Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #15

April 19-26 2024

Too many flowers to pollinate

U.S. Counties where the African American population is 25% or more

Remember this map next time some liberal starts talking about just writing off the entire south.

In a lot of ways this is WHY the south is disenfranchised

Literally literally this. In the most real and concrete way possible

The south has so many people who are abused by their own political systems in it. The majority of people in the south are not the problem, the fraction that are emboldened and politically empowered by their rigged governments are.

What I was taught growing up: Wild edible plants and animals were just so naturally abundant that the indigenous people of my area, namely western Washington state, didn't have to develop agriculture and could just easily forage/hunt for all their needs.

The first pebble in what would become a landslide: Native peoples practiced intentional fire, which kept the trees from growing over the camas praire.

The next: PNW native peoples intentionally planted and cultivated forest gardens, and we can still see the increase in biodiversity where these gardens were today.

The next: We have an oak prairie savanna ecosystem that was intentionally maintained via intentional fire (which they were banned from doing for like, 100 years and we're just now starting to do again), and this ecosystem is disappearing as Douglas firs spread, invasive species take over, and land is turned into European-style agricultural systems.

The Land Slide: Actually, the native peoples had a complex agricultural and food processing system that allowed them to meet all their needs throughout the year, including storing food for the long, wet, dark winter. They collected a wide variety of plant foods (along with the salmon, deer, and other animals they hunted), from seaweeds to roots to berries, and they also managed these food systems via not only burning, but pruning, weeding, planting, digging/tilling, selectively harvesting root crops so that smaller ones were left behind to grow and the biggest were left to reseed, and careful harvesting at particular times for each species that both ensured their perennial (!) crops would continue thriving and that harvest occurred at the best time for the best quality food. American settlers were willfully ignorant of the complex agricultural system, because being thus allowed them to claim the land wasn't being used. Native peoples were actively managing the ecosystem to produce their food, in a sustainable manner that increased biodiversity, thus benefiting not only themselves but other species as well.

So that's cool. If you want to read more, I suggest "Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America" by Nancy J. Turner

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(((( this is so sad!

y’all are overreacting, two and a half meters of the railing collapsed, out of the entire bridge it looks like nothing, it’ll be repaired and back up in no time.

I’m not used to vent but as it concerns my home town…(Sorry in advance about my English)

I’m sorry, we are not “overreacting”: we are concerned about an historical monument that is important to us, Parisians, and we are worried for obvious safety reasons. Somebody could have fallen. This isn’t the first time that a part of the bridge has collapsed due to these damn locks, it also happened last summer apparently causing the bridge to be closed.

In addition, if you combine all the weight of the locks together, it’s more than 12 tons of steel and it causes serious damage to the structure of the bridge itself.

This trend has to die like yesterday.

It’s not something that belongs to an “old and beautiful tradition” linked to Paris, the city of Love. It started in 2008-09 in Paris and it blew out of proportion because the vendors right next to the bridge saw a commercial opportunity when it came to selling locks to tourists. It looked like a good idea at the start: the tourists were happy, the vendors next to the bridge were happy and even the Maire because it showed Paris as a romantic city. Now, the Passerelle des Arts is in a piss poor state and so is the Pont Notre-Dame, a little bit less famous.

Not to mention that the tourists throw away the keys in the Seine and that it’s an ecological aberration.

More down to earth consideration: it cost money to repair the bridge and remove the locks every two-three weeks little by little. I’d prefer this money to be used for something else. It’s also difficult to cut the locks and reuse the iron because apparently, they are all made out of different types of metal. In the meantime, and according to Bruno Julliard who is in charge of Culture & Historical monuments at the Paris city hall, the removed locks are kept in a secret location, like the Ark of the Covenant in the Indiana Jones movies.

So guys, next time you come to Paris, PLEASE forget about these damn locks. You have 100 ways of proving your love to your S.O when in Paris.

I live across the river from Washington, DC and you would not believe how callous some tourists can be and how much clean-up takes place because of their stupid escapades. I guarantee you if people started pulling this lock shit on one of the DC bridges there’d be no tolerance for it.

A site may be an “international symbol for _____” but more importantly it belongs to the people who live there

This is gonna sound rather conceited but I feel like it highlights an issue we have in Art.

I'm good at art. I've never had a hard time making art. I started using crayons before I could walk. Painting, Beadwork, sculpture, sketching, stippling, whatever- once I have a feel for the material, it doesn't take long to start doing what I want with it. It's been a common theme my whole life.

(Y contrast I'm awful at things like dancing, performance, sports, etc- in all things there is balance, right?)

Now, I've taught myself to use so many artistic mediums now that I KNOW how to most efficiently integrate them into the brain database. Once you really *understand* a material, it's much like memorizing the layout of your house, or flexing a muscle, or something in-between- it becomes PART of your brain in a way I cant quite articulate. But to get there involves just fucking around for a bit doing nothing in particular.

And I've found, especially in group settings, that nobody seems to be able to see you make something badly and leave you alone. Even if you say you're fine, you don't want help, you're happy, you're having fun, it's fine, they gotta ride your ass and hover.

I was at a class the other day for something I hadn't done before. The medium was one I've never used, so once the instructor told us the basics I started experimenting with weight, gravity, texture, viscosity, saturation, temperature, etc. The instructor had given enough info to know what was dangerous and what was safe, and beyond that I just wanted to absorb what I could about it.

And no insult to the instructor, but they kept checking in. Which was fine the first few times.

But then, without asking me what I was trying to do, started giving tips. That I told them I was grateful for but didn't really need just yet. If I had a question, I'd ask.

But they kept coming over. And touching my shit. And manipulating my project. And touching my hands. And using my tools. Without fucking asking.

And this happens every time. EVERY TIME. And by now I know the best way to get them to fuck off is to make something way beyond their expectations so they know I'm capable, then go back to doing what I want.

So I did. I wanted to keep having fun and learning, but instead I made something beautiful that I really didn't want to make, and wasted my time, and really didn't learn what I wanted to learn at all. I knew the formula to create a beautiful thing, so I followed that formula the same way I have a hundred times before, and didn't get to try anything spontaneous or ugly or exciting, just so I could be left alone.

And I know when I was a kid, I was aware aware people saw me puttering alone on something ugly assumed I had a special issue and treated me like I was stupid because of that. (I was neurodivergent.) And at at time I knew that I could do a neat trick for them like a trained pony and they'd go, "Oh, surely they aren't defective if they can do something like that!" And piss off.

But what if I hadn't known how to do that?

What if I hadn't been talented, or "special"?

What if I'd been just any other average kid trying to learn, and I couldn't pop something pretty out of my ass to get them off my back?

My problem my whole life has been that I haven't been allowed to make anything ugly in peace. I'm capable of beauty, so I have to make beauty, or get stepped on. And once people see what I can do, they get loud about it. "Look at this! Look what they did! We all know who the best is, don't we?". And that used to feel good, but it's tiring.

And how many people like me just wanted to play? Just wanted to have fun and experiment? Who were having fun with no goal in mind, or just took longer to learn, who gave up because of all the obnoxious helpers breathing down their neck with no way to shake them off?

How many of us are made to feel defective because we aren't doing things beautifully?

I have a lovely piece of art I didn't want to make.

I think I'm gonna frame it.*

(*I think I'm gonna burn it in my yard.)

Timeless (2016) S1E012 - The Murder of Jesse James 

Bass Reeves, protrayed by Colman Domingo. Rufus Carlin, protrayed by Malcolm Barrett.

Watch it  here , get Bass Reeves: Tales of the Talented Tenth  here

[Follow SuperheroesInColor faceb / instag / twitter / tumblr / pinterest]

It’s true!

Source: X

Bass Reeves was so dedicated to the law, he even arrested his own son Bennie for the murder of his wife. Bennie was sentenced to life in prison. With over 3000 arrests, 14 kills, went his entire 32 year career in law enforcement without being shot once.

He was assigned to bring in the notorious female outlaw Belle Starr. Once she got wind who was after her she turned herself into the federal court.

Reeves was one of a few Marshalls who would venture into Indian territory *oklahoma*. After the age of 67 he retired in 1907. He enjoyed his short lived retirement as a police officer in Muskogee Oklahoma, his assigned beat had 0 crime reported until he died at the age of 71 of Bright’s disease.

He was one of the true gun slingers of the west.

I would expect nothing less from a man with such a magnificent mustache

I love the story of Bass Reeves!

One of his famous tactics was, if he was captured or in danger by a criminal he was hunting down, he would ask them to read a letter from his wife before they killed him. He used their distraction to free himself and get the upper hand.

He was also a freed slave. George Reeves, his owner and reason for his surname, took Bass with him to fight in the Civil War. However, George became violently angry after Bass beat him at a card game, and Bass was forced to fight him (or kill, on some accounts) in self defense.

After running away and entering Native American territory, Bass learned how to speak the languages of the ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muskogee, Seminole). This part of his life is where he mastered marksmanship. He got married and had a family after the Emancipation Proclamation was declared, and then later became a Marshal, going on the adventures listed above (and many more… Another famous criminal that Bass captured was Bob Dozier.)

He was the very first black US Marshal. May we never forget him, as history would suffer to lose such an outstanding figure.

Always, always, always reblog Bass Reeves.

Grumpy bird

Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 264, f. 112r

I adore this because even if the colours are off this is so clearly a black-crowned night heron based on vibes alone. Somebody saw that hunched little guy clambering around some branches one evening and went "well that's just delightful"

Gentrification creates a stifling homogeneity in urban areas that makes it less suited for the everyday lives of the lower class and more suited towards the leisure and tourism of those with expendable income.

An old, decrepit laundromat gets replaced by an upscale bakery? And people are mad? It’s not that the poor hate organic vegan cupcakes, it’s that most of us don’t have a way to do laundry in our own home.

Run-down corner stores replaced by hand-made designer clothing boutiques? We don’t hate your eco-fabric shawl, but I can’t eat that for dinner after work like I could have a can of beans I grabbed from that corner store when I don’t have time to take the bus to the real grocery store after work.

What gentrification brings in and of itself is not typically bad, it’s that gentrification brings institutions of leisure and pleasure and makes it so that the poor have to go farther out of their way for basic necessities. It turns low-income living spaces into local tourist attractions. It can even create food deserts by putting restaurants, grocery stores, etc. in that the majority of the lower class cannot afford.

Imagine if someone totally renovated your house and turned it into a mini theme park - they took away your sleeping space, where you prepare food, where you clean yourself and get ready for your day, and replaced it with things that will please people who are visiting, who have their own homes they can go back to, who are here not for their entire life but just as a distraction from their otherwise mundane existence. It’s not that you hate theme parks, it’s not like you’ve never been to a theme park and vow to never visit one again. It’s just that you need to live! To survive! And the leisure of those who have more than you should not invalidate your existence.

I am glad this has made the rounds. Some people feel a dense misunderstanding or misinterpretation concerning gentrification, and I think it helps to hear a description/explanation of what gentrification is from those who are both affected by it and educated by the culture from which it hails. I and many others enjoy some of the delights of gentrification while simultaneously having their livelihoods threatened by it. 

May the fourth be with you.

and also some money

The thing with statistics - via

Numbers don’t lie but people can sure as fuck pick and choose the numbers they give you and phrase things to make them sound like they mean things they don’t

learn fucking stats or at least how they can hurt

As a wise man once said: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Stats are very important and the only reason I remember what each one is is because of a darn nursery rhyme my math teacher taught me.

“Hey diddle diddle, the median’s the middle

you add and divide for the mean.

The mode is the one that appears the most

and the range is the difference between.”

i must not stir the pot. stirring the pot is the notifications-killer. participation in the discourse is the little-death that brings total activity obliteration. i will face the bad opinions on the internet. i will permit them to pass over me and through me. and when they have gone past, i will turn the block button onto their source. where the discourse has come from there will be nothing. only i will remain.

‘don’t you want your favourite character to be happy???’ no? i want my favourite character to be interesting. i want me to be happy. which sometimes involves my favourite character being in exquisite agony

Oh, now THAT is a crack premise I can buy.

Somehow, Palpatine, king of the clone backups, resurrected himself back to life by means of a tiny, nondescript toy.

He’s alive in all his evilness, he’s still got powers and Sith lightning. But stuck in the body of a toy (probs an advanced holocron)….. and bent on wresting back control of his empire Wizard of Oz style…Just because he can and who is gonna stop him? Some super annoyed Jedi who are quite tempted to underestimate him when he speaks in a squeaky voice and the scale of what he can do is so diminished?

like literally if i didn’t want to see some weird nonsense i wouldn’t be consuming scifi

“ohh this episode is about meeting a bunch of dinosaurs who developed space travel and left earth to go live on the other side of the galaxy isn’t that crazy?! isn’t that silly?!” sure yeah maybe a little but by focusing on that but you’re missing the narrative reason for it which is to provide a starting point to explore religious authoritarianism and the production of scientific knowledge

just a spoonful of [nonsense] helps the [critical thinking about uncomfortable social and structural problems that are such a fundamental part of the background radiation of our lives that we can't see them] go down