Binker Telle

✨💫 It's a small 🌎 after all...💫✨"When an honest man discovers he is mistaken, he will either cease being mistaken, or cease being honest.” ~ Anon

[Binker Telle @BinkerTelle]

@sabergermd @jesskayne @bloomgrift @NoLieWithBTC @thePumamama Along w/ vaccines, distancing, & increasing air flow, #masks also help reduce the viral load dispersed in the air/area, helping mitigate transmission overall (& reducing chance stronger variants develop).
#IWearAMaskForYou / #YouWearAMaskForMe
☺️😷😊

[𝙎𝙪𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙗 @Supremegatti]

Bodycam footage SPD officer heard laughing about woman being hit, killed by cop car #Bodycam #SPD #Woman #Killed #Cop#Seattle

[Read Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) @JPHilllllll]

And if you want to read more about this nightmare: https://t.co/A0PlTEruu0

[Binker Telle @BinkerTelle]

@MrFourToEight @tres_vis @ramit Sounds more like hotels than homes... 🤔

[Monty Boa @MontyBoa99]

Worth a reread now that we've seen that, as Nate White wrote a few years back,

"[Trump] has made an art of being artless... He is the Picasso of pettiness, the Shakespeare of sh!t.

"His flaws are fractal... His flaws have flaws."

Etc.

And so on.

https://t.co/DVG9ArFMP8

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

12 Reasons Why Cities Need More Trees:

1. Temperature Control

One large tree is equivalent to 10 air conditioning units, and the shade they provide can reduce street temperature by more than 30%.

2. Noise Reduction

Trees can reduce loudness by up to 50%. In urban areas filled with the sound of cars, construction, sirens, aeroplanes, and music, trees are essentially the best way to block noise and keep cities — along with the homes and workplaces in them — quieter.

3. Air Purity

Trees remove an astonishing amount of harmful pollutants and toxins from the air. In urban areas air quality is often disastrously bad — with severe consequences for our health. Trees make the air we breathe much cleaner.

4. Oxygen

And, while absorbing all those pollutants, trees also put more oxygen back into the urban environment. Oxygen levels are significantly lower in cities compared to the countryside; trees help to solve that problem.

5. Water Management

Trees do more than just shelter us and our buildings from rain — which is, in fact, extremely important. They also absorb huge quantities of water, reduce run-off, neutralise the severity of flooding, and make flooding more unlikely altogether. Not to forget that their roots absorb pollutants and prevent them from feeding back into a city's water supply.

6. Psychological Health

Studies have proven what we instinctively know to be true: that human beings are significantly happier when surrounded by nature rather than sterile urban environments. Our emotions, behaviour, and thoughts are shaped by the places we spend time — and trees have a profoundly positive effect on our psychology. The consequential benefits of being happier and more peaceful — as individuals and as a society — are immense.

7. Physical Health

Beyond all the other ways in which trees improve air quality and the urban environment, much to the benefit of our health, they also encourage people to go outside. Cycling, running, and walking are all more common in urban areas with plenty of trees. A knock-on effect of people spending more time outdoors is also social integration and stronger communities.

8. Privacy

A simple point, but not inconsequential, is that trees provide privacy.

9. Economics

The total economic benefit of urban trees is hard to calculate. There are costs, of course, including the repair of infrastructure damaged by roots and maintaining the trees themselves. But the total economic benefit — a consequence of everything else in this list and more — far outweighs the expenditure. Trees make cities wealthier.

10. Wildlife

Trees are miniature cities all of their own, serving as a habitat for hundreds of different species, including birds and mammals and insects.

11. Light Pollution

Trees don't only block the light shining down, therefore keeping us and our cities cooler — they also disrupt light shining up, from street lighting, cars, houses, and billboards. Skies are clearer in cities with more trees.

12. Aesthetics

And, finally, trees are beautiful. They break up the potential monotony of urban environments — the sharp geometry, the greyscale roads and buildings, the endless rows of cars — with their trunks, boughs, canopies, and flowers.

Just think: the gold and red of falling leaves in autumn, the white and pink blossom of spring, the vast green canopies of summer, and the branches lined with hoar-frost in winter. Every single tree is a myriad of intricacy and texture, of colour and scent, of dappled light on the pavement, mottled bark, knotted roots, of clustered leaves and delicate petals and stern boughs.

Few streets would not be improved by the kaleidoscopic aesthetic delights of a tree, not to mention the many different species of tree, all over the world, whether willow, oak, lime, cherry, aspen, maple, birch, horse chestnut, dogwood, hornbeam, ash, sycamore... the list goes on.

There are some drawbacks to urban trees, most of them context-specific, and they are not — of course — universally appropriate. But it seems fair to say that many cities would benefit from at least a few more trees here and there.

[Juliet Sawyer @JulietSawy9451]

@RepKatiePorter @Intuit @HRBlock AARP’s Tax-Aide program is the largest free filing program for taxpayers 50+. No AARP membership req'd. Nationwide, in-person or virtual, with 4K+ Tax-Aide locations open in early February 2024. Volunteers are certified by the Internal Revenue Service. Best deal around.

[LINE IN THE STREET @LineintheStreet]

The Gerrymander Math Cheat
A Video Thread - Clip 1 of 9

The Math Cheat Illustrated with Pennies and Dimes

[LINE IN THE STREET @LineintheStreet]

The Gerrymander Math Cheat
Clip 2 of 9

A Congressional Legislative Math Cheat

[LINE IN THE STREET @LineintheStreet]

The Gerrymander Math Cheat
Clip 8 of 9

A State Court Win - And a Model for Reform

[Tonya Bailey @tbailey1976]

Hey tweeps, if you see this and are able to help with a small donation, or a QT or RT to help me spread the word and reach as many as possible, I’d be truly grateful. Any and all help is immensely appreciated. #FuckCancer #M4A #CancerSucks https://t.co/FT9575EKFG

[LanaQuest aka RosaSparks @LqLana]

Morning Joe had a segment about “woke” and how that will be the main focus of the Republican debate.

It’s worth it to post the origins of being woke once again for those in the back.

“Stay woke. Keep your eyes open.” - Lead Belly

The Scottsboro Boys, nine Black teens falsely accused of raping two white women in 1931, were sentenced to death. NAACP forced repeated retrials. They were finally freed but never recovered.

The first documented use of the phrase “stay woke” happened in the 1930s when Lead Belly ended his song about the Scottsboro Boys by advising Black folk traveling through Alabama to “stay woke.”

The term “woke" was created by Black people referring to being alert to systemic racial injustices.

#BlackHistoryWithLana #FreshVoicesRise

[Team Katie @TeamKatiePorter]

Ron DeSantis: "Sunlight is the best disinfectant" for government

Also Ron DeSantis: *signs law to conceal his travel records*

Americans want transparency in government—not hypocrisy. I have a bill to disclose more information when elected officials travel on taxpayers' dime.

[Team Katie @TeamKatiePorter]

I just reintroduced the Transparency in Taxpayer-Funded Travel Act. Learn more about the bill. 👇https://t.co/b39yitLLH0

[Housing 4 All is Hot @ahouse4all]

I met a 78 year old man who recently started sleeping at a park I take supplies to.

He broke his back working construction. When he got out of the hospital, he had been evicted.

A lifetime of his belongings had been thrown away by his landlord.

Homelessness is that easy.

[Mark Wlosinski @LTI_finance]

Congress recently passed some new 401(k) plan rules.

Here’s 7 big changes made and what they mean for you and your 401(k):

[LongCovidLearning.org @LongCovidLearn]

🦠 Long Covid ➡️ 77% affected 12 months later

Find this and more #LongCovid research made simple: https://t.co/Oby6WoIZeh

Source: https://t.co/xvhxmlmKCG

[Scott Squires @scottsquires.bsky.social @scott_squires]

I've made a number of graphics about Covid and collected from others.
They are free to download (most in Instagram folder)
https://t.co/rymLLi8B9h
Please consider posting anywhere, including physical prints, to help get the public informed and break the Covid news blackout

[Scott Squires @scottsquires.bsky.social @scott_squires]

@Nicensteiner #COVIDisAirborne