gwydion | Still Gnawing Through the Backlog

* I am massively behind on even the stuff generated in the last week. I'm going to cut this off here and post what's already on the scaffold.

* "4 people are charged with corruption in a bribery inquiry linked to Qatar:" https://www.npr.org/2022/12/12/1142171442/4-people-are-charged-with-corruption-in-a-bribery-inquiry-linked-to-qatar

* "Iran carries out second execution linked to wave of popular protests:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-carries-out-second-execution-linked-anti-government-protests-2022-12-12/

* "Iranians Hold Gatherings Outside Regime Embassies Across World:" https://www.iranintl.com/en/202212130892

* "Iran's Revolt Intensifies:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTFhAVB4R64

* "More Iranians face possible execution as authorities seek to crush continuing unrest:" https://www.npr.org/2022/12/20/1144206320/iran-executions-protests-mahsa-amini

* "Iran: ‘Bloody Friday’ Crackdown This Year’s Deadliest:" https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/12/22/iran-bloody-friday-crackdown-years-deadliest

* "Soccer Union “Sickened” After Iran Threatens to Execute Star Player:" https://www.outtraveler.com/news/2022/12/14/soccer-union-sickened-after-iran-threatens-execute-star-player

* "Bolsonaro supporters who rioted in Brasilia will face punishment, says future minister:" https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bolsonaro-supporters-who-rioted-brasilia-will-face-punishment-says-future-2022-12-13/

* This is cruel and wrong. People are going to die. "UK's Rwanda asylum seeker deportation plan is lawful, court rules:" https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-rwanda-deportation-plan-is-lawful-court-rules-2022-12-19/

* It’s almost as if creating an artificial labour shortage via Brexit after decades of choking wages and demanding workers work longer and harder in the face of deliberate under-staffing followed by a pandemic and resulting cost of living crises while offering insultingly tiny raises might somehow have consequences. "UK hit by worst month for strikes in 11 years as pay disputes escalate:" https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-faced-highest-level-strikes-october-more-than-decade-ons-2022-12-13/

* "Britain Braces For Winter Of Strike Action As Nurses Walk Out :" https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-braces-winter-strike-action-nurses-walk-out-2022-12-12/

* "UK Amazon workers at Coventry warehouse vote for strike action:" https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-amazon-workers-coventry-warehouse-vote-strike-action-union-2022-12-16/

* "Thousands of UK ambulance staff strike as public urged to avoid risks:" https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-ambulance-staff-follow-nurses-striking-over-pay-2022-12-21/

I am still angry about the Tories only giving health care workers a 1% pay raise in the worst part of the pandemic when they were overwhelmed and literally dying as a deliberate fuck you to them all.

The cost of living and heating in particular have skyrocketted in the UK. Tories are complaining that they cannot afford to pay ambulance drivers nurses, etc. a living wage.

I have to ask: Can they afford not to? Because driving people to quit isn’t going to fix NHS wait times. Asking year after year for more sacrifices from people this understaffed isn’t the solution. Actually paying people decently and reopening the borders to health care workers would be a good start to actually fixing things. So would actually funding the health service properly instead of asking for more belt tightening every year when it’s already down to the bone.

Tories are deliberately killing the NHS. They broke it. They refuse to fix it.

* "Cyril Ramaphosa re-elected as leader of South Africa's governing African National Congress:" https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/africa/cyril-ramaphosa-re-election-african-national-congress-intl/index.html

* "‘Use my correct title’: Australian MP called ‘Mr Speaker’ 18 times:" https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/australia-peter-dutton-mr-speaker-sharon-claydon-b1047777.html

* "Dutch leader apologizes for the Netherlands' role in slave trade:" https://www.npr.org/2022/12/20/1144311201/the-dutch-leader-apologizes-for-the-netherlands-role-in-slave-trade

* "Canadian man accused of killing 5 had feud with condo board:" https://www.npr.org/2022/12/19/1144076419/5-dead-and-suspect-killed-in-toronto-area-condo-shooting

* "Despite stark gender inequality in South Korea, hostility to feminism is growing:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/stark-gender-inequality-south-korea-hostility-feminism-growing-rcna59747

* "Hong Kong democracy activist wins appeal on Tiananmen vigil assembly:" https://www.reuters.com/world/china/hong-kong-democracy-activist-wins-appeal-tiananmen-vigil-assembly-2022-12-14/

* "Mourning Becomes China:" https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/12/china-zero-covid-protests-jiang-zemin-death/672423/

* "Even as China Eases Covid Rules, Some Youths Still Fear a Grim Future:" https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/10/business/china-protests-students-jobs.html

* "When ‘Spreading the Word’ About Chinese Protests Is Dangerous:"

Watch on YouTube

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* "Global estimates of excess deaths from COVID-19:" https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04138-w

* "Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Why Covid-19 Vaccines Are Still Vital:" https://advocatechannel.com/covid19-vaccines-still-vital

* "It's Time to Wear a Mask Again, Health Experts Say:" https://news.yahoo.com/time-wear-mask-again-health-193852020.html

* "White House to restart free Covid home test program:" https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/14/free-covid-home-test-program-restart-00073962

* Where to order your free tests. "COVID Home Tests:" https://special.usps.com/testkits

* "Covid-19 vaccines have saved more than 3 million lives in US, study says, but the fight isn't over:" https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/health/covid-19-vaccines-study/index.html

* Have you had your Autumn Booster yet? "Long COVID played a role in thousands of deaths: CDC:" https://abcnews.go.com/Health/3500-americans-died-long-covid-pandemic-cdc/story?id=95151647

* "Due to Surge in Respiratory Illness, Health Officials Recommend Wearing Masks Indoors:" https://www.whatcomcounty.us/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=3606
It is insane to me that I see so few people wearing masks outside of medical contexts. COVID is ressurging, this is an extra severe influenza season, and R.S.V is rampant enough that pediatric hospital beds are full up in a lot of places.

People here were so good for the longest time about masking, but it’s less than 50-50 for cashiers and most shoppers don’t bother except medically fragile people like me and the people with them. I don’t want a brand new heart condition. I don’t want to catch influenza at the best of times, but I emphatically don’t want this strain. I do not want my breath to hospitalize or kill anyone, especially a child.

How is this not everyone’s calculation?

I did notice something interesting the other night. I was on my way somewhere and wearing a mask in the hall as is my wont and I saw an elderly woman coming the other way. We met and the opening to the lobby and she stopped. I was momentarily confused, but she gestured for me to go first.

Then it dawned on me. She wasn’t wearing a mask. The opening is about five feet so we were about six feet apart. My mask marks me medically fragile, so she was social distancing.

Driving out of the lot it was like one one of those montages at the end of a mystery movie where all the clues flash past. When everyone work masks, the cock noses would aggressively crowd one in public. Last year a lot of people stopped line distancing if they had on masks.

Since the masks came off, people stopped crowding me for the most part. The people inside my distancing bubble are the people who came with me and cashiers who can’t help it.

I think I’m watching a new regional social convention evolve and it is very, very Pacific Northwest. Unobtrusive, collective politeness that no one discussed or promoted, but like 90% of people follow.

It’s like the thing in small sidestreets were parked cars render them one lane and locals take turns using it much like people take turns at stop signs.

People decided anyone wearing a mask needs protection so let’s akll quietly distance.

I love this town, I really do.

* "DeSantis targets Covid vaccine manufacturers and CDC in latest anti-vaccine moves:" https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/politics/desantis-covid-vaccine-manufacturers/index.html

* "Ron DeSantis’s Anti-Vaccine Campaign Continues Trump’s War on the Rule of Law:" https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/12/ron-desantis-covid-vaccine-probe-trump-supreme-court.html

* "Republican war on Covid science, vaccines shows in higher death rate from Covid:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/republican-war-on-covid-science-vaccines-shows-in-higher-death-rate-from-covid-157525573615

* "DeSantis doubles down on Covid paranoia; Vaccine-rejecting GOP suffers higher death rate:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/desantis-doubles-down-on-covid-paranoia-vaccine-rejecting-gop-suffers-higher-death-rate-157526085701

* "‘Pure madness’: Hayes on DeSantis demonizing public health to defeat Trump:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-pure-madness-hayes-on-desantis-demonizing-public-health-to-defeat-trump-157645381634

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* "Annotated Transcript: Zelensky’s Speech to Congress:" https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/transcript-zelensky-speech.html

* "Biden announces $3 billion Ukraine military aid package on its Independence Day:" https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-announces-3-bln-military-aid-ukraine-2022-08-24/

* I keep seeing talk about pressuring Ukraine to pause their resistance to the invasion and genocide the Russian military are inflicting on their country and i have to ask "Why?" Because Ukraine isn't the aggressor here. Them pausing just lets the invading force roll over their cities, murder more citizens, torture more children, deport more people to their reeducation camps, and destroy more infrastructure. how exactly does that help the people of Ukraine? It only helps Putin. There is no compromise with people who literally want you dead and your language and culture obliterated from the earth.

The time for diplomacy is after Russian troops have withdrawn from the whole of Ukraine, including the Crimea. Unilateral pause on Ukraine's side is asking people to lay down and die on the altar of both sidesism, when this is about as clear a case of good and evil as you get.

* "Ukraine still fears another Chernobyl-size disaster at Europe's largest nuclear plant:" https://www.npr.org/2022/12/11/1138382531/ukraine-fears-nuclear-disaster-zaporizhzhia-chernobyl-memories

* "Russia proposes 30% increase in size of armed forces:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-proposes-30-increase-size-armed-forces-2022-12-21/

* "Russia fires scores of missiles in one of its biggest attacks on Ukraine:" https://www.reuters.com/world/zelenskiys-talks-with-other-leaders-signal-diplomatic-flurry-around-ukraine-2022-12-11/

* "In an ongoing race, Ukraine tries to repair faster than Russia bombs:" https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140527715/russia-ukraine-war-ukrainian-energy-system-russian-strikes

* "Analysis: Russia's grim battle for Bakhmut may yield pyrrhic victory at best:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/grim-battle-bakhmut-may-yield-only-pyrrhic-victory-russia-2022-12-20/

* "An elite Russian military brigade was basically 'wiped out,' taking so many losses in Ukraine that it will 'take years to rebuild,' report says:" https://www.businessinsider.com/elite-russian-brigade-basically-wiped-out-in-ukraine-losses-report-2022-12

* "Ukrainians leaving Bakhmut describe constant shelling, fear and cold:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainians-leaving-bakhmut-describe-constant-shelling-fear-cold-2022-12-13/

* "Ukrainian forces shell Russian-controlled Donetsk, officials say:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-forces-shell-russian-controlled-donetsk-officials-say-2022-12-15/

* "Free for a month, Kherson still toils to clear Russian traps:" https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/11/kherson-ukraine-russian-traps-00073373

* "Russians mistreated Kherson youngsters in 'children's cell,' says Ukraine official:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russians-mistreated-kherson-youngsters-childrens-cell-says-ukraine-official-2022-12-14/

* "Russian nationals fighting for Ukraine vow to resist Moscow's forces 'until the end:" https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/05/europe/russians-fighting-for-ukraine-intl-cmd/index.html

* "Russian refuseniks continue to rebel: hundreds jailed for defying orders:" https://www.newsweek.com/russian-soldiers-refuse-fight-ukraine-war-detained-1764556

* "The supply chain that keeps tech flowing to Russia:" https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-crisis-russia-tech-middlemen/

* "N.H. Man and 6 Others Indicted for Alleged Involvement in Russian Smuggling Ring:" https://people.com/politics/alexey-brayman-6-others-indicted-for-alleged-involvement-in-russian-smuggling-ring/

* "Feds allege Etsy shop used as front for smuggling sanctioned weapons parts to Russia:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/feds-allege-etsy-shop-used-as-front-for-smuggling-sanctioned-weapons-parts-to-russia-157678149580

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* "Russians find asylum lifeline to US, but at a high price:" https://apnews.com/article/business-mexico-us-customs-and-border-protection-63ae1f08f2af3661b2de1d590d750218

* "Libyan accused in Lockerbie bombing appears in US court:" https://apnews.com/article/libya-us-department-of-justice-federal-bureau-investigation-government-and-politics-b25a6ef2307886784d659f270cfcd348

* "FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in the Bahamas after U.S. files criminal charges:" https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/12/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-arrested-in-the-bahamas-after-us-files-criminal-charges.html

* "Joe Biden's powerful warning to bigots as he signs same-sex marriage bill:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2022/12/14/respect-for-marriage-act-joe-biden-signs/

* "Karine Jean-Pierre Reflects on Historic Marriage Act Signing:" https://www.advocate.com/news/2022/12/13/karine-jean-pierre-reflects-historic-marriage-act-signing

* "Marriage Bill a Win, But Work Not Done: HRC President Says:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/2022/12/13/marriage-bill-win-work-not-done-hrc-president-says

* "Keisha Lance Bottoms: Biden will work with anyone who wants to work with him:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-sunday-show/watch/keisha-lance-bottoms-biden-will-work-with-anyone-who-wants-to-work-with-him-158109765754

* CW: Suicide "Biden Pushes Funding for LGBTQ+ Mental Health Services:" https://www.hivplusmag.com/news/2022/12/14/biden-pushes-funding-lgbtq-mental-health-services

* "US department of education investigates schools removing LGBTQ+ books:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2022/12/21/us-department-of-education-investigate-texas-school-district/

* "Elections, LGBTQ rights and student loans all at the Supreme Court:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-sunday-show/watch/elections-lgbtq-rights-and-student-loans-all-at-the-supreme-court-157100101769

* "The Supreme Court Case that Could Undermine Elections Forever:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Congress votes to remove a bust of the Dred Scott decision's author from the Capitol:" https://www.npr.org/2022/12/15/1143113389/capitol-remove-roger-taney-dred-scott-statue

* "Congress to remove Dred Scott justice's bust and replace with Thurgood Marshall:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/congress-to-remove-dred-scott-justice-s-bust-and-replace-with-thurgood-marshall-157962821720

* "TurboTax's “Free” Services Got Them Sued:"

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

* "Title 42 to remain in place for now as Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily freezes order meant to end it:" https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/politics/title-42-supreme-court-gop-states/index.html

* "Title 42 set to end December 21st:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-sunday-show/watch/title-42-set-to-end-december-21st-158109253568

* CW: Sexual Assault. I do not understand how violating abuse survivors by forceably inspecting their genetals is helpful to the survivors. "J.K. Rowling Funds Sex Abuse Crisis Center That Excludes Trans Women:" https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2022/12/14/jk-rowling-funds-sex-abuse-crisis-center-excludes-trans-women

* "JK Rowling celebrates pitiful anti-trans Christmas campaign 'Merry Terfmas':" https://www.thepinknews.com/2022/12/19/what-does-merry-terfmas-mean-jk-rowling-trans/

* "JK Rowling targets trans journalist who suggested boycott of Harry Potter game:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2022/12/19/jk-rowling-jessie-earl-hogwarts-legacy-boycott/

* "So JK Rowling Tweeted About Me...:"

Watch on YouTube

* My blood just ran cold in my veins. This is how genocides start. "Texas attorney general’s office sought state data on transgender Texans:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/14/texas-transgender-data-paxton/

* "Office of TX AG Reportedly Sought Data on Trans Residents:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-sunday-show/watch/office-of-tx-ag-reportedly-sought-data-on-trans-residents-158109253719

* "'They’re Watching Us’: Inside the Company Surveilling Millions of Students:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Armed Protesters Meet Outside Drag Show in Texas:" https://www.advocate.com/news/2022/12/14/armed-protesters-meet-outside-drag-show-texas

* "Definition of ‘Team’ updated to reflect gender diversity across the Podium Pathway:" https://skatecanada.ca/2022/12/definition-of-team-updated-to-reflect-gender-diversity-across-the-podium-pathway/

* "Pink-Washing Breast Cancer One Scam at a Time:"

Watch on YouTube

* "‘We are in trouble’: Study raises alarm about impacts of long covid:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/10/12/long-covid-study-scotland/

* "What Doctors Still Don’t Understand About Long COVID:" https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/long-post-covid-symptoms-mild-cases/670469/

* "Long COVID Has Forced a Reckoning for One of Medicine’s Most Neglected Diseases:" https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/09/mecfs-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-doctors-long-covid/671518/

* "Pregnancy complications spiked during the pandemic. No one knows exactly why.:" https://news.yahoo.com/pregnancy-complications-spiked-during-pandemic-173203182.html

* "Visualized: The Global Syringe Shortage Threatening Vaccine Efforts:" https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/visualized-the-global-syringe-shortage-threatening-vaccine-efforts/

* "Live Brain Cells Playing Pong in a Dish Could Illuminate Mind's Mechanics:" https://www.cnet.com/science/brain-cells-playing-pong-in-a-dish-could-teach-about-minds-mechanics/

* Ergot is no joke. If the dose is high or intake is protracted there is risk or serious disability or death. Datura is one of those substances where it is incredibly easy to die because the difference between lethal and non lethal is tiny and it's nearly impossible to guestimate where the line is. I hope that no one fed this to children, because the chance of really bad things happenings skyrockets the younger and smaller the person injecting is. "Tainted Baby Spinach Is Causing People To Hallucinate In Australia:" https://www.iflscience.com/tainted-baby-spinach-is-causing-people-to-hallucinate-in-australia-66695

* "Toxic Spinach Causes Hallucinations, Sickness to Over 100 People Across Australia:" https://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/54667/20221220/toxic-spinach-causes-hallucinations-sickness-over-100-people-australia.htm

* "The FDA has officially declared a shortage of Adderall:" https://www.npr.org/2022/10/14/1129000615/the-fda-declares-a-shortage-of-adderall

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* "Democratic Republic of the Congo – Over 120 Dead After Floods in Kinshasa:" https://floodlist.com/africa/dr-congo-floods-kinshasa-december-2022

* "Malaysia – 16 Dead, 17 Missing After Landslide in Selangor:" https://floodlist.com/asia/malaysia-landslide-batangkali-selangor-december-2022

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* "'Apocalyptic' fire rips through French apartment block, killing 10:" https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/16/europe/france-lyon-apartment-fire-intl-hnk/index.html

* "Crowd crush at London concert leaves 1 dead, 2 critically injured:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/18/london-crush-asake-concert-brixton-afrobeats/

* "Keystone Pipeline Kansas leak is latest in series of accidents since 2010:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/keystone-pipeline-kansas-leak-latest-series-accidents-2010/story?id=95151770

* "Another Keystone Pipeline oil leak proves activist opponents correct:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/another-keystone-pipeline-oil-leak-proves-activist-opponents-correct-157347909690

* "California reduces rooftop solar incentive it says favored the rich:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/california-vote-hotly-debated-change-rooftop-solar-policy-2022-12-15/

* "3M to end 'forever chemicals' output at cost of up to $2.3 bln:" https://www.reuters.com/business/3m-stop-making-forever-chemicals-take-up-23-bln-charge-2022-12-20/

* "US scientists reach long-awaited nuclear fusion breakthrough, source says:" https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/politics/nuclear-fusion-energy-us-scientists-climate/index.html

* "Energy Secretary on America’s ‘huge scientific breakthrough’ on nuclear fusion:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/energy-secretary-on-america-s-huge-scientific-breakthrough-on-nuclear-fusion-157513285586

I remember the big fusion hoax of my late teens and smaller ones since. At some point, I stopped expecting real progress at all.

I’m cautiously optimistic here, given the source, etc., though I'll be happier when it all passes peer review.

So fingers crossed and lets keep funding science and technology, okay? We need them no matter what Republicans say. This is part of investing in the future.

* This explains Fusion in an easy to understand format and expresses an informed skepticism: https://magnesiumflare.tumblr.com/post/704038384728965120/ardatli-random2908-random2908-looks-like

* "A New Way to Achieve Nuclear Fusion: Helion:"

Watch on YouTube

* "China bans AI-generated media without watermarks:" https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/12/china-bans-ai-generated-media-without-watermarks/

* CW: Animal Death, Animal Abuse. "The Dodo is Not What You Think:"

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* "Dark Water Journey:" https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/nov18/dark-water-journey-chumash-tomol-crossing.html

* "The Most Dangerous Toys of All Time:"

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* "Lesbian, Bisexual Scientists Receive Nobel Prizes:" https://www.advocate.com/world/2022/12/12/lesbian-bisexual-scientists-receive-nobel-prizes

* "Kevin AYMOZ FS Warsow Cup 2022:"

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* "DeSantis Goes Full Vaccine Conspiracy Mode | Musk No Longer On Top | Rubio's Push To Ban TikTok:"

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* "A Great Day For Love! Biden Signs Respect For Marriage Act | GOP Traitors Wanted “Marshall Law”:"

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* "Welcome Back, Orion! | Marjorie Taylor Greene Would Have Armed Jan 6 Rioters | Germany’s Fun Coup:"

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* "Mari Lwyd: WELSH SKULL HORSE GHOST THING:"

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* "Best Of Queer Media 2022:"

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* CW: Drugs "Dad Keep Waking You Up At 4:30AM? You Need Toddler Coffee:"

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* "It’s O.K. To Stand Up To The Never Kevin Movement:"

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* "Trump NFT Cold Open - SNL:"

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* "A Christmas Epiphany - SNL:"

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* "Weekend Update: Krampus on Kidnapping Naughty Children - SNL:"

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* The last couple years the AS is more aggressive than it's ever been. It's why I have a caregiver now. Right now, it's just incredibly bad from a pain an mobility and gambling if a limb is going to work perspective.

I'm not recovering properly between treatments either and this too is way upping the challenge level. One needs air to accomplish things And I'm now at July levels entering wildfire season. I'm going to have to have a talk with them because it's escalating so fast and i think not sustainable.

I had a really scary time getting dressed and out front for the Pharmacy delivery guy. nothing was bending and nothing wanted to take my weight. Normally I pre-dress in these situations, but I was still so exhausted and coughing up chunks from Monday treatment, that it simply didn't happen. It is amazing I didn't seriously damage myself.

So I manage to get my gear off (not much easier than on), Livia waiting impatiently for her pet, and just get everything propped properly and Livia situated when the phone rings again. it was a pollster, and I have a policy of answering as long as there isn't a pressing need not to. This one was incredibly long, and I bet there completion rate is tiny. Don’t worry, Livia knows phone calls mean bed pets and she didn’t even stir when I answered. This was the first and longest of four bed pets for her today as the cats were taking turns.

Y'all know I am connoisseur of polls and this one was fascinating. I love trying to work out who commissioned these things and why. It started out like a normal political poll, but soon went a whole different direction. My theory is I was looking at a poll by some firm involved in advertising or rebranding for corporations. It dawned on me fairly early on that the structure was the one I've only ever seen a couple of times, both instances during the massive 2020 Democratic Primary, and I'm wondering if it was the same polling firm. It wanted to know my opinions on a bunch of things related to the image and labour practices of Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, some Seattle Sports franchises, and Starbucks.

There were a bunch of Seattle specific questions, actually, which was really stood out since I don't live there and no longer can make the trip given finances and the age and fragility of my car. (I love Amtrak. It's just way too expensive. I no longer trust my car in the mountain passes or for long drives). It also asked a lot of questions about what ads and news items I'd seen about them, with a lot of open ended questions. It wanted to know if I watched or read certain news sources and if I read political stuff on certain social media sources. Political questions were sprinkled here and there throughout and there was a long demographics section at the end which weirdly gave no fucks about my age. They usually sort these things by age, race, and political affiliation, and occasionally things like profession or income, etc.. The not asking about age really stood out, because it's not usually optional even in an automated 3-5 political question quickie.

Like the two massive political polls with this structure from the Primaries, there was a "randomly selected" pull out section. I remember doing these for Corey Booker, then later Kamala Harris. Maybe they really are random, or there's an algorithm picking the one most likely to yield interesting results. I was glad I got Amazon and not Facebook, because I am well Informed about Amazon's labour practices and I am Big Angry about them. Who knows, maybe if the stuff's negative enough, they might decide they need to make some actual changes here and there instead of sticking to lip service PR bullshit. Not big changes like are actually needed, but something.

I couldn't quite work out if this section was a push poll or akin to the ones I get for candidates and ballot measures where it's clearly a campaign trying toi test market assorted policies and messaging to maker their ads more effective. This would also fit with the questions about media consumption. I'm willing to bet they will be designing targeted ads for places like FOX and Facebook and CNN and Washington Post and wall street journal and new York Times trying to hit particular groups with particular concerns. (In the last week have you read anything in the new York Times? Me: No, they were having a strike. There were a bunch of others, that's off the top of my head.). My theory is the Seattle specific stuff fits with this too. Maybe they wanted to know about sports franchise consumption and whether I go to Seafair and assorted arts venues for advertising reasons as well and not in and of themselves. The Seattle stuff came right after the corporations and right before news stuff. Anyway, that's my best guess.

I love things like this, weird little puzzles my historian brain mulls before sleep. I also like things such as watching a bunch of adaptions of a book i never read to try to puzzle out which parts are original to the story and which are embellishments and which are interpretations. Sure I could read the book, but where is the fun in that, especially since I do this for books I didn't want to read in the first place. This is also part of the fun of Tumblr for me, guessing the actual content of a TV Show or Movie or book I never watched or read come across my dash and try to reconstruct it from the modern equivalent of traces in the archeological record, random pottery, and fragmentary papyri found down an ancient loo in the ruins of a city on the Nile. Enrichment in the cage of an ex-academic, basically.

Brains are weird. I love them.

* Part of the problem Tuesday was that on top of my body barely working, someone (probably Livia) blerped on me in my sleep. It was not her fault. we had cat grass die back and I'd meant to give her the medicine finger the night before when I dosed Tavy, but she moved between me spotting them correctly positioned and prepping the meds, and there is zero chance of me catching her once she's on the ground. She doesn't like being approached on the floor and allows me and only me to touch her in two specific floor areas and I have to be sitting before she'll approach. To successfully dose an animal that can smell the medicine if the apartment air currents are wrong who is nearly 18 pounds of mostly muscle with extremely sharp claws who is very good at eeling away, I need to catch her when she's mellow or distracted, stationary, in arms reach of somewhere I can approach from the right angle so as not to tip her off. she is very good at spotting anything even slightly off in manner of movement. I'd missed my window, so I just dosed Tavy, who is small and fast and also bright, but is also a Tiny Terror instead of a kaiju kitty, and if I position myself right, I can generally pin him one handed even if he twigs. With Livia, the two of us can barely dose her together and I will get clawed to hell and can barely hold her even when my arms are working. Also, she is generally too scared to sleep where she's been dosed for a month or so, so I try to be considerate about where I zap her, lest she lose a nap spot that would cause her extreme distress.

So I wake up with my arm and blanket befowled. There is nothing for it but laundry and a bath. I bundle the mess and painfully lever myself up and immediately spot more blerp. Which I will need to clean. I am still having a dangerous time just trying to stand and shuffle about without falling because that's how bad my AS situation is. It can't be help. I drop off the blanket and go to turn on lights so I can see properly and step in a large puddle. I am pretty sure at this point it's Livia be cause she got up several times during bed pets then came back in a couple of minutes more than once. Once is rare, because it's only a litter emergency that usually causes that, but the pets involved were far enough apart that I slept and Tavy had had cuddles in between. Livia is super skilled at stealth blerps. I can't prove it's not Tavy, but again, medicated the night before and famously dramatic.

So now I'm trying to get to the bathroom to wash my whole foot so I don't track it everywhere. I am shaking all over from pain and effort, which does not help with the cleaning and laundry, etc., but the only way out is through. I do eventually get Livia medicated and get the mess sorted. I do get my bath. ...And I find a spot where she hid more on the way back to bed.

I'd fucked up my body so badly by pushing it that hard when it was that damaged and my lungs weren't really working that I was out of non sleep and bed rest choices.

I did make it out to do this and feed myself and things later. I did move things over to dry and start a second load before I left for the Doctor, because she'd gotten a support pillow two and some other things. I did manage to make it to the Doctor's Wednesday after. I explained how bad my lungs were to the nurse and how closely it tracked with treatments. she didn't believe me because "but the dose is so low." Me: I am extremely allergic to perennial rye, and if it were an infection, I wouldn't goop up a couple of hours after treatment, be horrible the next day and then get noticeably better the morning after every time. I also remember this happening the first time we did this in Oregon and when we reformulated when I moved up here. It wasn't as extreme, but they had to go way slower with treatments than normal and I'm way frailer now with all the extra lung scarring from the intervening years.

So she gave in and has decided to let the Doctor sort it out even though she doesn't believe me. I get until Monday to recover instead of sending all Thursday in hell and then still being vaguely crap Friday even if my lungs are much clearer.

It's just as well, we had the errands we didn't get to last week and we had a lot to do here including a third load of laundry and all the associated drying and putting away. we also finished Gothmas Phase four, which was mostly Techie Millennial, while I did sitting down tasks and head Millennial did the usual things. We hung out and had dinner and the whole thing was excellent. However, I didn't get home from dropping Millennial of until 11:30ish. At least my legs are a bit better though I periodically have to catch myself from falling.

I am way behind on all the things here instead of catching up as I'd hoped, and I'm just so worn out.

* Monday, I only had a few hours sleep and then I had to go out in the SNOW with people who forgot how to drive to spend all afternoon doing medical things. We have sorted out my lung/allergy stuff in the way they solved the same problem the last two times, which is what I suspected would happen. we're going to have to watch my lungs closer and go waaaay slower. I will get a week to recover between shots and no scale up once allergy season starts.

The receptionist I mostly deal with realized mid phone call to the Doctor that she had no idea what gender/pronouns were mine, so when she got off the phone, she apologized and asked and apologized some more. It was very sweet. Then later, after I redid my entire appointment schedule with the other one, she came back out to the waiting room to apologize and check pronouns, I think because the other one tipped her off. She had not used any pronouns in front of me, so I think she referenced me to the other one who corrected her and she was horrified she might have messed up. It was very sweet, very Millennial. The nice lung tech guy also checked pronunciation of "Gwydion" and pronouns automatically. They were all so nice. It was moving.

For the tests it was more accurate if I stood and the tech kept being all "Are you sure you are up to continuing. Me: It's just pain. I'm okay, I can continue. This distressed the poor man, because he was hurting me. I think of pain as a price I have to do pay to do anything. I forget normal people don't think like that.

Because of snow and ice, I won't be leaving the house again for anything non-emergency for a while. Head Millennial came on the BUS to feed me and do dishes because head Millennial is a trooper. Seriously, I think I would have burst into tears if I had to cook, Instead I took one of the good pain meds and had Protein. Livia came out to lounge on the sofa while head Millennial was cooking for me. Brave, brave girl!

Our Solstice Gathering got cancelled, which was good because the snow came in the night and it's really hard to get around even for able bodied people. We are trying to work out if there will be a party between Christmas and New Years, or one after New Years. We'll see.

* Gothmas Phase IV: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/704131567852863488/head-millennial-painted-those-gnomes-themself

* "The 'Chanukah House' Returns with Familiar and Fresh Faces, Decorations and Themes:" https://jmoreliving.com/2022/12/06/the-chanukah-house-returns-with-familiar-and-fresh-faces-decorations-and-themes/

* "Sunday Sweets GOES SHOPPING!:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2022/11/27/sunday-sweets-goes-shopping

*

I have a lot of complicated feelings about Cyrano, both the historical figure and the character in the play by Rostand. It is such a wild thing that Rostand turned the very likely gay man, a Poet, Duelist, soldier, misogynist, and one of the fist science fiction authors (by some definition thereof. It's complicated); into one of the great heterosexual lovers in literature. It is a strange alchemy that turns a man's complete lack of interest in women into a grand secret unrequited love.

I fell in love with the play as a tween, before I knew Cyrano was a real person. I fell in love with the writing the characters, the theme. There are things in there that contributed to my survival. Honor and panache were life and death to me for a while when I fought my own grim little war to keep self intact. The words matter and it is a play where words are pretty fucking central to the design of the play and it’s themes. I carried those words in my heart and forged them into armour, a piece of my identity.

Later I'd see it from other angles. The first time I saw it in French a whole other room of meaning opened up. Roxanne is a précieuse! I've course she is, but translation obscured it. There were women's salons dedicated to poetry and intellectual pursuits and Roxanne is at the heart of it. No wonder she fell in love with words. Précieuses were feminist before the term was invented, and this too lies at the heart of things for me.

Which of course led me to seeing it all through her eyes, the way the men who claim to love her are lying to her and making decisions for her and fundamentally Wasting Her Time. Decades of it, with their bullshit. Honesty instead of illusion and paternalism, would have put the power of informed choice in her hands. Maybe she'd have picked Cyrano; maybe she'd have told them both to fuck off. Instead the men chose sacrifice for all three of them out of pride, lack of self esteem, cultural programming, and a fundamental love of narrative and poetry.

The character Cyrano writes himself into a story in which he and thus all three of them can only be losers. What did he really think the end game was going to look here after they tricked her into marrying Christian exactly? They knew what happened when Christian was left alone with her last time. No once did they think about how she'd feel when she woke up next to a husband who couldn't talk to her or keep up with her intellectually, which is what she made clear over and over she wanted.

There is no happy ending once the lying starts. There is no happy ending once the men chose narrative over reality, and that matters.

There is no such thing as a perfect translation as anyone who's translated anything can tell you. There is no one to one correspondence between words in even closely related languages. Grammar can create it's own ambiguities as anyone who'd tried to translate Greek philosophy into English can tell you, likely in hours long rants with examples. Translation tends to strip away essential context, like English translations turning "précieuse" into a simple jewel metaphor without whole books worth of cultural and historical meaning behind it.

All the issues with translation are geometrically worse if you are trying to translate poetry, because poetry is so incredibly intertwined with it's source language. Ancient Greek poetry is meter based, sure, but it's also a language where changes in pitch are part of the beauty. It's somewhere between chanting and singing and that's lost when you translate it. Latin poetry is also meter dependent, but uses its grammatical particulars for effect as well as sometimes basically creating sound effects by the way the words and meter interact. That is lost when you translate it. So are the alliterative effects in things like Beowulf. Shakespeare is written in meter and the plays periodically use that to convey meaning, like when Romeo and Juliet are making a poem in the balcony scene by finishing each other's lines and couplets.

Anyone translating Rostand has to wrestle with trying to convey the inherent poetry. It is a play about poets saying poetry at each other on it's surface. How do you make that poetry work in English without sounding stilted, without losing the essence? The translation task is itself a complicated puzzle with no right answer.

Now try to translate that to the screen, where you are not just dealing with translation, but adaptation. While there are examples here or there with taking a play and putting it on screen that work, for the most part just filming a play isn't going to make a good movie. The dynamic of live performance is lost and theater acting is very different from the sort of acting you get on film, where close ups and cuts within scenes and between scenes change so much. People have written books on this too.

In general, a play needs to me adapted to some extent to screen. Locations, blocking, camera angles, acting style, etc. all need adjusting. Will things need to be cut or added? What time period are you setting the play in? (Ex: The time the play was written in, the time it took place in if different, the current era, or some other when in between.)

This sort of thing comes up a lot in Shakespeare adaptions, but you can also see it in things like “Roxanne,” which applies to the discussion here. They had to do some pretty serious rewrites to make a play from the end of the 19th century about a man who died in the middle of the 17th century make any kind of sense in a 1980's setting. Massive sections are gone, taking their meanings and themes with them. The Rostand's a complex play with a lot going on thematically. I never cared much for the movie Roxanne. Other people loved it. It's a matter of taste. So many of the things that still speak to me were gone.

The adaptation of musicals in the 1970's or so on is also notoriously tricky. Is the music diegetic within the world of the musical or not? What level of realism vs. stylization to we want here? Generally the more successful adaptations lean all the way in on the musical format and don't try to lampshade it at all, or they do what "Chicago" did and go all in on the musical numbers, but inter cut bits of reality. The directors who are squeamish about making a musical tend to make tepid messes at best and complete botches at worst.

I've never seen the stage musical of Cyrano and literally didn't know that was a Thing until the Peter Dinklage came out. I desperately wanted to see it in the theater, but given the givens, it was impossible. I only just got a chance to see it. I have thoughts.

I knew there would need to be serious rewriting even before I knew I was looking at a musical, because of the casting. I knew they were going to have to completely redo the duel in verse, which is one of the more famous bits, so I was braced for that. It was different, but it came within a hair's breath of working, and I think it pointed out how the musical aspect as a whole could have worked: They could have leaned right the fuck in one the verse format.

No really.

Yes, Hamilton is a whole complicated issue for a host of reasons, and doing Cyrano mostly in that style might have read as derivative, but the thing it, it would have been really fucking interesting instead of a mostly bland exercise for the bulk of the musical aspects. (I will talk about the other song that mostly worked and the one that hit hard and perfectly later). The duel had real edge to it. Dinklage made it dark in a really exciting way. The transition from the language of the play actor on stage, to Cyrano's poetic verbal attack to the semi-rap approach to the duel song made sense after the initial shock. It worked. It fit thematically, and honestly, the vocal style which made use of Dinklage's first rate acting skills in stead of forcing him to try to match singing skills with his co-stars was a good choice. (his voice is certainly better than mine, but not on the level of the people playing Roxanne and Christian). It lost entirely the words and thus details of the duel in verse, of course. You don't get the sword as dance in time with the poem describing the fight down to the touches just before he delivers them, but you do get an interesting new take on Cyrano's character. The problem is that they didn't lean in quite hard enough. They didn't go whole hog, and you really, really need to do that to sell this both as a rewrite and a musical.

I was wildly disappointed to discover this was the only time the movie would do this. They picked bland conventional songs for most of the rest of the film and couldn't really decide how realistic vs. stylized they wanted to be. There were hints of homo-eroticism, which they decided not to play up. They could have, since they were rewriting so extensively given us a bisexual demisexual Cyrano and I would have lapped that right up. I’m not a purist and it would have been a call back to the historical figure the character is loosely based on without breaking the core plot. Instead it’s just hints in the way some of the dancers are choreographed and shot.

They occasionally went full stylized dance number early on and if they'd been bold enough they could have leaned hard into that only to strip it away when the external reality gets increasingly darker in the later sections. Maybe that was what they were trying to do, given the way they handled things once the men go off to war, but the timidity of the musical sections up until then, made it hard to tell what was deliberate and what wasn't in the design. If they'd gone all out, the whole thing would have been crisper and hit harder.

I legitimately loved the way the scene between Roxanne and Cyrano went, even though some context got lost. They acting was first rate, and the denouement was properly gutting. Seriously, Dinklage's face acting is so good here it literally hurt. As it should. Roxanne's character is properly conveyed by both acting and text. Alas, this is about as good as it's going to get for Roxanne. By cutting down her role a bit they flattened her in the later sections, making her all take and no give, losing her playfulness, and perhaps her own panache (a word never spoken in this adaptation anywhere). None of this is the actress's fault.

It's a long, complicated play in the original and they cut out so much to make way for the bland musical number. Taking a chunk of Roxanne's personality out as well as a lot of what made this play matter to me as a kid on the men's side particularly when it came to honor and panache. Like the movie "Roxanne" in 1987, they ripped out Cyrano's honor and panache along with most of the things that made Christian appealing in the later bits besides his face. Basically, you lose one of the major themes of the play when you streamline this down to mostly just the love story. You lose the richness of the three main characters and a lot of context. You get a bunch of songs I've already forgotten a couple hours after watching them in exchange.

The song in the middlish that kind of worked for me was the "I want More" Roxanne song. It didn't fit so well stylistically with the rest of the film particularly, but it showed off the actress' voice and worked with the plot and the salon section. The non-sung salon section is one of the few places Roxanne's character isn't chopped to bits. The bit before the one on one with Christian shows her reading her own poetry and in her element. The argument with Christian fits the Rostand reasonably well. The problem is between the stylistic shift and the ways the back half of this adaptation are written just make this song loud character-wise in ways maybe it shouldn't be. It emphasizes some things in a way that overshadows the more playful bits of her character.

The balcony scene is supposed to be a challenging exchange, revelatory of character, and also a playful game with words rather like the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet mentioned above. It's playing with the three main characters and in it's way deconstructing the Shakespeare version. The Rostand balcony scene is playing with truth and lies. It means entirely different things to all three characters because of the lies at it's heart. It is a test and a game and a heart rending thing all at once. The acting worked beautifully in the Cyrano version, and most of that complexity was there, but i think the song Roxanne had sung after the previous one on one with Christian unbalanced it somehow. It's hard to explain. It just... subtly suffered from the way this got adapted, and again I don't blame the actors or the staging or the way this was shot. It's a more fundamental problem with the unity of the piece as a whole. So many good components, but sewed together wrong.

The war section worked on it's own terms. It really did. This is the part of the play where the illusions and reality mingle in all sorts of messy ways, and a bunch of complicated things come out in the characterizations if done well. The movie went hard realism with it for the most part. The "Wherever I fall song" was legitimately the most memorable thing in here musically. The whole sequence was very "Empty chairs at Empty Tables" in the best way. Seriously, I was into it. The acting kicked ass, it was beautifully shot, the music matched the tone. Taken as a whole as it's own thing it worked.

I just missed... well the rest of it, which no longer fits with what they were doing with this adaption. I get that it doesn't work anymore with what they are trying to do artistically, it just... This is one of the things that meant everything to that tween who read it the first time, to the teen who read it countless times, to the twenty something in love with a man who felt the same way about honor and panache, to the me who watches a version of this thing or rereads the play every few years who wants the full complexity of it all. The streamlined version lets that go. I absolutely get the why of it; I'm still going to be sad about not getting to see Dinklage perform some of the best speeches from the play, because when I'd heard they'd cast him, I wanted to see that so bad I could taste it. Ah well.

Is this terrible? Fuck no. Seriously, I'll likely watch this again and just fast forward over the bits that don't work. It is heartbreaking that one of Dinklege's best performances is embedded in something so uneven. There are so many legitimately good scenes and sections in there. I just which they'd added up to a whole that worked. I wish there'd been a bolder approach to making it a musical or that they'd ditched all or most of the songs entirely. One or the other would be fine. With musicals you have to go big or go home. You really have to commit. It felt like everybody committed except the people doing the script and the director. When the movie leans in to what it's doing, it works. When it doesn't? Eh.

And that broke my heart a little, because I could see what it might have been.

* I found this super helpful in clarifying things after I finished reading Nona the Ninth. "Presenting, the Complete Locked Tomb Timeline:" https://darkveracity.tumblr.com/post/638331299048849408/presenting-the-complete-locked-tomb-timeline

* Spoilers for the Locked Tomb: "Space Prison! In Space!:" https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/703440060901621760

* Spoilers: Our flag Means Death. "The Art of Buggery:" https://brigdh.tumblr.com/post/703474525265952768/strap-in-my-very-dears-were-getting-cheeky

* "Izzy Hands Reviews Important Works of Ar:" https://archiveofourown.org/works/43241397

* NWS. The Dragon and St. George: https://somanystories-solittletime.tumblr.com/post/703903696092790784

* CW: Sexual Assault. "Midnight Pals: A Place for Women:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/703470215563018240/midnight-pals-a-place-for-women

* "Midnight Pals: The Invention of Dogs:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/703923465220145152/midnight-pals-the-invention-of-dogs

* "Midnight Pals: Hufflepuff Socks:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/703994258094489600/midnight-pals-hufflepuff-socks

* "Midnight Pals: Terfsmas Feast:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/704185132353028096/midnight-pals-terfsmas-feast

* "Humanity has finally reached the stars and found out why no one had contacted us. The universe is in a sad state. As such, Doctors without Borders, Red Cross, and many othe charities go intergalactic.:" https://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/704268608686178304

*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* Where to order your free tests. "COVID Home Tests:" https://special.usps.com/testkits

* "How to Help Those Affected by the Club Q Tragedy:" https://www.advocate.com/news/2022/11/22/how-help-those-affected-club-q-tragedy

* "Club Q victims face 'astronomical' hospital bills. Here's how you can help:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/11/23/colorado-springs-shooting-lgbtq-club-q-how-to-help-fundraiser/

* List of educational, diverse, and/or long term playable toys for things like Toys for Tots. High value toys for 20 dollars or less.: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/44WV8EVUP1Y

* On SCOTUS possibly repealing the act that prevents white people from stealing native babies, robbing them of their culture. contains how to help links at bottom: https://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/701035342837547008

* Tiny hand knit stocking earrings made by a good friend: https://forestgirlclothing.com/collections/autumn-winter-collection/products/fairy-stocking-earrings?fbclid=IwAR0EjmUHcdv_cQOwQt4tRAouQRVtZfhSMdQDtoazj5mIKgK6cOiVCvUFU2A

* If you would like to help support me and the Cats: paypal.me/Gwydion

* How to donate to Doctors Without Borders: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/onetime.cfm?source=ADD200U0U00&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=googlepaid&utm_content=brand&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz8D9kYu46QIVqh6tBh2WogxQEAAYASAAEgK4FfD_BwE

* "The Rainbow Railroad:" https://www.rainbowrailroad.org/take-action

* "These Organizations Accept Donations To Help People in Ukraine:" https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/03/01/where-to-donate-help-ukraine/

* "Russia-Ukraine War: Info and ways to help:" https://ukrainewar.carrd.co/

* "This is where you can donate to support LGBT+ Ukrainians:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/02/25/donate-support-lgbt-ukraine/

* "Support OVD-Info:" https://beste-glatisant.tumblr.com/post/677388506851606528/hi-ive-donated-to-the-ukranian-refugees-and-now

* "War in Ukraine! Support LGBTQ people.:" https://secure.wayforpay.com/payment/s047412e502b6

* What to help fight for queer people in Africa? Try the Initiative Sankofa D’Afrique de l’Ouest www.ISDAO.org

* Want to support abortion in Poland?: https://tuulikki.tumblr.com/post/688438251039621120

* How to Support the Women's Reproduction Protection Act: https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/684465183144476672/womens-health-protection-act

* Donate to Abortion funds: https://tuulikki.tumblr.com/post/685542978922692608/seacollectsrivers-theegoldfinch-theegoldfinch

* "Supporting Abortion Funds in the South:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/682207036936732672/supporting-abortion-funds-in-the-south

* Ways to help Trans Youth resisting Transphobic laws in Texas: https://the-cimmerians.tumblr.com/post/677204004210688000

* "A List of UK Trans Charities:" https://katymontgomerie.medium.com/a-list-of-uk-trans-charities-2e26fb4032fd

* Organizations to help trans folk: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/620857152453640195/about-us

* "How to Safely and Ethically Film Police Misconduct:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-film-police-safely

* Master Post for how to help organizations fighting Police violence: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/620861026680881152/oberynmartell-list-of-black-lives-matter-and

* "The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund!:" https://secure.actblue.com/donate/midwestibf

* Have something you want to tell your Senators? If you can't safely 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.

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

* "DONATE TO EMILY'S LIST:" https://win.emilyslist.org/a/donate-to-emily

* Chicksaw bead artist and cool person has Kiamichi Beading suitable for non-native sale: https://www.instagram.com/kiamichi_beading/

* My Oldest Continuous friend's Elder Cat is getting up there and her special diet and health care for kidney failure is expensive. Gigi is a sweet, extremely cuddly girl and could use extra help. "Click here to show your support to Karrin Jackson's story

SupportGigiInHerOldAge:" https://www.spotfund.com/story/18393388-9914-4f6c-9f99-876aa019bdee

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