Michael Reade

Rider, Writer, Righter.

[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

[Urban Cycling Institute 🚲  @fietsprofessor]

'Turns out British 3 years olds can also cycle independently into city centres....
....as long as they are in The Netherlands.'
—@NorwichCycling

[Denver Bicycle Lobby @DenBicycleLobby]

Where would you put in a pirate🏴‍☠️ bike lane in Denver?

[Brent Toderian @BrentToderian]

MATH: What’s the full cost of this 5 km #Vancouver commute?

Driving costs society $2.78.
Riding the bus costs society 38¢.
Biking SAVES society 75¢.
Walking SAVES society $1.08.

So who’s REALLY paying for whose choices? #CityMakingMath Via @thediscourse
https://t.co/zc80sqvvyM

[Strong Towns @StrongTowns]

Catfiddle Street in Charleston is a newly built development of 24 homes in a single acre. This should be broadly legalized across North America.

[Urban Cycling Institute 🚲  @fietsprofessor]

30 people getting a coffee 🇺���
vs.
30 people getting a coffee 🇫🇷

[Strong Towns @StrongTowns]

Hoboken, New Jersey is a dense city center that hasn’t had a traffic death in over 4 years. They’ve accomplished this by creating more narrow, one-way streets, high visibility crosswalks, raised intersections, curb extensions, bike & bus lanes, and removing parking spaces.

[big_pedestrian @big_pedestrian]

We need a pedestrian bill of rights. Every choice of the automobile industry wrt size, weight & acceleration transfers risk to people on foot. There is no alternative to or way to opt out of our deadly roads. We are getting slaughtered and USDOT is subsidizing it. @SecretaryPete

[Natalia Barbour @natalia_barbour]

It is mind blowing that almost every grocery store has thousands of square feet of car parking but the bikes/scooters/etc. get one and very impractical piece of metal.

[Dutch Cycling Embassy @Cycling_Embassy]

The secret to inclusive streets? The Dutch have cracked the code. For 40 years they've designed and built infrastructure so everyone who wants to cycle can do so.

The result: 25% of Amsterdam residents own a car, while 80% own a bike and 60% cycle daily.

https://t.co/5vf9m3oOfT

[Better Streets Miami Beach @BikeWalkMB]

We nearly missed our opportunity to cross because a driver wouldn't respect the "no turn on red." #underline #mpath

[Urban Cycling Institute 🚲  @fietsprofessor]

Periodic reminder that building bicycle lanes is not a technical challenge. It is a political one!

[Just Jack @7Veritas4]

The kids seem to love it.

[Michael Reade @Readewrite]

The new color-coded ticks, blue for individuals, grey for gov, gold naturally for corporations, will be joined by brown for bullsh#t. Elon Musk is expected to launch as its first user.

[Mohamad Safa @mhdksafa]

What we learned from COVID? That oil is worthless in a society without consumption. That healthcare has to be public because health is public. That 50% of jobs can be done from home while the other 50% deserve more than they're being paid. That we live in a society not an economy

[Urban Cycling Institute 🚲  @fietsprofessor]

If your policies chase travel time savings, it makes sense to make mobility faster, easier and cheaper.

Empirical data shows that decades of such policies did not save TRAVEL TIME, but instead dramatically increased TRAVEL DISTANCE.

(French data by @AurelienBigo)

[Stephanie Fritz @MsFritzzle]

I often hear people hold up Montreal as the prime Canadian example of what great bike infrastructure can look like, but we forget that Montreal is also one of the only places in Canada that ALSO prohibits right turns on red. 1/4

[Streetsblog New York City @StreetsblogNYC]

“Dream of the open road”? Once again ⁦@nytimes⁩, the framing store called and wants to fix the bad job you did. That “dream” was always built on externalizing all the costs of your driving to victims of crashes, pollution, traffic and dead cities. https://t.co/B78Erjlnyv

[Michael Reade @Readewrite]

@tedlieu Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. But the vestige of the slavocracy, the electoral college, gave us 4 years of a fake president.

[Ridgefood @Ridgefood]

Bike ride in Ridgewood tomorrow! 🚴‍♂️🚴 I have a few extra noodles but bring one if you can - the more the merrier! @TransAlt @NYC_SafeStreets @StreetsblogNYC @NYC_DOT @BobHoldenNYC