#Especially if it disrupts the economy.

[trip-is-bad-at-go]

Star Trek continuing to predict the future. Stand by for the Bell Riots and the Irish Unification of 2024.

[sapphic-sprite]

Four days ago, Bisan posted about organizing another Global strike after she miraculously survived a bombing around the hospital she is currently sheltering in. The strike is from January 21st to the 28th as a way to show support to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. To support the strike those who are organizing are asking that you:

Call out of work/school if that is possible

Avoid spending any kind of money anywhere and if that’s not possible just spend as little possible until this strike is over

Email and call your representative to tell them you are striking for Palestine and what you are doing to strike

Use your social medias to talk about Palestine as much as possible

Talk to friends, coworkers, and family to try to get them to participate as well

Go to marches and other forms of protest if you are able to

Try to stay home as much as possible if you cannot participate in marches or any other kind of physical protesting

Remember that doing something is better than doing nothing when it comes to the strike. If you can’t get out of work or school try doing other things on the list for as many days as you can.

Here are the posts from Bisans Instagram account about the global strike:

[image description: the first image says “Global strike week, 21-28 January! CEASEFIRE NOW!”

The second image says “After my survival with a miracle tonight while being stuck in the hospital until now, it's time for this to end! It is justice against injustice and good against evil! It is a war against humanity and the world, not just against Gaza! Here, We are now all under bombardment and are at risk of death at any moment! And you can make a difference!”

The third image says “We civilians across the world do not have the tools of war! We do not thirst for killing and death! We only have our throats in the demonstrations and our boycott of the economic movement in our countries, especially those that support the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza!”

The fourth image says “Strike from the economic movements, work and your normal life because nothing is normal in this life! Strike as much as you can and protest.. for a whole week or until this madness ends! You can disrupt the economies that support genocide and make your voices and our voices heard! Call for strikes during the next week for an immediate and permanent ceasefire!”

The fifth and final image says “We are human beings like you. We had beautiful cities, many lives and dreams. They were destroyed in front of you and are still being destroyed. You can make a difference and stop this genocide. Do not despair and continue until the ceasefire.” End ID.]

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Beginning & Ending

The first and final impressions that your story leaves upon the reader tend to remain the most memorable, so it’s paramount that you spend sufficient time evaluating the beginning and end of your draft.

Consider the following points for your beginning:

Hook 

Does the first sentence grab the reader’s attention?

Does it make the reader ask questions?

Here, you want to avoid long, slow descriptions of the setting.

Disruption 

Is there tension or suspense in the air?

Is trouble already brewing right from the start?

Have you established high-enough stakes?

As Kurt Vonnegut advises, ‘Start as close to the end as possible.’

Backstory 

Include a minimal amount of backstory; the rule of thumb is ‘the less, the better’.

Gradually weaving in the backstory throughout your novel is far better than dumping it all down in the introduction.

Emotion 

Instead of writing what you know, try writing what you feel.

Add intimate details on how your character acts or reacts to the world and people around him/her.

For your ending:

One of the most significant points to consider is whether or not your story effectively builds up to its conclusion.

This is imperative, especially if you find that the direction of your story changes midway through your draft.

Write down any scenes or chapters that do very little to propel your story towards its climax and resolution.

Will the removal of these segments disrupt the flow of the story, or will it actually help to build the momentum?

Economy is crucial. Therefore, it’s essential that most (if not all) of the elements in your novel have some function in shaping or defining the ending of your story.

It may also be worthwhile coming back to your introduction after you’ve read the conclusion, as this could help you draw a connection between the two and enhance your capacity to tie up loose ends.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[plumpybread]

i've been wondering, what are the culturally defined goals of the various nations (or tribes) in this AU? in real life societies, there tends to be a few goals that are "given" to us in society (for example, gaining financial success or getting good degrees in Western societies). these likely have to change if, for example, Fontainians tend to become too obese to work before long, right? so what do you think? perhaps they're more socially related, or something like that.

also, completely different but similarly related to society at large, do you think someone as obese as Aether saving the various regions is changing their perception of fat as a whole? I'd love to hear what you think! keep up the good work!

Great questions!

Fortunately, the answer is pretty simple, as the nations in Teyvat all have very clear ideals we learn about in the game.

Mondstadt: Freedom

The ideal of freedom lives through and through in the nation of wind. Venti, their archon, believes that people should be free to make their own choices and live their lives without heavy-handed governance, a belief that shapes their culture, where the people enjoy a relatively lax and democratic system. They enjoy festivals, and I found it to be one of the easiest nations to make one of the heaviest because of all this

Liyue: Contracts

As the richest nation, they value wealth and stability most, steming from the belief that contracts are the foundation of society. Trade, commerce and responsibility are all shaped around the ideal of contracts.

Inazuma: Eternity

In Raiden Shogun's quest to preserve Inazuma in an unchanging, everlasting state, strict laws are enforced to prevent any disruption of the societal order, which is why I wrote them to be the most distant from the very obese nations as they remain the most unaffected by the threat of obesity.

Sumeru: Wisdom

Knowledge is almost a currency in Sumeru, and the pursuit of it is central to their culture. The best scholars are either from Sumeru itself or foreigners who went to study at their Akademiya. They know better than to give in to gluttony, which is why they're the second thinnest nation.

Fontaine: Justice

Popularly known for their juridical system and the way trials are treated as theatrical spectacles, justice is the prevalent ideal imposed by Fontaine's Hydro archon. Laws and rules need to be modified periodically as the weights of Fontainians continuously rises every decade, and in this version of Fontaine, I'd imagine justice manifests in the need for fair access to resources and food to maintain their massive sizes or support the thousands who grow beyond hope. Thanks to their domination of the food industry in Teyvat thanks to their rich soils and way too skilled chefs, immobility retirement doesn't have too much of an impact in their economy, especially since each man retiring for immobility creates several job opportunities for others to work as their personal caretakers.

Natlan: War, but specifics depend on the tribe

Natlan is a nation constantly in a war against the Abyss, and yearly pilgrimages are held to find warriors from different tribes to take part in the Night Wars to fend off the Abyssal army. But outside of this, each tribe lives by very different ideals. This wasn't ever really digged deep into in the game itself, but if I had to think of something;

Nanatzcayan: Mining

Sounds a bit random, but most people in Nanatzcayan are fine miners, jewelers, forgers, and general appraisers of gems as they live inside mountains. Physical strength and harmony is needed for them to fulfill their jobs.

Huitztlan: Agility

Living high up suspended over a mountain cliff, they love extreme sports like bungee jumping or mountain climbing, and agility is the most valued skill to have to live the true Scions of Canopy life, which is why wide love handles are seen as favorable as their bodies hug the harnesses they wear while doing their activities much better that way.

Meztli: Leisure

The most sedentary and relaxed nation of Natlan, gaining huge amounts of weight due to poor diets and lack of exercise has become such a norm that it's the encouraged standard. Most people just spend their days taking baths in the hot springs, fishing near the shores, or dancing in the plaza, all if they're not already sharing decadent meals at restaurants and growing fatter week after week.

As for your second, Aether-related question, there could be some potential for that, maybe!

He starts getting chubby in Mondstadt, and becomes pretty hefty after Liyue. I don't think there's much impact for this, he's not alarmingly big or anything and there's people much larger than him everywhere.

It's probably in Inazuma where his size is first a shock to people as Aether is starting to get visibly obese. I can imagine some civilians being curious about him. From that one huge Aether journey loredrop post: "They never said anything to him about it, but some Inazumans envied Aether's carelessness for his body and how he was eating so freely he didn't even realize he had grown obese."

During Sumeru he passes the 600 pound milestone, and his weight starts to become the main talking point when referring to Aether and his achievements. I can imagine a small sentiment growing in some guys seeing someone as heavy as him be able to fulfill his job as a hero despite his clear morbid obesity. Maybe some men who were dealing with their own obesity are inspired by him and learn to be more forgiving about their situation, some maybe even going ahead and stopping to feel guilty about gaining too much weight.

As for Fontaine, I can't really imagine it changing much more than Fontaine itself irreversibly changing Aether. No size is too big over there, but people surely love Aether for giving in so hard into the gluttony and getting so massive so quickly.

His impact would likely be more pronounced during Natlan after Aether has become a walking pile of lard. I can imagine his status as a hero despite his absurd size to have some ripple effects, mostly in Meztli, where I can see the ideal weight for men suddenly spike up thanks to Aether's influence, and seeing his previous visit was Fontaine, open up the doors to import more food from that nation.

[astrolovecosmos]

The April 8th 2024 Eclipse

There's been a LOT of information out there about the infamous April 8th eclipse. From a straightforward astrological perspective an eclipse represents repressed thoughts, feelings, and energy coming to the surface in a forceful way. While many cultures have deemed eclipses as bad luck or a sign of destruction and doom this isn't fully representative of a modern astrological standpoint. Karma and themes surrounding the collective can certainly exist within the eclipse in many ways. If the placements of the eclipse conjunct your placements, then you may be affected more than others. Those with the same modality (cardinal, mutable, fixed) as the sign of the eclipse can be influenced too. Don't forget to pay attention to the House your placements are in if you are influenced by it, this will give clues to the environment surrounding its effect.

The collective is always influenced by eclipses which is why many astrologers will speak about world or societal events surrounding them.

When there is a solar eclipse, this represents light of consciousness, life force, and vitality being blocked out by the subconscious, unseen, emotions, and potentially irrationality by the Moon. When there is a lunar eclipse it represents rationality, warmth, and giving (the Sun) overcoming the primal and emotional side of the Moon.

On April 8th the Sun and Moon will be in Aries, a sign of war, recklessness, competitiveness, anger, and passion. I am not making any predictions for the eclipse, but this can explain many of the intense claims out there. The fire element overall can disrupt energy flow, confidence, and activity. Aries also represents enthusiasm, enterprise, winning, leadership, adaptability, and new beginnings. Eclipses ultimately ask us to change and reevaluate, they bring thoughts and feelings to our attention.

There are other aspects and placements that have been adding extra "flavor" to this eclipse. Mercury will be retrograde in Aries during the eclipse which adds more challenges, especially to travel (a time where MILLIONS are traveling). Be mindful of emotional outbursts, harsh truths, and impulsive anger or communication from this retrograde.

Jupiter Conjunct Uranus is a major aspect for April and while the exact conjunction won't occur until later in the month many believe this will cause expansion, explosion, abruption, and/or a major shift in global events. With the two planets in Taurus most astrologers are predicting the aspect to influence finances, economies, the environment, food, the material world.

Sun Conjunct Chiron will be happening on the 8th, which can indicate the collective confrontation of wounds related to similar themes as the eclipse - a fresh start, assertion, force, bravery, initiative, selfishness, survival, impulse, self-expression, and identity.

It is important to remember that the eclipse's influence is not for one day or moment, there are debates about how long an eclipse's energy/influence will last but many will cite that the effect is at its height in the month leading up to the eclipse with influence being felt up to six months before or after the event.

I am not a Vedic astrologer but in Vedic astrology the eclipse is in Pisces which is a sign that represents endings, completion, returning to the whole vs. the newness of Aries. Pisces also has a strong connection to spirituality, an active imagination, is famous for intuition, empathy, and healing as well as illusions, addictions, isolation, guilt, blame, belief, and confusion. When an eclipse is in the water element it messes with our emotions, feelings of security, and attachments.

Whichever type of astrology you practice and follow I hope this gave you a big picture idea of how eclipses work.

[komsomolka]

Despite Israel’s ongoing brutal assault on the Gaza Strip and its 2.4 million Palestinians, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) continues to pursue a controversial deal to normalize relations with the occupation state. Riyadh has persisted in deepening relations with Tel Aviv in multiple sectors despite receiving ‘death threats’ from opponents of normalization in the kingdom.

So why, then, does the crown prince insist on trudging down this unpopular path unless he believes that establishing ties with Israel is crucial for securing his ascendency to the Saudi throne? [...]

The two states share several strategic goals. Saudi Arabia is opposed to the regional Axis of Resistance, which includes Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Ansarallah, Hamas, and other non-state actors, and has implemented repressive measures against the Palestinian resistance. The kingdom has for years targeted supporters of Hamas and individuals funneling funds to the Palestinian territories. This includes the arrest of more than 60 Palestinians in 2019, some of them Hamas officials and Saudi nationals who received lengthy prison terms.

As recently as May, Saudi Arabia stepped up its campaign to arrest social media users in the kingdom who attacked Israel online – this after more than 34,000 Palestinians had been killed in relentless Israeli airstrikes on population centers.

From the sidelines, Saudi Arabia has also supported the normalization efforts of Bahrain and Sudan while offering the occupied West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) economic incentives to collaborate further with Israel. [...]

Economic normalization is crucial for MbS’s coveted Vision 2030 project, which aims to transform the kingdom’s economy and institute social liberalization. The deal with Israel includes opening Saudi airspace to Israeli flights and encouraging Israeli investment in Saudi heritage sites. Jared Kushner, the architect of the 2020 Abraham Accords, has played a prominent role in these efforts, working to establish an investment corridor between Riyadh and Tel Aviv.

Among the most ambitious projects is the fiber optic cable linking Tel Aviv to Persian Gulf countries, as well as a planned railway expansion that would connect Saudi Arabia to Israel via Jordan. Ibrahim contends that the Palestinian resistance’s Al-Aqsa Flood operation last October disrupted these plans, placing a whole host of these economic projects in jeopardy: The Al-Aqsa Flood came and thwarted this project and disrupted it for an unknown period. Therefore, the Saudi regime, along with the US and the Israeli entity, was the first to feel that the Al-Aqsa Flood was directed primarily at the normalization project in the region.

Cultural and media strategies have played an advanced role in acclimating Saudis to normalization with Israel. Since the events of 11 September 2001, Saudi Arabia has worked on revising its education curricula, gradually removing references to Israel as an enemy and promoting a more neutral stance on the occupation state. Art and media have also played a role, with Saudi TV channels airing programs that subtly promote peace with Israel.

The media, in particular, has been a powerful tool in shaping public perception, with Saudi outlets often hosting Israeli officials and broadcasting reports from within the kingdom. This propaganda campaign has aimed to create a climate conducive to normalization, although public support for such a move has fluctuated, especially after the events of 7 October.

At the heart of the crown prince’s Vision 2030 is his desire to position Saudi Arabia as a global sports hub. The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, leads this expansive project by purchasing major foreign sports franchises and hosting international sporting events in the kingdom.

The sports sector has been yet another tool of soft normalization, paving the way for official Israeli teams to appear in Saudi Arabia, where they raise the occupation state’s flag and sing its national anthem. Official matches and competitions are held between Saudi and Israeli players, and the Saudi national football team has even participated in matches held in the occupied West Bank.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Deb Chachra's "How Infrastructure Works": Mutual aid, the built environment, the climate, and a future of comfort and abundance

This Thursday (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. And on Friday (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

Engineering professor and materials scientist Deb Chachra's new book How Infrastructure Works is a hopeful, lyrical – even beautiful – hymn to the systems of mutual aid we embed in our material world, from sewers to roads to the power grid. It's a book that will make you see the world in a different way – forever:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612711/how-infrastructure-works-by-deb-chachra/

Chachra structures the book as a kind of travelogue, in which she visits power plants, sewers, water treatment plants and other "charismatic megaprojects," connecting these to science, history, and her own memoir. In so doing, she doesn't merely surface the normally invisible stuff that sustains us all, but also surfaces its normally invisible meaning.

Infrastructure isn't merely a way to deliver life's necessities – mobility, energy, sanitation, water, and so on – it's a shared way of delivering those necessities. It's not just that economies of scale and network effects don't merely make it more efficient and cheaper to provide these necessities to whole populations. It's also that the lack of these network and scale effects make it unimaginable that these necessities could be provided to all of us without being part of a collective, public project.

Think of the automobile versus public transit: if you want to live in a big, built up city, you need public transit. Once a city gets big enough, putting everyone who needs to go everywhere in a car becomes a Red Queen's Race. With that many cars on the road, you need more roads. More roads push everything farther apart. Once everything is farther apart, you need more cars.

Geometry hates cars. You can't bargain with geometry. You can't tunnel your way out of this. You can't solve it with VTOL sky-taxis. You can't fix it with self-driving cars whose car-to-car comms let them shave down their following distances. You need buses, subways and trams. You need transit. There's a reason that every plan to "disrupt" transportation ends up reinventing the bus:

https://stanforddaily.com/2018/04/09/when-silicon-valley-accidentally-reinvents-the-city-bus/

Even the cities we think of as motorists' paradises – such as LA – have vast, extensive transit systems. They suck – because they are designed for poor people – but without them, the city would go from traffic-blighted to traffic-destroyed.

The dream of declaring independence from society, of going "off-grid," of rejecting any system of mutual obligation and reliance isn't merely an infantile fantasy – it also doesn't scale, which is ironic, given how scale-obsessed its foremost proponents are in their other passions. Replicating sanitation, water, rubbish disposal, etc to create individual systems is wildly inefficient. Creating per-person communications systems makes no sense – by definition, communications involves at least two people.

So infrastructure, Chachra reminds us, is a form of mutual aid. It's a gift we give to ourselves, to each other, and to the people who come after us. Any rugged individualism is but a thin raft, floating on an ocean of mutual obligation, mutual aid, care and maintenance.

Infrastructure is vital and difficult. Its amortization schedule is so long that in most cases, it won't pay for itself until long after the politicians who shepherded it into being are out of office (or dead). Its duty cycle is so long that it can be easy to forget it even exists – especially since the only time most of us notice infrastructure is when it stops working.

This makes infrastructure precarious even at the best of times – hard to commit to, easy to neglect. But throw in the climate emergency and it all gets pretty gnarly. Whatever operating parameters we've designed into our infra, whatever maintenance regimes we've committed to for it, it's totally inadequate. We're living through a period where abnormal is normal, where hundred year storms come every six months, where the heat and cold and wet and dry are all off the charts.

It's not just that the climate emergency is straining our existing infrastructure – Chachra makes the obvious and important point that any answer to the climate emergency means building a lot of new infrastructure. We're going to need new systems for power, transportation, telecoms, water delivery, sanitation, health delivery, and emergency response. Lots of emergency response.

Chachra points out here that the history of big, transformative infra projects is…complicated. Yes, Bazalgette's London sewers were a breathtaking achievement (though they could have done a better job separating sewage from storm runoff), but the money to build them, and all the other megaprojects of Victorian England, came from looting India. Chachra's family is from India, though she was raised in my hometown of Toronto, and spent a lot of her childhood traveling to see family in Bhopal, and she has a keen appreciation of the way that those old timey Victorian engineers externalized their costs on brown people half a world away.

But if we can figure out how to deliver climate-ready infra, the possibilities are wild – and beautiful. Take energy: we've all heard that Americans use far more energy than most of their foreign cousins (Canadians and Norwegians are even more energy-hungry, thanks to their heating bills).

The idea of providing every person on Earth with the energy abundance of an average Canadian is a horrifying prospect – provided that your energy generation is coupled to your carbon emissions. But there are lots of renewable sources of energy. For every single person on Earth to enjoy the same energy diet as a Canadian, we would have to capture a whopping four tenths of a percent of the solar radiation that reaches the Earth. Four tenths of a percent!

Of course, making solar – and wind, tidal, and geothermal – work will require a lot of stuff. We'll need panels and windmills and turbines to catch the energy, batteries to store it, and wires to transmit it. The material bill for all of this is astounding, and if all that material is to come out of the ground, it'll mean despoiling the environments and destroying the lives of the people who live near those extraction sites. Those are, of course and inevitably, poor and/or brown people.

But all those materials? They're also infra problems. We've spent millennia treating energy as scarce, despite the fact that fresh supplies of it arrive on Earth with every sunrise and every moonrise. Moreover, we've spent that same period treating materials as infinite despite the fact that we've got precisely one Earth's worth of stuff, and fresh supplies arrive sporadically, unpredictably, and in tiny quantities that usually burn up before they reach the ground.

Chachra proposes that we could – we must – treat material as scarce, and that one way to do this is to recognize that energy is not. We can trade energy for material, opting for more energy intensive manufacturing processes that make materials easier to recover when the good reaches its end of life. We can also opt for energy intensive material recovery processes. If we put our focus on designing objects that decompose gracefully back into the material stream, we can build the energy infrastructure to make energy truly abundant and truly clean.

This is a bold engineering vision, one that fuses Chachra's material science background, her work as an engineering educator, her activism as an anti-colonialist and feminist. The way she lays it out is just…breathtaking. Here, read an essay of hers that prefigures this book:

https://tinyletter.com/metafoundry/letters/metafoundry-75-resilience-abundance-decentralization

How Infrastructure Works is a worthy addition to the popular engineering books that have grappled with the climate emergency. The granddaddy of these is the late David MacKay's open access, brilliant, essential, Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, a book that will forever change the way you think about energy:

https://memex.craphound.com/2009/04/08/sustainable-energy-without-the-hot-air-the-freakonomics-of-conservation-climate-and-energy/

The whole "Without the Hot Air" series is totally radical, brilliant, and beautiful. Start with the Sustainable Materials companion volume to understand why everything can be explained by studying, thinking about and changing the way we use concrete and aluminum:

https://memex.craphound.com/2011/11/17/sustainable-materials-indispensable-impartial-popular-engineering-book-on-the-future-of-our-built-and-made-world/

And then get much closer to home – your kitchen, to be precise – with the Food and Climate Change volume:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/06/methane-diet/#3kg-per-day

Reading Chachra's book, I kept thinking about Saul Griffith's amazing Electrify, a shovel-ready book about how we can effect the transition to a fully electrified America:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/09/practical-visionary/#popular-engineering

Chachra's How Infrastructure Works makes a great companion volume to Electrify, a kind of inspirational march to play accompaniment on Griffith's nuts-and-bolts journey. It's a lyrical, visionary book, charting a bold course through the climate emergency, to a world of care, maintenance, comfort and abundance.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/17/care-work/#charismatic-megaprojects

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[probablyasocialecologist]

Palestinians have historically cultivated the land, not just with olive trees, but also with figs, apricots, oranges, and dates. Yet, Zionist propaganda, though a concentrated effort to steal Palestinian land, has insisted on “making the desert bloom.” The desert has already been blooming and supporting its Indigenous population, as it has for thousands of years. Since the early twentieth century, Zionists have nevertheless co-opted the language of environmentalism and sustainability as a means of forcing the native Arab population off of the lands they covet. The Jewish National Fund (JNF), a self-described Zionist organization, has an explicit mission: to acquire land throughout Palestinian territories and plant trees—with “proud Jewish identity.” The JNF claims to have planted 240 million trees over 227,000 acres. This tree-planting crusade is detrimental to the land. Pine trees that constitute the colonist’s imaginary of a forest in Europe replace the native plant species and change the soil’s chemistry, such that agricultural crops cannot thrive. This further displaces Palestinians, as well as the nomadic Bedouin peoples, who rely on the land for grazing their cattle. Settlers want to extract from the “blooming desert.” In contrast, the Indigenous approach to land is one of mutual respect and nourishment: the land sustains life and culture, a culture that settler-colonialism wants to erase. To achieve this end, the Zionist occupation has used a variety of tactics to disrupt the Palestinian economy, including controlling water resources so that groves cannot be irrigated as needed, which is especially important now given the effects of the climate crisis. Additionally, the Zionists instituted a permit system that has prevented olive farmers from accessing their trees for all but a handful of days per year. This has made it difficult, if not impossible, to do necessary maintenance like pruning and weeding, greatly impacting the quality of the harvest. Most egregiously, the Zionists erected walls separating farmers from their groves, slicing up plots of land that have been in the same family for generations. Such measures have forced olive farmers to rely on olives of subpar quality. Because of the limited days that farmers are given to access their trees, they might be forced to pick the olives before peak ripeness, affecting the quality of the olive oil produced and therefore the prices that the oil will fetch. A 1994 New York Times article summarized the struggle succinctly: “The Palestinians planted tiny olive trees; the Israeli soldiers dug them up. The Palestinians lay down in the road to block a bulldozer; the Israelis carted them off to police vans.”

[jyndor]

so apparently israeli workers are going on a general strike today in favor of a ceasefire because of the deaths of the six hostages. this feels like a moment where there may actually be either an end to this nightmare.

remember that the economy of israel has been wrecked - there are many factors but the pressure that bds has exerted on the israeli economy is a significant part of that. their economy has been downgraded like twice iirc, once literally a few days ago. this genocide has finally disrupted the comforts of living as a client state within and for the imperial core, and what I cannot say is if israeli society will learn any anti-racist, anti-apartheid, anti-genocide lessons from this mess (doubtful) but I do believe that it is now possible that israelis themselves will put on enough pressure to either force netanyahu to accept a real ceasefire deal or unfortunately to escalate to a level that we haven't seen before.

because while netanyahu is a symptom, not the disease of fascism in israel, he is also a particularly dangerous man because he knows that once this "war" is over, he's cooked and very likely going to be sent straight to prison for his corruption (doubtful he will see actual justice for the genocide but we will see).

now all of that being said, the biden administration still has immense power to keep this genocide going and keep supporting netanyahu if it chooses to do so. I do not see why it wants to so badly, it isn't like another israeli leader is going to be pro-palestine lmao and anyway netanyahu is imo also trying to fuck up harris's election chances (if you don't believe me... lmao he is literally in the bag for trump).

anyway keep eyes on palestine as always but especially right now because I am very worried that israel might do something even more heinous than its done so far. remember that israelis protesting for a ceasefire deal are mostly doing so because they want their hostages home, not because they've had a change of heart around palestinian liberation. there certainly are israelis who are anti-zionist and pro-palestine, but they are few and far between. and they do definitely need our support in this and every moment.

[dimespin]

What are the social implications of saratoans deciding to live outside the house system? What are some difficulties a pair who decides they want to live on their own might face? What are some of the advantages?

A lot of professions tend toward living this way so that the person can live in the same building as their office or business - it's especially common with people who work with secret, private or valuable information or materials, where reducing the number of people constantly walking around the area helps make security simpler, and maintaining a quiet home work space is desirable.

Lawyers, spellwriters, librarians, and accountants often live separately from their family in smaller homes, depending on the kind of work they do in their fields.

For that reason, while it's viewed as eccentric and antisocial, possibly curmudgeonly, and often seen as shirking family responsibility to some degree, it still has an air of respectability. Professional recluses (Atlas fits the stereotype basically)

Not everyone who chooses that lifestyle has the benefit of a respected career though, they tend to be viewed more negatively in that case, often associated with having troubles too great to allow a person to live with others or being too toxic even for the houses that take just about anyone like dead houses (like PenWell's) often do.

The pros: more control over one's own life, reduced responsibility for others (like avoiding being roped into childcare with no warning), less involvement in complicated family drama, fewer interruptions or disruptions of your work,

The cons: more responsibility for basic home management planning and chores (getting food, tracking when things will run out, tracking and paying bills, cleaning, building maintenance etc., - in the normal house system these are elder duties to either perform or keep track of and assign to others), more expensive due to economy of scale, risk of social deprivation and the negative effects to mental health that that causes, less social support when they need it if they haven't maintained relationships

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 11, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Dec 12, 2024

Yesterday, President Joe Biden spoke at the Brookings Institution, where he gave a major speech on the American economy. He contrasted his approach with the supply-side economics of the forty years before he took office, an approach the incoming administration of Donald Trump has said he would reinstate. Biden urged Trump and his team not to destroy the seeds of growth planted over the past four years. And he laid out the extraordinary successes of his administration as a benchmark going forward.

The president noted that Trump is inheriting a strong economy. Biden shifted the U.S. economy from 40 years of supply-side economics that had transferred about $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1% and hollowed out the middle class.

By investing in the American people, the Biden team expanded the economy from “the middle out and the bottom up,” as Biden says, and created an economy that he rightfully called “the envy of the world.” Biden listed the numbers: more than 16 million new jobs, the most in any four-year presidential term in U.S. history; low unemployment; a record 20 million applications for the establishment of new businesses; the stock market hitting record highs.

Biden called out that in the two years since Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act, the private sector has jumped on the public investments to invest more than a trillion dollars in clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

Disruptions from the pandemic—especially the snarling of supply chains—and Russian president Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine created a global spike in inflation; the administration brought those rates back to around the Fed’s target of 2%.

Biden pointed out that “[l]ike most…[great] economic developments, this one is neither red nor blue, and America’s progress is everyone’s progress.”

But voters’ election of Donald Trump last month threatens Biden’s reworking of the economy. Trump and his team embrace the supply-side economics Biden abandoned. They argue that the way to nurture the economy is to free up money at the top of the economy through deregulation and tax cuts. Investors will then establish new industries and jobs more efficiently than they could if the government intervened. Those new businesses, the theory goes, will raise wages for all Americans and everyone will thrive.

Trump and MAGA Republicans have made it clear they intend to restore supply-side economics.

The first priority of the incoming Republican majority is to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts, many of which are due to expire in 2025. Those tax cuts added almost $2 trillion to budget deficits, but there is little evidence that they produced the economic growth their supporters promised. At the same time, the income tax cuts delivered an average tax cut of $252,300 to households in the top 0.1%, $61,090 to households in the top 1%, but just $457 to the bottom 60% of American households. The corporate tax cuts were even more skewed to the wealthy.

In the Washington Post yesterday, Catherine Rampell noted that Republicans’ claim that extending those cuts isn’t extraordinarily expensive means “getting rid of math.”

At a time when Republicans like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are leading the new “Department of Government Efficiency,” are clamoring for cuts of $2 trillion from the budget, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that extending the tax cuts will add more than $4 trillion to the federal budget over the next ten years. Republicans who will chair the House and Senate finance committees, Representative Jason Smith (R-MO) and Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), say that extending the cuts shouldn’t count as adding to the deficit because they would simply be extending the status quo.

Trump has also indicated he plans to turn the country over to billionaires, both by putting them into government and by letting them act as they wish. Last night, on social media, President-elect Trump posted: “Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!”

Biden called out the contrast between these two economic visions, saying that the key question for the American people is “do we continue to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, investing in all of America and Americans, supporting unions and working families as we have the past four years? Or do we…backslide to an economy that’s benefited those at the top, while working people and the middle class struggle…for a fair share of growth and [for an] economic theory that encouraged industries and…livelihoods to be shipped overseas?”

Biden explained that for decades Republicans had slashed taxes for the very wealthy and the biggest corporations while cutting public investment in infrastructure, education, and research and development. Jobs and factories moved overseas where labor was cheaper. To offset the costs of tax cuts, Biden said, ‘advocates of trickle-down economics ripped the social safety net by trying to privatize Social Security and Medicare, trying to deny access to affordable health care and prescription drugs.” He added, “Lifting the fortunes of the very wealthy often meant taking the rights of workers away to unionize and bargain collectively.”

This approach to the economy “meant rewarding short-termism in pursuit of short-term profits [and] extraordinary high executive pay, instead of making long-term investments…. As a consequence, our…infrastructure fell…behind. A flood of cheap imports hollowed out our factory towns.”

“Economic opportunity and innovation became more concentrated in [a] few major cities, while the heartland and communities were left behind. Scientific discoveries and inventions developed in America were commercialized in countries like China, bolstering their manufacturing investment and jobs instead of [our] economy. Even before the pandemic, this economic agenda was clearly failing. Working- and middle-class families were being hurt.”

“[W]hen the pandemic hit,” Biden said, “we found out how vulnerable America was.” Supply chains failed, and prices soared.

Biden told the audience that he “came into office with a different vision for America…: grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up; invest in America and American products. And when that happens, everybody does…well…no matter where they lived, whether they went to college or not.”

“I was determined to restore U.S. leadership in industries of the future,” he said. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act “mark the most significant investment in America since the New Deal,” with new factories bringing good jobs that are rejuvenating towns that had been left behind in the past decades. Biden said he required that the government buy American goods as the country invested in “modernizing our roads; our bridges; our ports; our airports; our clean water system; affordable, high-speed Internet systems; and so much more.”

Eighty percent of working-age Americans have jobs, and the average after-tax income is up almost $4,000 since before the pandemic, significantly outpacing inflation.

Biden and his team worked to restore competition in the economy—just today, the huge grocery chain Albertsons gave up on its merger with another huge grocery chain, Kroger, after Biden’s Federal Trade Commission sued to block the merger because it would raise prices and lower workers’ wages by eliminating competition—and their negotiations with big pharma have dramatically cut the costs of prescription drugs for seniors. The administration cut junk fees, capping the cost of overdraft fees, for example, from an average of $35 a month to $5.

Biden quoted Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Stephen Henriques in Time magazine a month ago, saying: “President-elect Trump is receiving the strongest economy in modern history, which is the envy of the world.”

In his speech, Biden noted that it would be “politically costly and economically unsound” to disrupt the decisions and investments the nation has made over the past four years, and he urged Trump to leave them in place. “Will the next president stop a new electric battery factory in Liberty, North Carolina, that will create thousands of jobs?” he asked. “[W]ill we deny seniors living in red states $35-a-month insulin?”

In their article, Sonnenfeld and Henriques noted: “President Trump will likely claim he waved a magic wand on January 20 and the economic clouds cleared,” and they urged people: “Don’t Give Trump Credit for the Success of the Biden Economy.”

Biden gave yesterday’s speech in part to put down benchmarks against which we should measure Trump’s economic policies. “During my presidency, we created [16] million new jobs in America” and saw “the lowest average unemployment rate of…any administration in 50 years.” Economic growth has been a strong 3% on average, and inflation is near 2 percent, he said.

“[T]hese are simple, well-established economic benchmarks used to measure the strength of any economy, the success or failure of any president’s four years in office. They’re not political, rhetorical opinions. They’re just facts,” Biden said, “simple facts. As President Reagan called them, ‘stubborn facts.’”

Biden is willing to bet that if the American people pay attention to those facts, they will recognize that his approach to the economy, rather than supply-side economics, works best for everyone.

Today the NASDAQ Composite index, which focuses on tech stocks, broke 20,000 for the first time.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[yanaleese]

Meet Karma's best friend, José!

José De La Vega, or for short - José, is a middle-aged drug dealer who regularly contacts Karma. He is a frog who disguises in human form, and shares his dumbed-down poison as drugs within the industry. Although he's not at the top echelon in the drug-dealing business, he does have an active, lucrative business going on for him.

Problem is, he always gets into trouble.

You see, José has very...different priorities when entering the drug industry. He prefers ensuring food is on the table before even doing transactions, and is a temper-tantrum at times. This was a major problem especially in the 90s, where at the time, José was a simple. young Froggie entering the business. Plus, it didn't help that his friend in college dumped a large ton of debt in his name...

But luckily, José's one-man business was at an all-time high. Thanks to José's quick thinking, he made a lucrative business on his poison, and thus landing a safe spot in the industry.

However, this wouldn't last too long, due to his arrogant, egotistical nature. His attitude started to disrupt the drug trading, and increase police security in favorable trading spots.

And that's when the Sangres came in: To weed out the idiots who were messing with the economy. Or rather, their economy.

José gulped. He couldn't believe he was meeting THE top dogs of the industry at the time. He felt he would go into shock.

That is, until one of them heard him out; heard his plea, and gave him a second chance.

And thus, was the beginning of a new friendship...

And a new opportunity to escape the manor.

Bonus - Some Crackposts:

If you have any questions about José or Mafia! Karma, feel free to send some messages in my inbox!

[justsomeunsurefancat]

Global strike week, 21-28 January! CEASEFIRE NOW!

"After my survival with a miracle tonight while being stuck in the hospital until now, it's time for this to end! It is justice against injustice and good against evil! It is a war against humanity and the world, not just against Gaza! Here, We are now all under bombardment and are at risk of death at any moment!And you can make a difference!

"We civilians across the world do not have the tools of war! We do not thirst for killing and death! We only have our throats in the demonstrations and our boycott of the economic movement in our countries, especially those that support the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza"

"Strike from the economic movements, work and your normal life because nothng is normal in this life! Strike as much as you can and protest.. for a whole week or until this madness ends! You can disrupt the economies that support genocide and make your voices and our voices heard! Call for strikes during the next week for an immediate and permanent ceasefire!"

"We are human beings like you. We had beautiful cities, many lives and dreams. They were destroyed in front of you and are still being destroyed. You can make a difference and stop this genocide. Do not despair and continue until the ceasefire!

[mariacallous]

There were many takeaways from the first debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump. As a number of expected policy issues dominated the conversation, Harris effectively filled in the blanks for voters on her strategies to fix the economy, restore reproductive rights, and address immigration and border security concerns. Many in the media have commented on her strong performance, but the crowning moment of the night was Taylor Swift’s immediate political endorsement of Kamala Harris. The American pop superstar has not only surpassed other artists in music awards and public reach, but has become one of the most influential figures to young people and others who are equally inspired by her talent and grit.

Many have been waiting for the endorsements of well-known and influential artists like Swift and Beyoncé. My colleague, Darrell West, forecasted that the blessings of these artists could shift the campaign in Harris’ favor. In recent months, Beyoncé has quietly supported the vice president by allowing her music to be played at campaign rallies. And immediately following the debate, Taylor Swift not only endorsed Harris for president, but also signed her lengthy post as “Childless Cat Lady” to mimic Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance’s widely ridiculed reference to women without children.

But within her endorsement, Swift also sent a loud message to Trump, those in Big Tech, and others who willingly use artificial intelligence (AI) to extract, clone, and mimic content and the likenesses of celebrities like her. She shared her own fears about AI after being a recent target of the Trump campaign and vowed to be more vocal in efforts to thwart misinformation—an issue that has continued to fester in the absence of congressional action.

Taylor Swift has been a target of deceptive AI

Swift has not been immune from deceptive AI-generated content. Earlier this year, she was the subject of explicit AI-generated images that were circulated across social media platforms, mainly X (formerly known as Twitter). Those posts received more than 47 million views in less than 24 hours, and that was before the account was suspended and the images were saved to be shared via other channels online. Issues of fake pornography and revenge porn on social media sites have served to embarrass female artists and business leaders. In the case of Swift’s sexually exploitative content, the hashtag #TaylorSwiftAI trended and led to a rush on her behalf for legal removal, which by then was too late, given the propensity of consumers to download objectionable content and share false information with their own networks.

At the heart of the controversy may have been a group of online users who started operating on Telegram, which is now facing legal scrutiny for allegedly facilitating illegal online activities. But what comes through in Swift’s denouncement of AI is that she has had enough of its harmful consequences, especially the disturbing deepfakes which reveal a troubling side of the internet where anyone can create and disseminate nude, pornographic, and photorealistic images or other content of celebrities with commercially available AI software. Some would argue that increased access to commercial technology is good for the public as we seek to make online tools more readily available to everyday people. In my new book, “Digitally Invisible: How the Internet is Creating the New Underclass,” I suggest that the shift from analog to digital services not only enabled disruption, but also enabled other uses of technology—some of which were unforeseen. But just because individuals have access to these potentially harmful tools, people like Swift are not necessarily endorsing bad behaviors.

It was the more recent use of her likeness and image that the Trump campaign shared which sent her over the edge. Various AI-generated images of her and her fans, known as “Swifties,” falsely showed them endorsing Trump for president. Many of these photos, which showed young women in T-shirts displaying a Trump endorsement, started on Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform, and quickly ended up on other platforms. But this type of inappropriate behavior was neither alarming nor unexpected by Trump allies and influencers. These AI-generated images are part of a long list of other AI-powered election disinformation, including a post which depicted Harris on the beach with now-deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. In the interest of not sharing more false information, I won’t be providing a link to this content.

In her social media post, Swift also made it clear that the deceptive and illegal use of her name and image by the Trump campaign was daunting. She shared on her post that “[i]t really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation.” She followed this emotion by writing: “[t]he simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth,” which should prompt urgent actions to tackle this issue.

What Congress and the global public should take away from Taylor Swift

For years, Congress has debated over the most appropriate legislative measures to quell mis- and disinformation. In 2019, Congress introduced the first version of the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, which was designed to establish criminal penalties for individuals thought to be producing deepfakes and other illegal content without related disclosure or digital watermarking to determine the provenance of content and urged the removal of such content by violators. In 2022, Congress introduced the Educating against Misinformation and Disinformation Act, which proposed a commission to support information and media literacy resources. That same year, the first version of the Algorithmic Accountability Act was introduced, and re-introduced in 2023, to address the impacts of AI systems to bring more transparency to automated systems, as well as improved auditing.

In addition to several other bipartisan bills to address deceptive AI-generated content, in summer 2024, a bill called the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED ACT) came out of the U.S. Senate to protect a range of creators. The proposed bill would combat harmful deepfakes, for which election manipulation could be considered a use case, and implement federal transparency guidance for making, authenticating, and detecting AI-generated content. The bill is specifically targeted to protect journalists, actors, and artists from AI-driven theft of their creative content.

But given that the presidential election is only two months away, the provision of legal protections is not in the immediate future. Instead, it is highly likely that there will be more, and not less, misinformation created and leveraged to wage character attacks and accelerate voter manipulation. In fact, the web of online misinformation is so strong that Trump’s false reference during the debate to the eating habits of Haitian immigrants in a small Ohio town went viral the minute he shared the conspiracy theory.

In their new book, “Lies that Kill: A Citizen’s Guide to Disinformation,” co-authors Elaine Kamarck and Darrell West propose that everyday people need to better understand these falsehoods to effectively navigate the truth, and the only way that can be done is by educating citizens on what to look for and how to protect themselves. Taylor Swift may have started that process by stirring reactions even among legislators to do something about this growing problem. If her call to action is not enough, her fans will definitely be chiming in next.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Aaron Benner

Published: Oct 2, 2015

I have been an elementary teacher almost all of my adult life, mostly in St. Paul Public Schools. First and foremost, I teach because I love kids, I love schools, I love our city, and I really love what happens when a group of kids becomes a community in a classroom and a school. For this to occur, everybody has to play a part — parents, students, teachers, building and district administration, and the broader community. As a black man, it breaks my heart to watch these communities fall apart and to see some children who look like me behave so poorly in our schools.

In 2011, I addressed the St. Paul School Board. At the time, I told them about my concerns with student behavior at Benjamin E. Mays Elementary School, where I taught sixth grade. I hoped to start a discussion about what I was witnessing. Although the media paid some attention (likely because my race made for an interesting story), the school board ignored me. I addressed the board again on May 20, 2014, regarding the same issues, but this time I was aware they were happening districtwide. Four other brave teachers accompanied me. The school board ignored us again and tried to paint us as anti-racial equity.

From 2013-15, I taught fourth grade at John A. Johnson Elementary (JAJ). The behaviors that I witnessed last year at JAJ were far worse than what I complained to the school board about in 2011 and in 2014. On a daily basis, I saw students cussing at their teachers, running out of class, yelling and screaming in the halls, and fighting. If I had a dollar for every time my class was interrupted by a student running into my room and yelling, I’d be a rich man. It was obvious to me that these behaviors were affecting learning, so when I saw the abysmal test scores this summer, I was not surprised. Out of 375 students, only 14.3 percent were proficient in Reading, 9.6 percent in Math and 9.3 percent in Science. These test scores are not acceptable in any way, shape or form.

I diligently collected data on the behaviors that I saw in our school and completed behavior referrals for the assaults. These referrals were not accurately collected. The school suspended some students, but many more assaults were ignored or questioned by administrators to the point where the assaults were not even documented. I have since learned that this tactic is widely used throughout the district to keep the numbers of referrals and suspensions low.

The parents who complained to the school board last year about behavior at Ramsey Jr. High know all too well about behaviors being ignored. The students of SPPS are being used in some sort of social experiment where they are not being held accountable for their behavior. This is only setting our children up to fail in the future, especially our black students. All of my students at JAJ were traumatized by what they experienced last year — even my black students. Safety was my number one concern, not teaching.

Who would conduct such an experiment on our kids? I blame the San Francisco-based consulting firm, Pacific Education Group (PEG). PEG was hired by SPPS in 2010 to help close the achievement gap. PEG makes no secret of the fact that its prescription for closing the gap is based on the Critical Race Theory. This theory argues that racism is so ingrained in the American way of life — its economy, schools, and government — that things must be made unequal in order to compensate for that racism. PEG pushes the idea that black students are victims of white school policies that make it difficult or impossible for them to learn. So, when a black student is disruptive, PEG, as I see it, stresses that it’s not their fault, and the student should just take a break, and then return to class shortly thereafter.

Racism and white privilege definitely exist, and there is not enough space in this paper for me to share all of the humiliating encounters I’ve experienced that are a product of racism. But to blame poor behavior and low test scores solely on white teachers is simply wrong. However, it’s the new narrative in our district, pushed by PEG.

I recently dropped out of the St. Paul School Board race to focus on my new job at a charter school, but I’m still concerned with the current state of SPPS and the direction of the school board. Here’s what I think should happen: First and foremost, the newly elected board must sever ties with Pacific Education Group. PEG has charged the taxpayers of St. Paul $3 million over the last five years. According to some reports, SPPS has matched PEG with $1.2 million. What are these matching dollars used for? It is crucial to understand that behaviors throughout the district have escalated to the point where we are at a crisis in St. Paul. PEG is not working. To add insult to injury, two weeks ago, the St. Paul School Board had the audacity to set the ceiling of next year’s tax levy 3.85 percent higher than the current year. Tax increase? This must be a joke.

Racial equity and closing the achievement gap, the correct way, are commendable goals. However, PEG’s idea of racial equity is NOT the answer. PEG stresses black culture and nothing else. What is black culture? Did PEG survey the black community of St. Paul and ask what behaviors should be acceptable in our schools? I don’t recall filling out any surveys or receiving any phone calls regarding this topic.

Because of PEG, we have forgotten about our Asian, Latino and Native communities. The St. Paul Public School district has the second most diverse school population in the country (New York City is ranked No. 1). For the record, Asians make up the largest minority group in our schools. PEG has influenced this district on major policy changes, from questionable behavioral guidelines and hiring practices to the creation of new positions with jargonistic titles.

We now have “Cultural Specialists” and “Behavior Specialists” throughout our schools. An overwhelming number of these specialists are black, and it’s not clear to me what their qualifications are. Their job seems to be to talk to students who have been involved in disruptions or altercations and return them to class as quickly as possible. Some of these “specialists” even reward disruptive students by taking them to the gym to play basketball (yes, you read that correctly). This scene plays out over and over for teachers throughout the school day. There is no limit to the number of times a disruptive student will be returned to your class. The behavior obviously has not changed, and some students have realized that their poor behavior has its benefits.

St. Paul Public Schools is in desperate need of true behaviorists to replace these “specialists.” Licensed therapists who are trained to help change and replace inappropriate behaviors. I expect that PEG would never go for this because it would contradict their excuse that “black culture” accounts for such behaviors. The newly elected school board can change that.

Another action the newly elected school board must take is to visit schools, listen to teachers, and offer them much-needed support. Teachers are currently fending for themselves when it comes to behavior concerns. Part of my frustration is with the leadership of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers. The union is so concerned with getting along with the district that they are paralyzed when the hundreds of teachers they represent bring up the issue of behavior. This needs to change.

PEG and SPPS are harming the very people whose interests they claim to represent. Follow the money. The taxpayers of St. Paul should demand to know who exactly is benefitting from PEG. Students definitely aren’t.

Aaron Anthony Benner works as the African- American Liaison/Behavior Coach and Community of Peace Academy, a public charter school in St. Paul.

--

By: Victor Skinner

Published: Sep 24, 2019

Aaron Benner, a black teacher from St. Paul, Minnesota, won a large settlement with the St. Paul School District last week over retaliation he faced for speaking out against the district’s race-based student discipline policies.

Benner argued the investigations came in retaliation for complaints to the school board about race-based student discipline policies implemented by then Superintendent Valeria Silva and promoted by President Obama. The discipline policies aimed to reduce suspensions of black students by lowering the expectations for behavior and increasing the threshold for suspensions, something Benner repeatedly, publicly argued was against the best interests of black students.

The “restorative justice” approach to student discipline was accompanied by “white privilege” teacher training sessions that cost the district taxpayers more than $3 million. Those sessions focused on the “white privilege” theory that the public education system is hopelessly stacked against black students, who shouldn’t be held accountable for poor academics or bad behavior.

In St. Paul and hundreds of schools across the country, the “white privilege” training sessions were conducted by Pacific Educational Group, also known as PEG.

“PEG was hired by SPPS in 2010 to help close the achievement gap. PEG makes no secret that its prescription for closing the gap is based on the Critical Race Theory. This theory argues that racism is so ingrained in the American way of life – its economy, schools, and government – that things must be made unequal in order to compensate for that racism,” Benner wrote in a 2015 editorial for the Press.

“Peg pushes the idea that black students are victims of white school policies that make it difficult or impossible for them to learn,” Benner wrote. “So, when a black student is disruptive, PEG, as I see it, stresses that it’s not their fault.”

Benner refused to accept that black students are less capable than their white classmates and left the school district in 2015. Benner taught at a local charter school and was later hired for a administration position at the St. Paul private school Cretin-Derham Hall, according to the Star Tribune.

After years of complaints from parents, teachers, administrators and others about violent and disruptive students running rampant with impunity, St. Paul school leaders eventually got rid of Silva and scrapped the failed student discipline policies.

Last week, the school board settled up with Benner, though the district denied any wrongdoing.

“This agreement enables the district to avoid the time, expense and uncertainty of protracted legal proceedings regarding its previous policies, practices and expectations,” board members wrote in a prepared statement.

The district contends taxpayers are responsible for $50,000 of the settlement, while its insurer will cover $475,000.

Benner told the Star Tribune he credits God for the favorable outcome.

“I thank God for all the blessings in my life,” he wrote in an email to the news site. “I turned 50 this year, got married in July and now (there is) this settlement.”

[cognitivejustice]

Our experience of time is changing. For the philosopher Byung-Chul Han, the early 21st century has left us ‘whizzing without a direction’. Our world is shaped by the restless, disorienting rhythms of near-term deliverables, social media impression counts, technological obsolescence, shallow electoral cycles, rapid news cycles, frenzied culture wars, sudden stock market shifts, gig economy hustles, and occupational burnout. Though it all seems exhausting and unmanageable, the whizzing isn’t slowing: digital platforms now bombard us, minute by minute, with fragments of information that fail to cohere into meaningful narratives, and algorithms that hijack our neurochemical reward systems.

...

Perhaps your first impulse is to find ways of escaping the age of haste. This is a mistake. We cannot simply break free by ‘exiting’ the world we inhabit. Confronting time requires more engagement with the wider world. This world, however, is not the one defined by near-term deliverables and neurochemically disrupting algorithms. It is the one that reveals itself when you glimpse the Milky Way on a cloudless night. It is the world that becomes clear when you gaze upon a mountain.

...

Encountering spectacular natural environments can cause a radical shift in how we think about ourselves and the world. According to the psychologist Dacher Keltner, feelings of awe, especially those inspired by natural scenery, can make us feel more collaborative, less egoistic, more altruistic, and more open to social connection. Over the past two decades, Keltner tested this idea through a series of experiments that examined how a person’s attitudes and behaviours change after experiencing awe-inspiring places or things. He found that natural splendour seems to put us in a headspace that lets us reflect on our short lives as ephemeral organisms dwelling on a fragile planet floating in a vast cosmos.

This way of thinking can be transformative, but its power is not a recent discovery. Greco-Roman Stoic philosophers, for instance, encouraged retreats into the countryside to proactively ponder life. Venturing into breathtaking outdoor spaces seems to help us step back, slow down and, most importantly, think in the long term.

I call this style of thinking ‘longstorming’ because encounters with sublime geophysical and ecological environments can invite the mind to brainstorm about our long-term futures and pasts.