I heard someone on the radio say that January 2023 was the longest month ever. It made me wonder if that was literally true somehow (like, one millisecond longer for a calendar-adjusting reason), or if that person was observing Dry January and it just felt that way to them.
There was, as always these days, a lot going on.
We started with the interminable House Speaker vote and ended with outrage over the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. In between there was the mass shootings in California, Ron DeSantis further undermining just about everything I thought was true about this country within the boundaries of the state of Florida, the cognitive dissonance of MLK Day, George f'n Santos, the almost-coup in Brazil, classified documents in places where they shouldn't be, faux outrage over gas stoves...
Everything below the line is quoted from the attributed Twitter account and is in reverse chronological order that I saw it. (I sometimes move the images up or down a bit in the timeline to distribute them better.)
___
I read Covid Twitter and I am disappointed in humanity. Then I read climate Twitter and am more disappointed. Then I read Minneapolis Twitter and appreciate my government in St. Paul even more.
@RowzatS
whole 2023 campaign season is gonna be Trump shouting about how his crimes are past the statute of limitations, and then he's gonna get re-elected.
Tom Tomorrow
There are few long-term societal developments more significant than the reduction in childhood mortality. Sure, it’s nice to have refrigeration and electric light and the right to vote, but most of us would trade all of that to avoid a 40% chance of dying before adulthood:
Steven Johnson
The fact that tweets claiming “medieval peasants had it better than us” go viral ~once a month is a huge indictment of our willful ignorance of public health history. This stuff isn’t a secret. Some people just don't want to absorb even mildly hopeful stories of medical progress.
Derek Thompson
I don't think Americans realize how dystopian it is to get pulled over and effectively detained by a gov't agent with a gun who runs through your entire criminal history before issuing you a ticket (or worse) for a traffic violation versus just getting a ticket in the mail.
Darrell Owens @IDoTheThinking
When it comes to white supremacy, each generation has had the opportunity to refuse the cup. Sadly, each has eventually renewed the same Faustian bargain, updated for the times. There's only two ways this ends: a generation voluntarily refuses the cup. Or the cup is destroyed.
Ebony Elizabeth Thomas @Ebonyteach
The murder rates in Trump-voting states from 2020 have exceeded those in Biden-voting states every year since 2000:
@kylegriffin1
HIT THE ROAD, GEORGE. 78% of voters in George Santos's district believe he should resign, including 71% of Republicans. Of those who voted for Santos in November, 63% saidandnbsp; they would not have done so had they known more about his many falsehoods
Steven Greenhouse
If “The Sting” were made today it would depict a con taking place in 1986.
Chris Steller
DeSantis isn’t a great guy. But introducing permit-less carry right before the 5 year anniversary of one of the largest school shootings in American history in Parkland is a new low.
David Hogg
There's evidence of social-class bias in teachers' assessments, but a batch of studies reveals a systemic component. The problem isn't just individual attitudes but the type and purpose of assessment itself: When teachers are told to use grades (that can be used to "select the best students") rather than feedback (to "help students learn"), their evaluations unconsciously favor privileged students.andnbsp; Thus, an emphasis on "meritocratic selection might actually contribute to the reproduction of social inequalities."
Alfie Kohn
Stamps Bot
If providing gender affirming care is “child abuse” but providing neo-Nazi education isn’t, we need to reevaluate ourselves as a functional society.
@emilymayerSC
The reason we don't have traffic cameras unlike much of the world is:
A) police unions lobby to keep them banned since it replaces police officers and penalizes police officers violating traffic laws and
B) US motorists like to violate traffic laws and talk themselves out of tickets
Also traffic cameras in the US have been deployed too often as a revenue generating scheme rather than a public safety initiative and in predatory places where political resistance is low (minority areas), giving them a bad name. Oversight will be necessary.
Darrell Owens @IDoTheThinking
I've spent the last decade writing the same sentence a million times over and over again, phrased differently. I'll try it once more:andnbsp; Police professionalization is not designed to change how policing operates but is meant to change how everyone else perceives police legitimacy.
Stuart Schrader @stschrader1
@UnionRebelMs
It’s important for people to understand that the reason police brutality occurs is because of journalists reporting on police brutality. [sarcasm]
LawBlarg
Cost overruns of mega-projects (and another reason why solar and wind are winning)
1 Nuclear storage 238%
2 Nuclear power 120%
3 Hydro 75%
4 Fossil power 16%
5 Wind power 13%
6 Energy transmission 8%
7 Solar power 1%
Assaad Razzouk
Senior citizens are particularly vulnerable on our streets. Sometimes, even a big, bright ladder crosswalk isn't enough to protect pedestrians. [Accompanied by this linked headline: Paul McCartney nearly run over by Uber driver on iconic Abbey Road crossing]
Action Committee for Transit
What's interesting about America is that basically everyone in power knows that things like the murder of Tyre Nichols are inevitable consequences of the American policing order and believes that the cost is worth the benefit, but none of them will quite say that out loud.
Adam Kotsko
I just learned that before the Civil War, the confederates wanted to annex Cuba to expand their slavery-driven economy. And Cuban plantation owners were in alliance w/ them because they were seeing a lot of revolts on the island, and didn't want Cuba to become "another Haiti." (Cuba was majority Black at the time.) There were confederate flags flying at major ports in Havana to welcome them during that time. And many of the U.S. elite (politicians, presidents, vps, etc) owned plantations in Cuba. I've been finding creative ways to bring this up in casual conversation lmao. Anyway, I got this info from "Cuba: An American History" by Ada Ferrer
juliana @thecityofjules
An inability to imagine a world without police doesn’t make you practical or insightful. It makes you very similar to people who couldn’t imagine a world without chattel slavery
Bree Newsome Bass
What has always bothered me about the “racial reckoning“ discourse is that it *starts* in 2020 with George Floyd, and not Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown or Eric Garner or Philando Castile or Sandra Bland or Freddie Gray or... Did Ferguson just not happen for what, people? Just baffling
El Norte Recuerda @Vanessid
New: We've identified more than a dozen top donors to Santos' 2020 campaign who do not seem to exist.andnbsp; I also spoke to a friend of Santos' who says he did not give the $2,800 donation attributed to him. (motherjones.com)
Noah Lanard
"Hey, we're totally committed to Vision Zero, we're just trying to ram cars through our densely populated city center as fast as possible."
Queen Anne Greenways
Autistic humans are data hungry, information seeking missiles that will stop at nothing to know all about a subject we are interested in, so I think the fact that many Autistic people remember school as torturous says more about our educational systems than it does about us.
You Might Be Autistic
Tamasaburou, a mascot from Suzuka City, Japan, has a Rhododendron bush for a head:
Mondo Mascots
Slavery was probably 1000x sicker than what we think it was.
Usisi Nandi @pallnandi
To whom it may concern: Saying my work is “about race” merely because it centers black characters and therefore their experiences is…quite problematic.
Nnedi Okorafor, PhD
They always say a Black person “sacrificed their life” for some greater good by being murdered by the state. They said the same of George Floyd. What does it mean that a system demands constant human sacrifice??
Bree Newsome Bass
“Justice” =\= the government engaging in select punishment and prosecution of police officers while otherwise carrying on with the daily brutalities of policing. They said George Floyd got “justice” and then proceeded to kill more people than any year on record. Abolish the Police.
Bree Newsome Bass
it’s wild to me that in the year of our lord 2023 people still have no shame about going on vacation in hawaii
@lieholepiehole
There’s no world in which a white person could be murdered on video as they beg for their life and we’d expect white commentators to sit politely across from Black people who justjfy it as they smirk and make faces watching the video. But that’s always what’s expected of me
Olayemi Olurin @msolurin
After taking a couple years of abuse from you EV folks it's great to hear you admitting it won't be enough. And it won't—not nearly. So get out there and clear a sidewalk, build a protected bike route, kill your city's zoning and fully fund your local transit system.
Mary Morse Marti
A basic fact about Florida's ban on AP African American Studies: since the creation of the Advanced Placement program in 1952, no state has ever refused to certify an AP course until now. No state has put politics ahead of its students' access to early college credit until now.
Jeremy C. Young
Confederate funeral today in Virginia.andnbsp; These are the same people who tell black people "slavery was so long ago, get over it":
Veronica McDonald @Purify_toast17
If it seems like all of us in red states are fighting the same battles, it’s because we are. Our legislators don’t write their own bills, ALEC writes them. It’s hateful copy/paste legislation meant to benefit the wealthy and keep the rest of us fighting every day to wear us out.
Piper for Missouri
One of the surest signs of a conservative personality is the assumption that society's power hierarchies reflect merit. It's called system justification and while it exists in everyone, it is stronger as you head toward the authoritarian end of the spectrum. That's why acknowledging the role of luck in human life is the secular equivalent of religious awakening.
David Roberts @drvolts
If Democrats insist on giving their pronouns, they have to expect that Republicans will respond with acts of domestic terrorism.
New York Times Pitchbot @DougJBalloon
Americans don't have time to care about covid deaths. We're too busy not caring about mass shooting deaths.
Frank Conniff
Bad news: minimum parking requirements make every development look like this.
Good news: it's fixable at the local level:
Andy Boenau
Reminder: white supremacy/nationalism is an ideology not a race! That fundamental fact gets missed by so many people. And white supremacists are political organizers, and very good at what they do. I do kind of wish someone would write the canonical analysis of how newsrooms and editors, by ignoring the rise of white nationalism in civic life, made its ascendance inevitable.
Farai Chideya
in the face of an overwhelming threat, apathy is a trauma response. our leaders are craven enough to force people into hopelessness, and point to the resulting apathy as a "mandate" to justify their eugenic policy choices
Michelle Allison @fatnutritionist
There are a lot of overlapping crises happening right now, including the backsliding of LGBTQ rights and acceptance, and yet we keep seeing newsrooms invest valuable reporting resources into whether we’ve gone too far in accepting trans people (we haven’t, it’s a false premise)
Kat Tenbarge
The 2024 Republican Agenda:
'Nowhere to Run' national abortion ban
'Work Till You Die' cuts to Social Security and Medicare
30% McCarthy Tax on everything you buy.
Pass it on.
Rachel Bitecofer
The more that a system is rigged so that most people can't possibly succeed, the more they're fed platitudes about hard work, grit, perseverance, a growth mindset, and reaching for the stars. Read this horrifying account of the Indian test prep industry: Conservative appeals to "personal responsibility" (so the have-nots blame themselves for systemic barriers) recall Deb Meier's analogy: It’s as if an elementary school teacher tells her students to line up for lunch “…and I want all of you to be in the front half of the line!”
Alfie Kohn
Imagine having an economic system where ecologically urgent and socially necessary things (renewable energy, public transit, affordable housing) are not produced simply because rich people cannot make enough profits doing so. Irrational barely begins to describe it.
Jason Hickel
Don’t make me tap the sign:
James Medlock @jdcmedlock
It shouldn’t be the responsibility of minorities to explain racism/bigotry to white people, but if white people try to police their own in any fashion, it’s immediately dismissed as “woke virtue signaling.” I’m tired.
Jeff Stein @thejeffstein
There's no such thing as being too smart to fall for a cult. We're all fundamentally just monkeys who are freaked out because we know too much [that we're going to die someday]. That gives us totally normal existential fears that are very, very easy to exploit. (Few of the world's religions are as obsessed with the individual's fate after death as Christianity is. That's a very Christian thing. Effective Altruism's whole moral value proposition is extremely, extremely just "hellfire and damnation Christianity rebranded for atheists.")
Dr Sarah Taber
Sandy Hook was the last time Americans were ever hopeful that there'd be some kind of gun control to stop this barbaric culture and the GOP and right-wing media held firm, voted out their moderates and radically defended the right to mow down kids and then won.
Darrell Owens @IDoTheThinking
so much of the media is a guy in 1940s germany getting a scoop about a Jew shoplifting, making that the front page story of his newspaper for seven straight days, and saying “my story is accurate, it’s actually unethical for YOU to want to censor facts in the name of tolerance”
@FuzzyMarth
I dream that one day drivers will have the same patience for me crossing the street that they do waiting for a parking spot 10 feet closer to the mall entrance.
@tomflood1
It’s kind of funny to see luggage without wheels in old TV shows. Clunky! I’m old enough to remember the transition. Never forget that the invention of such a now-obvious thing, wheeled luggage, was a big step toward easier walking and transit-riding in cities. GOOD “disruption.”
Brent Toderian
The genius of the wheeled suitcase couldn't be seen because it didn’t align with prevailing views on masculinity. The predominant view on masculinity was more stubborn than the market’s desire to make money. Seen as a women's product, wheeled suitcases existed before being "invented" in 1972 andamp; took 15 yrs to go mainstream. Gender stereotypes meant that no man rolled a suitcase because it was "unmanly" andamp; women traveled w/ a man who would carry her bag.@katrinemarcal
Amy Diehl, Ph.D.
Plastic is 99% oil and is Big Oil's "hail Mary" strategy to keep the world addicted on fossil fuels forever. It must be challenged and stopped, as it will be
Assaad Razzouk
An article I'd like to read: An exploration of the US environmental movement's attitudes toward transportation, including the Sierra Club's support for SUVs in the 1990s (so outdoorsy!) and the subsequent prioritization of electric cars over transit, walking, and biking.
David Zipper
it's honestly disorienting to go to europe and see that the cars there are just... smaller, and yet society keeps functioning and people are happy. turns out everyone does not need a massive pickup truck, who knew?
@sam_d_1995
Obligatory reminder that this phenomenon is a direct result of Obama era CAFE regulations, and that people predicted *at the time* that these regulations would increase the size of cars. [Gives a link to an article from 2011.]
@SamuelGray3
sometimes it hits home hard that our climate and ecosystems are crumbling before our very eyes and not only are we not building the right stuff fast enough but ludicrously powerful public and private actors are in fact still proposing things that will make it crumble even faster
@ambrown
How did corporations swing from “there’s a labor shortage” to “no one wants to work” to laying of 10s of thousands in the span of a year?
R Haynes-Peterson @roberthp
Seen today in my local Buy Nothing group: “Come stand downwind of my flowering plum tree and just breathe. For real. If this is what your heart needs please DM me for address. It’s in my front yard. It’s heavenly.” Buy Nothing helps revive the faith in community that NextDoor keeps trying to kill
Stacey Burns @WentRogue
During the Trump presidency, the GOP poured millions into the DC hotel owned by a sitting president—claiming it was a choice of "convenience," not currying favor with Trump. Now that it's a Waldorf Astoria, though, their spending is almost nonexistent.
Robert Maguire
For the last 9 months, The Guardian analyzed projects from the biggest carbon offset provider in the world. They found "94% of the credits had no benefit to the climate." Some of the biggest corporations in the world are using these offsets to claim they are "carbon neutral."
Michael Thomas @curious_founder
George Santos, who stole from a small businessman, will be on Small Business Committee.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who incited Jan 6, will be on Homeland Security Committee.
Scott Perry, who's being investigated by the FBI, might investigate the investigators investigating him.
Ritchie Torres
Because Merrick Garland failed to do his job, the people who tried to overthrow the government now run it.
Duty To Warn
We don’t need a 30% national sales tax, we need a wealth tax.
Nina Turner
The DeSantis administration has REJECTED an AP African-American Studies course, saying it “lacks educational value” and “violates the law.” Apparently DeSantis believes it is ILLEGAL for Florida high school students to learn about African-American history because it’s a form of leftist indoctrination
Judd Legum
Hey there little buddy:
Queen Anne Greenways
I think Santos is now his own Clue game:
"Kitara" in the South Tower on 9/11 with the money stolen from a dying dog.
Anthony fleeing the Holocaust in Belgium with the questionable $700,000 campaign donation.
George playing volleyball at Baruch with the oligarch.
Jennifer Mendelsohn @CleverTitleTK
In a year, we went from "we have concerns about fairness women's sports" to "the existence of trans people is obscene material that should be a felony to share with a minor." It was never about sports. It was about mainstreaming eliminationist policies.
Alejandra Caraballo @Esqueer_
my art life doesn't usually make it to this bird app but I gotta flex cuz I'm exhibiting a BUNCH this year and my first series was installed this week:
Lydia Hansen @noodlelydia
Climate change has been a topic covered in college biology textbooks since the 1970s, but more recent books contain fewer sentences about climate change that appear further toward the back of books.
Inside Climate News
It’s wild to me that one of the options for buying out a company to own for yourself is to force the company to take on debt for you
Emily Gorcenski (referring to Elon Musk, but it's generally true)
I see now that gas prices are low again we've moved onto eggs as the Only Consumer Product That Matters(tm). Totally good faith commentary.
Michael Rosenberg @MJRosenbergDad
One of every 100 Americans will die in a car crash. What happens when it’s someone you love?
Greater Greater Washington @ggwash
An image for our age...
Leo Hickman
Agreed. It reminds me of when construction trucks are called out on a building site as a major hazard, 5 MPH, flagman, etc; but as soon as they leave the site and go onto the public road... whatever!
Ian Walker
We’re not saying cities should ban cars. We’re arguing they should stop privileging and prioritizing motor vehicles at the expense of every other mode; forcing dependence through design. With that revolutionary act, they become far better places for everyone, including drivers.
Melissa andamp; Chris Bruntlett @modacitylife
Remember: Air pollution from cars causes more harm than crashes. If your transport safety plan doesn't address air pollution, it's not a safety plan. Recent research suggests air pollution is much more harmful than previously thought.
@CriticalMassAKL
The same people trying to ban U.S. history from being taught accurately in schools are the ones who want you to believe MLK’s legacy is providing motivational quotes to share with their “America First” Facebook groups:
Jesse Duquette
Republicans blocked the For the People Act.
Republicans blocked the Freedom to Vote Act.
Republicans blocked the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Save your empty MLK tweets. Take real action.
Public Citizen
Y’all act like white institutions were built with government grants when it was literally slave labor andamp; the profits of human trafficking
Bree Newsome Bass
How do we take power from the ultra-rich and create a system defended against self-dealing in government and the rise of robber barons? If you figure that out you solve pretty much everything, including climate change.
Peter Kalmus @ClimateHuman
It's kind of wild how nowhere in American society at all does there exist at all the trope that Ivy League educated are particularly funny but we almost exclusively let them write all the comedy shows
daniel @escargotpro_
Martin Luther King Jr’s politics were quite divisive. Only 23% of Americans approved of the March on Washington before it happened andamp; the next spring only 16% said public protests like the ones King led would “help” blacks (while 74% said they’d “hurt”)
Kevin M. Kruse
The people saying we need armed police to deal with armed criminals are the same ones that want guns every damn where
Bree Newsome Bass
Happy “That’s Not What MLK Meant Please Sit Down” Day
Your Tiny Journalist Friend @thewayoftheid
There were 8 full bird Colonels from Virginia in the United States Army in 1860. 6 did not commit treason. 1 resigned, took a commission in the Virginia Militia, then resigned that when Virginia provided the militia to the Confederate Army. The other was Robert E. Lee.
@theSloopJohnM
New minicar: The Squad. It charges itself with solar panels installed on its roof. Comes with removable batteries, heat, and optional A/C. Max speed of 45 kmh (28 mph) and range up to 100 km (62 miles). Prices start at €6.250 (Europe only for now):
David Zipper
Probably pretty telling that almost all public discussion about houseless people revolves around where they should be shipped off to and dumped like garbage instead of solutions to actually help them or address the conditions that caused this problem in the first place.
Jared Yates Sexton
If the Georgia DA is 1st to indict Trump, that's fine, but it means the federal system is too slow or that federal laws need amending to cover the obvious wrongdoings of the former president in so many areas -- taxes, peaceful transfer of power, incitement of insurrection, etc.
Jill Wine-Banks
The most important part of an effective cycling plan is the car plan. By making driving indirect and inconvenient—and riding a bike the opposite—cities improve the attractiveness, comfort and safety of their streets; and the more desirable way of travel becomes the quickest one.
Melissa andamp; Chris Bruntlett @modacitylife
Calling queer people “groomers” is genocidal language. “They’re coming for your children,” leads to violence and death. Always.
Benjamin Perry @FaithfullyBP
Its interesting how when I ask Christians tough questions like about god endorsing chattel slavery (for example) it’s always “God is mysterious and we can’t understand him” BUT when it’s time for y’all to be homophobic and transphobic y’all understand god exactly what god wants
@Dreadful4Tymes
Cervical cancer rates dropped 65% from 2012 to 2019 among women in their early 20s after a generation of young women were vaccinated against human papillomavirus, or HPV, for the first time. #vaccines save lives.
Amy Holden Jones @aholdenj
Police killed nearly 100 people a month in 2022. There were only 12 days police didn’t kill someone. The majority of killings took place in scenarios where no crime was alleged or where police were called for nonviolent offenses or mental health checks.
pdx law grrrl
This right here:
@BraytheRPG
This high-tide of education reform that began with A Nation at Risk in the 1980s has proven primarily one thing: Education reform is the problem not the solution because reformers misdiagnose the problem and offer misguided solutions
Pine Trees of Tzimisce @RavensLilies
“Wait, Martin Luther King broke the law?” A real question I recently received from an acquaintance when I mentioned MLK’s Letter fromandnbsp; Birmingham Jail.
jackiantonovich
People make this point “read the article, don’t just react to the headline.” Which yes but also the headline shouldn’t be misleading or prompt a different understanding than the article.
Angie Schmitt
George Santos's lies have lies.
@Urmysunshine192
nitpicking, verb: carefully removing the eggs of parasitic insects before they hatch (but perjorative, somehow)
@scttdvd
High-value metals recovered from old laptops, power drills, and EVs can already be recycled to recover nearly all of the cobalt and nickel and over 80% of the lithium, aluminum, copper, and graphite. The DNA of clean energy is circular economy.
Assaad Razzouk
Conservatism is at least 50% just not knowing about stuff everyone else has already heard
Adam Miller @ajm6792
the core evil behind all the bad -isms is hierarchy, the idea that some groups of people are inherently and naturally superior to others. make sure you're tackling that idea, and not just prohibiting certain forms of its expression
@shaun_vids
I had a Top Secret Clearance. If I found classified documents in my home and returned them nothing would have happened. Maybe a reprimand, that's it. If I was asked to turn in documents and refused until they had to raid my house I would have gone to jail.andnbsp; See the difference?
@DeaconBlues0
Its hilarious when politicians ask, "George Santos, have you no shame?" Um yes, he has no shame, that's how he got here.
@JonathanMetzl
Just to reiterate, the Governor and chief executive of the state in which this photograph was taken has now signed an executive order that could jeopardize anyone who dares to share this photograph in the very school being desegregated in this photograph:
@PastorTrey05
Is it just me or do we need WAY more stories from students and parents explaining why they WANT to learn about the role of racism in U.S. history? Like, maybe we shouldn't let a bunch of far-right activists dictate who gets to speak about what we should learn about as a society?
Dr. William Horne @wihorne
Republicans complain that new IRS resources will increase the risk of ordinary Americans to be audited. But the opposite is true: lack of resources means the IRS already focuses on those easier to audit - people with lower incomes
Don Moynihan @donmoyn
So now that deniers have lost the so-called "debate" over the existence of global warming, the false "debate" has moved to whether we can use fossil energy at scale and still halt global warming anyway.
Dr. Genevieve Guenther @DoctorVive
Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the concept of a literal hell is how badly Christians want it to be real
deconstruction girl
Transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy would pay for itself *purely through the direct health benefits of air pollution reduction*, even if climate benefits were valued at zero. The even-broader context is simply this: lighting things on fire for energy is fantastically destructive to ecosystems and unhealthy for humans. When there was no alternative, it was worth it. (Energy is great!) But now there are alternatives, so it isn't any more.
David Roberts @drvolts
Gas Is Gross
Nicole Kelner
Three recent approaches to a coup plot:
1) Germany -- stop the coup before it starts
2) Brazil -- round up insurrectionists after they attack
3) US -- Seat the seditionists in Congress, pass the buck on investigation, and allow the head insurrectionist to run for president again
Sarah Kendzior
“Those who own a car spend on average 13% of their gross income on it, above the 10% generally seen as the indicator of transport poverty. For those paying for their car with a finance or loan deal this proportion rises to 19%.” What an utter waste of resources, these modern towns and cities of ours are. Generations have now been born and grown up without knowing anything else than car dependency. Parents reduced to chauffeuring. Millions dead and injured every year. And they say it is inevitable. People mock those who yearn for a life of bygone days. Well I'm so furiously old that I remember life on my quiet back street in 2010 or 2011 before the combined onslaught of Google Maps and delivery vehicles made it impossible for children to walk unsupervised to school.
Wrath Of Gnon
Bullshit should not be covered as news. Bullshit should not be published on opinion pages. Editors who cannot discern bullshit from news should not be editors.
David M. Perry @Lollardfish
The entire US houseless population could be given homes for less than the price of one aircraft carrier. Let that sink in.
@AWKWORDrap
Drivers without valid licenses accounted for almost the entirety of the increase in driver fatal crash involvements during 2020's road death surge, a bombshell new AAA report finds — and that wasn't the only surprise.
Streetsblog USA
Burning fossil fuels is legal, while fighting the industry is criminalised. Don't conflate legality with morality! Our struggle is legitimate! h/t @mhdksafa andamp; @TheDougKayne
Payal Parekh @payalclimate
The best way to understand House GOP “legislative” actions is through the phrase (that, ahem, I sort of coined): Vice signaling. Our major media outlets are already covering it as legislation. Which is not something that informs the public.
David M. Perry @Lollardfish
A reminder that pro athletes are required to speak with the media and their performances don’t impact our quality of life. Meanwhile, elected officials who control our housing, health care, and finances, can evade public accountability. There’s something wrong with that.
Jemele Hill
Treating Black people’s lives as worth less than white-owned property is the entire basis of capitalism. And that is what the state upholds through its laws and its law enforcement. Are we clear?
Bree Newsome Bass
Some people would rather be feared than loved. Kevin McCarthy has the vision to ask: Why not neither?
Eric Pfeffinger
pro tip: a 6 year old child with a handgun and a grudge is not a well-regulated militia
Jeff Tiedrich @itsJeffTiedrich
You cannot put a reverse card on an oppression. Reverse racism andandnbsp; reverse colorism do not exist. Please be smarter than that in 2023.
Shana V. White
We live in a country where guns and cars are the top two causes of death among children and the political faction that most explicitly identifies as pro-child relentlessly defends both guns and cars. Kinda dumb.
David Roberts @drvolts
I'm not wearing underpants that force me to veer into children at 30mph:
Nick Pettigrew
Remember when Scott Walker tried to remove *search for the truth* and *improve the human condition* from the University of Wisconsin's mission and replace with *meet the state's workforce needs*?
Jennifer Berkshire @BisforBerkshire
I’m still pondering the centuries of violence rendered invisible by the statement “we all came over on different ships but we’re in theandnbsp; same boat now.” So many of the bodies still lie in the harbors,
Bree Newsome Bass
Kevin McCarthy getting elected is the epitome of mediocre white men getting positions they didn’t earn or deserve. Never doubt the desperate ability of mediocre white men to fail up. A microcosm of American society at its best.
Devita Davison
It’s fucking nuts that the speaker of the house voted not to certify the presidential election results.
Jason Selvig
On this day in 1807, a ship named “Fair American” delivered 88 kidnapped Africans in Charleston, SC. 21,000 Africans were trafficked through Charleston in 1807 alone. To overcome racial inequality, we must confront our history.
Equal Justice Initiative @eji_org
Why are taxes so high? - Snowstorm Edition:
@BokononsProphet
It’s amusing to hear Republicans who denounced November 2020 ballot counting as evidence of a “stolen election” because it took more than a couple of hours now hail the messy, once-in-a-century chaos of electing Kevin McCarthy as “democracy.”
Julián Castro
Today I read some bullshit about how that con artist George Santos escaped scrutiny because of the death of local journalism. The local paper in Queens NY is the NY Times. It didn’t lack resources. It simply misspent resources fabricating a panic about thefts 3000 miles away.
David Menschel @davidminpdx
If they don't select a speaker, it's with the aim of shutting down the government and hurting the public. If they do select a speaker, it's with the aim of shutting down the functions of government that serve the public.
Sarah Kendzior
Not sure people appreciate that the debacle over the speakership will be the least dysfunctional and disastrous moment of this incoming congress.
Bree Newsome Bass
Traffic Engineering is the science of taking empirical evidence gathered from freeways and applying it to cities.
Queen Anne Greenways
George Washington Carver died on this day in 1943. He overcame slavery to achieve fame as a scientist, botanist and educator. He invented over 300 uses for peanuts and he’s responsible for much more.
He's credited for the idea of crop rotation to improve soil health.
AFRICAN andamp; BLACK HISTORY @AfricanArchives
"Research shows it costs taxpayers $31,065 a year to criminalize a single person experiencing homelessness while the yearly cost for providing supportive housing is $10,051."
Aaron Carr
The clear irony here is the entire McCarthy saga is really about GOP gerrymandering biting them in the ass. They created these safe red districts, and lunatics won them, and now the lunatics control the asylum.
Jay Michaelson
Trying to make voters think this dysfunction is a good thing is next-level gaslighting.
Christopher Bouzy
Middle class Americans believe that public transportation is inherently unclean and unsafe. The truth is that poor conditions on American buses and trains is a deliberate policy decision dictated by the companies who profit from you sitting in your car for three hours every day.
P.B. Gomez @NotoriousPBG
I assume anyone who says bicycles aren't practical in Minnesota because of the winter also vigorously opposes surface parking. Talk about impractical for winter — plows can never get a decent plow, and cars can't find where spots are:
Sean Hayford Oleary @sdho
One thing I think is hypocritical relatively well off people do on here is be judgmental about other people’s car use (mostly utilitarian) but defensive about their own leisure air travel.
Angie Schmitt
Look if you willingly buy a car whose outer skin is bare steel in a place that's going to put salt down in the winter you deserve what comes next anyway
The Pumpkin Dipshit @ParSpec
It's funny that Republicans are finally able to rerun an election over and over again and yet they still can't win
Jordan Zakarin
Well good news the Cybertruck has just a single wiper that doesn’t reach the passenger side:
Cooper Lund
Fascinating. Folks looked at the hundreds of pedestrian-involved crashes in Milwaukee from 2011 to 2015 and found that 85% of the time the driver was from a higher-income census tract than the pedestrian.
Michael Bradley @MikeBradleyMKE
Performing a mental cross reference of people who complained about property tax levy + people who think we need more plows
@nstudenski
Republicans campaign on government being a problem and then they get elected and do their damndest to prove it
Aaron Rupar
It’s crazy that in the fake year of 2023 humans are still fighting against nature instead of walking alongside it. We should be in deep rest like the rest of nature right now. But instead we’re digging ourselves out of 14 inches of snow to run around and get COVID and the flu.
@mollypeonies
Texas has an incarceration rate of 840 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than any democracy on earth:
Prison_Health
The last four GOP speakers:
Gingrich: Resigned; left Congress
Hastert: Resigned; went to prison for sex abuse
Boehner: Resigned; left Congress
Ryan: Resigned; left Congress
This is the job that Kevin McCarthy is willing to be publicly humiliated for, however short his tenure.
Christopher Orr
It's January 4th in New York and I just went out to collect my trash cans from the curb in a T-shirt and while I'm not complaining as such and understand the weather is not the climate, it did occur to me that humans are a plague upon this planet who have failed as stewards.
Elie Mystal
What Trump’s taxes tell us:
- He probably broke tax rules multiple times
- The IRS is too gutted to adequately police him or other potential wealthy tax cheats.
Jesse Eisinger
The more that parents' self-worth hinges on their children's
accomplishments, the more controlling they are and the more they want
the kids to be rich, popular, attractive - vs. achieving more meaningful
goals (personal development, generosity, close relationships). [links
to a study]
Alfie Kohn
Musing this fine opening to 2023 on one of my obsessions:
If we had adequately policed white-collar crime in the last 15 years, Trump would have been caught for tax cheating and business frauds and his kids would have been indicted.
Jesse Eisinger
periodic reminder that Fahrenheit 451 isn't about government censorship but a society so inundated with entertainment and technology that it's discarded the humanities voluntarily, in the process becoming cruel, bigoted and inhuman.
@SketchesbyBoze
Still one of my all-time favorite education quotes: “Measurable outcomes may be the least significant results of learning.” -Prof. Linda McNeil
Alfie Kohn
If your local news stories included police staffing numbers when violent crime was up, you should keep doing it in your stories about violent crime being down.
Wedge LIVE!™
“Facebook is one of the companies that degraded the internet so that it consists of ‘five websites, each consisting of screenshots of text from the other four.’” –Cory Doctorow
John Wunderlich @PrivacyCDN
Everything always boils down to the ridiculous notion that simply being in public is unsafe. Transit is simply the catalyst or a representation of being on the streets or in outdoor public spaces.
@floofy_middle
Brazilians in Florida “fangirling” Bolsonaro showing once again that state is the Arkham Asylum for fascist latinos:
Nathália Urban
Brazil’s President-elect Lula has announced that Marina Silva, a prominent Amazon anti-deforestation activist, will be Brazil’s next Minister of Environment. A strong indication that his government will crack down on illegal deforestation.
@good
I’ve realized that many men don’t see misogyny as a systemic thing. They think women are just angry about random things and “natural things”
oyinda @itstobiaf
Words from George Lakoff: “How does the progressive moral system differ from the conservative moral system? It is rooted in nurturance — empathy, responsibility and a commitment to the good of your community.”
Chris Wiebe
A quarter of all kilometers cycled in Dutch cities are to/from a train station. Half of all train trips start with a bike ride. Thanks to the trains, there is more cycling; and thanks to cycling, more train usage. A virtuous circle of sustainable travel:
Melissa & Chris Bruntlett @modacitylife
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