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.

9:03 – Mon 01 February 2021

Three Steps to Prevent Future Election Violence from Other Words

When there is no accountability after violence, it can decrease political participation and trust in public institutions.

While we all obviously have a lot of political work to do, the primary task absolutely needs to be to put an end to the immediate threat of a movement that’s increasingly unstable and wants to spark a civil war. Without that, nothing else gets done.

12:05 – Mon 01 February 2021

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace.

Amanda Gorman

As I’ve surely mentioned, I try to keep quotes from public domain sources. This might be a stretch, but given that The Hill We Climb was published in the Congressional Record, I think this is still valid. And if not, a handful of words is absolutely Fair Use, given the length of the poem, and given that there aren’t many better sentiments for Black History Month.

9:05 – Tue 02 February 2021

QAnon Thinks Trump Will Become President Again on March 4 from VICE News

…QAnon is borrowing ideas from more-established extremism movements.

I should write a full post about the sorts of things I learned in the experience, but I grew up around a lot of New Age adherents and a fair number of doomsday preppers back before the latter was well-known. When I first started hearing about QAnon, I couldn’t help notice the similarities to the former—the irrational fear of being tracked by something other than all the devices and processes that track them through their days, the attempts to hide racism behind diabolical plots, the distrust of the government, misappropriation of oppressed cultures, and the actual obsession with extraterrestrials, among other things—and how close the New Age approach is to the doomsday communities whose hypotheticals are mostly excuses for their power fantasies.

The sovereign citizen types are the (mostly-racist, when you actually look through the material) people who try to assert trademarks over their names, ignore their tax bills, try to access their (imagined) secret bank accounts with the United Nations, or try to claim that the fringe on a United States flag in a courtroom means that it’s secretly a Naval tribunal. It’s wild stuff and even cons people like Wesley Snipes. This may bring QAnon to the point where they’re unemployable—they believe they understand contract law better than lawyers—which will radicalize them further…which is obviously the point.

12:01 – Tue 02 February 2021

…we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future.

Jordan Anderson

9:02 – Wed 03 February 2021

How Biden’s FCC Could Bring Fast Relief to Students Struggling With Remote Learning from The Intercept

…Pai issued an order stating that the report “will have no legal or other effect or meaning going forward.”

This shows yet another instance of Pai outright lying to people in order to sabotage communications in the country. The laws and regulations to fix the “digital divide” are already in place and, as the article points out, Biden (via Rosenworcel) knows this and is looking to put it to use. It’s an issue that would make a good excuse to contact your state and Federal representatives.

12:04 – Wed 03 February 2021

This exhaustive system for cultivation, the destruction of forest, the rapid and almost constant decomposition of organic matter, have made our agricultural problem one requiring more brains than of the North, East or West.

George Washington Carver

9:04 – Thu 04 February 2021

Clicks on a job site reveal hiring discrimination from Futurity

…immigrant jobseekers were 6.5% less likely to be contacted than Swiss jobseekers with otherwise identical characteristics.

For anybody who has complained that prior research into hiring bias had too small a sample, sabotaged the hiring process, or was otherwise flawed, this is a full-spectrum analysis of real behavior over a long term. Unsurprisingly, it shows the same behavior.

12:03 – Thu 04 February 2021

…We have a mandate to legislate in defense of Black lives. The first step in that process is to root out white supremacy, starting with impeaching the white supremacist-in-chief.

Cori Bush

9:01 – Fri 05 February 2021

Text Messages Show Top Trump Campaign Fundraiser’s Key Role Planning the Rally That Preceded the Siege from ProPublica

…The records show that Wren oversaw logistics, budgeting, funding and messaging for the Jan. 6 rally that featured President Donald Trump.

In case anybody was confused by the concept, this is one of the main reason (other than full-throated support of fascism and a fear of Donald Trump supporting candidates to run against them) that Republicans are happy to defend the insurrection: It helps Republican campaign fundraisers rake in the money from gullible people who refuse to accept that a Black woman is a heartbeat from the Oval Office and the likely next President of the United States.

12:02 – Fri 05 February 2021

Education and justice are democracy’s only life insurance.

Nannie Helen Burroughs

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.

The Far Right Looks to Small Cells and Lone Wolves After Capitol Fiasco from VICE Motherboard

“We want lone wolves, we want local cells without online recruitment,” one Telegram post from a well-followed accelerationist account recently preached, before pointing out that law enforcement, hot on the trail of domestic terrorists, is eager to infiltrate groups.

This shouldn’t be at all surprising, given that the media has helpfully referred to them as lone wolves for decades, while making sure to dig up any possible organizational connects for people of color committing violence. The fact that this is now their goal tells us that their only goal is violence, a tantrum because they’re sad that the bigot lost the election.

Indigenous-led telecommunications organization wins historic legal battle in Mexico from Global Voices

This decision allows TIC to offer affordable cell phone services to indigenous communities in the country. The court case also set a legal precedent for local communities to operate their own telecommunications services for free under social use concession licenses — drawing a line between commercial and community providers.

While limited to Mexico, this offers a template that organizations around the world can use to change an industry widely known for regularly abusing customers, providers, the environment, governments, and communities.

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