One hilarious thing about the electoral college debates is that the wonks who insisted the EC doesn’t compel retail politics anyway now have to watch videos of Bob Brady out of Philadelphia or hear about a man who builds Rockets and NeuralLinks doing Amish outreach.
This interview
And this were less than a month apart
The wealthiest man in the US, on behalf of the then-former President of the United States had to ask Amish about their concerns then help them entirely because of the Electoral College. If you can’t see how that’s kind wonderful, you’re too cynical. Power has consumed your soul.
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Edward Bellamy had a vision in Looking Backwards that there would be no more homes with kitchens and the state would provide all food in cafeterias. This was positively declared to be a utopia but turned out to be one of the worse scourges ever set upon the world.
It turns out the State had other imperatives than luxury socialism, so this process was handed off to fast food. Now some in power are wondering if it is better to genetically modify humanity than it is to be better leaders or make people stronger.
A tale of passion and indifference, told with alliterative allure in a Priapean meter. A wish for the old to awaken from his violent slumber and appreciate his young wife.
From ET Merrill, “ponte longo: not the desired bridge, but the existing ponticulus itself. The village folk would fain hold their solemn ceremonials on their bridge, but fear its rottenness, and inability to bear the weight of so many people at once.”
Hirt. B. G. 8.14.4 “pontibus palude constrata legiones traducit” ; Tac. Ann. 1.61 “ut pontes et aggeres umido paludum et fallacibus campis imponeret” ; Tac. 1.63 “monitus ponies longos quam maturrime superare.”
The Vespasianus Titus Tunnel is one of those places that feels beyond the imaginings of a fantasy author.
It was built for the port of Antioch in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, and is about four miles northwest of the latest earthquake.
The project was a Flavian affair, initiated under Vespasian, continued under Titus, and completed under Antoninus Pius. An example of the types of works that earned the moniker, “The Five Good Emperors.”
This cuts to the heart of the dispute between @L0m3z and the Integralists. I confess that I respect both.
The debate becomes unmoored when one side selectively focuses on “its merits” and the other “by my enemies.” The issue is, are these two different projects entirely or not?
Twitter is a tough place to sort these things and there’s a case that this is the right’s version of the left’s entryism versus praxis debate—with the issue being whether this turns into political energy (if such a tactic even worked for the left or could work for the right.)
I say all this know it won’t be sorted by a tweet thread, or if ever, but the questions: (1) Is credentialism bad in general or bad when the credentials are controlled by my enemies?
A recent piece by @DriverAutonomy cuts to the heart of an issue raised: “truckers have spent the last three years bouncing through the contradictory states of Schrödinger’s cat.” Important, as more people find themselves in a similar state.
Terrible extremist groups such a parents who attend PTA and school board meetings or Catholics who worship in a manner similar to how they have practiced faith for eons have, like Truckers, been redefined as suspected terrorists in recent years.
Ralph Peters was writing about this in 1997. The labels: bitter clingers, deplorables, insert-ists; what @extradeadjcb does a great job getting at is what happens when a state has redefined huge swaths of its essential civilians as potential terrorists?