FSU mag lab doing its part to lower the rain output of this storm terrorizing Tallahassee

Baby armadillo

Thinking about Truman after his ascension. Where does he go? What are his intentions?

The human species has essentially been transformed into a giant profit-generating machine for corporations. Under capitalism, humanity exists to serve the interests of the corporation. We are all livestock; beasts of burden used to carry margin expansion forward from quarterly statement to quarterly statement. Enjoyment of life has no value other than the extent to which it can be used to increase the net worth of the shareholders. That’s why everyone’s so unhappy. We’re not living with purpose. We’re not working together to build a better world and a better future, we’re just pulling levers to turn gears to make the arrow line go up on the graph in the conference room. It’s a hollow, pointless way for people to live. It makes our whole culture vapid and soulless. Music is made to be as profitable as possible, which means giving it the broadest possible appeal using formulaic song structure calculated to cause a chemical response in the largest number of human brains. Movies are designed to draw the largest possible box office revenue at the lowest possible risk to studios and investors, often by just rehashing a movie that’s already proven successful in the past or by slapping together a story about an IP with pre-existing mass appeal. Food is made to be fast and addictive rather than nourishing. Healthy human connection has been commodified as social media intertwines with friendships and dating apps insert themselves into the development of romantic relationships. Human sexuality is being warped and twisted as internet porn normalizes violence and degradation for the maximum number of clicks. Attention and engagement have been monetized, creating an information ecosystem dominated by conflict and gossip designed to appeal to our baser instincts. Advertisement is injected into every possible corner of our waking sensory experience, with any available space where the eye might rest or the ear might listen being flooded with psychological manipulation compelling us to consume. They’ll start running commercials in our dreams the instant they have the technology to do so. You spend eight hours at the office working to generate corporate profits, then you come home and consume products to profit other corporations. You need your beer and snacks to unwind, your streaming services and social media to distract your mind from the stress of it all, your online clothing purchase to try to feel good about yourself, and your prescription drugs to get to sleep at night. People live their entire lives like this. And that’s those of us who are lucky enough to be living in the global north. In the global south you get wage slavery and exploitation with far more toil, far less relaxation time, and no cheap products made by impoverished workers on other continents with which to comfort yourself. All of humanity has been roped into this mess. And for what? To make the numbers in some bank accounts increase. To get some green arrows pointing upward on the stock exchange. To enable a few billionaires to buy islands and elections. All while destroying the biosphere we all depend on for survival. This, we are told, is the best possible system we could possibly be living under. I personally do not believe this is true. I personally believe we can have better. Those who benefit from this current arrangement are going to assure us it’s impossible and do everything they can to stop us from changing it, but we do have the means to reclaim the wealth, dignity and happiness that they have stolen from us. They built this whole machine on our backs. All we need to do is stand up.

I am once again watching David Fincher’s The Game

No Cash Value

Few things in Washington are more predictable than Congress renewing surveillance powers and promising to reform them later. I spoke on the House floor against the “temporary” clean reauthorization of the unconstitutional FISA 702 program.

Can’t stop thinking about the fact that none of the Epstein conspirators being held accountable means they never stopped.

Drivin in my car, livin' like a star

I will deliver this speech Monday at approximately noon. I’m honored to report that some survivors have already indicated they will attend as my guests in the gallery. If you’re a survivor and would like to attend, please contact my office, or talk with leaders in your group.

We are going to blow up the moon forbes.com/sites/alisondurke…

Despite some bogus grants, a lot of government is like this cartoon. I bet this "small team" would find a line item for "screwworm sterilization" and delete it, not knowing that they just devastated American farming: theatlantic.com/science/arch…

100 years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars. Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses. The stables have turned.

Dolphins are super racist. I’m calling this right now.

Spotted yesterday in Johnson City, TN. The largest part of TN-1, an R 29 district that has been Republican-led since the 1880s, in one of the reddest states in the country. People everywhere are sick of this. Everywhere.

Batman: Enter the Manhole

🎶And the boots with the spurs🎶