Dave T-W @davoloid@qoto.org

Loved hearing Tim Walz today say "you don't just win elections to bank political capital to win another election, you take that political capital and you burn it as fast as you can to improve people's lives". #uspol @kamalaharrisforpresidentnews

"I don't read the news - it's bad for my mental health," has become the rallying cry of the willfully uninformed. It's the kind of statement that gets nods of understanding and murmurs of agreement at dinner parties.

We've somehow convinced ourselves that being an informed citizen is incompatible with personal well-being, as if knowledge and mental health are locked in a zero-sum game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdKt1v2uHdQ

@KydiaMusic @kwramm @bojacobs Exactly. It's a cluster of neuroses, starting with serious self-esteem problems. And so, societies with self-esteem problems are ripe for fascism to take hold.

Another red-flag for me is a society that loves the concept of revenge, which the USA is. Americans love the idea of getting revenge and this is one of the things that makes Trump so attractive. Trump frequently threatens revenge and this turns his followers on.

All of this stems from a populace that is unhappy and feels put down, which much of the USA also feels. Racists feel put down. The rest feel they can't get ahead because the system is rigged. Which it is, by the wealthy, but they don't understand it. They don't realize that the wealthy people they idolize are the very ones who have rigged the system and destroyed the middle class.

@kwramm @bojacobs

Its a tell-tale sign of Psychopaths and Narcissists that they can’t laugh at themselves.

Fascism is Psychopathy and Narcissistic Personality Disorder writ large, as a national identity.

If citizens don’t feel safe in the public square, because it is ruled by intimidation, threats of violence, and displays of aggression, they won’t be able to participate as equal citizens. As a result, democratic political culture perishes.
 
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/maga-on-the-beach-redux

F-16 above Odesa, Ukraine.

Source: https://t.me/OdessaDumskayaNet

by the look of it many of the political prisoners in Russia you could often read about on my feed are free - Novaya Gazeta has an unconfirmed list of some of the names not yet in the bulletins: Oleg Orlov, Andrey Pivovarov, Sasha Skochilenko, Liliya Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeyeva

And here is a bit if background on them:

St Petersburg artist Sasha #Skochilenko - sentenced to 7ys for replacing supermarket pricing labels with anti-war messages: "The #Russian army bombed an art school in #Mariupol . Around 400 people were hiding inside," and: "My great grandfather did not fight in WWII for four years so that Russia could become a fascist state and attack #Ukraine ."

She was convicted of spreading "false information" about the Russian army.

#UkraineWar

⚡️ Reporter: "#Trump has said repeatedly that he could have gotten the hostages out without giving anything in exchange. What do you say to that? What do you say to former President Trump now?"

President #Biden: "Why didn't he do it when he was president?"

Okay, I finally got too annoyed about idiot MAGA zealots incorrectly using the words “coup” and “Marxist” while insisting that “America is a republic, NOT a democracy” and wrote about why such abuse of the English language is both stupid and dangerous. https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/maga-corruptions-of-the-english-language

Gardeners of the Galaxy turns 4 today!

I have recorded a celebratory episode, and there will be cake later.

(For me. Sadly one of the limitations of RSS is that it cannot deliver cake.)

https://theunconventionalgardener.com/blog/space-fruit-and-flowers/

#astrobotany #podcast #SpacePlants

Wikipedia should shut down an hour before the #Olympics opening ceremony and demand a ransom from all the broadcasters frantically trying to come up with facts about the different countries

10 years from now you'l put on a jacket and find a mask in your pocket.
"Oh man, what a weird year that was," you'll chuckle to yourself.

Then you'll pick up your machete and Continue across the wasteland, keeping to the shadows to avoid the roving gangs of cannibal raiders.

Roses are red.
Roses are blue.
Depending on their velocity
relative to you.