Sunday, May 1, 2016

April, Election Year, and Therefore Tweets

April showered a lot in Minnesota, especially near the end of the month. Which makes me think of the never-ending election. It's only May 1. It's only May 1. It's only...

Donald Trump, endorsed by a basketball coach who strangled one of his players. Makes sense.
@pattho

A man five days from the Republican nomination openly believes racist massacres of unarmed prisoners are awesome, and it's barely news.
Daniel Dale ‏@ddale8

I'm no religious scholar but if Lucifer was as unappealing as Ted Cruz it probably would have gone down a lot differently
Brandy Jensen ‏@BrandyLJensen

Irony of 2016: Years of lack of GOP specifics have helped a candidate like Trump get away with having basically no policy agenda.
Justin Green ‏@JGreenDC

ted cruz got his powers when he was bitten by a radioactive copy of THE HANDMAID'S TALE
Saladin Ahmed

My belief: make it as easy to vote as practicable in all cases. Get rid of caucuses, allow same-day registration, absentee and early voting
Christopher Hayes ‏@chrislhayes

The remaining part of this election -- 29 weeks -- is more than 2.5 times the length of Canada's "record-long" campaign last year.
Josh Barro

*in 1995 terms* Vermont's socialist U.S. Representative is raising money off Dr. Ross from "E.R." helping the First Lady become president: and the star of the "Stuart Smalley" movie is trying to save a passenger train to Eden Prairie from his position as two-term U.S. senator.
Chris Steller

Final thought: New York is a voter suppression state. Independents (the largest voting bloc) are prohibited from voting. This is not fair.
Michael Moore ‏@MMFlint

Cruz in New York is amusing because you rarely see people who play Real America identity politics having to seek the votes of people they sh$& on
Adam Serwer

The lives of America's wealthy aren't really impacted by who wins the presidency. For the poor and working class, the stakes are very high.
Khaled Beydoun

It's no coincidence Trump is winning the demographics that liked the New Deal and hated the civil rights movement.
Josh Barro
Then there is the travesty known as North Carolina's law policing gender in bathrooms:
I have a young daughter. I'm not afraid of trans women sharing her bathroom. I AM afraid of men trying to control her body with creepy laws.
Saladin Ahmed

If you're more worried about what bathroom someone uses than climate change, just stop pretending your kids' future is your big concern.
LOLGOP

It's telling that we treat BernieBros as aggressive sexists but don't call Hillary supporters shrugging off Iraq/Iran aggressive racists.
Saladin Ahmed

A reminder: Dennis Hastert is able to use public rest rooms nationwide.
Harold Itzkowitz
And the recurring topic of racism and the experiences of black people in a racist society... including Beyonce:
People understand that institutions can carry obligations. They just don’t believe owning slaves confers an obligation. I have come to the view that there are a lot of people who just don’t view slavery as a moral crime.
Jamelle Bouie ‏@jbouie

The "These Black women aren't anything like these others from the past" always comes from people who don't know the work of Black women. If you try to claim Rihanna's nothing like Josephine Baker? Go look up what Josephine was doing in her 20's. Go on. When you try to claim that Beyonce has nothing in common with Zora? Well feel free to go look up Zora's journey.
Mikki Kendall ‏@Karnythia

It's always about wealth and power. That's the root of it all. Oppression is a process of controlling access to wealth and power.
Bree Newsome

White gang cultures of the Midwest (especially Chicago)? Glorified.
Ours? Vilified. (The "settling" of the region was totally violent.)
Ebony Elizabeth ‏@Ebonyteach
PSA: someone does not "transcend race" because you like them, but not other Black people. They are proof that you're not hopeless. [in reference to Prince]
Snowing in April ‏@DrPhilGoff

Making a white character a person of color undermines white supremacy. Making a person of color character white reinforces white supremacy. This stuff isn't hard.
Saladin Ahmed

"Racism always gets in the way of us meeting the noble goals of public education." Hatred of public education being "open to all" is behind the calls for tax cuts and underfunding. —Reverend Barber
Sarah Lahm

Slavery = terror. Let that be an equation that sticks with you.
in the wake ‏@hystericalblkns

"Even saying 'white people' makes white people uncomfortable." #AERA16 on education and the refusal to understand institutional nature of racism
Tania Uruchima

This country has so much talent to unleash. Just need our U.S. institutions and systems to use race equity lens to unleash talent!
Jennifer Godinez

"We say youth of color are the 'canary in a coal mine' and say 'the canary needs a mentor.' The problem was always the coal mine." #ABFE2016
Taproot DC ‏@taprootfoundDC

Police brutality remains the catalyst for the Black fight because it is the clearest example of contradictions and second class citizenship.
BLMChicago

One way to shift the erasure of Black knowledge production is to cite Black people at every opportunity. But the point is: Cite sisters whenever possible. The intellectual white boys (Foucault et al.) ain't said everything or even the main things.
Brittney Cooper ‏@ProfessorCrunk
And finally, the best of the rest and my usual topics of education, feminism, sustainable cities, and more:

By agitator in chief ‏@soit_goes

Dialogue isn't speech. It's exposition designed to mimic speech for the purposes of the story.
John Scalzi

Same dipshit NIMBYs concerned with neighborhood "character" are pushing for more parking. Nothing says "local character" like parking spaces!
David Roberts ‏@drvox

"Using what the appeals court called code words, residents said multifamily housing would change the “flavor” and “character” of the village. Yup. "Character of the neighborhood" = a racist-ass dog whistle and every white faux liberal Boomer in the country who utters it should blush.
David Roberts ‏@drvox

Freedom doesn't mean license or entitlement; it comes with responsibility.
Bruce L. Smith ‏@numbalum89

GUNS ARE SACRED GUNS ARE AMERICA GUNS EVERYWHERE DON'T LET THEM TAKE YOUR GUNS
::cops shoot a child::
WELL HE SHOULDN'T HAVE HAD A TOY GUN
Saladin Ahmed

A lot of rich people think they're not rich because they know someone with more money than them.
Josh Barro

If we're going to get rid of test scores as the metric of learning, we need to stop lauding schools when they achieve high test scores.
Nikhil Goyal

Rebuilding belief/trust in activist government ought to be #1 on the progressive to-do list, but as far as I know, *no one* is working on that directly. Whereas virtually every institution on the right, in addition to its enumerated mission, is *also* working to degrade trust in government.
David Roberts ‏@drvox

Why slippers? To make shuffling more comfortable. Why belt? Where else I suppose to put thumbs while shuffling?


Bigfoot TheBigfoot ‏@hellobigfoot

And has anyone contemplated just what a jobpocalypse it's going to be when there are self-driving electric long-haul trucks?
David Roberts ‏@drvox

What I most love about Beyonce is that she responds to her haters by putting in more work. Cuz in the end, the work is what matters. #Lemonade
Brittney Cooper ‏@ProfessorCrunk

If comfort is your goal when engaging with history, you're probably not doing it right..
jay smooth ‏@jsmooth995

Subways are very expensive, but if we didn't have cars in the city, we would not need them.
Free Public Transit

How to find manuscript typos:
1. Click submit
Shit Academics Say ‏@AcademicsSay

Wall Street takes about 25 percent of corporate profits while creating only 4 percent of American jobs.
Demos ‏@Demos_Org

Pretty fucked up that the idea "Let's keep track of who the police shoot" is considered so novel it wins the Pulitzer.
Luke O'Neil

This is not a metaphor. This is an actual bike lane in St. Louis:


Peter Flax ‏@Pflax1

I want public school. I just don't want it to look anything like it does now (in my surrounding districts).
@Sisyphus38

Actual disruption is roughly inverse to advance predictions of same. Look for things most people ignore or laugh at.
Vivian Schiller @vivian

Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum.
Kurt Vonnegut

Cars or planet. Make your choice.
Free Public Transit

I hope the new Harriet Tubman bill looks like this:


 ‏@feminewbie

The city still changes when you block new housing—it becomes more exclusive. A haven for the wealthy and the lucky.
Jamelle Bouie @jbouie

Yep. Nice city. Stable rent. No construction. Pick two.
Clay Shirky

Land doesn't vote - except in the US Senate.
Christopher Hayes ‏@chrislhayes

"Resting our hopes on a transit comeback distracts from our real transportation problem: driving is too cheap." — @washingtonpost editorial
jennifer keesmaat

French GDP per capita is 28% less than U.S. GDP per capita. But the difference in work hours accounts for 91% of that difference.
Matt Bruenig

It's weird to say a carbon tax, which explicitly requires the *least* government intervention, is a sign of seriousness on climate. Like someone smuggled neoliberalism into the heart of the climate movement and convinced everyone it was radicalism.
David Roberts ‏@drvox

Cars pollute by being built and inducing sprawl, no matter what they burn.
Free Public Transit

When paved or anonymous spaces are replaced with community gardens and greenery, crime and unwanted activity drops.
jennifer keesmaat

Infographic: 16 Years of Media-Inflamed Fears:


 Ninja Economics

In a sense, a great deal of research and criticism is "self-serving." Bewildered that women, people of color and LGBTQ scholars are accused of this...and yet countless generations of scholars who spent centuries only studying the world from their point of view are objective and rational. Feeling decentered after being centered has to be jarring. Learning that your world is only one of infinite possibilities must be difficult. In fact, I'm sure being decentered must feel a lot like violence. But many of us can assure you that it is not violence. It's just equality.
Ebony Elizabeth ‏@Ebonyteach

For every $1 the 50 biggest companies pay in taxes, they get $27 back in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts
Steven Greenhouse ‏@greenhousenyt (former New York Times labor reporter)

The U.S. Government spends money they don't have, to bomb people you shouldn't hate, to get oil to waste in traffic. Why not just make buses fare-free?
Free Public Transit

Kindergarten is the new (and bad) second grade, says @MSGunderson (Michelle Gunderson, Chicago teacher).
CriticalClassrooms ‏@lapham_katie

All these "ecologists" advocating things like "complete streets" are just delayers/deniers. It's cars or biosphere, make your choice.
Free Public Transit

The terms of employer-employee relations would change a lot if people weren't reliant on their employers' good graces to get health care.
Joseph Nathan Cohen

It is harmful to hold women responsible for violence done against them + ALSO harmful to suggest men incapable of acting otherwise.
Lady Allshiny

"Only 55% of global production is food. Of that, only 35% is eaten." —Jonathan Foley
Pei-Ru Ko

Anyone notice the irony behind “hyphenated” and “non-hyphenated”?
Bill Murray

A gorgeous African emerald cuckoo. (Photo: Hugh Chittenden)


Strange Animals

"The job of police is not to occupy space to stop crime, but to empower communities to deter it." #Louisville
COPS Office

"LOL, stupid burger flippers, get a real job."
— Person who could be replaced by Excel macros.
SecuriTay ‏@SwiftOnSecurity

The fact that after millennia of bullshit women aren't the ones doing mass shootings is proof that we should be in charge of the world.
Rachel Fisher ‏@TheRachelFisher

SALARY NEGOTIATING TIPS FOR WOMEN: ask employer about their needs, apologize for existing, tell them you'll work a half day on your due date
Aparna Nancherla

When we talk about kids and "grit" does growing up poor and in public housing count? What about surviving sexism, racism? Is that enough grit?
Tanzina Vega

Articles about how $200k isn't rich are silly but do make good point that childcare, healthcare, retirement and education costs a lot. Yet somehow authors use this fact to avoid conclusion that upping taxes to fund those things for everyone would be a good idea.
Matt Bruenig

"It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment" —Ansel Adams
How To Be Hippy

Overheard: "We're using open source software now. It's like normal but instead of paying money you pay by being insulted when you ask a question."
Paris BA ‏@parisba

Of all things to standardize....education? Today? How wrong can we possibly be?
Laura Sandefer

Women take SO long to get ready, amirite? It's almost like we've imposed an impossible beauty standard we mock them for failing to achieve.
Dana Schwartz

Fact: For the rest of your life, you will never read any good news about the environment. (In response to a New York Times story about the death of coral worldwide.)
Nikki Glaser

Me: "You're just tired."
Kid: "I AM NOT TIRED!"
Husband: "We say 'tired' because we don't want believe you're actually evil."
Amy Shearn

It feels like all annoying people at parties unionized into the All Lives Matter and Not All Men movements.
Aparna Nancherla

Payday loans are a necessary part of the service economy and will be until credit unions or banks step up.
Linda Tirado ‏@KillerMartinis

Ambitious women are framed as taking things from men. The mistake is in assuming those things belonged solely to men to begin with.
Cameron Esposito

Perspective:


ian bremmer

Seems like, since 2014, the Obama administration has been accomplishing a constant stream of small things. Is anyone keeping comprehensive track? Like today, he tightened rules for individual retirement accounts. Seems like no one notices. Everyone's busy ranting about their personal Obama caricature and this stream of *stuff* goes unremarked.
David Roberts ‏@drvox

As corporate wealth reaches historic highs, the median hourly wage decreased by $1.30 from 1980 to 2012.
Demos ‏@Demos_Org

The Benghazi panel has "lasted longer than the investigations into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, the…”
Linda Tirado ‏@KillerMartinis
i love Men's Rights Activists because men need a voice. A single, terrible voice like a thousand rats piled themselves into a trenchcoat and spoke as one.
merritt k ‏@merrittkopas

This baguette slice looks like a bunny.


Faces in Things ‏@FacesPics

Legal and illegal offshore tax havens are wrong. We need roads, bridges, libraries and broadband, not places for big corporations to hide taxes.
Zephyr Teachout

People who believe they operate in a meritocracy, or who believe themselves "objective," are MORE likely to display unconscious bias.
David Roberts ‏@drvox

Before you make a piece of writing good, you have to make a piece of writing.
Christopher Hayes ‏@chrislhayes

I'm with the libertarians in that I agree about disruption. But I don't think people writ large will want aggressive "freedom.” Restricting your life to merely the land you can keep people off of and the things you can keep people from taking...that's a sad world.
Linda Tirado ‏@KillerMartinis

Public education is the infrastructure of democracy. High stakes testing erodes that infrastructure. Learning, not testing, for our future.
Zephyr Teachout

The Panama Papers a good reminder that the rich should be cast into the street and their wealth appropriated.
David Roberts ‏@drvox

An absolutely textbook example of how to abuse a y-axis from the Daily Mail:


Peter Yeung ‏@ptr_yeung

U.S. urban policy: Free housing and infrastructure for cars, unaffordable and inadequate housing for people.
urbandata

The police took more stuff from people than burglars did in 2014, through asset forfeitures:



The Marshall Project



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