November 29, 2022

All across this country people who voted Republican their whole lives are trying to figure out

What is next. They are thinking about us and thinking about the nutballs, measuring us v them to figure out where to make their home.

We’ve been told for a really long time there’s no point talking to people who are past persuading. there was a time that that made sense to me too but it doesn’t anymore.

With the head full of lies they’ve been told about us for the last several years and making these decisions with that information largely. One thing you can do to help us is to be kind and hold a space for them. None of us are right all the time. We’ve all made mistakes and almost all of us deserve forgiveness. Try not to rub it in if you can. Try to make space for civil discussion and help them find common ground.

On my part I think it will help me to think about where the wingers went way off the rails as far as our values as Americans. I’ll start there.

November 28, 2022

Natural hazards on the Big Island- understanding rift zones

https://hilo.hawaii.edu/natural-hazards/volcanoes/riftzones.php?fbclid=IwAR1izEnmstDhdXg5KFFttI1juk_C4DMG3r7YQrthq6DgZNXBtsjuTW4cieo
These two maps help make sense out of the eruption news.

Most eruptions originate at the summits and rift zones of Hualālai, Maunaloa , and Kīlauea. Rift zones are areas where the volcano is rifting or splitting apart. The rock in a rift zone has many cracks and is relatively weak, and thus it is easiest for magma to make its way to the surface through these rift zones. Once at the surface, the lava flows downhill, following local topography. Like water, lava seeks the path of least resistance. Areas downhill of rift zones are more likely to be covered by future lava flows than areas on extinct volcanoes. The U.S. Geological Survey provides lava flow hazard maps via the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

November 25, 2022

We have seen this threat before. Rachel Maddow's podcast Ultra tells the story

Of America First. Illuminating, riveting, and if we are smart, instructive.

It’s as if the invisible forces who cultivated the Lauren Boberts and EmptyGs of our era studied this history. I’m persuaded they did. The circus like tactics, the profoundly cynical and anti-American beliefs cloaked in the flag are all too familiar. If you haven’t listened yet, please do. Wherever you listen to podcasts. If you don’t this is a good reason to start.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra/id1647910854

November 23, 2022

Debt: The First 5,000 years. David Graeber talk at Google 2012

David has since passed.
Great to hear him again, though.

November 9, 2022

Seth Abramson on the unlikelihood of replacing Twitter as an effective progressive thought center

Seth wrote the Proof series, Proof of Collusion, Proof of Corruption and Proof of Conspiracy. Read his Substack if you don’t like Twitter.
https://www.sethabramson.net/
https://democraticunderground.com/100217325136
I’m not doing to respond to those who dislike Twitter because I have windmills to go tilt. I think this bears some thought here. Aloha everyone.

Seth Abramson
We mustn’t forget how many years it took for Twitter to become the nation’s political water cooler. Every media outlet is here; every politician is here; every journalist is here; every pundit is here. Don’t fool yourself: it’d take any other site over a decade to become Twitter.

PS/ I understand folks having accounts elsewhere. I do too; I’m on Substack (at both PROOF and RETRO), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and now even Mastodon. But I’d be deceiving myself if I thought any of those sites will *ever* hold a candle to what political Twitter is right now.
PS2/ Yes—Elon Musk is a petulant manchild who is wreaking havoc on Twitter right now. But things *will* settle down here. And I do not want to let a conservative troll like Musk break up what is currently the best gathering place in the world for progressive voters and politicos.
PS3/ While I don’t think it was his purpose, the fact remains that if Musk manages to scatter America’s progressives across 10+ websites with a tiny fraction of Twitter’s usability and audience—Tribel Social, Counter Social, Mastodon, Blue Sky et. al.—the far right will have won.

PS4/ And what is strangest of all to me is the normally savvy political people I know on here who seem to honestly believe that what Twitter is for American progressives can be recreated anywhere else in under a decade.

That’s simply not how digital communities form or function.
PS5/ Right now I see only one medium-term danger for Twitter: that the real plan Musk had for giving everyone a checkmark is to start over the process of identifying who’s a public figure, with it now being mostly *conservatives*—affecting how the platform works for progressives.
PS6/ If Musk were acting in good faith—which thus far he clearly has not been—he would have issued a secondary “public figure” notation to all those (432,000 people in all) who are *currently* verified before allowing anonymous users to be verified without identifying themselves.
PS7/ But I’m not convinced that content moderation here is going to change much long-term. I think users will continue to be able to use Twitter for free if they choose to. I think monetization options will continue to be subtle *enough* that they don’t much distract from the UX.
PS8/ Mastodon is confusing as hell and run by just one person. Other non-Twitter options equally have major Achilles heels. Twitter became what it is because it is generally speaking elegantly designed, incredibly usable, and the *consensus pick* of tens of millions of Americans.
PS9/ No one anywhere needs to take my advice (obviously). But my candid advice would be to stay on Twitter and use Twitter primarily unless and until the site literally falls apart—which at this point I think any expert would tell you there is a less than 10% chance of happening.
PS10/ But I’ll also make a prediction: given that the neo-Nazis already have Gab, Parler, GTTR, Truth Social, and even—let’s admit it—the political quadrant of Facebook, if progressives now cede *Twitter* to them and then scatter to the wind, it will be a major blow to democracy.
• • •

November 6, 2022

Timothy Snyder on Ukraine, costs and preserving security. Must be read.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1589260108537610240.html

I have tried to paste the whole over and over and can not. It won’t. You’ll need to click the link. I understand the hesitancy. I feel it often here too. It’s the unrolled Twitter thread from Timothy Snyder, promise.

Midway:

Timothy Snyder

@TimothyDSnyder
·
8h
The Ukrainians have reduced the possibility of Chinese aggression through Russia, and made direct Chinese aggression less likely. They have done all of this just by defending themselves, without making any move against China. 7/

Timothy Snyder

@TimothyDSnyder
·
8h
Without the Ukrainians, the United States would lack the policy instruments for this. By resisting, Ukrainians created an opportunity for U.S. policy that would not otherwise have existed. 8/


Timothy Snyder

@TimothyDSnyder
·
8h
No American lives have been placed at risk. U.S. assistance to Ukraine amounts to a rounding error in the defense budget. 9/


Timothy Snyder

@TimothyDSnyder
·
8h
The gains Ukrainian resistance brings to American security are so enormous that the US national security establishment is embarrassed to speak of them directly. 10/

Timothy Snyder

@TimothyDSnyder
·
8h
It is awkward to say that another country is doing so much for us. It is awkward to say that Ukrainian resistance has done more for the safety of Americans than any U.S. policy since the end of the cold war. But it is true and must be said. 11/


Timothy Snyder

@TimothyDSnyder
·
8h
Reversing the U.S. policy of aiding Ukraine will undo all of these gains. There is still time to revive Russia and reassure China, which is what ending support of Ukraine will mean. Such a policy reversal would make Americans far less safe and secure. 12/


Timothy Snyder

@TimothyDSnyder
·
8h
My concerns about the Russian invasion of Ukraine are the prevention of genocide and the defense of democracy. But those who think first of U.S. interests should acknowledge what Ukrainians are doing for American security. The least we can do is be on our own side 13/13