![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* …And most of a week of work just undid themselves because the new computer is a lemon. The screen goes black frequently and takes multiple hard reboots to undo, which rolls back the aggregate. Apparently. So not only am I most of a week behind in getting links up, but I have to waste hours trying to reconstruct. I am going to fail. Sorry.
I had so many important things neededing to go up. I don't see how I can catch up.
Money is getting refunded after a lot of drama. I will still need a working computer before Klaus laptop dies. IDK. Everything is so fucking hard right now.
* I have decided to post this in it's current state without most of last week's hearings stuff, etc.. As that's several night's effort at this point and I'm scared one of the lap tops will eat this and the idea of scrolling through 50 pages of my own tumblr trying to save stuff AGAIN is exhausting and dishartening.
The sort in the Executive branch may be a little rough as I had to freconstitute a lot of it and I am so very tired.
* "Israel launches 'significant' military operation in West Bank, at least 9 Palestinians killed:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-begins-operation-west-bank-city-jenin-2025-01-21/
* "2-year-old Palestinian girl killed in her home by Israeli military:" https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/toddler-killed-home-west-bank-1.7443175
* "Jordan launches air corridor for life-saving medicines into Gaza:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/jordan-launches-air-corridor-life-saving-medicines-into-gaza-2025-01-28/
******
* "Hamas set to release four Israeli soldier hostages in second swap:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-set-release-four-israeli-soldier-hostages-second-swap-2025-01-25/
* "Israel Is Blocking 11 American Doctors and Nurses From Leaving Gaza: The Israeli government is also preventing another group of health workers from entering the enclave, as thousands of Palestinians seek treatment.:" https://zeteo.com/p/israel-blocking-american-doctors-gaza
Israel is holding US citizens who committed no crimes hostage. Our government does nothing. Again.
* "UN experts decry arrest of pro-Palestinian American journalist in Switzerland:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-experts-decry-arrest-pro-palestinian-american-journalist-switzerland-2025-01-26/
Apparently accurately reporting on genocide is now considered a crime.
* "Lawsuit alleges U.S. failed to evacuate Palestinian Americans trapped in Gaza:" https://www.reuters.com/legal/lawsuit-alleges-us-failed-evacuate-palestinian-americans-trapped-gaza-2024-12-20/
******
* "South African miner describes horrors for those who spent months underground:" https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-illegal-mining-stilfontein-survivors-333574043256f70a9365000e40f07eaa
* "Keir Starmer appoints Jeff Bezos as his "first buddy":" https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/22/autocrats-of-trade/
* "Everyone Who Was Supposed to Protect You From This Failed Miserably:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-inauguration-2024-win-democrats-failed-1235241327/
* "White House says Colombia agrees to take deported migrants after Trump tariff showdown:" https://apnews.com/article/colombia-immigration-deportation-flights-petro-trump-us-67870e41556c5d8791d22ec6767049fd
* "US military to send additional 1,500 troops to border:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-military-preparing-send-additional-1000-troops-border-official-says-2025-01-22/
It is illegal for them to detain anyone or help in detention. Some of this is optics, but there is a real slippery slope feel to it. Since SCOTUS abolished rule of law and laws no longer constrain the president, I don't like or trust this.
After all Hegseth has promised to purge any generals with ethics and they confirmed him with Vance breaking the tie. Generals with ethics were what constrained Trump from turning the military loose on peaceful protesters last time he tried to do it.
* "ICE, immigration enforcement officials carrying out operations in Chicago this week:" https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/ice-immigration-enforcement-officials-carrying-out-operations-in-chicago-this-week/3656827/
* "Immigrant rights groups in Chicago sue Trump administration, seek to block mass deportation efforts:" https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/immigrant-rights-groups-lawsuit-mass-deportations-president-trump/
* "Immigrant rights groups in Chicago sue Trump administration, seek to block mass deportation efforts:" https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/immigrant-rights-groups-lawsuit-mass-deportations-president-trump/
* "Immigration raids surprise New York City residents:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/immigration-raids-new-york-residents-surprised-rcna189655
* "Trump immigration raids snag U.S. citizens, including Native Americans, raising racial profiling fears:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-immigration-raids-citizens-profiling-accusations-native-american-rcna189203
I was always against raids and the general shittiness of our immigration/CBP militarized system even before I heard the story I'm going to tell here. This has haunted my since the early '90's when a prof told it to me.
So she and her husband are Native Americans, with four tribes between them. The tribes were all Northern plains ones. I can't remember which of them was Lakota, but they were enrolled members of different tribes. As indigenous to the United States as it's possible to be.
So they get jobs teaching down in L.A. and one day, the husband is taking a bus home and the bus gets raided and he has no proof of citizenship on him just normal ID, so they are going to deport him to Mexico even though he speaks no Spanish and his Ancestors have been here since they walked over the land bridge.
She had to rush home and dig through the moving boxes, trying to find all his documentation and she manages to rescue him and bring him home. It was terrifying. They didn't know that they could be deported for looking native to the country in which they and their ancestors had always lived. They started looking for jobs in the North right away.
I've been thinking about it multiple times a day all year. I assumed it would start happening in large amounts as soon as the "mass deportation" sweeps started, that they'd try to deport Native Americans and natural born citizens. Likely even on purpose as they were saying that was what they were going to do since at least the election.
* "Immigration raid in Newark, New Jersey, spurs anger from local officials:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/immigration-raid-newark-new-jersey-mayor-angry-rcna189100
* "Multi-agency operation targeted immigrants in several Texas cities:" https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/26/texas-immigration-deportation-ice-austin-san-antonio/
* "Abbott orders state police to help federal agents with immigration enforcement:" https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/28/texas-immigrants-dps-department-public-safety-ice-arrests-warrants/
* "ICE makes close to 1,200 arrests in one day:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ice-trump-deportations-numbers-rcna188937
* "'Real sloppy approach': Hispanic Caucus chair slams Trump's immigration raids:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/hispanic-caucus-chair-trump-s-mass-deportation-plans-sloppy-230318661666
* "‘It’s terrifying’: public institutions prepare for possible ICE raids:" https://www.wftv.com/news/local/its-terrifying-public-institutions-prepare-possible-ice-raids/QKAS5SZXHNC2DNRK4YRR64VUF4/
* "Quakers sue to keep US immigration agents out of houses of worship:" https://www.reuters.com/legal/quakers-sue-keep-us-immigration-agents-out-houses-worship-2025-01-27/
* "Pritzker says he’ll ‘stand in the way’ of deportation efforts that cross the line:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/26/jb-pritzker-trump-deportation-efforts-00200630
* "ICE Watch Programs Can Protect Immigrants in Your Neighborhood — Here’s What to Know:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/ice-watch-programs-immigrants-how-to-start
* "Liberal Redneck - Trump's Inauguration Address (2025 Edition):"
* Apparently some of them do have remorse. "‘I Broke The Law': Capitol Rioters Reject Trump’s Pardons, Demand Accountability:" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/capitol-rioters-reject-trumps-pardons_n_67924045e4b0c94316ec6d0a
* "Pardon the Insurrection:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pardon-the-insurrection/id1638974657?i=1000685236386
* "Pardoned Jan. 6 man shot by police in northern Indiana traffic stop:" https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2025/01/27/pardoned-jan-6-rioter-killed-officer-involved-shooting-indiana-jasper-pulaski-county-state-police/77976517007/
* CW: CSA. "Jan. 6 Rioter Pardoned By Trump Remains Jailed In Child Sex Abuse Case:" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-pardon-child-sexual-abuse-materials_n_679913dae4b0e3bbf46ce8c0
* CW: CSA "Houston man pardoned for Jan. 6 crimes now wanted for online solicitation of a minor:" https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/crime/2025/01/27/512085/houston-man-pardoned-for-jan-6-conviction-wanted-for-online-solicitation-of-a-minor/
* "Trump pardons two D.C. officers convicted in fatal chase and cover-up:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-pardons-two-dc-officers-convicted-fatal-chase-20-year-old-man-co-rcna188920
* "Project 2025 presidency: Trump's actions mirror far-right playbook:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/project-2025-presidency-trump-s-actions-mirror-far-right-playbook-230280773670
* This is terrible. "Kristi Noem confirmed by US Senate as Trump's Homeland secretary:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/kristi-noem-confirmed-by-us-senate-trumps-homeland-secretary-2025-01-25/
* "A first report of passport confiscation UPDATED:" https://solarbird.dreamwidth.org/2022969.html
* "Trump signs executive order taking aim at DEI programs in the military:" https://www.npr.org/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5276839/trump-executive-order-dei-military
* 47 ordered all mention of them censored, but the outcry was so extreme it got rescinded. Complaining can work. Stay noisy. "Air Force reinstates course with Tuskegee Airmen video after outcry:" https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2025/01/27/air-force-reinstates-course-with-tuskegee-airmen-video-after-outcry/
* "Donald Trump signs new executive order affecting transgender military members:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/trump-eo-transgender-military
* "Trump is looking to boot transgender troops from the military. Here’s why that’s complicated:" https://apnews.com/article/military-transgender-ban-trump-courts-c66ae35b6b4a5a05731464d916557c4a
* "Trump signs executive order banning federal support of gender-affirming care for anyone under 19:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/trump-gender-affirming-care-ban
* I have no words that aren't expletives. "Trump's new Justice Department leadership orders a freeze on civil rights cases:" https://www.opb.org/article/2025/01/23/trump-s-new-justice-department-leadership-orders-a-freeze-on-civil-rights-cases/
* "Trump DOJ Said to Remove Two Top Civil Rights Officials (1):" https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/trump-doj-said-to-remove-two-top-civil-rights-officials
* "Pentagon intelligence agency pauses events, activities related to MLK Day, Black History Month:" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pentagon-intelligence-agency-pauses-events-activities-related-mlk/story?id=118244237
* "Trump administration halts environmental litigation, sidelines lawyers, sources say:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-halts-environmental-litigation-sidelines-lawyers-sources-2025-01-24/
* "Trump fires 17 independent inspectors general at federal agencies, source says:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-fires-least-12-independent-inspectors-general-washington-post-reports-2025-01-25/
Their job is to find corruption and waste. The only reason you'd get rid of them is if you were planning to be wildly corrupt and wasteful. They save the government money. This is not a cost saving measure. It's also illegal.
* "Milwaukee Weather Reporter Fired After Anti-Elon Musk Instagram Post: ‘Dude Nazi Saluted Twice’:" https://www.thewrap.com/milwaukee-weather-reporter-fired-sam-kuffel-elon-musk-nazi-salute/
Where to complain: https://www.cbs58.com/contact
* Please contact your senators and ask them to reject dangerous and unqualified cabinet picks. I don't have a lot of hope at this point, but better to fight than roll belly up. If nothing else ask them to resist Pam Bondi, RFK Jr., Russel Vought, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel.
Usually they just log for or against. If they want a reason, I've listed some below. Use reason for Democrats. For Republicans: Stress military readiness, national security, and the integrity and morale of the military, law and order, etc..
All of these are terrible. Complain about whatever you have energy for (most important bolded):
***
LAST WEEK'S HORRORS:
WEDNESDAY:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Heath and Human Services. He murdered hundreds of children in Samoa and plans to scale that up in the US, buy completely outlawing vaccines and dismantling our entire infectious disease response infrastructure. I beg of you, fight this one. Plenty of Republicans are old enough to remember how bad polio was. McConnell is a polio survivor. We have a chance here. Push hard.
"How would RFK Jr. handle bird flu? His record on vaccines has experts on edge:" https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/16/nx-s1-5254733/rfk-vaccine-bird-flu-trump-cabinet-picks
Kelly Loeffler, Small Business Administration nominee, is wildly corrupt.
This is from December, but I'm putting it up as a refresher:
"Kelly Loeffler’s Conflict of Interest Is Even Worse Than Reported: The senator had power over regulators whose work directly affected her own financial interests.:" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/12/kelly-loefflers-conflict-of-interest-is-even-worse-than-reported/
THURSDAY:
* Kash Patel, FBI. He published an enemies list and has promised to purge all the honest people with ethics out of the FBI, replacing them with Trump loyalists, so he can weaponize the FBI to persecute anyone Trump doesn't like. No innocent person will be safe.
* Tulsi Gabbard, Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She is in the bag for Russia and has ties to Bashar al-Assad. She is generally considered a major intelligence threat. None of our secret intelligence or that of any allies foolish enough to share information with us will be safe. I beg of you fight this one.
"Files detail bid to contain fallout from Tulsi Gabbard meetings with Assad:" https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1xAxpB
***
UPCOMING:
* "Brent Bozell, anti-LGBTQ+ activist and father of January 6 rioter, to head U.S. media agency:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/brent-bozell-homophobe-trump-nominee
This breaks my heart. VOA has been so important as a source of good reporting that often reaches places that don't have free media. The goal is to make it part of the Republican propaganda machine.
* "Donald Trump’s No. 2 Pick for the EPA Represented Companies Accused of Pollution Harm:" https://www.propublica.org/article/david-fotouhi-donald-trump-epa-pollution
This guy is going to be a disaster for the planet.
* "Commerce Nominee Lutnick Is Backer of Outlaws’ Favorite Cryptocurrency:" https://archive.ph/ivmIC
***
ASSORTED RELATED:
* "Trump’s UN ambassador pick says Israel has ‘biblical right’ to West Bank:" https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/21/trumps-un-ambassador-pick-says-israel-has-biblical-right-to-west-bank
***
* "The oppressive goal at the top of Speaker Mike Johnson’s to-do list:" https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/republicans-congress-trans-women-sports-bill-rcna186195
I'm putting in a divider here for the resistance resources stuff.
* Our job for the next two years is to survive, to build grassroots resistance, to do all in our power to slow the republican Christo-fascist agenda, and to prepare for 2026 in case there is still Democracy.
We are trying to build a good list of resistance resources.
Please add more below if you have them.
* Trump 2.0 Indivisible Guide. https://indivisible.org/resource/guide
* "Democracy 2025:" https://www.democracy2025.org/?utm_source=df-ad&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=21912407002&utm_content=721373734297&source=df-ad-gs&gad_source=1
* "Resisting Fascism in 2025 and Beyond:" https://www.prideandpagesbookclub.com/resisting-fascism-in-2025-and-beyond
* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:
Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/
Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/
"Congress. gov:" https://www.congress.gov/
ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives
* This tracks legislation: https://www.govtrack.us/
* Useful organizing links and resources: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/771859083592613888/hater-of-terfs-ive-already-reblogged-a-link-to?source=share
* Run for Something: https://runforsomething.net/
* How to render emergency aid in a riot: https://riotmedicine.net/static/downloads/riot-medicine_a5.pdf
* "How to Safely and Ethically Film Police Misconduct:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-film-police-safely
* Avoiding Activist Burnout: https://www.tumblr.com/veluigi/771755723969478656/on-twitter-im-seeing-dozens-of-threads-from-black?source=share
* "ICE Raids Toolkit: Defend Against ICE Raids and Community Arrests:" https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit/
* Contains a raid tip hotline amoung other things. "Know Your Rights
LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY:" https://wearecasa.org/know-your-rights/
* "We need to have a serious conversation:"
* "Pa. supervisor resigns after appearing to mimic Elon Musk's alleged Nazi salute:" https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/pennsylvania-laura-smith-towamencin-township-nazi-salute-controversy-elon-musk/4089263/
* "Jocelyn Benson enters Michigan governor's race, condemns 1/6 pardons:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/jocelyn-benson-enters-michigan-governor-s-race-condemns-1-6-pardons-230280773955
* "Michigan adds sexual orientation and gender identity to hate crime law despite 'far-right fiction':" https://www.advocate.com/politics/michigan-lgbtq-hate-crime-law
* "Transgender inmate sues over Trump's order curtailing trans rights:" https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/transgender-inmate-sues-trumps-order-curtailing-trans-rights-rcna189517
* "Most Meta employees oppose ending DEI and fact-checking, survey finds:" https://www.advocate.com/news/meta-employees-dei-fact-checking
* "The Slow Birth and Fast De💀th of DEI | Ti Talks:"
* CW: Domestic Violence. "Pregnant Women Living in States with Limited Access to Abortion Face Higher Levels of Intimate Partner Homicide:" https://www.facs.org/media-center/press-releases/2024/pregnant-women-living-in-states-with-limited-access-to-abortion-face-higher-levels-of-intimate-partner-homicide/
* "Voters backed abortion rights, but the state judges they elected might not:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-rights-ballot-measures-state-judges/
* "Is Kink Good For You? The Surprising Science Behind BDSM:"
* "Elon Musk and other billionaires exploit LGBTQ+ hate for profit, GLAAD CEO tells Davos audience:" https://www.advocate.com/business/sarah-kate-ellis-davos-musk
* "Wisconsin Supreme Court mulls veto of conversion therapy ban:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/wisconsin-conversion-therapy
* "N.Y. court won't block Nassau County's anti-trans sports law:" https://www.advocate.com/news/nassau-county-anti-transgender-sports
* "Anti-LGBTQ+ state policies lead young people to move or consider it: study:" https://www.advocate.com/news/anti-lgbtq-laws-youth-relocation
* "Karla Sofía Gascón breaks barriers as first trans actor Oscar nominee:" https://www.advocate.com/oscars/oscars-karla-sofia-gascon
* "Japanese researchers develop peptide preventing COVID-19 infections:" https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/01/23/japan/science-health/peptide-prevention-covid-19/
* This is a summary of the judge's conflict of interest in the Briana Boston case with links: https://www.tumblr.com/technofeudalism/770054965779677184?source=share
* "Ukraine holds first soccer tournament for war-wounded amputees — and plans to go international:" https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-soccer-amputee-championship-a40ebd6dda17f8e0ab760c4998c08a4f?
* "Resources for California fire victims were scattered. So I created this site to help.:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/california-disaster-recovery-resources
* "Where your donations to L.A. fire victims will do the most good:" https://www.advocate.com/news/donate-los-angeles-fire-victims
* "7 dead, including child, in medical jet crash near Philadelphia mall:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/philadelphia-small-plane-crash-roosevelt-mall/story?id=118330351
* "What we know about the American Airlines plane and Army helicopter crash over D.C.'s Potomac River:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/crash-reagan-national-airport-washington-dc/
* I had a ton of stuff about the bullshit goiung on here prepped, but instead, computer nightmare. Appologies.
* "How mega-polluters take advantage of billions in green loans:" https://apnews.com/article/shell-drax-greenwashing-pollution-sustainabilitylinks-loans-slls-a28e03c7421222c58025b31ab8185272
* "Solar farms are booming in the US and putting thousands of hungry sheep to work:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/solar-farms-booming-us-putting-thousands-hungry-sheep-117844705
* "'A lot more breakdowns': NYC's oldest subway cars are fixed in crumbling repair shops:" https://gothamist.com/news/a-lot-more-breakdowns-nycs-oldest-subway-cars-are-fixed-in-crumbling-repair-shops
* "How the Government Made America Bigger:" https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/01/us-continental-shelf-seafloor-mining/681451/
* "Why Skyscrapers Became Glass Boxes:" https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-skyscrapers-became-glass-boxes
* "Musk in the Trump 2.0 Era with Kate Conger:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/musk-in-the-trump-2-0-era-with-kate-conger/id1382983397?i=1000684818112
* "Why the West needs prairie dogs:" https://www.hcn.org/issues/57-1/why-the-west-needs-prairie-dogs/
* "Peeing is contagious for chimpanzees:" https://www.popsci.com/environment/chimpanzees-peeing-contagious/?
* "Mother Chimp and Daughter Share a Special Sign:" https://archive.ph/zTA52
* "Medieval Criminal Justice: How to Get Away With Medieval Murder (ish):"
* "The fugitive prince: A man with an obscure claim to a royal fortune made a deal to help regain his crown. It cost him more than he could imagine:" https://archive.ph/t3Wfx
* "Show Me The Money: The Clinton Era:"
* "What Was The 90s Like For Women?"
* "I Wish Lisa Frank Never Heard of Me:"
* "Museum of the Earth faces extinction under “imminent” threat of foreclosure:" https://ithacavoice.org/2025/01/museum-of-the-earth-faces-extinction-under-imminent-threat-of-foreclosure/
* "Masters of the Knight: The Art of Chess Carving in India:" https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chess-carvers-amritsar-india
* In home physio re-started Monday and I've been exhausted ever since. The theory makes sense and so do the exercises, but I have to do them all the time I'm up, basically in small portions, on top of me still trying to do bare minimum regular physio, which also wears me up. I had to flat out give up on a lot of the exercises since Covid last September. I can't come close do doing them all and perform basic tasks like feeding myself and beasts and deal with the endless laundry the Emperor now generates.
The physio is good. At the same time, a bunch of the things that she said last time are clearly for people who are not me. And there's this booklet I promised to read and return. I finally finished it Thursday. It wasn't long, but it was endless experientially.
I get it. Most Americans did not have a descent science education because Republican school reforms always attack science and social studies for obvious reasons. I did have one and spend a lot of time with new medical any specialist trying to prove they can stop dumbing things way down for me. No, I don't have specialist training, but I actually do have descent general knowledge. It goes much faster if they bump me up to educated layman, if you see what I mean. So explanations of anything directly from her are slow, but this book is molasses, which is really what they need if they are giving it to people who may know little to nothing about how bodies work.
This I could tolerate.
I actually applaud the large type and the explanation of how to do housework with a disability. I had to work that out myself decades ago, but a lot of people don't understand the short form of the advise when they hear it, so I usually do a long explanation with concrete examples, which is a useful thing to hand people with new disabilities.
The problem is that there is a lot of stuff that assumes average neurotypical brain and a person who has had trouble recovering from one or even a few injuries or surgeries.
It assumes I'm not naturally day-night flipped on sleep cycles. (Supposedly this is a disorder, but it sure looks like useful alternative brain design to have some percentage of the population alert at night against predators or later fire or invasion or later still third shift jobs like emergency response. It's a problem because society isn't structured for nocturnal types and is judgey about it, not because somethings inherently wrong).
It assumes I have a strong fear response. Which I don't. (I suspect Toxoplasmosis contracted as a child from our cats. I remember still being able to feel fear properly when I was small. Then at some point I stopped. I can startle; I can worry; I don't fear. I have learned to use reason to assess risk because otherwise I'd do really dangerous stuff). I am legitimately struggling to figure out how to translate the fear stuff into anything I can use.
There is no fucking way I'm kicking my cats out of my bedroom, and doing that would not improve my sleep. Less pain improves my sleep. The cats are not the problem.
They didn't seem to understand functional limits caused by disabilities at all. The Author seemed to assume everyone can get better and resume normal activities from before, which is bullshit.
They waited until the end to trot out the inevitable ableist shit, the assumption that everything can be solved by willpower and taking rehabilitation slowly enough. The physio herself has carefully not crossed this line, and I've been watching her warily because she skates close to it on occasion.
I read the thing anyway. I gave my word. It was like shifting through shit to find specks of gold and finding hardly any.
I hate this fucking book.
I'm doing the exercises she gave me anyway, because the exercises are clearly correct.
Reading that last section though, I kept thinking of a paraplegic guy I used to know whose relatives took him to a faith healer a couple years after the motorcycle accident. They made him transfer out of the chair and sit at the end of a middle row. There were people in wheelchairs down front who were "healed." That they were plants was obvious to my friend. Otherwise, why wasn't he down front too? Why else take his chair away and hide his disability.
It did not work, of course, and the people who took him their blamed him. He'd be healed if he just believed harder. I had the same thing happen to a friend on the spectrum when she was a teen, which is offensive on so many levels.
It's gross when the right wing fundamentalist do it; it's gross here when it's packaged as left wing holistic power of positive thinking crap.
Yes, some people get better. Maybe the injuries are temporary. Maybe new and improved treatments alleviate or heal things.
I want people to get better. I'm happy for people who get better.
There are two general types of problems going on in my body: the big permanent damage ones, and the things that can be mitigated. I do think a more whole body approach to physio will help me recover from all the damage hospital fatphobic PT did and help me recover from a shoulder replacement. I don't think thinking about pain in a new way will remove two degenerative genetic diseases and the actual physical damage they do over time. I don't see how dealing with fear I don't have will grow back cartilage or until damage to the bones of my spine or the bone around my joints.
* "We Must Protect The First Amendment At All Costs vs. No Thanks, I’ll Just Take My Freedoms For Granted Until They Disappear:" https://theonion.com/we-must-protect-the-first-amendment-at-all-costs-vs-no-thanks-ill-just-take-my-freedoms-for-granted-until-they-disappear/
* "Horror Is So Queer: Episode 1 - The Hays Code:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/horror-is-so-queer-episode-1-the-hays-code/id1536009137?i=1000495755881
* "True Facts: Pigeons Are Tricking You:"
* "True Facts: Not-Dead Opossums and Their Weird Defenses:"
* "Founding Fathers Cold Open - SNL:"
* "Medcast - SNL:"
* "God - An SNL Animated Short:"
* So amoung other things I don't have an e-reader. Okay, technically I have an e-reader, as I was given a second hand one, which we nearly got set up, but which doesn't have anything on it and I don't know how to use. So Functionally, I'm all physical books.
My library did have the charming first Harriet Porbor novel, and I have devoured Camp Damascus and the exquisite Bury Your Gays.
At some point in early January I decided I couldn't wait any longer for Chuck Tingle's first horror novel Straight, so ordered that and the second Harriet Porbor while I was at it.
They both came this week. Friday night, I devoured Straight in one sitting and wow was it the right book for right now. It was Chuck Tingle's first horror novel, but Chuck Tingle clearly already knew how to write a lean, fast-paced, and all too politically relevant horror novel.
Like Bury Your Gays it gave me something I needed that I didn't know I needed. Something visceral. Something as essential as a vitamin.
Thank you Chuck Tingle.
It might take me a few days to get to the Harriet Porbor sequel, but the first one was so good, I'm very much looking forward to it.
* I lost a whole commentary I wrote about Happiness, the Netflix drama, which apparently I forgot to post on Tumblr, so I can't get it back. I will instead give you a snippet I wrote in response to someone else, slightly edited.
I think some of this is commentary on COVID behavior. People keep getting infected because they will not just stay inside. They refuse to take sensible precautions. That sort of thing.
I don’t blame the people infected on the supermarket trip early on, but there’s that whole sequence when the class privileged people keep opening or almost opening doors because they won’t listen to lower class people with accurate information and correct opinions.
I love how HARD Happiness went on the Class system, greed, and privilege being the real villains.
* "A Grave Goods Guide For The Difficult to Shop For and Recently Deceased:" https://www.thechatner.com/p/a-grave-goods-guide-for-the-difficult?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=5&post_id=155374458&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ykw2&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
*****
* 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.
* "Resources for California fire victims were scattered. So I created this site to help.:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/california-disaster-recovery-resources
* "Where your donations to L.A. fire victims will do the most good:" https://www.advocate.com/news/donate-los-angeles-fire-victims
* "Democracy 2025:" https://www.democracy2025.org/?utm_source=df-ad&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=21912407002&utm_content=721373734297&source=df-ad-gs&gad_source=1
* "Resisting Fascism in 2025 and Beyond:" https://www.prideandpagesbookclub.com/resisting-fascism-in-2025-and-beyond
* "Here are 26 organizations fighting Donald Trump that you can donate to:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/anti-donald-trump-charities
* Run for Something: https://runforsomething.net/
* "LGBTQ+ Victory Fund:" https://victoryfund.org/
* "Palestine Children’s Relief Fund:" https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-recovery
* ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives
* Contains a raid tip hotline amoung other things. "Know Your Rights
LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY:" https://wearecasa.org/know-your-rights/
* What to do if you encounter an immigration official. "Know Your Rights:" https://unitedwedream.org/resources/know-your-rights/
* "ICE Raids Toolkit: Defend Against ICE Raids and Community Arrests:" https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit/
* "ICE Watch Programs Can Protect Immigrants in Your Neighborhood — Here’s What to Know:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/ice-watch-programs-immigrants-how-to-start
* "Legal Services for Your Reproductive Life:" https://reprolegalhelpline.org/
* "National Abortion Hotline:" https://prochoice.org/
* "Plan C: Abortion pills by mail in every state:" https://www.plancpills.org/
* "Resources for Accessing Abortion Care:" https://reproductivefreedomforall.org/resources/resources-for-accessing-abortion-care/
* "Contraception and Birth Control Resources:" https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/contraception/more_information/resources
* "Gynecologists who will perform a tubal sterilization:" https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Djia_WkrVO3S4jKn6odNwQk7pOcpcL4x00FMNekrb7Q/edit?gid=1318374028#gid=1318374028
* Useful organizing links and resources: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/771859083592613888/hater-of-terfs-ive-already-reblogged-a-link-to?source=share
* "We have a right to safety, privacy, and protest. Say no to mask bans.:" https://www.stopmaskbans.com/
* "Trans Kids Deserve Better:" https://transkidsdeservebetter.org/support
* "World Central Kitchen:" https://wck.org/
* Trans support organization: https://www.pointofpride.org/
* "Transanta: An opportunity to directly support trans youth:" https://thisfinecrew.dreamwidth.org/291573.html
* Links for various Palestinian Aid Organizations: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/750151174318112768?source=share
* "Black Alliance for Peace’s Atlanta Citywide Alliance:" https://linktr.ee/bapatlanta
* Map of Cop Cities planned or being built: https://isyourlifebetter.net/cop-cities-usa/
* Want to help Journalists without Borders? https://donate.rsf.org/us/donate/~my-donation
* How to donate to Doctors Without Borders: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/secure/donate
* "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/
* "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
* Organizations to help trans folk: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/620857152453640195/about-us
* Indivisible Guide for Trump 2.0 "A Practical Guide to defeating MAGA:" https://indivisible.org/resource/guide
* This tracks legislation: https://www.govtrack.us/
* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely protest in person, here are some other options:
Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
Senate: https://contactsenators.com/senator-phone-numbers/
Congress in General: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
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
* What to help support all of us all here at the Cat Asylum? https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Gwydion
* I admit to having a wicked good time tormenting myself and other history geeks with my polls: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydpolls
I had so many important things neededing to go up. I don't see how I can catch up.
Money is getting refunded after a lot of drama. I will still need a working computer before Klaus laptop dies. IDK. Everything is so fucking hard right now.
* I have decided to post this in it's current state without most of last week's hearings stuff, etc.. As that's several night's effort at this point and I'm scared one of the lap tops will eat this and the idea of scrolling through 50 pages of my own tumblr trying to save stuff AGAIN is exhausting and dishartening.
The sort in the Executive branch may be a little rough as I had to freconstitute a lot of it and I am so very tired.
* "Israel launches 'significant' military operation in West Bank, at least 9 Palestinians killed:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-begins-operation-west-bank-city-jenin-2025-01-21/
* "2-year-old Palestinian girl killed in her home by Israeli military:" https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/toddler-killed-home-west-bank-1.7443175
* "Jordan launches air corridor for life-saving medicines into Gaza:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/jordan-launches-air-corridor-life-saving-medicines-into-gaza-2025-01-28/
******
* "Hamas set to release four Israeli soldier hostages in second swap:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-set-release-four-israeli-soldier-hostages-second-swap-2025-01-25/
* "Israel Is Blocking 11 American Doctors and Nurses From Leaving Gaza: The Israeli government is also preventing another group of health workers from entering the enclave, as thousands of Palestinians seek treatment.:" https://zeteo.com/p/israel-blocking-american-doctors-gaza
Israel is holding US citizens who committed no crimes hostage. Our government does nothing. Again.
* "UN experts decry arrest of pro-Palestinian American journalist in Switzerland:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-experts-decry-arrest-pro-palestinian-american-journalist-switzerland-2025-01-26/
Apparently accurately reporting on genocide is now considered a crime.
* "Lawsuit alleges U.S. failed to evacuate Palestinian Americans trapped in Gaza:" https://www.reuters.com/legal/lawsuit-alleges-us-failed-evacuate-palestinian-americans-trapped-gaza-2024-12-20/
******
* "South African miner describes horrors for those who spent months underground:" https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-illegal-mining-stilfontein-survivors-333574043256f70a9365000e40f07eaa
* "Keir Starmer appoints Jeff Bezos as his "first buddy":" https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/22/autocrats-of-trade/
* "Everyone Who Was Supposed to Protect You From This Failed Miserably:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-inauguration-2024-win-democrats-failed-1235241327/
* "White House says Colombia agrees to take deported migrants after Trump tariff showdown:" https://apnews.com/article/colombia-immigration-deportation-flights-petro-trump-us-67870e41556c5d8791d22ec6767049fd
* "US military to send additional 1,500 troops to border:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-military-preparing-send-additional-1000-troops-border-official-says-2025-01-22/
It is illegal for them to detain anyone or help in detention. Some of this is optics, but there is a real slippery slope feel to it. Since SCOTUS abolished rule of law and laws no longer constrain the president, I don't like or trust this.
After all Hegseth has promised to purge any generals with ethics and they confirmed him with Vance breaking the tie. Generals with ethics were what constrained Trump from turning the military loose on peaceful protesters last time he tried to do it.
* "ICE, immigration enforcement officials carrying out operations in Chicago this week:" https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/ice-immigration-enforcement-officials-carrying-out-operations-in-chicago-this-week/3656827/
* "Immigrant rights groups in Chicago sue Trump administration, seek to block mass deportation efforts:" https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/immigrant-rights-groups-lawsuit-mass-deportations-president-trump/
* "Immigrant rights groups in Chicago sue Trump administration, seek to block mass deportation efforts:" https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/immigrant-rights-groups-lawsuit-mass-deportations-president-trump/
* "Immigration raids surprise New York City residents:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/immigration-raids-new-york-residents-surprised-rcna189655
* "Trump immigration raids snag U.S. citizens, including Native Americans, raising racial profiling fears:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-immigration-raids-citizens-profiling-accusations-native-american-rcna189203
I was always against raids and the general shittiness of our immigration/CBP militarized system even before I heard the story I'm going to tell here. This has haunted my since the early '90's when a prof told it to me.
So she and her husband are Native Americans, with four tribes between them. The tribes were all Northern plains ones. I can't remember which of them was Lakota, but they were enrolled members of different tribes. As indigenous to the United States as it's possible to be.
So they get jobs teaching down in L.A. and one day, the husband is taking a bus home and the bus gets raided and he has no proof of citizenship on him just normal ID, so they are going to deport him to Mexico even though he speaks no Spanish and his Ancestors have been here since they walked over the land bridge.
She had to rush home and dig through the moving boxes, trying to find all his documentation and she manages to rescue him and bring him home. It was terrifying. They didn't know that they could be deported for looking native to the country in which they and their ancestors had always lived. They started looking for jobs in the North right away.
I've been thinking about it multiple times a day all year. I assumed it would start happening in large amounts as soon as the "mass deportation" sweeps started, that they'd try to deport Native Americans and natural born citizens. Likely even on purpose as they were saying that was what they were going to do since at least the election.
* "Immigration raid in Newark, New Jersey, spurs anger from local officials:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/immigration-raid-newark-new-jersey-mayor-angry-rcna189100
* "Multi-agency operation targeted immigrants in several Texas cities:" https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/26/texas-immigration-deportation-ice-austin-san-antonio/
* "Abbott orders state police to help federal agents with immigration enforcement:" https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/28/texas-immigrants-dps-department-public-safety-ice-arrests-warrants/
* "ICE makes close to 1,200 arrests in one day:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ice-trump-deportations-numbers-rcna188937
* "'Real sloppy approach': Hispanic Caucus chair slams Trump's immigration raids:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/hispanic-caucus-chair-trump-s-mass-deportation-plans-sloppy-230318661666
* "‘It’s terrifying’: public institutions prepare for possible ICE raids:" https://www.wftv.com/news/local/its-terrifying-public-institutions-prepare-possible-ice-raids/QKAS5SZXHNC2DNRK4YRR64VUF4/
* "Quakers sue to keep US immigration agents out of houses of worship:" https://www.reuters.com/legal/quakers-sue-keep-us-immigration-agents-out-houses-worship-2025-01-27/
* "Pritzker says he’ll ‘stand in the way’ of deportation efforts that cross the line:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/26/jb-pritzker-trump-deportation-efforts-00200630
* "ICE Watch Programs Can Protect Immigrants in Your Neighborhood — Here’s What to Know:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/ice-watch-programs-immigrants-how-to-start
* "Liberal Redneck - Trump's Inauguration Address (2025 Edition):"
* Apparently some of them do have remorse. "‘I Broke The Law': Capitol Rioters Reject Trump’s Pardons, Demand Accountability:" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/capitol-rioters-reject-trumps-pardons_n_67924045e4b0c94316ec6d0a
* "Pardon the Insurrection:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pardon-the-insurrection/id1638974657?i=1000685236386
* "Pardoned Jan. 6 man shot by police in northern Indiana traffic stop:" https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2025/01/27/pardoned-jan-6-rioter-killed-officer-involved-shooting-indiana-jasper-pulaski-county-state-police/77976517007/
* CW: CSA. "Jan. 6 Rioter Pardoned By Trump Remains Jailed In Child Sex Abuse Case:" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-pardon-child-sexual-abuse-materials_n_679913dae4b0e3bbf46ce8c0
* CW: CSA "Houston man pardoned for Jan. 6 crimes now wanted for online solicitation of a minor:" https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/crime/2025/01/27/512085/houston-man-pardoned-for-jan-6-conviction-wanted-for-online-solicitation-of-a-minor/
* "Trump pardons two D.C. officers convicted in fatal chase and cover-up:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-pardons-two-dc-officers-convicted-fatal-chase-20-year-old-man-co-rcna188920
* "Project 2025 presidency: Trump's actions mirror far-right playbook:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/project-2025-presidency-trump-s-actions-mirror-far-right-playbook-230280773670
* This is terrible. "Kristi Noem confirmed by US Senate as Trump's Homeland secretary:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/kristi-noem-confirmed-by-us-senate-trumps-homeland-secretary-2025-01-25/
* "A first report of passport confiscation UPDATED:" https://solarbird.dreamwidth.org/2022969.html
* "Trump signs executive order taking aim at DEI programs in the military:" https://www.npr.org/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5276839/trump-executive-order-dei-military
* 47 ordered all mention of them censored, but the outcry was so extreme it got rescinded. Complaining can work. Stay noisy. "Air Force reinstates course with Tuskegee Airmen video after outcry:" https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2025/01/27/air-force-reinstates-course-with-tuskegee-airmen-video-after-outcry/
* "Donald Trump signs new executive order affecting transgender military members:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/trump-eo-transgender-military
* "Trump is looking to boot transgender troops from the military. Here’s why that’s complicated:" https://apnews.com/article/military-transgender-ban-trump-courts-c66ae35b6b4a5a05731464d916557c4a
* "Trump signs executive order banning federal support of gender-affirming care for anyone under 19:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/trump-gender-affirming-care-ban
* I have no words that aren't expletives. "Trump's new Justice Department leadership orders a freeze on civil rights cases:" https://www.opb.org/article/2025/01/23/trump-s-new-justice-department-leadership-orders-a-freeze-on-civil-rights-cases/
* "Trump DOJ Said to Remove Two Top Civil Rights Officials (1):" https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/trump-doj-said-to-remove-two-top-civil-rights-officials
* "Pentagon intelligence agency pauses events, activities related to MLK Day, Black History Month:" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pentagon-intelligence-agency-pauses-events-activities-related-mlk/story?id=118244237
* "Trump administration halts environmental litigation, sidelines lawyers, sources say:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-halts-environmental-litigation-sidelines-lawyers-sources-2025-01-24/
* "Trump fires 17 independent inspectors general at federal agencies, source says:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-fires-least-12-independent-inspectors-general-washington-post-reports-2025-01-25/
Their job is to find corruption and waste. The only reason you'd get rid of them is if you were planning to be wildly corrupt and wasteful. They save the government money. This is not a cost saving measure. It's also illegal.
* "Milwaukee Weather Reporter Fired After Anti-Elon Musk Instagram Post: ‘Dude Nazi Saluted Twice’:" https://www.thewrap.com/milwaukee-weather-reporter-fired-sam-kuffel-elon-musk-nazi-salute/
Where to complain: https://www.cbs58.com/contact
* Please contact your senators and ask them to reject dangerous and unqualified cabinet picks. I don't have a lot of hope at this point, but better to fight than roll belly up. If nothing else ask them to resist Pam Bondi, RFK Jr., Russel Vought, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel.
Usually they just log for or against. If they want a reason, I've listed some below. Use reason for Democrats. For Republicans: Stress military readiness, national security, and the integrity and morale of the military, law and order, etc..
All of these are terrible. Complain about whatever you have energy for (most important bolded):
***
LAST WEEK'S HORRORS:
WEDNESDAY:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Heath and Human Services. He murdered hundreds of children in Samoa and plans to scale that up in the US, buy completely outlawing vaccines and dismantling our entire infectious disease response infrastructure. I beg of you, fight this one. Plenty of Republicans are old enough to remember how bad polio was. McConnell is a polio survivor. We have a chance here. Push hard.
"How would RFK Jr. handle bird flu? His record on vaccines has experts on edge:" https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/16/nx-s1-5254733/rfk-vaccine-bird-flu-trump-cabinet-picks
Kelly Loeffler, Small Business Administration nominee, is wildly corrupt.
This is from December, but I'm putting it up as a refresher:
"Kelly Loeffler’s Conflict of Interest Is Even Worse Than Reported: The senator had power over regulators whose work directly affected her own financial interests.:" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/12/kelly-loefflers-conflict-of-interest-is-even-worse-than-reported/
THURSDAY:
* Kash Patel, FBI. He published an enemies list and has promised to purge all the honest people with ethics out of the FBI, replacing them with Trump loyalists, so he can weaponize the FBI to persecute anyone Trump doesn't like. No innocent person will be safe.
* Tulsi Gabbard, Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She is in the bag for Russia and has ties to Bashar al-Assad. She is generally considered a major intelligence threat. None of our secret intelligence or that of any allies foolish enough to share information with us will be safe. I beg of you fight this one.
"Files detail bid to contain fallout from Tulsi Gabbard meetings with Assad:" https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1xAxpB
***
UPCOMING:
* "Brent Bozell, anti-LGBTQ+ activist and father of January 6 rioter, to head U.S. media agency:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/brent-bozell-homophobe-trump-nominee
This breaks my heart. VOA has been so important as a source of good reporting that often reaches places that don't have free media. The goal is to make it part of the Republican propaganda machine.
* "Donald Trump’s No. 2 Pick for the EPA Represented Companies Accused of Pollution Harm:" https://www.propublica.org/article/david-fotouhi-donald-trump-epa-pollution
This guy is going to be a disaster for the planet.
* "Commerce Nominee Lutnick Is Backer of Outlaws’ Favorite Cryptocurrency:" https://archive.ph/ivmIC
***
ASSORTED RELATED:
* "Trump’s UN ambassador pick says Israel has ‘biblical right’ to West Bank:" https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/21/trumps-un-ambassador-pick-says-israel-has-biblical-right-to-west-bank
***
* "The oppressive goal at the top of Speaker Mike Johnson’s to-do list:" https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/republicans-congress-trans-women-sports-bill-rcna186195
I'm putting in a divider here for the resistance resources stuff.
* Our job for the next two years is to survive, to build grassroots resistance, to do all in our power to slow the republican Christo-fascist agenda, and to prepare for 2026 in case there is still Democracy.
We are trying to build a good list of resistance resources.
Please add more below if you have them.
* Trump 2.0 Indivisible Guide. https://indivisible.org/resource/guide
* "Democracy 2025:" https://www.democracy2025.org/?utm_source=df-ad&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=21912407002&utm_content=721373734297&source=df-ad-gs&gad_source=1
* "Resisting Fascism in 2025 and Beyond:" https://www.prideandpagesbookclub.com/resisting-fascism-in-2025-and-beyond
* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:
Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/
Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/
"Congress. gov:" https://www.congress.gov/
ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives
* This tracks legislation: https://www.govtrack.us/
* Useful organizing links and resources: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/771859083592613888/hater-of-terfs-ive-already-reblogged-a-link-to?source=share
* Run for Something: https://runforsomething.net/
* How to render emergency aid in a riot: https://riotmedicine.net/static/downloads/riot-medicine_a5.pdf
* "How to Safely and Ethically Film Police Misconduct:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-film-police-safely
* Avoiding Activist Burnout: https://www.tumblr.com/veluigi/771755723969478656/on-twitter-im-seeing-dozens-of-threads-from-black?source=share
* "ICE Raids Toolkit: Defend Against ICE Raids and Community Arrests:" https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit/
* Contains a raid tip hotline amoung other things. "Know Your Rights
LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY:" https://wearecasa.org/know-your-rights/
* "We need to have a serious conversation:"
* "Pa. supervisor resigns after appearing to mimic Elon Musk's alleged Nazi salute:" https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/pennsylvania-laura-smith-towamencin-township-nazi-salute-controversy-elon-musk/4089263/
* "Jocelyn Benson enters Michigan governor's race, condemns 1/6 pardons:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/jocelyn-benson-enters-michigan-governor-s-race-condemns-1-6-pardons-230280773955
* "Michigan adds sexual orientation and gender identity to hate crime law despite 'far-right fiction':" https://www.advocate.com/politics/michigan-lgbtq-hate-crime-law
* "Transgender inmate sues over Trump's order curtailing trans rights:" https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/transgender-inmate-sues-trumps-order-curtailing-trans-rights-rcna189517
* "Most Meta employees oppose ending DEI and fact-checking, survey finds:" https://www.advocate.com/news/meta-employees-dei-fact-checking
* "The Slow Birth and Fast De💀th of DEI | Ti Talks:"
* CW: Domestic Violence. "Pregnant Women Living in States with Limited Access to Abortion Face Higher Levels of Intimate Partner Homicide:" https://www.facs.org/media-center/press-releases/2024/pregnant-women-living-in-states-with-limited-access-to-abortion-face-higher-levels-of-intimate-partner-homicide/
* "Voters backed abortion rights, but the state judges they elected might not:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-rights-ballot-measures-state-judges/
* "Is Kink Good For You? The Surprising Science Behind BDSM:"
* "Elon Musk and other billionaires exploit LGBTQ+ hate for profit, GLAAD CEO tells Davos audience:" https://www.advocate.com/business/sarah-kate-ellis-davos-musk
* "Wisconsin Supreme Court mulls veto of conversion therapy ban:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/wisconsin-conversion-therapy
* "N.Y. court won't block Nassau County's anti-trans sports law:" https://www.advocate.com/news/nassau-county-anti-transgender-sports
* "Anti-LGBTQ+ state policies lead young people to move or consider it: study:" https://www.advocate.com/news/anti-lgbtq-laws-youth-relocation
* "Karla Sofía Gascón breaks barriers as first trans actor Oscar nominee:" https://www.advocate.com/oscars/oscars-karla-sofia-gascon
* "Japanese researchers develop peptide preventing COVID-19 infections:" https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/01/23/japan/science-health/peptide-prevention-covid-19/
* This is a summary of the judge's conflict of interest in the Briana Boston case with links: https://www.tumblr.com/technofeudalism/770054965779677184?source=share
* "Ukraine holds first soccer tournament for war-wounded amputees — and plans to go international:" https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-soccer-amputee-championship-a40ebd6dda17f8e0ab760c4998c08a4f?
* "Resources for California fire victims were scattered. So I created this site to help.:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/california-disaster-recovery-resources
* "Where your donations to L.A. fire victims will do the most good:" https://www.advocate.com/news/donate-los-angeles-fire-victims
* "7 dead, including child, in medical jet crash near Philadelphia mall:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/philadelphia-small-plane-crash-roosevelt-mall/story?id=118330351
* "What we know about the American Airlines plane and Army helicopter crash over D.C.'s Potomac River:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/crash-reagan-national-airport-washington-dc/
* I had a ton of stuff about the bullshit goiung on here prepped, but instead, computer nightmare. Appologies.
* "How mega-polluters take advantage of billions in green loans:" https://apnews.com/article/shell-drax-greenwashing-pollution-sustainabilitylinks-loans-slls-a28e03c7421222c58025b31ab8185272
* "Solar farms are booming in the US and putting thousands of hungry sheep to work:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/solar-farms-booming-us-putting-thousands-hungry-sheep-117844705
* "'A lot more breakdowns': NYC's oldest subway cars are fixed in crumbling repair shops:" https://gothamist.com/news/a-lot-more-breakdowns-nycs-oldest-subway-cars-are-fixed-in-crumbling-repair-shops
* "How the Government Made America Bigger:" https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/01/us-continental-shelf-seafloor-mining/681451/
* "Why Skyscrapers Became Glass Boxes:" https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-skyscrapers-became-glass-boxes
* "Musk in the Trump 2.0 Era with Kate Conger:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/musk-in-the-trump-2-0-era-with-kate-conger/id1382983397?i=1000684818112
* "Why the West needs prairie dogs:" https://www.hcn.org/issues/57-1/why-the-west-needs-prairie-dogs/
* "Peeing is contagious for chimpanzees:" https://www.popsci.com/environment/chimpanzees-peeing-contagious/?
* "Mother Chimp and Daughter Share a Special Sign:" https://archive.ph/zTA52
* "Medieval Criminal Justice: How to Get Away With Medieval Murder (ish):"
* "The fugitive prince: A man with an obscure claim to a royal fortune made a deal to help regain his crown. It cost him more than he could imagine:" https://archive.ph/t3Wfx
* "Show Me The Money: The Clinton Era:"
* "What Was The 90s Like For Women?"
* "I Wish Lisa Frank Never Heard of Me:"
* "Museum of the Earth faces extinction under “imminent” threat of foreclosure:" https://ithacavoice.org/2025/01/museum-of-the-earth-faces-extinction-under-imminent-threat-of-foreclosure/
* "Masters of the Knight: The Art of Chess Carving in India:" https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chess-carvers-amritsar-india
* In home physio re-started Monday and I've been exhausted ever since. The theory makes sense and so do the exercises, but I have to do them all the time I'm up, basically in small portions, on top of me still trying to do bare minimum regular physio, which also wears me up. I had to flat out give up on a lot of the exercises since Covid last September. I can't come close do doing them all and perform basic tasks like feeding myself and beasts and deal with the endless laundry the Emperor now generates.
The physio is good. At the same time, a bunch of the things that she said last time are clearly for people who are not me. And there's this booklet I promised to read and return. I finally finished it Thursday. It wasn't long, but it was endless experientially.
I get it. Most Americans did not have a descent science education because Republican school reforms always attack science and social studies for obvious reasons. I did have one and spend a lot of time with new medical any specialist trying to prove they can stop dumbing things way down for me. No, I don't have specialist training, but I actually do have descent general knowledge. It goes much faster if they bump me up to educated layman, if you see what I mean. So explanations of anything directly from her are slow, but this book is molasses, which is really what they need if they are giving it to people who may know little to nothing about how bodies work.
This I could tolerate.
I actually applaud the large type and the explanation of how to do housework with a disability. I had to work that out myself decades ago, but a lot of people don't understand the short form of the advise when they hear it, so I usually do a long explanation with concrete examples, which is a useful thing to hand people with new disabilities.
The problem is that there is a lot of stuff that assumes average neurotypical brain and a person who has had trouble recovering from one or even a few injuries or surgeries.
It assumes I'm not naturally day-night flipped on sleep cycles. (Supposedly this is a disorder, but it sure looks like useful alternative brain design to have some percentage of the population alert at night against predators or later fire or invasion or later still third shift jobs like emergency response. It's a problem because society isn't structured for nocturnal types and is judgey about it, not because somethings inherently wrong).
It assumes I have a strong fear response. Which I don't. (I suspect Toxoplasmosis contracted as a child from our cats. I remember still being able to feel fear properly when I was small. Then at some point I stopped. I can startle; I can worry; I don't fear. I have learned to use reason to assess risk because otherwise I'd do really dangerous stuff). I am legitimately struggling to figure out how to translate the fear stuff into anything I can use.
There is no fucking way I'm kicking my cats out of my bedroom, and doing that would not improve my sleep. Less pain improves my sleep. The cats are not the problem.
They didn't seem to understand functional limits caused by disabilities at all. The Author seemed to assume everyone can get better and resume normal activities from before, which is bullshit.
They waited until the end to trot out the inevitable ableist shit, the assumption that everything can be solved by willpower and taking rehabilitation slowly enough. The physio herself has carefully not crossed this line, and I've been watching her warily because she skates close to it on occasion.
I read the thing anyway. I gave my word. It was like shifting through shit to find specks of gold and finding hardly any.
I hate this fucking book.
I'm doing the exercises she gave me anyway, because the exercises are clearly correct.
Reading that last section though, I kept thinking of a paraplegic guy I used to know whose relatives took him to a faith healer a couple years after the motorcycle accident. They made him transfer out of the chair and sit at the end of a middle row. There were people in wheelchairs down front who were "healed." That they were plants was obvious to my friend. Otherwise, why wasn't he down front too? Why else take his chair away and hide his disability.
It did not work, of course, and the people who took him their blamed him. He'd be healed if he just believed harder. I had the same thing happen to a friend on the spectrum when she was a teen, which is offensive on so many levels.
It's gross when the right wing fundamentalist do it; it's gross here when it's packaged as left wing holistic power of positive thinking crap.
Yes, some people get better. Maybe the injuries are temporary. Maybe new and improved treatments alleviate or heal things.
I want people to get better. I'm happy for people who get better.
There are two general types of problems going on in my body: the big permanent damage ones, and the things that can be mitigated. I do think a more whole body approach to physio will help me recover from all the damage hospital fatphobic PT did and help me recover from a shoulder replacement. I don't think thinking about pain in a new way will remove two degenerative genetic diseases and the actual physical damage they do over time. I don't see how dealing with fear I don't have will grow back cartilage or until damage to the bones of my spine or the bone around my joints.
* "We Must Protect The First Amendment At All Costs vs. No Thanks, I’ll Just Take My Freedoms For Granted Until They Disappear:" https://theonion.com/we-must-protect-the-first-amendment-at-all-costs-vs-no-thanks-ill-just-take-my-freedoms-for-granted-until-they-disappear/
* "Horror Is So Queer: Episode 1 - The Hays Code:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/horror-is-so-queer-episode-1-the-hays-code/id1536009137?i=1000495755881
* "True Facts: Pigeons Are Tricking You:"
* "True Facts: Not-Dead Opossums and Their Weird Defenses:"
* "Founding Fathers Cold Open - SNL:"
* "Medcast - SNL:"
* "God - An SNL Animated Short:"
* So amoung other things I don't have an e-reader. Okay, technically I have an e-reader, as I was given a second hand one, which we nearly got set up, but which doesn't have anything on it and I don't know how to use. So Functionally, I'm all physical books.
My library did have the charming first Harriet Porbor novel, and I have devoured Camp Damascus and the exquisite Bury Your Gays.
At some point in early January I decided I couldn't wait any longer for Chuck Tingle's first horror novel Straight, so ordered that and the second Harriet Porbor while I was at it.
They both came this week. Friday night, I devoured Straight in one sitting and wow was it the right book for right now. It was Chuck Tingle's first horror novel, but Chuck Tingle clearly already knew how to write a lean, fast-paced, and all too politically relevant horror novel.
Like Bury Your Gays it gave me something I needed that I didn't know I needed. Something visceral. Something as essential as a vitamin.
Thank you Chuck Tingle.
It might take me a few days to get to the Harriet Porbor sequel, but the first one was so good, I'm very much looking forward to it.
* I lost a whole commentary I wrote about Happiness, the Netflix drama, which apparently I forgot to post on Tumblr, so I can't get it back. I will instead give you a snippet I wrote in response to someone else, slightly edited.
I think some of this is commentary on COVID behavior. People keep getting infected because they will not just stay inside. They refuse to take sensible precautions. That sort of thing.
I don’t blame the people infected on the supermarket trip early on, but there’s that whole sequence when the class privileged people keep opening or almost opening doors because they won’t listen to lower class people with accurate information and correct opinions.
I love how HARD Happiness went on the Class system, greed, and privilege being the real villains.
* "A Grave Goods Guide For The Difficult to Shop For and Recently Deceased:" https://www.thechatner.com/p/a-grave-goods-guide-for-the-difficult?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=5&post_id=155374458&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ykw2&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
*****
* 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.
* "Resources for California fire victims were scattered. So I created this site to help.:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/california-disaster-recovery-resources
* "Where your donations to L.A. fire victims will do the most good:" https://www.advocate.com/news/donate-los-angeles-fire-victims
* "Democracy 2025:" https://www.democracy2025.org/?utm_source=df-ad&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=21912407002&utm_content=721373734297&source=df-ad-gs&gad_source=1
* "Resisting Fascism in 2025 and Beyond:" https://www.prideandpagesbookclub.com/resisting-fascism-in-2025-and-beyond
* "Here are 26 organizations fighting Donald Trump that you can donate to:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/anti-donald-trump-charities
* Run for Something: https://runforsomething.net/
* "LGBTQ+ Victory Fund:" https://victoryfund.org/
* "Palestine Children’s Relief Fund:" https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-recovery
* ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives
* Contains a raid tip hotline amoung other things. "Know Your Rights
LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY:" https://wearecasa.org/know-your-rights/
* What to do if you encounter an immigration official. "Know Your Rights:" https://unitedwedream.org/resources/know-your-rights/
* "ICE Raids Toolkit: Defend Against ICE Raids and Community Arrests:" https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit/
* "ICE Watch Programs Can Protect Immigrants in Your Neighborhood — Here’s What to Know:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/ice-watch-programs-immigrants-how-to-start
* "Legal Services for Your Reproductive Life:" https://reprolegalhelpline.org/
* "National Abortion Hotline:" https://prochoice.org/
* "Plan C: Abortion pills by mail in every state:" https://www.plancpills.org/
* "Resources for Accessing Abortion Care:" https://reproductivefreedomforall.org/resources/resources-for-accessing-abortion-care/
* "Contraception and Birth Control Resources:" https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/contraception/more_information/resources
* "Gynecologists who will perform a tubal sterilization:" https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Djia_WkrVO3S4jKn6odNwQk7pOcpcL4x00FMNekrb7Q/edit?gid=1318374028#gid=1318374028
* Useful organizing links and resources: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/771859083592613888/hater-of-terfs-ive-already-reblogged-a-link-to?source=share
* "We have a right to safety, privacy, and protest. Say no to mask bans.:" https://www.stopmaskbans.com/
* "Trans Kids Deserve Better:" https://transkidsdeservebetter.org/support
* "World Central Kitchen:" https://wck.org/
* Trans support organization: https://www.pointofpride.org/
* "Transanta: An opportunity to directly support trans youth:" https://thisfinecrew.dreamwidth.org/291573.html
* Links for various Palestinian Aid Organizations: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/750151174318112768?source=share
* "Black Alliance for Peace’s Atlanta Citywide Alliance:" https://linktr.ee/bapatlanta
* Map of Cop Cities planned or being built: https://isyourlifebetter.net/cop-cities-usa/
* Want to help Journalists without Borders? https://donate.rsf.org/us/donate/~my-donation
* How to donate to Doctors Without Borders: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/secure/donate
* "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/
* "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
* Organizations to help trans folk: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/620857152453640195/about-us
* Indivisible Guide for Trump 2.0 "A Practical Guide to defeating MAGA:" https://indivisible.org/resource/guide
* This tracks legislation: https://www.govtrack.us/
* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely protest in person, here are some other options:
Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
Senate: https://contactsenators.com/senator-phone-numbers/
Congress in General: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
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
* What to help support all of us all here at the Cat Asylum? https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Gwydion
* I admit to having a wicked good time tormenting myself and other history geeks with my polls: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydpolls
(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-03 07:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-03 12:37 pm (UTC)