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Jan. 2nd, 2019 12:01 am* "DR Congo internet shut day after poll:" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46721168
* "Meghalaya mine rescue op: Divers find wooden structures, horizontal hole. No trace of trapped miners:" https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/meghalaya-mine-rescue-op-divers-find-wooden-structures-horizontal-hole-no-trace-of-trapped-miners-1420879-2018-12-31
* "Volcano three-quarters blown away by Indonesia tsunami eruption:" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/29/volcano-was-three-quarters-blown-away-in-indonesia-tsunami-eruption
* "This Woman Only Discovered She Was Intersex After Watching A Viral Video About It:" https://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/this-woman-only-discovered-she-was-intersex-after-watching
* "For the First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works Will Enter the Public Domain:" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/first-time-20-years-copyrighted-works-enter-public-domain-180971016/
* "The Way American Parents Think About Chores Is Bizarre:" https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/12/allowance-kids-chores-help/578848/
For the record, my family went with an everyone pitches in with ordinary daily or weekly chores for free, but we got paid for certain rarer, more difficult chores. (A corner store trip for groceries was free, but a half hour bike trip to get something from the Wawa was paid. Dishes or weeding the kitchen garden? Free. Cleaning the gutters? Paid.) We had no regular allowance at all, though there were situations in which we were given money for special treats, like a carnival. We were strongly motivated to find extraordinary chores we could do, such as things that needed fixing, or the summer I cleared the over grown section of front garden with the bird bath. (It was sort of hedged off, and she stopped working it the year she was bed-ridden with a dangerous pregnancy, then recovering while trying to deal with a sickly new born all spring and summer. The next year, she hadn't time and energy to sort it out for obvious reasons, so it was let go, getting worse every Summer. After I cleared it she used half of it for a secondary kitchen garden and half for flowers and it entered her regular crop rotation system). Eventually, I got old enough for baby sitting my sister, then neighborhood kids, and doing other people's yard work. By the time my sister was that age she was literally dying and was too sick for literal years after we raised enough money to save her. At that point she could do minimum wage jobs, so she missed the baby sitting/lawn work stage. I stand by the basic structure.
* I grew up poor in the '70's. Most of our store bought toys were second hand; we had a home made toy book we did crafts out of; we also drew playsets and I drew paper dolls for my sister and her friends well into the '80's. We also did a lot of non-distructive re-purposing. "The Strange, Delightful Era When Kids Made Their Own Toys:" https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/homemade-toys-19th-20th-century-america-pictures.html
* ""Hand Me the Wine and the Dice" from the musical, "Aspects of Love":"
( Embed: )
* "Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated:"
( Embed: )
* I heard a crash and the sound of breaking glass. I saw no cats in the kitchen or my bathroom and there was no broken glass I shrugged it off, figuring I'd find it eventually. I did. At bedtime Sunday morning. It was my beloved gift Tesla lightning globe I like to play with before bed sometimes. Totally smashed and useless. You'd think I'd blame Tavy, but he stopped frequenting that bureau top when I was given the Tesla globe because he Hated and Distrusted it. No, it was clearly Livia, likely misjudging her size. I love Livia more that my lightning globe, but I rather wish I still had both. Sigh.
I managed to miss the first half hour of the parade, which I very particularly wanted to see, catching the tail end of the last fancy style costume. Sigh. I stuck it through the Giant Wench Brigades and into the comics proper. I did want to say how much better the comics are than they were when I still lived at home. It's way less half assed and inebriated, for example. It's good to see so many more PoC performers, both mixed in and doing their own clubs. A fundamental problem with the parade has always been the racism, and the more integrated the parade gets, the better it gets. I have spent my whole life longing for the day I could watch the whole damned parade without being horrified and embarrassed by the city of my origin. The one thing I miss is there used to be way more political commentary and protest in the comics, like a scaled down version of Carnivale parades in Brazil, but honestly I can see how it's a trade off and I'll take this over the unrelenting racism any day. It's good to see how many more women and girls are out there too. One of the things I truly admire about the Mummer's Parade is it's one of the very few places in our society where a woman's age and body shape count not a bit beyond the division between adult parts and children's parts that exist regardless of gender in some performances. It legitimately doesn't matter if someone is fat or thin or young or old. Seriously, where else can you truly say that in any other sort of performance?
Boy there were a lot of Elvises this year! On a related note, I'm wondering if the accidental replication of jailhouse rock themes is a reflection of the political zeitgeist. I'm betting the Blue themed police one was really blue lives matter *Sigh* I noticed hog Island (once my favorite Fancy Brigade) did bring a lot of the old school political clowning. I did particularly like the student debt one out of the few less obliquely political ones, and it was well executed too. The Lobster Club Trump one was way higher production values than old school Comics Division, but damned if it wasn't the sort of thing they would have done when I was a kid only half assed and way drunker. Comics are supposed to caricature and speak truth to power. They had a bunch of other more chaotic ones in similar more overt tone. Good for them!
They made it all the way through the Comics without doing anything horrifying. Perhaps the sensitivity training is working. I opted to nap String Bands, as they are usually the most wincingly bad, but they rebroadcast during the gap between the Parade proper and the stage performances. I had equipment trouble, but got to see most of the fancies after all on the live stream (one dubious performance in the portion I saw) and the string bands on facebook feed. They had a really good Phantom, Beauty and the Beast, the Wizard/Witch/Butterflies, Flying Dutchman, and a zombie ones, but also the usual horrifically appropriative, stereotyped, and/or racist ones. Sigh. I know why String bangs are the most unwilling to move with the times, but it's still sad and disappointing.
Oh man the Fancy Brigades were relevant to my interests this year. So many good ones: the Scotsmen, the Beauty and the beast, the space aliens, the Wonka, the marionettes, nightmare Before Christmas. I wonder if the inevitable orientalist fantasy and the appropriated Native American one (appropriating from Native Americans was also super popular in the string bands this year. Clearly there is a big gap in the sensitivity training). I wonder if either was the same people did the horrible racist African jungle one last year. Sigh.
Unfortunately, this year the feed was terrible. Seriously, I wish there was some other option than watch a parade this length poorly live streamed starting at 6AM. *shakes fist at PHL 17* I was forced to watch some of it with garbled sound on Facebook, which I hate like scabies.
* "Revolution and Spy Work Darken Trickster's Queen:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/revolution-tricksters-queen/
* "Past Looks Back from Terrier:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/past-looks-back-terrier/
* "Moments of Difference and Improvement in Bloodhound:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/moments-in-bloodhound/
* "Old favorites, outdated attitudes: Can entertainment expire?:" https://www.apnews.com/4ebd33ab2629490183763f90862e2977
* TNG: Season 7 Rewatch:
- This is a two parter. 7.4 & 5 Gambit. The crew is questioning various people of diverse species at a bar in search of Picard who seems to have been vaporized. (Of course he isn't). This is one of the better done openers I've seen so far. It starts right in the middle of the action, it uses Dian, Beverly, Riker, and Worf well, you can see the better post Roddenberry writing and the make up designs are really good instead of forehead of the week. So now Riker is in charge. He is refusing to go to the Memorial service or do the Captainy things one does to hold a crew together in his search for vengeance. Deanna rightly calls him out on his bullshit. Wait, Admiral Chakotay? Are they related? This guy looks nothing like.
Riker brutalizes the witness then leads an away team over Data's sensible suggestions. I am for real not impressed by Riker's leadership. They get attacked, then cut off by communication and transporter jamming. Mercenaries capture Riker. Data is in charge of the enterprise. They chase a mercenary ship that "disappears." Data, the only rational character, decides to investigate the planet to find out what the mercenaries wanted on the planet. Riker sasses his captors, who have a new fangled pain giver. Picard has infiltrated the mercenary ship, and argues they kill Riker, describing him as insubordinate.
The engines the Captain's been forcing past specs start to fail. Riker saves the ship, which with Picard's description of him as bad at being star fleet wins Riker an in. The Mercenaries appear to be looting artifacts. Data figures out the pattern, warns the next outpost and they go there. Picard catches Riker up on his self appointed mission to catch the looters. Picard is pretending to be a smuggler and sets Riker to make friends with the leader. Picard tries to incite the Romulan to mutiny.
The were going to destroy the Outpost, but Picard suggests they get Riker to talk their way in. The Romulan advisor seconds the plan and the leader gives in. Riker can't talk them into lowering their shields because they were warned. Picard tries a tech solution that doesn't quite work, but delays until Enterprise shows up. Riker orders them away; he offers the mercs a tech solution that he knows won't work but which tips Data off. Data has them lower their shields so it looks like Riker helped the Mercs. The Mercs fire at the Enerprise, but...
In the next episode it turns out they are just making it look like they are hitting essential systems, but really they are hitting exactly the wrong spots. Data pretends they are really damaged and lets the mercs go to help maintain Riker's cover. The Merc Captain enlists Riker to help him find out who is backing Picard's mutiny which Riker is meant to incite. Worf is wildly insubordinate publicly and Data calls him out in private. They work it out rationally which I love and are still friends.
Riker goes to pretend to befriend Picard while really filling him in on the Leader's plans. Picard reveals that an artifact is Vulcan. Picard pretends to try to start a mutiny; the Romulan confronts him about not being a smuggler and has figured out that he is a Starfleet officer who likely sent the coded message to the enterprise. She turns out to be Vulcan Security posing as a Romulan. He discloses his real identity. It turns out she thinks this is about Vulcan Isolationist Extremists. This is about ancient telepathic weapons from the time before pacifism. They agree to continue their ruse.
Data uses the message to go intercept a Klingon shuttle with a curt Captain. Worf suggests using a health and safety inspection. Data hesitates but lets it go foreward. Look at them functioning like a proper crew! It shows the conversation about the role of a security officer vs. a Second Officer has worked. Riker and Picard argue and trade accusations when the Enterprise is spotted at the rendevue. As a result, both get sent on the raiding party. The Merc Captain tells Riker to kill Picard once they get the artifact.
They are having no luck charming the Klingon and the safety inspection is not workig out, but it is at this point the raiding party beams in. Riker gets the location of the Klingon from Worf and Beverly, then shoots them. Picard grabs the artifact; he and Riker shoot at each other. Deanna pretends Riker's dead rather than stunned. He's left behind to explain it all. Picard leads the mutiny on the strength of Riker having tried to kill him on the leader's order. He switched the codes so the Merc Leader dies.
Riker learns there is no Vulcan operative undercover on the merc ship. Picard talks to her about the artifacts and their symbols. She continues the charade. He tells her Riker is meeting them at Vulcan to protect the pieces. She refuses. A lot. He's clearly worked it out. He tells her to only take one piece and they'll send the rest when they are paid. She tells them to check the coded transmission file to prove he's Starfleet. He tells them about the weapon and that she's betraying them to the Feds. Two go with to get the reward, but it's light. She uses the weapon to kill the crew and orders Picard to raise a weapon, but he won't. The feds show up and Picard orders them to drop the weapon and think peaceful thoughts, since that's the way to defeat it. The weapon doesn't work on them so she's arrested. There's a cute joke at the end.
I'm not kidding about the way better writing. Look at the intricate plotting, the better opportunities to show off the acting skills and crew dynamics.
*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.
* Trans Helplines: https://www.translifeline.org/
* Want to complaint about Betsy DeVos's plan to coddle college rapists? https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/11/29/2018-25314/nondiscrimination-on-the-basis-of-sex-in-education-programs-or-activities-receiving-federal#open-comment
* "Trump’s New Wall to Keep Out the Disabled:" https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/opinion/trumps-disability-public-charge.html
They are soliciting public comment on these draconian regulations until December 10th here: https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=USCIS-2010-0012-0001
* Donate to HIAS to help refugees: https://act.hias.org/page/6048/donate/1
* Want to contribute directly to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services fund? "Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services:" https://www.raicestexas.org/
* Support Kids at the Border: http://brigdh.tumblr.com/post/175022384240/support-the-kids-at-the-border
* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey
* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can not protest in person, here are some other options:
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
* This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/
* Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/
* This is a cool person and the swimsuits are being made from an ethical source. LGBTQIA+ swimsuits: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NerdyKeppie?ref=l2-shopheader-name§ion_id=24021616
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com or paypal.me/Gwydion
* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1925021.html
* "Meghalaya mine rescue op: Divers find wooden structures, horizontal hole. No trace of trapped miners:" https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/meghalaya-mine-rescue-op-divers-find-wooden-structures-horizontal-hole-no-trace-of-trapped-miners-1420879-2018-12-31
* "Volcano three-quarters blown away by Indonesia tsunami eruption:" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/29/volcano-was-three-quarters-blown-away-in-indonesia-tsunami-eruption
* "This Woman Only Discovered She Was Intersex After Watching A Viral Video About It:" https://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/this-woman-only-discovered-she-was-intersex-after-watching
* "For the First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works Will Enter the Public Domain:" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/first-time-20-years-copyrighted-works-enter-public-domain-180971016/
* "The Way American Parents Think About Chores Is Bizarre:" https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/12/allowance-kids-chores-help/578848/
For the record, my family went with an everyone pitches in with ordinary daily or weekly chores for free, but we got paid for certain rarer, more difficult chores. (A corner store trip for groceries was free, but a half hour bike trip to get something from the Wawa was paid. Dishes or weeding the kitchen garden? Free. Cleaning the gutters? Paid.) We had no regular allowance at all, though there were situations in which we were given money for special treats, like a carnival. We were strongly motivated to find extraordinary chores we could do, such as things that needed fixing, or the summer I cleared the over grown section of front garden with the bird bath. (It was sort of hedged off, and she stopped working it the year she was bed-ridden with a dangerous pregnancy, then recovering while trying to deal with a sickly new born all spring and summer. The next year, she hadn't time and energy to sort it out for obvious reasons, so it was let go, getting worse every Summer. After I cleared it she used half of it for a secondary kitchen garden and half for flowers and it entered her regular crop rotation system). Eventually, I got old enough for baby sitting my sister, then neighborhood kids, and doing other people's yard work. By the time my sister was that age she was literally dying and was too sick for literal years after we raised enough money to save her. At that point she could do minimum wage jobs, so she missed the baby sitting/lawn work stage. I stand by the basic structure.
* I grew up poor in the '70's. Most of our store bought toys were second hand; we had a home made toy book we did crafts out of; we also drew playsets and I drew paper dolls for my sister and her friends well into the '80's. We also did a lot of non-distructive re-purposing. "The Strange, Delightful Era When Kids Made Their Own Toys:" https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/homemade-toys-19th-20th-century-america-pictures.html
* ""Hand Me the Wine and the Dice" from the musical, "Aspects of Love":"
( Embed: )
* "Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated:"
( Embed: )
* I heard a crash and the sound of breaking glass. I saw no cats in the kitchen or my bathroom and there was no broken glass I shrugged it off, figuring I'd find it eventually. I did. At bedtime Sunday morning. It was my beloved gift Tesla lightning globe I like to play with before bed sometimes. Totally smashed and useless. You'd think I'd blame Tavy, but he stopped frequenting that bureau top when I was given the Tesla globe because he Hated and Distrusted it. No, it was clearly Livia, likely misjudging her size. I love Livia more that my lightning globe, but I rather wish I still had both. Sigh.
I managed to miss the first half hour of the parade, which I very particularly wanted to see, catching the tail end of the last fancy style costume. Sigh. I stuck it through the Giant Wench Brigades and into the comics proper. I did want to say how much better the comics are than they were when I still lived at home. It's way less half assed and inebriated, for example. It's good to see so many more PoC performers, both mixed in and doing their own clubs. A fundamental problem with the parade has always been the racism, and the more integrated the parade gets, the better it gets. I have spent my whole life longing for the day I could watch the whole damned parade without being horrified and embarrassed by the city of my origin. The one thing I miss is there used to be way more political commentary and protest in the comics, like a scaled down version of Carnivale parades in Brazil, but honestly I can see how it's a trade off and I'll take this over the unrelenting racism any day. It's good to see how many more women and girls are out there too. One of the things I truly admire about the Mummer's Parade is it's one of the very few places in our society where a woman's age and body shape count not a bit beyond the division between adult parts and children's parts that exist regardless of gender in some performances. It legitimately doesn't matter if someone is fat or thin or young or old. Seriously, where else can you truly say that in any other sort of performance?
Boy there were a lot of Elvises this year! On a related note, I'm wondering if the accidental replication of jailhouse rock themes is a reflection of the political zeitgeist. I'm betting the Blue themed police one was really blue lives matter *Sigh* I noticed hog Island (once my favorite Fancy Brigade) did bring a lot of the old school political clowning. I did particularly like the student debt one out of the few less obliquely political ones, and it was well executed too. The Lobster Club Trump one was way higher production values than old school Comics Division, but damned if it wasn't the sort of thing they would have done when I was a kid only half assed and way drunker. Comics are supposed to caricature and speak truth to power. They had a bunch of other more chaotic ones in similar more overt tone. Good for them!
They made it all the way through the Comics without doing anything horrifying. Perhaps the sensitivity training is working. I opted to nap String Bands, as they are usually the most wincingly bad, but they rebroadcast during the gap between the Parade proper and the stage performances. I had equipment trouble, but got to see most of the fancies after all on the live stream (one dubious performance in the portion I saw) and the string bands on facebook feed. They had a really good Phantom, Beauty and the Beast, the Wizard/Witch/Butterflies, Flying Dutchman, and a zombie ones, but also the usual horrifically appropriative, stereotyped, and/or racist ones. Sigh. I know why String bangs are the most unwilling to move with the times, but it's still sad and disappointing.
Oh man the Fancy Brigades were relevant to my interests this year. So many good ones: the Scotsmen, the Beauty and the beast, the space aliens, the Wonka, the marionettes, nightmare Before Christmas. I wonder if the inevitable orientalist fantasy and the appropriated Native American one (appropriating from Native Americans was also super popular in the string bands this year. Clearly there is a big gap in the sensitivity training). I wonder if either was the same people did the horrible racist African jungle one last year. Sigh.
Unfortunately, this year the feed was terrible. Seriously, I wish there was some other option than watch a parade this length poorly live streamed starting at 6AM. *shakes fist at PHL 17* I was forced to watch some of it with garbled sound on Facebook, which I hate like scabies.
* "Revolution and Spy Work Darken Trickster's Queen:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/revolution-tricksters-queen/
* "Past Looks Back from Terrier:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/past-looks-back-terrier/
* "Moments of Difference and Improvement in Bloodhound:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/moments-in-bloodhound/
* "Old favorites, outdated attitudes: Can entertainment expire?:" https://www.apnews.com/4ebd33ab2629490183763f90862e2977
* TNG: Season 7 Rewatch:
- This is a two parter. 7.4 & 5 Gambit. The crew is questioning various people of diverse species at a bar in search of Picard who seems to have been vaporized. (Of course he isn't). This is one of the better done openers I've seen so far. It starts right in the middle of the action, it uses Dian, Beverly, Riker, and Worf well, you can see the better post Roddenberry writing and the make up designs are really good instead of forehead of the week. So now Riker is in charge. He is refusing to go to the Memorial service or do the Captainy things one does to hold a crew together in his search for vengeance. Deanna rightly calls him out on his bullshit. Wait, Admiral Chakotay? Are they related? This guy looks nothing like.
Riker brutalizes the witness then leads an away team over Data's sensible suggestions. I am for real not impressed by Riker's leadership. They get attacked, then cut off by communication and transporter jamming. Mercenaries capture Riker. Data is in charge of the enterprise. They chase a mercenary ship that "disappears." Data, the only rational character, decides to investigate the planet to find out what the mercenaries wanted on the planet. Riker sasses his captors, who have a new fangled pain giver. Picard has infiltrated the mercenary ship, and argues they kill Riker, describing him as insubordinate.
The engines the Captain's been forcing past specs start to fail. Riker saves the ship, which with Picard's description of him as bad at being star fleet wins Riker an in. The Mercenaries appear to be looting artifacts. Data figures out the pattern, warns the next outpost and they go there. Picard catches Riker up on his self appointed mission to catch the looters. Picard is pretending to be a smuggler and sets Riker to make friends with the leader. Picard tries to incite the Romulan to mutiny.
The were going to destroy the Outpost, but Picard suggests they get Riker to talk their way in. The Romulan advisor seconds the plan and the leader gives in. Riker can't talk them into lowering their shields because they were warned. Picard tries a tech solution that doesn't quite work, but delays until Enterprise shows up. Riker orders them away; he offers the mercs a tech solution that he knows won't work but which tips Data off. Data has them lower their shields so it looks like Riker helped the Mercs. The Mercs fire at the Enerprise, but...
In the next episode it turns out they are just making it look like they are hitting essential systems, but really they are hitting exactly the wrong spots. Data pretends they are really damaged and lets the mercs go to help maintain Riker's cover. The Merc Captain enlists Riker to help him find out who is backing Picard's mutiny which Riker is meant to incite. Worf is wildly insubordinate publicly and Data calls him out in private. They work it out rationally which I love and are still friends.
Riker goes to pretend to befriend Picard while really filling him in on the Leader's plans. Picard reveals that an artifact is Vulcan. Picard pretends to try to start a mutiny; the Romulan confronts him about not being a smuggler and has figured out that he is a Starfleet officer who likely sent the coded message to the enterprise. She turns out to be Vulcan Security posing as a Romulan. He discloses his real identity. It turns out she thinks this is about Vulcan Isolationist Extremists. This is about ancient telepathic weapons from the time before pacifism. They agree to continue their ruse.
Data uses the message to go intercept a Klingon shuttle with a curt Captain. Worf suggests using a health and safety inspection. Data hesitates but lets it go foreward. Look at them functioning like a proper crew! It shows the conversation about the role of a security officer vs. a Second Officer has worked. Riker and Picard argue and trade accusations when the Enterprise is spotted at the rendevue. As a result, both get sent on the raiding party. The Merc Captain tells Riker to kill Picard once they get the artifact.
They are having no luck charming the Klingon and the safety inspection is not workig out, but it is at this point the raiding party beams in. Riker gets the location of the Klingon from Worf and Beverly, then shoots them. Picard grabs the artifact; he and Riker shoot at each other. Deanna pretends Riker's dead rather than stunned. He's left behind to explain it all. Picard leads the mutiny on the strength of Riker having tried to kill him on the leader's order. He switched the codes so the Merc Leader dies.
Riker learns there is no Vulcan operative undercover on the merc ship. Picard talks to her about the artifacts and their symbols. She continues the charade. He tells her Riker is meeting them at Vulcan to protect the pieces. She refuses. A lot. He's clearly worked it out. He tells her to only take one piece and they'll send the rest when they are paid. She tells them to check the coded transmission file to prove he's Starfleet. He tells them about the weapon and that she's betraying them to the Feds. Two go with to get the reward, but it's light. She uses the weapon to kill the crew and orders Picard to raise a weapon, but he won't. The feds show up and Picard orders them to drop the weapon and think peaceful thoughts, since that's the way to defeat it. The weapon doesn't work on them so she's arrested. There's a cute joke at the end.
I'm not kidding about the way better writing. Look at the intricate plotting, the better opportunities to show off the acting skills and crew dynamics.
*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.
* Trans Helplines: https://www.translifeline.org/
* Want to complaint about Betsy DeVos's plan to coddle college rapists? https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/11/29/2018-25314/nondiscrimination-on-the-basis-of-sex-in-education-programs-or-activities-receiving-federal#open-comment
* "Trump’s New Wall to Keep Out the Disabled:" https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/opinion/trumps-disability-public-charge.html
They are soliciting public comment on these draconian regulations until December 10th here: https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=USCIS-2010-0012-0001
* Donate to HIAS to help refugees: https://act.hias.org/page/6048/donate/1
* Want to contribute directly to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services fund? "Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services:" https://www.raicestexas.org/
* Support Kids at the Border: http://brigdh.tumblr.com/post/175022384240/support-the-kids-at-the-border
* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey
* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can not protest in person, here are some other options:
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
* This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/
* Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/
* This is a cool person and the swimsuits are being made from an ethical source. LGBTQIA+ swimsuits: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NerdyKeppie?ref=l2-shopheader-name§ion_id=24021616
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com or paypal.me/Gwydion
* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1925021.html