The Cats Serf

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Masked Alaska who mostly loves living in this beautiful country. Love God, my mom, my cats, and more.
My friend
who keeps getting sick
says he knows that he should
wear a mask and take precautions
but he says that doing so
is just too inconvenient,
and I cannot imagine
a better epitaph for humanity
than: we could have
saved ourselves
but doing so
was just too inconvenient.
I know, my cautious friend,
that at this point
you are probably tired
of being laughed at
for your cautious ways
but remember, my friend,
it is better
to be laughed at
than to find yourself wondering
why it is
that you always feel kind of funny.
"Much as we all might hate the idea, the fact remains that there will be more pandemics. We cannot wish them away and we imperil ourselves if we do not prepare for them." — @HelenBranswell https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/06/covid-5-year-anniversary-lessons-learned-vaccine-hesitancy-mandate-resistance/
What Covid tried to teach us — and why it will matter in the next pandemic

Five years after the start of Covid, we appear to be trying to teach ourselves the lessons of the pandemic the hard way. 

STAT

"Four years ago today, Donald Trump led an attempt to overthrow a democratic election and thereby undo our constitutional system. In two weeks, the same man will be inaugurated president of the United States, this time with a centibillionaire as the unelected de facto head of government and with anti-qualified anti-patriots as his cabinet nominees. What to do?"

~ Timothy Snyder

#Trump #Republicans #ElonMusk #autocracy #oligarchy #EconomicElites
/6

https://snyder.substack.com/p/shadow-cabinet

Shadow Cabinet

A Positive Form of Opposition

Thinking about...

Timothy Snyder thinks there are lessons Americans might learn from what just happened in South Korea, if we're so inclined.

Like Trump, Yoon Suk Yeol won a very narrow victory in his election. He blathers about "fake news" and his "enemies," and sought to impose martial law – "as will Trump if he decides to invoke the Insurrection Act…."

#Trump #SouthKorea #Yoon #MartialLaw
/1

https://snyder.substack.com/p/dictators-for-a-day

Dictators for a Day

South Korea and America

Thinking about...
There's a lot of what might be read as Vending Machine Theology in Deuteronomy, things that seem to say: If you're a good goober and do your homework and chores, if you don't swear or scuff your shoes, you’ll get cookies! If, however, you are a naughty noodle, you will be sent to bed without dinner and you will not like that at all. (1/)
Many of the internet’s ills are based on widespread corporate surveillance online. This pervasive system, ran by corporations and governments, stifles our speech, and erodes our privacy. But together, we can dismantle it. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/address-online-harms-we-must-first-do-privacy
To Address Online Harms, We Must Consider Privacy First

In this report, we outline how many of the internet's ills have one thing in common: they're based on the business model of widespread corporate surveillance online. Dismantling this system would not only be a huge step forward to our digital privacy, it would raise the floor for serious discussions about the internet's future.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

I wrote about the societal diseases of billionairism and narcissism that our country is suffering to a terminal degree, the reasons why building communities is the most effective treatment for it, and what that means for The Reframe.

https://www.the-reframe.com/we-cant-afford-billionaires/

We Can't Afford Billionaires

Fighting back against a grotesque perversion of our shared humanity; doing so by building community in a nation built to accommodate community-destroying narcissists. Read to the end for an invitation from The Reframe.

The Reframe

On today's Rare Earth we were discussing the impacts (good and bad) of space use/exploration on the environment. Satellites are incredibly useful, but just look at this interactive webpage that shows all the current satellites and where they are (and there are SO MANY):

https://sky.rogue.space/

Rogue Space Database

Supreme Risk is ProPublica's interactive guide to rights the #SupremeCourt has established — and could take away.

Filter your results by #SCOTUS justice and issues like Criminal #Justice, #Education, #Voting, Sex & #Gender, #Guns and more.

https://propub.li/418pykA

#Law #Politics #USPolitics #Government #Guide #Journalism

Supreme Risk

Most rights are based in statute, but dozens — such as rights to same-sex marriage, search warrants and Miranda warnings — are based on judicial rulings that the Supreme Court can overturn and that current justices have questioned some aspect of.

ProPublica