As discussed previously, this is my weekly Twitter roundup. Note that tweets of articles generally include header images from the articles, which are not included here unless they happen to be available under a free license. Most are not. But I now add most of my commentary here, where I’m not restricted by the message length.

diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week

I also don’t generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.

9:04 – Mon 17 August 2020

How to help the post office: Things you can do to support the USPS right now from Fast Company

If you do plan to vote by mail, voting early can help ensure that the USPS is not overwhelmed at the last minute.

It shouldn’t have ever come to this—no other government agency is expected to turn a profit, and it’s difficult to even imagine a scenario where we’d need to stand up for the Air Force or CIA—but since it has, here we are.

12:04 – Mon 17 August 2020

Speak not of guilt, speak not of responsibility.

Constantine P. Cavafy

9:03 – Tue 18 August 2020

The Junk Science Cops Use to Decide You’re Lying from The Intercept

We’ve known for quite a while that this stuff doesn’t work, but it’s still being peddled as if it does.

Yet another reason to rethink policing, not that this is new information.

12:02 – Tue 18 August 2020

Law. Law. That is what saves nations from the most imminent dangers.

Jose Cecilio del Valle

9:02 – Wed 19 August 2020

Masculinity keeps some Black men from mental health care from Futurity

Self-reliance was associated with higher rates of depressive symptoms, but emotional control was not.

Just…be careful, everyone. Our culture tries to imagine men—especially men of color—as outside of society and never in need of anything, and we all suffer for it. When you need help, get help. You’re not alone.

12:01 – Wed 19 August 2020

Always remember that you belong to no one, and no one belongs to you. Reflect that some day you will suddenly have to leave everything in this world.

Lahiri Mahasaya

9:01 – Thu 20 August 2020

Progressives Think ‘Kamala Is a Cop.’ But Cops Hated Harris for Years. from VICE News

…a close Trump ally, tweeted that she was “a lock em up and throw away the key prosecutor,” while…Pence called her “soft on crime.”

Oddly, the article (like many progressives) seems to forget that Harris has also been a Senator for several years, which means a public voting record. A fairly easy way of finding out what policies she really supports is to literally look up what policies she has recently supported.

12:03 – Thu 20 August 2020

For children, inheritance is very, very bad, like an enemy.

Namboku Mizuno

9:05 – Fri 21 August 2020

How many times has President Trump thanked himself on Twitter? I have the answer from Fast Company

Lately, he’s thanked himself for unilaterally sending troops into American cities.

I think of him as the sort of person who never realized that “you’re not chosen for teams, because they’re jealous; you’re so good that you’ll make everyone look bad” in school was a lie.

12:05 – Fri 21 August 2020

The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm.

Hehaka Sapa / Nicholas Black Elk

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, here’s a sixth and seventh article that didn’t fit into the week, but too weird to not mention.

Dear White Vegans, Stop Appropriating Food from VICE World News

…people of colour, especially Black people, are more likely to give up meat than white people.

I still eat meat, but like vegetable-based meals a lot, and it’s often uncomfortable to find what’s obviously a traditional recipe with no context beyond a continent. Coming from a part of the United States where the owner of an Italian restaurant can expect to be interrogated over what part of Italy their establishment represents, I know we can do better than just calling something “African.” And that’s a bare minimum.

Stay-at-home orders worked to slow COVID’s spread from Futurity

…the number of cases doubled in less than three days before mitigation measures were put into place. In contrast, after mitigation measures, the number of cases took more than two weeks to double.

This should be the most obvious thing in the world, but we somehow keep needing to constantly prove that the most rudimentary science works.

Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.