(((Baslow)))

Aging, pensive schlub; dyspeptic alter kacker (Yiddish; do a search); crackpot
Upper Manhattanite.
Previously: @baslow
Atheist:
not a universalist,
not an essentialist.

#SeizeTheMeansOfCommunity
#MayorMamdani

XMPP: baslow@communitarium.org

I tend toward radical solutions to our collective problems.
Together, we MAKE meaning. We don't uncover it

tfr

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npub1nwea973hvk4c2u36vx5w95z8lygf6cyc2e69k5qgdad4n98q00jsn2l773

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baslow@social-coop.mostr.pub

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relay.mostr.pub

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Last Notes

2026-10-09 22:30:40 UTC

Newly released video sheds light on Marble Hill ICE shooting as protests continue in NYC
[Protests in Foley Square and Marble Hill]
https://youtu.be/JDETmr9Plf4?si=jn2Gu1OxrHoy1dkO

2026-08-06 12:54:50 UTC

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@nprofile…wufy
That process, it seems to me from my perch in NYC, is underway. But it doesn't seem to me to exclude the path Blanc is advocating.

2026-08-03 15:39:19 UTC

What’s Our Plan if AOC Doesn’t Run? - by Eric Blanc
Run a union worker
Leftists don’t need to always run experienced, well-known socialist politicians for high-profile contests. Especially in an era of institutional distrust, it’s possible to lean hard into making a virtue out of a working-class comrade’s distance from traditional politics.
This is especially the case now that almost everything DSA does immediately becomes a national news story. We don’t need someone famous. We just need a charismatic, well-vetted comrade who works in a relatable working-class occupation — e.g. a nurse, or a worker in auto or construction, or at Amazon. Ideally, they have a compelling personal story or have been part of a significant strike or organizing campaign, but even those criteria don’t necessarily have to be deal-breakers.
#DSA
https://www.laborpolitics.com/p/whats-our-plan-if-aoc-doesnt-run?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=4qwgr&triedRedirect=true

2026-07-31 15:48:22 UTC

CNN Poll: A third of Democrats now identify as democratic socialists
About a third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults identify as democratic socialists, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
They’re some of the party’s staunchest supporters, but many are also raring for a party overhaul at a time when democratic socialists are seeing new momentum at the polls.
#NYDSA
#DSA
#MayorMamdani
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/30/politics/cnn-poll-a-third-of-democrats-now-identify-as-democratic-socialists

2026-07-26 12:54:00 UTC

Protest vs. Resistance 101
"...a question keeps coming up in the resistance spaces I occupy, usually in two parts: What is the difference between protest and resistance? Isn’t activating 3.5 percent of the population enough?
"Protest seeks to express opposition, to articulate grievance. It is communication before it is anything else. It demonstrates dissent. It mobilizes supporters. Done well, it raises the costs an abusive authority pays to act. And sometimes it forces concessions.
"Resistance is something else. Resistance seeks to change power itself. Not just who holds it, but how it is organized, and — crucially — what it can do to people.
And it is strategic."
#resistance
https://tadstoermer.substack.com/p/protest-vs-resistance-101?r=1mvrku&triedRedirect=true

2026-07-22 00:10:49 UTC

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should run for president
Bhaskar Sunkara
The congresswoman can run a serious national campaign on the left and pull a movement in behind it. She should get in early.
[Trial balloon?]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/21/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-for-president

2026-07-20 16:45:41 UTC

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@nprofile…l9m2
It has been very interesting, here in NYC, seeing Mamdani attempting (and, IMHO, succeeding!) to forge a real-world-effective, actionable democratic socialism. He may not succeed but, every step of the way, he is educating both socialists and the broader NYC political public what transformative politics entails.

2026-07-20 16:26:35 UTC

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It is understandable that Marx, who never made it out of the 19th century, did not foresee the explosion of rentier capitalism (and the consequent rise of techno-feudalism) that the imposition of the fiction of "intellectual property" enabled.
It is inexcusable that so many of the people who call themselves Marxists have failed to adequately grasp -- because of a myopic, exclusionary, moralistic focus on the exploitation of physical labor -- the new forms of extraction, exploitation, oppression and power that the regime of "intellectual property" have given rise to.

2026-07-17 12:28:27 UTC

‘Adversarial clothing’: are garments designed to confuse facial recognition systems about to go mainstream?
These garments may express dissent, and they may sometimes hinder recognition software. But that does not make them collective resistance.
They are private consumer choices made by isolated individuals, not coordinated action by people who have built the capacity to act together. Calling the trend “collective” encourages a politically disabling fantasy: that enough personal gestures will eventually add up to power on their own.
Capitalist realism depends on that confusion. It lets people experience themselves as resistant without confronting their fragmentation or building organizations, strategy, and institutions. The surveillance apparatus remains organized, adaptive, and well funded; the supposed resistance remains individualized, symbolic, and available for purchase.
#SeizeTheMeansOfCommunity
#CommunitariumProject
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026/jul/17/adversarial-clothing-are-garments-designed-to-confuse-facial-recognition-systems-about-to-go-mainstream

2026-07-14 02:02:20 UTC

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Michigan health officials identify ‘potential source’ of parasite outbreak
Authorities said inquiry into cyclosporiasis outbreak was continuing but early results pointed to salad greens and lettuce
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/13/cyclospora-outbreak-parasite-explosive-diarrhea

2026-07-14 01:40:01 UTC

What we know about the cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to produce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd1cSGQX4WI

2026-07-07 15:04:28 UTC

Why Are Berries Everywhere, in Every Season? Driscoll’s.
The California giant has helped turn a local, seasonal treat into a worldwide refrigerator staple and marketing juggernaut.
The Driscoll’s model reflects another shift in 21st-century agriculture, away from open-source knowledge developed by public institutions like universities, to fiercely protected intellectual property owned by private companies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/dining/driscolls-berries.html?unlocked_article_code=1.v1A.Yued.DUxE8MTa2_6k&smid=url-share

2026-07-05 21:42:23 UTC

How To Scare Democrats Into Delivering
Replacing complacent Democrats with populist Democrats in blue districts can scare every other incumbent into action – or face the threat of being fired.
The replacement of on-paper liberal Democrats with get-shit-done populist Democrats isn’t just about changing representation in these particular blue districts — it is also about fear-motivating every other blue-district and blue-state Democrat. It is about letting them know that they cannot just make fake rhetorical promises anymore — they must actually deliver on those promises to survive a reelection bid. And over time, that fear-motivation absolutely can get you much closer to passage of Medicare For All if and when Democrats regain power. It can get you more legislative co-sponsors and — crucially — it can motivate those co-sponsors to actually advance the bill.
https://www.levernews.com/how-to-scare-democrats-into-delivering

2026-07-05 00:30:50 UTC

250 Years of the Declaration of Independence's Right of Resistance
"whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it."
> If the only right in that clause is revolution, then invoking it means declaring war on your own government, and no sane people does that short of catastrophe. So the invocation became ceremony in our political culture. Americans still say the words, especially in moments of crisis, but the officials they aim them at stopped believing them generations ago, and now govern — or rather, use your government, abuse your consent — without an “or else” at their backs, which is where we are right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTK8qEhsr4M

2026-06-30 20:57:49 UTC

Mayor Mamdani Announces Handshake Agreement on Fiscal Year 2027 Budget
"I have been reminded of the words of the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek: 'If socialists understood economics, they wouldn't be socialists.' If these past months have shown us anything, it is that socialists not only understand economics, [they understand] just as well as the capitalists who came before,"
#MayorMamdani
#UnderstandMamdani
#ZohranMamdani
https://www.youtube.com/live/47Mo1KdhTrI?si=MbPP6NR7BnsYIdQM&t=84

2026-06-30 16:42:19 UTC

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@nprofile…rk99
So...this is intended less as a response than as a speculative tangent:
Imagine if the nerdier, socially-conscious pre-teens and teens out there undertook a project of online organizing by setting up self-hosted, self-governed, selectively federated FLOSS platforms (e.g. Friendica) which they understood to be not just a technical project -- getting it running -- but a sociocultural one -- collectively cultivating and enacting a community ethos to which all members consented.
It might result in online spaces that felt more personally meaningful and collectively effective...which could end up being an effective alternative to what exists.
I'm pretty sure nerdy, socially conscious (pre-)teens exist out there...

2026-06-25 21:39:40 UTC

Why Did Unions and the WFP Oppose Last Night's Electoral Breakthroughs in NYC?
Eric Blanc
It’s important to push back when union and non-profit leaders claim to be the only legitimate political spokespeople for the multiracial working class; if that were true, Tuesday’s elections would not have gone the way they did. But none of our organizations are anywhere close to being as deeply rooted in the class as we need to be. After decades of neoliberal atomization, union busting, and the fraying of working people’s social fabric, this should be no surprise.
It’s true that Zohran and democratic socialist ideas are very popular. And it’s true that DSA meetings (especially over the past 18 months) are much more racially diverse than smears against us would suggest. But democratic socialism’s organized roots in workplaces and working-class neighborhoods do remain alarmingly thin. Getting votes and building sustainable on-the-ground power are not the same thing.
https://www.laborpolitics.com/p/unions-and-the-working-families-party?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

2025-05-26 21:53:52 UTC

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@nprofile…cfle
https://social.coop/@baslow/114576348060126684

2025-03-18 18:57:53 UTC

The people put their money on their preferred candidate for mayor of NYC.
Latest data from NYC Campaign Finance Board, showing individual donations to mayoral candidates' campaigns.
https://www.zohranfornyc.com/
#ZohranMamdani
#MamdaniForMayorNYC
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/184/908/332/169/832/original/54dac851edbf5db4.jpg