David J. Voelker

Trump is constantly concocting fake emergencies while doing everything in his power to accelerate the major existential crisis of our time.

“We don’t erase history” says the sentient can of body spray who took Medgar Evers and Harvey Milk’s names off Navy ships

The man who is taking Medgar Evers' name off a Navy vessel says he is proud of "our (Confederate) history" and is demanding that statue be restored.

Our country has been captured by white supremacists. The mere notion of a better future for all in 2020 radicalized them and Americans let it happen.

Why you might not know that 2024 was America's safest year since the 1960s An overwhelming majority of Americans, 64 percent, believe that crime increased across the country in 2024, according to a Gallup survey conducted late last year.

1. This week, the FBI released its comprehensive crime report for 2024, which revealed that both VIOLENT CRIME and PROPERTY CRIME reached their LOWEST LEVELS SINCE THE 1960s

This a massive story. But you might not have heard about it, even if you follow the news closely.

Here's why.

Prof. Katharine Hayhoe @KHayhoe · 22h I’m a climate scientist, four-time author of the US National Climate Assessment, and that is not true. Here’s a short and easy explainer of how climate change is indeed loading the extreme weather dice against us: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LT4aZzjbl3w Quote Secretary Chris Wright @SecretaryWright · Aug 4 The ceaseless repeating from the media, politicians and activists claiming that climate change is making weather more dangerous and severe is just nonsense. That is just NOT true.

Secretary of Energy outright lying about the reality of climate change on Elon Musk's hellsite, where for some reason good people, including climate scientists and journalists, still linger, so they told him off. But. Trump has taught the right that you can bully the truth and sometimes win.

We (@fsfp.bsky.social & @womensmarch.com) hand delivered nearly 1 MILLION signatures demanding President Trump’s impeachment & removal to the office of the Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan.

How Louisiana Built Trump’s Busiest Deportation Hub ICE wants to make immigration enforcement as efficient as FedEx or Amazon. Louisiana was poised for this moment.

"How Louisiana Built Trump’s Busiest Deportation Hub" www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

This reflection from @girouxh.bsky.social on catastrophe also resonates with the current discourse on AI, as if AI is some force of nature that's just happening without human choice.

"Catastrophe, as Brad Evans has observed, speaks to an era of late modernity marked by 'a closing of the political.' Resignation and acceptance of catastrophe has taken root in the ground prepared by the neoliberal notion that “nothing can be done.”

"Manufactured catastrophes and historical amnesia—and with them a generalized sense of manufactured helplessness—now reign supreme ...."

"... it also gave rise to anti-democratic tendencies in the United States government that put the health, safety, and liberty of the American people at risk."

Hard to chose a line from this powerful 2021 essay by @girouxh.bsky.social, so here are a few: "Hiroshima not only unleashed immense misery, unimaginable suffering, and wanton death on Japanese civilians ..."

In this 1872 painting by John Gast, Indigenous people flee before white colonizers pushing west, as an angelic allegorical figure of "American Progress" strings telegraph wire.

Speaking of DHS and propaganda, in case you missed this post featuring John Gast's 1872 "American Progress": x.com/DHSgov/statu... -- be sure not to miss the encoded shout-out to Nazism in the text, in the form of the capitalized Hs.

"Donald Trump and his Department of Homeland Security are trying to Make America Manifest Destiny Again. ... DHS is creating real-life scenes to match John Gast’s image of terrorized indigenous people fleeing their homes." www.thebulwark.com?utm_source=n...

We will be known as the culture that feared death
and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity
for the few and cared little for the penury of the many.

—Mary Oliver|Of The Empire

Mary Oliver ‘s full poem echoed as I read EMPIRE OF AI by @karenhao.bsky.social h/t @moonalice.com esp ch 9, 12:

Yes, this is real. Dept of Homeland Security is echoing Nazi propaganda. Was this ad AI generated, like the "Speedway Slammer" (which DHS generated without permission)? If so, I'd love to see the prompt.

I know nobody under 30 will believe me, but this is the sort of scandal that ended careers, back in the before-times. Congressional hearings, weeks worth of Nightline reports, the whole works. The press _lived_ for this stuff.

China Turns to A.I. in Information Warfare

"'A.I.-driven propaganda is no longer a hypothetical future threat,” they wrote. 'It is operational, sophisticated and already reshaping how public opinion can be manipulated on a large scale.'" www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/u...

popular anti-fascism as taxpayer revolt...might have some legs

you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am

Also, the word "contentious" in the NYT headline is doing some heavy lifting here. The report is beyond contentious. It's clearly a hack job.

Energy Dept. Attacks Climate Science in Contentious Report

Fellow scholars out there: can you imagine coauthoring a 151-page report on _anything_ in less than 2 months? "[T]he five scientists assembled by the Energy Department began work in early April and finished by a May 28 deadline, according to the report." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/c...

Trump's EPA wants to eliminate regulation for greenhouse gases The Trump administration proposes eliminating a 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger people. That would undermine the EPA's climate change regulations for power plants and cars.

From heavy rains and floods to droughts and extreme heat, Wisconsinites are seeing the effects of greenhouse gas pollution and climate change firsthand.
 
This is just baloney.
 
www.npr.org/2025/07/29/n...

TRUMP IS BUILDING A DICTATORSHIP With an all-out assault on democratic norms and the rule of law, President Donald Trump is amassing far more power than any previous U.S. president, creating unmistakable momentum toward establishment of a fascist dictatorship.

Dear mainstream media,
You’re nibbling around the edges of the Trump disaster without reporting the huge overall story that’s in front of you. Feel free to use this headline and lead paragraph, no charge.
Sincerely, Mark

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

Home Search less and focus more. Hookmark is the standalone contextual bookmarking app. It complements your launcher by also being the contextual launcher. Hookmark enables you to create and link robust...

DEVONthink, w/ Hookmark (for Mac) to link to PDFs etc. For larger projects, I do the writing in Scrivener. I also use Drafts (another Mac gem) for starting many new text notes for research and teaching, both. I use Markdown for most of my notes (across the board). hookproductivity.com; getdrafts.com

DEVONthink is a fantastic database program. Easy to use and works seamlessly if you are working on a project with one or several other researchers. Highly recommend!

This U.S. Citizen Recorded an Immigration Arrest. Officers Told Him To Delete It or Face Charges. The peaceful traffic stop in Florida turned violent after immigration officers arrived and used chokeholds and a stun gun to make arrests.

Recording law enforcement in public is not a crime. It's protected First Amendment activity -- even in Florida.

See Toole v. City of Atlanta (11th Cir. 2019); Smith v. City of Cumming (11th Cir. 2000).

Lovely illustrated poem from Joanna K. Dane about the Fox River, in northeast #Wisconsin. Love this line: "Will I be able to sustain attention long enough/to know what is revealed only after sustained/attention?" @humansandnature.bsky.social

Air quality alert for all of Minnesota through Saturday A northerly wind flow will send multiple waves of Canadian wildfire smoke into Minnesota for the next few days. Air quality will reach the unhealthy range for most of Minnesota.

What if… instead of dealing with toxic air every other week for the rest of our lives… we did something about this whole climate change thing?

I hate that my kids are growing up in a world literally & figuratively on fire.

They, and we, deserve better.

#MSPCycleCast