L. Jen Shaffer

Ecological Anthropologist | Biodiversity Conservation | Adaptive Capacity | Resilience | Knowledge Co-production | Explorer | Teacher | Peregrina | Jedi Master

[Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki @MatthewWielicki]

France is in a heatwave.

Meanwhile, almost nobody wants to talk about the fact that Europe has added hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of heat-absorbing concrete, asphalt, roads, parking lots, and buildings since 1950.

We're told every hot day is proof of a CO₂-driven climate crisis.

But replacing natural landscapes with giant heat-retaining surfaces couldn't possibly matter?

That's not science... That's propaganda.

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@SenWarren You have made a lot of money working in Congress. If this is super important, maybe you should consider donating a portion or all of your salary to this cause. As a senator, you also have the power to write a bill that would fund free community college & not fleece taxpayers.

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

Books are for learning and entertainment. I agree that you don't need to have some sort of undiagnosed condition to enjoy something that enriches your life. What a strange conclusion about people who read. No wonder the number of ignorant illiterates is growing.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

No. You didn’t read because you were dissociating or had ADHD; you read because books are a wonderful thing that enriched your life. Finding twisted motives for life’s greatest pleasures will make you miserable. We need to quit pathologizing the things that bring us joy.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

It’s deeply important that you, as an adult, read children’s literature. There is wisdom in Lewis Carroll & Nesbit & Narnia that can only be fully grasped with age; they are a powerful tonic to protect against the “mind of metal & wheels” that is the curse of our times.

[Possum Reviews @ReviewsPossum]

"There's no way 250,000 girls were raped in the UK. That number must be exaggerated."

Okay, let's pretend it's exaggerated, just for the sake of argument.

How many children need to be raped for you to be upset about it?

[Selene Mariposa @Selene_Mariposa]

The World Cup has turned America into a discovery channel for the rest of the world.

And they are not handling it well.
In the best possible way.

Here is what they are discovering:

Free public restrooms. Europeans pay every time.
Free water at every restaurant. Just appears.
Free refills. Coffee. Sodas. Iced tea. Unlimited.
Free chips and salsa before you even order.
Free warm bread with dinner.
Ice in drinks like civilized people.
Air conditioning everywhere. Not a moral debate. A fact.
Parking lots attached to the actual place you are going.
Drive throughs where the food comes to the car while you sit in it.
Ranch dressing by the gallon.
Tex-Mex that cannot be explained only experienced.
Dental care that actually works.
Buccee’s. There are no words for Buccee’s.

Then they found the grocery stores.

Five of them within one mile.
Each one the size of an aircraft hangar.
Burgers. Steaks. Brisket. Ribs. Pulled pork. Lamb. Veal. Every cut of every animal ever domesticated by human civilization available in one refrigerated aisle at ten in the morning on a Tuesday.

The Germans stood in the meat section for forty five minutes.
In silence.
Processing.

They finally understand why we do not have trains.

We have roads wide enough for the cars we actually drive.
Parking lots the size of small European countries.
Airports in every city worth visiting.

Why would we need trains.

The Germans are taking ranch home by the bottle.
The Dutch found queso and briefly lost the ability to speak.
The Japanese are photographing HEB like it is the Louvre.
The Czechs are weeping in West, Texas.

Welcome to America.
Everything is free, enormous, air conditioned, comes with chips, and has five grocery stores within a mile that will sell you any cut of any animal you have ever imagined.

Write that down. 🦋

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@ne_pas_cacher @littleapostate People in Africa can text. They have smartphones and jobs and homes. And their moms deserve to be remembered on their birthdays too.

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@Kristinartz Edsel

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@garonnevik There are cats that are not "adoptable" by families to live inside homes. Baltimore, MD has a working cats program. These cats only go to barns, warehouses, nurseries, and corporate campuses.
https://t.co/uPMzxVIPdB

[Victor Davis Hanson @VDHanson]

As a general rule, anytime Barack Obama lectures the country or its people on their purported sins—with Khalil Gibran pop platitudes—he is seeking absolution for his own obsessions by projecting his own guilty desires onto others.

The latest? At the dedication of his narcissistic Obama Presidential Center in Chicago—a $850 million flak-tower, monolithic boondoggle mired in debt—Obama lectured us on the need to resist the allure off "money, attention, [and] fame."

Thus spoke the owner of four homes, three of them multimillion-dollar mansions, whose last inert year in office was spent closing book and Netflix deals that ensured he would become a multimillionaire the moment he left office, and on spec, jets private to sermonize to various audiences–often at $400,000 a shot—on their own false-consciousness shortcomings.

Plain-speaking, frugal Harry Truman in obscure retirement in Independence, Missouri Obama certainly is not.

[Free Range Politics @FreeRange_Pols]

According to Axios, the Epstein files revealed that Governor Wes Moore has been involved with Peter Thiel’s creepy billionaire society, Dialog. I’m less concerned about his participation in these creepy events and more concerned that he continues to lie to Marylanders about it.

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@Read_Meee My mom passed at 78. Unexpectedly. A text when you wake up wishing her a special day and letting her know you'll call later is not a lot on a busy morning. We don't know how much time we have with people we love but at 78 it's likely less than at 36

[Homeland Security @DHSgov]

“We have one group that we broke up that these young ladies are claiming they were raped 600-700 times…We have one that we just broke up recently that was a ring of people that had kept these kids down in a tunnel. You couldn’t write a horror story about how bad this was, couldn’t write a horror story. It’s stuff that I’ll never forget.” —@SecMullinDHS on saving missing migrant children smuggled in under the Biden Administration

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

What happened to #MeToo? Hmmmm?

Read through the UK's "Rape Gang Inquiry Report" this morning. 🤮Sadness & support for the young women & girls who's lives were destroyed.

Absolute fury. 🤬Death is too easy for the rapist pigs & government scum who facilitated these war crimes.

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@ThrillaRilla369 4, but only if you count working on a scientific cruise in the Gulf of Maine as a cruise. Otherwise, 5

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@CitizenAmedia Europe says "hold my beer" in comparison to American media bias. Watching TV news in Europe is crazy fun when I stay with family in Europe. I get all sorts of questions about guns, racism, sexism, obesity, Native American culture, weather, and, yes, even yellow school buses.

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@TheAkoFiles If you have to prove your age to be able to use social media, then it is a backdoor way to coerced digital ID. If you only exist online (bank account, credit cards, drivers license, etc), not only can you be controlled... if you lose your phone (aka stolen) you are screwed.

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@jackbuckby No we don't. If you are for real try the Vermont or New York extra sharp. Cabot.

If you really want cheddar, get yourself to the Jefferson County Bulk Milk Coop in NNY. They have the cheddar.

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@japan_nobunaga Maryland has a loud flag that is easy to see from afar. One of the 13 original colonies. Lord Baltimore & Calvert family governed as a safe haven for Catholics. Named after Queen Mary (Charles 1) and a tribute to the Virgin Mary.

[L. Jen Shaffer @jin_verde]

@groundhopper_fc It's a free breakfast. If you want better locate your nearest diner. Americans do breakfast amazingly well.

Bacon, eggs, and some sort of bready thing (toast, tortilla, pancake, biscuit) plus fruit is awesome breakfast and dinner.