Mr. Goodbar, MS🌱

Progressive, vegan, animal lover (partly why I don’t eat them)

[Mr. Goodbar, MS🌱 @mrdamours]

With @elonmusk on track to tank Twitter, I think it’s clear Dems really need to turn this into law

[Mikel Jollett @Mikel_Jollett]

Ok how about this:

No more billionaires. None.

After you reach $999 million, every red cent goes to schools and health care.

You get a trophy that says, “I won capitalism” and we name a dog park after you.

[Mr. Goodbar, MS🌱 @mrdamours]

“The violent fascist riots in Belfast reveal the future that the trillionaire really wants. We need an international movement to constrain him.”… a sizeable wealth tax would be a great place to start

[Dr. Émile P. Torres (they/them) @xriskology]

Wow, this is such a good article:

https://t.co/SdZzmsH2qG

[Alexander McCoy @AlexanderMcCoy4]

My own views:

1) I support @grahamformaine because I am genuinely excited and inspired by the core idea behind his policy platform, & his movement-building style of campaign.

2) Those things are not reducible to “progressive positions,” because you can very much run a moderate campaign of this style, with a strong anti-war, populist character. And people besides Platner should do so.

3) I wish he didn’t get a bad tattoo in Croatia, or have his relationship or Reddit posting history. Those things are a bummer, and while I know a lot of regular guys with similar stuff who would nevertheless make better US Senators than most of the people in office, I’m not going to pretend like it’s somehow helpful for his campaign. This would be a Safe D flip in a different timeline. So let’s get to work.

4) We live in a world where an exclusive club of political elites and a biased media smugly see individual personal failings as disqualifying, but the tremendous harm and suffering Susan Collins’ votes have caused to millions of people as somehow acceptable. I would walk a thousand miles over broken glass to vote for Graham Platner to replace Susan Collins.

https://t.co/k91ZQ43yo5

[Patrick S. Tomlinson @stealthygeek]

It maybe be just a single datapoint, but the fact the only trillionaire our species has ever produced is also one of the worst individuals our species has ever produced should be more instructive.

[evan loves worf @esjesjesj]

Elon Musk helped cut cancer research

[Björn Jóhann @johann_bjorn]

100 grams of beef protein emits about 50 kg of greenhouse gases. 100 grams of pea protein emits about 0.4 kg.

That's a 125x ratio. There is no other consumer choice — not your car, flights, nor thermostat — where two adjacent options differ by that kind of magnitude.

[Nathan J Robinson @NathanJRobinson]

Instead of discussing how Elon Musk is now the world's first trillionaire, we should talk about how he killed hundreds of thousands of people through his dismantling of food and medical aid to poor countries
https://t.co/8kY171r5w1

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

A day into vacation, with my brain healing from being (mostly) offline, I’ve been meditating on one thought: In many controversies, multiple things can be true at the same time. In the Platner situation, all of these things seem true:

- Platner represents a unique threat to elite power and therefore the elite and its media machine are subjecting him to the kind of scrutiny that the elite do not subject themselves or their political puppets to, in order to try to get him to drop out/lose.

- Some of the accusations being hurled at Platner are uncorroborated and come from politically motivated sources, and others with similar political motivations are trying to amplify the accusations not because they are genuinely morally outraged but because they have political/ideological goals.

- The same political and media class that ignored/buried the Epstein scandal is now pretending to be genuinely mad about the substance of the Platner allegations/revelations — and their pretend outrage is patently ridiculous and inauthentic.

- Some of the corroborated revelations and uncorroborated allegations about Platner are serious and should be taken seriously — and should be weighed against his explanations, contrition and denials.

- Voters being exposed to new revelations/accusations can have legit concerns about them and about Platner, and having those concerns does not make those voters corrupt or dupes.

- Elections are leaps of faith. We don’t know what people will do once in office. We do know that those who control the political system do not like letting anyone near power who didn’t climb the traditional political latter.

- Platner volunteered to risk his life in combat for his country — multiple times. He then volunteered to run for Senate when no other major challenger was willing or able to step up and give Maine voters a serious choice in competitive primary. These decisions reflect a form of character and courage.

- Who is given grace and who is ostracized from politics remains selective. America extended grace to John McCain and allowed him into politics despite his — ahem — quite messy post-combat lifestyle and behavior. The Senate that threw out Al Franken also extended grace to Brett Kavanaugh and confirmed him despite allegations of sexual assault. Voters extended grace to Donald Trump for all of his horrors and elected him president. The fiery debate over whether voters should extend Platner — a combat veteran — grace or ostracize him proves that we still have no collective set of mores about forgiveness.

All of these things are true, and there’s one more thing that’s true: saying these things does not make one a Platner shill, a misogynist, etc. People hurling those insults and insinuations aren’t operating in good faith. They are trying to halt any conversation and shut down the democratic discourse — likely because they are politically motivated.

I am now going to (try to) log back off.

[Monjula Ray 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🥥 @queerBengali]

Susan Collins is the reason multiple women are dying in red states because doctors won’t perform abortions on ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages.

Voting or supporting her is far more immoral.

[Aaron Regunberg @AaronRegunberg]

To my Democratic friends: If you are uncritically swallowing the uncorroborated word of the founder of “Ladies for Kavanaugh” then I’m sorry but you haven’t been paying attention to how the far right has operated over the last 20 years.

[Wajahat Ali @WajahatAli]

Republicans still support a rapist President who partied with a pedophile, is covering up the Epstein Files, is a convicted criminal and pardoned 1600 violent insurrectionists.

Who gives a shit about their bad faith attacks on Dem candidates? Ignore them. Stop playing the rigged game.

[Mr. Goodbar, MS🌱 @mrdamours]

Is there a better metaphor for Trump and his presidency than a parasitic worm ? I think not

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

The New World Screwworm, a grave parasitic threat, has just been detected in US cattle for the first time since it was eradicated in 1966.

The parasite's revival comes after Trump and DOGE slashed funding for Screwworm monitoring programs.

[Wajahat Ali @WajahatAli]

If Democrats aren't advocating for massive Supreme Court reform, then they aren't the change you seek or need, folks.

If they aren't willing to fight or campaign on this, then we're totally f'd.

[Tony Matthews VEGANPROUD @tonytheauthor]

There is clear evidence that adhering to more plant-focused foods can increase one's lifespan considerably. Not only does this make sound sense, it's also cruelty free.
https://t.co/o5lfG6vin5

[Paul Shapiro @PaulHShapiro]

Every generation has moral blind spots.

One of ours is believing that animals’ suffering matters deeply when they’re in our homes, but barely at all when they’re on our farms.

[Mr. Goodbar, MS🌱 @mrdamours]

“What lies behind this explosion of seaweed are the high levels of nitrates in the water, which come from industrial farming’s intensive use of synthetic fertilisers and nitrogen-rich animal feed”… yet one more reason to stop eating animals

[Matthew Fraser 🇪🇺 @frasermatthew]

The sinister spread of France’s killer seaweed on the beaches of Brittany. https://t.co/p3M8SaHF7c

[Björn Jóhann @johann_bjorn]

There is no downside to cultivated meat. There's no evidence it's unhealthier than slaughter-based meat, it's going to be way more sustainable, and it's not going to cause any pandemics.

If you prefer traditional meat, it means you prefer slaughter.

[David Ramms @itsdavidramms]

For the hundreds of millions of people who eat meat and animal products for habit, tradition, and pleasure, Billie Eilish is 100% correct. Breeding animals, using and killing them for those things is inherently wrong, no matter how “high welfare” the farm is. Saying that though, the vast majority of animal products come from factory farms anyway. Factory farms are, in plain terms, massive torture centres. If someone is consuming animal products simply because they’ve always done it and they like it, they’re supporting that extreme violence to animals for pleasure. This is a reality that’s difficult to face, but it’s reality nonetheless.

[Mr. Goodbar, MS🌱 @mrdamours]

@dieworkwear If only he’d paid someone else to throw the rock for him so all the meat eaters of the world could relate

[Mr. Goodbar, MS🌱 @mrdamours]

And sadly, I bet that doesn’t even rank in the top 20 of malevolent things he’s done

[evan loves worf @esjesjesj]

When Elon bought Twitter he slashed maternal leave to just two weeks.

Two weeks.

[Wajahat Ali @WajahatAli]

My mind boggles at the people who are still saying, "But, but, the rules say...but but but...the process is..."

Listen, Republicans don't care. They make shit up, bend the rules, ignore them, change them at will.

Democrats have the majority in VA. Use your powers, be creative, & implement the map.