more vibrant economy with more (and more broadly shared) prosperity but also for nobody to have to move or lose a parking space.
Matthew Yglesias

Cars are the problem. Issues with:
- new development: cars
- bike lanes: cars
- safe walking: cars
- destinations far apart: cars
mike ‏@mikesonn

Local evening news: three stories about humans killed by cars, three commercials for cars, repeat.
Frank Alarcon

Even if oil is free, the debts cannot be paid. Growth is over. #degrowth
Free Public Transit

"Protect the parking for local businesses" because 20-30 spots is more important than 300 new customers living literally across the street.
mike ‏@mikesonn

These people have zero concept of induced demand.
"we want more parking! and less traffic!"
*head-desk*
mike ‏@mikesonn

The planning logic that created the "myth" of affordable single family homes has been debunked. Traditional suburbs are costly. Very. Strategic, mid-rise infill is critical. It can deliver on *most* of the promise: walkable, transit-oriented, more affordable.
jennifer keesmaat

Carbon and methane are at war with our civilization, taking territory and killing people every day. It's World War III – truly global. To respond we'd need to mobilize as we did in WWII. I think it's now technically possible, if barely. But can we summon the will to do it?
Bill McKibben

As the sun sets on the era of gasoline, this scene will become more and more common:


Leilani Münter

Walking reduces stress, anxiety and depression. Designing walkable cities isn't frivolous — it's a health imperative.
jennifer keesmaat

Climate change is serious, but land use, overfishing, and overexploiting animals is driving most extinctions today.
Jon Foley ‏@GlobalEcoGuy

Cities change; cities make choices about what they want to become. Amsterdam, before and after:




jennifer keesmaat

Fewer than every fifth trip is a commute, yet we focus on it like no tomorrow. Why?
Katja Leyendecker ‏@KatsDekker (linking to a blog post called Let’s Design for Women, Too)

Want to solve climate change? Stop waiting for a political climate "hero,” and roll up your sleeves and get to work.
Jon Foley ‏@GlobalEcoGuy

Complaining about cars just annoys people. Give them something good. Free transit can save your town more than it "costs."
Free Public Transit

Two-way streets are safer, better for business and less confusing to navigate than one-ways.
Strong Towns

In the not-distant future, when the oil runs out, every street will have plenty of bike lanes.
Ken Avidor

Just make buses fare-free and respond to the demand. Savings on externalities of cars will easily pay for it.
Free Public Transit

A gallon of gasoline weighs ~6.3 pounds. But burned in air, combined with oxygen, it releases ~19.6 pounds of CO2, contributing to climate change.
Jon Foley ‏@GlobalEcoGuy

Sao Paulo reduced traffic fatalities by 20% in one year (!!) using speed limit reductions, pedestrian-only zones
Angie Schmitt ‏@schmangee

Did we starve before semi-tractor trailors? Of course not. So why must we build our cities to accommodate them now?
Strong Towns

I recall my husband and I discussing that a third kid would mean needing a bigger car. Isn't that sad? Not in Amsterdam:


jennifer keesmaat

Just a few on the French burkini ban:

Let's reach a compromise on the whole issue of what women wear. The deal is, women wear what they like and in return everyone shuts the hell up.
Becky Black ‏@beckyblackbooks

Canada is a benign offline troll, just doing the opposite of whatever awful thing anyone is doing on a given day.
Anand Giridharadas (in response to a news tweet reporting Canada’s Mounties have okayed hijab for female officers)

It's never okay for men with guns to tell women what clothing they can and can't wear.
Ramez Naam

And a number of thoughts worth reading about education:

U.S. schools have 1 million more students, but 200,000 fewer teachers (who are paid less) than in 2008.
EduShyster
If someone is talking about education reform and they aren't taking about massive wealth redistribution, then they aren't really an ally.
Jesse Hagopian

Strong willed and perseverance on tasks we find important = honor roll.
Strong willed and perseverance on tasks student finds important =ODD.
Sisyphus ‏@Sisyphus38

I'm increasingly disturbed when I see compassion, respect, and empathy for students being mislabeled with the derogatory word "coddling."
Jesse Stommel ‏@Jessifer

You can always tell a Corporate Education Reformer because they talk about education reform w/out talking about ending institutional racism.
Jesse Hagopian

This is why K-12 in the USA is broken. This was given to my son today:


Kristin Palmer ‏@kpatwork

Schools: please could you volunteer for five bazillion things or your kid will never succeed. But don't hover, m'kay?
lyz lenz

"Personal responsibility" mantra pushes edifice-based problems onto the individual student. Ahistorical and intellectually lazy.
Arash Daneshzadeh

We make a list of ten thousand things a person doesn’t really need to know, and then ruin people’s lives for not knowing them. #STANDARDS
Carol Black

All teachers should often try to learn something they are not already familiar with or interested in. This is how students feel every day.
Brad Weinstein ‏@WeinsteinEdu

we need to celebrate cognitive dissonance more in education
C. Pepe ‏@ipadqueen2012

White Liberal Proverbs: "I want my child to experience other cultures" - from the safety of all-White schools, clubs, and neighborhoods.
Stewart M. Coles

What offsets negative impacts of poverty in children? Eradicating poverty, not the growth mindset. Fix the problem, not the victims of the problem.
Paul Thomas ‏@plthomasEdD

Kids don't dislike school because it's too hard, but because it's boring.
Bruce L. Smith ‏@numbalum89

Lol schools. "Play is a terrific way to learn!" "Let's make it part of the curriculum!" Uhm FYI: Coercion and evaluation = no longer play.
carla bergman ‏@joyfulcarla

Where would a Twitter round-up be without comments on sexism, feminism, and the oppression of women?

Some men aren't very remorseful about their toxic masculinity until they have families of their own. But that's not real remorse, in my opinion. If your wake-up call only happened once you had something to protect — a wife, daughters — it's indicative of selfishness of character.
Ebony Elizabeth ‏@Ebonyteach

The best thing about tattoos is that they're ornamentation that men don't automatically assume is for their benefit.
Ms. Armageddon ‏@OaklandElle

sex is not a reward for patiently stalking a girl as though she's a gazelle. it's a mutually consensual act between interested parties.
jay, feminazgul ‏@jaythenerdkid

Why do we have to gender swap old shitty movies? How about just making good new movies with more women.
lyz lenz

I wish anyone cared about me the way judges care about rapists’ "futures.”
Jamie Kilstein

(2000) Native American women experienced level of violent crime that was nearly 50% higher than that reported by Black men.
Sharon H Chang

Slut Walk Chicago: prettiness is not a thing you owe to occupy the space marked female


POSHLUST ‏@PoshlustArt

I don't understand people's indignation over being blocked on Twitter. Nobody has to listen to a stranger's opinion. Or engage. "She'll block you if you disagree with her." SHE DOESN'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOU. No one's obligated to hear out every criticism from strangers. Further, a lot of Twitter disagreement comes in the form of obscenity, insults and threats. Imagine walking around all day with a crowd of strangers and allowing them to shout criticism at you in between calling you names.
Rainbow Rowell

Gender composition of the highest and lowest paying occupations,:


John Schmitt

From 2001-2012,  more U.S. women were killed by an intimate partner than U.S. troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Trace ‏@teamtrace

Here’s the problem with female protagonists: There aren’t enough of them.
And we don’t even notice it.
Karen Krossing

Felt so betrayed the first time I tried on men's jeans and realized they get actual pockets instead of bullshit tiny hip bindles.
Janine Brito

Now this is a pull quote: President Obama on feminism and his daughters, from Glamour magazine:


Matt Delmont

the fragility of today's definition of masculinity is the most hilarious irony
Nick Boisen ‏@netminderbois

And the best of the rest:

Maricopa County election chief Helen Purcell, who closed 70% polling places in March primary, is losing her primary.
Ari Berman

You cannot hack this world into pieces, place it in your pocket and claim you own it. The earth is living, we are passing through.
Bree Newsome

It would be dishonest not to share this [from @tumblrthings] when it made me laugh as much as it did:


James Harvey

Republicans oppose giving ex-felons the right to vote. But they support letting labor law violators who receive federal contracts.
Steven Greenhouse

Americans mistrust their government but worship their military. It makes no sense.
Smae Lee ‏@smileymoth

Across the U.S., poor neighborhood subsidize the rich, when you look at taxes, property values. —Strong Towns
Kyle D. Stedman

I hate when people ask me to watch their stuff because I immediately imagine dying in a fight with a thief for a stranger's water bottle.
Dani ‏@daniiyells

felt like i forgot something before i left the house and gosh darn it, it was the alamo
Aparna Nancherla

Why do founders of huge multimillion-dollar foundations insist on their middle initials being in the name?
Chris Steller

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.
Kurt Vonnegut

The life-changing magic of just ignoring stuff.
Ted Underwood

Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?
Kurt Vonnegut

Bill Clinton's impeachment was pushed by sexual harasser Ailes, adulterer Gingrich & sexual abuser Hastert.
Steven Greenhouse

Jonas Salk refused to patent the polio vaccine. When asked who it belonged to, he said, "Well, the people." True medical innovation means seeing your work as a foundation for a structure that saves lives. Why isn't that enough for people?
Robin ‏@caulkthewagon

Positing "safe space" and intellectual freedom as though they are at odds actually diminishes the intellectual freedom of marginalized people.
wikipedia brown ‏@eveewing

there is no more despicable creature
on god's green earth than a millionaire preacher
Saladin Ahmed

People cheer for the rebels in movies, and support the system in real life.
Bob Mahan ‏@thebobmahanexp

Factual knowledge doesn't come naturally to us. Pretending we know things does.
Ola Rosling

When I took my first corporate job, I spent a couple years being shocked about how much of the ostensibly grown-up world was junior-high drama. Luckily, we now have social media, so no young person will ever experience this misapprehension about "adults" again.
Erin Kissane

The Problem with Rabbit [from Winnie the Pooh] #1 — His whole deal is "Order is more important than compassion.” The Problem with Rabbit #2 — The story's reaction to him sends message "Don't make things awkward by calling out bad behavior." College degrees that involve any amount of critical theory really come back to bite you in the ass when you have to read kid's books.
Maggie Koerth-Baker

1) Create an economy of insecure jobs with minimal benefits 2) blame a generation for being afraid to lose them.
Heidi N Moore ‏@moorehn, responding to a tweet from Money magazine that read “It’s the Millennials’ fault you can’t take a vacation.”

56% of Americans struggling with hunger have incomes above the federal poverty level.
American Progress

Did you know that if you plug your nose, you can’t hum? And that everyone who just read that is going to try it anyway?
Bill Murray

We need fundamental/core change — not just around the "consumer" edges. Time to close casino healthcare.
Dan Munro

Remember, awards [like the Hugo] are transparent indicators of quality until people of color win them then they are politically correct popularity contests. Funny how none of these fuckers yelp BUT WHAT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE WORK??? when it's all white dudes on the ballot.
Saladin Ahmed

Turning the lemons that life gives you into lemonade is a lot easier for those who can afford all the sugar that’s required.
Alfie Kohn

U.S. District Court Judge James Doyle in 1972: "I am persuaded that the institution of prison probably must end."
Nikhil Goyal

We sit around and argue working-class culture, people should move to opportunity, while capitalism refuses to invest in anything for years.
Mike Konczal ‏@rortybomb

The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.
C. Carew ‏@caren4btunity

Many Americans oppose the #IslamicState because they believe it is brutal. They have not been told the truth about western colonialism.
Free Public Transit

There should be a support group for all the devil's advocates out there. It would be called, "how do I make this about me?" anonymous.
Aparna Nancherla

It's always interesting watching libertarians encounter the Tragedy of the Commons.
Clay Shirky

I would guess the amount of kids who deserve an easier life greatly outnumber the ones who have it "too easy.”
Earth Human Name ‏@spacefunmars

Maybe the simplest/most effective criminal justice reform would be states forcing counties to pay the costs of incarceration. Prosecutors might then act reasonably.
Jeff Smith ‏@JeffSmithMO

Where is most crime happening? In the workplace, and it isn't by employees.
Alan Mills ‏@alan_uplc, in response to a tweet by Emily Drabinski, linking an article that described how “employers steal more money from workers than any other group steals from anybody else.”


Michael Moore

Not only was there no real cost control of medical costs [in the Affordable Care Act], there's been quite a bit of medical progress in the past few years. This struck me as so obvious, I was convinced no one could believe anything but that the ACA was a stalking horse for single payer. It should have been obvious that some percentage of the people not getting insurance through work weren't healthy enough to work full-time. Insurers need a something of a steady pool to gauge risk. But churn induced by the need to shop to keep subsidies ensures churn. Finally, I suspect the narrow networks the insurers are turning to save money are making the situation worse in the long run. For many, the combination of high deductibles and narrow networks makes the insurance hard to use. Why spend the money? So how does it end? I can't say. Medicare for those above the age of 50 makes a certain amount of sense. A Medicare buy-in option for 50-plus pulls the most expensive group off the exchange insurance, but a Medicare buy in for the 50-plus crowd will cost the hospitals plenty and they don't want it. In our clusterfuck of a political and medical system, hospitals can likely stop common sense reform that could stabilize the exchanges. I'll conclude by saying our healthcare system is insane. We need some form of single payer or nonprofit, government-regulated insurance. The health of Americans should not be a profit center. Health care is a right. Full stop.
Helaine Olen

Fifty years ago, about 60 percent of workers were guaranteed overtime pay. Today, it’s fewer than 10 percent.
Economic Policy Institute

The idea that a system where car companies & drug companies can lie to customers is "unfettered capitalism" is nonsense.
Dean Baker

We're talking about 1/10th of the defense budget when we talk about getting to debt-free higher ed.
Demos ‏@Demos_Org

The word “this” in a headline is a red flag that the rest of the article isn’t worth reading.
Nick Sherman

Hardly anyone used the Underground Railroad, but it provides us with moral comfort — and white heroes.
The New Yorker

There was a time, long ago, when cheap single family homes helped to drive industrial economic growth. That time is over. We have a huge economic crash brought on in large measure by our screwed up housing system. We build too much of the wrong kind of housing - too big too far away suburban homes & seldom used luxury apartments. We cling to the mistaken notion that housing is a driver of economic growth when at best the right kind of housing can enable growth. And now we have the next fantasy that deregulating land use will magically solve all our problems ...
Richard Florida

for every problem there is a solution that is complex, market-based and far worse than the government just doing it
sean. ‏@SeanMcElwee, in response to news that health insurers will all be raising their rates substantially next year as part of the Affordable Care Act.

Wondering when we will have a retrospective on all the news we missed in 2016 because a dumpster fire always leads.
Phillip Atiba Goff

If I had to give my anxiety a number, it would be an irrational one.
Aparna Nancherla

Overheard on Franklin Ave, a woman with phone in hand runs into friend: "I'm talking to my mother in Maryland and my aunt in England." The future.
Pat Thompson ‏@pattho

if a whale is standing, give him a hot dog:


matthew caws ‏@nadasurf

They came for naive people — I was like, what?
They came for people in denial — I was all, fine
They came for sarcastic people but I'm not that sarcastic
Chris Steller

One does not have to share all of their beliefs to publicly stand up for those tortured by the prison system.
Alan Mills ‏@alan_uplc

No one is ever turned away from a jail for lack of funding. Never does the military want for bombs. Our priorities are murderous and cruel.
ready 4 december ‏@onekade

The “Obama is a Muslim” delusion reminds me of the “Abe Lincoln is a Negro” canard in 1864. Only the ignorant think it’s an insult anyway. Like the time when I was in Alabama & I saw a political ad saying “My opponent believes in EVOLUTION.” I thought “And probably gravity too.”
jelani cobb

Twitter has taught me that when Christians are slaughtered it's 'genocide' but when Muslims are slaughtered it's 'centuries-old conflict.'
John Fugelsang

Social Security is a pay-go system. Taxes from working cover the checks that go to the elderly. It's just like any social assistance plan. Today's recipients get way more, and covered far fewer seniors when they were working. Not only that, but today's recipients were the ones who voted in successive governments that starved all other social programs, except their own
Joseph Nathan Cohen

Housing Paradox: We have and are creating too much housing, just not enough of the right kind and where we need it.
Richard Florida

When you hear older people complain about lazy entitled Millennials, remind them who gets the government checks and healthcare. It's not the young. You might also remind them who went to college on the government's dime.
Joseph Nathan Cohen

I am an evolving activist and organizer and learning how best to show solidarity. We will make mistakes but we learn from them.
Linda Sarsour

I am shocked to learn that the man who gave the world Rush Limbaugh and Fox News is human garbage.
Tom Tomorrow

Folks always asking me "How do indigenous live in two worlds?" And I'm, "Shiiiit, I code switch 18 times before my first cup of coffee."
Sherman Alexie

Astonishing inefficiency of an unequal, fragmented, for-profit health sector in complex, unhealthy society:


Adam Tooze

An additional tweet based on the same graph:

Wow. What bad choices did we make c. 1980?
Bruce Hamilton @bah_lab

Thinking about technological advances people from 200 years ago would be amazed by, weather forecasting should probably be high on the list. In the past, weather was not only unpredictable, it was also way more important than it is now.
Josh Barro

NYC is entitled to 16 US Senators… Whoa — mind blown:


James Gleick

Louisiana spends over $1M to fight lawsuit over excessive heat in Angola prison - possible solution costs $2K.
The Associated Press

Balko: Conservatives hold the contradictory position that government can’t be trusted except when it comes to power to arrest, imprison, execute.
Nikhil Goyal

Depression is like autocorrect for your thoughts, but it changes everything to "why.”
Aparna Nancherla

Two key reasons for the lack of demand in our economy:
1. 60 million-plus poorly paid service workers
2. Overspending on housing, especially suburban housing
It was not traditional Keynesianism or even Military Keynesianism that restored demand after the Great Depression. The key factors were:
a. Transformation of poorly paid factory workers into the middle class
b. Mass suburbanization
Both of which were products of public policy Wagner Act etc for
a., and FHA, mortgage deductions, interstate highway policy etc for b. To restore the lack of demand today requires:
a. turning low-wage service workers into a new middle class
b. shifting from the wasteful suburban growth model to more affordable "fuller and fairer" urban growth model.
Richard Florida

The greatest innovation hoax is that somehow a fancy building will help produce them ... Or as Jane Jacobs put it: "New ideas require old buildings ..."
Richard Florida

Debt killed unions. You can't go on strike when you have a mortgage. No coincidence that a house is central to the American dream.
Garikai Chengu ‏@ChenguGold

2016 is like if the state of Florida became a year.
John Moe

[sic]: The most passive aggressive of all edits.
Jessica B Greiff ‏@blueburie

Black children need to read about themselves in ordinary situations just as much as they need stories of struggles...
K-12 News Network ‏@K12NN

Why does the tooth have teeth?


Sam Grittner ‏@SamGrittner

“I’m not politically correct” seems to have become the politically correct way of saying “I’m a bigot.”
Ray ‏@SomeStingray

The book with the best reading level for your child is the book your child actually wants to read.
Deborah Kauffman

The treadmill of using GMOs to fight weeds continues. But weeds will win again. Another approach is needed.
Jon Foley ‏@GlobalEcoGuy

Poverty is not just discomfort, it is a death sentence. Those whose income is in the bottom 20% die six years earlier than the top 20%.
Bernie Sanders

Only two thoughts on [Jonathan] Franzen: it's interesting that you can be considered a great American novelist without ever writing black characters. And I don't know why white people who write only about white characters think they're not writing about race.
Adam Servianski @AdamSerwer

We can't stop actual voter suppression but we can shut down ACORN over a lie that Donald Duck voted or some shit?
Jamie Kilstein

When people cite "safety" as a reason for abortion restrictions, ask them about their priorities:


ThinkProgress

you ever think about how if people learned to fix basic things half of our economy would disappear?
hank ‏@panndder

people who mock safe spaces tend to expect the entire world to be a safe space for their bullshit
Saladin Ahmed

"Give us one or two of your tired, your poor, your colored masses that we may put them in our publicity photos and admissions brochures."
Daniel José Older

Totally thought this was Alice Cooper at first:


Chris Steller