Another full, full day starts in 5.

Everyone got their screams out?

Catch you on the flippity-flip!

I used another coffee yesterday to get through the long work sprint, and was up most of the night with dreams of being chased by a Hannibal-Lecter/Alien hybrid through a crumbling cave system on a remote space outpost to reach a buried escape pod, so... 🤨 no coffee today.

🤨 The correct time to go to bed was a minute before reading this.

Also, in general, never read a New York Post article. Any news outlet with "Post" in it, really!

#NotSafeForLife #PeopleAreTheWorst
#EarlierBedtimesAreTheBest

For Rewind Wednesday, we keep this week's society-building theme going with a look at Otto Neurath, a member of the Vienna Circle and a key part of urban planning and semiotic history, whose way of thinking about human spaces (for better and for worse) helped to shape our approach to public policy and civic education today.

#PoliticalScience #History #Historiography #International #Socialism #BetterWorldsTheory #ScienceLiteracy
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/otto-neuraths-language-of-civic-spaces

Okie dokie. Time now to revise the newsletter. Short one! But informed by a whole slew of formal reading, and a lot of willing myself not to devolve into a MUCH longer tangent about the whole Vienna Circle. 🙃

Should be up by... ten? Tennish?

Then early to bed and early to rise. I have a donkey to look for in the park tomorrow; a rural friend today reported that she'd been attacked by some drugged out person on the street, then spooked and ran. Now everyone's on the lookout for the poor girl.

Taking a beat to sigh.

Someone here put words to how this day always makes me feel: haunted by what came next.

Humanity has always been brutal, but there's an extra brutality that comes from realizing your so-called "civilization" is as susceptible to war derangement as any other, & from noticing how many people around you *will* dehumanize others in a Jingoist flash.

Once you realize what's under the skin of people who think themselves decent, life is never the same.

Be well today, all. 🕊️

Okay, 9(:05)-to-9 day on this end.

Hoping the midday 45 I've blocked for editing today's newsletter will be enough. 🤞 Otherwise it will be a late evening read for all folks on this side of the planet!

Have a beautiful one, and try not to be hard on yourself if moving through hard things. The world doesn't need you angry at yourself for inevitable missteps and imperfections.

The world just needs you *here*. 🕊️

Every now and then I find myself looking for even a smidgen of self-awareness, contrition, and desire to make right what's been made wrong from A Certain Public Figure. It just hurts to see such a blatant spectacle of wasted time in the cosmos in our news media day in and day out.

The impulse comes out of empathy, and also the knowledge that no amount of earthly "justice" is ever going to atone for all the harm he's done.

The impulse comes and then... I have to find it a more productive home.

I'm really hoping our US friends are feeling even more relieved and confident about their future this morning.

May the momentum keep building to an election day and inauguration that spell the decisive end of so much nonsense and pain. The whole world's been waiting a good eight years for the circus to close up shop, and we're rooting for you every step of the way. #Politics #Democracy

But also... for laughs...
#Meme #Humour

Good morning, good morning, to you~!

An unusual but very good class.

I shan't be joining you nutters for your US debate, but I wish you strength and sanity!

#AmEditing

More beauties from the day. I'll write about a few related themes for either Substack or Patreon soon-ish.

Books as art objects, and (of course) a visit to the local anarchist press. One of their selections is a children's book of Kropotkin! 😅 #CoSoBooks #Colombia

Book fair time! 🥳

If you don't hear from me, IT'S FINE.

I HAVE GONE TO A BETTER PLACE!

Today, for Tough Times Tuesday, we discuss the recent Russian propaganda operation on right-wing social media... but a bit more holistically.

There are many ways in which we invite foreign influence to shape local democracy, and sometimes our fearmongering leaps ahead of the efficacy of foreign campaigns.

Do we have the slightest idea what kind of democratic practice we're actually trying to defend?

#Democracy #MediaLiteracy #Propaganda #International #Politics

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/what-is-democratic-interference

The uphill battle for more robust local #journalism continues.

(Note the elements in this piece addressing the aggressive investment in #AI, too.)

"A 2023 working paper ... suggested Google owes U.S. publishers between $10 and $12 billion annually; one of the researchers, University of Houston assistant professor of finance Haaris Mateen, told More Perfect Union that Google owes California publishers alone at least $1.4 billion annually".

#MediaLiteracy #Technology
https://open.substack.com/pub/moreperfectus/p/the-fallout-of-californias-local

Four minutes to get out the rest of my sillies before workflow begins.

I hate to give Swifties any more media space than they already have, but "Shake It Off" is indeed stuck in my head while purging all but work thoughts for the day.

Have a glorious one, 'Nauts!

All right. One more work sprint before conk-out o'clock.

G'night, my fellow nutters!