Until we get common-sense gun control enacted in this country, this will be an evergreen sentiment:

(Note: cleaning out my drafts folder. Don’t know why I never posted this, but: I’m explicitly taking it out of context. I don’t understand the context and I think this excerpt stands on its own.)

Text of preceding tweet, because this WILL disappear someday:

«When I was in seminary, I was very close to finding meaning in just the simple fact of my words being read by the masses. I wanted my words to be in every outlet. At any cost.»

https://twitter.com/CandyCornball/status/1557329098447503360?s=20&t=h5qPCTAdbbMTAL4BH-nMMQ

This whole page is good (along with https://fedi.tips) but at the moment I’m particularly interested in the moderation part, including the moderation puzzles.

https://writer.oliphant.social/oliphant/mastodon-handy-links-page#moderation

#mastoAdmin #moderation #moderationPuzzles

https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/how-to-complain-productively/

Listened to this on a road trip today. Really good. Interesting connection to social media.

The times, they are a-changin’.

https://www.ft.com/content/c361e372-769e-45cd-a063-f5c0a7767cf4

«In tax year 2017, the last year before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) took effect, approximately 5 million taxpayers had to pay under the AMT. The TCJA increased the AMT’s exemption and exemption phaseout through 2025, greatly reducing the number of taxpayers subject to the AMT, to an estimated 200,000.»

https://taxfoundation.org/tax-basics/alternative-minimum-tax-amt/

«A truly egalitarian multiracial, pluralistic democracy in which an individual’s status was not determined to a significant degree by race, gender, or religion? I don’t think that’s ever been achieved anywhere. It’s a vision that reactionaries abhor – to them, it would be the end of “Western civilization.” And they are determined to fight back by whatever means necessary.»

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/why-the-american-right-admires-putins

😕

https://chapelboro.com/town-square/still-in-line-black-students-isolation-from-chapel-hill-nightlife

Good stuff:

Normally I post first on WordPress and then distribute from there, but somebody on Mastodon said something that made me mad, so I posted there first and then shared it to here.

Total federal spending is about $6 tril and total state & local is about $3 tril.

Defense is 13% of federal. Vast majority of state & local is public welfare and education.

@tarheel 🔗 https://toot.cafe/users/tarheel/statuses/109580965387558133 –

«In fiscal year 2022, the federal government is estimated to spend $5.8 trillion»

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go

«State and local governments spent $3.3 trillion on direct general government expenditures in fiscal year 2019.»

https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/state-and-local-expenditures

#uspol #uspolitics