mostly harmless
Milky Way Galaxy
Joined September 2009
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Republicans: absolute winners at losing. (might delete on Tuesday evening, idk)
Beth Ann Bell retweeted
The American system is designed to maximize GDP and sacrifice things the left wants like free healthcare and public transportation, and also things the right wants like traditional gender roles and immigration rates inflexibly fixed at the low, 1950s level. This produces perennial dissatisfaction from the masses, and so there’s always a political market for political entrepreneurs pretending to sell these things which the American system can’t actually deliver. Nobody ever runs and says “to get you your free healthcare / public transportation / traditional gender roles / permanently low immigration, we’ll have to stop GDP maximizing.” Or alternately: “to deliver any of those things, we’ll need to do a risky, developmentalist moonshot to keep GDP afloat, like fusion power.” They don’t say that either.
Even politicians fluent in revolutionary rhetoric (Bernie etc) won’t say that. They all proceed as if the American system can stay in place but “also” there can fully paid universal 6 month parental leave, or “also” there can be religiously motivated anti-AI limitations. Anyway, that’s why everyone feels betrayed every 2-4 years. What’s more, memories are poor: people always think “their” current wave is the one to break the cycle, the wave to end all waves. Instead, they’ll get into “power,” in their minor, symbolic, and circular way, do their stint of managerial paper-pushing on behalf of the American system, and not deliver anything they had promised which was in defiance of the American system.
I don't even live in Texas. I can't imagine how many texts from the Talarico campaign you poor souls are getting on an hourly basis.
Beth Ann Bell retweeted
Hey bud North Korea is that way
Large candy bars are the considered the holy grail, but giving them out on Halloween missed the point of the holiday, @ibogost argued in 2017: theatln.tc/0pZou0zj
Beth Ann Bell retweeted
*sips coffee* “I wonder what man made horrors beyond comprehension will happen today?”
Beth Ann Bell retweeted
Suskityrannus, the coyote tyrant, was a tyrannosauroid from the American Southwest. #FossilFriday
Beth Ann Bell retweeted
We mourn the passing of Patrick Stewart, who inspired countless individuals at NASA (and beyond) to boldly go where no one has gone before.
ALT Image description: A packed, sparkling starfield captured by our Hubble telescope — with strange new worlds potentially awaiting. Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, R. Cohen
Beth Ann Bell retweeted
Rest easy, Captain. We have the helm. ✨
This is Webb’s look at Westerlund 1, a super star cluster. Because our galaxy is past its peak of star formation, and because stars live relatively short lives, only a few of these clusters exist to give us clues to that past era.
ALT Image description: A quote by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart. "I've come to believe that the stars have always been in my favor." - Jean-Luc Picard. The image shows a dense cluster of bright stars, each with six large and two small diffraction spikes, due to the telescope’s optics. They have a variety of sizes depending on their brightness and distance from us in the cluster, and different colors reflecting different types of star. Patches of billowing red gas can be seen in and around the cluster, lit up by the stars. Small stars in the cluster blend into a background of distant stars and galaxies on black.
daily libertarian update
Recent comments posted by the Libertarian Party of San Francisco regarding age of consent laws have understandably raised serious concerns, both within our party and among the public. Let me be absolutely clear, the Libertarian Party rejects the opposition to age of consent laws and unequivocally supports the protection of minors from sexual exploitation and abuse. Any suggestion that our principles require otherwise is a fundamental misrepresentation of Libertarianism.
Consent is foundational to Libertarianism. Without consent, there is no liberty.
Our opposition to the initiation of force and fraud is rooted in a simple principle: every individual has the right to control their own body and their own choices. But meaningful consent requires more than the absence of physical force. It requires the capacity to understand what is being agreed to, the information necessary to make an informed decision, and the freedom to say no without coercion or manipulation.
A person who lacks the capacity to meaningfully consent cannot simply be declared a willing participant. And minor children do not have the mental capacity for meaningful consent.
Our national platform is explicit. Section 1.4, addressing personal relationships, states: "Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships."
Adults. Consenting adults. Those words matter.
Our platform also recognizes the rights of children to be free from abuse and neglect. Those protections are entirely consistent with our commitment to individual liberty. Children possess individual rights, and protecting those rights from exploitation and abuse is a responsibility we cannot abandon.
Whether it is a drone strike on a school or hospital, powerful and politically connected predators being shielded from accountability, children trapped in failing government schools, or politicians and bureaucrats overriding the medical decisions of families and their healthcare providers, the Libertarian Party has consistently condemned the systemic harm inflicted on children by governments at all levels.
A child harmed by a predator deserves justice. A child harmed by government deserves that same justice.
The non-aggression principle is not a loophole for predators. It is a commitment to protecting people from them.
I reject any suggestion that the Libertarian Party's principles require us to oppose the protection of minors from sexual exploitation. Such a position does not represent the national Libertarian Party or the principles expressed in our platform.
I also recognize and respect the authority of the Libertarian Party of California to determine how best to address the statements and actions of its San Francisco county affiliate. I trust that its leadership will take these concerns seriously and address them through its established processes. The national party should respect that organizational authority while remaining unequivocal about our own principles.
Liberty belongs to everyone, including those who cannot yet defend it for themselves. Our responsibility is to ensure that their rights are respected, and those who violate them are held accountable.
In Liberty,
Evan McMahon
Chair - Libertarian National Committee