Conor

Some...ok, much...wrangling with C extensions later— @twinderseis and I have just released v1.0.1 of @quakemigrate which can now be installed via pip! Works on Windows, Linux (at least Debian/Ubuntu), and macOS. Full instructions in our documentation, but it's as simple as:

I have written a piece for @BackpackerMag about the shitty boots migrants use to cross the Darién Gap, and how it changed how I think about my relationship with the outdoors. I hope you'll read it backpacker.com/stories/advent…

There's a word for the way some people freak out at the existence of humanities scholarship. It's called anti-intellectualism. It's a severe character flaw.

Thinking about the communist rat again...

Help us send 2,000 books to readers who are incarcerated this winter through our Books Not Bars program haymarketbooks.app.neoncrm.com/forms/booksnot…

Mayakovsky signing off a letter to Lilya Brik with "Yours with paws" *trips over my own paws* The more I learn about this mans personal life, the more I know he would have loved pups 👀🐾

Here we go again! 🌋 #grindavik #eruption #iceland

All the takes are correct and yet they also miss the point. Yes, it was insane for the Democrats to think they could win by running a soulless candidate, without a shred of progressive policy vision, pursuing endorsements from neocon war-hawks everybody hates, while arming and funding a genocide, and belittling and crushing those who have enough morality to protest it.  It is enraging that the Democrats are so smug and blind to this. But these are all just symptoms.  The deeper reality is that liberalism has failed, liberalism is dead, and people urgently need to wake up to this fact and respond accordingly. It is a defunct ideology that cannot offer any meaningful solutions to our social and ecological crises and it must be abandoned. Democrats have proven over and over again that they cannot accept even *basic* steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee - things that would dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes. And they cannot accept a public finance strategy that would steer production away from fossil fuels and toward green transition to give us a shot at a liveable future. Why? Because these things run against the objectives of capital accumulation. And for liberals capital is sacrosanct. They will do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation, it is their only consistent commitment.  At home, they suppress and demonize progressive and socialist tendencies. Abroad, they engage in endless wars and violence to suppress input prices in the global South and prevent any possibility of sovereign economic development. The Democrats have done all this purposefully and knowingly, for my whole life, not as some kind of "mistake" but in full consciousness that it is in the interests of capital. And because liberalism cannot address our crises, and because it crushes socialist alternatives, it inevitably paves the way for right-wing populism.  They know this pattern, and yet they risk it every time - this election being only the most recent example. They did it in 2016, when they actively crushed the Sanders campaign and sent Trump to the White House. They do it because ultimately they (and I mean the liberal ruling class here) don't really mind if fascists take power, so long as the latter too ensure the conditions for capital accumulation. They 100% prefer this to the possibility of a socialist alternative. So, progressives have to face reality. The dream of "converting" the Democratic party is dead. This is now a fact and it must be accepted. The only option is to build a mass-based movement that can reclaim the working classes and mobilize a political vehicle that can integrate disparate progressive struggles into a unified and formidable political force and achieve substantive transformation. This will take real work, actual organizing, but it must be done and that process must begin now.

A little bit of peace and quiet from the Arctic (Svalbard) for you all. We have entered the blue period just before the polar night begins. This landscape is 🩶💙

Carbon capture instead of stopping oil & gas EVs instead of reducing car dependency Ocean cleanups instead of stopping plastic production Planting trees instead of ending deforestation Ever notice how all the fashionable 'solutions' are all aimed at not changing anything?

📣 We filed a ULP against @Columbia! 📣 For months, we’ve requested basic information on bargaining unit employees, but @Columbia refuses to comply. This data is essential to enforcing our contract and running union business. @Columbia—meet your obligations under our CBA!

A blond hedgehog in the garden. There aren't any foxes or badgers on Mull, so they are a little happier about venturing out in daylight.

Postdocs all over NYC are ready! Together we have the power. We hope to see you at the @CentralLaborNYC Labor Day Parade! @WCMPostdocUnion @eruuaw @rupostdocunion @nyuresearchers @spocuaw

Finally, the snow has melted, and the coherence is back! Askja's uplift continues, now at ~1 cm/month, a third of the previous rate. All the interferograms span 1 year, with Sentinel-1 acquisitions in late July 😍

Playing a game of Catan:

France’s extraordinary election results provide an urgent, valuable lesson. Don’t concede ground to those who sow division and fear. Build a bold Left movement that offers an alternative of inclusion and hope. That is how you defeat the far right.

💚 Vote Green today.

from "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)

Not having a driver’s license as someone in your 20s or 30s is climate change activism. Asking your friend for a ride is creating community, reinvigorating the global village. Be proud of yourself.

If you’re having a bad day, here’s a Hedgehog on a camping trip.