What *gets manufactured* is the lens through which you see the world and by which you judge the things in it. True “we” don’t control the mode of production of the *things* we need and consume; AND we scarcely control the mode of production of the ethical questions that are counted as legitimate.

Amanda Mull@amandamull.bsky.social · 2d ago

I think this thread is basically what I believed when I began covering the consumer system and while a lot of what Nathan is describing is factually correct as to the mechanisms by which the system itself works, I’ve eventually had to admit that a lot of people also do just love cheap bullshit

John Phillips London really does make a nice suit, but the Nakatomi Tower heist was nevertheless inexcusable.

Things seem overly precious. Steel your nerves for god’s sake. Human knowledge is not so fragile. "I like a thin book because it will steady a table, a leather volume because it will strop a razor, and a heavy book because it can be thrown at a cat." — Mark Twain

If the question is in good faith, we all should want to have conversations like below. Else maybe the question is just poking holes in balloons.

@zparks.bsky.social · last wk.

A simple claim: Mamdani is running a small experiment to gather proof. If it’s also rage bait for the conservatives, is that his fault? (If the liberals are equally confused, that’s also not necessarily his fault.)

It is the case that the phenomenon seems to be that some people dig into the transactionally rewarding fight with each other, while shifting the conversation back to the presumably nuanced discussion that they purportedly meant to initiate often takes a back seat.

@zparks.bsky.social · last wk.

To actually have the discussion, isn’t “5 city run grocery stores” a solution to the problem of food deserts not necessarily “feeding people.”

If only “things” are “digitized” then the world becomes absolutely knowable to an entity that has infinite knowing power. …is bonkers metaphysics.

Zoomer Antimillenarian@surcomplicated.bsky.social · last wk.

Because the legal corpus is *physically* messy in a way that makes it hard to digitize. If it gets digitized, things get much easier every fast.

Artists have always recycled old stories to make art that speaks to contemporary themes. Experts ought to clarify what it is within their domain to clarify. Criticism is an art form. Reading criticism is a skill. Appreciating art and expressing personal preference are not forms of criticism.

On top of all the other reasons to hate this, Trump won’t stop until he destroys the primary purpose of naming things in the first place: to distinguish them. “I paid 24 Trumps to take the Trump from Trump Station to Trump Station.”

It’s not about secrets. Here’s an analogy: The party is the producer; the presumptive or eventual nominee is the director; and the other candidates are the actors. The goal is a film that convinces America to vote for the Democrats.

If you really want to game out the confrontation, taking this last point seriously is how Congress can force a president from office even if supermajorities are unobtainable. The power of the purse is the ultimate power. Not one dime for a tyrant, demand he resign or else *nothing* gets funded.

Ed Markey@edmarkey.bsky.social · 4mo ago

25th amendment. Impeachment. I will support any avenue to remove Donald Trump from office. We cannot leave this man in charge of America’s nuclear weapons as he threatens to end an entire civilization. And Congress must not fund this reckless administration.

Trump's genocidal insanity will leave office with him. But, unless that happens now, his lasting legacy will be the stain that sticks to the United States for a century; the country so flawed, cowardly and toothless, that it was unable and unwilling to stop an obviously mad tyrant.

No matter how much it's talked about, it's still not talked about enough that the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case on whether the words in the 14th amendment mean what the words in the 14th amendment mean.

Had any one of his old acquaintances on shore but half dreamed of what was lurking in him then, how soon would their aghast and righteous souls have wrenched the ship from such a fiendish man!

General strike now. Everywhere. Until it ends. Insanity.

The Greenland shit is evidence they think the Venezuela shit is going well.

Chi ci guadagna dai dazi di Trump? Cosa c'entra la #Cina? In questo video vi voglio raccontare la strategia estorsiva di #Trump, cioè quella di portare gli stati a negoziare alle sue condizioni, e cosa c'entra la mafia con tutto questo.

I dazi di Trump aprono al contrabbando: un nuovo proibizionismo

YouTube video by Roberto Saviano Official

youtu.be

I am totally not interested in Americans suddenly having passionate and ignorant opinions about Venezuela.

Trumpism is proof that the telos of capitalism is sociopathy.

This is the way

From the Pennsylvania community on Reddit: Rep. Madeleine Dean confronts House Speaker Mike Johnson about Trump - "The president is unhinged. He's unwell"

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This is the way.

From the law community on Reddit: PRITZKER: "It appears that Donald Trump not only has dementia set in,but he is copying tactics of Vladimir Putin by sending troops into cities; there's something genu...

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The question for celebrity appeasers and apologizers is “What *would* make you speak out against your paymasters, if not this?”

The arrival in legislatures of a different group of gratifiers, is not going to get humanity out of its gratification driven crisis The agenda of all our current political parties, is one of feeding up the gratification tendencies that make our society dependent, abject, conflicted & barely human

The president told a Central American dictator to build five more massive slave labor camps to hold US citizens.

Prima facie contempt of a unanimous Supreme Court stinks of Andrew Jackson.

If you wanna do mass human trafficking and call it deportation, SCOTUS might write you a blank warrant. If you wanna rescue a bunch of kidnapped souls from a concentration camp, SCOTUS has told you that you don’t have standing and those souls must each individually apply in person.

I'm not advocating it, but this is the US. We have concealed carry permits and castle doctrines and civilians armed like paramilitary groups and a mass anti-government militia movement... and a President saying he can deport anyone, anytime, to a Salvadorean supermax death camp.

Revolutions do need rhetorical intensity and probably a bit of moral absolutism. But I’m not sure that means Paine was “right,” nor that he was the proper person to put in charge of revolution strategy.

@zparks.bsky.social · last yr.

Sigh. These are, after all, the times that try men’s souls. Something something. Summer soldier. Sunshine patriot.