https://twitter.com/lindsaypcohn/status/1097099234648772609?s=17

Beautiful pictures of a backyard garden on this thread, and there’s probably no more, either. Is this a modern-day victory garden? (I guess we still need to use less pesticide when growing our food, which means yields will go down and prices will go up. And maybe that BT corn was a bad idea. Is that one of those things where you have to get new seeds every year? That would be good.)

Lindsay P Cohn (@lindsaypcohn) Tweeted:

Fabulous thread. I had no gardening experience and managed to create a beautiful and very insect/bird-friendly garden mostly just doing these things … it’s not hard and it’s fun🦋🐞🕷🐛 https://t.co/nLrHpKXFip

Updates: BT and organic farming: http://www.bt.ucsd.edu/organic_farming.html

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/houston-belief/article/By-identifying-abuse-in-Bible-we-can-call-out-13619414.php

We really need to de-shame sex.

Excerpts from a really good article:

«The church must do better to unravel silence. We start by hearing and believing the survivors in the Bible. We start by calling out places of oppression when we see them. We start by talking about misogyny, sexual exploitation and abuse. When we learn to identify harmful systems of abuse in our Biblical texts, we help ourselves to recognize them and call out injustices in our current realities.

….

Religion has often treated sex as something to be feared, denied, exploited.

We must resist the temptation to make this just about the Southern Baptists (or the Catholics or university students or Hollywood). This is about all of us. It is about our culture’s normalization of misogyny and heteronormativity; about our culture’s normalization of unchecked power and the villainization of survivors. When we allow the culture to tell us that women are worth less than men; that people of color, LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized people are of less value; when we allow our culture to keep abusers in power, we all have a problem. When religion is used to protect the people in power rather than to empower the oppressed, we all have a problem.

What then should we do?

Listening to survivors — and believing them — would be a good place to start.

….

I grew up a Southern Baptist preacher’s kid. I am now a progressive Baptist minister. The church, regardless of the denomination, has a lot to answer for. While exposing the devastating and pervasive problem of sexual violence in the church might be seen as a good reason to stay away from religion or spirituality, I hope we can instead see this as the moment for change. This is the moment to move away from systems of power and privilege that create the environments conducive to abuse. This is the moment to read again our sacred stories and see a God who is present with us in pain and who calls all of us to work for healing and wholeness. This is the moment to hear the stories that need to be shared and to honor the sacred courage it takes to speak. This is the moment for change.

:

Rev. Laura Mayo is senior minister of Covenant Church: an Ecumenical, Liberal, Baptist Congregation in Houston.»

https://twitter.com/TomHeartsTanks/status/1096453763798228992?s=17

Tom Hearts Strykers Now (@TomHeartsTanks) Tweeted:

Across the Army, you hear stories about black mold infested barracks or soldiers living 2-3 in a single-person room, offices and hospitals and motor pools falling apart that wouldn’t meet safety codes outside the army.

It’s okay though. We definitely support the Troops™️. https://t.co/Wakt7WGK7s

https://twitter.com/smcclain2110/status/1096503707116752896?s=17

smcclain2110 (@smcclain2110) Tweeted:

@Mikel_Jollett @CChristineFair They want government small enough to fit in folks’ bedrooms

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/trump-national-security-threat/582934/

I posted yesterday (?) quoting Thom Tillis and wondering whether he’d even SEE a vote on the emergency declaration or whether Mitch McConnell would bury it for him, but, according this, he will definitely have to vote.  (As will every other Republican Senator and Representative.) (Yesterday’s post.)

«Once invoked, 50 U.S. Code § 1622 on national emergencies sets into motion a series of events, including an almost immediate vote by the House of Representatives ratifying the president’s decision. The House will certainly reject Trump’s national emergency declaration, sending that motion to the Senate where it cannot be tabled. And that GOP-controlled chamber will be compelled to support Trump’s transparently political debasing of constitutional norms, not because of their support for Trump, but because of pressure from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.»

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/02/blockchain_and_.html

Bruce Schneier doesn’t like blockchain.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/us/hurricane-katrina-roland-bourgeois.html

Tempted to say “[squints] Not sure if evil or just a moron”, but, really, “just a moron” isn’t an option in a just (and merciful?) society.

«Federal prosecutors said the court proceedings took a particularly long time — nearly nine years since the initial indictment — because Mr. Bourgeois was repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial. His competency has been evaluated six times since 2010, and he was eventually declared competent in 2018.»

https://twitter.com/Nerienis/status/1096187234598993921?s=17

Ooh, another cool chair gif.

Fortuna Mobilis (@Nerienis) Tweeted:

@mkguliford @texasinafrica https://t.co/H33NfyFbLs

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-border-wall-national-emergency/

The cold eye of Nate Silver:

«There’s just not a lot more to say about this. If Trump didn’t learn he needs to reach beyond his base from either the midterms or from the shutdown, he probably won’t figure it out in time for 2020.»

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/14/gop-national-emergency-declaration-trump-1170697

Looking forward to Thom’s vote on the upcoming (non-binding) resolution of disapproval (assuming Mitch brings it to a vote, after cloakroom conversations with other Republican Senators).

Also: I take it we’re done with complaints about Obama’s imperial presidency and any future Democrat’s.

«“I always kind of take pause to the assertion of executive power,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). “The main reason is it could detract attention away from the long-term solution that can only occur through an act of Congress.”»