Sam Bell ظافر 🇱🇧 🇨🇦

Not Catholic but went to Catholic school.

I love the iconography. The Mary icons are some of my favorite, especially the Virgen de Guadalupe.

People will almost always tend toward pantheism, even if it's just pantheism with extra steps.

I wish.

I'd guess differently though.

Authoritarians are products of their environment and their fear of the world is constantly enforced. The world is legit scary.

People who need a strongman to lead them will *always* find someone. Believe me.

Trump is Mr. Right Now for them.

And the people should always be engaged, heard, respected and responded to.

And the people should always be ready for revolution when they’re not.

Government by the people does NOT have to mean elections.

Elections will always lead to campaigns, which will always lead to funding campaigns, which will always lead to wealthy patronage.

The government should be the party. Bureaucrats should earn their positions, not get picked in a contest.

The house of cards will cave either way.

Things will either go completely to hell, or people will change the system.

The constitution may have been a little progressive 250 years ago, but it’s not viable now.

The faces change, but the government continues to protect the wealthy.

What if agencies weren’t judged on profitability but were instead judged by how well they served people’s needs?

There are so many ways democracy can be.

To my mind this country has never been of the people for the people.

It isn’t possible when hoarders make the laws.

Something will change.

It’s untenable.

Democratic rule doesn’t have to look like “vote for representation every x years.”

It could be much more direct, much more involved and much more responsive.

What if people working for government agencies were required to poll citizens directly and get feedback to pass laws?

What if people in government had to earn promotions through gradually proving their skills and qualifications?

Look at the US.

It’s plain that most of our politicians are unqualified.

And how can nations make treaties with a country who can chuck the treaty wholesale in a few years?

There’s zero inherently good in voting. It’s quite literally the least you can do to affect change.

The wealthy make the laws. Very few policies people want or need are implemented.

Instead of focusing on who takes power every X years, what if things were more stable?

Democracy is derived from demos meaning people and kratos meaning power.

Literally “people power”.

To most people, it’s associated with elections to determine government. But who would say the people rule this country or even most western countries?

Turning over government is unstable.

Sharing this again. It's from four years ago, and censorship continues to rear its ugly head. Thank you, Meg, for stating this so well.

I have zero idea why anyone considered the NYT anything other than reactionary. They have historically bad takes.

RFK Jr's response to someone collapsing nearby him was to haul ass out of the room as quickly as possible

Beshear: Let me be clear. The president has both the funding and the authority to fund snap during a shutdown. In fact, every other president in every other shutdown has done so. People going hungry in this instance is a choice that this president has made.

Slavery is literally protected in the US constitution.

Saying it was England is rich considering England banned slavery before the US did.

I feel like I’ve been in extended burnout for the last couple of years. No joy, no peace.

The USDA is the fail safe for SNAP.

They have a contingency fund to ensure it’s covered in the event of a shutdown.

They’re refusing.

Grocery stores stepped up to try and help by offering discounts to any SNAP recipients and the USDA told them they had to stop.

Starvation as a policy choice.

HOW CAN WE AFFORD TO INVADE VENEZUELA IF THERE'S NO MONEY FOR SNAP???

They Want You Relying On Artificial Intelligence So That You Will Lose Your Natural Intelligence Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

They Want You Relying On Artificial Intelligence So That You Will Lose Your Natural Intelligence

They want you to require easily controllable software to form your understanding of the world, and to express that understanding to others.

www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/they-want-...

I have no doubt I would have wound up in prison or worse if they hadn’t. Even on meds I still struggled to fit in and get through school.

I got my diagnosis in 1981 because the school didn’t think I could even do special ed.

Dyslexic, hyperactive, inattentive, one of the adults used the R word when describing me.

Lucky my parents could afford to get me diagnosed and medicated, and I could focus well enough to get by if not thrive.

End stage.

The colonizers get colonized from within.

Now the empire begins to eat itself.

Are billionaires psychologically similar to hoarders?

Wondering because at some level, they’re people who can never have enough.

It’s got to be a type of mental disorder.

✌️“Christian nation” ✌️

The older I get, the more radical I get.

The notion of becoming more conservative must be about how hoarding money makes you more conservative.

I just learned/heard the notion that Bobby was Bills kid and not Hanks.

🤯🤯🤯

Trumpkin: a pumpkin 🎃 made to look like you know who.

Not Voldemort.

I'm shaking almost too hard to type. I entered SLC airport and heard screams and cries for help. I could see people gathered around, watching. I sped over to discover this woman face down on the floor, four grown men pushing her down, while she cried "HELP ME" and pled for her child.

Nearly all my Twin Peaks friends hated it.

I loved it and it remains one of my favorite Lynch films.

I can see why though, it is so unlike the quirky show that preceded it. Also, some of the actors not returning for the movie disappointed them.

But it was so like a dream, so visceral. Love it!