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switchbackasaurus.bsky.social
@switchbackasaurus.bsky.social
340 followers 120 following 200 posts
At the intersection of conservation and recreation. “Heavy, serious, solid earth. The earth that is worked upon, scratched, written upon.” (Derrida, “Force and Signification,” n23)
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Gardein makes some. Haven’t tried them as it’s not something I ate before going veg. (TBH don’t care if my plant protein is any kind of meat analogue.)
I’ve always loved this passage from near the end of Vineland, the heart of the Traverse clan annual reunion:
Zoyd Wheeler’s lack of genealogy always seemed to me a deliberate foil to Frenesi’s extended Traverse clan. Just a “gypsy roofer” who grew up in the San Joaquin. But here we have it: Francis Floyd “Skeet” Wheeler and Zinnia. His parents, Depression kids from Milwaukee who took a train out west.
Also a banger:
I knew it would take less than a day for a tiktok dj to make something.
Reposted
AOC: I have to tell you, in my traveling across the country, I am hearing and have been seeing consistent things from everyday people. And it is that they are terrified, they are frustrated, they are angry, and they are shocked by a president violating the values that we hold dear
“Pynchon is genuinely a writer of historical fiction….[M]any Americans are…committed to remaining ignorant of the way their country’s wealth, culture, and geopolitical strength were, and are, founded on violence carried out in defense of capital accumulation and white supremacy.”
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Black shoppers and wine moms said no more after the anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ policy shift. 🤷🏻‍♀️
Target just sent up a giant red flag about the U.S. consumer. A 30% stock plunge, collapsing store traffic, and margin pressure all point to the same thing: Affluent shoppers are rattled and recession fears are rising qz.com/tgt-wmt-earn...
Target just sent up a giant red flag about the U.S. consumer
A 30% stock plunge, collapsing store traffic, and margin pressure all point to the same thing: Affluent shoppers are rattled and recession fears are rising
qz.com
Except that it’s not only Republicans who own guns. I recommend sociologist David Yamane as a starting point for anyone actually interested in moving beyond stereotypes:

news.wfu.edu/2024/05/30/u...

thehill.com/opinion/civi...
thehill.com
“[W]hat’s a hundred miles to the streamlined velocities of the 1930s?”
"Sure there isn't some way we could just do this all out of the office?
Shortwave radio or something?"
"Too slow."
"Radio waves, what's faster'n that?"
"A live op who's there already, on the spot."

#ShadowTicket
One thing about reading Pynchon is how often what one takes to be an absurd fiction turns out to be actual history. For example, Gleb Bokii:
Parts of southern Indiana are quite beautiful. Braun is widely disliked. It’s a more purple state than you might imagine and there are many good people organizing and fighting to make it better—as there are everywhere.
3/ But huh, I wonder how a novel set in the 30s, full of nazis and gangsters and a “newer type of federals” (“nobody knows yet exactly how bad they can be”) could possibly speak to our time.
2/ …and if there’s not, so what? “Against the Day” followed by not one but three detective novels isn’t enough for ya?
I doubt that the novel was written during “our present political moment,” unless “moment” means the last decade.
Bad, weird take on several counts.

Why is it Pynchon’s job to meet any of these expectations?
How is it not satirical?
Novels aren’t “survival manuals.”
The 12-year gap is not unusual (17 years between GR and Vineland, another 7 before M&D), and rumor is there may yet be a “swan song”…
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Yet in 2010, Noem—then a congressional candidate—had “20 speeding tickets, three stop-sign violations, two seat-belt violations and a citation for driving with no driver’s license.” She had six court notices for failing to appear, and had two warrants out for her arrest. trib.al/uQSDaqR
ICE Barbie Says Immigrants Are Too Dumb to Drive Semitrucks
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the inane claim while bragging about arresting immigrant truck drivers.
trib.al
Good to see multiple recommendations to read @george-lakoff.com. See also @gilduran.com and FrameLab
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"I have never seen a set of pretrial motions quite like this one in its power and breadth and its attempt comprehensively to dismember the legitimacy of, process behind, and substance of an indictment."

@BenjaminWittes.lawfaremedia.org summarizes Comey's recent motions to dismiss the indictment.
The Situation: James Comey Is Just Asking Questions
So many motions; so many options for dismissal.
www.lawfaremedia.org
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"Department of Defense (DOD) officials told Democratic lawmakers in a brief on the U.S. military’s strikes against boats off the coast of northern South America that the military is not identifying the occupants of the boats before they bomb them."
Pentagon Admits to Striking Caribbean Boats Without Identifying Victims’ Purported Drug Links
The White House cannot “satisfy the evidentiary burden” to prosecute those they have been killing, one lawmaker said.
truthout.org
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The right-wing war against public health means that now a person has refused to cooperate with a case investigation that exists for the sole purpose of minimizing the risk to others.

Really selfish behavior from a suspected measles case in Utah.
Measles outbreak investigation in Utah blocked by patient who refuses to talk
The person refused to even tell health officials their address.
arstechnica.com
“Any conversation about Bill Gates and climate should begin by acknowledging that he’s been wrong about it over and over again.”